Bella In Your Business: Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Podcast

Known across the net as The Prepared Performer, Molly Mahoney is a master at helping entrepreneurs, artists, and direct sales professionals up their visibility and online presence by helping them leverage all of the newest and most powerful features that Facebook has to offer.

From attracting customers to your Facebook business page, understanding how to run highly converting Facebook ads, host Facebook Live broadcasts, and how to create Facebook Messenger bots that serve more of your perfect clients and customers in a uniquely authentic way.

Biggest Takeaways About Facebook Live That You Don’t Want To Miss:

Molly started as a professional performer in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with nine dogs running across the stage. While on tour, she got engaged and then decided to make a change, so she moved and started a vocal coaching business. But with a growing family and business, she had to learn how to leverage her time in different ways to help more people.

How do you deal with the fear of Facebook live? They key is you don’t get over it, you just do it  (#DoitScared). It’s good to be honest about it. Even Broadways performers can feel the fear, but they do it scared. You have to focus on what makes you uniquely awesome and go with it.

SAAVE: Skill Set, Appearance, Activities that you love, Values, Eating (the things you like to eat).

You have to go with the flow when you go online live. There is a natural flow that you can’t fight. In fact, it is much better to go with the flow and not feel that you have to follow a script too closely. The ability to go with it shows your audience you are human you can go with the flow, that you are just like them. If you’re too perfect, it’s intimidating.

The prepared performance also works for sales in your company. Sometimes you don’t know what to say when a client calls, but being prepared with loose scripts will help you cope with unexpected calls and making sales.

Always try to find the positive. Online services will change, there will be unexpected bumps in live broadcasts and in life in general. It’s important to always find the positive in what is perceived to be negative.

Show Highlights:

How Molly's first online class, Prepared Performer Profits, turned into an amazing lesson that helped her find her path.[3:00]

How to use and be comfortable with Facebook live to welcome in clients [5:35]

“The Quesadilla of Awesome” [12:15]

The prep-work you need to seem perfectly imperfect as a prepared performer. [15:30]

How can you adapt to changes online and use them to your advantage? How can you make a negative into a positive? [20:20]

Tweetables:

[Tweet "“We’re about maximizing our time in the best possible way.”"]

[Tweet "“Celebrate the things that make you a uniquely awesome person.”"]

[Tweet "“There's perfections in the imperfections.”"]

Links:

Find Molly on her website:

www.ThePreparedPerformer.com

And make sure follow Molly on Social Media:

Facebook - Molly Mahoney - The Prepared Performer

Instagram - ThePreparedPerformer

Downloadable Offer:

Has anything in this Podcast excited and inspired you? Check out these fantastic offers from Molly and the Prepared Performer!

Create more human interactions for your business by learning how to automate your Facebook messenger business page.

Molly Bot: FREE ACCESS to Molly’s next LIVE Video Masterclass.

Get a FREE Bot Case Study: How you can reach 1 MILLION organically!

Access to the Facebook group, Elevate Your Awesome.

Head to www.ThePreparedPerformer.com/bella  and get all the goodies!

Share The Show:

Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review!

Click this link –Bella In Your Business

Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork

Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section

Click on ‘Write a Review’

Transcript:

Bella:This is episode 86 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella’s got your shoot. Let’s jump! Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your host, and today I have the most exciting and entertaining guest for you. So I want you to pull over. I want you to stop what you’re doing because you are about to get super excited. Today I have Molly Mahoney with me from The Prepared Performer. You may have actually seen her at BlogPaws in 2017. Molly is helping entrepreneurs, artists, and direct sales professionals up their online presence by helping them leverage all the newest and most powerful features that Facebook has to offer—from attracting customers to your Facebook page, understanding how to run highly converting Facebook ads, hosting Facebook Live broadcasts, and creating Facebook Messenger bots that serve your perfect clients and customers in a uniquely authentic way. She’s turning heads and taking names. Welcome to the show, Molly.

Molly:Thank you. That was not the most eloquent ever, and I’m so sorry! There’s just so much goodness about you, girl, that I’m just going to say, you know what—you’re awesome, and here’s why.

Bella:Tell us who you are and how you got to be the amazing person you are. You’re a singer, a performer, and you do all this Facebook Live stuff. I just love your Facebook Lives—they’re so entertaining. Tell us how you got to where you are today.

Molly:Thank you! I want to just say that I also love your energy and I understand why people love this podcast. You’re offering so much value in a way that inspires and gets people moving. So thank you for that. I was a professional performer for almost 20 years, and while I was touring with the national tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang—the musical with the flying car—we actually had nine dogs on tour with us!

Bella:Wow!

Molly:It was so cool. The scene in Chitty where they do the “Toot Sweets” number—at the very end, they blow a high whistle and nine dogs would run across the stage. That was the only thing they did in the show, but it was awesome. They were part of a circus band that toured with us. When I was on tour, I got engaged, and my husband and I decided to move from New York back to Orange County, where I grew up. I launched a vocal coaching business and supported students of all ages—one of whom is now on the new Mickey Mouse Club!

At one point, I had two kids and realized I wanted to find a way to leverage my time and serve more people. So I launched an online course called Prepared Performer Profits, teaching performers and artists how to run a business using their creative talents. It was amazing—we had 15 people in the pilot, and then we did a full launch and had zero sales. That was fun—but it was the most amazing lesson. It challenged me to step up and decide whether I was doing this or not. We switched things around and instead of teaching performers how to have a business, I started teaching business owners how to perform. I launched a full course on how to use Facebook Live and started welcoming private clients. Within three months, we did $50,000 in sales, and this year, we 4x’d our revenue.

Then Messenger bots came around, and we started building bots—basically playing video games! Now we have an agency that helps people show up on camera, deliver their best energy and value, and automate the backend to make more connections and sales.

Bella:I love that you realized you didn’t want to travel as much after having kids. A lot of mompreneurs can totally relate. Even as pet sitters and dog walkers, you don’t want to be knocking on doors all day. There are ways to market from home during nap-time empires—using those little nuggets of time.

Molly:Exactly! I believe in using automation to scale but also maintaining one-on-one connections. That’s why Facebook Live is so cool—because we’ve never spoken on camera before, yet it feels like we know each other. That’s the power of video.

Bella:Exactly. So let’s talk about how Facebook Live is a great way to welcome new clients.

Molly:Yes! One of my clients, who wasn’t very Facebook-savvy, learned how to connect through video. She had a call yesterday with someone who joined her $25,000 program. That person said she already felt like she knew her—from watching her Facebook Lives. It’s powerful.

Bella:It really is! But I imagine a lot of people are terrified of going live—they don’t like how they look or sound. How do you help them face that fear?

Molly:I love that you said “face it” because the fear doesn’t go away. You just have to do it scared. Even successful people have those gremlins. I developed a little exercise I call the Quesadilla of Awesome. You take all the value you provide—your compassion, patience, creativity—and imagine it in your hands. Then throw it up in the air. What’s left? You. The amazing human being.

You make a list of 20 things that make you uniquely awesome. For example, I roll with the punches. Bella, what are three things that make you awesome?

Bella:Oh gosh, okay—I'm outgoing, I can fake it till I make it, and I’m creative.

Molly:Perfect! Some people will connect with that, and some won’t. That’s okay—you’ll attract your people. So “SAVE” is my acronym:

S – Skill sets (things you’re naturally good at)

A – Appearance (what you love about how you show up)

A – Activities you love (things like hiking, dancing, etc.)

V – Values (like kindness, joy, hustle)

E – Things you like to eat (seriously!)

That’s why it’s called the Quesadilla of Awesome—because everyone has something that makes them awesome, even if it’s just making a great quesadilla.

Bella:You’re hilarious. Talk to me about that “E.”

Molly:It’s fun! For example, Brussels sprouts. People either love or hate them—it’s polarizing, and it works! Every time I post about Brussels sprouts, it gets engagement....

Bella has flipped the script on the Podcast today and is bringing you a one on one look at the hype and hive of becoming a part of a Mastermind. Are they a right fit for your personality and business? Bella breaks down the power and the responsibility of joining a mastermind.

Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss:

What is a Mastermind? The popularity of Masterminds have been on the rise and they can help your business, but exactly what are they? Basically, a Mastermind is a group of people that have come together collectively to help one another. The difference of opinions, resources and experiences are shared in an environment where people strive to better their lives and businesses.

What Masterminds ARE NOT. It is important to understand exactly what they are before you join one. They are not coaching groups. There is “group thinking” but not direct teaching or coaching. You have to be accountable for your own learning from the lessons of others journeys. It’s not a place to vent. They solve problems, but it is not a place for complaints without solutions.

Examples of what makes up a great group. Great Masterminds are all about being laser focused. These groups directly set out to achieve specific goals. What's more is that they are primarily member driven. All members put their minds together to help each other stay on target. Also, leadership really does matter. A great leader will help keep the topics flowing with knowledge and authority.

Look for a new series all about Masterminds, coming to our blog and Facebook page. A place full of accountability partners, challenges, comradery, and tons of mutual support for growth.

Show Highlights:

Why would someone join a Mastermind? [2:15]

What it takes to be in a Mastermind [6:45]

Investments separate groups [10:45]

They aren’t just trying to sell you something [12:30]

Learn more about Jump Consulting Masterminds for pet sitting and dog walking [13:00]

Tweetables:

[Tweet "“When you join a Mastermind it’s about overcoming your challenges.”"]

[Tweet "“The group is driven by the membership’s ability to support one another.”"]

[Tweet "“In a Mastermind, you need to show up regularly.”"]

[Tweet "“Masterminds tend to create relationships forever.”"]

Links:

Visit JumpConsulting.net/jump-mastermind to find out more!

Stay tuned to our Jump Consulting Facebook page for more to come on the in and outs of Masterminds!

Share The Show:

Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review!

Click this link –>Bella In Your Business

Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork

Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section

Click on ‘Write a Review’

Transcript:

This is episode 85 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella's got your shoot. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I'm actually going to flip the script and just talk to you one-on-one personally. So grab your best cup of coffee or drink and relax and take a listen.

Today, I want to talk to you about what you need to know before you join a mastermind. The reason why this topic has spawned my interest and why I want to talk to you about it is because masterminds are something that are so incredibly powerful. They can really help you, the business owner, and in return, help your company. The popularity of masterminds has been on the rise and it seems like we might hear about them everywhere. If you're heavily involved in the small business space, I'm sure that you know people who have mentioned being in one. But do you really understand what it means to join a mastermind? Like most things in life, it isn't always right to just join things because all the cool kids are doing it. So I want to take a deep dive today to discover what you need to know before you join a mastermind.

But first, let's start off with what the heck is a mastermind. A mastermind is a group of people that have come together collectively to help one another. Typically, they have differences of opinions, resources, and experiences, which makes the group even more powerful. It's a place where the members can work through ideas, make plans, and overcome challenges with many minds at once. It's a place they can feel safe and say things they normally wouldn’t publicly, in an environment where the members can be challenged and vulnerable all at the same time. Typically, there's a strong structure of meetings, attendance, and expectations placed on all members and a cornerstone to maintaining membership. Some meet in person weekly while others meet virtually. Some meet once a quarter at different locations around the country. They vary depending on which one you join.

A way to illustrate the mentality of a mastermind is like a gang. I know it might sound a little bit harsh, but think about it. They all hang together, they act as one unit, and they all influence each other's decisions. They also hold each other accountable. But why would someone actually want to join a mastermind? For me, there are endless obvious and not-so-obvious reasons why someone would want to join a mastermind. Sometimes it's for selfish reasons—they want to get as much from the group as possible. They want to take, take, take. Sometimes it's for selfless reasons. They just want to give back and be part of something bigger than just their own company. They want to be a part of something bigger, maybe a bigger body that's moving, growing, and forming.

Sometimes people feel alone in business. A big reason why people join masterminds is they feel alone. Either their friends and family just don't understand their business, or they don't have many friends on or offline that understand what they do or have the same attitude towards their growth that they do. They feel like they're always trying to convince people that they have a business and no one really believes them. “My daughter walks dogs” is typically the way someone shows they understand what us pet sitters and dog walkers do. Have you ever been in those conversations where you tell someone what you do and they're like, “That's cute,” and they have no idea the monument of a company that you’ve built?

Another reason why someone might want to join a mastermind is simply because they have no support. When things go well, there's rarely anyone who understands the depth of strength it took to accomplish that feat. And when things are bad and it feels like no one understands, the masterminds are there to help support you. Maybe some might pretend to understand what you're going through or your successes or failures, but in the end, all they're really looking to do is tell you what they think you should have done or how wrong you really are—according to them. The people who join a mastermind tend to invite support into their lives, both constructive and good. The group thinks and offers many opinions, resources, and advice.

Another reason to join a mastermind is because you could become a small fish in a big pond. I know many who are at the top of their game, who have a fresh outlook on their business, a positive mindset, and embrace failures as a way to learn. Unfortunately, not everyone is like that, and sometimes you'll feel like you're surrounded by people with small minds. Maybe you're in a Facebook group where you just feel like you're on top of your game and helping everyone all the time. A business owner must be careful where they spend their time because hanging out in this crowd too long can severely hurt your business. Some people join masterminds just to feel like a small fish in a big pond. It offers them a chance to learn, grow, and explore new possibilities.

Now, equally important, I want to talk about exactly what masterminds are not, because this is so important. If you want to join a mastermind, it’s crucial to understand this. Some people get masterminds confused with something else, and it’s important to be clear what they are so you’re not surprised. The first thing—they’re not coaching groups. If you’re expecting to get one-on-one coaching from the mastermind leader, then joining a mastermind might not be right for you. It gets tricky here, as some have a hard time finding the distinction between group thinking and coaching. While you might feel like there’s a little bit of overlap, a mastermind is not coaching. When you hire a business coach, you’re getting one-on-one work through your challenges and there’s often direct teaching specifically for you. But the beauty of a mastermind is learning not only when the spotlight is on you but also when it’s on others. You can directly apply their lessons to your own business. In fact, most of the learning happens when you witness others’ journeys throughout it.

Another thing that a mastermind is not—it’s not a place to vent. Masterminds are focused on solutions. They solve problems and work through them together as a group. They have a positive “we can do it, we believe in you” attitude and lots of encouragement sprinkled into everything. It’s not a place to complain without looking for a solution. When you join a mastermind, it’s about overcoming your challenges, and by the end, you should feel confident knowing exactly how you can move forward and conquer your obstacles.

In a mastermind, you can’t be a wallflower. The group won’t be successful without everyone participating. If you were at a business networking meeting, you might be able to get away with sitting at the bar and letting the room work you—but not in a mastermind. You need to support your fellow members, offer advice and encouragement, and show up on time. After all, that’s what you expect them to do for you, right?

Now that you understand what they’re not, let’s get down to the basics. Admittedly,...

Bonnie Roill is a “Lifestyle Architect.” Her boutique private practice, B3 Nutrition,  specializes in helping women develop their customized blueprint for eating, moving, and daily habits that create a “livable and health-generating lifestyle.” Bonnie's background includes a practicing Registered Dietitian Nutritionist for over 35 years along with accreditation as a Hormone Support Coach, a certified Health & Wellness Coach and Personal Trainer.  Her mission is to teach women how they can impact their health destiny through their food, focus, and feet.  Her vision is a world where women have the resources to control their health destiny no matter their age or where they live on the planet.

Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss:

The number one thing people don’t understand is how to fuel their body properly. You have to fuel your body to have energy. If you don’t, you will have an insulin rollercoaster which gives you a drop and results in cravings. People need to eat in the morning to start the engine then properly fuel throughout the day.

The lunchtime let down will definitely affect how you feel later in the day. Your bio-individuality (your unique situation and genetics) does play a factor, so sometimes you may still feel sluggish no matter how healthy you eat. However, you shouldn’t feel like you need a nap every afternoon. Your circadian clock can work against you. Natural sunlight helps serotonin which is a natural pick-me-up.

What should you eat and drink? The best food is fiber containing carbs such as root vegetables like carrots and beets. Fiber slows down digestion which helps regulate your blood sugar. And don’t forget your protein for energy and a small amount healthy fat (ex: avocado). We also need water, lots of water! Often hunger is mistaken as thirst. A cold glass of water can energize you and also increase your metabolism.

Does dog walking count as exercising? One problem is that you don’t get your heart rate up to the level you need, but the fact that you’re getting out and about is very helpful. You can easily be meeting the minimal requirement for exercise. But if you are trying to lose weight you will probably need an extra boost of exercise to go along with the walking. Resistance training is a great way to amp up exercise for weight loss.

Women often don’t realize their obstacles that are often anchored in our habits. Medical history, eating habits, medications and thought processes are all the root of figuring out what is stopping you from feeling your best and bringing your best to your business.

Show Highlights:

How hormones and age can affect women’s daily performance and business [2:30]

The importance of and how to alter your circadian rhythm [6:45]

How much water you need and the benefits you get from it [10:30]

The benefits and drawbacks of claiming dog walking as exercise [16:00]

Exactly what is B3 Nutrition? [19:40]

How self-care makes you strong for your business as well as the people in your life [22:00]

Tweetables:

[Tweet "“I don’t think people should feel like they got hit in the face with a frying pan.” "]

[Tweet "“Insulin’s nickname is fat storage hormone.”   "]

[Tweet "“Genes load the gun and the environment pulls the trigger.” "]

[Tweet "“Genes load the gun and the environment pulls the trigger.” "]

Links:

Find out more about Bonnie Roill and the B3 Nutrition by visiting:

https://www.B3Nutrition.com

Downloadable Offer:

Sign up for the session at www.B3Nutrition.com under the header Free Consultation. It takes about 30 minutes. Share my free breakthrough session "Eat Clean(er)*Feel Great* Look Awesome, including my Hormone Profile Self-Assessment checklist.

Also, sign up for FREE 5 Strategies for Success Slimming.

Join me for my Free 7 Day Healthy Habits for Happy Hormones challenge at  www.B3Nutrition.com and select the header "Healthy Habits Challenge."

Share The Show:

Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review!

Click this link – Bella In Your Business

Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork

Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section

Click on ‘Write a Review’

Transcript:

Bella:This is episode 84 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Basta with Jump Consulting, and today we're here to talk about you. And by you, I mean your health, your nutrition, and how that affects you in business. Many of you might have been following along and known that I went on my own personal health journey last year and I saw the crazy effect that it had. So when I had the opportunity to meet Bonnie Roill, I wanted to bring her to you to help energize and invigorate you as well. Bonnie is a lifestyle architect. She has so many specializations that it would take the whole show to tell you. So I'm just going to say this. She's a registered—oh my gosh, I'm so excited, Bonnie—you're a registered dietitian and nutritionist for over 35 years. So this girl knows what she's talking about. She's a certified health and wellness coach, an accredited hormone support coach, and a personal trainer. Her mission is to teach women how they can impact their health destiny through food, focus, and feet. When I met her, she told me that she loves working with women between 45 and 65. And I was like, girl, you are my girl. You need to be on my podcast. So Bonnie, without further ado, welcome to the show.

Bonnie:Thank you, Bella. It's a pleasure to be here.

Bella:Thank you so much for being here. Tell me a little bit about who you are and what you're doing today to help people.

Bonnie:Well, about 10 years ago, I decided to leave the hospital environment where I had been working for 25-plus years and decided to go into private practice to work exclusively with women because women's nutritional issues are very unique and they change through their life cycle, which makes them very exciting. That's because of the different types of hormones that we have. So everything from starting from puberty to childbirth, post-birth, perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause. Those needs are changing, which allows me to have a lot of fun with my clients because every time they come to me there's a little bit of tweaking we can do and we all can do tweaking and benefit from it.

So I've been doing this private practice for 10 years and I work virtually out of my home, so that makes it convenient. I have people call me in their car during lunchtime. I've had people call me in their boardrooms and then the worst is that people call me through drive-through. But yeah, it really makes it convenient, and my specialty really is working with hormones—not just looking at the food portion of it, but really seeing the impact of hormonal changes a woman is having on her weight, on her energy levels, on her ability to sleep well, and even build muscle.

Bella:Incredible. It's amazing how much all of this affects us, and we just kind of think, “I'm just stressed out,” or we probably attribute it to a lot of things that it’s actually not. Tell us, how do our food choices affect our daily performance in our business? Because most of us are pet sitters and dog walkers and running around all day. How can our simple food choices really affect us?

Bonnie:I would say, Bella, the number one thing that I see from people is that they don't understand the importance of fueling their body properly—not only type of food, but also the quantity, quality, and timing. The importance of realizing that when you don't fuel your body, you don't have energy. That’s a simple fact. Part of that has to do with that lovely hormone called insulin. What happens is if we are not fueling our body well, we're going to have what we call insulin roller coasters. Now, if we get up in the morning and all we do is grab a little nutrition bar, sure, we're going to have a boost of blood glucose in our body—a little bit's going to go to our brain, a lot to our muscles. So within an hour or two, we're likely going to start to feel that drop, like a roller coaster down, and we're going to be craving something else to eat, right? And that's what happens, especially if you have something like just coffee in the morning. Even if you get a latte, it's going to actually affect another hormone called cortisol, which is actually going to be even a double whammy because not only is it going to make your insulin go on that roller coaster, it helps to deposit fat in your belly. So we don't want cortisol pouring out. So number one thing is people do need to eat when they wake up in the morning. You've got to start the engine. So number one thing is breakfast.

Bella:So let me ask you, is cortisol also that stress hormone too?

Bonnie:Yeah, it is. Actually cortisol is typically called the stress hormone.

Bella:So that makes sense when I was living in NICU with my daughter for six months and I was surviving off of caffeine and sugar and stress. That's why I gained so much weight because it really did go to my stomach. What you're saying, I can visualize because it happened to me.

Bonnie:And I see this all the time with women that are their own business owners because they'll often say to me, “But Bonnie, I don't eat much,” and it’s not that you need to eat quantities of food. It’s because of the way the body metabolizes that food and the connection with both hormones, cortisol and insulin, that causes that weight gain around the waist. We have about six times more cortisol receptors in our abdominal region than anywhere else in our body. And that's why it goes there. It loves that area.

Bella:Well, isn't that like a sick joke from God then? Because when we're done having babies, it's not tough enough....

Joining us today on Bella in Your Business is Katie Westerfield of Homeward Bound Pet Care out of Historic Centerville, Ohio. She is an entrepreneur (and mompreneur) in the Pet Industry. She is well versed in juggling life and business ownership as a mother of four and wife. In this episode, Bella and Katie discuss the struggles she has faced and how she became a success while managing to raise a family and be a superstar mother!

Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss:

The moment you realize you need a staff is when you are turning clients down. They will always find someone who will be able to fit their needs if you can’t. That is when you need to grow to a point where you can hire someone to fill in the gaps.

Knowing how to hire and retain staff is key to success. You need to fully invest in them as a person, support them individually and in the workplace. Motivate them to do the job, coach them instead of harping or nagging. You want them to feel like they can come to you. You don’t want to always be a slave to your phone, but you don’t want to miss clients and hurt business. That’s why you need a reliable management team to pass along some of the responsibilities.

Being open to change is important to growth. It’s a privilege to be able to have a staff and it can be scary to grow, but it is extremely important. A staff is not a burden, but a great asset to your business. Your business will never grow unless you can delegate your workload.

Don't forget to separate your emotions from your business. You have to know when to move on from things that aren’t working, regardless of how much time you’ve spent on it. Always keep in mind where you want to go and continue to move towards it. Do not lose your positive mindset no matter setbacks or naysayers, just go for it. If you fully believe you will succeed, you will.

You want to have options, you don’t want to have all your eggs in one basket. That’s why you need to have more than one person that you rely on to help out. You could have one bad egg hold your business hostage. You may have to fire someone who is not a good fit, or you may have a worker or their child may fall ill. That’s why you need to have more than one option. You never want to have your hands tied in a situation because a staff member didn't work out or is unavailable.

Show your staff you appreciate them. It’s easy, a simple text message if you know they are upset. A little gift for special occasions like wedding anniversaries, their kid's events, or birthdays. You need to be able to separate a barrier between staff and friendship, but still, let them know your door is open and you are there for them. Knowing that someone cares goes a long way in helping them succeed.

Show Highlights:

The benefits and drawbacks of running a business from home with children [4:45]

Struggles of hiring and retaining staff [7:20]

Delegating your responsibilities to your staff [8:40]

Being open to change [14:30]

How mindset plays a big role in growth [17:30]

The business success and the importance of having a staff [20:00]

Ideas to reward your staff and show them that you care [22:30]

Tweetables:

[Tweet ""If something is not working in your company rewrite what you’re doing, change your process.""]

[Tweet ""It feels great to be able to extract money from the economy and insert it to these awesome people that work for you.""]

[Tweet "“You have to constantly keep looking forward.”"]

[Tweet "“Everyone controls that mindset. If you think you can’t, you won’t. If you think you can, you will.”"]

Links:

Get to know Katie and the Homeward Bound Pet Care team!

Find them on the web at HWBPetCare.com

Follow Homeward Bound Pet Care on Facebook

Share The Show:

Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review!

Click this link – Bella In Your Business

Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork

Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section

Click on ‘Write a Review’

Transcript:

Bella:This is episode 83 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta with Jump Consulting, and today I have Katie Westerfield with us. Katie is the owner of Homeward Bound Pet Care out of historic Centerville, Ohio. She's an entrepreneur in the pet industry and she's well-versed at juggling life and business ownership as a mother and wife of four children. We're going to talk about the struggles she's faced and her success and how she's overcome them today. Katie, welcome to the show.

Katie:Hi, thank you for having me, Bella.

Bella:Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for being here. I know many of our listeners are pet sitters and dog walkers and we're all struggling. Every single day we struggle and we succeed, but it's always kind of really inspiring when you get to hear other people's stories and think, wow, if she did it, I could do it. So let's just jump right into the middle of it, Katie. Take us back to when you said you were driving through the Badlands with your husband and just decided, you know what, I'm going to start a pet sitting company. Tell us about that moment.

Katie:Sure. We were in the middle of a really bad snowstorm and he decided it was time for his nap. And I'm driving this big Dodge, you know, through nowhere. There's nobody around. And I just really had the time to myself and to think. I had just left my dream job essentially with the fire industry. And what did I want to do next? And at one point somebody had said, “Hey, I wish I had somebody to let my dog out,” when I was doing that for work. And, you know, my dog had been in for a really long time and I'm like, maybe I can solve this. I wonder if there's anything like that around me. And so, you know, I just kind of decided like, hey, we're going home anyway right now, we're driving back to Ohio, and Homeward Bound—like that's my favorite childhood movie. You know, and that's essentially what we'd be doing. We'd be going to people's homes. So the name seemed to really fit me and what I wanted to do and I just kind of went with it.

Bella:That's incredible. So you just went home and just started pet sitting? Like, how did you get your name out there? What kind of vision did you have for it at the time? Was it just to make money or was it to grow it to what it is today?

Katie:It was not initially to grow to what it is today. I'm really happy that it did end up this way. It was more just, you know, making me the little extra money. Like we had two children at the time. It was kind of more a hobby thing. I love animals. I enjoyed it. It was like, why not get paid for it? So I went home, I did a lot of research, kind of looked at pricing. I had no idea where to start. What does somebody even pay for that? You know, let alone the ability to have it grow to what it is today did not even touch that with a ten-foot pole. It was honestly, what is my pricing going to be like? What do I do for a website? And my first website was horrific. Fully admit it. I think everybody needs to start somewhere. Yeah. You know, and then it was just a matter of getting that Facebook page launched, getting out there, and just trying to see trial and error.

Bella:So what happened between when you first started and then you realized—like, do you remember that moment where you're like, “Shoot, I really have something,” or “Shoot, I really need to make this something”? Was there something that happened in your life that it was kind of ride or die?

Katie:There's been a couple. I mean, this is for seven years, so for kids, I'm sure you can imagine all the roller coasters. You know, the moment I think I first realized I needed staff was when I realized the moment you tell a customer no or a client, whatever you call them, no, you end up losing them. They'll find somebody else and somebody who's always going to say yes. And so I think when I got pregnant—it was like five months or so after I opened the business—I got pregnant with our third child. And it was kind of like, you know, I can only do this for so long. I know I'm going to have maternity leave and that kind of thing. So I started finding somebody to help me at that point. I only needed one to fill in here and there. And so that was the first moment where I'm like, okay, I've got to be able to pay somebody.

Bella:How do you think being a mom has changed the way that you look at things? How old were the first two kids when you had started the company?

Katie:Three and four, roughly. Maybe four and five.

Bella:Yeah, so they could feed themselves.

Katie:Maybe in like kindergarten or something. Kindergarten, preschool.

Bella:Yeah. So you had that little time, but here comes like a brand new newborn and the maternity leave and the pregnancy leading up to it. What kind of mind shifts did you go through with like, “My gosh, I have this other baby, this business. How am I going to manage all of that?” What did that look like for you?

Katie:Your whole mindset changes when you have a newborn. You obviously need your rest and everything else, but at the same time, you also don't want to leave. You want to be able to stay home and you have this dream of, you know, can I do this from home? Obviously, the business was built from a home base. Can you manage staff and everything else? And so that's when it really turned, okay, I need multiple people. I need to be able to fill their time. I need to grow and I want to stay home. I want to still have my independence as far as money and a business and that kind of thing, but I want to be able to grow too and stay home. And it's a privilege to be able to do that.

Bella:It absolutely is. That's a great word, Katie—privilege....

Today's Podcast features the inspiring Mompreneur,Randa Clark, from Tailchasers Pet Heroes Inc. Randa started Tail Chasers Pet Heroes Inc. in 2004 with the mission to help people discover, develop, and nurture the human and animal bond with their pets. She offers dog walking, pet sitting, dog training, and pet first aid classes to pets and their families in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. Tailchasers Pet Heroes Inc. received the Super Service Award from Angie's List in 2016 as well as the People Love Us On Yelp Award.

In this episode, Randa and Bella discussed some of the strategies that Randa used to turn her pet sitting company into a pet business empire. Do you struggle with multitasking, being a control freak, or successfully balancing the business between you or your spouse? Then this episode is for you!

Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss:

Instead of devoting your entire life to the business, make your business fit into YOUR life. Scheduling business operations around your day-to-day tasks like picking up the kids from school or spending time with family will help you find that work-life balance that all business owners so desperately need. Also, be sure to give yourself some time each day to work on advancing the business to the next level. It's easy to get caught up in all of the pet sits and dog walks, but ensuring you're taking strides in your business instead of running in place is crucial to success.

An office manager is NOT going to be exactly like you - and that's okay! An office manager is a person that is going to allow you to really grow and scale your business so much more than you're able to if you continue to do day-to-day operations yourself. At the end of the day, there are qualified people out there that can answer the phone and answer emails just as good as you do - you just have to find them (and give them the tools to succeed!). Empowering and valuing your office managers to make them feel needed is what will allow them to be successful in their role.

A fact-based mindset is a key tool that will help you deal with crises and emergencies that inevitably arise in any pet sitting company. Taking the emotions out of your response and deciding what you can do to mitigate the situation factually will allow you to make the best decisions for your client. In other words, you can't change the past, but you CAN change your response to it!

The more time you can spend out of the field, the more time you can spend advancing your business. Randa's advice? Build up a route of clients, and then hand it off to an employee! The more you do this, the more income you'll have on hand, and the less time you'll have to spend in the field. The goal is to have the client's alliance with the COMPANY and not to the DOG WALKER.

Show Highlights

How Randa learned to multitask to get work done quickly [2:30]

Evolving your business and focus; Pet Sitting Vs. Dog Walking only [3:15]

Decision making for a better business [7:00]

The Good and the Bad of Hiring an Office Manager [10:45]

How to let go of control [15:00]

Managing a business with your spouse [16:15]

Separating yourself from the field for success [19:00]

Tweetables

[Tweet ""Accept the things you can’t change.""]

[Tweet ""The business is a beast that behaves how it wants to.""]

[Tweet ""You never know what is going to happen.""]

Share The Show:

Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review!

Click this link – Bella In Your Business

Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork

Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section

Click on ‘Write a Review’

Transcript:

Bella:This is episode 82 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta with Jump Consulting, and today I am here with Randa Clark from Tail Chasers Pet Heroes. Randa and I have known each other for quite a while now and she is one of the most dynamic mompreneurs that I know out there. Randa, welcome to the show.

Randa:Thank you, Bella.

Bella:For those of you who don't know you or haven't seen you online or in the Facebook groups, explain to us where you're from, where your company is, how long ago you started. Tell us the background.

Randa:We are in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. We started our business around March of 2004. It officially opened and actually got clients then. We started everything a little bit before that, but that's when we actually started actively working. It started out as just me, and I got a few employees on board, and then a couple years later, Matt joined on with me. So now we are a husband and wife team, and sometimes the two kids help us out with invoicing and that sort of thing too.

Bella:I love that. The reason why I wanted to have you on today was exactly kind of what you just alluded to. It's that you and Matt are doing this together, which is rare, but yet also pretty popular in our industry, but not a lot of people talk about it. I love how you guys tag team it. I also know that you have two little ones and do homeschool. And if you follow—I follow your Facebook feed—and I'm always like, how does she do it all? You always seem to be doing the most interesting things, whether it's the Lego movie or displays or the homeschooling co-ops that you call. Can you give us an insight to what a day in the life of Randa and family is like and how old your babies are?

Randa:Actually, Miles is across from me right now doing his schoolwork, but Miles is eight and Dylan is three. So the way my days usually work is I get up in the morning and usually the kids get up around the same time as me and we take Dylan off to preschool. And then I handle all the morning stuff because we mainly do dog walking. So a lot of what our morning routine is, is getting on our email and voicemail and seeing who canceled and making sure all the dog walkers know not to go there if they've canceled. And then I return all the client emails. Usually I only spend about an hour, sometimes two hours in the morning getting back to everyone because I've set it up in a way that I can do everything quickly. We've worked with our clients so that they can communicate with us electronically so that I can get the emails out quickly. Because sometimes when you get on the phone with people, they end up telling you everything about their day and their week, and it takes so much longer. We've learned that doing things electronically via email really helps to streamline everything. It also makes it easy for me to transfer to an office manager or someone if I know that I'm not going to be available for that day. The rest of the day I spend working with Miles, and then I handle any issues that the dog walkers have while they're out. Then I'll usually take an hour or two in the afternoon to work on advancing the business and figuring out new ways to do marketing or new ways to get more training into our employees.

Bella:I love that. Basically what you did is you made the business fit into your life. Did you consciously decide you wanted to only be dog walking, or were you also pet sitting and then you kind of cut it out? Tell us, because I think a lot of our listeners are like, well, that's great that you do dog walking, but I have pet sitting clients too and I can't just give them up. Was it a conscious decision or something that evolved over time, and why?

Randa:It completely evolved over time. That's a lot about what works with this business—you really have to be flexible. It's its own beast and it's going to behave however it wants to. What we learned is we had a lot more dog walking, and so that's where we put a lot of our focus. We still absolutely do pet sitting. However, we've adjusted things and raised the prices to kind of slow down supply and demand so that our lives aren't complete chaos. And since we've got a little bit more income coming in on the pet sitting side, it helps because now we can pay managers to handle the crazy things like, “I locked my keys in my car,” or “I locked my keys in the client's house and now I can't get in.” We have other people to help us with that because you can't be on 24/7 without completely losing your mind. You have to be able to step away even if it's only for an hour. That hour makes a huge difference when you know no one's going to call you during that hour and say something crazy that's going to put you on high alert and make your day go nuts.

A lot of what we've learned is you really have to be flexible and your plans have to be fluid. So yeah, we go to Legoland in the middle of the day or Six Flags, but I also know that there's a chance I might get a call and I might have to leave. And my kids know that too, but they also know that they get to do a lot more fun things than most people do.

Bella:Yeah, they do. I have mom envy for what you do with your kids. I think it's amazing and I think it's so much fun. I’m like, I wish we lived near each other. So you said you started the business back in 2004, was it?

Randa:Yes.

Bella:So tell me about pre-momhood versus after momhood. How were you running the business and what did children do to help shift your business mindset?

Randa:Completely changed everything, especially with Miles. When I was in labor with Miles, I finished my dog walking route while in labor and went and did paychecks because I wanted to make sure that everybody got paid before we had this baby. It was a good thing I did because I ended up with preeclampsia and I was in the hospital for five days on my back and couldn't move. Luckily, I mean, everything really happens for a reason. We already had it set up so that the dog walks would be handled. I actually have pictures of me laying in the hospital bed

Today’s episode features Crystal Hollman, owner of Crystal Clear Photography AZ. Bella and Crystal discuss the importance of photography, graphics and visual appeal to websites and blogs.

Show Highlights:

Where do you use styled stock photos and why? [5:45]

Key things you need to do when shooting your own photos. [9:35]

Advantages of hiring a professional for your business images [12:45]

What should we look for in photographers? [18:45]

The importance of copyrights and business release of your images [20:00]

Tweetables:

[Tweet ""Photography is a killer way to make your brand stand out." - Bella Vasta"]

[Tweet ""You want to be able to use photos for all aspects of your business." - Crystal Hollman"]

[Tweet ""You have to look good online - that's the age we live in." - Bella Vasta"]

Special Offer

We’ve got two awesome things for our listeners! Run over and grab free 5 styled images at Crystal Clear Photography AZ. Or, if you’re ready to take your business images to the next level, sign up for a custom styled image shoot for your brand and receive $25 off. Make sure to give me the referral code – BellaPodcast – to claim the $25 off when booking your session.

Share The Show

Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review!

Click this link – Bella In Your Business

Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork

Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section

Click on ‘Write a Review’

Transcript:

Bella:This is episode 81 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta with Jump Consulting and today I have Crystal Holman with us. Crystal and I met through good old-fashioned networking. She's a friend of a friend of a friend who I've hired and had great success with. She provides such a unique service that I really wanted to have her in your earbuds today to kind of help explode your mind on photography and in your business with graphics and just the overall visual appeal.

Before we get into it, I want you guys to think about what would Facebook look like if there were no pictures on it? What would your website look like if there were no pictures on it? Pictures and graphics are so hugely important. And if any of you have worked with me, you've heard me say that you always want to show up as Cinderella looking for Prince Charming with your hair and your makeup done and your ball gown and everything looking beautiful. Not with your makeup running down your face, your hair falling out and like sweatpants and shoeless, right? You're not going to attract anyone. And that's what I feel graphics do. So without further ado, welcome to the show, Crystal.

Crystal:Hi, thanks for having me.

Bella:Absolutely. Why don't you give us a little bit of background? Tell us how you became a photographer doing what you're doing today and a little bit more about yourself.

Crystal:I started my business almost four years ago, a mom of two girls. I started my business because obviously, like most of us, I wanted to be able to have some flexibility in my schedule, be able to be home and raise my girls. And I loved doing photography. So I really wanted to be able to provide a service to businesses. The whole concept kind of came about when I wanted photos of myself for my own website. I was like, I don't have any photos of me and I don't want to put stock photos of some random person who isn't me with a camera. So, you know, I developed the idea of helping businesses out there get quality images—supporting small businesses and kind of helping them with that and with stock photos.

Bella:Because sometimes we need custom stock photos. We all have such unique brands now and are able to do so much with it. So that's kind of where I started with that idea, was just with my own business, and realized that that was a need out there for a lot of other businesses and business owners. So a little bit about the business, and kind of brought me to this point where I'm trying to support and help as many business owners out there with custom images that they can use that are high quality for websites, blogs, and all of that good stuff.

So our listeners know—the way that I found you or you came on my radar was my good friend Desiree, who actually is a military spouse, military mom. She does SEO for people. She is stationed in South Korea. And all of a sudden her images just started really popping—her podcast images, her images for her business. They were picturesque of maybe a desk with a little bit of military things thrown in the background, but yet headphones for podcasting or something. It was like these images had been created especially for her. And guess what? They were.

It was incredible. So I kind of actually asked her about it. I'm like, where are you getting your graphics? Because you guys have to understand that we sell ourselves online. So even as dog walking and pet sitting companies, we could go to Canva and we could make graphics on our own. But that doesn't mean that they look good. It doesn't always mean that they represent what we do. And there’s pictures that we could take of ourselves walking dogs or feeding cats or cuddling puppies, you know, but then there’s just some graphics—just like, “Hey, how did you get your dog's name?”—just graphics that you want to throw up there on Facebook. And when you can really match the pictures to your brand, you're going to stand out in that noisy, cluttered graphic world.

Bella:Crystal, explain to us why styled stock photos are so hot right now and describe a little bit more—go off of what I just said—and describe them a little bit more so our listeners can really picture it in their head as they’re listening to us.

Crystal:Right. So they are really popular right now because, again, kind of going back to how our brands are so unique. We're all trying to stand out in such a saturated market because there may be thousands of dog walkers, for example, across the country and you want to be the one that stands out in your area. So you're trying to create a unique look for yourself and trying to create that brand consistency. Styled stock photos have become so popular because you can have custom images and take those photos and really brand them and make them part of your brand and consistency with your images. So they've become really popular because you can set up shoots with people like myself where we can go through and identify your brand, identify the look that you're going for, and really decide what you want your audience to be able to see and what kind of message you want to be able to get across and create custom images that are of cute little desks or things like that that are going to speak to your type of client so you can put those out there. So it creates that unique look for you and your brand and also creates that consistency. So people start to then recognize you and your brand altogether as one.

Bella:Yeah, consistency is a great word, Crystal. You want everyone to be like, “That's XYZ company, I recognize the style.” And that’s kind of one thing that I think is really hard as we try to do it ourselves in something like Canva or PicMonkey because it's really hard to keep up with that same style board all the time, you know? So getting a batch of photos that’s like that, that you can do overlays on, are really helpful.

Crystal:They're very helpful.

Bella:So where do people use these kinds of photos and what do they use them for?

Crystal:People will use them across tons of platforms. I always love answering this question because I think it kind of gets people's minds going as to where they can actually use photos for themselves, but all across your website—so website banners, background photos, your blog. Your blog needs graphics and stuff too. People are very visual. Obviously social media, so across Instagram, Facebook. People actually use them for their YouTube channels as well. So if you have a YouTube channel or are trying to do something unique with videos, you can use them in your videos. People have used them in different presentations, print materials that they might be doing. Maybe they're doing a giveaway or handing out flyers or information to people at fairs, or maybe you're just walking down the street and want to be able to have some materials that you can hand out. People use them for a lot of handouts. There’s just so many different ways that you can use the images, and I would say people should really explore the opportunity because I think you can use them in all kinds of ways.

Bella:Yeah, for sure. So let's break it down even more. So styled stock photos—we’re thinking about one of the cool things you and I had a conversation about when we first were engaged together to do business, and it was like, “What kind of backgrounds do you like or what kind do you want?” And I decided I'm actually going to use it in my Better Marketing with Bella program because they were so great and so versatile.

I want you guys to think about—I think the most common ones that always come to mind are the ones that you see of a desktop and it maybe has a mouse and a keyboard and a phone and they're all kind of like neatly positioned yet a little chaotic. And then you see someone like put a box with a text box over it and it's announcing something. So that’s the styled stock photos that we’re talking about. And I think it's so unique with the pet industry because those photos that we see, you're never going to really see grass with like a leash and tennis shoes and like a couple of pieces of kibble or treats sprinkled on it, you know? And the glorious part of what you do is you can create those kinds of things.

I mean, if we were just, you know,...

Bella welcomes guest, Bill Gelderman, the President of the Steering Group. He not only founded The Steering Group in 1995, he is also a Certified Professional Behavioral and Values Analyst, a Certified Attribute Index Analyst. He also has certifications in the renowned TriMetrix and DNA Systems. Find out more about Bill on his website www.thesteeringgroup.com

Show Highlights

What is the ORION Survey and why should all pet sitters use it for hiring? [3:30]

How ACCURATE is the Orion survey about potential hires? [6:00]

What is the best way for pet sitters to use the Orion tool? [11:00]

What does the REPORT look like from an applicant's survey and how can business owners interpret it? [12:45]

How can pet sitters use the Orion survey as a MARKETING TOOL? [18:45]

Tweetables

[Tweet "The quality of candidates in the pet sitting world is MUCH better than in my other business." -Bill Gelderman, The Steering Group"]

[Tweet "Hiring is such an intimidating, convoluted, confusing, and scary process because you could be sued""]

[Tweet "I've never heard anyone say 'I love to hire ... it's such a fun process.'"]

Special Offer

As a gift to our audience, Bill will offer $50 OFF the Orion enrollment fee for anyone signing up before April 30th if they mention Bella. Don't delay!

Share The Show:

Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review!

Click this link –Bella In Your Business

Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork

Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section

Click on ‘Write a Review’

Transcript:

Bella:This is episode 80 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting, and today I have Bill Gelderman with you guys. You may have heard in the Facebook groups talk about the Orion test so many times, and I have been waiting to get you on the show for so long. I am so excited to bring you to my audience. For those of you who don't know, Bill Gelderman founded the Searing Group in 1995. He sought ways to improve the success rates of general quality in hiring. Hiring is a big topic for many of our listeners. Back in the 90s, assessments weren't widely known, so he did a lot of educating. Today, virtually every Fortune 500 company is using assessments as part of their selection or development process. Bill, along with his son Joe, has been supplying the Orion system since 1996. They specialize in companies supplying in-home services like pet sitters, maid services, and home health services. They represent the bulk of the clientele that Bill deals with. The Searing Group has clients in every single state except for Montana. So if you're listening from Montana, call Bill up because he'd love to say every state. Bill, without further ado, welcome to the show.

Bill:Thank you, Bella. Glad to be here.

Bella:Why don't you go ahead and just fill in those gaps for me? How did you get so excited about this employee background check, for lack of a better word, and really helping employers and being such a service to them? Where does this passion sprout from?

Bill:Well, it started when I was hiring people myself. One year I saw that the file of terminated employees was four or five times deeper than the file of current employees. I realized that while I thought I was good at interviewing and hiring people, I wasn't as good as I thought I was. I saw an ad in a trade publication and responded to it and started using it, and it truly changed my whole world. Instead of constantly running ads, interviewing, training, and then repeating that process over and over again, I was actually able to hire the right people the first time, get them trained, get them productive, and be able to spend my time on money-making things as opposed to just going through that grind of constantly retraining people over and over again.

Bella:Right, because one of the horrible parts of hiring and interviewing is figuring out if that person on the other side of the desk is lying through their teeth and telling you what you want to hear, or maybe if you're giving away everything that you want to hear. Having a test—and I've actually used your product in my own company. In fact, I challenged your product, Bill. Your product told me not to hire someone and I did, and I made a big mistake. So I really knew that this podcast alone is going to be one of the most popular ones because this is such valuable information for anyone that's hiring. So can you give us a brief overview of what the system actually is?

Bill:I have to correct you from using the term “test.” It’s a service. When you use the term test, that implies there are right and wrong answers, and there really aren’t. There are 80 questions, and what it’s looking at is this person’s attitude toward being supervised—can they accept the fact that somebody else is going to tell them what to do? It looks at tardiness and attendance. It examines the likelihood of them using drugs at work. We don’t care if they smoke a joint on the weekend or whatever, but we want to know their attitude about using drugs while they’re on the job. Then it explores the likelihood of them stealing from you or your client. In the pet sitting, maid service, and home health worlds, they are easy targets—nobody is home, or in the case of home health, there’s a child or impaired adult who can’t protect themselves. Then we’re looking at other factors for long-term employment, like the person’s attitude about customer service and their attitude about safety and risk.

Bella:These are all really amazing things that a lot of business owners would love to know about the person they’re hiring before they hire them—before they have to trial and error this themselves. Tell me, how does an employer actually know if they can believe what this report’s telling them, Bill?

Bill:The reports are 90% accurate. There is no silver bullet 100% accurate report. It’s never been developed, but 90% is awfully good. One of the very first things when you look at the report is the validity index. That tells you how much you can count on this report to be accurate. The validity index is broken into three levels—category one, two, and three. Seventy percent of the reports come back level one, meaning they’re considered low risk in the sense that we can believe what we’re about to read, whether it’s good or bad. About 20% come back marginal, meaning the person may consciously or subconsciously have answered some questions the way they thought you wanted them to. And about 10% come back high risk, which means don’t believe any of it—it’s all garbage. They were lying through their teeth, or for our purposes, they were illiterate. For this report, illiterate means they can’t read and comprehend at the seventh or eighth-grade level, whether in English or Spanish.

Bella:That’s so interesting. I think a lot of business owners, when they think about tests, and I know this isn’t technically a test, but they think of personality tests—like, are you outgoing or introverted? And for our listeners, I want you to understand that this is not only surveying the things Bill was just saying—about supervision, tardiness, attendance, theft, safety, and risk—but also determining whether they’re being honest with you or not. I’ve never seen anything like that ever. It’s amazing that this takes it to that extra level. So why do you call it a survey versus a test?

Bill:There are 80 questions, and you’re being assessed on your feelings about them. Statistically valid patterns emerge from the answers. Essentially, we’re asking the same eight questions in different ways. If at one time you say you feel strongly that something’s okay, and later you say it’s terrible, there’s no consistency, and we know you’re trying to play both ends. The word “test” implies right or wrong, and that becomes threatening. “Survey” softens it and makes it less intimidating.

Bella:That makes total sense. Bill, I love this conversation. I’ve got to take a quick commercial break. But when we come back, I want to know about when we should give our candidates this survey.

[Commercial break.]

Bella:And I’m back with Bill Gelderman, and we’re talking all about the Orion survey. Bill, when in the hiring process should we actually administer the survey?

Bill:You want to give it as early as possible, before the candidate thinks you like them. When you talk to them—if you phone screen them—never use words like good, great, wonderful, or terrific. Whatever they tell you, just say okay. Keep your phone screen questions to knockout questions. Once they pass those, invite them to come in “to begin the process.” Don’t call it an interview, because if you do and the report shows bad results, you’ll feel obligated to interview them. So say “begin the process.” Then you can review their application and results before deciding whether to proceed.

Bella:That’s pivotal—just changing the verbiage. I remember the survey even gave me follow-up questions to ask.

Bill:Yes, the report comes in two forms. The short form gives you a snapshot to help you decide if you want to move forward. If you do, the long form spells out questions where they didn’t answer appropriately and gives you an opportunity to dig deeper. For example, one question says, “A person who takes $5 from their employer is a thief.” Believe it or not, people will disagree. The report then prompts you to ask, “Why did you disagree with that statement?”

Bella:That’s incredible. Because as interviewers, we all talk too much and don’t listen enough. Having a guide like this is so helpful, especially when you can ask questions that candidates never expect. It’s also exploring things you couldn’t ask directly in a traditiona

Erika Godwin is the Co-Founder and the Chief Marketing Officer of ProPet Software, a boarding kennel, dog daycare and pet grooming management software. She is also an expert on website creation, maintenance, and SEO.

Show Highlights:

What is the difference between an HTTP & HTTPS backup? [3:30]

Why do business owners need a virtual webmaster to help keep their sites up to date? [6:25]

How do plugins, speed/performance, and SEO all affect each other? [11:45]

Is it true that Google won't show my website if my mobile website isn't up to date? [13:00]

Are branded emails a thing of the past or an up-and-coming trend? [16:00]

What are the biggest mistakes pet sitters make on their websites and social media? [18:00]

Quotables:

"The more plugins you have, the longer it will take for your website to load - which causes more people to BOUNCE off your website. The more plugins you have, the longer it will take for your website to load - which causes more people to BOUNCE off your website. The more plugins you have, the longer it will take for your website to load - which causes more people to BOUNCE off your website.

"SEO is NOT a one and done thing. You have to keep at it to make sure your website stays at the top of Google."

"Mobile is now more important than the desktop version of your website!

Downloadable Offer:

Erika is offering websites to pet sitters for 93% off what it would normally cost. This $5,000 website is only $350 and will include all your own copy and logo. It is a crazy deal that has never been done in the industry. 

Share The Show:

Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review!

Click this link – Bella In Your Business

Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork

Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section

Click on ‘Write a Review’

Transcript:

Bella:This is episode 79 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting, and today I'm here with Erica Godwin. Erica, how are you?

Erica:Good, how are you?

Bella:Good. I am so excited to have you on because you are a wealth of knowledge, and I want to back it up and explain to everyone how I actually found you. It was probably about a year ago. You were killing it on Instagram, and then I got into your group, and just the amount of awesome information that you put out there so nonchalantly and casually is so attractive to me. I love how you are an educating marketer. And I want you to tell the audience a little bit about you. I know you're up in Canada, so yay, all you Canadians. But you also went to college here in New York, and now you have this big business that you are a partner in. So why don't you explain to everyone who you are and how we got here today?

Erica:Sure. So I guess backtrack a couple of years. I grew up in Ottawa. I had a hockey and golf scholarship, so that took me down to upstate New York at Elmira College. After that, I came back to Canada after I graduated, and there weren't really any options, so I was really struggling to find a job. I stumbled across a real estate entrepreneur in Ottawa, and he was opening a business incubator. So that's kind of how I got started in business and startups and everything. Unfortunately, that company went under due to lack of funding, and then that's when I met another entrepreneur who is my partner in our software. So basically three years ago, I met them, and one of them is a software entrepreneur and the other one is a kennel owner. So basically, the three of us together, with my marketing background, we ended up founding ProPet Software. While starting ProPet Software, that's when I found out that there were a lot of pet businesses that were lacking in the marketing side, and they had a lot of outdated websites and social media was non-existent or just not done properly. So that's when I decided to start helping, because I like helping people.

Bella:So essentially, I started an Instagram page just putting out some tips and tricks and suggestions. From there, people were asking me if there was a blog because they wanted to know how to implement them. So I started writing a blog implementing it. And then I was trying to think how I could help more, and that's when I met Bella, and we kind of discussed some other ways that we can help pet businesses.

You're a diamond in our industry. I think you would probably agree with me—there are a lot of things that glitter, but they're not really gold. And you definitely shine, and you are definitely gold—or diamond, I guess. I was like, girl, you need to figure this out. So we're going to get to that at the end of it, but before we do, I just want to lay some truth bombs on people here. We're going to talk a lot about your website. If you're watching us live and not on the replay or on the podcast, we're actually going to open it up for questions at the end.

So if you're liking what we're saying, go ahead and say hello, tell us you're here. I know there's a bunch of people watching right now. We want to know who it is. And if you have questions, definitely post them as we go and we will get to them at the end. Why don't you back up a little bit here, Erica, and talk to me about our websites. I think one of the most basic and tiny little things that a lot of people don't understand is the difference between HTTP and HTTPS. Can you explain to us what the difference is there and why every pet sitter should have HTTPS, how to get it, and what it actually means?

Erica:Right. So actually last month, October 2017, Google just came out with a new warning. So if your website does not have HTTPS, you will then notice that if you look in the top of your browser there, it will say “not secure” if you have any forms on your website. And before it was kind of more just like if you do credit card processing, but now if you collect email addresses for your newsletter, if you have a contact form, you need to make sure that all of that information is encrypted. So essentially, HTTP, when you go to a website that is not secure, your information that is transmitted through forms is all in plain text.

Bella:So if a hacker tries to intercept that, they'll be able to get all of your information super easily, which is not good, especially when it's email addresses and credit card information. So with HTTPS, it's all encrypted. So essentially what happens is there's an SSL handshake, a secure socket layer handshake, and that encrypts the connection so that if a hacker does try to intercept it, it's all encrypted information—they can't decode it. So your information is all safe.

Fantastic. Yeah, because in the past it was like, I have software. And when people go on my software, that's all encrypted and that's fine. But a lot of us are actually taking information off of our own pet sitting and dog walking websites. So what Google now said, like you need to have HTTPS, everyone does. Is that what happened in October?

Erica:Basically, if you look in the top corner of a website, it says secure, that means you have HTTPS. If it doesn't say secure, now what Google is saying is they're going to penalize you essentially by putting “not secure.” So if someone goes to your website and they see “not secure” in the URL, they're probably going to leave because they don't want to put their information in your website, and they might get nervous.

Bella:That happened to me. Mine expired because these things also expire, right? It’s like every year you have to get a new one.

Erica:Some of them are every year, some are every six months, but a lot of hosting providers will automatically just renew them for you.

Bella:Got it. So that's just another thing as a business owner I need to keep aware of. Great. Thanks, guys. I can hear people getting overwhelmed and sighing right now.

Erica:They are free. You just have to know where to go to make that toggle and do the setup.

Bella:My goodness. So that leads me to my next question. And this is something I've learned by falling on my face, Erica. I am not as eloquent as you, and I call it my website handyman or handywoman. So why would someone need this day and age—you—because we've come a long way with websites, right? Why would someone need a virtual webmaster or, as I call them, a handyman to keep their site up to date because we're so busy with everything else?

Erica:The virtual webmaster basically keeps everything up to date and fresh. So maintenance is a big thing. You need to make sure all of your plugins are up to date and that, if you're using WordPress, your WordPress is up to date. With websites growing so much, hackers are now seeing more of an opportunity to intercept and get your information. So that is the most important reason why you need to keep your website up to date. For example, whenever WordPress pushes a new update, most of the time it's a security update because someone found a hole. If you're not updating your website right away, there's a big vulnerability there and someone can hack your website.

Bella:Yeah, I had that happen. My pet sitting site started selling Viagra in 2015. It was so much fun. And then you go into this panic and it ruins your day, and you're trying to figure out what happened, how to get it back. Simply put, I wasn't keeping my house clean. So when we are busy business owners, I think it's really important to have someone do that.

Erica:If you wait too long to update, you could screw up your whole website because there are so many updates in between. Sometimes plugins go out of date or are no longer supported, so you need to make sure that if a plugin is outdated and no longer supported, maybe it's time to switch to a newer one.

Bella:Right....

At Viral Ideas, Dave Feinman creates to Inspire. He believes everyone has the right to be fulfilled. He believes in shared creativity. He believes in the power of defining your why. He shares this message through the creative process of making videos!

Learn more about Dave at his website: http://viralideasmarketing.com

Show Highlights:

How can you embed videos into your emails? [5:25]

What kind of camera and equipment do I need to make videos? [7:40]

What do you need to look for before hiring a freelancer or agency to help you with video production? [10:50]

What do pet sitters need to include in their videos & what does the anatomy of a successful video look like? [12:45]

What are the three stages of clientele that builds pet sitting and dog walking sales funnels? [16:45]

Biggest mistakes companies make when creating videos [20:00]

What are the best ways business owners can market their videos on social media? [21:40]

Links Mentioned:

Dog Caught In House Fire Saves The Day

Wise Stamp

The Most Comprehensive Guide To YouTube SEO

Here is another podcast about creating video content

Subscribe To The Show:

https://youtu.be/XhdX54hm9iM

Transcript:

Bella:This is episode 78 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your host with Jump Consulting, and today I want you guys to think about if you had an opportunity during the sales process to really knock the socks off of your potential clients, would you take advantage of it? Many of us actually do have that power but aren't utilizing it, and it's just simply from our cell phone. Today, my guest is going to light a fire underneath your butt, so get ready because it's going to be one of the episodes you're going to want to listen to twice.

David Feynman creates to inspire. He believes that everyone has the right to be fulfilled. He believes in shared creativity and in the power of defining your “why,” which we've talked about so many times on this podcast, and shares his message through the creative process. David, welcome to the show.

David:Thanks for having me. It's great to be here. I'm excited.

Bella:For sure. You guys, I want you to check out viralideasmarketing.com. When I was doing my own prep work to meet with you, David, I stumbled upon one of these incredible videos that you did that really was, for me, Super Bowl-esque inspired. It was about this little girl and this little boy, and they were playing telephone with a can and a string—very nonchalant, very nostalgic, right? And then it skips forward 25 years, and the girl’s stressed out and crazed. She comes home, and there’s this package. Inside it is this—I'm getting goosebumps talking about it—this can with the rope, and it says, “Call me.” You could just feel her emotion melting back into that moment. And there were no words in that entire video—no narrative, no voiceovers, nothing. It was music and video, and the profound impact that you made was incredible. I want the pet sitters and dog walkers today to listen to your methodologies here and see how they could take the most warm and fuzzy topic, which is pets, and do the same thing in their own business on their own time, on their own budget. So David, where do you want to start?

David:There are so many things we can start with. Why don't I fill in the gaps and tell you how I got to where I am? I started this business about two and a half years ago with the purpose of helping business owners, entrepreneurs, and large businesses create video content for social media. Over the past two and a half years, we've worked with about 115 clients all across the globe, creating incredible video content. I think it's the best in the world, but I'm a little biased.

From the pet owners' perspective, we actually did a video—just talked to the business owner this morning—about pet ownership in relation to an alarm company. They’re a big regional player in alarms. The concept of the video: there’s a woman straightening her hair in the morning, she drops her hair straightener on the ground, walks out the door, and a fire starts in her house. Her dog's still there, and the dog obviously can’t call the fire department. Smoke fills the room, the dog has a lot of anxiety, and ultimately the alarm company swoops in, saves the day, and changes the course of what’s going on. That really creates an emotional connection to the fact that there’s an alarm company—it hits home for that specific dog owner.

Bella:That’s so poignant, because the first place I thought you were going was the dog getting out of the open door. That’s the most obvious thing, right? But you took that to the next level—the fear of this dog dying in a fire that the client caused. That’s amazing. You just told a story, and that’s incredible. What I’m thinking, too, in relation to pet sitters and dog walkers, is that people don’t hire a pet sitter because they don’t love their pets. They hire them because they do love their pets. They have an emotional connection and want someone they can trust.

So tell me about emails and embedding videos into emails. Can we do that, and how?

David:We’re really big on embedding a little video in the bottom of every single one of our emails. Especially for people just starting out—maybe you don’t have a tremendous budget to do marketing—embedding that video allows people to stay in your email longer and engage. We use a software called WiseStamp (W-I-S-E-S-T-A-M-P). It allows you to embed video and make a proper signature. It puts that little connection between you and the person you’re emailing and adds a bit of flair.

Bella:That’s amazing, because in our industry, we’re selling trust and security. I’ve always told people to do video biographies on websites instead of static bios, but I love what you’re saying about putting it in an email. Pet sitters can use templates, and within those templates, they could say, “Hey, cat client, don’t forget to check out the video at the bottom.” That way, they don’t have to click off the email—it’s right there. That’s so exciting.

David:Exactly.

Bella:So what kind of camera should we use? Do I need a big fancy camera?

David:There are a few ways to go. First is do-it-yourself, for the budget-conscious entrepreneur. Having a video, even a simple one, is better than nothing. Use your phone and some light editing software to get started. The next step is hiring a freelancer—someone local who knows the right equipment and can use it well. The third tier is hiring an agency like ours, where we’ve made hundreds of videos and have a large body of work. It’s about knowing where you are in the process—whether DIY, freelance, or agency—and understanding what value you need to create.

Bella:That’s great because you broke it down simply. When I want to do things on the fly, I just use my iPhone. But when I really want to get serious, I pull out my expensive camera. It’s just that I don’t know what all the buttons do—it’s stressful! So about hiring freelancers—how do we know who to hire? Is it more important to look at how they edit or their shooting style?

David:You’re going to look at two things: body of work and process. Ask how they run their operations—what’s their pre-production process? Pre-production is as important as game day. If you’ve created a video or are thinking about it, what happens before filming often makes or breaks it. Look at the quality of their past work and make sure it aligns with your taste. Work with someone responsive and professional—just like any other vendor.

Bella:Those are great tips. Now, let’s talk about what the anatomy of a video looks like—what should we have at the beginning, middle, and end?

David:Think of it as creating a story: beginning, middle, and end. The beginning grabs attention. If you’re making it for Facebook, you have one to three seconds to hook people. For example, say you start with a dog pooping on a neighbor’s lawn—it’s shocking and funny, and you want to see what happens next. Build suspense in the middle, then close with the message, like “Hire a professional dog walker so your neighbors aren’t mad.”

Bella:That’s brilliant—and hilarious! People tune out when they hear features and benefits, but storytelling keeps them engaged.

David:Exactly. Storytelling holds attention longer. Once you have that, you can trickle in features, benefits, and reasons they should pick you.

Bella:Right, and through that you evoke emotion. That’s what connects people. So what kind of videos can we make for existing clients, new clients, and past clients?

David:Think in terms of a sales funnel. The awareness stage is for people who don’t know you—make something catchy that sparks emotion. The middle stage is for those who’ve engaged but aren’t ready to buy yet—build trust with testimonials or clips showing you caring for pets. The final stage is for closing—explain your process, how you work, and what happens in emergencies. Always connect it to your “why.”

Bella:Talk more about that—what’s the “why”?

David:The “why” could be why you do what you do or why clients need it. For example, we did a video for a company called Bow Wow’s Wedding Pals. Their why was that dogs are part of couples’ lives and shouldn’t be excluded from their wedding day. Or your why could be that you’ve loved animals your whole life and want to care for them professionally. It doesn’t have to be deep, but it needs substance.

Bella:I love that. So, to wrap up, what are the biggest mistakes people make when creating videos?

David:Number one—poor pre-production. People want to cram too much into one short video. Keep it focused on one topic. Also, invest in some production value—good lighting and sound make a big difference.

...

This week on Bella In Your Business, Bella sits down with long-time friend, Kate McQuillan to discuss how she started and grew her website, www.PetBusinessOwners.com.  They discuss Kate's story of how she scaled her successful coaching business, and how it can be applied to pet sitting business owners.

Bella & Kate tackle a number of topics including:

Competition - Why you should or should not care

How Kate started her business and builded it

The important elements to growing and scaling a business

Biggest mistakes pet sitting and dog walking business owners make when starting up

How consistency led to a business EXPLOSION!

Kate McQuillan is the owner of Pet Sitters Ireland, which she has operated since 2010. She currently attracts 15,000 visitors per month to her website, where 70% of which comes from her blogs that she writes on a weekly basis. Kate has over 32,000 Facebook Fans, which have all come from the content she shares and the way she engages with her fans.

Subscribe To The Show

Leave A Review:

Transcript:

Bella:This is episode 77 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta with Jump Consulting, and today I am here with my longtime friend, Kate McQuillan. How are you?

Kate:I am fantastic, Bella. It's great to see you again.

Bella:Absolutely. Thank you for joining me. For those of you who haven't figured it out yet just by her hello, Kate is located in Ireland, and she is, how do I even say it? I want to say the queen of pet sitting in the entire country. And I can say that because her Facebook page boasts 35,000 people on it. And today, I mean, Kate has just really—I've known you from kind of right when you and your husband started it, and as you guys started expanding and just watching you explode and then going to franchising and then doing this Nose of Tralee competition. And today I really want our listeners to take from you first a little bit about who you are and how you got to where you're at, but also the main lesson today I want is to be about consistency, because everyone is going to be in shock and awe of what you've been able to do. But I really want to drive home the main lesson today about how you have been consistent for years, Kate. As long as I've known you, you may have had your ups and downs personally or professionally or whatever, but you have maintained consistency in your determination to succeed. So Kate, why don't you bring us back a little bit? Tell us about how you started your company and how you got to where you are today.

Kate:We started Pet Sitters Ireland back in 2010. It was actually a friend of mine in the UK who was doing cat sitting for a few of her local neighbors, and there was nothing like that here in Ireland. She was actually in the UK, and it got me thinking. I never liked putting our pets in kennels, and this just seemed like the perfect opportunity. Obviously, it's huge in America, but it never really was here. So we had to look into it. We did a few surveys just to see if there really was a market for it in Ireland, and there definitely was. So we started kind of local, and because we were getting so many hits to the website, even with the worst website in the world—it was terrible—we were getting so many inquiries from all over Ireland that we just immediately decided to hire and cover all of Ireland. And that was really how we just jumped into it, not knowing really anything about pet sitting or dog walking at all.

I instantly fell in love with social media. If you know me, you'll know that I love social media, blogging, content marketing, whatever you want to call it. And that's really what's been the catalyst for the growth of our business. And like Bella said, I am very, very consistent most of the time, but I just consistently have plugged away at blogging, at social media, just constantly talking to our ideal customers. And I think that's what's given us the kind of catalyst to grow month on month and year on year. It's been absolutely fantastic to go from just a tiny little idea to now a nationally franchised business.

Bella:It is very amazing. I am in awe of you, and I always love learning from you. We'll talk about more of this at the end, but you actually have a whole academy for pet sitters because you've been so successful. I always say learn from the best—follow people that you want to be like. And Kate, you're one of those people that the pet sitters and dog walkers listening right now should totally check out. Look at the academy and see if it's for them. What do you do in that academy?

Kate:Basically, I have just taken everything that we have done with our business—all the tactics that we've used, all the examples of things that we've done—and just put it into a membership group. So you can pay to be part of the membership and you can access not just seeing on my blog or my Facebook page what I'm doing, but actually how I did it. So kind of like the steps. I know we're going to be talking about the competition, and in there it gives you the guide to exactly A to B as to what I did. So yeah, that's basically what it is.

Bella:That's awesome. So it's the woman behind the curtain—what you've been doing in the kitchen.

Kate:Exactly. I don't spend much time in the kitchen, though.

Bella:I'll admit it, us Americans are typically a little bit—I'm going to use the word ignorant; it might be a little harsh word—but we don't quite understand the capacity or the size of things. While you were just talking, I actually just Googled so that our listeners who are walking dogs, driving, making food—Ireland is about the size of, according to Google, the state of Indiana. So it's essentially like Kate has taken over the entire state of Indiana and become the pet sitter for that. So if that can help put a little perspective for you as to how big or small Ireland is, we all think Ireland's small, but it's actually pretty large in relation. I don't know any pet sitting company that's actually servicing an entire state. I wanted to put that in perspective for people.

So take me back. I want to talk about this Nose of Tralee and how did you come up with the name? What was your first year like? What was your initial motivation to do it?

Kate:I had been wanting to do a competition for ages. I think what a lot of people misunderstand about competitions is it isn't about running a competition and getting 20 new dog walking clients out of it. It's more about brand awareness, and for us to actually franchise our business and become that brand that we needed to be, we needed to have more brand awareness. And we can't afford huge TV ads and massive radio campaigns all over Ireland, nor would I want to spend that kind of money. A competition seemed quite a cheap and easy way to kind of get that brand out. But rather than do something like “cutest dog” or “waggiest tail” or something like that, we wanted something that the press particularly were going to get behind. Because press aren't going to report on us doing a dog competition; it's not really that newsworthy. But if you can have a good hook behind it—something that's fun or quirky—definitely local press will cover it for you.

So there is a competition that runs every year in Ireland. You can Google it—it's called the Rose of Tralee. It's not really a beauty pageant; it’s kind of developed from that. It used to be competing with all of the 32 counties in Ireland, and girls today are judged on, essentially, it's not meant to be on looks, but it's meant to be on hobbies, interests, speaking ability—all these types of things. And it's very, very famous. It's been around for years, it's on TV every single year, and it's absolutely huge. Love it or hate it, it is a massive part of Irish culture.

So we just came up with the idea to run a pet version of the competition. So instead of the Rose of Tralee, it was the Nose of Tralee. Very few competitions in Ireland are for all animals, so that was another thing—we wanted it to be completely inclusive, so any animal could enter. We've had pigs, horses, turtles—you name it, we've had it. Now, primarily the biggest audience is dogs and cats, but we have had sort of unusual animals in there too. And what's happened with it is it's become something that's very fun. It makes a great headline because it's run at the same time as the Rose of Tralee. The papers go crazy to compare the current Rose with the current Nose, and we actually get Roses taking photos with the Noses. So the way the competition works is there's 32 counties in Ireland, and there are 32 opportunities to be a Nose and a Rose.

What tends to happen is you'll get the Rose of Kildare taking a picture with the Nose, so they get in the paper.

Bella:Oh my God, I am dying right now. Like, this is hilarious.

Kate:I’ll have to send you the link to some of the pictures that have got in the paper because they're fantastic. So yeah, it's just been so fun. And I think because it is unusual, because it's so timely with the same time as the competition and there's not much happening that time of year in Irish news, it is just all about the Rose of Tralee that time of year. So we've just been very fortunate that the press have been so good to us. We've been on TV, we've been in papers, on the radio, and very rarely have I actually done anything to get this press—it all has just kind of come to us. And so it has been quite phenomenal.

Bella:That's incredible.

Kate:The first year was quite small. I never anticipated the amount of press that we would get. We put a few Facebook ads to get people to enter. It was all kind of quite casual. It's been the same format—the format has never changed year after year. We got about, I think, 400 or 500 entries,...