In this episode, I’m talking with Julie Holmes of Unique Pet Care. Julie’s company creates solutions for cleaning pet stains and odors in your home. She talked to me about how important it is to use the right words to communicate with pet parents in her target audience - thinks “tinkle” instead of “urine”. Of course, we also talk about the formulas themselves and why it’s important to have a clean-up solution with bacteria, not just enzymes. This is the good bacteria that will clean up a mess and keep working until it leaves nothing behind.

Besides talking about tinkle, poop, and puke… we also managed to talk about business! Julie is a big believer in networking within industry groups. She recommends that you find a group within your niche or get involved in groups that help with a specific thing like SEO or manufacturing. You don’t always have to go to big events and tradeshows. Sometimes the more specific and small events are even better. Although I’ve known Julie through email for a while, we did get to meet in person this summer and I completely agree that the relationships you form in person can’t be replicated 100% on zoom.

I hope you enjoy this interview and use it as inspiration to research some small in-person events that you can attend to network for your business in the new year. It’s coming up very soon!

Today’s episode is all about creating quizzes! My guest isn’t technically in the pet industry, but she is a dog mom! Jessmyn Solana works at Interact Quiz Builder, the software that I use to build my own quizzes. I thought it would be cool to invite her on the show to share the why and how of building your own pet parent quiz. When I first set up my podcast playlist quiz, one of my main goals was to collect email addresses. But Jessmyn points out that there’s so much more to quizzes than lead generation!

Quizzes are all about curiosity and self-discovery. They can help your audience learn more about themselves and they can also be a great way to see what areas of your business you should put more effort into. For example, your quiz results might tell you that pet parents who take it want to learn more about single-ingredient dog treats instead of Instagrammable Gotcha Day cakes.

I know it’s a busy time of year and you might be inclined to put this on the back burner. But, Jessmyn shared so many great ideas of how to repurpose your existing content using a quiz. If you’ve put a lot of work into making an ebook or a blog post or a gift guide, you can use a quiz to direct pet parents to the right place and make them feel like you’ve curated this content just for them. She recommends that you create a quiz that can be answered in under 2 minutes! So it does not have to be long and complicated at all.

If you want to dive right in, Interact also has free courses and an online community to help you create a killer quiz. I have an affiliate link to share with you… go to get.tryinteract.com/tori

There’s a 14-day free trial and after that there are very affordable paid plans.

In this solo episode, I want to talk about the importance of telling people who you are. As a business owner in the pet industry, you know that you need to be visible and recognizable to build a relationship with your audience. Your brand cannot exist on cute pet photos alone. Pet parents want to see the human they’re buying from. As a small business, this gives you a huge advantage against the big corporate brands that don’t really have 1 real person that buyers can identify with.

But did you know that you need to keep reinforcing who you are and what you do? It's not enough to just put your name out there once - you need to tell people who you are again and again. This will help you create a strong brand identity and establish you as the go-to person for whatever it is that you specialize in.

In this episode, I’m sharing a conversation with an entrepreneur I met in person at SuperZoo this past August. Kerry Cooke is the founder of Tail Chasers and the inventor of Spleash - a water holding spray leash handle. She told me how she came up with the idea while walking her dog in the warm California weather (and always forgetting to bring a water bottle and dog bowl). The Spleash can spray your dog with water to help them cool off and it can also be used as drinking water for them with the attached bowl.

In addition to designing and launching this product, Kerry is also Vice President of Sales at a biotech company. She shared with me what it's like to create a dog gear startup, get publicity and push for conversions while juggling many other responsibilities.

The element of the Tail Chasers business that stands out the most to me is the charitable component. Kerry and her daughter have a very personal story about the impact of therapy dogs and they’re dedicated to making that wonderful resource available to more people.

Kerry was such a pleasure to talk to! If you enjoy what you hear in this episode, please share it!

In this episode, I’m talking to the delightful Chichi Enu. I got to know Chichi through Instagram during the pandemic. At the time, she was starting a pet sitting business and I invited her to come on the podcast and talk about that experience. I love featuring women who are in all phases of business growth. There aren’t a lot of resources where you can hear directly from someone who’s figuring it out at the start all the way up to someone who's grown a six-figure business. I love being that outlet!

But, when I originally reached out the Chichi she kinda declined the invitation. In the nicest way possible, of course. Finally, about a year later reached out to say she was ready for the interview. But it’s not about how to start a pet sitting business… instead, it’s about what to do if you realize that your dream pet career isn’t the right fit. I’m so grateful to Chichi for openly sharing how she discovered that pet sitting wasn’t a good fit for her over a year into the business and what she’s doing now instead.

Over the past few years, “pivot” was the big business buzzword! And you know what, it’s OK to do a total 180, too. There isn’t one right way to do anything. As long as you have a passion for what you do, that will come through in your business. Whether it’s pet sitting, blogging, podcasting, making treats and accessories, training pets or anything else.

Speaking of… did you know I created a quiz to help to find your ideal petpreneur playlist? With 238 episodes, it can be hard to find the interviews that resonate best with you. Answer 4 quick questions to find out your petpreneur personality type and get a custom 12 episode playlist curated for exactly where you are in your pet business now.

In this episode, I’m talking with fellow dog blogger Candy Pilar Godoy. We talk about how she grew her blog Boogiethepug.com from zero to over 50,000 sessions per month in just a few years. Of course, SEO played a big part and Candy shares her favorite online course to learn more about that.

In addition to her blog, over the past couple of years Candy started two new online dog lover communities on Instagram. One is Dogs of NYC and the other is A History of Dogs. It wasn’t until recently that I realized that she ran A History of Dogs, it’s one of my favorite accounts. And I was surprised to learn that she’s grown it to over 42,000 followers and counting without doing many Reels. In fact, out of 570 posts, only 36 of them are Reels.

It’s possible to pursue your pet industry dreams your way! This conversation with Candy shows that you can have great success building your online community of dog lovers when you do what works for you, not what everyone tells you to do. Ahhh… my favorite moral of any story! Just be yourself!

In this episode, I talk to Julie Swan about how talk of an impending recession is affecting the pet industry. Are there ways that you can recession-proof your pet business. Julie has some sugessions and observations on how to best serve your pet parent customers so you can make your business thrive.

Julie is a full-time dog breeder who also teaches an online course and membership program for breeders. Her experience and expertise in the psychology of how pet parents shop applies to any type of pet industry business. In this conversation we talk about examples for a variety of pet businesses, but if you want Julie’s take on recession-proofing your responsible dog breeding program, listen to Episode 52 of the Honest Dog Breeder Podcast.

One thing that came up in this conversation, that I always recommend, is to diversify your income stream. You never want to put all the good squeaky tennis balls in one basket! If you’re interested in teaching an online course about your zone of genius about pets, I would love to help you zero in on your course idea, outline the lessons and create a launch plan. Sign up for a 1-on-1 strategy session with me at wearwagrepeat.com/coaching

Have you considered creating an online course for your pet business? If you’re a dog trainer it seems like an obvious fit. But no matter what type of business you have in the pet industry, there’s an online course you could create to help pet parents and other pet pros. 

In this episode I share my experience creating several online courses and my membership and pull examples from 7 previous podcasts guests who have created their own online courses and virtual programs. 

Learn why it’s important to narrow down the topic and objective of your course, the pros and cons of various formats and the equipment needed to create and launch your new online course.

If you need help coming up with your course idea, outlining the lessons and creating a launch plan, I’d love to help you during a 1-on-1 strategy session.

I love using Teachable for my online courses and membership. Check out their pricing plans with my affiliate link.

Sometimes people come into your life at the perfect time. That’s the case with Amanda Megara. She does so many things in the pet space, including starting her own business last year. One of her roles is foster coordinator for a local animal shelter. I was excited to be able to talk to Amanda about what to expect when fostering since I’ve committed to being a foster dog mom this year!

But that’s just a small part of this interview. We spend the bulk of the conversation talking about Amanda’s new business, Scarlett Jo’s Redemption. She educates new puppy parents and supports shelters and breeders in an effort to end early euthanasia and surrender to shelters. Working in the veterinary field and volunteering with shelters, she knows this is a problem that needs attention.

Wear Wag Repeat Society is open for enrollment right now! This isn’t like any other membership you’re in! It’s business strategy with dog people so no topic is off limits. See what it’s all about at wearwagrepeat.com/society

I just got back from spending three days in Las Vegas at the largest pet industry trade show in North America. SuperZoo had over 14,000 attendees and over 900 exhibitors with just about everything you need for your life with pets.

In this episode, I’ll share dog food and treats trends, hot ingredients to keep an eye out for, what was happening in terms of canine enrichment, something called palatability testing plus my personal favorite part of SuperZoo!

While I had a great time and met lots of wonderful people, it was clear that we need to keep working to amplify and support women in this industry. So it couldn’t be a better time to open up membership in Wear Wag Repeat Society! I love this community of women and how well we’ve gotten to know each other. Get on the waitlist now so you know when membership open in early September. Go to wearwagrepeat.com/society