042- Content Creation with Dan Reitman
Summary:
Dan Reitman, owner of Dan’s Dog Walking and Pet Sitting, returns to the show to share some ideas for content creation and sharing posts as a pet business with the world on lock down. We also discuss the importance of strengthening community and staying on top of your mental, emotional, and physical health.
Topics in this episode:
How his business is doing
What clients are looking for
Client retention vs new clients
Social media in a pandemic
Kinds of posts you can use
Mental, emotional health
Main takeaway? Think long-term NOT short-term.
Mental health resources
Dan’s Website: https://danspetcare.com
Dan’s Dog Walking and Pet Sitter Instagram
Dan’s previous interview with us. Episode 29
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
Check out our Covid-19 resources
Follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, & TuneIn
Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, clients, business, important, dog, shift, reach, pet, posts, service, dan, put, check, home, community, offering, content, day, continue, local businesses
SPEAKERS
Collin, Dan
00:17
I'm Collin and I'm Meghan. And this is pet sitter confessional. An open and
00:22
honest discussion about life as a pet sitter.
Collin 00:29
Happy Monday, everybody. We hope you're doing well. No kitchen confession this week. However, what we do have in store for you is an amazing interview with Dan reitman from Dan's dog walking and pet sitting. Dan sat down with us recently to discuss what his company has been through and how he has been responding on social media. Dan was gracious enough to give us some few pointers and some ideas for what are some things we can be posting during this time where we're sitting at home over trying to come up with ways to continue to be active in engage with our clients and the people around us. To hear more about Dan his business how he got started in all of the background, check out Episode 29. Before we get started with that interview, did you know we have a phone number? It's 636-364-8260. Megan and I are working on putting together an episode all about how you guys are doing and how you are coping with us. So we'd love it if you could leave us a voicemail so that we can use that audio in an upcoming show that we know will be so uplifting and encouraging to others to remind us all that we're not alone. But we want you to be telling that story too. So give us a call and let us know. Now on to the interview.
Dan 01:46
I just figure whatever could be helpful for people because I know everyone's kind of like what do I do here? And I'm right there with you guys. It's been a lot of like, bigger and out and like even Take a step back we had we cut down on our posting a little bit. Just because I think people are a little tired of just hearing everything pertaining to this, that we've been trying to space it all out. It was pretty intense and we were starting to wind down and then we were like, Alright, let's give them a little bit of a break. Sure. Oh, yeah, it's that kind of walk that balance between
Collin 02:24
being relevant and providing important information and not overloading with it because yeah, I think I've ever been as as this continues to stretch people are starting to go and I know I'm feeling it and Megan is to have just like, Oh, I was burned out from dog walking but now I'm kind of burnout
Dan 02:40
COVID we've, I've been on I only checked the news in the morning and then that's it that's I get my bed. You know that the numbers for the day. But other than that, like the first couple weeks of this, I was news constantly and I was like, I'm like a I've got a pretty good baseline anxiety to begin with. Then you stack on a global pandemic and an economic meltdown. And I'm like, all right, I should have been to look at.
03:08
Yeah, the one the one that got me was the Johns Hopkins global where it should all the dots like that one was like, Oh, I can't I just I need to remove this from my browser history and forget how to find this ever again, because that one you can just sit there and really,
Dan 03:25
I I look at that so often that if I type the letter J into my search bar for the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus map. It's yeah at this point, unless you're an epidemiologist. Just kind of focused on staying healthy and focused on your your friends and family, staying in contact with people and trying to do good things for yourself and the people around you. Instead of making yourself crazy, which is something that I've been struggling with. If anyone else is feeling that you're not the only one Yeah I definitely it's been a lot of emotional up and down during all this stuff you know everyone who's in this industry this inducement hit hard and for everyone out there going through it like this realize this does have an end we don't know when it is yet but your clients will be there when we come back and that's one of the things that has been so nice to see and hear is like the really really incredibly warm messages we've been getting from people like you know, we want to support you guys through this like we have clients who are still paying for services even though we're not walking their dog you know, one of the things that made me crazy was having to let my team go we furloughed everybody so they all know they have a job we come back but you know and you know they haven't great resources unemployment and hopefully these stimulus check them out. But I threw together a GoFundMe We do GoFundMe and crowd rises all the time. We get breast cancer fundraisers and stuff like that we usually raised 345 thousand dollars. In a week we raised 10 grand for the staff, which blew my mind and like so they actually most of them don't know about it that we're doing this yet. So this is going to be a surprise on Monday, I'm going to say, hey, just add me on on Venmo I've got a little something for you. We're gonna be sending some money at the scene, which will be nice. Wow, that's Yeah, it was. And some clients donated like a lot of money that I was like, Cool. Thank you. Yeah, like it is it means a lot you know, I there's I think there's it's an interesting shift in the workforce right now where lots and lots of the I like a lot of my friends who are in finance as a hedge fund, stuff like that. They're just working from home but it's businesses you I mean, it's chaos, but it's they're still working and they're still doing their thing. Whereas you know, people who work in the service industry or industries that have been hit very hard by this. It is a That temporarily very light bulb. Yeah, and you know, with a lot of stuff in perspective, and you really got to think about like, oh, maybe I shouldn't buy those extra expensive chocolate bars, or maybe I don't need those extra computers. It's definitely gotten me a little bit more focused on the finances, some things are sure. And just kind of keeping tabs on spending years before I was, you know, we've been in a great economy for a very long time. And, you know, businesses have been growing and growing and growing. And if anyone has started anything in the last 910 years, you've been on a very, very nice upswing, and so it's time for some course correction.
Collin 06:44
Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of lessons to be learned on the back end of this when we start reviewing like, okay, like what did I was my definition of security beforehand in what what did I think was okay, and how, how is that different? And how has that shaped? And now how do I prepare for something moving forward from this?
Dan 07:05
Yeah, I think a lot of people are probably going through a lot of, you know, running their budgets. And if you haven't been on top of your numbers right now, it's a very, very, you know, I'm not a finance guy, I'm not gonna sit here give anyone financial advice. But I would, if you need help reach out for it. You know, there's, there's tons of great resources, especially in all these groups that we're all in, in the industry, there's a lot of people, a lot of CPAs who've been talking. There's a ton of great stuff out there. And if you need help, do not hesitate to ask people that I think a lot of people in this industry are, you know, when you work for yourself, you're very used to kind of taking charge and doing your own thing. And it's important to know like, Alright, I don't know this. I gotta ask for help. I recently switched to a new accounting team and they are fantastic and they've been walking me through. I've been calling them non stop for the past. Few weeks about all these loans they are, they're definitely sick of hearing me and probably regret giving me their cell phone. No, no, they've been it's really good to lean on your resources right now. I think that's one thing that's super important for people to do.
Collin 08:13
Yeah. Well, I think people are busy they have this time to they're finding where the leaks are, that they may or may not have noticed, he talked about how that that 10 year swing that everybody had and was experiencing of, Okay, well, I'm not really going to notice if that $50 doesn't get make it in from that client that one time, but now, a lot of
08:30
sitting down going,
Collin 08:32
Oh, that person actually never paid from three weeks ago. And I have time to notice it now where I didn't before. And so, you know, that's those kind of practices are good, where you have the time and as you mentioned, reaching out to CPAs and people have help for some of those more advanced stuff, but it's really, yeah, putting us all in that position to go. Oh, okay. I didn't know there are some leaks here that maybe I could patch.
Dan 08:56
Yeah, definitely a great time to run through your numbers and make sure you've got You know, you know holes in that leaky boat, right?
Collin 09:04
You talked about a little bit how, you know you have shifted and your your service is are down. Have they changed at all as what you're offering? Are you kind of sticking to some just what's your core services are,
Dan 09:17
we're still offering our, you know, baseline dog walking services. We're not doing overnights, obviously anymore. We're down to a very small handful of just essential visits. We have a couple of elderly clients, that immunocompromised client too, you know, it's just not safe for them to be going outside and doing things in terms of being out there. So we've been still doing that. One service I did start pushing. It's funny because when I first started the business, I offered a kitchen replenishment service, which was I go to the grocery store and pick up the groceries. And so now we've been we've been doing that more though grocery stuff pharmacy stuff. I started doing that pooper scooper stuff about a year ago, but I've been pushing that anything pertaining to outside, but, you know, I'm starting to get requests from people who are, you know, hey, so and so is sick and can't walk their dog, I got to run through a list of questions before I go to the house because you know, you got to be careful and you got to be mindful, you know, even if you're taking all the precautions, you just don't want to be a potential vector for another person of this, you know, getting into their home so, you know, you're if you're in the more densely populated areas like I am it you just got to be mindful of what you're taking on. But yeah, it's it's a weird shift. You know, I miss a lot of the dogs that I used to see now I wasn't walking dogs nearly as frequently as I wasn't walking dogs every day. So I'm doing it every day now but it's, it's, it's become more of a solo kind of situation like I still am in constant communication might be more I'm checking in with them every couple days. You know, we've been doing some zoom chats, we did a company happy hour, which was fun over zoom. And we had a couple of cocktails. And Monday we're doing I got it, I'll send you the name of the platform, but it's like a one of these quiz game things. You could do a resume, or like with videos, you know, we just want to make sure we stay in contact with the team and stuff like that. But it's, it's been a weird, it's a weird
11:28
brain shift.
Collin 11:30
Yeah, and especially I think, you know, for for you having built and expanded so vastly over the last several years to now be putting that to a position of, Oh, it's it's me out there doing walks again and trying to, but I've got all the structure out there that I still need to be in touch with and communicating and checking on them. So I think that's really an interesting position to be in.
Dan 11:54
Yeah, it's, you know, I, I really wasn't handling much on the client communication side. Unless I needed to be escalated to me, I wasn't handling much on the hiring side either. Or even billing. I, you know, I was doing, you know, I was basically overseeing things and focusing on the growth of the company. And it's, you know, we were actually, before all this started, we were getting prepared to double our service area into a whole other county. And we were gearing everything up and it's just, Alright, we'll put this on pause. And, yeah, if it's less, it's less work overall, which is nice. You know, I'm still I'm trying to reach out to clients as often as I can, you know, I've got some clients who I know have, you know, older relatives, people who had dogs who were older or sick, I want to check in, make sure they're okay. And that's, that is one of the biggest things is, even though everything has come to a standstill, keeping communication with both your team and your clients is very important. You know, you want to really keep that communication line open, whether it's, you know, hey, this is what we're doing. Hey, this is services. We're Offering, but I honestly think the best thing you can do is how can I help you? What can I do to help? And that's one of the things we've been trying to do with local businesses as well as with the downtime, and the shift from me having to worry about all these different things. What can I do to help another local business owner because like, there's not much I can do like, I'm not willing to take on a ton of risk right now. I want to make sure I'm healthy, my people are healthy. figure out a way to get through this. But there aren't, you know, there's restaurants that are struggling and everyone out there are, you know, local small businesses, do what you can to like really help them whether it's sharing and offer stuff like that, or promoting their business through your social media or email blasts is a really positive thing to be able to do.
Collin 13:45
As you're reaching out to to clients and staff and people around you. Are you finding that the need of the clients is still there or have they been saying, Oh, no, I'm not going to need this in the future or you know what kind of things without wanting as clients
Dan 14:00
Haven't had a single person say they're not going to need it in the future. They are incredibly supportive. They have been asking how we are how the staff are. And I think overall, it's, it's been, we can't wait to get you guys back to work. Because Pearl, I'd say the majority of my client base, most of them are working from home right now. For those that are like essential workers, you know, working in hospitals and things like that. So, you know, again, it's just a shift of their workplace. So their dogs are obviously very, you know, their pets are very excited that they're home. But I think is, you know, they're, they've all been very supportive and asked, When I asked, What can I do for you, they asked, hey, is there any services you're offering that I could use right now? But it hasn't. I don't think I've really had anything where people are like, yeah, I'm not going to be needing this in the future, like, maybe one or two, but overall, it's been We can't wait to get back out there and walk in the dog. I think there's been this kind of general tension or fear of some, some sitters and some pet care professionals of needing to retain clients or gain new ones during this time and fear of losing clients moving forward of Okay, if I'm not open and they go to somebody else, you know, will they never come back to me? And so how can I be reaching out to them and letting them know that I'm still here for the long haul? I think on that front, it's important to think long term, not short term. You know that it's pretty doubtful that people are jumping. If they've been a client of yours for a while. I highly doubt they're going to just jump ship and go to somebody else. During this now, again, it depends on what part of the country you're in. Over here in New York. It is, you know, we're technically considered an essential service, animal care, but it boiled down to me not wanting to put clients and staff at risk. But I really think as long as you are in communication And you're doing things to maintain that channel of communication with your clients. You just want to stay like I've been doing it we're, you know, we're trying to inundate people. We've been doing maybe like a weekly email blast. Hey, just checking in want to see how you guys are doing. For me been texting clients, I've been calling staff. It's really just about reaching out, because everyone's kind of in their own bubble right now. I think that to be worried about losing the business. You're kind of wasting energy, take that energy and focus into maintaining the relationship because what does it say? It's 10 times more expensive to get a new client than it is to maintain an existing watch. And chances are, you know, if your clients are working from home and they're taking care of their own dog, and you reached out when you if you did have to shut down and you made the call. I got a lot of wrecks you really really positive messages back and people like hey, I think you did the right thing. No, it couldn't have been easy. And a lot of support because again, like, if we're going from house to house to house, people might be uncomfortable with, you know, someone coming in even if you aren't, you know, switching the gloves, which and the math and all that stuff. I think you got to think long term with this, and you can't be so worried about losing them. Because if you do that, and this is taken from a standpoint of being a very anxious person, it's gonna consume your head, and it's gonna make you crazy. Try to focus in on what you can do to help and just continue to keep those communication channels open with them.
Collin 17:39
focusing on what you can do is so critical right
Dan 17:42
now. You guys have actually been putting out some great content by the way. Oh, well. On your Instagram. There was one I was losing it the other day and I like read it out. All right. On the it definitely. You got like that kind of stuff. You know, you're, you're touching people with that and like, you're definitely like reaching people. Like if I actually like, saw the pose and was like, I can't control everything. I gotta breathe. I got to take a moment here now.
Collin 18:12
Well, I appreciate I appreciate that. I mean, we're, we're learning through this too. And it's just, it's that that's so hard is to remember of like, what can I What can I control? What can't I and then where should it logically then where where should I be investing my energy and like you said the like, there are things that I can be doing and and that's where I need to be right now. And and continue to move forward and chunk away at that and that's in those when you're when you're when when people are scared and when you're nervous or when you're anxious. Like that's that's kind of a hard shift to make. But oh, yeah, it's that's not easy. And I don't want to downplay I don't think anybody's downplaying that at all just saying, Oh, just just do the right thing or do you know, relax, relax, right. Calm down. What are you still wearing? Yeah, yeah, that is always relaxed somebody 100% of the time. Right? So it's just, it's with this, everybody's trying to learn and adjust to this. And that's, that's, that's I know, that gives me a lot of comfort is knowing like, okay, who? I'm not the only one that wakes up in the morning going, what on earth
Dan 19:20
today? Yeah. It's something it's easy to forget to. Because if you're used to being kind of like, you know, you run your own business, you do your own thing. And you know if your communication with your team, but like you're not really interacting with people, so everyone's in their own little bubbles freaking out individually, but this is, this is a humanity thing. Our planet is going through this. This is something that's affecting people in Australia and Africa and Asia, like this is a global epidemic. We are all going through this together and it is hopefully at some point going to become a unifying thing. I think there's been a lot of that So I've been really happy to turn the news off here in the air and everyone's talking. Yeah, it'll, it'll make you crazy. But I think it's, it is important to realize that, you know, there's only so much you can control and you got to take a step back and breathe, which I am awful at. I have an amazing girlfriend who forces me to do these things. She bounces me out very well. You know, makes me do yoga and stuff with her and meditation, which has been honestly like, I had I had a day The other day I came home I was losing it. She's like, Mom, we're doing yoga. Yoga, we meditated, and I got to like such a dense place to sleep. Really weirdly peaceful. And no one's used to seeing me like very calm and like level. Anytime I'm at like a very like peaceful thing like are you okay with that? What's wrong? Are you Yeah. Is that are they assuming sleep?
20:58
I think you know,
Collin 21:00
Yeah, so as we're moving through those adjustments, a lot of us are starting to think back to the way we used to operate. And one of those is, is how we managed our social media and our online presence. So I'm curious how you guys have made that shift in into what you're doing these days as to what you know, compared to Gosh, it's crazy to say even three weeks ago, 10 years ago.
Dan 21:28
Yeah, it's been a very abrupt shift. Obviously, you've seen some of our videos that Maura and I make, you know, where we're eating all sorts of silly dog treats and stuff and making these funny videos, which right now are on hold. You know, we used to be out, taking, you know, pictures of the staff every day constantly making content, and that always kind of comes to a halt. I think the last picture of one of us on a walk with me. The other day Morrow came out and met me because I was walking Dog eared him. And he took a picture of me from his car. And we posted that. But it's been it's been an odd shift. I mean, more has been doing some work remotely. We've all kind of taken a step back until the paycheck Protection Program stuff comes in. But honestly, I think it's important to take a step back and think, alright, let's not panic, let's figure out what are the things that I can do to be a positive influence? So, you know, one is, obviously we've all been inundated with COVID-19 information but it is helpful if you do have a following to share some information pertaining to what is you know, what are the symptoms? Well, you know, one of the things you could do to keep yourself clean and safe from this. We put out a couple of pieces of content but that was actually I think, before everything even shut down. We put out the bulk of our stuff prior to this all shutting down. Honestly, we've been trying To put some cute and funny stuff up, I know we've been re sharing people's content of just use videos of dogs because again, we're seeing a lot of overwhelming stuff online and in the news, and I think being able to be a voice of comedic relief is something that I've always enjoyed. You know, I've always loved being able to make someone laugh. And I think laughter is a really important thing during that. You know, you need a lot of love and a lot of laughter to get through something like we're all dealing with. And you know, if you can find some funny videos, and repost them, make sure you give credit to whoever you take it from. But you know, if you're not comfortable making your own content, there is a ton of amazing content on the internet with animals if you haven't checked, there's a lot of few videos and a lot of funny ones. But and now it's a great time to if you're comfortable or you're like me, maybe I should do it. Try get in front of the camera. If you've got to pet at home, you've got ideas for a funny video, give it a shot. Another one, I think will be well received is support of your local health professional. So what we've been doing is we've been sharing a lot of content of people at the local hospitals, local businesses that have been, you know, restaurants who've been bringing food to them, things like that, do what you can to, you know, show support for those people who are putting their lives on the line, who are really taking some real risks, and doing what they do. The doctors, the nurses, the healthcare professionals in general people working at the hospital, food staff, all those people, you know, make sure to thank them. You know, there's tons and tons of great platforms out there. There's, you know, obviously a lot of people use Canva. I highly recommend that if you don't have, as I like to say, a Morrow. Morrow, for those of you don't know is the guy who makes all of our amazing content. But there's great tools out there where you can put together some original pieces Make sure to thank those people who are doing the work that they're doing. I'm really trying to promote local businesses, like I was saying before, like, you know, we made the tough choice to shut down for non essential services. And there are businesses that are still opening and they are struggling. So it is important to be able to do what you can to promote them, like we've been dming a lot of local companies and we're actually in the process of aggregating every local business that's still open and what they're offering and putting, we're actually putting out a list and we're emailing it out to our clients. Be a positive light your community, you know, dm as many businesses you can reach out, share their content on your stories, dm them and say hey, what can I do to help you guys, I've got an email list of X amount of people I'd love to promote your business, because, one, it's just a positive thing to do and be a good person during this. But that's that's also going to pay dividends. In the long run when doing
Collin 26:01
well, and I will say I've loved seeing your guys's post of the local businesses. I think you guys were right on top of that really early on in this whole thing and it has been really cool to see and I you know, if people haven't checked out your Instagram to see that those kind of posts and how you've been supporting them, I really encourage people to do that because it is really inspiring to see you, you being a light in the community and it has been inspiring to us to to try and reach out and and try and do the same thing. You know, with the businesses that are around us. I know that something we've been trying to emulate to hear for us. Thank
Dan 26:37
you. Yeah, it's definitely something that is easy. It's something that takes 30 seconds, like one of the best things you can do and this is how we've been doing it is we just search by geo tags on Facebook on Instagram, rather. And we look up local businesses, we see if they're promoting anything like hey, we're doing this we're doing that. You could take an hour out of your day and just go through all the towns in Your area and promote their content and like then I've even have to dm them, just tag them in it, share it, you will be blown away by like, hey, what can I do to help you? And because, obviously don't do it expecting something in return, but a lot of businesses have been trying to promote us and like so we're kind of on pause right now but whenever we can do to help, but in the future, we'll be we'll be knocking on your door.
Collin 27:22
Right? Right. But it's but it's a continuing way to to build those relationships and and dig into community because I think right now we are all finding just how important like we talked a lot about how important community was but really, now at times like this really show you just how essential he talked about essential businesses. how essential community is just to your well being Yeah, and and it's something we might take for granted at sometimes in this really refocusing that move forward of like no, like, the people around you, the businesses, the community around you are what it's It's really all about and those kind of posts, help help elevate that and help shine those
Dan 28:06
lights on people where they need it. It's definitely something I think that you know, if anyone, you know, we're all going through it now we're all freaking out, imagine what these restaurants are going through, you know, they've had to lay off most of their people, any support you can give them. It, you know, it wouldn't mean the world to them. So anyway you could promote any local businesses is, is always a huge one for sure. We've actually been reaching out to our clients, and everyone's working from home, we've been aggregating all these cute pictures of them and their pets are gonna put a little montage together later next week, you know, staff with their pets at home, and just, you know, open up be vulnerable shares like hey, you know, we know everyone's going through something really rough right now. We want to know that you're here for you. We're here for you and like really make the community aware like hey, what can we do to help? You know what's going on? How can we be of service to you and really offer your yourself and your company up? in a way that is a again, trying to be a positive light in the community. That's really what this all boils down to is just be something positive, right?
Collin 29:07
When you miss the pets, dude, you want to see how they're doing and you know, I got so much that's something too that when when, when everything was shutting down and closing down and I think that may have been on the back of a lot of our minds, but now it's really becoming a parent of like, oh, like I just I need to see the dog. I need to see the pets I need to see them and make sure you don't see that they're doing okay. And you know, it's it's it's a it's a big hole that we're all having that, you know, be filled with photos from their owners.
Dan 29:36
Yeah, the photos are temporary. For sure. I mean, I've I've one dog that I personally take care of. He's 150 pound Rottweiler and he is the biggest motion heading like this. He is the biggest motion the world but he unfortunately recently was diagnosed with bone cancer says he's been undergoing treatment, done texting his owner like every other day like hey, I don't want to bother you. I just want to Make sure he's okay. And you know, he he's alone all the time with everybody at home and stuff like that. But yeah, it's definitely something that you miss is that, you know, the touch point with the animals because at the end of the day, that's why most of us I think, got into this industry is you like being around animals? Yeah. Yeah, no. And now, taking that away, you're like, wait, what do I do with my hands? That that has actually been a really weird part of doing business bill it's like I'm so used to like motion dogs on my face and giving them kisses. I barely touch them. Because it's like, you know, I don't want to even though I'm wearing gloves and all that stuff, I just don't want to take any potential risks with the clients and their their well being right. You know, just just being extra extra cautious with transmission and things like that. It's, it's been a strange shift in in day to day thing. Yeah,
30:54
it's gonna it's gonna look different for a little while, but it's just just a little while and you know, it looks good. Hopefully we'll get it back. Yeah, fingers Fingers crossed.
Dan 31:05
Yeah, it's whatever this new normal is gonna be we'll it will arrive. And we will all recover from that. Yeah, it definitely takes some time to breathe, I think is one of the important things to take away from what we're all dealing with is freeze. And, you know, we will get through this as a community by you know, reaching out to each other and talking with everybody. And one thing I actually think would be great for people and I'll send you a link to what we have set up. We've put together a list of just health and wellness, renewable resources for people. Yeah. So headspace I know is offering a ton of free meditation stuff. Beachbody is offering two free weeks of workouts. So for those of you who are looking for at home workouts when yoga my Adrian, I've been using a lot on YouTube, though, I can send you a link with all that stuff. But yeah, sending that stuff Your clients and promoting that stuff as a business is like, you know, give people those resources. Because yes, everyone could go Google stuff, but if people are freaking out, and they're like I said, even with your post I read the other day, I was like, okay, they might see something and be like, you know what, I'm gonna try this, I'm gonna go meditate. And then you know, you might have an impact and shift the rest of their day, you never know, you know, what your content is going to do and who is going to reach and who is going to be shared with and, you know, you could have a positive impact on someone's day.
Collin 32:28
Well, and we, we tend to view ourselves a lot of as just pet information repositories, but you know, there are favorite things that we enjoy that we can share of like, Hey, this is helping me today, I can share that and maybe that'll help somebody else. And that's that simple, simple gesture of, you know, I, you know, I know that yoga by Hadrian, but this is something I enjoy doing. Hey, I'll tell somebody else about it. And normally and maybe I wouldn't have but you know, right now is a really good time to be sharing those kinds of resources to people aren't Do you and your clients do you don't know because they need it. I'm wondering, as you've gone through this process, some things that you've learned that you want to continue on in the future. Once all this kind of resolves, maybe things you want to continue doing, or maybe you're like, no, I got to stop this immediately. You know,
Dan 33:20
one of the big ones is promoting local businesses. Um, you know, we we had just started doing it, we we were, for the fall started, we were talking about doing, featuring friendly local businesses going in and doing a short interview with them making a video and then they could share that content. You guys definitely need to capitalize on your community in terms of the reach it has, because if you share something from this place, they might share your stuff. Start talking or communicating like dming people on Instagram is one of the easiest things you can do and you can reach so many People now not every business owner is going to respond. But the ones that are responding those are the ones that are active and you can start building some great relationships. And that's one thing we're definitely be pushing. Like once this paycheck protection program goes through, I'm going to put one of my guys to work is dming businesses and people in the community and just starting to use this digital infrastructure and taking more advantage of it. I think if there's anything I'm gonna stop doing well, definitely never gonna complain about being busy again. I mean, I'm sure I will. But I think that one thing the industry as a whole, we're always like, Oh my god, it's insane. I have nothing like I have no breathing room, like, Okay, enough breathing room. I definitely. You know, outside of the social media, just trying to take a little bit better care of myself. I've lost 10 pounds started just working out like a madman every day. I gotta get this nervous energy of them how, you know, meditating more, and just trying to Practice more things that are good for you. Because if you are more steady handed, you're going to make better business decisions, you're going to be more clear headed when you go into things. If you can do something positive for yourself and makes you feel good, you're going to feel so much better going throughout your day,
Collin 35:19
the number of times we heard, I haven't taken a vacation day in five years, or I you know, I work seven days a week, or you know, for the past 10 years or whatever. And now, we don't have that. And now it was literally forced to have that space and being forced to now build up a lot of these mechanisms that maybe weren't there in the first place of I didn't know how to be quiet for five minutes. And now that's all I that's and, and for those of us who who must be doing something constantly and just, you know, like, I need a fidget I need to listen and me doing something like this is a big learning process for all of us. And,
Dan 36:00
and it's, it's taking the positive of that is, you know you said practicing things that are good for you, and and really taking this time to do that, because you might not get this chance again. And so what what better chance to really build up those tools and those reserves and that resiliency in yourself. So that moving forward, you can operate in a healthier manner for your business and for your clients. You know, for every, you're not going to pour sugar water into your car, it's not going to run well. You got to put good things into your body and good things into your mind. Because the better you feel, the better you're going to be able to be for your staff or your clients for your business and just living life as a whole. Again, I think this is putting a lot of things in perspective. You know, if you know we've we've all seen a very quick drop in our income but for those of you who are, you know, out on the coast or in areas that are getting hit hard by You know, you're starting to see people lose people. And you know, at the end of the day, it's important to make sure that you spread as much love as you can and try to be a positive light. You know, whether it's in your business or in your friends lives, you know, I've been finding myself at first thing that started I was kind of holding off from people, and was just like, I gotta focus I gotta do this I gotta do that. Took me a couple of weeks. And within the last couple days, I've been like, Alright, you got to start talking to people. So I've been reached out people like yeah, I'm kind of losing it like this has not been easy and like being vulnerable with people has been, it's not always an easy thing to do. But I think when you open up to other people allows them to open up and they cannot hurt and you know, again, going back to positivity that's that's the biggest thing spread love as much as you can.
Collin 37:48
Well, as you mentioned, like when you when you say spread love I think a lot of people think oh, that's just smiles and hugs and smiles and you know, smiley shiny faces but but what love is, is When you're expressing that somebody, it's, it's, this is where I am and being vulnerable to somebody and going, ah, today was not a good day, and I'm about to lose it. And I don't know what to do from here. And that really frees everybody, when everyone is sharing like that to other people, that allows good things that allows healing to start, you know, like, that's a hard place to be to as a person, especially people who are used to being busy and not interacting with other people and not having to deal with those because you were always busy and now it's time to be vulnerable and time to love on others by by being vulnerable. And as you said, when you are that opens it up for other people to do as well and, okay, it's okay for me to kind of break down right now and it's okay for us to start working through this together
Dan 38:48
is definitely it's an important thing. It's not easy. Just remember, you're going through this with everyone else. And you know, try to just Which you can and keep on moving forward and we will get through this.
Collin 39:04
We will get through this. I love that Dan thank you so much for coming on today and taking time out of your your day in breathe breathing with us. And I know there's so much out there and and I love all the content ideas that you gave people are probably going to have some follow up questions How can they get in touch with you and reach out?
Dan 39:25
Oh, first off calm Thank you for having me on. I've been enjoying our conversation. This is all go and they can reach out you could my Instagram. My personal one is just my full name Daniel reitman. Or if you want to reach out to the company, it's just Dan's pet care. I'm me and Mauro who deal with that. So if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out if you are freaking out about your business. I'm right there with you. I'll do what I can to help you and I'm more than happy to speak with you guys. And do not hesitate to reach out, because it's important to be able to ask for help when you need it. And again, Collin, I love what you guys are doing. posts have been amazing. Your podcasts have been great. Like you guys are really doing something awesome for the industry. And I think on behalf of the industry hope we all want to thank you guys we're doing this, but you guys are churning stuff out. And I know it's not easy with all the uncertainty. So thank you for doing everything you're doing. Gosh, I I
Collin 40:26
that means so much You don't you don't even know. So thank you. Thank you a lot, Dan means means an awful lot. It's been out. You're very welcome Collin. Again. Appreciate that. Appreciate that, Dan, and we will be we'll be in touch soon for sure. And we'll cause a continual continual conversations going forward and as things change, we'll we'll reach back out and keep moving forward together.
Dan 40:49
Beautiful. Also members, stay safe. Wash your hands, everybody.
Collin 40:52
Thank you very much. Thank you guys. I have loved watching how Dan and his company have responded to a crisis like we are witnessing Today, his willingness and pursuit of reaching out to local businesses to bring them into community where maybe there wasn't one before. But to further that and support them in this time shows a true selfless nature towards others that we all need right now. Dan hit the nail right on the head whenever he said think long term, not short term and times like these. So where your worries are, where your concerns are with your customers and with your business. It's not the tomorrow we should be concerned about it's the next year. What steps can we be doing now, both in our community, in our personal lives and in our business lives to be setting ourselves up for success for the long haul? I know one of the services we all kind of quickly pivoted to recently was poop scooping will coming up on Wednesday we sit down with Erica from Cubans pooping scooping. It's a mouthful, but it was a real insight into a world that I quite honestly didn't know a whole lot about. About and she put a lot of things in context about how she built her business, how she operates. And yes, we did talk some of her favorite tools of the trade for scooping poop. If you've been thinking about offering that kind of service right now, or maybe looking ahead, really encourage you to listen to that episode. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to listen to us. We've been asked by some people about how they could help us right now. And if this episode or any of our episodes have been insightful to you, helpful to you or funny in any way, we'd love it if you could share it with somebody that you know whether they're, whether they're in pet sitting or not. We thank you again
42:38
for listening and we'll talk to you again soon.
