063- Eric Curry's Pets
Summary:
Eric Curry, owner of Eric Curry's Pets, joins us on the show today to share what life as a pet sitter has been like in San Francisco during Covid-19, and a few tips he has for getting business going again in these uncertain times.
Topics on this episode:
Eric’s background
Life in San Francisco during Covid-19
Client response
Biggest Takeaways
6 tips for your business
Main takeaway? San Francisco has been hard hit, but Eric remains optimistic and hopeful for the future.
About our guest:
My name is Eric Curry and I am a pet care professional based out of San Francisco, CA. I’ve been surrounded by animals for as long as I can remember, and grew up with a dream to become a veterinarian one day. In May 2013 I started watching dogs out of my apartment and Eric Curry’s Pets was born. In the past several years, I’ve offered a wide range of pet care services, from simple grooming, to group hikes, to kitty care. I am also a Pet CPR and First Aid Instructor. In December of 2019 I served my 1000th unique pet, but I feel like I’m barely getting started!
Links:
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Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, business, pet, clients, san francisco, dog trainer, moving, year, months, work, started, pet store, friends, interviewed, daycare, eric, offer, close, passion, care
SPEAKERS
Collin, Eric
00:17
I'm Collin and I'm Meghan. And this is pet sitter confessional,
00:20
an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter.
Collin 00:29
Well, hello, everybody and welcome back to another one of our Friday episodes
Eric 00:32
today. We're so thankful to have Eric curry owner of Eric Curry's pets based out of San Francisco on to talk a little bit about his background and what it's been like managing his business and what he sees for the future moving forward. So, Eric, thank you so much for coming on today. You tell us a little bit more about yourself. Hey, yeah. Thank you so much for having me on. Like Colin said, my name is Eric curry, and I started Eric curry. Pets seven years ago this month in May of 2013. While I was a sophomore in college, I was born or raised in San Francisco, and then I moved to Los Angeles to go to college. And my first year I did almost exclusively Dog Boarding out of my two bedroom apartment. years 234 and five, were a mix of overnight, individual walks, I did group hikes and then I did what I call appointment based care. So things like like grooming like nail trims, anal gland expression, and like a few bags here in there, my clientele. I had a large senior clientele in Santa Barbara, who preferred if they if I could come to them. And then this last year, year six was a little different. I have a pretty good system together for moving my business. I have a decent social media following I learned a few things from moving my business the first time, I wanted to do something a little different and make it kind of a learning year. I thought to myself, when else am I going to have the opportunity to not have to pay rent because I'm living with a family member, I can really learn other aspects of pet care that I've always been wanting to learn. That's why I started connecting with other pet care providers in the Bay Area, mostly in San Francisco dog trainers, groomers, pet daycares. I personally visited almost every pet shop in San Francisco proper I trained I also trained as a groomer my friend owns a grooming business and it wasn't really my cup of tea but I'm really grateful for the experience because I learned a lot just from watching her run her business and having the employee experience and right before COVID happened. I started working at a pet store in San Francisco that specializes in exotic birds. And right when the holidays were starting, I've been keeping track since since I started my business of how many clients I've served. And I noticed that I was getting I was like, I think in October, I was maybe like, three 300 pets away from 1000. So I was like at 750 around there. And so I was like, Oh my gosh, I can totally knock this out before the years over like, I can totally do this. So then and then it was a perfect time because it was the holidays. I literally just dove into my business full time I dove into just just pet care. And I think like two days after Christmas, I served my thousand. I didn't think that it would happen that quick. It wasn't even necessarily a goal that I was working towards. I think that that was kind of when the shift for me kind of happened from Okay, I've served 1000 times I think I'm all I'm I'm always going to be in some kind of pet care. But what I really like to do, especially since I started teaching, pet care, pet CPR and first aid is that I want to help other pet care providers, especially people who are just getting started. Because there was a whole bunch of stuff that I wish I had known when I first got started. And I obviously I think that this profession is one of the best ones out there, if not the best one out there. And pet care owners are just as diverse as pet species. So I think that pet care providers should also be so that's another thing I'd really like to see going forward. In my vision for the pet care industry is I'd really like it to be more diverse. I'd like us to get paid more etc. So I guess in a nutshell, that's how the past seven years have gone. Wow.
Collin 04:48
Obviously, you are extremely passionate about this and it's really just been sounds like what some of the best, the best seven years of your life. Why did you get Started in pet care. Where does that passion come from?
Eric 05:03
It all started when I was, I think I was seven. When I found my first cat. My parents didn't. I've been surrounded by pets for as long as I can remember. But it wasn't until I was seven that I got my first quote unquote big pet. Having tiny cat like really changed my life. That was when I went. So a couple years later, when I was nine, I stopped eating me as I became a vegetarian. That was when I decided I wanted to go to that school one day. So I'm the first person in my family to graduate from college. And in many ways, it was my passion for pets that really propelled me forward because I knew that I had to get good grades together, to go to a good college to go to that school. And even though my plans have changed, I ended up starting my business instead. In many ways, I feel like I do owe the fact that I have a college degree to my passion and that I found in that character. I can just Go on and on in different aspects of my life, the animals have led me to people and circumstances and situations that you just would not even believe. Or maybe you would, because we're all pet care providers. And we know the magic that and yeah, that's something else that my business has taught me in the past few years more recently is that, you know, my business is pets. But the pets lead me to the people is what I is, that's how I like to think about it. There's nothing more satisfying than, you know, having your clients express their gratitude to you having a client tell you that, Oh, I'm going to put off going on vacation until you're available because you're the only one I trust, or having a client tell you hey, I can stay at work a couple more hours because I don't have to rush back home and change the litter box or walk the dog to answer your questions specifically about how I how I actually started my business. I wish I could say Oh, I love pets, and I started you know, I started this but no actually what happened is is I ended up dropping out of college. After two years, I went back I finished up like it's fine. I have my degree. But when I dropped out in retrospect, I probably would have been so abrupt about doing it. All of a sudden, I didn't have student loans. I didn't have my on campus job anymore. And I realized, like, I have to find a way to make by quick and fast. Otherwise, I'm not going to be able to pay my rent. And I had my two cats, you'd have to think about my cat. We need a roof over a roof over our head. So I started interviewing at different like, I interviewed a couple that that hospitals Of course, because I had a fair amount of that experience. I interviewed a couple doggy daycares. And I interviewed at a private pet sitting company. And I just had this epiphany in the middle of the interview when she was telling me about her business and about starting it or whatever. And I was like, I can totally do this. eyes like you I'm you're not gonna hire me like I am. I remember sitting there waiting for the interview to be over because it was hot in Los Angeles. And I had a business to start. So I just wanted her to finish, you know, her spiel so that I could run home and start my business because I made up my mind right there. I was like, no. And the way I the way I saw it, I had to make this one. There was no plan B, there was no exit. This was it. I had to make it work. And well, I did.
Collin 08:26
Yeah, I mean, you had that passion. And that's so cool how you're sitting there and all of a sudden that click happens and it's like, no, like, I can do this like this is I can make this and I'm you know, you're able to make it work for you on your terms to make it what you wanted it to be and served the in care for pets how you would want that service to be rendered. And that's just really cool to hear. And if people are listening to this, wondering if they should make that switch over on to maybe go independent, like it's totally doable and You've got the passion. And so there are tools and resources out there to start, you know, putting structure and helping you move forward.
Eric 09:07
Absolutely. And you know, like when you're getting started, there's nothing wrong with being on all the apps on Craigslist, like, but I always tell people use though use all the apps on the websites to supplement your efforts don't that shouldn't be all that you're doing. You should be finding ways to get in front of people in front of real people scheduling meeting greets, talking to people about their pets, but definitely get on all the apps and get on Craigslist. Us All we live in a day and age where you can flip open your phone and literally be connected with like huge groups of people with the click of a button. I found clients as an Uber passenger. I found clients on actually dating websites, you'd be surprised you know how many people like to see a picture of you with a dog and then boom, right there.
09:52
Well, what do you do?
09:54
I'm seeing
09:57
opportunities around every corner. Sure.
Collin 10:01
Absolutely, yes. So being in San Francisco, what is your COVID-19 experience been like? You know, you talked a little bit you talked about what the past seven years have been like what is 2020 been like for you?
Eric 10:13
Ah 2020 has been interesting to say the very least everything that was set was set in motion going into 2020. I was on track to have my biggest year yet. I was looking at securing first aid classes. I had just started working at that pet store. So I was super excited to get back into birds again, something that I haven't most of my business has been dogs and cats. So super excited to be start working with exotic birds again. And then I was also working with a dog trainer a few days a week and learning a lot from him. So he was also an apprentice dog trainer after I left the greeting shop. And then on top of that I was getting that's when I was getting my online course together. Do so I had hired a marketing team like I had, I had somebody redo my entire website, like I did everything up until the point to where we launched and COVID-19 happen. And it was, it was devastating but at the same time, I didn't sign that huge marketing deal that which would have been like a huge ad spend because and the whole idea of that was that we were going into summer, which is his, you know, as we all know, one of our biggest time, so that would have been the perfect time to launch to formally launch my coaching program. So that's just really threw a curveball in everything. I was also extremely fortunate because I had this job at the pet store, and half of our staff was no longer able to work. They either were at a large risk or we have somebody who had to self quarantine. So we lost half of our staff when COVID-19 happened and I basically be I started working full time I went from two days a week to now full time. I haven't Nothing but gratitude. I mean, I've, I just I couldn't imagine being stuck at home all day, like some of my friends have. I've been fortunate to continue to get a paycheck. When this first started, I felt like there was a very general sense of, we're in this together. We're doing this, because it's right. And it's the right thing to do. And yes, we're gonna get through this, we're going to get through it together. You know, in true San Francisco fashion, we were the first one to do the shelter in place, the first city and then the first state to shut down. And I'll have to be honest, it was a little gratifying seeing that seeing the rest of the country follow our lead. And then you start hearing about restaurants that have been in the city for like 4050 years that'll never open their doors ever again. Many of the pet stores neighbors won't be coming back. After that. At first it was nice having the streets empty and people staying at home and you know, etc. But San Francisco is such a it's such a it's a touristy city. And it has a huge nightlife and the essential workers that come with those, like it's really hit people really hard. And I think that now with the weather getting nicer, people are starting to get restless and they're starting to come out more than they have been. We had we were really good for, I want to say a month and a half. And I think that people are kind of at their boiling points.
Collin 13:21
As of this recording. It's May 25. And you all have been on lockdown for going on two months now almost or a lot longer than that. It really sounds like the 2020 hit to hit the pause button on a lot of stuff that you had moving forward. It did,
Eric 13:36
but it's I don't like to think of it as a pause button. I almost like to think of it as like a shift. Because what I did was rather than focus on I was determined when this when and to not become super depressed during the experience and to make the most of it and to keep despite everything on the news, despite everything You know, the way people are constantly worried and you can just feel the anxiety in the air, I was determined to see the positive and everything. The first thing that I thought was like, Okay, what can I offer my clients and what can I offer my following? So I started, I asked them, I started asking on my Instagram stories. And at first I was doing a lot of Facebook Lives, a lot of Instagram Live about different pet care topics, I found that people wanted to know just as much about different facts, as they did want it to be distracted by my own childhood stories of my pet. And then I found out that people actually preferred if I could do it in a format other than live because I have followers on complete opposite sides of the world and some of them couldn't get on for the lives and they weren't going to go back and watch it. So that's, that's kind of how I got my youtube channel restarted was I started moving the videos onto my YouTube channel so that people can share them and watch them at their own discretion. I'm Also a certified life coach, which was a certification that I got to implement in my coaching program. And so I started offering free sessions. And it's just it's hasn't that doesn't even have to do with pet care. Like I've helped people plan out the next couple of years of college, I hope people plan on applying to grad school, I help people plan out what they can do now so that they can get a raise when they're finished. So I've been really busy focusing on giving back. And it's been distracting from what's been going on, in a good way.
Collin 15:31
Yeah, yeah. It sounds like you're able to look around and go, okay. What are the tools that are at my discretion right now? What do I have control over? And how can I help out those around me? And that's, that's something that, you know, you said, was a shift that you made. It's stuff that you were already doing, or maybe were interested in initially, but now you were able to invest more time in it.
15:54
Exactly. That's exactly how I see it. So how does
Collin 15:57
the broader pet care Community been impacted around you? I know you mentioned that some of the shops have closed down. But what are the other dog walkers and daycare facilities and things like that? How have they been impacted?
Eric 16:11
So my groomer friends and my daycare facility friends, they've been hit the hardest because they grooming and daycare, at daycare, those are not seen as essential services. And usually they have the overhead of a facility to maintain like groomers have their grooming shops and then obviously if you have a doggy daycare, so not only do they have to worry about their staffs payroll, they have to worry about covering the rent of their building. And then on top of they're not, you know, of course not getting any business because they were forced to close down. My friends who are dog trainers have done a little better. they've they've moved a lot of their stuff online, or like virtual sessions, but everyone everyone took a huge hit. You mentioned earlier how California and San Francisco were some of the really early Movers. So what are the current restrictions that you guys are under and what does that landscape look like? Yeah, so the streets are still fairly empty. And it's crazy because I've never seen anything like this before. In San Francisco is just always such a busy city. Especially during like commute hour, the freeways are completely empty. A lot of like small shops have moved to curbside pickup and like the city finally let them start doing that. A lot of the rest most restaurants weren't weren't closed for the entire time they were allowed to reopen just Of course just for delivery and take out so no dine in service. The parks are getting extremely crowded. Parks are getting extremely crowded. Muni. I think they slashed 70% of the lines. Whoa, when? Yeah, when COVID start and like a lot of people regardless of your income, depend on public transportation. But yeah, so they've slowly started to increase service on the public transportation. I know, you know, you really take for granted being able to, like, go in and buy a shirt or a pair of socks. You know, you take that for granted. And I remember thinking that I was like, Oh, I'm going to need a shirt for the next day for this a nine. Oh, actually, no, I can't just go in and buy
Collin 18:22
one. It really does hit home. A lot of those things you mentioned you take for granted as far as seeing people in the streets, having access to things where that's how we all just ran our lives before. And a lot of us ran our businesses like that too. And now, I look around and go, ooh, operating very differently these days. Yeah. And who knows? I think a lot of the things that we're doing now, I don't know if they're gonna be permanent, but they're, they're gonna be there for a while, but it will be very interesting to see the next couple months. What kind of guidelines and regulations get put in place for the foreseeable future. And part of that, you know, I'm interested in and how you have navigated personally and as a business, a lot of the current guidelines and new rules and how have that how has that been like communicating to your clients and just moving through that quagmire of information? That seems like
Eric 19:19
I just this weekend, just Memorial Day weekend, I have started to see clients again. So it's my had my last client at the end of February. So it was a good like, solid two months out. And then now like I said, I've just started seeing new clients and a lot of our client a lot of my clients have been super awesome about doing virtual meet and greet. Okay. And then I remember when, like when it was first shutting down. A lot of my clients were very, very generous tippers. They were also really awesome about recommending me to other people, to their to their friends. And then get like letting me know that they were still going to use me if they if they needed to, and if so keep that communication open. But I learned from my from the first time that this happened in my business that this is a time when you can really get close to your clients and you can really find out what they need. Yeah. So
Collin 20:17
talk about that a little bit as kind of the the big takeaways that you're taking that from this episode. And it sounds like as you've mentioned a few times that this isn't the first time that you've had to undergo this. So what what are some similarities and differences you've been saying? Yeah, so
Eric 20:34
in year four of my business, that was the first time that my business completely tanked. I was living in Santa Barbara, at the time, and I don't know if you guys remember. There were some pretty bad wildfires. Yeah, and then right, right after the wildfires. You remember what happened?
Collin 20:54
That I don't I my brain doesn't recall right now. There were mud flies. Oh, you Right, yeah,
Eric 21:02
literally literally in Oprah's neighborhood where I have a significant amount of client. 22 people died and the freeway was closed for three weeks. Oh my
21:11
gosh. Wow. Yeah.
Eric 21:14
So and so the air was super toxic for like about a month. A lot of people either evacuated or they decided to stay in Santa Barbara. So my entire holiday schedule my entire holiday repertoire, like evaporated like that. It was absolutely horrible. Like, I yeah, and then on top of that, I was like, Okay, well, at least I have my car. At least I can drive Uber ride. It's New Year's Eve the last day of the year. Maybe I can make some money because a lot of people take Uber and then somebody rear ended me and I was like, okay, 20 2017 I'm gonna go to sleep. When I wake up, it'll be a new year. No. Wow. But I have to say that That January, I did almost as much business as I had done in the entire previous year. Oh my gosh, and just that first month. Wow.
22:09
Yeah. What was that rebound? Like?
Eric 22:10
It was a combination of a couple things. Mike, my I got really close to my client on them. I got to know my clients on a deeper level, because we were all experiencing this together. And I found out that And like I mentioned earlier, a lot of my clients were were senior citizen, and they would love to have had somebody come to their house and perform things like nail trims and Oakland expression or even give their dog a bat. So as I started to talk to people and find out I was like, Well, I can totally do that. And I buy while you're at it, could you please recommend me to some of your friends. And I found one I actually took the time to have a genuine conversation with each of my clients like the little ripple effect was actually pretty substantial. Especially when I was going out there with a purpose, and it was it was one of the most beautiful things that happened.
Collin 23:06
Yeah. And that first month of the next year that getting back to what we had talked about earlier of that this is such a people business, and that when you're able to connect with people, your a, your business thrives, right, like you guys, you mentioned, like you, you took the time to have some genuine conversations with people of nothing business related or anything, just getting to know them drawing close to your clients, allows them to build that relationship, right, that builds that community and they like that, and we as caregivers like to have that too.
Eric 23:41
Absolutely. I mentioned earlier that earlier this year, I had visited almost every pet store in San Francisco and I was doing it to try to book pet CPR classes, but I was also you know doing it to introduce myself and to network with you know different things. stores in San Francisco. It was actually one of the pet stores that I visited right before I walked out the door. And the owner of the store said, by the way, do you have any experience and boom, that's how I got the job that I'm at now, right before I walked out the door.
Collin 24:14
Wow. Now, that's just that how powerful those those individual moments are that you don't even give really a second thought to have just going to come in here and ask about stuffing Wow. Well, a new opportunity. So what has that been like this time around, getting close to clients? And, you know, you've mentioned a little bit about pivoting services already. But how is the connecting with clients then? Through COVID,
Eric 24:38
I've been trying to keep in touch with my clients through my social media. I've been trying to keep up to date with what they want. And like I said, I found that it's a mixture of a walk backs, and then sometimes they want to be distracted. They just want like a funny story or something. And in the process of me doing that, I must I'm putting content out there on onto my youtube channel onto my Facebook page onto my Instagram page. I think that people also get the get the sense that it's not all about the dollars. You know, it's all about the dollars for me that I actually I care about the pets that I work with. That's why I call my business Eric Curry's ads because they're all my time. Once a part of my back always part of my path. Yeah, doing you know, doing little things that don't have anything to do with getting more business but just have to do with meeting people where they are and building some sense of community because we all have been lacking that human touch these past couple months, and I for one have absolutely taken it for granted. How much how
Collin 25:44
much I missed that. Yeah, it really has been eye opening to realize. Wow, like, yeah, handshakes were just something we all did. And sometimes it was annoying how people shook your hand and now it's like please somebody shake my hand like I would just want to like have I just gotta hop right here. I just want to hug right now.
Eric 26:05
Yeah, no totally and and the thing is, but on the flip side of that, think about that you could be that you could be that person for your client. Right and why shouldn't you?
Collin 26:14
Yeah, absolutely because if it's gonna be somebody, why not you? Why not you know exactly maybe not a hug but still reaching out to them and see and and checking in and seeing how things are going and letting them know of other things that you've got going on or or just how else you can help and serve them in any capacity. So thinking ahead to the rest of 2020 I'm also curious kind of what you see like the rest of the year holds for you and your business.
26:44
Oh, another loaded
Collin 26:46
string out the crystal ball.
Eric 26:51
You know, the thing is, is that like I need a crystal ball because I honestly I have no idea. I have no idea and not I'm somebody who has to plan things two or three months in advance term. I mean, not not knowing what the rest of 2020 looks like, like, I love going out dancing once or twice a week, I plan on the ultimate frisbee team. I don't know when I'm ever going to get to do either one of those ever again, what I do know is that I can sit here and worry about it. And then my time is going to be stressful, and it's not going to fix the situation. Or I can take it one day at a time and try to make the most of it. This entire time has been such a huge learning experience for all of us. And I think if there's one thing that I've learned is that try not to let your lows get too low and your highs get too high. Because otherwise you're just going to be riding a roller coaster the entire
Collin 27:53
time. Try not to ride a roller coaster. Yeah, because there's there is so much outside of our control, and yet there is so much within our own control. And this exactly this, we never realized how much we really had control over until everything also stripped away. And we were left with most of nothing but ourselves and the four walls around us. And include in these these skills and tools that we're all fumbling our way through to try and figure out how to use as far as coping and, you know, building up resiliency, like those are lessons that I hope we all take forward with us, day after day, year after year in the future, and we don't forget these these hard moments. I couldn't agree with you more thinking about advice for for pet sitters out there, they're listening, you know, they're in various situations and various levels of concern and you know, where their businesses are going with would like to know, some advice that you'd have as they're trying to figure out path forward and a way forward through all of this.
Eric 29:02
Yes. Awesome. So I actually put together five tips that anybody can do today to kickstart your business. And this is based on the first time my business tank then different part times of my business. But these are things that I actually did. That helped me out because not only did my business tanked in year four, but I moved my business twice. So, I'd like to think that I've developed some pretty good systems for getting things back up and running. So if you guys have a pen and paper, so like, like I said earlier, number one, you know, genuinely if you haven't already, genuinely reach out to your clients and ask them how they've been coping. You know, ask how hostile their families doing, ask how they're doing. Find out what their needs are, don't even say anything about your business. Don't even say anything unless they ask, you know, to make conversation. But like I talked earlier, when the mudslides happen, that's when I became very close to my clients. And that's the only reason that I even had those conversation pretty much became my business for the next year. You know, because not only was I find out what my client needed, but I asked them if they could, if they would, please recommend me to their friend. So just one of those conversations, for example, I remember one lady had a friend who lived at a nursing a nursing home in Santa Barbara, who had two cats, and then just based off of that one conversation, I, every Saturday morning, I was doing maelstroms up in nursing. You know, the nail trims don't take more than five or 10 minutes, you know, like I had that recurring business every Saturday just based off of one conversation that I had. So not only where not only was I able to, you know, find out what my clients actually needed, so I could move my business going forward, but they were more than happy to recommend me to there. So it's like two and one. Okay, so the number To put together some unbeatable offer and offer that they can't resist. In the past, I've done discounted nail trims, package walks, I've done discounted group hikes, although you probably don't want to do any group stuff during COVID. But definitely send out some kind of offer because I think that people are a lot better at responding to something rather than coming up with it themselves, if that makes them. So they might not even many of my clients might not even know that they need my services, or they need a service that I have until I offer it. That's what I found during this process to write. So yeah, put together some kind of offer and throw it out there, throw it out there to your email, list your text list on your social media and see what you can get with the offer. And then number three, if they don't need any care during this time, ask if they would consider purchasing a gift certificate. And while it may be in that same conversation, you can flip in that it was It'd be really great if they could leave you a review and give you a wreck and recommend you to someone else as well. I always, always, always tell people when they're starting their pet care businesses to not only ask for a review, a Yelp review or a Facebook review that or what have you, but also ask for a recommendation because it takes two seconds more to ask. But our recommendation is literally marketing dollars that you don't have.
Collin 32:25
right it's it's someone else out there marketing for you, which is wonderful.
Eric 32:29
And word of mouth is the best form of advertising. It is. Yeah. The most trustworthy so number four, what support and community in you offer your clients right now live found, like I told you guys earlier that people wanted to be distracted and people also wanted to learn. How did I find that out? I asked people on my Instagram story. And because I stayed engaged with my audience, I found out that Oh, my engagement on my Instagrams lives wasn't going up, because my cousin, my people on the other side of the world had a hard time getting on the lives and then if they weren't going to go back and watch the recording, which is only for 24 hours anyway. And if I'm going to put the work into making a video, why not make it permanent, and also because it's not alive, I can prepare a little part. So that's, that's just an example of what I did. But this is the time to start your blog. This is the time to start that YouTube channel, start engaging on social media, right, what else? What else do we have time to do if you're sitting at home? Right, you know, aren't like them? Do do do all those things like the hashtag research, etc. Because I mean, we all know by this point, you're not if you're not on social media, you're not in business. Nowadays. You have to have a social media presence. So tweet out all the things you know, come up with a social media calendar, do all those things, but definitely, this is a I think this is a really great time to build your following by offering your people what they want, and you're only going to know what They want I asked him,
Collin 34:01
yeah, what's the worst thing that can happen is they're just not going to respond. Right? It's it's right. Right. That's, you won't know, as you said, you won't know until you ask and it takes it doesn't take a lot and can be so powerful of just that one simple ask
Eric 34:15
totally. And I think that a lot of times we talk ourselves out of it in our own mind before we even open our mouths. So a quick little thing that I like to do is I don't know if you've heard of the book, The five second rule by Mel Robbins, I have not okay, well, it the gist of it is that when you're getting ready to do something that you know you're supposed to do, but you're looking for any little distraction to get out of it, the immediately start counting backwards 54321 and just do it. And there's a whole psychology behind how you kind of trick your brain and you distract yourself and you end up accomplishing the path and it's, I can't really describe it. It's like you. The gist of it is that you kind of trick your brain by distracting yourself. Sure. You just end and you, you don't end up talking yourself out of doing anything. And then the last tip, well, no, no five, and I have a little bonus tip. But if you haven't already start getting a waitlist together, I have a waitlist of people who want at CPR and first aid classes, because they would prefer that I teach them in person rather than to the online class. I like I mentioned earlier, I have people who, when this opens back up, they can't wait to do a meet and greet with me, or they can't wait to go on vacation. But they want to know when my availability, so I, I've been keeping a list of people's names. And the minute things start opening back up, I'm going to go down the list and start calling people and start setting up appointments right there on the phone, even it and you can tell people even if they're not planning a trip anytime soon, go out and get that meet and greet because that's a whole other conversation about the magic of the meet and greet but getting out there and doing it and then having people see how you interact with their dog. It's just, it opens up a whole world of possibilities.
Collin 35:58
Well, and because while They might not need you for three months, they may recommend you to somebody who needs you tomorrow, but when you leave so Exactly.
36:09
And not only that,
Eric 36:10
they might not need you for three months. But if you wait three months to go and talk to them, they might have already found someone yes,
Collin 36:16
it does not hurt to get that out of the way, because it's so powerful and we'll be doing work for you in the background in the meantime.
Eric 36:24
And then last but not least, the little bonus tip I have is that if you are a company that has a large staff, you haven't already I consider doing a GoFundMe for your employees because that also gets the word out about your business and gets people talking about your business and the people that other business owners that I know who have done that have been super super successful with their with GoFundMe is Yeah, so if you haven't already done that, that might be something to consider.
Collin 36:49
Yeah, because your clients, it's it's hard to remember this sometimes, but your clients genuinely like you and your clients genuinely want to see you do well and succeed and be around to continue providing the excellent care for Fido. And they are looking for ways to contribute and give back in support. And so if you don't offer it, you know, again, if you never ask you'll you won't get any you won't find anything out. So if you never offer How will you know if what what kind of support is going to be there, you miss
Eric 37:20
100% of the shots you don't take. Eric, I am
Collin 37:23
so thankful for you coming on the show today and sharing your experiences and those wonderful tips. And I gotta say, I'm so thankful that tiny was in your life and instilled this passion and drive for you to help continuing help others and provide that excellent care that you do for pets. So if people have other questions or want to reach out and follow along with those YouTube videos or Instagram posts that you're doing, how can they do that?
Eric 37:50
Yeah, well, once one more time. Thank you so much for having me on here. When I started following you guys. I never would have imagined that I'd be one of the interviews you guys We'd be doing so. I, I love Packer there's really no ifs ands or buts about it. So this has been this has just been so much fun, but probably the best way that people can reach out to me the quickest way and the easiest is probably through Instagram, Eric Curry's pets. Don't forget the asks in between the curry on the pet. And then you could also send me an email at Eric at Eric Curry's pet calm if there's like a video about some Petco topic that you'd like a better understanding of or you'd like to clear up or something with your clients. shoot me a message. And if you want to know I'm sure other people would too. So I'd love to make a YouTube video about that. So I always say this at my pet CPR workshop in pet care, we have the unique distinction and that if money were no object, this is still what most of us would be doing. And you know, that really can't be said for most other professions. Usually, there's some form of trade off. So I really want to thank you guys, one for being pecker providers and Cooper taking the time to get on here and learn more about our amazing industry and allowing me to share with you guys. So thank you so much for listening, guys. And thank you so much for having us and for having me on.
Collin 39:12
You're very welcome. It's been a very real pleasure and we hope to have you on again soon get an update, and get some more information about being awesome pet care providers.
39:21
Thank you. I would love that. I know
Collin 39:23
most of us can sympathize with how Eric is viewing the rest of the year just trying to ride that rollercoaster. And those five great tips that he ended with will really help smooth out all of those ups and downs. Megan and I would love to hear about how you were doing and what your outlook is for the rest of the year. Give us a call at 636-364-8260 or shoot us an email at feedback at pet sitter confessional.com
