091- Coping with the Unexpected, with the House Sit Diva
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Summary:
The House Sit Diva, Kelly Hayes-Raitt, joins us for her SIXTH appearance on the podcast. Kelly shares how, not surprisingly, not every pet sit or house sit goes according to plan. Even though we screen and ask all the questions, unforeseen things can and do happen. Kelly gives us some awesome tips for overcoming the unexpected and how to avoid becoming overwhelmed in the midst of the let down.
Topics on this episode:
Even when you’re prepared, things can happen
Owners aren't always doing it to be mean! They overlook stuff
8 tips for how to get over being overwhelmed
4 tips for when pet care is too much
Main take away? Try to keep everything in perspective and be as respectful as possible to the home owner.
About our guest:
Kelly Hayes-Raitt admits she sleeps around. Usually with animals.
As a full-time housesitter and traveler for the past decade, she’s learned a thing or two about housesitting and shares her knowledge and experience in her popular book How to Become a Housesitter: Insider Tips from the HouseSit Diva available in soft cover or Kindle at Amazon (http://amzn.to/2hlj7UP) or ebook on her web site (www.HouseSitDiva.com).
Before nomading, Kelly reported live from Iraq during the early weeks of the U.S.-led invasion. Her journalism has won several literary awards and has been widely published in anthologies.
Lately, she’s turned her energy toward helping other writers get their books jumpstarted. Her coaching clients call her “inspiring,” and students in her workshops rave about her unique teaching techniques. Learn more about working one-on-one with Kelly at www.JumpStartMyBook.org.
Links:
Listen to Kelly’s previous episodes: Episode 9, Episode 16, Episode 20, Episode 27, & Episode 35
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Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
house, homeowner, pet, home, house sitter, tip, situation, important, care, vet, sitting, comfortable, dog, cat, clean, complain, travel, sitter, perspective, people
SPEAKERS
Collin, Kelly
I'm calling and I'm Megan. And this is petsitter. confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter brought to you by time to pet.
Collin Funkhouser
Well, hello everybody and welcome back to another episode. Today we are so excited to have Kelly Hayes rate the house at diva back on for her sixth appearance on the podcast. on previous episodes, Kelly has talked about getting started as a house sitter and some of the experiences that she has had. She's also talked about how to foster relationships while traveling the globe. And more recently, in Episode 35. She discussed what it was like being stuck in London during the lockdowns and the quarantine Due to COVID and how that has impacted her travels across the globe, and what she expects the industry to look like moving forward. Today, Kelly comes on the show to discuss some tips about what to do when a house it or pets it don't go exactly according to plan, though we can prepare screen and ask as many questions as we want. Sometimes it's just not what we were expecting. Or sometimes it's not what we were told it was going to be. So how do we prevent ourselves from being overwhelmed? Kelly has some great tips. Let's dive right in.
Kelly
Thanks so much for having me back. I just love being on your show. I'm Kelly Hayes rate I've been house sitting around the world for the last 10 years full time. I've written a book about it called How to Become a house sitter insider tips from the house diva. It's available on Amazon or my website. And I love to talk about house city, especially when things aren't exactly perfect. I'm looking forward to today's topic.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah, and unfortunately, those things do happen it's not always rainbows and butterflies. For every house sitter, every pet sitting experience, you've got some tips or things to think about when house sitting is a lot more than you expected.
Kelly
I do I you know, sometimes I've I've gone to houses I do everything, you know, as I as I advise people to do i do it myself I, I really scour the the original posting and I look at the photographs very carefully. I schedule a Skype interview with someone and ask them to walk me around their home so that I can look at the things that are important to me. And I ask a lot of questions column during that, that Skype interview. And I'm pretty aware of the issues that are most important to me. But you know, sometimes you get to a place and it's just not as the homeowner is described. And I don't think it's because they're being devious. I think it's because they just don't see it. They don't notice the clutter in their home or how filthy it is, or they don't they don't really think about the fact their dogs get up all night long, or whatever it is. I had a house sit like that fairly recently. And I really wanted that house sit to work because I was committed to it for quite a length of time. And it had taken me a lot of time and money to get to the location. And I wanted to make it work. So I sat down and I came up with eight tips for me on how I could get over how I was feeling kind of overwhelmed by this house set. And I also came up with eight tips for what can happen if you're feeling overwhelmed by the pet care. And that's what I wanted to share with our listeners today.
Collin Funkhouser
And I like the perspective that sometimes it's just because as you mentioned, the the homeowner just doesn't see it. It's they're so used to the way their house functions, the way they're situated the way their pet behaves, that it's just an everyday life occurrence. And it can be pretty jarring. Sometimes, when you get in that situation. All of a sudden you're like oh, that's not normal. That's not what I'm used to and in How you over, overcome being overwhelmed, because sometimes you're in that situation and it's just, we've got to deal with this now. And we've got to continue to provide service and make the best of this that we can.
Kelly
That's right. So my first tip, when I get to a place that I'm looking around, and I just want to sit down and what did I get myself into? If the house is really a mess, my first tip is to sleep on it, you know, things may not look quite as bleak or overwhelming in the light of day after a night's sleep, and especially if I'm arriving after traveling a long period of time, and my perspective may be a little bit off. So my first tip is to sleep on it and you know, nine times out of 10 the house looks better in the light of day, and then I can put together a plan to make it work for me. So that's my first tip. My second tip is, don't build a list. You know, our human brain looks for evidence to support an opinion it's forming boys. Do we know about that in our political situation? Right? You know, I think if we if we resist the urge to support an opinion, by searching for other things that support that opinion, it'll help keep things from getting too overwhelming. So if, for example, I open up the fridge and there are, you know, science experiments that are worthy of Madame Curie in there, and it's just too much for me to deal with. What I want to do when I consciously want to do is to not look around and start finding every dust bunny and not look around and find every stain on the kitchen sink, right? And try not to list build in order to support the opinion that this house is filthy. If I can contain it and just look at and say, Okay, this is a filthy fridge and I'm going to clean out two drawers that I'm going to use, then that can help keep the whole thing in perspective and to keep me from sinking into that. What have I gotten myself into? doldrum?
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah, it's that confirmation bias. I mean, once you start believing that some places, just, for example, filthy, all of a sudden, everything starts to look filthy. And you do start building that running list, and then you get way out ahead of yourself and it becomes unmanageable. And then the only thing you can think about is, everything is built the and I don't know what to do
Kelly
confirmation bias that Thank you. That was the phrase that I was looking for. That's exactly right. And it's, and it's normal. I mean, this isn't, you know, something that's, that's a strange thing. It's just the way the human brain works. But once we become aware of that, then we can short circuit it and be happier. And that's what I'm all about. Short Circuit my brain and get happy are
all for happiness, for sure.
Kelly
Yes. So my third tip is in the light of day, when I'm trying to contain what I'm looking at, is to just sit quiet. And remind myself of the reason I took the house sit in the first place. Sometimes it was because it was a really interesting exotic location. And it took me a long time to get there. And I'm going to be there for a while. So I want to remind myself that the world, you know, my next six weeks or whatever isn't revolving around what's happening in this refrigerator, that there's something bigger out there. Or maybe the house it was the perfect timing for me to attend my best friend's wedding. And so I want to focus on you know, what I am here in this house it it's a perfect opportune moment for me to be with my best friend during this wonderful celebration for her. And I don't have to focus on this fridge. If I if I sit down and just really help put it in perspective by thinking about why I wanted to be in this particular house sit in the beginning. That kind of makes the the filthy fridge quite as important in my life.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah, really kind of getting out of the situation, as you said to remind yourself there were reasons I said yes to this. Now let's look at those and it's just a being a mindfulness technique and way of working through that that stress and being overwhelmed of there are there are positives about this. And it may only be one right there may be one thing that's left but you can that's something that you have an especially if you are using this as you're traveling and it's putting you in great locations or providing other opportunities. The big picture stuff definitely is something to not lose sight of if even whenever it's the fridge needs to just be lit on fire and thrown out.
I would a great image that isn't there have been a couple of refrigerators. I wanted to light on fire and throw out that's pretty funny. Okay.
Collin Funkhouser
I know next time, right. My fourth tip is to just put it in perspective. You know, that sticky kitchen may not really feel overwhelming, but you know, quite honestly, how long is it going to take me to clean it and if it's something that's going to take two or three hours to clean and I'm in the place For a month, you know, just roll up my sleeves and just do it. And you know, by putting by putting the issue in perspective, and keeping it kind of contained in my mind that can that can help me overcome that that feeling of you know, what if I got myself into the we had a client that were sitting out in West Texas one time and out there, grass doesn't grow at all. And so everybody's yard is just dirt, even in some of the really nice neighborhoods that people don't put a lot of effort into that. And we walked into a client's home and they had all tile floor and there's probably an inch or half dirt on most of the surfaces and everything. They could have started row cropping within their living room. It was we, we, we were going to be there for a little over a week and it was that same thing of Okay, honestly, how much time is it going to take me to get the vacuum cleaner out and just spend, what, two hours let's say Max and just get this over and done with so that I can continue to enjoy this time here. And then what we did, and it took a lot less time than we originally anticipated. And we were able to manage it from there on out. But it was just that initial shock, that if we would have let it overwhelm us, and just freaked out totally, instead of just grounding and going, you know what? This can get taken care of this isn't that big of a deal. We'll just get it done and move on.
Kelly
And my guess is Colin, that you and your wife probably did that at the very beginning of the house set. Yes. And that way you didn't have to live with this. You know, we live with a mess. And that's my tip number five is to make yourself at home as soon as possible. Get the cleaning out of the way so that you can live in and enjoy the digs you're in and you don't have to keep griping about somebody else's crime. And and I do that with unpacking as well. That's one of my my housesitting tips is to unpack as soon as possible when you get to a new place that you can you know you can make it your home your livable comfortable home for as long as possible. Yeah. I feel that way about the cleaning to also that kind of make it so that it's not super super clean when the person comes back because sometimes that can make a homeowner feel really self conscious. If you do a really deep clean right before they return chop, so I prefer to do the deep clean that I want to live in at the very beginning and then a spruce up before I leave. I did have a house in in Hitchin, one time lovely couple and terrible housekeepers. And she was so self conscious by the cleaning that I did that she never got another house that are after that. Oh, no. And I told her Yeah, and I said to her, I said, you know, don't worry about it. I just I cleaned it so that I was comfortable and then you know, there's nothing for you to worry about. And but it made her self conscious. And that's not something that I want to do. I want to make myself comfortable but I don't want to do that fully at the expense of making the homeowner uncomfortable, right. So this kind of a fun little They're I find that if I clean at the beginning so that I'm I'm most comfortable and then just like I said, do a spruce up at the end. It's not anything that's going to make the homeowner feel really super uncomfortable.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah, cuz that does get back to that most of these instances, there's not an intentionality on the homeowners Part Two have these situations come up where that's just how that's just their prerogative, how they, they mind they don't mind it, and it's something that they live with and that's fine with them. You know, new the person comes in all of a sudden you get a little little freaked out, but knowing that you don't want to make them uncomfortable. You don't want to make a statement to them about a place if they may be self conscious on the back end for that.
Kelly
Exactly. And that you know, you and I did not go through notes on this but that leads directly into my number six.
We do a mind meld thing going on here.
Kelly
And my number six tips is to resist contacting the homeowners to complain because they They, if they really, truly don't say this about their house, and you know, and who really would go away and deliberately leave a home filthy for guests coming in to take care of their pets, I mean, that's just not really the way most people operate. So complaining to them about something that they aren't really cognizant about in their home. First of all, it's not going to solve anything because they're traveling, they're jet lagged, they're somewhere else. And they can't really resolve that problem for you. So complaining about it to them while they're on vacation is just not going to keep the relationship with a homeowner happy. And that's, that's the thing that that, you know, all house sitters really should strive to do is to keep the homeowners as comfortable as possible, you know, while you're living in their home and taking care of their animals, to making them nervous about having a stranger in their home who's caring for their pets who is just not going to keep that relationship going. So
Collin Funkhouser
planning is not going to do them. And people don't like being judged it turns out so you know, exactly, exactly. So if you have a homeowner that may want to rebook you for a future time, is there a way to properly telegraph some of those things as far as, okay? You don't want to complain or talk about it in the moment, but maybe after the fact is there is there some way that you could talk to them about the state of their house the last time
Kelly
I would do that, only if I really were going to to repeat that house it okay. And I would ask it by asking them if they would be willing to pay for having a housekeeper come in before I got there. And that's also one of the tips that I have here. So if they have a house cleaner, ask the housecleaner to come earlier, and see if you can switch the day's up with a with the housekeeper because that that sometimes that can make just a huge, huge, huge difference. For my last tip, my tip number eight is to hire a cleaning service and, and I have done that upon occasion where I've I've hired someone to come in where I felt that the cleaning was just too much for me. And you know, it's $100 or so and if I'm going to be For a month or longer, that's really worth it for me. Sometimes the homeowner will pay for part of that. I would ask that upfront, I would not ask that at the back end, right. But generally speaking, I'm willing to pay for that on my own. If it is going to be a repeat house it then I asked them if they'd be willing to have a housekeeper come in before I arrived, you know, try to do that in a in a very Matter of fact, as you mentioned, non judgmental way that just says, you know, let's just start on a clean slate here. Pun intended, and, and I'll make sure that the house looks this way when you come home so that you're coming home to a spanking clean home as well, right? It's kind of very Matter of fact about it.
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Kelly
I do think the most important thing is to try to keep it in perspective and try to make sure that you're just not letting yourself get overwhelmed. I recently did go into a house it with six animals which I realized was more for me than I really could handle. I thought I could and and it wasn't bad. It was two dogs and four cats but it was still a little more than a little over my head is a single person. And so I learned a limit after 10
years of house sitting I learned a new limit that
Kelly
I have and the home was quite dusty and cluttered and smelled like wet dog and you know it was it was quite overwhelming for me. And the way I resolve that was I lived in the outdoor casita that had its own bathroom and its own little kitchenette. And I came into the house to feed the pets and to be with them I would stay in there in the evenings and watch TV and cuddle up with the pets, but I spent most of my time in the casita with the dogs and the cats at my feet in the little like a little kitchenette area that I used as an office and I was perfectly comfortable there I was absolutely comfortable there, but I could keep it I could keep it to a cleanliness level that was more comfortable for me. And I could do that without complaining to the homeowner without making her feel self conscious about anything and without making the pets uncomfortable. So it was turned out to be a win win all the way around. Sometimes it takes that imagination though. A little bit of flexibility.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah and keeping it manageable. You know you you kind of survey the area and went that over there's too much but I can move over here and make it just fine in we've done that in homes before we're cleaning the entire house. Plus, you know, 3000 plus square foot home is completely out of the question. But we can focus on the room or two that we're going to stay in, you know, the bedroom and the living room and start there, then making that manageable for us. So that, that stress of being in contact with stuff every day and then sometimes we would just shut the doors to the other rooms and in kind of, you know, out of sight out of mind kind of thing, making that smaller living space a lot more manageable for us for the long term.
Kelly
Exactly. And I you know, I think there's a lot of ways to do this without it being an issue. I have a girlfriend who house it so the first thing she always does when she goes into a new place is scrub out the oven. Thanks me. I you know, I mean, I don't know about you, but my oven in my home is never really quite bad White Glove clean. Yeah,
we're not citing photos of ovens for sure. That's
exactly.
Kelly
But this friend of mine, I mean, this is her thing. You know, she likes really clean up and since so that's the first thing she does and She goes into a new place and that makes her feel like the like the kitchen is hers. Yeah and and it makes her feel comfortable and you know more power to her as long as she's not complaining to the homeowner and as long as the homeowner doesn't feel judged when when she returns and beautifully pristine clean.
Hello, I can't if it were me the last thing I do is look at the oven to see if the home Bell sitter claimed it so
sure, or maybe that's why they keep you know, keep hiring her back because every time she comes our oven is amazing. You know, it's
just a very odd oven cleaning service at that point. But
Kelly
so the other kinds of problems that people can walk into and that I've walked into, besides a home that didn't feel up to a standard of cleanliness and comfort for me is to walk into a situation where the pet cares more than I expected it to be where it wasn't quite as advertised. And, and again, you know, Colin, I asked question after question after question after each house that it seems like I had One more question to my list because I'm constantly learning and constantly growing in this fantastic opportunity to travel and to live in other people's homes as a house sitter. But sometimes the the, the pet cares a little more than I bargained for. So I have four tips on that, in addition to the ones that we've said before, which are, you know, sleep on it, put it in perspective, don't complain to the homeowner. I do, however, contact the homeowner. If there's a behavior that I'm concerned about with the pets. It might be an unusual behavior that the homeowner has not experienced before or has experienced only sporadically and might warrant a vet checkup. For example, you know, dog or cat is urinating inside the house in a special spot or something that that may be a behavioral issue or a physical issue that really does need a vet checkup. Or it might be just behavior where the animal is regressing to and the homeowners know how to successfully handle that. So it's not a normal behavior, but it's a behavior they're familiar with. And they can, they can help you handle it. So if I see some behavior that's happening, I don't complain to the homeowner about it, but I will write them or email them or WhatsApp them, or however we've decided we're going to communicate, or communicate with them and ask them, inform them that this is happening and ask them what the best course of action is. And I think that's really important, because that does engage the homeowner in constant and consistent care for their own pets even when they are on holiday.
Collin Funkhouser
Right. And I mean, you would contact a homeowner if their roof started leaking buckets and buckets and buckets. And so exactly, it should be no different whenever there's a concern, it should be even more important, you know, in some instances, when their their pet starts behaving weirdly, or in an unexpected manner, because you're if you're caring for the well being of the animal, they need to know about that well being in especially if it changes. Yes,
Kelly
exactly. And you know, and sometimes the the pet care may just not be as advertised where the Puppy needs for rigorous walks a day and not the two that they'd advertised. And, and that that may be something that is, you know, more difficult to more onerous to take on. So another tip that I have is to not be afraid to ask for help. So if the pet care is more than has been advertised, I do recommend that house sitters contact the homeowner and say, you know, this is a little bit more than I thought, do you have a regular dog walker who can come in the middle of the day and help help me with this, or a relative nearby who can help? You know, there may be some options there that can help support the house sitter, I once cared one of the hardest house to house sit assignments I had I was caring for an elderly cat 1718 year old cat who had just had surgery right before I arrived for about restriction bowel construction. And during the 10 days that I was with him he deteriorated really rapidly and the home Motor was away at a wedding. And so she couldn't really come back. But I was in touch with her and she was constantly in touch with her vet. And so I became part of a trio, the homeowner, the vet nee who was caring for this cat and coming up with what we were going to do to help. And poor cat. I mean, he just he was so he was so uncomfortable, his bow constructed again, and he would sleep with me. And at night, in the middle of the night, he would urinate and throw up and he couldn't really hold food down or water down. And it was just really hard. And then finally, I recommended to the homeowner that I just take him into the vet and let the vet keep him alive until she returned. She really wanted to be home with him in his final final moments. Yeah. And that's what we ended up doing. I mean, I sometimes I suggest to people that you know, you suck it up, but like in this situation. I mean, this was one where I really didn't want to make these decisions. It wasn't my responsibility to make these decisions for this animal. Oh, yeah. And and I wanted her help and I wanted the best Help, and they both stepped up. And for grades, even though, you know, it's a difficult situation for everybody. So don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it. That's, I think that's really important for house sitters to remember.
Collin Funkhouser
Yeah, for sure. Especially whenever it starts delving into medical ID and extreme medical care, like you were dealing with there of being able to recognize this is too much for me, this is not my area of expertise. This needs to be elevated to a whole nother level of support and care that I can or am comfortable with providing. And so having that contact information for that vet or a local emergency contact for the homeowner can really help you in those situations so you don't get out of your depth and wind up in situations that you really shouldn't be involved in.
Kelly
Yes, exactly. It's really a matter of knowing your limits and being able to set boundaries and I really had to set some hard boundaries during that house it because it wasn't it certainly wasn't in the cat's best interest to be throwing up and urinating in the bed on me every night. And it wasn't in my best interest to have that happen either. Right? So, you know, being able to set that boundary and just say to the homeowner, you know, I'm really sorry, but you have to make a decision about this cat. And I recognize that you're at a wedding. But this is, you know, we're at a crisis point here. And, you know, this is my boundary, you know, I need to take this cat somewhere where he can be better cared for, because it's not going to happen in your home.
Collin Funkhouser
And I think that kind of gets back to my example of, you know, you would contact them if the roof was leaking. and in this situation, like, if the roof was leaking, there's no expectation on you to all of a sudden become an expert roofer and get it fixed and taken care of all by yourself. And so you should be able, you know, the homeowner won't have that expectation of you. And it's the exact same with the pets is that if you start communicating that you're out of your depth and their needs, we need to get more help or we need experts in volunteer. That's the path that needs to be taken. Yes, and
Kelly
I think that's really important. When I first started housesitting, there was a woman who offered me a sitting assignment for her two dogs. One was a younger dog that she got. And the other was a very old dog that was deaf and partially blind and lame, and needed to be carried outside to do his business. And you had to kind of hold this bottom up to so that he could do it. I mean, this dog was really the start was dying. And but she couldn't make that decision. And so one of the things she wanted me to do was to not have sign a piece of paper saying that I would take responsibility for making end of the life decisions for this dog. Hmm. And I refused to take the house sitting assignment because I really felt that that was far beyond my responsibility as a house sitter. Yeah. And and I told her so and I and I was really glad that I made that decision because, you know, we house sitters are so conscientious and we love that we know we fall in love with these pets that are ours, that aren't our responsibility. But but they are our responsibility for the time we're taking care of them. And we do we fall in love with them when we care for them. And and I think it's very easy for house sitters to slip over that boundary and become overly caretaking. And sometimes some homeowners may take advantage of this. And I felt badly for this woman that she couldn't make the decision that she needed to for her pet, but I wasn't going to put myself in that position. Because I didn't feel like it really was my responsibility. And so I think it's really important for her house sitters to recognize those boundaries.
Yeah, I can't agree more.
Kelly
Yeah. So the other tip I have if you walk into a house soon, that's a little feels like it's a little over your head when it comes to the pet Charisse and we've been talking about boundaries we've been talking about asking for help but sometimes you just have to suck it up. And you just need to roll with it. We We both know that house sitting requires a lot of flexibility and a lot of heat. humor. And every house sitter who is doing it for any length of time is going to run into a situation that she or he was not expecting. And sometimes you just need to roll up your sleeves and just run with it. You're not
gonna go okay. I'm only doing this for two weeks. I could do anything for two weeks. Yes, yeah. I
mean that by far and away of going, like you said, I'm only for two weeks. I'm only here for you know, a month. I'm only here for a couple days like this can we'll just do about this and we're gonna laugh about this later to everybody and just work your way through it for sure.
Kelly
And I think you know, another important tip is to pick your battles, whether it's about the home or about the pet care. A recent house that that I had this one that I mentioned that was so dusty and cluttered and you know, it literally took six days for me being there until there were no fruit flies in the kitchen anymore. And you know, it was just it was tough. And the car that I was driving was really a mess and I just decided to pick my battles. The fruit flies bothered me More than the car and I decided I was going to leave the interior of the car just smelling like wet dog. And that was just going to be that was it, you know, that was fine. And I went after those fruit flies for the vengeance right? That was important to me that I think picking your battles is another another key point. Again, it's part of putting it all in perspective and using a bit of flexibility and a bit of humor with it. But, you know, it's like you said before, you don't have to do the whole house shouldn't have to make everything perfect. You can shut some doors and cut those areas off and just deal with your living situation. Or you can decide that they're parts of your living situation that you're going to just okay, it's just going to be the way it is. And I'm just gonna put blinders on and hold my nose and not worry about it. By the time I'm here, so my final strategy, my final tip for what to do if you feel like you're in over your head. And, you know, we hope we all do this. It's just take a giant breath and learn from your experience. I have my own house sitting agreement that I asked him about. To look at, and it's very thorough, and it's born of my experiences with cleanliness and safety and pet care and home care, the amount of home care that's necessary in garden care. So I've learned the things that are really important to me. And those are reflected in my house sitter agreement. And every time I go to a new house it and there's something new that I'm naive to deal with that goes either into my agreement or into my Skype interview question here that I asked during my Skype interview. Yeah. And, you know, and it's just, and I also learned from the good experiences as well. Right. So right, it's, that's a, that's a double edged thing. So, you know, walk out of a great house, sit and say, this was great. What made this great. Yeah, and let me make sure that I asked these questions next time around, or you know, that I'm aware of these particular dynamics. So we constantly as house sitters want to learn from our experiences, and our inner interactions with the homeowners and with the paths and with the neighbors and with the location and the weather and all of those factors. You know, it's that's one of the things that I love about house sitting Collin is that it's constantly a learning experience. There's nothing cookie cutter about it at all. And I like that challenge. I think that's just an exciting way to travel and to go through life
Collin Funkhouser
and recognizing that even once that the house it is over and done with that, there is still work to be done of being introspective and reviewing what happened. And as you pointed out, what made it good How can I make that happen again, or what didn't go so well? What do I need to ask moving forward? What red flags Do I need to be looking for for future ones? And if you don't sit back and have some quiet time to do a house sit review or a pet care review? You You don't ever grow, you don't ever learn and you don't get those things that you like or don't like, and you may find yourself continuing to wonder, why do things never work out? Or why am I Always in this kind of situation, just taking a few moments at the end of a set or Invacare time and and thinking about those can really go a long way to making sure that each successive care is is better and better.
Amen.
Kelly
And the only thing I would add to that is that I do that even when I've been on a repeat house set. So even though it seems like everything was kind of like the way it was last year, I still ask myself those questions because things change right now the homeowners change the relationship with the homeowners may change or the Pat may change the pets needs may change. You know, they're just things that shifts sometimes and so those are those are that's a very important part of the of the house sitting is when it's over to really take that time figure out what made it right what made it good What can I do next time that will make me a better house sitter make me happier house sitter Kelly
if people are interested in learning more about the work that you do, how can they get a hold of your book and follow along with your house?
Kelly
Thank you. My website is housesit diva.com housesit diva.com. My ebook is available there, or Amazon also carries my softcover or Kindle of how to become a house sitter insider tips from the house diva. I also work with writers calling and helping writers with their books as I'm a writer coach. And there's more information on my other website at jumpstart my book.org jump start my book.org and I offer free consultations for writers so we've got any writers listening, good travel writers, I love doing travel memoir so you can do your house sitting anonymous house sitting stories
Collin Funkhouser
because we all have stories and you know those stories need to be need to be shared. So not just you can learn from them but other people can learn from them as well. So So those are great resources. And definitely, people need to seek those out if those are interesting to them so that they can tell their stories. Kelly, thank you so much for coming on today. And we look forward to having you back on again soon.
Kelly
Thank you, Collin.
Collin Funkhouser
Today we got to talk about some really practical things. And honestly, the big thing that I took away from this is to just always be respectful, respectful of yourself in being honest about certain situations about what you are or are not comfortable with. And then being respectful to the homeowner to the client, respect them enough to speak up if you need to respect them enough to move on and move past something. If you need to. Being always aware to reassess what you are or are not willing to do or what you are, are not comfortable with helps you as you progress and helps you as you get more sets or more clients to figure out Yes, what you like but also in sometimes more importantly, what you don't Like what you don't want to experience, Megan and I are working on some things for some upcoming episodes. And one of those is how the Black Lives Matter movement has impacted the pet care industry. If you have seen changes around you if you have changed perspectives, if you have changed policies, procedures, or practices that you implement on a day to day basis in your business, we would love to hear from you. We'd love to share the positive things that have happened and the progress that has made not just around our country and around the globe, but specific to the pet care industry. If you have a story you'd like to tell or help us understand what you're seeing around you, please contact us at feedback at pet sitter confessional comm or anywhere on social media. We'd like to thank our sponsor, time to pet for making this show and this podcast possible. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to listen to this episode. We wish you all the best and we'll be back again soon.
