099- Marketing with Jane Harrell
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Summary:
The marketing world was hard enough to understand before 2020, but now it can feel wholly unrecognizable. Jane Harrell, President of ‘cause Digital Marketing, joins us to help break down the market data and moves the industry has made. From tackling how clients are reacting to Covid and the impact the racial justice discussions have had on the pet care industry, this is a jammed packed episode.
Topics on this episode:
Helping pet and socially focused businesses profit and change the world at the same time
What kind of data does she work with
How has marketing changed in the pet industry
How has Covid changed the market
How has the BLM movement changed the market
What are pet parents wanting these days
Main take away? You can run a profitable heart based business AND change the world for the better at the same time.
About our guest:
Jane's been rocking it out in the pet industry for 18+ years, leading content strategy and marketing as former Editor-in-Chief of IDEXX’s Pet Health Network, Head of Consumer Communication for IDEXX, head of the consumer side of Petfinder.com, and with many other leading pet brands like Animal Planet and Petco. She’s a regular industry speaker and has had work featured in AAHA Trends, DVM360, INC.com, SheKnows, Pets+ Magazine, The Humane Society of the United States and more.
As President of 'cause Digital Marketing, co-owner of Social Media for Animals and co-owner of Working with Dog, Jane’s happy place is helping pet and socially focused businesses profit and change the world - at the same time. When not traveling and speaking, Jane lives in Maine with her loving partner, large brood of adopted pets and occasional foster child. In her “off” time, Jane enjoys gardening and doing volunteer wildlife transport for two local rehabs.
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet, business, people, marketing, clients, thinking, dog, working, printers, revenue, helping, dog walkers, big, understand, talking, bit, ways, services, industry, digital marketing
SPEAKERS
Collin, Jane Harrell
I'm Collin and I'm Meghan. And this is Pet Sitter Confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter brought to you by time to pet.
Collin
Hello, and welcome back. When I say marketing, what comes to mind?
fun, exciting, or terrifying? And
Collin
blackbox unknown mystery. Well, today we're so thankful and happy to have Jane Harrell, owner of cause digital marketing on to break down all of the barriers. She talks about some of the market forces that drive the pet industry and how we as business owners can make sure we're putting out the right things to get the customers and the clients that we want. Let's get started first Collin,
Jane Harrell
thank you so much for having me. It is such an honor to be here on petsitter confessional and such a fun place to be be chatting with other pet printers. I'm Jane Harrell and I am president and founder of cars digital marketing as well as co owner of working with dog calm, meaning I am typically working with a team of marketing professionals to decode the dark mystic arts of marketing for pet professionals make it approachable and really focus on what actually works for this very different segment and different industry. One of the things I am always talking about is as a pet printer, we are not selling Coca Cola, we are not out there talking and trying to sell some product that people don't need. In fact, we have a very different relationship. To our customers and what they need from us. So we work on identifying what that is for this industry and then translating that for small businesses as well as the multi million and multi billion dollar businesses.
Collin
Yeah, it really is a different way of viewing our services and what we are trying to sell and so I could understand where when you are selling something different, the the marketing has different needs behind that.
Jane Harrell
Absolutely. So when we're thinking about what the relationship is for our customer, so the pet parent, to the pet printer, the closest relationship here in the US really is to the parent of a child. You know, we are catering and taking care of someone that they 94% of parents view them as part of the family. And there is even this evolution of going from kind of pet owner where The pet is almost seen as a as an inanimate object to be owned through Guardian through, okay, you know, this is a being that enhances my life and I enhance their life and we have this partnership on the road together and to try to speak to that and gain the trust of a pet parent is really, really critical in being successful pet printers, you know, if the pet parent sees us talking about dogs as just, you know, inanimate objects, well, we know inherently that is not going to work. But unfortunately, a lot of marketing tactics and a lot of marketing, quote, best practices kind of put marketing in that bucket. And here it caused digital marketing as well as working with dog where we're debunking that and saying, okay, instead, this is actually what works for perfect printers these days.
Collin
Part of that is understanding where you fall on that spectrum. But as you But more importantly, where your clients fall in that spectrum and make sure that there's no crosstalk going on there between the two.
Jane Harrell
Exactly. Exactly. And I mean, for pet sitters and for dog walkers, it's most likely going to be in that space of the pet parent viewing, well, their their pet as child or their pet as member of the family, but how far you know how far do they take this and we see that pet parents have small children tend to take it a little less far than say the single mom have grown up kids who suddenly has you know, dogs as almost replacement kids in the family and and how far are they going to take that? How do they view themselves in relation to their animal? And how can you speak to that need to help them gain their trust or to help gain their trust and help them Understand that you're going to treat their pet the way that they would want their pet treated right.
Collin
Now all this talk about Parent Child relationships and pet and pet owner relationships, what is your history with pets?
Jane Harrell
So I have been in this industry for almost 18 years. Maybe it is actually 18 years I started out boots on the ground, working at an animal shelter while I was going through college and really found out two things. One, I love this industry. I love working with pet professionals. And two, if I had another box of kittens thrown across the counter at me, I was just going to lose my mind. So I needed to find another way. And it was this almost like Kismet moment when one day after a terrible shift. Literally covered in just about every animal bodily fluid you can imagine. I went across the street to the local pub and This guy says, Well, hey, you work around here. And I said, Yeah, I work at the shelter across the street. And he looked me dead in the face and he said, there's a shelter across the street. And mind you, I was working for an animal shelter, which was limited or open admission, rather, meaning they euthanize for space. They euthanize for temperament. They are euthanizing making very hard decisions. And I just had this like simultaneous internal screen where it was like, This is why we kill pets. And then also this light bulb moment of, Oh, this is something I can do something about. And I actually went back to my school Emerson College at the time, and said, This is what I want to do. I want to learn how to be a communications and advocacy specialist for the pet space and I've been doing that ever Since I've worked and run consumer communications for petfinder.com, which was one of the world's top largest pet websites at the time, I've run consumer communication and strategy for ITEX labs, which is a $2 billion leader in the veterinary space. And then about four years ago, I jumped off the corporate ladder to start my own business cause digital marketing, because I saw such a need for communications and marketing specialists who are accessible to everyone in this space. Now, my own house, I have five all adopted critters and dogs, cats and a turtle and I also do wildlife rescue and transport here in Maine when I'm living in Maine.
Collin
Wow. So yeah, you have really been involved for a really long time and that helps explain I guess why someone would go into marketing for focused on pet businesses, because you have the passion, and you've, you've seen where that need really is. And you're coupling that with with your skills and this desire to help make it better.
Jane Harrell
Absolutely. I mean, you know, marketing is such a dirty word for so many of us. And what I learned was that I really liked communications. I'm a bit of a data geek. I love problem solving. And there are unfortunately very few marketing organizations or specialists out there who really understand what the pet printer is going through. And whether you're working as a pet sitter, a dog, Walker, a groomer, or in one of the big companies or a shelter volunteer, during your off hours, you know, there are certain pressures that all of us have a lack of time being a big one technology phobia for a lot of us, and other issues that make things like social media things like posting to Instagram every day just really overwhelming as well as terrifying. So how can we make that accessible? But then also how can we give printers the permission not to have to try to do everything and be everywhere. And I actually have a mantra that I when I speak publicly, and when I teach, I bring people through which is a repeat after me. I don't need to be everywhere. I don't need to do everything.
I don't need to be everything to everyone.
Jane Harrell
Everything works better when I'm not. And that is so true of digital marketing, but also marketing in general, for pet based businesses. We constantly feel like we're not being enough. We're not doing enough to grow grow our business when in reality, a lot of businesses actually fail because they're trying to do too much. Hmm, yeah. Wow, that's I
Collin
love that mantra. We need t shirts and hats and bulletin board. And I don't know, it was everywhere in the space. So we can be reminded that because we do sometimes feel like, Oh, if only I could If only I could, you know, why are I here? why don't why don't I go this way? And it sounds like you're really helping to, to focus a little bit more and kind of tamp down those unnecessary expectations that people are placing on themselves through the use of, of data and focused marketing research.
Jane Harrell
Absolutely. So one of the things that we look at, and we have a lot of clients, but then we also have a lot of organizations that just opt in to let us look at their data. And it is a benefit of working with dog comm where they come in and they're part of the community and they can just say like, here's access to my stuff. Can you go look at it? But also, can we look at it as an industry? And can we look at? Hey, is Facebook still working for pet printers? it? What are the social media channels that are actually resulting in sales? And a few years ago, we did this article for pets plus magazine, where we dove in and asked that exact question. We said, is Facebook dead for pet businesses. And what we found was that Facebook was still the number one referring traffic driver for social media sources for pet businesses. And Pinterest of all places was number two, for most. And that was kind of a big surprise because no one had been talking about Pinterest, all the best practices, best marketing practices. You know, no one had paid any mind to Pinterest for a number of years since they launched 10 plus years ago. But if you think about pensions, Pinterest is actually an amazing search platform that grows with time instead of like most social media platforms, kind of dies down with time. So the brands that had started out on Pinterest who had worked kind of hard for a year and then walked away from the platform. Eight years later, we're seeing this amazing fruit that had come and grown for them. And we're starting to get significant amounts of traffic for it. So now, we actually look at Pinterest as a potential sales channel for a lot of pet businesses, especially in the e commerce space, so not as much for local, but it is one of those channels that we've talked about a lot.
Collin
Yeah. And just showing how things change over time and you never quite know. You know, what's going to be the next thing. So So having some help along the way is nice. I didn't want To touch on your your tagline that you have it's it's helping pet and socially focused businesses profit and change the world at the same time. What does that mean to you? And how does that help you operate when you're helping somebody?
Jane Harrell
I love that question. And it's it's such a personal thing for me, Collin. I, I started out the grew up the daughter of an artist and in the theater and have a family that was very politically charged, let's say, but I also grew up with the idea that to change the world and make a living at the same time was impossible. And I have honestly spent my entire career being a little bit of a rebel, but disproving that myth. So everything I have personally done in my career Career has really been about how do you become a lifelong advocate? How do you become a lifelong change maker for those things that really make you excited to get up in the morning without burning yourself out? And a big part of that, especially for the people who get into this business because we love dogs, we love cats, we want to make lives better for them and for their families. Profit is a dirty word. Profit is perceived as Oh, well, I would do this anyway, even if I didn't get paid. Well, Bull. You might do it for a number of years until you burn out. And the truth is that a lot of advocates a lot of people who start part based businesses do burnout because they don't look at the revenue side. They don't look at the profitability and the sustain inability or scalability of their business in a real way. So one of the ways that especially my personal coaching clients I work with and help pet printers is we focus on that revenue, but take the fear away, really dive into the numbers and look at how do you actually make a bigger change by helping yourself make profit, and helping yourself be able to retire one day, or buy a home or send your kids to college? Wow, these are novel concepts, but it is true. And the reason why I started getting so passionate about that was that when I was just my first few years in the industry, and a lot of us old guard can kind of say this. The people who were so amazing and who often inspired us, also frequently burned out within just a few years. You know, when I was working at the shelter, I think the average kind of lifespan, so to speak of a shelter worker was about two years, the average amount of time that we saw people kind of come in and stay in the industry was less than five years. So how do you build a lifelong career that makes a difference that you can continue to be proud of and excited about? Well, you have to look at that. profiting and changing the world at the same time.
Collin
Yeah, and you mentioned it is such a dirty word because we feel like as you say, like, Oh, I don't, I don't really want to get paid for it. I just want to do my passion. Well, if you're not making money, you can't do your passion for the long run, right? You can't retire doing that if you're not making money and it's the passionate people that we want to see in the industry for the longest, right because they're the ones you know, it might not feel like you're changing The the global world, but you are changing the world of the dog that you're walking when you're consistent, and you're able to show up and do that day in and day out. And so being able to link these two together is something that a lot of people do struggle with. And it's something that, you know, that conversation needs to be had more and more.
Jane Harrell
Absolutely. And it also starts spring pet printers to start thinking a little bit bigger. Sometimes, like one thing that I hear a lot is, well, I only need to make enough to pay myself or I don't really need to pay myself very much. And then usually when someone says that to me, I say, Okay, well what happens if you got hit by a bus tomorrow? Yeah, what happens to your business? What happens to the change that you're making in the world if you are helping these pets helping these pet parents? How do you make sure they're covered? And this is something that I've actually had happened. My my dog walker and pet sitter got into a terrible car crash. And because she was a solopreneur at the time, she had no backup. So it became a pain point. Thankfully, she's okay. And she came out of it fine. But you know, then are what happens to our pets? What happens to them getting fed or walked or when we're not here? How do you make sure that you have that coverage in your business to allow you to take a step back when something like COVID COVID comes and smacks you in the face?
Collin
Yeah, and I think from the the solar printers perspective, a lot of times when we talk about what's your backup, they immediately think of their backup sitter or their backup care provider, but it's really like what's the backup for you as an individual that this is really getting at the heart of when you start talking about how you're running, operating your business, what kind of data you're Looking at and managing and charging what you need to not necessarily so that you can hire somebody but so that you're taken care of if that work gets taken out from underneath you and and as you start digging into those needs and and how to run and base your business operations. I know you Jane look at a lot of different kinds of data that is really the the Dark Arts really the the Pandora's box for most of us. So if you could open that lid, just a tiny bit, maybe and talk about what kind of data you all look at as a marketing company.
Jane Harrell
Absolutely. So I have to admit in a data is kind of my happy place. That is okay, if that's not yours. That's what we're here for. And really accepting that sometimes people have a big phobia of data or the hard numbers and understanding why that is, is kind of a course starting place. to helping you start looking at your data and start understanding the deeper story. So we look at a business really holistically, we look at the revenue figures, profit and loss statements. We look at how much revenue is coming from each of your different services and how have you diversified. We also look at, okay, what kind of revenue is coming in? Is it really one off revenue? Like you have a new petsitting client they hire you for a week or a weekend and it's just this one off without any guaranteed of return service? Is it more plantable income where you're walking a dog every day or a few days a week, every month? Or is it passive income where and passive is always a bit of a misnomer because nothing is truly passive. But is it something where you're able to take on more people clients and more income for doing the same amount of work, which often comes with like subscription services or once you start to hire other people into your business. And then when it comes to the marketing dark art side, we really look at a few core data points. One is, how many people are you reaching on a regular basis. So if you think of a funnel, you know, think of or think of a tornado, let's call this your marketing tornado. And at the top of your tornado where it's the widest you have, how many people did you go out and reach so that they might have some awareness of who you are, and why they should care. And then, as they get drawn down deeper into your tornado, then they reach this place of nurturing and trust and Those are the people who you have regular communications with. Maybe they follow your newsletter. Maybe they follow you on social media. Or maybe they're part of a larger network that you some somehow impact. Like, if you write a local column on pets for your local town, how many people are you reaching there? And then for the lowest part of the funnel, right before you get into the eye of the storm or the sweet spot, how are you converting and getting people off the fence to actually buy now? So what is the point of purchase? And where are people looking at there? So there are lots of different ways that you can look at that data. You can gather it from Google Analytics or WooCommerce, or Facebook ads or Facebook Insights or, I mean the, the places where you gather this data are kind of a morphus That's where I think a lot of people get scared. But if you just write out on a piece of paper, those three things, how many people in my reaching on a regular basis who could just generally be aware of my business? And then how many people Am I nurturing a relationship with meaning I am building trust with them. And then how many people are actually encountering some kind of sales pressure, or awareness of a specific sale or offering so how many people are looking at my pricing pages, how many people are getting or opening my emails about a special I might have things like that and as long as that looks like a big funnel, as long as the top is widest, the middle is mid size, and then the lowest is is small and you have people in that. That can be a pretty good indication. However, what we often see with business That are getting a little off the rails is that awareness bit is actually the smallest part of their numbers. And they're, they're not really growing an audience. So then if you're not growing an audience, the other two parts of the funnel tend to dry up.
Collin
Right? And because you have you want the largest possible reach for for what you're trying to accomplish, because there are these different you know, it is a funnel is a tornado which I like that analogy because it does feel like a wild and crazy thing that kind of sometimes feels like has a mind of its own, but it's relatively predictable. I'm sure you have different conversion rates as you move through and down to right before they get off the fence as you said and decide to go with you. And what it sounds like is that once you can understand where your audience is, where your clients are within that, you can begin to shift and change how you're communicating and what your materials look like and how you're reaching them.
Jane Harrell
salutely so if for example, you find, oh, I'm reaching a lot of people, I have a big network of people who are aware of my business or coming in contact with my business, but then no one's signing up for my newsletter or no one's actually seeing my Social Media Communications. That's a big problem, too. So instead of having to think about, oh, well, how do I do a sales promotion? Or how do I get more eyeballs? You can think about, oh, how do I provide, say, a regular monthly newsletter that really solves a problem for my potential customers? And I'm someone you know, I talked to people about newsletters all the time. Everyone cringes, so do I because who wants another email in our inbox, right? It's one of those things that we all hate getting, right. But one of the philosophies that I take and that I bring to this And suggest for everyone is thinking about how can your newsletter really solve a problem that or, or create a bliss point for your potential customer that they want to get. So your newsletter is no longer about you. It's no longer about what you're doing or the cute dog of the week that you walked, or the cute cat that you know, rolled on their back and let you rub their belly without scratching it. It's not about that it's about how can you help them be better pet parents or enjoy their lives with pets? Even more? So instead? Is it kind of Hot Tips that only you or a pet professional would know about? Living with pets in your location? So is it like Here are the top pet friendly events each month and that's your newsletter? Or is it something where you're Talking about Here are the top things that I'm seeing impact pets in our area, and it's almost a safety alert. It's local to your area. The wonderful thing that pet sitters and dog walkers have is a lot of local knowledge. And a lot of local touch points have pets in their area so they can talk about these things to pet parents in a very real way. And when you take an approach like that, we see the signup rates for newsletters or the open rates literally quadruple. So it's, it's not about you, it's about them and how to solve an issue for them on a regular basis. And that builds the trust that when you say, Hey guys, I'm looking for some new clients or I'm looking for some referrals. You have a waitlist there who's like me, me, me, me, and that creates and makes sales so much you
Collin
Right. Yeah, I mean, I hear that multiple times throughout I sometimes a day of when people will mention newsletters, they'll go, those are still around, or what I don't understand. It's like, yes. Because you have when you make it valuable, that's what they work. And I think that's where the misconception comes in. Maybe somebody tried a newsletter before and they go, Well, that didn't work for me, but stepping back and going, Okay, what was the content? Like? Were you sharing information? Were you sharing knowledge? Or was it just about upcoming specials and the cute pup of the week? Like, where was that value being added? was, as you pointed out, is it being added to you or is it being added to not just your immediate clients, but also potential clients because I'm sure there are people who sign up for that just because it's a valuable resource. And then when that time comes for a lot of openings, they're all ready to jump on.
Jane Harrell
Absolutely. And you really want to write it for the potential client, not for the current client, so your current clients could get some value out of it absolutely their pet parents in your local area as well. But the potential client is who you're trying to reach and who you're trying to get on that list, or trying to sign up for your social media following because that's the one who you need to build the trust with. And you need to help them feel like oh, it's going to be okay. If I leave Phyto or Frida with you. It's going to be I know that my house is going to be taken care of I know that my pet is going to be happy and balanced when I come back home, and I'm not going to have a huge mess to clean up either physically or emotionally.
Collin
Yeah, because you have taken the time to write about your knowledge, your experience and how it benefits them. And so they get that chance to get to know you because that's a big, you know, you mentioned earlier, the trust Between the pet parent and the the pet care professional has to be immense before they decide to jump, there has to be something inherent that they believe they trust they sense. And one way to help communicate that is through these kinds of knowledge nuggets that you get to disseminate through your newsletters or other ways.
Jane Harrell
Oh, I like that knowledge nuggets.
We're gonna use that.
Collin
All this talk of, you know, some of the data that you look at, I'm sure it hasn't always been that way. So give us a little bit of a history of marketing, especially maybe for pet printers over the past 10 years or so.
Jane Harrell
Absolutely. And we could go way back. I mean, one thing that we've actually looked at is, how has the pet industry evolved and marketing evolved over the last hundred years. So we won't do that today. But really, we we looked at what makes businesses reach critical impact and sustain This space, what are the things that have made the companies that have actually succeeded and sustained for 50 plus years? Do that. So what are the factors in them? But as far as marketing over the last 10 years, in some ways, digital marketing has stayed very similar, where you still have your awareness or what we use, we call it find ability. So how does someone just kind of encounter your brand on their day to day, whether they're looking at Google, whether they're looking at social media, whether they're talking to their friend or reading their local paper, whatever that is? Then again, you know, how do you nurture How do you build the trust and build the relationship with that person? And then how do you help them jump off the fence and decide, okay, right now is the time to purchase and that's not about providing The best discount or, you know, having the kind of used car salesman pitch, it's more about actually helping the pet parent get something done and get something off their list, which I'll say over the last 10 years. And this has been growing and becoming worse over the years and with our culture is we are busier and busier and busier people. And the consumer, the pet parent is living in this state of kind of perpetual overwhelm, where one marketing study looked at how many marketing messages we get in a day, and it was over 3000 marketing messages every single day. And that was several years ago. So it's only gotten worse. And now with COVID, for example, you know, we're not only trying to live our daily lives, And work and do our jobs and do everything. But we're also homeschooling teachers, and we're tech professionals because we don't have the tech person from the office to come fix something when it goes wrong. And you know, we're we're just adding and adding and adding. So, really for marketing in the last 10 years, one of the biggest things that has changed is this just constant state of overwhelm in the consumer and constant state of anxiety, just low grade, perpetual anxiety. In our society, it's gotten so bad that overwork, or what's it called burnout is actually a clinical diagnosis now. And that's just been true over the last year and a half, I believe. So in thinking about your marketing, communications, really making things very simple, very good. clear and very easy to complete are more important than ever. The channels the ways that you do this. It's funny, I actually, when I was in school, I learned that there were only nine major marketing strategies. And now there's about 12. So there have been a few that have been added as the digital space has evolved. But what's really evolved is this state of overwhelming the consumer. So thinking about how do you make things really clear? How do you get their attention really fast? And then how do you make it really easy for them to complete something quickly, is what's most important. Now,
Collin
you have a principle that's called sustainable respect for change makers. How do you define this and how does it apply to a business owner?
Jane Harrell
I love that. So sustainable respect is a core principle here. Cause digital marketing. And the idea there is very simple. It's how do you currently create a relationship that lasts a lifetime? So, whether you're the customer, whether you're a member of the team, whether you're a leader, it goes back to how do you really focus on building relationships that are respectful, but not necessarily assuming that the customer's always right or that your team is most important than anything or so on. And this came from my work in big corporate world where there is just more and more of a shift in big business to dehumanize and to focus on you know, profit more than anything or conversely small business, not thinking About profit, not thinking about the actual financial needs of the business, and, therefore not taking into account the critical things that will help you develop relationships that lasts a lifetime. And like I said, I've been in this industry for 18 years, we've studied businesses that last 50 hundred plus years in this space and asked what makes them do that what makes them succeed? How do individuals as well as businesses last and we came up with this idea of sustainable respect where it's about mutual respect, but also a balanced approach to looking at profitability, looking at team motivation, looking at cause or something larger than yourself and your individual client or customer and looking at all So career, looking at how do you help yourself evolve? How do you help any team members that you may have or that you may bring on board evolve? And how do you keep your business shifting in a way that it's it's evolving and not just pivoting really quickly or not staying stagnant.
Collin
And all of that, that I'm hearing there is really, as you said, it's focused on those person to person relationships and trying to find ways to see what needs to be done to continue to support that and, and in the pet care industry and for pet printers. Many times people get in because they quote unquote, don't like people or they write. And so, you know, this is kind of putting this center focus once again, of going, it's the people that were also caring for it's the people that we need to be investing in to, yes, provide a top tier top shelf Killer pet care for their pets whenever you do that, but know that you need to be nurturing these relationships and trying to find ways to add value and keep them around for a long time because I think, you know, if you just in the very simplest manner in my brain, if I think of my top five clients, I would love to have them as my clients for the rest of my career in this industry. And rightly so how can I How can I do that? What's the best way for me to do that?
Jane Harrell
Well, and also identifying who those are, yeah, like, what do they have in common? We talk a lot about our ideal client. And, for example, here at cars, we have four different kind of core types of clients that we work with. And one of those is the small business or the kind of heart driven pet printer. So the solopreneur the person who gets into it because as you say, they don't like other people, they like pets more than people. They want to spend all their time and money. with dogs are playing with kittens. And then they realize, Oh, they don't really like kittens. And I love kittens. I joke but that actually running a pet business has a lot more to do with human relationships than they ever thought and really diving in understanding who are those people that you love working with? Who are the people that feed your soul? Like this was a market that feeds my soul and that I was desperately missing working with when I was last at my last corporate job in the big vetinary company, where I wasn't able to work with those so solopreneurs and I really missed it and was having a hard time getting up in the morning because of that. So I changed my business, I changed my sense of identity, and I jumped off the whole corporate ladder to do that. How do you shift your business in a way that allows you to work with those people That feed your soul that not only keeps the sustainable respect going with them, but then also shifts your business offering to attract more people like that. And ultimately have a few groups of people that you're able to help. But there are simultaneously, you know, as I say, feed, you're feeding your soul and also feeding your finances.
Collin
It's back to that mantra of I should not be doing all things, I should not be all things, everybody and going, Yeah, my top five clients, how do I get more of those amazing people? And but that's step one is going How do I categorize them appropriately? And then that next step of looking at your data and going okay, where are they at in the funnel and working through that entire process?
Jane Harrell
And one of the things that we also look at at cause a lot is the client data. So what do they have in common? What are the people that you love to work with have in common, but then actually going out and asking Questions, a lot of pet partners are really hesitant to just pick the brains of their favorite clients for a few minutes. And if you have a deep relationship with them, and I see this all the time, they can often be a little bit flattered. If you go out and you ask them like, Hey, you know what I just I love working with you. And I'd love to know what you think are the biggest benefit benefits of our services? Or what do you think of this idea that I'm thinking of offering to new clients? Is that something you or someone like you might be interested in whether or not you're buying right now? And what we often find is that is actually a strengthening point of the relationship. As long as those relationships are healthy,
Collin
being thoughtful about who you ask, obviously, I think that's huge, but it's just part of this. It's part of relationship and it's part of your own. I know in house market research of Oh, I don't know Would I survey my entire city of 100,000 people? Well, you don't have to, you can survey your current client base and just see what their thoughts are. Because if you like the people that you're serving, ask them the questions and try and get more of them. Have you heard about time to pet Dan from NYC pooch has this to say on Tibet has been a total game
changer for us. It's helped us streamline many aspects of our operation from scheduling and communication to billing and customer management. We actually tested other petsitting software's in the past, but these other solutions were clunky and riddled with problems. Everything in time to pad has been so well thought out. It's intuitive feature rich, and it's always improving.
Collin
If you were looking for new petsitting software for your business, give time to pet a try. As a listener of pet sitter confessional, you'll get 50% off your first three months when you sign up at time to pet.com slash confessional. As the markets have shifted, and I know we talked a little bit about what Currently do another big wrench that has been thrown in to this whole mix has been well, just the year 2020. In general, what were you thinking expecting? Or maybe what was your mindset going into 2020? Before all the things happened,
Jane Harrell
honestly, we were expecting a downturn. Now, we weren't expecting COVID for sure. That really came out of left field. But if you so here at cause digital, we tend to look at patterns. And there is just a very strong financial pattern that happens in business about every 10 years, which is we have a downturn, and we were a little overdue, and a lot of financial. experts call this quote market correction. I love that term. They say yeah, we're about due for a quote market correction, meaning the markets going to drop somehow. And what we had started doing about a year ago, was really thinking long and hard about how do we want to spend that time if the market drops if and when it will drop because that's, that's actually not a if it's a When will it drop? and marketing businesses are a little bit of a canary in the coal mine. So historically, we would expect if the market goes down, so do our services, and so does so do our revenue. And part of my principle of sustainable respect is not just a hire and fire people, it's to make sure that we can keep people busy employed and working on something that's ultimately gonna take us out of the the downturn like a shot and really help us take over in a lot of ways. And that's really the way that we were looking at 2020. We said we think there's going to be a downturn. we're poised and ready to spend some time on some non revenue projects that are going to help pet printers be even stronger, help pet printers grow, but then also help us grow our own business. The irony of what actually happened was that we're, we're kind of busier than ever. So we haven't had any time to actually do that, other than coming out with some new products that that we just felt were really necessary in terms of COVID
Collin
talk about how COVID has changed the marketing landscape.
Jane Harrell
Absolutely. So first, obviously, everything's gone digital. So much less time is spent with face to face interactions in society. So being able to get your digital presence up to par and make sure that you're looking professional. You're looking trustworthy. The you're looking reliable, and looking safe to these pet parents is more important than ever, you know, if you have the 1990s website that hasn't been updated since then now is definitely the time to give it a visual overhaul and make sure that it's not scaring people away because there's really no other face to your business right now Your face is not there, you can't be there. Other shifts are things around safety. So certainly being prepared to overly communicate around what are your safety protocol? What are the ways that you are making sure that you are protected, your client is protected. What are the ways that you're staying aware and overly aware, much more aware than the average consumer of what your state's regulations are around going into their home around using sanitizers. Are there ways that you can over exceed that like we see some pet sitters and dog walkers saying, Well, you know, I'm going to make sure that I'm wiping your dog's paws every time we come inside from outside and I'm going to be putting on those like hospital shoes over my shoes to make sure that I'm not bringing anything into your house. So overly communicating those strategies, but those are really kind of the two biggest shifts here, obviously also, when businesses shut down, what do they do? How do they get ahead? Are they going to sit there and twiddle their thumbs or and in that way, we really focused at cause digital about here, you know, if you have some downtime, if you're seeing some slow times in your business, right? Now's a great time to actually ask yourself some hard questions around your revenue streams around your marketing and get ahead of your marketing. So really get the stuff that's gonna distract you off your plate quickly, so that you can start diving into the revenue models that are going to help you scale as soon as business starts picking back up.
Collin
Because that part was really focused on again, that top part of that tornado, right trying to believe that as wide open as possible, even though you're currently you know, even down way at the bottom, you actually kind of cut off because you were closed down for various reasons. still maintaining that opening as big because not knowing which way the market may shift or not, or how things are going to pan out. You want to have as many prospects on the table as possible. When you do get those opportunities. I think you touched on it as far as marketing face to face, but what other things just maybe aren't working in Need more for marketing our business?
Jane Harrell
Well, if we're thinking about social media, organic social media is really tough these days, and folks who used to be, you know, used to enjoy the golden days of Facebook, they definitely noticed this, but even the golden days of Instagram or, you know, way back when Twitter, organic interaction on most of those platforms is very low these days. So thinking about how do you put in a little bit of money into advertising your business is probably necessary, if that's going to be a big part of the top of your funnel. If you're, if that's the entry point to your char nedo. Then you need to make sure that you're actually getting eyeballs. So how do you actually make sure that people are seeing your your posts by boosting them On Facebook, or boosting them on Instagram, we love going out and promoting things like local columns. So if you have a local newspaper or if you have a local pet outlet, or even just a neighborhood blog that they're going and saying, Hey, can I write a Quick Tip of the Week for you? And that can literally be like three sentences. But it's, you know, here's your pet Tip of the Week. And it's not as big and scary as a blog, for example, or oh my gosh, you know, of log a video blog. is, you know, is there some low hanging fruit that helps you go out and get more eyeballs that way are some ways to kind of rethink about it. also thinking about what is the state of your current customer and What are their new needs? So people are sitting home more. They're dealing with their pets at home more, they're dealing with a lot more cabin fever. And how can you reach out and start communicating to people with help about that or even offer a new virtual service around that that could help them? Is there something that you could give them each week that's at a very low cost or each month that's at a very low cost that would enhance their lives as they're kind of getting crazy cabin fever, whether it's an exercise that you send out once a week virtually and how to train your dog with this trick or how to lead an enrichment, walk with your dog or something. Like that lots of different ways that you can interact with your customer but understanding where your customer is and their mindset as you probably are feeling the same way.
Collin
Because again, we're focusing we know the needs of the the dog that needs walked, we know the needs of the cat that needs its its litter scooped, but refocusing a little bit there and trying to go okay, but how can I communicate those needs? On top of the new needs that my client has? How can I How can I get that to them appropriately. And to start as you mentioned earlier, it's taking things off the table for them checking those boxes on their to do list with the eye on on the pet care,
Jane Harrell
and like one thing that a lot of trainers have started doing during this time is helping prepare their clients and helping prepare their audiences for the rampant back to school fever or separation anxiety that everyone's kind of assuming will happen when everyone stops. working from home. So are there ways are there exercises that you might want to share with your clients around making sure your dog gets some separate time each day, or, you know, is a little bit used to you not being around all the time, because if suddenly you're going back to work, and your dogs used to you being around 24, seven after six months, it's gonna be a bad thing. It's gonna be a bad scene,
Collin
tying that into the newsletter, the local blog, you don't have to necessarily charge for that advice, but getting that information out ahead of time to the pet owners going, Hey, this is going to be happening. Here are some things that you can consider. Yes, a dog walker, a drop in may be included in one of those but just raising general awareness to keep everybody on the same page
Jane Harrell
or something kind of curated and fun like one thing you might do is say hey, This could be a fun way to generate a little bit of revenue for you now, and say, Hey, each month I'm going to pick my favorite dog product on Amazon, give me a budget of 2030 bucks a month, and it will just show up at your door each month, and you'll get an email from me explaining what to do with it, how to use it, and so on. Well, maybe the product itself doesn't cost that much and you're able to take a little bit of profit off the top there and it's just a matter of going in buying the Amazon products and shipping them with gifts, gift receipts,
Collin
and that value add of additionally going Oh, and here's how you can play with it. Here's how we can increase in enrichment. Right? It's like that's that really where that charge is coming in. It's not acquiring the toy. Sure you could if you want to, but what what the real service there is this extra enrichment this extra play as COVID is progressing and The markets, as you've mentioned, have kind of changed as far as expectations. What kind of new opportunities has COVID created for for marketing our businesses marketing our services? I know we touched on a few few of those things there. But was there anything else that you've seen that maybe you weren't expecting to come up?
Jane Harrell
Well, certainly, the idea of zoom fatigue has been an interesting one. And the idea of people who are really struggling, being at home with their pets all the time, struggling, looking for human connection. These are things that kind of any business if you haven't thought about incorporating that into your editorial strategy into your communications, just Just do it. Just talk about it. And be real about how you're feeling to be real about hey, you know, this is hard for all of us and we're all going a little crazy and that is okay. As far as other opportunities, there are some real financial opportunities that we've seen come up. Marketing Services are way cheaper than they were a year ago. The rates that we're seeing for Facebook ads are I mean, just we haven't seen the rates that we're seeing now in about four years, for conversions for clicks for getting engagement, on Facebook, also getting help into your business because a lot of people are just kind of working from home and looking for extra things to do. They're also looking for kind of new things to do. A lot of people are rethinking their businesses right now or rethinking their lifestyles right now. So now's a good time to kind of catch those people and bring them in, have them help you if you want. And then Have Lastly, thinking about your own business, how can you shift it? And how can you spend a little bit of extra time? You know, one thing that you consistently see with people who come. And this is from Harvard Business Review, by the way, people who look at a downturn and business owners who not only survive, but thrive through economic downturns. One thing that they consistently see is the opportunity of time. You know, as I've talked about the last 10 years, we've seen our time, squeezed and squeezed and squeezed and squeezed. And suddenly, so many of us have more time. So spending that time really thinking strategically about what are the ways that you can grow your revenue, what are the ways that you can shift your revenue? What are the ways that you can reach your customer or upsell and increase profit? with existing customers, these are things that in any downturn but especially COVID, with us all being locked in the house are kind of helpful opportunities.
Collin
When you think of if everything is a is a budget, we have our financial budgets, but we also have our time budgets, and maybe we weren't able to spend more on certain things because of the downturn and because of the lockdown, but we could spend our time on certain things and really viewing those as both valuable and both equally necessary and finite resources. You really start to see, okay, how can I spend this better to get the most bang for my my time dollars, and then I did want to touch on other opportunities or maybe changing in marketing around the pet care industry in regards to recent conversations around civil rights and racism in the US and across the globe. As you're doing market research, and these kind of looking into data. How are you seeing that conversation play or translate into marketing for pet care?
Jane Harrell
I love this question. And I'm getting it a lot these days, because I guess you name your business cause digital marketing, and that's what you get right. But what's very interesting about the pet space and about 90% of our business is in the pet space. We do work in other social justice, childhood education and other issues, including kind of racial issues. But one of the interesting things about the pet industry is that about two thirds of us families have pets, or US households have pets. And when you're thinking about an industry, really think about how many people and how many diverse cultures In diverse socio economic backgrounds and diverse political opinions you're touching when you're talking about two out of every three households. So, as a pet printer, you very likely have people who are your clients who have very different worldviews than you. So when you're thinking about your business and when you're thinking about, and perhaps getting very incensed about how you're seeing the world going, how you want to get involved and how you want to use your platform that you've grown, to do so. Really think about what's going to be good for the long term health of both your your business and your heart. So is this one thing I always ask clients is this a core competency of your business? Does this issue deeply affect you, members of your team, or members of your direct community? If so, consider how to raise up those voices, that people who are impacted, consider how to feature. Do always recommend that if you're wading into perhaps controversial waters as a brand, it's a good idea to make sure that you really do understand all the different angles. So going and talking to everyone and not all advocates. I'll be very upfront not all advocates believe this. Some advocates, you know, say you know what, there are just some people who are so close minded. And so, prejudice actually, that it doesn't help to understand their perspective, but I disagree. I believe that understanding more deeply Where the other side is coming from is going to help you speak to the middle more effectively and draw them over to you. Which is ultimately, the only thing we can do you know, people on any political spectrum on any scale of an issue, you're very rarely going to get people on the complete ends of the scale, it's really the middle that you're working to move. So if you're thinking about moving that, if you're thinking about wading into those waters, consider is it core to your business? Is it core to you? If it's not core to you, whose voice can you raise and stand by? And also in some ways, you have to make sure that this is a bit of a hill that you're willing to die on? And I don't I don't say this is a joke. I say it with a laugh. But keep in mind that as human beings, it is easier for us to pivot than for our brands. You know, our brands get a little bit known for something and that's on purpose. We do that as part of marketing. So if this is not a cause that you are deeply passionate about are really interested in them. Don't be afraid to just kind of shy away from it and say, You know what, I'm I'm going to wait out of these waters, or I'm interested in hosting some conversation about this, and making sure that bullies aren't allowed if I have this conversation, but I'm not going to take a stance in it. And those are some ways that really any brand can get involved if they want without necessarily putting their their experience where it's not relevant. What we don't want to do is appear to be coming in and taking over the narrative for some of these causes, but being able to raise up the voices of the diverse opinions and make sure that it is a safe space for everyone to learn and grow. So one thing that's really important to remember, which is, unfortunately, very easy to forget sometimes is that the ability to choose whether to engage in a social movement or and some kind of political movement is a privilege and an in and of itself. Not everyone, not every pet printer, not every individual really has the ability to opt outside of those discussions, discussions or discourse. And if they do choose to avoid discussing those things that can be seen as a political statement in and of itself, just given kind of who they are, what their background is or what their races or or socio economic, standing and so on. So if you are able to consider kind of staying away from certain kinds of discourse or being able to engage in the more anonymized online world, this is a privilege and this is something that we should think of as So now, if we're going to take advantage of that privilege, and try to engage in a way that makes our heart sing that makes us feel really good about the impact that we can have in the world and on our communities. There are a few things that we want to keep in mind.
Collin
And you started off that by discussing just the inherent diversity of the client base in the pet care industry. And I love that because it's a good reminder That, whether you see it or not, whether you readily recognize it or not the diversity is there, the people that we care for. And so there is that range of perspectives there is that range of backgrounds that as we begin to have these conversations, you really do need to start becoming aware of it and really looking closely at the community that you're interacting with, and and trying to understand and I agree, trying to understand the stance of certain people on both sides of of the topic, so that you can make those judgments for your business so that you can understand where the hurt or the misunderstanding some maybe where the pain is coming from so that you can speak from
Jane Harrell
a better place. Absolutely. And I will add that if you can speak to that from a genuine, authentic place, and really focus on raising up the voices of the people who are impacted and of the cause that you believe in. That's going to help you attract the kind of customer that you want to work with, you know that it can be, we actually call it our secret superpower here at cause digital where if you are in there, you're working. You're genuinely interested in this and you generally genuinely are able to help others tell their stories, then that's going to help draw those clients who are thinking like you, but I will put a word of caution in there and say that if there is another issue that you need to focus on, and that you need, as a business to center on, be aware that mixing the messaging can muddy those waters. So I'll give you a a concrete example of that one. One time when I was working for big corporate and I was running an advocacy blog, I really had a bit of a hard time because I'm a gay woman. And it is not something that I hide. It's something that's been out and about for since I hit puberty, but I was writing about how people were using the LGBT movement to to help bring attention to adoptable animals. And I didn't want to associate this brand with a specific stance on LGBT issues. I mean, this was pre gay marriage. This was, you know, really a very long time ago. And because of that, I just didn't identify who I was. Because I felt that I as writer, would immediately make people feel that I was writing from a viewpoint instead of just looking at the pros and cons of doing this as a marketing tactic.
And doing so broke my heart.
Jane Harrell
Then reading the comments on social media broke my heart even more. And, you know, it was a very hard thing to do to just kind of keep myself and my personal stance, which I very vocally believe in, in my personal life. Quiet but because I was working for a larger organization, I was not the owner of this organization, I did not have the choice to be able to really go in and and advocate for this as a great marketing tactic so I could have lost my job. Had I done that and it's something that you know, if Even if you are the business owner and something that you can personally make the decision on right there, make sure it's something that as I said, it's a hill you're willing to die on. It's something that you really believe in and are willing to continue to fight for over time. Don't, don't just jump in and then jump out.
It is part of that
Collin
consistency of not just because as you said, like that does become part of the brand. When people look at your business, they start knowing what messages you stand for what how you're going to communicate around certain topics, and it helps you prevent some of the maybe compassion fatigue around those particular issues. We all want everything to be super important all the time. That's but that's hard to keep coming back to every day as we're also busy trying to run our businesses. So there is that balance and that can be maybe hard to reconcile sometimes you as you mentioned, that was a very good difficult thing for you to work through, and those do come up. But there are times to speak out on certain issues and and work towards raising those voices when that time comes, as we are thinking through COVID at 2020 and the civil rights and racial discussions playing into this. What are what are pet owners wanting from a pet sitter right now?
Jane Harrell
I think, as I mentioned before, really looking at how do you continue to show the things that were always very important for your business. So pet sitters dog walkers, you're literally being handed the keys to their home. So trust, safety, reliability. This is a lot of uncertainty. A lot of fear. A lot of high anxiety is just pervasive. In the culture right now, so any of these three aspects that were already important for a pet sitter to constantly exude are even more important. So thinking about how do you again go the distance in over communicating, why your trusts worthy, why you really have high safety standards and why and how you are so reliable is core to what clients are looking for and then continuing to be kind of the dog or cat geek of your community, you know, and I used that as a very loving term. But continuing to be kind of the leading voice for pets in your area.
Collin
A reminder that sometimes the basics I mean the basics are basic for a reason is that they never go away and that they become heightened in areas at times, especially right now where people are looking for more assurance, more consistency of care and communication coming from us the business owner.
Exactly. And then
Collin
kind of finally here. I know you guys have your secret crystal ball that you keep in your basement, which is really cool. When you go down there and you look at the crystal ball, what does where do you see the the pet care industry moving for maybe the rest of the year or years down the road as you're looking at data and you're doing the research.
Jane Harrell
I think that really focusing on a diversity of services and diversity of expertise is going to be more and more important to the average pet printer. As we talked about earlier, the pet parent is overwhelmed is constantly trying to do everything trying to get everywhere, trying to be everything. And what we see kind of across the industry is more of a movement towards combined services. So as a pet sitter as a dog walker, thinking about how can you diversify your services? Are there ways that you can bring in other areas of expertise, so that you can be that more, more all encompassing expert for your clients? Is there some way that you could bring a mobile groomer into the business or partner with a mobile groomer so you have someone that you work with on a regular basis, and who you can recommend and who then you cross sell for each other? Is there some way that you can partner up with a holistic vet veterinarian in your area, or otherwise, work with some of the other small guys because as we've seen, more and more and more through the big retailers There is a shift towards centralization of services where they are now offering veterinary grooming, boarding and training all under the same roof. And the small business is going to have to be able to find ways to keep up with that. But the good thing is that millennials are actually the largest pet owning population in the US now. And millennials really love to go local and they love a cause. So, if you can show millennials that you are the local business that is teamed with other local businesses, and you guys aren't just out for profit, you're out for really helping them and helping their dogs and making the world better for pets. Then you have this big competitive edge for the largest pet owning population out there, no matter where you are in the US.
Collin
I do have to note that you did not deny the existence of a crystal ball. So I take that as fact. Thank you. But yeah, that that reminder of there are competitive advantages across the board and leaning into those. And when you understand both your local community, both your market and the services that you can fit into there, you, you really can start to build a powerful company and presence to bring people in, even though you may not feel like that sometimes.
Jane Harrell
Absolutely. And this is actually something so we do these full day marketing implementation days at working with dog comm where basically my business partner who's a branding expert, and I get together and we teach and do for the full day. So we had an audience building work day for our members recently this year, and the big way That we showed and actually implemented audience building. So ways to get people at the top of that tornado was through working with complementary businesses. And identifying, okay, you know, if I have, if I am the dog walker in my area, but I don't want to offer cat sitting, you know, how can I work with or identify another business that's going to help me grow both audiences? And then ultimately growth for both businesses? Or like I said, mobile grooming, veterinary services, so on how do you build a deeper relationship with those businesses where it's not just like, Oh, yeah, I'll hand out your business card. It's like, No, actually, here's how we're promoting each other. And here's how we're growing each other's list. And here's actually maybe some products that we sell together, right?
Collin
Yeah, that as an option of when people think of I need to grow, I need to add services so that they may start thinking okay, who do I need to hire? What do I need to learn? But that maybe that first step is look around going Is there anybody else offering these services that I can reach out to that we can start offering package deals between us or something like that, as that first step before you try and bring things in house, especially if that's not something that you are really passionate about, or that you really want to do?
Jane Harrell
Oh, yeah. So this goes back to my mantra, you know, you don't have to be everywhere. You don't have to do everything. You don't have to be everything to everyone. You do not need to be the penultimate pet professional to make this work. In fact, you should not try it will not work. So I'll give another example with working with dog my business partner and I met because we were both working for a client and because I am the data science geek, I love diving in creating basically hypotheses and then proving those hypotheses through marketing practices. But the the creative side of branding and the visual side of design has always been something that I just I don't enjoy. I don't like doing it. And here I am a professional marketer running a full service marketing agency, right. So I'd always hired people, I had great people on my team, but then my business partner neck and working with Dog. Before she was my business partner, she and I worked together and we discovered Oh, she loves that stuff. She loves the branding. She loves the deeper understanding and the visual representation and the visual design. And she's even into like color psychology, like, you know, what do the colors of your brand, tell your customers just when they innately look at you? Oh, thank you. So she's really deep into it, and honestly, the best I've ever met in the industry. And it was one of those Kismet moments where we were working together on this project to serve this client who's still a wonderful client of both of ours and She kind of let it drop that she was looking for a partner in working with Dog. And it was one of those things where I was like, yep, me, me, me. Because then I also got her as a team member, team member for cause digital, she works on our projects, she works with our clients. And I don't have to be that, you know, I didn't have that, that really wonderful expert on the team. She doesn't work for us full time she comes in as needed for clients. And I also have this now great passive income business, which is working with dogs. So it's a great example of two people who neither of us wanted to do the other one's job. In fact, we really despised doing the other one's job. Yeah. And now we're like being good to each other.
Collin
That's a wonderful example of how reaching the people around you and into your community just makes every bit everybody better off for it. makes it more robust, it makes it more collaboration between them and really helps spur you know, ideas and creativity amongst people when you start working together at that level.
Jane Harrell
Absolutely. And there's one place I'd say that anyone should start. So if you're thinking about this, really going back to what are your revenue streams, and there is a classic kind of evolution of most pet businesses that we see where it's, you get the one off sales. That's the one off client that the cat sitting for the weekend or for the month that the dog walker who really only needs you for one month. You know, those clients that you don't generally take longer term. And those sales are typically easiest for any business to get. But the problem with them is that they come and go real fast. They it's like the constant feast or famine or roller coaster of It's either the holidays and you are slammed. Or it's, you know, back to school and it's crickets. Mm hmm. So then the next evolution is really thinking about that landable income, where it's how do you build some recurring revenue into your business. And as I said, that's fairly easy if dog walking services are something that you also offer. But even with dog walking, there are ways to package your dog walking services. There are ways to package your pet sitting services, so that you're able to start bringing in that recurring recurring revenue and plantable revenue. So that actually when you look three, six months out, you can project Okay, I'm probably going to bring in this amount of money over that time. Wow. Suddenly, I'm a lot more comfortable in hiring someone and expanding my business. Because if you're constantly in that feast or famine, space, when you're in feast, you're too busy to hire anyone. When you're in famine, you're too poor to hire anyone. So the plantable and recurring revenue really stabilizes your business and makes it possible for you to start expanding. And then the last stage is where as I said that driving to passive revenue or driving to revenue that you don't physically have to exchange dollars for hours to get, and it's scalable, meaning you can bring in more people for and more money for the same amount of your time spent. And we actually created a workbook based on seeing this need and working with a lot of pet professionals, especially dog walkers and pet sitters, and we created a free workbook which is available to you guys at causes. marketing.com forward slash revenue. So again, cause digital marketing.com forward slash revenue. And it is a juicy 22 page checklist workbook of how to start thinking about these three stages of revenue in your business and understanding what's missing and how to start brainstorming. Especially as you're thinking about partnerships, as you're thinking about spending a little bit more time on growing since you have a little bit more time right now. This is a great way to spend that brain space and start planning how you're going to come out with the next thing that's going to stabilize your
Collin
business. And I'll have a link to that in the show notes of this episode, as well as on our website for this episode, so people can go and click there and find it really fast. That sounds like a really cool and great resource. Jane, I want to thank you so much for coming on today. And sharing about some of the history of marketing and some moves that we can all be making and thinking about maybe a little bit differently as we see a new landscape appearing before us and and how to really get on the right foot. But I know that we've probably only touched on the very, very surface of this whole topic. And so, if people would like to reach out, get in touch with you get access to that crystal ball, how can they best do that?
Jane Harrell
Absolutely, they can reach me at cause digital marketing.com or check out our community, specifically of marketing resources, templates, and marketing genius. at working with dog calm, I do suggest going and just checking out that revenue workbook whether you are just thinking about starting your pet business or whether you're already years and millions of dollars in this is something that was Based specifically on looking at that evolution, understanding where in the space you are and how to get to that next level, how to get to that next step. And if you do nothing else today, definitely just go check that out. And that's cause digital marketing.com forward slash revenue. And I will be there you can reach out. We do offer a free 15 minute brainstorm with our senior strategists. So if there's more about your business, you'd like to brainstorm together, we can do that as well.
Collin
Appreciate that. That'll be great, Jane, it's been a real pleasure. Thank you so much once again.
Jane Harrell
Thank you so much, Collin. I love it. It's been so great being a guest and I am honored that you asked to
Collin
find more information about Jane and cause digital marketing, check out the show notes or go to our website petsitter confessional.com. There you'll find this episode in all of our previous episodes as well. We'd like to thank our friends at timed pet for Making this show and this entire podcast possible. Thank you so much for listening today. We'll be back again soon.
