232: Valuing Yourself with Carla Tittle
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Summary:
How do you value yourself and handle tough times? Carla Tittle, owner of Texas Ruff House, stepped way from a career in elementary education on a sabbatical and found herself running a pet care business. Carla shares how she uses the skills of a teacher to read between the lines of client expectations. She also discusses her process in finding her ideal client, how she markets to them, and what it was like hiring for the first time. Carla’s pet care community suffered a tragic loss that reached the national news; she talks about the mark it’s left and how they all have come together. All through her time in pet care, she continues to reflect back on what she values and whether it’s reflected in her work, and she encourages us to do the same.
Topics on this episode:
Reading between the lines
Client expectations
Her team
Suffering loss as a community
Tough times
Main take away: There are different kinds of ‘hard’ in life, so there are different things needed to get through each of them.
About our guest:
In 2015 Carla traded her lesson plans for leashes. What started as a sabbatical from an elementary classroom, has transformed into a 5-star, highly revered pet sitting business. Carla began by getting her mom started as a pet sitter: she had the idea. Then she was solo, doing it in her spare time. She saw the potential and demand and made the decision to grown into a full business. Carla couldn't do it without her amazing team of pet sitters, and the support of her "tribe": her close friends and community. She found her niche and partnered with other local business owners and learn from them.
Carla took all the knowledge she gained from corporate business and the education industry, and modeled her pet care business in the same way. It turns out that training puppies and scheduling pet care isn't that different than teaching 6-year olds. It all boils down to consistency and repetition.
Links:
Her website: texasruffhouse.com
Boarding Fire: www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/09/21/dog-fire-pet-hotel-georgetown-texas/
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
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Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
business, pet, people, client, dog, service, pet sitter, texas, hire, pets, love, home, owner, visits, thinking, gift, experience, expectations, market, mom
SPEAKERS
Collin, Carla
00:17
Hi, I'm Meghan. I'm Collin. And this is Pet Sitter confessional an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter brought to you by time to pet and pet perennials.
Collin 00:30
What's it like going from elementary school teacher to a five star rated dog walking and pet care business? How do you define your client? And what does it mean to read between the lines of client expectations? Today, Karla turtle owner of Texas rough house joins the show to talk about her transition into the industry, how she applies her skills from her previous line of work to her new career. And what keeps her going through tough times.
Carla 00:58
Let's get started. Yes, so thank you for having me and reaching out to me. I'm so excited to be here. My name is Karla tiddle. And I am the owner of Texas Roadhouse. We are a pet sitting and dog walking company, based out of the Austin Texas area, and we have been in business since 2015.
Collin 01:17
No 2015. What changed back then? And why did you decide it was time to start a pet sitting company?
Carla 01:23
Yeah, well, it was not on my radar. I am. It's an interesting story. So I am an educator. I was an elementary educator, instructional coach and, and the administration department. When I finally left the education field, I was ready for a break a little sabbatical. And I had regularly taken years off with my kids. And so this time, I was on another break. And my mom had actually retired from her retail job. And she she said, um, I think I'm, I think I'm gonna, you know, start pet sitting. And I was like, that's, I think that's a great idea for you that would that that would really fit your life right now. I think that's great. And she was like, but do you think like, is that something people need? Like, is that do you think that you know, that's, that's viable? And I was like, no, definitely, yes. People are always asking about that in my neighborhood. You know, in my neighborhood, Facebook, patients are always asking for a pet sitter. And I can refer everyone here to you. And so she was actually only going to be doing daycare and boarding out of her home in Austin. And so while I was off of work, I was going over just hanging out with her everyday because my kids were in school. And so I had time. And I actually really liked what she was doing. It was actually fun of, you know, much better than dealing with adults or faculty meetings. And so I was like, you know, I think I'm going to do this too, while I'm on break. So, at that point, you know, I kind of went spare time to in my spare time and serving as her backup taking care of dogs in my home. And my parents actually worked for like, at first asking me, okay, what are you doing? Like you haven't, you have a degree, you need to go back to work. This is not, you know, this isn't a career for you. Yeah, and, you know, like, most of us think it's not a career. I mean, it's a trade, but it is a career, it can be a career. So I kind of had to convince my parents that there's actually a really good opportunity here, there's a, there's a business opportunity here, this is a need. And I'm not really going back to education, I'd really don't want to do that. So that's how I kind of stumbled on this journey of petsitting. And the and, you know, moved into a part time, you know, working more part time and you know, just kind of increasing the my availability, until I find a way to make a business on it as a business and grow it as a business. And even that took time because even when I started or not, when I finally decided that I was going to work it as a business as a as an IP full, you know, as an income to me. A lot of people would ask me, Well, what do you mean? Like, are you going to have a facility? It's kind of hard for people out distri to understand all of the different realms of petsitting Yeah, yeah. So here I am.
Collin 04:35
No, it is it is it's they're very murky waters from the outside to understand, oh, petsitter and a lot of people are trying to match Okay, where what's the closest thing I have to that and yeah, usually it is a boarding or a kennel kind of facility and then to have to go back and explain like, no, no, like I'm, I'm a little different. We'll take care of pots, but it's going to be a different and I think I love how you mentioned that. There was a lot of skepticism. At least from people you were telling about it being a true career, because it's not something that people go to school for. There's not training that you can go through and things like this. So what? How was it overcoming maybe that as viewing it as a career in recognizing yourself as a professional limit?
Carla 05:18
Right, you know, even for me, I struggled with it, like, you know, thinking, I don't have any trained veterinary experience, you know, I have a business to an accountant before I was a teacher, you know, I'm just a mom, or I'm just a teacher, you know, what do I really know? But I know a lot. I know, cuz my life experiences have taught me a lot. And I continue to learn. So kind of like getting back to your original question. How did I overcome, you know, the skepticism? You know, it took a while for my parents. years, actually, for them to stop asking when I was going to return to education. Um, so what I did is I really just started sharing my accomplishments, with them, and with my friends and my community. And then, you know, we kind of went from there really establishing a name for ourselves. Well,
Collin 06:19
so on your name, I'd love to know how you came up with Texas roughhouse, with the stories behind that.
Carla 06:27
So I still have the original list of business names, you know, you're kind of sketchy. Now. You know, what could we be called, you know, kind of Funky Bunch. Pet city, you're kind of throwing out different words, different ideas, you want to see if it's first available? Is it an established name? Is it an available name? Does that name do I like the name? Does that name fit? You know, the future that I want to go is it? Like I, I knew that I didn't want it to have my personal name. Because I'm always thinking long term, I knew that I was not going to be the only employee. Maybe at some point, I'll sell this business. I don't know. But I didn't want it attached to my personal name. So I had a bunch, I had a list of names going out. And so I knew that I wanted to have dog and you know, some kind of dog, you know, you're playing around with other dogs like canine dog, pooch, pup, you know, you're listing all these different associations, word associations with it, and one of the lists of names was Texas Roadhouse that I kind of put out there, because it served, you know, the house aspect, and then it had aspect in there. It's kind of a play on words, because there's a restaurant called Texas Roadhouse. Yeah. And so were Texas rough house. So it was kind of played along with that I wanted it to roll off your tongue, I wanted to see, you know, appeal to Texas, like, I'm sure, I don't know, really, if other states are like this, but there is a lot of pride in Texas. And everything related to Texas, we have the Tech Stars everywhere, and we fly like flag flies at the state flies at the same height as the US flag. I don't know, if I'm, you know, other listeners are aware of that. But that is allowed here. So there's a lot of pride in Texas. And that's how the name kind of evolved. It just had all the different categories that I was looking for.
Collin 08:19
The name is, it's really important, at least for you, the owner to be able to connect with that. And I love how you are also thinking of how am I going to connect with clients? And how do I get to take part in this, this culture, this pride that people have, and let them know that that's what I believe to, or that's where we are, you know, we're in Texas or taking part in that. And it is it's very tricky to figure out and walk that line between the something that I like versus something that's going to connect with the clients. And it's going to have legs to it. Because yeah, when you're just starting, it's like, I don't know where this is gonna end up 1015 years from now. So you know, you do it does take some time to think through what you want.
Carla 09:00
Right? And I think it's okay also to like change it and tweak it. Because when you're first starting a business, you have no idea what branding is, you're still you're constantly evolving your brand. And so you know, don't don't overthink it too much. But I think you know, once we really settled on it, and once we built the the reputation with the name, we did actually get it trademarked. So Oh, no, we're committed.
Collin 09:26
Well, that's a good point is many times we start with a name, and then we try and fit a brand to it later versus finding what our brand is and then making a name that comes from that. And I think that's we kind of find ourselves in those transitory periods of whether we try and apply to the brand to the name. If that works like we did with you. You're like, Okay, this is what we're actually going to be and when it doesn't, that's when you go, okay, how can I change this or what other elements can I pull in?
Carla 09:50
Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah.
Collin 09:53
Now, you, you mentioned that your background was in education, and that you you really didn't have A lot of running a petsitting company in business. So what was it like in that transition? And transferring those kinds of skills? Or what did you find that was most helpful for you when you first started?
Carla 10:12
Yeah, so even as an educator I have, I am always thinking of a business opportunity. Always my whole life, oh, I can make a business out of this, oh, this is a neat, I can make a business out of this. So even as an educator, I started and ran, like preschool camps. In the summer, I did private tutoring. And everything that I've learned about running a classroom and teaching, you know, 22, six year olds, or you know, 10 year olds, all of that I just transferred over to running a business. So how do I schedule? How do I really read between the lines? How do I form a diagnose like a not a diagnosis, but how do I observe what's going on? With the pets? How do I observe a conversation that I'm having with the client? Because I would have to, I would have to read between the lines a lot in speaking with parents of children, you know, so what are what am I listening for? I can sit down with a six year old and you know, read with him for 20 minutes until you exactly what he needs. So it's kind of doing the same thing, bringing that aspect to listening to pet parents talk about their home and their pets and what they're needing
Collin 11:24
that reading between the lines, that is a real skill, because I think a lot of times at least we've encountered this is the pet parent doesn't even know what they want, right? They have no clue what's going on. They just know that they're leaving, and something has to happen with their pet.
Carla 11:42
Right? They know, they know maybe what they've experienced in the past and what they're looking for now. And sometimes they they really don't know what they need, you know, we all consider our pets, our children. But there is a humanizing aspect sometimes placed on them. And so we have to flip the switch a little bit.
Collin 12:07
Yeah, I think that's the biggest flip is is this anthropomorphizing of these of what the pet is doing, and realizing, okay, actually, that that may be coming from the pet parent. And so when they're not here with this things are going on, we may have a different outcome, or, you know, I've got to communicate this a little bit differently. Because as you brought up like they've had this past experience where they're expecting something, or maybe positive or negative, that they're going to be bringing into this next encounter with me.
Carla 12:36
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, well, so you
Collin 12:40
are near Austin, and I'd love for you to tell us about what that market is like for you and what it's like connecting with your clients.
Carla 12:48
Yeah, so I've been in Austin since 1997, when I came to college, and it has always been pet friendly, dog friendly. You know, this, this primarily used to be a college town, it was very different than it is now. But a lot of the original, you know, vibe is still here. So, Austin loves her animals, more probably than any other Texas City. And so there's a lot of need, and market, I'm always thinking about the market what your market wants. So there's a need for what I see is pet owners looking for things to do with their pet looking for their pets to have the best in you know, accessories and care in experiences. So, there is a Austin has changed a lot and the the population, the makeup of the population, but it hasn't changed the love of animals, how
Collin 13:50
are you finding out what your client's needs are? You know, you're saying that they love pets that they have these expectations? How do you go about finding how you can fulfill those and what does that process look like for
Carla 14:02
you? Yeah, I would say that half of it is easy because half of it is me. I am that person. But the other half is not me that's the you know the younger generation the millennials, that is the one that I honestly struggle with, you know that I have to learn and keep up with my children are in that age bracket. And also I you know, I try to stay in tune and learning really learning about what they need but primarily, you know, we service the suburban dog mom, an attorney. So I am the PTO mom for a PTA mom. I am the mom that used to travel for sport. I'm the mom that takes vacations and so that is our same client. They have their year planned out. They have you know, they travel for sports, they're gone during the day but they do not want their dog to miss out on any fun so their dog goes with them when they go to you know certain restaurants or shops. on shopping trips, and so when they're happy when they have to be away, they don't want their dog to miss out on any of the fun, huh?
Collin 15:08
Yeah, well, and being able to connect with them, as you said, it's easy because a half, that's you. And I know, Megan and I find that a lot of like, oh, that's the easy part. That's who we can connect with. That's where messaging is, is is the best because we're dog parents. And I know how to talk that lingo to people our age are in similar interest. It's as we start to branch out all of a sudden, it's like, oh, how do I, who, let's read, let's figure this out and staying up to date or doing different things? Because, you know, for us, our inclination was always to go, oh, let's post it on social media. Let's post it on Facebook and Instagram. Real quick, sometimes forgetting a, there are huge swaths of our clients who they don't they don't even have any of that, or they never check it out how they use it. So we've got to change our behavior to meet their expectations,
Carla 15:50
too. Right. Right. And I do have, you know, a few of our pet sitters on our team, they're, they're younger, or 20s They're not on Facebook, I'm on Facebook. So I'm always asked them, you know, like, Well, how do you do a real you show me how to do that? Can you just, you know, film that? You know, while we're at an event, you know, things like that. So I'll look to them to see what's hot. Well, yeah, you have to find you have to flutter good at things that you're not good at.
Collin 16:19
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16:24
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Collin 16:48
looking for a new PET scanning software, give time to pet a try, listeners of our show can save 50% off your first three months by visiting timed pet.com. Forward slash confessional. Once you've found your clients expectations, I know something that you really strive and work hard is then exceeding the expectations. So what does it mean to exceed a client's expectations for you raising
Carla 17:11
the bar on what we do? You know, it does go back to reading between on what they're saying and what they're needing. And that alone, like that really helps us exceed their expectations. Like they didn't know we were going to do that they didn't know that their dog could do certain things. Some of the things that really I think set us apart is the variety on our team. A lot of our teammates, tab, or, you know, our pet sitters, they have different experiences in in animals, of animals. So we have someone that has, you know, can be an expert in that area that we can ask questions or, or can teach us about the type of care that that kind of animal needs or experiences. So there's, you know, there's moms on our team, there's grandmas on our team, there's single, like, you know, a pet mom or a plant mom is on our team. So just exceeding the exceeding the client's expectations, because they've, they've, you know, whether they've had a bad experience in the past, or they're trying a pet city, you know, pet sitter for the first time, we really want to blow blow them away, you know, blow them away with the type of service that we deliver through our communication, obviously, reliability, and, you know, the enrichment that we're bringing it every visit. Yeah. Well,
Collin 18:29
and part of that is what you're saying there is blowing them away, because you're taking their expectations and completely, like taking it to a whole new level where they didn't even know that was possible. And I love how do you lean on the strength of your staff, your your, your team members, to make that an integral part of that experience for them of going you like, basically to the client, so you have no idea what's possible, look at all the expertise, the experience that we have. And that's the strength that we're pulling from. Yeah, absolutely. You've got a really diverse team. I know you started by yourself, and you didn't feel like you're going to be by yourself for long. So walk us through that first hire, and kind of maybe lessons that you took from that,
Carla 19:09
you know, my first hire is amazing. Every hiring experience for me has been really, really good. And I think that's why, you know, I'll be honest, that is a hesitation and a fear of mine is hiring and I really need to get over that. So my very first hire and all that one person on our team was a referral to my first hire was a friend of a friend who happened to retire as a veterinary technician. And he, the sitter, she hired retired as attorney technician and you know, was looking for something to do. I met with her and she is still with me. So she was my very first hire, I don't know four or five years ago and she's still on our team and every other person on our team has been a referral from someone I know which I've been very very blessed in that regard. Well, all except for one. Yeah, so only one staff member, she found us that, Oh, I love her. I mean, I love everyone on our team. And I'm just so I have been so lucky in that area. And, you know, I, I need to hire, we still we're still growing and we need to hire and I just hope everyone can be as fabulous as every other applicant that I've had.
Collin 20:26
Well, so do you still have a little bit of fear each time you hire a whether they're going to work out? And whether it's going to be a good thing for your for your team?
Carla 20:34
Yes, yes. Although we spend a lot of time working with our, our new hires, you know, before we release them independently? I, you know, it is it, it is a careful balance, I think for me, because it's such an independent job, you know, they're not working in retail with supervision or other people around. And, and, and we worked really, really hard. You know, thanks to the everyone on our team. We have an outstanding reputation to uphold in communities. And I know that our community members are trusting us with who was coming into their house when they're gone. And so I take that very seriously,
Collin 21:20
it is very daunting to realize that this person is walking out there with my reputation and my business's reputation on their shoulders, like they are a true representative. And I guess that falls back on us to make sure we've done the training, we've done the screening, we've done all those profits processes the best we know how, Yeah, cuz at some point, you gotta let them loose.
Carla 21:40
Yeah, yeah, we do. You know, it's like children, you know, like, my kids are teenagers. And, and, and we'll have to teach them. And then my six year old, my students, I teach them what I know, and I send them on their way. I'm not here to do 12th grade, you know, precalculus, that's not me. So it's the same thing with my team, I train them as much as I can train them to be independent. And it all just comes from experiences, or they could, you know, they're still gonna call with a certain question, you know, there's a doing this obviously, 1000s upon 1000s of times, and, you know, they're, I don't know, say, There's nothing I haven't seen yet, in a house or an experience. And so you just kind of have to go, go, go through that, go through the experience of it, and then learn from it.
Collin 22:32
That's true. So what are you what are you doing now? You know, you're looking to hire now? Are you doing anything differently in your hiring process, given the market in New Hires expectation,
Carla 22:43
I'm trying not to think that hiring is going to be hard, because everywhere around in Texas is fully open, we have been open and we are not closing. And so but, you know, if I was to focus on what I see in other businesses around me, like the restaurant industry took a huge hit. They're closing restaurants are closing mom and pop shops, restaurants are closing, closing certain days, even Taco Bell in my in my, in my area, like the entire restaurant had to close, because they didn't have enough staffing. So I see higher, you know, I see other businesses and industries, going through this obstacle of hiring and being able to get anybody to work. And so I have to just think in my mind that the reason that they they are not able to employ is because a lot of the I guess applicants want flexibility. They don't want to be in a populated building. They want to freelance more. So I'm choosing to focus on that, and that that's actually going to make my hiring easier.
Collin 23:51
Ah, no, that's, that's really well said of looking at what what problems are they having, and not internalizing those and going, Oh, I'm going to have those same problems. Instead, looking at the strengths that the position offers, and really playing that up in the communication in the posting. Yeah. Because that's, that's what's going to be connecting with them because that's what they are. They're wanting to hear that.
Carla 24:12
Right. So you know, and it's a test you gotta you gotta test the market. I think you have to see what are they wanting? What I'm seeing, now, you know, is telling some friends is on some of the Facebook groups, I see people that are looking for a job, they're writing their own hiring at, you know, they'll say, I am looking for a work from home job that pays no less than 20 hours a week and I cannot not available on weekends, who do you know, that tiring? You know, people now want to write their own and maybe they can, you know, that's a very different generation, like I'm in my 40s. So that's a very different generation. So at first I think, okay, we're just gonna ride or not okay, so let's take a look at that. So, you know, you got to see what the market wants. What is the market wanting? What are they needing, and offer them that?
Collin 24:58
Oh, that's interesting because Many times we only think about that when we're referring to our clients. And we very rarely think about, okay, what's the market like in the job pool that I'm pulling from? And how do I speak their lingo? How do I attract them with certain things that's still going to work for my business, obviously, I don't need to completely change and not run the business I want to run anymore. But I do need to recognize that these expectations are changing in the hiring pool. And I've got to be be sensitive to that. Right? Right. So when you're, when, when you're hiring people, how do you know if they're a good fit? For a rough What are you looking for, and somebody is gonna make a good fit with Texas Roadhouse.
Carla 25:37
For us, first and foremost, I want somebody that is, has attention to detail communicates clearly. And then after that is reliable. You know, I work life balance is very important for me, personally, and I want to make sure that it also is, you know, experiences a work life balance as well, and so that they're happy and healthy. I'm also queuing in I'm always asking also new hires, how busy they want to be. So that I can match and also my current team, I'm always checking in with them, like, how busy Do you want to be? Are you busy enough? Do you need some time? Do you want to be less busy? So I'm always looking to find also in a new hire,
Collin 26:31
where does that desire come for you to have a good work life balance is that from past experiences, or just seeing people around, you burn out or go through bad stuff?
Carla 26:41
Yeah, totally from my experiences. I mean, that's why I left education. That's why I took I frequently took a year, you know, regularly took a year off from work, just because it's just such a demanding career education, you know, teachers. Unfortunately, it's such a, I wouldn't say it's a thankless job it is, they're very thankful our community is very thankful, if teachers, good teachers really work themselves, work themselves down. And it's very easy for pet sitters to do that as well. And I've done it to myself. And so I've learned as a pet sitter, and as a pet city business, you know, as an owner, to plan my time off, it doesn't matter what you mark off, that you mark off whatever days in a calendar, you're still going to get requests for that day. And I think you talked about this in one of the other podcasts recently. Also, it doesn't matter what days you mark off, you're still going to get requests for that day, don't worry about it, move forward, but plan your year, you know that you're taking monthly days off, you know, regular, you have days marked off each month, quarterly time off, a longer stretch of time off, and that you're you're you're reaping the fruits of your labor, because petsitting is a very labor intensive job. mentally as well. Yeah. Yeah,
Collin 28:01
that's a very passion full business where we're always don't throwing our whole selves at it. And when we don't take that time to step back, and I think it's important to to remember that it's not just for us, you know, if we have staff, if we have team members to provide them with those same opportunities, because we want them to be around year after year with us as far as long as they're able, we don't want to be burning them out at you know, for our benefit. We want to make sure they're taken care of, and they have a healthy life as well. Yeah, yeah. It is scary to go over to your calendar and put big meal line through days because you know, you just know it's like this is the best way to get business that weekend is I'm just gonna not be here. And because you
28:44
want to manifest work for yourself, go take a week off and you'll just get more bookings. And you ever dream? Yeah. And
Collin 28:51
it's, I have to say no to that. It's really you got it. It's so hard for us because you know, my brain always go look at all the money I'm losing out on. Versus look at all the mental health I'm building or the mental wealth that I'm gaining on the back end of that. And sometimes those don't always weigh the same in that moment, but we've got to be thinking long term, not just that weekend.
Carla 29:11
Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah. I used to plan off, I used to my old, like, I guess approach was knowing that I was going to take the time off after a holiday, I was going to take advantage of the holiday either work the holiday, you know, work the holiday, but I knew I was going to be off following that holiday. But then you get to a point where maybe you don't want to work every holiday anymore. So you want to mark that that off as well.
Collin 29:35
Yeah, and not being afraid to and I think that again, we talked about working through our fears of hiring and then this fear of taking time off because we feel like we're gonna lose out on something.
Carla 29:45
Yeah. Because then you negotiate with your with yourself and you're like, well, it's just one dog. I mean, I'm going to be here anyway. You know, he might I might as well just bored him, or well, he's really easy. You know, just go over there or it's just a cat. You know, it's just, it's just it's just it's just but it's it's also training yourself and retraining yourself and and allowing yourself you know, why did you get it? Why did you started this business that you started because of flexibility? You know, always going back to the reason that you started it? And is that allowing you the flexibility, the rest of the income, the whatever reason you started this business.
Collin 30:16
So you're right, I think always going back and comparing to the wind you gave a lot. That's a great example of going I got into this to be because of the flexible schedule. We all talk about that. But then if we look at how our calendar, would we go, Is this a flexible schedule? Is this is this what I want? And I think, truthfully, we'd have to say, No, this is not the schedule that I wanted. But we feel like oh, well, I guess I have to do this, because that's just what I do. Now, instead of realizing that can be it could be different.
30:46
That's right.
Collin 30:47
Of all the services that you offer. I know one of them is that you don't offer overnight visits to to client's homes. And I was curious why that is.
Carla 30:57
Right. Although we used to there, we found that there's there was only a few people on our team that wanted to do that. And we got to a point where it was becoming too hard to fill that reservation request, just based on the demand. And basically, we only had two people to do you know, that were available for that type of service. So, you know, this is again, where we have to play with the market, the market really loves that. They like it. A lot of people really like that service, they they think that their dog needs someone to sleep with. And so you know, you'll hear that they'll they'll tell you, Oh, well, my dog, I really want someone to be here when they're sleeping, and they're used to sleeping with me, you know that they, because they've had that in the past. And this is where I really struggled, because although the market wants that, are we able to charge enough for it. And the biggest thing that someone helped me realize was, does the CEO love it? As much. So for me, it was becoming more of a stress point, just because I was having to turn, you know, tell clients that we were not able we're not available, or I'm not sure yet, you know, we'd have to check. And I didn't want that. I don't I didn't want having to disappoint them and let them down. So in another regard, you know, as a business, what I've learned from Natasha is, you know, everything that you do, it has to be reproducible. It has to be like anybody can step in and do that, can anybody step in and do that, because I as the owner cannot continue to be the backup person. I can't. And honestly, as a pet sitter, I never provided that service when I was independent. And so that's not one thing. Do. So it has to fit the market, but then the fit the CEO, and it has to fit with the business can offer. So instead, what we do when when, when customers do call to request that type of when customers called request that type of service. We are, you know, we spin it around, and we let them know that our pet study visits mimic a typical day for your pet. And so we can provide you know longer visits in the morning, longer visits that night, to compensate their typical day, you know, so they might go for a long walk, have breakfast in the morning with their owners go out again, lunch, afternoon. And then evening might be another long block play time dinner wind down. So our petsitting visit, mimic that typical day that your dog experiences, we
Collin 33:36
get people who ask us all the time for like, for boarding or for daycares with us they want that's what they want. Because again, they're used to this idea of when I leave, I take my dog somewhere, and that's where they shall be. And initially, when we would try and convert them to a different service of you know, convert them over to drop ins are the kind of things that you're discussing there, we always felt like we were providing a in the clients mind, we were providing a worse alternative for them, we're giving them a second tier kind of service. And it really does take a little bit of education to help them realize we know what this isn't. We're not cutting corners. There's nothing second tier about this, this is actually the perfect service for you. And a lot of times, you know, people get it immediately and other people takes a little bit for them to figure out, Okay, that'll like that actually works. And I like what's going to happen with that better. So there is that, that education that has to take place when you're trying to flip to a new service.
Carla 34:29
Right? Absolutely. You do have to educate them and show them explain to them, tell them paint the picture for them of what the visits are going to look like, what their dog is going to experience. You know, from physical exercise, you know, you know they're going to have they're going to get physical exercise, you're going to get their basic training reinforced. They're going to we're going to bring puzzles, you know, enrichment you know, mental enrichment games for them. So they'll go to bed happy and healthy.
Collin 35:01
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Because you're getting you're trying to reading between the lines of those client's needs and speaking to maybe some unspoken fears that they have or anxieties and worries that they're bringing forward. And one way again, of going above and beyond is knowing, okay, boom, I've already got that covered in this is how it's going to happen. And the reaction I'm sure for people is like, okay, great, that sounds that works for me.
Carla 35:25
Right. And, you know, we also get the other extreme of like, sometimes we get calls with customers who only want one visit per day because their dog is going to use the doggie door. And so that's another one that we have to overcome and explain and maybe educate a little bit about how that is not gonna allow us to really deliver the type of service that that we deliver.
Collin 35:49
It really is. It's amazing. You know, a lot of people get in this business, because we love pets. We love being outdoors, we love a flexible schedule, but how quickly we turn into educators and advocates for people's pets who they didn't even know needed to be advocated for. Right, right.
Carla 36:07
Yeah, yeah, you just, you know, if they're requesting a service that you don't offer, spin around, explain to them what they're going to get with your service. And, you know, we can try it and see how it works, you know, we'll be doing X number of visits per day. And if we find that that may not, you know, that your dog may require a little bit more, we'll be sure to communicate with you and offer, you know, another visit or more, more of whatever he's needing. Yeah, being flexible
Collin 36:33
and adapting to, to, to that particular client's needs, obviously, within reason of what you're able to do. And
Carla 36:42
I mean, we're not gonna end up just staying there. But yeah, we can try it everything deserves a trial,
Collin 36:48
I did want to touch on a big loss that your pet God suffered recently. I know, we thought in the news, and going around several different Facebook groups and such. So could you tell us a little bit about about that, and how it's impacted everyone in the pet care community down by you.
Carla 37:06
Right, so it was a local boarding and daycare facility, just a small, or I wouldn't say small, they're not a swimming there. They're just a local business. And they're not a franchise, and they have a fire in the facility that started I would say, around 10, or 11pm. They haven't released any information regarding the cause of the fire. Or, you know, if it was really, the cause of the fire was has not been released by the authorities. But the firefighters did arrive, you know, within the time, I guess, but however, oh my god, so sad. All of the Jonatha stick there was up to 75. They all perished. What the news has already, you know, the authorities have released is that it was due to smoke. And lace was a metal, which is a very common metal type building. It's very common in facilities. It was that type of building. So although the building did sustained some damage, structurally is still there. So I didn't have anyone working or I shouldn't say that, because I really don't know the backstory. But that's what has happened, what has happened. And what I've seen from the local community is a lot of support for the pet owners and the pet business owner, the business owner, he was very well loved in his community had a very good reputation. So locally, like the suburb community, Georgetown, from what I've seen, has been very supportive of him. However, you know, the pet community does want to see change at the pet parent community wants to see more changes in regulations for boarding facilities regarding staffing and safety, as well as what I'm seeing
Collin 39:17
how do you as as a business owner, communicate and talk about that kind of thing with clients, and talk them through the process and what all that looks like?
Carla 39:27
Yeah. So part of it is really communicate in how, you know, what the regulations are, currently, and yes, they can and how most of it is unregulated. And so there's the regulations that are there may not be to the standard of what what would be considered for like a human care type aspect or, you know, a child daycare center versus a pet daycare. center, you know, here, animals are still considered property. So there's different regulations and policies that come with that as well, of requirements. And what I've seen is just the, you know, there's petitions for change as far as safety and staffing. So for, for clients who who are asking about that, we just tried to educate them on the current laws. And what, what could be improved?
Collin 40:33
Yeah, I know that there's a lot of conversations going on about what they were, what they should be versus what people want them to be. And I can't imagine being a business that's also in pet care, having to field questions or interact with other businesses to figure out a what's going on and then be How are we going to respond and help is we send you to use it to educate, not just pet parents, but other business owners as well.
Carla 40:59
Mm hmm. Yeah, it's really, really tough. Because, you know, every business has to, you know, it is it's hard, it's a balance, because you have to see it from a business perspective on what makes sense. But then you have to have a sensitive perspective, as well to it, you know, there's two sides to the coin.
Collin 41:24
Yeah, it's again, it's a very, there's a lot of passion. There's a lot of feelings and emotions involved in this as, as there should be because there are people's pets and loved, loved Furbabies. And then yeah, going, Okay, we've got to, we've got to walk all these lines. And I think I hope that this is part of getting a lot of people to talk about these things now, and hopefully be better on the back end of this.
Carla 41:46
Yes. And it teaches also, you know, the questions to ask when you're looking for a facility or for any kind of pet care, it improves the the knowledge of the pet owner on what questions are important questions to know and ask. And then I mean, I really, really feel for the owner. You know, they're sensitive, sensitive to what he's going through as well. Whatever, whatever caused it, whatever the reason was behind it, whatever things are in place, and, and fell through or weren't in place. You think about as a pet sitter, if you've ever had to make a call, because a pet escaped, or a pet was injured, a pet, you know, dogs, that owners dogs got into a fight, if the door was open, you know, you came in and something was out of place. All of those calls that you've had to make, are terrifying. They're, you know, they're just encompassed with so much guilt and grief for you as the caretaker. So you, you know, you, you multiply that by 75 phone calls that had to be made that morning. And, you know, a lot of people were hurt the staff, the pet owners, the owner, it's, it's, it's tough.
Collin 43:05
It is. And it's a it's a reminder that those kinds of things like the accidents happen, and that's where we, we don't can do the best we can. But at the end of the day, like we've got to be as ready as we can for some things like that, as you mentioned, right, gets out doors left open, there's damage all those things. It's a reminder to us that okay, like we need to be ready for those moments when they occur.
Carla 43:27
Mm hmm. Yeah, it's hard.
Collin 43:31
It is, it is, it is really heavy, it is absolutely heavy. And, you know, it's, I'm sure that that kind of thing wasn't even on your radar whenever you first started back in 2015. You know, just getting into it. So I can't imagine like, what other changes that you've seen or knowledge of the of the industry has grown, you've come to know, in that time, oh,
Carla 43:53
so much has changed. You know, you experience bad changes the way you do things in your operation. From what you require, you know, it's only going to happen, you try that, you know, you think that's only gonna happen one time, that's never gonna happen again, because now we're going to do this, you know, never is a hard word. But, you know, you start putting things in place to prevent that from happening again, or encourage, you know, continue to happen. So one of the, you know, for example, like we made a change that we require all dogs to be wearing a well fitted color, and updated identification tags during the entire time that we're sitting. You know, we require that we have a working key, not just a garage door code, because we experienced the for this horrific freeze in Texas in February, where we were out of power it was we were out of power for almost four days we were out of power and water. So if we had only had a garage door code to enter, we wouldn't have been able to enter The home. So, you know, learning from all of these experiences help us fine tune what we're doing and change our operation.
Collin 45:09
Yeah, you don't know what you don't know. And that's part that's part of having that experience and that pure, you know, getting plugged in with other business owners just kind of fast track some of that learning. So you don't have to experience everything.
Carla 45:21
Yes, yes. You know, a really important question that we learned to ask was, Are there any other pets in the home that we are not going to be taking care of? Hmm. Because one home had a pet tarantula that escaped his enclosure, and our pets that are walked in the front door, and there was a tarantula in the entryway. To make matters worse, it was deceased, and found to have been caused by the cat. Yeah, so that that, you know, brought on any immediate call and communication to the owner, letting them know that there was a tarantula, and like, why. So things like that, you know, is, you know, sometimes they're just, you know, owners are in a hurry. They've got a lot going on before a trip. So it's important to ask as many questions as we can. They have their mind going in a lot of different directions as well. So that's one of the most important questions that we asked now is, are there any other pets in the home that we will or will not be taking care of? Yeah, that one was tough.
Collin 46:43
I'm writing that one down. We're gonna add that to our intake because we have that. Right now. We asked, Are there any plants that you want think because a lot of people don't think about plants and then we don't want them to come back to them? I'll be dead. So we say hey, do you need to water any plants? But I didn't ask Do you have any tarantulas hidden in corners that before okay? That's perfect. Pet perennials makes it easy as 123 to send a heartfelt condolence gift directly to someone with a broken heart. Now, this awesome direct client gifts service that takes the effort off of us enter the thoughtful, personalized simply give reaches our client for employee. All gift packages include a handwritten card, colorful gift wrap, and shipping fees across the US and Canada. They also have an array of milestone gifts in greeting cards that can be sent to celebrate birthdays, extend, get well wishes, and welcome new and rescued pets. Additionally, there are gift choices in case you need to send a simply gift in memory of a special human client, or celebrate a pregnancy engagement or wedding of a pet lover. If you're interested, register for a free business account to unlock the all inclusive discounted package prices. Since the service is leveraged on an as needed basis, there are no monthly or any obligation or minimum purchasers learn more and register by going to pet perennials.com/pages/g P S, and enter the referral code PS C at registration to get a unique coupon code to save $2 off of any package you send in your first 90 days. And I'm sure over that over those times. And you mentioned one of the hard times that you've had is is the the freeze for four days, which which everybody heard about on the news and then the atrocity. That that was for many, you know, in tough times for you, where do you go? Or how do you keep going? When, when when things get hard?
Carla 48:39
Yeah, you know, there's different types of hard things that have happened to us from the onset of the pandemic. You know, last year that happened for us here in Texas, right, a spring break, right, which was starting so we lost all of our spring break reservations. April, we lost 90% of our revenue. And I just had to I had to think quick and I had to pay, they're not traveling, they're staying home. What do they need right now? They need their dog exercise because they're on Zoom calls and their kids are on Zoom school. So we can offer still dog walking and we can offer yard time playtime we can offer boob scooping, we can offer a dog bathing, we can offer anything that we can to take something off their plate and a lot of our clients wanted a way for them to support they wanted to find a way that they could support us so this is a way that they could support us. Also we we thought you know I just had to think what what do they need that they don't know they need? Yeah. And again looking back at what I'm currently going through, you know what am I going through my kids are here my husband's here. You know the dogs are barking and people are in a zoom call and screaming at each other from one house you know one room to another to get out. Stop screaming and I can't get a connection. So, you know, do they need their dog barking? When they're on a zoom call? No. So we had to, we had to pivot there. And, you know, I say hustle, but we really did have to pivot and hustle to keep things going. During that time, you know, and I turned to y'all, I turned to the podcast, I learned so much, I just ate it all up, you know, I ate up everything I was, I was listening to all the old episodes, taking in anything that I could, I was learning up on my craft, you know, pet city, and you know, trying to get better. So that's, that's where I turned to I just always turned to what do we need? What does my staff need? What do our clients need? And then in the like, is like, how can we continue to, to move forward through this because we were currently so it was a holiday weekend here. And we were servicing homes. And those owners could not fly back home. The row, yeah, our airport was shut down. There were no fly. There were the roads were frozen. They couldn't, you know, one of them to fly into Dallas, which is like three hours away and then drive here. But so we were dealing with that. And so we said, You know what, we're just going to have to go down to two visits a day. Luckily, I'm so thankful. And I just and also felt horrible that I was out of state myself, if it was a holiday weekend, Colorado that I could, I was not able to enjoy my own vacation. I was crying every day. Just thinking about two of my, my sitters who were going on, they were going on with everything that was left here driving as carefully as they could to get to the homes and making sure that those animals were taken care of. And then we were having to boil water. So we were boiling water for the pet. It was it was crazy. And then finally I got back. I told everyone okay, I'm taking over everything. Y'all stay home. Of course, the roads were drivable by then it back above freezing, but they really deserve them some time off.
Collin 52:18
Wow, wow, gosh, I can't Yeah, that's, that's a lot. And it really sounds like whenever things like that happen, you immediately switch into action and adapting yes to the situation and really trying to just work your way through and always thinking of new things. Because I know for many people, when tough times come up, we freeze and we stop and we're in action because we're scared of movement. Is that? Do you think it's just how you're wired to just always be looking for the next thing? And keep pushing? Keep pushing? Keep pushing?
Carla 52:46
I think so yes, I do have a moment of like, panic, oh, my God, what are we going to do? And then I just need a moment. I just need to come out of that for a minute. And ideas start coming to me. You know, and and definitely, you know, to all the pet sitters, if, because it happens to me, if you are overworked and bogged down. For me, I'll just say, I can't think of ideas. I can't get creative. And it's and then I'm just stuck in this cycle of being overworked and not knowing and thinking about how to get out of my over worklessness, you know and get to some relief and balance. And so I do have an immediate, like, oh my god, what am I going to do? And then I'll start thinking, I'll go for a walk with a dog or all this kind of thing. What are other businesses doing? What have I learned in the past, and I, I always look away from pet sitting businesses, I look at other trades, what they're doing. And so that has helped me a lot is I have a lot of different connections, I have a lot of good friends that own many different types of businesses. And they've taught me a lot, I see what they, you know, think about how I can apply that to pet sitting.
Collin 53:59
I think that's really important to continue to take in new information and that idea of not just looking at the pet sake industry, but looking broader, and saying, Okay, where's all the what innovation is taking place? So what are some of your favorite resources that you'd like more people to know about?
Carla 54:16
Definitely the podcasts. I think looking to if you have a tribe, if you have a really good tribe of clients, friends, other businesses that you're connected is to ask them, they are your resource. They have always been a resource for me on how does it sound? Would this work? Is this a need? What are you doing? What are y'all doing for here? What are y'all here? People are hearing and you're hearing about what's going on? You know whether in in the market in the neighborhood, in their own networks, everybody has a different network. Like for me my network is the PTO ma The band mom's to sports, mom's a Suburban. That's my network. If you need anything going on in there, I'm your girl. I'm not in other markets, you know, in other networks that my friends are in. So I'll go to them and ask them. What's going on there? What are you hearing? What are y'all planning? And so I'm just been very, very fortunate to have such supportive family and friends and cloths that are always there for us and willing to share and connect us. shout, shout us out all of that. That's where I go to who I know. Yeah.
Collin 55:38
And I think when people will start writing down names, they'll realize that that tribe is an awful lot bigger than we initially expect. And I really hope that because that was a lesson from us that we took away from from 2020 was, while there are a lot more people out there rooting and cheering for us than I ever imagined. And yeah, they came out of the woodwork. And I think we need to continually remind ourselves of that. And then to, to that it's okay to reach out to them to ask questions to see what's going on to, to do trials or things like that, that that you can use those people around you because they want to see you succeed. So they're going to be more than happy to do that
Carla 56:13
on yourself with the people who want to see you succeed. Well,
Collin 56:15
so onsuccess, you're been in business for coming up on six years or six years now. Do you feel like you're successful? Do you believe that you you are successful?
Carla 56:24
Yes, in many areas of my life, but I haven't reached my, I guess for success. I am successful in the sense that I work from home and that I'm home, when my children are here, when they come home, I'm successful, and that I really can control a lot of my work schedule. I'm successful in that I have an amazing team that works with me. And I'm successful in that we have impacted the community in a positive way. So there's many areas that we are successful in. I think, I don't know what true success really looks like. I mean, I know what the goals I want for us, you know, this year, and we've always caught, you know, we're almost, I would say accomplishing all of our goals for the business. But they're their goal behind that. Yeah, so it's reaching. Next one,
Collin 57:22
I think it is something that we can recognize that I'm successful to today. It's not always something that's in the future. And so to hear that, yeah, you know, what, I, I've got all these things going on. This is working for me, it's meeting these goals, I've got more so it doesn't mean I'm not successful. It just means that I've still there's still more work to do. Yeah, yeah. Thinking back over your six years in business here, what advice would you have to other pet sitters that you'd like more people to know about? Or that that you just want to encourage them with?
Carla 57:52
First and foremost, you have to value yourself and what you do, you have to believe in yourself. Not always easy to believe in yourself. But I have friends and family that believe in me when I can't believe in myself. So again, it's surrounding you with people who want to see you see, seed. You know, when I first started, I really under price. Myself, and the service that I provided, you know, I thought that since I didn't have a brick and mortar that I didn't, that I wasn't I couldn't charge that much. You know, I had to Oh, but your prices are related to the perceived value of your client. So if your client perceives and believes that you are delivering a service, or quality of service, a type of service, everything that encompasses your service, that they're receiving the value for what they're paying for, they're going to pay for that. So I see so many pet sitters, myself included when I started undervalue themselves. You know, I've heard other people affect the entire pet sitting community when one when one of us undervalues ourselves, it affects everyone else, it devalues the entire industry. And there is a lot to be to petsitter it. Yes, it. You know, we'd love to say it's levied on puppies. But it's a lot more than that. And so you have to consider that when you're valuing yourself and your business is the time in scheduling the time and learning the investment of the time and money in learning, your insurances, your association fees, everything that you're doing to improve yourself and the service that you deliver. You have to value that
Collin 59:41
because that that time it has got to come from somewhere and I think you really quickly realize where that kind of time whenever you go maybe to hire somebody and you realize like you're like, oh, wow, there's a lot involved in this. What was I doing? Oh,
Carla 59:58
no, that happened to me right? away very soon after I started pet sitting, I, I had to be like every other pet mama, it turns out that our entire family was going out of the country. And really nobody was going to be available to watch our dog. So I had to go visit other pet sitters homes for boarding. And I was like, Oh my gosh, so this is what's going on in other people's homes. This is what they're, this is what my they're doing this. They're running their business, their you know, if other people's houses, they're not doing the clean, okay, this is, this is next level, okay. And then I also learned that, you know, as an educator, when I stepped out of the classroom, and I became an instructional coach, I was teaching other teachers. And so I would go and observe other classrooms. And that was eye opening, because I saw what was, you know, the kind of teaching and learning that was going on in other classrooms, and I was shocked. So even if you are a pet sitter, and you don't necessarily need your service, test the market, and interview other pet sitters and other facilities, and see what's going on over there, and how maybe it'll help you improve, or maybe it'll help you value what you're doing even more.
Collin 1:01:13
Hmm, that's, that's a wonderful piece of advice. I absolutely agree with that wholeheartedly, because it just helps you know, what's going on and where you stand, and what you can do to either differentiate or start finding out different clients in different parts of the market to well, Carla, I want to thank you so much for joining me today and encouraging us to help persevere through hard times, and through seeking out our tribe to be better in all ways. But I know there's a lot more here. So how can people get connected with you? And and start asking you and picking your brain for more questions.
Carla 1:01:48
Sure. Um, so our website is Texas roadhouse.com. And as well as our Instagram and Facebook, and anybody can message me there. I'm happy to help.
Collin 1:01:58
Wonderful, and I'll have links to that and more of the things that we talked about on the show as well. So wonderful. Thank you so much, Carla. Thanks, Colin, value yourself. And what you do, those words of wisdom from Karla really strike home to many of us in the pet care industry. And Carla did that from moving into a different career and making it her own to deciding what services that she wanted, because she didn't like offering a few of them. When we start to value ourselves and we start to value what we do, we start to hold those boundaries a lot better, we start to charge appropriately for our services. And we start to live the life and run the businesses that we want to value comes in the form of not just the monetary nature of receiving money for something that we provide. When we value and we place high esteem upon ourselves and our business and our services. It means we're willing to do things for them. We're willing to sacrifice for them. We're willing to go to bat and go out and talk to people about our business. We're willing to adapt and change and be something different and look towards the future during really tough times. So how do you value yourself? How do you place value on your work? And what does that look like to you? We'd love to hear about that. Send us feedback at feedback at Pet Sitter confessional.com Or anywhere on social media at Pet Sitter confessional. We want to thank our sponsors time to pet and pet perennials for making today's show possible. And really, we want to thank you. Thank you so much for taking your time today and for listening. We hope you've enjoyed it and hope you've learned something from it. Reach out to Karla and talk to her more about her business and what she's done. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week. We'll be back again soon.
