287: Continuing to Adapt with Miguel Rodriguez
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Summary:
How do we continue to pivot, adapt, and overcome challenges in business? Miguel Rodriguez, owner of City Dog Pack, joins us to share how he continues to apply lessons from Covid to the way her operate his business. From slimming down the number of staff he oversees, to tackling dog training and coaching via Zoom, Miguel has learned to let things go that don't help him on his mission. He also shares how he uses social media as his only marketing tool, and why we should be reading more!
Topics on this episode:
How to keep pivoting
Moving away and letting go
Applying lessons from COVID
Just using Instagram
Mindset and reading
Main take away: To continue to pivot and adapt, we must continue to learn and challenge ourselves.
About our guest:
Miguel Rodriguez Is the founder and owner of City Dog Pack established in 2010. City Dog Pack provides dog walking, dog boarding and dog training services in New York City
Miguel is a certified master dog trainer and behaviorist and teaches free dog training webinars via Zoom, and offers one on one virtual dog training sessions to anyone worldwide.
Miguel is also an advocate for small business owners and provides dog care business advice on his Instagram pages @citydogpack and @dogbiztv
Links:
Email: citydogpack@gmail.com
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
Follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, & TuneIn
Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
dog, business, people, clients, book, customers, service, pandemic, pet, walking, instagram, dog walkers, training, learned, training session, gift, day, running, business owners, talk
SPEAKERS
Collin, Miguel
Collin 00:10
Hello, I'm Meghan. I'm Collin. And this is Pet Sitter confessional and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter, brought to you by type two pet and pet perennials, pivot and adapt, adapt, and overcome. These are the truisms of what it takes to run a business and run a modern dog walking and pet sitting business these days. How do we stay limber? How do we stay active and engaged in the society and the culture in the needs of our clients? And how do we stay flexible personally, to be open to making those kinds of changes? Today, we are really excited to have Miguel Rodriguez, owner of city dog pack back on the show. He was previously on episodes 38 and 65. A lifetime ago, the way the world works these days. But he joins us to talk about how he has continued to adapt and learn from the lessons of COVID and lock downs and clients expectations. He also shares how he uses social media and his online presence to share much more than just dog tips.Let's get started.
Miguel 01:15
Sure. First of all, thanks for having me on. Again. It's always a good time chatting with you. My name is Miguel, I own a company called City dog pack. We do dog training, dog boarding and dog walking in New York City. Also do virtual dog training session resume. And I've been running city dog pack since April 2010. It will be 12 years this April. And just you know working with dogs every day. I'm just dog a dog nerd. I love to talk dogs.
Collin 01:46
Yeah, and I definitely want to get into those classes that you've been running because I've been seeing a lot of good stuff and a lot of action around those. But I want to kind of get us caught up a little bit because when we last had you on it was the middle of the pandemic, things were raging and kind of chaos was all around us. So how has it been since then?
Miguel 02:11
Oh, man, it's it's been crazy. This has been the craziest two years of my life. Really. But adapting pivoting that's that's a word that a lot of small business owners have been hearing a lot. Last couple years pivoting. And I'm happy where I am right now. I made some changes since the pandemic first started. And things are going well. I think I'm finally coming into my own and running things away. Exactly. I want I want them to be running is working out well. Very grateful.
Collin 02:45
Yeah. Well, that word pivot and adapting, you know, that's something that I feel like you you kind of tackle really well or at least you seem to take on those pretty naturally. Where does that come from? For you? How does that process of viewing the need to pivot? But how do you process
Miguel 03:05
that? Yeah, so two things. One, I think my time in the Marines definitely helps with that. In the Marine Corps, it is a big thing, adapt and overcome. So whenever things come up, and you do have to pivot and change strategy, don't complain. Just put your head down your work and just get through it. I'm also, I guess, besides reading books on dog training, and dog behavior, nothing I'm passionate about psychology and I read a lot of psychology books, and I've learned not to be attached to things. Don't be attached to the way things are people on material things. And just be ready to let things go on. And when you're willing to let things go. You're able to adapt much better so on. I noticed when the whole pandemic first kicked off, and a lot of businesses were shutting down and there were a lot of us stay at home mandates. vaccine mandates a lot of business owners the instead of adapting they want you to hold on to the way things were before and those were the small business owners that I noticed had the hardest time adapting to the changes and I'm just the type of person you know when change has to occur, you just got to let go and allow things to run its course and just do your best. And things work out well.
Collin 04:31
When I when I hear that about the need to let things go and I will pick your brain on on some some books to recommend here in a minute. But the need to let things go as a business owner, it's really hard for us because this is our baby. We built this from the ground up. We've designed it we have policies in place to meet our needs. We've set our boundaries. We've running and operating the way we want to and it's really difficult to let this thing that we've created and fostered and protected. Go and try new things. And so to hear that, if we're if we aren't letting things go, there's no room for us to grow and do new things. It's absolutely true.
Miguel 05:11
Definitely. Yeah. Like go that's something I often tell myself in my head, a lot of times when I do kind of find myself gripping onto something, whether it's a change in my business, a customer, I'm losing personal relationships, pretty much everything
Collin 05:30
on the clients are, are hard to I vary just for Megan and I personally, we've we've lost to pretty long term clients recently, they just had changes in their schedule and changes in their needs, and they didn't need us anymore. And my first initial instinct was to take it like super personally, and to get offended, and to start questioning and kind of start throwing a little hissy fit, just being honest. But, but then having to take a step back and go, like, kind of set this up and go, they could have left it anytime it was never going to be permanent, it was always a chance that they leave. It's just right now that is happening, and having to accept that. And then that next step of moving on and moving away from those feelings for you, when you make that transition of accepting to moving on, how do you motivate yourself to move on and away from that,
Miguel 06:26
I've always found that in life, especially with my business, whenever something occurred that required me to make a major change that caused me to have some anxiety or sadness. If I just allowed it to occur, the change to occur and make adjustments, things always end up better on the other side, as long as I am willing to let go and make changes. So now whenever it does occur, I always try to tell myself from you know, this is probably the universe trying to tell me something, you know, I need to make these changes and just trust the process. So that's why I tell myself and it really doesn't always work out better. I mean, even with the whole pandemic thing. And when pandemic first kicked off the first 48 hours that he started, you know, the stay at home mandates here in New York City, I lost 90% of my business. And it was very scary. I just bought a house just had a baby about a year or two prior. And I just didn't know what I was going to do. And, you know, now today, I'm better off than I was in my business since 2000. It before department. Wow.
Collin 07:46
That trusting the process and sometimes that that takes at least for me going, Okay, I have to remember that it turned out okay, in the past, right, I have to kind of remind myself, Okay, the last time I went through the struggle XYZ happened, and I was really worried. And then I got put in this better position. And reminding ourselves that we overcame in the past that things turned out differently. And a lot as you said, like better than we ever expected to, if we just let that process and be and be open to to accepting the opportunities as they come along. So you mentioned that you had made some changes in your business, and it's operating a lot better now. You know, it's we've had some changes. And what about your business? Did you find out either wasn't working for you? Or what new changes did you put in place since the pandemic?
Miguel 08:40
Yes, so the major change that I've made was not managing such a large staff that I was prior to the pandemic. Parts of the pandemic, when it came to the dog walking portion of my business. I had a large, you know, a staff that was growing, I had probably about a dog walkers working for me. And that wasn't enough, you know, every day prior to the pandemic. It was just like I was treading water, trying to figure out how I was going to get through the day with the staff members that I had with all the dogs that we had to service. So it's very anxiety inducing. And when it comes to managing staff, staff members are expensive. And for the most part, they're not very reliable, I would say to otter every 10 staff members are like all star staff members and the other eight are just there. And then like two out of those eight are just no good. A great book to read about managing staff members is from Dennis Kennedy. He brought a series of business books I realized I don't really like managing staff and stuff. I don't like people. It's just whenever you're running a business, there's so many things that require your attention. And when you're diverting some of that attention to babysit staff members, it just doesn't allow you to do your job to the best of your ability. So what I did was I just consolidated my staff members, I just have two people working for me now. And I cut back on the number of dogs that I take in and we service every day, I'm focusing more on dog training and creating content. And what I found is that I service fewer customers, I have to manage less staff members. But as far as like the revenue, it's about the same or even more than before. And I'm also enjoying what I'm doing more. I've learned, when it comes to business, there's so many things, you have to think about the actual service that you provide, or the good that you provide for your customers, you have to think about all the administrative stuff, you have to think about marketing. And what I've learned is that if you don't, you're not going to like every part of the business, you're not gonna like to do every part of it. So whatever you don't like to do you delegate, and just double down on the things you enjoy doing. Because if you don't enjoy doing it, no matter how disciplined you are, you're not going to be very good at it. For example, the bookkeeping, which I absolutely despise, every, every Saturday, I would spend a couple of hours, you know, maintaining the books, and it's just I was miserable. And then I found somebody else that could do it for me to enjoy it. And I can see how she she enjoys putting these numbers together as to why do you like doing this, but she's so efficient at it, because she enjoys doing it. So I rather pay her to do that. And also, when it comes to delegating, you got to think about how much does, how much is your time worth per hour? So if you know, let's say, your work is worth, you know, $150 per hour, why are you going to be spending time doing work? That's like $20 an hour, we just pay someone else to do that. They'll do it better than you do. And you can just, you know, make more money doing what you do? Well. So that's what mainly the changes that I've made, focusing more on dog training, maintaining less staff members and maintain less customers daily. been great, so far less stressful than before.
Collin 12:11
What was that process for you, as you were deciding? So it sounds like you scaled back the the amount of staff you had. So you had to get rid of get rid of clients? What was that like for you, as you were kind of downsizing and shifting the business was that, you know, telling and communicating to clients that you're not going to be servicing them anymore. Walk us through how you navigated those waters.
Miguel 12:35
So that was pretty easy. Because like I said, when the pandemic first kicked off, I lost about 90% of my customer base. And I think about that, you know, their son was shocked that you ever watched the show Shark Tank. Yeah. Kevin O'Leary, the bald head guy, main shark. Yeah, I watch a lot of his stuff on YouTube. And he mentioned in business, you have to be ruthless. Because if you're not ruthless in business, ruthless a business will be ruthless with you. And prior to the pandemic, I hadn't many customers that will walk their dog every day. And you know, I will try to grow and expand. And when you grow and expand, especially a dog walking business, you can't keep walking the same dog you've been walking since day one, eventually you had to delegate other dog walkers to walk in. And so many of my customers didn't want anybody else to touch their dog, but me. And what would happen is I would stick with walking a dog every day. And because I will have you know, I was dedicating myself to that dog every day, it would miss I will miss out on growth for the business. And those same people are saying you I want you Miguel, because you know I have a personal relationship with you. You know, you come in here every day my family sees you, they used to you, my dog loves you. And you know, I took that to heart. And you know, and I dedicated myself to them and their dogs and it set me back but I was okay with it. Because the relationship was more important to me. So a lot of those same customers, the moment that they learned that they didn't have to go into the office every day and they could work out at home. They dropped me quickly. A lot of them didn't even you know, ask me how I'm doing. They just said some of them didn't even formally cancel the service. Some of them just stopped booking walks and boarding. So that was a learning experience like oh, okay, that's business. And like you said, you know, you felt when you lost certain customers, you kind of felt bad and you kind of upset about it took it personally, I did at first too. But then I learned you know, that's just business and the same people that you were sacrificing or willing to drop you. So if you have an opportunity to grow your business, you owe it to yourself, you owe it to your business. You owe it to your family members. You owe it to your customers, your to your community that you serve, to do what's better for your business, not in a sense that you know, you're going to compromise a service you provide for other people. But the better your business is, the more resources your business your business has, the better you can serve your customers on. So what I did was, a lot of those customers that left, a lot of them came back when they had to go back to the office. So when they you know, they came back from Florida, a lot of people fled to Florida and came back, and they try to get back into my routine, my, my rotation, I just told I'm not available now, you know, you left and a lot of other people have to so I had to make some changes, and I'm not focusing so much and doing walks every day. And some that word upset about it. And most of them kind of understood, because you've done a study kind of didn't know that they just kind of like dawned on me without even telling me anything.
Collin 15:49
Well, that is I mean, that's, that's a lesson in a half, right? Like it because we pour this is a service industry, we pour ourselves in this so much that we forget, we're running a business. And this manifests itself in so many different aspects, whether it's our pricing, our policies, our boundaries, but we tend to forget the emotional side of the coming. Like it's not bad to be emotionally invested with clients and with with the dogs that were walking, but it is bad when it starts clouding our ability to make sound business judgments. And just like you said, when those clients you know, they left us, it was, okay, this is business, they recognize it, they weren't offended, they didn't, you know, there was no name calling, there was no bad reviews, they just said, Okay, this business venture is done. And we need to move on. And it kind of helped us snap back to reality and go, Yes, this is a business people do this all the time to, you know, their, their their hairstylist, to the people that you know, for the car repairs to the plumbers to, they just need a service sometimes. And that's hard, a lot of time for us to accept. But at the end of the day, like that's, that's that is that. And if we if we don't view that, just like you said, we stopped being able to make those ruthless decisions that we have to make in business sometimes.
Miguel 17:17
And it's difficult to make those decisions. But the more practice and the more you actually apply it, the easier it becomes. And you mentioned there is that emotional aspect, no doubt. I mean, when you're taking care of a dog very often, whether you're boarding the dog, train the dog or walking the dog, you're gonna get an attachment with the dog. And I do I love these dogs that take care of like, really, I think about them all the time when they're not feeling well, they're injured. And even if they're not under my care at that particular moment, I think about them. And also the families. I mean, a lot of these families, you know, I've been doing this for 12 years, I've watched them grow. Like, for example, I have a young couple, who got a new puppy and wants me to walk the dog every day and I come to the apartment, every day I see them, I say hi to them. And then they're when they have children when they get married, and then you know, I watched your children grow up, that emotional aspect is going to be there. And I'm okay with that. But when it comes time to making a business decision of business change, you have to do that and communicate with these customers expensive look, you know, I care about you, you know, we're still if you ever need me for anything, you have my phone number, you can always give me a call. If you ever want to talk to me about anything, just give me a call, I'm still available to you, I'm just not going to be there every single day to walk your dog. Because I'm not just a dog walker, I'm not just a dog trainer, and I'm not just a pet sitter, I'm a business owner on so, you know, my my attention is required in other areas. And for me to keep servicing you and your dog and your family. You have to allow me to do these things, you have to trust me to provide you with another person that's going to provide the service and might be half they were representative of me, you have to trust that
Collin 19:04
well. And as you said, in order to continue to provide a good quality service and do the best you can you have to put the business first because if the business does it, and the reason is, is because if your business doesn't exist, you're not doing any service to anybody. Right? And so that's where this this, this understanding of what's my purpose, and how do I get there? And how do I continue to doing this and that sometimes means letting clients go or changing so your services or raising prices, which is a big topic of discussion these days and knowing that this will all help me these decisions are all helping me run a better business so that I can actually continue to provide service because that's what we want. That's what we want to be doing is providing the services that we are it's just we have to make good sound decisions to get us there. Have you heard of time to pet Claire from Acton? Critter sitters has this to say
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Collin 20:16
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Miguel 20:29
And a quick tip about pricing because no pricing is a big, it's a hot button topic when it comes to the pet sitting in a pet care industry. Because oftentimes us as caretakers of animals, it's a very emotional relationship that we have with these dogs. So we feel bad to charge a premium for the services. And it's almost like you feel guilty to do that. But what I've learned, because I was charging grossly under, you know, under pricing myself for out of the 12 years, maybe eight years, I just hold beers that was when a city dog pack and even now my prices are underpriced. So you have to look at it like this, you have to charge what your services are worth. Of course, when you're first starting off, and you're learning, you can't charge a premium, because you haven't earned that premium, yet, you still have to learn more about the business about the services you provide. So sometimes I see these brand new, the brand new pet sitters has come out of nowhere, and it's charging double what I charge, which is crazy. But anyway, so you, you have to charge an appropriate amount, for one reason, it's gonna help you your business is gonna help everybody else, because if you're not charging the right amount, you're gonna have other businesses, your competitors that are going to help market you because they're charging the right amount. And they're allocating a certain amount of money for marketing that you came and afford. So they're gonna bark at you, and they're just gonna choke you out. Another thing is, when you're not charging the right amount, you have to make a certain amount of revenue, to break even and to make a profit. So if you're not charging the right amount, you're cramming in a lot more customers, when you cram in so many customers and you overworking it staff, your service, the quality of your service declines. And also when you have we charge a certain amount, you could invest a lot of that money back into your business to improve your service. For example, like if you have dog walking, you can put uniforms on your, on your on, you could have your staff members wear uniforms. And when people wear uniforms, they tend to behave differently. You can hire a higher caliber dog walkers and pet sitters to work for you when you charge them the appropriate amount. And if you have customers that complaint, I find every time I raise costs, raise prices. And there's always a 10% of customers that do complain. And the way you manage that is know your numbers, have everything written down. How much does it cost you to provide the service? What's all your overhead and how much money do you need to make to break even. And then so whenever I have a customer that complains, all I do I have everything ready, written down. So this is how much money I make per profit that I make per walk, whether it's another dog walker doing it while I'm doing it myself. And also I show them a list of competitors in a neighborhood in the area that what they charge and I compare my price with theirs. And I give them a full breakdown on my prices. And they had when I show them that they have nothing to say. And then you have the decision, you can you can have me and pay me this amount, or you can go with someone else. It's up to you.
Collin 23:36
I love how you touched on. And I think this is so important in the fact that when we charge enough in our business, we can it does things right, our business can start doing things. And too often we forget that our business is there to do things for us, for our community, for our staff, if we have them and for clients, we and that only happens, we are only able to do those things with that money that we have. And if we're chronically under charging, we aren't able to give gifts to our favorite clients, we aren't able to take extra trainings, we aren't able to do these things for our staff and give raises. And we become kind of impoverished in a lot of different ways. And yet, like you said, we're busy all the time, because we cram our schedules full and then we're tired. And we're also broke. And we don't really see the point of it. And so we the company folds and we go under instead again, looking back at I want my company to be here tomorrow. And the next day. I want to be able to service that client year after year after year. And I do that when the nuts and bolts of it is I do that by earning enough money in order for me to show up tomorrow. I have to have the money to do that. And that's a very frank conversation that we have to have with ourselves and look at those numbers and understand what we need and what how the business is operate to get
Miguel 24:59
that to us. Yeah, definitely. And it's not all about money. thing is that if you don't charge the appropriate amount, again, you're gonna cramp. And when you cran, I think they say, I think 80% or 80% of small businesses die after the first year. I don't think it's because of revenue. Because I've seen a lot of great small businesses, whether it's in the pet industry, the restaurant industry, that provide an outstanding service or product, and it die after about a year or two, I think it's often because they underestimate how hard they're going to have to work. And also, I think they become overwhelmed. And once they become overwhelmed, they just figured you know, this is not worth it. And they just kind of just give up, you should never be at when it comes to the pet industry, when you're doing dog boarding, walking or training, you should never be at full capacity, you should always be at about 80%, you should always have that 20% buffer. The reason why you want to add the 20% buffer is because things come up, and you want to be available for your clients. And you know, overstressed not, you know, running yourself ragged. And it just allows you to be the best version of yourself, when you're 100% Just redlining every day, doesn't matter how discipline itself you are you just gonna break down. And I think that's what happens with a lot of small business owners. And that's why I think a lot of dog walking businesses and pet sitting businesses die pretty quickly. I see them come and go every year.
Collin 26:30
Yeah. Yeah. Because it, it is an industry that will chew you up and spit you out. But there's no real mercy, there's always more demand, there's always more need, there's always more walks, there's always more visits. And unless we, the business owes forcibly impose space in our lives, and on our schedule, we won't have anything. Alright, I know one of the reason a lot of people look to pet sitting is they owe a flexible schedule, that what a wonderful thing, right. And we those of us have been doing this for a while chuckle, chuckle and go Well, not really. But it is if you make it that way it is if you give yourself that space, if you're not running at 100% capacity all the time, if you say no to clients, on some weekends, just because you really need the weekend off, and you give yourself that space that comes in and knowing Okay, I have to be charging appropriately. But I also have to be giving myself these boundaries in the space so that I can deserve. So there's, there's some of me left, at the end of the day to do things that I actually enjoy.
Miguel 27:41
It's so true. And it's funny, you know, when it comes to when I'm walking my pack in New York City, I always get people stuck in ministry saying you have the best job in the world or like, you know, people say that's a great job. And it is a great job. But it's not for everyone, when it comes to you know, being a caretaker of dogs. It's not it is a lifestyle, because you're always working. You always have dogs to take care of. And if you don't have dogs to take care of you have to answer emails you just constantly working. So if it's not for you, it's just not gonna work out. And you know, people always tend to think that what other people do is so much easier than what they're
Collin 28:17
doing. That is That is true. They have they have no idea. And that gets to the weird aspect of of what we do. There's, there's this levity, there's the seriousness, there's this all consuming nature of the industry. And it's tough to communicate that two people. Definitely Absolutely. In addition to pulling back on the amount of staff, you said, you moved into doing a lot more training and virtual sessions. So I really want to hear how that has been going for you.
Miguel 28:54
It's been going great as far as the training, because I was getting so busy with the walks before the pandemic. And I started off city dog pack as a dog trainer primarily. And then people sort of asked me to walk and board their dogs and then the you know, that part of the business started to grow so rapidly that I kind of put training on the wayside. But now I've just been focusing a lot more training and it's just what I really love to do the most I love walking dogs in the pack, I love doing that. But the training part, you know the behavior and seeing dogs transform before your eyes and seeing the stressed out overwhelmed dog owners who are at the brink of giving up their dog, you know, turn around, become best friends with their dog that's just so rewarding for me. And as far as the virtual sessions. It's great because I can serve as people with everywhere, not just in New York, but all around the country and even different parts of the world as well. You know, I have people from Australia who call me sometimes from customers in Asia and South Africa and in different parts of Latin America because you they find on Instagram. And it's fun, you know, dealing with these different people with different cultures. And it's very interesting. Dog owners from different continents and different countries are so much different from American dog on. So it's been very, very interesting.
Collin 30:19
Now when you made that switch, and you said you've always had this interest in training, and you were pursuing this, and but it kind of was consumed by the walks and stuff, what did that do mentally, when you started to get back into doing a service that you hadn't done in a while, and that you were actually finding a lot more joy in. At first, I
Miguel 30:41
was a little rusty, because I never stopped doing dog training, I would just do like, you know, one or two training sessions a week or so. And then after pandemic, I was doing like three or four training sessions a day, plus doing some virtual sessions and dog training webinars and the weekends as well. But it was, it just made me realize, you know, how much I love dog training and dog behavior. And not only dog behavior, but human behavior, because I would say 50% of the, of what I do is almost like human psychology, because people don't realize like how much you know, the way they perceive their dog and the way they interact with a dog day to day basis plays a major role in a dog's behavior. And when I can kind of just point things out to them. And you know, I see that light bulb light up in their head. And that's when it changes combat, I think it's so cool. So who the rusty at first, but then I started whipping out the old dog training books from like old schools and courses that I took and started reading Old, old books that I read back in the 90s. And also come back to me and I'm just deep into it. Now I'm constantly reading articles and books on on dog behavior.
Collin 31:59
Well, I think it's important to again, thinking as as a business and as just at the personal level, knowing that if there is something out there that really like feeds your soul, as a person, and at that, at that level, to make time and space for that, and even try pursuing it at a business level. And in doing it more and more. Because we want to make sure that we are avoiding this, this drudgery, this monotony this these things, I mean, even you, when you were talking about about delegating and getting things off of your plate, well, part of the getting things off of your plate is then to have more time to do other things. And this is part of going man, it really makes like and whatever that is like it really makes me happy to you know, do training or to make video content or to make my social media posts or whatever, finding that stuff and read it making sure that you you keep doing that I think is really important. Especially as business owners where we feel like we just kind of have to do stuff knowing that we can still cherish and and find joy in the things that we do.
Miguel 33:10
Like I said before, if you don't enjoy doing something, it doesn't matter how disciplined you are, and how hard you work, you just, you're not going to do a good job, you can get burned out, you have to enjoy what you're doing right now what I enjoyed. Like again, I love boarding dogs in the house. Look at the companionship with them was a lot of fun. I love going on pack walks in New York City, such an exciting city, you walk around and have four or five dogs with me and just it's a great time. But teaching I just love to teach. So when I can teach a dog owner, new things that kind of changes the dog's behavior or especially the webinars, I really enjoy the webinars because whenever I'm teaching a webinar, I see all these faces on a on a screen. And I bring up a point about a dog training a dog behavior. And, you know, I see their faces like, oh, man, that makes sense. I'm gonna give you that, that I love that and you know, the feedback and the interactions, but I do the q&a portion. That's what I enjoy the most. And also, when I create content in India, now offer information to anyone who wants to watch on Instagram. It's so interesting how I'll post a video. And then a year later, I'll have someone who sends me a DM that I don't even interact with on Instagram and say, hey, you know, my dog had severe separation anxiety, like I was so close to, you know, sending him to the shelter and I try some of these things that you mentioned. And it just worked and he's doing so much better now. Like that's what I enjoy doing the most that's what I have fun with the most so that's what I want to do the most right now is creating content and teaching teaching people.
Collin 34:51
What was that transition like for you doing doing the in person training and classes to now doing almost sounds like a majority of them are all virtual and on these with these webinars for you what's been what's been like managing those?
Miguel 35:08
Well, there's nothing that can substitute, you know, having need being present here to demonstrate things with people. But it's made me offering the online sessions and the webinars has made me a lot better in my personal dog training sessions. Because sometimes when I'm there physically, I kind of like, I'm a little bit too hands on, and I don't allow the dog owner to kind of figure things out on their own. And I'm just there doing any kind of depend on me too much. But when I'm doing a virtual session with, say, someone in Florida or someone say in their lives in the Caribbean, or something, I can't be there to do everything for them. So I have to articulate exactly what they should be doing and giving them detailed instructions. And they had no choice but to do it themselves. And they ended up being a lot more successful at it. So because I learned that whenever I do like my one on one personal training session, I try to be hands off as possible and not do anything with the dog and just try to explain to them and I find find that the results are a lot better because of that.
Collin 36:13
Now, how frustrating is that to you? Because just know me personally, I have tried to give like instructions to my father about how to do something on a computer remotely. And I just want to pull my hair out whenever if I could just do it would happen 10 times faster. So
Miguel 36:28
yeah. When it comes to tech and older, even with me, I'm so like when it comes back, just don't get it also. Yeah, and people will try to run me through things. It's funny when it comes to tech. Sometimes I'm trying to figure out how to do something, and I'll have someone call you I'll call someone that I know that's really good. And they try to run me through and they tell me Oh, it's easy, don't worry, I'll explain to you, I'll explain to you how to do it in like 10 minutes. And then when they actually try to explain to me, it's taking a lot more 10 minutes, and I could sense the frustration in their tone.
Collin 37:04
I think you know, so hearing what you're talking about Miguel here, it's like, you become a lot more self aware of how you operate in certain situations. And I think that is that is so important for us. Because this stuff is just second nature to us. And and we may be in a rush or hurry. So we may just grab and do and go. And instead of letting somebody come in and learn it themselves, giving them the opportunity, allowing them to have that experience, I think is really important as us and I view my role as a pet sitter, a dog walker, as as an educator for clients like Well, I'm here to help them live an amazing life with their pet. That means teaching them and allowing them and giving them space in a safe area to learn and expand and ask questions. And if I'm constantly, you know, answering the questions before they can have a time to think about it, or just showing them right away or not giving a time for them to kind of take in this information. There's not as much learning going on in that interaction as we may think.
Miguel 38:10
Definitely, you mentioned something that just just reminded me of something you mentioned, like the self awareness. When I do these virtual training sessions often record the monsoon and sometimes I go back and review the session. And I realized man I articulated that horribly like or, you know, why did I see that she said this instead of stupid. So it does make me a lot more self aware. And, and it has helped me improve our articulating certain things and certain concepts about dog behavior and training.
Collin 38:44
Yeah, well, oh, man that that self review process is is a it's really painful, right? Nobody likes to
Miguel 38:52
gut wrenching, I would imagine you it'd be in a podcast, or you probably listen to something you said or as I say that, but that's just part of the process.
Collin 39:00
It's part of the product. hundreds of hours at this point, it's painful. But yeah, it's, but it's painful. But it's the best way to learn about yourself. And just looking at us and how we operate it. Man. It seems like you know, an example may be it seems like everybody I talked to about my services doesn't quite understand what's going on. And you could say, well, they just don't get my business. But is it how you're explaining it? Are you giving good examples? Are you using the right language? There's all these things where we can start reflecting on ourselves and go okay, well, maybe if I tried this slightly different way of presenting this information, it might get across better. And it's kind of an iterative process, but that makes sure that we are communicating as clearly and precisely as possible so that there's no confusion, whether that's the services or pricing or expectations or training instructions, because that's going to help set them up for success.
Miguel 39:59
So training and when it comes to business, sometimes you may meet business owners or other pet sitters dog walkers who are either not getting customers, or you know it their dog trainer, they're not getting the results that they want from, from their clients and the dogs that they're that they train. And oftentimes, you can hear the posts on social media, like these rents, complaining about everybody else, or, you know, whenever you you converse with them, they're talking about, they're complaining about why their business isn't growing. And as you talk to them, there's these glaring red flags that are coming up that they're just so unaware of, you know, but if you just kind of like you mentioned, you know, like, these customers are not getting what I'm trying to explain some of what my services when you start, you said, you can easily say it's everybody else, but you always have to look with it, look within and ask yourself, Is this something that I'm doing wrong? And when you when you have that self awareness, you just so much better as a business owner and as a pet sitter as a dog, Walker,
Collin 41:02
dog trainer, very true. Yeah. And it's like I said, it's it's a painful process. But it's really necessary, because we want we want our businesses to be operating at the best way possible. And we want ourselves to be as well. So that takes review and getting outside input sometimes. So bringing in trusted friends or family or acquaintances, or I eat some of the best advice is to ask your clients about how am I doing? Did how's the onboarding process, right, that's getting that kind of feedback. It's not fun. Yeah.
Miguel 41:35
So some of my clients are very successful entrepreneurs. And sometimes they'll drop little hints, they'll drop little comments to me, trying to like, you know, tell me you should be doing this, Miguel, or you should do this better. And I kind of ignore it. And then when I eventually say on the face and ask, What do you mean by this, and some of these cars are really successful entrepreneurs, one of the most super successful entrepreneurs, they've been through the wringer they've been through, like, the failures and setbacks. So once they finally get to where they are, when it comes successful, and they see other entrepreneurs making the same mistakes that they make, that they've made in the past, you can be ruthless when they tell you, you know, you need to do this better. And sometimes I have other people, like, you know, successful entrepreneurs hold me accountable and tell me that I should be doing better things. And even now, there's certain things that I shouldn't be doing now I should be focusing on that I'm kind of just procrastinating on and it's a constant, you know, it's a constant learning process. Absolutely. And it's hard. But self awareness is key.
Collin 42:42
I think that a lot of that starts with knowing this person is telling me this information for my own good, right, this is an eye they're wanting to help me, right. And so kind of putting, again, putting away some of these, these these feelings or these emotions of getting hurt or being offended and going, No. If I asked for this information, if I ask for feedback, and sometimes we don't ask for it, but we have to go, okay, this person is telling me because they want me to be better. That kind of I know at least helps me start putting some things into action.
Miguel 43:14
Yeah, you know, I once I have a client that I've had, I've had him at a customer for like 11 years almost. And he's a super successful entrepreneurs in tech. And he really cares about me, but he's very straightforward, man. And he had a dog. He had a dog that I walked and trained for many years, and the dog got old and passed away. He got a new dog, and he tells me, hey, I need help with, you know, housebreaking, my dog is peeing and pooping all over the house. And he's doing this. So can you come over tomorrow at five o'clock and help me out? Make sure. So I get to 515 I was late. And he's like, Oh, you're late. I'm like, Yeah, I'm sorry. You know, the training. He goes, Yeah, but it's 15 minutes like us. You know how much money I make per hour. I know how much he tells me how much he goes in. So you're 15 minutes late. And those 15 minutes are worth more than what I'm paying you for the training session. So I shouldn't even pay for drinks. Whoa. And he was brown. He was but I'm gonna do it anyway. And he goes, if you're having trouble with scheduling, maybe you should, you should have a personal assistant. Because if you're that busy, you should, you should afford a personal assistant. So having a personal assistant, that the money that you're paying them is actually going to come back to full for you. So you might want to look into that. Very soon before the training session started any very strong coaches looked at me that in mind told me and I couldn't take it personally, but I just took it. I'm like, You know what, you're absolutely right. You just went on with a training session after that. Wow. Wow. Yeah. I like having people like that around me. Yeah.
Collin 44:57
And you know, and he told you that because he was like, You know, this is somebody who I want to be successful and needs need to know this, I just need to tell this information and learn from my experiences and start putting into practice again, these people who say these things, yeah, you could immediately sit down and go, Oh, how dare you? You don't know me. I'm doing my best here, but going okay, that makes a lot of sense. And I can I can make changes, right? That's just knowing that that kind of feedback is helpful.
Miguel 45:28
Yeah, I still haven't got a personal assistant. So
Collin 45:35
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Miguel 47:22
It just comes to me like you know, because I'm constantly doing training sessions. So if I noticing a certain trend in dog behavior, a lot of dog owners are struggling with for example, when the pandemic first kicked off, and you had all these people getting dogs, you're stuck, they were stuck in their apartments with dogs all day long, the dogs end up having separation anxiety. So when I noticed a certain trend going on, and I say to myself, maybe I should make a video on this, or if I recently worked with a dog. There was a particular case that was interesting. I'll make a training session on that. I mean, I'll make a dog training video on that. So it just pretty much whatever pops up in my head or it's something new that I learned or new breakthrough that I that I'm able to dog, then I'll make a video, but it's random. It's not really planned, sometimes during the plan to record a video and just I'm thinking about a training session that I have later on that day. And I think I'm thinking about certain things I'm gonna, you know, mentioned to the dog owner and I just made a video.
Collin 48:21
Well, and you use video very, very well. And I know that that is something that I struggle with and many people do. So what's some advice you'd give to somebody who is a little camera shy and doesn't like really going through that video process?
Miguel 48:37
Number one repetition. If you're looking at my video, if you go to my IG TV videos, you go way back to the videos that I made, like say four or five years ago. Oh, horrible. I was like stammering when my words anyone's stuttering is something I've always struggled with since I was a kid. But I'm just one is just repetition. Keep doing it, the more often you do it, the more confident you to get on to so don't worry so much about how you look and how you sound. And if you think about it, like some of the most influential people, like for example, Truman Capote, which is one of my favorite authors, he had a very strange way of talking at a very high pitched voice. But when you heard him, you know, it's him. Mike Tyson. He talks strange, but when you hear my taste, and you know, it's Mike Tyson. So even if you have a weird way of communicating or you sound strange, it's you. And when people hear you, they're gonna know it's you. And that's a good thing. That's a branding yourself unintentionally. Don't be so afraid to make mistakes or be so self conscious. Just just do it and do repetition and the more and more we do it the better. Even though I'm not the best speaker, but I'm getting better. And it's just because I'm just putting more videos out there. And I find that the bigger lapse I have between videos, the more anxiety I get to post a new video. So the more you do, the more you do is just the easier it gets.
Collin 50:13
I love that advice of going, you know how you look how you sound, that That's you, right and being okay with that, I know, I'll shoot it with video or whatever and go, Oh, I'm doing that weird thing with my mouth, or I'm looking weird or look at my hair. Or look, I can't believe I said that. And go, this is this is part of accepting who we are as people and knowing that I can practice and I can work on this, but I don't get better unless I just start doing it. And to not compare ourselves to the videos of people who've been doing this for 12 years or 15 years are the people who do this professionally. And, and to not get caught up into that and just go I have to start. And I can start in whatever way I can. And a lot of that's speaking from where you are in authority. So your experiences your story, you know, the things you encounter, like like you said, Miguel, like I was talking about this in a training session, and I figured out this needs to get shared to other people. You know, if I had this conversation with a client today, and was really good, I need to share that with other people, and just start putting it out there and know that that's going to be practice, right? It's we're always practicing, we're always trying to improve, and it just takes time.
Miguel 51:26
Absolutely, definitely another piece of advice is be careful with what advice you take when it comes to, you know, make yourself more comfortable on camera. Because if you go on YouTube, they'll tell you, you know, when you talk on a camera, make sure you look into the camera this way. And you know, you're speaking with this tone of voice. And when you do that, you start being you start to look a lot more unnatural. A lot of people comment on a lot of videos that I posted that I'm looking around very often. Some people say, you should probably look at the camera more often when we talk. That's not the way I talk. It's kind of strange. It's a weird thing I do when I'm talking, especially when I'm in deep draw. And I'm trying to think about the best way to articulate something, I don't make much eye contact, I kind of made my eyes kind of wander a little bit. And that's where I gather my thoughts. And what's most important is what you're saying and the information you're putting out there. That's the number one thing, so focus on that. So I don't care if I look around very much. That's just the way I talk. And if you say for example, you have a dog that barks like crazy if you have a dog that's aggressive that pulls on leash. And if I'm giving you really good information that can really help your situation, who cares if I'm looking at you or not, you know, so it's the way I talk. And if you don't like it, then find somebody else to listen to.
Collin 52:49
Because when we sit there and we go, okay, well, it's about trying to not have as many compounding factors on us, we're trying to lower that barrier to entry to get us to do these. And, you know, I talk with my hands ups like I, my grandma used to joke, if you sat on your hands, you would be speechless. And that's pretty true, right? I have to talk with my hands when I'm doing things and explaining. But I know it can be distracting. But if I sit there worrying about what I'm doing with my hands, I'm not focusing on the content that I'm actually wanting to say. And it's about being ourselves. And if you need to look around if you need to use your hands if you need to, to your bottom lip, if you need to do things while you're presenting and talking and giving that information, do it. Because you have to start this process of going this is just who I am. I'm here to share information. I'm not here to not be me and being okay with that. Exactly, exactly. Absolutely. No you also use Instagram for for marketing purposes. And what I find interesting, Miguel is that outside of Instagram, you know there's not much of an online presence as far as website, Facebook, Google My Business, whatever. And that kind of goes against the grain of what a lot of people say we should be doing. So how are you finding your clients and continuing to expand and run your
Miguel 54:13
business? So first, you know when it comes to someone that's new in the industry in the pet industry, I wouldn't advise for them to do what I'm doing you should be using all platforms and you should have a website on the reason why I use only Instagram really is because I don't want any more customers but I just get so many customers like I in fact, every time I post a dog training video, I get like five people who call me say hey, I have that same situation. Can you help me I just tapped at them all in. So you know me I get the majority of my customers through Instagram and through word of mouth. If I had a website and had a YouTube channel, too, it's just I just wouldn't be able to service everybody But I am getting into now I'm selling online courses for dog training. So once I have that kicked off, what before even kicked that off, I'm going to start a YouTube channel very soon, actually this within the next 30 days on. And then once I have the courses that I have to have a website for that, because then I'm going to be expanding my, my target audience to to everywhere, it's not going to just be New York City. And if someone wants to buy a course, just buy the course and I don't have to physically do anything for them. So that is going to change soon, I am going to start a YouTube and a website. And also, it's not a good idea to have all your eggs in one basket when it comes to like a social media platform. Because what if that platform goes away, or especially now in today's climate where, you know, censorship seems to be like a big thing. You may say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing. And a platform may drop you so should always have your own thing as well. And in our industry dependency, we're not saying anything controversial, but you never know. Like, what if, you know, Instagram just decides not to have you on the platform anymore? Or if you have a or if you want to use in YouTube? And what if YouTube says you know, we wanted the platform you don't want. We don't want you to have you on YouTube on YouTube. But you got to have a website. So that is changing. And the reason why I haven't, you know, use more platforms that have websites, because I just I don't really need to be honest. So now
Collin 56:31
I think understanding the market that you're trying to go after, and the clients that you're going after and going, where are they? And how do I talk to them and for you that was while they're on Instagram, so I'm going to talk to them on Instagram, and that's what I need to do and that takes understanding the platform how you want to use it, and if your clients are there, go go get them right and not feel the need to to be everywhere because that is a draining. But no, okay, I just have to understand who I'm trying to talk to.
Miguel 57:06
Exactly. I spend quite a bit of time on Instagram. But if I'm also on Tik Tok, I'm also on Facebook and I'm also on YouTube, then there's only 24 hours in a day, if I'm putting that time energy into those things that I'm not putting my time and energy into something else. So you have to allocate, allocate your your your resources properly. But again, I am pivoting now to online courses. So that's going to have to change and I'm going to have so many too, because especially when it comes to the long form videos that I post, like the IG TV video that are over a minute long, Instagram is horrible at pausing my videos. First started posting IG TV videos, I used to get about a few 1000 views on each video without me promoting the video or anything she was and without me even putting hashtags. Now I have over 18,000 followers when I post an IG TV video, I get about 500 views. So Instagram is just horrible at putting out videos, they are good at what's real. So I find you get a lot more likes and lot more views. And, you know, pictures and short videos as well. But when it comes to IG TV videos, they're horrible exposing and a lot of times I have people who follow me every day, and they like to comment on stuff every day. And they'll ask me a question about dog training. I'll say I just posted a video on IG TV on that couple days ago. And I said really, I didn't see it. So that's why I'm now on I'm going to start those long form videos that I post on I usually post on IG TV, I'm gonna switch over to YouTube now,
Collin 58:42
Miguel, when I hear you talk a lot about your your planning and your you're pivoting here a word does keep coming to mind is execution. And and you seem to be really adept at executing a process and a plan. Once you get set on it. Is that come naturally an easy to you? Or how have you developed this, this mind set of sticking to something once you've planned it?
Miguel 59:12
Yeah, so um, again, my time in the Marines definitely helped shaped that discipline. Um, you know, it's like, you have a mission. And once you have a mission, you that's your sole purpose in life, and you just have to do it and whatever roadblocks come across, you just gotta, you know, push right through them. But, you know, what I've learned also is that if, again, if you don't like it, you're not excited about it, you're not going to do it. Well, you're not going to follow through. So whenever I am, you know, starting a new venture or trying to execute a new plan. I have to make sure that I'm excited about it. I want to do it. If not, I'm just not going to bother doing it. In fact, I've turned or even tell a lot of people this but I've turned down Got a lot of opportunities to collaborate with different companies and different sponsors, because I just wasn't excited about it. And I just didn't want to do like sometimes I have people who contact me and say, hey, you know, I have this product for like a dog food company will contact me and say, hey, you know, I want you to make some videos for us. I mean, sure, great, I'm excited. But then, when it comes to details, I want you to say this, and I want you to do that, once you've done I don't want to do it the way I want to do it. You know, or they expect me to, kind of, for example, you know, I'm not going to say what I got for cable, animal like, dog training pet care channel on cable. And they wanted me to do something with them, where I want to get into details, they're gonna know I'm talking about them. Yeah, this is wanting me to, to kind of like be more animated and, you know, be more Disney fire kind of, and that's not who I am. You know, I have a sense of humor, like joke around and stuff. But you kind of wonder the Hi, I'm Miguel Rodriguez. I got the sense that that's how they wanted me to be. And I just, I just imagined myself being on camera. And people see me behave that way in camera. But when they know that that's not nothing how I am in person. I just can't live with myself being that way. So I just, I just didn't turn it down. Because I do know some people on TV. There I've seen in person, they're completely different. I just I just can't do that. But yeah, so I have to be, you have to be excited about it. You have to want to do it. But yeah, that's the key that and discipline, that excitement
Collin 1:01:46
that comes into it is that again, looking at this and going i We're our own business owners, we're growing this we're doing this, we don't we don't technically half have to do anything, right. We get to do we want to do these things and making sure we always bring that aspect into it. When we're looking at opportunities. And going sure I can do this, I can do anything I want to but do I want to? Is that? Is that something that was actually going to fill me and bring me joy or get me closer to my goals and be true to myself. And at that at the end of the day? Is is the ultimate question for us? Is this new service going to get me there? Is this new client going to get me there? Is this new opportunity going to get me there? If not, we don't have to say yes to it. And we can feel backed into a corner many times because we don't want to lose out on it. We don't wanna lose out on the money, we got to take advantage of this, because what else what else what else? But knowing again, like we started off by saying, sometimes we have to let things go and know it's going to work out better in the end. So very true. Very true. Here in closing, one of the my big takeaways from our previous several talks of was was when you would talk about never stop learning. And then you you added, even if it's from people that you don't agree with, and I have I've really taken that quote, to heart and have continued to look at stuff. And so you being a big reader and always after new stuff. What are some new resources? Or what are some things that you're reading right now that really excite you or have really helped you that you'd love for more people to know about
Miguel 1:03:22
the business side, I would recommend all the Dan Kennedy's books, Dan S. Kennedy, he passed away recently, about a year ago, I think, but he has one book on on managing profits and money in your business. And he has another book on managing staff members and another one on managing customers. So strongly recommend you check those out. As far as personal things, Jordan Peterson is someone that I really, you know, admire. I really liked his books a lot. If you're a content creator, check out The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. That's a that's a huge one on also, this book is just incredible. And if you own a business or if you work with people, you just had to read this book. It's How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. That's an that's another great one. Thinking Grow Rich. Don't you ever think you were Rich by Napoleon Hill?
Collin 1:04:26
I have heard of it. I have not gotten a chance to read it yet.
Miguel 1:04:29
Yeah, so with that on a lot of his little, little mystical, so centric, but it really changes the way you think about money because I think a lot of small business owners, especially people in the pet industry are ashamed of making money. That kind of changes the way you think about that, which is really important. And another book that's probably one of my favorite books of all time. It's from the same author Napoleon Hill. So his book Thinking Grow Rich is his most popular book. And it's actually one of the best selling books in history thinking grow rich, but he has another book called Outwitting the Devil. That's a fictional book. That is one of my, it's probably my favorite book of all time. And it's about a guy who is in the business world. And he actually interviewed the devil. And he learned how to, you know, whenever you kind of face, you know, self doubt, or you're procrastinating. It's, it's the work of the devil that's working against you. And the reason why that book is so valuable to me is because, of course, it's a fictional book, it's not the devil that's coming after you. But it kind of whenever you start to procrastinate, you start to become more self aware about it. And you realize, when network is fresh in my mind, I realize, oh, that's kind of the devil coming after me. Like, I gotta fight this, I gotta get through this. And it helps me get over procrastination or self doubt. Whenever I'm kind of, you know, feeling down a little bit depressed, I'm in a rut, I realized, well, this is something this is some kind of out fourth annual, you know, outside evil force that wants me to be in this position. I can't let that win on. So it's an excellent book, too. So all those books and a bunch of others, I'm pretty sure I forgot about but check those out. Those are great.
Collin 1:06:30
Yeah, I just moved the War of Art to the top of my reading list. It's been on it for a little while. So I'm going to put that on my next book that I pick up. And, but I like the concept that you mentioned about Outwitting the Devil of recognizing like, okay, it might not be the literal devil, but these thoughts, these in these beliefs that we have about ourselves, that they bring negative impacts to our lives because we we don't take we don't believe in ourselves. We don't take those opportunities that we need to live self doubt creeps in all of these, these fears and anxieties that can prevent us from running that business running the way the life that we want to live. Those are things that are trying to hold us back from that. And so I love how just being aware of those enough to say, this is that thing, I gotta move away. That that is huge in us as we're moving and operating and really making decisions from day to day.
Miguel 1:07:26
Yeah, and a book is very similar to Outwitting the Devil is Steven Pressfield, The War of Art. And when he talks about whenever you're pursuing a creative endeavor, let's say it's a podcast, or you're creating content or writing blogs, writing a book or something. Whenever you get that, that feeling, I don't feel like doing it. I don't feel like doing this. He calls it resistance. That's resistance and you have to fight their resistance because the further and further you go into resistance, the hardest to get out of it. And the reason why that book helped me out so much because it helped me put a name to it. So just like willing to double Whenever I am procrastinating wherever I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do, I get a little lazy. When I know what that's resistance, I know this, this actual something, there's something I can actually point at that that's causing that. So it's easier to get out of those ruts and get out of that procrastination phase. So, excellent book. Let me know what you think about it. And have you read it? Yeah,
Collin 1:08:25
yeah, absolutely. We'll do we'll do Miguel as always, I've I've learned a lot I've got a lot of my homework and reading lists now from from talking with you. But I know that there's always so much more so how can people get in touch with you follow along and get signed up to see when the that YouTube channel comes online and check out your courses
Miguel 1:08:47
on Instagram? Just find me on Instagram city dog pack. City as a New York City dog isn't dog pack isn't pack of dogs. Just check me out there and you have any questions shoot me a DM and people look out for my YouTube page. I'm gonna be starting soon. And website. And then by the end of this year, I want to have those courses ready as well. Perfect.
Collin 1:09:11
Lots of exciting things going on, Miguel, super excited for all that and can't wait to have you back on again a lot sooner than 200 some odd episodes since last time. So we'll we'll be better at that. So thank you so much, Miguel. I really appreciate it. Thank you. It's
Miguel 1:09:27
a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to our next check. So how do we
Collin 1:09:31
continue to pivot and adapt, adapt and overcome as business owners? We never stop learning. We should always be seeking out new and relevant information and sometimes revisiting things that we saw quite a while ago to see if it applies to us these days. reading, watching, listening, talking, conversing, building relationships with others is what helps keep us exposed and plugged into the world around us and We take those lessons and apply them to our business. We know our businesses better than anybody else. But we have to have the knowledge and the tools and the resources on hand to continue to adapt and change and evolve as the world does around us. We want to thank our sponsors, time to pet and pet perennials for making today's show possible. And we really want to thank you so much for listening. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your busy week and we'll be back again soon.
