369: Leading a Quality Life with Taylor Leedahl
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How do you get better over time? Taylor Leedahl, owner and founder of Tiny Horse, joins the show to describe how to approach process improvement and how we can develop a healthier relationship with our businesses. Taylor shares how she got started in the business and the challenges she has faced along the way. We cover the development of new products, the importance of understanding customer needs, and how to keep mission creep from taking over a business.
Main topics:
Product development
“selling” products and services
Brick and mortar store
Healthy relationship with your business
Main takeaway: Your business is a reflection of you, but it’s not everything of who you are.
About our guest:
Community, collaboration and creativity inspire Taylor Leedahl’s professional path. Before entering the dog walking industry, Leedahl’s career identities included seamstress, arts administrator, published author and lab tech in an entomology lab with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Leedahl has a BA in Art History from the University of Saskatchewan (2010) and an MA in Art History from Concordia University (2014). Her Master’s thesis focused on interspecies collaboration in contemporary art.
This background synthesized in a surprising way with Leedahl's experience walking dogs in Toronto, ON. Her design skills, meditations on collaboration across species lines and the community development from her arts career positioned her to break new terrain in the dog walking industry with her company TinyHorse. TinyHorse is an opportunity to identify issues involving managing multiple dogs and to design gear to alleviate some of the stresses experienced in the dog walking industry. Leedahl draws upon her 6 years walking dogs in Toronto and works closely with dog walking companies to improve existing products and develop new ones. Leedahl lives in Toronto, ON with her pocket beagle, Abigail Potato. In 2023, TinyHorse moved out of Leedahl's one-bedroom apartment to a commercial storefront that includes the company’s production workshop.
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, horse, products, tiny, dog, work, gear, business, nylon, pet, thinking, leash, walking, gift, big, design, theresa, taylor, feel, offer
SPEAKERS
Collin, Taylor, Doug
Collin 00:00
Welcome back to pet sitter confessional. Today, we're brought to you by type two pet and pet perennials. How do you get better over time, Taylor Leedahl owner of tidy horse joins the show to describe how to approach process improvement and how we can develop healthier relationships with our business. She shares her process of developing and approaching new products and the importance of understanding our customer needs while we maintain and prevent mission creep from taking over our business. Let's get started.
Taylor 00:33
Collin, I'm so excited to be back on your show. Thank you for inviting me. Again, I'm so excited to be here because timecourse is entering new frontiers. So thanks for celebrating that with me. So my name is Taylor Leto. I started walking dogs professionally in Toronto in 2016. And quickly into that work, I realized that it was very physically and emotionally demanding. And I felt that part of that challenge was due to insufficient gear for walking multiple dogs. And that sent me on a Google search to try and find a suitable alternative. And it didn't yield any results that that I thought were were suitable. So I have a background in sewing and design, and I decided to try and solve the problem myself. I started developing some ideas and some prototypes. And my friend Sarah Weetman joined in. And shortly thereafter, we had the first prototype of the lead all leash. And I started testing that. And it quickly caught the attention of my fellow dog walkers, and saw that there was a desire and a need for this. And in the end of May 2017, we launched the very first version of the Lido leash, it was 21 inches long, it had a clip on both ends. And it was made of thin polypropylene webbing. And since that time, our product line has improved and expanded upon that first product and in 20, so So from 2017 to 2021, I can continue to walk dogs and run tiny horse. And in July 2021, I got to step away from dog walking and pursue any horse full time. Quite
Collin 02:39
the journey that you've been on there. And I noticed, when you mentioned that this is a very physically and demanding job and career, I think a lot of people may understand how having good gear helps us physically to avoid injury and such. How do you see your equipment, the tools that you make? How do you see that impacting the emotional side of running a business?
03:07
Right?
Taylor 03:08
So I think that, you know, I'm trying to design gear to be very intuitive, and almost as if you don't have to think about it, that the things that you need are right at hand, and you're not having to struggle so much to reconfigure or take the pressure of all the dogs at one time on your hand. Sorry, no, that's not quite quote back on that.
03:42
Yeah, so
Taylor 03:44
yeah, tiny horse gear is meant to be really intuitive. And I'm trying to design it in ways that you don't have to think about your gear so much. So you know, for example, I have this wearable leash the leader, which I say you can wear all day, and you put it on in the morning, and you use it for your pickup and drop off tool, you never have to search your vehicle for a leash, it's just right there on your body. In terms of the leader leash that you attach to the dogs that are adjustable, you can clip them on and off the ring, you can secure them to your vehicle. So you always have what you need at hand. And I think not having to put the energy in trying to solve those problems. And you have to solve them constantly when you're walking dogs, that that can free up a lot of space for you to connect with your dogs. Work with clients and just kind of be more present and aware during your day.
Collin 04:45
Yeah, if you're not having to constantly think about where's this basically that mental burden that really plays into our day of is this the right thing? Is this going to work? Where is this? Do I have enough? How many do I need? Is this in good condition? All of those are kind of these these these micro fatigues that happen on us throughout the entire day. And that's just kind of that's a baseline that many of us deal with, of that we don't even really acknowledge as being a stressor on us. But they are. And they really do add up over time to the point where we get to that point where we go, there's just one more thing, and I can't take this one more thing. And so anything we can do, to try and reduce that mental load that we carry throughout the day, that's when a lot of people, they wear the same thing every day, or they have their work uniform, just to be like, I never have to guess what I'm wearing. Right. That's one less decision I have to make today. And so having good tools on you really does help improve that as well. Because you, there's no thought you absolutely know for sure what it is and how it's going to work.
Taylor 05:45
Exactly, yes. And that's such a great term of micro fatigue. And that's exactly what it is. And I've always sort of build the gear as like a stress reducer. So, yeah, exactly, exactly. It's just one less thing to think about in your day. And I think that that just can help bring energy back into both your working life and your personal life and, and being well and present in your personal life has always been an important part of tiny horse to me as well. If your body is sore, and you're fatigued, at the end of the day, you can't really show up for the other part of your life, which really, you know, I hope everyone feels is more important to be there with your family to be there for yourself or your hobbies just for your general self care and well being.
Collin 06:34
You mentioned how your your product line has grown and expanded. And I've noticed actually that you have quite a few pro products now. And so I did ask you about the development of those and where you see those fitting in the lineup and your overall products.
Taylor 06:50
I love this question. So yeah, I've always been really excited and open to the possibility of what tiny horse can become, how it both reflects the dog walking industry, and can be improved by the dog walking industry, and then how tiny horse can help improve the dog walking industry in return. So I think at its best time horse opens a kind of like feedback loop between itself and the dog walking industry. So and part of that is how this pro line started. There was a dog walker named Tamara Stanley in carnation, Washington. And she reached out to me and said that I love the design of your products. But you know, I have to deal with a salmon run out here. And no matter how much I watched those nylon leashes, the smell of dead salmon just does not come out. Thought about making this and Biothane. And so she put that in my ear. And of course, I was seeing the growing popularity of that material in the industry. And started to look into that and and tomorrow even suggested that I use the term Pro to designate those products. So I mean, big thumbs up to Tamara for bringing her ideas to tiny horse about how we could improve the products. So yeah, I started looking at bringing Biothane in with a cot, that waterproof capacity. It's quite durable, beautiful colors, the colors, kind of stay vibrant throughout its life. And so integrating Biothane meant a major upgrade in machinery and the expensive materials. So it did take me a little while I too. So Biothane is not an easy thing and does require quite a much more intense sewing machine than I had at the time. Yeah, so the proline started with that. And you know, there's a lot of durability in our nylon products. But as the years go on, I am getting feedback from dog walkers who've been using, you know, specific products like the nylon leader for a couple of years now. And I am seeing some consistency in the wear and tear on products that I think I can solve with the row line. So overall, I don't get you know, I don't have like a rash of people saying this is braking or blah, blah, blah. But I've I've seen some consistent things that you know, people report to me every once in a while. And so I think with the developing the Pro, developing sorry, developing the pro line of our current products, we're going to be seeing we have the lead all Pro which is the leash. I've introduced the handler Pro, which is The short traffic lead that has clips at both ends. And we have the leader, nylon only right now. But pretty soon I'm going to be introducing a Biothane version of that being the leader Pro. And both the handler Pro and the leader bro will have stainless steel clips on them. So I think with this with the stainless steel clips, we're going to have quite a bit of a longer life for these products. The the clips right now on the nylon leader, again, they're working in most cases, but when you're sticking, clipping the nylon leader to a central ring that has like six to eight dogs that are pulling really hard. And you know, not a lot of dog sorry, not, not all dog walkers have a group that polls really intensely are really wild. But for the ones that do that stresses the gear a lot more. And I think in those specific instances, having a stainless steel clip is going to prevent some of the consistent wear and tear I see on those leaders in the long term. Does that make sense?
Collin 11:15
No, it does. Because you know, thinking of right now going okay, well, you shipped your first product in 2017 really is when you started this. And so we're kind of coming up on six years of this. And that. So I'm sure you're still getting some new data on just the longevity of these products. I think that's a very interesting problem to try and solve of, well, I'm going to make this thing. And I think it's going to last a long time. But a I don't really know. And then b I don't have any control of how people are or are not going to use this product in what conditions it's going to be in, you know, like the salmon run like that was definitely I'm sure not something that was on your list of problems, people will encounter stinky salmon, right? That was That wasn't part of that. And so that's where that feedback really comes into play of going. I'm going to make something I'm not sure how it's going to pan out. But in order for me to kind of stay ahead of that I need that feedback loop in that process to make sure that I'm always improving this just little by little.
Taylor 12:11
Mm hmm. Yeah, absolutely. And I think too, now that I have some data, and I have some ideas about how to solve some of those consistent issues that are coming back to the company, I'm really excited that I'll be able to offer like a longer warranty on the proline, right now the one year warranty on parts on our products. But you know, I'm not sure what the next warranty will be. But it will be significantly greater than that. And I'm very passionate about tiny horse being part of reducing the waist load of the dog walking industry, very much interested in sort of greening this industry as much as we can. And I'd much rather be selling really fantastic products that last a long time. And people talk about then producing something that's cheap and disposable, with a higher margin. So I'm really just about, you know, how can we keep this gear in play as long as possible? Yeah.
Collin 13:17
Do you ever think about just going all in with the Biothane and getting rid of the of the nylons? Or was it important for you to have different options for people and their use cases?
Taylor 13:28
That's a really great question as well. You know, I would love to just toss out the nylon for sure and make my life a lot more simple. It's a lot of work to keep, I've got 20 colors of nylon, and I think 26 colors of Biothane it's a lot of work to keep those materials always available to customers, it was expensive as well. But you know, I'm, I'm very sensitive to the fact that tiny horse gear and just being equipped for dog walking in general can be an expensive thing. And I'm able to offer the nylon version of the design, which does all the same things basically as the Biothane pro version, at quite a bit lower of a price point. And I don't want people to feel or be excluded from better working conditions based on a financial thing. Of course I have to charge something or the year, but I really feel passionate about making it financially accessible as well. And that's something that I can do with a nylon so I will always keep something that has a low entry point for people and you know, I do see a lot of people too who start out on the nylon leashes not just because it's a financial thing, but because they're not sure whether or not they're going to like the product and they don't want to make a big investment. Didn't rate at the start. And then those people who do enjoy the gear, oftentimes upgrade to the Biothane version to the pro version, and either give the sets to a fellow dog walker or to a new employee and their business if their business is growing.
Collin 15:19
Yeah, and really allowing the customers to kind of self select into what they're prioritizing and what their needs are. And we do that in the service industry as well. Like, we can have a whole menu full of options of kinds of services that we think people may want, whether that's length of visits, whether that's involvement, or you know, the kinds of things we do in a visit, we may just come over and, and do a walk, or we can say, Oh, if you want us to, we can also do medications and feeding or or whatever we're doing there. And then that gives us a lot of data to just as the business owner to go, where are people falling out on this? Where are the price sensitivities coming in versus the utility that people see. And then you can really kind of self select and adjust as need be, you know, maybe you don't have to keep 20 Different colors on hand, you just offer that one in a small handful or less, to make a little bit easier on you, but still have that there. And then you can really adapt as you start to get that feedback again, of people telling you what they want through either directly in their reviews, or through their dollar as they're purchasing things.
Taylor 16:23
That's yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I would like to downsize the number of nylon colors that I have, but it's so hard to choose, because they're also printable. And they can bind into such beautiful ways. I'm definitely color addict. So it hurts my heart to think about taking any color out of the product lineup.
16:47
Oh, I can't even imagine, of just knowing how to self select out of that. You mentioned that, you know, this is a different way of of operating for people. And sometimes they need, they're not sure of what's going to work for them or how it makes they're going to their life easier. And I was thinking about this of what convinces people to purchase something. And we encounter that a lot in the service industry again, of just we know how awesome our services are. We know the peace of mind. It gives people we we all the professionalism and things that we bring in. But sometimes it seems like we're just hollering on the other side of the riverbank. And people don't cross to come talk to us because we can't, they have to experience it to really understand what we're offering for you when you're offering products. What do you think? Is that process in your in your clients mind of what convinces them eventually to try and make that purchase?
Taylor 17:43
I suppose that's a million dollar question.
Collin 17:46
So just solve that for us. Taylor, please,
Taylor 17:49
have the answer for but I think that I know what often brings people to tiny horse. And I think it was more to my own experience, which is they have a frustration with dog handling. And so they either do a Google search and come across tiny horse, or they see a fellow dog walker dog owner who's really excelling at handling their groups using tiny horse gear. So I think in part, the what convinces people to buy this product is when they stumble upon tiny horse gear, they see people excelling with it. So so that's one thing. I think everybody just hitting the buy button with a lot of hope in their heart. I hope that, you know, we can provide what they're looking for. But I do know that the answer to people's issues is not always entirely a gear issue. Or sorry, I think that when people they come with their frustration, it's not just a frustration with gear, but also, you know, some training needs to happen, or there might be some change in their business model that might need to happen. So, yeah, yeah,
Collin 19:15
that that's huge is recognizing that when people come to us, it's it's very rarely a specific issue. It's multifaceted. And on the receiving end of that trying to parse through what they're telling you or what their needs are to figure out exactly what they're trying to solve. Because like you said, it could be that they actually have three dogs that don't need to be in that group walk that day, they actually need to be removed and those clients need to be fired. But instead they keep trying to solve it using gear or new things or different different tactics, when that's not actually getting to the root of the problem. And that's, that's not on on us really as, as the business owners as the service provider. To try and meet those needs, it's the same thing with clients, they may reach out to us and say, I need you to watch my dogs, we think the problem they're trying to solve is peace of mind. But the problem that they actually have is they need to go see grandma before her funeral. And we were crossed talking at those different points and just realizing we have our scope, and it's okay to not get outside of that, and just continue to stay focused on the things that we can do for the problems that we know exist for people.
Taylor 20:27
Yes, exactly. And I think that the best that I can do in that situation, is to remind people that tiny horse care is not magical that there are a number of things that you need to consider and I've tried to bring people's attention to or provide resources.
Collin 20:43
Have you heard of time to pet dog from bat to the ball pet care has this to say time to
Doug 20:48
pet has made managing my team and clients so much easier. Our clients love the easy to use app and scheduling features. And our sitters love being able to have all of their information organized and easily accessible. My favorite feature is the instant messaging by keeping conversations on time to pet, we are able to monitor our team and ensure nothing ever falls through the cracks.
21:07
If you're looking for new pet sitting software, give time to pet a try listeners of our show save 50% off your first three months by visiting time to pet.com/confession. Well, let's get into another question about about messaging and information out there that that you that you give to people. I've seen you putting together a lot of how to videos and showing the off the system. So why do you feel like that's important for people?
21:35
Mm hmm.
Taylor 21:37
Yeah. So first of all, I think the thing that's really been consistent for me about developing my messaging around my business is I have never told anyone that they should buy tiny horse products, I completely avoid words like should and need in the marketing. I want people to enter tiny horse with a feeling of an opening of possibility about themselves, their relationship with their dogs in their care and their business, I don't want to feel like when they entered the tiny horse world and closes around them, and they need to use it, they need to understand it, you know, I just really want to I want tiny horse to be an opening platform. And I mean, aside from avoiding words, like need and should, for that reason, I also just don't believe in that kind of marketing in the world, I think it's really destructive and concerning, when you place words like meat and shit on material things that are not basic human needs.
22:44
So
Taylor 22:47
I in terms of the videos and how to choose in and also, you know, not trying to convince people to buy my product is that I want them to see the how to videos, and to arrive at tiny horse from a place of a bit of knowledge about the gear to start to think creatively about what the gear can do. And its versatility. To get a lot of the same questions from people who are either already have tiny horse gear in their hands or are looking to purchase them. And I find it's really helpful to have a visual demonstration of that information and just sort of at a quick link for them. So it's both really great for me in terms of people discovering tiny horse products, with a taste of what they can do, and also a way for me to converse with people about the products. I think that for people who already have tiny horse gear, I see their ownership of that gear as an investment, and one that can increase in value as I'm able to create and provide more information about that gear and also create products that will link into things that they already own. So, you know, just this is a bit of an aside, but one thing that really makes me excited is in some of the Facebook dog walking groups that I'm in, sometimes I see people who are leaving the dog walking industry and they're selling their tiny horse set and they are getting a lot of money for you said and that's so exciting to me. It shows me that there is a lot of value on the gear and there is a lot of that the gear stands, the quality stands out and you can use those products and they might even Outlast your own career which is just yeah really exciting for me. It doesn't bother me at all though people sell us tiny horse gear, I've even shared people's posts about wanting to sell it again, I just want to keep that gear in play and out of the waste out of the waste as much as possible.
Collin 25:18
Well, have you ever thought about having or running a refurbished store out of four tiny horse, if people you know, return them, you give them a little bit money back, and then you can resell those after you fix them up, or patch them up, and then put them back out on the market? Or you kind of happy with how this this other market is existing on the other side?
Taylor 25:37
Yeah, I mean, I think I'd much rather people will deal with that on their own. Because I have a lot of things to do. That's crazy. And, you know, it's really exciting, we get so few returns on the year. I, you know, like last year, I cannot each year count on my 10 fingers, how many returns we got. And for the few that have come back in, I do have a bin that they're going into and I one time at one point in the future hoped to have like a tiny horse garage sale. And just do like, you know, sort of local thing you can pick through here and get either some of these returned items or things that you know, the stitching was a little off or the tag was a little crooked. And people can get those at a reduced value.
Collin 26:34
Just jumping back to the what how why you think the videos and the how tos are so important. And I really appreciate how you you talked about you want people to arrive with an open mind about open possibilities, that that knowledge really does allow them to start seeing and thinking, How can this be beneficial to me, because the more they know about a service, or the more they know about a product, the more they're going to know whether it's for them or not. And so that's that's really our role of doing this big educational, this big how to this big, you know, we're not really talking about our services or our products directly in some cases, but saying, hey, I want to show you something cool that you can do with XYZ and putting something together. Because that does allow them to start thinking of those possibilities in their own life. And I kind of think about how, if you go to like a house buying process, a lot of times the realtors will start using like your language or our language to start trying to get you to think about like, what would it visit my life in this home? Or how would that fit me? Is this a good fit? Can I see myself using this? And that's where those processes of where they're going to convince themselves whether that's a good buy, or not. And really, it's nothing that we can do to force people. You said that Taylor like, should need to must like those language of forcing people into that situation. Because we know like, that's not gonna be very satisfying us to know we strong arm somebody into us versus them gladly coming and going. I want you to solve my problem.
28:09
Exactly. Yeah, no, exactly.
Collin 28:14
And so you one of the big changes that you made pretty pretty recently there was actually you decide to open up a brick and mortar store. What what, what was the thinking behind that?
Taylor 28:26
Okay, well, I guess there's a few things. The sort of precursor to that, that I didn't know that a brick and mortar store was coming was that at the end of 2021. I had an incredibly successful Black Friday sale that wrapped up a really exciting growth year. I think our sales grew by 150% in 2021. And I was working completely by myself on the business. And I was packing those black friday orders and I just had this moment where that I realized I can't do this alone anymore. I simply not. And I started thinking about the possibility of having an employee and I found that perfect employee. My friend, Teresa Hayes came on part time. She's actually the wife of Sarah, who co founded tiny horse with me back when 2017 Oh, wow. We really sort of kept it in the quote unquote, family. We're not actually family, but we have very close connections. We're all from Saskatchewan. We live in the same house. I'm on the main floor. They're upstairs. So Theresa came on in early February 2022. She was in her retirement. She was a medical doctor. Just to Sarah was as well, and Theresa was really just looking for something to excite and challenge her. And I'm so grateful that she made herself available to tiny horse because she has such an incredible skill set. She, aside from having a medical career before that she did a degree in theater costume design, she's an incredible seamstress like she is the person who can make those like 18th century Victorian dresses, or not like just just so incredible. You know, she has a wide skill set of construction skills, and just just phenomenal. So she came on and very quickly started improving our workshop, a lot of the processes and took over most of the production. So she got us to the point where we actually had stock of products. Before that I was making products as the orders came in. So she basically allowed me to spend a bit more time developing the non production aspects of the business. And so and then also in that year, because we had this extra stock, I decided that we could take on some trade shows for the very first time and have an in person shopping experience. And so we tested a few small events in the summertime. And those were great learning curves. I think the first one we set up for it took us about two hours to set up. We were setting one hour into an event already started. And we just sold like $90 worth of equipment and like was pretty fun. Oh, we learned so much. I was totally fine. Like we kind of knew it was going to be a learning experience. And it really truly was. And so learn from that and made some changes. And then by the fall, we started doing the really big Canadian Pet Expo shows. And we were blown away with a response there were lineups to get into our booth and talk to us totally smashed what we thought in terms of what the sales would be. So yeah, we did two pet expos in Toronto, and then one in Ottawa. And the experience of those Pet Expo. The experience of those pet expos was so incredible, to be able to speak to customers directly while they have their dogs giving them the opportunity to try the leashes and walk around and come back was so exhilarating. Like someone put their two or three dogs on these leashes and just go for a little stroll and exclaim oh my god, this is amazing. I was just, you know, totally filled my heart. And, and I also got to meet a lot of people that I had been talking to on Instagram who came out to the show. So just having those in person customer experiences were really valuable. And I think that that definitely started the seed of okay, we need a place for this to occur regularly. And then, you know, it was it was it's happened so fast. It was followed last year, there was a dog supply store in my neighborhood that was closing down. And for some reason, the closing down of that pet store made me feel like I should open one. I don't I can't really quite get the logic around that. But basically that day I started seeing what was available in my neighborhood. And I've used some places and that just really started the excitement and alone I wasn't able to see a lot of places but I started to work with a realtor was fantastic Anil and he bought quite a few listings to me. And you know, within a few weeks we found our sweet spots. And fortunately the landlord was interested in having us and I was signing a lease two weeks later and we took possession of the place on January 1 for three months and then all of a sudden we had a brick and mortar store So so yeah, so we opened it up, because there was new potential with having Theresa at hand that allowed me to do other things with the business. And then also, honestly, I've been running tiny horse out of my one bedroom, Toronto home for six years now. And Tiny Horace had been in every single room in that house outside of the kitchen and the bathroom, just trying to move it around for my own sanity, and to find like bigger and bigger spaces where that could accommodate more equipment, more materials. So having more space for a tiny horse to grow. And also give me a personal space has been really important. It was so strange when we moved everything tiny horse related out of my apartment, there was basically nothing left except for a bed, a couch. A keyboard and I was just like, Wow, it really showed me how much tiny horrors was my life. And it was really strange those first few weeks to just come home and settle down and have not even a desktop computer to do work on I was just completely left to you know, take their personal life. No tiny Horace allowed. So I've been taking weekends off, I've been really trying to take advantage of that space and take some real rest and then be more productive in the hours that are dedicated to time and horse here at the store.
Collin 36:46
I was gonna ask about that, because that is a very that I mean, that is a physical manifestation of how all consuming the businesses whenever it's around you 24/7 You know, earlier, we talked about removing these these micro fatigues, but this was like this is a lot more than, than that I'm sure just like, constantly being reminded not in, you know, not a bad way. But just like it was omnipresent in your life. So I'm sure that that you said a couple you know, it was an adjustment period. But how did you start processing that of like, really come to terms of like it's empty, but it's a good thing, because it's over somewhere else?
37:24
Yeah,
Taylor 37:26
I think it definitely just was I decided to accept it and allow myself to feel a little bit awkward and feel myself. You know, see my apartment return to a place that it was in 2017 when everything came in there. And I was like, Am I still this person? Do I still like these topics of these books? Do I still want to play piano? Do I you know, so I just sort of allowed myself to experience that. Yeah, that awkwardness and just breathing on the couch.
Collin 38:10
I know many pet sitters experienced this same thing when they offer they offer boarding or or daycare out of their home and the pets. It's just they never get away from from the pet care side. It's always there and the first time that they get a break, or if they stop it, it can feel feel really weird. That emptiness, that space that was filled with this other stuff, all of a sudden, it's like, what do I What do I do with that time and really going It's okay to not fill it immediately back up with stuff. I'm sure you didn't return a lot of the stock just to feel more comfortable back into your home.
Taylor 38:47
Yeah, no, exactly. No. And in terms of not feeling the pressure to fill the space, I feel the same thing with coming into the store. There's so much more space here. And I'm trying to let myself let it be a process and not try to anticipate everything we're going to need for our entire life in here. But let there be space in the way the products are displayed. You know, I've got a main floor we've got the basement. So there's a lot more space and I'm trying to have the same kind of acceptance and patience and process with that.
Collin 39:31
Our friends at Pet Perenial make it easy to send a heartfelt condolence gift directly to someone with a broken heart. Seriously, this is something you can do from your phone. They have this awesome direct to consumer gift model that takes the effort off of us and ensures a thoughtful personalized simply gift reaches your client or employee from your behalf. All gift packages include a handwritten card colorful gift wrapping and shipping fees across the US and Canada. They also offer an array of milestone gifts and greeting cards that can be sent to celebrate birthdays to get well wishes and welcome new or rare cue pads. They also have gift choices in case you need to send a sympathy 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 gift perks account, unlock the all inclusive discounted package prices. Since the service is used on an as needed basis, there are no monthly or annual obligations or minimum purchase, Learn more by visiting pet perennials.com and sign up using the link in the show notes of this episode. Well, that gets into a question I had for you about about mission creep. Because with making products, I'm sure that there's just 1000 different things that you could make or problems you could try and solve. And so how do you make sure that your product line and the mission of tiny horse stays stays focused on what you're trying to
40:50
accomplish? Yeah,
Taylor 40:52
that's a good question. And I think a lot of that mission creep, or the danger of it, if you want to say it's a danger comes from potential customers or customers wanting certain things, or asking you for products that you don't have, for example, I don't know how many times a week people ask me if we are, if we have collars, or are going to start making collars or harnesses. And there certainly was a time when I thought, okay, like we'll get there, we'll do collars, we'll do harnesses, but honestly, I'm sure we never really will, if not a far leap from what we're doing now. But there, there's just so much yet to explore with our current product line. And to get the message out there around multi dog handling. So you only have so many hours in a day. And I trust me, I'm a very, I get very distracted by the idea of designing new things I have. So I have a I won't say a graveyard. But I have like a treasure chest of things that I've designed and could be tiny horse products, I have a number of products that are slated to be released at one point that are related to walking multiple dogs, it's a very easy thing to pour energy into, because it's creative and exciting. And it's fun. But when I spend too much time on designing and thinking about new products, whether or not they're part of our original mission, it takes away from my ability to develop the messaging around our current products and ideas. And also doing things like sorting out receipts and you know, all the nitty gritty day to day stuff that really has to get done. So just trying to stay focused on our mission and doing justice to what we are currently offering. I think that helps prevent the mission creep.
Collin 43:21
It does when you recognize that there's still so much work to do, as you said, like there's so much education that still needs to get done. And it probably will, will never be fully accomplished in in just because everyday there's somebody new to multi dog ownership, everybody, there's somebody new, who's new to multi dog walking, and there's there's that mission that has to continue moving forward. But I also know that there's this, there's this other side of going well, I still, I still need to know and adapt and change. And many people I know get get locked up and how they they walk that line between staying true to my mission, but open to adapting and changing. And I think part of that really bridging that gap is is that feedback and response and communication you have with your existing clients and potential customers who are coming in to see if you are still meeting the need and where it's going.
44:18
Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah, and you know, those,
Taylor 44:26
I think maybe we talked about this last time, but you get a lot of feedback and suggestions from people and you kind of have to filter through what is going to be relevant to the company and what is not, I mean, it's all relevant, knowing that you know, people want colors. Okay, I, in my mind that won't go away. But knowing also that I get multiple requests a week about people wanting a Biothane version of the leader. That one is more exciting. And to me, and falls in line with our current mission about the product designs that we have, and where I want to take the product line itself. So it also gives me some confidence that, okay, I mean, investing in the materials that will be part of that product, the lot, there's lots of lengths of Biothane. And that stainless steel clips are significantly more expensive than what is on the nylon leader. Now, it makes me more confident that that investment that I will be put in, will be met with less risk when it's launched.
Collin 45:41
Hmm, that's looking again, thinking about this longevity, right? That there is a multifaceted approach here of I need to design something I need to offer something that is going to have a lot of stickiness, and that I can build on of whether that's adding additional services or serving them different ways, or linking new products into this thinking of it holistically as a system that really is a good correction to some of these ideas and things that we have of going, well, if it doesn't fit with this and the mission and this needs that we're serving, I'm going to go ahead and put that in my little treasure chest over here. And maybe there'll be a time where it comes out. So I'm, I'm, I'm glad I thought of it. I'm glad I designed that. But it's not for it's not for right now. And that and knowing that that's that's okay.
46:26
Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it
Taylor 46:30
is great to have that store of store of designs. And, and also to, it's meant that, you know, I have a lot of different hardware, different kinds of materials in the workshop that aren't actually using our product line. And that has come from, you know, all these years of thinking about different things and designing different things, but not releasing them. And it's really fantastic to have all those pieces around at hand to us when Yeah, I do set aside some creative time to make something new design. It's never none of it's in vain.
Collin 47:13
Well, so free for you, in your business, you've kind of walked us through a lot of of changes that you made. Do you like to make little changes at a time? Or are you more okay, well, I'm just gonna make one big leap and see what happens.
Taylor 47:26
It's definitely both. You know, for example, that big leap of opening the store which the decision was made and executed within a few months, that was definitely a big leap. And then every single day, every single day, I make small steps. So yeah, and I think that's really how I'm looking at my time was tiny horse, now that I have Theresa working with me and taking a lot of pressure off the production side for me. You know, I'm starting to do in the store. Now I have in the basement, a dedicated photography and video area, which is set up all the time, which is really nice. I couldn't do very many videos in my house. In my small home, which is like I'm always angling out, like my kitchen or my bed. So this is really great. And so now I have a whole whack of videos that I want to make. But I am just doing knowing that every time I set up that camera, and I do I work on a topic, it's a contribution to the broader library of tutorials that I want to make. And you know, I'm releasing them now just as like little reels or little individual posts. But eventually when I have a whole a whole library of these things, I can bring them together in a video manual or something like that. Or maybe at one point, I can hire someone to help me with social media and they have all that knowledge about the product there. So yeah, small steps every day. Big steps when I'm randomly inspired. Yeah,
Collin 49:22
I think it is. I think it also probably depends on what what the thing is that you're working on and what we work on our business of going okay, does this need to be a big step of expanding a service area hiring somebody, maybe it's it's opening up a brick and mortar store. Those are those are just inherently big steps in what that decision is versus the little by little, I'm going to make a little improvement here. I'm going to tighten this up over here. I'm going to learn this one more thing and just collectively continuing to move forward and really stepping back and going what what does this decision necessitate? I do because this a small improvement area, or am I going to have to jump in and really
Taylor 50:00
make this big step. Mm hmm. Yeah. And, you know, whatever really discovered too is that all these small steps that you make every day support you in taking those big leaps. So for example, when I made the decision to step down from walking dogs and take on tiny horse, tiny horse full time, that was terrifying. That was the first really big decision that I made. To be honest, I needed a little bit of a break in general. And in the summer 2021, I kind of did take that break. But sales kept coming in, even though I wasn't as present as I had been up to making that decision. And I felt like the work that I had done before to connect with people and get my message out there was carrying me through a time when I couldn't be as present. And, you know, I'm feeling that now, too, with opening the business. There is so much work to be done here that doesn't involve being engaged with customers. I mean, after I get off the phone with you, I'm going to finish making this iron pipe display thing with a wood shelf on top. Yeah, so there are a lot of things that I have to do in regards to opening a store that has taken away from me being present on social media. But still the sales have come in and have supported us during this time. And it's all those little steps that I took before to create reels and talk with people that are carrying me now. So you know, both those things are so important.
Collin 51:40
You said a phrase earlier of my time with tiny horse. And I get a sense from you, Taylor that you really view kind of tiny horses a thing out both outside of you, but also inextricably linked to you. Is that something that you've just always viewed it as? Or have you developed really a relationship with with your business and what it can be?
Taylor 52:03
Oh, this this, like, makes me tear up a little bit? That question, I'm so good. Yeah, I absolutely see tiny horse as its own entity. I think that's really important, because it helps keep my ego out of it in terms of I keep the focus on the products and their development developments is not about me personally. And that lets me be really open to people's feedback. And yeah, so I think it's important in that regard. But I actually before tiny horse, this is not the first major project that I've taken on. I started out working in the publishing industry in my early 20s. And I was really inspired by that. And I started a National Poetry series in my hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. And I hope kids every week, emerging writers from the community and then paid, well known poet from somewhere else in the country to come do a feature. And that was incredibly popular in my community. I ran that for three years, and decided to move to Montreal to do my master's degree in art history. So it was such an institution in the city at that time that rather than dismantling it, I had, you know, both provincial and national art funding for it, I found a new director and worked with him to take over the series. And that I launched that series in 2008. And it's still running today. And it's called tonight, it's poetry. And it's has had a number of directors now. And it just was my first big experience in creating something that I felt really passionate about, but had to keep a distance from my self personally to the point that I was able to, you know, walk away from it, and just let it be its own thing. And yeah, so there's that. And then I here in Toronto, very oddly, I was the director of a moss study, where we documented the population of logs in Hyde Park. That kind of disbanded during the pandemic. But yeah, I've just always been a very community oriented person who sees the value in sort of bringing people together and building things together based on a need in the community. So you Yeah, I guess I've just sort of developed that over the long term in terms of seeing tiny horses its own thing and, and not just its own thing, but sort of all of our thing. You know, it's for me, it's for the dog walkers. And I'm really grateful that I got to do it full time, and that it can sustain both myself and Theresa. In our day to day lives. I'm just super grateful for that, and if that's where it ends, and we just get to kind of putz around and ship orders and make videos and things I'm so if I felt though, that
Collin 55:38
many of us struggle with that, though, to have some sort of separation, because we see our business as a reflection of us we are personally invested in it's our baby, we know that I hear that language a lot. And that we have such a close tie to our business, that it's hard for us to step back and view it with a critical eye or view it in a non personal way. What kind of advice would you give to somebody who's struggling with gaining some boundaries, or some separation there?
Taylor 56:10
I think a lot of times, one thing that sort of saved me from kind of falling into tiny horse and absorbing it as Taylor is trying to keep a personal life. As I mentioned, like as as running tiny horse, I was directing this MAF study, and that's completely outside of the dog world. And I think that helped me keep a sense of myself. I've always loved insects, and having that hobby, and placing time in that hobby. And other things that I'm interested in, I guess, kind of help remind me that even though tiny horses is wonderful thing, and it is a reflection of me, it's not everything about me.
57:01
So
Taylor 57:02
maybe that, you know, maybe it's being having hobbies and allocute out allocating the time for them. And I think to like, of course, I could work from when I wake up to when I go to bed on tiny horse. But at one point, you just have to say I am not going to do everything today. And you have to put that work aside. And even if it's something simple, like, Okay, I'm going to make a nice meal for myself, rather than audible on just setting aside the time to chop food and like listen to a podcast about something not related to your work and cook that and eat it and feel fulfilled. I think that that's a really useful exercise and just creating some distance between your work and your personal life, body, soul, heart, all of that. So taking care of yourself. Yeah, taking care of yourself, and just knowing that there will be another day and more hours for the work that you need to get done to be done. And it'll never end. Never.
Collin 58:15
Well, you said a phrase there. Taylor of it, my business is a reflection of me. But it's not everything of me. And at the end of the day, recognizing that we are so much more than what we do. And we have interests, we have hobbies, we have friends, we have family, we have significant others that are part of who we are as well, even more so than our business. And sometimes it takes shipping things off or offloading responsibilities or saying no so that we can go do moths studies or setup, you know, go to coffee with friends or whatever that means so that we can have ourselves and that that when we recognize it doesn't my business is going to run I'm going to run it well. I'm going to steward it well. But if I'm not taking care of myself, then we're going to have some really big issues that are going to come up down the line.
Taylor 59:06
Yes, exactly. And yeah, it's really about that sustainability, right, and sustainability of how you create and direct your life. And, you know, for people who have that autonomy and people who have that freedom to design their own activities from day to day, we have a lot of control over how we operate things. And, yeah, it's it's hard to I mean, it's easy to feel like swept away by the things that need to be done rather than feel like you're the director of what needs to be done. Right.
Collin 59:42
Well, Taylor, I want to thank you so much for coming back on the show today and walking us through how we can better take care of ourselves, what process improvement really looks like in ourselves and staying focused and avoiding that mission creep. I know that you know, hopefully people are interested in checking out you Your your products learn more about tiny horse. So how can people check out tiny horse and follow along with everything that you've got going on?
1:00:08
Okay, yeah, well,
Taylor 1:00:09
thanks so much for having me. It's so great to be on here. And I really appreciate what you're doing, creating some compensations in the the dog industry.
1:00:18
Um,
Taylor 1:00:19
we are online at Tiny horse.ca You can email me at hello at Tiny horse.ca. And we are on Instagram, Tik Tok and Facebook. So lots of ways to reach out. And your products. See those tutorials we talked about? Oh, and you know, I'm also trying to put more on YouTube now as well. So oh, just just Google us and see what comes up.
Collin 1:00:49
Taylor, as always, it's such an immense pleasure, pleasure and honor to have you in your time today. So thank you so much.
1:00:55
Thank you to Colin.
Collin 1:00:57
So how do you get better over time? Well, in a simplistic approach, you try new things. And you do that by getting feedback from either customers or yourself. And I love Taylor's mindset around this, where she views her business as both outside of who she is apart from her but also a part of her. This helps you be objective about your business to make those tough decisions and recognize that these things that you're trying aren't necessarily a reflection of who you are as a person. And that way we can grow and adapt much quicker and respond in better ways. That if we view it as personal attacks against us if something isn't working out in our business, after the interviewer reached out and tiny horse is wanting to give you 10% off of a purchase of the products from her stores, you can go to tiny horse.ca watch all those helpful videos and reach out to her if you have additional questions. But when you're ready to checkout, use the code confessional 10 All caps just enter that confessional 10 You'll get 10% off your purchase from tiny horse. She did not pay us to say this and Megan and I use these leases in our business and we absolutely love them. So give them a try today. We want to thank today's sponsors of the show time to pet and pet perennials, as well as thank you so much for listening. We can't tell you how much it means to us. We hope you're doing well. And if there's anything that we can do support topics you want cover or people you'd like to see interviewed, including yourself, let us know feedback at petsitter confessional.com. We'll talk to you again soon.
