391: Finding Your Balance with Renée Stilson
Time to Pet. Go to timetopet.com/confessional for 50% off your first 3 months.
Pet Perennials. Go to https://petperennials.com/pages/register-for-a-business-account
What does it mean to live a balanced life? Finding balance as a dog walker and pet sitter is one of the most crucial aspects of running a thriving business, and maintaining personal well-being. Renée Stilson, former owner of Home Sweet Home Pet Care LLC and now The Balanced Sitter, draws on her 23 years of experience in the industry to share the lessons she learned. She discusses how she had to adapt her business multiple times, and how pet sitters and dog walkers are true ambassadors to their communities. Renée also reflects on how she knew it was time to retire, and how she's found a new way to live since hanging up her shoes and leash.
Main topics
Life cycle of a business
Impacting your community
Time to retire
Finding your balance
Main takeaway: You can lead a balanced life today, it takes helping yourself first, finding joy, and finding a new way to be when things don’t go your way.
About our guest:
Renée Stilson founded and ran a successful pet sitting/dog walking business, Home Sweet Home Pet Care, LLC, in Portland, Oregon, for 23 years and made her mark on the community. She sold her business and retired from pet sitting in 2022. Renée set the standard for business practices and compassionate, loving care for animals in her community. She mentored countless colleagues and established herself as a go-to person for anything pet-sitting related.
Continually at the cutting edge of what it took to operate a pet sitting and dog walking business, Renée’s colleagues considered her a pioneer in the field. Her business evolved many times over the years, including adopting software, going from IC’s to employees, navigating the pandemic and pivoting whenever needed. She was able to find the perfect buyer for her business and leave her clients in excellent hands. Renée is grateful for the years that she was able to serve the pets and people in her community and is now looking forward to new ventures.
Renée shares her wisdom of over 20 years in the pet sitting and dog walking business in her book, The Balanced Pet Sitter- What You Wish You Knew Before Starting Your Pet Care Business. Renée gives you insight into how to avoid pitfalls and truly follow your dream of caring for animals for a living. She presents each topic in an approachable, accessible way, you will feel like you are sitting down and having a conversation with her. The book is informative and interactive. You can learn all about how to be a Balanced Pet Sitter at reneestilson.com.
Links
Her Book! https://amzn.to/3xEbfEs
https://www.facebook.com/thebalancedpetsitter
ProTrainings: For 10% off any of their courses, use CPR-petsitterconfessional
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
people, pet sitter, clients, business, pet, visits, thought, give, work, animals, decided, years, employees, cats, learn, vet, pandemic, care, love, dog
SPEAKERS
Renée S., Collin
Collin 00:03
Welcome back to pet sitter confessional. Today, we're brought to you by time to pet and pet perennials. What does it mean to live the life of a balanced pet sitter and dog walker? What kind of guiding principles would you need in your life to find that? Today, we are so excited to have Rene Stillson, former owner of Home Sweet Home pet care, and now she's known as the balanced pet sitter. She talks about her 23 years in business, how she struggled and worked hard and didn't always succeed to find that balance. But she talks about the lessons that she learned along the way. And she talks about how she knew it was time to hang up her walking shoes and leash and retire. Let's get started.
Renée S. 00:44
Okay, hi, everyone. I'm Renee Stillson. And I founded and owned home sweet home pet care in Portland, Oregon for 23 years. I also wrote a book in 2019, because I felt like I had learned so much along the way. And I really wanted to help people avoid the pitfalls that that could happen. Of course, we all have to learn in our own way. But, but I really wanted to give people a head start. So that book, the balanced pet sitter, actually launched in February of 2020, which was interesting timing. But anyway, we can get into that later. But that's who I am. And I recently retired from pet sitting, I sold my business. And my last day of pet sitting was December 26 2022.
Collin 01:38
So 2023 years ago, you decided that you wanted to get started in pet setting that was that was really early on in the industry is life. What was what made you decide it was time to become a pet sitter then?
Renée S. 01:49
Right? Well, we actually aren't we had boarded our dog, and she didn't do very well. And so we our vet, recommended we have a pet sitter. So our pet sitter was wonderful. And our we had two cats and a dog and everybody was super happy. We had drop in visits, we didn't have overnights, and it was just terrific. And I thought wow, that is that is just coolest thing. I have so much peace of mind. My animals do great. This is wonderful. But then that pet sitter moved away. And fortunately, and there weren't that many pet sitters around, I did try a couple, they were just a little bit less satisfactory than what I had experienced before. And our vet didn't have anyone new to refer to. So I decided that I would like to dip my toe in the water. I was in health care at the time. And I had been in health care for about 12 years. The climate there was getting pretty stressful. And I also don't do great being cooped up inside all day. So as I'm sure some of us can relate to many of us, anyway, so I thought okay, well, I think what I'll do is just try petsitting and, you know, I worked during the week, but I had my weekends free I had my evenings free had my holidays free worked out well. Right. And with my background in health care, that was great. I was really comfortable right off the bat medicating animals and, and dealing with special needs. And with my vet, referring people to me, I got so busy that I decided, okay, well I really, really enjoying this. And in order to make it a full time thing I needed to add midday Darkwing Duck walking as well. So I took a leap of faith and I quit my job, and I never looked back.
Collin 04:02
It's amazing to listen to all the themes that you have there of needing a change being connected, having this personal impact of a pet sitter in your own life and realizing and then trying to go okay, what does that mean? What does that mean for me? Right? And especially whenever you were no longer satisfied with with the care that you were providing? And so did when that when they when you went full time you made that transition? What were you What were you thinking what kind of what were you hoping would come from from that decision?
Renée S. 04:34
Right. Well, I was hoping that I would look forward to going to work every day that I wouldn't have to answer to the corporate whims. My my company that I worked for the hospital system had gone through three mergers and and it was just things didn't make sense to me. And I have to laugh because we had a program at the hospitals called employee of the month, I was never employee of the month because I wasn't just gonna go in there and do everything they said without it making sense to me. So I asked a lot of questions. You know? Okay, but But okay, so I come from a line of entrepreneurs, no, my parents worked for the man. But both of my grandfather's were self employed. And I think maybe it's in my DNA, but I just, I had to know the reason why I was doing something. And I had to have buy in. And so basically, it was just really a no brainer. Here, I was just spending time with animals, loved animals have had animals, my whole life felt like I had the knowledge, and the demeanor to deal with that I did home care. I was a therapist, an occupational therapist, I did home care for humans. And I went from that to doing home care for animals, it was just this amazing segue. So basically, it was just, it was just so satisfying. And as a caregiver, what I always wanted to do, why so many of us go into caregiving, we want to help people. And we want to make an impact. We also want to feel valued. And that's kind of one of the intangibles. But it's very important to feel like what you're doing is making a difference if you have that type of a personality. And I think most of us who go into this business, I mean, there are a few people who don't go into it with as much information like they're like, I like animals, I can do that. Well, there's a lot more obviously, involved in pet sitting and running, especially running a company. But But I think that our our personality type, and I've become very familiar with our personality type, over just the time that I have. The research I've done for my book, the time I've spent in forums and at conferences, and we, it's what we give comes back to us tenfold in this career by just being able to help people be away from their animals and not worry and know that everything is just the way they they want it to be. It really
Collin 07:44
is where that flow is from. Right. And we have that we have that passion. You mentioned that word I need a buy in to make this make sense to me. And I'm going to ask some good questions. And that I think is so important, not just being a pet sitter, but as you mentioned, also being a business owner of what's the what's the purpose behind this action that I'm doing? Does it make sense for me for my staff, if I have them for my clients, as I'm serving them? And we never really stop asking, asking those kinds of questions, right? There's always something that's going to come up where we go, oh, that that's new. I wonder how that's going to impact me. And that's part of this development and continual improvement of ourselves as we grow and mature, not just personally but our businesses as well.
Renée S. 08:30
Right? Yeah. That one, one little novel thing is that now, I tell people, guess what, I am employee of the month, every month at my company. And you can be too.
Collin 08:47
You started your your company 23 years ago, you started this journey? What were some of the major changes that you that you were a part of over that time? Well,
Renée S. 08:57
I started out as a sole proprietor. And I, I even when I was in health care in the hospital system that I did not enjoy supervising people. And I knew that about myself, I had a lot of competence in my own abilities. And I knew that I would get the job done, it would be done just right. And so I went into it, just thinking I was going to be solo. And that's how I was for a long time. And it worked out really, really well. In the beginning, of course, I paid my dues. I did work really long hours. I want you know, basically, when you're starting out you kind of it's it can be feast or famine. So you really during the summer during the holidays, you just work your tail off. And then you have those times when it's slower and you get to know when those times are and you plan your time off for those times. As the business built. It was just much more steady and I was able to script it out better for myself and anticipate what? Okay, how many visits do I want to do for Christmas, I don't want to do 13 visits a day on Christmas anymore. That sort of thing. So the business just became more steady, where I didn't have to do so many, many peaks and valleys, which was, which was nice. And I just happen to have a very understanding family and spouse, and all of those things really matter, because this is not a job. It's not even, I don't even describe it as a career anymore. I can I describe it as a lifestyle. And when you are a pet sitter, you're basically you're on your purpose, you're passionate about it. So you know, it's something that you accept, and that the people around you learn to accept. But after so, you know, basically, I would, when when business became steady like that, like we were talking about, then I had to figure out, okay, when am I going to take time off? How am I going to take time off. And so by that time, I had, you know, five or six years of experience under my belt, and I started meeting people who, I don't know about you, but everywhere I would go, people would say, oh my gosh, you're a pet sitter, that will be so much fun. How do I do that? How do I get into that? And so I would say, Well, you know, let's sit down and talk. And if you're interested, I could mentor you. And, and just give you some hints and that sort of thing. And that was great. I ended up that I mentored many people over the years. And they weren't that busy when they were starting out, right. So I would feed them my overflow. And they would cover my times when I was off or times when I just had too much work. And that worked out so well. It was just a win win for everybody. They had me there with my experience, and I could be a sounding board for them. Because as we all know, it's pretty solitary, until you find your community. And back then there just wasn't much of a community. So we, I did that for many years, where I just there were just a constant flow of people coming in. And when they got too busy, there would be just somebody right behind them. And I would start mentoring somebody new. And it just worked out perfectly for all of us. We did form pet sitters networking groups, so that we could all meet and we could all talk about issues. You know, that was that was before Facebook, that was before. All the all the tools that we have now. Which your group is is just such a big part of that. Now, the pet sitter confessional, and so we would get together monthly, I would arrange for speakers, we would cover different topics, we would just talk about issues that were coming up and it would be we'd have support. Then there just became a time when there wasn't anyone new in the pipeline, who was who I was interested in mentoring or who had come come forward. So I decided, Okay, I'm gonna take the plunge. I knew a couple people who had ICS I met with them independent contractors for everybody. People weren't really doing employees back then it wasn't, it wasn't prevalent enough to even have people working for you. The people that had ICS were more on the cutting edge. So I got a comfort level because I thought oh my goodness, these people. I'm covering them with my insurance. I'm sending them into people's homes. I'm not there supervising them. And so it takes a real level of trust. And also elite a real, a lot of faith. I guess how I would say yeah, because you can't control it. And I was used to being able to control every aspect of the job I was doing so I found some great people just slowly and they were every people who I knew, like friends of friends or some of my friends, adult children, that sort of thing. So we we were just rocking and roll and we were doing overnights, we were doing, you know, dog walks we were we were just all over and it was great And then basically, I didn't love supervising so and that it's, it's your personality, because there are some great people in the business now who I watch. And they are, they're born leaders that way. I am a worker bee, I'm not an I'm wasn't, like I said, I was not interested in being a leader. But by necessity, I became a leader. So we went along, and it was great. And I would have different ICs come in and out. And it was all wonderful. But people would move on a lot of ICS that I had were entrepreneurs themselves, they had little businesses that they were starting. And so there became a point, when I decided that it was time to have employees. Because also with Nic, the climate was, of course, with Nic, you know, became very, very clear on how you could manage Nic, and how much you can how much supervision you could give them how much guidance and it was very strict, it was getting very strict here in Oregon, I mean, California is has been always on the leading edge of their labor laws. And Oregon, just being north of them, we, we tend to follow suit. And so it became clear and I was getting more uncomfortable with the idea of ICs. So and it's the right thing to do, you know, to cover people with their work the work comp and to get to pay them hourly to compensate for their training. And also, it's nice because you can give them direction. And you can say, these are my standards. These are the company's standards. And these are the standards you need to meet. Because the clients don't really know the difference. They felt what they thought, okay, when I had an IC, if something was going wrong, or if they had an issue that I could basically take care of that. You know, but I had to be really careful on how much I could take care of it. It was it had to be phrased as the client wants it done this way. These are the clients requests, these aren't my requests, I'm not your boss. And so anyway, it was, like I said, natural progression to employees. So I decided to convert. And we met within our employment attorney got everything totally laid out, understood what needed to happen as an employer in Oregon. And the timing was really good, because I was starting to write my book. And that way, I could have the staff person who was out there, really, I could direct them, but I could work a little bit less. And that was nice. So only one of my ICS wanted to convert to employee. But she turned out to be the best person that I've ever had worked for me as an employee, she would basically work on on the schedule that I asked her to, I still offered her work and gave her the opportunity to say no, because I still could never really get to that point where I'm like, this is your schedule, and you have to work fast. Because I feel like that's part of why people want a pet sitter is because there is some flexibility. And so anyway, we got into a great rhythm. And I was writing my book she was doing, you know, I was working about 20 hours a week and and she was doing the rest. The plan was to add more employees over time, but I didn't want to add them. Well, I was in the midst of this whole new venture writing my book because that involved a lot of training and onboarding. And so what we did was we just went along that way for about a year. And we were ready to ramp everything up. And then add about four more employees. And my book came out, like I said, February 2020, and the pandemic hits. So that was it was such an interesting time. And I know we all feel somewhat traumatized from the whole thing. A little bit beaten down, maybe rising from the ashes now, but it was it was such a challenging time for us. We basically had no work. None of our vacation clients were traveling. We had a few essential worker clients whose doggedly walked And I made the decision to give all of the work to my employee. And like so many of you out there, I applied for the PPP loan, I got that I kept her working and fully paid for about three months. After that, there wasn't anything that you know, we had run out of our funds. And I did need to start working at that point, I could absorb it to a certain point. And I know a lot of my colleagues who had employees are like that, I can cover them, but not forever, you know, like, I have some reserves in my business, but I wasn't something that was sustainable. So I laid her off. And she was fine. She found another job within a few weeks. And that was great for her and I went solo again. So back to square one, right back to basics. So that's what I did. I basically, but I didn't want to go back to working as much as I did in my heyday, because I things were really challenging, we had so many factors to consider. With the pandemic, like it took so much longer to do visits, we had to do our PPE, we're doing shoe covers, hand washing, masking, all that stuff. I mean, visits took at least 50% longer just to navigate all the issues. So I had more limited availability. And my clients were great, because they were just, you know, at that point, some of them were starting to travel mostly out of necessity. And I would just let the clients know, okay, these days, I'm completely booked. I'm not, you know, I would give, I would actually proactive, I would send out an email every couple of weeks. And I would just say, This is my availability, these are days, I'm not available. And my clients were so amazing. I mean, some of them had been with me for 15 years, you know, some, some more recent, but they work their trips around me. They just, they just said, okay, and basically, I would have some time off. And then the day they they booked me for the day I was back, or you know, and so I would be booked from the time, the time I returned from my time off till the time I basically left and they just have this little puzzle we put together. So that was that was that? Yeah, you know, that went on for quite a while. And until Oh, and then basically I was doing I wasn't having any downtime during my day. Do any of you know how that because I was doing all of the cat visits where we have a lot of twice a day cats, medications, lotta cat see wet food, that sort of thing. So it was it was definitely twice a day or less once a day. So I would do all my morning and evening rounds. And I might be home for an hour and then I would be going out and doing all the midday dog walks. And, and so I decided that I wanted to go cats only. And I a lot of people had started doing that. And I gave myself permission like okay, I love the dogs. I love dogs and cats equally, always have. But I just decided that there had to be some downtime in my day. Because after all, I was the balance petsitter I wasn't supposed to be having an hour in the morning, an hour in the evening to myself and that was it. And, you know, luckily I have a partner and our animals are, are well taken care of. But I felt like I had no balance at that point. So so I decided cats only that was great. I had colleagues because people were still looking for business at that point and bouncing back so I could they could absorb my dog walking and and that was great. And that was great. And so for the last two years of my career we were kept told like
Collin 24:35
have you heard of time to pet Chris and for raining cats and dogs has this to say
24:39
becoming a time to pet clients had been a game changer for us. We can give our pet services clients real time cloud based information they never imagined they'd be interested in. And most importantly to me personally, I can better manage my company and look forward to more and not a small thing. Time to pet is respond I said to my requests for new features, and modifications to existing one, if you're
Collin 25:04
looking for new pet sitting software, give time to pet a try, listeners of our show can save 50% off your first three months by visiting time to pet.com/confessions. That's quite the lifecycle of the business. Especially with, with with with growing and what what's interesting, Renee is, you said a couple times of how you you didn't want to supervise people, but you kept supervising people. So what was that a decision? Because you were looking for that kind of business growth? Did you feel like it was a necessary evil for you to have to run the kind of business? Or were you? Did you feel like you just kept kind of getting? Or were you trying to change how you approach that that aspect of it?
Renée S. 25:45
Oh, that's a great question. I think as I got older, I got more patient, and I decided that I could potentially supervise people and not completely alienate them. I have really high standards. I was I was, I'm a recovering perfectionist. So basically, you know, like, that's what I think the clients expected is that everything was exactly how they left it. And, you know, it had to be if the water dish was on the right, and the food dish was on the left. That's how it was, you know, and so like I am that's, that's the bet that I got from my ICs. You know, was that basically, like, they would have to take pictures of how things were. Because I would go back out like we job share. So I'd go in, I'm like, Hey, you reverse the water. It's just, you know, dogs don't really care about that stuff. But cats do. Cats don't like their routine. That's it. And so, yeah, so I think it was out of I think when you ask it that way, I think it was a necessary evil for me. Because I wanted to serve more people. And none of us like to say no, I got good at saying no. And you have to, but then when I had people working for me, I didn't have to say no as much. Yeah. And and I, we had a reputation. And we had a lot of business coming in. And so I just thought, Okay, let me see, let me see how I like it. And, and it wasn't as bad as I thought. And I was able to, like I said, find trustworthy people. And you know, hiring is a whole nother ball of wax. And we have a lot of a lot of different people who can speak to that. But just believing letting go, letting go of the control, and really trusting that I could find these people who could meet my standards was huge. And I think that was a turning point for me, when I could actually release some of that and, and not be uptight about it. I think you just you really have to, you have to give up some of that control and have faith in people and know that and trust your instinct. And really know that trust your gut. If these people seem like they're responsible, and they've got their they've managed in their life well, and you can you can see that, that they meet those criteria that you think you want in a person, you just need to, you just need to give it a shot.
Collin 28:47
Well in that decision of going, Okay, this isn't something I originally saw myself doing of managing and arranging people are working with schedule and training. But if I want my business to be able to do XYZ or if I want to be able to operate if I want to be able to impact my community in a certain way, what what what does that necessitate for me then? And do I have to be okay with developing in this other way, and, you know, like you going, Oh, I actually don't mind this as much as long as I have my processes in place. And I go through this in an intentional manner. But recognizing that, you know, there's, there's what we want and we can mold our business to shape that. And if we have that feeling of I wish we could do more I'd like to do more and help more people and serve more people. Well, that may mean that we have to bite the bullet and say okay, I need to need to hire somebody and we'll just see how that goes and being okay with kind of experimenting with that for a while for ourselves to see if we're really okay with it.
Renée S. 29:42
Right, right. And like I said, you know, I dipped my toe in the water with petsitting dipped my toe in the water with ICS it worked. So okay, let's let's bring on you know, one or two more and, and just and just see how it goes.
Collin 29:58
I know a lot of pet sitters that If you say it's very lonely, right, we don't talk to a lot of people throughout our days, we can get really focused on on this exact task and scrubbing this water dish and making sure that this area is clean and sweeping this floor and taking this dog for a walk. But, you know, I know you, you envision this, and you see a lot of a lot bigger impact of pet sitters on the community, I wanted to kind of pick your brain on how you how do you see pet sitters and dog walkers impacting their local community and the people they're serving?
Renée S. 30:29
Yeah, well, I see it as something that we can really be ambassadors for how people see professional pet care, that it isn't just a hobby, you know, there are hobbyists out there, of course, and I think, to differentiate ourselves between that and really educate people on what it means to have a professional pet sitter, versus having someone you know, the neighbor, the friend, I know, we all hear these stories of, of things, you know, that's how we get clients, because the neighbor, the friend, the the hobbyist, flaked out on them or whatever. So I see it as really getting out there talking about what a professional pet sitter does for you, what you can expect from them, going to different community meetings going to your your chamber of commerce meetings, or networking groups in your community, so that people understand. And they also see the value of having someone having your animal stay in their own home, I think more and more people really want that now, you know, I think boarding has definitely taken a backseat, unless it takes unless it's a dog, who is really is young, and has a lot of energy, and would get into way too much trouble at home if they were left there with pet visits. You know, I think that end for us to become resources for clients. I, I have so many clients who will ask me questions on all kinds of behavior issues, health issues, of course, I'm not a vet. But I can say what I've seen, and in my experience, what I've seen work and what I would advise and also advise them when to take the their pet to the vet, we can become this team member for them in their pets care. And really, it's quite an intimate relationship that we have with a lot of our clients. And so many times over the years, we become family members almost. And so I see impacting the community and just making reducing the stress for the animals and for the humans, and providing comfort and care and building that reputation so that people know that there are our people out there who take this really seriously and will treat their animals as if they were our own, and they can go away and not worry about anything.
Collin 33:18
You mentioned education. And I think that's a huge component of this, of really just being a resource there for our clients and our community at large, whether they use our services or not to be you know, writing blogs, doing interviews, sharing things that we're reading and learning about on social media or directly one to one with clients, because they will feel more comfortable, they do feel, in my experience, at least a lot more comfortable coming to us than they do going to their vet even or to their groomer because they see us a lot more they interact with us a lot more. And so we're kind of top of mind when it comes to not just who I'm leaving I need to take care of my pet but oh my my dogs actually a little different today are my cat's urine smells a bit different. Let me ask you, oh, let me ask Renee, what that could mean, because I don't know that they're not going to be able to test just text their vet. That's right, they're going to be reaching out to us. And that that alone besides the peace of mind with education, making better pet parents educated so they can live a really good life with their pets. That's a that's a game changer when it comes to pets and their owners relationship for the for their entire life. You walked us up through that, you know after 2020 and you've made the switch now to being solo and you're finding more space in your day and you're going cats only so you've made a lot of changes in your business. What At what point did you decide Renee that that it was time to retire from this and go and do something else? Right.
Renée S. 34:47
Okay. Big decision, right? I mean, Kristen Morrison. I've seen her speak at the conferences she says set up your exit strategy even when you're just starting your business You know, so I think that I thought, oh my gosh, that is so far in the future, you know, I don't even know what my exit strategy would look like. And then I just, I woke up one day, it was actually a year ago, a year ago, February. And I thought, Okay. I'm not as excited about going to work as I used to be. I love the animals. But I've had to pivot a lot in the last two and a half years, and I'm tired. So, there were a lot of factors that went into that. And, you know, as we go through life, we have different ups and downs and challenges. And I had, like, at year 12, I was, I basically thought that I was getting burnout. And I was I was not finding new challenges, actually, things were I could I could do the job with my eyes closed. And, and I, I thought, Okay, well, this is interesting. And I had a brief foray into another. While I was still petsitting had a brief foray into another field that I thought would suit me well, and, and shortly, very shortly found out it didn't suit me at all. And so I came back to petsitting. Like, I was home, and I thought, okay, yes, I can do this with my eyes closed, but I want new challenges I want, I want to be able to use my brain. I don't want this to be so rote. And boy, did I get challenges, I got so many awesome experiences. Because I asked for them. You know, I so many new experiences with different animals, different health issues with animals, different situations, and I just felt alive again. And and it was great. I had this new this resurgence. And like I said, I had been in healthcare for 12 years, and then by that point, and pet sitting for maybe 15 years, and my mom got Alzheimer's. So I talk a lot about compassion, fatigue. And in my book, and in, in forums and blogs, I never really knew what compassion fatigue was until it happened to me, and I thought I was going crazy. I would say to people, I think I'm having a nervous breakdown. Even though I don't even know what the definition of a nervous breakdown is like, I would just be tense and stressed and tearful, and I couldn't handle one more thing. Just I couldn't do one more thing. And it and it turned out there was just a cumulative effect of all those years of being a caregiver and absorbing other people's energy and their trauma and their drama. And also then this added layer of being responsible for my mom who had this terrible disease. And luckily, it's when I had ICs. And I really just had to take a step back, I had to go to therapy, I found a coach who specialized in compassion fatigue, and I had to completely change my mindset, to where I had to learn to put my own oxygen mask on first. And so many of us, we will do whatever it takes for everybody else. But when it we won't do whatever it takes for us. And to actually say to myself, I need to totally step back and just regroup here. I was able to do that. And I feel like I came out of the other side of really a such a dark time. And after that I just I started gauging my life satisfaction. And when the pandemic hit, there was just so much and I navigated it all I pivoted things were looking up, but I didn't want to bring on any more staff. I thought no, I'm at this point. I'm in my 60s now. I started my business when I was in my 40s and I decided I wasn't serving as many people as I wanted to. And I didn't want to get in my car every day. I you know, once I got to the animals, it was amazing. And I really like to think that I provided the same standard of care and love and attention that I always did to the clients but it Inside it, it wasn't, I wasn't there anymore. And I really needed to start thinking about what I was, what I was most concerned about is that, you know, you walk into a store, and you see a disgruntled worker, or you see someone who just hates their job and you're like, man, that person needs to get out. Yeah, they need to, they need to change, they need to do something else, because they're unhappy, and they're making everyone else around them unhappy. And I never wanted to get to that point. Yeah, I never wanted my clients. I'm really good at masking, you know, but plus, we don't have to, at masking my feelings, because, you know, we're there to support our clients, they don't need to hear about our problems, and, and all that, so I'm good at that. But I never wanted anybody to say, Oh, my God, she is burnout, she needs to get out. And that's when it just kind of hit me. I thought, Okay, let my husband, he's a musician. And he always says, You gotta leave them wanting more. You know, don't stay in it too long. Like, don't do you know, do one on core don't do three, you know? So I thought, yeah, I gotta get out. Well, I'm still on my game. My performance is still good. But my heart's not going on anymore. And so there's something else out there for me. And that's, that's it, I made the decision.
Collin 41:36
Yeah. Well, that can be really hard to see, especially looking back over those years going. Or maybe it wasn't hard, Renee, I don't know. But looking back going, I've everything that you poured into this, you said, you know, I pivoted, I changed, I did all this stuff. It's been 23 years at this point, they've been working on this, but I'm just, this isn't for me anymore. And really recognizing that that's, you know, wanting to leave your business on good terms, basically, is really what that is of going, you know, something else is out there. And I'm going to try and find something new. I mean, did you ever think that you would retire from from running the business? Or did you have always something in mind of, well, there'll be a day where this won't won't occur? Because I know many people just starting or maybe mid career, we've been in this for 10 years, we still don't really think about a day where we're not going to be doing this.
Renée S. 42:24
No, I never thought I'd retire. I thought I would do this, you know, even just like, just, you know, a few visits here and there until I basically, you know, rode off into the sunset. I just did it. I just felt like I would refer business out to my colleagues and just would would just sit for a few people and No, I never thought I would retire.
Collin 42:50
Pet perennials makes it easy to send a heartfelt condolence gift directly to someone with a broken heart. They have this awesome direct to consumer gift model that takes the effort off of us and ensures a thoughtful, personalized, simply give the reach of your client or employee on your behalf. All gift packages include a handwritten card, colorful gift wrapping and shipping theaters across both the US and Canada. They also offer an array of milestone gifts and greeting cards that can be sent to celebrate birthdays, extend, get well wishes and welcome new and rescued pets. Additionally, there are gift choices in case you need to send a 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 at Pet perennials.com Check out their business programs or register for a free gift perks account by using the link in the show notes. So what was that process? Like? You know, you've you're in February, you think it's time to change? Where did you start going with that process?
Renée S. 43:57
Right? I decided that I should put some feelers out, you know, my business wasn't worth what it would have been worth if I had five employees if the pandemic hadn't happened, you know, so, but I still felt like it had value. And I so I researched how to sell a business through a lot of different avenues. And that's another whole nother conversation. But I also decided, I had a meeting with Kristen Morrison a few years ago when I was building the business up and really thinking about okay, you know, how do you get a business to the point where it is maybe desirable for somebody to take over by your client list or whatever, like I said, even though I wasn't really thinking retiring, and Christian advises, you know, keep it on the DL. Don't Don't put it out there. that you're selling your business because you don't want your clients all to hear about it or you don't want this or that. But to me, that's fear based and I don't operate on fear. I operate on that. If you have an intention, and you put it out there, and you really are open to receiving what comes, then it will, and how I've been in this community for 23 years. I know a lot of people, you know, we come across that text trainers, other business owners, people who say they'd love to be a pet sitter. So I thought, Okay, I'm just going to tap into that. I'm going to put out some feelers. And I'm just going to ask people, if they're interested. And what's so bizarre, or fortuitous, we could say, one or the other. Is that a vet tech who I had known, she was one of my favorites that our vet, and I used to walk dogs past her house all the time. And we would, we would visit she texted me two weeks before I made that I this thought entered my mind about exiting. And she asked me if I could take over dog walking job for her. Because she, her schedule wasn't working to keep walking this dog. And I thought, I thought I let her know that I was counseling me. But I also thought, Oh, that's interesting. I didn't even know she was petsitting. And so that asking her, your petsitting. Now she goes, Yeah, I left the vet, I left the veterinary field during the pandemic, it just became too stressful. So I'm not sitting now. So okay, just way back that just went in, in fact, in my mind, but she was one of the people that I texted when I thought, Okay, I'm going to see, I'm going to ask all these people in the, in my circle, if they or anyone they know would be interested in sitting down and talking about buying my business. And and basically, everyone was like, Yeah, I'm not sure I'll think about it. Or I'll put the I'll put some feelers out. And she said, We need to talk. Oh, wow. All right back to me. And like I said, she she might not have even been on my radar. We hadn't even seen each other in two years. But there, there it was, there was this opportunity. And I truly believe it was because I was open. And because I had a clearer picture of the kind of person I was looking for. And what I'm what I wanted for my business, because this person is like me when you're around her, you feel like you've been okay, I'm not trying to toot my own horn here. You feel like you've just been wrapped up in a big hug. You just feel the love. Yeah, she understood animals the way I do. She has been through pet hospice training, like I have death doula training. So we sat down for you know, just for coffee, three hours later, we were just like, okay, okay, this, this really could turn into something. Yeah. So we decided that what would be best was to bring her on as an IC, a true IC, where I did not have any sort of authority over her because, but I wanted my clients to be able to get to know her and experience her style. And see how they responded. And we wanted to see if we were a good fit. So that's what we did. Three months later, my clients loved her. They were so accepting of her mostly they were excited because the availability had more than doubled. That's great. My little 20 hours a week and now her and her 40 hours a week we were really we were really ramping up and and so they they just loved her and we decided okay, we're gonna move forward with this. And and so, the thing is, that I wanted to circle back to anyone that you are talking to about buying your business, even if it's just people, you know, giving on to nondisclosure agreement signed, because, yeah. They then they can't go blab to everybody that you're even talking about selling your business. And you can feel comfortable that even though you are taking a risk by putting the word out, there is nothing confidential that that person that person has agreed not to share that information.
Collin 49:56
Yeah, well, you can enter into it with a lot more. I like that word confidence. going out, I can really put everything out here on the table knowing full well that this isn't going to be used against my business used to poach people or spread rumors or things like that, and just going, I want everything to be out there. And we can have an honest discussion about this. Because it is I'm sure it's scary to start broaching that topic and have all these things running through your head about the what ifs and how is this going to work out? And what do I how am I going to talk to people about this. And I think your idea of bringing them on into the business to start doing visits is a very interesting way of doing that. Because it sounds like you weren't really looking for top dollar here. You were wanting best service to your clients, and wanting to make sure they were treated well. And were continued to be served, but you would want to be done.
Renée S. 50:47
That was my goal for my business. You know, it's such a personal thing for everybody. And like I said, I called basically when I went back solo, I reframed it. I said I'm a boutique petsitter. Yeah, we're back to just me, high level of service. You know, just very, very specific clients, I only worked for people that I absolutely enjoyed. And yes, I. And if I had sold the business, if it hadn't worked out to sell the business to somebody that I already knew. I did not to have to train this person on pet care at all. She knew everything about animals that I did, except chickens, I had to I had to train her on ticket.
Collin 51:35
There's always something I can fluently
Renée S. 51:36
anyway. But if I had sold it to somebody that didn't know, and I had advertised it on the open market, the price would
Collin 51:48
have been higher. So it's it's December 26. And you're wrapping up that last visit ever Rene, what was that? Like?
Renée S. 51:55
It was really emotional. It was a lot different than I expected. Because I was like, I've got my retirement tour plan in January, I'm going to visit all these people. And you know, I was like, kind of on this high like, Okay, this is a lifestyle. I've lived for 23 years, and now I'm going to be I'm going to have no obligations, no obligation, what is that going to feel like? And I thought it was gonna feel amazing, which of course, it did, eventually. But I was seeing all my very favorite clients over the holidays, I cherry pick two. Because, oh, well, I want to let you know, I did stay on after we announced the sale. Okay, I stayed on for six months to help. Because we had work scheduled. We had work scheduled out to help out and to train for time to pet. Yeah. Okay. And for the bookkeeping, all the business management stuff. Okay, so, so I was still there, I was still seeing the clients, and we had lots of work booked over the holiday. So I got very emotional my last week and I would be like, This is the last time I'm scooping this litter box. You know, this is the last time I'm brushing these cats. This is the last time I'm sending these clients, pictures of their actually elderly frail cats and I who actually, let me give them their medicine and you know, just everything that had gone into it. And it's almost like my whole career flashed before my eyes that week. And when I sent that last text, and I locked that last door. It was very, very bittersweet. It was I just, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is the end of an era. Yeah, huge, a huge part of who I am and who I was. And I am going to need to find a new way to be and it's it's one of those things that you really can't tell how you're going to feel because like I said, I felt like I was just going to be floating and ecstatic. And it took me a full month to decompress from 35 years being a caregiver you know not feeling oh my gosh, I gotta get up there pets to see you know, having dreams right.
Collin 54:49
Now, have you been late to sets?
Renée S. 54:53
So it was it was a process for sure it wasn't a line of demarcation at all. It was definitely something that that took time. And I've learned to embrace it. And I still keep in touch with a lot of my clients because they text me pictures and what's happening, and I text them. And I'll be going back to visit people and that sort of thing, but it was light and heavy at the same time.
Collin 55:29
Well, so a lot of a lot of our listeners are very new in their journey, may or may have been in business one year or a month or, you know, we're still, you know, 10 years, but it weren't 30s 40s What advice would you give us to start preparing for that day, so that when we do lock that door for the last time, or when we do decide to make that change? You know, how can we prepare now? Or, or is there anything we can do to get to that point where we're ready?
Renée S. 55:55
I think a big thing is to live your life very intentionally now. Yeah, from the title of my book, I am really, really focused on having balance. Because I've seen, I've seen pet sitters run themselves into the ground, I've seen people just in tears at the holidays, you know, being overbooked, and the weather's bad, and they don't know how they're going to get from place to place. And so I think along the way, make sure you're having fun, make sure that you are putting, putting on your own oxygen mask doesn't involve being selfish. It involves taking care of yourself, so you can take care of others. If you're frazzled, and stressed out, trying to get through traffic, all of those things, you know, it takes away the pleasure of this, this is the best job in the whole world, as far as I'm concerned. Yeah. And being your own boss, calling your own shots, having variety and flexibility, no two days are the same. They're there and feeling so valued. And having just a full heart. Just make sure that your that your engine has enough gas in it, and that you're taking time off. You're scheduling that for yourself, you, you don't need to give 100% Every day, I mean, we give 100% when we're there with the animals be in the moment, enjoy it, be there for the clients, but also give yourself 100%. And have fun, find joy, play, plan vacations. When I hear people say I haven't had a day off in three years. I'm like, oh, man, that is not a badge of honor. That is a red flag. And so when you're starting out in your business, make your area specific. Don't take clients way out of your area, just because you need the money, you will end up having to refer them to somebody else later, why not just let them get to that person in the first place. And stay out of fear. Fear is a huge factor for any business owner, because there's feast and famine, especially when you're starting. And if you're doing something out of fear, I can guarantee 100% It's not going to be the right thing. You need to really love yourself and love yourself enough to say no to situations that don't work for you. And when you're new in business, you're gonna get in those situations, and you're gonna go, ah, what was I thinking? And I start my gut told me when I went to that meet and greet, but I took the job anyway. Okay, so So you did that. So don't beat yourself up for it. You have most of us in this business have really good gut instincts and intuition. You take that feeling that you had at that visit. And when you get that feeling again with the client, run the other way. Just say I'm sorry, it's not a good fit. Because you're going to learn, you're going to learn some things the hard way. And we can't avoid that. But we can listen to our colleagues. We can listen to other people's experiences. And we can take those experiences and go no, I don't have to accept less than what I deserve. I can actually I work for people I enjoy, I can do the job that I want to do, it's my company, I can call the shots. Basically, if you do things out of there, you're going down the wrong path. So really listen to yourself and learn to trust yourself, because you can trust yourself, and take those experiences board with you. And you learn what you enjoy what you don't enjoy. Just like me, I learned, I could supervise people. And I wasn't, I wasn't an ogre. I really, you know, in my younger years, I didn't have very much tact, I just said it how it was. And I learned to temper that I learned. And if you want to grow your company, do it in baby steps. Just do it and see how it works. And what I did find, honestly, is that one or two staff members is not profitable. And it's a lot of effort. So if you're going to get to bring on staff, obviously, so do it slowly. But I really think at least four or five staff members is what would make it worthwhile, especially with employees, because you have a lot of experience expenses involved with that. And you can spread that out over more employees and more visits. So that is one thing that I that I think you know, you don't have to grow huge, you don't have to have 30 employees. But I think at least four or five could be your goal, if you want to have staff, unless it's only four. Unless you don't care about making profit, you only want to serve enough clients to give yourself that breathing room. And you need to decide,
Collin 1:01:55
well, making those small, small adjustments because you know, we're looking for this balance life, just like a boat, if you come in and you grab the side of a canoe and really jerk it around, up and down, it's very likely going to tip but if you make small adjustments, if you're careful getting into the boat and balancing and shifting out the weight, you'll be able to find balance a lot faster. And because what we're balancing here is, it's not just the business operating, but it's our own life in conjunction with the business and that we are impacted how the business runs, and the business is impacted by how we're running. And so as we make adjustments to our business, we we do the work now to see how we adjust our life around that and what that means for us with the new schedule or the new management or the the new service that we're offering, and how that sits with us. And if we come in and change everything all the time all at once. We're not giving our we're not being kind to ourselves, to make the adjustments that we need so that we can continue to do it. Do this and show up 100% for our clients and ourselves.
Renée S. 1:02:56
You said it, Colin, I mean, that is it is it in a nutshell. I love that boat analogy. And one other thing I would like to say is, don't be afraid to say I made a mistake. I don't like this, I'm gonna backtrack. Yeah, no, it's okay. It's okay to say, Hey, I tried it, I didn't enjoy it, I'm gonna go back to being solo. I really did love being solo again,
Collin 1:03:23
recognizing that that was that was an intentional choice that you got to make and that we faced those same decisions every day in our business and going no, I have full agency in this. And I have done my research or I've learned my lesson or I want to try something new. I can make a decision to this. And it's not. We don't carry guilt into that decision of well, I guess that failed. And I didn't do it. Right. And I didn't do it. Well, that was that and I'm onto something new?
Renée S. 1:03:50
Absolutely. Absolutely. We're here to learn. We're here to learn about ourselves. What makes us tick? What floats our boat? You know? It's definitely it's a process. Yeah. Lifelong learning really,
Collin 1:04:07
something we should always strive for and not be afraid to tackle those. You know, you mentioned earlier, like you needed new challenges. So you took on new challenges you you extended yourself a little bit more into these areas to learn and grow. And I think a lot about how the business that we run today with my wife and I thinking back to the kind of visits we took on when we started 10 years ago. They're a lot different. Like they're a lot more complicated. There's a lot more steps, there's all these different kinds of animals that we take care of. And we only got there from going, well, let's learn a little bit and try something new. And let's learn a little bit more and we can try that. And always cognizant and aware that we shouldn't overextend ourselves and over commit to something that is not within our wheelhouse, but seeing what's a little bit closer that I can maybe try that has a little bit lower risks for me and my company.
Renée S. 1:04:58
That is so true. Yeah, absolutely. You've got the right ideas there. And I just, I just love what you're doing for our community for the petsitting. community, it's you really are providing such a great resource. And the topics that you cover are so important. And I'm I'm seeing that people coming into the business are thinking more about their own emotional well being, as well as the well being of the animals and their clients and, and their business.
Collin 1:05:34
Well, thank you very much for that. I really appreciate it. And I want to thank you for spending your time with us here today, sharing your story, your journey, and encouraging us to find that balance, and do those little steps at a time and reaching out to that broader community when we need that help. I know there's a lot that goes into this, though. And there's a lot of topics here. And so if people want to get connected with you check out your book and keep up to date with everything that you've got going on. How can they do that, Renee?
Renée S. 1:06:00
Hey, well, I'm on Facebook as the balance petsitter, you can find me there. Also, on my Instagram, my website is actually an interactive website. It's it's basically connected with my book. So my website is Rene stillson.com. And my book has many, many links in it. And when you find a link icon, you can go to my website, and it will give you the link to that resource, that article, whatever I'm referencing, or speaking about. And it's organized not only by topic, but by chapter so you can go in. And if you're in chapter one, and you see a link, you can go in and then click the chapter. And it'll give you all of those resources, which I just thought was really important for people to be able to dig deeper into each topic. And and it's something I'm really proud of. Yeah, there's a
Collin 1:07:01
there's a ton of links there. I was like scrolling and scrolling and looking. There's a lot of resources there. So I'll have links on to your, to Facebook, into your website, into your book as well, so people can get that in their hands. Renee, this has been such a pleasure and honor, I thank you. Thank you so much for for joining us today.
Renée S. 1:07:23
It's been my absolute pleasure. Thank you so much.
Collin 1:07:26
How do you lead the life of a balanced pet sitter and balanced dog walker, find joy today, find something in your world that brings you joy, and lean into that protect that treat that as the other most valuable treasure that you can ever have access to. You can lead a balanced life today. It takes intentionality it takes stick to itiveness takes a little bit of stubbornness as well to maintain those boundaries in our life and in our business. But it is possible. And it is something that we should look forward to every single day is knowing that we have obligations, we have a business to run that meets people's needs that fills us. And there's other things in our lives as well that are more so important than that. We want to thank today's sponsors, time to pet and pet perennials. And thank you so much for listening today. We hope you have a wonderful, wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
