395: Roundtable: Self-Care
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Are you prioritizing self-care? As a business owner, we are often the last to get cared for. The fact is, your business will suffer if you’re not taking care of yourself. Michelle Kline (DogCo Launch), Doug Keeling (Bad to the Bone Pet Care), and Dan Reitman (Dan’s Pet Care) share their journeys and struggles to learn what self-care means to them. Your health, and the health of your business, depend on you operating at your best. To do this, the roundtable encourages us to not numb the struggles and instead seek professional help and healthier ways of dealing with stress. They also walk through what “work-life” balance actually is and how to find your priorities.
Main topics:
Discipline in Self-care
Keep long game in mind
Get professional help
Numbing the work
Stress and work
Main takeaway: If you're not taking care of your needs, you're not going to be operating at your fullest capacity.
About our guests:
Michelle Kline
Michelle Kline is the classic example of dog fanatic turned dog professional. A lifelong devotee to dogs, Michelle entered into the industry in 2017. Michelle is now the owner of Venture Dog Walking - an on demand daily dog walking company in Winston Salem, NC - and DogCo Launch - a consulting company helping other pet care businesses grow and scale. When she's not pursuing business opportunities, you can find Michelle and her husband hiking with their two dogs, Winston and Ronin, or trying different breweries across the state.
Daniel Reitman
I am incredibly grateful and amazed to look back on the journey that this business has taken me on. I have been fortunate enough to surround myself with an amazing team of staff and I have been able to create wonderful relationships with my clients. My mission with this business has always been to provide pet owners with someone who is reliable, trustworthy and caring to care for their pets, and I am incredibly honored to have been given the chance to do so for so many people within my community for so many years. I look forward to many more years of providing the best quality pet care for your pets.
Dan’s Dog Walking and Pet Sitting website
Doug Keeling
Doug Keeling in the Owner and founder of Bad to the Bone Pet Care, Vice President of the Florida Pet Services Association, and Founder of the Northeast Florida Pet Professionals Network. Over the past six years, Doug has built an award winning team of in-home pet care professionals across Northeast and Central Florida. Bad to the Bone Pet Care is currently a team of 30 pet sitters and dog walkers offering fully customizable personable care and is constantly growing. It is Doug's goal to show the pet care community, and the world, that through compassion and love we can truly make a difference. Be sure to follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and his blog to follow his teams progress as we continue to expand. Feel free to email him any questions you may have about starting and growing a pet care business.
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
business, care, pet, people, day, client, work, life, dan, dealing, notifications, brain, michelle, feel, love, dog, doug, making, app, important
SPEAKERS
Dan, Doug, Michelle K., Collin
Collin 00:01
Welcome back to pet sitter confessional. Today, we're brought to you by time to pet and the National Association of Professional pet sitters. Today, we are talking about a very important topic to the pet care industry, whether you've been in the industry for a day, a year, 10 years, 30 years, taking care of yourself is one of the most important things that you can do so that you continue to serve your clients well and run a business that you want to run. And so we're really excited to talk about this today in a roundtable setting with three other business owners we have with us, Michelle Klein, Doug Keeling, and Dan Reitman to talk about their experiences with this and some lessons that they've learned. So I'd love for all of you to introduce yourselves to our listeners. And you've all been on the podcast previously and I will have links to your episodes in the show notes so people can go back and listen to those but for our new listeners or longtime listeners who have been busy since then, could you just please tell us a little bit about who you are and all that you do?
Michelle K. 00:57
Yeah, absolutely. So my name is Michelle Klein. Thanks again Collin for having me back on the podcast. I am a pet service business owner My business is venture dog walking we are a daily dog walking only and we've been in business for about six years. So I've been in the pet care industry for a while and then have recently moved also into the coaching and consulting space to help daily dog walking specific companies grow and scale.
Doug 01:31
Yeah, what's up everybody? I'm so excited to be back. Thank you for having me, Colin. Always love talking to you. And it's so cool to finally talk to you Michelle. I followed you online for forever now it feels like so it's cool to finally see you and you know Dan's one of my idols so always cool to talk to you too. I own Bad to the Bone pet care in Jacksonville, Florida is our main service area. And we also serve as Central Florida offering dog walking, pet sitting and pet transportation. I've been in business for nine years, and I have a team of 30 employees and rockin and rollin. I'm excited to be here. Again, Colin, thank
Dan 02:09
you as always for having me on. This is always fun love speaking with fellow pet pros like Doug and Michelle. I am Dan Reitman. I am the CEO and founder of dance pet care. We are a full service pet care company here in Long Island, we serve as Long Island, Brooklyn, Queens, and we currently offer a whole suite of pet care services. And we are now rolling out our first brick and mortar facility doing cage free boarding, doggy daycare, and grooming. And I'm excited to be here to talk about how terrible I am at work life balance and self care.
Collin 02:42
It is people listening to this. We're all extremely busy. I think that's one common denominator in running a business is that you're never not busy, there's always something to do. And so for you all, when you think of self care, I know that's a that's a big word. And people interpret that differently. So for you What is What does self care mean? for you in your life.
03:05
Um, at least for me,
Dan 03:09
for a long, long time, I viewed self care as a weakness, I looked at it as these people need to take time off work, they're not committed, they're not working hard enough. You know, just push through push, push, push, push, push, it doesn't work. Now, am I the perfect picture of self care? No, my first seven or eight years in business, I worked myself to the bone I did not take time off. I did not. I'm just friends and family events, I missed everything. And it had a huge impact on me. I had a pretty big, pretty bad stimulant addiction for a long time that I got off of about five years ago. And that kind of heavily contributed to that obsessive nature. But I think that a lot of people when they're building their business, they don't take themselves into account. And for me, it took a very long time to get there. My wife forced a lot of self care into my life. But I found that when you do implement whatever works for you, because there's there's gonna be people who you know, you need to work a 30 hour week, get to work a 60 hour week, you got to find the thing that works best for you. And make sure you do it with discipline because if you don't give yourself the things you need, you're not going to be operating at your best capacity. And that's the biggest takeaway that I've taken. I've learned from this as if you're not staying on top of the things you need to do to make sure your brain is functioning well and you function well physically, like if you slack off working out, or you're not eating clean or you're not getting the sleep that you need. Yeah, in spurts. It's great like sometime you know, as everybody knows running a business, it takes a lot out of you and it's gonna be there's gonna be times I'm actually coming off of my first day off after 67 days straight. So that was a nice little thing to do. And I again, I've been in business for 13 years, but I think it's something that is very important. If you know you know yourself, you know what works best for you. You and it's really testing and trying to different aspects of self care to figure out what is the best way for you to do the things you need to do so you can function at your best.
Michelle K. 05:08
Yeah, and maybe the piggyback off of x, I have, probably unsurprisingly, a very similar journey that first, you know, really the first four and a half years I was in business, it was just a grind, like a straight grind the whole time. And, you know, it's tough because I think like with a brand new entrepreneur, like, sometimes a season like that can also be really good. Um, you know, it, I got to test my limits and see what I was capable of. And there's something exhilarating about throwing yourself all the way into something that you love. While that's at the same time, that season came with a lot of consequences that I've really spent the last 18 months. I'm working like, what do I need in my life, to be a business owner and to be healthy? And how can those things exist together and not be at odds with each other. Um, for me, I really had to start with looking at what's the like, boring daily stuff that just has to be non negotiable. I have chronically my entire life and really bad about compromising sleep, for the sake of you know, the mission, or whatever it is I'm trying to do. That's something that I've really had to reshape in the last 18 months. So I think going back to Dan's point, it's really knowing yourself. And then committing the like, boring work to the discipline of what yourself means.
Doug 06:42
Not Not surprising, I feel like we're all kind of in the same boat here with, you know, the first few years was a total grind. I mean, I didn't take my first day off until like, my sixth year in business, I worked 365 days a year, no questions asked. And I loved it. I mean, just like Michelle said, There's something very energizing and invigorating and fulfilling about, you know, putting your all into something that you care so much about and seeing it grow and blossom and turn into a true business. And, you know, self care, those first few years to me was Did I remember to eat today, you know, if I remember to eat, it was a good day. And, you know, now I have like a kind of a list of non negotiables, where, you know, I know now that I need eight hours of sleep a night, if I don't get that I'm not going to perform at my level that I need to be at, you know, I don't eat fast food, I don't drink soda, I try to eat, you know, very healthily drink water. You know, I have some of these non negotiables I do yoga at least once a week, even if I can't make it to the studio, I do it at home in my living room, you know, and there's just certain things that are non negotiable to myself care now. But I feel like we've all come from that place of, you know, really grinding and figuring out what is going to work for us the hard way.
08:11
Something that's interesting that all three of you mentioned was you mentioned about the importance of basically of discipline in our lives. And that may sound counterintuitive, when we think of self care, which is supposed to be many people may think it's free flowing, it's just relaxing, it's not doing anything. And then to put it in the context of you have to be disciplined and structured. To make that work. I think that's really important when we think of being a business owners and entrepreneurs because we are so focused and driven on success and reaching goals, that everything else just kind of falls by the wayside in our life.
Dan 08:47
Yeah, I think one of the, for me, at least, the number one non negotiable has always been exercise. I've seen there's like a direct correlation to my personal performance, if I have not, even if it's just Alright, I'm gonna go run three miles and I'm just gonna go get on the treadmill for a half an hour and just do you know, a quick three mile run and just get it out of the way. It's so important for your mental health. Like being able to stay on top of the things that you know, my biggest thing is, if I'm if I like in my gut, I'm like, I don't want to do this. I don't want to go to the gym. That's when you're like, hey, guess what, man? You're going to the goddamn gym today. Because it's the stuff you don't want to do. That's gonna be the stuff that makes you great. Something as simple as like for me like my nighttime routine, making sure I'm meditating making sure I'm journaling making sure that I am sitting there and I'm getting my I'm packing my gym bag that for the next morning I'm prepping my food for the next day because I know that if I don't do that, I'm going to wake up like shit, I gotta do this. I gotta do this and it's just setting yourself up for success. I'm a big fan of Jocko willing, he's a ex Navy SEAL. If you don't listen to his stuff, he's you want to to people you want to feel motivated, Jocko willing and David Goggins go Watch those two animals on YouTube, they'll get your ass off the couch. But like he says something that that's always resonated with me, which is discipline equals freedom, it's doing the things you don't want to do to get you where you want to be like, because I know for me, I've been grinding this for 2022 years since I was 22. So I've been running this business for 13 years now, and I have a number in my head of 45, I want to be in a position of 45, where I never have to work again, I'm never gonna stop working, because I'm an addict. And this is just how my brain function. But I want to work because I want to not because I have to. And so I know that for me to get to that place, I can't just white knuckle it for the next 10 years, I have to make sure I set myself up for success. And that's doing everything that everyone's talking about here today, making sure eating good clean food, making sure I'm gonna quit smoking, I'm still doing this stupid vape thing, but doing things that are good for your body and good for your brain. And sometimes, and again, this took me years to admit, sometimes actually taking a step away from your business, and taking that refresh or whether it's you know, you're like, Alright, I'm gonna take this day off, especially for those of you who are listening, who you're in year 123, or four of your business where you're just like, I gotta get it done, I gotta get it done. You do 100% I like I get it, I worked myself to the point of almost being hospitalized my first year in business, but it's one of those things where I learned like, if I'm in the hospital, I can't run my business. If I am so sick, because I have been working 1819 hours a day, for 100 days straight and my body's physically shutting down. I can't do the best that I can. So making it like, you know, both Michelle and Doug are saying it's non negotiable. Even if you've worked a 12 hour day and you're like, you know, I know I feel better if I workout, but a gym for a half hour doing yoga, do something physical, that's the like, yes, if especially if you're out in the field, you're walking, that counts as your cardio. But doing it intentional movement has such a profound impact, like high intensity workouts are amazing for mental health. Like even if you go on the treadmill and just do a bunch of hit reps, and just sprint walk, Sprint, walk, Sprint, walk, like do whatever works for you. But make sure that no matter what if you're like, Oh, I'm tired, I had a long, tough shit, do it, like, get it done. The people who succeed are the people who are the best in the world at what they do, whether it's sports, law, yoga, they're the people who don't negotiate with themselves. They're the people who are like, this is what I'm doing. This is what I'm getting done. And I'm gonna get it done no matter what. Well, NDN,
Michelle K. 12:35
you said a point that really resonated with me that I think it's at the core of a lot of this is keeping the long game in mind. You know, and I mean, I'm sure you guys will all resonate with this. But COVID was just like a pretty horrible time to be a business owner. I mean, for everybody, it was horrible. But the stress and the just like, certain Bible kind of edge that I feel like every business owner, like their relationship to work transition to, I found that, especially in that season, but there's always a temptation to take the easy wins, I put that in quotes for the audience, put that like take easy wins to help, you just get a little bit more done. And the longer I've been in this, the more I'm realizing that those cheap wins, or those easy wins are really stealing from my long game. Um, you know, I mean, post COVID, I've had to cut back on alcohol a lot, because that was something like, you know, I mean, I could keep working and have a glass of wine all sudden, this fun, and I'm working three or four hours more. And what I need to do is stop and get to the gym, because that's actually what's going to sustain me to keep and I still love wine, like I will tell anybody has a loved one. But that that little inflection point and our decisions are, you know, our days are just full of decisions like that, that we choose in that moment whether we're going to prioritize what I can get done today, or what I could get done this entire year. And that's just a really different
14:12
framework. Yeah, I think that's
Doug 14:15
a great point of coming out of COVID. You know, we've all kind of had to reevaluate like our entire lives and our entire businesses and I have a list of priorities for the week and for the day. And my priority lists look so different now than they did like three years ago. But you know, and some things I don't some days I don't get to the things on the bottom of that list, but things like eating healthy and sticking to our regimen, the things that we're talking about, you're always at the top of my list and just staying disciplined, like like Dan said, I mean, that is so so key to all of this. I mean, I schedule out all my Google Calendar exactly when I am going to Eat, meal prepping, when I'm going to be doing yoga, when I'm going to be meditating all of these things, I have it on my Google Calendar, as if it's a drop in is it as if it's a dog walk, you know, and I hold myself to it with the same intensity that I would hold myself to a pet sitting client, you know, and there's, you can't pour from an empty pot. And you have to constantly be thinking about how do I refill my pot so that I can be there for my clients or my team for my community. That's so, so important. And I think another point to make here is that everybody's priorities are gonna be a little bit different, you know, yoga may not be your thing, meditating may not be your thing. But you know, it's staying active, making those an intentional movements, like Dan said, is so key. And it's preached by so many different people that are successful in so many different industries, you know, and you got to find what works for you and hold yourself to it.
16:00
Priorities helps you focus a lot of times, but it can be hard to to find those priorities in our lives. Because isn't everything important? Right? If it wasn't important, I wouldn't be doing it. Right. So how do we, how do we go from how do I go from that mindset of everything's important, I must be doing it all to, here's what's on my list for today. And that's all that I can do.
Dan 16:23
So I'm a fan of two things. And this took me a long time to get to say no, say no to friends, say no to family, say no. And I'm not saying always, but there's gonna be times in your business, when you just have to lock it in and say no to the stuff that's like, oh, you know what I would like to go grab some drinks with my friend, or, you know, I would love to go to like a family barbecue. Sometimes you have to do the thing that is right for you. Because I know for me, I'm going out for drinks with my friends. I'm not going to feel, you know, I'm 35. I can't, I can't hang like I could when I was younger. So I know if I'm having like, I had two drinks on Saturday, for the first time in my life, I barely drink at all anymore. Because I know for me personally. And I realized this at a very young age, I need for me to be successful. Two things have to happen. Alcohol cannot play a large part of my life. And I always have to be physically active. And so it's definitely about saying no, and then I looked at, I tried to find people who are over the moon more successful than me. So I look at people like an Elon Musk, like a Mark Zuckerberg, like a Bezos, any of these people who have built something massive, because that's my goal. I My goal is to build the largest pet care brand in the world. And I will work my hands to the bone to get there. But they put a lot of things in place to make sure they're able to without Elon Musk, not so much because that man's just a machine. But you know, somebody like Mark Zuckerberg, when they were building Facebook, they boiled everything down to a yes or no question for their business. Is this going to help us grow? Yes or no? So it eliminates the need of having to have these massive discussions about what are we doing? What is this? What is this? It's does this help us grow? Yes or no. So you have to figure out what your goals are for your business. And for you personally. Now, if you have a goal for your business of I want to get 1000 clients in the next year. And that's a big goal. That's not a small thing to you know, attain, you have to figure out what are the things that I have to do and then with your team, you need to make sure that everybody understands that that's the goal. And it makes it so much easier to make those decisions. So, all right, we're gonna do this event. Is this going to help us get more clients? Yes, we do it. We're gonna do redecorating the office. Is that going to help us get more clients? Probably not. Let's put that further down the priority list. And then a big thing, like Doug was saying, he's got his list of priorities. I have ADHD, and I don't take medication for it anymore. I was on ADHD medication since I was in fourth grade till I was about 30. And in my 20s, it turned into a pretty bad substance problem. Like I was basically on speed for 10 years. And it was great because I could work 20 hours a day. I was on my way to most likely blowing my heart out. I was consuming an obscene amount of Ritalin Vyvanse. And then on top of that, I was having 15 to 20 cans of Sugar Free Red Bull day. Then I was having anywhere from seven it was like seven to 21 shots of espresso a day. Like I blew my adrenal gland out my body was like, but I was I was working out I was in shape and all this stuff. But I was so dry like to the point where getting off of that medication I went through physical withdrawals. It was terrible. So for my 20s the entire mindset was just don't go go go go work harder than everybody go go. I was gonna, I came to terms the fact that I was not going to make it to 40 because I was convinced I was going to have a heart attack. I met my amazing wife who actually Colin, you had her on the podcast. She's nutritionist. And her whole thing is dealing with mental health issues through diet, supplementation and exercise. And for me, that was alright, stupid, I don't want to do that she's completely changed my life. She's introduced yoga, she's introduced meditation, she's introduced therapy. Also real quick, all the other stuff aside, I don't care who you are. Everybody benefits from therapy, all you need is somebody you can go just, if you want, you can yell at them. Just be like, This is what's happening. And this client was terrible. And this is this, and this employee was a nightmare, it is so important to be able to have an unbiased person you can go vent to, so that you can get all the crap out. Because if you hold that it's poison, you're just keeping poison inside of you. So say no to stuff, prioritize the things you need to do, and get a therapist, go get it to everyone needs therapy, just go to therapy and talk about your feelings, because everyone has them.
Michelle K. 20:58
I mean, Dan, you just summed it all up, that was great.
Dan 21:03
I feel very strongly about therapy. I can't tell it all.
Michelle K. 21:09
Yeah, I mean, all those things, just like firmly believe in firmly eco. Um, for me, I have found it really helpful. Um, so I'm a social worker by training, that's what my graduate degree is in. And so you know, I find the brain really fascinating. And I find it fascinating just our relationship to stress and just the mental frameworks around stress. And so a couple points I wanted to make. One, I do think we have a lot of choice a lot more like empowerment around the framing of stress mentally, and choosing how that impacts us, then a lot of people may realize so choosing to engage in work, because you find it enjoyable, and it's an opportunity that you have versus something you have to do. I really believe that mental framework impacts our bodies and the way that our relationship to stress affects us. So that's something I've worked on a lot in the last five years is on just really trying to shift my mindset, even in really difficult situations from this is happening to me, too, this is something I've chosen to do, I'm still choosing to do. And that's a beautiful thing, even though it is hard at times. And so I think some of that gratitude, and just that self empowerment, you know, I mean, getting a little into the nerdy side of the brain, trying to get as much into your higher level like frontal lobe as you can where you actually feel like you have empowerment and choice over it. Versus reacting with your lower level brain which is very like fight or flight things are happening to me, I'm in a reactionary pose. So trying to get as much into this proactive choice mindset as you can. I think is so helpful. And as part of that mindset, like almost stepping outside of yourself to look back at yourself as this vessel that has to be cared for just like your business does. Your body needs certain inputs and outputs to be able to function and so I personally find it helpful to step outside of myself mentally into that kind of higher level. What does this vessel actually need? Okay, it needs to get outside. It's like a plant needs water, it needs air it needs to move its body outside. And then to the point Dan was making about Jocko I think it was Jocko willing, or maybe this new thing. But just treating that as a non negotiable. Like I know it's best. My higher level self has determined that that makes it on the list today. And for me that's helped. That has helped things feel less like just a perpetual To Do List of like, okay, meditation, check, gratitude journal check, in a little bit more of like, there's certain things that I know, in my higher level self care for the vessel that cares for everything else. So we got to take care of the vessel.
Doug 24:21
Yeah, I think all of this really comes back to just being honest with yourself and knowing yourself and you need to have, we talk about mission and vision statements for our business, but you need to have a mission and a vision statement for your own personal life, too. And all of these different decisions that you're making about how you spend your time where you put your energy, what you prioritize it, you need to come back to is this going to uphold the mission for my life, the long term vision for not just my business, but from my actual life and get honest with yourself? This is one thing, Dan I mentioned David Goggins. And man, he is like, a huge inspiration to me, listen to his audio book, he's got to out now, he's got some great podcast episodes and stuff, too. But that's one thing that he really talks about is like, look yourself in the mirror, and, and get real with yourself, you know, if you need to lose weight, tell yourself that, you know, we did self love is good. And like, being positive about yourself is good to a certain extent. But it can get toxic, you know, if you're not real and true and honest about your actual situation. Well, I
Michelle K. 25:38
think to your point, like, it really is this framing of what is self love, because I'm from the perspective that like self love is being willing to have that honest moment with yourself of like, you know, I, because I love myself, I will, of course, correct here. Because I see it. And in many ways, like I think this relationship with self love and numbing from realities, it's just that intersection is really important.
Dan 26:09
Yeah, I think it's, it's very, I mean, I have done it for years. It's very, I'm not a big drinker. But I do enjoy the cannabis. And you know, and I come home, at the end of the day, it's very nice to smoke a joint, take my dog for a walk, and just boom, like, it's a switch, my stress has gone, I feel great. Look how beautiful it is outside. But then, you know, I stopped by my wife and I are aiming to have a baby. So we were taking a break from from the weed. And I noticed, I first few weeks massive uptick in anxiety, I was having panic attacks. And I was like, Oh, I haven't dealt with anything for the past few years. And I've just let it up, even go into therapy and stuff like that. So it all starts to, you know, come to the surface. And if you find yourself reaching for that drink reaching for that joint reaching for because I mean, we this is this is not a low stress business. We're not you know, running any businesses that low stress, but when you're caring for people's animals, and you care the way I'm assuming everyone out there does, because you've dedicated your life to it. There's an additional amount of stress, because it's not like alright, I can go there tomorrow. No, you can't dog has to get outside. This is something that's time sensitive, you're always dealing with stuff like that. And at the end of the day, it always falls on your shoulders as the business owner, like I'm a big owner, again, to go back to Jocko. And something called Extreme Ownership. If anything goes wrong in my company, it's my fault. Because I didn't train the people to train the people correctly, anything that goes wrong, that falls on me, and that that's a big burden to take on. Because once you grow a team to 510 2050 50 100 people, it's a lot and there's always going to be something going on. And it's really learning how to give yourself those outlets that aren't going to ruin you. Because again, there are people I know people who can go out and have five drinks, and they function fine. That's not me, I can't do that. I also know that if I go out and I eat a bunch of garbage, I'm going to feel like crap. The next day, I'm going to be upset with myself for doing that. And it becomes this vicious cycle. And I see myself I mean, my wife's also very good at holding me accountable here. But when you see yourself falling back into these patterns of oh, this is nice. Like, you know, like Michelle was saying those easy wins, it's very easy to pour that glass of wine, it's very easy to just pack a quick bowl and just alright, I feel good. Now. You got to do the work, you got to do the things and you know, it's okay to be uncomfortable. It's okay to put yourself in a state of like, I'm really anxious right now. I want to just figure out a way to make this go away and taking the time to be like, Oh, alright, I'm anxious about this, this, this and this. Alright, let's put this on paper. Why am I anxious about it? And then reverse engineer how you can solve those problems sometimes is literally creating a plan. Like, I know that if I leave work, and I haven't created a game plan for the next day, I'm not present when I get home, I can't think clearly because I'm like, Oh, well, what about this, I got this, I got this, I get this, but at least make a plan for the problem. It's not always about solving the problem in that moment. But at least putting it down on paper, putting into Asana or whatever task management system used, and figuring out how do I just get this out of my brain and given yourself, take the night, go home, take the dog for a walk, you know, have you know, have a nice conversation with your partner, do whatever you got to do. That's not work. Because it's it. It's just something that if you don't do it, it just builds and builds a mess, you're gonna lose it, you're gonna you're gonna have a mental breakdown. Because I've seen it, I've experienced it. Like, I've had plenty of days where I've just been in tears being like, I can't do this. I don't know what I'm doing. And then I take like, a day off and I'm like, Oh, alright, I just got to do boom, boom, boom, boom, and it's the overwhelm. When you take that pressure off yourself. It's about you have to let yourself and I suck at this. I'm so bad at giving myself have time off. The only ways I really, truly decompressed is when I'm on if I fly somewhere because I'm like, Alright, I know I physically can't get back there to deal with the problem. But I've had to actively work on being able to allow myself that time to step back and be like, I'm not dealing with this right now. This is not, you know, as long as the the, the animals are okay, my staff are okay, this is not a problem that needs to be solved right now. I'll put it down on my list. I'll prioritize it, I'll deal with it when I come in the next day.
Doug 30:28
Gotta jump in on what Dan just said. I smoked weed literally every day from the from the I was 14 until I turned 26 Every day, and I had no idea how numb I was. And that's one of the first things I when I when I'm talking to people now I'm like, Are you numbing yourself? And why? And what can you do to stop that. And when I when I turned 26, I was kind of like looking at my life and thinking about the vision for my future. And I'm like, I am not going to be able to attain the things that I want to attain with my life. If I keep getting stoned every day. That doesn't mean I can't ever smoke ever. I still do occasionally. But I can't do it every day and reach the goals that I want to read. And as soon as I stopped smoking every day, just like Dan said, it was like my anxiety went through the roof. I couldn't sleep at night. I couldn't eat without having wheat in my system. And that's when I started going to therapy. And I mean to bring it back again to that I had no idea that I needed therapy until I stopped smoking weed every day. And then I was like, Holy crap, I have so much stuff that I have never dealt with that I don't even know how to begin to process. So now I go to therapy. Once a week, if it's a rough week, I'll go twice a week, you know, and it's been a life changer for me. And one of the first things that my therapist told me to do. But I told her I was like, I just don't know what to do. And you know, like, every day, I would come home from walking dogs all day, and I would pack that ball or I would roll that joint. And now I would come home and I'm like, I literally don't know what to do with my hands. I don't know what to do. You know, what do I do? And my therapist was like, you gotta put stuff on your schedule, like find things that are going to fulfill you and that's, that's when I started like dabbling with running and dabbling with yoga and like, I went and got myself a puppy. So I'm not recommending that you run out and get a puppy. It's what I needed. You know, I had somewhere to put that energy and all that love and all that those pent up emotions. Now it's like instead of funneling that into rolling a joint, I can go play
32:41
with my puppy you.
Collin 32:44
Have you heard of time to pass? Dan from NYC pooch has this to say
32:49
it has been a total game changer for us. It's helped us streamline many aspects of our operation from scheduling and communication to billing and customer management. We actually tested other petsitting software's in the past, but these other solutions were clunky and riddled with problems. Everything in terms of pet has been so well thought out. It's intuitive feature rich, and it's always improving.
Collin 33:09
If you're 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/confessional. It's important to note that self care self love is not escapism, it's not running away from those it's not numbing that it's not trying to make things go away. And Michelle, I'm really glad that you had mentioned the earlier of your our thinking brain or our basal brain of like the two things one part of your brain is trying to preserve your life at all costs, and will do anything to make sure you don't feel those emotions or experience those bad things in your life. You have to use the front part of your brain to direct those energies into positive healthy mechanisms that allow you to then function in a better way. Because if we don't have those tough questions, if we don't face those issues that are coming up, we don't actually make any progress. And then when more things get piled on our plates, we can't take that on we don't know how to make decisions and we end up stuck in mired in a location where we kind of settle for we're like, Well, this is I guess this is all I can do all I'm capable of. It all gets back to us not wanting to look ourselves in the mirror and going I love you for who you are as a person. And I appreciate everything that you me are doing. Here are some things we can make some changes in so that we can get a little bit better or move in a different direction than where we are now.
Michelle K. 34:37
And I just want to highlight Colin like I think these conversations are so important. And I think it's especially important for people who have seen a measure of success in their business to have them authentically because I think sometimes it's easy to look at other people who you know their business has reached a certain size or certain scale or We're in territory. And just to kind of put this romanticized picture over it, and over what the experience must have been, and to have people come talk about, like, actually, there's substances that like, aren't like, bad as a substance necessarily, but like I did use to escape and like, part of my success has actually come from learning to sit in these uncomfortable feelings, and then to find healthier ways to move them through. Um, but you know, part of this success is actually getting away from this mentality of like, I'm just kicking that to a tomorrow problem. So I mean, I guess I say that to thank you for initiating this conversation, because I believe it's really important.
Dan 35:48
Yeah, I think, especially with the substance abuse component. You know, I know there's a lot of people out there who deal with it. And it's, so I think it's become less taboo to talk about, but I think it's a vulnerability. People don't always like sharing, I was in rehab, and I was 16. And I was, I was a painful as a youth. And so I dealt with the substance abuse, and the numbing for a very long time in my teens, I got sober for a year when I was 18. And then I had something happen in my life that just, and I started this business, and I couldn't numb, I couldn't drink anymore the way it used to. So, you know, I realized with the booze and that I had been off of pot for years. Like I was saying, I was like, Oh, I forgot how much I love this. And it became it was, so it was so nice to be able to just numb it. And it's yeah, like, you know, it's it's okay to have a glass of wine. And depending on who you are, like, there are some people who, you know, you know, when it comes to sobriety, I think sobriety functions on a gradient, some people believe it's black and white. I think there's some people like I know, for me, like, I can't go out and have a bunch of drinks, like I can have a glass of whiskey. And that's it. And not, I can't go beyond that. But it's, it's important to be able to recognize when it is, if you're not progressing, chances are the things you're using to escape or numb, are probably holding you back. And it's okay. Like, you know, I built a business that's done nearly $10 million in revenue. And it was not easy. It was something that I had to put a lot of work into. But any mistake you possibly made, I have made it, if you've cried about your business, right here, if you wanted to quit your business right here, if you want it to just be like, I'm not doing this anymore. Like I've dealt with all of those feelings, and I would just push them away, push them away, push them away and numb myself. And it's something that you got to take that look in the mirror. And really, truly because the only person that can hold you accountable at the end of the day is you are the police, but you primarily you want it to be you you don't want it to be the police. And it's I think it's important to be able to have a good support network for yourself. I found actually, it wasn't until I think maybe around COVID, maybe a year before that I actually found the pet care community, because up until then I was just doing it myself and like I knew it existed, but everyone else locally was called their their competition, I want you to do it the most. Now I have a very, very different perspective on it. It's finding that support network for yourself, whether it's you know, it's great to have friends to talk to, I'm lucky enough where I have a lot of friends who are also business owners, so being able to talk to people who know what it's like to deal with client issues, who know what it's like to deal with employee issues, who know what it's like to deal with what you're going through. And having those people you can, you know, have as a sounding board and being able to not just a therapist, but having like a network of people even in these Facebook groups. I mean, like you guys have an amazing Facebook group that you put together, and being able to have it where it's just like, This is what I'm dealing with. Does anybody have advice, and then I love it because you see, like 50 6070 comments of people putting stuff up there and people want to talk about it people who have run a business and have been stressed or dealing with this or that or just like decision fatigue, there's so many different aspects to it. So asking for help, I think is also a really, really big part of self care whether it's dealing with numbing yourself or just not being sure what to do in your business or just venting, like I sometimes I see just people getting on there being like this client today, blah, blah, blah, like I get it, I've dealt with it, it's terrible. It's so good to have annoying some of the stuff we have to deal with. But being able to make sure you have that group of people you can you know vent to and you know, have a sounding board is very important too.
Doug 39:38
I think one thing that's common with what all of us are saying is that you're not alone. You know, if you're listening to listening to this and you're stressed out about something or you've been dealing with numbing yourself in some way or whatever it is that you're going through, you are not alone. It I think it's easy to kind of look at what's on social Media and it's it's kind of glamorized, you know, and you look at somebody's business and oh, man, you know, they're doing so many dog walks and they got so many team members. Wouldn't that be nice? How amazing you know, in You be you form this jealousy and you start looking down on yourself and no don't do that you're not alone like we're all in this boat together, we're all dealing with some of the same struggles and you know if you ever need somebody to, to reach out to I mean, shoot me a Facebook message, I'll jump on the phone with you like, man, we're,
Dan 40:32
we were all in this together. Did Oh, I'm always happy to have a chat with somebody in the space.
Collin 40:37
Dan, you earlier you had mentioned you said this weird phrase of of working and then leaving work at work and trying to be home. And I know that that's a that's something that a lot of us are really bad at of having this, this work life and this home life and trying to find separation and a balance there. What are you what are your thoughts on on what a work life balance is? Is it even attainable is even real like is anything real?
Dan 41:05
I mean, this is all simulation. I knew it. I know probably no, I'm still sitting on a couch in 2012 experiencing a DMT trip. So who knows. But at the end of the day, it's I truly suck at having work, work life balance, I am terrible at it. It is something I have to work at constantly. Again, I have a wonderful wife, who forces these things into my life who will recognize when I am because I once I get going, I don't stop I'm very obsessive. It's that addictive mindset that I have where it's just like, Go Go, go, go go. I think it's one having a separation of your workspace. So a lot of you work at home. So if you have you live in a studio apartment, and your desk is right there, and you're dealing with clients stuff all day, there's no clean break in your day. So it's really making sure that you set the time to do that. It also means that you need to be realistic about the goals and the timeframe. I want to build something massive. So I know that I don't really get breathing room for another five to eight years. And I've accepted that because this is what my goal is, this is what I want to do. And that doesn't mean I just go go go go go. But you like Doug was saying, you have to plan stuff into your day, you have to like, put that stuff in your calendar, there's going to be days where you don't adhere to it. It's just going to happen. Like we all do it we all see shit, I gotta meditate, or let me do this. Let me get an email out or let me respond to that. So let me do that. And it's, it's something you have to do every single day. And it's about being conscious of what you're choosing to let into your brain. My therapist always talks about intrusive thoughts, which I'm sure we all experienced. So stuff just start to grow, you've got to do this, or you got to do this and the world dome rep. Don't forget this. And again, writing it down, but really making sure that you are giving yourself that permission is important. Now I understand meditation is not for everybody. And people like oh, I just can't meditate first of all, and it was says I just can't stop it. You're full of shit. Because every there are, there is a man with no arms and no legs who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. I don't want to hear anyone's excuses. There's no reason why you can't accomplish something. There are so many people who are so much less capable of you, then you as an individual who do so much more. It's about your mind. It's about your mindset. It's about what you're willing to either forego or put yourself through meditating. It sucks. I'm so bad at it. It is so difficult to do. But like anything else, like nobody gets a six pack overnight. You get a six pack by eating clean, exercising, taking vitamins, doing your setups, doing your workouts, doing the things that you have to do. And it's the same thing with your brain. I think that's one thing a lot of us forget about is being able if you could control your mind and not let it control you like what's his name? Giant guy, huge hands motivational speaker.
44:21
What is his name is huge. With Tony Robbins,
Collin 44:24
Lou Ferrigno, what I'm
Dan 44:26
also live I heard Tony Robbins talking about the cold lunch which I highly suggest for everybody. I take a five minute ice cold shower every morning. I put on the soap and then I spend the rest of the time in the cold and I just Just breathe. He talks about how the first thing he does every single day is he has a cold plunge in his house. And he's like, I get up and I tell my body we're getting in that goddamn water. It doesn't matter how cold it is or what you want to do. It's about doing the things to get it so you do the things What you need to do, instead of your brain being like, I don't want to feel uncomfortable that water is 34 degrees, I'm not going in there. It's about training your mind. So I use headspace as a meditation app. It is fantastic. There's headspace. There's calm, there's free videos on YouTube, literally Google, how to meditate, or five minute meditation, you could start with a three minute meditation. And it'll, it'll guide you through all of this meditation is something I have to work at constantly. I'm not good at any of this stuff, this is stuff that I have to do all the time I lose, I dropped the ball on it, I have to pick it up again. But being able to force yourself to do the things, because at the end of the day, you've all built a business that generates money, that means you're a successful person, that means you have a decent Head, shoulders, I have a decent brain functioning between my ears, that means you are capable of learning. And if you're capable of learning, you could develop skills. And if you could develop skills, you can be lightyears ahead of where you are now, if you want to do it. So you need to figure out how badly do you want it? Or want it? Are you okay with being where you are, if you're at a point where you built your business, and you're like, you know, I'm making money I need to make right now, I don't need to build a huge thing. I don't need to be hiring 100 employees. That's okay. Every like Doug was talking about this to social media, for businesses is amazing. Social Media for mental health is fucking terrible. It is so bad for you, because you're gonna go and you're gonna look at these different accounts, these other companies, and it's like, Oh, my God, look what they've done and this and that. You don't know what's going on in the background, you don't like I always say this. When I see couples, when I have friends who start to like really post about each other. I'm like, oh, man, shit must be going sideways. We always want to put the best version of ourselves out there. And obviously, with our businesses, that's part of branding, it's part of marketing. You can't look at other people's things. And let me I get jealous constantly. It is a it is probably one of my worst qualities. Anytime I see anything more successful than me, I'm like, Why do I? What do I have to do to get there? What do I have? Why? Why is that not happening to me, instead of being like one, that's fucking awesome, I'm so happy for that person for having that success. Because they had no one's handed success, you're either handed a bunch of money and cool, or you build a thing that you whatever it is, and that takes a lot of work. Everyone out there who's building a business knows what that means. But it's so important to be able to not let all that stuff gobble you up. And you have to be able to take the time to just step back. And you have to set those boundaries for yourself. I'm terrible at that. And I have to work at it constantly.
Michelle K. 47:41
My thoughts on the work life balance. Duck, I'm also really interested to hear yours because I know you posted a YouTube video on this. It was like great timing. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet. But I was planning to later today. I just have a couple quick thoughts on like, for me work life balance, I, I really think it comes back to this principle that we have talked about a lot on this call, which is knowing yourself and knowing what works for you. Um, I personally don't adhere to Well, I say that I do not have a traditional relationship with work. And that's something as an entrepreneur that I find exciting. And I personally like, I have many friends, dear friends best friends who would hate the relationship I have with work. It's not their thing. They don't want to have weird problems come up the ad and they have to jump in and solve I find that exciting like it. So I do think there. I'm always a little hesitant to categorize stringently, what work and the work life relationship should look like because I think that's one reason we are entrepreneurs as we are, maybe I should speak for myself, like, I like pushing the bounds of what that is. And I think there's this nuance in this wisdom of, okay, that can be true. And also, if you are scared to take a day off and shut your phone off for a day, there may be some issues you need to in relationship to your work life balance, like some some truths that you may need to stick with saying look in the mirror and, you know, really come to terms with have I set enough boundaries have I examine this relationship? Is it serving me because that really is what it comes down to is, you know, we're there to serve our businesses, but also the business has to work for the life that we want as the owner. And there's some give and take there and some compromise but I think both sides are really important. So that's, you know, not as clear cut As some people probably wish it were, but I really think it comes down to what do you want your relationship with work and your business to look like? And then starting to put that in place and make hard calls to make that a reality? Yeah, I mean, you
Doug 50:16
basically just summarized my YouTube video on work life balance.
Michelle K. 50:22
I'm still gonna watch it.
50:24
Thank you. Um, yeah, I
Doug 50:27
mean, I just don't really believe in work life balance in the typical sense, you know, that I think people think of I think, as a small business owner, it just doesn't really exist. And you really, it does come down to knowing yourself, knowing what you need, and knowing what's going to work for you as an individual. And, you know, I know what work life balance looks like, for me. And for me, just like you said, I get excited by the 8am problems, I get excited by the long days out in the field and the hard conversations and the problem solving. And that's why I started one of the reasons that I started a business because I like that kind of stuff. And like that weight on my shoulders, you know, I think that's one of the things that I mentioned in that YouTube video is that, you know, you can put all the boundaries in place, you can meditate, you can do all of the right things to create a quote unquote, work life balance, but it's that weight on your shoulders, that really is going to get people and I think that's what affects a lot of small business owners more than anything, because they don't realize how much of a responsibility it's going to be and how much of a of a weight it's going to be on you every day, sleeping and awake. And if you can't, if you don't want to deal with that weight on your shoulders, you need to just go work for someone else instead of owning your own business at the end of the day. And I know that's not what people want to hear. But it's just to me, it's the truth of
52:01
the matter. Yeah,
Dan 52:04
I agree. Complete one. Anyone out there who is trying to figure out anything with your business, go watch Doug's videos, because they're fantastic. Like he's made such an amazing library of content. Like, I wish you existed when I first started because I it was just me, like, with my eyes closed, running, running through a field having no idea what I was doing. So definitely go check out Doug's stuff. But I strongly agree with that. Thank you, thank you. You're very welcome. If if you are not the person who likes to put out the fires, who likes to solve, solve the problems, who you know, is okay with getting that call at 830 on a Friday night, like, hey, locked out of a client's house or this is happening, or that's happening. It might not be for you, like, you know, look, I'd be lying if I don't have my day, every now and then where I'm just like, oh, man, nine to five sounds nice. You just your workday is aged, go home. And then that's it. And then you don't think about it till the next day. That's not how I'm wired. And I know that about myself now. Like, I remember, when I was younger, seeing all my friends figuring out their degrees and where they what they wanted to do it. I just felt so lost being like, I don't feel like I fit into any of these categories. And then I started my first business that I was like, Oh, you can do this. And I had to listen to anybody. And then it's just, it's, that's why I love talking to anybody about building a business. Like this is my wife jokes that my business is my wife and she's my mistress. Because I, I, I love building things like the idea the taking a thing from just synapses firing inside of your skull, and then making stuff happen in the real world is the coolest thing. To me. It's, you know, it's how we have all the things that we have, like, it's just, it's not for everybody. But you have to make the decision that you're all in on it. It's running a business can't be saying that you're half in half out on it. If you're going to be half and half out, hire really good employees and pay them very well. That's that's the only other way to do it. Even then, you're going to be dealing with stuff.
54:09
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Michelle K. 54:48
So I'm a big Alex and Leila or Mozi fan. I consume a lot that they're really really excellent and Alex removed. I think it's Alex
55:00
Has this saying that,
Michelle K. 55:01
you know, you choose your heart. Um, and I think part of this, you know, what Doug was talking about to, like, there's this weight on your shoulders, um, you choose your heart, and you learn how to adapt to it, and then how to succeed too. And, you know, I've personally found that to be kind of the progression of like, you get to the next level, you let your lungs adjust to the new height that you're at. And then you learn how to carry that weight well, and you do it iteratively. And for some people, that's not the hard that they want all of it, as, you know, different forms of heart. For me, it would be really hard to work for somebody else. I've done it before. I also don't like it. You know, it's just like, what is the heart that you want to choose? And then following through on that, and really choosing it? Because to your point, Dan, I don't think you can be happy and happy, especially with business ownership.
Doug 55:53
I love that you said that. Your business is your wife and your wife is your mistress. When I was dating I that I asked on every first date that I went on, I said, What's your red flag and I'll tell you my red flag and my red flag that I told every first date was, my business will always come first. No matter what. Well, I may miss holidays, I may have to cancel vacations. I'm going to be working weird hours, I'm going to work weekends. And when I'm with you, I will be 100% with you. I can promise you that. But the business comes first. And man I had so many people just get up and walk out as soon as I know that it's not for me. But But then I met Callie you know, and he was like, that's so inspiring. I love that. Tell me more. And you know, now we've been on this journey for like six years. And you know, there are days just last week, I was sitting there and he got home from from his nine to five job and I'm sitting there working on my computer shooting out emails and stuff. And he's like, okay, like, are we gonna go to dinner? And I'm like, I just need one more hour or one more. One more hour goes one more hour. Yeah, one more hour, please. And he finally just comes on when he just closes my laptop. And he said, Okay, it's my time now.
Dan 57:11
And that's I agree with that, that's super important is because like, when I was dating, oh, man, I was not as transparent as you were. I was not good at but I think, you know, if you are out there, you're looking for somebody being honest about what it is you do and how you do it is very important. Because if you paint this rosy picture of yeah, I've run a pet care business, and I just hang out with puppies sometimes and, and then the rest of my life is easy. And I'm never stressed out, and I never have anxiety. And if that's you, awesome. But chances are you're dealing with the same things we're talking about here. It's very important, if you're in relationship, to give your partner that time, and make sure that you are upfront in the beginning of the relationship. Again, I'm very lucky, my wife is very tough, and will call me out on it will make me very aware when I'm dropping the ball. And I because I know that for me, I need somebody like that I need somebody who's gonna be like, Hey, you haven't spend time with me in two weeks? I'm gonna kill you if you don't, if you don't correct. All right, but no, but it's a transparency I think is very important. Being able to have those conversations, we I had a couple of managers leave and go to other companies. So I knew that we were going to be in a bit of a in between period, while we got new team members on, I had a conversation to my wife and I was like, Look, the next two months, I have no days off, I'm going to be you know, seven days a week, it's going to be tough. So she planned trips, she went and visited friends, she went and spent time with her family. And that's how we made it work. And you know, she also knows right now, we're opening up our new facility in the next couple of months. And it's gonna be it's gonna be a lot. But she also she's awesome because she'll, she does every event with me, she's always, you know, involved with, you know, certain aspects of the business. So especially, I mean, I think the self care stuff ties into your relationship too. So with your partner, it's important to be able to have those conversations know what they want to be involved. Also know if you figure out what level you want them involved in your business to because it can become a little spicy like I unless you started the business together. I don't advise bringing them in and an employee capacity because like, the way you correct an employee is going to be sure that different the way you correct your partner, because it's it's not going to go over as well because that comes home with you. So definitely be careful.
Collin 59:44
Those relationships really do help us get through those and they help us in the team that we have around us who mentioned having a good support group and having good relationships, being honest, being open with them that allows us to have some place to take and direct that energy or have help when we need it as well. And our conversation so far has been really focused on on us as the business owners in managing our self care, our time, our attention, our boundaries, you all have staff as well. How do you help them with this kind of aspect? And how do you approach talking to them about self care and the importance that this has with them.
Michelle K. 1:00:23
This is a topic that I really love, because it's just an area over the course of my relationship with my business and my employees that we've tried a lot of different things we've you know, but that sorry, this is an area that's really important to me, because this industry has such high burnout. And I have seen that in staff turnover. I've seen that and my staffs mental health. Um, and so I mean, first and foremost, we just set it as a principle with our business that like, you are a whole person here to the extent that like you want to bring yourself into this working environment, you are welcome to, um, it's not expected, like, you know, if you don't want to talk about certain things, or you don't, you know, you want this to just be a job, that's also totally fine. But to the extent that like, you want to be a whole person here, just know like, we see you as a whole person, we want to be an dignifying employment option for you. And that's the core ethic of the business. And that's openly stated, it's one of the first things we talk about in our orientation for new hires. On the pragmatic side, we've developed a series of just kind of non negotiables, or at least direct asks of our staff, and promises that the business makes on their end, or on our end. But one of the main things that we talk about is we ask staff to turn off their software notifications when they're off the clock. We're really diligent about that. And we have a really hard line, if you're off the clock, you do not respond to clients. That is what the manager is for. That is why we have office hours, it's really important that we have these off on cycles for our business. And it's good for you too. And so we try and model that as managers, I think that's really where this starts. But then in practice, as well, we make sure that employees know, we want you to take time off, we respect your time off when you take it. And we really want you to disengage when you're off, turn off slack turn off time to pet. That's the expectation. And if we ever asked you different that's us going against what we've said is the standard.
Dan 1:02:40
Yeah, I think for us, one of the things we tried to do is we in our we actually built it into our training. So you know one of the things that I experienced when I was out like actually, I think Doug, you had mentioned it before, was being like Oh, I didn't eat today. So teaching people like when you're out in the field, like where to get healthy options where to you know, even if you're at a gas stations for years, you can eat a it's not the healthiest, but you can find healthy, especially now there's so much more stuff that you could find at gas stations and stuff like that. So teach them about we we we have reminders of hey, did you drink water today? Hey, did you have you know, a healthy breakfast so like doing things like that really trying to train them on the nutritional side of things, making sure you're making good nutrition choices. Now I'm very lucky that my team is pretty similar to me and their obsessive nature and caring about our clients. So when they're on they're on, like when they're when they're when they're doing stuff they're all in. But the team as a whole is really good about if someone's on vacation, they'll and they see someone else answering they'll like message and be like, What are you doing? Like you need to unplug? So like, as a culture, we we've really tried to bring that into into the fold. Again, are we all guilty of checking things or putting out a fire like I'm at a wedding and I'm looking at my phone, that it happens. And it's something that we constantly have to work out again, I think, especially in this business, because we're dealing with animals, and we all love animals so much. It's those little things, it's those little details that make the companies like this successful. But it's important that you do try to push that stuff and like you know, I make sure that my team, especially my management team gets that PTO they take time off, they go on their vacations or do whatever they do, we really try to be as respectful as we can and support each other because it's not only just about being able to shut off but like holding each other accountable and making sure that we are being supportive of each other of taking that time off. And really, you know, even if that means like I got to do work an extra day or someone else has to put in some extra hours and like people will step up for each other because they know it's going to be reciprocated. So when you're able to support each other that way one it builds a lot more team unity like I'm very like my management team now. It's fantastic. They are so good. About being so on top of things, but when it comes to, you know, if someone needs to go spend time with their kids or this is happening, that's happening, they really are supportive. And it's, it's something that you need to build into your culture of making sure people have that time off. Even if you're somebody like me who's very obsessive, it's Go, go, go, go go, it took me a few years of having employees to realize, oh, it's not their business, they're never going to work as much as you and they're never going to, you know, care as much as you. They all care. Like, it makes me you know, it fills my heart with joy, just knowing how much they do care about our clients and their pets. But there are, there's always stuff we can do to improve on this front, I think, in any capacity. But you know, it's it's really about helping them to help each other and making sure they kind of set those those boundaries and take that time. Yeah, yeah,
Doug 1:05:53
I think a lot of this stuff, you know, can really be built into how you operate as a business. And so I have like an online training course that I built, that I sent all of my new employees through the goes through everything from how to clean the litter box, to how to communicate with clients, and all this kind of stuff. And one of the modules of our training course, is healthy living as a pet professional. And one of the lessons within this healthy living module is time management. And within that we talk about, like, if you're, if you have a schedule of dog walks for the day, you know, making sure that you eat lunch, just like Dan said, and, and we have like a cheat sheet that actually shows some examples of cheap healthy lunches for dog walkers. And I talk about the importance of drinking water and all that kind of stuff within this training module. And then we have a policy within my company that we guarantee your time off, I never tell an employee No, if you request time off, I don't care what the reason is, you have the time off, I will never force you to work if you don't want to or if you don't need to. And then on top of that, we just really push transparency on every level within my business. So like if we get a new client, the first person that goes in services, this new client, one of my managers is trained to call the the team member and say, be honest with me, you know, I saw your message, everything was great in the message. But be honest with me, did this visit excite you? Do you want? Do you really want to go back to this client. And a lot of team members will say, Well, I mean, it was all right. But I really wouldn't want to go back. You know, and if we say that we make a note of that, and we will never send that team member back to that client, because we want them to be excited about the work that they are doing. It needs to be fulfilling to them, it needs to be meaningful to them. And if they're not getting that from the clients that we are sending them, then we can either find a different team member, that would be a better match for that client. Or we have referral relationships with other pet businesses in our area. And if we don't have someone on our team that is truly excited to go to that client, we'll send them to another business. And it sucks to see that revenue loss. You know, nobody wants to lose a client, nobody wants to lose revenue. But at the end of the day, keeping your employees happy, is key to everything. If your employees are not happy, then they are not going to stay with you. And if you have a super high turnover rate, that's going to look bad, your client is going to make your management way harder. It's going to increase your costs as a business. I mean, I talk all day about the trickle down effect of all of that. So you just got to find a way to keep your employees happy.
Collin 1:08:46
It is it is doing that and remembering that even if we aren't doing all of the visits, we're not just forcing a Tom Batanes out to do work, right? There are people with feelings, emotions, needs, desires and wants for their personal lives. And Doug, appreciate that example of going. Is this a good fit? Is this a dog? Is this a visit that we as a company should take on? Is this good for us. I mean, we actually just last week fired a client because they were with us for a little while they went away for several months. And when they came back their dogs, complete terrors. So much so that my sitter that went came back was like, I never want to do that again, honestly, and was like, Okay, we're not going to do that. And just knowing Yeah, I really thought they were back. The client was super excited to be back with us and everything above. But my goodness, like we can't have staff dreading going to that client. That's not a place that we want to because I've certainly have slogged through those when that when we refer when we were starting, and we were doing visits and was like, oh, this person booked again, I can't believe and you're not present. You're angry. You're resentful the whole time you're in there, and we don't want that for our staff. We don't want them to be dreading going into work. We have the best job In the world, we know that and we can protect that through how we guide, manage, train and direct our staff and our teams. as we as we wrap up here. Dan, earlier, you had mentioned things like headspace, calm apps, I was curious just things software programs that you all use, like recommend that, that help you find that space or help you better set boundaries or manage the things that are on your on your plate. Because I know that when we think about, okay, we're instituting these, we need to be intentional, and we need to be direct with how we spend our time. Sometimes that means help getting those from, from people from from going to therapy. Sometimes it means setting up good programs and policies or software in our lives. So Do any of you have any recommendations for things like that, that you would have a whole
Doug 1:10:49
list a whole list.
Dan 1:10:52
So obviously, calm or headspace are fantastic. I found an app recently that I started using called Global O P A L. I don't know about you guys, but I am constantly on social media. A lot of its her work a lot of its for nonsense. So Opel makes it so if you have an iPhone, obviously, you can put your timers on of what's available, it's very easy to click, you know, ignore for today, Opal just adds an additional step of being able to get into those apps, because I have it set automatically. So I'm only really able to get into my social media between I think it's like 4pm. And like 7pm is when I allow myself because like I have a team of you know, I've got a whole media team. They're handling everything. They know the voice to the company. I don't if there's an emergency on social media, it's Mark Zuckerberg problem, that's not my problem. It's always something that can be handled later. So opals fantastic. Then there's the Five Minute Journal app that I like, and I think it's just called journal in the app store. I think one thing that is difficult to do as a business owner isn't, is to always be able to take a step back and realize, Oh, I did a bunch of good things today. And like taking stock and the things that you accomplished, I am terribly guilty of being like, it's not enough, it's not enough, it's got to be more, it's got to be more, it's got to be more. And if you make a list of all the things that you're grateful for each day, personally and professionally, and you actually sit there, take a minute, read through that list, like I'll literally write out, I am thankful for my legs, I am thankful for my lungs, like someday that shits not going to work, someday, something in your body is going to fail, and you're going to die. And in that process, you're gonna miss the thing that you took for granted your entire life. So making sure you're you know, doing some journaling using those apps. And then also there's Opal journal.
1:12:53
GrubHub, but that's indulgence.
Collin 1:12:58
screentime on GrubHub out 17 hours, yeah.
Dan 1:13:01
Sometimes I just look at the food. And then Zillow is it was a fun one.
1:13:08
But now those are
Dan 1:13:09
the four that I try to use on a daily basis.
Michelle K. 1:13:14
So for me, I do most of the kind of mental health management off of my phone mostly for really the same reasons you're talking about Dan, just little to no self control when it comes to just screen. So I take that stuff offline, I do a lot of journaling. A lot of walking as much time outside as I can get. On the app side, there are two things I tracked on my phone that I just put a lot of time into Hijacking My competitive side to try and just like conquer these two areas of my life, and it's sleep and exercise. So I use an app called Auto sleep to track my sleep gives you like a sleep floor shows you how much time you spent in deep sleep. And I become incredibly like competitive with my own scores to try and get better and better sleep every night. It just works my brain and like how I think about stuff. So that's an app I highly recommend. Especially have an Apple Watch, it just makes it really easy. And then on the fitness side, I so I way left about four days a week and get just tried to get as competitive as I can with myself about, you know, the amount of weight I'm lifting. I'm making sure that every week you know I'm getting a so I use an app called strong and it tracks you pre program your workouts, but then it tracks them. It shows you if you've hit any PRs, it can help estimate what kind of weight you can lift as you're growing and your skill set or in your strength. So those are the two apps that I use for some of this habit management and the rest I try and take offline.
Doug 1:14:59
Yeah If I use headspace, Dan mentioned headspace for helping you learn how to meditate, I suck at it, it is really hard. My brain is always going a million miles an hour, and I gotta do this, I've got to do this and it really helps coach you how to slow down and, and, and the other app that I just highly recommend I keep it simple Google Calendar, you know, I put everything. Yeah, everything on Google calendar from my meal, prepping time to my meditation time, my yoga time I running on my, I'm going to check Gmail at this time, you know, every little thing. My My days are blocked off that way, just on Google Calendar, and I hold myself to it very stringently. And I have time on my Google calendar that says, Put the phone down. And I have a slot in my house that is dedicated to my phone, and I and my boyfriend, and everybody that comes to my house knows that. If my phone is in that one location, and you hear it ringing, you see it buzzing, don't even tell me don't look at it off limits. And, and, and structuring your notifications that you get on your phone is huge, too. You know, I used to get notifications like 24/7, from Gmail from time to pet from all these different things, constant buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, go in here settings and and say, you know, you can set the hours that you get notification from each of these apps, and you can change from the banner notifications to the push notifications, you know, go into the settings and figure that stuff out. Because you shouldn't be getting buzzed constantly, that's going to drive you crazy.
Dan 1:16:41
So they're sorry, this is real quick. So I use a whoop strap. So this is like just one of those fitness ones. I love this one because you get a score for the day. And like Michelle was saying, I'm constantly competing with myself yesterday had a 16.7. And I know I'm not going to hit that today. And I'm so mad at myself. And then Asana or task manager, but it's a little on the pricier and we use it for the entire company here in terms of task management solutions, because like I can I have like my own personal stuff on there. I've got the company style, pickup my other businesses on there. And I know I could just throw it in there. And then it's not constantly pinging me when it's time to work on that thing. I pull up that you know, board of tasks, and I work on those things. And it makes it easier to kind of get it out of your brain. And it connects with so many different systems. So asana and whoop are two other ones.
Michelle K. 1:17:31
I was just going to highlight something Doug said about the notification setting. Um, it's pretty rare for me to give like black and white, like, I think you should do it this way. I really believe everybody should have Do Not Disturb put on for their phone for 9pm to 7am. I do not think there's any good that comes from getting notifications that late or that early. Like you deserve time where your brain gets to just not be constantly pulled back in. So
1:18:00
well. I'll pile on that too. Because notifications is a big bugbear for me of going not all notifications are the same right notifications for time to pet very different than notification from Yelp going, Hey, what do you think of the pasta you got last night, I don't need the ladder, right? And but you can't tell the difference. When your phone just goes ding, your it's going to elevate your heart rate your brain gets sucked out of whatever is doing, it's gonna be focused on over here, set those priorities set those VIP people set the notification that you actually want. And I challenge you anytime you download a new app, it's gonna pop up and go let me let me basically the alert says let me disrupt your life say no, interpret, no. Instead of saying, Oh, maybe I want notifications from this random app? The answer is no. And they have to earn that from you so that you can earn that back. So always say no, and then you can always go back and change that. So yeah, I definitely agree on the, the notification. So it's a lot it is. I want to thank each and every one of you for coming on today. Sharing your your personal struggles, in growth in this area of self care and mental health and boundaries as well. And the integral connection between all of those, and how at the end of the day, we need to make sure that we're focusing on ourselves first, and our businesses flow from us and that we can only do that have a successful business when we are personally okay. I know it's it's a big topic. There's a lot more here and each one of the things that we've touched on can be an entire video session or a big, deep dive into something. So if people are listening to this, they want to get connected with with you all how best can they do that and follow along with all of your work. Michelle, how can they find you? Yeah,
Michelle K. 1:19:44
excuse me. Um, so the best place for that would be I'm currently building my brand focused on helping other pet care companies with the daily dog walking space. So the dog co launch is the name of that brand name of that company. So on Instagram where ad dog co launch, Facebook ad dog co launch, website, dog co launch.com. You know, just to try and make it as easy as possible for people. So any of those spaces would be great. Or directly on Facebook, just Michelle Klein, kale I N E, and I would love to connect and hear from anybody that's listening to this.
Doug 1:20:25
Yeah, so I have a YouTube channel. It's called dog, the dog guy and I post two videos every week just sharing my experience as a pet sitter, dog walker and pet business owner. So go subscribe to the YouTube channel. And you can go to dog, the dog guy.co. To see more about my coaching and consulting services. I work with a lot of pet sitting and dog walking businesses really focusing on hiring is what I've been focusing on recently. But you can see more information on there and then I'm Doug the dog guy official on Instagram dog, the dog guy on Tik Tok, Facebook, I'm all over the place.
Dan 1:21:02
So if you're interested in anything dance pet care is doing we're just at dance pet care across the board for all socials, except for YouTube because somehow I locked myself out of our other accounts. So we are Dan's pet care official on YouTube, if you want to give it system a subscribe, but you want to watch me and my media director eating dog treats. But if you have any questions or need some advice, I don't do traditional consulting, like Doug and Michelle do. I do do some piecemeal work here and there with people. So you can reach me best ways, honestly, Instagram, just at Daniel Reitman. Or you can shoot me an email just at Dan at dance petcare.com I'd love to hear about what you're dealing with. Yeah, I'm always happy to chat. Like I was talking to somebody from the UK the other day, who just DM me and I was driving to Brooklyn, I was like, Hey, let's get on the phone. So I'm always happy to you know, bounce ideas off. And I'm always happy to help.
1:21:56
Thank you all so much. I will have those links in the show notes, plus all of the apps and resources and other people that have been referenced in this call, so that people can click to those and start using them. If you if you do think of other ones that you want to make sure that are included. Just shoot those over an email and I'll make sure those get taken care of I know you are very busy in your days, and I can't thank you enough for taking your time out to come and talk and share about this and help help people as well along with this. So thank you all so much for your time and all of the wonderful advice and the joyful conversation
1:22:33
that you've gone on. Thank you, Doug and Michelle. Great Connect. Yeah, thank you to all of you.
Collin 1:22:39
Self Care encompasses a variety of practices and habits that help to maintain and really improve your physical, emotional and mental well being. As a business owner, it's crucial to take care of your health, because your well being directly affects your ability to manage, operate and serve your clients well. Self Care looks at maintaining and improving your physical, your mental, your emotional health. It also is important to direct and understand how you manage your time so that your days don't just slip away from you. You also need to be continuing learning and developing and growing yourself as part of this. There's also financial well being obviously financial stress has a significant impact on your well being from the ground up. So making sure you have good financial management practices for both personal and your business regularly reviewing and doing all those budgets. And then having self compassion. Treat yourself with kindness, and respect. celebrate your achievements, however small they may be. And don't be too hard on yourself when things don't go as planned. Remember, self care is not a luxury, but rather a necessity of taking care of yourself as part of taking care of your business. You want to thank today's sponsors time to pet and the National Association of Professional pet sitters. And thank you so much for listening. We couldn't do this without you and we're so appreciative of your time and all that you pour into this. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
