400: The Life of a Pet Sitter
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What does the life of a pet sitter mean to you? We’re celebrating 400 episodes by reflecting on 5 major lessons we’ve learned about the life of a pet sitter. Pulling from over 200 interviews, we share what it means to be a pet sitter, and the best advice we’ve learned. We’re so thankful for you listening and are so excited for another 400!
Main topics:
Our story
5 lessons
Remaking yourself
Main takeaway: Ultimately, the life of a pet sitter is what YOU make it!
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet sitter, business, pet, dog, clients, care, means, interviewed, services, people, day, passion, analytical, world, experience, knowing, poop, dog walker, walking, learned
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin
Meghan 00:03
Hello and welcome to episode 400. I am Meghan. I'm Collin and we are the hosts of pet sitter confessional an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Thank you to pet sitters associates and our Patreon members, particularly our newest one, Jillian, woohoo. She has an amazing pet sitter out in San Diego. So thank you, Jillian for supporting us with a few dollars every month. And if you listener would like to learn more about that, and what that means you can go to pet sitter confessional.com/support. We started petsitting 11 years ago, we were graduate students at Texas Tech, and we needed to earn a little bit of extra money. So we started off petsitting and doing it more as a hobby to supplement our measly graduate
Collin 00:48
money, not existent, basically. But it's
Meghan 00:51
turned into our full time gig now we have 10 employees across two service areas. And we started this podcast about four years ago as a way to bring pet sitters together from across the world to share their stories and their experiences. And we want to talk today about what the life of a pet sitter is really like. You know, we just have our own experiences of what we've experienced and what we've learned in our in our journey over the past 11 years. We are not coaches, we've run our business the way that we've run it.
Collin 01:21
So we wanted to pull from over 200 episodes of interviews that we've done with pet sitters from across across the globe. Like Megan said, we're going to be sharing with you five lessons that we've learned as we've met others and heard their stories. These are not in any particular order. So don't worry, we didn't try and rank these these are just five lessons that we've learned about the life of a pet sitter.
Meghan 01:44
The first one is the life of a pet sitter is full of passion, we get into this most likely because of our love for animals, our passion for animals, a pet sitter must have a passion for animals to be successful. As you know, caring for pets requires a lot of patience and love and understanding. Without this passion. A pet sitter may find it challenging to connect with the pets that they care for and provide the immense level of detail and attention and care that is required. It's really why we're all here today we have that passion that we just couldn't ignore. We love cats, we love dogs. We love turtles and fish and whatever else. We wanted to do something with it. It's what gives us that push to get started and the really the push to keep going when things don't go as great as they should.
Collin 02:32
Well, and sometimes that passion changes a little bit it morphs and you get to do something else with it. Like when we talked with Jill from Jill's next door she devoted not just into pet care. But now pet advocacy, working with cats to find homes and shelters and build patios and do fundraising for them. See your passion can change over time. And don't be afraid of that. Don't panic if one morning you wake up and realize something's changed. You know, a while ago, we reached out to our Instagram followers and asked how they would describe the life of a pet sitter. And by far, the number one response was, it is both rewarding and exhausting.
Meghan 03:09
And we completely agree with that. The passion fuels us but it can also burn us out that compassion fatigue that we talked about.
Collin 03:17
I get an amen.
Meghan 03:21
I mean, Coleen Pillai, we've talked with her a couple times she speaks a lot about this of how pet sitters and dog walkers and pet care professionals in general just how we can deal with this, this burnout, this, this constant need to keep going day after day and work these long hours but needing to care for the pets and the admin side and care for the home and all of these different directions that we are pulled in of how to rein all of that in and take time for ourselves and that self care which is so important,
03:50
Beth Pasic, of finicky cats, so passionate about cats, and helping to for people to communicate better with them, that she literally wrote a book for cat owners and lovers about speaking cat reading body language and was all developed from her personal experience and the education that she's continued to get over the years. Then there's day with Renee and she her story continues to be one of the most inspiring ones that we've had, where she pushed through a cancer diagnosis and survived the cancer, all while focusing on things that were important to her and how that experience reshaped how her passion lived itself in her world.
Meghan 04:30
We also interviewed Janie van Torak and her drive to keep going day after day because she realizes that her effort really feeds her family literally it puts food on the table. She is the the main breadwinner in her family and so her dog walking and pet sitting day after day. While she does enjoy it. It literally puts food on her family's table. Then there's Abigail Giordano, who was about to have her first child. We interviewed her and she said that this this dog walking pet didn't really say You've heard gave her a purpose that she started off as a dog walker and she is now running the company that she initially started working for. And that was so cool to, to find out that it is possible to do whatever you want to do. If you start off as just walking one dog a week for another company, you can eventually run your own and make it anything you want.
Collin 05:22
Well, and then it really how she connected with a higher purpose and a higher calling through this process of connecting with pets and serving people. And then Nicole paconne had a message for us when we interviewed her about her hope message not just for us in our business, but also for our clients and our staff and how we can serve them well. And we're not just going through the motions, but we take this passion, and we direct it into actions and service to others.
Meghan 05:48
The second thing is the life of a pet sitter is analytical. And I bet you didn't see that one coming. But it's true. You cannot be in this business, or really any business without having an analytical mind. And it's not just about the numbers. But numbers do play a significant role in this. How much are your prices? Do you want to hire? Do your prices support that? What's your cost per service? How many services do you need in order to figure out your budget for the month?
Collin 06:14
Well, and what's important, as you said, you can't be in this business. If you don't have an analytical mind. That's not to say if you don't self identify as having an analytical mind that you don't have one. Because you are in this business. That means you have an analog, you look at the world differently. I mean, here's the situation. Let's just say hypothetically you enter into a client's home to find the trash turnover and the dog unresponsive on the floor. What 1700 questions just flashed through your mind? What details were you hoping I'd met and mentioned? That's being analytical looking at the details and trying to understand the world around you? Because perception is one thing, right? We have to be hyper aware of what we're doing. We also have to know what it means to us and what our actions flow from that.
Meghan 07:00
So you think, Okay, I'm going to rush to the dog. And once I get there, I find the skin of an avocado on the floor. Is it toxic? Is it a choking hazard? Or avocado? Like you're all these thoughts are racing through your mind? What do I What steps do I need to go through now to find out if the dog is okay, do I need to perform pet CPR? Is the dog breathing? How are the how do the gums look, knowing the dog is very likely choking on the avocado seed you you know you have to act and you know how to act accordingly. Because of your training and your experience. And just having that analytical mind because being analytical means we're processing a huge amount of input every single second that we're in a visit. There is so much data to work through not just the list of the 15 things I have to get done in the 30 minutes. But how am I going to do them? How I How am I going to organize it and then if the second you walk in the door, something is different or something is off. Okay, well, now I have to reorganize and reprioritize everything that was on my list.
Collin 07:58
It's very mentally taxing. And this is one of the aspects of being a pet sitter and dog walker that most don't take into account of just how much processing we are taking on and doing throughout every second of every visit of every day. We are constantly running through scenarios. We're constantly listening, looking at feeling, smelling, touching things and trying to gather information about the world around us we have to be present in the moment. And then running a business. We're also analytical when it comes to route planning or dog walking through different areas, not just being detailed oriented, but really being anal about the details and taking those two and being very serious about those. The brain power, the brain power it takes to piece together an optimal route for your day is immense and highly undervalued. In this industry.
Meghan 08:47
Yeah, if only we could get paid for the number of minutes and number of hours it takes us to route plan.
Collin 08:54
It's an art form as well as it is a science it really is. Having an analytical approach in business and in life also means being prepared. Right? The first question you have to ask yourself is what am I what am I preparing for? What does that actually mean? I know that's a question that we ask all of our potential hires. What would it mean for you to be prepared for a day of dog walking and pet sitting? Right? Each pet has its own personality, its own preferences and a good pet sitter, you're going to understand this, you must provide a personalized approach to care that meets specific needs of each pet that you are caring for it not just in the home, but from from each client's and then all of the variation that's there. Whether it's playtime, Cuddles, a favorite treat, but you should know how to cater to each pets unique requirements and needs.
Meghan 09:44
So you have to prepare by knowing the pet as much as possible. That's why meet and greets are so crucial. You know, it's putting together the puzzle. You say say you get a walk request for a 13 year old Chocolate Lab on Gabapentin and he has hip dysplasia or if a a potential client contacts you that they need vacation visits for their pandemic puppy with high separation anxiety. The puppy needs oral medication and is reactive around people. Well, first, hopefully you've listened to our conversations with Ardmore on the podcast. She's been on twice now. And she has a wealth of knowledge. Or you've taken a pet first aid and CPR course that is very helpful.
Collin 10:22
I've learned so much from Arden with every single one of our conversations. I mean, she speaks cat, she speaks dog. She's fluent in both of those. But, but she really focused on our conversation with her about being a first responder in pet care. Equipping yourself with the knowledge is one thing. But then you have to approach these issues by trying to piece together what's going on and then asking good questions. It's not just knowing the information, it's in knowing what to do with it. And always being hyper aware and knowing that no situation is going to be the same. And that's where the questions come in, is that once we have good information, we pull from experience we pull from research, we call that we talked to all sorts of experts in the field, and then we piece together the questions that we need to ask in order to give the best care possible for the people contacting us.
Meghan 11:09
Because each pet is unique and their needs and personality are different. It is crucial to be prepared to learn the specific requirements of each pet like their feeding schedule, their exercise needs, any medications or medical concerns that they have. Other times being prepared means natural disasters. We talked with Cheyenne Williams, who runs Chinee day pet care out of Florida. And she all the time anybody in Florida can relate to this. But hurricanes happen every single year. And they have to be prepared for disasters. And what do I do with these pets that are in my care and at these different homes? How do I get them to safety,
11:44
it's your responsibility to ask for extra crates have extra medications on hand, and to know the evacuation routes to know how to transport that many animals to know when to call it quits, to know to look for loose furniture in the yard or make sure that umbrella isn't going to fly through windows, it's all a way of thinking. It's about breaking down problems, which really leads into that the last part of being analytical, it's about knowing your business, knowing your numbers for your business and your marketing. And when we interviewed Jay patas, I loved his his approach to understanding that it's not just for the here and now that we are working towards we're working towards a future and to understand your numbers means someday I'm no longer gonna be doing this business. I'm either going to retire, I'm going to sell the business, I might not be able to continue because of health reasons. So I need to plan for the future. And that takes knowing things like investing and saving and simple small approaches right now.
Meghan 12:40
We also talked with Brian Taylor a couple of times. And he told us that he has a lot of banking background and banking knowledge and how he uses that and incorporates that into his business through subscription models and trying to get that reoccurring Predictable Revenue every single month. So yes, when you think of being analytical, it is also about the numbers as well as everything that we just talked about if thinking through things and being prepared. But numbers are crucial to your running of your business and making sure that this can last you 1020 30 years and as well support your employees if that's what you choose to do.
Collin 13:14
And that really came through in our conversation with Robin Bennett from the dog gurus. And one of the things that she focused on was taking your services and in breaking out your profitability by service to see where are you actually making your money. And that many times businesses are making money. But that's because they have some profitable services and some very not profitable services. And so they could be a lot more profitable. But until you break it down per service, you don't actually know. And that helps you make good marketing decisions that helps you know where to invest more of your time and where you need to hire or where you need to raise prices, if that's something that you want to continue to do.
Meghan 13:51
The life of a pet sitter is also being professional. pet sitters are professional, you need to be reliable, responsible have excellent communication skills. Being professional also means having that training and experience to provide the best possible care. It means attending conferences, seeking out other local professional pet sitters that you can network with or starting a statewide organization like Florida just did. That is really cool that they did that. Professional means having high levels of communication, focusing on safety and security, having excellent customer service because again, the people pay the bills, the dogs and the cats do not pay the bills yet. And then really good project management management skills as well again, the route planning the
Collin 14:33
organization for all of your licenses, your taxes when you're doing payroll. Also, whenever you get new client inquiries, how do you manage all of that aspect, there's the Petcare, then there's the business side and we have to manage both really well
Meghan 14:46
but also with being professional there is not oversharing it's you know, sticking to the facts and not letting emotions run you and your business. So if you get a bad review, it can very easily turn into a negative situation where you are saying Too much your oversharing in the moment on responding to that review, and it just spirals out of control. Or if somebody says something bad about you, always keeping your responses in negative situations short, concise, and sticking to the facts. Being professional also means treating your business as a business, protecting your business, understanding public relations and nurturing your clients. There are, there's a lot to unpack there. But it's all about understanding exactly who you're talking to how you can market your business in a new light that is different than somebody else's. And knowing that you are a legitimate business and training it as such, setting aside money for taxes and getting that license every year and knowing that your clients need to be repeat clients. So to foster positive communication and client experiences.
Collin 15:51
Well, part of that, too, is also recognizing that as a business, there's an entity that exists between you and the world. That's your business. That's your registered name, whether you are working as a solo, and you're just it's a DBA. Or whether you are an LLC, or an S corp, or C Corp, something exists between you and the outside world. And that's a really important mindset to get right as a business. And it's incredibly hard because this is such a personal business. It's our business, we're doing all of this work. And then when something doesn't go, right, we tend to act out personally, and lash out. But realizing no, that there is something here that I can stand really behind or maybe keep it between me and the things that aren't going well. And that's my business. And that's why that entity exists, is to do that for you.
Meghan 16:41
It's also recognizing the gravity of the situation we are going into people's homes people are trusting us with their most valued a family member, and we are entrusted with their care and knowing that we can give that peace of mind to people while they travel. While they have long days at work that they don't have to worry. Courtney Segal of Palmetto poop, scoopers came on the show to discuss how he sees the grander vision for his business. So yes, it is poop scooping, it's dirty, it's gross. Not many people want to do it. But he does. Because he sees that he can get that waste out of the environment, put it in a proper place. Because when we have a bunch of poop just sitting around, it goes into the water system, and he doesn't want any of that contamination. So he sees the bigger picture here, the 30,000 foot view of going, I am able to do something great in my business, help the environment help these people get poop out of the yards, and make the world cleaner. Because it's not here anymore.
Collin 17:39
I definitely didn't see our conversation going into water quality issues. But it really shows not just the severity that he brings in the professionalism. When he looks at this, he goes, this isn't just a problem of poop in the yard.
17:52
This is a cleanliness. This is hygiene, this is clean drinking water from my community. And the more that I can help people understand that, yes, they'll be able to enjoy their backyards on the weekends, and they won't have as many pests in the area. But also we'll have cleaner drinking water, and that that really just hit home the weightiness of the problem that he sees that he's trying to solve. Well, there's Marisa Laguna from tailwaggers, down in Fort Worth, and, and she really saw an opportunity here to make a better life for herself. And to set an amazing example for her daughter that it is possible and that she's strong and able to do this. And so she started doing dog walking, she started doing pet sitting and realized that she could take this full time. She then completely overhauled her business, to make it into a very, extremely high end boarding and daycare experience for her customers and their pets. She learned every aspect of the business and tore into absolutely everything and wanted to do everything that she did with excellence. And that shines through in what she does. And I love my conversation with Laurie patania, about dealing with medically needy pets and how she saw that there was this need there were there were clients who weren't able to go on vacations and they felt guilty. And they felt shame for doing that or
Collin 19:08
wanting to do that. And she looked at that and said, How can I solve this and so she's building a team of highly professional sitters to come in and care for these pets who really no one else can and is looking at solving this niche market and helping overcome these problems that these people have.
Meghan 19:23
The life of a pet sitter also means getting insurance. As pet care professionals, your clients trust you to care for their furry family members. And that's why pet sitters Associates is here to help for over 20 years they've provided 1000s of members with quality pet care insurance. Because you work in the pet care industry. You can take your career to the next level with flexible coverage options, client connections and complete freedom in running your business. Learn why pet sitters Associates is the perfect fit for you and get a free quote today at Pet said llc.com. You can get a discount when you join by clicking membership petsitter confessional and using the discount code confessional when you go to checkout check out the benefits of membership and insurance Once again at Pet set llc.com. The life of the pet sitter also means being creative. It means thinking outside the box. Whether it's social media or marketing, or boots on the ground or digital, doing different things on cold weather days, exercising the pets differently when the weather is different writing ad copy, changing your business model, flipping it on its head, doing different services, changing your prices, there are all these different things that you can do to help and aid your business, whether it's subscription packages, being a pet sitter means being creative. Being a business owner means doing whatever your mind creates, like with Maria Turon. She, she didn't know anything about grooming. She took a class in Puerto Rico. She went down there for a while and she learned all about grooming, and she can now offer grooming services in her business. She also didn't know how to buy a business. But she did a little bit of research and she bought a business in the neighboring town that offer different services than what she did. So she combined two businesses into one.
Collin 21:03
We interviewed Michelle Klein about how she looked at her business and said you know, this petsitting stuff is fine. But I really it's very overcomplicated. It's not as consistent. I'm looking to streamline my business. So she completely reinvented her business and and looked at her business identity and tried to struggle with who am Who do we serve who are our clients and landed on being a Monday through Friday, dog walking business, period, end of story, where she looked at that just seems so outrageous for a lot of people to think of how you could get rid of a huge chunk of your business but at the other day she said the headaches not worth it. The scheduling is insane staffing for that's not for me, I can streamline this make it simple and go. But that's what thinking outside the box and tackling a lot of preconceived notions that she had.
Meghan 21:49
And then there's Dan Reitman with Dan's pet care. He is always pushing the limits of what a pet business actually is. Whether it's eating dog treats, or eating dog ice cream, or personally, dressing up in a dog costume, opening a daycare and grooming and training. He wants to be a pet brand for everyone worldwide known and he is just continually pushing the envelope of what it means to be a pet care business.
Collin 22:14
We interviewed Wayne Hartley with happy hearts pet care about how he had a mobile grooming business, which is, you know, something that is just amazing going to people serving people who couldn't be served otherwise. And he again looked at his business and went, actually this isn't really working for me. So he completely flipped his business from being 100% Mobile, to now being 100% brick and mortar, he lost most of his clients most of his staff, and did that all because he had a vision and a passion and he looked at a problem and thought I can solve this in a different way. And we also talked with him about the importance of emotional intelligence and finding ways to escape and understand where we're coming from and how we struggle and really learning more about ourselves.
Meghan 22:59
The last aspect that we consider to be part of the life of pet sitter is that it is people centered. Like I said a minute ago the people pay the bills. So it is a lot of communication and trust and customer service and kind of bobbing and weaving to the clients suggestions and demands and what they need for their pets. You know we've been doing this for 11 years and we've never had a dog reach into their pocket to pay us at the end of the walk. It's just not something they do. You know, we are passionate pet people serving passionate pet people. A great example of this is Scott black, he runs personal touch pet sitting and he talked in his episode all about the the excellent customer service and the really the personal touch that he provides to his clients and he is solo he has no interest in growing a team. And so he's really able to dedicate that one on one focus of not only the pet when you go into that visit, but also the client as well as going. I am the one doing the visits day in and day out. You will get me and I am here for you. We also interviewed Lindsay Shackleford who runs dogs of Charm City in Maryland. They have a huge community centered business. They are always growing their community. They even have little stickers that they put in window shops that are dog friendly. It is so cool. They are their main service is dog walking, but they are always hosting events. They've got products that they sell. They are just really dog friendly. And they have grown that community in Maryland as the go to dog walking place for dog people.
24:33
It's a people business and whether they're we're serving people that are directly needing our services for dog walking or pet care, maybe we're just trying to grow more pet friendly communities or educate more people about how to live their best life possible. Whatever it is, it's now reaching out to more people around us and I that just hit home whenever we interviewed Judy Nunez and she told a story about how there were always more people invite Add to the table, it didn't matter, there are always more chairs, there's always more room at the table. And so when we look at the dog walking the pet sitting the pet care community, there's more room for more people here, because we can serve more people better. Also, when we look at our communities and the people that we're serving, how can we reach out to more people, whether they need our services, or not knowing that, that you, you listening, you're supposed to be here, you are supposed to be here. And I really hope that you hear that, I hope that you know that you are here and that you're not just here, but you are needed. Because you're making this industry better to everything that you
Collin 25:41
do, and the way that you do it.
Meghan 25:43
Because ultimately, the life of a pet sitter is what you make it there is not a manual or a guide on exactly how to do everything. And while we give our two cents every week, and we interview other people, it's ultimately up to you how you operate, how you want to run your business, there's no right way to do things. But we do develop best practices and strive to always be better. You know, you can run your business, the way it suits, you run it in line with your mission, your values, your vision for your company. You know, if you need afternoons off with your kids, you can do that. If you don't want to drive 20 minutes away, okay, shrink your service area, you can do that, too. You don't want to work weekends, okay, great. You don't have to, you don't have to do what others do. It's actually preferred that in a lot of cases, you don't you run your own business, don't try to copy somebody else because they aren't you. There is a cycle to your business. Where are you are rediscovering yourself and who you are and what you want your business to be and where you want it to go.
Collin 26:45
We're constantly remaking ourselves, every day is a new day. And we're making our business new and fresh again, through your small changes. It's not always altering everything all at once. It's a little here, it's a little there, it's a little growth, it's a little change, it's a little subtle difference. It involves self care, as well, something that is extremely important. We remake ourselves every day through a good night's sleep, or maybe a really engaging conversation with a friend. We're constantly refreshing ourselves and our minds, because it helps us to be more creative, and it helps keep our passion alive. As a business owner, we're also questioning everything, all of the time, especially when it comes to our own motivations. Even maybe why we're offering a service. Remember that nothing is so perfect that it can't be critiqued even ourselves, which is the hardest part about this entire process. And yet questioning is what allows us to be analytical. Remember that aspect where we ask good questions. It's not just about our business, it's not about our clients, not about our or the pets that we're serving about the situations that we're in about ourselves as well make sure we understand where we are coming from. The lifecycle
Meghan 27:58
of a business owner also means recreating ourselves, bringing something back something that we potentially thought was gone, could be a personal dream or a dead business, it could be a passion or a business partnership. You know, just because you have run a dog walking business for the past 10 years doesn't mean you have to run the same business for the next 10 years. You could do something completely different. You know, we recreate ourselves through education through personal retreats through setting those boundaries that are so important in this business. The process of reviving takes focus and care. It's where our professional and people centered natures really come into play as we navigate sketchy waters that come with being a business owner, you know the ups and downs. What lessons
Collin 28:43
have you learned about the life of a pet sitter, both from your own experiences or from listening to other people and learning from them, we'd really love to know
Meghan 28:53
if you'd like to share them. You can email us at feedback at petsitter confessional.com. We hope that you have found value in some of the 400 and hour episodes that we have put out. Thank you very much for listening. We have really enjoyed this so far and we can't wait for another 400
Collin 29:12
Yep, thank you to an amazing time so far. And we really appreciate you being here and listing and all that you do and you helping growing this community and making it so wonderful.
Meghan 29:22
Thank you also to pet sitters associates and we will talk with you next time. Bye
