409: Growing the Pet Care Industry with Jamie Migdal
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Do you see yourself as playing a vital role in the health of the pet care industry? To ensure a robust future, we can all be ambassadors for professional dog walking and pet sitting. Jamie Migdal, founder of Fetchfind!, joins the show to share her vision for the future of pet care. From collaborative approaches to pushing the limits of our own education, Jamie believes we can all make our mark on the legacy of pet sitting. She also discusses how in order to decrease competition, there needs to be an increase in the consumer base. By being advocates for pet owners, we help bring more people, pets, and profits to our businesses.
Main topics:
Getting unstuck
Growing recognition
Role of continuing education
Building a legacy
Main takeaway: There is room for creative pet care - be inventive with loving care!
About our guest:
Entrepreneur, CEO and Founder with more than 25 years of experience in all aspects of pet industry, including technology, business development, client services, pet care, marketing, and management. Dedicated to further professionalizing the pet care industry via technology and education.
Thanks to founding four startup companies in the pet industry and working hands-on with tens of thousands of clients, Jamie is a thought leader and expert in entrepreneurship and canine behavior.
Links:
David Letterman & Bill Gates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs-YpQj88ew
www.fetchfind.com
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
industry, pet, business, ai, dog walker, fetch, people, organizations, care, vertical, pet ownership, dog, clients, veterinarian, feel, create, gift, cool, talk, technology
SPEAKERS
Collin, Jamie M.
Collin 00:02
Welcome to pet sitter confessional Today brought to you by time to pet and pet perennials. What's your role in the pet care industry? You may respond with to run a business to help more pets, tell more pet people run a better and more balanced life guilt free of being away. But what are we able to contribute to the industry at large? Today we're joined by Jamie Migdal, founder of fetch find to discuss how we can leave a legacy and make our mark in this industry. She shares how we should continue to push our limits in education, collaborate with others in pet care, and how we can decrease competition by increasing the number of people with pets. Let's get started.
Jamie M. 00:50
Sure, thank you for having me. I'm very excited. It's been great to meet you over the over the years and seeing you in New Orleans at the NAPS conference was awesome, a great, great reminder of the great work you do. So thank you so much for for letting me be a part of this too. So I, I am Jamie. And I'm the CEO and founder of a company called Fetch find, fetch find was born out of my own needs as a pet care professional over a 20 year span of building pet care businesses, hiring pet care teams and not having the tools that I needed to effectively onboard and retain them. And also make sure that I was maintaining good levels and consistent levels of safety and other important protocols. And when I have to I had a dog walking company for many years, and then I became a dog trainer I decided to sell. So first companies, the second company, and then saw the opportunity to take all of that content and knowledge that I masked for all those years working directly in the pet care field, and build some content to help other people that were my colleagues and peers, people who own pet care businesses and all sorts daycare boarding and grooming, dog walking, pet sitting veterinary didn't matter any one to one provider. So sorry, Jamie. No, I mean, this is this is the whole deal, right? So we, we I'm you I'm a pet care provider at heart. That's my that's my DNA. And you know, that's fine is here as a digital resource and a wonderful content platform. Anybody that works in the pet industry, there's a solopreneur, or owns, you know, owns a multitude of locations have any any specific pet care vertical, we can help them with employee development, onboarding. And we are launching in August of the first of its kind of centralized brand platform. So we'll have content really cool educational content around all of the brands in the pet industry. So folks who are working with animals in their homes or in a different environment, know how to put a gentle leader on or understand the difference between grain free and not grain free or understand you know, the different types of letter that's available. So our content will go beyond the basic and important pet care content and to more of a holistic perspective on what it means to be a pet care professional, and the content of the education that anybody in the industry should have access to in an easy, well defined low maintenance sort of way. So everything will be on the fetch, find platform, we're gonna have our own app, we're gonna have a whole bunch of stuff coming out in mid August.
Collin 03:28
And you said that was born out of kind of your own needs and what you saw in the industry, as far as needing to get staff trained, retain them and build that culture. How has that itself changed? Since you've started fetch find, you know, has the problem gotten worse? Are there new problems that you're seeing that are needing to be solved?
Jamie M. 03:47
I don't think this problem changes ever. I think that the industry itself is romanticized highly. And so people who are considering working in the pet industry, whether it be as an entry level, you know, groomer or someone who wants to walk, walk dogs or pet said or what or using whatever platform and employer they choose to do that with. There is a lot of a lot of romancing that goes on if they're gonna be running through the poppy fields with golden retrievers nipping at their heels. And unfortunately, that's just about the opposite thing. And so, no matter what, whatever our economy brings, or whatever it could challenges COVID created as far as labor, acquisition and retention. The reality is that in our industry, that is for sure. The number one issue is that is trying to demystify what it means to be a bad care professional, because it's certainly not the fields and golden retrievers.
Collin 04:42
We've seen that too, when we have people apply to our positions as we're hiring and they come in with this ideal of what they think it's going to be our hiring processes now almost exclusively, trying to banish all of those preconceived notions that they have, right and that's a big thing that we as an industry have a lot to do. Do? Yes, we think you know, I know, Jamie, you believe it's the best job in the world that we get to do. But we've got to try and figure out how to communicate that to people in an effective way and train the next generation really of professionals behind coming behind us.
Jamie M. 05:13
Right, because without a good labor force, we don't have an industry, frankly. And without a labor force that we set proper expectations for we don't have an industry that creates any sort of permanence. It's a continually transient sort of, you know, transient labor force, and therefore the businesses suffer the clients suffer. I remember talking, I mean, this is anecdotal. But during COVID, and maybe a little bit even shorter than Bataillon, no pun intended. I was talking to a neighbor, who got to doodle and checking and during COVID doodle puppy during COVID, no one's ever heard of that. So first, I know it, can you imagine? And so she was in love with her dog and loves the dog. And she's I think I would rescue one now. And I was like, Oh, that's cool. She I went from a breeder which whatever. All right, I think I would definitely want to rescue a doodle. I think that's what my family would like us to do. But we're just not going to do that. I was like, am I getting caught in something? I'm so confused. I don't want to get into any sort of weird political situation with breeder versus Riyadh, that's just not an area that no one went to that conversation. And so I pushed a little bit as to what was her? Like? Is it because of the lack is a shortage situation? Is it a political situation? Is it a financial situation? Like what like just sort of very, it was a neighbor, you want to be really cool with this stuff? Her answer for why she wasn't going to acquire a second animal. It's not because of any of those reasons that one would think it's because she couldn't get a grooming appointment and couldn't find a border couldn't find a place to Porter dogs, like, you know what, I can't get this dog groomed or find a place to put him in boarding up, I can't find an open slot and a boarding boarding reservation, there's no way I would double down on that. And I was like, Oh, my goodness, this is the problem. Not everyone is everyone paying attention. The industry only expands when we have a solid labor force, the industry expands. And I don't mean when I say to the industry, I mean pet ownership, you have to have an expanding pet owner, you have to have pet ownership has to continue to grow. If that flatten Takes a Dip our industry does as well. And the only way to encourage there's lots of ways to encourage pet ownership, obviously, responsible pet ownership. But if people can't get a grooming appointment, or find a dog walker, or find a place to board their dog while they go to Disney World, they're not getting another one, no matter what, because it's a huge headache. So that's really when I think about the industry, I think about lots of things. But I think about how do we make sure that people can get a second dog or cat or a rabbit or whatever it is, it's gonna make their household more full and more whole and more loving. If they feel like they can't do that, because they don't have access to resources at all start with a pet professional, then we're gonna be spinning our wheels for a long time.
Collin 07:58
Because that's part of that industry growth, right? We look at those big numbers of oh, how many billions of dollars is the industry going to be this year, but there has to be a support, there has to be an infrastructure, there has to be that that labor force that you're talking about, there have to be businesses to meet that demand. Then I seen a lot of Facebook groups, you know, established businesses going well, you know, I see five more pet sitters popping up in my area, I see 10 More coming in, I just saw these posters. And it can be a bit, you can see that go well look at the growth, but for the business for the personal perspective, you can go, oh, gosh, more competition? Oh, gosh, what's going on? Am I going to lose clients? So how do we as business owners, embrace that growth, embrace more new people coming into the industry? Without feeling like, oh, what slice of the pie are they going to take from me?
Jamie M. 08:44
So that all comes down to really about, you know, the value proposition that a business owner provides to the audience to the marketplace, which is about, you know, obviously, we'll talk mostly about education, I think is really, it is about education. It's not just about education, for the for getting a piece of paper that says I got this certification with this badge, but it's about it's about creating a labor force within your business that embraces quality pet care, and the only way to do that is through great continuity through great education. So I think that the differentiating factor, there's two things actually the differentiating factor is have a training labor force, and not just training for the sake of training but so it's, it's a cultural component to what your business is doing. That you have, everybody has taken the same type of content, you have some discussions around it, have some competitions around it, whatever it is to get everyone aligned, that the education that you provide as a pet business owner, isn't just something that you have to do it's something that you want to do and that becomes again part of the overall conversation. More importantly, or maybe I shouldn't say more importantly, cuz I don't think that's accurate, as importantly is getting the public's awareness. Getting some, there's we have a lot of work to do, as an industry to make sure that the average pet owner understands the difference between a flyer at the grocery store, and someone who has a trained staff who is insured, bonded and all of those other check the box, important business. Some of the important business structure, but we have a long way to go. Because right now no one no one knows that we have we love our little letters and our industries. HTTPS you see, we love our letters. But loving our letters means nothing. It's just a bunch of bullshit. Frankly. The new golden doodle owner on the corner by my house understands that they're looking for somebody who has a letter B underneath their name or credential laying next to their business name. And that's really where we have not done our job.
Collin 10:52
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Doug 10:57
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Collin 11:17
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. Whose responsibility is that? As far as as educating the public on on what that difference is?
Jamie M. 11:34
I have a I have a really clear and straightforward answer. It's everyone's responsibility. And that's not a bullshit answer. But that does not mean like and then we manage responsibly. It's the leaders of our it's it's the collective leadership of our industry. I mean from every vertical from veterinary to grooming, dog walking, pet sitting boarding, daycare, re retail, there's a big one, lots of traffic and retail rescue name a vertical, everyone needs to be on the same damn page about this. I mean, this is the problem, right? This is the this is the thing that I weigh stay up nights thinking, how do we get everyone to show up together and have united for us to say these things are important Mr. And Mrs. pet owner, Ms pet owner, we want to make sure that you know that we are all together on this. We as a pet care industry care about the life and health of your pet and the happiness of your household because of that. And so we all agree that these are some standards that we hope that you ascribe to. And so, you know, who's responsible? I think, you know, I like to think that, you know, fetch is taking a role in that we just signed an agreement with the International Kennel Club. And we'll be asking all of the organizations to come to the show here in Chicago, it's 100,000 consumers that walk through the doors, the biggest dog show, consumer dog show in the world, come through the doors, and we want to have and we will have a pet care section where you know, naps will have a booth and ibpsa will have a booth and everyone will have a booth. So at least we can start getting some awareness out there. It has to be some grassroots, because there's not enough budget from anybody to be able to do any national advertising about these organizations and what they what they do. But there's lots of grassroots things that if we got together on it, we'd have a lot, it would be a lot easier, because right now everyone's running off in directions, trying to get you know, get visibility and get eyeballs on to what their causes per vertical. And I think there needs to be a more collective approach about, yeah, there's a lot of different organizations within the industry, because there's a lot of different specialties. But at the end of the day, we all agree that that having a person in your home or someone you're taking your animals, she should have some basic, some basic credentialing or some basic education and people should know the difference between that and someone who puts up a sign at the
Collin 13:52
grocery store. Yeah, and that sounds kind of weighty, right? When you say, oh, it's everybody's responsibility, but just taking a moment to step back and go. And that's my responsibility, right? If I want this industry to be better, if I want pet parents to be better educated, I need to have a role in that maybe I want to have a role in that. And that really separates the difference between people who are just in the industry, running a business. And then there are the proponents for the industry. There's a real big kind of divide there between let me just focus on my thing, and then let me make this place better. Yes,
Jamie M. 14:23
that's exactly right. And I think I mean, here's the reality, right, you run a pet care business, I ran pet care businesses for years, you're busy. You're busy managing your current stuff, your future stuff, your current clients, your hopeful future clients, all of the animals in your care, all of the drama that goes on between all the interspecies stuff like there's a lot going on. And then to have to take on the responsibility of being an education, a source of education and awareness, awareness training for the general public, which is a very, like you said, a heavy lift and an expensive endeavor if done properly. That's asking a lot which is where I think that we need Have some I think there are organizations, both for profit and nonprofit in our industry that needs to take the leadership role on that and say, Look, we're going to take care of you as a constituent or as a peer or as, right, as a one ship rises, and they all rise. I think this is really where we're at as an industry. I think it's about the, you know, the dogtopia is Nick camp, I was on the fetches. And I think I think these organizations that are truly tremendous, have incredible leadership and great, you know, great, great protocols and great processes. And I think that they also have more resources, arguably assumably, I should say, like, Where can we get those folks along with some of the other nonprofit membership organization to work, we have everyone come together and just say, Let's agree on a couple of basic things, and see how we can support how we can support each other. It's just tough, it's in the industry has never been one that is very fragmented. And in the fragmentation serves us well. But it also creates an ongoing challenge around this whole awareness, and how do we create more professionalism, and it's a, it's a, it's going to be something that's going to take some time to figure out, I think it's getting better. I don't think it's near what it needs to be though.
Collin 16:15
It definitely has a very us versus them mentality, especially when you talk about those verticals of No, I don't go talk to those people, because they're, they're in direct competition for my same clients. And I don't go over there. And I'm going to let me just do my own thing. But what it takes is going, No, we're all in the industry. And now let's see, let's have some communication here. And if I have an opinion on, on what I think should happen, or a best practice, well, let's go talk to other people. Right? That's where that starts just going, I want everybody to be better here. Well, and it goes back to
Jamie M. 16:45
my original concept, my original theory, necessarily, but it certainly goes back to my whole thing is how our industry, how you decrease competition is to increase consumer base. So that's what we never get to how do we make more more people get animals, the more people are willing also less? Like, yes, there'll be more to market demand. And of course, there'll be more competition popping up as the, as the as the pet ownership, as pet ownership grows nationally. However, if everyone got one more pet right now. I mean, really think about it, if everyone if 10% of the pet owning population got one more pet, whether it be a rabbit, a cat, a dog, what a bird. There is no, you got more business than you know what to do with. But we we're not again, we're not working together as an industry. We're not working on increasing pet ownership. No one's thinking about increasing pet ownership. People are thinking about jumping my competition. And they're not thinking about how do we work together to be the best possible industry. So people are like, I want more animals because I love this industry. Whether I go into my veterinarian's office, or the dog walker come over, it all feels so connected, that it's not people feel like it's a complete wild, wild west experience. How do I find my film of blank? How do I find the best bed? How do I find the food's good? Everything about this industry creates a trail of breadcrumbs for the consumer, everything is a trail of breadcrumbs, whether it's finding a provider or picking a food or understanding the differences between you know what a pet sitter is, when a dog walker is or one litter to another, whatever it is, it's a trail of run cuts, and consumers are the ones that suffer for that. Because we're all so busy with this, like, competitive mindset and, and sort of, you know, and trying to fight for employees. I mean, there's so much stuff but we're like, Well, I think about this Mrs. Johnson or Mr. Smith, or whomever down the street, who maybe would get another Doodle if they felt supported. And then another Doodle is twice as much business for the industry. Well, it's kind of
Collin 18:53
like reminds me of the automotive industry, right, it's not very uncommon to have people who have three vehicles for vehicles, but they can do that a because they have the means to so that's a certain type of clientele but also because there's a support network of of repair shops have all sorts of you know, services that can make sure that their lifestyle that they want to lead is supported.
Jamie M. 19:14
And I know where to go for that if I need this I go here because it's not you never I mean it's very rare that if you have a problem with your car that you don't know where to go whether you go right to the insurance company, right to the dealer, right i mean like these are not it the path is clear and pet it is just the opposite of it's just not clear and again from an IT from a financial perspective, adding a pet to your household and I'm not by the way I'm not at all advocating that everyone should go out and get a second pet or a third like that's not my that's not my position. I'm just saying that I think there are a lot of potential pet households that would get a pet if they didn't feel like it was staring down a path of you know, dis clarity and and, you know, lack of support or lack of entry point of where to get the information.
Collin 19:58
The industry has certainly to changed an awful lot, you know, over the last several years, and I mean, just the last five years alone, but thinking back, what do you what do you think when you look back over the industry? What what do you think it is going to take to make the industry more of a professional industry, both in the minds of the the proponents of the people who are actually doing the practitioners and of the general public?
Jamie M. 20:22
I mean, I mean, I think it's a lot of what I just what we've just talked about the other, which is being at the public's awareness of what a pet professional, a true pet professional looks like, what their background is, for their ongoing training is, you know, what the employers principles are and all of those things. I think that's, you know, I think that's missing Lincoln, the missing piece. And I think for the industry itself, internally, I think it's about continued access to education and resources and information and inclusivity across the different verticals. Like as an example, you know, we are an industry that does not, does not lack of conferences and trade shows, we have a lot of conferences and a lot of trade shows. My My goodness, and, and they're all verticalized hyper verticalized, you've got your pet sitter conference, you've got your Oriente care conference, you've got your retailers conference, you've got your veterinary stuff, you've got your grooming and stuff very, very, it's is rare. I can't think I can think of one example, maybe to one where there's any crossover. So we continue to, we continue to create these silos, where we're not accessing expertise and insights from other verticals and other experts and other leaders and other thought leaders and other information, data resources, education, et cetera. Where, you know, the reality is, is that it's all crosses one animal, which receives one dog, well, this user receives care from every single vertical they received, I assume, right? We'll discuss sort of broad strokes here. They have a dog walker, they have a place they drop off for vacation care. They have a place, they have a veterinarian, they buy their food somewhere, they get their dog groomed. They've gone to a couple of puppy classes. Yet, not one of those organizations isn't isn't a cross relationship. I mean, yes, there's like referral relationships and communities. But dog walkers aren't going to veterinary conferences not not that they should go into clinical CEE related better, I get that. But there's got to be things that we can do we create some conversation and some some visibility into what these other verticals do for the pets. And see where there is some shared where we can share some resources and have some shared understanding and visibility. I don't think my guess is that most veterinarians don't really understand what it means to be a pet sitter. Most retailers know how to truly help a client pick out a dog aborting daycare facility. Like I don't think that there's really everyone's so, again, siloed. So I think that moves our profession forward is to have that sort of pollination, cross pollination, that we have a place where everyone can come and get some information about the other verticals. Just for some insight, maybe there's some education, maybe there's some, you know, there could be something social connected to it. I don't know exactly. But I do know that right now, we've got one pet that we're all servicing, but we're all doing it separately.
Collin 23:38
Now, there isn't a lot of crosstalk there. And what that means is that each silo ends up having to kind of reinvent the wheel or re go find more resources or go back into these places that maybe one's already, you know, well ahead of. And then when it comes to your local community, right, as dog walkers and pet sitters, we'd love you know, we go into trainers offices, we go into veterinary offices, we go into groomers, but there's an assumption in our head that they know what we do, right? There's an assumption that we go okay, well, they'll obviously be able to tell that I'm the best one in the area or that I'm reputable. But they don't, right. A lot of times I'm sure they just refer to us because we're the ones who bring the doughnuts. Right? Right. Like that's, that's really what it is.
Jamie M. 24:17
We spent a lot of our professional time talking about what's the best donut to bring to the veterinarian. Not I mean, like, that's really I mean, I'm sort of joking a little bit. I mean, we spend our professional, I'm talking about how to get more veterinarians to pick us, which is a super important business development. I mean, this is like you have to do that. That's part of just building a business. But there's, I think other things we can be doing, in addition to that to help build, you know, crossover. I like what you said crosstalk awareness or something that just helps again, elevate everybody, because, you know, veterinarians are held at this high level, but the reality is that the other pet care verticals have much more impact on iPads day to day health and And that is not you know, that's not really the it's not really the belief system. It's just not.
Collin 25:10
It's not and then that's where we can start having that conversation I think is important locally, but also getting involved with organizations looking at more, you know, state and national organizations to just go, okay, maybe I'm here for more continuing education, but I can also be here to be a lobbyist, so to speak a representative of the industry to be a voice right and start that.
Jamie M. 25:32
Yes, I think that's is what that is. Maybe think of something that's exactly right. I think that's the way I see it happening is for sure happening, and there's so many good people that want to want to be a part of that, and that are a part of that. I mean, I look at our amazing organizations in the industry, you know, naps and ibpsa and, you know, me at there's so many great Oreos pack and they're just all trying so hard to make that happen. But it's not an ever it's not the it's not at the top of everyone's mind about you know, making some space in the day or the week or the month of the year to participate in those discussions.
Collin 26:09
Right? It absolutely is and because it's hard time to carve out that and but I really think that if this is an industry that we believe in that we are passionate about that we want to see succeed, we do need to take five minutes to send an email once a month or something like that, right you can find a place as those are who are able can invest in can we you know, this time Townsend treasures so that they can can be part of that as well. Our friends at Pet perennials make it easy to send a heartfelt condolence gift directly to someone with a broken heart. They have this awesome direct to consumer gift model that takes the effort off of us and ensures a thoughtful, personalized, simply gift that reaches our client or employee on our behalf. All gift packages boot handwritten cards, colorful graphics shipping fees across both the US and Canada. They also offer an array of milestone gifts and greeting cards that can be sent to celebrate birthdays, exchange, get well wishes and welcome to and even rescued pets. Additionally, there are gift choices in case you need to send a sympathy gift in memory of a special human client or celebrated pregnancy engagement or wedding of a pet lover. If you're interested register for a free business gift perks account to unlock the all inclusive discounted package prices. Since the service is used on an as needed basis, there are no monthly or annual obligations or minimum purchase, Learn more at have cornelius.com Check out their business programs or register for that free gift or discount by using the link in the show notes. You are really passionate about about this industry. Jamie and I am curious why what what what is it about this industry that attracts you to it that makes you want to make sure it's successful and is the best it can
Jamie M. 27:42
be. No one ever asked me that question. Don't you not answer it? Because it feels like it's almost like saying what makes you want to be a human and stuff? Or why do you like animals? I mean, it's a great question, no one that I really have an answer for because I just the reality, I'm 52 years old. I've been in this industry since I was 18. Do the math, right? I mean, I I was brought to this industry in a very organic, passionate way I was. I mean I like working in shelters and stuff. When I was in I worked at the zoo. I did like a bunch of animal stuff before I was like, out of college. But you know, my first job out of college, I was a social worker and a crisis case manager and I had an opportunity, which was just the universe provided a kitten at a back door at a group home I was working in and like sort of the rest just sort of played itself out that kid and opened my eyes to the power of animals and the power of animals in a relationship and open my eyes to a full industry as a career. I mean, so, you know, I was 2324 years old. I think what I mean my whole life is here, it's I don't know how to answer that question. I think I feel like my best. My best perspective on that is that I I've watched this industry in every way do so much for so many people. And I mean that from the basics of you, I mean that from the level of a dog, saving someone's life. And literally, I mean that from a perspective of somebody who wanted to change their career and found their path and pet care I mean that from people who have made low but from friendships that I have and other people watching their friendships and lifelong friendships I watch this industry is so full of heart and passion and compassion and and and it's ever evolving. And it's there's so much emerging technology and there's so much you know, there's so many thought leaders and there's so many cool products and there's so many and the dogs themselves in the end of the day different breeds in the in the in all behavior, everything about it. It's just fascinating to me. So I don't know. Again, I know that's like such a big answer and it just It's also a fascinating I just in the fact that it's still so early as an industry that we're still so young, and there's so many things that can be done from an entrepreneurial perspective, it's very exciting for me. There's so many, there's so much impact that myself and my company can have, you know, there's just blue ocean, and it's just there's so much you know, or blue sky and open ocean or whatever the the phrases, it's all of the, all of the skies and oceans and all the colors. And I think so that is not a very succinct answer, but it's every answer I can give you because every reason imaginable?
Collin 30:40
Well, I think it's very relatable, because this is a giving industry, this is a passionate industry. And the people who are here have found their purpose, right? This this is an industry that when we basically it finds you in a lot of cases, and you look up and and you said it's given us so much I know if people who who the job has literally you said save lives I know fitters, who, who started in you know, they've been able to walk and they've become active, they've saved their health, they've saved, you know, relationships, they've been able to get from this, they pay for their kids college, they pay for the food on the table, because of this industry. It's a giving industry. And when you're a part of that, when you see that aspect of it, you can't help but also to then
Jamie M. 31:20
give back. Somebody asked me the other day, that Mother's Day was my family and someone said how specifi going and what's going on? And you know, just talking about whatever it people talk about the future, if you you know, what do you think you would do after fishfinder? If you ever, you know, if you ever didn't have fetch fire? What would you do? You probably wouldn't work at Pet right? And I was like, Oh, my gosh, that's a great question. And I don't Yeah, of course, I work in pet. I don't know what I would do. But it would sell. I can't imagine being in another industry, it doesn't even seem that appealing. I mean, maybe there's an adjacency somewhere, but there's gotta be a pet component to it. I mean, there's got to be loving, I don't know, I just, it's fun. It's great. This conversation, everyone's so awesome. I went so awesome, and so loving and so accessible. And I've never, it's so rare that I have, you know, I talk have a conversation with somebody, or I don't walk away feeling inspired, or at least, you know, inspired or educated or informed or challenged or something like there's something that comes from every conversation. And there's again, so many places to go. For any entrepreneur for anyone interested in being in the industry. There's just choices, punch choices. So it's it's I can't imagine being anywhere else, frankly,
Collin 32:34
well, and you've mentioned in the skies and oceans and all sorts of different colors. And you'll want to hear from us about the different opportunities that are there as as the industry grows. And as client expectations, client expectations change and technologies come up. When you when you look to where you think the where the industry is heading or some of the exciting opportunities. What do you see? Or what do you what excites you the most these days?
Jamie M. 33:00
I think, I think always emerging technology and creating efficiencies via technology is exciting to me, because I know that that would help everybody just to have more time with their, you know, building their businesses or with their families. Like there's just technology, it's still we're still on the cusp of what technology can do. And I don't mean technology to create distance or create an impersonal experience. But I mean, I think there's just a lot of emerging solutions that help both the b2b side and the b2c side. That's interesting to me. I think I think there's a lot of room for creative pet care. I think there's still so many things that just like on a one to one care basis, taking care of someone's animal or animals, I think there's still there continues to be so many ways to be inventive around just providing a loving, loving experience for both pet owner and pet. There's just a lot of ways to create connections with within communities within families. I think I know again, you're I'm giving you a really broad strokes because I think about this myself, I do love obviously technology. I have a technology company and I do love creating efficiencies and I love creating collaborations, and I think there's a lot of room for that right now. I think it's important to find the right people to collaborate with because I think in any industry people who are people and there's good and bad and there's sort of you know, there's warm and cold and I think that understanding someone's I think that if you're in this industry and you're looking for opportunities, especially in the collaboration or partnership department angle rather I think that understanding someone's motivations is really important. There's a lot of and I've been i I'm older, I'm more mature blah, blah, blah, but I feel like it got to be an offer one on one for all all ships rise mentality. And no matter what you're doing industry Ross I think you're not going to be successful.
Collin 34:57
But I did want to touch on the technologies aspect because that's that's part of, again, when I look back over the last three, five years, the industry has just come huge leaps and bounds forward, especially through COVID is not just business owners became a lot more comfortable with technologies, but our clients did, as well. And obviously artificial intelligence like that. That's the that's the elephant in the room for businesses. Do you feel like that's still at a pretty early stage for for businesses to jump in at this point? Or is that something that they can actually start using to make their businesses better? Are
Jamie M. 35:32
you speaking specifically of AI and the AI suite of tools? Yeah. So I am actually AI has become like a weirdly political it's like a political. I mean, it's like you can't, I was, I was at the WIZO concert last night in a walkie with my daughter and her friend, and we were at Fiserv Stadium. The were the Bucs played basketball Anyhow, it's brand new stadium. It's beautiful was built few years ago, I think was built right before COVID. Anyway, there we are at the stadium. And Amazon go for you know, the the organizations that were Amazon, there are technologies where you throw your credit card in and you walk in through an automated gate, you buy whatever you want, and you just walk out and then it charges your card. I mean, ever I feel like that's like this technology. Right? And this is a woman behind me. And of course, I think that's just cool. Why I listen, I'm not like, I just think it's cool. For the sake of being cool. Let's not talk about like all the implications, I understand the implications, privacy, you know, labor, I just I get all of it. But listen on the face of it is pretty damn cool that you can walk in, walk out and like have no fuss now. Like, that's cool, like way to go human brains coming up with that stuff. And this woman is I was commenting to my 11 year old and she's like, this is really cool. And like, this is cool. And this is why it's cool. She was listening unbeknownst to me. And she said, Yeah, it's really cool until you lose your job for it. I was like, You're you can talk about that right now. We're Lizzo Jama. But and I don't know you also too. Anyway, I think that with AI gets to my point. I think with AI there's so much fear and unknown about and in so much. There's a lot of misconception about what AI can do. It's a tool. So AI is just the internet 30 years ago. That's it. It's just the internet. You know, there's a great you remember that clip? Everyone's seen that David Letterman clip. Maybe they haven't seen it, but look it up. It's David Letterman was interviewing Bill Gates 1980 something else 85 Or something maybe I can't remember this summer. And David Letterman says to Bill Gates, you know, in his like very David Letterman II kind of way. He was like, so the internet, really. And Bill Gates gets this like very knowing smile on his face. He's like, Well, Dave, you know, let me tell you, yeah, the internet, really. And he sort of gave a little high level thing. And Dave, David Letterman, for those of us who remember David Letterman, who's still around, he's awesome. But you know, sort of had this, this like very sarcastic, sardonic kind of look on his face, like, go on and looking at the audience kind of rolling his eyes. That's what AI is now. And there's also a ton of awesome clips, if you could like, go back. And you'll look at like, news reporters talking about the internet, or it's just so cool, because it's exactly what's happening now. But now we're actually more informed so we can actually use it to not be so afraid of it. Because we know that. Yes, there's always evil uses, but there's evil uses for the internet, but everyone's on right now. And then evil uses everything. And there's evil uses for cars, and I mean food, I mean, whatever. But the point is, I think that our industry is is always right for for innovative use around technology, and artificial intelligence is no different. You know, and there's a lot of great tools out there right now that obviously use AI that can help you to be more efficient in your business and who doesn't want to be more efficient. I mean, even if you're just using chat GPT with good inputs, and you're building you know, client better client intake forms, or you're trying to solve for how to you know, cut your cut, cut your labor costs, I mean, AI can help to solve all of those and more. The challenge I think, the challenge Well, there's lots of challenges, but that it isn't ever it so I get a couple of AI newsletters every day. And honestly, it's hard to keep up and I'm pretty interested in it and fancy myself a bit of like, look, I think it's cool and I look at it a lot. I use it in different areas of my business in my personal life. But it's like ever it's moving so fast. That once you think you have a handle on how to leverage it for whatever use case you may have it tomorrow, it might be legitimately tomorrow might be different. And I think that, that sort of sucks. So you either have to if you're going to use AI, I think you have to make a decision about the use case. And like leaning into that for a couple months. And like, don't worry about the advances made me maybe I don't worry, but don't get anxious about, am I using the best? And is it the most updated? Like, if you can use something today, that is, again, even if it's just an open AI, chat, GPT 3.5 or four, whatever it is, and you're just solving some basic problems about how to write emails, like you can like, redo all of your email templates, right? Good inputs are important, by the way, but but really, really important. Sorry, I get lots of feedback. But there's like so many great podcasts and like my tick tock at this point, and I do think tic TOCs. For my Tic Tac is primarily just like listening to good. People talk about, you know, give me three minute, give me a two minute snippet on like a smart way to leverage an AI tool that will help me help other people. So anyway, again, I give you a really long answer. Just calling you're easy to talk to. You're too easy. Let's
Collin 41:09
be more standoffish next time. No, I'm kidding. I think what it is, is just going as a business looking at those available tools, and just asking that question, could I do this right now? Right? What would this give? What benefit would this give me? And then making those one small changes one small steps at a time? And then and then seeing where that takes you right? And just experimenting with it? You weren't you're not diving in and changing your entire CRM and back end sales process and all that you're not doing that, right? You're going, Hey, can I help me do an email template? Or can I have this put together a bite report forum for my staff, you know, or things like that, and then just just just start playing around with it on those low stakes on those low stakes.
Jamie M. 41:47
That's exactly right. And like three months ago, you would have never thought of that, because that would have felt high stakes. But now that is like a more low stakes, more easy entry place. And again, without getting into all the political, here's the nice thing about pet care. Here's the nice thing, AI is never going to replace someone walking someone's dog. And then I know Jamie, oh, no robot up, whatever, whatever, I'm not even going I'm not wasting anyone's time, even the conversation we should have in our lifetime. And you know what I, whatever, I'm just gonna say it, I don't care, you guys can come at me as much as you want. At this point, your job is safe as a pet care provider. So if you can leverage technology, whether it be AI, or you know, online learning, or whatever it is, like use it and be stronger, better, more efficient, faster, do all that stuff.
Collin 42:36
Jamie, I really want to thank you for coming on the show today and for encouraging us to be passionate and use that passion to make the industry better. So we can be building a legacy and an industry that we can all be proud of. But no, this is obviously a big topic. It's a problem that you've been working and punching away at for a long time. And there's a lot more topics that we could have gotten into today. If people want to learn more about fetch, find or get connected with you and see all the cool stuff that you have going on how best can they do that?
Jamie M. 43:05
They can do that by going to our website, of course, which is really simply fetch find.com. Or they can reach out to us at Hello, HTML, oh, that's fine.com Anything that we need anything we can do that you need to help them to help you and your your pursuit of being the best possible business owner and best possible pick your professional hedge fund is in business to do that. And it's our passion and our mission. And we're driven towards it every day. So we're happy to help.
Collin 43:31
Perfect, Jamie, I can't thank you enough for coming on the show and sharing some time with us today. And for encouraging us on this. It means so much and and I'm so thankful for it. So thank you very much.
Jamie M. 43:41
Thank you for everything you do for our industry and for who you are. It's amazing. I really appreciate that you're a part of bringing the best to an industry that deserves it. So
Collin 43:51
do you see yourself playing a role in the vitality and health of the pet care industry? I think before we get to that point, we have to ask ourselves, why do we care? Why do we care if this industry succeeds? or doesn't? For many of us, it may be? Well if the industry doesn't do well, my business doesn't do well, I can't pay my bills, I have to go back to working my nine to five job which I don't really want to do. For others. It may be I need this to succeed because of the connection that I have. And I'm finally living my passion and my dreams and running my business. Still others may respond with this industry gives me something gives me hope helps me be connected to something greater than I could ever imagine. And I want more people to experience that. Whatever the reason, it is for you. I think we can all agree that we'd like this industry to stick around for a little bit longer.
44:47
What role can you play? What role can we all
Collin 44:51
play? I think that's a really important question that we can have when we look at the headwinds that face the industry. As things change as disruption occurs. We have a role in that. And that's something worth pursuing. We want to thank today's sponsors time to pet and pet perennials for making today's show possible. And we really want to thank you so much for listening. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
