447: From Leashes to Lattes with Alisha Riley
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What does it mean to embrace change while staying focused on the client experience? As your business grows, you may face necessary changes that push you out of your comfort zone. Transform any doubt in your abilities into motivation to learn, grow, and discover new methods. Alisha Riley, the owner of Alisha’s Pet Playcations, exemplifies this. She restarted her business after relocating across the country. In her journey, she discusses the importance of integrating oneself into the community and leveraging personal connections through your network. Additionally, Alisha shares her decision to start a coffee shop driven by a very special mission.
Main topics
Moving across the country
Make clients feel special
Talk to people!
Starting a coffee shop
Main takeaway: Pet care is not a one sized fits all solution, so tailor services to make your clients feel special.
About our guest:
Alisha and Zack have not only spent the last 7 years caring for pets, but also have a menagerie of furry critters at home. The pair have two rescue cats, Figment and Goose, 5 rescue guinea pigs (Hershey, Maple, Oreo, S'more, and Fudge), and two rescue rabbits, Sugar and Cinnamon, that fill much of their free time. Their pups, Max, the dachshund/lab, and Junior, the dachshund/chihuahua are the pups that started it all, led Alisha into the pet care industry in the first place, helping her find her calling after she departed jobs in the theme park industry and as a nanny to human children. Zack is an electrical engineer by trade, but can often be found helping out with house sits and walks in his spare time, especially enjoying time with farm animals when possible. They enjoy hiking, kayaking, and traveling when not working with pets and bring the pups on as many adventures as possible.
Links:
https://www.alishaspetplaycations.com
https://www.facebook.com/AlishasPetPlaycations/
https://www.instagram.com/petplaycations/
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet, clients, business, animals, dog, visit, community, colorado, place, day, rescues, gift, feel, breakthrough moments, home, talk, cat, big, moment, staff
SPEAKERS
Alisha R., Collin Funkhouser
Collin Funkhouser 00:01
Welcome to pet sitter confessional. Today, we are brought to you by time to pet and pet perennials. What does it mean to provide a personalized and positive pet care experience? Every time we're over? And what can we do as the business owner as a pet sitter dog walker to cultivate breakthrough moments with our clients and their pets. Today, we are super excited to have Alicia Riley, owner of Alicia's pet placation on the show, to talk about how pet care is not a one size fits all solution and how that's a really positive thing, how she's growing through networking, talking to people understanding how animals are the universal connector and why she started a coffee shop to let's get started.
Alisha R. 00:43
Thank you so much for having me. So as you said, I am Alicia. I am co owner with my husband, Zach Riley, and operator of pet vacation. We are a small pet care business based in Payton, Colorado, just east of Colorado Springs. And we specialize in daily dog locks, drop in visits for pets of all species, and sleep overstays in client homes. We've been in business for just over eight years now and have found great success in what we do. I play with animals for a living and love just about every moment of it. Just
Collin Funkhouser 01:17
just just about maybe we'll get to some of those just about moments later. But as far as your your business, you said you've been in business for eight years, what what changed eight years ago? Well,
Alisha R. 01:31
I first of all, didn't have any pets in my personal home until I was about 15 or 16. So I always say that everything I've done since that moment is severely overcompensating for my lack of animals in my childhood, I figured go at 110 plus percent or not at all. So I filled my entire life with animals. But about eight years ago, I had left one of the most magical places in the world after working there for two years, thought I was going to work there for the rest of my life, it ended up not being the fit that I had envisioned and found myself lost at the age of 20. Not knowing where I was going in a career or in schooling or really anything. So I started pet sitting on the side, as I know many of us did before they fell into this, helping out friends and family and neighbors, and said, This is what I'll do in between things until I find that normal job that career that I meant to do. It Little did I know that six months later, I would decide that this was my real career. And in the last eight years, we have made it through cross country moves from Florida to Colorado, we've packed up and restarted a couple times with in Colorado and settled here where we are now and have been for the last two years, and expanded to the point where I have seven staff members and we service just over 300 homes in the area
Collin Funkhouser 02:56
mentioned that you were feeling lost at 20. describe that feeling? Because I know that that's something that I think we all encounter at some point. So when you when you talk about being lost, where where was that coming from? And why did you feel so lost at that time?
Alisha R. 03:14
I think we do definitely all have that moment at some point. But we're all really afraid to say anything about it, let anyone know about it. But I had these clear visions of what I was supposed to do in my life. Why I was going to school, I was a degree in finance. I wanted to work for one of those big companies in the Orlando, Florida area in the behind the scenes back end of things, told them that and basically faced the realization that I was but a number amongst many others just a cog in the machine. And as a young professional trying to make their way that doesn't sit too well. And it's kind of that like, bulldozer moment where you're like, oh, no, someone told me I don't matter. I know I do. But that must mean it's not here. Where do I go from here? You can
Collin Funkhouser 04:04
find yourself realizing I am just a person, right? I am just a thing, a thing, really to this to this company to the making this work. And while it is important to recognize that we are all replaceable, I think it's important to note that that's doesn't mean we don't have value. Right? That's, that's where we take that and we go, oh, they don't even see me as valuable because they see me as replaceable. So I'm not valuable to them. So I have to go find value elsewhere. And so you said you mentioned you started doing this petsitting thing? What about it stuck to you? You said after about six months, you realize that this was something a little bit more than just an interim position. Yeah,
Alisha R. 04:44
it was a really weird transition time. You know, having all of those plans just fall apart, basically in one statement from a manager. So it was just my happy place. It was my escape from trying to figure out how to get through all of the job hunting. And what to do with the rest of my college degree that I couldn't decide should I even follow through with it after I was potentially not going to use it. So animals were my escape, they were my happy place, we had rescue animals of our own, that we could never leave at boarding facilities or at vets when we traveled because our one dog is the best dog in the world. And I always preface with that, that I make fun of him because I love him. But he has an 18 pound chiweenie that chewed a hole through a crate, the hole of the size of my head. And when he couldn't escape, he just peed out of it. I can't leave him places. I can't, I can't do that to anyone. If I went and left him at the vet, I know I'd be coming back to a sick dog, or a damages bill from the vet themselves, like you, your dog has caused property damage, I can't do this in
Collin Funkhouser 05:52
a cease and desist letter, right?
Alisha R. 05:55
Take this do not bring it back. We've had him for eight years, and he has not changed one bit. But that was what we were told was the equivalent of crate train. So he was our like personal moment of needing to figure out alternatives kind of brought us into this path of alternative pet care of someone staying in our home living with them or visiting them several times. I turned to do it part time. And it turned out I was really good at it. Because I have this high anxiety dog that I get it, I relate to it. And I could see that in other people's pets that they were in their happy place in their homes. And that if I could provide any peace of mind, I was in my happy place too.
Collin Funkhouser 06:39
It's interesting how those experiences kind of shape. They're very eye opening, right? When you go to try something for the first time, especially if you're like, Oh, this is what everybody else does. So this is what is expected or I expect to be able to do. And then when it doesn't work, it really puts you on that back foot to realize that you feel that your own anxiousness, your own anxiety start kicking up and realize, oh, this is where a lot of people come from whenever they get on the phone with me.
Alisha R. 07:05
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I still at this point. Now I'm fortunate enough to have the staff that I can rely on. But before that the only people that were allowed to watch my animals were families. So when we moved from Florida to Colorado, we lost that option all over again. And even though I had been in this business as just a doula with my husband, and myself, all of that anxiety flooded back when we moved out here of who watches my animals. How do I do this all over again, I don't have anyone I can trust.
Collin Funkhouser 07:34
Yeah, we've, we have a 15 year old dachshund named Kobe, we've had him for almost 12 years now. And now in the time that that amount of time we've needed, the kind of services that we offer, I think three times. And so it's very interesting to, to say like we offer this service. And it's one that we've even rarely used ourselves because of the anxieties that we have around our dogs. And right now kind of we're in the same position as you are now Alicia of having staff who can step in, that we have personally trained have both of our oversight have all of those things we have, okay, this is now a person who we can trust to step in and care for our own animals.
Alisha R. 08:13
Yeah, it's it's a weird thing to see it from both sides. But I'm glad to know that the service that we provide is so valued. And I felt that on my end, as well as the consumer to
Collin Funkhouser 08:28
you mentioned in your story there that you have packed up and moved and restarted several times. So you've restarted your pet care business a couple times. Is that right? Yeah, we actually started
Alisha R. 08:39
things down in Florida, we were more of that makeshift doggy daycare out of your own home falling into some gray area about whether or not you should even be doing it. And then after that, you know, six months of doing this on the side, and as a hobby, we went through all of the steps of oh, this is a real business. Now we need to get insurance and all of those fun business things, tax professionals, accountants, bookkeepers. And as we were establishing all of that, in Florida, we just had a moment where we knew that Florida was not where we wanted to spend the rest of our lives and packed up and moved to Colorado sight unseen, neither my husband nor myself had ever stepped foot in the state. And that also meant packing up the business and trying to figure out how to start over with an entirely new service area and clientele.
Collin Funkhouser 09:29
Did you do anything with the business preemptively before you got on the ground in Colorado? Or did you basically just unpack it and try and start doing something once you were there?
Alisha R. 09:39
Now, it would have been really smart to do some market research or some planning but we were so enveloped and still, you know, pretty young, that when you move you're more focused on getting all of the animals to the right places in the boxes to the right places and how do I afford the, you know, pod trucks to get everything out that the business Live not I truly didn't know if the business was going to make the transition over. But as soon as we got to Colorado, when we realized what a pet loving place it was, we decided to just kind of start word of mouth advertising, get to know the vet in the pet care supplies, stores and stuff in the area and grew from there. It's
Collin Funkhouser 10:21
interesting how effectively within the span of a year, you had started two different companies, right? We had just started in Florida, and then you moved and you just started a brand new one there in Colorado, what kind of lessons did you bring into that second time around, after kind of doing some of those initial things in Florida,
Alisha R. 10:42
we had learned a lot. And we're able to start things up pretty much exponentially out in Colorado. And I'm very thankful for that. We knew that we needed to have contracts in place all of the safeties and securities as we were getting all of our new clients for the first time in Colorado, so we didn't have to cross any of those bridges. Having already had the clients in place, and then trying to transition them over to different protocols. So everything was much more seamless as a business and seemed a lot more professional from the get go once we hit Colorado.
Collin Funkhouser 11:17
Yeah, kind of had that nice, clean start to really be brand new in that area. So you said you started marketing with going to visit places? What are what are some because I'm asking these questions, because I see this, these ask all the time about people who are moving, have a new job opportunity or looking to be moved, moving closer to family, but they've got this business, and they're terrified about moving it and don't know how they're going to make it to a new location.
Alisha R. 11:45
Yeah, it's really scary. But there's a lot of ways to make it work. And it's definitely worth it. I am a big believer in Word of Mouth networking. I am not tech savvy enough to social media worth anything, despite the fact that I'm not even 30. I never made it to the TIC tock trend. I'm way behind on that stuff. But I know how to network in person. And there are so many amazing pet professionals in whatever area someone moves to, that knows the area that knows what kind of pet you're going to encounter, that can give you the little tips and tricks of how to become invaluable to the community that those are the people you'd want to talk to, and to become friends with. Because really, they're a valuable resource. So we went and just started by finding the things that we wanted on the personal level for our animals, we were looking for a new vets because we had just moved. So let's talk to all of the vets in the area, find one that fits our needs. And in the meantime mentioned what we do professionally along the way. We were looking for a groomer and a bather. So let's do the same thing all around, leave some cards along the way that we have. And just kind of get that you're warm that we exist. And we're happy to help propel anyone else's business in return for just knowing that we exist have kind of a back and forth is really what the animal community is about all around.
Collin Funkhouser 13:07
Yeah, and that's a great place to start from. I know, even I will sit outside of a business. And I'm going doing door knocking and introducing myself. And all I have that question of like, how do I how do I talk to them about what do I do? What's my, what's my opening here? How do I introduce myself? Where do I start? And to go to places that are a resource for you personally, are is fantastic, right? And I know not everybody who's in this business has a pet or is is able to have a pet. But think of it from the perspective of your clients? Where would they want to be connected with? What information would they need to have? Who would they need to talk to, and approach it from that perspective of going, Hey, I'm here to just get connected with the resources for pets in our community, not just helped me. But also to help my clients I want to introduce myself and say hi, it's much more natural conversation at that point.
Alisha R. 13:59
It really makes a big difference. And like we have connection out here where we are now that makes treats. And we've had one that makes locally sourced dog food where they were making most of it in their home, but they were actually certified. And even if you don't have pets, those are great things to have. Like I have a client that's looking for a new alternative to dry kibble or is looking for a birthday cake for their dog and I'm trying to do that research for them to make their life easier. So animals are the universal connector for pretty much all of us whether you have one personally or not they in our in all aspects of our lives. So they're always a good talking point that will bring people together.
Collin Funkhouser 14:43
They really aren't most I mean, it's, it's amazing when we go and talk to people, you know, they'll start pulling out their phone and they'll say, Okay, if I show you a picture of my dog, and I'm like I'd be angry if you didn't show me a picture of your dog like let's go.
Alisha R. 14:56
I was in a coffee shop for a meeting completely unrelated to Our pet care business, I briefly mentioned what I do for a living and the barista at the end of the counter as she handed off my drink was like, wait, you need to see this and pulled out a picture of her cat, pupils dilated in full cabinet mode. She's like, I thought you would want this in your day? And it's like, Of course I do you know me so? Well.
Collin Funkhouser 15:20
It is, it's a great reminder that we have such a wonderful connection point to our community, to the people around us that if you focus it back on that, as resources is helping people, you're going to find that there are lot more connections out there than you ever anticipated. It's not just the pet food store. It's not just the you know, the groomer or the vet or the trainer or these pets centric places. It's also places where the owners or the employees are pet fanatics, and finding them is kind of that extra step that you can really start building out that network.
Alisha R. 15:56
Yeah, definitely. Have
Collin Funkhouser 15:58
you heard of time to pet Dan from NYC pooch has this to say
16:02
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 pet sitting 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 Funkhouser 16:23
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 that.com/convention. I know one of your goals, Alicia was to start your business to provide a personalized and positive pet care experience. And I was curious kind of what does that look like in your mind? And how do you execute on that? Yeah, so
Alisha R. 16:47
if those words are usually kind of catch all words, but they really mean a lot to me of that personalization is what we're here for. And that positive experience translating both to the pets that we work with. And the humans like we really take care of looking at the human side of client interaction. Just as much as we do the animals in our care, I'm always going to advocate for the animals. But I'm also going to phrase things in ways for the humans so that they understand so that they're spoken to gently so that they can be away and not feel uncomfortable. So in the time that we've done this, we've learned that pet care is not a one size fits all solution. And we've tailored our services to really make that clear. Not every household is going to do well with three half hour visits in a day, or just hanging out from 7pm to 7am. With them, that might not be what the client is looking for. But that doesn't mean that we're not a good fit. So we do meet and greet. Before we sign a client into anything before they're locked into anything to make sure that we're on the same page with things. They talk us through the beginning of the day to the end of the day. And then I give them my recommendations of what works best. Some households do just fine with those three visits a day. And then others that we're going to we are stopping by five times a day, not necessarily because the pet needs it, but because the owner needs that and that's okay, too. We let our clients pick and choose how long visits are instead of just saying it's a half hour or not at all, or it's 12 hours at night or not at all. So I let them mix and match which also lets clients feel like they have some control over the situation. We do everything from 20 minute Poppins just to do a quick cage cleaning or set down extra food for the cat even though we were there this morning, all the way through multi hour visit. So we've started to see a lot of clients saying, oh, I want a half hour in the morning to do breakfast and then they'll be fine for a few hours. But then let's do an hour midday so they can really go run and play and then a half hour again at dinner. Oh but can you stop by for 20 more minutes right before bed just to let them out and tell them I love them. And that's what we'll do. That's totally fine. Some some houses, we do what we call an almost overnight which has become my favorite thing. It's like that bed and breakfast option that's becoming more popular, where we chill with them from like six to 8pm in the evening at that dinner time through tuck in service. We come back first thing in the morning for an hour and then we pop back for a shorter say 20 or 30 minute visit midday. That ability to customize things has made a world of difference from the owner side of things and really leaves them feeling like they're special because they are it doesn't matter if you have 10 clients or 300 clients. They're all special and they're all super valuable. So we're going to tailor things to what it is that makes them as happy as possible.
Collin Funkhouser 19:48
I know there are two general schools of thought on this and how we structure our services. There's the one that is we may need to make these as cookie cutter as possible so I can replicate it as easily as possible. So that scheduling as easy as possible, and as predictable as possible, and then there's the full customization and and direct involvement of the client in discussing and scheduling services to make it meet their needs. What kind of challenges do you face running a business like that when it comes to things like staffing, scheduling, booking clients, and knowing exactly how much you can take on in any given day.
Alisha R. 20:27
It's definitely challenging because every time I think that I'm going to be able to put this on my back burner of oh, it's self sustaining, I can truly just be an owner, I find myself swooping back in to handle a last minute scheduling issue. But I wouldn't have it any other way. Because my biggest outlook on things is no two animals are exactly the same. They all have different personalities and different needs. So the cookie cutter solution is going to leave someone out along the way. And if that means that I need to be more actively involved in my business, that doesn't sound like a bad thing to me, I want I have control issues as is. So if it means I have to stay controlling of the business just a little bit. And that's really what I'm here for. As an owner, I'm here to put out those small fires, I'm here to put out the concerns from owners or the I'm running behind moments from staff. That's my job, I started this business, I'm here to support everyone that interacts with our business, whether they be a client, or a staff member or a pet. So the customized route has definitely made the most sense for
Collin Funkhouser 21:36
us. That phrase, when you said, I started this business, I'm here for support. That is a change in job duties, though, right? Like you started this business. And now you are in this management, the support role to continue to make it work. How has that change been for you, as as the business has grown and evolved?
Alisha R. 22:00
I've definitely needed to learn how to be a better communicator along the way, because that's really what my role is. Now, before I was a dog walker, or a cat header or a cage cleaner. And now while I still do those things, those are in an act of support. Like you said, those are me jumping in to make sure that my staff stays on time or that extra little thing gets done. So I've really had to learn about all different types of communication. And that's been my biggest hurdle is, I'm so used to doing things one specific way from when I was out on the frontlines doing things all myself or my husband helping jump in from time to time. But now that I have seven other people that are doing the job that I once did, it's me becoming the middleman all about stuff, a staff asking a question about a household, but the client is unreachable. So it's my job to help things run as fluidly as possible. And that's a big change from just leashing up and walking a dog for an hour at a time.
Collin Funkhouser 22:57
It is and I know for many people, including myself, it can be frustrating sometimes to go Oh, I didn't. I didn't want to be figuring out how to solve this, you know, broken lock this morning or what why is this an issue this? Why am I but like, that's not why I start I didn't start to help somebody figure out in alarm code at 6am on a Sunday. Like that's a truthfully I mean hand on heart. I didn't do this.
Alisha R. 23:26
By following me around these last few days talking about lock issues an alarm code.
Collin Funkhouser 23:34
It's just in the air. I think it's just the season, but But yeah, it's reflecting and going. Okay, that's not why I started. But it's one of the reasons why I continue. It's because I am supporting people and our mission and our values in executing on this high level of care that that I know we can provide. And that's what I get to do these days. And that's what I get to do to serve my clients, my staff and the Pats.
Alisha R. 24:02
I really like the I get to do instead of the I have to is really how I try to approach each day. I'm not the best at it every single day. But where I tried to return to if I get to do this, I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that I would start a business at 20, almost 21 and still be running it almost a decade later. I never thought at 20 that I would be paying the paychecks of seven other people and supporting the number of houses that we do in our community. But that's where I've found that I thrive is in serving the community and coming back to that, that aspect. So I'm okay with being that support person. I'm okay with figuring out why the alarm is still screaming at you. 30 seconds later when you definitely entered the right code. That's what I'm here for. Our role can evolve and I can still be just as valuable and just as important in this business, if not more so it will be because I've found a team that's really good at the things I was good at eight years ago, and now I get to find new things to be really good at.
Collin Funkhouser 25:08
And that is a transition. That is it can be hard to start questioning ourselves of what value am I bringing to this, I'm not doing the walks, I'm not doing the visits, I'm not doing these things, the day to day operations in the field. It can be kind of an identity crisis for for a lot of us where we think Well, man, I was the dog walker, I was the pet sitter for so many years. And I've got this person helping me not doing it as much. Do I really? Did you ever struggle with, you know, feeling like you deserved or didn't deserve making money off of that aspect when when you weren't the one in the field doing the visits.
Alisha R. 25:48
I have had impostor syndrome since the moment I started this job, whether I was physically doing the walks that or I'm sitting on the back end answering the emails. So there's always that little bit of doubt. And the initial stages of hiring were quite the learning curve of making sure that I got the right people in but once I did any of that guilt of Do I deserve to be benefiting off of this? Do I deserve this or that went away? Because I could look at the team that I've curated and say, I made that I've made this into what it is. I deserve anything that comes forward from that?
Collin Funkhouser 26:26
Yeah, I think that that's a very, very healthy way to view it going. It just being honest and going if if I didn't have this vision, if I didn't take these risks, if I didn't do these things, none of us would be here. And now it's a very humbling, as you've said, already to go, how many people are getting? Am I paying a month? How many families am I supporting a month? How many people are my impacting in my community every month? But again, that's something we get to do we want to do that. And in the organizing on the back end the problem solving the acquisition of clients doing all of the management SOPs, all that stuff that at our at our level has such a value to the overall company that without you doing those things, the company would no longer participant allow you to keep moving forward. And there is value to be had from
Alisha R. 27:14
that. Absolutely. Yeah, it's definitely been a rewarding experience. It's been a crazy experience. And I've learned a lot along the way and made plenty of mistakes. But that makes it all the better.
Collin Funkhouser 27:25
Yeah. Well, you've mentioned community several times already. And and you're really, you really are integrated into your community and Peyton there. And I know you do an awful lot of events and community outreach. Why do you find a need or want to do this? Well, like I said,
Alisha R. 27:45
everything comes back to community, our clients are part of our community, our staff is part of our community, the animals that we're serving, make up our community. And we out here pretty rural, still, we're used to Colorado Springs and, and growing, but there's still this tight knit feel out here. So to work your way into that you need to earn it. And that has been one of the biggest things I've learned out in this areas, you need to get to know your neighbors, you need to get to know, you know, the shop owner down the street, it still has that small town feel and a lot of ways. And one of the ways that we do that is being part of like our harvest festivals in the fall and having a booth set up there so that people can know we exist, or networking with rescues is one of my passions. My husband and I volunteer at a couple of different rescues. And I if I actually gave myself a paycheck every month, most of it would go to rescues in the area. The struggles of a business owner I know most of the money goes there, but there's no actual paycheck. Sure. But we like being part of those little things where we're getting out there and saying we exist, but we're also doing good. We have a lot of initiatives throughout our business to give back to environmental causes or to rescues in the area. We have been part of like the local dog jog, where they go run a 5k and then they do a little Festival at the end. We took our dog to a rough and mutter where they got to do the tough mud 5k He got all down and dirty with us. And then we set up a booth and found a few clients along the way from that. But word of mouth means a lot in a small town. So we've just tried to fully embrace it and being part of the community, like I said, is our goal. So what better way than to go show our faces and show that we support the other people that are out here to
Collin Funkhouser 29:41
that general support is really important. In those in that kind of area. I know you mentioned you're pretty rural. What kind of population are you? Are you are you serving out there?
Alisha R. 29:52
You know, I need to look up the numbers because it changes every year pretty rapidly and we've only been out here for about two years. But I think we're still technically considered an exercise. So not yet a suburb, but not really rural anymore. We've got more than just one grocery store down the street. But the really big guys haven't made their way.
Collin Funkhouser 30:15
Yeah, and I think part of that, too, is just what I hear from, from what I'm hearing from you, Alicia is just a lot of community pride that you like seeing these things you like supporting, you're proud of the support that you're able to bring there with your business and serving your clients. And so having a physical presence, having being being a face in the community is exceptionally important as business owners to be there to show up. I know, I used to struggle on Oh, do I go to this event? Do we not go to this event? How many people are we going to get from this week, we went to that other one. And we didn't, we didn't sign anybody up from that. So I don't know if I want to keep going to these events. But really just being a face there, at the little of dog bark in the park of Andrew at the downtown dog run around this. That's really important that people see you they recognize where a lot of this recognition comes from, and knowing that you are a member of that community there to support others.
Alisha R. 31:08
Yeah, really, I mean, even if the person that's at the dog jog isn't your clients down the line their neighbor might be because that person remembers that you were there and that you were out supporting the rest of the area by just showing up. I've also found it's really important to do these events, even though we we don't do a whole lot of them we do. We strategically put them throughout the year. But we've found that as we've had staff, it's been exceptionally important because some of our clients have only met me personally once and then IT staff coming and going from their homes. So to be able to circle back around and see me in the wild is really reassuring to them. If like I do still exist, you're still here. Yeah.
Collin Funkhouser 31:55
Well, and as you have staff, you're better able to go to these events and invest in them in that way and continue to elevate your presence and recognition in your community. Exactly. I was reading on your your your website, Elisa, and there was a moment where you started talking about these, these breakthrough moments that you have when caring for pets and the you know how much you look forward to those and how powerful they are. Could you did you talk about those and how you you either go about making them happen or look forward to them?
Alisha R. 32:32
Yeah, so one way that we may stand apart from some other senators is, I have learned over the years that I do not need to be best friends with every single pet that I encounter. And that was a really big hurdle for me because of course, going in and working with dogs and cats primarily. You're like, Oh, I just want to pet you, I just want to be your best friend. We have a few clients where that's not the case. And that's never going to be the case. So for us, the breakthrough moments come in those homes, we have one more just passkey and his sister is a Shiva. And they've both chosen to break the molds about breed stereotypes and the Shiva. She is the friendliest, happiest, bounciest dog in the world. Husky wants nothing to do with us. We we've been taking care of them for about three months now. And had been trying to figure out ways to make him more comfortable with our presence in the home. We know that we can do the essentials of the job, we can sit down food and water, take care of his sister, she gets plenty of love. But he just stands in the corner of the yard. And doesn't he looks at us like we are intruders but he's not going to do anything about it, but he's going to stare at you. And our breakthrough moment actually came by me putting in a different staff member and me knowing that I may not be the greatest strength in this situation, cycled someone else into a visit. And while it's not like the 100% turnaround in personality, we got a hand sniff out of him the other day. And that was a huge moment for him that was him really breaking some barriers and tearing down some of his stranger danger walls. And now I know that he loves her more than me and I'm not going to be offended I'm just a little offended
Collin Funkhouser 34:27
you know, you mentioned that that example. It that literally happened to me over this past weekend I was training a new staff member and we had been taking care of this family for a while and yeah, one dog was just the friendliest thing in the world and the other dog just I mean, I wanted nothing to do with me and that's okay I understand that's that's going to happen and what I was able to take like you said able to take care of the basics, get them taken care of keep the dog in a low stress level and go and move on and because I was gonna be patient with this, but man I brought this person in who was shattered me on this visit, and that dog made a beeline straight to them and was like you, you are my best friend. Like, okay, again, okay,
Alisha R. 35:08
I'm only a little offended. But I'm also really, really proud in that moment one for choosing the team members that can make those breakthrough moments, even if they're not even realizing that they're making them. But also by sticking it out and being patient and helping facilitate that growth was a really big moment. We've had a couple of those in the last few months where pets just gravitate to. And it's different each time of which staff member they like best, but I don't like every human I interact with, I don't expect the animals to like every human or other animal they interact with, and they choose their favorite. And if we can have a favorite for them, then we've made a big win.
Collin Funkhouser 35:48
Well, I think what what's important there that you point out is is being proud of having that patience, because that is incredibly difficult. But it's also incredibly essential. In these moments of Do you only get to those, to those breakthrough moments, you only get to those impactful times if you have patience and perseverance to stick with it, to try new things and to experiment to do what you can right to try and exhaust I'm gonna say, you know, kind of exhaust all of your possibilities. But at the same time going, that I can I can only do what I can do, and that's going to it's going to have to be enough for me. Yeah, it's,
Alisha R. 36:30
it's a struggle. I'm not a patient person in my personal life, but I've been able to find it when I work with animals. So they've definitely helped me grow if nothing else.
Collin Funkhouser 36:41
They have a way of teaching us all sorts of things, don't they?
Alisha R. 36:44
All of the things we don't know about ourselves that we should all of our faults and how to improve upon them. There's always something
Collin Funkhouser 36:53
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Alisha R. 38:24
I mean, it's like you said I let the paths lead the way I have found myself too many times trying to just back to back to back, I've got a half hour visit, then I've got an hour visit then I've got a half hour, and I just need to go go go. And then I'll come into a house where the dog is still asleep when I've entered the door and they are not ready for what I am bringing to the table. And it totally resets me I'm like, I need to chill. I need to reset a little bit, breathe, and just go at this pet pace. And it's made a world of difference. Honestly, in my personal life too because I am not a chill person. I'm not a patient person. And animals keep reminding me that I need to do that more. But in the last few years I've had I think what a lot of us face after just so many years of a lot of burnout and compassion fatigue of can I take more on can I keep doing this? Am I going to keep doing this and it's those moments where I just let an animal lead a visit of we're going to do what you want to do today whatever that may be let's do it and then I find that I really still love what I do
Collin Funkhouser 39:34
that's it's really about letting that animal animal bring you in the moment right and I think whatever way we need to do this of this is my only time with my with his pet this morning or the owners not here I get to spend this time with them. I need to make the most of it or I don't want to miss any details. So I have to be present whatever however mindset that we need to force ourselves into, we have to force ourselves into that and allow it to happen. Because otherwise, we do skip over things. And we do take things for granted and we will miss things. And then we ourselves will be stressed out and run ragged at the end of the day, instead of being able to embrace the thing that all of us love, right, the pets themselves. Yeah,
Alisha R. 40:21
I mean, we all know that this is a really challenging job some days. But it can be and should be super rewarding. It's being able to spend time outside and being able to communicate, and empathize with animals and make their days better and make other people's days better by giving them peace of mind. So we do so much good. It's really important to recognize that on RSM and as the owners and as the sitters. Just how much we're doing.
Collin Funkhouser 40:53
I was a training that same person that I mentioned earlier, and we had gotten through all of the technical aspects of the visits of the feeding of the changing the water of getting the medication going out to poop, and pee, all this stuff. And the they looked at me, and they, and this I was kind of watching them seeing how they were going to structure the visit after giving them some promptings. And they just looked at me, they said, well, now what I we've we've done everything. And I said, enjoy them. Right? Enjoy the time that you get with them. And the look of realization on this person's face of like, oh, right, yeah, I get to go. So I need to go sit on the floor and get covered in Puppy kisses. Yeah, absolutely. I'll be right back. Right. It was, it was great.
Alisha R. 41:32
Why we started this, that's why most of us started. This is the Puppy kisses and the crazy cat Netcat and all of that. So it's nice to be able to return to that from time to time. And yeah, I found myself the other day where I just pushed through a visit had finished all of those essentials, like you said, and I looked at my timer and still had 15 minutes left. And at first I was like, Did I do something wrong? Instead of just being like, now I get to enjoy this. This is so much fun. Now we get to just play. I was like, What did I miss? That I stopped? Looked at the dog who was tennis ball in boxer mouth ready to go? Like, no, that's what I'm here for. Thank you for reminding me. That's why I'm here. 15 minutes not getting the ball out of the mouth once.
Collin Funkhouser 42:22
It was at least you tried. Right? That's what counts. Alicia, you've, you've been in business for eight years. I do think I remember seeing a social media post about you starting a new initiative, with your, with your company having to do with a coffee shop. And so I want to hear more about these, these details about this and kind of why this was important for you to start. Yeah, so clearly, we're
Alisha R. 42:50
not all busy enough or crazy enough. So it was time to start a second business. Back when I worked for the most magical place on Earth, I was in the coffee industry, I helped open up some of the coffee shops that you'll find down there and loved it. I have a strong passion for animals and I have a strong love of a good cup of coffee. Now where we are talking about it still being fairly rural. The only things out here are those couple of big chains that we all know and I will not name. So it's just one of those things of talking about the community, my love for that. I love for animals, my love for coffee, it was time to bring everything all into one place. This is kind of a dream I had had far off in a way like my original thought of I want to be a business owner. I'm gonna I'm gonna run my own cute little cafe someday. And now it's happening just with a few cat puns along the way. An
Collin Funkhouser 43:51
aspect of this too is the is the community partnerships that you're bringing in with the cafe as well right?
Alisha R. 43:57
Yeah, so first of all, talking about puns, I gotta circle back around to that to make sure that everyone knows and understands what I'm talking about. We are going to be called off legato. So if anyone is a coffee lover already they know that an awful God I was spelled with one T is a coffee beverage of espresso poured over ice cream or gelato. But Gato with two T's is the Italian word for cat. So when you put them together, my life is complete and the world is a better place. So our goal is to work with cat rescues in our local community as an education hub of listing adoptable cat having more information about how to volunteer and work with those rescues. Trap neuter release programs are big out here. We've got a lot of Barn Cats and feral cats out here that needs to be looked after. And our mission will also include donating a percentage of everything we make back to those rescues to help serve them in any way that we can.
Collin Funkhouser 44:56
Okay, so will you be hosting cats at the Explore cafe or is it partnering with external community members to redirect people there.
Alisha R. 45:07
So it's going to start as primarily about education hub meet gathering place, we've learned, as we've delved into this, that having kept in the same place as food is very logistically challenging and insanely expensive, with mounds of money that I do not have, and will not have until I find an independently wealthy investor. So, in the meantime, we're listening. Yes, please, if you'd like to invest in a local small business, we're here and we'll take your money with great appreciation. But in the meantime, we really think that education is one of my strong suits, I love teaching people about the great work that rescues do, serving up quality coffee that can be hard to find in this area, pastries and food that are actually made here locally instead of brought in frozen, becoming that gathering place for the community. And hopefully along the way, hosting adoption events like out in our parking lot, or working with our building neighbors to use up some of their space we have of that as our neighbor. So we're very fortunate there like it was the perfect place for us to be we had a very serendipitous moment when we learned that there was of that opening up right next door. But yeah, just really bringing everyone together through. I think what most people love animals, and caffeine. If the only thing that powers my day
Collin Funkhouser 46:35
is caffeine fugue, and from morning to night, you joked earlier about you weren't busy enough, and that there's a lot going on? How How are you structuring your days to fit this in and prioritize this without sacrificing the attention that you have or need to have on your other business?
Alisha R. 46:56
Well, I don't think this would be possible, if not for my staff. So I'm going to keep giving them as many shout outs as I possibly can. Because if it was still just the way we were doing things five years ago, my husband and I bootstrapping, like trying to just rough through every single day of being out on the frontlines with our pet care business, this never would have been able to come to fruition. So the fact that we've made pet vacations, slightly more self sustaining, obviously still as taking that support role, but being able to step back and just kind of watch things has opened up at least a little bit of that time for us to work through building codes and health department codes and all of the fun red tape involved in a brick and mortar location. It's still a really hard juggling act. There are not enough hours in the day, there never will be because that's just the type of person that I am. But caffeine gets me pretty far, like I said, so it's all about doing things in small doses. Taking an hour here to do schedules for my staff, and then taking an hour there to go meet with the architect and just kind of back and forth making sure that we spread the love and attention equally. I love all of My children, businesses equally. They all get attention. But it's hard not to be spread too thin, that's for sure.
Collin Funkhouser 48:18
Yeah, well, having those dedicated times I think that sounds like that's the most important thing of going okay, for the next 30 minutes. This is what I'm focusing on. And then for the next 30 minutes, this is what I'm focusing on, to give you some structure and some idea of where you're headed, as opposed to just kind of waking up and winging it.
Alisha R. 48:36
If I were to just wing it, I would sit in an anxiety spiral all day of once I sit down, I'm never getting back up. So I just stay up Google Google Calendar tells me where to go, whether it's to a dog walk, to a health department meeting, or to a new client meet and greets. And I tried to work all of those things into a physical schedule. So I know where I'm going, when I'm going there. And hopefully, nothing gets missed along the way, though. I'm not perfect. Something will get missed along
Collin Funkhouser 49:05
the way. Don't worry, people will let you know if you've missed something. Absolutely.
Alisha R. 49:09
It'll be all over the place.
Collin Funkhouser 49:14
Did you feel I guess, you know, how did you know it was the right time to start this business? Because, you know, did you feel like your other place and you mentioned you as is pretty self sustaining as far as your applications? Or did you feel like you needed to strike now while there was opening in the community? are what really was that? Okay? No, the 2023 is when this is going to happen.
Alisha R. 49:37
I don't think I could have ever possibly known when the right time was. It just became one of those things that anytime I drove by a commercial space for lease, I was like, Oh, that would be perfect. That location is so great. It's only 10 minutes from home. It's right in our service radius. So all of our current clients will know about us and just as you have those little moments in the back of your head, they creep further and further forward until you're like, oh, it's it's time. So it kind of told me, I don't know that I'll ever be able to give up enough control of pet vacations to fully feel like it's self sustaining. And I don't need to be a part of things and can just be like that back end owner. So it wasn't going to be that telling me it was time, because we've found that we choose growth over reaching capacity and me taking a day off. So it was just kind of serendipity. And like one of the universe telling you moments of now's now is right. And even if it's not right, now is right, let's do it.
Collin Funkhouser 50:46
Well, and that's a that's a huge thing, or that takes a lot of courage. It really does to now step out into a second business when you when you think about eight years ago, being as you had mentioned earlier, being lost at 20. Not sure which direction now. And now this is a very confident, bold step forward. I mean, think I mean, I know you mentioned, you know, never imagined 20 years, eight years ago, what was going to happen? But like, I mean, did you see yourself as being a serial business owner and entrepreneur at this point?
Alisha R. 51:18
What 29 year old does really like ones that have way more money, just sitting behind them ready to go is the thing. So you say bold, I say crazy? We mean the same thing. But I am just one of those people that once I have an idea, it's going to happen. It's just a matter of when the like I said, as it started to creep into my mind, the when has come now I guess
Collin Funkhouser 51:44
there comes a point where we can't not do it anymore. And I think the thought, right? Yeah, there's thoughts of man, this, I just need to try this. And I think that's where many of us stumble of we don't even try for that next thing. We don't even seek out more information. And it can be scary and can be silly. Like, I kind of go talk to a realtor, well, I don't know what I'm gonna do. It's like, there was a time where we thought we were going to open up a physical location for boarding and daycare, and I was going and talking to, yeah, big office buildings and buildings for sale and stuff. And it's like, I just have to, I have to see where this is gonna go. I have to talk to people, in order to really feel out where this is going to go just to do I'm not committing to anything, but I need to see and we find ourselves then going. Okay, well, that hurdle was gonna come over that. And then oh, well, I got over that. And well, I guess this is just the path that we're going now. Yeah,
Alisha R. 52:41
I mean, we didn't even realize that we were really serious about this until we had signed the lease, we had looked at a couple of places, and exactly like you said, of going and talking to realtors for the first time and meeting with the Health Department about a building that was not going to work in any situation never would have worked. But those steps of making it feel real are exactly what makes it real. And I definitely relate to the whole, you just sit there and are afraid to go gather information or take that next step. But if you don't, you might be missing out on the greatest success you'll ever have. And even if it's not the greatest success you'll ever have one of the best learning experiences. And I
Collin Funkhouser 53:27
love that a lot, Alicia, I really want to thank you for coming on the show today and sharing about your journey encouraging us to seek out those opportunities and to dig deep in our communities to make a big impact for people who are interested in learning more and following along with all of the cool stuff that you're doing and watch the build out and see how you're going to decorate it and all that stuff and be and maybe even attend the grand opening if they're in the area. How How best can people get in touch with you and follow along with all of your work? Yeah, so right
Alisha R. 53:57
now we are in the building phase of the back end of things as well. But we do have a Facebook page for off legato up and running. You can follow us on any social media as off Regatta, which is a FFO G a a t t o you can always email us at info at off legato dot coffee if you have any questions or trying to start your own place too and want to learn from some of our mistakes. And then for our pet care side of things. We are pet vacations on all social media. And our email at contact at Alicia has pet locations.com.
Collin Funkhouser 54:30
Awesome. And I will have links to all of those in the show notes and on the website so people can get connected with you and follow along with all the cool stuff. Alicia, thank you so much. I've really enjoyed our conversation today. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to share that with us. Yeah,
Alisha R. 54:47
thank you so much. I'm an avid listener to you guys. So this was a lot of fun. How
Collin Funkhouser 54:51
do you see yourself fitting into your community? What connections are you making? How are you growing a network of not just other pet care providers, but other pet enthusiasts and business owners, where you live, as we approach people as we take the best thing that we can in the world, the pets, the animals that we care for, and we share that in that community. People can't help themselves but want to be a part of it. Lean into those connections, develop and dig deep into those relationships that you make so that you can make your community a more pet friendly and more pet accepting place for your clients. We want to thank today's sponsor is tired of pet and pet prills for making today's show possible, and we really want to thank you so much for listening. We can't tell you how much we appreciate you. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
