492: Visible Growth as a Business
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Are you embracing growth? We explore the relationship between personal growth and business adaptation. We are always growing; every phone call, dog walk, and client interaction contributes to our internal changes and makes us stronger. Embracing both internal and external growth is essential to a better business, whether it's updating your SOPs or rebranding to better meet client needs. We also talk about the importance of resilience building, turning challenges into opportunities, and thriving amidst constant change.
Main topics:
Personal Growth
Business Adaptation
Internal Changes
External Growth
Resilience Building
Main takeaway: Challenges build resilience; they are opportunities in disguise.
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
change, growth, business, client, grow, people, pet, spruce, tree, pet sitter, thrive, internal, adapt, stronger, life, environment, years, confessional, shaped, feel
SPEAKERS
Collin, Meghan
Meghan 00:02
Hi, I'm Meghan.
Collin 00:03
I'm Collin.
Meghan 00:03
And we are the hosts of pets that are confessional and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Thank you for joining us today. We appreciate you. Thank you also to pet sitters associates and our Patreon peeps. People who support us on Patreon are those that have found a value or have enjoyed some of the episodes that we have put out almost 500. Now, if you to love the episodes, you can go to pet sitter confessional.com/support to see all of the ways that you can help out.
Collin 00:29
So the other morning, I was walking a client's dog minding my own business. And I passed by this this spruce tree. And I'm pretty sure it was a spruce, but it looked kind of off. So I snapped a photo to look back at it later. And why did that I noticed that the tips of the tree were much lighter compared to the deeper branches. Now those lighter portions, those were new growth is brand new growth for this year, it was growth was so obvious and striking that I had to actually stop and take a photo and probably look kind of awkward there on the side of the road. Needless to say the dog was less than impressed. But that's okay, it wasn't there for them. It really got me personally thinking about growth, how sometimes it's hard to spot like the grass that was right next to that tree, it's really hard to tell the difference between the new grass and the old grass, especially with the same blade, you can't really tell. But it's still happening little by little and day by day. And then there's the other kinds of growth like on that spruce, were just boom in my face. I couldn't help but notice that new growth was taking place right there. And the same thing happens in our business. We as individuals, we are constantly learning and growing through every interaction that we have every phone call dog walk litter box that we scoop, it's actually changing us, it never leaves us the same. We're experiencing all these little things that just make us just a little bit better. The next day, every single day. This
Meghan 01:59
happens both personally and in our business. When we experience new things or challenges that come up, we personally grow, we say Oh, I didn't know I was capable of this, it really stretched me or I'm more of an introvert. So I don't enjoy taking phone calls. But when I do and I either convert a client or I just educate them on what we do. I pat myself on the back. Good job me, I did something hard today. Same thing in our business, when we cross new thresholds or gain a new client, when we meet that revenue goal that we've had, we can feel proud that we have accomplished this.
Collin 02:34
Now all of these are really an internal growth. It's things like those structural changes in our business for how we do things. Maybe it's we develop a new new mindset, new mental model for how we approach marketing or how we attract a particular client. Maybe it's you know, another internal growth thing is rewriting our SOPs, nobody sees this, nobody has any idea of what's going on with our SOPs. Maybe you change your accounting practice, from cash to accrual, or whatever you want to do. Or you take a training course, it's all this internal stuff that's going on these little tiny things that change us in unseen ways to the outside
Meghan 03:12
world. It could also be that you're struggling to learn a new software or a management tool, I know that time to patches rolled out their lite version for solo ciders. And that's great. A lot of people are transitioning over to time to pet, there are all these things that potentially from the outside, no one would have any idea that they took place. But they are really important to us and allow us to do our jobs better. This type of growth really sometimes goes unnoticed. If you're switching to a new software clients are going to notice that. But if it's more internal things, inner workings and nuts and bolts of your business, it's the foundation for everything else. Consider this internal growth as the roots and the structure of the tree. Even if others don't see it, you know, it's happening, you know, it's strengthening your business. Think about a plant that grows in a windy environment. There the internal structures of that plant allow them to withstand the wind without breaking. But sometimes it doesn't look that much different than other plants, then there are times that we go through these seasons of immense change whether we lose a bunch of clients or employees, maybe we rebrand or we start offering an entirely new range of services that we never have before. This is more external growth. It could also be changing service areas or switching from pet sitting to strictly dog walking mid days or going from balanced training and setting techniques to going fear free and not using certain methods or tools anymore. These changes aren't just deeply felt by ourselves but they're often visible to those around us you can start promoting I am now fear free certified I implement XYZ in my business or we now have a new logo and here it is. We are super excited about our new colors and what it means for the future of the business. Anyone watching your social media or your your Google will see these changes.
Collin 04:59
Yeah If you lose a bunch of staff, the faces of your company are going to change quickly. And it's changes like that, that makes it it's actually easy to feel self conscious and insecure when those rapid and sometimes unexpected changes happen. We don't like people seeing our growing pains because we don't want to feel judged for you know, quote, unquote, not having it all together, we don't like feeling as though we don't know what's going on, or that that's kind of out of our control. But what we have to do is embrace the process and remind ourselves that someday, this embarrassing growth that we're experiencing, it will just become part of who we are, and will have made us stronger, that wants shockingly visible green on that external tips of that spruce, those are going to fade to a deeper hues on their stronger and bigger branches as it continues to grow. And just like those new shoots on that spruce, you have to pay attention to the small wins and those changes in your business. These might include things like that customer feedback that you get, or a successful new hire in the midst of a rash of quits, or even learning that new skill, the obvious growth is there, because you're obviously changing, and people can't help. But notice that and we do go through those periods of time where we have to grow, we have to change, we have to do new things that other people are going to notice. So as you grow into your business, remember that you aren't meant to stay just where you are. You're actually supposed to grow, you're supposed to adapt, you're supposed to become stronger. We don't
Meghan 06:40
like people seeing us vulnerable and potentially messing up. But it's in those moments that we need to remind ourselves to not get to defeated or to down to know that everything in our business is a lesson everything in life is the lesson. You mess up in your personal life to just as potentially in your business. But it's all about having that growth mindset of I can take these things. I don't like that it happened. It wasn't very fun. But I can take something from it. I can learn, I can make my business better, I can make myself better, or my employees, if they had messed up, I can make them better. And ultimately, that's going to make the business better and stronger for the future. Yeah, we
Collin 07:17
have to remember that nothing is static, it may feel like it is nothing is critical changed. But we certainly have, we certainly do. And that evolution of ourselves that evolution of our business, it just means that those changes are gonna become more apparent to people on the outside your clients now, I don't even recognize who you are, or how you do business in 20 years time. And that's okay. Well, Megan, you sick, we feel vulnerable, it's daunting to us, does actually lead to new opportunities and expansion for us, as we embrace those as part of becoming of who we are those lessons that we've learned, and we allow it to change us and allow that to make us better. In the end. As
Meghan 08:00
pet care professionals, your clients trust you to care for their furry family members. And that's why pet sitters Associates is here to help. for over 20 years, they've provided 1000s of members with quality pet care insurance. Because you work in the pet care industry, you can take your career to the next level with flexible coverage options, client connections and complete freedom in running your business. Learn why pet sitters Associates is the perfect fit for you and get a free quote at pets@llc.com. You can get a discount when you join by clicking membership Pet Sitter confessional and use the discount code confessional when you go to checkout, check out the benefits of membership and insurance once again, add pets@llc.com Just like the tree that is going to bend in the wind because that's the way it's going. We do need to be flexible and willing to adapt to market trends or customer demands. If you want to, of course, a lot of people, a lot of people that contact us really want overnight care. That is not something that we do or are interested in. Now without you, we are not going to be bending into that. But there are other things that we can do. People want a more affordable service people want a shorter service, there are things that we can do and adapt our businesses to if we want that will meet those customer demands. Rather than viewing these external changes as disruptive, we can normalize them as part of the growth process. For example, if you go to meet and greets, and you hear this constant complaint from multiple people about oh, my yard is so messy, the winter has thought I now don't want to go out and pick up well, that maybe wasn't something that you had on your bingo card for your business. But you can see a new growth opportunity for your business and additional revenue for you and solving client problems. So whether
Collin 09:39
it's that shift in services or that rebrand, these changes actually signal progress, they signal evolution of your business, they signal that you're not static, that you're continuing to grow, which means you're still thriving, that you're still in the game that you're still going to be able to show up tomorrow. But we always know that growth isn't always smooth, unfortunately and setbacks To our part of the journey of our life and of running a business, but like a tree exposed to those harsh, harsh weather conditions, these challenges actually build resilience in us to face it better than next time. So when faced with a setback, ask yourself, what lessons can be learned a bit and asked how can it strengthen my business? asking hard questions of yourself is never easy and can be quite uncomfortable. But if we stop asking ourselves questions of how can I be better for next time? What went wrong? What agency? Did I have? Or did I not have over this thing before me that's happening? If we stop asking ourselves those questions, we will stop growing, we will stop learning, we will stop being able to advance our business and make it better, as at the end of the day, sometimes you may be able to sit back and say, We genuinely did nothing wrong here, there was nothing that we could have done better, or we could have improved here. But at least you know that and you can be all the more confident in your policies and your procedure in your way of operating than you were before.
Meghan 11:03
Well, and if at the end of this, you do come to that conclusion. That's still growth, because you are still being introspective and asking yourself the questions. So you are still getting the green new growth on you. You're reinforcing
Collin 11:17
that you are making it stronger, you're solidifying your position on that same topic. And as we ask ourselves those questions, maybe our business doesn't need to change, but we keep ourselves fresh, which does allow that absolute growth. You know, we were we were hiking as a family at one of our favorite state parks near where we live. And at one part of it, we actually round this corner, and we hike up on top of this really high, windswept prairie area. And there's all these trees along the edges, and they're really old. They're really thick, and really not all that tall. But there's something fascinating about these oak trees. They're all leaning in the same direction. Years and years of growth on this windswept prairie on the top of this hill has led to hundreds of trees being bent in the same direction. This species of oak tree, or they usually grow really tall, in straight, but they've been shaped by the wind, shaped by a very external force to them. But did they stop growing? Now, they actually kept growing and allow themselves to be shaped by the conditions that they were in. They've changed their their route structures, their internal support systems, they actually also allow their outward appearance to be changed to be shaped so that they can thrive in their environment. We sat at the family and we talked to the kids, we took photos, we sat and marveled at the tenacity of life, and adaptability all around us in these hearts conditions. So to in our business, and in our personal life. We can't help but be shaped and be molded by our environment, and our life experiences, we will not be left untouched and unchanged. The difference here between the trees and who we are and our business is that we decide how we're going to adapt. We decide how we're going to respond, we can stand stubbornly in the face of all of the apparent changes and forces pushing down upon our business of what the market is demanding what clients are expecting, and choose not to give into that and not allow that to change us. We can look at all of the advances in technologies or experiences or in the methodologies of going about doing the work that we do we can we can stand and say no, I'm not going to adapt those, I'm fine where I am. But we have to ultimately ask ourselves, are we going to be made stronger by these changes by these forces that are being imposed upon us? And are we going to be made more resilient by these? Or we're going to break? Are we going to wither are we going to allow ourselves to succumb to those forces. It's all about in how we handle the growth that we want. And the environment that we're growing in. The business that you choose to run will be shaped and molded by Yes, you the business owner. It will also be shaped and molded as a response to the environment that it is in your local economy. Who are the clientele that you're trying to serve? What kind of services are you wanting to offer? And what kind of response are you getting from that? Is it an actual need? Is there an actual client that matches your avatar out there? Or do you need to shift and change and adapt to what the market is actually asking from you or needing from you? And whether you are the one to serve that or not? All of these as questions as business owners allow us to have a business that we can be satisfied in knowing that we are serving others well and how they need to be served.
Meghan 14:47
Well and to know that it's not just one time we're asking ourselves these questions is constantly every six months every year reassessing reevaluating our business, our economy, our local city, regionally and then nationally, how is it? How is it going? What are the goals? What are the end results that we want for our business? Because
Collin 15:09
the wind on that prairie where the trees were surrounding it, the wind didn't just blow one time and influence the growth of the rest of the trees. It's a constant. It's extremely windy on top of that hill. It's time and time and time again. And at each stage, we as a business would go, do I adjust now? Do I adjust now? Is this what I try? Is this what I do, and it can feel really daunting, it can be very overwhelming to think the process never ends. But that should actually be extremely and exceedingly encouraging to us. Because it means we get to try again, it means we get to do something tomorrow, it means that my decision right now today, while it is important, and while it is going to impact my business, my clients myself, I know that tomorrow, I'm gonna get another opportunity to make a decision as well, that something else is going to happen where I get to have another chance at trying something again, in a new way, or serving people in a different way or in in something entirely outside of the scope of what you imagined the previous day. It's
Meghan 16:13
also important to note that sometimes fish do swim upstream, that sometimes we do need to be the change makers that we need to be the first ones in the door or the first ones doing a particular thing in our area. And you can change course, if you see the industry or your city going in a particular direction, maybe that's not the city for you anymore, and you move somewhere else, or whatever the scenario is, but to know that you don't necessarily have to go with the changing winds, you can go upstream as a fish,
Collin 16:44
you can be the first mover you can see an opportunity to make a change, you can see something and go I mean, Megan, I we've talked about this, a lot of times if sometimes we feel like we're kind of offering a service in our particular communities, that is maybe five to 10 years too early. And we've just got to stick it out enough and continue to talk about what we do and market our message and educate people on what the opportunities are out there for the kind of services that we have. That's a way of you making the environment more beneficial to you. Basically, in that case, maybe a fish or maybe a beaver, right? Beavers take a look at a stream and they go, you know, it could be a perfect thing to go on top of the stream upon so that I can live. And so sometimes we do have to change our environment, through partnering with others through big changes through the educational events, so that we can grow and that we can thrive. And again, that's that agency that we get to have. And it's a wonderful opportunity that when we feel like we're just being blown around, we can make a change, we can decide, how do I go about marketing? Who do I need to partner with? What are the strategic ways that I can start making sowing the seeds or making the pond for me as as a beaver be conducive for me to thrive. And as you make those changes, as you grow as a person as a business, whether these are changes that are visible or invisible to the world around you, when people notice those visible ones, when you start to feel self conscious about what is going on about the growth that is necessary for you, the changes that you need to make the steps that you need to do the price increases that you have to do the policies that you're putting into place. When you realize, oh, people aren't going to notice this, they're going to see what's going on. Just know that if you don't make those changes, you're not going to have the business that you want to have. That those are necessary for you. Whether that's for your mental health, for your boundaries for your financial success, or just so that you can serve people better. Change is necessary, change happens all of the time. So embrace that, and allow yourself to stand confidently in the choices and decisions that you are making because they are for your betterment and for the betterment of your clients and your staff as well if you have them. Because change doesn't happen in a vacuum. There's always a reason there's always a necessity that is driving it or influencing it. Sometimes it is external through the wind that is blowing the tree. Sometimes it is naturally occurring like the tips of the spruce that just grow a little bit more every year. And sometimes it's very intentional, like the beaver making that pond so it's better for them and what they need. However, the change whatever its source, think of it as important to you and unnecessary thing that has to happen for your business and you to thrive. Who
Meghan 19:46
knew there would be so many biological examples in this episode. We would love to know how you handle growth in your own business. You can email us at feedback at Pet Sitter confessional.com or look us up on Facebook and Instagram at pet sitter. Professional. Thank you for taking your time and listening to this today. We hope that it was helpful. And thank you also to pet sitters associates for sponsoring today's show. We will talk with you next time.
Collin 20:09
Bye
