499: Be the Novelty with Cathy Duvall
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National Association of Professional Pet Sitters. Learn more at www.petsitters.org.
What challenges come with running a pet care business in a rural area? In this episode, Cathy Duvall, owner of Goin' to the Dogs Pet Sitting, shares her journey of relocating from metro Atlanta to the North Georgia mountains and the unique adaptations required for rural pet sitting. Cathy emphasizes the importance of setting boundaries for personal health and business sustainability, and how learning to say no transformed her approach. She discusses the stark differences between urban and rural pet sitting, including slower growth and varied client expectations. Cathy highlights the importance of professional credentials and how educating clients about being bonded and insured builds trust and peace of mind.
Main topics:
Starting out
Setting boundaries and personal health
Urban vs Rural pet care
Ensuring Peace of Mind
Continuing Education
Main takeaway: The greatest compliment I can receive is when a client tells me I gave them peace of mind. That's how I know I did my job well.
About our guest
Hi! I am Cathy Duvall, the sole proprietor of Goin’ to the Dogs Pet Sitting. Certified Professional Pet Sitter (CPPS), Elite Fear Free Certified Professional (FFCP). I started my business in March 2015 when I lived in Cumming, GA (in the metro Atlanta area). I relocated in 2018 to Mineral Bluff, GA in the beautiful North Georgia mountains, and I had to start my business from scratch when I relocated.
Before March 2015, I was a radio news reporter in my younger adult years and a technical writer in the mid-1990s. I grew weary of the grind and politics of corporate life, and I retired from it in 1997. I then became a happy stay-at-home wife and devoted dog mom! While living this wonderful chapter of my life, from time to time I would take care of my neighbors’ pets when they traveled and couldn’t take their fur kids with them. One of those neighbors suggested that I start a pet-sitting business. So I did!
My pet-care services include drop-in visits, vacation visits and overnight stays. I also offer dog-walking services on a limited basis. I continue to recover from three ankle surgeries since September 2021, so I must be selective about the dogs I can walk.
When I am not devoting my time to my pawsome pet clients, I enjoy spending time with my husband, Garland, and our two mixed-breed rescue dogs, Atlas and Aspen. I also do a weekly cat of the week write-up for my local newspaper when I am not tending to the duties of my pet-care business.
Links:
phone: 770-883-4644
https://www.facebook.com/cathy.duvall.31
https://www.facebook.com/gointothedogsga/
https://www.gointothedogsga.com/
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, clients, pets, dogs, visits, business, pet sitter, Cathy, greet, moved, live, sitters, thought, garland, started, snakes, bonded, mineral, meet, forsyth county
SPEAKERS
Collin, Cathy D.
Collin 00:02
Welcome to petsitter confessional. Today we're brought to you by our friends at time to pet and naps, the National Association of Professional pet sitters. What sets you apart? Whether we're in a crowded market or sparse market, we still need to find ways to stand out in the minds of our client, be it branding, messaging, Client Onboarding unique services. At the end of the day, what we hope will set us apart from somebody else, is the actual peace of mind that we can give a client Cathy Duvall, owner of Goin' to the Dogs Pet Sitting shares her journey of changing her market from an urban to a rural setting how she markets and has grown her business and has accepted a slower pace of growth. While she focuses on quality over quantity at every step of the way. Cathy also shares about how she's learned to set boundaries better to benefit her and live the life that she actually wants. Let's get started.
Cathy D. 01:01
Yes. Hi, Colin. It was a pleasure to meet you at the Texas pet sitters conference. And thank you so much for asking me to join you for a podcast. As Colin said, I am Cathy Duvall. I am the sole proprietor of going to the dogs pet sitting. I currently live in a small town in the north Georgia mountains called mineral bluff, Georgia. And it is near Blue Ridge, Georgia, if anybody has heard of Blue Ridge, Georgia and the north Georgia mountains. I started my business when I lived in metro Atlanta, in 2015. I lived in the suburbs, city called coming Georgia, about 20 miles north of the city of Atlanta. And I started my business there. And then in 2018, my husband and I relocated to mineral bluff because we were looking at long term goals of retirement. And so I pretty much shut down my business incoming moved up to mineral bluff and started over and 2018 and I primarily take care of dogs, cats, birds and fish, anything I don't have to feed live bait to. I am happy to care for I don't do a lot of livestock. I do some chickens. And I will take care of horses, if it's just the basic needs feeding, providing water, putting the hay out things of that nature.
Collin 02:35
You mentioned the don't have to feed live bait too. Was that an experience that taught you that or is that a barrier that you knew going into this that you didn't want to do? Yes,
Cathy D. 02:43
I learned that when I lived in coming. I had a client. I loved him he was with the Forsyth County Sheriff's Department. And he had a couple of boa constrictor snakes. And I'll go off on a little tangent the way he came about getting the snakes he had to serve an eviction notice. And the boyfriend scooted out let the girlfriend with these two boa constrictors and she didn't want the snakes. So my client said I will take them. And he named them Guinness and stout. And he thought I think he thought they were male and female. It turned out they were both male. But he had the snakes and they also had German Shepherds took care of his dogs and the TAT the cats that he had. And I told him I said, Okay, I'm great with the dogs and the cats and they also had a call bird. And so I'm okay with all of those. But Alan, I don't know about the snakes. He said, Oh, that's okay, Cathy, you don't have to do anything. Just if you'll go in the room, where there's a humidifier, make sure the humidifiers running. You don't have to do anything with the habitat. And I said, Okay, so I walk in this room not only was Guinness and stout in the room in their habitat, there were other snakes in the room and it kind of freaked me out like, oh, okay, hey, everybody, how you doing? I'm just coming in here to check the humidifier. So that that was that taught me okay, I don't think snake care is really for me. So fast forward to when I moved up here to mineral bluff. I have a client that I do overnight assignments for. And she she has dogs. She had a kitty cat that passed away and she had a kink snake that was 15 years old that passed away last year. And I go to the meet and greet and I took my husband with me and she said oh well, I said as long as I don't have to do live bait. She said okay, you don't have to. But what she told me was, well, here's how you have to prepare Stryker's mail, you get this frozen mouse out of the freezer, and you microwave it and then you just put it in his habitat and I thought, Oh God, I can't do that. My husband said why can do it? That's a good one. If I have to feed striker, you're going to come up here and do I can't do it. And so luckily, when I did the overnight assignments, she only had to feed the snake every 10 days. And so luckily my assignments would be in the period that he didn't have to eat. So but I could check his habitat, make sure the habitat was at the right temperature, make sure he had water in the habitat, I would stand there at the glass and talk to him. I will take pictures of him. So I could do that. But that whole you know, feeding no alive, man. I just act that's just not me. There are people who can do it. I admire the sitters who can do it and more power to you. That's just not miss Cathy's thing can't do it. Well, it's
Collin 05:37
so funny, because that's definitely one of those things of on paper. It sounds good, right? Like, okay, yeah, I can probably do that. But just how important it is to go like, let me go see this. Let me go experienced this before I fully commit to this. Because I don't want to get over my head or way outside of my comfort zone. Because we get those requests all the time of like, oh, no, you won't need to do anything. You'll just you just need to look at them. And you're like, okay, sure that's fine. But then like the gears start turning, turning. Exactly,
Cathy D. 06:06
exactly. And I would always make sure a striker in his habitat. Make sure when I go and put more water in that I close that sliding door so he can't scoot out because the last thing I would need is him crawling all over the house and may freak it out. So but yes, Stryker passed away. I was sad. I cried. When he passed away. I kind of attached to him. He was a snakes go. He was a sweet snake. I loved him from a distance. Yeah.
Collin 06:34
That name Stryker for a snake. It's kind of it's funny. We recently did a Meet Greet and the cat's name was Lucifer. And I came in and I said, Let me tell you, nothing engenders more confidence in a pet sitter than one name. Lucifer Exactly. just laughed and I don't know. It's, it's, it's just, you know, he, when he was a kitten, he was kind of terror. And I was like, okay, but it was just like, when I hear a pet snake named Stryker, I'm gonna start asking some more.
Cathy D. 07:04
Yeah, but he was great. It's just when she Yeah, you take the frozen mouse out of the freezer. Um, go, oh, Agha, I was getting the heebie jeebies. I couldn't do it. Boss was so I can do it. And that's it. Okay, then when if I have to feed them, I'm going to call you come up and help with striker. And cuz he's that kind of thing does not bother him, I get a little weird doubt about it. That's just, I don't like to be wigged out about it. But I get wigged out about it.
Collin 07:33
Well, it's just important to know, again, where those boundaries are. And like how we set those and then communicate those to our clients. And really, why we need to be so picky about what who we take on and know where those lines are in our life.
Cathy D. 07:47
Right. And setting boundaries has been, I will admit, Colin, it's been difficult for me because I am a people pleaser, by nature, I want to do everything I can to help clients with their pets. And sometimes when you don't set boundaries, then that comes back to bite you. And so I've learned I've been in business for nine years, a little over nine years, and I'm finally the light bulb has gone off, go on, I've got to set these boundaries. I can't keep going like this, right? It's not healthy. For me. It's it's not good for the client. It's not good for the pets. So I have to start setting the boundaries. It's not easy. It's not something that is natural for me to do. And but I'm having to learn and the big powerful word no. is in my vocabulary. Now, my husband always says I'm proud of you. You're learning to say no, because there was a time I was not saying no. And I was running myself ragged. This is when I lived down and coming. And I had to learn I can't do that anymore. I have to for my health, my physical and my mental health. I have to learn that powerful two letter word in Oh. And to use it. Yeah.
Collin 09:05
And actually it actually say, right, what do you think was preventing you from saying no, was it the people pleasing? Was it the concern of the business? Or was it a combination of both? Well, sure,
Cathy D. 09:15
starting out, I mean, when I started the business in 2015, I had no idea if it would fly. I had no earthly idea. I kind of went into it and said, Okay, I'm going to invest in the liability insurance, the dishonesty bond, the pet, first aid, CPR training, I will get the business license, I will do everything I need to do to set this business up legitimately. And if it doesn't fly, okay, that's the money I spent, you know, no harm, no foul. So starting out, I would say yes to everybody because you're trying to build a business. You don't want to say no, when you have very few clients just you're starting out slowly. So I would take on any bye buddy who needed needed visits I would take on people and pets I probably shouldn't have. Just because I thought, well, this, I've got to do this. I've got to start this business from somewhere. And when it got to a point where, okay, I can start saying, No, I'm, I'm 61 years old, I started this business when I was in my early 50s. So I was not young, when I started more power to the sitters who start when they're younger, kudos to you. And I knew I said, you know, I'm not a spring chicken. And I have to start looking out for my health, and running myself ragged when, especially when I lived in coming. I was one of those foolish solo sitters, who would take on clients, and I would find out I have 29 visits today. Oh, and I thought, oh, because I couldn't say no, and my lovely husband, Garland God love him. I would say, Honey, can you help with the visits, and he would, he would take vacation time from his job. And he would help me with those visits. So I would do probably 17 or 18 of the visits, and he would do 11. Now that wasn't all the time it was spring break, fall break, Fourth of July week, the major holiday weeks. And then I thought I can't do that. I can't do that anymore. And then when I moved up to mineral bluff, I haven't had that problem as badly. Yes, it can get busy. Holidays, especially Christmas, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July week, Memorial Day week, but I've not had 29 visits in a day. Thank goodness, since since I lived in coming. But I just wanted, I said, Well, I can't say no to people, because I would get clients, they would really like me, they valued me. And as well, I can't say no to them. So I've always tried to fit them in. And the next thing you know, I'm going Why did I do this? Because I'm running from six 7am in the morning until 11pm At night eating crackers in the car. Yeah, not being able to stop for lunch not being able to go home. It was the money was good. Don't get me wrong, but it can't always be just about the money. It just can't you have to balance it out.
Collin 12:19
Well, I know many people hit that wall. And they they it's a decision to make of do I again, like there's a lot that goes that tie into this. But some people will hit that wall and go, well I need to hire or I need to expand or I need to do these things. And you did you ever think about that possibility for yourself? Or did you just go no, I need to go this other route.
Cathy D. 12:41
Right? I'd never when I started the business, I never considered hiring. And another kudos to sitters with staff, I admire them for being able to manage people, that is something I cannot do that is something I don't want to do. It's just not in my DNA to do it. So as a solo seller, you come across as challenges where you can't service everybody. Whereas if you have staff, you can because you've got more people to go out and farm out to take care of all of the different clients. But starting out, I said nope, hiring was never going to be a part of my business. And still, and still is it and because managing people is difficult. People are people. And I would rather rather manage the pets than people. So that's why I've decided to stay solo. And I will remain solo because hiring is just not in it for me and where I live. The work ethic tried to hire somebody, how would I trust that they would go to the visits, not just quit on me. I made that some people handled that very well. I admire those people. That's that's just not for me. That's not stress that I want. I would rather say, I'm sorry, I'm booked up today, I can't take you as opposed to having staff and going okay, are they really showing up? Are they doing the job that I need them to do? Because my expectations are very high. A lot of people probably wouldn't work for me because I have very high expectations. I expect no less of anybody than I do myself. And I know my clients have high expectations. And so I have to keep my clients happy. They are the reason and their pets are the reason I have a business to begin with. So I have to consider that. When
Collin 14:39
you've talked about your transition to mineral bluff a couple of times and kind of the impact that it has on it sounds like you learn to say no before you made that transition. But you I also noticed that you were in metro Atlanta and then not Metro Atlanta. So there's also a very big difference between the two communities that you're serving now. How how has that shaped your business?
Cathy D. 15:02
It is a huge difference when I lived in coming Forsyth County at one time was one of the fastest growing counties in the nation. My husband and I moved there in 2000. And the population was 90,000 residents in Forsyth County. By the time we moved in 2018, it was probably up to around 220,000. Whoa. And it's projected to be up to 400,000 by 2030. Now, from a business standpoint, woohoo, that's great. Look at all these density, you've got this high density, a lot of people, you can get a lot of clients, but also with that, it increased traffic, the time to get from visit to visit increased dramatically from 2015 to 2018. And so it was it was like, okay, my husband and I, we had our vacation home here in mineral bluff since 2006. And he decided he goes should I'm looking long term for retirement. And he said, I would like to sell one of the houses and you know which one I want to sell. I said, Okay, we'll move to mineral bluff. So stupidly, because incoming my business took off very quickly. I thought, Okay, I'll just start it over and mineral bluff. And it has taken longer because Fannin County, the county that I live in has 24,000 residents. So you're talking 10% of the population of Forsyth County. And so I thought, yeah, I'll just start the business up. Well, it was slow to start because there are fewer people here. And then having to cope with COVID. In 2020. Business was 2018, I was starting to a little bit of foothold, I would put my business cards out at local businesses at the veterinarian's offices at the groomers offices, getting my name out there, then 2019 Things were starting to really go well, and then 2020 hit, and we all know what happened, then the whole domino effect, you've got all of these visits lined up, spring and summer. And then all of a sudden, they're gone because people wanted to travel, but they couldn't. Nobody was going anywhere. Nobody needed the service. And so I had to build back from COVID. And in 2021, things we're doing, I was on record have a very, very good year and 2021. But then, in the fall of 21, I fainted and I fell, I dislocated my foot, fractured my fibula had to have a surgery, and I had to be off my feet for two solid months. In the fall. I had fall bookings, all booked up. I could not do them, my husband who I have to give him props. He has a full time job. He's He's blessed that he gets to work remotely. He has a consulting business, he was having to take care of me, he was having to take care of our elderly dogs. But he did my visits for me from September through January of 2022 until I could be back on my feet. And I did suffer a few client losses. There were overnight visits that I could not do. And there's there there were no other professional sitters bonded and insured up here at the time that I knew of that I could refer to. And so I lost in the fourth quarter of 2021 was just toast. And so that taught me I have to slow down. That was nature's way of saying, Alright, you're going going going because I kept saying in the fall, oh, after Christmas, I'm going to slow down. I'm going to take some time off in January. And that didn't happen. So guess what? I was forced to take time off. And so that taught me I can't go at the pace. I was going before September 15 of 2021 when I had that accident. And so it's been a struggle. I've had two ankle surgery since that first one. And the third one was January of last year, just dealing with all kinds of complications from the ankle injury. And so fortunately knock on wood. I've not had any surgeries yet in 2024 but that taught me a column that I can't say I just can't take on anybody. I can't my my service radius is 20 miles from my home. People in the city and the suburbs. Rico, you are crazy. Yeah, they have to understand people are not stacked up here. That Fannin County is a pretty large county people are scattered all over. My furthest client is 20 miles away, and it takes 30 minutes to get to her. If I had a radius of five miles, I would have more clients Yeah, that's just the way it is up here. So that that's part of being in a rural area. It's not for everybody, a lot of people go, I wouldn't do that. But when I moved up here, I knew it was a rural area, I knew people would not be able just to go five miles to get to a client's home. But I also saw that I felt there was a need here for a professional pet sitter that provides the service and has the credentials that I do. And so that's why I started the business. And it's, it's not easy. It's not for the faint of heart. And that's another reason I don't hire because I have days where I don't have that many visits. There are other days I do. So I cannot guarantee anybody any kind of work. Yes, you'll be working next week. I don't know from one week to the next, I can think Oh, next week is going to be really slow. I can get administrative tasks taken care of. And then the clients will go, Hey, are you available next week? Well, yes, I am. So it's just the nature of the beast here. It's, as I said, it's not for everybody. But I wanted to give people who live here, the option of having a professional pet sitter, if they want to hire one, to have someone with my credentials, to go, Hey, I've found somebody to take care of my pets that I can trust. That gives me peace of mind. And so that's why I decided to go ahead instead of leaving coming and just retiring from pet sitting all together. So I'm not really mentally ready to retire yet. Let me see what I can do with it up in up in mineral bluff. And it has its moments. I mean, they're it's really weird. From year to year, I keep a spreadsheet to show each month of each year. How did I do compared to last year? How did I do compared to the year before? And it's bizarre, because last year, which was a great year for me 2023. Oddly enough, April, June and September, my revenue was down about 40%. And those are months that are usually very, very busy. couldn't figure out why. But then I'm sitting there in the fall of last year, September, looking at November in December, and I thought, Man, those those months are going to be dead. I thought, Okay, I'm going to do continuing education. I'm going to take care of administrative tasks. Well, November and December ended up being very busy. And December was my best month ever since I've started the business and 2015. So you just don't it's a crapshoot. It really is. And it's, you don't know. It's the plan. Okay. Well, I made this much in 2023. Yeah, I think I'll make this much in 2024. I don't know that. I will. I hope I do. But I don't know. So you just have to roll with the changes, and take it as it comes. Have
Collin 22:57
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23:02
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Collin 23:27
If you're looking for new pet scan software, give time to pet a try. Listeners of our show can save 50% off your first three months by visiting time spent.com/confessional. Well in serving such a dispersed population, too. I am curious, Cathy, how you are people are finding you or how are you getting connected with people? Because putting just as an example, a lot of times we'll say oh, how do you get started in business but put a flier up at a coffee shop and it's like, well, you know if somebody's 20 miles away from you, if you know that the foot traffic at that coffee shop for that population for that town that you're serving, probably isn't going to be big enough. So what is what is that aspect like for you running them?
Cathy D. 24:07
Okay, well, when I first moved up here, I did the whole business, I would go around, introduce myself to people, the veterinarian that I had up here had business cards at my vet's office. And then there was also there's a restaurant, a great breakfast lunch restaurant in our area. And the owner is has become a really good friend of mine. She is wonderful. She said, hey, just put your business cards out at my restaurant. And that's how a few clients found me. They went to have breakfast. They saw the card. They called me they hired me. So then I found out up here we have some group Facebook pages for the community. And that has been a huge help in getting my name out there because people will go on the pages and they'll say I'm in search of a dog sitter. And then all of a sudden people will start naming people hey, this tagging people, right. So my name would come up a lot. And people would say, and they would, I would also send a private message because cording to the Facebook group rules, you're not supposed to advertise your business on that post. So in the comment, I would go, Hey, Sue Sue Smith, I just left you a private message, please let me know if you have trouble accessing it. So I would, I would go and do messenger, I would introduce myself, my qualifications, lead my website information. And a lot of times people would contact me now sometimes I will do that. And I don't get any kind of response from the person who posted that that's, that's just part of the problem. So it's funny because my name will pop up on these Facebook pages left, right and center. And the other thing that I do that I feel is very, very important is if somebody has recommended me comment, and thank that person. And I will say, hey, hey, Joe, thank you so much for recommending me, I really appreciate it, I hope, hope your your your dogs are doing great. If it's people that don't have pets, I have people that I know up here, they did not have pets, but they recommend me because they know me through the Humane Society of Blue Ridge where I volunteer, they know me from other aspects of the community, they know my character, and so they will refer me. And so those Facebook pages that has been really great in getting my name out there. So that that put me on the map. Because people go, I see your name, I've seen your name, and you come highly recommended. And that means a lot to me, because the only thing I feel that I carry through this life is my reputation. And I want to have that stellar reputation. And I want I want people to know that they have hired the best when they hired me. And unfortunately, in my area, I don't like to call it my competition. The hobbyists and that don't have their credentials, they don't see the importance of their credentials. When I moved up here, I would meet somebody, oh, I'm a pet sitter, too. And I go great. Are you bonded and insured? No, but I have references. And I'm thinking references are really not worth the paper they're written on. Because what's to say that you are giving a reference who is legitimate, you could pay somebody Colin 20 bucks to sing your praises and say you're the best ever, and you could be cooking meth in the trailer and go to that client's house and steal everything they have to support your meth habit. So people don't understand the references. If that's all you've got, you know, then give people references, but I have their credentials, I'm bonded and insured, I get a criminal background check on myself every year. And I keep thinking that the first time I got the criminal background check in 2015. And I'm thinking, Oh, God, did I do something in my youth that was gonna come back and bite me in the behind? Again? Well, I don't think so I've lived a pretty straight narrow life. So I know that I haven't done anything illegal, but my potential clients don't know that I can go in. And you could think I'm the best thing since sliced bread, but I could be a criminal. And without that background check to prove I am I am an honest person, I'm trustworthy. I treat people the way I want to be treated, I'm not going to come into your home and steal from you. And I'm certainly going to do everything I can to keep your pets safe while you're gone. It's
Collin 28:30
an interesting discussion to have with people because I do see those comments on Facebook pages all the time of looking for pets, and they'll say must have references and I kind of stare at that. I'm like to say what right to say what about that person, of course, they're going to only give you a glowing recommendation or you're only going to give somebody who's going to have that that's not to say, you know, you know, cuz people may say well, is that what a client referral isn't like? No, this is somebody who's used your services who's raving about you like that's, that's what you want. You want those people out there singing your praises and tagging you. But it is a different mindset and I don't know if you've ever had this Cathy you We live in an area that's not quite as rural as you are our county I just had to look it up has has just just almost 40,000 people so but we've had people who have said things like, Oh, I thought this was only a like a this was always something big cities had or or you know, the the perception of the clientele over the population was that this wasn't available to them. Do you have to work on overcoming that kind of education where you are? Are people familiar?
Cathy D. 29:34
Oh no. Education is huge. I'll share a story with you back in 2019 when I was volunteering with the Humane Society of Blue Ridge in person I was going and working with the dogs. They take dogs and cats that are humane society. And I was working primarily with the dogs. I would go out and this was before my accident of course I would go out and the dog runs play with the dogs spend time with the dogs. And there were a couple of gentlemen who had a dog opted a dog from the humane society. And they came back to volunteer and we were out in the dog runs. And I just struck up a conversation with them. And I told them, I said, I have a pet sitting business. And they said, Oh, wow. And I said, Yes. I said, I'm bonded and insured, they go insured. I said, Oh, yes, I carry liability insurance that protects your home and your pets. They had never heard of anything like that. And these were intelligent gentlemen. They had never heard of that. So we live it day to day, we understand it. It, we have to remember there are people out there who don't live it day to day, they don't live and breathe it. They don't have a clue what goes into being a professional pet sitter, they think all you need to do is put down some food and water for the pets, maybe scoop a litter box, and then you can leave. There's a lot more to it than that. And constant education. When you get through to someone you want to go and dance a jig out on the road because you got through to somebody who didn't understand the concept of being a professional pet sitter. And all of a sudden they do the light bulb comes on. Up here. I have only had one client that has insisted on hiring somebody who is bonded and insured. And the reason she did she relocated her husband had been with the Pentagon, and they lived in Virginia, and they retired to mineral bluff. And she found me on pet sitters internationals locator. Because she had used IPS I sent her M analysis. And so she was so surprised. She goes, oh my gosh, there's there's somebody here mineral bluff called me up immediately. And she has been a client of mine since probably 2019. And but as a rule, people don't ask for oh, well, you must be bonded and assured me personally as a pet parent. That's what I would insist on. But because there aren't really any others up here, my husband and I don't travel without our pets. They go with us, our two dogs, we can't, I'm not going to leave them with just anybody. And so that's the problem here. I'm a professional pet sitter, but I don't have somebody that I can refer to, to come and take care of my dogs so that maybe we'd like to get away for a weekend. We haven't traveled without our dogs without our dogs since 2011. Because we just don't it's that they can't go we don't go. And so the education is huge trying to educate some of the hobbyists up here, I would say, look, I would love to meet you for coffee, I can tell you how to get bonded and insured. It's not a huge expense, you can make that money back. And they turn me down. They don't want to do it. For whatever reason, a lot of the sitter's I'm thinking maybe they take the money under the table, I don't know for sure. And they don't have they don't want the overhead. They don't want to run it as a legitimate business. And I do I'm not going to I would not be a pet sitter, without that bond without that liability insurance. Without the pet First Aid CPR without the background check. And without all of the continuing education that I do, I just I wouldn't even I would not even be doing it with all without all of that.
Collin 33:17
Yeah, it's interesting because you have that that where you need to do that education to tell people about the level of care that you bring. But it's another thing of we can never make the person on the other end of that phone line. Care about it. And I think that can get really frustrating. It Yes,
Cathy D. 33:33
it is. I'm thinking you love your dog. She love your cats. But and then the other thing that just it just really gets my goat is people will travel and take an expensive vacation. You can't even go to Disney World. You know, under 10 grand, probably a family of four, they will spend all of that money, but then the pet care. They don't invest in that they don't budget for it. And they want to go I don't want to I don't want to pay that much. They want as cheap as they can get. And I'm thinking that's really not fair to the pets and it just really they can you claim your love your pet so much put your money where your mouth is. The other problem here is we have people who were born and raised here who live here and will always live here. We also have people this is a big retirement destination, the North Georgia mountains and we have people a lot of people from Florida who will move up here permanently. They started out many of them up north. The cold winters chased them out. They couldn't deal with the cold winters. So they moved down to the warm climate of Florida. While the hurricanes they after one hurricane two. We've had enough of the hurricanes. So they move up here. My target market is those people who are moving from larger cities metropolitan areas. I have a lot of clients who moved from Florida, Madison My target market, the people who were born and raised here are not because they don't understand the value of the services that I provide. They don't see a need for it. You just throw some food out to the dog that is chained up in the yard. We have a huge problem with dogs wandering dogs on chains, spay and neuter, the its people won't get their dogs spayed and neutered, or the cat spayed and neutered. And that is a huge problem in our area. And so I go, You know what the locals are called the locals. They're not even going to talk to me, they're not going to see the value in what I do. But the people moving from the suburbs moving from other areas, maybe they have used the services of a professional pet sitter, or they get understand, yes, I understand why you charge what you do. Because that there's value in that. And that that that's a huge challenge here. But I keep fighting the good fight. And I'm thinking, you know, I do I do well enough. I have enough. I have great clients. I stay as busy as I want to stay some days like today I have on overnight starting tonight. I haven't had any other visits today. But it's been kind of nice, because I'm like, Oh, I get to talk to Colin and I don't have to rush around. So it is a blessing for the pocketbook. It's not if you're not bringing in money. But But yeah, that the challenges. There are challenges here. But I see that there is a need for someone like me, who has who provides the services that I do. And if there are people who don't want my services, if you need to go hard that hobbyist than that, that's what you need to do if they're going to do it for a lot less than me and that the only thing you're looking at is the bottom line, how much is it going to cost me money wise, then then you're not the right client. For me, it hurts my feelings. Because I want to be the best I want everybody to pick me. But that that's not going to happen. So that's been kind of a buzzkill. Because incoming a started out, busy, people got my name out Facebook pages down there as well. And I was going nonstop. And up here, it has not been that way. But I'm also at a different point in my life. And I'm sitting here going I'm not getting any younger. And so I'm just rolling with the changes and going day to day with it.
Collin 37:35
Yeah, I like to tell Megan, sometimes when we feel the same frustrations, because we serve two different communities, one is two hours south, that's a much larger town, it's, you know, it's 280,000 people or so. And then our town or the town, which is two hours north, that's a much smaller set, the city itself has 21,000 People in the counties, almost 40. So you can really see where the density of people are like to say sometimes, you know, I feel like we're really about five to 10 years too early here with our business, it seems like because, like always feeling like we're just with a little bit more time and education, we could really get something. And it does feel like that to just see the differences between those two, the reception of them, the kind of education that's necessary. And that takes understanding your mark. I mean, people listening to this is going, Who are you actually talking to? Because you hit it out the park earlier? Cathy, when you're like, look, we in the business, we understand the importance of being insured bonded background check to the continuing education, all these stuff. So we'd like to talk about that. But if we're not telling the why or what that gets people or why they should care, it just falls on deaf ears because all they do is they look at you and they go well. Okay, cool. You've got all these letters after your name, but this person doesn't. And I think they do the same thing. And they're also half the price. So I'm gonna go with them. Cool, right? And that's what it comes down to.
Cathy D. 38:55
Well at meet and greets, for instance, I will explain the importance of that liability insurance. And because I have an example that I use, it's a professional pet sitter, dear friend and colleague of mine, and if she listens to this podcast, she's going to know I'm talking about her and I think she'll be okay with it. But she had an instance where and this was when I lived in calming, where she took care of a client's pets and I believe she heard water dripping in the bathroom. So she went and you're thinking I think she heard the toilet running. She you hear that? And it's like touching money. So she tightened. Felicia tighten the valve. Something happened where some water droplets dripped on this client's hardwood floors in the powder room. She comes home she is livid. And she says to the sitter, you have to pay to have this repaired and this sitter filed a claim with her insurance or her petsitter insurance company. And the claim ended up being about $6,900. Now she did not have that money where she could just write a check to this client, oh, write your check for 6900. She's a solo setter like I am. And so that liability insurance saved her from pretty much financial ruin. And so I tell people with this liability insurance, it covers your home. If I were to flush a toilet, for instance, and it overflowed, guess what your homeowners insurance would not have to pay that claim. Because you didn't cause that problem I did, I would claim I would file a claim with my insurance company. And that claim would be paid. And I explained, so it's not just about taking care of your pets, it's your home too. And so people go, Okay, I'm thinking you shouldn't have to claim on your homeowners insurance, something that I did, right shouldn't. And so trying to get people to understand, because when you start talking money to people, their ears perk up, you could say, oh, I'm bonded, I'm sure I'm trained. And I have all this education until you start talking dollars with them, then that's when people listen when you're affecting their pocketbook. And when people do say, you know, will you I think you charge too much. If they can, then that's your opinion. I charge what the market will bear. And that's another challenge. If we want to talk about challenges. People who live in metropolitan Atlanta, for instance, affluent areas of Atlanta, they can go higher on their rates, no problem, their clients will pay it appear, it's a different ballgame. It's not a one size fits all you have to you can charge the rates that your market will bear. So it's interesting in the various chat groups, I'm in the first thing people Oh, you need to change your rate change, raise your rates, I'm thinking, I cannot do that here. That's not going to work here. And so you have to it's not a one size fits all, incoming, I could charge more if I still live down there that I'm charging here. And it's just, it's just the nature of the beast. I knew that coming in. And the other thing I want to preface is, I do this is supplemental income for my family. If I and I'll be honest, if I had to rely on my pet sitting business, to pay all my bills, put food on the table, pay my mortgage, pay my car payment, could not make it up here, period, it wouldn't happen. I would have to move back down to Metro Atlanta and my husband said over our dead body. So we're back. So but don't it for solo sitters, I think a lot of solo sitters would would really go Yeah, I get that. But I'm blessed it is supplemental income, it's very important income, it's going into retirement for me, so that I have retired, so I don't have to live, you know, eating ramen noodles every day, you know, when I'm 80 years old. So but um, yeah, it's just trying to get people to understand the value of the services I provide. And at the meet and greets, sometimes my meet and greets go long, I know of sitters, you need to only spend 30 minutes on your meet and greet. For me personally, Colin, that's not enough time for somebody to get to know me, for me to get to know that client to get to know the pets. My my mantra is quality over quantity. And so I will spend the time it takes to make that client feel comfortable to make sure those pets are comfortable with me that I have a good feel that I'm comfortable with with the taking this client on and has not let me down. Not once. Now if I went in and rushed in, then I could have problems that I really didn't get to know that client. I really didn't get to know those pets. So for me, I have the luxury I take the time. If it takes an hour, I give it the hour. I don't charge for my meet and greets. I know some do. I don't because to me is like an interview. They are interviewing me. I'm interviewing them to make sure we are compatible. And I tell my clients I have to have a meet and greet before the start of service to ensure that I am a good fit for you and your pets. Because I can talk a good game on the phone they can say oh she's wonderful. I show up no go No. And I could think they're wonderful on the phone. And I'd go in no I can't do this. So the meet and greet is very, very telling. And the clients appreciate I let them if it's going to be quick if they need to make it 30 or 45 minutes that's on them that they let them kind of dictate but you learn a lot if you just sit there and you talk to people and you're watching the pets out of the corner of your eye you're observing them you learn a lot about people which gives you more information and and more knowledge is power. So that you you can okay this this is a good fit and this is this is going to Be a good relationship. And so that's why I devote the time to my meet and greets that I do.
Collin 45:07
Are you looking to elevate your business? Join the National Association of Professional pet sitters naps. Today, naps is the only national nonprofit professional pet sitting association dedicated to raising and abiding by industry standards. As an app's member, you'll gain access to invaluable resources, including professional certification, business development tools and networking opportunities. Plus, you'll stay updated on industry trends and best practices to provide top notch care for your clients pets. Don't miss out on the support and benefits can take your business to the next level, visit pet sitters.org and become a napsw. member today. And you mentioned like that is important time to have carved out and kind of a theme that I'm picking up on here, Cathy is just the how you've changed adapted the business to the pacing both off of your own needs, when you're physically with you're going through the surgery and everything, as well as the new community and the pace that it can grow. But what that does provide is those opportunities to be at a meet and greet for an hour and really dive in deep and build that relationship. Because yeah, I mean, it's been is so I love the idea of and I feel like people should let the client and dictate about that. Now if we are booked back to back to back to back and I'm in the meet and greet and I've booked and I've gotta get 15 minutes after that meet and greet to get to my next visit. And but it's we can't let it go for an hour. Fine carving that time out. Right? Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's
Cathy D. 46:32
a case by case. Exactly. And so when I schedule a meet and greet, I want to make sure I've got enough time after. So that does go along. I'm not saying oh gosh, I've got to get up and go to this this next visit. Right? So I try to and I'm I'm a guest a guest it's a good problem to have that I'm not doing 29 visits in a day where I go, okay, Meet Greets got to be 30 minutes done by Yeah, I feel like I'm cheating myself. And I know there may be sitters out there who disagree with me, and that is fine. You can disagree. This is just the way I do it. This is the way I run my business. It works. For me, it works for my clients, it works for their pets. And
Collin 47:12
that's what's really important is to know that pacing, I mean, I've come into a Meet Greet with all my information, everything. And the client is basically done talking after about 10 minutes, and there's like, Well, okay, well, I Okay, cool, I guess we're done. You know, I've may have a few follow up questions. But then you do have those clients who they're a little bit more, they may be a little bit more helicopters, or they may need a little bit more assurance or show their pets may have a little bit more involved care. And so trying to do a 30 minute Meet Greet for them is is almost impossible. And, and especially as part of this I've recognized as as that client becomes more comfortable talking to you. More things kind of start bubbling out, right. They start to go Oh, yeah. And
Cathy D. 47:52
also, and you start learning more. That's why I've only had I'm trying to think, since I moved up here, I have had maybe one or two meet and greets where the client was done in 30 minutes. I thought, Okay, this is odd. But as a rule, they can go for an hour. I've even had them go hour and a half because we're sitting there, we're talking about other things. I'm telling them about me. Yeah, my life is so that they can go okay, I have a very comfortable feeling with this person. My husband garland goes to the meet and greets with me. There are times when he can't because of his work schedule. But I want them to know him because he serves as my backup center. And boy did that that. And you have to have a backup sitter. I found that out when I was off buffet for two months. So I want my clients to I can say oh, Garland's great he's, he's, I want them to meet him and save for themselves themselves, that he's a great guy. So matter of fact, I'll give an example. We just had a meet and greet with a brand new client on Saturday afternoon. And on the phone, we talked and I said how do your dogs do with men? And she said, well, two of the dogs are fine. My other one. I have three brothers in law. He hates one of them. He has nipped at a delivery man and I thought okay, I said well, does your dog have problems like the men in uniforms wearing a hat? She said no, I don't know what triggered it. She said that. It's kind of I don't know. And I said okay, tell you what I said. I'm gonna bring garland to the meet and greet with me. And what I want you to do and what you'd have treats available. I want and she had the dogs a baby gated in a room so we could come in as I'm we're going to sit down. We're going to be very calm. Bring the treats to us. Let the dogs come to us. Let them check us out. We even sprayed ourselves with a Dapto which I think is now called under ease because the people that own the thundershirt bought them. We sprayed as a calming pheromone and I told her I said we sprayed ourselves with this calming pheromone. I just want you we're going to sit quietly, let the dogs come up, I'm going to let the dogs initiate the quote unquote, conversation. So she had the treats, and she was just nervous as a wreck that the dog was going to go after garlin. He loved garland, she was floored. And I said, I'm glad you're sitting down. She said, I cannot believe this. I cannot believe how well he is doing with your husband. And so well, he has that effect on the pets. I said, I've had clients in the past who have said, Oh, my dogs do not do well with man as well. He has my backups that are let's see, let's do a truck. We'll do it the meet and greet. The dogs love him. Colin I had we lived in coming. And I was stupidly taken on all 29 visits in a day and Garland was helping them helping with them. He would do maybe a morning visit I would do the midday he would do the bedtime. So the dogs loved him. I would come walking in and I would go Oh, you're not Mr. Garland, and they will look at my Miss Cathy was in there looking for him. And that that that made me hurt my feelings. But it made me feel good. Hey, these dogs are comfortable with him. And that is great and makes the client happy. And I've had clients that want my dogs are not good with men and garland comes in and he I don't know what he does. He has he's got charm. I've been married to him for over 38 years. So he's you know he's doing something right. And they are just really happily shocked that wow. And this lady on Saturday, she could not believe it. She said I cannot believe how well my dog is doing with your husband. And Garland was just very calm. He's a big guy. He's very tall. And he was just sitting there. And we did a trial walk outside, all of us went out and we sat on the porch. He went and sat over near garland. Garland gave him traits, he was perfectly fine with him. So that's kind of nice. When you're like yes, I want over this dog or yes garland, you went over this dog but you just the meet and greet and we were there for over an hour, we had to give it the time, we could not rush that one at all, that would not have worked. And I think I'm hoping we walked away from there. I'm hoping that lady's like, thank goodness, I found Cathy. So that gives her peace of mind and that that the three greatest words you can hear, besides the check, as the check cleared, is you gave me peace of mind that that's the greatest compliment that I get, as in my business is when somebody tells me that
Collin 52:42
well, and so you know, the client being able to see that is one thing you know, that makes a big impact on that client. I did want to ask you about that peace of mind. Because the service that we provide is very different in that we do all of the hard work without the clients ever seeing or experiencing any of it directly. Right? How do you find giving peace of mind to the client and communication with them? And how do you feel like it is? I don't even know how to ask this question. Because it's so weird of like, like giving them peace of mind through your updates. And through that. Is that something that you? How do you make that work?
Cathy D. 53:19
Okay. Well at the meet and greet when they meet me, they initially go okay, I've made the right decision of of whom I've hired at the visits, and I let my clients dictate how many updates a day do you want? There are some sitters like I don't have time for that. Okay, if you're that busy, I understand that. But for me, if the client needs three updates a day, I'm going to give that client three updates a day. I don't want the client being wigged out. They're on vacation, right? They're supposed to be enjoying themselves. I tell them, I don't want you going on vacation, worrying about your pets at home. Now. If you miss them, yes, you're allowed to miss them. You shouldn't miss them. But if you're worrying about them, that's telling me I'm not doing my job. So I will have clients who especially new clients, they'll go, you're doing three visits a day, do you mind sending me an update every visit? Absolutely. I'll be happy to do that. And so what I do is I text either I'll do a text message or if they want it via email. I also use whatsapp especially for clients who are traveling internationally. I started using WhatsApp is more reliable than texting because I know with WhatsApp that my messages were sent and delivered. And I know when the client opened those messages with texts with SMS, you don't know it could be lost in cyber land. I'm thinking the client got my text. The client never did. They're freaking out or call me. Hey, did you go visit fluffy today at 1130? Well, yeah, I sent you. Yeah. Did I sent you an update with a picture at 1145? Well, I never got it. Yeah. Ah, so I've started this trying to trying to convert my clients to using WhatsApp because that way I know they're getting my messages. They know that I'm getting theirs. And so what I'll do is I'll take pictures if I can get video. I like to take video some of my clients absolutely love the videos. And I will say, sometimes I'll do it from the pets perspective. Hi mom, Miss Cathy's here. We're having a great time. I went out I was a good girl. I partied. I ate all of my breakfast. Gotta go Miss Cathy's about give me a massage. Hope you're having fun. Love you. Bye. I'll do that. Or I'll send it from my perspective. Hey, hey, Sue. I'm here during the visit, everything's going great. Fluffy, ate all of our breakfast, she went out and partied. She's doing great. I'll send the pictures. And the clients will go thank you so much. And some clients are okay with. If I'm doing three visits a day, they'll say, Well, if you just want to update once a day, maybe the bed time visit? Give me a recap. Sure, I will do that. So I let my clients dictate how often they want to get those updates. Because I don't want them worrying. I mean, what good does it do to go on vacation to rest when you're worrying about what's going on at home? And I don't call my clients unless it's an emergency, or is something time sensitive? And I tell them that I say I text you or WhatsApp because I don't want you enjoying your vacation and that their phone rings and my name pops up, the first thing you're going to think is oh my gosh, what's wrong? Yeah, I answer the phone freaked out. How are you it's Cathy just want to let you know everything's going great. It's the same thing I see on the on the caller ID Oh, something must be wrong. It's just you jumped to that conclusion. So I tell them, I will text and I will watsapp if you want email, I have one client who prefers email, I'm happy to do that. And just because if it again, if it weren't for the clients calling, I wouldn't have a business. So there are some things you have. I look at it as being a rubber band. If you stretch that rubber band too tight, it's going to snap, you have to have flexibility. And this is me personally, this is me personally speaking, I've got to have that flexibility with my business. So that it just does. So that rubber band doesn't snap so that everything doesn't fall apart. And some people would disagree with that. And that's fine. But that's how I have to run my business for my mental state and for my peace of mind. In addition to my clients peace of mind,
Collin 57:37
I love that example, Cathy, because there are I think there are time in places for a one size fits all depending on the kind of service that the area is doing or, or what you need. But to go, you know, I may say, because we talked about this a lot with this Megan, I have like, you know, people come to us and they may say I want a plain cheeseburger, and we go, Well, you only get a super double deluxe with extra large everything on top of it, we don't offer anything else. And that that is can be a turnoff for some people because that's a bigger buy in that they have to do or they might not like they may need our service, but not like the way we offer it. And so trying to understand where do I have flexibility? Where am I no goes right? Where are my boundaries at a personal moral ethical level? And as a business? What will I not do? But Is there flexibility in between for us to change how we do the updates, what we send, how it's done, the kind of things that are offered or whatever like that is as it's a very personal decision to make sure that it's working for you. Because you can get to the point where it now there's so many variations, it can get a little hairy at times and get a little bit of chaotic, but also knowing a little bit of variation. And that flexibility allows us to make sure that we're meeting our client's needs as as they want to be met. And as we can do that,
Cathy D. 58:55
right and I tailor my services to the needs of their clients, the clients and their pets. Not all clients are alike. Not all pets are alike. So I tell my tell my my potential clients in the meet and greet, I tailor my services to what your pets need. If your pets, especially cats, for instance, if your cats do not want me to engage with them, I'm not going to push myself on them. If I can win them over, I love to do cat enrichment. And I will take tools I have toys and if the cats like it, I will make that cat toy for that cat and I'll put it in a Ziploc bag and I'll put their name on it so no other cat can have it right. Yeah, and it I say look, I never pushed myself on an animal. If if the dogs want me to engage if they want me to play with them, I will if they want to go out throw the ball I will if they just want to lounge around, I'll do that. But um not all dogs are alike even in the same family. Not all cats are alike. If there's multiple cats, multiple dogs in the household, they're not all alike. And So my thing is, I want, I tell my clients, if you come home, if your pets are happy, you're happy. And that makes me very happy. Because that tells me I did my job. And sometimes with some clients, it's it's, it's a little more intensive, you know, it's a little more high maintenance. And you just have to understand not all clients are going to be low key. Yeah, whatever. There are some helicopter parents, I'll admit, I'm a helicopter pet parent myself, I'm going to admit it, I'm not going to apologize for it. And you just have to take that in consideration. That not is not the one size fits all. And if that's how you want to run your business, that's how you run it. You do that? That's not how I run mine. And I think that's why I've had the success here in a rural area. I'm a novelty people are like, professional pet sitter. I'm the first one up here. Yeah, I mean, they and you're talking about where you are, you're thinking you're a few years behind the larger cities. I kind of think that Fannin county is maybe 10 to 15 years behind Metro Atlanta in the mentality of pet ownership. It's just the way it is. And the animal control ordinances are pretty loose here. I wish they would tighten up a bit. Just trying to get people from letting their dogs roam. I mean, the people who've lived here all their lives, we have a problem where they don't like people moving up here, trying to change things and telling them what to do. And so for I've always let my dogs roam. I've never had a problem but now you're telling me I can't and they have an issue with that. But the next thing you know the dogs getting hit by a car while why because the population is growing up hear somebody gets bitten by a dog. How do you know that that dogs had its rabies vaccination? You don't. And so it's a health and safety issue. For me personally, I don't like to tell people what to do with their property or their dogs. But if it's a health and safety issue, then I have a problem with it. And that's a huge problem we have here that I did not have in coming because the county down there had strict can Animal Control ordinances, the animal control officers reported to the sheriff, whereas here in Fannin County Animal Control. answers to the county commission chairman is very different. But as people are moving up here, they're going wait a minute, we don't like these dogs roaming and people the transplants as I like to call them which I am one of I would like to see some stricter Animal Control ordinances. I don't want to see a lot of changes per se in this county. I moved from Forsyth County for a reason it got too big for its britches got to it was crazy. Moved up here slower pace of life. I don't want to change that I moved to the mountains for the mountains to change me not for me to change the mountains. And that's why the locals they get they'll get on Facebook, they won't say it to your face. But keyboard warriors get on there. Oh, they hate anybody who moves up here. They hate the tourists because Blue Ridge is a tourism destination. And I hate to say it I love my Florida people. They despise people who move from Florida because they think they're coming up to take over and to change everything. And so I'm thinking no we can all we have every right everybody has a right to live here. And I'm sure the people in Florida hate seeing people from up here and Atlanta coming down. They're taking over their beaches for vacation and and you know, it's that way everywhere. The probably the people who live the beaches of Florida hate anybody coming in, you know, because you're changing things, you're tearing everything up your trash and everything. So it's it's like, can't we just all get along, but it's um, it's a different world, Colin, but at this stage of my life, it's where I feel like I need to be. But I also enjoy having my business. I'm not ready to retire from it. And I would like to keep doing it and have people who move here, oh, gosh, I have an option. Wow, this lady's Look at this. She is the real deal. She's got all these qualifications, I need to give her a call. And then they're glad that they did. And so that, that that works well, not everybody. I'm not the best fit for everybody. And it's usually because of financial reasons. But that that's just the way it is. And I'm going okay, well there's going to be somebody else who will come along value what I do, and I can provide the best book and I tell my clients, you and your pets deserve the very best. And that's what I strive to give.
Collin 1:04:48
I love that Cathy and I really want to thank you for coming on the show today and encouraging us to find that pace, set that pace and embrace that in the message that we can bring to our clients and that Peace of mind and serve them how they need to be served and how sometimes we have to push a little bit more to make those changes happen. But it's it's worth that effort for that care of that peace of mind. I know there's, I know, there's a whole lot more here, and that you do a whole lot more things as well. So for people who'd like to get in touch and follow along with everything that you do, Cathy, how best can they do that?
Cathy D. 1:05:22
Okay, they can, if you're talking anybody, I have a website, it is www.go into the dogs ga.com. And it's g o i n, t o THEDOGS ga.com. People try to put that G at the end of going. And I can't find me and I'll go, I says go in, because in my title of my business is G li n with the apostrophe after the end. And people just think, oh, it's going and they end up going somewhere else. But that that's the best way. That's a great way for people to come and learn more about me because everything you need to know is on that website. And I also have a business Facebook page, go into the dogs, I have a personal Facebook page, it's under Cathy E. Duvall. So people can find me on Facebook. And if anybody if they've got insomnia, and they want to learn all about what I went through with my accident, when I had to have all of those surgeries, I kept a journal or blog, I guess you could call it on my personal Facebook page, a weekly update about how I was doing. And all of the fun of going through it, people really enjoyed reading, because I have a journalism degree, my background is journalism. And so I put my writing skills to work with that. And I have people going you ought to write a book about your experiences. I don't know maybe maybe if I can slow down long enough. But um, though Facebook pages my website, if they want to email me, it's going to the dogs ga@gmail.com. And they can call me. If you want me to give the phone number, give me a call text me to you. Yeah, that my number is 770-883-4644. And I do have the ability, that's my cell number to text. And you can text me and just say, Hey, if you want to, I'd love to hear from people. That would be great. Awesome.
Collin 1:07:23
Well, Cathy, I'll have all those links in the show notes on our website so people can get connected with you there. I'm so encouraged by our conversation, and so happy to have you on the podcast and everything. So Cathy, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it. Collin, this
Cathy D. 1:07:38
has been a treat you and Megan are rock stars. I just want to make your head a little bit big. But I really went when we were at the conference. And then you wrote to me said, Hey, how would you like to do a podcast? I thought, Well, I told my husband who's gonna want to hear what I have to say. He said, You got a lot of good stuff to say. And so he will call and wants to hear what I have to say. So we'll do it. So thank you so very much for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.
Collin 1:08:00
You're welcome. It's my pleasure. I'm very thankful for the time, Cathy. So thank you. Thank
Cathy D. 1:08:04
you, Colin, I appreciate it. And I appreciate you.
Collin 1:08:08
My biggest takeaway from my conversation with Cathy was that after everything is stripped away, client experience and client customer service is at the core of what we do. When she said that the greatest compliment that we can receive is when a client tells us we gave them peace of mind. And that that's how we know we did our job well, because our clients don't experience the pet care firsthand. They learn about it. And then they look at their pet. They experience it through our updates and through our videos through our phone calls, however we're updating them, but then they see how their pet responds and the condition of their home. And if they can set their phone aside while they're on vacation, if they can step away to go enjoy a sunset or a dinner or time with family and not be brought back over to their home or how their cat is doing. What a beautiful gift that we can give to somebody. We want to thank today's sponsors timed pet and the National Association of Professional pet sitters for making today's show possible. And we really want to thank you for listening. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
