507: Hospitality and Heart with Ken Botts
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Does hospitality translate from restaurants to pet care? Ken Botts, owner of Creekside Critters Pet Sitters, shares his journey into the world of pet care. He discusses the importance of community engagement, effective hiring practices, and the parallels between providing excellent service in restaurants and pet sitting. Ken emphasizes the role of heart-driven hospitality in building trust with both human clients and their furry companions.
Main topics:
Transition from food service
Importance of hiring practices
Community engagement strategies
Marketing and brand presence
Leadership and team management
Main takeaway: Every interaction counts, from the smallest pet to the largest, it's all about heart-driven service.
About our guest:
My life's mission has always been to help make the world a better place. For the first 35 years of my life, I did that working in the food service industry. Like many in the food service business, I got my start washing dishes - the most important job in the kitchen. Over the years I worked my way up the ranks by managing restaurants, developing training programs, designing concepts, creating process improvement programs, leading marketing and sustainability initiatives, and owning two world famous cafes.
Little did I know, my career in food service would allow me to make an impact on such a large scale. As the Special Projects Manager for Dining Services at The University of North Texas, I helped open the Nation’s first vegan dining hall on a university campus. With national attention on the success of the vegan dining hall, I was recruited by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). There I created an international culinary training program and helped institutional food service operators develop menus, design concepts, and create training programs focused on plant-based menus and taking animals off the plate.
During my time with HSUS, I became very interested in animal welfare issues. I traveled internationally and often spoke at conferences about the connection between our food choices and animal welfare issues. In 2020 I decided to leave the food service and give my full attention to caring for animals and started Creekside Critters Pet Sitters. My business allows me to give pet parents peace-of-mind, and bring happiness to their pets while their parents are away. It also allows me to create fun and meaningful jobs in the communities that we serve.
When I am not taking care of animals or developing an awesome team of pet sitters, I enjoy spending time at home with my beautiful wife, Saundra, being involved with my church, volunteering in the community, and hanging out with my three orange cats. You will often find me on my bike going the distance with hopes of someday riding across America or relaxing on the back porch with a cup of my favorite coffee.
Links:
Website: creeksidecritters.com
One Minute Manager: https://amzn.to/4cHxPiU
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/creekside-critters-pet-sitters/
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, pet, client, pet sitters, community, work, business, hiring, years, restaurant, life, gift, folks, opportunity, creekside, critters, open, foodservice, started, service
SPEAKERS
Ken B., Collin, Doug
Collin 00:01
Welcome to pet sitter confessional in open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Today, we're brought to you by time to pet and pet perennial. We are super excited to have kin bots owner of Creekside critters pet sitters on the show to talk about his journey into Pet Care lessons that he's learned along the way and how he's focused on growing his business being a principled individual and focusing on his clients and everything in between. And I'm super excited to have you on the podcast and to have met you at the Texas pet sitters Association conference recently, but done in Lewisville. So it's a pleasure to have you. Could you please tell a little bit more about who you are and all that you do?
Ken B. 00:40
Yeah, first, I just want to say I'm super grateful to you and Megan, for having me on. You know, I came up to the table where y'all were at the Texas pet sitters conference, just to say thank you for all the great support that you provide the pet sitting community. And I was just blown away when you said hey, you want to be on the show. I was like, Yeah, sure. That's awesome. But really just, you know, I'm a huge fanboy of the work that y'all do. And and I want to say thank you for bringing us bringing giving us this opportunity to be on your show. Well, thank
01:15
you. You're
Ken B. 01:16
welcome. You're welcome. So yeah, as you said, I'm the owner, founder, whatever CEO, everything of Creekside critters, pet sitters. And I'm also husband, married, just grateful to be married to my best friend Sondra, who also becomes part time Pet Sitter when we get super busy. Dad father Cheep Cheep, ah, have four wonderful grand kiddos, and for daddy of three amazing orange tabbies, which I love and adore, as we do all of our pets. But before I got into pet setting, and really what got me prepared to be good at this or better at this than was being in the foodservice industry for 35 years. That's where I spent the bulk of my my career and was thinking that's where I was going to retire before I started the pet sitting business. And it was a it was really an amazing journey. And I look back at that journey now and realize that that, that there was a higher purpose. You know, I think God has his hand in that journey and moving me towards what I'm doing now, giving me the experience that I had working in restaurants,
Collin 02:30
you say food service. So walk us through kind of what your level of involvement was with that and kind of what your focus was in that career for you. When I was 15
Ken B. 02:39
and a half years old, my mom gave me the keys to the family car and said you've got to put gas in it and you have to buy your own insurance. So she suggested that I get a job in the restaurant industry and told me I remember this advice that you'll always have a job if you do that. So I did. And one of my first jobs which I still to this day thing, because the most important job in the restaurant world was a dishwasher. So I started at the extreme bottom and just worked my way up. And over those 35 years, I did everything from washing dishes to training, managing leading restaurant operations. I stayed mostly in corporate fast food environment. And then in the 90s, my sister and I went into business together and we opened up a couple of restaurants. Back then I was living in California. And they were We were quite successful with those. And then the last 10 years of my career, I transitioned into higher education foodservice almost by accident. I was recruited by a company called Sodexo who was looking for somebody that had retail experience like I did, and I became kind of their, their food court guru, if you will, I did open up a new operation at a different university, which allowed me to travel pretty much 42 weeks out of the year, which was also my introduction to pet setting because I had a full time Pet Sitter that worked with me while I was traveling all those years. But the 10 years that the University of North Texas really kind of started leading me into what I'm doing now, as a pet senator in 2011, I one of my projects that I worked on there and Dining Services was to convert one of our dining halls into an all vegan dining hall. And doing that in Texas was kind of the shot heard around the world. You know, meat free cafeteria in the state of Texas, the beef capital of the world was got a lot of media attention. It also got the attention of some of the animal welfare groups, most notably the Humane Society of the United States who was very interested in the work I was doing and after after I finished my 10 years at the University of North Texas, I had a family health crisis where I needed to go back to California. And in that process, the Humane Society United States recruited me. And that that began the chapter that is now become petsitting.
Collin 05:19
I love how you started off that story. We're talking about one of those positions, you said it's still, you still believe it's one of the most important jobs in the remote dishwashing. Why is that? Can
Ken B. 05:31
you know when you're a dishwasher, and there's so many famous chef quotes out there. One of the one of the most notable ones was the late Chef Anthony Bourdain, who said that being a dishwasher taught and taught him every important lesson in his life. And truly, that's the case. It teaches it teaches you pride in work. So work ethic. But it also allows you to see every experience every position in a restaurant. So through that position, at that early age, I learned about leadership and management, organizational skills, customer service, attention to detail, problem solving skills, you know, what happens when the dishwasher breaks down, but also gratitude for having a job that was kind of the gift that kept on giving? Huh?
Collin 06:21
Yeah, it was one of those, those, obviously, honestly, just very overlooked positions of, oh, that's the dishwasher, that's a dishwasher. But realizing that, you know, nobody, you can't serve food on a dirty plate, and you can't have the next meal if the pots are still, you know, dirty and, and this really is this, people are able to do their jobs by relying on that amazing person that it's doing that and I love how you also mentioned that they get to see kind of everything than how it interacts really does give you an appreciation for just everything functioning as a unit and not just a one little slice of what's going on. Yeah,
Ken B. 06:57
and as you as you mentioned, you know, having a poor dishwasher can can bring a great restaurant to a grinding halt. I mean, dirty dishes, spots on the cups, you know, in a fine dining restaurant, a speck on a plate that was missed by the dishwasher. I mean, you know that attention to detail really means the difference between a great customer experience and a well run restaurant. So it's, I've always thought of it as the heartbeat of the restaurant. And I learned a lot from from doing that. Yeah,
Collin 07:28
it teaches you to rely on others to and really has that that teamwork approach as well, no matter what position that you're in knowing that everybody's job is reliant kind of on the success or what other people are are doing on theirs. And so it builds that teamwork together. You said you made that transition into pet care? What was that transition? Like? And kind of why did you decide to leave food service after 35 years and go into pet setting?
Ken B. 07:59
Yeah, so the you know, the the similarities between pet sitting and the foodservice industry. I mean, at the end of the day, it's hospitality, right? You're taking care of clients. And the transition for me was super easy, but almost accidental. So a couple of years ago, let's say 2000, right before the pandemic happened when the world changed. My wife and I were actually thinking of opening the restaurant, I had worked really hard spent two years building a business plan. I was getting ready to sign a lease to open a restaurant here in Fort Worth, Texas. And then then I started seeing restaurants get closed and and restaurants were struggling to find staff, you couldn't have staff in your restaurant, how are you going to deliver food, people could come in and dine. And so I quickly saw the opportunity to pivot. And that pivot was was, you know, just the right thing to do at the right time. And I think it was was was planned. You know, the pivot into pet sitting was easier, obviously, than running a restaurant. So this day, my wife will tell people I'm so glad that we didn't open that restaurant because the restaurant business is a full time job, you know, not not dissimilar than pet sitting right? Especially during the holidays. You know, we were on we're out in the field and we're helping our pets at staff if you have staff or if you're solo pet sitter, you're doing it yourself. And it could dominate your life if you don't plan correctly. And I have the opportunity to step back, take a breath, slow down on the other project and really understand what I wanted to do next. And having worked with the Humane Society for a bunch of years, and being introduced to pet sitting by having not only about full time pets When I was traveling but but also understanding that business model and the potential that it had, so I reached out to some local pet sitters, who are now just really great friends of mine, Jan Archer at the center of paws, and the folks at the top dog pet sitting over in McKinney, who were just opened, opened up their door and said, Yeah, let us talk about how you can be successful at this business. And then, of course, the the resources available to us and the industry. pet sitters International, I joined became a member of that I'm a certified professional pest Senator now took advantage of that training. And then, you know, the folks like you that are just throwing these amazing resources out there to help us and they listened to my fair share of your podcasts, but didn't really understand what the business was. And to see if this was the right fit for me. And it was. And so we've been now chopping away, building the business for the last three years, we've got six staff members, got a manager, Lauren, who's doing an amazing job, and growing with the business. And we have a great, great clientele, who supports us with referrals, and just, you know, kind of justifies that this was the right decision. And it was the best decision.
Collin 11:20
What about running a dog walking and pet sitting business was a good fit for you personally, I know a lot of people are drawn to this industry for various reasons. But for you personally, what was that?
Ken B. 11:33
I love building businesses. You know, I, it's funny when you hear people say, I don't care about the money. But you know, if you don't care about the money, then you shouldn't be in business, you can just retire, right? So. But I love building businesses. As a matter of fact, I volunteer with score, which is a part of those Small Business Association. It's a nonprofit group. And I mentor other business owners, and I've had an opportunity to give back to not only the folks who are starting restaurants, which they kind of pulled me into that a lot. But also I've gotten a chance to help some of my fellow pet sitters with their businesses. And so building the business and the day to day challenges of building a pet sitting business, really, is what excites me getting to work with my team, the staffing issues that are associated with that training, the you know, analyzing your profit loss statement, getting out in the community and marketing, which is probably the most fun part of it. And just taking care of the customers, it's all around, it's just was really an attractive opportunity for me and, and I'll never look
Collin 12:47
back, I mentioned many people get drawn into this for their own reasons. And it's very interesting to hear how you were drawn to the, the running the management, the that side of things, because you had also mentioned earlier about how you had you kind of like once you understood the business model, you understood the potential for it. And what it could do, then that is a very different mindset can for what a lot of people bring into this is a lot of us, including myself, kind of wake up one day and realize that we're running a business. And now we kind of have to do things a little differently. It's trying to wrap my brain around a business model and structure and team approach and being a manager and all stuff. That is that's a huge area where a lot of us are going How do I What is that what, maybe I didn't want to do this for those reasons. And so it is important to always remember that we all have our own strengths, how all have our own reasons and purposes, for being in business. And to, to lean into that right and to know, and I'm sure for you too can as your business has grown, you've probably learned new things or fallen in love with different reasons for why you're in
Ken B. 13:58
business. Absolutely, you know, that the people part is, is really the most enjoyable part for me. And something I learned years ago was that in any kind of service industry, you've got two clients that you're serving, you've got your internal clients with which are your staff, and you have to take care of them really really well. So that they'll take care of your external clients, which are your your pet parents, and ultimately the animals that we we love and enjoy that make our jobs so amazing. And, and so by by really being involved with those two aspects of the business, I get great joy, and then in the marketing as well. You know, everybody markets different and then I know we'll probably talk about that a bit as well. But the part I enjoy the most is getting out into the community and meeting people, not only other business owners through things like the Chamber of Commerce, or the Chamber of Commerce is that we're referring to, but also being involved as a volunteer and giving back to the community. One thing that we're working on right now, and this just happened accidentally was through my relationship with being a business mentor. I'm also involved in community outreach on that committee. And I just had a meeting with the Fort Worth libraries. And we were talking about, you know, helping small business, get started and mentoring folks and whatnot. And then I mentioned, you know, something I'd love to do for fellow pet sitters in the community is to teach a course on on trap, neuter release, my wife, and I got certified in that, because it's a big issue in a lot of our communities, you know, cats running around the neighborhood that everybody feeds, but nobody fixes. And so pretty soon, you've got this perpetual cycle of more cats coming into the community. And so I saw that opportunity. And they were like, Oh, my gosh, we need that, we have to do that. So, you know, and that's something that we would do to help the community. But you know, at the end of the day, it's gonna help our business too, because it's putting us in front of potential clients. Now,
Collin 16:07
and it's knowing what kind of opportunities you need to say yes to, because that's, that's, that's hard to know, there's so many out there. And I think that's where it can be, there's a lot of overwhelm, to know, oh, do I say yes, yes to working with this person, or to this person or that. But really, it's about going, Okay, what actually aligns with what we have to go what aligns with me and my personal core values? And how do I want to be seen with the, with the within the community, knowing that everything that we do, and that's, gosh, you just unlocked a bunch of stuff in my brain, there's such like, like, as much as we don't interact with people. We're an exceptionally public company, because people do see us out in the community. And as we're marketing people look to our businesses to see what kind of messaging we're putting out there to see what we're connected with, what our core values are, whether we're living those out or not. And so really taking the time for each opportunity that comes along our plate to look at that and go, okay, is this a good cord fit for us at its core? Or not? And then move on?
Ken B. 17:17
Yeah, and you guys did a great podcast. I don't know how long ago it was, it was called the cost of being a business owner, you kind of took a dive deep dive into the five major, you know, costs and understanding, you know, where you have to utilize your time and, you know, the different hats you wear and stuff like that. Yeah, you have to prioritize that, you know, when I, when I would talk to people, and they'd ask you, you know, you know, like, Oh, what do you do? You know, as guys, we always go into our careers, right? Like, you know, I'm going to talk about work. But I've really been mindful about putting up what's most important to me, what are, you know, what are the things that make me happy? And what do I want to be known for? long after I'm gone, and that, that, you know, what I want to be known for was that I was a good husband, I was a good father, I was a good grandfather, that it gave back to the community. And those are the things that are important to me. And that translates into what's my value proposition to the community? What's my value proposition to the people in my life? And, and so, you know, I really put that, that I really focus heavy on that, that human aspect of what we do. You know, when we started building the business, I didn't go right to digital. I didn't go on Facebook and Instagram. And you know, like, everybody does, I saw that, because I had experience with that, that that would be a big suck on my time, you know, and what's the ROI there? Or would I get better return on investment ROI? If I got out and got involved with the local Chamber of Commerce, went and knocked on doors and did door hangers, door hangers, that's how I got our first client. And so you know that that that was the what started the ball rolling for us, just being involved on the human side of being social and not just being on social media, to get in touch with new clients and really make a difference in the community the way I want to be. The way I want to make it
Collin 19:21
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Doug 19:26
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Collin 19:45
looking for new pet selling software, give time to pet a try. Listeners of our show can save 50% off your first three months by visiting tiny speck.com/confessional And early on, I know value proposition that you brought I want to back to when you were at Un t, and you made that all vegan dining hall. I mean, that's a huge break from a lot of people's expectations. Walk us through what it was like talking to people about that, because that's a very, very different message to get out there of, because it goes against the grain of a lot of people's expectations.
Ken B. 20:22
Yeah, well, you know, and it was part of my life as well and always has been, when, when I was 18, I wrote a book diet for small planet, by Francis Moore that pay for that diet, that that book influenced my life in so many different ways. And it showed me the, the key, the suffering aspect of our food choices. And so at an early age, I decided to become vegetarian, for those reasons, and so I've been vegetarian, vegan most of my life. And I always tried to utilize my position in food service to, you know, influence those changes, because, you know, not to go on off into different tangents in you know, the impact of our food choices. But, you know, the impact of our food choices, you know, changes the culture changes the the environment, and it saves lives, saves our lives, it saves animal lives. And so, when we made that choice to open up a vegan dining hall, it wasn't popular at first, because nobody had ever done it. I mean, this was back in 2010. And still, to this day, nobody's ever done it. Un t, University of North Texas has the only vegan dining hall in the world. And so that choice to do that was risky. The university when they found out what we were doing, and Dining Services wasn't completely on board. But fast forward to after it happened. And after we opened it, they quickly realized that it was the right thing to do as an institution. And now here in 2024, they've got some amazing chefs, they're still going on. It's one price all you care to eat. And it's one of the top 10 reasons that people chose to go to that university. So it was the right thing to do. And we were able to make that choice. Because being in the foodservice industry and understanding the trends that were going on at the time, people were starting to ask for more plant based options. And so, you know, we made that decision. It was risky, but the risk was worth it. And the payoff was amazing. You
Collin 22:35
know, I'm just imagining when the university did find out exactly what you were all doing, again, right? Just imagining trying to communicate the reason why it's important, because that's where we find ourselves a lot as business owners with our services going, No, no, you don't. This is why what we do is important, and some people will latch on to that other people won't. How do you walk through those conversations with potential points? You
Ken B. 23:01
know, it's one that I that I'm always really careful about. And really, it's a little bit of PTSD associated with it. So when when I was recruited by the Humane Society of the United States, to develop a program around the work that I did at UNLV, opening the dining program, there, they wanted me to translate that and help other institutions around the world, do what we did there. And so I created a program called forward food for the Humane Society, the United States where we would go, we would train chefs at large scale institutions. Harvard University was the first one where we did the training. We also started working with hospitals, we worked with the military, even the White House at the time, asked us to come in and teach their chefs how to create these plant based options. And so one of the opportunities that I had with H su s was that I spoken a lot of conferences and one of the conferences and and this is where the PTSD part comes in, was a pet care conference that was attended by a lot of veterinarians and folks in in shelter operations. And, you know, the leadership of these these groups. And I had heard through the grapevine that the farm the animal, veterinarians, the folks that worked on cows, pigs and chickens that I was trying to take off the plates of people in institutions weren't so excited that I was there. So, you know, it's a difficult conversation when you love animals as much as we do. But then when you educate, you know, people on the difference between why do we eat cows, chickens and pigs, but not dogs, cats and other animals that we love, you know, so I sometimes avoid that conversation. unwillingly, but, you know, it doesn't add value to me trying to recruit a new client If they asked about it, that opens up a hole.
Collin 25:07
But it is again, going, going there. understand there's a time and place for things. And obviously speaking out when we have when there's a real when the if there's an obvious need or an obvious opening in that time, but it is about communicating a tricky message to people who might not be receptive of it. And I don't know if you've gotten these calls can where people call and they want to use our boarding services, right? Which is funny because we don't offer boarding services. And then I've got to try and figure out how do I talk to this person about a service a, they didn't call for a and b, they probably don't want, right, and now I've got to navigate that road. And at the end of the day, know, me I have to understand and know that I can only talk so much this person has to be receptive to getting this message. And if they're not, then I kind of have to wash my hands of that and step away. Yeah,
Ken B. 25:58
and you know, there's, there's a, there's a conversation that happens with some clients not as often as it was, you know, when I first started, where they don't understand what In Home Pet cares is, you know, what is sitting, what is dog walking, I mean, dog walking, just kind of, is what it is, but, you know, they think we're boarding and so from time to time, I have to have that conversation, but it's an easy conversation, and they end up going well, that's even better than boarding, which I love hearing when they get that. But recently, and it's made me made me think about our branding, Creekside critters, pet centers, you know, the the term critter in Texas has a different meaning than it does in Los Angeles. And this guy at a coffee shop buys ordering coffee, and he goes Creekside critters, because what kind of critters do you get rid of? And I was like, we don't get rid of critters when he's talking about he's like, Well, it kind of sounds like I was like, Yeah, you're right. It does sound like that, you know, snakes? Raccoons? Uh, huh. pigeons. Maybe there's a side hustle there? I don't know. But but in a humane way that, right? Exactly.
Collin 27:10
We care for the pets you love and get rid of the pets? You don't know, I wouldn't ever go with that. too. Well, and you're right, because we do have to be careful about our messaging, right? And what we talked about how we talked about it, and understanding that people will bring in their own past experiences and bring in their own preconceived notions and biases. You know, I'm sure when you were talking with people about a vegan dining hall, people had thought about the one vegan burger they had had 10 years ago, that just tasted awful. And they said all vegan foods terrible, right, and they kind of swear it off. Same thing in pet care, one time, one person had a neighbor come over and take care of their pet and it all, you know, went to, you know, where and so they swear off pet settings. And so really trying to message to those people can be tricky, especially if they come in kind of staunchly opposed to what we're trying to do. Yeah,
Ken B. 28:02
and it's funny, you mentioned that about the bad vegan food, because when I would be speaking to a group of vegan advocates who were trying to duplicate the work we were doing at the Humane Society of the United States, I would tell them that the biggest challenge to the vegan movement and getting this food on the plate is bad vegan food. So, you know, we've all had that veggie burger, right? That ah, and the same as in the pet, the pet sitting industry, if you if you create a bad scenario, you know, God forbid, and this has only happened once where, you know, you've got a pet sitter who, who is late for an event or forgets an event, you know, that's terrifying for us. So as we were building the business, and you know, taking advantage of all of the software options, like time to pet and stuff that we've got access to creating the processes in the backup process to make sure that that client is well taken care of, because that one bad experience could be one bad Google review, which could take away a potential client from you. So you know, it's just like the it's like the bad veggie burger, you know, don't don't don't create that bad experience of that bad pet sitting up, you know, experience that's going to put a bad taste, taste into clients now. Yeah.
Collin 29:24
Well, and it's one of those, as you said earlier about the similarity between food service and the pet care industry is it's all about hospitality, right? It's about understanding and taking care of, of the people and what is their experience that they have when working with us in our company. And that's, that is such a different way of looking at this of going, Oh, I'm just providing a dog walk. It's like no, you the whole experience from beginning to end needs to have the customer have that client, top of mind and in focus. Otherwise, they could be having a terrible experience and we just have no idea and they're just using us because we're convenient or something?
Ken B. 30:02
Yeah. And when I'm bringing on new pet sitters part of the training, you know, obviously, we know you're going on a dog walk, you see the tail wagging, you let them do their sniffs, you give them a treat, you know that, that makes that dog happy. But with the client, there's a different opportunity there. And so there's a huge client opportunity through how we communicate to them, what kind of pictures we send to them, what the follow up is with the client is going to determine if they use you again or not. Or if they refer another client to you, which is critical in our business, to growing our business. And so yeah, that that there's, there's, obviously there's two parts to what we do, and both of them are customer service related.
Collin 30:49
How do you get your your team to understand that aspect of it that this is a hospitality, this is directed towards a client that we never actually see, when we're doing when we're caring for their pet, it
Ken B. 31:02
all really goes back to the hiring process. So when I started hiring folks, you know, I wasn't looking for him. And you probably have seen this in your business as well, you know, you'll get a lot, you'll put a new job out on indeed or whatever. And you'll get a bunch of folks from the pet industry, pet techs and stuff like that, who are looking for that side hustle, I actually look for folks who have hospitality background, so you know, what, what is have they been part of a club, or did they have some, you know, fast food experience, you know, that kind of thing, some type of service industry experience that I can tap into, so I don't have to train that skill set that they come are already packaged with that skill set. I also look for folks that are are retired, they're looking for something to do on the side. They they might be a stay at home caretaker, whether that's a parent or taking care of someone you know, like their wife or husband. And then they look for folks that are in the service industry, but maybe they're working from home. And they have a flexible schedule. But really, it starts with that hiring. And then the second, the second part of that is, you know, when we do hire them, letting them know that this wasn't an easy choice that we had other options, but we chose them because of x, y, z. And z is always got got in relation to your past experience working in the you know, some type of service industry. And then the training part of that is critical. Having a formal training process. For us. That means that the first two days of of joining the team, they get to spend with me fun, and we go hang out at a coffee shop, I get them all jazzed up by caffeine. And we get excited about all the software we use and the the processes we have in place. And we spend a lot of time on pet safety and safety for the pet sitters as well as for the pet parents and the pets that were are in our care. So we focus a lot on that. And then I have a couple of team members. I mentioned Lauren, who's our operations supervisor, and then another gentleman who's on our team has been with us for a while. Cory, he's he gets out and he actually does shadow events with with the staff. Everybody on the team that's been with us for a while the shadow events. And we really don't let the folks go out on their own until they've got that experience. And we we asked them to look through previous notes and pictures and you know, find their own voice. But we let them know that that customer experience doesn't end with the dog walk it continues on with those notes that you send to the pet parents. And so the training and the follow up and just meeting with my staff ongoing every couple of weeks. Really that dynamic is what makes that happen.
Collin 34:00
Yeah, well, and I love how you started off by talking about it starts with the hires. Right? It really does. We can't sometimes we can train a lot can't train everything into for somebody and I love listening to people who have a service industry background and hearing what how they talk about it, because sometimes you get people who come in and it was a drudgery, it was all it was could you believe I had to I Okay, well, I this isn't going to be the best fit and have a have a wonderful week. But when we get people who apply. We know people who work at like those edible arrangement things. And one just she went on and on about how every detail mattered because she loved giving people a little bit of edible joy is what she called. It just I was like, oh, this person gets it this person and just like if somebody can connect precise cuts on the key to a person's happiness and a smile. That's the kind of people that we want our team because they care about the details because they know what it means to somebody on The other end? Yeah, hi.
Ken B. 35:01
We used to say or used to say hire personality train skills actually still say that, you know, so if you've got somebody that's got that personality that that has that detail mind that shows care in the way that they when they meet with you for their for their interview, or even on the phone, if you do phone interviews, you know that that that that is important in making sure that you can, you can deliver that experience to the client once they're on board.
Collin 35:31
Yeah, because then we can point them to the pet care skills and and know that, okay, maybe I may have to cover a little bit about why this is important. But again, if this person can make those connections on their own, that's going to be a really invaluable asset to the team.
Ken B. 35:46
Yeah, and taking care of your team, you know, letting them know that you're important. One thing I love about the software we use as I can, I can grab photos, I can read everybody's notes. And I'll do that on a daily basis. I don't overdo it, but just enough to let them know that I'm, I'm paying attention to the good job that they're doing. So I don't know if you've ever read that book, it's been around forever, the One Minute Manager, that's the book that I'm that I'm using to train Lauren, on leadership and management, which are two different things. But that that, you know, the personal touch that you give, really goes a long way to making a difference in people choosing to use your service over boarding their dogs or other services that might be available to them. Well, that's
Collin 36:37
like it, you mentioned earlier that focus on the internal customers and the external customers, right, knowing that we have to serve both of those, our our staff, our employees, and the people who are using our services, and that they have different needs that have different ways that need to be communicated with and focused on. And at the end day, that's our responsibility to understand how to work with both of them, because they're both essential to a thriving business, right? We need customers we need if we have employees, we need them around. Yeah,
Ken B. 37:04
catch them doing something, right? Praise them for it, or they're doing something that's not right. We correct the behavior. And, you know, let them know it's not, it's nothing personal. And that's just all that that's all part of the process of developing a great team. A team that understands you're there you support them you care, and that they're going to turn that around and care for your for your external clients, like you said, the clients that are paying for your services. And it's not just a side hustle at that point, it's part of their life, and it makes a difference in their life beyond the paycheck. And you know, that's that's really what I strive for with my team. And we've been successful. You know, in the beginning, I didn't have the hiring part down pat, I didn't know you know, like, what's a good pet sitter, you know, now now I'm getting better at it. And we've got a great team of folks. Lauren has been with us almost two years, Cory has been with us over a year. And the folks that aren't we're hiring now, because we're hiring right we're getting better at that are really staying because this is a right fit for them.
Collin 38:07
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Ken B. 39:50
Yeah, that's a difference between management and leadership. You know, management is really about processes and procedures you manage that was right, but you don't really manage people you Lead them. And if you understand and really take, take that step to learn the difference, you know, the the One Minute Manager book, I'll just go back to that it's been around for like 40 years or something. You know, it explains the difference between the two. And when when you understand how to lead and inspire people to go out and represent you as a person, because, you know, your pet setting business people know, it's, it's, it's you and Megan, right? Your name is on there. It's not just the name of your business. And so I want these folks to be going out and feeling happy that they're representing the clients in the way that I would back when I was just a solo pet sitter. And what does it take to make that happen? You know, that's an always learning process. But you get better with it over time. And then you get really, really good at it. And then it's not that hard.
Collin 41:03
For somebody who's who may be looking at this, they're looking to hire, maybe they have hired and they are struggling with that, that manager leadership stuff, what's some advice that maybe you would give to somebody to start helping them go down that road and the right way?
Ken B. 41:16
Yeah, you know, it's not intuitive, you have to break open a book, you might have to get online and take a course, there's so many great resources out there. I always go back to the old timey things, you know, the One Minute Manager read that book, or what's the one that's been making the circles, the E Myth revisited? Yeah, that's an excellent book. And I've actually shared with a lot of business owners who don't get it, you know, they start their business, their business starts running them, and they get burned out. That's, as you know, super easy to do in our pet sitting world. And so, understanding that it's okay to, you know, after read that book, like how to make the business complement your life, and not replace your life or dictate, you know, your day. And that's why we all go into business, we want to make money, we want to, you know, for us, for me, and my wife, Sandra, this, this is our retirement game, you know, we're going to build the business, we're going to put some people in place, and then we're going to step back from it, and we're going to just, you know, hopefully live off of the income that it provides. But in the beginning, you have to put a lot of work into it. So, you know, understand people, understanding the difference between leadership and management, you can go on any, you know, web browser leadership versus management, I wrote some of the papers, when I was working on my business degree on that topic. It's a fun topic to learn the difference of those and then, you know, standing, how to hire, the the importance of hiring, there's great resources out there for that to take a course online. Understand that the success that you have with your business starts with that hiring decision. And that hiring decision is a responsibility as well. And when you make a decision to bring someone on board, you're impacting their life. So you know, it has there has to be a win win there. So, you know, in a nutshell, I guess that would be the crash course of, you know, understanding how to be set up for success when when, you know, building a team?
Collin 43:26
Well, let's talk about that building to can because I know you've been growing point a lot ever since you started your business. How have you been working to grow and market you talked a little bit about how you kind of didn't do the digital stuff at first, and we're kind of you know, going around and just greeting people and talking to people. What's that process been like for you?
Ken B. 43:44
Yeah, you know, I really have embraced the old school that we used to call guerilla marketing doesn't cost a lot but it has a big impact. Because it's so easy for us in our digital world to to throw up a Google ad you know, get a Facebook presence going and just call it a day or not, you know, spend a lot of time doing those things which then distracts us from from the other things. So, you know, we have continued to do door hangers and magnets which we have these little business card magnets and the only piece of information on there is our logo and our website because I want to drive everybody into this everybody meaning clients into this client pipeline that connects them to us so we can respond to them in such a way that they're they realize that you know, that that we're we're listening you know if they'll go online, they'll fill out a form it gets either myself or my our operation supervisor Lauren we reply with a text and an email and then we set up a phone call. That process usually happens within the first 30 minutes to no later than an hour before a client gets to us. We have our our van is branded I call it the critter van And so it's branded. And I would say, it outperforms our Google advertising. As far as new clients, we drive around a lot, when they're me out doing volunteer work, or out doing Pet Sets or meeting with my pet sitters. People see the van a lot. And then my staff all have magnets that they put on their cars. So I had one of our neighbors going, Yeah, I can see this critter thing all around the neighborhood, because most of my pet sitters are right here in the neighborhood. So you know, that old school process that's not digital really works. And then there's the community involvement part being involved in chambers of commerce, being a volunteer, being involved with our church and other community groups, I, you know, that that all generates new clients, and then referrals, just doing a great job with with with our clients, I do some digital stuff. I started blogging earlier this year. So I've been trying to be consistent with that, that helps us with our digital footprint and our presence online, I'll share that on on next door, which gives us a lot of traction. And then LinkedIn is the only social media that we're on. It's not hyperlocal. But it's putting us in touch with the folks that we want to be in touch with. You know, I would say at the professional level, you know, business people that we meet in the community and stuff. So, you know, and I do some Google ads on some next door ads. But for me, that's the afterthought, not before thought,
Collin 46:32
it's really having that presence in the community. It sounds like kind of wanting to have a face have a presence, how people know be familiar with these people. Who are they what do they do, I know, we try and get out and go out, go to coffee shops, or go to other businesses just come in and say hi, and even we have a community center that we go to, and they have got a little community board. And for the longest time, we had introduced ourselves for the first time and then the front desk before they completely forgot our names. They only knew us as those pet sitters. And so we came in one time without our hats to do something and they're like, wait, what? Are you? Right? Yeah, we're the we're the pets that are people but like, it's just that way to have that familiarity is really what that's doing and says comfortability of seeing these people out there doing things, they're engaged, they're active, they're giving back they're contributing, they're using their position to make an impact and to make a change, whether that's just sponsoring things or showing up and helping, like it all really does come together.
Ken B. 47:33
It builds trust in the community. And you know, if you brand yourself, like you've got your hat, you know, with their logo on it, or we've got some really nice shirts that we use for our meet and greets, I'll wear those out in the community, people see that. And they're like, What is that, you know, creates an opportunity when you're standing in line at Walmart to talk about, you know, pet city, like this
Collin 47:54
is what pet centers do, oh, I
47:55
have a dog. Great. Take care of it.
Collin 48:01
No, know, we get a lot of comments with people about our shirts. And they say, you know, it's almost a pet sitter, or sometimes it says dog walker, and they'll laugh and say, Oh, ha, I need one of those. Because that my dog really uses me like that. And we'll go Oh, ha, no, really, we do this for a living, right? To kind of do that double take like, Wait, why don't tell me more? Tell me more. That's great. But it is a way that just have that good conversation. Right. And at the end of the day, I love people tend to overcomplicate marketing and advertising and how do I do that? And brand consistency. And what does this mean for me and how to make it work. I just have a conversation with somebody, and whatever, whatever form that looks, whatever platform that is in person online, newsletter, blog, social media, have a conversation, because then that's a genuine position that you're speaking from that are going to that's going to connect with people.
Ken B. 48:53
Yeah, and I remember back when I was when I was at UNLV. And I was you know, overseeing, like, our social media marketing, that kind of stuff. One thing I learned early on with social media is the listening and the responding, right? Like, it's more than just putting it out on Google, or Sillas, you know, soliciting Google reviews and that kind of thing. But it's the response and letting people know whether it's digital or in person, that you're a real person that you're listening. And, and, and I just really think that the balance between the in person real tangible in the community kind of thing, peppered with enough of a social presence online that people can find you you know, if they're on their phone, scrolling or pad or whatever. The balance between those two will, you know, set you up for success if you're consistent with both of them, the the in person stuff, the community stuff, that's a lot more work. It's a heavy lift, but that foundation will create buzz in the community that you can't get online. I mean, you can But it's expensive. trade off time investment or money investment, I have more time than I have money. So I'm gonna do the timeline.
Collin 50:10
Well in right, like, I've got to make that decision. And we've we look at our Google Analytics, we don't obsess over them. But every now that, you know, we go in and check and see what how people are finding us, and it's very interesting, and this kind of speaks to that community involvement of the number one way people find our website is by searching for our business name. And that they do that because they, they had another point of contact somewhere offline, right? They saw the flyer, they saw the postcard, they got the thing, they saw the tennis ball, or the poop bag containers that we give out. And they they saw something of ours, and now they're searching for us to find us. And I love that because it means that that's it, you know, we can put QR codes on stuff. And we've done that before, too. But it really, is this going, Okay, no, people are going, I've got this tennis ball with this name on it, I'm gonna go search for this or let me go find this thing, or it's, that's how people are coming to us. And I really liked that because it means that our name is out there. And people are wanting to find the more information.
Ken B. 51:10
Yeah, yeah. And you know, untapped untapped opportunities. Like, you know, I make a lot of keys, I don't take the key boxes, like you guys, do, I still keep customer keys. And so I'm a regular at the Ace Hardware store. And the community manager came up up to me, and he's like, Hey, do you guys want to put some business cards out? I'm like, Yeah, I didn't know that was the thing. But yeah, for sure. And then going down to the local feed store, same thing, I had my shirt on, and the manager came up to me and he goes, You know, we have a community board out there. It's like, oh, cool. I can put you know. So those opportunities just happen when people see you and your branded shirt or your your branded hat or your branded bands. You know, those those opportunities are everywhere. How
Collin 51:53
did you make the decision to get the brand? The van branded? I'll say that right one time, but because that's a that's a pretty big investment to have done. I know. So how early on did you do that?
Ken B. 52:04
I did it right away. Because, you know, when you see vehicles that just have magnets, it kind of makes you think, Well, you know, is that the real deal? You know, he's trying to come into my house, I don't know, it just seems kind of sketchy to me. Even though it's it's the right thing to do, at least in the beginning, when you first start, when you can afford it and I just had this conversation with with a guy the other day, when you can afford it, do it because it sets you apart, it makes you look more professional. And and it'll get a lot more attention than a magnet on the side of your door. So we we did, we didn't do a whole van wrap. We have a minivan we didn't do a whole van wrap. But we did the back windows, and like magnets that we use. And every other piece of information that we have where a client can reach out to us the only information that it has is our logo, pet sitting dog walking, and our the URL to our website, because once again, I want to get everybody into that pipeline, I want to get them right to our website, so we can respond and get them set up as a client,
Collin 53:07
keeping it simple. I mean, that's huge. Because again, you have to think of the context of this, this car that's driving the speed limit, I know but sometimes it's gonna go by quickly, right? And we have to have big, nice clear information that's easily captured.
Ken B. 53:20
And sometimes when I'm driving, you know, through neighborhoods, I'm at the leaving a client's house or something and I'll see somebody walking a dog, I'll slow down a little closer to the curb and know that they'll see the you know, the window, but
Collin 53:39
I'm just imagining, envisioning what they see is this car getting really close to them. And driving supers as they as they hold their leash tight. Right, right.
Ken B. 53:51
And other thing too is is, you know, my wife and I will well we call it the critter ban. So my wife will say Hey, can I take the good or bad I'm going to play pickleball where she plays Pickleball is a parking lot of potential clients that are going to see that band. I haven't done this yet, but I've been thinking about doing it just means because it takes me from two cars to one car and I might need to get to it fastest is actually parking the van, like a dog walking park that's close around here a dog park. Places where people are is where I try to make sure that van is parked if it's going to be parked for a long period of time where I'm not using it.
Collin 54:26
I know you've been learning a lot and growing over the past three years. Ken, what's been something that you've maybe struggled with or was more of an issue than you thought it would be when you first started?
Ken B. 54:38
Hiring I think you know across the board for all of us is always the toughest part. In the beginning I wasn't doing a good job with that because I was trying to fill a void in this position for a pet sitter with a warm body. And I didn't know who might turn Get a hiring employee, you know who I wanted to hire who I wanted on my team, I knew what personality I wanted. And you get that, you know, when you talk to somebody on the phone, they're going to tell you what you want to hear. But getting past that, and really understanding how to get that right person, that's the right fit for the clients that we're servicing. Um, so that was the biggest struggle for us. I've gotten better at it. I'm not perfect at it yet. But I've got I've got it down almost to a science now, with the way that we set up our interview questions, our pre interview questions that that we launch on the different, you know, employee profile company, like indeed, and zip recruiter and all that stuff that you can get on to hire, just how we, we put the questions to where they respond to the ad, in a way that makes us think that this is maybe the right person for us to have a phone call with. And if they make it past the phone call, then there's that in person interview. So there's this, there's steps that they have to go through, that are more for us to see if they're a right fit. So that was the biggest struggle and still is what
Collin 56:16
have you fallen in love with more, or what we what excited you most about the business?
Ken B. 56:22
So many things. You know, honestly, it goes back to just being able to get out in the community, and promote the business. You know, we're super involved with one of the local Chamber of Commerce's submit to be joining more Chamber of Commerce, we serve five major cities in the Fort Worth area. And we just got recognized by the one chamber that were a part of as being a rising star, we're just super exciting. We're we try to be involved with them and support them as well in what they're trying to accomplish in the community. And when you do that you get recognized for it. So I really enjoy getting out and meeting new other business owners, but also helping other pet pet sitters. And I've had the opportunity to do that to some of the same people that helped me in the beginning that were there for me, I've been able to turn that around and help them. And that makes me happy. You know,
Collin 57:24
I love that. I love that Ken. And I want to I want to thank you for coming on the show today and talking us talking to us about the importance of focusing on hospitality and being involved in the community. And at the end of the day, we can use our position in our business for change for things and make it part of who we are and living out of our values. I know there's a whole lot more here and you're involved with a lot of other stuff. You mentioned score and all that. How can people get in touch with you and follow along with everything cool that you've got going on? Yeah, it's
Ken B. 57:53
super easy. And I'd love to hear from people, you can just go to our website, Creekside critters.com. And that's got our email and our phone number those both ring directly through to me. And then as I mentioned, the only social media platform I'm on is LinkedIn, I love connecting with people there. So you can find me there just search my name Ken box. And then Creekside critters pet sitters also has a page on there. And I'd love to hear from anybody and just chat about our industry because it's such an amazing world that we're a part of, and I love it. And I'm in the this is the last career I'm going to ever have to have the opportunity to meet new people starting up in the business or folks that are already in the business and just want to chat and brainstorm. I'd love to hear from people.
Collin 58:42
Again, this has been such a such a pleasure and honor to have you on the show. So thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it. Oh,
Ken B. 58:49
thank you for the opportunity. And all you do for the pet sitting world
Collin 58:54
is your heart in it is your heart in serving others in serving the pets. At the core of what we do in a service based business is serving people. Having a heart for others allows us to see where we need to improve allows us to go that extra mile allows us to put in the effort necessary to get the results that we want. And the client expects. None of that happens if the heart and that passion isn't there. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes the days are long. We're tired. Sometimes things don't go the way we want to. And the heart's not quite there. Burnout is real compassion. Fatigue is real. So we have to take care of ourselves. First and foremost, before we can serve anybody. Surround yourself with a team and a community that can support you and encourage you that helps you propel yourself through those times. Sometimes, it can help you bring that heart back to life when you most need it. We want to thank today's sponsors timed pet and pet perennials, for making today's show possible. And we really want to thank you so much for listening. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
