515: The Power of Membership Models in Pet Care with Traci Bisson
Time to Pet
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Pet Perennials
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Have you ever wondered how to create a thriving community for pet owners while running a successful business? Traci Bisson, founder of Golden Dog Adventure Company and Start a Dog Walking Club, shares how she transitioned from a corporate marketing job to founding a professional pet sitting company and eventually Golden Dog Adventure Company, which has a very unique model. She delves into the concept of dog walking clubs, fostering a sense of community among pet owners, and the benefits of a membership model. Addressing the needs of reactive dogs and their owners, Traci highlights the importance of creating inclusive and supportive environments for all. The episode also explores partnerships with local businesses, and managing burnout through the model of business you design.
Main topics:
Transition to Dog Walking Clubs
Membership Model and Benefits
Supporting Reactive Dog Owners
Partnerships and Community Events
Managing Burnout and Fatigue
Main takeaway: Building a community around pet care has had a profound impact on our members' lives.
About our guest:
Traci Bisson is the Owner/Founder of Golden Dog Adventure Co., formerly the NH Dog Walking Club.In 1994, Traci received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New Hampshire where she studied wildlife management and business. She has over 30 years’ experience in marketing and public relations, including 15 years as the owner of Bisson Barcelona, a PR and marketing firm, and 12 years’ experience working in the nonprofit sector. In 2018, she established a dog walking club as a community outreach program for dog lovers throughout the state. Today, Golden Dog Adventure Co., works with local, national, and international experts to offer quality education for dog owners.Traci created Golden Dog Adventure Co. to offer unique experiences for dogs and their people, including an annual Doggy Easter Egg Hunt, Doggy Olympics, Scavenger Hunt at the Mall, Skijoring, SUP with Your PUP, Maple Sugaring Experience, Corn Maze & Halloween Party, Wine & Wags Socials, Apple Picking, “Reindeer” Games for Dogs, and much more!In addition, the company offers corporate wellness programs, special occasion events (i.e. birthday pawties, Adoptaversary, Puppy Shower, Gotcha Day Pawty, etc.), membership, partnerships, and more.Traci was featured in the January/February 2020 issue of Pet Sitter’s World for her focus on sustainability and community. She was also named a Northeast Credit Union (NECU) Planet Protector for her contributions to sustainability. In addition, she has been featured on NH Chronicle, on the front page of the Portsmouth Herald, chosen as a 2022 Best of NH Editor’s pick in NH Magazine, 2022 Best of the Seacoast, and 2022 winner of NH Business Review’s Business Excellence Award for Consumer Services (Small Company).When Traci is not busy dreaming up creative events for dog lovers, she teaches pet pros around the country how to boost their revenue, attract new clients, and give back to their community by starting a dog walking club in their area. To learn more, visit StartaDogWalkingClub.com.
Links:
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/startadogwalkingclub
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
dog, events, pet, partners, pet sitters, members, walking, membership, people, discounts, model, learn, clients, training, grow, area, put, industry, feel, company
SPEAKERS
Collin, Traci B.
Collin 00:00
Welcome to pet sitter confessional today, we're brought to you by time to pet and pet perennials. We are super excited to have Traci Bisson, owner of golden dogs adventure company, on the show, to talk about her journey into pet care, how she manages her memberships, and how she combats and deals with compassion fatigue and mental burnout through everything and how she connects with her clients as well. Traci, super excited to have you on the show and get started with this. For those who aren't familiar with you and your work, could you tell us a little bit more about all that you
Traci B. 00:32
do? Yeah, thanks, Collin. I appreciate it great to be here today. So as you mentioned, golden dog adventure company, which started about five years ago, off of a professional pet setting company that I started, which was it takes a village pet care, and I know we'll talk a little bit more about that journey, but what we have found since it was such a unique model and booster of business for us, for our professional pet Sitting company, is that we started how teaching others how to start a dog walking club, and we have students all around the United States and then in Canada, and we found that it's just a great outreach model to reach your community and boost business and just connect with more people on another level
Collin 01:17
well. And I think it's really interesting about your story there, Tracy, is that this is kind of a spin off of that original pet sitting company. So how did you get started in the industry?
Traci B. 01:28
Well, that's interesting because I was actually working full time in marketing. I was the director of marketing for a local college here, and I was sitting in my office, and at that time, I actually had never heard of a pet sitter before. So we when we found that that was such a thing, we were very happy. We needed to bring one in for ourselves. And he was having a great time with our dogs. He was sending pictures, and, you know, talking about all of these events and adventures that they would have together, not be sitting here in my office so a little bit frustrated that I could not be out there with my dogs. And, you know, I was about there two months, and I decided to myself, you know, really, life is too short. I wanted to spend more time with my dogs. I had originally gone to school and studied animals wildlife management, and I knew someday I would circle back to that, and I was not happy at the job I was in. I'm really not a good corporate type, so that wasn't the position for me. And I decided, hey, I'm just gonna quit this. And packed up my stuff and headed home and decided that I was going to learn how to be a pet sitter. My husband was a little concerned about what I was deciding to do, but yeah, that's, that's kind of how the journey started.
Collin 02:43
Wow. Well, talk about that, that concern, because that is kind of a big leap to go from a corporate job, right? And then, and then go into pet sitting. I mean, what was, what was that transition like for you? Yeah,
Traci B. 02:53
that was interesting, because I was making a good amount of money. But, you know, I've, I've had businesses most of my life. My first one. I started in 2000 and then when 911 hit, I told myself at that point I wouldn't look back. Unfortunately, I did look back. I decided, you know, because we had young kids, I wanted to go back into the workforce. Get the benefits, get the health insurance, all that good stuff, the tuition reimbursement, because my kids, you know, would be going to college soon enough. And, you know, after two months, I was like, is this really worth it? Do you know, to sacrifice my sanity? You know, I'm just not a good inside person. I wanted to be out. I wanted to be hiking with dogs, walking dogs, and because he seemed to be having so much fun with my dogs, and additional research that I did on the pet sitting industry really showed it as a viable opportunity, so I pointed my sights that way. So
Collin 03:52
in the early days, you said you were running a pet sitting company where you're offering the multiple drop ins throughout the day, overnights and stuff. How did you start to do that transition to the the dog walking side of that? Yeah, so
Traci B. 04:06
in 2016 we started the company, it takes a village pet care, and we grew it to 13 employees. And one day, one of my employees at her 30 day review was like, hey, Wouldn't it be neat if we could just all get together after work and walk our dogs, maybe invite some of our clients to join us. And I thought that was a great idea, because we were very focused on community as an organization. So I thought a little bit more about it, kind of she had planted that seed with me, and what it morphed into was what was originally called it takes a village dog walking club. So we reached out, not only to our team, but to clients and to local people in the community. And I would go into different Facebook communities and just, you know, plant a post to gage interest. You know, we're thinking about starting this dog walking club. We're just curious if anybody would be interested. If yes, let me know. I'll put you on our email list, and I had hundreds of people expressing interest. And what interested me the most is, or fascinated me the most was that nothing like this hadn't been started in our area. There were plenty of adventures and events and unique outings for dogs and the same for humans, but nobody who had brought the two together. So that's what really started it off, you know? And we're, we said, hey, let's, let's put this all together, and let's see what we can do.
Collin 05:29
It's an interesting concept, because, again, you are, you're, you're walking with the owners there too, right? It's, it's much more of a communal aspect, much more social kind of time that you have together, that's
Traci B. 05:41
right, yeah. And we didn't know, you know, if people would commit to something like that, so we thought we'd throw a test event out there. And we actually put it out in December, which can be one of the coldest months here in New Hampshire, and it was up a mountain. So, you know, there, you know, now you have to get people who want to hike up a mountain in the snow with their dogs, and we actually had eight people showed up. And I was amazed that first group of people who came out and said, This sounds really interesting. Let's try it. So then, starting in January, we threw out an official event, told a charity to come along with us and talk about their business. And that's kind of what started it off. Why
Collin 06:18
do you think people connect with this kind of thing. So, so Well,
Traci B. 06:23
you know, I think the biggest draw is to nature. Obviously, people don't spend enough time in nature. And granted, this was prior to covid, and after covid, there was a much bigger draw to nature. But I think that was the biggest thing. I think, you know, we tend to find a key a range, age range, or demographic, between 45 and 56 years old. To, you know, maybe they're empty nesters, or maybe they're their partners just don't like to be out and about. And there was this group of women getting together, and they're like, Hey, let's give it a try.
Collin 06:55
Yeah, it's kind of scratching all these little itches, because I know sometimes, you know, we run a dog walking company. And sure, it can be actually boring being out there by yourself, if you like talking with others, if you're more of a social butterfly, that's one thing about this industry, where it's so isolating. And so pet parents can feel that too. And so going, Hey, would you like to meet other people, be involved in something? And yes, get out and enjoy time with your pet, exactly.
Traci B. 07:19
And that's one of the focuses that we had. What we did too, is we also brought in charitable partners quarterly, and we created awareness of their missions. We helped raise funds for their goals. And they would come and they would attend our events as well. They would talk about their companies. They would network with people. So that was a big draw there, to the community and to helping to give back. And then it really just grew from there, you know, we became New Hampshire dog walking club shortly after that, to kind of encompass the larger area that we were focusing on. And once covid, we were kind of in the safety period of covid. After that, we decided to close it takes a village pet care and focus solely on growing the dog walking club, because we could reach a larger market and we could offer education on a grander scale. And that's really when it started to explode. From that point,
Collin 08:11
what was that decision like? I mean, you mentioned that you had to shut down it takes a village pet sitting to then focus on the dog walking clubs. Was that an easy decision for you? Did you ever think, oh, maybe I can make both of these work at the same time? Yeah,
Traci B. 08:27
great question. And it was not an easy decision at all, because we're very connected to our clients. We have, you know, once you get connected to the pets, once you get connected to the people, it's really hard to make that decision and say goodbye, and, you know, trust their care in someone else, which is what we did. We went out and sourced other pet sitters that met our high level of criteria, and we connected them with our clients, and eventually sourced, you know, all those, all those placed, all those clients with other pet sitters. And then, you know what was interesting about the decision, too, as hard as it was to make that decision, I knew that what was next for us, for on a grander scale, of how many more people we could help would be so much bigger than who we were helping. Now I it was just kind of like that poll that I was having that said, you know, there's something else there for you. You need to figure out what's next. And so we, we decided to take that leap of faith, although, what's interesting now, when I look back, I mean, it takes a village. Was very profitable, and so to leave that model and have enough faith to follow this model, you know, into uncharted territory, because nobody had done it before, and to try to figure out as we go, it
Collin 09:48
was risky. Well, and especially, you know, if seeing how you really saw your identity as somebody who helps, is it what I see there is like, Oh, well, you were helping people. Pet Sitting, but we can also help people with this, with this walking club. So it doesn't matter how we're helping, as long as we get to help people, right? We're kind of in the in our lane and where we're most comfortable, yeah,
Traci B. 10:11
and that's really always been a driving force for me. I find the older I get, the more I want to help, the more I want to give back, the more I want to connect people to community and try to be a leading example of that and that that was huge for us to go out find charitable partners, to connect with dog trainers and veterinarians and local pet stores and others who believed, you know, who had the same core values and beliefs that we did, and bring everybody together on a collaborative platform, and really look towards helping people and companies, but,
Collin 10:48
but you are running a business still, right? And so I think that's important to know here is, is that it's still a business. So how, how do, how do your your memberships work, and what does it mean to be a client in a dog walking club? Yeah,
Traci B. 11:03
so that really needed to happen to be kind of that solid revenue source, ongoing, monthly and annually. So we put together, we did some brainstorming, we did some focus groups, we did surveys, different things like that, to figure out what that model should look like? What should it offer? And initially, when we rolled it out a couple years ago, it was very different than what it is now, because we had to learn over the years what was sustainable for us. So now we have that model for membership. We have a similar model for businesses and experts, and we've put that all together and just rolled out a really nice package of in person events and online outreach education.
Collin 11:44
From my understanding of how the model works, it kind of reminded me of a lot like like a Costco membership. Of you pay an annual membership, and then you get discounted prices on the events, and you get special perks that come back to you and that other people may not have a membership, they could still buy tickets to events and such, but they'd be at a much higher price. Yeah,
Traci B. 12:07
exactly. So that was the model that seemed to be the most sustainable, getting the discounts off the events, getting to purchase additional tickets for special events for friends and family, being able to bring your kids at no charge, member only events that happen every month where only members attend. We have them both in person and online outreach education, where you have access to our experts. We call it monthly pop up talks. We have a monthly Ask the Expert series as well as our Ask the veterinarian series, we have discounts to our online store. We have over 20 participating partners that give discounts to members like pet food and treats and supplies and dog trainer discounts, wineries, all kinds of places that we've partnered with. So over the years, we've been able to put together a really nice package offering similar to, kind of like you said that Costco model.
Collin 13:05
And what I really like about that is it's such a more of a holistic approach to this, because I know a lot of people like the membership model is really like a lot of people struggle with how to do that, and I know one approach is, well, I'll just have it like a gym membership. Of they pay me 80 bucks a month, and basically they can use me as much or as little as they'd like, but they're a member there. But what that gets hard at is that's hard to scale, because people are going to go, Okay, no, I want you to come over three times a day, or I want you to do whatever that gets you. And so this idea of going there's all these perks back here. You have to there's a pay wall there in order to get access to all of those. And then there's a whole world of resources, education, community and help to a pet parent. Yeah,
Traci B. 13:55
you're absolutely right. And the model that you described the gym membership, we actually tried that, and it did not work for us. It was our third iteration of a model that actually was sustainable, was scalable, but we tried it all, I mean, during covid. I actually studied under Stu McLaren and Amy Porterfield, who are pretty well known in the industry for digital courses, building memberships, and you know, much of what they taught I could learn from, but because our model was very different, and nobody had tried it before, I really had to morph it and test it many times before I finally got to something that would work. You know, fortunately, we got an eidl loan during covid, which gave me that option and that ability to to test it, because I couldn't go to, you know, like when I was in the pet sitting business. I couldn't go to the pet sitting business down the the way, and say, Oh, this is how they did it, and this is what they charge and this is how it works. I had none of that. So I was building it from scratch, which I love, because I really feel I have. Entrepreneurial mindset, but it was difficult. So we've come a long way in five years. Yeah,
Collin 15:07
well, and again, it takes the focus off of the the membership is about the dog walk, right? And I think that's really where that becomes really powerful. Of the membership isn't about the dog walk, it's about so much more to that and trying to find areas of value. And then once you get some clients, get some people who are part of your members, then going to your corporate partners, then going to the experts and going, I, I've got a group of people over here, right that, that you would like to talk to, and kind of selling, selling them on that if you've got a group that they can come and and pour into give resources and information, it's beneficial to everybody in that
Traci B. 15:45
That's right, and I love that you said that it's so much more than dog walking, because in a focus group that's a couple of years ago, it's that was a big thing that we discussed, that they thought that the name dog walking club, in the title of the company, was a negative connotation, because people were saying, Well, why would I want to walk with pay to walk with you? I can walk by dog myself, you know. And it wasn't until that moment when members said, you know, we need to evolve to what comes next so that people understand that it's outreach education, it's, you know, networking with like minded people. It's social learning for yourself and for your dog, we were just so much more, and then that's when we evolved into golden dog adventure company. Yeah,
Collin 16:26
it kind of reminds me of, like, if you had, like, a self checkout Adventure Club for the grocery store, of, like, why would I pay the grocery store to then get check out my own groceries? Like, that's a weird club to be a part of, but if I can be a member of a club that gets me resources, access, discounts on food and toys and things like that, of the local community, because I know that's what you work a lot on. To Tracy, of most of your partners are very local, at least to the areas that you're serving. They're not, you know, larger corporations. I know you have some as well, but they're they serve your community.
Traci B. 16:59
Yeah, they're starting to get wider and wider spread. I mean, we have many of the big independent food stores, pet food stores in our area, that our corporate partners, the local mall, a number of dog trainers. I think we have seven dog training partners that subscribe to our core value and beliefs. We've got an animal communicator, a veterinarian, a canine fitness expert, pet photographers, a number of different people who've just decided that we want to come together. We do events together, like many of them are joining me for a fundraiser that we have tonight with a best selling author to raise funds for our charitable partners. And it's just that that collaboration has been so rich for all of us, helping each other to share events, helping each other to give back to our communities and all of the unique ways that we do. We have the doggy Olympics coming up this summer, and most of our partners are participating. They're hosting events at their locations. We actually have 14 events in 14 cities throughout New Hampshire. And it's, it's just grown and morphed over the years, as we've proven to our partners that we've got something here substantial that you can feel really good about being a part of and giving back. You know, multiple times,
Collin 18:19
yeah, again, it's this two stage thing. Of you are providing value to your members by the relationship with the partners, by these events and stuff. You then can turn and provide value to your partners because of the kind of members that you have, right? I guarantee you that the members that are part of your dog walking club aren't your average run of the mill pet owners. I would, I would just wager to guess that they're a bit more invested and involved in everything that goes on.
Traci B. 18:47
Yeah, and you're absolutely right. I mean, we have done demographic and psychographic studies over the last three years to get that really key data so that we can truly, truly understand our target market, because then that information, when we share with partners, they can say, Oh yeah, that's exactly who I'm trying to reach as well. And then it's a no brainer for on on each end at that point.
Collin 19:10
So again, the members, I just want to run through this down. When you become a member, you get discounts on tickets to the events, the members only events, discounts from partners. You get the online courses and things like that. Anything else that I'm missing there?
Traci B. 19:23
There's a full video library that's been growing over the last five years that has over 60 hours of expert content on nutrition, canine enrichment, pet parent, well being, lunch and learns, ask the veterinarian. So that's it's like its own little Google search engine, specifically with expertise in the pet industry, yeah, and then some special online things like, I know I had mentioned Ask the Expert, which is an opportunity to be in a zoom session with our expert for that month, which is usually a dog trainer. So you. Get them. You get to ask them questions, anything that you know relates to the dog training industry, where you know those people can charge hundreds of dollars an hour, the members are getting that time with them. And then, as part of that, as well, they also get to hear about any special things coming up, if there's new events, if there's new partnerships, if there's new opportunities. Anybody who joins that ask the expert session gets to find out about that stuff first. So it's kind of one of those little FOMO things. It's like, you know, I don't want to miss out, but any of the good stuff that's coming, so I'm going to join this session. So
Collin 20:37
have you heard of time to pet? Susan, the pet gal has this to say, time
Susan 20:42
to pet has helped us grow exponentially. We believe the platform's features make us by far more professional than other companies who use conventional dashboards. They are the software gurus constantly developing and improving the platform based on user feedback. This decision was a good one
Collin 20:59
if you're looking for new pet saying software give time to pet a try. Listeners of our show will say 50% off your first three months by visiting time to pet.com/confessional what I love about the video library and some of those courses that you mentioned like you record that one time and then that's infinitely accessible from everybody. You can copy that for everybody who becomes a member. It doesn't cost you any more money to make that video, but that's a huge value add to the members as that library continues to grow, so they benefit from that. And again, it's a man I as a pet owner, yeah, get to go and meet up with other pet owners and go on these walks, but I don't have to worry about going to Google, right? Because that's a big, scary world, and I don't have to ask my next, you know, next door neighbor, Greg, about what's going on with my dog. I can go to where there's actually helpful information, yeah, and it's a
Traci B. 21:53
benefit to the partners too, because now they're in this library of very specific, curated topics and experts. And so we do drive a lot of business from the video library back to these experts. You know, once our members learn more about them, they want to do business with them. And I, you know, it's really, it's great when a member comes to me and says, Oh, I listened to their, you know, XYZ presentation in the library, and I'd love to do business with them. Can you virtually connect me? And we do that all the time, and I love that
Collin 22:27
well. And again, it just allows that that bigger, bigger and broader community that those people can have access to where in, especially in the modern day and age too, a lot of people don't know their neighbor, or they don't know somebody across the street. They don't maybe have a friend to go in and have these kind of connections with, and it's a great bonding point over hey, look, you've got a dog. I've got a dog. We're all here to talk about pets and get and help one another,
Traci B. 22:50
exactly and what, what we found too, Collin, which I'm sure you're finding in your industry, especially since covid, is there was a whole nother level of need with reactive dogs, dogs that were socially isolated during the covid time. And we found a whole nother opportunity to service this market as well.
Collin 23:08
I was going to bring this up because I was on your website and I was scrolling down, and you actually have, like, this big stop sign that's like, like, it stops you while you're reading. And it's like, you may be thinking, you know what about a reactive dog? Click here to learn more. And I thought this was just so brilliant, Tracy, because, yes, this is all everything that we've you and I have talked about after this point, is social and get out there in big groups and walking and blah, blah, and and then to know, oh, wait, what's this subsection that I conducted into? So how have you, how have you reached out to and incorporated reactive dogs and those with more anxiety.
Traci B. 23:43
Well, I have a reactive dog myself. She's 15 years old, and we've learned a lot from her because her reactivity was due to mistakes that we made early on in her socialization period. You know, we learned so much from our dogs. And you know, I was not in the pet industry when we had her, we're very fortunate that she's still alive, and we've learned as much as we have about her needs. But so so much information out there about reactive dogs, and one of the things that we're finding is it's not as much the reactive dogs as the individual who is the lover or the guardian of that animal who has become socially isolated over the years and is not really sure how to make friends or go out and have a normal life. How do I leave my dog at home? I can't have a pet sitter come in because my dog is aggressive or, you know, just a whole host of needs. So we've worked so hard over the last couple of years to do a number of different things, from our online reactive dog support groups, where we have extroverts come in and we talk about solutions to helping people live a more normal life and understanding their reactive dog to things like working with our venue. Partners to make a safe and welcoming space. And I'll give you a great example. We worked with a metery here in New Hampshire that had a great outdoor space off of a barn. It had like a roof over it, so we had tables set up underneath it, when about 35 people with about five of the dogs were reactive. And what we had decided to do with them is we spaced out the tables and chairs so that there was room in between people and dogs, and then we set up hay bales and we set up barrels so people with reactive dogs were comfortably sit at the barrels while their reactive dog would be lying behind the hay bale. They could still talk and have normal conversation with people while the dogs were comfortable behind the hay bales, not having any, you know, hard stairs or anything like that. And so we, you know, with our partners, with our team, we've thought, okay, what are other ways that we can be even more welcoming to people with reactive dogs, and it's such a huge need right now?
Collin 25:55
Well, because a lot of those owners carry around shame, they carry around embarrassment. They want to hide, right? They don't want to they don't want to try and because spaces aren't really, you know, beneficial to them, they're not welcoming, they're not open for them. So to know, oh my gosh, I can actually go out and have this experience that's going to encourage them to try more, to dig more. It's going to deepen their relationship with their dog. Not that they don't love their dog already, right? But they can start seeing, okay, here's, here's a path forward. And I think that's really that first step that really gives a lot of help. And I also saw you have, you know, I think bandanas and things like that, that you can give dogs to, to give more of like, hey, when you're here with us, these are what all these signs mean. I love that idea.
Traci B. 26:41
Yeah, we have our whole social colors. It started out originally with just yellow, and we would talk about, you know, dogs wearing yellow and what that meant, and giving them additional space and asking before you would approach a number of different things. But then it expanded beyond that, because some people said to us, you know, my dog doesn't need yellow, and my dog wants to make friends. Is there a color for that dog? So we brought on green and we bought it, brought on blue for training, and we brought on white for dogs with special diets. We brought on red for dogs that were a little bit more aggressive. I think purple is for dogs that are blind. So just you know, when we would educate about that, we have a sign that explains that. And people loved that. They loved the opportunity to be classified in in other ways, so that other people would know, oh, my dog does want to make friends. Or, you know, my dog doesn't necessarily need a bubble, but he is in training. So please, you know, ask before you would approach. So that was a big hit. That was something we rolled out this year. It
Collin 27:44
also helps too, that other members at those events also have that same education and the same exposure to stuff. It's a little difficult to throw a yellow handkerchief on your dog and go out to the local mall when nobody else knows what that means, right? That's still kind of a scary, tense moment, and then we're having to say, oh, yellow means. Yellow means, yellow means, yellow means but it also takes a lot of tension off when it's like, nope, everybody already knows what that means and and if they've been involved, they've also gone through courses and training and talked with the experts so they know how to handle those situations, how to greet those kind of dogs. It really creates this environment of people want to attend because they know that that's where they and their dog are going to be accepted and treated well, yeah,
Traci B. 28:25
and, you know, we even took it a step beyond that too, because when we found that the there was education needed about the dogs, we found that there was a whole another level with the handlers as well, needing to help build up their confidence and teaching them how to advocate for their dogs so they have the ability to do that on our adventure, so that, hopefully, if they are out on a trail by themselves, they're approached by a loose dog, they need to educate another handler. They have the confidence to do that, and they have the ease of tone to do that, because it's very easy to snap and be like using some you know, F bombs and other states approaching your reactive dog. Do you have? Do
Collin 29:06
you have different membership tiers? Or is it a one membership gets you access to everything
Traci B. 29:12
we used to, um, now it's just the one membership gives you access to everything. Yep, okay. Was
Collin 29:18
it because of complications that you got cut rid of, cut the different tiers, or you just wanted to make it simplified, or was it hard to track? Kind of what was the thought process behind that?
Traci B. 29:29
Yeah, some of it became a manual procedure with the technology we were using at the time. We have since upgraded our technology, and there is still another step that we need to partake for what comes next for technology, which we'll do in the fall, but primarily the packages were created to work with the technology that we have. So for instance, you know, we have people asking for family packages all the time, but we would have to track manually in our technology and. Anybody else who was added on to that membership. In the next iteration of our technology, we won't have to. So we'll be able to when our corporate partners come on, because one of the benefits they have is all of their employees, and if they're a charitable partner, all of their volunteers as well, get free membership. So we now will be able to import all of that information, and they will all be able to have their own membership with all of the benefits like everybody else. Now, it's kind of a manual process. They have to ask us for their coupon discount so they can buy their event. So again, it's all driven by the technology, because, again, the technology didn't really exist for what we're doing, and we're kind of customizing and morphing it as we
Collin 30:44
go along. When you were doing those, those focus groups and digging into that kind of thing, what was kind of, I don't know, did you test out different price points for those memberships, and how did you settle on exactly what you were going to end up charging?
Traci B. 30:57
Yeah, we did what we ended up on is a combination of what people felt was manageable, a combination of what we had tested over the last couple years, and a combination of what we thought the market would bear, and also what we needed to make to, you know, maintain a profit and be able to be sustainable and grow. So it was a combination of that. And then every year, since going into next year, I don't think we will, we've raised our annual rate to a point that we it's kind of it's in that uncomfortable spot. So it's like, people still pay it, but people think more about it. So that's when we know that's where we have to stay temporarily. Same with our events. We you know, our events initially were free, then they went to $5 per event, then they were seven, then they were 14, and then they were 20, and then they were 25 it's like eventually we got to that point where we were getting a little bit of pushback. So we knew that was the point that we
Collin 32:01
needed to maintain to grow right. And so what kind of discount do memberships get on those on those tickets? Because, again, they're not paying full price for those correct. So
Traci B. 32:12
$25 is the member rate, and then depending on the type of event, it is, non members pay $10 more, or for special events, they pay $15 more.
Collin 32:23
And again, you mentioned there, of, like, where is that pain point? Where does it start to become uncomfortable with the knowledge of, of, we still have to make money off of this, and that can from a business owner. I know that that can be an uncomfortable position to be in, of going, we still need to make money to make this feasible and pay off, pay for, you know, there's a lot of expenses that go into this. You mentioned the technology. The technology, you know, the event spaces usually don't come free, and everything that's associated with those and and you still need to make a personal living off of this, while also going where, where is that line? Because if I push it way too far high, nobody's going to buy these, and I make exactly $0 but if I pay it way too cheap, I'm still going to make $0 so there's, there's got to be a happy medium,
Traci B. 33:03
yeah. And that was really, really hard too, because, as I mentioned, we didn't have any other business models to look at. So it was a combination of just continually testing and really raising the bar for the quality of events that we put out there. That was a big one. I mean, I'd like to think that if you asked any of our members in this area, you know, how would you explain an event, you know, I would hope that they would use words like inclusivity and welcoming and safe and positive. So we had to get to that level. But what we you know, what we finally realized we were there was two years ago. We had a doggy Easter egg hunt. And that was our third annual, I believe it was, and we put some pretty extreme pricing out there, just to see it was one of our most popular events. We sold out every year. But this year, what we did is we put together a vid package, which is very important dog, and we went out at $150 a ticket, you know, and it incorporated a whole experience. The event was three hours, and we sold out of that first with a waiting list. So I knew we had kind of reached that pinnacle of, you know, people really liking, loving our events. And, you know, it was a matter of us just getting as creative as we could and taking people to places where they never thought they could bring their dog. I mean, we have relationships with private partners, venues, businesses, places where you wouldn't be able to take your dog unless you're with our event. We're able to do things that people can't do unless they're with us. And that's that's when I knew we had finally made it, because people really look to us for those kind of unique experiences, not just an event, an experience where they can do this with their dog, who is like a family member to them. That's really who we cater to.
Collin 34:55
And I love the language, and you've mentioned events, experience. Is, you know, you don't, you sell tickets to get into these things. It is very much this, again, that is so much more than a dog walk. It's, it's, it's with breaking the mold our minds from that, our mindset of, well, well, then we're just going to show up and we're just going to walk together and, I guess kind of talk awkwardly, no, right? There's, there's a lot more that goes into an event. And I think that's where that value really starts to come into play, as we start to go, Okay, if I were to put on an event where I'm going to get 1520, maybe more people there, what kind of stuff could I do for them? How could I treat them well and have them walk away going, that was amazing. Yeah,
Traci B. 35:37
and we'll do things like icebreaker games too, because when you have a reactive dog. You can't necessarily parallel walk with somebody. You might have to, you know, be quite a distance, depending on your dog's comfort level. So we'll sometimes in events, we'll just kind of sit and we'll be calm and relaxed in our space. We'll let the dogs observe. I've got this dice. It's like these squishy dice I throw out, and it has a bunch of different icebreaker questions on it, we'll throw it out, and we'll pass the question around, and that is a nice break in between, say, a nice hike and a swim and going off to get ice cream. Now, so we've done things like that. We've done that at wineries, and they like that too, because even though they're there with their reactive dog, they still get to meet people, learn about people, and share
Collin 36:19
about themselves. And those kind of things really help. I'm sure they cut down on turnover of clients. Because again, when you mentioned of I want to give them something that they can't get anywhere else all of a sudden, that creates a stickiness to that person to go, oh, I want to stay here. Because if I'm not a member, I can't do these things anymore, so it does create this. You mentioned FOMO earlier, but also just this. This is there's, this is the only place for me and my dog, and that becomes a really special place for them. Yeah, I
Traci B. 36:51
agree. I mean, we have had some turnover in the past, primarily when we change our membership model, because, you know, either people don't agree with it, or the price point changes and they just don't want to pay that. We also lost a few members at the beginning of this year, when we made a big decision to move into the positive force free field with our events. So we no longer allow, well, we never allowed retractable leashes, but we also will not allow adversive training tools now, because we found they were not being used correctly and dogs were being hurt, people just really didn't understand, and there was a lack of understanding, you know, due to us just not putting the education out there, we all Were sort of learning from our events, that people felt they had to keep up with the pack. They weren't allowing their dogs to engage with nature and sniff, and they're just, you know, if they were wearing the wrong training tools their dogs, you know, the corrections that were happening were hurting the dogs, and it was causing other problems. And, you know, things that can happen down the road. So we had to, we had to finally rise to the occasion and make the decision, as the partners who were consulted with this decision to move forward with teaching people about positive and force free and the long term effects of using adversive training tools and that that started a whole fire, as you can imagine, in our community, which was which I was actually very happy about. Because when you get people to talk, and I'm sure you know this Collin, who are passionate to an extreme, about their pets, about caring for their pets, about the welfare of their pets, then you get people started on a conversation, but you also get them listening and learning. And so what we really understood at that point is we have to meet people where they are, we have to give them the education that we feel that they need, and we have to help them make the decision that's right for them. Now, not everybody's going to follow in the in the way we feel training needs to go in the best science, you know, related research, but we feel that we can be an organization that could help to make a difference in helping people learn what we've experienced, what we've seen, the long term effects. And I'm not a professional dog trainer myself, but I really feel that we've surrounded ourselves with some of the best in the
Collin 39:19
industry. Well, again, it was important, it sounded like for you to go and make sure everybody was on board. So, I mean, was that a discussion that you had with, with your partners, with your, you know, with everybody involved, make sure that they were okay with that transition, that your company, that the, you know, the club and membership, was moving towards, yeah, well, I
Traci B. 39:37
had the discussion with all of our seven dog training partners, and that's how we made the decision there. We did have one team member who left us, one two partners that left us, and a couple of members that left, and I knew forthright that would happen, but one of the things I've always learned in marketing, and I've been in marketing for over 30 years, is that you have to put out. What you feel is best, you know, it's part of your brand, it's part of your outreach, and you will attract those people. So it's the same thing as a professional pet sitter. You may have to let some clients go because of the way they treat you, or the way they treat your team members, or they don't pay on time, or whatever it might be. So you let them go and you put out what it is you want and you will attract those clients to you. And it was the same with this. We had to up our belief system. We had to really stand behind our core beliefs and values, and that was a big part of
Collin 40:30
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Traci B. 41:49
was interesting, what came out of that, was the opportunity for us to have listening sessions. So we actually put three zoom listening sessions together, and we said, no matter what your beliefs or thoughts are about dog training, we invite you to come and discuss this with us. Tell us what you know, tell us what you think, tell us what you've learned, tell us what you'd like to see. And we collected all of that information, we boiled it down, we came up with deliverables and questions, and then we put a dog training panel together to answer questions that had come out of those discussions. But what was really interesting is that people felt that they could come to this, not be judged and be heard. Because, you know, it's kind of like right wing, left ring wing, if, depending on your belief system, with training, and we wanted to just bring those people together for a discussion. And you know, if you think Republicans and Democrats, if you just bring them together for a discussion about what we all care about, and if we can somehow meet in the middle and provide the quality education to just help people learn and understand that was just that was huge to us. And I really feel that people valued being able to be a part of such a supportive environment and have their understanding of, you know, dog training philosophies heard, kind of
Collin 43:06
hearing your story here, Tracy, you've been doing a lot of changes over the past several years, and a lot of growth and experimenting and trial and error and testing and all this stuff. How have you ever had to deal with burnout, compassion fatigue, or how do you keep going through those times? Yeah, burnout and
Traci B. 43:26
compassion fatigue, for me was really help it happening in the professional pet sitting industry, because I can't not get close to our clients, pets. I mean, I'm sure every pet professional has that problem, because they got into this industry because they love pets, and it's hard not to bond with them. And when they would pass or get sick or have a seizure or whatever, it was very hard to to take yourself away from that. And so you're you've got that compassion fatigue, and then you have the burnout, because you always want to be there for your client. You're probably working weekends, you're working evenings, you're working mornings, you're working in the day, unless you have a team that you're managing. And it's just, it's hard to say no. And I got to that point where, you know, we weren't taking vacations, and my dogs really weren't getting the quality walks and things that they needed. And I just, I wasn't in I wasn't enjoying it as much as I used to, and I love animals so much that I didn't want to get to a place where I couldn't appreciate the work anymore. So that was another big step in morphing and evolving into golden dog adventure company, because now we have a very set schedule. I can hold events and different things whenever we need to, whether it's on the weekend or in the evening, I can take a week off and, you know, still have online education. So it helped with that. Specifically, even though we made the changes and we, you know, we changed from. To pet sitting, to just dog walking, and then we weren't doing it on weekends anymore, and then we did away with overnights, and we were still profitable, but it just wasn't enough, and I needed to take that next step for us. And I know there's kind of that whole set of transitions that pet professionals go through as they try to create a normal schedule for themselves. It's kind of an
Collin 45:23
ongoing struggle well, and I can imagine that's even more of a struggle now, because events, I'm sure, those, take a long time, right? And those aren't during normal nine to five business hours kind of thing. So what's it's been like for you, balancing that?
Traci B. 45:37
Yeah, it hasn't been as bad because, you know, once we got to a place where we finally understood how our process works, it, you know, it was a process of writing down those processes and then teaching them to team members. And we've had several team members now with us for several years who will now lead those events. You know, we've got our safety protocols. We've got our process and what happens. We call them adventure guides, based on the number of people who attended adventure will determine how many adventure guides are needed. And so the whole process was created, and so we could now put these people safely in the field with their training and their pet fair, pet first aid, CPR training, and allow them to run these events and just grow that model, and that has been successful.
Collin 46:24
So are you reaching out into other communities around you to try and get these set up? Or kind of, how are you what's the, what's the growth strategy there for your business?
Traci B. 46:35
Yeah, so we do service several communities, and we're actually in we've held held events in four states, New England, the states are relatively small, so we service northern Massachusetts from the middle of Concord over to the seacoast, excuse me, the middle of New Hampshire, which is Concord, that's our capital, over to the seacoast, and then Southern Maine. And we've also held events in Vermont, but it's been finding team members strategically in these different locations, who know the trails, who know the different business partners, who can hold events in those areas. And then what we'll do is, as we place team members in different areas, we will schedule events in those areas. And as we were doing that, we were finding more and more members were coming up out of Massachusetts because there was nothing down there. So we've since gone into Essex County in Massachusetts, holding events down there so that we can have coverage in the areas that we're drawing the most membership from.
Collin 47:30
So it's kind of this, where are people, Where's where's their interest, and then going, Okay, how do we feasibly make this work? Do we have the support down there? Does that take? Does that mean you reaching out to more partners down there, or are you going to your existing partners and talking about, you know, how they can, you know, that kind of growth that you're having? Yeah.
Traci B. 47:49
So we've, as we've expanded more into Massachusetts, we have more Southern New Hampshire partners. We, for instance, there's a company I'm talking to in the lakes region of New Hampshire, but we're not, we don't have penetration up there yet. So I'm like, let's kind of use you as an anchor. Let's try doing some events and different things together, like we're doing a doggy Olympics event together, and let's see if we can get penetration up there. So a lot of times, what we'll do is we'll kind of pick those companies that we feel have the same core beliefs and values, start a relationship that way, and then as we get penetration in that area, we'll talk about a formal partnership. And then that is, you know, kind of like in a in a mall setting, you've got your anchor stores, we would have our anchors in these different areas, which have allowed us to expand to different counties within New Hampshire, relying
Collin 48:39
on those partnerships, who then have their own local connections, who have their own avenues to see where, again, where that interest is, because the kind of people that you're going after, you know, it doesn't sound like, and maybe this gets into more of like, just what the market is like by you. Because, you know this, would you say that you have a crowded market around you for pet care services. But, you know, I guess we've already kind of talked about how you're not really, it's not really about the walk. So this is a great way to that you've been able to step up, step to the side from from that area. Well, one of
Traci B. 49:14
the things that we found is the market is definitely saturated here for pet care professionals, primarily pet sitters and dog walkers. And when we first got into the industry, back in 2016 it was just really taking hold here, and it has grown unbelievably and especially since covid. And what concerns me is the fact that it's an unregulated industry like dog training. Any anybody could become a pet sitter. They may, may or may not have insurance. They may or may not have pet care, first aid, CPR, they may or may not be certified through psi or naps, and people don't know the difference, you know, just hope that who you're hiring is coming in and doing a good job. So because of that, there's so so many of them, and I feel like I exited. The industry at a really good time when it was getting saturated and people were undercutting each other with their pricing, and moved towards something else that could help just elevate the industry. Could educate about pet sitters and dog walkers and safety and certifications and licenses. So I feel that we're kind of, you know, we've connected with a number of pet sitters and dog walkers, and we kind of offer them opportunities through networking, associate partnerships, things like that, if they are along the lines of the same core beliefs and values
Collin 50:35
that we are, yeah, because, you know, with the service that you're offering, it doesn't supplant or take away the need for that. You know, you may have a member who also has a dog walker who, you know, does, you know, three or four days a week, but they personally want to take their dog to these events, and they personally want to get access to that. So it's a great way of example of how the in you, you know, a lot of people think of how many slices of the pie like, well, you just grew the pie, right? You just went, nope. There's more opportunity here to serve people in a different way, and stop worrying about how thin of a slice can I get out of this particular area by just making a whole new opportunity for yourself and for your members.
Traci B. 51:15
Yeah. And based on, you know, the success that we've had growing this model that was virtually unknown five years ago, we've been able to work with pet sitters and dog walking companies and other pet pros around the country to teach them this model. We have a great mini guide at our website that teaches them our step by step model. It's a seven step life cycle that teaches them how to start it, how to start the Facebook group, how to get interest, how to monetize it, how to attract partners, because we really feel giving that information back is going to help people deal with compassion fatigue and the burnout that they potentially are experiencing, or if they just want, If they feel the pull to to do, do something bigger, or there's a call there, and they know that they can reach more people with with something more. They they want to give back to their community, but they're just not sure how this model has been tested and tried many times. And we hope that others will do it so that we can hear the success that's going on throughout,
Collin 52:21
yeah, I hear a lot of business owners say, I don't know if my plate might where I live is a really dog place. I don't know if it's really, I don't know if there's much of a community here. So I don't really know what to do or what that looks like. And to hear, kind of, you know, your own experience with this, and you know, kind of how, how it's grown, it's going, well, what if we just created a community, and that's us? Going, yeah, if that's, if that's the poll that I have, if I have a desire to see people connected, make a more pet friendly place for people to live, you know, that kind of sounds nice. I guess we kind of might all want to see a little bit more connectedness. Going, yeah, what's, one way to do that? So I've really enjoyed getting to hear how you've put this together, and the unique angles, really, of the the partners and the events, and looking at the education side of everything too.
Traci B. 53:15
Yeah, you know, it's just, it's such a fun, interesting, unique model, and there's just so much to teach, so much we've learned from not only our members, our partners, but from other dog walkers, pet sitters, pet pros throughout the country trying this model that we really feel confident that this is it's just a great way to
Collin 53:41
do something more for
Traci B. 53:43
your community than potentially what you thought was possible, to help people on a level that maybe you thought wasn't even possible. I mean, we've received letters from people during the covid period who said, your your club, your ability to connect with other people literally saved my life. You know, one woman said her husband had died during covid. She decided to adopt a dog. Dog became severely reactive doing during due to not being able to socialize, and we were a lifeline for her. Another woman who was just very mentally depressed and just not sure what to do next in her life, just these lifelines, these letters that I've gotten from people, I just know that there's something more there, and we're reaching people on a different level than I think most of us will will ever realize in our lifetime. So I highly encourage people to think about it and see if this is something that might be right for their community, and just to comment on something that you said there too, we actually take people through a whole exercise to see if this market actually exists where they are, because we would hate for you to spin your wheels. Do all this stuff, and then you're like, Oh, well, nobody's coming to my events, or nobody's coming to my group. We have a whole bunch of exercises that allow them to see if this is going to be viable in their area. Well,
Collin 55:09
I know we've talked kind of high level through a lot of this stuff, and there's so much more here. So Tracy, how can people get connected with you? Look at that guide and start asking questions about whether this kind of model would work for them. Yeah,
Traci B. 55:23
absolutely. So they can go to start a dog walking club.com or they can search for that on Facebook and come to our private community for pet pros, where we talk about marketing and PR and all kinds of good stuff and how to make this viable in their area. Perfect.
Collin 55:40
Well, I will have that link in the show notes, so people can click right to that and start learning more about this. Tracy, I am really appreciative of you coming on the show to talk about this and kind of how it's been structured, and the unique aspects of this that involves creating much more of a community aspect for the pet owners that we serve. So I'm so thankful for your time today. I know you've got a lot on your plate, so I really, really appreciate getting to talk with you today.
Traci B. 56:04
Thank you. Collin, the
Collin 56:05
honor was all mine. I appreciate it. There's no one size fits all model for you, for how you want to serve your clients, or even for where you are serving them. Some models just don't work for particular areas or for particular niches of the market, and that's okay. The important part as a business owner is to be trying things. Is to be experimenting. It's to continually iterate on your ideas and seek out input from others, on their perspective. As you grow and adapt your business and change and adapt your business model, you will get connected with the clientele that you need to through your marketing efforts and all of that additionally, don't underestimate the impact that a business model can have on your mental health and your well being. Some business models are way more grueling, way more intensive than others. Recognize that and understand that you can make necessary changes. We want to thank today's sponsors time to pet and pet perennials for making today's show possible. And we really want to thank you for listening. Thank you so much for your time today. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week. We'll be back again soon.
57:14
Bye.
