535: The Power of Client Feedback with Vanessa Williams
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How can client feedback shape your business? Vanessa Williams, owner of Vanessa's Pet Sitting Services, shares her journey from part-time pet sitting to building a full-time business fueled by client confidence. We dive into the importance of setting boundaries, not only to maintain professionalism but also to foster trust with clients. Vanessa also opens up about hiring her first employee, the challenges of releasing control, and the joy of seeing her business grow. With insights on leveraging social media for client engagement and staying true to her values, Vanessa offers a roadmap for anyone looking to thrive in pet care.
Main topics:
Setting boundaries with clients
Importance of client feedback
Hiring and training employees
Using social media effectively
Balancing personal and business growth
Main takeaway: Getting feedback from clients gave me the confidence to realize I was really good at this and could make it a full-time business.
About our guest:
Vanessa Williams is the owner of Vanessa's Pet Sitting Services, based in Orlando, Florida. With over 10 years of experience in pet care, Vanessa transitioned her passion into a full-time business in 2018. Known for her personalized approach, Vanessa is committed to providing peace of mind to pet owners by delivering exceptional care. Her business thrives on the foundation of strong client relationships, clear boundaries, and her ability to leverage client feedback to drive growth. Outside of pet sitting, Vanessa is an active member of the Florida Pet Services Association, where she connects with other professionals and continues to learn and grow in the industry.
Links:
vanessaspetsittingservices@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/vanessaspetsittingllc
https://www.vanessaspetsittingllc.com
https://www.instagram.com/vanessaspetsittingservicesllc
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SPEAKERS
Collin, Vanessa W
welcome to pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. This week, we are brought to you by time to pet and our friends at the peaceful pet music, calm music for pets YouTube channel. Before we get started today, there have been some recent devastating hurricanes in the United States. If you're interested in helping out and supporting the local businesses the local pet sitters and communities that have been so deeply impacted by these both pet sitters International and the National Association of Professional pet sitters have calls out to collect resources and donations to support those. Additionally, the Florida Pet Services Association has connections and knows where the need is most. Check out the links in our show notes or on our website to see more details, and now on to the show. Today, we are really excited to have Vanessa Williams, owner of Vanessa's pet, sitting on the show to talk about her journey into pet care, how she works to set boundaries and find those right clients, and why she's passionate about being involved in the industry at large. Vanessa, super excited to finally have you on the podcast. Love always seeing your social media posts and everything that you've got going on. For those who aren't familiar with you and your work. Could you please tell us a little bit more about who you are and all that you do?
Vanessa W. 01:17
Absolutely I just want to start by saying thank you so much, Collin, for the opportunity. I'm very grateful to be here. And a little bit about myself. I born and raised in Orlando, and I've been a pet sitter for about 10 years, with it being a full time business for about three years. So I just hired my first employee. So we love that. So just, you know, getting familiar with having an employee, and kind of the things that entail, you know, having your first employee. But I, like I said, I've been a pet sitter for about 10 years. My business has been for about three i service all over the Orlando area, from Windermere, Winter Garden, hunters, Creek, all of the things. So we're, we're all over. So yeah,
Collin 02:10
10 years ago, how did you get started doing this?
Vanessa W. 02:13
Yeah, so I kind of started, kind of how everybody else started doing it as a side gig. So I worked at a hospital, and one of the nurses was like, you love animals, don't you? Do you want to watch my dogs this weekend? So I stayed at her house. She, you know, made me super comfortable, and I stayed overnight, but that was my very first overnight with her dogs, and ever since then, I had watched her dogs for years and years and years, and then I started watching for other co workers and all the things. And then eventually I was the hospital Pet Sitter at my job for all my coworkers. And, um, then I had the idea of making it a business. So I made it a a business, um, a side gig, and I was obviously working full time, but and then I moved down to Florida, back home in 2018 and then I made it an official business in the state of Florida. Wow. So
Collin 03:10
you moved to Florida and then started full time right there. So I was expecting the story to be that, you know, you're at the hospital, you're growing you're working with clients, then you know, you need to get laid off, or you go to this full time, but you moved and started the whole business from scratch, and just went, Yeah, I'm gonna do. What was that like, moving back home, and then going, this is my thing now, yeah.
Vanessa W. 03:33
So it was actually, um, it was actually something that I felt, that I just felt was right for me. It kind of wanted. It kind of was one of those decisions that I felt like, Okay, this is my thing, and I'm good at it, and I have a lot of great feedback. So let's make this into an official business. And transitioning from moving and trying to figure out how to start a business, and all the ins and outs of what that entails was a very difficult but we're here now, and you know, you know, we just gotta keep moving along so. But I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't go back. So I love it.
Collin 04:13
You said that phrase. I got a lot of great feedback, and I wanted to make this how, how, how important that feedback is from our clients, right? Because it helps us make powerful decisions when, and because what that gave you is it gave you that confidence to go, No, you know what? I am really good at this. Like I this is a thing I can do, and we can stay in our heads a lot, if it's just us sitting and thinking and going, what do I do? How do I do this? But once you get that little bit of feedback from a client. It's, it's, it just changes everything, doesn't it
Vanessa W. 04:43
absolutely and for me, it was like hearing the same things from different people. As far as, thank you so much for giving me peace of mind while I've gone away. Thank you so much. I was able to go on vacation without worrying about my pets. I. On. Thank you so much for taking care of my home, you know, things like that. So it was kind of like the reassurance from multiple different clients that I was like, Okay, this is my thing. Let's try to build here well, because we often
Collin 05:13
talk about getting reassurance from, you know, friends or family or co workers or or from, you know, other pet sitters. But sometimes we don't have that, so we've got to look back to people who were already serving and kind of do that. Like, is this, what you like? Is this, okay? Is this? Are you driving with this so that you can know, yeah, how do I do this? How do I do this for other people? Exactly, yeah, you know. And it's just that, that confidence to be able to step out in that, because it's a, it's an industry that, you know, I You didn't go to school for, I didn't go to school for, right? And so there's sometimes where we go, right, okay, am I, is this, is this the right thing, especially when it comes to, actually, the business side of stuff too, going, is this the right cancelation policy? Is this the right booking requirements? Is there's a lot that we have to the suddenly decide that's what right for,
Vanessa W. 05:59
for us, exactly. And sometimes a lot of us pet sitters went to school for something else, and we ended up being full time pet sitters. I went to school to be an EMT and ride on an ambulance and try to be a paramedic or a firefighter. That was my like, you know, end goal to work at the hospital full time. And I ended up, you know, not really loving it. And I kind of was like, Okay, well, that's okay. We we live and we learn, we go through things, and I went to school to be a to go to, essentially be a firefighter or paramedic, and I am a full time pet sitter. So,
Collin 06:39
yeah, well, you said, you said, we live and we learn and we go through things. That's part of it. We've got to, we've got to go through things. Sometimes, too of there's no better education than the than the experience. And I have to learn both what I'm good at, but sometimes what I'm not good at or what I don't like, before I can finally make those decisions, absolutely, absolutely, and so you're, you're, you're growing the business there, and you're, you know, you're three years into doing this full time. I was curious, how are you at working on setting, setting boundaries in your business, so that you have that space between your business and then the rest of your life, sure.
Vanessa W. 07:21
So I'll be very honest, I was not the greatest at setting boundaries. So we had to be confident in ourselves and confident in our business. And as far as setting boundaries, I just have to put it in place a client that is, you know, to the point this is how we work. This is what we need. This is what we need to do before we schedule a meet and greet, or we schedule services, etc, etc. And I think it all comes in with just having confidence. So I know, for me personally, like I just was like, gosh, I don't want to upset this person. I don't want to lose their business, etc, etc. But you, over time, you build that confidence of setting boundaries, lets the lets the client know that you're serious in your business and you're serious about how things go. And I'll be very honest, I've gotten much, much better at it, and a lot of clients have given me great feedback as far as boundary setting, as far as, hey, listen, you know, I used to use, I used to do things this way. Now, as we're growing and as we are, you know, getting more clients, we have an employee now, I want to make sure that we're doing things this way, and people totally understand, I think I've gotten, I mean, less than five people give me issues, and honestly, if they give me issues, then we already kind of know what that means. So, so, um, you know, I haven't really had any issues so far, which is nice. I think a lot of people understand, and a lot of people like that confidence, and they like that. You know, certain things have to be done a certain way. So setting boundaries is super, super important. And I think a lot of us, from what I see, like on the on our Facebook page, and like just going through and talking to other pet sitters, and sometimes it can be difficult, but it just has a lot, has a lot to do with how you feel about yourself and how you know you got to respect your business. You have to respect the client, and they have to do the same to you.
Collin 09:36
Yeah, that that confidence. Clients really look to to us for confidence, and a lot of us, I think, focus on, well, I just have to be an expert at the pet care right? I've got to be really I'm going to showcase my knowledge and how I do a dog walk, or how I work with reactive pets, or how I work with insulin shots with cats. That's how I'm going to impress them. But we often forget the benefit and the how impressive it is. To a client when we can come in and tell them exactly, x, y, z, this is what we follow. This is how things are. This is the booking process that gives a lot of comfort to clients, because so and now again, some clients are going to like that. And like you said, we already know how that's going to go, and that's fine. But for other clients, they can go, they can go, Okay, I know a process. I know a process. I can do something because if we're dealing with anxious or nervous, or, you know, whatever kind of pet parents giving them a process allows them to kind of sink their teeth into something and dig into and actually use, as opposed to just being kind of nebulous of, yeah, you can book whenever, and I'll get back to you whenever. And then whenever will happen. And it's fine, it's whatever. It's like, pet parents kind of don't like whenever. Like, that's my experience, at least,
Vanessa W. 10:50
right? Exactly. And I kind of, you know, I'll be honest with you, I've been thinking about this for the past couple weeks. I run, I feel like I run my business, a little bit like a doctor's office. Um, you, you, you pay 50% to schedule. You pay 50% to book with your pet sitter. Um, you know, a doctor has a very strict schedule. Um, they make time for emergencies. Um, pet sitters also can, you know, make time for emergencies, or make time for people like our last minute people. So I kind of feel like I run a really tight schedule, almost like a doctor, you know, like you have to pay your co pay in order to be seen, you have to pay your, you know, invoice in order to get the pet sitter to come over and watch your pet, you have to reach out to me a certain way. You have to sign documents and sign this and sign all the things. So I kind of just look at it that way, like a doctor's office has very firm boundaries. A hospital has very firm boundaries. If you don't, you know, do their kind of flow of things, as far as being a patient or as far as being a client, there's consequences for that, whether you're not seen by that provider anymore, or you're not seen by that pet sitter anymore. So it's kind of really parallel as far as at least, how I run my business, especially coming from the medical field. So that's just kind of where, where, are, where, how I, how I run things, you know, you kind of have to. Everybody has boundaries, you know, you can't. You can't just walk into a doctor's office and say, hey, I want to see the doctor. And they're like, Okay, great, no problem. Like, you know, you have to, there's a system, there's a there's things to do. So I kind of feel like, with me, people know that? You know? No, I
Collin 12:41
You're as you're talking. I'm just going through all of my experiences of contacting with hospitals and doctors and stuff. I'm like, Oh my gosh. Like, yeah, what you have to get? What do you have to do? You have to get established as a patient with them, which means you've got to go through a process. You have to fill out a lot more forms. Usually have to wait longer to become a new patient, because those are booked out further. You have to fill out the forms, you have to go through that intake, you have to ask answer a bunch of annoying questions, right? That you're like, Oh, can't you just do the thing? And they're like, No, right? And then, then, once you're in the system, it's a bit easier to get in again, and it's a bit easier to book again, and those time windows are usually a little bit closer together. And then, yeah, going the booking. If you ever get thrown to central booking at a hospital like, good luck trying to barter with those people. That doesn't happen. They just go, Well, you need this kind of service. You need this you need this kind of operation, or this kind of thing. We'd schedule that on Tuesdays at three and the next one is in three months. You want that one? And you say, Yes, please.
Vanessa W. 13:41
Exactly, exactly like. Sometimes you can't get in with your primary doctor for months and months and months, and sometimes you can't get in with your pet sitter for months and months and months. Or, you know, they only see like. For us, we only see like for boarding. We only take one family at a time. So sometimes we're booked for the whole month, if somebody goes on a 20 day cruise, you know. And even still, like doctors, know other doctors. They know other specialists, pet sitters. We know other, you know, like certain other providers in our area or in whatever area the client is in. So I think they're just very similar. So I think a lot of the times when you kind of break things down in in things that are relatable to clients. They can really understand, you know, how your business runs and how things run and, you know, just being adaptable to change. You know, because sometimes, like for me, I was very lax and very whatever you need, I'll be there. Doesn't matter if it's 3am 3pm It's 7am whatever. But now that, you know, we realize that that doesn't work, we kind of have to set boundaries with people. And you know, like I said, clients have been really, really good about it, which I'm very grateful for. Yeah, well, you
Collin 14:55
know, and we just got a phone call today from a client who was leaving today. Who suddenly wanted to do like he had denied a follow up Meet and Greet for his his travel. He said it's not necessary, and then today, the day of, he's like, actually, you know, we'd like to just kind of do maybe one last walk through with you all to before we leave in three hours. And I was like, no, no. We had our chance. We had our chance. Has anything major changed? Any medical issues, any new injuries, as you know, anything on fire currently? No, no. It would just make us feel better, right? You know, Vanessa, 10 years ago, I would have been racing over there to be like, let's make the client happy. Let's make sure everything's okay, and let's we'll just waste 45 minutes with them. Now it's going that's not how this process works at all. We we were long past that time.
Vanessa W. 15:46
Yeah, we're long past that time, especially now that you have, you know, set up my employee for the things that happened to me, you know, like, like, the inconveniences you know, of us working solo, um, so, and it took me like forever to hire somebody, because I wanted to make sure, you know, all the things, but, um, but, yeah, I think that boundaries are incredibly helpful. And a boundary, a boundary, doesn't always have mean a bad thing, you know, like it doesn't have to mean I'm mad at you, work with you, sit your dog. I don't want to watch your cat. He's just it's helpful to everybody involved, you know, well. And
Collin 16:31
as you said, as we bring on employees, we want them to have a good experience. Because I don't want to, you know, it certainly is one way to run a business where that that client contacted me this morning. I frantically call all of my employees to see who can get over their fastest right to make the client happy. It's not a good experience from an employee perspective. It's not a place that we would really want to work at, because that's not respecting their boundaries or their life or other things going on with them. And so going here's I need to figure out a way to make this as smooth as possible, and almost in some way, I know Megan, and I think about this in the perspective of kind of protecting them from those things, right? We need to have boundaries to to protect our employees from those, from those harshness, from the from from the last minute stuff, from the chaos that can happen, and that only comes from having those boundaries. Have you heard of time to pet? Doug from bad to the bone? Pet Care has this to say. Time
Doug 17:32
to pet has made managing my team and clients so much easier. Our clients love the easy to use app and scheduling features, and our sitters love being able to have all of their information organized and easily accessible. My favorite feature is the instant messaging. By keeping conversations on time to pet, we are able to monitor our team and ensure nothing ever falls through the cracks.
Collin 17:51
If you're looking for new pet setting software, give time to pet a try. Listeners of our show will save 50% off your first three months by visiting time to pet.com/confessional. I did want you to talk to us about your decision to hire I know you said it took you forever to do that. Talk to us. Why that? What kind of push you over the edge? Finally, well,
Vanessa W. 18:12
to be honest, my fiance had a lot to do with it. If anybody knows, we know that anybody that's with a pet sitter, married, boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever, it's difficult. It is difficult. Um, so he kind of, I've always wanted to hire. I just was really scared, because releasing control is a lot for me. Um, and I want to make sure that whoever is taking care of these animals, or, you know, my clients animals, is doing it the way that I have been doing it that has gotten me great feedback, that has gotten my business growing, etc, etc. So it took me a while, um, and actually I was going to cut back. I was going to cut back and say, as of you know, January 2025, we're not going to be seeing, you know, as many clients, or maybe just cut down on seeing clients. But honestly, my employee, she's wonderful. She came to me just kind of out of the blue, and she was like, you know, if you ever need help, or like, I would love to, you know, be a pet sitter, and if you ever need help, let me know. And I'm like, well, Hugh, you're perfect, and you're great with animals, and I think that you're very you're a very teachable person, and I think that you would be a great addition, um, so we go to meet and greets together, um, and I got her in time to pet, so we we learn time to pet things like that. So she's been wonderful. Ever since like clients really like her, we've gotten great feedback, as far as you know, how you can see conversations and time to fit, you know, just the way that clients talk to her, and they're just so grateful and all of her pictures and stuff like that. So I think that for me, it just needed to be the right moment, honestly, and that was the right moment, and I think that that was my my way of saying you don't need to cut back. I think that you should grow. And having Kim has allowed me to grow, for sure, and also allowed me to learn more about myself and learn more about my business, having to teach it to someone else, if that makes sense. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, you learn a lot about how you do things, and a lot about your business and about you personally, when you're having to say what you do for a living every single day out loud, you know? Like I remember you were saying in an episode, and forgive me, if I don't remember, but you were saying to me that you would, um, teach your employees by videoing yourself, yeah, by recording yourself you walk in, you okay, you to the left of the washer and dryer is the cat food ball. And then here's the scooper. And I just thought that was so brilliant. So I actually do that with her, and I video myself, and she loves it. It's, it's, you can go back and forth if you miss the step, or you miss something, or, you know, you can save the video for next time you know, things like that. So I say all that to say hiring an employee was, like, the best decision I've ever made. And everybody talks about how, you know, you just have to make the leap. And once you make the leap, everything is fine. So,
Collin 21:50
man, so much tied up into that. Vanessa, I mean, you know, first off, you said, like you mentioned, you were talking about your new your new hire, and you said that phrase, man, you're really teachable, and I think that that is a key piece that we miss so much. And Megan and I have missed so often of man, this person has they've got all the all the skills, they've got all the they know how to do dog walks. They're really on their game. They've been in, you know, rescue for years. They've been a vet tech, but we skip that, and I actually teach them what we do and and then we had we butt heads, right? We're getting those reviews. We're trying to give them feedback. They're not receptive, and it never ends well. So having somebody who is, who can be go, I'm ready to learn, teach me as much as you can, and they're willing to accept that, because that does mean I've had to tell people, frankly, of going that means I'm going to give you negative feedback. You are going to mess something up, but I'm telling you things to make you better so that you don't do it again. But sometimes I struggle with people telling me I do things wrong all the time, like it hurts, I don't like it. So how do we have that conversation with people, and not discounting that part, when we bring somebody on, because they're going to get feedback from you, they're going to get feedback from your clients, they're going to be get give feedback from the community, all that, and if they're, if they struggle to handle that, well, that's hard to move forward with,
Vanessa W. 23:16
absolutely and I think that also as as owners, we ourselves have to be teachable. Um, you know, just being open to conversation, open to criticism, whether you know it doesn't criticism always isn't negative, um, and so I just really love that she was really teachable. I think that that really drew me to her, and just her kindness and her light, just kind of really, it was just weird, because it was like, gosh, like, this is it? Like, this is the one? Like, you know, in in it was just, like, a feeling, I don't know. Like, I I kind of, I kind of feel like, you know, you kind of know when you know things you know, anyway, so, um, but yeah, she's wonderful, like I said, she's very teachable, she's very intuitive, she's very, you know, she asked questions, you know, things like that. So we, we really appreciate that well. And then
Collin 24:11
the second part that you're mentioning there, of when you bring somebody on, you learn a lot about yourself and your business, and that is, I think, one of the scariest parts of looking to hire somebody, because a lot of times we do stress about, are they going to do it just like me? And a lot of times we don't know our own secret sauce. We don't really know what makes us so amazing, other than it's us. And so we start to doubt, Can I do anything? Can I teach somebody this? Is this possible? How do I? How do I do things? And talking it out little by little really does help. And once you find that teachable person, you've got to trust that they're going to absorb whatever you tell them, because that's all they know. Think about think about every job you've ever had before. When you started, they assumed what they assumed you didn't. Know anything, and then they were just going to teach it to you. Everybody does this all the time. It's going right? That's that's where I am. I'm on my first day. Whenever I one of my first jobs was at Kohl's, and they were teaching me how to use the register. They had a process, and they had hired, I guess they hoped that I was teachable. And they were going through the process. We have to know what exactly am I teaching? Am I just teaching, you know, how to be on time? Am I just teaching how to scoop litter? Am I what are do we think is important, and that's what's different for everybody, but that's what's so cool about running our own business and bringing those kind of people
Vanessa W. 25:37
on Absolutely. And I think for me, personally, teaching my business to someone, and, you know, having to say those things out loud, because as pet sitters, we spend our day to day by ourselves. Like, there's a lot of there's a lot of like, there's no little to non human contact, as far as, like, you know, in person. And I think for me, it's kind of like when I say things out loud, or when I'm trying to, you know, go over some things with her, and I'm like, gosh, like, I never have heard this out loud before. Like, I've never heard, you know, you know, making sure that we stick out the trash every, you know, towards the end of the visit, so that there's not litter bags in there, or why we put the litter bags in the trash cans outside, you know, things like that. And I'm like, wow. Like, I've never had to say stuff like this out loud, you know. So it's very cool. I'm very grateful. And I've had great, great, huge bags so far, and a great experience too, well,
Collin 26:40
it helps us be better too. Like, I've gone into so many visits, like with those training videos, and I always start outside the home, and I go, Hey everybody, I'm over here at Baxter's. I want to do a quick walkthrough, a couple things before we dive in. And then my brain just freezes because I don't actually, like, I don't actually know the visit as well as I thought I did, or I realized there's about 17 other things that I need to mention that they don't know. And so trying to go, I can't be the be all end, all of institutional knowledge. I have to get this out there for other people, because, heaven forbid, I get hit by a truck, or I get sick, you know. And somebody, somebody else has to come along. They need to have access to that information and really working to externalize that data and how you think about things. You know, one thing I we really focus on a lot is just like, how you even enter a door? Like, that's something we're really particular on, because it's something I'm manic about. So it's going I can teach people that. I can teach people what to look for, how to feel, how to move in, how to hold the door, how to work around it, but I've got to talk it out so that I know exactly what I do anyway. Because it's just a lot of times we'll say, Well, I don't know. I just do it. Well, you've got to talk it out. That's helped so much. Yeah, absolutely,
Vanessa W. 27:54
absolutely. And also sometimes it kind of keeps you fresh, you know, like, it kind of keeps you like, okay, yeah, because I haven't seen this climb in a little bit. So, yeah, I remember that you have to hold the door when the, you know, when the little automatic door thing goes across, you know, stuff like, like, little stuff like that. And listen the manic about doors. I feel you here, here, because I will straight up, like, trying. I'm sorry to go off topic, but, like, I will straight up make a U turn on the highway. I don't even care to make sure that that door is locked. Because I'm just like, God. Like, I'm so OCD of all doors. So I totally get it. Well,
Collin 28:35
I I watch how, I watch how, quote, unquote, normal people open doors. And I'm like, how, what? What are you doing? It's just they're so wide, like, there's no cats. Yeah, I'm over there having a panic attack just looking at this door there. Couldn't there's no cat or dog inside. But it's just it's so ingrained at this point. Like, why? What
28:57
do you think you're doing? Yeah, but
Collin 28:59
yeah, it's, it's, it's going, man, I've had real good success with my clients. I've gotten this amazing feedback. We have to take that time to sit down and go, What was so good about that, right? Not just so that I know how to grow my business, but so I can show it to other people. I can train them. Can teach them. I can continue that. So I can go do other things. I can folk, I can be sleeping, right? That's a huge thing that we don't get to do a lot of times running the business. I can sleep and and somebody who may be a night owl, they can be going out and doing stuff like, that's we, that's what we're looking for. Yeah,
Vanessa W. 29:33
absolutely. I agree 100%
Collin 29:35
one of the things I really like about following you on on social media Vanessa is I love how you your posts. They're always so genuine. They're always so personal. I always feel like they're talking to me whenever you're posting them. And so I did want to feel I wanted to talk about how your your approach to social media, and kind of your relationship with that and your clients. Yeah.
Vanessa W. 29:58
So I. Um, Facebook and Instagram is the reason why a lot of the clients reach out to me so specifically Facebook. So I try to make my posts fun and, you know, jokes or something that's in current events like the Olympics just happened not too long ago, stuff like that, um, and I just think that social media can be really fun for me personally. You can take like I said, current events, or you can take like a funny story that happened to you, or even a post a picture of your own pets. One thing that I realized is people love your pets like clients love your pets. So you know? And just like recently, we went to go see Beetlejuice. Love the movie. Super cute. We're big. We're a big movie household. So we try to go and see the movie, you know, all the movies that are coming out. And I love to make my posts off of things that have happened or that I've done, and turn it into something pet sitting related. Um, so the Beetlejuice post or the Olympics post, you know, just trying to, like, get engagement and trying to make things fun, um, and also, people love to know, like, people love to know what you have going on, you know, like they love you as a pet sitter, but they also love you as a person. And for example, I'm getting married in November. People love stuff like that, like they love to know that you're getting married. They love to know that you bought a new car. They love to know that you're moving so I try to personalize things a little bit. Um, I know that might be a controversial topic, but I know for me personally, that's gotten great feedback if, if I'm a little more personal with people, and like I said, I just think that social media can be a fun tool to get people to engage with you, and to get people to reach out to you, you know, give you a little personality. They know a little bit about you, I can relate to people on things, stuff like that. So I really, really enjoy just making things up and trying to be funny or trying to make light of something. So I enjoy doing, you know, posting on social media for sure. Yeah,
Collin 32:18
I love how you pull from your own experiences, as in real time, right? Your Beetlejuice post, you know, a story says, if you say VPS, VPS, VPS, three times, right? We magically, yeah, it's going, you know, yeah, that's, that's fun. That's something that you just experienced in your thinking about it, you know, I also you mentioned your own pets, kind of making them this reoccurring theme, I know. Yeah, you had another post that said, you know, we just got back from seeing Jurassic Park, and we had Park, and we had our, our chunky source, Rex, you know, you're I always look for those, those posts to see how, how, how that your guests doing? Yeah,
Vanessa W. 32:55
people love Walter. He I will literally go into a meet and greet. And someone's like, I'm sorry, how is Walter? What is he doing? And can you send me pictures of him? Does Walter love this? Like, would Walter eat these? And I'm like, listen, he is, like, the VPS president. People ask about him so much, but you know, he's the trunkiest boy, and he's, he's just the cutest. So, you know, I try to, you know, like I said, I just try to, like, post personal things. I i realize that people love certain things about their pet center, and I just try to hone in on that stuff, um, you know, like I said, with like, life events or like I said, your own pets, I get a lot of great feedback, and it, you know, posting on Facebook helps me fill my schedule, believe it or not, and when I say that, when I make up, like, let's say, I'll make a post tomorrow, I'll get five people to reach out to me and be like, Oh my god, I totally forgot I saw your post on Facebook. I need to schedule for etc, etc, so I try to post pretty frequently, because, believe it or not, it helps me fill my schedule. It keeps people, um, it keeps me on people's algorithms, if that makes sense, you know. So I'll get people reaching out to schedule. I'll get, you know, time to pet of requests, stuff like that. So it just, I feel like social media is such a wonderful tool, like such a wonderful tool.
Collin 34:30
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Vanessa W. 36:41
yeah, or, like, some crazy funny story, or, you know, like, people love that stuff. Like people love, you know, pictures of other people's animals they love. Like, oh my god, this is what happened to me today. Like, I like, I have a client. She lives where, in her neighborhood. She lives on on the back of a farm, and her dog loves this donkey, and his name is Taco, oh, okay, and they love each other. And I think I made a post, you know, a while back or whatever, about these two, or at least about, you know, walking the dog with the donkey or whatever, and there's cows, and there's all these things. Like, people love that stuff. Like, people love to, know, like, you know, like, little silly stories like that, and in, you know, so, but it brightens people's days, for sure, yeah. And so I think that's just
Collin 37:36
important to go as we look at our own businesses, as we look at how we're using our own, you know, social media going, who is, who am I talking to? Ultimately, you know, you know, Vanessa, you are talking to your people. A lot of us go, I don't know, this is just another, I guess, marketing thing, and I kind of have to be here and just have a presence. Those have two very different feelings. You can tell if you're on somebody's social media page, are these people's clients also here? Or is this kind of a placeholder, and that's really just understanding what the purpose is for us, and then lean heavy into that so we're getting the most out of it.
Vanessa W. 38:09
Absolutely I agree, 100%
Collin 38:12
I wanted to spend just a little bit of time here and closing Vanessa, talking about your involvement with the Florida Pet Services Association. Kind of your history with it, kind of why it was important to you to be involved, sure.
Vanessa W. 38:27
So I actually really loved the idea of an organization that was for people in the pet space. And I really could appreciate, like I said, an organization that was for people that are in the pet space, because it can be a little lonely and it can be a little, you know, you're not really sure who you can reach out to or what your resources are. And I really feel like the Florida Pet Services Association really hones in on it, not just being pet sitters or just not being dog trainers, there's everybody, and there's a place for you to connect with everybody. So I feel like my involvement was going to help me be able to connect with other people in the pet space, and also help me just learn a little about how other people do do certain things, like, how they run their business? What do they do like, how do like, what area do you service? Do you you're a dog trainer and you're a dog sitter and a pet sitter, you know, things like that. And just gaining those relationships is super, super important to me personally, and just having those people you can connect with. So I felt like I really wanted to be a part of something that was that I don't see I don't see anything else like that organization. I don't see a lot of pet associations. I don't see a lot of, you know, places where you can connect with people that do the same. Thing as you and even if they do something different, you know, dog sitters, dog trainers, people that do you know, anything, all the things. So I thought it was such an I thought that was such a brilliant I thought that was such a brilliant association to start. You
Collin 40:20
know, I think many of us can feel frustrated by the resources that we have around us, you know, I know, like we kind of, we may go join a chamber of commerce, or we may go join a networking group, or we may go join, you know, a professional organization, or may go and sometimes we can feel like, like, do I really belong here? Like, I we study up to so many events and so many organizations. It's like, I don't think this place is for me, right? I don't they don't understand. They have no resources to help me. I can't even ask them the right questions, because they we're talking a different lingo here. And so to have an organization where everybody is on the same page, as far as like, welcome, like, our people are here, it all of a sudden allows you to like you can also feel like you can breathe a little bit easier when you're around your people, right? You can breathe a little bit easier when you're you're connecting with people who get you, who understand what's going on and have found you've kind of found your home in that aspect,
Vanessa W. 41:15
absolutely. And I think for me personally, it's always nice to, you know, make connections with other people, especially in your state or in your area, because you never know what opportunities can arise. You don't know, you know what opportunities. You know, as far as, um, like, someone asked me today, hey, Vanessa, do you know someone in the apoca area? Apopka is a kind of, more of a rural area, and I don't service that area, and I'm like, I know this girl from the Florida passengers Association, and I absolutely send her information, because had it not been for that association, I wouldn't have known that she was in that area to be able to provide her business to someone else, or to provide a business opportunity. Um, so I think it's, there's so many working parts. And there's so many pros to being in an organization like this. I mean, you see organizations for doctors, for nurses, for veterinarians, for, you know, other things like that. And you don't really see anything for like pet sitters, dog walkers. And also, there's a association for veterinarians to dog trainers, all the things. So I think for it to be everybody is wonderful, because you can get to know how people do things and the cool stuff that everybody else has going on, you know, yeah,
Collin 42:35
it gives you place to refer to, right? I think that's really important. And learn from other people is absolutely real quick here, because I know I actually skipped over something in my brain. It just came back and won't take too much of your time. Of your time. I didn't ask. You know, you service, you service Orlando, and that seems that's a really big place, right? What's, how do you how do you service a place like Orlando, and all the diversity of clients and requests and things like that.
Vanessa W. 43:03
Yeah. So to be very honest with you, Orlando is such a special place. It's a melting pot of a lot of different areas. I mean, you've got people that have farms, and then you have people that live in high rise apartment buildings, and, you know, it's just, it's a, it's just a melting pot. And I service all over Orlando. And Kim services, I think she services like area close to downtown. So to be very honest, a lot of my clients come from all over. So I love to be able to just, like, go all over and, you know, I mean, Orlando is Disney World to everybody, you know, like, how, how cool is it to work? You know, I actually see clients that are out by Disney. I see Disney employees because of their schedule, things like that. So I think that there's just a lot of, there's just a lot of character here, you know. And also, the one nice thing about Orlando is you can get anywhere in half an hour. So you can get to the top, you know, left and right, all over of Orlando in about 30 minutes. So that's always nice.
Collin 44:22
I love hearing about that because, yeah, you know when I think Orlando, I do think, well, it's just Disney, right? Just Disney's there, right? What? What could possibly be? So, yeah, but, but it takes having that special knowledge of of your community, of your local area, to go, no, here's how I best conserve them, right? And you even naming off, like being able to serve Disney clients, and also farms out west, further inland, and then the high rises closer to like all that's going that kind of knowledge as a business owner, of what is driving the economy where the needs of people are, that helps so much. And. Really is important for us to be just cognizant and aware of what's going on. Otherwise we don't, we don't know who to serve or how to serve them,
Vanessa W. 45:05
absolutely, absolutely. And it's always nice to, you know, get familiar with, you know, because Orlando is a huge place, so there's a lot of things familiar with. There's a lot of things to learn, and all of the things. So it's nice to know where, where my clients are coming from, and where everybody is at, and also routing yourself and, you know, hitting everybody's house within, you know, your routes for the day, and just kind of, you know, enjoying your city. You know,
Collin 45:40
I love that. Well, Vanessa, I want to thank you so much for for your time today and for encouraging us to get involved in ways that we can and also by getting that feedback and leaning into that feedback through every stage of our business and so that we could be making those good decisions, I really appreciate your time today, for those who are interested in following along and getting connected with you. How best can they do that?
Vanessa W. 46:03
Yes, so my Instagram and my Facebook is Vanessa's pet sitting LLC, and my email is Vanessa's pet sitting services@gmail.com if anybody wants to shoot me an email, but I'm very, very present on Facebook and Instagram. Cool. Well, I
Collin 46:21
will have those links in the show notes in on website so people can get connected with you right away. Vanessa, I really appreciate your time. This has been a real pleasure to finally have you on the show. Thank you so much.
Vanessa W. 46:32
Thank you so much. I'm super grateful. What does
Collin 46:35
your client's feedback mean to you as a business owner? It should be invaluable. We need to know how our clients are feeling about our services. We need to know why they continue to use we need to know what they love and what they don't love, what they'd love to see us do more of and what we may need to work on without this kind of feedback. How in the world do we know what we are doing and whether it is working. We don't want clients that just use us out of convenience or because we're the first one who picked up the phone. We want to be a business that's filled with passionate clients who love and rely on our services. What better way than to send a quarterly Google Form, or just ask them the next time you see them, how am I doing? What can I do more of to continue to serve you well? Is it nerve wracking? Absolutely. Is it a necessity? Absolutely? We really encourage you to reach out to some clients over this coming month or two months, and just ask what kind of feedback can you give us? We are looking to improve, to make sure that we are serving you with the excellence that you deserve. We want to thank today's sponsors, tying to pet and the peaceful pet music, calm music for pets, YouTube channel 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. You.
