577: Burnout, Automation, and Private Equity—A Pet Industry Roundtable
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What does the future of pet sitting and dog walking look like in a rapidly evolving industry? Collin sits down with four industry leaders—Morgan Weber, Doug Keeling, Michelle Kline, and Daniel Reitman—to talk about the changing landscape of pet care. They explore the challenges of economic uncertainty, competition with tech-driven platforms, and the impact of private equity entering the industry. The conversation highlights the importance of balancing automation with personal relationships, professionalizing businesses, and maintaining strong core values. Ultimately, they all agree that the next 30 years of the industry will be shaped by how pet sitters and dog walkers step up today.
Main Topics:
Economic uncertainty and industry growth
Technology and automation integration
Raising professionalism standards
Burnout prevention and healthy boundaries
Private equity, mergers, and acquisitions
Main Takeaways:
Michelle Kline
“The quickest way to undercut your value is to try to be everything to everyone.”
It’s tempting to say yes to every client request and to try and be the perfect fit for every pet owner out there. But the truth is, trying to be everything to everyone will drain your time, energy, and resources — and ultimately dilute what makes your business special. The most successful pet care businesses are the ones that know who they are, who they serve best, and what value they bring to that specific group. When you know your ideal client, your marketing gets easier, your systems become clearer, and your value skyrockets. Don’t chase everyone. Focus on your people — and serve them exceptionally well.
Morgan Weber
“Success as a business owner is not tied to your level of burnout or sacrifice.”
Let’s get one thing clear — burnout is not a badge of honor. In the pet care industry, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the longer you work, the more you sacrifice your personal time, the more successful you are. But real success comes when you build a sustainable business that supports your life — not one that consumes it. You can care deeply for your clients and their pets without sacrificing your health, your family time, or your joy. Boundaries are professional, rest is productive, and saying no is sometimes the best thing you can do for your business.
Doug Keeling
“We can use technology and automation to enhance relationships — not replace them.”
Technology is changing the pet care industry — fast. But the goal isn’t to replace human connection with automation. Instead, smart pet sitters are using technology to enhance the client experience. Whether it’s using AI to brainstorm gift ideas for clients, automating appointment confirmations, or streamlining admin work so you have more time for personal touches — technology should make your relationships stronger, not weaker. The future of pet care is a mix of high-tech and high-touch, and the businesses that figure out how to balance both will thrive.
Daniel Reitman
“We’re not in the pet care business, we’re in the peace of mind business.”
At the end of the day, pet parents don’t hire you just to feed their pets or take them for a walk. They hire you for the peace of mind that comes with knowing their pets are safe, loved, and cared for — even when they can’t be there. When you focus on delivering peace of mind, you stop competing on price and start building unshakable trust. Peace of mind is the product, and exceptional care is how you deliver it. Every visit, every report, every communication is a chance to show your clients they can breathe easy knowing you’re there.
About our guests:
Morgan Weber
Morgan Weber is the owner of Lucky Pup Adventures and the host of the Lucky Pup Podcast. With a passion for raising the standards in pet care, Morgan helps pet sitters and dog walkers build sustainable, value-driven businesses through her Align Cohort. She’s also the proud owner of a pet store and a line of memorial candles, all designed to serve pet parents with excellence and heart.
Doug Keeling
Doug Keeling is the founder of Bad to the Bone Pet Care and a passionate advocate for professionalization and community building in the pet sitting industry. Through his YouTube channel, Doug the Dog Guy, he shares real-life lessons and strategies for pet sitters looking to grow their businesses. Doug is also a regular speaker and mentor in industry groups, known for his candid advice and strong belief in personal service.
Michelle Kline
Michelle Kline is the founder of Dog Co Launch and Dog Co Summit, where she helps dog walkers and pet sitters create thriving businesses with strong marketing strategies, operational systems, and clear brand identities. Known for her expertise in niche marketing and helping businesses find their ideal clients, Michelle is passionate about professionalizing the pet care industry while helping business owners create sustainable, fulfilling careers.
Daniel Reitman
Daniel Reitman is the owner of Dan’s Pet Care, one of the largest pet care companies in the New York area. Known for his focus on technology, innovation, and professionalism, Dan is passionate about raising the bar in the pet care industry. With over 15 years of experience, Dan brings both big-picture thinking and tactical expertise to conversations about scaling, leadership, and the future of pet care.
Links:
Michelle Kline — Dog Co Launch
Website: https://www.dogcolaunch.com
Free Facebook Group: Grow Your Daily Dog Walking Business with Dog Co Launch
Dog Co Summit (industry conference): https://www.dogcosummit.com
Morgan Weber — Lucky Pup Adventures / Lucky Pup Pod
Lucky Pup Adventures (Pet Sitting Business): https://www.luckypupadventures.com
Lucky Pup Pod (Podcast): https://www.instagram.com/luckypuppod/
Memorial Candles: https://www.luckypupadventures.com/memorial-candles
Doug Keeling — Doug the Dog Guy / Bad to the Bone Pet Care
Website: https://www.dougthedogguy.co
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DougTheDogGuy
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dougthedogguyofficial
Bad to the Bone Pet Care: https://www.badtothebonepetcare.com
Daniel Reitman — Dan’s Pet Care
Website: https://www.danspetcare.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danspetcare
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DansPetCare
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DansPetCareOfficial
ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com
PSI (Pet Sitters International): https://www.petsit.com
Kristin Morrison (Six-Figure Pet Sitting Academy): https://www.sixfigurepetsittingacademy.com
Florida Pet Services Association Conference (where Morgan spoke): https://www.floridapetservices.org
Blackstone (Owner of Rover): https://www.blackstone.com
https://www.petsitterseo.comProTrainings: For 10% off any of their courses, use CPR-petsitterconfessional
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Pet care industry, economic uncertainty, business opportunities, pet sitters, dog walkers, technology integration, AI tools, client relationships, business growth, industry challenges, professionalization, burnout prevention, business values, market competition, industry trends., Daniel Reitman, Lucky Pup Pod, pet sitting, dog walking, pet store, business challenges, industry growth, podcast, Memorial candles, Lucky Pup Adventures, industry education, inclusive business, client excellence, Tony Dupet, Pet Perennials
SPEAKERS
Daniel Reitman, Michelle K., Morgan W., Doug Keeling, Susan M., Collin
Collin 00:00
Music, welcome to pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Today, we're brought to you by our friends at kind pet and pet perennials. Well, hello everybody, and welcome back the dog walking. The pet care industry continues to change at a rapid pace. Now more than ever, we have larger businesses than ever that are impacting local communities and economies. Large money is pouring into the industry through veterinary clinics, sporting and daycares and mergers and acquisitions. There's a lot of change going on, and so today, we're really excited to talk about where the industry is headed and how things are changing. And to do that, we've assembled our crack team of individuals here, running businesses all over the country for another round table. We're really excited to have Morgan Weber from Lucky pup living. I don't know how to introduce you anymore, with all the stuff that you've got going on, Morgan, but really, really excited to have you on the on the show. I think you seem to add
Morgan W. 01:02
at all to the end, like I'm a research paper, because there's, there are a few things going on here.
Collin 01:10
And we've also got Doug Keeling with bad to the bone. And Doug the dog guy, Doug, super excited to dive into this with you today.
Doug Keeling 01:17
I'm super excited to be here. Thanks for having me.
Collin 01:21
We've got Michelle Klein with dog co launch. Michelle, an absolute pleasure to have you on Yeah, thank you for having me. And we've got Dan Reitman with Dan's pet care on the show as well. Dan really excited and thankful for your time today. Always happy
Daniel Reitman 01:37
to be here and love chatting with you guys. So excited for today's talk.
Collin 01:42
Well, I want to kick off with starting off about kind of opportunities versus challenges in the industry. I'm often reminded about how many people will talk about, for instance, like YouTube, they'll say, Well, now's a terrible time to get involved in YouTube. You should have gotten started 10 years ago. It's nothing but grinding, and it's an awful place to get started so and with the pet industry being bigger than ever, more people involved in the industry than ever. From from your your perspective, how are you seeing the balance between challenges versus opportunities? And and Morgan, I would like to have you kind of kick us off with this. From your perspective,
Morgan W. 02:21
I think that anytime there is some form of economic uncertainty, there is always going to be more people who are coming out to be dog walkers and pet sitters, because it is a business that has fairly low overhead, fairly easy to get started. I know Doug and I actually both started during an economic downturn, a recession back in 2013 and there's a lot of other pet sitters who are still around today, who started back then. And I think that a challenge is up to the interpretation of the person who's experiencing the challenge. And while there are a lot of businesses who are starting up right now, if we look at just plain statistics that you know, only 50% of businesses make it past whatever it is five years, and by the time you get to 10 years, it's only 75% so anything that you are dedicated to and you want to start out with a good foundation like you can take it as far as you want, even if there are a lot of challenges in the current economy or The current, you know, community. So I don't know, I'm, I'm also a believer that I like a good challenge, and so when there is a challenge, it's almost a little bit more exciting for me, because it gets to it gets me thinking in different ways. So I'm all here for the challenges.
Daniel Reitman 03:38
Yeah, I was gonna, I agree with that? I think I was fortunate enough. So I started in 2009 right after the housing crisis and everything collapsed. But I was young enough and dumb enough to think I could, like do something. Didn't plan on turning it into anything, but because there wasn't a ton of competition, not that I was lazy, I didn't work smart. And I think now what it's going to do is the people that are going to be entering this industry, under the peck space in general, you have to be somebody who is working intelligently, because you can't just slap up a website and be like, you know, this is, you know, Frank's dog walking, not having SOPs in place, not having well trained employees, because, like, the bar is beginning to raise, and this is one of the things that we're really pushing at our facility with. What we're doing with cage free boarding is, you know, for ever it's been, you know, your dog goes and stays in the kennel, and your dog, or your dog goes and stays in the crate. I personally don't think that has to be experienced for every animal. And I think that when you have increased competition, introduction of technology, as a business owner, we're able to do a lot more than we used to be able to as an individual person, like I'm able to use AI for copywriting, for email writing. Org, you know, setting up posts and social media, writing scripts for every like you don't need as many people anymore, and the tools have become even more accessible. The barrier to entry about it with our industry, is low, but there are now people like Doug, people like Michelle, people like Morgan, people who are out there sharing their experiences, talking about stuff where, like, again, when I first started, there was basically Kristen Morrison and, like, psi had just been around for a little bit, and it was basically I was running around in the dark trying to figure it out. There are amazing resources now. So just anyone coming into the space, if you want to put in the work, and you want to work smart, you could succeed, but it's, it's, it's not for, I just want to do this for fun, kind of a thing anymore. Like, no, this is a real business now. Like, this is an industry that has grown exponentially. I mean, like, I never thought my goal when I first started the company was to make the salary of a vet tech at the time, which was, like, I think, 35 grand, and we generate that in a much, much, much, much smaller time frame, to the point now where I know the version of me who started this company would be very, very proud of that. So I think it is. I think it's good. I think it's better for the industry as a whole.
Michelle K. 06:22
I Yes, yeah, I really agree. I think it. I think we are headed into a season of real opportunity in this industry. I think the bar is raising, though, to Dan's point where the you know, I think for a long time, this industry was full of people who loved animals, who the business side came secondary. And I do think success in today's day and age is at least going to require a balance of business and animal priority, not the animals will ever be de prioritized, but there just has to be an equal amount of focus on growing a sustainable, well run, profitable business in this day and age. But I don't think that means there's a lack of opportunity. I think there's more opportunity than there's ever been.
Collin 07:17
I agree. I agree. You know, the
Doug Keeling 07:19
the economic uncertainties that we're all kind of facing and looking at right now can be stressful, but I'm so much more excited by the opportunities, the the opportunities are really endless, especially with just the advancements that I've seen over my 10 and a half years in business. I mean, like Dan said, you know, when I started, I was running around in the dark. And now there's Pet Sitter confessional that you can listen to every week and get all of this great insight. And you have Morgan's align cohort, and you have Michelle's dog co mastermind. I'm in both of those groups right now, and I'm in all of the Facebook groups, and we're all kind of really coming together to raise the bar. And I think that is such a beautiful and incredible and exciting thing. And I think that's something that's like, as we move forward, there's going to be more and more opportunities come available to us that are looking for those opportunities. You know, I think you can put your head in the sand and let these things be overwhelming, but that doesn't have to be the case. And I think now with what we're seeing with what chat, GPT and some of these AI business tools are capable of. I mean, a lot of us could eliminate, like, an entire administrative role from our team with some of these AI tools and be able to provide a higher caliber service for possibly even a lower cost. It's it's
Collin 09:01
very exciting. You all touched on this very just this aspect of the whole industry maturing, right? I think for a long time, it's kind of been this little cottage industry, kind of, there's a lot of this Mom and Pop aspect, which is wonderful, and it has this as Michelle's point, like, there's this deep passion, abiding passion, to that. But as the whole industry has matured and professionalized, it's meant that this business acumen has to come alongside that. And that does mean that now there's a lot, I think, of a lot more, I think, advanced or more high level discussions than there's ever been before. I think that even the aspect of like, you know, 30 years ago, it's like, Oh, I'll use a robot to replace an admin assistant. And people have been like, you have an admin assistant. What right? I think that that's a really healthy aspect of the fact that the industry continues to be able to sustain this higher and higher level of both business and professionalism. I think to touch on that. Too.
Daniel Reitman 10:00
And this is one of the things I'm seeing with the boarding and daycare side of things, is for years, you know, I've watched the big guys, you know, dog, topia, camp, Allen, all these places, grow. And I've, you know, I've gotten to, I get to learn from the things that are working for them and work and learn from the things that I personally don't believe are working for them. And one of the big things for me is something that you know, working in the industry, you get to kind of hear the stories, you get to know, like what's actually going on behind closed doors, and these stories come out more and more. This is not like naming any one particular brand in particular but there's a lot of stuff that happens in these places that dog owners aren't aware of, and to me, it's appalling, like I didn't realize until I opened our facility that almost none of these places have staff overnight, I went and I called everybody within a 40 mile radius, radius of us, just Like to see and there was one company that had one person overnight, and they have the capacity for 200 dogs. And to me, that's criminal, because if, God forbid, there's a fire, like I've experienced it, we've had lucky enough, where I live, you know, 90 seconds from our facility. So if there's a medical emergency, I'm able to go there, assess the situation. We have an on call that we work with, and all that kind of kind of stuff. And I think things like that, things like that, that attention to detail of like, you know, making sure that extra level of safety is there, making sure, and on the field services side, making sure. Dog walkers, you don't, you know, they don't have to be a vet tech, but having a basic understanding of recognizing bloat, like don't feed a Great Dane and take them for a run down the block right afterwards, like teaching them the kinds of things that the average person isn't aware of. But if somebody wants to call themselves a care professional, there needs to be the investment in the education, because if you don't care about this stuff, yes, you can make a ton of money in this industry, short term, but long term, if you don't do right by the the animals and things go wrong over and over and over again, like there's a large trait, a large chain in New York City that I have heard horror stories about, and they basically write a check Anytime something happens. And to me it's just unacceptable. And I think that, you know, it's it's funny, you mentioned the whole raise the bar thing before we have at dance pet care, we have four core values, and number one is love of animals. Two is peace of mind. Three is bring our bets and our fourth one is raise the bar. Because I genuinely believe that what we're trying to do as a company is push that forward. And you know, I think I've said this many times before. I think you all know I'm a very competitive person, but I'm not looking to put anyone out of business. I'm looking to compete in a way that if you want to compete with me, you don't want me to take business away from you. You have to do better. You know, we are not running a factory floor here with robotics, and if a machine falls over and breaks, we're not dealing with loss of life. But if somebody makes a mistake that, in my opinion, 99% of the time is avoidable, an animal gets hurt, or, even worse, like that's something that's not okay, and I don't think the industry should accept it. And I think a lot of old school companies maybe don't necessarily accept it, but it's kind of like, it's the cost of doing business. Because I've heard it, I've heard it being said by people, and to me, it's just like, you know, it's appalling. And I think that's going to be something that's going to be an interesting balance we see over the next decade. Because, you know, this, this space is booming. Lots of money is coming into the space. You have people with money who want to come in and they want a turnkey solution. And caring for animals isn't a turnkey solution. Like you can have everything dialed in, but you got to make sure you have good leadership. You got to make sure you have good training, and you got to make sure you have good quality assurance. If all those things are in place, like you make a beautiful front, you know, showroom, and if the back's a mess and everyone's getting hurt and things like that, like it's, you know, it's just not gonna get better. So I do think the competition, the growth and the maturity of the industry is gonna result in those things getting better. I am excited about that, and hopefully get to be a part of it. Yeah, I
Morgan W. 14:17
think another part of the professionalism of the pet care industry is that a lot of people have learned kind of the hard way of how prevalent burnout is in our industry. And the more professionalized we create the industry, the better boundaries our clients come to expect from us. And I think that a lot of people get into Pet Pet Care, like Michelle said, because people love the pets, not because they want to be a business owner, not because they want to run a team, but because they saw a gap being I needed somewhere safe to take my pets, and I didn't find it, so I decided to do it myself. That's a very, very common thing that you hear, but when we come from that. Perspective, a lot of times, we learn to give too much, and we tend to give more of ourselves than we are, than we have a capacity for long term. And we set up some kind of some quote, unquote, bad habits of giving beyond our bounds. And the part of the professionalism of the industry that I'm excited about is helping people learn that they don't have to do that and that they can be a successful business owner and have a successful business and have clients who care about them and to care about their clients, while still maintaining healthy boundaries and not having to work 24/7, because I think all of us here have experienced working 14 hour days, seven days a week, and it's not a healthy long term solution. And so I'm also excited to see newer people coming into the industry and learning right away that they don't have to do that, and learning that they can hire, that they can stay a solo and just set really good boundaries and take time off and have it be seen as a true, legitimate career and a legitimate job, without it being seen as, Oh, you just do some pet sitting on the side that's really cute, like really professionalizing it as a true career that also has boundaries associated with it. And I
Collin 16:14
see that a lot too. People who come in, they're a month in, they're six months in, and they're already, oh, I'm gonna hire. I said, No, here are my here's my office hours. And I'm like, Whoa. Like, I didn't learn that till maybe yesterday. But this is amazing, like, it is a really good sign that a lot of these lessons are really starting to matriculate out, and that it's actually setting up this. It's just an expectation when you come in, like, Sure, there's the standards of the pet care, but also there's the standards of being a business owner that now it's like, oh, this is just, we just come in and we have office hours. That's just what we do, is that's okay, cool. And it kind of picks up, and it can all start snowballing a little bit faster. Next time, I have mixed feelings about that, because so
Daniel Reitman 17:03
like, and I'm saying this is someone who's been hospitalized multiple times from working himself too much. So I've never been the guy who knows how to balance work and life. I think that, you know, I think it's super healthy. I'm not knocking it. I have nothing against it. And I think, like, if you are going to build a business and you want to set those boundaries from the ground up, I think it's fantastic, but I think it's always, I don't want anyone to sit out there thinking like, oh, everyone's going to do that. There's always going to be somebody who is willing to do that extra thing. And you don't always have to do the extra thing forever, because eventually you will be able to have the staff for it. And so, you know, in the game of competition, it is being able to offer that extra thing and be able to do that last minute appointment and take that last minute thing on, like, I can't tell you, over the years how many times I haven't had a client and, you know, call me in a bind. You know, it's happened Christmas Eve. They're like, hey, my pet sitter bailed on me. And I'm just like, All right, I'll figure it out. Made it work. And then they've been with me for 20 years, or, you know, 2015 years, spent 25 $30,000 with me. It's the clients that you do those things for that really remember you now again advising you to work to the point where you are ending up in the hospital because you think you're having a heart attack, which I've happened twice in the last like seven years. Like My lifestyle is not one to copy in terms of choices and addiction to Red Bull and all sorts of other things that I have, you know, myself fueled with, but I do think that it's important for anyone out there who is starting is figuring out, you know, how you want to stay competitive and again, protect your mental health, do all those things, but you know, there is always going to be someone who is willing to do that extra thing, and it's, it's figuring out where you want to kind of have that balance. You know you want, especially in the beginning, when you're first starting out, you do want to figure out a way to kind of get your foothold in an industry and just get, get those first 10 clients, get those first 20 clients, get those first 30 clients, again, giving people not to protect their mental health and their physical Well, being like, definitely do that. But just, you know, something to think
Michelle K. 19:29
about. One area I'm seeing something kind of similar is, and I know we're probably going to segue at some point to technology and automation, so sorry if I'm just shooting us that way too quickly. But I see that also in a trend in our industry that I think is both really healthy and also one that we need to be a little bit cautious of, which is this trend in our industry to go really automated in some ways, where we're built or we're seeing more and more businesses doing that, and it's like there. Such a value in these systems and in these time saving strategies and just opportunities. And I think we need to be really cognizant of there are businesses that are going to retain that really personal touch, and that's really succeeded in our industry for a really long time. And so I just think we're sitting at a lot of really interesting tension points of like system building and automations and operations and the pieces of our industry that have really sustained it in really beautiful ways for such a long amount of time. And wanting to make sure, I think, that we don't over optimize, optimize in either direction, because I think there are risks and getting over automated as well. Have
Collin 20:43
you heard of our friends at time to pet? Susan the pet gal, has this to say, time to
Susan M. 20:48
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 21:04
If you're looking for new pet sitting 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/that actually brings up a really good point. And we'll just go ahead and dive right into that, Michelle, because I know, as as the industry, kind of it is kind of bifurcating along this line of this, this kind of hyper automated, commoditized service of things are easy to book. There's a lot of different platforms out there. Some people run their businesses as it's a click of a button and I just show up, no questions, ask, you know, typically, at a slightly cheaper rate, because it's, you know, just we're doing high volume versus the more premium high touch end of the service for those specialized things. How are you all approaching that? Or what's your thought behind how that's going to impact the industry as we see those two things kind of competing with one another,
Morgan W. 22:01
I'm a big believer that you can automate systems, but you should never automate relationships. And I think that the personal touch, like Dan was saying, the personal touch, I think needs to be there, in my personal opinion, for a lot of pet care businesses, especially like pet sitting businesses dog walking, I think you can definitely get a little more into the kind of on demand side, but especially pet sitting. When you're going into somebody's home and you're spending a significant amount of time there, like that is the most personal kind of holy space for somebody is their home. And a lot of people, not, obviously, not everybody. And you're always gonna there's always room for every type of business, you're always going to find people who like a certain type of niche or a certain type of approach, but in general, people want to know the person who is coming into their home. They want to know like have a relationship with somebody when they're handing over the keys to everything that's most important to them in their life. And so I'm really a big proponent on being authentic for yourself, but for me, that means being really, really focusing on the relationships. And I think relationships can also really carry a lot of businesses through an economic uncertainty, because when you are more of a relationship and less of a transaction, you are less likely to be on the chopping block when someone starts to cut certain surfaces or certain things. So I'd love to hear everyone else's opinions are on this, because I think it's such an interesting topic. But, yeah, I'm a believer that you need to put a focus on relationships and not automate or kind of remove some of that personal touch.
Doug Keeling 23:37
Yeah, I really believe that the personal touch has to remain in what we do as pet care professionals, but we can use these systems and AI and the new technology to enhance these relationships. They don't have to be on opposite ends of the spectrum, like fighting against each other, just for example. You know, one thing I've started doing is going on to chat GPT and saying, Here's a client that we have, here's the situation with the client, you know, knowing, given everything else that you know about me and my business and how we operate, from all of the Previous prompts I've given you, what is a personalized gift that I could order to be delivered to this client's homes that meets their criteria, that's within this price point, you know, all of these things where, you know, maybe previously, I would have spent two hours searching on Google about, you know, what kind of gift to get and then ordering it. Now I can just plug this prompt into chat GPT, and have a solution in five seconds. Dan made a really good point about, like, really making sure that the pet care is still at the front of what we're doing, and really the. Something else where I'm really trying to use technology and AI there as well, where, you know, I've had all of these documents of like our training manual and our SOPs and all these different guides that I've typed out for our team over the years, and I've been feeding a lot of these documents to chat GPT and saying, like, what am I missing here? You know, what else does my team need to know to really ensure that the pets are getting the best care possible, and even things on like animal body language and stuff I'm I'm saying life typed out what to look for, create an image that actually presents this in a visible way to my team, outside of the words. So again, I just, I think it's important to remember that the technology and then the personal touch and the relationship, they don't have to be at odds with each other. I think really, as we move forward, we need to be looking for ways to to bridge that gap and really use the technology to enhance what we're already good at.
Michelle K. 26:06
Can I tell you what I love about what you're saying Doug is I think that's such a beautiful use case of AI chat. GPT specifically, is in synthesizing information to inform better decision making, where I start to get concerned about companies usage of that platform is when we are using it so that we don't have to insert ourselves, and we don't have to do that vulnerable process of, well, I don't know what to say to this person. It's easier just have chat GPT spit out something and or I'm insecure about my writing, so I'm just going to have chat GPT do it for me. And that's where I get nervous, is when we look at chat GPT. Ai, these automations, you know, I know we're talking in generalities, but to replace the human component of business ownership that I think is, like, incredible, like it. You know, business owners are the coolest people I know, and I'm wildly biased, but I think they're amazing. But the ability for these platforms to synthesize just an insane amount of information to give you better decision making tools, I think, is unparallel.
Daniel Reitman 27:16
No, I agree big time. I think one of the so one of the things that we've done, similar to kind of what you were just talking about Doug, is we have years and years of SOPs documentation and stuff like that. One of our biggest things, and one of the things I pride myself on, is I love dealing with an angry client. I love dealing with a client who is absolutely furious, flipping out on the phone person. Because, like, I think Doug, you and I have had conversations about this over the years where we see the people complaining about an angry client. It's just like, you know, you just figure out a way to make it right. So I've spent a lot of time over the past couple of years documenting the process on because I believe you can take the angriest client in the world and make them love you forever, and I always take that as a challenge. It is not an easy thing to train every single employee who's gonna do that. So you're gonna have employees who are not confrontational. I don't mean like, you know, clients yelling, so I'm yelling, but knowing how to engage them in a way that will de escalate the situation. So giving them a GPT that we've created with all of my training in there so they can say exactly what you're talking about. So instead of it having to be like, okay, Dan has to deal with client x, because clients is has said, you know, f off to nine of our managers today. And we have to deal with this. It's being able to use it as a tool, but again, going back to pairing the technology in a way that, like, I'm a big believer in people shouldn't be doing all of this stuff. People shouldn't be doing a bunch of the things that they're doing. And if a computer can do it, why waste human energy on things that a computer cannot do, like cultivating these relationships, like building the relationship with your staff, like spending time making videos teaching your employees about, you know, body language of a dog, like I have so many employees who love dogs. Never have touched a cat before, and we take care of cats and teaching them about, you know, body language and things like that. I think these technologies should be able to be used exactly for them like that's what I'm most excited about with the platform we're going to be building, is the majority of our day to day operations, with scheduling, with payroll, with running metrics, with baseline communication of a client saying, hey, just want to confirm that I have an appointment when the client could always go and look in the like currently looking time.
Collin 29:52
Sometimes they want being able to
Daniel Reitman 29:54
have the simple stuff answered in a way that doesn't require a person, but anything. Escalates beyond that, having it so my management team is free to have conversation, having it so the technology enables us to be able to go deeper into those relationships and build on that. Rather than having to answer 96 texts about like, Hey, I just want to make sure I have this, this and this going on this week, or, you know, verifying certain things about feedings or the scheduling, or like, you know, I don't know about you guys, but with us and scheduling, if we have four employees call out in a day, it's a bit of a pain in the butt figuring out the logistics of rearranging the schedule, because we're big on, you know, we don't send if you haven't been trained at a client's house, and it's not what we call our one of our senior pet care specialists. We're not sending a stranger into your home. That's just not how we operate. So it's logistically very complex being able to automate that. So we could focus on things like biz dev, so we could focus on building relationships with local apartment buildings, going and popping into the local animal hospital with a box of cookies, little things like that work. You know, right now, computers can't do it now. 15 years from now, it's going to be a very different story, and I'm very excited to get to that part of the conversation. But currently, I think they the two things married very well.
Collin 31:16
I think one of the biggest
Morgan W. 31:18
challenge points, or like tripping up points, that people get into when they're using technology, of any kind is that it's not congruent with the way that they want to they would run their business in person. So they're using, like, chat GPT to come up with a social media post, post, or they're, you know, give me an answer to this question. And the there's another question behind that is, well, like, well, what are your values? You know, I'm a big into values and culture, and so it's very much like, well, what is the values of your business? What is the culture that you want to create within your business? And how do you make sure that everything you do ties back to that so your business doesn't feel disjointed? So people know what they're getting into. People know, if I'm your client, I know exactly what to expect, because it is with keep, keeping within the same feel of everything else, and so being careful not just to use an AI tool to spit something out without going back and editing it for yourself. Like I love using AI as a way to, like, brainstorm ideas. But then I take that and I put it into my own voice, voice, and I put it into my own, you know, company feeling, and so that way, it's not just this thing that is getting spit out and I'm just regurgitating, you know, and it sounds very much like AI, but it is really in keeping with the feel that my business is and what my my team and what my employee and my clients expect when they work with our business, so making sure that you're not just doing what the computer tells you to do, and you're actually putting more thought into it, and I can't remember who mentioned this earlier, but not just using it as a replacement for thinking and feeling in your business, and making sure that it's actually again, furthering the relationships and furthering the feel that you want to put in your business, because it does need to be personal
Collin 33:05
enough, real
Daniel Reitman 33:07
quick, just to piggyback on what Morgan's saying, the core values thing. I never really thought about it until we put them together, like, three or four years ago, you know, I always looked at it as, like, you know, it's like, corporate rock. It's the stuff you see on the walls of, like, we love our people and, you know, it's corporate nonsense. But, like, it's since we did put this together, it's a part of everything we do. And I do think that if you are, you know, planning on building a company, you don't have to figure it out day one. But if you want, like, our core values are right on our website, go to dance.care.com. But getting that Dialed In is so important, because you could center everything in your business around that. Because if you don't have that center, sometimes it is tough, because we use it all the time, and we have to, I don't like the word reprimand employees, but we have to, kind of like redirect staff to why we do things, always bring it back to the core value. So just anyone out there who kind of thinks it's like corporate nonsense, it's it's a worthwhile endeavor, and chat GPT can help you do it, but don't let chat GPT do it fully for you.
Morgan W. 34:23
Yeah, I could have a whole conversation about how to answer. Actually, I did a whole presentation at the Florida pet sitters conference this last year about how to really answer any question you could possibly have about or in your business, how you can answer it with your culture and your values. And there, I can't tell you how many times that my husband and I have been talking about a business thing, and we kind of have a moment we go, well, but what do our core values say, you know? And then it's, it always answers the question for us very easily. And it's not always comfortable, you know, but it answers the question. So, yeah, I'm a huge believer that and core values as being actionable and being impactful, and. Like Dan was saying, not just like corporate speak about, like integrity and, you know, honesty, because who wants to work with the business that's not, you know, professional and has honesty and wants to work with integrity, but having it be something that's actually meaningful to you. But yeah, all this to say relationships, relationships are important.
Collin 35:21
Yeah, that was a it was a very good presentation. And one of those ones where you're like, oh, yeah, I kind of already do have a built in answers into this, because I have the values that I wrote down. I guess I need to use those. And as a business, it's important to know that we make these things for particular reason, right? And we need to use those, especially as our business grows and becomes a little bit more complex, we encounter a lot of things that we didn't previously expect, and kind of along the same line of using, you know, technology, not using technology. How do we integrate that? There are, there is this shift again, where some people are going really, really high end with their services, and a lot of other people are trying to go much more, you know, budget friendly, you know, instant kind of service needs, commoditization of those of those services. You know, in that respect, how are you seeing that impacting either your local markets or the industry in general? And how do we as business owners kind of respond to that shift.
Daniel Reitman 36:25
I mean, it's tough, right? So you know, when you're competing on price, like wagon rover exist, and I can tell you, we get some some weeks, we'll get five to 10 calls of someone who uses an on demand service, like a WAG or a rover, you know, where they're like, hey, this person has bailed on me four or five times, and I just, you know, I can't rely on them. I want to work with a company. It's the same thing that I see. And again, I'm not trying to knock the smaller businesses, but when you are able to at least have enough staff, like, we have a service delivery guarantee, we're worst case scenario. I am personally coming to the client's house to walk the dog like that's just how I've always operated. I left many a family event to go walk a dog. And I think again, well, we've been talking about going back to relationships now, going super high end, I think is good. It's just important to know where you are, right in terms of like, you know, there are definitely parts of our service area that high end is great, but in terms of the economics, like, people eggs are expensive. Like, there are things that are like happening right now, in terms of the economy that people are pinching pennies and they are looking at price points that are different. Now, is it going to stay the same? No, the economy always ebbs and flows, and I've seen this happen over and over again, but that, for me, has just led to us not increasing our prices for the past couple years. We've made some price increases a couple years ago, and we just have decided, You know what, we're going to kind of let this ride and see where it goes. I think trying to go super, super budget is a race to the bottom. And you're you're fighting against billion dollar companies. When you do that, you're fighting against WAG, you're fighting against rover. And I think that you should charge what you're worth. Because at the end of the day, if you keep trying to compete on price, there's always going to be someone who's willing to do, I saw it in Brooklyn all the time. There's always somebody who's willing to, you know, they're going to smoke a joint while they're walking your dog, your dog for 15 bucks. It's the kind of thing where, like, you know, you get what you pay for. Whereas, with us, you know, if something happens with your dog medically, we're going to make sure that that gets attended to right away. There's a management team in place to be able to that dog walker is going to go to the next walk. We're going to bring the dog to the ER, anything that's going on with these different levels of services, you're you're going to get what you pay for. But I think anyone who's thinking of, like, really going and going more budget, budget friendly, and like racing to the bottom of the prices, I feel like you're just it's not sustainable. In my opinion. I'm not saying you should be charging $100 a walk. I mean, as far as what we charge, we're expensive, like we are not an inexpensive service, but also run package deals so people are able it also, it makes it great from a sales perspective, because then we get to create urgency. Okay, you know, normally the service costs this much, and we're able to get it for this, like we do it for our boarding facility. We charge $150 a night. That's our base rate. And we sell package deals, though, where you can get it for 99 and we do those like once a month. It it really depends on the market you're in the kind of business you want to run, but I think on the on demand, very inexpensive side, you're going. People, it's BlackRock. Like Blackrock owns rover, Blackrock also owns everything. And, you know, not for nothing. I think, I think it was what Stephen Schwartz, Stephen Schwartz, Steven Schwartzman, who started BlackRock, brilliant, brilliant guy, like best human being on earth. Well, no, I want to say anything bad about him on the internet. You know, you're going up against a company that is you're not going to beat that you're not going to win in. So I think it's better to go is, you know, you don't have to be charging a million dollars for a walk. But I just think I'm not a fan of that race to the bottom, the fan of, like, trying to compete with, trying to compete with wagon rover. To me, this point, it's, it's just not a good use of your time if you want to use it as a tool to generate leads by all means. Like, they don't care, like they know people do that. But like, you know, if you're a small business and you're, you know, you're one person. You're not gonna beat BlackRock, like, just not what's gonna happen.
Doug Keeling 41:10
Just to kind of piggyback off of what Dan was saying there. You know, when I think of this, I think that, like, a very small percentage of the clients that we actually want to work with are on the high end, and then a very small percentage are on the low end. The majority of the people are somewhere in the middle. You know, they don't necessarily want or need the cheapest pet care provider or the most expensive pet care provider. They just want somebody that they can trust that will do a good job and that they know their pets will be in good hands. And just like Dan said, I do think it's a losing battle to compete solely based off of pricing. You know, we have to remember that we all have a different ideal client type. You know, we can't just work with any and all pet owners. We have to think about what pain point we are actually trying to solve for the client with our services, and really use that as like the playing field for how we are going to compete. You know, I never look at what my competitors are charging, you know, for their services. I know that I'm charging what I need to charge, you know, based off of my own metrics, and I compete based off of, okay, this is the type of person that I want to help. These are the pain points that that type of family has. What can I do, and what can I provide as a business that will really speak to those pain points and be the best fit for that family? You know, excluding the price
Daniel Reitman 42:55
real, real quick, just to correct myself so I don't sound stupid. It's black stone that owns rover, not BlackRock. I didn't want to embarrass myself, so before anyone wants to make fun of me in the comments, because I'm a sensitive boy, it's Blackstone, not BlackRock,
Collin 43:11
and it is Steve Schwartzman, we got that continue, yeah. Well, you know, Doug, I like how you pointed out that there is this, there's this bell curve of clients, right? And that when we say the phrase, don't compete on price, I think often we think of going to just the cheap end, but it's also about all in the super high end as well. And that if all we're concerned about is the price of our service, I do think we kind of miss this, missed the point on that. You know, Michelle, I know you talk a lot about understanding that value behind what we give to people. How is that? I guess, you know, you know, changing, or some of those expectations that clients have about what value they get out of our services. Yeah. So I am
Michelle K. 43:58
a I think this will answer the question, maybe in a roundabout way, so if I don't fully get to it, bring me back. I am a big believer that the quickest way to undercut value is for a business to try to be everything to everyone. I now, I do think there needs to be a sizable market opportunity for who you choose to pursue. I'm a big fan of, like, niche business models where we're trying to do a very specific thing for a very specific client type. I think that allows for, like, very streamlined operations, really clear cut messaging, clear cut like client avatar alignment, when there is enough of that in your market, for me, I I really try and encourage companies to look at the unique value proposition that your company is bringing that matches to Doug point, that very specific pain point, and it has to. More than we care the most about your pets. It has to because, one, that's not quantifiable. We can't quantify a sense of caring. And two, it's a value statement that I believe is like the pay to play for just being in this industry. So we need a unique value proposition for your company that aligns to this pain point that's wrapped around this like really clearly identified segment in your market that'll resonate. And then I think we have to look at aligning your brand and the identity at the company so that there's just synchrony across all those pieces. So
Collin 45:43
did I get to the answer of your question? Yeah, you did, especially as we look at going again, who is who is this for? And I think that's something that a lot of people struggle with, of going well, I've got this thing. I think it's really cool. I think it's really amazing. And I've said passion, love and professionalism. So like, Isn't that enough? And as we look at an industry that is becoming a lot more complex, there's a lot more people out there. There's a lot more options at both high end and low end, and everything in between. And what you're talking about here, Michelle, is it's beholden upon us to find those few people, those handful people that can support our business, right, that we can be talking to, and everybody's is going to be just a little bit different, even like you know, as Doug said, for how we serve them too. Losing a pet is heartbreaking, and as pet sitters, we often want to do something special for our clients when they're grieving. But finding the right gift can be tough. That's where pet perennials comes in. Their direct consumer gift model makes it effortless. Send a thoughtful, personalized condole gift on our behalf, each package includes a handwritten card, colorful gift wrap, and shipping across the US and Canada so you can show you care without any extra work. They also offer milestone gifts for birthdays, get well wishes and even special occasions for pet lovers, like weddings, engagements and new adoptions. Want to make gifting easy, sign up for a free gift perks business account, unlock discount pricing with no monthly fees or purchase minimum. Learn more@petpreneurs.com
Speaker 1 47:08
check out. It's their business program, org. Look at the link of the show notes to get started today, going
Morgan W. 47:13
off of what Michelle just said there, as well as knowing the type of business that you personally want to run like knowing what's authentic to you, and to say, Hey, this is like, yes, this isn't the market that I'm in, but also this is what I want to do for my own business, and then finding the clients that jive with that. So you are not just kind of putting, quote unquote like, kind of, quote unquote, putting on a show to get to get a certain type of client, so you can be really authentic with that and really saying, Okay, this is who I am, and this is the way that I want to serve my clients. Now, how do I create that brand message that really, really speaks to them and is something that's going to be really again, authentic, so you can carry it through kind of for the long term, and knowing, like, what is the big thing where, when somebody gets my services, this is the thing that they're going to get every single time. Like, this is how I'm going to show up for my clients. I get a lot of clients who come to us because we actually communicate with them. And that seems like such a, you know, to me, it seems like a small thing like, and there's a lot of businesses out there who are not communicating with their clients. You know, they can't have any contact with their sitter or their dog walker. You know, their their requests aren't getting answered. You know, there's a lot of room for communication. And so knowing like, Hey, this is the thing that I'm seeing as a gap in the market. This is something that I am passionate about this is something that I can continue to serve for my clients every single time. Is another really good way to find that brand proposition that Michelle was talking about, and really kind of leaning into that and having that be a good differentiator for your service. Type,
Collin 48:58
what? Sorry, no, go ahead. Dan,
Daniel Reitman 49:01
no, I was gonna say one of the things that it's always resonated with me, I think it's from what's his name, Harry, son of born, he was the first CFO from McDonald's. And he says it in the founder, and he goes, you know, you're not in the hamburger business. You are in the real estate business. And it something that I've been able to kind of, I've always identified, we're not in the pet care business. We're in the peace of mind business. You know, that's something that peace of mind is one of our core values, and it's something that, you know, I've always said this to everybody. You could hire anyone to come take care of your dog. You can get the neighborhood kid to come do it. We're here to sell the piece. So when you're on vacation or you're at work, or you're, you know, putting your kids to bed, or whatever it is you're doing, you don't have to worry about that other important member of your family. And so being able to really know what that is. And like, what we as an industry do is we're all in the peace of mind business, like, that's what we do some companies. Don't do a great job of it, in my personal opinion, and just how I've seen and what I've heard from people, but that's something that anytime I get a review from a client that says, You give us peace of mind that, to me, is like the biggest compliment, the biggest win is just like reiterating like that is what we're here for, because that's what I wanted when I first started this company for my own pets is just being a part of that.
Morgan W. 50:24
One of our values is actually that we give a damn because, like, like, that's really, like, one of the things, like, the most important thing we can do for our clients is actually giving a damn about
Collin 50:34
them. I like that.
Michelle K. 50:37
Going to this idea of we're in the peace of mine business, I love that as the identified why? One thing I have been thinking a lot about in my work with dog CO is, I think the how of that in our industry is in hiring, training and recruiting quality staff. And I think like that just is such an interesting pairing with this, like, deep, resonant, why of peace of mind, and I see that hiring, training, recruiting, just more and more the more I do this, I'm like, That's the vehicle, and I think the systems support that. They kind of wrap all the way around it, and the SOPs and, you know, everything like that. But that's where I'm putting a lot of my brain space recently,
Collin 51:22
well, and I think one of the reasons this is really important is because we are in such a volatile, changing time in the pet care industry. One of those things I think really shook a lot of business owners was back in 2023 when Black Stone, we'll just say that's Blackstone bought rover. Confirmed, confirmed, right? You know, when $2.3 billion went through an obstacle to an ostensibly pet care business, I think that shook a lot of people awake to go, oh, there is. There's a lot going on here. There's a lot of interest in the industry. And since then, we've seen even more mergers and acquisitions. We see it happening in private equity going into veterinary spaces and boarding places and grooming places, in all sorts of sorts of places. And so I think, you know, all of the stuff that we've talked about up to this point is really about like, how do we make robust businesses? How do we have businesses that meet people's needs and meet them well also, while knowing that there's a lot of this other stuff going on that's kind of outside of what we're doing. And so I did want to have the discussion kind of now about the impact of these mergers, these acquisitions as private equity coming into the industry, and the impact on local, independent businesses.
Michelle K. 52:42
Can I kick this off here? Because I have thought about this a lot, absolutely. So one thing that I think is really positive of this whole movement starting is I think it has empowered a belief and a lot of pet care business owners, I can exit my business profitably and make money off of an asset, rather than having a job that I just work until I retire and I close it down. I think the awareness there has been amazing. My hope for the second wave is that pet care business owners feel empowered to enter into the space themselves of helping other businesses exit, and that is something that I mean very transparently. I hope dog co becomes a place for is to help business owners exit and to help connect them with other local businesses that want to acquire, and where it makes sense for them to acquire because of mutual alignment and value and systems and processes. So I'm not necessarily validating, like, the private equity space coming into the pet care industry, necessarily, but I am really excited for this, like, elevated mindset that I think is coming.
Daniel Reitman 53:57
I very much support that, because I think I've spoken many times about my thoughts, and I have friends who work in private equity, equity and venture capital and all that stuff, and there's nothing wrong with it. But again, you know, if you're buying a bunch of Best Buys and something goes wrong and a TV breaks, insurance covers it,
Collin 54:15
everything's fine.
Daniel Reitman 54:18
Businesses need a soul in this space, and it's really important to me that, like, you know, I call it the art of giving a shit, which is just making sure everything is done safely, everything's done correctly. And I can tell you, I've watched businesses that have been bought up by private equity groups, and, you know, they do a great job setting up bonus infrastructure and all these metrics and all this other stuff. But I also hear the horror stories and stuff like that. So like, I think, like, what you're talking about, Michelle is, you know, you know, a company like myself, a when we enter new markets, my goal is to be able to come in and buy someone who's looking to exit, because I know that I will be the. Proper steward for that company. I know that I will help to carry on their values, assuming we have shared values, and wanting to make sure pets are happy, healthy and cared for correctly, which I hope they do. It's, you know, and I'm sure there will be some private equity groups that really do create that. But I've seen, you know, when everything gets very, very corporatized and very, very big, you lose that touch. And that's always been my fear with my business, is I never want to lose that Mom and Pop. Feel like it's still weird to me now that I don't know every client that I don't know every single you know what I mean, but like, Yeah, I think the it validates so much. I think being able to have it where it's like, I spent the last 25 years building this business, you know, we do $4 million a year, and, you know, I can sell it a 2x more, a 3x multiple. And, you know, I can do seller financing and get paid out of it. And that's my retirement. That's fantastic. I think that's amazing. Like, because I remember when I first started. I mean, my parents were supportive, but I was, you know, I'm a Long Island Jew. I come from a family on my dad's side, and it's doctors and lawyers. Like, I was going to go to med school, and when I dropped out of college and it was like, I'm going to become a dog walker, that was the eventual thing. People, people left. There was definitely people who laughed at it in the beginning, and it's now turned into a sizable business. And I think, you know, Blackstone coming in, you know, Softbank putting $300 million into into WAG, regardless of your feelings on those companies, and then the private equity like, I get an email once a week people offering us money for the the daycare facility. Like there's money to be made in this industry, and I think there's good money to be made in this industry, but there has to be that soul behind it. There has to be that, that focus on, you know, you're dealing with living things. You can't ever forget that this is a this is an thing that cannot advocate for itself. And I don't ever want to see the industry lose the focus on because when it, when it becomes that then, then let the robots take over, you know, like, then it doesn't matter anymore. But I definitely think that, you know,
Collin 57:17
keep private equity back for a little while.
Doug Keeling 57:22
I definitely agree with what Michelle and Dan both said on this topic. I think this is something that's so interesting, it has provided almost a certain sense of validity to what we do as pet sitters and dog walkers. And I mean, Dan, I had the same experience where I was, like, getting ready to graduate college, and my parents were like, What are you going to do? What kind of job are you going to get? Like, well, I'm going to keep being a dog walker. And, I mean, everybody laughed at me. They were like, what? You got a college degree, and you're going to keep picking up dog poop for a career? I'm like, Heck, yeah, I can't wait to, you know, and something that I think that's really cool as we see more bigger companies and more money flow into this is that they have the funds and the wherewithal to test things that we may not have the ability to test as small businesses. So that's something that I'm really kind of taking a seat back and watching what these other businesses do, and see what works, see what doesn't work, and then see how I can bring those lessons into my own business that way, like that, like Dan said, you know, the soul has to remain. Obviously, the soul isn't there with the big, you know, equity funds and all that, but they can go and kind of lead the path, and then we can pick up the reins from there. And yeah, I think, I think that's really exciting.
Morgan W. 58:55
Yeah, I think it's also really a good reminder for folks that, again, you can make this be a business. It doesn't have to just be your lifestyle like i Good thing that I like to remind people that was told to me by an accounting friend of mine is that you are not your business, but you have a relationship with your business, and that you are an entity, and your business is an entity, and even though we are often so personally attached to our businesses. We can shape our business to be what it needs to be for us. And so if you are looking at starting a pet care business, or looking at growing a pet care business, you can you get to make your business be whatever it is that is going to help you in this season. And so if you are in a season where you're looking at retirement, you might want to look at creating a business that is sellable so it actually has some assets, and not just a client list that Well, someone else is going to get my client list if I shut my doors, because those people need to go somewhere like you need to create something more in your business than just a client list for somebody to buy, to have it be truly profitable and be a true asset for them to buy. Um. And if you're in a season of life where you need to have more flexibility, and you need to maybe grow your business and have more employees so you have more time to do something else like that's another great way to, you know, create your business to be whatever it is that you need it to be in this moment. And I think that's one of the beauties of being a business owner, is that you get to create your own destiny, in a way, and obviously there's always has to be somebody on the other end to buy what we're selling. But in a way, you get to really shape your own future and really create a business that's going to work for you, and whatever you that that goal is of the moment. So if you want to scale, there's opportunities to scale. If you want to stay small, there's opportunities to stay small, and you can find that right niche to meet whatever it is that you need to have in life at this moment, which I think is one of the coolest things about being a business
Collin 1:00:53
owner, obviously, you all are very optimistic about the future of pet care and so kind of in Our closing few moments here, I did want to get despite these challenges, despite these things that we are facing, what has you most excited about, either the industry or things that you're working on, the opportunities that you see ahead of us? Doug, why don't you kick us off?
Doug Keeling 1:01:19
Wow, that's a it's a hard question, because I'm honestly just excited about so much right now. I mean, it's just a really cool time to be a business owner, and just for the pet industry in general. And
Collin 1:01:32
I think
Doug Keeling 1:01:35
honestly, what I am most excited about personally is just the fact that I've been in business for 10 and a half years now, and I'm able to trust my gut more than ever, which allows me to, I don't know, take bigger risks, make decisions quicker, make better decisions, and just knowing that I have that experience to rely on as I move forward and test other things and as the industry changes around me, like that has me very excited. I know that's not helpful to anybody listening, but it truly does, truly does make me happy, though.
Collin 1:02:15
Well, no, it's a good point of like, you kind of reach that point where you go like, Okay, I'm not brand new, but I haven't been in here forever, but I'd like I do have some experience now where I can start using some of these lessons that I've learned. Like, oh, that's why I went through that. Like, and I think it's really important as a business owner to be kind of open minded to that of like, you don't go anything through anything that doesn't have a purpose. It can always be reused later in a lesson, later in life is you kind of get those wheels spinning faster each time. So, no, I think that's fantastic. You said that much more eloquently
Doug Keeling 1:02:47
than I ever could have.
Daniel Reitman 1:02:51
You both did a great job.
Morgan W. 1:02:53
Thanks. Dan, the teacher coming out over there. You know, he's just, he's he's hearing, he is processing. He's delivering back out again.
Collin 1:03:04
Morgan, what's the what kind of opportunities are you most excited about, or kind of, you know, for the industry, or just you personally,
Morgan W. 1:03:09
I think the one I kind of talked about burnout earlier, at the beginning of this, and one of the things I'm more, most, most excited about, is helping business owners not be in a state of burnout, and understanding that success as a business owner is not tied to your level of burnout and to your level of sacrifice. And I think that a lot of people, again, get into pet sitting because they love the pets and they love the service side, and so they are very willing to give of themselves in ways that are unsustainable. And I am really excited to help people just really understand that burnout does not have to be a metric for success, and that you can like you don't have to give all of yourself like it is it is different. There is a difference between serving and sacrificing, and we don't have to sacrifice our own good quality of life in order to help our clients have a really good quality of life. And so often, when we're thinking about pets, is we're really focusing on, you know, giving pets a great life full of enrichment and joys and, you know, fun times. And we don't give that to ourselves, because we are so busy giving it to everybody else. And so helping business owners create a business for themselves that is authentic to who they are. It serves their best skills. They have some margin to hire out the things that don't work for them, and being really authentic for themselves and letting them have their own really good life. Because I think we've all been in places where we haven't been able to have our own good life, and we have sacrificed family time and vacations and time with our own dogs and our own families to give to other people, and we don't have to do that. And I think the more that we recognize that as an industry, the better off we're all going to be, because we can't. Can. Continue doing this forever and ever as successful business owners, if we're so burnt out that we burn it all down and close the doors and so finding that balance between being able to serve our clients really well and also serving ourselves and not sacrificing for ourselves in order to be a business owner gives me hope that the people who are starting their businesses now or in the last few years, are also going to get that 10 year milestone. Are going to get that 15 year milestone, and have the same passion at 10 years that they had at year one and two. And so that's something that I think the pet industry is at a better place now than it ever has been to recognize that we don't have to live this way and that we can just enjoy our own lives as well like any other business owner would.
Collin 1:05:45
Yeah, we can reach those milestones without being quite so tired. I think that's really,
Morgan W. 1:05:49
yeah, yeah, naps are good, you know, like getting some time off, it's a good thing, like we should. And I maybe come at this from a little bit of a different perspective, because five years ago, almost, I guess, four and a half years ago. Now, my husband, he had a cancer diagnosis, and thankfully, everything was fine, and it was very treatable, but it really made me re evaluate life and to say, like, what was this in a way, like, what was it all for? And if I've spent all of my time working like, and I could have spent some of my time enjoying life, like, what would I do that again? Like, you know, honestly, probably not if you know, if life is in, life is not infinite, we have a timeline here, and so being able that we being able to actually enjoy it is, is important too.
Collin 1:06:33
Yeah, absolutely. Dan, Dan, what about you? Other than robots? What are you most excited about in the future? Well,
Daniel Reitman 1:06:41
honestly, first and foremost, what I'm the most excited about is the return of Doug's fantastic mustache. And I am for obviously, for those of you listening, you can't see it, but go to his YouTube. This thing is looking on point. I hope you do not get rid of it anytime soon. I'm sorry if this creates any arguments at home. I think it looks amazing in all serious
Doug Keeling 1:07:07
Collin you clip that click. Send me a clip of what Dan just said. I'm going to send it to my partner. Send it all my friends, because it is a war at my house over this mustache, right? I hope you call him. I'll get on a video
Daniel Reitman 1:07:19
call, and we can have a debate about it,
Collin 1:07:22
Doug, I hope you might be ringtone. This is all I'm hoping for.
Daniel Reitman 1:07:27
Doug must decide I'm excited for the implementation of all these new technologies. I'm very excited for all of these new ais that are coming out, all of these amazing new things. We didn't get to talk about it enough today, and I will bother you until we do get to do an episode on the impact of robotics of our industry, because I think it's coming, and I think it's very important that we do discuss it, because it eventually an in home unit is going to be 15 to $20,000 and eventually the cost of that will get down to about five to $10,000 and when that happens, it's going to have a direct impact on our industry. And it's something I'm very passionate about. I'm intrigued by it. I know that you can't remember. I think it was either Mitsubishi or I know it wasn't Tesla, but somebody put a patent on a specific skill set for dog walking with one of the robotic units. So, yeah, I'm excited about all the tech. I'm excited about what everyone in here is doing, because without all of the work that you are all doing, there wouldn't be that next generation of people who don't have to fumble through the dark. They get to learn. They get, you know, they get the lessons without the scars from you guys. So I applaud all four of you for all the stuff that you guys do. I selfishly am still just working on my business and not sharing any of my fun stories, but it's because of people like you that I think the industry is going to continue to grow and improve. So my hat's off you and on a personal note, I am, you know, I've been yammering on about the software for a long time. So we're finally getting ready to do a raise this year, not from private equity, but it will be a financial raise of investment for to build our software. Get that going, automate the business, get ready to start to scale the company in a way that I think is morally and ethically aligned with what I believe in, and attempting some of this work life balance that I have heard so much about. We'll see how it goes. Pretty good. Yeah. No, I've heard, I heard it's it's good for your body. But yeah, no, I'm excited. There's a lot of great stuff to come and, you know, as always, thank you, Collin, for having all of us here. Thank you for doing what you do for the industry. Always love these chats. I could do these once a week if you wanted to. So you know me, you put. Microphone in front of me. I won't shut up so
Collin 1:10:03
and thank you guys all for being on here. I'm excited for all of us. Do want to just remind our listeners where they can catch and get in touch with every single one of you to find out more information about these kind of things. Michelle, I know you're with dog. CO, how can people get in touch with you and start following along with all the cool stuff that you've got going on over there? Yeah, I would say there are a
Michelle K. 1:10:25
couple ways. First and foremost, my website, dog co launch.com, I run a free Facebook group called Grow Your daily dog walking business with dog co launch, that's going to be a place for marketing challenges, just a lot in the dog walking space. And then finally, I am hosting an industry wide conference that I hope people will consider attending, and you can learn more about that at dogco summit.com, and Collin himself will be our MC so gonna be a great weekend.
Collin 1:10:57
Really, really looking forward to that and seeing I know Doug will be there too. It's gonna be a great time for everybody there. Doug, how can people follow along with what you've got going on?
Doug Keeling 1:11:07
I'm very excited for this conference and to see you guys in person. Best way to get in touch with me is to check out my YouTube channel. It's youtube.com, forward slash Doug the dog guy. And then I'm Doug the dog guy, official. On Instagram, you just look up Doug Keeling on Facebook, and my website is Doug the dog guy.co, I have some free resources, some free templates and some other things on there to help other pet sitters and dog walkers avoid some of the mistakes that I've made over the years.
Collin 1:11:38
A lot of very valuable lessons there. And I'm very, very I'm always jealous of the photography and the photos and videos that you shoot there. I'm reminded of my lack of skill and quality in that. So thank you for that.
Doug Keeling 1:11:52
You are truly, you are truly forging the path for all of us. Collin, you know, I would have never started my YouTube channel if it wasn't you in this podcast. Well, thank
Collin 1:12:03
you very much, Doug, I do. I do appreciate that. I do. I do appreciate your videos. They're always there was a lot of fun. And I love seeing them. Dan, where can people get in touch with you and see what you've got going on? Yeah, for
Daniel Reitman 1:12:15
sure. So, um, if you're interested in anything that my company is doing, we're pretty much, I think we're Dan's pet care across the board. So Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook, YouTube, I think our YouTube is actually, for some reason, Dan pet care. Official, I don't know why we have Dan. I know we have Dan's pet care, but if you look up dance pet care on YouTube, we are on a weird media hiatus right now. We're working on a bunch of things, so there hasn't been a ton of new stuff out. But if you're ever interested, if you have questions, I unfortunately don't really do more of the great programs like the rest of the crew here does, but I'm always down for a phone call if you have a question. I've been, you know, doing this professionally for 15 years, working with animals for 20 Instagram's probably the best way. It's just my full name, Daniel Reitman. And again, my company stuff is all Dan's, Pat Garrett, D, A, N, S, B, E, T, C, A, R, E, and then my full name, Daniel, like you spell it, and then Reitman, r, e, i, t, M, a, n,
Collin 1:13:16
opinions abound, and are good Lord there. And so you're always bound to learn something whenever, time you contact, you dance always. It's always great. Morgan at all. How can we get in touch with what you've got going on? Oh gosh,
Morgan W. 1:13:31
I'd say the best way I said the thing that I use the most to talk about business is I have a podcast that's currently on hiatus because life has started lifeing, but you can find me at Lucky pup pod. So it's called the lucky pup podcast, because my business, my pet sitting business, is called Lucky pup adventures. So you can find me at Lucky pup pod, which is where I talk most about business things. And I've got a cohort that's going to start coming up here again this spring, so there'll be lots more coming out. But, yeah, we bought a pet like, we bought a pet store. I've got Memorial candles. I've got pet sitting and dog walking. There's a lot going on here, but I love chatting about business. So yeah, come find there's like, a whole season of episodes you can listen to, and then maybe by the time you get through those episodes, maybe I'll make some more. I'm not as prolific of a podcaster as you are, Collin, but when I do get to do them,
Collin 1:14:28
no, it's a good podcast, and I always do it. Listening to those episodes, you said you bought a pet store like you woke up in a fugue state, and you were like, What have I done? So I'm very excited to see what happens and goes on with that, I really appreciate these conversations and all of your time. I was reviewing when it's going over, what do you all do? And I was like, Oh, I think I picked the four busiest people in the world to try and ask for an hour and a half. So, so it does mean, it does mean a lot. And I'm very encouraged. You're again, you're all of your excitement is it's. Palatable, and it makes me excited to see the industry and what's possible of looking back at what we're getting to build on, and as we can educate and as we can raise that bar in both the care and in the business side of things, I think really, when you look at the possibilities for every individual, not just the industry, it is just ever expansive. And so there's a lot going on and there's a lot of work to do, but that should be excited as we take on those challenges. Like you said, Morgan, we should get excited about those challenges and not let that be daunting to us. So this has been an immense pleasure. Thank you all so much for coming on the show today and sharing. I can't thank you enough. So thank you very much. Thanks for having us. Collin. Thank you Collin, thank you Collin, thank you happy to be here. I truly believe that we are really in a pivotal moment for the industry. The shape of the next 30 years is going to be determined by what happens in the next one to five we can be a part of that. Contribute to that by speaking up, coming together and talking about the industry and shaping it so that it is productive, inclusive and a place where we all want to be and running a business serving our clients with excellence. We want to thank today's sponsors, Tony dupet and our friends at Pet perennials, for making this show possible. And we really want to thank you for listening. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, and we'll be back again soon. You.
