579: From Legacy to Leadership with Lauren Dunkle
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How do you build a thriving business while staying true to its legacy? Lauren Dunkle, owner of The Pet Lady, shares how she transformed her aunt’s long-standing pet care business into her own while honoring its foundation. She opens up about the struggles of hiring and staff turnover, the transition from independent contractors to employees, and the power of clearly defined roles and SOPs. Lauren also discusses the emotional challenges of business ownership, from self-doubt to burnout, and how she reignited her passion by embracing new learning opportunities. Her story is a powerful example of how growth, structure, and personal fulfillment can coexist in a pet care business.
Main topics:
Hiring Challenges & Staff Turnover
Transitioning from ICs to Employees
Defining Roles & SOPs
Balancing Growth & Legacy
Staying Engaged as an Owner
Main takeaway: “The lessons you learn as a business owner are things you’ll never expect, but they shape you. It’s overwhelming in the moment, but if I hadn’t gone through the struggles, I wouldn’t have the business I have today.”
Every challenge in business feels impossible in the moment—hiring struggles, staff turnover, client conflicts, financial uncertainty. But each of these hurdles teaches us something vital. Lauren Dunkle’s journey proves that the toughest moments are often the ones that push us to grow the most.
Instead of fearing the hard times, embrace them as part of the process. Every setback refines your vision, strengthens your leadership, and ultimately builds a business that can stand the test of time.
🎧 This week on Pet Sitter Confessional, Lauren shares how she navigated hiring challenges, redefined her role as a leader, and built a business that truly reflects her values.
How has a tough lesson helped you grow as a business owner? Drop a comment below! ⬇️
About our guest:
Lauren Dunkle is the owner of The Pet Lady, Ltd., a pet care company serving the western suburbs of Chicago. Taking over the business in 2016 from her late aunt, Lauren has navigated the challenges of leadership, hiring, and transitioning from independent contractors to employees while maintaining the company’s legacy. With a background in management and a passion for structure, she has built a thriving pet care business focused on professionalism, client trust, and a strong company culture. Lauren is dedicated to refining business operations, creating effective SOPs, and ensuring her team delivers top-tier pet care services.
Links:
The Pet Lady, Ltd. Website – https://thepetladyltd.com
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepetlady2590
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepetladyltd
Pet Marketing Unleashed: https://www.petmarketingunleashed.com
DogCo Launch: https://www.dogcolaunch.com
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet sitting, business growth, legacy, transition, independent contractors, employee roles, client engagement, rebranding, business challenges, team management, industry changes, professional development, community support, business strategy, employee training
SPEAKERS
Lauren Dunkle, 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 time to pet and the National Association of Professional pet sitters. How do we keep our business running for the long haul? Make our business our own and make it meaningful and impactful to our clients, our employees and those in our community. Today, we are really excited to have Lauren Dunkle, owner of the pet lady, on the show, to talk about her journey into the industry and her lessons from it. Lauren, I'm super excited to have you on the show and get to talk with you today. For those who aren't familiar with everything that you do, please tell us a little
Lauren Dunkle 00:40
bit more about yourself. Yeah. Well, I'm so excited to be here, Collin, thanks for having me like Collin said, my name is Lauren Dunkle. I'm owner of the pet lady limited. We service the western suburbs of Chicago, and our company has been in business since 1991 so very exciting. Yeah, that
Collin 00:59
is now, what's your so I do know a little bit about your history with the company. So the company has been around since 1991 when did you start working with the company and kind of, what's your what's your history
Lauren Dunkle 01:11
there? Yeah. So my aunt started the company in 1991 and growing up, I always knew she was a dog walker and a pet sitter. I thought it was so cool. And then when I got to high school and had my driver's license, I had the ability, over the summers, to work for her as a midday dog walker. So that was kind of my introduction, really, into the nuts and bolts of the industry. And then I, unfortunately, my aunt had cancer, and when towards the end of her life, she was really trying to decide what to do with the business. At that time, I was a restaurant manager, and I had already made the decision to leave that position and go back to school. And then I was talking with my dad one day, and he's like, Do you have any interest in owning a dog walking and pet sitting business? And I went,
Speaker 1 02:08
Oh, well, I'm not sure.
Lauren Dunkle 02:11
So I took some time to think about it, and decided, regardless of what happened, it would be a really exciting and fun journey to take. So while she was still with us, I started kind of working with her a little bit, learning how to run a business with independent contractors, how to do a meet and greet, how to invoice clients. And then in 2016 I officially took over as the owner of the pet lady. And at that time, I did not live in the area that we serviced, which is Naperville, Illinois, and so I at that time, in 2016 I also added elmhurstville Park and Lombard to our service area.
Collin 02:55
Wow. What a i. What I love about that story is it's this, I mean, it's this transition, obviously, but it's also a little bit of a weighty legacy from your from your aunt. What was it like taking that on?
Lauren Dunkle 03:07
So that's really interesting that you use that word legacy because that I really wanted to uphold what she had put in place. She was so proud of this business and what she did within the industry, and I didn't want to fail her. So it was a difficult transition in terms of upholding what she stood for, but putting my spin on to things. So definitely, when I first took over, everything was, You are our legacy clients. Naperville is our legacy service area, and that was really focused around honoring my aunt. So that was definitely a four in the forefront of my mind when I first took things over. Yeah. I mean,
Collin 04:00
it's definitely a good, like a wonderful motivating factor of, okay, I have to uphold this, you know, I have to keep these standards. I have to do as she would do, as to keep you kind of engaged and going, okay, my purpose right now, but also that that can start to become, I use that word weighty of now, I have to. And you mentioned that that that walking that line between making it your own versus still honoring her and her legacy. How did you walk that appropriately? And kind of, how do you feel like you've been managed to do
04:31
that? Yeah,
Lauren Dunkle 04:33
great question. So it was tough. It was really tough. And when I added those additional service areas on that is where I started to feel that I could put my spin, my personality, into the pet lady, where I was really upholding a lot of the things that she had in place in Naperville. And I was so blessed that when I took over the company, she. Three ICS working for her. They all stayed on, thank goodness. So that transition was so incredibly smooth, and they were kind of running themselves to a degree, because I needed very there needed to be very minimal interaction in terms of, you know, me guiding them. They had already they already had their schedules. They've been doing this day in and day out. So all I was doing was be like, hey, this person requested pet sitting there on your schedule for these dates. Thanks. Where. I know it sounds silly and but adding those additional service areas, I was able to kind of almost break out of that shadow and kind of dip my foot in the water of what, where I could take things, and kind of put my spin and really gage how clients reacted to me, where Our company name, the pet lady was very much associated with my aunt's name in Naperville. People heard the pet lady. They heard Elizabeth Dunkle. So there was that, like little bit of a shadow that, still to this day, honestly takes a little bit of time to kind of break out of,
Collin 06:20
yeah, and I can imagine that, you know. So I mean, the transition to the new service areas was that truly because, you, you know, because you didn't live in Naperville and you were looking to expand, like, closer to you, or was it also like a, hey, I need to try something new here and see what that's like.
Lauren Dunkle 06:36
So actually, it was a little bit of both. Primarily, it was because I did not live in Naperville. And for those not familiar with these particular cities I'm naming, Naperville is about 20 to 25 minutes away from the rest of our service areas. Okay, yeah, so it's not necessarily like a five minute drive by any means. Um, so that was a big part of it, and also it kind of allowed me the opportunity to see, well, can I build this bigger than what it already is? Yeah, well,
Collin 07:13
and what was that process like then, I mean, you're, you're starting out in these new service areas, you know, how did you know? Like, okay, I'm gonna bring in this stuff from my aunt, and I'm gonna make this stuff all of my own. Or, like, what was that experimentation like?
Lauren Dunkle 07:29
So, to be very candid, it was a hot mess, because
07:36
I will
Lauren Dunkle 07:38
and we give, well, I'm sure we'll get into this as we talk a little bit more about where the business is currently. But you know, you don't know what you don't know. And I very quickly realized, like, I know how to schedule, I know how to invoice, I know how to physically care for the animals. I have experience managing people, but taking how I knew how to do all those things and put them together nice and neat in one place, was a lot more difficult than I thought. There was a lot of experimenting. My first hires in the new service area, well, they were wonderful people,
08:20
but
Lauren Dunkle 08:23
I didn't have the job description defined. I didn't have the training program defined. So as I grew I was piecing things together that really only I knew how to do. I had nothing in writing, nothing documented, and a lot of things I was doing on my gut feeling,
08:46
which luckily
Lauren Dunkle 08:47
really worked out. We grew. We were profitable. We were continuing to grow. We were becoming known in our new service area as a legit company. As you know, another amazing dog walking crew people could choose from, and I'm so blessed that it worked out that way. But you know, there's so much over the last almost 10 years that I've been doing this. Had I known what I know now, I would have saved myself a lot of headache, a lot of turnover in staff members, a lot of headache, even with not necessarily taking on the most ideal clients all the time. But what I do know is that my drive, and my drive for setting goals and hitting those goals, as well as upholding what my aunt like, I truly wanted my aunt to be like, Yeah, from wherever she is, yes, she's doing it. She got this and supportive of where I took the company, and I. Truly think at this point she'd be very happy with where we are today.
Collin 10:05
That must be a really good feeling to know that you're still able to have these, these foundation rooted in what she started, and know that there's some trials and tribulations of your own right of learning and growing. And it's one of those things of like, you know, had she still been around, she may have been able to help advise you on those things and things like that. But also you can rejoice and going, Well, I am who I am today because of some of those mistakes, right? Like, okay, I guess that was meant to happen, and I just needed to have those 1-234-510-2030, that hires, and I'm great now,
Lauren Dunkle 10:41
absolutely the lessons that you learn as a business owner are things you'll never expect, but they really it's a headache in the moment, but reflecting on some of those toughest times in the business, I'm like, Well, I wouldn't be Here now, I wouldn't have what I have in place if I didn't go through those things. Because if I continued on how things were going those first couple years, you know, my staff was running the business, I wasn't running it. I mean, part of that is we were using independent contractors, which we no longer are, but at that time, they were so they were setting their own schedules. They were telling me when they weren't and were not available. And,
11:32
you know, and even that,
Lauren Dunkle 11:34
in and of itself, huge learning experience.
Collin 11:39
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Speaker 2 11:44
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Collin 12:09
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/confessional Were you scared during this time and this, this growth and kind of transition period?
Lauren Dunkle 12:24
Oh, my goodness, yes, there, there are a lot of tears. There was a lot of, I don't think I can do this. There was a lot of, what did I get myself into? Because
Speaker 1 12:39
I knew, like how
Lauren Dunkle 12:42
to do everything individually, but the all encompassing being the business owner and knowing where my time truly needed to go, as well as realizing that my admin staff or putting admin staff in place, was so integral to me finding a good direction and defining truly what my role is in the business, because so early on You're Doing everything. I was doing every meet and greet. I was working full time with a midday schedule. I was providing those weekend pet sitting visits, and then still doing payroll and scheduling and invoicing and website upkeep and trying to market, trying to understand social media as a
13:39
older millennial
Lauren Dunkle 13:40
who didn't have the technology from day one. So there was just so much, and it's gets so overwhelming, and it can be such a scary thing when you're just not sure. And you know, at those first few years, I was still working another full time job,
14:00
so, but in 2018
Lauren Dunkle 14:04
I up and quit, and was like, I gotta do this. If I am going to have this business, I need to do this. And that was so scary, because all of a sudden I'm like, okay, my income is solely reliant on the success of the Pat lady, and I would was very blessed that my boyfriend, now husband, was able to be supportive in the way I needed it to so I could take that venture, and if I failed, we would still have a place to live, and if I succeeded, we could go from there. But that was probably the scariest jump. Was being like, Alright, I gotta be two feet in. I need to focus on this. And anything else needs to take a second seat to it.
Collin 14:53
What convinced you to make that jump? Because, I mean, you just said you're It's hectic. It's chaos. You don't know what you're. Doing lots of tears, and then you reach that moment where you go, I have to do this. What? What was that? Or maybe it was more than one thing that made that kind of flip switch, that switch flip and got in, you know, how'd you go in? Yeah, great
Lauren Dunkle 15:13
question. Because I yeah, there were tears, and I'm like, I can't do this. And then a week later, I'm like, Nope, I'm two feet in. Part of it was, honestly, I needed time off for my other job I did. I needed a specific day off, and the manager I was working for made a comment that said, Oh, your doggy play date can't be rearranged. And honestly, that struck a chord I did not know was going to get struck, and it flipped a switch in me being like, No, we this is not just doggy play dates like you obviously don't understand what I do. This is not a rainbows and sunshines and unicorn job where I just get to willy nilly go cuddle cute puppies and play with sweet kittens like our human clients fully rely on us. We are caring for a family member.
Speaker 1 16:16
The pets well being falls 100%
Lauren Dunkle 16:20
on me. And I realized, wow, if this is what someone who I've worked very closely with for five years truly looks at my business as, then maybe I
Speaker 1 16:33
am not like exuding the
Lauren Dunkle 16:37
professionalism that it should be. And at that moment, I tied it to having a full time job. And so I must have been kind of putting it out in the universe that the pet lady was the secondary.
Speaker 1 16:52
And candidly, I did
Lauren Dunkle 16:56
not want to be a banquet server the rest of my life. That was so I could learn the pet lady and learn how to grow that business. And I weighed the two, what, where do I want to be more? And I decided I really wanted to be in the pet lady more than the restaurant industry. Surprisingly, I know, you know
Collin 17:19
it's I love, I love that, Lauren. Because, you know, what I hear from that is it was almost this little bit of, you know, this little spark of anger that ignited that fire of like and man, what, what a wonderful example of the life of a business owner and entrepreneur. Of the one thing that keeps us up the night, most of the times, stresses out to the max, makes makes us, you know, kind of regret a lot of our decisions, is also the one thing that we are the most passionate about and firm in our belief that it is the best thing in the world. And how we our emotions kind of go rock back and forth between that of, I think, to some of my friends, you know, who don't really understand this, it's like, man, Collin Come Why does Collin end this? He talks a lot about, you know, how this is hard and he doesn't like it some days, and he doesn't get sleep. And on the other hand, I'm like, this is the best thing in the world. This is so important. I've never been more passionate about this in my entire life.
Lauren Dunkle 18:11
Oh, for sure. I mean, there are days where my husband just looks at me and was like, yesterday you were like, yes, go pet lady, and today you're pulling your hair out over who knows what? It's that dichotomy where you have to find that happy balance and realize that ultimately, my passion for what we're doing the pet lady as a whole, and you know, still, that little bit of I'm going to make sure my aunt sees me succeed with this that pushes me through those bad days? No,
Collin 18:44
absolutely. And that that is just so fundamental to to having that balance is our anchor, really, is that? That why right, that purpose that we are connected to, that it's going to swing right. Emotions are going to go from one to the one extreme to the next, but firm in the in the middle that's grounding us at every step is that one that two reasons why we're here, and we have to remind ourselves that on almost a daily basis. For me, sometimes, sometimes, yeah, some
Lauren Dunkle 19:13
days, 100% you have to remind yourself.
Collin 19:18
And you had said that one of the best things that you did in as you were defining your roles in the business was you started to elevate it sound like some people in the company. What? When did that start taking place? And how did you start knowing that that's what you needed
19:34
to do? So that's
Lauren Dunkle 19:37
interesting question, because I my first, I guess you could call admin help hire. She was a dog walker. She was amazing at the job she had, and I felt she would be a great support for me. And that was probably right around 2018 2019 very quickly, it. It failed miserably. She ended up ultimately leaving the company. And I truly looking back on it, believe it was because she entered into an admin position, and that's now being said, I have an office manager, I have a team lead. I have many more admin positions in place now, but I think why that particular one failed was I put someone in a position that I didn't even know what exactly I needed, but I knew I needed help, and I didn't have a role to find. You know, primarily we, we currently use time to patent we did at that time. I needed help with that, so I trained her fully on time to pet. I had her helping with social media stuff, and what I realized is a she was not I was not using her strengths. She was not enjoying the social media stuff. She was fine with time to pet. She didn't love dealing with client phone calls. And I was like, oh, but this is the job. This is great. You're going to love it. And ultimately, I I truly think it's because I kind of didn't have a good definition. She didn't really know what she was getting into. I didn't really know what I was getting her into. That ultimately, where that failed, and that was a little bit of a big blow to me, because then I'm like, Well, I guess I'm just going to have to do it all, which obviously is a very dramatic response to that. But in that moment, I was like, Well, I'm never gonna find anyone that can quote, unquote, do what I do, which is really funny kind of for me to say now, because I have someone who I trust to do 90% of what I do, and she does it amazingly, so sometimes better than me. Um, but, and then, of course, the pandemic hit um and we were using ICS up until then, I was very blessed, because all of my staff was able to work during the pandemic to some capacity. We without me fully realizing it, we had so many doctors, nurses, firefighters on our client list to where they still had to go to work, they did not get to work from home. So instead of maybe doing five or six visits a day, and my staff was doing one or two, and I gave up doing all visits at that time so my staff could have some income. And this all happened before we knew whether independent contractors were going to be able to receive unemployment benefits, right? And I wanted, I didn't know what to do when they My staff was looking at me, and I was like, Oh my gosh, you're all independent contractors. I got nothing and a lot of that kind of guilt pushed me into okay, what will it take to get to employees? What? What do I need to do, as well as starting to hear rumblings of the industry changing with around independent contractors to employees. So coming out of the pandemic, we then had employees, which was amazing, mainly because, in retrospect, and I think there's a lot of people that can kind of at least understand where I'm coming from. I was not using my ICS as ICs, according to the IRS, they were using time to pet because I told them to they were, you know, leaving client updates because I said, we have to do that after every visit. You know, they were able to set their schedules. And I kind of thought that was what that all meant, but definitely
Speaker 1 24:03
in retrospect, yeah, yeah, that was the big, big push.
Lauren Dunkle 24:12
And with that, I defined roles. I defined what an employee is. I defined what a team trainer is, and wrote down exactly like, Okay, what, what do I do at a dog walking visit? I wrote down everything I did formed it into a job description with requirements, with details on you need to be able, you know, this is a physically active job. You need to be able to sit and, you know, stoop down and walk for a consistent period of time, my team trainers finally had okay on day one of training, what do we actually do with the new hires? What is the difference between being a team trainer and just a dog walker? How. Having, having to define those things, and that coming out of the pandemic, with those two things in place, really helped get me to where I am now, for sure,
Collin 25:12
that clarity is just it's so wonderful, right? And I think oftentimes, because it flows from us. We think it's perfectly clear beforehand, and we're like, oh, well, obviously everybody understand what's going on in the expectations and, and, and it makes perfect sense to me, right? But if we try and take on those lens and be somebody else on the outside looking in, going, actually, no this, this is actually pretty confusing. And also you're kind of inconsistent. And also there's the expectations here kind of fluctuate from from day to day, and person to person too. And for an employee, that gets really tiring and really frustrating. And it also sounds like you know from that that first person you elevated to the admin stuff of also when there's no definition of because we found ourselves in this too, of when there's no definition of roles, we can just kind of keep adding to it and making whatever it is and whatever I'm angry or frustrated with that day, that person gets to take care of, and that's nobody wants to be on the receiving end of that kind of stuff too. Instead coming in going, here's the role, here's what's going to do and and here's how we he we move forward, and how you know what success is like that that's just an immense gift that you can give to that person coming into your company.
Lauren Dunkle 26:29
Yeah, so my current office manager, she came on in 2021 with us as a dog walker. Um, I knew right away she was flagged for a team trainer, and I kind of in the back of my mind had her flagged for some type of admin position. She was really familiar with the dog industry, very ingrained in rescue work, working with different rescues and fostering, and her customer service skills were on point. And I'm like, Okay, let's do this. So I sat down with her, and I said, I would love to make you an admin. I said, here's a list of the things that I think I need from you, but what you have to understand is I don't have this position lined out. No one it else has ever had this position before in this capacity, and
Speaker 1 27:24
there's going to be, or I needed, at that time, flexibility
Lauren Dunkle 27:30
and understanding from her that there was going to be a little bit of shaping the job while she was in it, and making that clear to her in the beginning, saying, This is what I think I need from you. And but as we grow and as things get added, things might shift. And are you comfortable with that? Are you comfortable helping me basically, kind of build out the job with me. And thankfully, she said, Yes. And I said, awesome. We are going to build this as slowly as we can and define it as we go. And it worked out great. We right away it was emails, client, phone calls, time to Pat, and I gave her, we did our full training on it, and I gave her time to fully master those, the three things we built out, phone scripts, email scripts, steps on how to do Things in time to pat and got all of that built out before I even said, Okay, great. Now let's go on to the next part of this job. And so she started as an office admin with me. I think it was towards the end of 2021 beginning of 22 and now, I mean, she's a full blown office manager, she does way more than just time to pet emails and phone calls. But you know, it's taken three, four years to get there.
Collin 29:18
Hey, there, pet professionals. Are you a passionate pet sitter or dedicated dog walker, looking to take your career to the next level, join the National Association of Professional pet sitters, the leading organization dedicated to elevating pet care with industry resources, ongoing education and a network of like minded experts. Naps empowers you to shine, whether you're expanding your business or building new client relationships, their community is here to support you every step of the way. Visit pet sitters.org today to learn more and join take a leap and let your career flourish. Naps where pet care meets excellence. Well, and I really love that that you pointed that out of I want her to have mastery of this, because I. Oftentimes. Well, I mean, what most people do when they get they need help, they hire somebody to help with the dog walks and the pet sitting, and we will micromanage that to the nth degree to make sure that it is absolutely perfect. And we will have over the oversight. We'll go way overboard on training sometimes when the person could probably be left just a little bit earlier than we are comfortable with. But that's fine, right? Right? Like we really obsess about that, and then when we take that next level for the admin stuff, man, that that's that real struggle of either people just throw it all off and they go, Okay, you got this? Okay, bye, I'll see you later, or that's it's but we have to take that same intentional approach to go, does this person understand this work, especially whenever you're designing it from the ground up for your company for the first time. Like, that's invaluable, and not something that you really want to rush because you're going to end up later down the line going, well, I don't know what happened. And the person really struggled there, and I don't even know why. And instead listening to, like, marinating this for just a little bit longer, like, it's okay, like, take your time with this.
30:59
Yeah,
Lauren Dunkle 31:01
100% and I mean, I just made all that sound great and wonderful. Well, let me tell you, I brought on a team lead and their job the way I envision it within our company is to primarily handle emails, phone calls and time to pet during our busiest time of the day, which is our midday timeframe, to free up my office manager and myself from needing to be so connected into time to pet during that timeframe. And when I realized I brought that person on, I was like, Well, what does my office manager do during that time then? And then I had to look at what I could remove from my plate that I didn't need to be doing one of the best some of the best advice, and is, was from Michelle Klein in her dog co mastermind, where she said, You need to track your activities and then Look at them and categorize them. Of Is this something I can hand off, or does this have to be me? Like payroll right now, it has to be me, but phone interviews does not have to be me. In person interviews doesn't even have to be me, because I have put the trust in the admins that I have in place where my office manager makes the final call on a on a new hire, I am going to support her because she knows the ideal staff avatar we are aiming for. So it's having that confidence, and it was not easy handing over some of my higher level tasks. In fact, to this day like yesterday, even I still need to work on letting some of that higher level stuff go and being okay with not having my hands in it because it's been so long, even with her in an admin position, I still feel that need on those few things that I just haven't let go of yet, where I'm like micromanaging a little bit more than I think is necessary. So it's an ongoing process on honestly, both sides, our admin side and even the owner side,
33:24
and being able to build
Lauren Dunkle 33:27
that structure that I need, but then knowing that it's okay to let go when that structure is in place. Oh, it
Collin 33:35
really is hard. And again, it spans whether it's our first hire and they're doing the dog walks through the Office manual General Manager position. It's everything in there. It's constantly checking ourselves of going, do I? Do I trust this person A and then B? Do I trust the system that they're working through? Right and and always asking that self, and if we find ourselves like constantly checking in and checking in and checking in. We we have to see, okay, how? Why? Why am I doing this? Why am I just, did I do I have misgivings about this person. Am I have some, you know, something that I'm really not happy with about the process that I need to work through. Or can we refine this? And importantly, it's just let me go to that person and work through that with them and maybe even sharing, hey, I'm, I'm still struggling with this. I really want, I really want to empower you in this. Let's work on something, a better system here, and then I'll make sure and step back. And it does start with the little things too. Of I know, like we, we're working through one of our employees, having her go out and make contacts directly with businesses on a very regular basis. And, man, I like, two years ago, I would have been the one who planned out the visits, planned out the places that she was supposed to go, had talking points, had all of this stuff and, like, micromanaged the routes to get from place to place to place. And now it's like she's not going to enjoy this if I do that fundamental. Mentally, if I just hand her this every time, she's not going to enjoy that's not, that's not why she wants to do this. So she can pick the places, we can have a conversation about them, and then she she has to go do them. And because I, I can't be doing that, I have to find there are much more important things on my plate that I've got to work
Lauren Dunkle 35:17
through 100% I went through the exact same thing with a position very similar to what you just described. It's as that position was first built. I felt so much need to be like this is where you go. This is what I need from you. This is exactly what you're going to leave at each place. Here's scripts I need to hear back from all this. And then all of a sudden, I was like, why am I spending half my day planning a route for her to hang up flyers in downtown like and now that, now the person that's in that position, they're scheduled for their shift, and they have a report they send at the end, and I get all the information, and they are given the opportunity to kind of make a case for if it's a place that I'm like, why would you go there? Yeah, but maybe I didn't realize they allowed dogs in that place. Or maybe it's right on a corner where a lot of foot traffic would be stuff like that, where I might just not know, but to the point of what you said is I have that role so defined with processes of they know exactly where they're supposed to pick up the flyers, where they get their tape And push pins. They know where we are servicing and where our ideal clients, or at least we where we think our ideal clients, will be out in the world. So they sit because they know those things. And you know, just within our culture of knowing our client avatar understanding the not just the service we provide, but what the service could mean to our clients. Really helps direct all of my staff members in every position to kind of problem solve things on their own, because they're working within our core values and our vision and following those as our guidelines.
Collin 37:24
I love the imagery of it's kind of like a big like grazing pasture with with the fence in around the edge. As long as they stay within the fence, and they're not trying to jump the fence and do stuff outside of the fence. I don't have to go chase them down and bring them back in. I, as the rancher, don't care. I don't need to micromanage the path from grass blade to grass blade that they're going to graze. Not my job. My job, make sure that we're in the fence, people, and then, like, live your best life.
Lauren Dunkle 37:56
That's a great analogy. I love that.
Collin 38:00
So, Lauren, you know you've, you're coming up on on 10 years of of running the business. I know you worked in the business for many years prior to that. How, how are you keeping, I don't know, like the business fresh and your attitude, to stay engaged, and, you know, especially with that, that day to day grind and that day to day work,
Lauren Dunkle 38:19
that's a great question, because it my answer would vary day to day. So keeping things fresh, one of the very first things I did when I took over is we did a rebrand. My aunt's branding did not fit my personality whatsoever. It was very like Victorian lady, Old English type font, and it's far from me, but it was my aunt, through and through. And so a little bit of with that rebrand came growing into my personality, which is was a little is a little bit more whimsical ish than my aunt had, and carrying those clients that were so used to what how my aunt ran things, what she did, kind of how she presented the company, keeping them engaged with the fun new things we were doing, was really important to me, and kind of having their support, because without their support, you know, they could have found another pet sitter, another dog walker.
Speaker 1 39:27
And I really wanted to kind of keep
Lauren Dunkle 39:31
it exciting and different. And we're currently, we just worked with pet marketing unleashed, so we have a brand new logo coming out very, very soon, which we're excited about, and we're already teasing our clients about it. And I've had clients be like, I seriously, I can't wait, because you've made so many other changes. We can only imagine that this is going to reflect those changes that you've made. And. And I was like, I had one client say that to me, and I was like, well, wow, because that is, you know, we're not the same company we were 10 years ago, the company we are now, this new logo, which is amazing, and I'm so excited for totally embodies where we are now, and not where we were 10 years ago. And so that was, you know, that is a challenge day to day, and in terms of keeping myself excited about the business, you know, there was a lot of times where that was a very difficult thing for me to do. It became a little monotonous when I wasn't seeing the leads come in. I wanted, I would, it would affect me in a, you know, in a way that was kind of would put a pause on the day to day work that maybe needed to be done in the company. But what I have learned about myself over
Speaker 1 41:03
the last year or so,
Lauren Dunkle 41:08
specifically with some of the groups that I am working with, is learning to do something different. That's how I'm staying engaged in the business and keeping the excitement going day today, you know, like, I don't know this, this year, I'm learning all about Profit First, it is not fun. Numbers for me are not fun. But I know I need to learn this to successfully run my business in that way. And so it's keeping me engaged within the business, because I'm checking numbers constantly. I'm checking labor costs. I'm checking my operational expenses. Can I do every conference this year? You know, all of that stuff, and just by having my fingers in that area, it's opening me up to staying involved with Okay, well, I've got room to order flyers. Great. Let me take a look at our flyer design. What worked, what doesn't work. So finding an area to really deep dive
42:14
kind of
Lauren Dunkle 42:17
a that's great, but it also spurts littler areas within the company, that it just kind of invigorates new life into things that may have gone stale. Oh,
Collin 42:29
I that's that's so fantastic. And you know, especially hearing how in the beginning, you were struggling to figure out how everything was tied together, and how everything what were the pieces, how did this connect to this? And how do I put all this together? And to now know that, like, 10 years on, you can dive deep into one subject and see how it impacts everything else across it and and how, kind of, as at your level, in the business, and as the business owner, we kind of do that sweep of like, What haven't I touched in a little while? I love doing that of like, What haven't I looked at? And not that I'm like, let me go. Let me go, mess this up over here. Let me go, cause chaos over here. But like, do I do? I fully understand this. And I think always having that active learning of going, let me look into this, you know, one that I've done recently. You know, here you dive into profit. First reminded me of, like, yeah, like, we have had, you know, slack as our team communication for, like, for a long time, and it was just a, you know, was working at the other day, and was like, Well, what are my other options? Like? Is this okay? And there was, like, a deep dive into that aspect and that whole world. And sure, Was it, was it something that was going to give me immediate, you know, income on that, no, no, but it was, is, was that going? It kept me interested in going. What are some new ways that our team could interact with together? What are some possibilities that are out there? How would we want to interact? And I think that that's so, so critical to us staying both engaged and excited about what we do is just really having our mind open to the possibilities on every aspect, and that's just something that we get to do, and is kind of should be fun, I guess. I don't know maybe, maybe that's just me, but
Lauren Dunkle 44:14
no, it that is exciting, and definitely using the community. I mean, you and Megan have done an amazing job building a community within our industry for people to ask questions, get answers, get different perspectives on things, because no one does each process right. There is no right way to do a meet and greet. You know, everyone has the way they do them. And I think the power in our industry that the last few years has really brought to light is the power of connection. It's these communities that pets that are confessional have built. And other professionals within our industry have built and using people's mistakes guidance, hearing the 16 ways to do a meet and greet, and saying, I really like what this person did, or this person or, Oh, using this as a selling technique, I'll add that in and kind of shaping what you do, but then having those people to bounce ideas off of so much growth within being a business owner has been from the power of connection with other business owners going through the same things I'm going through, yeah,
45:41
now it
Collin 45:43
really is eye opening when you can sit next to somebody and you can just, you know, throw out, you know, let's say a word association game, oh, hiring, or, you know, meet and greets, or lock boxes. And the opinions that come up from all of those things really do help engage you and all. And I know what we find time and time again, of going well, I've never heard about that before, but man, I have strong opinions, it turns out, and I have these convictions, and I I need to, I need, I feel the need, to write a new policy. You know, it's like, okay,
Lauren Dunkle 46:16
that is a real thing that happens. But, yeah, I mean, those, those trigger words, you said it lock boxes, you know, it just everyone's going to do things differently. And as a business owner,
Speaker 1 46:30
knowing, you know, hearing the
Lauren Dunkle 46:35
feedback from everyone, and kind of taking the pros, the cons, different perspectives, and saying, Okay, well, in our business, how would those processes work? And building out those processes, I've realized I really enjoy building SOPs, which is something a lot of people don't like doing, but I have learned about myself, I really like telling people how to do things and do them well, and putting it on paper and so, which I know sounds a little, you know, ridiculous and controlling, but if my strength is in my SOP, that means that I should be able to have any staff member read my sop on how to use a lock box and be able to do it without me saying
47:27
a word,
Collin 47:29
yeah, no, I love going, no. This is one of my strengths. And darn it, it's important. And I think that's that's one of the best things that we can find in our business is going, where do those two things align? Right? Like, what am I? What? Man, I I'm really good at this, and I get to do it every day, and it can be the most obscure thing. And I think that's oftentimes what gets difficult of as we as we grow as a company. If that's how we choose to run our business, we connecting what we do at higher and higher levels, back down to the business, then back into what's actually happening. And having those good connections with your team, with that good structure, is really critical to that. But knowing, at the end of the day, if I write a really banger of an SOP like that's going to influence not just my current team, but everybody who comes here for years after to help us continue our excellence and how we're serving people. And that becomes your role, right? And that's something you get to take on and kind of pick and choose to
48:30
Yeah, 100%
Collin 48:34
Lauren, I really want to thank you for coming on today and encouraging us with your story of finding your voice, making your business your own, while also leaning on your team and growing something that both you and your aunt are super proud of. This has been an immense pleasure to have you on. I really, really, it's been a lot of fun. So for those who want to get connected with you and follow along and see the rebrand when that comes out, how best can they do that? Yeah, absolutely.
Lauren Dunkle 49:01
If anyone wants to get in contact with me, we are at the pet lady Ltd across all social media platforms. Our website is the pet lady com. You can email me through there. Um, my rebrand is coming in March, so we will definitely have a lot out there around that time, and absolutely, I absolutely love connecting with other business owners, so this has been wonderful. Collin, thank you so much for having me.
Collin 49:29
I loved when Lauren said that the lessons you learn as a business owner are things you'll never expect, but they shape you. It can be overwhelming in the moment, but if you hadn't gone through the struggles, we wouldn't be the business that we are today. The lessons come from when we least expect it. Every single challenge in business feels impossible the first time in the moment, hiring, staff, client, conflicts, financial, all of it are hurdles that we have to overcome. And in the moment seem inside. Are mountable and impossible to overcome however. They are lessons for us. They teach us sure how to run the business, how to make decisions, but they also teach us about ourselves, how we grow, how we adapt, how we change and respond under pressure. It's a difference between fearing the hard times and embracing them a lesson for business that will stand the test of time. We want to thank today's sponsors, our friends at tied to pet and the National Association of Professional pet sitters for making the 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.
