All tagged learning

501: Success in Pet Care for Neurodivergent Entrepreneurs with Ilana Engel

501: Success in Pet Care for Neurodivergent Entrepreneurs with Ilana Engel

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Have you ever wondered how neurodivergence can shape the way a business is run? In this interview, Ilana Engel, owner of Park Slope Pups, shares her journey as a neurodivergent business owner with ADHD. She discusses the unique challenges and strengths that come with managing a pet care business while being neurodivergent. Ilana emphasizes the importance of using tools and strategies, like technology and structured methods, to succeed. She also highlights the benefits of hiring neurodivergent staff and the need to break down stigmas and misconceptions.

500: Finding Inspiration and Motivation

500: Finding Inspiration and Motivation

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What inspires and motivates you? To celebrate our 500th episode, we share some of our favorite quotes, reflect on their meaning and how they helped us. We share quotes on finding your priorities, setting boundaries, taking ownership of responsibility, as well as embracing a love of learning. Life of a dog walker and a pet sitter is full of ups and downs. While we look to our mission and our values to guide us and lead us through tough times, sometimes we need a little extra encouragement along the way. If you have a quote that encourages you to keep going, please share it with us!

470: Don’t Just Learn: DO!

470: Don’t Just Learn: DO!

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What are you learning right now? Are you doing anything with it? We’re reflecting on the overwhelming abundance of information available to us, especially in running a pet care business. There is a crucial difference between endlessly acquiring knowledge and actually applying it to make tangible progress in our business. Something that is a hard balance to walk. We want to encourage you to prioritize action over consumption of new information!

441: Focusing on the Big Picture with Tori Levitt

441: Focusing on the Big Picture with Tori Levitt

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Where is your focus on your business? Tori Levitt, owner of Doolittle's Dog House, discusses the importance of setting and communicating clear policies to clients, and how to balance expanding services while maintaining control of your business. Tori emphasizes the necessity of personal self-care and setting boundaries to prevent burnout in this demanding industry. She also highlights the value of continuous education and building strong referral networks with other professionals like veterinarians and groomers. This episode is a blend of practical business advice and personal growth insights.

377: Keeping a Business Owner Mindset with Maria Teran

377: Keeping a Business Owner Mindset with Maria Teran

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Where do you go for new ideas and adapt to changing business landscapes? The ability to create and seek out new ways of thinking is a super power. As a business owner, it’s critical to staying successful and relevant to your clients. Maria Teran, owner of Chicawoof Dog Walking and Field Days, joins us for a conversation centered around how to seek out feedback and then make necessary changes. Maria walks through her two powerful tools for getting feedback, and why you have to leave emotion out of it. She also shares what it means to stay creative as a business owner and the importance of continually exposing ourselves to novel ideas. Throughout the process of changing and adapting, Maria stresses how to stay connected with your mission so you stay true to yourself.

373: Embracing Change and Growth with Gricel Arroyo

373: Embracing Change and Growth with Gricel Arroyo

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How do you handle transformation and change? Gricel Arroyo, owner of Arroyo Pets, shares her journey of transforming her business over the past year. Starting with a focus on nail trims, she gradually expanded her services, with grooming now accounting for half of her business. She emphasizes the importance of up-selling services as a solution for clients. She highlights the need of being open-minded and learning from one another's experiences within the team. Becoming an employer has been a learning experience for Gricel, as she considers herself more of a team leader and mentor than a boss. Her primary goal is to create a better workplace where people feel heard and can grow within the team. She also delves into how she has changed as a person, learning to cope when things don't go as planned and understanding that she cannot control everything.

345: Staying Kind to Yourself with Colleen Pelar

345: Staying Kind to Yourself with Colleen Pelar

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Summary:

Is it ever ok to judge yourself? When we become aware of our weaknesses, we’re better able to understand where we need help, and strengthen ourselves over time. As pet care providers, we often find ourselves questioning if we’re on the right path in life. Colleen Pelar shares why it’s important to judge yourself while staying kind to yourself. She also walks us through how to properly grieve the loss of a dream or vision we had for our life, so we can embrace what we do have.

271: Equipping Your Clients with Tami Guy

271: Equipping Your Clients with Tami Guy

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Tami Guy, owner of Creatures Pet Care in Kalamazoo, uses her background in zookeeping, and educating, to teach her clients all things pet care. Tami shares how she continues to learn from her staff when it comes to running her business. From equipping them with knowledge to providing membership opportunities, she dives into what it means to help pet parents live their best life with their pets.

260: Reflecting on Hiring

260: Reflecting on Hiring

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So, after everything we have learned and experienced through hiring, what are our major takeaways? We discuss it in this episode. Hiring has certainly been a major growth opportunity for the business as well as our personal mindsets. We share some of our mistakes, lessons learned, and how we can do better next time. Natasha answers, “I’m solo, do I need to care about company culture?”

252: Being in the Moment with Gricel Arroyo

252: Being in the Moment with Gricel Arroyo

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After only providing nail trims to meet the needs of her community, Gricel Arroyo has experienced rapid growth and is about to make the leap to full-time. As such, she’s caught between knowing she wants to grow and expand, but also trying to run the business she has. Gricel balances the growth and social media by keeping it in perspective and working towards her goals. She shares with us what her growth has been like, and how she stays transparent with her clients about her business.

227: Practice Makes Progress

227: Practice Makes Progress

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Have you ever said the phrase, “practice makes perfect”? We should absolutely strive for perfection and use it as a motivating force through tough times or while we build a skill. The problem comes in when we only seek perfection and accept nothing else. Or when we believe we (or those around us) must be perfect at all times. A much more freeing and liberating mindset is, “practice makes progress”. In our business and personal lives, the reframe from perfection to progress allows us to be more creative, try new things, and build better relationships.

136: Doing vs Dwelling in Business

136: Doing vs Dwelling in Business

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In business there is a time for dwelling and a time for doing. Unfortunately, dwelling can be very comfortable, while doing the work can seem scary. On today’s episode we give ourselves a little pep-talk and discuss some of our own fear of moving from the planning stages in business to implementing them. Natasha O’Banion answers, “How do I keep using the lessons I’ve learned from Covid?”

107- Expanding from Arizona to Connecticut with Michelle Sabia

107- Expanding from Arizona to Connecticut with Michelle Sabia

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Many of us talk about looking into new service areas, few of us start up a new area hundreds of miles away. Michelle Sabia, from Paws & Claws Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Services, talks about why she started services in Connecticut while living in Arizona, and how she’s made it work. From getting connected to the local community, to remote staffing and management, Michelle encourages us to learn from others and have a support system.

098- Self-Care

098- Self-Care

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On today's episode, we discuss our self-care routines and feelings toward the idea of self-care. This episode is just as much for us as anyone because we don't have this figured out either! We talk through some tools and self-care methods. On our Ask a Pet Biz Coach segment, Natasha answers the question, “Should I even bother starting a pet care business in 2020?”

095- Jessica Abernathy with NAPPS

095- Jessica Abernathy with NAPPS

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Jessica Abernathy, President of NAPPS, comes on the show to share about their 2020 conference and her encouragement and excitement for the future of the industry. Jessica also describes the importance of taking time right now to dig into your business and where opportunities are opening up.

026- 2020 Conferences

026- 2020 Conferences

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Have you thought about attending a pet care conference this year? Or maybe you don't even know where to begin. On this week's bonus episode, we bring on the CEOs and organizers from three of the largest conferences taking place this year. We can't wait for you to hear from them and what they have in store.