The 3 Things To Focus On For Any Dog Pro In 2020

In this episode of the Mind Your Own Dog Business Podcast, Kristen Lee gives you the top 3 things you should be focusing on as a dog trainer, dog walker for 2020 and beyond.

These top 3 items are straight from the Grassroots coaching playbook and are the highlighted strategies to create massive momentum in any dog business:

Brand Identity - sure you've built a business, but have you created a stand out brand that is in alignment with who you are as a dog professional.

Financial Wellness - planning for clients dropping and leaving, creating wealth vs. survival and, prioritizing sales. Not to mention, stopping the hustle crisis cycle that is burning out dog trainers. 

Consistency - showing up in your platforms with connection and engagement to your clients and prospective dog owner clients.

Break out your pens and notebooks, and be prepared to kickass with your dog business in 2020!

Australian Relief Links: 

NSW RURAL FIRE SERVICE:
https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/volunteer/support-your-local-brigade

Fire Relief Fund for First Nations Communities:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/fire-relief-fund-for-first-nations-communities 

Port Macquarie Koala Hospital GoFund Me:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-thirsty-koalas-devastated-by-recent-fires

RSPCA NSW:
https://www.rspcansw.org.au/bushfire-appeal/  

Check out more episodes of Mind Your Own Dog Business

Connect with Kristen:

Online: https://thekristenlee.com 

Instagram: @dogwalkercoach

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/kristenleegrassroots

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

You're listening to the mind your own dog business podcast. I'm your host leading expert in dog business, strategic Kristen. Leave guys yet ready for your journey, your journey to cutting edge marketing and sales, creating a standout kick ass dog business grant along with mastering your mindset that's going to smash all of this glass ceilings that have been holding you back and catapult your dog was us to the next level with actionable steps you can take right away. We're going to empower you. We're going to grow you as you step into your authentic self, not only as a dog trainer, dog Walker or what ever slice the pet industry you find yourself in, but as that bad-ass entrepreneur, my mission is to disrupt the current norm. Cut through the noise, cut through the bullshit and power the incredible women of the dog business industry to step into the spotlight, reclaim, control, and transform not only their businesses but their lives. It's real. It's raw, it's uncensored, and it's what this dog business industry needs. Let's do this guys.

Speaker 2: 1:25

[inaudible][inaudible]

Speaker 3: 1:27

welcome to the new motherfucking decade of the mind, your own dog business podcast. Oh my God guys, welcome to 2020 to all my listeners out there, I hope you had an amazing, amazing holiday season and you are going into the year of dog training, the year of dog walking, pack hiking, pack, walking with every fresh outlook and knowing you all have the power and the action to change your fucking businesses for good, to support you to build sustainability and stability and to really fucking step into your passion, into your power for 2020 guys, I am so stoked for today's episode. You know why? Because I got a, I got a confession. I'm being a sneaky little fucking bitch with this episode because it's a top three things I just gave all of our clients the grassroots dogmas school to focus on for 2020 yeah, yeah. I talked about it yesterday to them in a live coaching session and I was like, you know what? I think my podcast listeners can use these top three things as well. Now, I always say things like, it's like so menial, but these are legit top three things and strategies that I want every single one of you guys to take massive notes on because these are game changers and it might seem in, you're probably thinking like, Oh my God, these are going to be super fucking complicated. I've got to learn sales. I got to do this. I got to learn how to have different marketing systems and funnels and all that crazy shit, right? No, no, no. These three items that I'm going to have you guys focus on in this episode are super simple to implement. I mean, you guys can start doing this shit as soon as you finish listening to this episode. You can start planning this out now. I know a couple of episodes ago I talked to my goals, so it might be worth your while to go listen to the goals episode and take some notes on there and then from the goals episode, focus on the top three things I'm about to hand deliver to you on a mother fucking platinum bitch platter. Guys. Oh my God, super exciting. I am like, I'm like super bubbly right now. Like I love, okay confession. I am a business geek, I am a business mother, fucking nerd guys. I, I can talk business all day. It's ridiculous and I just love it. It just makes me so excited and I'm super excited for this episode but on a really quick, serious note, first things first I want to send my love and my support to all of my Aussie listeners out there and just letting you guys know you are in my thoughts, you're in my vibes and you have my fucking support. So if you guys ever need anything personally, reach out to me at Kristen, a dog Walker coach. If I don't answer, my assistant will answer and we will get you guys hooked up with something so we can support you, we can help you out and whatever you need. And then also too, I just want to turn this back around to my listeners here in the podcast as well. I know you guys in the States and even out of the States are feeling hopeless because we are seeing these incredible images of devastation. And it's almost like there's helplessness because Australia seems so far away and I have to tell you guys, you are not helpless. You can support our Aussie mates over there. You can support your fellow Aussie dog trainers, your fellow dog walkers, pet minders over in Australia, and the way you can support them is by your donations. And even if you're at not at a place you can donate. I encourage you, I encourage you to share the links I have below in the podcast show notes. This way more eyes can get on it and the more we can get eyes on it, the more people are going to donate. There is the way we can help them and we can show them support, whether it's financial donation, even if it's a dollar or even just sharing the links below because guys, I can't even fathom the loss. The devastation of not only people, but the wildlife. Over 500 million animals have been wiped out. Guys, it's just incredibly devastating and let's all band together. Let's all help, help and stand for humanity in Australia and for the animals to, I've I've listed a couple links. One is for the rural or sir fire service in new South Wales. Um, not to get political. I, I'm not 100% sure on this fact. I'm not stating as a fact, but I believe most of their fire service is not funded. It's volunteer. So if we can help those dedicated those brave as fuck firefighters that are putting their lives on the line to save communities, that would be absolutely fucking amazing. I've also included links to help, uh, aboriginals for a go fund me. Also, there is a go fund me for the port and I again, I apologize on the pronunciation of this, the port Mac inquire koala hospital. I know the quality, I believe about 30% are not even left or 30% of the qual population, which is already vulnerable has been wiped out. So go help them out, go share these links. And then the RSPC of new South Wales too. They are providing amazing support for dog owners and pet all pet owners in new South Wales to help them with evacuation. So go check out the links, show your support by donation or just share them across different social media and yeah, guys, Australians, we're with you. My drum business grassroots stands behind you and just let us know, send us a DM, send us an email of how we can support you during this time too as well. All right, so let's hop into the top motherfucking three things for every dog business owner to focus on for 2020. Now guys, I don't care what you do as a dog business owner. If you're a dog trainer, you're a dog Walker, pack hiker, pack a pack Walker hello to my pack walkers on the West coast, by the way, sending you love, especially a certain person out there who just joined grassroots bitches. Yeah. Uh, but these top three things are the three exact, uh, three exact things. And I say things like so profoundly like these are the three things, but these are the top three strategies that all of our grassroots students are doing a really heavy focus on. We're about to actually pop into some 2020 planning and I am super fucking stoked to bring them to you. So the first thing guys, we're getting right into it right now. The first thing that you should be focused in as a dog trainer, dog Walker, pet sitter or whatever you want to call yourself, is your business brand identity, okay? Business brand identity, showing up, okay? Showing up, taking action versus talking and showing up in all your fucking glory as that expert. Because guys, I got to tell you, the one thing I see so many people not doing is showing up with authority and expertise with all of your blood, sweat and tears, sweat equity in there. All right guys, you guys are the motherfucking experts, okay? And I want you, I want all of you bitches to show up an influence and authority, okay? Guys, stew it by creating a super strategic brand identity. Stop hiding behind the logos, okay? Sometimes we have to look and take an honest look. Does my brand need to mature? Because if you've been in business for a while and you have a really rock and roll in business sometimes, and when I see this type of stuff, our brand identity doesn't match the maturity level, right? And if you are having issues where, and this is not for everybody, I get this, this is very polarizing, you're probably getting really pissy with me saying this, but if you are having a problem with people taking you seriously and not valuing you as the expert, you are. Take a fucking look of what your visual identity showing. So if you're like happy puppy dog kisses and love and things like that, cool, that's you. That's particular clients, okay? If that's what resonates with you, that's what who you are. If it's all love and cartoon characters, great, great. But if you're a fucking serious business owner, if you charge a really decent amount of money and you provide a life changing transformational service, take another photo and look of how you are showing up. Okay? Now, one thing too is guys, when you step into your authority, when you step into your badass Surrey, when you step into being, um, beyond the business, not just having a business, but also realizing this is a fucking brand. Stop hiding behind your logos. Guys, I know it's tough. I know the doctrine training climate can be volatile. However, by worrying what other people are fucking doing and thinking about your business is not serving your brand, your brand is to focus your brand is the focus on the dog owners, not what dog trainer EY is doing up the road. Not what dog trainer B is doing or what methodology they have, not what dog walkers see is doing or worrying about. They're going to copy you or not. All right guys, so focus on your motherfucking clients through your business identity. All right, and stop considering yourself. This is a huge one guys, especially when it comes to your brand identity. Stop considering yourself as just the dog trainer. Just the dog Walker. Just this because that's commodity. That's commodity and you guys aren't fucking a commodity based business. If you a commodity based business, you'd be a fucking subcontractor for wag or Rover. By the way, I have a really good episode about that coming up, but go beyond just the business guys. Go beyond just the business. All right, but showing up as a brand showing up loud, fucking prep. Now if you're an introvert, I'm not saying go be like go do like bro marquee like you were the best bra and all that type of shit. No, but stand in to your authority. Stand into your values, right? If you have specific values that you fully hold to true to your heart, like for example, if you are committed to providing a community service, meaning like your are a quote unquote your community, great fucking have that show up in your branch. Have that show up wherever else you show up online for your website, for Instagram or whatever. If you work with dogs that are fucking assholes, incorporate that shit into your brand. But connect guys, connect, connect, connect. That's a huge thing and this is where it's going to be a game changer. Understand what your brands, your brands, clients, or stories are telling about you. Okay? This is a huge one. I'm going to actually be creating a brand story thing, uh, for everybody in the next couple of weeks, but half the time we don't even know what our client's stories, what client stories they're telling about your business. All right? Now it doesn't mean the stories are like, Oh, they're the best dog Walker in the company. No, no, that's not a story. That's just their opinion. All right guys, so show up as your brand identity. Just don't classify yourself as a business. Your business is a fucking brand. All right? The second thing, guys, the second thing, this is huge, huge. This was huge for grassroots students, by the way. Financial wellness. What? Now I'm not just talking about raising your rates or doing this or doing that. You know how to raise your rates. Go fucking listen to that episode of months ago. Fear, fearlessly raising rates. I can't even pronounce it cause I'm so hyped right down. But overall, having financial wellness, not just surviving, but also creating wealth. And now when I talk about wealth, I'm not talking about just having six or seven figures in the bank, but knowing where you are at financially, I cannot tell you how many dog business owners that I connect with. I'm like, okay, cool. You know, one of the conversations, a conversation points we have is like, all right, where are you at with your finances? If you don't have a clear picture of where you're at on a monthly, weekly, quarterly, yearly basis, guys, there's something going on. Now that also being said, I'm going to be doing a coach's corner episode about financial wellness. I believe it's gonna be coming out this week, but don't leave all your financial wellness and your financial planning to a CPA, to an accountant. Okay? Understand how your finances are working for you. Understand what assets you have and understand what liabilities you have. All right? Another thing too, is prioritizing your sales as your financial wellness. All right, so here's the thing and this is the conversation I had yesterday and this is why it pinged to me to actually do this episode with you guys is as entrepreneurs. All right, let's let's, let's have a real story time really quick or we'll talk really quick. As entrepreneurs we have this gift and it's this double edge sword. It's like a gift and a curse too. I want to say, well, it's not really a curse, but it's a gift. As entrepreneurs we are able to make as much fucking money as want. I'm just going to lay it out in the line there. As entrepreneurs, we're able to make as much money as we want. So for example, if you want to go to Richard Branson's, if you get invited to Necker Island and it's 60 K, you should be able to seamlessly pull some shit together and get the cash flowing for that. Now, if you are just tight neck and you are fucking surviving, there is most likely a inconsistency in your financial wellness. Whether that is the way you're handling your sales, the way the clients that are coming to you, your program design, your program offers your pricing. All right, so what you need to do guys, if you are struggling to have a couple extra bucks in the bank, fucking prioritize your sales process a hundred percent like you do not need to be more boots on the ground offering more services. This is a huge thing. I think I might even do an extra episode. The answer to more money in your business is not more services. It's prioritizing your fucking sales process. It's prioritizing connecting to the people that resonate with your brand. You see where I'm going with this guys? And understanding and having conscious awareness. Now, not like subconscious awareness where the law of attraction, like I believe in the law of attraction naturally, but having a conscious understanding of your biz, your business finances and your personal finances. I have to tell you, it was so funny. I'm going to tell you a super quick story. Um, a couple weeks ago I get a certified letter from Wells Fargo. I like, I get a knock on the door from the the our our mail person and it's a letter that I have to sign it. I'm like, Oh fuck. And like I literally have just paid off about a half a million dollars worth of debt from student loans. I have a private Ivy league, a master's degree that I had a lot of debt from and I'm like fuck. I'm like, what the hell is this from Wells Fargo? And I have all my bills on auto payment, especially my car payments. And it was a letter from most Fargo saying stop paying us, you paid us too much money. And because I just had things on auto payment with my, my car loan at that time I literally was paying for six months to a car payment and because the address to where my car payment was going to miss my business address, my business office address, I wasn't getting the letters. So if I had that conscious awareness around where my money was going each month versus like okay money in, money out, I would have been golden and that would've been an extra like three K in my pocket over the last couple months. And it's funny, I got the money back from Wells Fargo of course they sent me a certified check. No like stop sending us money bitch. Like Kristen, Chris and motherfuckin Lee stopped sending us money. We're going to start charging you because you're spent sending us too much money. But that's the thing guys have a conscious awareness of where your money is going in and out. Now I'm not all Dave Ramsey like where you have to eat rice and beans and having like a scarcity mindset when it comes to budgeting or whatever. Cause again, we go back to the whole gift of being able to plan out our financials and have that kind of faucet to turn on the cash whenever you need. All right. And the next thing too, and this is a huge one guys, and this is something that a lot of business owners, especially dog trainers and dog walkers don't plan for it in their financial wellness is attrition. What is attrition? Attrition are people that drop dogs that die. Um, people that back out of programs, people that lose their jobs. Basically anybody who's lose, who you're losing as business, even if they're on a break or whatever across the board and any industry and it, it's true, it is fucking true in the dog business industry too. I've been keeping data over the last few years is there is a flat 30, it's about 29 to like 32.1% of attrition for all the dog business owners. So when you're building your goals out, so like for example, if part of your goals is to make a half million this year, plan for, you know, an attrition bank. So in case somebody does drop, it's not going to have you scrambling for cash or you're not going to be like, Oh my God, I need to go make up the money for this person that just dropped out of my program. All right guys. Huge, huge, huge. And the last thing for financial wellness, this is another big one and it is my goal to create Epic awareness around this is the hustle crisis cycle that all dog business owners go through. Okay? What that looks like is you, and this is especially true if you just say for example, we talk about attrition just before. So December you have maybe four people drop from your dog training program or maybe your pack walking or day trading program. And it's a big financial blow. Just say it's like, I dunno, maybe 10K a month for people. If you have your programs at market rate that's v aluing you and all of a sudden you have this huge gap. So what happens? You go into overdrive, you go into marketing like mayhem to get people in and you're going on and on and on and mentally you're freaking the fuck out. And you just go and go and go and go and go and go and go and go and go and go and go hope, pray, you know, do ads, do whatever to get people to fill in these roles. Okay? And then what happens is, cause you're, you're performing at a really high adrenalized rate and an act of survival, you start to crash and it's, it happens, right? Our bodies are, if you're consistently in a flight mode, you are, um, a flight or flight mode, you are going to end up crashing. And then that's where burnout comes from. So you, you hustle, you hustle, you hustle. And then when you get a couple of people in, you're like, okay, I can finally fucking relax. And then it's like everything starts to downslide again. Like your content drops off. Uh, you're not showing up consistently. You know, your sales process kind of wavers a little bit. Maybe you're not getting back to people quickly in time or whatever, and then it starts all over again when the next attrition of people coming on. So it's hustle crisis cycle. It's huge. I will link a picture of it because this is something that not only you guys aren't immune for all you dog trainers, all your dog walkers out there, but sometimes it happens to our grassroots students and we like to get in front of it as soon as possible because you cannot consistently live in the hustle crisis cycle. And I firmly believe the hustle crisis cycle is the reason why so many people are burning out so quickly in the dog training industry and the dog business industry. So second thing is focus on your overall financial wellness guys, fucking Epic. And then again listen to the episode that's going to be probably after this on financial wellness. Now the third and final thing to focus on guys to have the most Epic and game changing dog business ever in 2020 and beyond is consistency. Now I say this with a lot of love, a lot of intention and a lot of strategy behind it. Consistency is not just basic bitch shit, just posting content, the post content, post blog post to post blog posts, post blog posts or YouTube videos or whatever, just to have eyes on the prize. But you want to be consistently showing up on all different points of contact. Whether that is you're stronger on Instagram, right? I'm not strong on Instagram, like I don't give a shit. Like I love my Instagram followers, I'm, I love them, but my focus is not on Instagram to grow my business. I have different sales processes, but if you have a really large following, show up, tell them stories, provide value beyond just uh, just what you do during the day. Show the fuck up in your content. Make connections through that. Same thing with Facebook. Same thing with tech talks. I know a lot of people are going to tick talk. Same thing with a Twitter or whatever else you do. Now, I'm not saying go and spray your water all over all different platforms cause that's not where it needs to be. But if you show up really well and you are very fucking powerful on YouTube or video or whatever, fucking leverage your strength, but be consistent. Be consistent. Stop the basic bitch sharing stuff just to get eyes on the prize. All right? I can't tell you how many people I see show up just to get eyes on their business. All right? Your focus, when you are making connections, when you are quote unquote marketing your business is not to do one sided marketing. Provide value. Now it's not giving away all the details on how to do things because you know it is what it is. However, when you just do a blog, you just do a Facebook post and you share it a million times. It looks spammy, but be consistent in your messaging. Know who you are talking to in your audience. All right? Don't worry. Again, it goes back to don't fucking do content to please other dog trainers or do content. Um, that's kind of, I want to say reserved because you're worried about what somebody else is going to be thinking of you. All right? Show up content for your ideal niche fucking client and be consistent about it. Don't let the hustle crisis cycle take over. When somebody drops, you're like, Oh my God, I got to fucking breakout the content and be fucking crazy with the type of shit. All right, and plan strategically. Plan your content strategically. Guys, you don't need to spend 80 motherfucking hours a week. I'm planning your content. Understand what you're going to be talking about. Maybe make a theme for the month or whatever and plan that shit out versus just like spray and pray or you know, shit that doesn't resonate with your clients. But that also goes back to knowing who your niche is and consistently make a message for them. Show up in storytelling, show up in messaging, stand, stand behind your authenticity, stand behind your brand, curate a brand experience guys. And then also to, I mean another thing that so many dog trainers are overlooking is how does CRM system have an email system? Now, I'm not saying sell through fucking email cause that's, you're not going to get high value sales through email. Well you can, but there's a whole other strategy around that. But you know, get an email list going guys. You know sometimes people aren't going to be ready to purchase so fucking get an email list, nurture your motherfucking prospect, your prospective clients through there, but don't spam them guys. People don't like to be spam. And the next thing too is when it shows up consistently. Remember people are getting platform fatigued, especially dog owners. Oh my God, there's so many dog trainers and dog walkers out there that are showing, okay you have to do a, B, C and D with your dog to be the pack leader or to be the best dog owner ever. Right. And the, the burnout from the social platforms and that messaging, it's, it's causing fatigue and dog owners are starting to turn away from them. What dog owners want to see is real engaging conference content and a confirmation they want to see real engaging content like that tells a story that shows them they're not alone in stuff. All right guys. It's huge. It's fucking huge. And one other thing too, I want to put out there, when you're creating content for the purposes of education, stop shaming dog owners, like stop that fucking shit. If you're consistently shaming dog owners for whatever else, using a different choice of training methodologies or maybe potentially using a wag service or a Rover sweat sack service shaming is not educational. Guys fucking stop that shit. Like if I see a client that goes into that, like they are the first motherfuckers that are cut from grassroots, like I don't fucking tolerate that shit because shaming is not education, but show up with your brand voice. Show up with your authenticity and make those connections consistently. Whatever platform you use, don't just go and do it because it's the selfish reason of like, Oh my God, I'm the hustle crisis cycle. Because your perspective clients are not responsible for your hustle. All right guys. So just to kind of go back through that really quickly in summary in summary is show up in your brand identity. Remember, you are not just a business. Stop hiding behind your fucking business. Show the world yourself. Show the world who you fucking are, whether whatever quirks you have, but show up in your brand identity. Okay? Have a strong brand identity. If you think about who I am, Kristen fucking Lee, if you think about who my, my brand identity is very strong. You know I have the crush Christian Louis batons, I have the fucking curse words. I have the, I have the tattoos, but I also have that fucking Ivy league MBA behind my name. All right, so show up in your brand auth authentically, okay? And not somebody else's version of authentically show up in your own true authentic voice. Okay. Have financial wellness guys, I cannot stress that enough. Fucking take control of your finances. Stop avoiding them like they're a fucking STD. But know your financial wellness, your business finances, your personal finances. And I have to tell you, this is one other thing I'm going to say that I forgot to mention. If you don't have a business bank account and you are just having cash go into your business and go out, you have to fucking change that immediately. Get with a business banker. And the third one is being consistent in whatever type of messaging you do. If it's Instagram, if it's Facebook, if it's Twitter, if it's LinkedIn, whatever you do, but be consistent. Show up, create content that people give a flying fuck about. Create content that is geared towards your dog owner clients. Don't worry about what other dog trainers or dog walkers are saying or they're spying on your shit because chances are they're struggling. And why should you give into their struggle too? All right guys, so thank you so much. This was an app fucking awesome episode. Oh my God, I gave so much good stuff here and I cannot wait to see what you guys do with all this incredible new knowledge bombs that I took from the playbook of grassroots guys. All right, have a good one. And again, remember, just support your fellow Australians with the links below in this podcast episode. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye.

Speaker 1: 29:03

Hey there. Thank you for listening to another bad-ass episode of my Jiro dog business. If you haven't already subscribed, what are you waiting for? Oh my God. Go and subscribe now so you don't miss out on any of our content packed dog business jam sessions plus special offers that I'm gonna only be sharing with my amazing Doug business entrepreneurial podcast listeners. Now, if you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a five star kick ass review. So more amazing dog business owners just like yourself can find us and start to transform and disrupt their businesses and their lives unapologetically. And if you feel so inclined, feel free to tag me on Instagram with a screenshot of this episode and holler at your girl at dog Walker coach, you can find me dog Walker, coach, and I'll pop up and I'll give you a special shout out. All right guys, til next time. Bye.