Bella In Your Business: Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Podcast

I wanted to talk about something pretty controversial today. Our listeners are at a myriad of levels in the pet industry from buying multiple businesses all the way to people who are on Rover or Wag and wanting to start their own professional company. I want you to take this message to heart, no longer are we mom and pop companies plugging away. There is something very unique that is changing in this business. Specifically, I'm going to be talking about why Rover (or any other app or hobby sitter) is beating the professional pet sitter. Biggest Takeaway You Don’t Want To Miss The reason why Rover or Wag might get more sign-ups than a professional pet sitter is because they're beating us at the automation game. Pet parents don't even get to experience how great our services are because our entire intake ignores the user experience. The experience your customer has with your business before even meeting you is paramount. Speak exactly to your avatar on your website, if I can copy and paste your website onto someone else’s site, you are doing it wrong. Show Highlights Why do Rover sitters get more sign-ups? [2:55] How can we avoid people from moving on to other sitters? [8:15] What is the most important part of the sales process? [9:00] How can the professional sitter win against Rover? [12:15] Links Rover Blog: jumpconsulting.net/rover-beating-professional-pet-sitter/ Jump Consulting Mastermind: joinjumpconsulting.com/mastermind/ Free Facebook Group: facebook.com/jumpersnetwork Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: Welcome to Bella in Your Business. This is episode 161 of the show where Bella discusses anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump! Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. I am your pet sitting business coach, and I wanted to talk about something pretty controversial today. Now, I know our listeners are at a myriad of different positions in their business. Some have acquired and bought multiple businesses and are making over a million dollars—some of my clients are at 1.2 or 1.4 million. Then we have everyone in between, all the way down to people who have been on Rover and Wag and want to start their own professional company to get off that app. I say all of this because this is a universal concept that applies no matter where you are in your journey. Whether you’re listening to this in 2019, 2020, or even later, I want you to take this to heart. We are no longer just mom-and-pop companies plugging away. Business is changing. Some people understand that; others don’t. Specifically today, I’m going to talk about why Rover is beating the professional pet sitter. When I say Rover, I also mean Wag—or anyone else that’s kind of a fly-by-night setup, hobby sitters doing it on the side, not a true professional business where the person is putting a roof over their head, food on the table, paying their mortgage, and scaling their business every day. I don’t mean that as an insult. If you’re a hobby sitter looking to go pro, more power to you. I’m not bashing anyone. I just want to be clear before we dive in. Every day, I see professional pet sitters complaining online about Rover stealing clients. “Look at this Rover sitter who messed up,” or “This Wag sitter lost a dog,” or “This pet died under their care.” It spreads like wildfire. Then you see professional sitters arguing with Rover sitters, claiming that professional sitters are better caretakers. But honestly, that’s not true. The majority of Rover and Wag sitters got into it because they love pets. Sure, there are bad apples, but they exist everywhere. The real reason Rover or Wag might get more signups isn’t about being better caretakers—it’s because they’re beating professional pet sitters at the automation game. Back in May 2019, in our Mastermind, we talked all about customer service experience. We had a guest expert, Dan Gingiss, a Forbes writer, keynote speaker, and host of the podcast Experience This! with Joey Coleman (who’s also been on my show). Dan blew us away with his insights on what professional pet sitters are truly competing with. I was so moved that I had to dedicate this episode to what he said. Dan said something powerful: “Customer experience is the last true differentiator.” You can’t compete on price because it’s a losing game—you’ll end up making no profit. You can’t compete on product because, at the end of the day, everyone is walking dogs and feeding cats. What you can compete on is experience—how your clients feel when interacting with your business. That’s the unique advantage you have because your people and your service ar

What would you say if I told you I had a way for you to get in front of a lot of local clients? And that you could have a way to position yourself as an expert in your community? Well today I'm really excited to talk to you all about Facebook Groups! We've talked about Facebook Groups two other times on Bella in Your Business. The first time was way back on Episode 42 with Maureen McCarthy and then again on Episode 110 with Erika Godwin, but today I'm actually going to take it to a higher level. Over the past year I have been flying around the country, and soon the UK, to speak on this very topic. I have been able to grace some pretty big stages and been called an expert on Facebook Groups so I thought that it was only fair to bring it to my audience. Biggest Takeaway You Don’t Want To Miss Your Facebook page is like your front yard, while your Facebook Group is your back yard. There's a gate to get into your back yard, so it's more private and it's where you host a party, entertain your guests, and invite them to mingle. You want your group to Be The Destination by becoming an expert in your local community and connecting with other businesses in your community. Show Highlights What has Facebook said about Facebook Groups? [2:30] What is the front yard and back yard analogy? [5:20] How can your group Be The Destination? [9:15] How do you create content for your Facebook Group? [13:05] What questions should you ask people joining your group? [15:00] Links Free Instagram Training: jumpconsulting.net/instagram/ Jump Consulting Mastermind: joinjumpconsulting.com/mastermind/ Better Marketing With Bella: joinjumpconsulting.com/marketing/ Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: Welcome to Bella in Your Business. This is Bella Vasta, your host, and this is episode 160. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella discusses anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump! What would you say if I told you that I had a way that you could get in front of a lot of local clients and position yourself as an influencer, an expert, someone who becomes known in your community? What if I told you that you could actually become the person people think about when they think about pets in your local area—and even make tens of thousands of dollars doing it—with just a simple switch in your thinking? Well, today I’m really excited to talk to you about Facebook groups. We’ve talked about Facebook groups twice before on this podcast. One was back in episode 42 when I interviewed Maureen Dunn-McCarthy of Loving Kisses Pet Sitting in Indian Trail. We talked about how she built a group after one of our coaching sessions, and it has since exploded. If you want to hear a great case study from someone in your industry, pause this episode and go back to episode 42. The second was episode 110 with Erica Godwin, where we talked about how to grow and leverage your Facebook group, what research to do, and what to be aware of when running your group. Today, I want to take a higher-level, bird’s-eye view of the incredible importance groups can have on your business. Over the past year, I’ve been flying around the country—and soon to the UK—speaking on this very topic. I’ve been called an expert on Facebook groups, so I thought it was time to bring that expertise to my audience. Let’s go back to February 2019, to Facebook’s F8 conference—their version of a State of the Union. Facebook announced that “the future is private,” and that more activity would move into Messenger and Groups. At that time, there were 400 million meaningful relationships happening in Facebook Groups, and Facebook’s goal was to grow that to one billion. That’s incredible. As marketers, that should tell us exactly where Facebook is heading. Some people get frustrated—remember how page engagement dropped to around 3% years ago? But Facebook is a business. They make the rules, and we’re on rented land. The only constant in social media is change, so staying educated is key. If you keep listening to me here, on my Facebook page, or in my groups, you’ll always be ahead of the curve—knowing when and how to pivot to what’s working. For a long time, I’ve been talking about video because it’s powerful—it says things better and faster—but today we’re focusing on groups. They’re where real connection is happening. I like to explain it using my “front yard/backyard” analogy. Think of your Facebook page as your front yard. You’d never put an in-ground swimming pool or host a private barbecue there. Your front yard is for public appearances—Halloween decorations, a Christmas wreath, maybe a flag for the Fourth of July. It’s one-way communi

Today for the Best of Bella series we are replaying Episode 120 with Jessika Phillips. She runs a multi-million dollar marketing firm where her major platform is relationship marketing and at the end of the day as small service providing businesses in our communities it's all about the relationship. Jessika really leaves you with a lot of nuggets to think about that you can use in your business today, you don't want to miss this one. Show Highlights Who Is Jessika Phillips? [3:00] How do I get started with relationship marketing? [7:30] How do we tie in relationship marketing with buyer personas? [15:30] What does a relationship marketing plan look like and how do I know if it’s working? [20:00] What should we be doing on social media to start implementing relationship marketing? [26:00] Describe your FREE social media toolkit? [27:15] Original Show Notes Jessika Phillips helps people master Relationship Marketing and as a relationship marketing evangelist she is often sought after for her approach to marketing. She’s the passionate Founder of NOW Marketing Group and host of the largest social media marketing conference in Ohio, Social Media Week Lima as well as the host of a weekly live video show called Magnet Marketers. Biggest Takeaway You Don’t Want To Miss When it comes to marketing, the first step is to think about how you are capturing attention. How are you standing out? Attention is the game when it comes to marketing. Usually somebody will take notice of you because you’re helping them in some way. Articulate your message in a way that’s clear and concise. Create micro-moments that will build the relationship. Make them feel excited to do business with you by creating a unique and enjoyable experience. Special Offer Social Media Toolkit: https://nowmarketinggroup.com/landing-page/download-social-media-toolkit/ Links Jump & Scale: jumpconsulting.net/scale Magnet Marketers Podcast: magnetmarketers.com NOW Marketing Group: www.NOWMarketingGroup.com Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: Welcome to Bella in Your Business, the best of Bella. My name is Bella Vasta, the host of this podcast, and today we have episode 159 that's actually a replay of episode 120. You see, we're going to be talking to Jessica Phillips of Now Marketing Group out in Lima, Ohio. She runs a multi-million dollar marketing firm where her major platform is relationship marketing. And that's exactly what she's going to talk about today. I loved this podcast so much that I wanted to share it with you again, because at the end of the day, as small home-based service-providing businesses in our communities, it's all about the relationship, but it's not just that easy jargon that you might think of. Jessica really leaves you a lot of nuggets to think about and play with and percolate on that you can actionably use in your business today. Not to mention that this is also another person who really walks the walk. She takes what she teaches and she actually implements it, which is why at such a young age, she's been able to create a multimillion-dollar company. Jessica Phillips, I have so much respect for her. She is also one of my good friends, but it's really going to help you, and we've received such incredible feedback on this. I hope that you like this, and this is going to be the last of the best of Bella replays. As we come into the fall, we are going to be getting into our next episode with Lauren Cora from the Pet Industry Coalition. You will not want to miss that one. But without further ado, here's Jessica Phillips. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready. Bella's got your shoot. Let's jump! Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your host, and today I've got a treat for you. Jessica Phillips—I met her when I was asked to come speak at Ohio's largest social media convention that she actually puts on. Jessica and I, she's like one of those people that you just instantly bond with. One of those people you instantly want to be BFFs with. And today she's on our show to talk about relationship marketing. Did you even know that was a thing? Jessica shares that she worked in corporate America for about five years in telecommunications, during the time when people were transitioning from the big Zach Morris phones to smartphones. She found that she couldn’t sell anything unless she stopped and listened to understand what people really needed. That insight—understanding pain points, the day in the life of her clients, and how her services fit in—became foundational for her.

Today we are replaying Episode 116 with Jenn Herman as part of the Best of Bella series. Jenn literally wrote the book "Instagram For Business for Dummies" and she is a wealth of knowledge. She is incredibly insightful, she talks fast, drops lots of value bombs, and you are sure to learn stuff from her. Show Highlights Who Is Jenn Herman? [2:25] Why Do I Need Instagram In MY Business? [4:30] What Are The Different Ways Consumers Can Use Instagram? [6:55] How Do We Figure Out HOW Our Audience Consumes Instagram? [10:25] What Tactics On Instagram Can We Use To Build Our Local Following? [13:10] Should You Always Use A Location Tag? [17:25] What Kind Of Strategies Can I Use For Hashtags? [18:25] How Often Should You Post On Instagram? [26:20] Why Should I Have A Kick-Butt Instagram Page? [29:20] Original Show Notes It’s no secret that Instagram can be a powerhouse social media platform for your business – but I see so many business owners that are just NOT using it to its fullest potential. If you’ve been wanting to dive deep into the inner working of Instagram and learn useful Instagram secrets, then today is your day! Jenn Herman is a social media consultant, speaker, and globally recognized Instagram expert. She is the forefront blogger on Instagram marketing and her blog, Jenn’s Trends, has won the title of a Top 10 Social Media Blog in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Through her blog, consulting, and speaking Jenn provides tips, resources, and training for small to medium-sized businesses that need to structure their social media strategies. Her business background includes Administration, Sales, Human Resources, and Marketing and she enjoys bringing all these skills together to help you grow your business. Jenn has been featured in Inc., Fox News, Yahoo Finance, HuffPost, The Verge, CBS Radio LA, and numerous other podcasts and publications. She is the author of “Instagram for Business for Dummies”, “The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Instagram” and “Stop Guessing: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Social Media Strategy”. Learn more about Jenn on her website http://jennstrends.com. Biggest Takeaway You Don’t Want To Miss Above all, you have to have a consistent strategy. Being active and taking the time to implement the strategy you develop is key. Your processes will drive the results that get you clients, regardless if you have 50 followers or 50,000 followers. What matters is who’s going to find you and bring you business. Build an amazing community of the followers you have and use strategic efforts (i.e. hashtags, stories, following events) to turn that into business. Special Offer Pick up a copy of Jenn’s book, Instagram For Business For Dummies, on Amazon here: http://bit.ly/IGBizDummies Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: Welcome to Bella in Your Business, the Best of Bella. My name is Bella Vasta, your host, and today we are going to be replaying episode 116 as part of the Best of Bella series. Today's guest is going to be Jen Herman. She literally wrote the book Instagram for Dummies and she is incredibly impactful. She talks fast, she drops lots of value bombs, and you are sure to learn stuff from her. Instagram is like Facebook's sister and Instagram is something that has worked very well for a lot of pet sitters and dog walkers. In fact, after we recorded this, I actually created a webinar for pet sitters. If you go to jumpconsulting.net/instagram, you can get your own free class on it there. Jen Herman is a wealth of knowledge. She is definitely the leading expert in Instagram and I'm so excited to bring her to you. She's not just some other person who is regurgitating old information. She is on the pulse of all the changes of Instagram strategy with Instagram and how you can really use it in your business. I have news for you. Instagram, I believe, is actually even easier than Facebook, provided that you can wrap your head around it and have a strategy. So without further ado, this is Jen Herman with a replay of episode 116. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready. Bella's got your chute. Let's jump! Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting, and today we're talking everything Instagram. So if you've been wondering about why you should be on Instagram, how you should be on Instagram, what to post on Instagram, or just how to actually use it for your business, today is your day. Today I've got my awesome friend, Jen Herman, with me and she is just an Instagram expert. I mean, honestly, you guys, if you wanted to know anything about Instagram, Jen is your g

This week for the Best of Bella series we are replaying episode 95 with Niki Ramirez. Niki is a wealth of information for everything human resources related, she is also a monthly guest in the Jump Consulting Mastermind. A lot of pet sitters and dog walkers may think that they're too small to afford an HR specialist like Niki, but in actuality, it's one of the biggest things you can have on your team. Listen intently to see how she helps pet sitters and dog walkers and everything you can learn. Show Highlights: What is coaching and why should we coach? [6:20] What do great coaches do to unlock the best potential of their employees? [10:50] Are there different types of coaching? And when should we implement these techniques and why? [14:50] Is there any easy way to say “I’m going to be coaching you?” [16:30] How can you coach stubborn pet sitting employees? [20:20] How can you find Niki and tap into her resources? [25:20] Original Show Notes Today we welcome our friend, Niki Ramirez! She is a Human Resource specialist at HRAnswers.org, who provides full-service HR consultation, compliance support and employee training for small businesses. Their mission is to take care of “HR” so that their clients can focus on their business. Today we’re talking about how to be a coach to your pet sitting employees and why it is so important. Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss: We are all natural coaches. But the way that we interact and socialize makes it difficult. Be mindful and focused to practice the skills that are already within us. Coaching is an opportunity to point out what you do well and also offer immediate ways to adjust. It is also a top opportunity to build relationships and report with our pet sitting employees How often should we be coaching people? We don’t want to be a “mother hen” and we don’t want to go overboard. It is more important to go hard during the introduction time period. When an employee is new you want to coach them more. Counseling vs coaching where do you draw the line? As a leader, you have to send questions ahead of time that guides your thinking. You have to identify that they are going through something but work through it quickly. Let them know you value them and you have a support base for them if needed. But you can’t “counsel” them. Where do you draw the line of counseling or coaching and those personal boundaries? You can’t always get too personal, even though you may want to. You have to have a distinct boundary line Can staff members coach each other? Definitely! In fact, they are a great resource for team building. Find who is doing a wonderful job that will help you grow. Tap into that and help them grow naturally within your company. Links Find and contact Niki for a quick and easy consultation at HRAnswers.org Share The Show: Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: Welcome to Bella in Your Business. This is episode 157 and I'm your host, Bella Vasta. The Best of Bella. Today we're going to be replaying episode 95 with Nikki Ramirez as part of the Best of Bella series. Now, Nikki Ramirez is here locally in Arizona. She has been an incredible supporter and advocate of the dog walking and pet sitting industry. I'd like to say that her and I's partnership have helped tons of pet sitters, probably hundreds over the past two or maybe even three years. Nikki is a wealth of information. She is an independent human resources consultant, HR, and she is a monthly guest inside the mastermind. She was on the podcast and we talked about all things HR, something that I think a lot of pet sitters and dog walkers think that they are too small to afford. But in actuality, this is one of the very biggest things that you can have on your team or knowledge or help to make your systems and processes succeed so that when you're hiring, training, recruiting, and firing, you always have the confidence to know what to do and no situation can knock you off your solid ground. Without further ado, I want you to listen intently to Nikki Ramirez and see how she helps pet sitters and dog walkers and all the good things you can learn. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready. Bella's got your chute. Let's jump! Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta and I'm your host from Jump Consulting. Today I have a very special guest with me. I have known Nikki Ramirez for probably a year and a half at least, and I need to tell you all that it was not easy to find her. I went through so many people, convinced myself that there is a magical person like Nikki out there in the world to help small business owners li

Bella chose episode 56 with Lain Ehmann to be part of the Best of Bella series because it was one of the most downloaded episodes of Bella in Your Business. Bella and Lain dive in deep on branding and how to make your website stand out. They talk about figuring out who you are as a brand and a business, Lain even offers a free download to help you! Show Highlights Who is Lain? [3:25] What mistakes do small businesses make on their website? [4:30] How can you correct the issues? [7:00] What is messaging? [9:50] Should all businesses be concerned about branding? [18:00] How do you share your marketing across different platforms? [20:40] What is something businesses shouldn't do in messaging? [23:50] Where can you find out more about Lain? [27:20] “Messaging is a tool to do that by defining who you are, what the value is that you provide, and the audience you provide that to.” – Lain Ehmann The next logical step in the process is helping customers see that you can solve the problems they have. You can drive customer motivation by tapping into their “pain points”. Bella recommends that you include the benefits of your online scheduling as part of your messaging. Lain says that playing up your “secret sauce”, that unique niche that you have identified, will help you reach those who need that service and even build your standing among those who don’t because they see how much you care. They also recommend doubling up on your marketing. For instance, doing a Facebook live with tips about dog walking and then putting a link to that under your services page. Another common mistake Lain points out is that often business owners speak from their point of view and assume that the audience knows everything that they know. In fact, educating the audience should be an important part of your efforts. Make sure they understand the terminology and services you are offering. Lead them through your site to the call to action. Original Show Notes On this episode, Bella spends time with Lain Ehmann, Marketing Strategist at #FastLain. You will learn how to make that message different between the mediums. In particular, be conscious of the frame of mind people are in when they are reaching out to you vs. when you are reaching out to them. Give them something they wouldn’t expect. Don’t sell them. Listen in as they talk about the mistakes small businesses make on their websites, including telling a story that your audience wants to hear vs. telling the story you want the audience to hear. Be mindful of your audience. Messaging, which is “communications branding”, is critical to success. It is the message you are going to consistently send out to your audience that also helps you distinguish yourself from others in your niche. As a bonus, doing so may even allow you to charge more. About Lain Lain is a bestselling author and communications strategist, who specializes in helping six- and seven-figure entrepreneurs uncover hidden profits and potential – FAST. Her superpower is saying what your customers and clients really need to hear, to get the results you want as quickly as possible. Links Mentioned In This Episode Get in the – #FastLain at http://www.fastlain.com. Free messaging guide: http://lainehmann.com/messagingdl Transcript: Welcome to Bella in Your Business. This is episode 156 of the Best of Bella featuring Lain Ehmann as we replay episode 56. The Best of Bella. I chose this episode because it was one of our most popular downloads as we really dived in deep on messaging, how to make your website really stand out and be unique as a pet sitter and a dog walker. I kind of feel like a lot of websites out there are really just selling the industry. What I mean by that is I see a lot of people say something like, we're professionals and we turn the blinds for the lived-in look, and your pet is safe and secure in their own home, and we clean all the litter boxes or we wash the bowls or turn the blinds for that lived-in look. And in reality, all that's doing is really telling what a professional pet sitter does. It doesn't really speak to the uniqueness of you and your company. I think that that only comes from figuring out who you are as a company, as a brand, as a business — much like your coming of age that we all kind of go through during our adolescence and puberty. We kind of grow into our own. So this episode is so amazing and Lain also has a free download for you at the end that I think really can help you. And I know it really helped a lot of people the first time around. Without further ado, here is episode 156 featuring episode 56 with my good friend Lain. Enjoy. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready. Bella's got your chute. Let's jump! Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your host, and today I have Lain with me. Lain and I actually

We're taking it back to episode 93 on this edition of the Best of Bella series, when Bella had the sincere pleasure of interviewing Mari Smith. She knows everything that is going on and she is the nicest, most approachable woman Bella has met in the social media space. They had fun talking about the ins and outs of social media and Bella wanted to bring her to you all again. Original Show Notes: Navigating social media can be pretty difficult, especially when it comes to your online business. Often referred to as “the Queen of Facebook,” Mari Smith is hailed as the premier Facebook marketing expert and one of the most influential and knowledgeable new media thought leaders in the world. In fact, Facebook headhunted and hired Mari to go on tour with the company to teach business owners across the United States how to grow their businesses using Facebook! Forbes recently described Mari as, “… the preeminent Facebook expert. Even Facebook asks for her help.” Mari is an in-demand speaker and travels the world to keynote and train at major events. She also serves as Brand Ambassador for many leading companies. She has over 1.7 million followers on her various social channels and is the author of The New Relationship Marketing and coauthor of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day. Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss: How did you become such an expert on Facebook? In order to become an expert, you have to put in 10,000 hours into your skill. Be unwavering in your focus. FOCUS= Follow One Course Until Successful. It helps you keep on track. Overall it is a universal mindset with fear-mongering. You can get really upset or you can be a calming voice of how to overcome or make a change regarding a problem you see, like pet food recalls or puppy mills. Mari encourages us to be the calming voice. You have to be mindful of what you post for relationship marketing. Treat people with respect and use proper social etiquette even online. Ask yourself “would I be comfortable with this…appearing on the front page or on a google search. Even more, would you be okay with your Mom seeing it? Quiet your ego and try to diffuse tangents. Don’t be drawn into petty conversations. There are always screenshots that will be your digital ink. How can you add value to your business with Facebook? You become a leader in social media by using groups and stories. Have a good strategy for your stories and you easily convert your personal Instagram to a business Instagram and have those post directly to your Facebook, which drives traffic to your website. Show Highlights: Mari’s expertise in Facebook and how she got started on her path to becoming the “Queen of Facebook.” [3:30] How to FOCUS for success [7:45] Creating meaningful relationships on Facebook [10:50] New business skills that everyone needs [14:10] Benefits of setting up Facebook Groups [16:30] Advice on how to build your online community [24:00] Links: Find more about Mari Smith and her new book at www.marismith.com Check out The 12 Biggest Social Media Marketing Mistakes Businesses Make at http://www.marismith.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/12_Social_Media_Mistakes-MariSmith.pdf Downloadable Offer: Free PDF download. Mari Smith’s recommended Video Gear List for Facebook Live broadcasts:www.marismith.com/fblive Share The Show: Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review Transcript: This is episode 155 of The Best of Bella. We're going to take you back to episode 93 when I had the sincere pleasure to interview the queen of Facebook, Mari Smith. Mari has been sought after by Facebook to be an evangelist for the platform. She knows everything that's going on, but even more than that, she is one of the nicest, most approachable, and delightful women I’ve met in the social media space. Mari is definitely the Janet Jackson, Madonna, or David Bowie of the industry — that caliber of celebrity in social media. I’m ecstatic that I’m able to bring her to you. We had fun in our interview talking about the ins and outs of social media, what people are doing right, what people are doing wrong, and I wanted to bring her back again. She’s fantastic, and if you’re not already following her, you absolutely should. She always has the latest breaking news and insights. She’s one of my personal go-to resources, and I’m proud to call her a friend. Without further ado, here is The Best of Bella with Mari Smith, a replay of episode 93. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump! Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I’ve got the queen of Facebook to bring to you. I am so excited! For those of you who do not

Bella chose this episode to be part of the Best Of Bella series because it is with Joey Coleman. She first saw him live at Social Media Marketing World 2017 and his presentation skills blew her out of the water. Without further ado, she wants all of you to experience Joey and his First 100 Days methodology. Time Stamp How has Joey done and accomplished the things in his life? [4:40] What is the First 100 Days methodology? [8:10] Is there a direct correlation between telling stories and solving problems and value? [12:50] How can business owners create a meaningful customer experience? [15:00] How can employees get involved? [28:45] Where can everyone find and connect with Joey? [30:50] Highlights On this episode, Bella catches up with Joey Coleman, Chief Experience Composer of Design Symphony. They talk about things you can do as a business owner to create a meaningful customer experience like: Sending personalized gifts to your customers seemingly at random. Sending handwritten notes thanking them for trusting you with their fur baby. Keeping track of simple things like the pet’s birthday and sending acknowledgments. Doing a monthly quick check of the pet (for any issues). Giving the pet a bath unexpectedly. Sending quick personalized videos of you and the pet to the client. About Our Guest: For over a decade, Joey has helped organizations retain their best customers and turn them into raving fans via his entertaining and actionable keynotes, workshops, and consulting projects. His First 100 Days methodology helps fuel successful customer experience endeavors at companies and organizations around the world. As a recognized expert in customer experience design and an award-winning speaker at national and international conferences, Joey specializes in creating unique, attention-grabbing customer experiences. He works with companies ranging from small VC-funded start-ups to large Fortune 500s, with hundreds of mid-size businesses in-between. Joey developed his narrative skills as a criminal defense trial attorney, advised and counseled Fortune 500 companies as a business consultant, honed his communications and messaging skills at the White House, and did things for the U.S. Secret Service and the CIA that he can’t talk about publicly. His design and artwork has been displayed in museums, featured in juried shows, and graced publications in the U.S. and abroad. When not traveling the world (48 countries and counting) for keynote presentations, client workshops, and quality beach time, Joey enjoys watching magnificent sunsets from his mountain-top home in Colorado with his wife and two young sons. Transcript: This is episode 154 of Best of Bella. I chose episode 49 to replay because it is from Joey Coleman. I first saw him live at Social Media Marketing World 2017, and his presentation skills blew me out of the water. This man is so incredible and so personable. But even more than that, his background is just mind-blowing. He has done things like become a criminal defense trial attorney, worked at the White House, and did things with the U.S. Secret Service and CIA he can't talk about publicly. He's designed artwork that's been displayed in museums. This man has lived the life of many people at such a young age. But more importantly, and for you today, he has this thing called The First 100 Days. He was so incredible that not only did I have him on the podcast about a year and a half ago, I also had him as a guest in the mastermind, and he just blew everyone out of the water. So without further ado, I want you to experience Joey Coleman and The 100 Days Methodology. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — Bella's got your chute. Let's jump! Welcome to Bella in Your Business. I'm your host, Bella Vasta, with Jump Consulting. And today, I don't even know where to begin. Joey Coleman is my guest, and you guys, listen up to this biography because this is going to explain to you exactly why you need to stop whatever you're doing, put down the laundry, pull over — stop walking the… well, don't stop walking the dog — and listen to what we're about to say. When organizations like Hyatt Hotels, NASA, the World Bank, and Zappos need to build their customer experience, they call this guy you're about to hear — Joey Coleman. For over a decade, Joey's helped organizations retain their best customers and turn them into raving fans through his entertaining and actionable keynotes, workshops, and consulting projects. His First 100 Days methodology helps fuel successful customer experience endeavors at companies and organizations around the world. As a recognized expert in customer experience design and an award-winning speaker at national and international conferences, Joey specializes in creating unique, attention-grabbing customer experiences. I ca

Welcome back to another episode in the “Best of Bella” series. Bella chose this episode with Carey Conley, because her story and purpose on this planet are so inspiring. Bella and Carey talk all about vision and if you let yourself soak in this episode it will set you on the path to success. Show Highlights Why does Carey say that "Vision is Victory" especially for entrepreneurs? [3:40] How do you get through the stumbling blocks to get your vision down on paper? [8:20] What happens when you try to run a business without a clear, concise vision? [13:50] What are the victories that come from getting clear on your vision? [15:15] How important is community and accountability in a business? [17:20] What is the most important thing entrepreneurs need to create the life and business of their dreams? [21:20] Original Show Notes On this episode, Bella talks with Carey Conley, speaker and Co-Creator of Infinite Nation; a community created for skill building, mentorship, and community for aspiring leaders and business owners. Bella and Carey talk about: Why “Vision is Victory”….especially for entrepreneurs The biggest stumbling blocks for people to actually put a vision down on paper and follow through with it What happens when people try to run a business without a clear, concise vision Community and accountability You can find out more about Carey Conley and the services she offers on her website at InfiniteNation.com. You can email her directly at [email protected] Transcript: Welcome to Bella in Your Business. This is episode 153, The Best of Bella. Why, hello there, jumpers. This is Bella Vasta, your host with Bella in Your Business. And today on the series, I'm going to keep it going — Best of Bella. I am bringing to you my good friend, Carrie Conley. Carrie was on episode 39, and this woman is just such a wealth of information. The way that we met is pretty interesting, and I believe we talk about it in the podcast. My brother was her Uber driver, and she has since become truly one of my good friends. I meet her for happy hour quite regularly, and this woman's story and her purpose on this planet are so inspiring. So inspiring that I actually had her come and speak at the first Jump into Paradise retreat I did here in Paradise Valley, Arizona in 2018. She had the whole room crying, and her actual methods are so incredibly life-changing and moving that if you allow yourself to soak in this next episode, it could really put you on the path to success. And I don't say that lightly. Carrie is not only a great teacher, but she's also a practitioner. She practices everything that she preaches, and when you hear this woman's story, you'll know exactly what I mean. Without further ado, here is episode 153 featuring episode 39 with the incredible Carrie Conley. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump! Welcome to Bella in Your Business. I am Bella Vasta, and I’m here today with Carrie Conley, a speaker and a co-creator of Infinite Nation. She has a community created for skill building, mentorship, and support for aspiring leaders and business owners. Carrie, how are you today? I am fabulous. How are you? I am wonderful. I want to tell everyone how we met because it’s such an off-the-wall story, and it shows how you have to be open to things in life. You guys, I was actually watching Carrie host this big event in Phoenix online because one of my friends, Gail Yacoblitt from Networking Phoenix, was there posting about how awesome it was. So Carrie was on my radar, and then out of the blue, I get a Facebook message from her saying, “Hey, your brother was my Lyft driver, and he told me about you. I thought I’d like to connect because I love meeting people.” It was the most serendipitous yet bizarre thing that happened. It was so cool, and we had such an electric conversation that I said, “Carrie, I need to get you on and have you influence my listeners because you are just a spitfire and have so much energy, excitement, and a very valuable message.” So let’s get into this whole thing about vision. You talk a lot about vision — and it’s none of this hokey pokey or fluffy stuff. It’s actual, incredible, life-changing work. So why do you say “vision is victory,” especially for entrepreneurs? Carrie explains that vision is her signature topic. After college in the 80s, she followed the traditional path — getting a good degree and job — but found herself changing jobs every two years because she couldn’t fit the mold. One day, a mentor told her to figure out what she wanted in life first and then build a career around it. So in 1988, she took a day off, sat with a legal pad, and wrote out her ideal life in detail: where she lived, her family life, travels, and the kind of mother she wanted to be. She even wrote that one day she’d lik

This episode is part of the "Best of Bella" series. Bella chose this episode with Marcus Sheridan as one of the best for many reasons. Marcus is one of her favorite human beings, they go on a deep dive of content marketing and his book "They Ask, You Answer". She doesn't want you to be making the mistake that she sees others doing when blogging, even if you've listened to this episode before you'll want to give it another listen. Bella and Marcus discuss: The philosophy of "They ask, you answer" Why business owners are afraid of just giving honest answers to potential customers The five subjects that move the economy. The dangers of "Ostrich marketing" How important video is becoming to the marketing process Assignment selling Face-to-face sales appointments without you being there. Show Highlights How did Bella and Marcus meet? [2:50] Who is Marcus Sheridan? [3:55] How did Marcus realize he needed to slow down and start answering questions? [8:45] What are the five subjects that move the economy? [12:05] What is "Ostrich Marketing"? [13:35] How important is video to the marketing process? [15:20] What is assignment selling? [20:05] How are face-to-face sales changing? [23:20] Original Show Notes On this episode Bella speaks with Marcus Sheridan, a former pool guy turned digital sales and marketing expert. He is the President of The Sales Lion and a Partner at River Pools and Spas. Links Marcus Sheridan's book: They Ask You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today's Digital Consumer (available on Amazon) You can find out more about Marcus at https://www.thesaleslion.com. Transcript: This is episode 152 of Bella in Your Business, The Best of Bella. Today we’re taking you back to episode number 36 with one of my favorite human beings in the marketing space — maybe even in the world — my good friend Marcus Sheridan. If you’ve never heard his name, stop what you’re doing right now and look him up because this man is not only knowledgeable but inspiring, and he’s influenced numerous pet sitters and dog walkers to take action. We go on a deep dive about content marketing and what that really means. Content marketing is basically anything you put out there — video, audio, written, or pictorial — and how that can help your business. I picked this episode for The Best of Bella because I don’t want you to make the mistake I see so often. People finally start blogging, but they’re not blogging to help themselves. Their blogs are, frankly, useless. They don’t help, and they end up competing with big generic blogs like “Pet Tips to Keep Your Pet Safe This Summer.” Snooze. In this episode, Marcus helps you understand how making content more local and answering the real questions people are searching for will help tremendously. I don’t want you to blog just to blog. I want you to understand what creating good content really means. Without further ado, here’s my interview with Marcus Sheridan. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where I’ll discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — I’ve got your chute. Let’s jump! Welcome to Bella in Your Business! I’m so excited today because I’ve got Marcus Sheridan with me, the self-proclaimed “used-to-be pool guy” turned digital marketer. I remember the first time I met him — at a small conference in Las Vegas back in 2012 with maybe a dozen people. I remember how captivated everyone was and how he knew everyone’s name in the room. That moment changed my life. At the time, I was still running my pet sitting company, and Marcus told me I could do anything. Fast forward, I sold that company and now run my coaching business — and it’s largely because of that one conversation. Marcus says he started a swimming pool company with two friends in 2001, and things were great until the 2008 market crash nearly bankrupted them. By early 2009, he had 16 employees sitting at home, was three weeks overdrawn, and had maxed out all the credit cards. Desperate, he turned to the internet and started studying inbound and content marketing. What he realized was simple: if he obsessed over the questions customers asked every day — their fears, worries, and concerns — and answered them honestly on his website through text and video, he might just save his business. That’s how They Ask, You Answer was born. By obsessively addressing customer questions online, his company became the most trafficked swimming pool website in the world, pulling in 600,000 to 700,000 visitors a month during the summer. That success led to manufacturing pools and building a national dealer network. Other businesses began asking him to teach them how he did it, and soon he was speaking around the world about marketing, sales, and trust. Marcus says he’s proud not only of the business but of how he’s maintained balance with family. He even started a video ser

This episode is part of the "Best of Bella" series. Bella chose this episode with a former state auditor as one of the best, because she loves being able to bring unique experts to you. If you missed this episode the first time around you'll be pretty surprised by what you hear. Main Topics Bella and Katrina first discuss a big controversy in the pet sitting industry, which is misclassification of employees as either independent contractors or employees. Katrina outlines some key indicators that auditors look for in making that determination: Is there an actual contract between you and the contractor? Are your payments to them regular in nature? How much control do you have over them with regards to work hours, uniform, training, etc.? Do they offer the same services to other companies through their own business? Are you providing them all the tools, training, and supplies they need? Basically, consider how loose is the relationship? They also discuss why they think business owners are so apprehensive about audits, what documents a business owner should have at their disposal if they are being audited, and whether business owners should take their lawyer and accountant to the audit. Katrina also gives some insight into what triggers an audit. Show Highlights Who is Katrina Kadyszewski? [4:10] How does interpretation come into play with auditors? [6:20] Which documents should you have when being audited? [10:55] What is the goal of an auditor? [15:20] Should you get your lawyer or CPA involved when being audited? [17:15] How are businesses chosen for audits? [22:40] How far back should you be keeping records? [24:45] What is the VCSP (Voluntary Classification Settlement Program)? [26:00] Original Show Notes In this episode of “Bella In Your Business”, Bella talks with Katrina Kadyszewski, a former state auditor with the State of Connecticut. Katrina has over 16 years of experience working in a variety of financial positions. She started in the brokerage industry with a Series 7, 63 and 65 and life and health license, and then transitioned to audit work for the CT Department of Revenue Services. She then left to support small businesses in their efforts to get organized for expansion. Katrina spent 3 of her almost 8 years with the CT Dept. of Revenue Services in the Business and Employment Tax Audit Unit, focused primarily on payroll tax issues. The last 5 years she has worked as a Corporation Tax auditor, traveling across the US auditing largely Fortune 500 companies. Resources There are resources out there to help small business owners. Katrina and Bella suggest a few, like the IRS’s 20-factor test to help you determine employee or independent contractor status and amnesty programs that exist to help encourage business owners to make the right switch. Have you ever been audited? Want to hear about pet sitters who have been audited? I have interviewed a handful and reported about it all here. Transcript: This is episode 151 of Bella in Your Business, The Best of Bella. Today I am featuring a Best of Bella episode. I want to take you all the way back to episode 20, which if you've started listening to us recently, you might not have had the pleasure to listen to it. I actually was able to track down a former Connecticut state auditor and what we discussed on this call was really remarkable. I love it because for a few reasons. One, I really love being the first in the industry to do anything. And to the best of my knowledge, I don't know any other industry leader interviewing auditors and talking specifically about pet sitting and dog walking. Second, I love it when I can bring these unique experts to you and have these candid conversations. I think you'll be pretty surprised what her reflection was and what she had to say about business owners actually reaching out to the government and asking for their advice. So without further ado, enjoy this episode. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready. Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella from Jump Consulting, and today I have a real special treat for all you listeners. Today I have Katrina Kottachevsky, who has over 16 years of experience working in a variety of financial positions. She started in the brokerage industry with a series seven, 63, and 65 health license, and then transitioned to audit work for the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services before leaving to support small businesses in their efforts to get organized for expansion. Katrina spent three of her almost eight years with the Connecticut Department of Revenue in the Business and Employment Tax Audit Unit, which is why she's here today. She focused primarily on payroll tax issues. The last five years, she worked as a corporation tax auditor, traveling across the U.S., auditing largely F

My goodness, 150 episodes of Bella In Your Business! That is days worth of me talking in your ears. When I started my podcast, my friend Shannon Hernandez had a podcast class, and me being the one to follow the trends I wanted to jump on it but I had no idea what I was doing. Sometimes the audio sounded like I was in a tin can and other times it sounded great, but I kept going. I wasn't always consistent starting out, so I decided at the end of 2016 that every Thursday I was going to pump out a podcast and now we've made it to 150 episodes! Biggest Takeaway You Don’t Want To Miss Just like anything in life you've got to keep chipping away little by little, that is what gets you places. If you're not where you want to be today that's okay! If you do something little every single day to get closer to your goal you will make progress. Show Highlights How do I stay consistent? [1:30] What is happening with Bella In Your Business after 150 episodes? [3:10] Where will Bella be this summer? [6:05] Links Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale Social Media Week Lima: nowmarketinggroup.com/social-media-week-lima/ Social Media Day San Diego: socialmediadaysandiego.com/ Jump Into Paradise: jumpintoparadise.com/ Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 150 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where I discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — I’ve got your chute. Let’s jump! Welcome to episode 150 of Bella in Your Business. My goodness, you guys, 150 episodes — that is like days’ worth of me talking in your ear. I remember when I started this podcast. My friend Shannon Hernandez, who actually is a local DJ here in Arizona at 98 KUPD, had this podcast class. I saw and I heard that podcasts were going to be a really big thing. And me, being the one that likes to follow the data and trends and find as many ways into you guys as possible — with videos and blogs and now podcasts — I wanted to jump on it. But admittedly, I had no idea what I was doing. I remember I probably had four or five different microphones. Sometimes I sounded like I was in a tin can, sometimes the audio sounded great, and for a while, I didn’t realize it, but I was using my earbuds and my hair kept brushing across the microphone. So there was this little staticky sound that came through. But I kept going. Little by little by little by little. I honestly started this podcast about four years ago, and for the first two years, I was not consistent at all. I didn’t get consistent about putting out an episode until almost the end of 2016. That’s when I really went full-blown. It was after I sold my pet sitting company that I’d had since 2002 — I had it for 14 years. I decided that every Thursday I was going to pump out a podcast. I think we’ve only missed one or two times, and honestly, that was because Thanksgiving or Christmas fell on those days. But you guys, just like anything in life, you’ve got to just keep chipping away. I just heard my good friend Nick Trevillian say something the other day. He went through a period where, when he turned 30, all of a sudden he lost complete feeling in all of his legs. They told him that he wasn’t going to walk — and he does. He actually runs now. But he got really overweight, really depressed, and the way he got out of that was just running to the end of the street and back, then running around the block, then running a little bit more. And honestly, it’s something I aspire to because, as this podcast has shown you, you just chip away little by little by little. It’s that consistency that I talked about in episode 50 and episode 100 — that’s what gets you places. So you have to remember, if you’re not where you want to be today — in your life, in your love, in your relationships, in your business — it’s okay, guys. It’s totally okay. If you do something little every single day to get you closer to your goal, you will make progress. I’ll tell you a secret — many people start and then they stop. Or they don’t continue forward. Speaking of not continuing forward, if you’re on my email list or you follow me on social, you should be — on Instagram I’m @BellaVasta, on Facebook I’m Bella Vasta and Jump Consulting — you know I put it out there: 150 is a big, epic milestone, right? And I was like, should I stop the podcast? Should I keep going? If you’ve noticed from the last couple episodes, I’ve been doing a lot more solo episodes. Where the podcast has predominantly been interview-style, I’m really feeling the need to start talking to you guys a little bit more. Right now, I’m in my home office talking on my microphone, which hopefully sounds amazing

I'm talking all about what to consider before hiring a business coach. Now, this might sound kind of funny coming from me since I am a business coach, but I have realized a lot of stuff from being a coach and from being coached. I'm wondering if any of you have had a coach or been a coach before. Maybe you remember having a coach when playing a sport in your adolescence, that coach was always there to push you, motivate you, and show you what you're capable of doing. That's what any good coach should do. Biggest Takeaway You Don’t Want To Miss Hiring a business coach is a big investment and when picking your coach there are a few things to look for. You should be able to see proof of who they are and proof of their work with others. Look at their style and personality to ensure it aligns with what you want. Check to see how their customer service is and how responsive they are before beginning to work with them. And lastly, can you tell that they will care about you and your business? Before giving anyone your credit card think about these things. Show Highlights What has Bella's experience been with coaches? [1:50] Where is the proof with themselves? [7:15] Is there proof with others? [8:25] What is their style? [8:55] How is their customer service? [10:55] Do they care? [11:40] Links Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 149 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where I discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — I’ve got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I am going to talk to you all about what you should consider before hiring a business coach. Now, this might sound funny coming from me because I am a business coach. I help give people the right plays to execute on the field of business and then cheer them on from the sidelines. But I have realized a lot of stuff as I have been a coach and as I’ve been coached, and today I want to dive into that really deep and really kind of discuss what that means for you. I’m wondering if you guys have ever had a coach before, or maybe if you’ve ever been a coach. Maybe you remember back in your adolescence when you played some kind of organized team sport and you had a coach there who motivated you, pushed you, guided you, directed you, led you, showed you what you were capable of and what you could do. And that’s truly what I think any coach should do. But it’s a very scary thing because most coaches, if they’re worth it, are going to be a pretty significant investment in yourself. In a previous podcast, I talked about the difference between spending and an investment, and it really is an investment in yourself. You definitely could have some wrong investments, right? I’m going to share a couple of personal stories with you, and then I’m going to get into five different things you should consider before hiring a coach. I remember a couple of years ago when I really wanted to get someone else in my business — all up in my business, if you will. There was this person that I followed, and they had a very similar outlook on faith and business building and personality as me. I actually felt like I was talking to a long-lost twin because they were just as excited and animated as I was, which was really important to me. I like it when people can get excited and I can feed off their energy as well as them feeding off mine. They also had built something that I admired, so I decided to join their mastermind. Their mastermind was great. It was slow building. It was at the beginning. It was a significant amount of money per month. But what ended up happening is I kind of felt like I was helping to lead it. I was so much like this coach that the others in the group weren’t as exciting or engaged or making stuff happen, if you will. For any of you who have the pleasure of working with me or getting to know me — or maybe if you’re one of my friends listening — you know that I’m known to make things happen. I’m trying to keep this clean for those of you listening with kids right now, but you can imagine what other word I’d probably say. So, you know, I didn’t want to say it didn’t work until I gave it enough time. I might’ve spent about three or four months there, but what I realized is that my business wasn’t really propelling forward. It was just an opportunity for me to talk, and I was talking things out at a very expensive rate. I learned that that kind of coaching wasn’t really working for me at the time, so I reluctantly excused myself from the group and moved on. Throughout my time havi

This episode, I want to get into the six things I did wrong when I started my pet business. If you have not been listening since episode 1, I started my pet sitting company in 2002 when I found out I could get paid to sleep with two dogs for my neighbor who traveled four days each week. I didn't know anything about business and had to figure it out on my own, so I went to a lot of networking events and made friends with people who knew more than me, but I made many mistakes. I live with no regrets though because I learned a lot from those experiences and that's what I'm sharing with you. Biggest Takeaway You Don’t Want To Miss Invest in your own business and your own learning early on, it's a mind-shift, you are not spending, you are investing. What costs the most amount of money is not having the knowledge and not having the right team. Remember that your business should work for you, you should not work for it. Show Highlights Are you investing back into your business? [3:15] Are you investing in yourself? [6:30] Is it a people problem or a process problem? [9:50] Who is doing your marketing? [13:30] Did you develop your own website? [16:00] When is it time to switch to employees? [18:50] Links Barketing Solutions: barketing.co/ Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 148 of Bella in Your Business. This is Davis, and you're listening to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. How adorable is that? That was Davis from Space Coast, Florida. He is Space Coast Pet Services’ Melanie B.B. Haines’ son, and I love it. I take it to heart because I know a lot of you guys are listening to this podcast in many different situations. Melanie's kids actually have memorized the beginning and the ending of the podcast, and they listen to it with her in the car. I know there are a couple of other moms out there with kids that also know the whole “Let's jump!” So I said, yeah, send me an intro. I hope you guys liked that. I absolutely loved it. Davis, way to go. You have a career in radio, my friend. Great job. Thank you for doing that. All right, you guys, today I want to get into the six things that I did wrong when I started my pet business. A little bit of a background on me if you have not been listening since episode one, which was almost 150 episodes ago — I am in beautiful, sunny Scottsdale, Arizona. I started my pet sitting company in 2002 when my parents wanted to give me a curfew in college. I found out that I could get paid to sleep with two white dogs — because that’s what they were to me at the time — for my neighbor who traveled four nights a week for business. It was basically like having my own house free of rent, and I could come and go as I pleased. When I graduated college with a BA in Human Communication, I decided that I really didn’t want to work for anybody, and I had a pretty cool thing going, so I just went full-fledged doing the business. However, I didn’t know anything about business. I never took a business class, didn’t know how to balance a balance sheet, didn’t know what a profit and loss was, had no idea what systems and processes were — that was just some buzzword. I just really had to try to figure it all out on my own. I became a really big sponge, and I listened more than I spoke. I went to a lot of networking meetings and a lot of lunch-and-learns, where I was able to learn a lot of stuff and just become friends with people that knew a lot more than I did. However, I did make some major mistakes that really hindered the trajectory of my success because I was too afraid. Let’s call a spade a spade — I was terrified, you guys. I was terrified of making the wrong decision. I was paralyzed by fear because I didn’t know what the right decision was, so it actually cost me a lot of time building. Now, I also live with no regrets, so I’ve taken many lessons from them, which I am now turning over to you because no matter what stage you are in your business — whether you’re just starting your business, building your business, or scaling your business right now — these lessons apply to all of us because they’re kind of timeless. So the very first thing that I didn’t do was I did not invest back into the business. I was terrified of spending money on the business. At that time, I’d get $100, I’d put $100 in the business bank account. Actually, if I’m being quite honest, I don’t think I had a business bank account when I first started. I think it actually took me a little bit to get a separate business bank account

Today I want to talk about balance, this mystical creature that everyone thinks exists but doesn't necessarily exist. While I was preparing for this episode I recalled a video called Everything is Spiritual, in it Rob Bell talks about how perfectly balanced the world is and it's so interesting to hear how if even one thing was different how it wouldn't work, it makes me believe the earth may be the only truly balanced thing. I think that balance is something we all struggle to achieve and as a mom, I think we struggle with this the most. We want to be at every event, but sometimes it's just not possible and then we end up beating ourselves up over it. Balance is a fairy tale and I want to get real about it. Biggest Takeaway You Don’t Want To Miss It is okay not to be perfect. It's not about balance or being perfect, it's about being in the moment, celebrating the wins, and being grateful for what we have in life. Balance is actually boring, it does not exist. Let's embrace the messy and be happy that the clouds are coming through because we know the storm will eventually pass and the sun will still be there. Show Highlights What is it like trying to achieve balance in my business? [3:40] How have I struggled with balance in my personal life? [4:30] Is it really possible to achieve balance in business and personal life? [5:50] How can you start asking for help? [10:10] Links Rob Bell - Everything is Spiritual: youtube.com/watch?v=i2rklwkm_dQ Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale Share The Show: Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 147 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta and I'm your host today. Today I want to talk about balance — this mystical creature that's kind of like a unicorn that everyone thinks exists that doesn't necessarily exist. But while I was preparing to come to you with this show and building my show notes, I recalled a video. It's pretty powerful. It's called Everything is Spiritual. Go check it out on YouTube. It's by Rob Bell. And at the beginning of this about hour-long video, he says something where he talks about the balance of the earth. As I was preparing to talk to you guys today, I was just thinking about how I think the earth is one of the only things that's truly so perfectly balanced. If you moved any one of the knobs differently, it would be very unbalanced. Let me tell you what I mean. He says that we are 93 million miles from the sun, and if we were 92 or 94, we'd burn up. We are 23.5% tidally locked, so our earth is at that percentage of a tilt, and it’s so that one side of the earth doesn't just always face the sun and burn up. Forty percent of the gravitational pull is from the sun, and 60% is from the moon, therefore giving us the perfect gravitational pull. We have 0.007 hydrogen to sustain life. If we had 0.006 or 0.008, we wouldn't exist. There's 21% oxygen — again, if it was less or more, we wouldn't exist, like poof, out of existence. And there's 3.4% salt in the oceans, which oddly enough is the same amount of salt that is in our bloodstream, apparently. I just found all this really fascinating because when we're talking about balance in our life, balance is something that's very, very, very hard to achieve. Something’s always got to give at one point or another. I think that balance is something we add to all of our stress, and we just don't realize that things ebb and flow. And I really want to dive into that today. As a mom, and I know there are a lot of mompreneurs out there listening, I think we struggle with this the most because we want to be that super mom. We want to be the Pinterest mom, and we want to always have cookies for that bake sale, or we always want to be volunteering, or we always want to be able to be there for my daughter's swim school every week, or we always want to be there for pick-up and drop-off. But sometimes it’s just not happening, and then we end up beating ourselves up over it, feeling like, “My gosh, I need to make it a priority.” And it’s okay. I go through this all the time, and that’s why I wanted to talk about it. I think that balance is a fairy tale. I'm going to share a lot of personal stories here with you because I think one of the things is that because I have this platform, because I have this awesome podcast and all of you incredible listeners who are binging on Bella — I get emai

The topic of lock boxes isn't often talked about in blogs or on podcasts, yet it's a question that comes up monthly in every Facebook group that I'm in. Today I'm joined by Natasha O’Banion of Walk with Renzo and Ruby, Dana McKellips of Peaceful Pets, and Tiffany Lewis of Pet and Home Care to talk about how they use lock boxes in their businesses. Biggest Takeaway You Don’t Want To Miss The way you present using lock boxes to your clients matters and can change the conversation. Consider using lock boxes early on in your business or starting out with them from the beginning to avoid push back when switching over. You can give clients options, but only offer the options you're willing to do. Show Highlights How do you present lock boxes to clients and how do you get them on board? [3:10] What are some challenges that come along with lock boxes? [7:25] What is some advice for someone considering switching to lock boxes? [9:40] Are there different kinds of lock boxes? [13:30] How do employees feel about using them? [16:40] Links Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale Natasha O’Banion: walkwithrenzoandruby.com Dana McKellips: peacefulpets.net Tiffany Lewis: petandhomecare.com Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: Bella:This is episode 146 of Bella in Your Business. Do you feel like your business is going around on a merry-go-round? Well, I've got news for you. This episode is sponsored by my incredible webinar series called Jump in Scale. It gets you off that merry-go-round and up to the next level in your business. It's called Jump in Scale and it's free for you right now. Just go ahead and sign up at jumpconsulting.net/scale. You will learn how to grow your business, increase your staff, and not be held hostage to your business. So go ahead, sign up for free — that’s jumpconsulting.net/scale. I'll see you inside. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome everybody to Bella in Your Business. Today I've got a really special podcast for you. We've got three incredible pet sitters whose story started in one of our groups about lock boxes. You know, it's a topic that isn't talked about a lot — not on podcasts or blogs or anything like that. Yet it's a question that comes up monthly, probably in every single Facebook group that we're in. Today I've got Natasha with Walk with Renzo and Ruby in DC, Dana Strickland from Peaceful Pets Pet Sitting Services in Sacramento, and Tiffany Lewis from Home and Pet Care in Maryland. But I was hearing in our pre-production that she doesn’t actually live there and works remotely, which is so cool. Welcome, everybody! Guests:Thank you. Bella:I want to go around the room really quick so you can all introduce yourselves and fill in the gaps. We'll start with Natasha, then Tiffany, then Dana, and then we'll get into our topic — lock boxes. Natasha:I'm the owner of Walk with Renzo and Ruby. We've been in service for four years now, and through lock boxes, we've literally been hands-off on the business. I'm really excited to go over this topic with you guys. Bella:Awesome, thanks for being here, Natasha, and agreeing to come on with us. Tiffany, how about you? Tiffany:Hey, I am Tiffany Lewis, owner of Pet and Home Care. I started the company back in 1999 as a teenager in Potomac, Maryland. We started using lock boxes about 10 years ago, and it's definitely been a game changer. Bella:So we have a real pioneer in the lock box section of pet sitting. I love it. And Dana? Dana:Yeah, I’m Dana and we have Peaceful Pets in Sacramento, California. I started our business in 2005. I think I’m probably the newest to using lock boxes. We just switched over about eight months ago. About 70% of our clients are using them now, and it’s been awesome. Bella:That’s so cool. I love that we have such a variety of time frames — I know our listeners will really connect with each of you. Tiffany said 10 years, Dana said eight months, and Natasha, you’ve been using them for four years. That’s amazing. Anyone can take this question — is it 100% through your company or just certain clients? How do you present this and get clients on board? Tiffany:We started off not using them, and as the years went on, it just became a big headache juggling all the keys, organizing them, having sitters come pick them up every morning and drop them off every night, and making sure everyone had the right keys. About 10 years in, it was actually my grandfather’s idea — thank you, Papa. He said, “Why don

I recently went to Social Media Marketing World 2019 in San Diego and I wanted to share a little of what I kept hearing the entire time - the importance of using video on Social Media. It was pretty exciting because it basically validated everything I know and teach . . . but I thought I would use a mashup of what many influential people in the Social Media space were saying and bring it straight to you. Because, hey, that is what I am here for, right? Biggest Takeaway You Don’t Want To Miss: 70% of your content should be video, those videos should be emotional, relatable (aka NOT perfect), less than 30 seconds, designed for sound off, square, and mobile-ready. Less is more! You do not need to post every day, you just have to post quality content and spread it around. Show Highlights What did social media look like in the past? [1:30] How is social media changing? [2:20] What did Mari Smith say during her SMMW Keynote? [3:10] What are you saying with your social media? [5:30] What can you do if you don't have enough time to create content? [6:10] How is Facebook changing? [8:30] Apply for Better Marketing With Bella now: www.jumpconsulting.net/waitlist Links: Less is More Blog Post: jumpconsulting.net/using-video-social-media/ Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale Better Marketing With Bella: jumpconsulting.net/waitlist Mari Smith: facebook.com/marismith/ Andrew and Pete: facebook.com/andrewandpete/ Jump Consulting Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/jumpersnetwork/ Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 145 of Bella in Your Business. Before we get started with today's episode, I want to know — are you burnt out trying to hire employees? Or maybe you want to hire employees, but you're just terrified of that boogeyman that does not exist in the closet. Well, this episode is sponsored by my free three-part webinar series, Jump and Scale Your Business, and I would love to see you there. It's a must-attend if you want staff, you want to grow, you feel like you're held hostage, or you have high turnover. Signing up is as easy as going to jumpconsulting.net/scale — that’s jumpconsulting.net/scale. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Hey everyone, Bella Vasta here, the coach with Jump Consulting. I help take pet sitting and dog walking businesses and help them scale. I want to tell you today, if you've been stressing out about social media or how to actually get a handle on it or how to stay on top of all the things, I just came back from Social Media Marketing World — an incredible conference put on by Social Media Examiner — and I've got a couple of things to tell you. I want to let you know 2019 is very, very different. So before I dive deep into explaining what you should be doing on social media, I think it's important to reflect a little bit about the past, what I used to do, and how my strategy has changed a lot. If you scroll through the Jump Consulting page, you're going to see a lot more video. In fact, my friend Mari Smith recommends that your Facebook pages have at least 70% video. Do you have that? Tell me below and let me know. Back in 2016 and 2017, we could post blogs on our website and then post the link on Facebook. We could get like 500 to 1,000 views on our website and we could see everything immediately go up. It's not like that anymore. In fact, if you're posting any links on your Facebook page, you're doing yourself a disservice. Even Instagram right now — it’s like the gold rush. Instagram is exploding, and your clients are on Instagram. So I want you to understand that things have changed. Zuck made an announcement — Mark Zuckerberg — in 2018 addressing the fact that page engagement was going down. He said that we would start seeing even more of a decline of efforts and that he wanted to really excite and engage people who are making meaningful relationships. That basically means when people are liking, posting, or commenting with each other on your Facebook page. But what matches that criteria is video. If you do a video and you call out — like I am right now — “Tell me if you do video,” and people start commenting, that tells the algorithms that things are working. Or maybe it doesn’t even have to be a talking head; it could be an engaging video post. It doesn’t matter. There are multiple ways to do video, and I'm going to share with you what Mari told us at her keynote. First of all, she thinks that you should have 70% video, 20% images, and then 10% links or status updates. Do you understand w

We are joined by Alexia Matak from Payroll Experts, they offer award-winning, cloud-based human capital management solutions that allow you to leverage technology to streamline every part of your employees' lifecycle. A proud partner of the Kronos Workforce Ready platform and a proud sponsor of the Jump into Paradise Retreat, they bring together best in class solutions with personal, one on one support for employers of all sizes. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss The second you even have one employee on your payroll you should look into partnering with someone like Payroll Experts, someone that you know is taking full responsibility of payroll taxes to avoid penalties on being late. There are laws in place that determine if someone should be classified as an employee, you can perform a common law test if you are not sure if someone falls under an employee or an independent contractor. Payroll and payroll taxes can be the biggest liability for any business owner. Show Highlights How do I know when it is time to partner with a payroll service?[2:50] Do I need to pay taxes at different times when I have employees? [4:55] Can I have my employees sign an agreement saying they agree to be treated as a 1099? [8:25] Is it true that employees cost more than independent contractors? [13:25] What are the top three compliance areas I need to be aware of when I have employees? [16:00] Special Offer Free payroll implementation for any audience member who joins the Payroll Experts family, just go to https://www.payrollexperts.com/exclusive-offer-for-jump-consulting/ Links Payroll Experts: payrollexperts.com Employee Quick Start: jumpconsulting.net/employee-quick-start/ Jump into Paradise Retreat: jumpintoparadise.com/ Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 144 of Bella in Your Business. This episode is brought to you by my free webinar, Jump and Scale Your Business. It's my three-part training series all dedicated to finding and attracting the right kind of people that will scale your business. Did I mention it's free? Listen, you have to attend this if you want to grow your staff, you feel like you're being held hostage, you have high turnover, you feel burnt out, or you're just not seeing the results you want. Join me for this three-part free webinar series. Register now at jumpconsulting.net/scale. I'll see you there. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your host today, and I've got a very long-term friend with me. I was just trying to figure out how long I've known her, and I think it's about 10 or 12 years. Alexia Maytak is joining me from Payroll Experts. They offer an award-winning cloud-based human capital management solution that allows you to leverage technology and streamline every part of your employees’ life cycle. She's a proud partner with the Kronos Workforce Ready program, also a proud sponsor of the Jump into Paradise Retreat in the summer, and you'll be meeting her there. She brings best-in-class solutions with personal one-on-one support for employees of all sizes and kinds, and I can definitely attest to that. Alexia, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. That was a beautiful introduction and it's wonderful to see you. And yes, I cannot believe how long we have known each other. Just absolutely wild. I know. I remember, I think you actually came to my condo that I used to have with my roommate, and it was after I had a horrible experience with one of the big boxes. Of course, you caught me at the time where you're like, “Yes, Bella, I hear that all the time.” But I didn't know that there were other options out there. And I became like a payroll expert lifer from then. It might not have been as cheap as doing it myself online through QuickBooks or something, but it mattered to me, Alexia, because I knew that I had that peace of mind. I knew to just give it to you guys and that was your problem. It was no longer my problem. Absolutely. Yeah, what we're here to do is help shoulder the weight. Exactly, exactly. And Lord knows we've got a lot of weight to shoulder when we're a business owner. So why don't we take it back to our audience who's listening — maybe they have been doing their own payroll, or maybe they're just about to start with employees, or maybe they're switching from ICs to employees and were just cutting checks before. They're terr

You might have remembered a few weeks back this video about hiring dog walkers going viral, well that video was Chloe's! Chloe is a 22-year-old from Australia and owns Chloe’s Canine Creche. Her business provides dog walking services to groups of dogs Monday-Friday. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss When you have an idea to do something, take action and do it. Don't worry about it being perfect, having the right lighting or having the right audio. It is normal to be nervous about doing something new, whether it's video, hiring, or anything else, but you have to just take the plunge or you'll never do it, there's never a right time. Show Highlights How did Chloe get started? [1:45] How long has Chloe been building her business before hiring? [2:45] Where did the idea for the video come from? [5:50] What type of reactions were received? Did it result in hiring someone? [7:15] Where does Chloe see her business going? [8:55] What other ways can you use video? [9:45] What are some tips for someone who's nervous about doing video or hiring? [10:50] Links Chloe's Video: facebook.com/chloe.farrington.14/videos/1184731238363276/ Chloe's Facebook Page: facebook.com/chloescaninecreche Chloe's Instagram: instagram.com/chloescaninecreche/ Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 143 of Bella in Your Business. Do you feel like your business is going around on a merry-go-round? Well, I've got news for you. This episode is sponsored by my incredible webinar series called Jump in Scale. It gets you off that merry-go-round and up to the next level in your business. It's called Jump in Scale and it's free for you right now. Just go ahead and sign up at jumpconsulting.net/scale. You will learn how to grow your business, increase your staff, and not be held hostage to your business. So go ahead, sign up for free — that’s jumpconsulting.net/scale. I'll see you inside. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today we've got a really, really fun guest. You might remember a few weeks back a video going completely viral — it was Chloe, who is in Australia, looking for employees. We're going to get to know her today, find out how viral it went, how successful it was, what made her do it, and learn all about her business. Without further ado — Chloe, welcome to the show. Chloe: Hi, thank you. Bella: Thanks so much for being here. So you own Chloe’s K9 Crush, right? Did I say that right? Chloe: It was kind of “Crutch,” but yeah. Bella: And you are a dog walking service that does Monday through Friday dog walks, right? Chloe: That’s right. Bella: How did you get started doing it? Chloe: I was actually working in a bar when I was doing nothing with my days, and I thought, “Oh, I really love dogs.” So I decided to offer doggy daycare services to people in my area, and from there it just grew through word of mouth into the little business that it is today. Bella: I think a lot of our listeners can totally relate to that because I think many of us started out that way — in fact, I did too. I’m going to date myself, but when I was your age — I was 22 when I started mine. I was still in university, or college as we call it here, and it just kind of started. It’s an incredible business to have. So how long have you actually been doing it for? Chloe: I started when I was 19. I’m 23 years old now. It’s been the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I didn’t ever expect it to be a business. I just thought, “Oh, I’ll do this on the side — why not get paid to hang out with dogs?” And then next thing you know, here we are. Bella: How long had you been building it until you actually had to start hiring your first few people? Chloe: This is my first employee, which is very exciting for me. Bella: Oh my gosh, you did this right out the gate! Chloe: Yeah, I just thought, “You know what? Do it.” I love this so much, I wanted an ad that would catch people’s attention and get the kind of people that I wanted as well. Bella: And you definitely caught people’s attention! Was this all organic or did you put any ad dollars behind it? Chloe: No, it was all organic. Bella: You guys, this is 39,000 views — organic! 316 comments, 540 reactions, and 268 shares. I saw this video in every single pet sitting group here in the United States multiple times because people were just so shocked by it. If you're joining us on the podcast right now, I'm goin

Want to learn how you can build a 6-figure business without using social media? In this episode, Bella is going to share exactly how she was able to do this in her business, prior to Social Media along with all the tips and tricks that still work today. Get ready to learn how relationships will last longer than likes on Facebook! Biggest Takeaway You Don’t Want To Miss Making connections and networking with local veterinarians, community managers, and other business owners in your area can create free advertising for your business and help with personal development. Building relationships does not happen the first time, it happens with consistency, so pick something in your area and just start showing up. Show Highlights How did partnering with a new veterinarian in Bella's area help her company? [3:30] How can working with community managers help your pet sitting business? [5:45] Why should you join community networking groups? [8:15] How do you start a dog walking club at an apartment community?[11:40] How can you network at yard sales? [15:45] Links Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale Yard Sale Freebie: jumpconsulting.net/yard-sale/ Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 142 of Bella in Your Business. This episode is brought to you by my free webinar Jump and Scale Your Business. It's my three-part training series all dedicated to finding and attracting the right kind of people that will scale your business. Did I mention it's free? Listen, you have to attend this if you want to grow your staff, you feel like you're being held hostage, you have high turnover, you feel burnt out, or you're just not seeing the results you want. Join me for this three-part free webinar series. Register now at jumpconsulting.net/scale. That's jumpconsulting.net/scale. I'll see you there. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your host and pet sitting and dog walking business consultant and Facebook group expert. Today, I am here to tell you all about how I was able to build my six-figure pet sitting company not using social media. You guys, this is going to be a fun episode. But first, I want to give a big shout-out to Nanny Donnelly, who left us a five-star review on iTunes. She said, if you're someone who can take a tell-it-like-it-is, straightforward, honest, and transparent delivery, this is the podcast you want to be subscribed to if you're in the pet industry. She's upfront with her tough love approach and will have you and your business thriving if you take her advice and implement it. I recommend listening one at a time, doing that one thing or implementing that strategy into your business plan and routine, and then going on to the next. You will start seeing results snowball, and all of this advice is free. She gives it up to you, and it's up to you to do it. Reach out to her for clarification on anything. She's very much down-to-earth, easy to reach, and responds with the best advice she can. She will always meet you halfway, if not more, as long as you're willing to put in the work. This stuff really works. Thank you, Bella. You guys, I love that review. It makes me so excited. And every single time you leave a review on this podcast, it just really helps me realize that my doing all of this effort really works. So today, I am going to talk all about how I was able to build my business offline. Since so much of this podcast has been talking about social media — in fact, our very last episode was all about social media and staying sane — I kind of teased you a little bit that I was going to teach you and show you how I was able to build my six-figure pet company just based off of basically something I didn't tell you yet. But today I'm going to tell you it's how community connections can make you thousands of dollars. So if you could leverage your community, what would that do for your business? I know a lot of us say, I want to be talked about by everybody and I want everyone to think of us as the best business. I want to be top of mind. But how does that actually happen, right? How does it happen when you're like isolated all day? You're in your car, you're in your office, you're walking dogs, you're not even out there really that much with people. Well, it comes with a little bit of intention. And today I'm going to break it down for exactly how I did this. I want to take you back to a time where Jerry Bianco was the

There are a lot of problems with social media because there are so many different things you can do and you can't possibly do all the things. Bella is sharing some of the problems she has experienced with social media and then sharing all of the ways you can solve those problems and help you stay sane! Biggest Takeaway You Don’t Want To Miss: The way you stay sane in social media is by blocking out your time, scheduling your content, and staying organized. Figure out what you are saying on social media first and then create a strategy to batch your content. You are not a social media expert, there just isn't enough time in the day to do it all, stay in your zone of genius. That’s where we come in. In Better Marketing With Bella, we take the load off of your plate. We create the content for you, EVERY MONTH, so you don’t have to. Show Highlights Three problems Bella has with social media. [3:00] How do you keep up with Social Media? [6:00] How can you increase engagement on your posts? [12:25] How do you build relationships?[14:50] What is batching? [15:35] What should you share on social media? [17:05] How can Agora Pulse help? [23:10] How should you use email? [24:35] What is Better Marketing With Bella? [26:00] Links Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale How to Stand Out in A Noisy Crowd: jumpconsulting.net/knowing-your-brand/ Agora Pulse: jumpconsulting.net/agora-pulse Better Marketing With Bella: jumpconsulting.net/waitlist/ Mari Smith: marismith.com/ Jenn Herman: jennstrends.com/ Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 141 of Bella in Your Business. Before we get started with today's episode, I want to know — are you burnt out trying to hire employees? Or maybe you want to hire employees but you're just terrified of that boogeyman that does not exist in the closet? Well, this episode is sponsored by my free three-part webinar series Jump and Scale Your Business, and I would love to see you there. It's a must-attend if you want staff, you want to grow, you feel like you're held hostage, or you have high turnover. Signing up is as easy as going to jumpconsulting.net/scale. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Social media — oh my gosh, you guys. If you’ve listened to this podcast, then you know that I have given you over 130 episodes of all different kinds of things, and maybe 80% of them have to do with social media. I've given you all the tips and tricks. I've brought amazing experts like Mari Smith, who is a Facebook expert — in fact, Facebook sought her out to work for them — and she's come straight here to talk to us. I've had Jen Herman, my good friend who literally wrote Instagram for Dummies. We've had a lot of impeccable thought leaders in all different areas, and it's just so exciting to bring them to you. I hope that they've motivated and inspired you. But today, I want to talk about how to actually stay sane with all of this stuff. The day that I record this, Facebook is actually down, which is pretty funny because everyone's freaking out. And what happens when Facebook goes down? Everybody goes to Twitter to say, “Oh my gosh, is Facebook down?” Because it’s not loading. So is Instagram — Facebook’s sister — and everyone’s losing their mind. But I think it’s actually pretty uncanny because today, as I come to you with this podcast, I want to talk to you about how to stay sane around social media. It’s really hard. We want to stand out in a noisy social media world. A few weeks back, I joined my “Queenies” — a bunch of other social media mavens, real rockstar women. We all got together in Colorado and went live. There were a couple of things from that broadcast that I wanted to share with you because we all have a problem standing out in this noisy world. It was about an hour long, and if you’re interested in seeing it, we’ll throw it in the show notes for you. I want you to think about these three things — the three main things I have a problem with in social media. My hope is that by me being candid, I’ll inspire you a little bit or make you feel not alone because I think a lot of people can relate to this. The first thing is something I’m constantly reminding myself to do — not to compare myself to anyone else. No one else is in my shoes, literally or figuratively. The one person who inspired me to think this way was my daughter. Many of you know that she was born at only 12 ounces. When we took her home, all these other babies were hitting milestones and I realized — my baby’s not. We’re so far

Want to learn all the ways you can automate a pet sitting and dog walking business? If you are a solo sitter, this is especially important because there is only one of you and you need to make every minute of your day efficient. If you are in the process of building and scaling your business, it is even more important. You are going to want to make sure you have as much automated as possible so when you hand the baton off to an office manager they will have the most efficient workflow and you won't spend extra money on extra hours! Let's dig in. Biggest Takeaway You Don’t Want To Miss: There are lots of ways you can arrange your business to flow. In the end, it is all an individual choice but we have to understand that we need to use tools to help us because there just certainly isn’t enough time in the day to do “all the things.” Show Highlights: GSuite [2:25] Boomerang [4:40] Pet Sitting Software [5:50] Loom [7:50] Agora Pulse [9:35] Payroll [11:10] Credit Cards [11:45] Hiring [12:10] Quickbooks Online [12:50] Project Boards (Asana and Trello) [13:30] Google Analytics [14:05] Hotjar [14:45] Links Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale Blog Post: jumpconsulting.net/how-to-automate-your-pet-sitting-and-dog-walking-business Agora Pulse: jumpconsulting.net/agora-pulse Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 140 of Bella in Your Business. Do you feel like your business is going around on a merry-go-round? Well, I've got news for you. This episode is sponsored by my incredible webinar series called Jump in Scale. It gets you off that merry-go-round and up to the next level in your business. It's called Jump in Scale and it's free for you right now. Just go ahead and sign up at jumpconsulting.net/scale. You will learn how to grow your business, increase your staff, and not be held hostage to your business. So go ahead, sign up for free. That's jumpconsulting.net/scale. I'll see you inside. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Hi everyone, Bella Vasta here. And I'm wondering, have you ever wondered how you can automate your pet sitting company? I'm not just talking like software. So listen up, because I'm going to give you a whole list of things that really help a lot of my clients streamline their business. There's so many things that we need to be doing and there's so many times that we just don't have the time to do it all, right? So I want to give you these tips and tricks that you can really automate your business. Are you ready? In true Bella style, I am going to go straight down the line and give you all the meat. If you're watching the replay, go ahead and say hi and let me know. And if you've never seen me before, my name is Bella Vasta. I am a Facebook Groups expert. I am also a pet sitting and dog walking coach and a consultant. So here we go, without further ado. Now, when I started my pet sitting company way back in, actually, 2002, there wasn't a lot of this stuff out there. A lot of it was pen and paper, hand by hand. We had flip phones. We didn't have social media. We didn't have all this stuff, all these things, right? A lot of it was pounding the pavement. But as you know, times have changed. And I've noticed that sometimes people are still doing things that we were doing 10 years ago when there's apps and tools and things that we can use that are really going to help. So today I'm going to show you all the ways that you can automate a pet sitting and dog walking business. The very first thing I want to tell you about is G Suite. G Suite is not just email, you guys. G Suite is all encompassing. G Suite has email that you can do and have, know, person's name at your company.com. And you could have as many as possible. But where it gets really amazing is that you can share documents. You can share pictures. You can, if someone leaves your company, you can take all of their emails and all of the emails that people might be sending to them and redirect it somewhere. You can share calendars, you can create sheets and forms. The sheets, like the spreadsheets that you can create, can track your closing rate, your lead rate, all of your lead generation. So it's very all encompassing where your entire team can really understand this. Even if you're a solopreneur right now, it's just you and your business. This is a practice and a foundation that is really important for you to start learning now and building so that when you bring people onto your team, it&

Daniel Clark has been in love with technology- and its potential to positively impact the world- for as long as he can remember. From building websites when he was 13, starting a design and advertising business at 18 and driving $2 million in revenue for multinational brands as a director for a boutique ad agency, he has truly been at the forefront of how technology can exponentially grow successful businesses. One of Brain.fm's first users, he called the company 12 times before they agreed to bring him in for an interview. When he did receive an offer, he jumped at it (even working for free for the first few weeks). He eventually moved up to Head of Technology, and is now the CEO. As CEO, Daniel is constantly striving to build a company that can not only change the world through music, but also be one of the best companies for people to work for and grow with. Daniel has visited over 20 countries and has a lifelong goal of setting foot on all 7 continents, he just checked Antarctica off the list! Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss Brain.fm uses their patented AI music engine and scientific research to create music to help you improve the activities you already do by helping you focus. There is scientific evidence that users of Brain.fm are 39% more effective and spend 39% more time on a task while listening to their music. Along with helping you focus while working, Brain.fm can help you with sleep, meditation, and more. Show Highlights What is Brain.fm? [3:40] How does it work? And what is the science behind it? [4:50] How can Brain.fm potentially replace ADHD medications? [10:50] What are some other ways people can use Brain.fm other than for work? [14:20] What do you feel Brain.fm could change the world? [16:55] How much does it cost?[18:30] What are Dan's final thoughts? [20:00] Special Offer Visit Brain.fm/bella for 10% off! use coupon code "bella" Links Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale Jump Consulting Mastermind: jumpconsulting.net/mastermind Diary of a Doer Podcast: trivinia.com/ Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 139 of Bella in Your Business. Before we get started with today's episode, I want to know — are you burnt out trying to hire employees? Or maybe you want to hire employees, but you're just terrified of that boogeyman that does not exist in the closet. Well, this episode is sponsored by my free three-part webinar series Jump and Scale Your Business, and I would love to see you there. It's a must-attend if you want staff, you want to grow, you feel like you're held hostage, or you have high turnover. Signing up is as easy as going to jumpconsulting.net/scale. That's jumpconsulting.net/scale. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I want to tell you a short story. My coach told me about this thing called Brain FM, and I'm actually going to play it in the background as I do this intro for you so you can kind of hear it. It's this really cool music that I listen to while I work. What I love is that there are different types you can put on. It can be focus, sleep, relaxation, or meditation. And I can set it — here’s the clincher — for 30 minutes, an hour, two hours, or indefinitely. So why does this work? I put this on in the background, and unlike music where I listen to lyrics and might feel something, this actually puts me in this trance and my productivity level goes through the roof. Also, sometimes I have to go pick up my daughter from preschool, so I’m like, “I only got 30 minutes, but I don’t want to forget.” When the music stops, I know it’s time to switch into mom mode. Today, my guest — you guys are going to love him — his name is Daniel Clark, Dan for short. He’s been in love with technology and its potential to positively impact the world for as long as he can remember — from building websites when he was 13, starting a design and advertising business at 18, and driving $2 million in revenue for multinational brands as a director for a boutique agency. He’s truly been at the forefront of how technology can exponentially grow successful businesses. One of Brain FM’s first users, he called the company 12 times before they agreed to give him an interview. When he didn’t receive an offer, he jumped at it, even working for free for the first weeks. He eventually moved up to head of technology and is now the CEO. Talk about persistence. Daniel’s constantly striving to build a company that can not only change the world thro

Mike is the author of Profit First, Surge, The Pumpkin Plan, and his newest release Clockwork. By his 35th birthday, Mike had founded and sold two companies - one to private equity and another to a Fortune 500. Today he is running his third multi-million dollar venture, Profit First Professionals. Mike is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal and the former business makeover specialist on MSNBC. Over the years, Mike has traveled the globe speaking with thousands of entrepreneurs, and is here to share the best of what he has learned. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss Here's what everyone should do immediately, just these two simple steps. First, set up one savings account and call it "profit." Step two, allocate 1% of your income into that profit account. The magic will start to happen because you're literally taking your profit first. Start today, start slow and you'll grow into the full system over time. Show Highlights Mike lost two million dollars in two years, what was that experience like? [3:20] Why do most entrepreneurs struggle to ever make a profit? [7:15] What is GAAP's "Frankenstein Formula?"? [11:20] What lessons did Mike learn from health and fitness experts? [13:50] What are TAPs? Are they the starting point or end game? [18:30] What numbers should business owners be looking at and doing, every quarter?[20:50] What is Mike's newest book, Clockwork, about? [22:20] Special Offer Get a free copy of Mike's book “Surge” at https://www.mikemichalowicz.com/get-surge-free/ Links Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 138 of Bella in Your Business. This episode is brought to you by my free webinar Jump and Scale Your Business. It's my three-part training series all dedicated to finding and attracting the right kind of people that will scale your business. Did I mention it's free? Listen, you have to attend this if you want to grow your staff, you feel like you're being held hostage, you have high turnover, you feel burnt out, or you're just not seeing the results you want. Join me for this three-part free webinar series. Register now at jumpconsulting.net/scale. That's jumpconsulting.net/scale. I'll see you there. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Bella: Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and if you're watching us live right now, you can see that I have a special guest. I know that you probably heard of Profit First and all the chatter going on in our Facebook groups these days — this whole concept that, my gosh, we should be paid first as business owners. So I decided to ring up Michael, and he was so excited to come on and talk to us. I want to introduce you guys to Mike Michalowicz, the author of Profit First, Surge, The Pumpkin Plan, and his newest release, Clockwork. By his 35th birthday, Mike had founded and sold two companies — one to private equity and another to a Fortune 500. Today, he's running a third multi-million dollar venture, Profit First Professionals. Mike is also a former small business columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a former business makeover specialist for MSNBC. Over the years, Mike has traveled the globe speaking with thousands of entrepreneurs and is here today to share the best of what he's learned. Mike: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate this. Bella: I am so excited that you're here, especially someone of your magnitude who is flying around and going here, there, and everywhere — and all over the place — that you said yes to come talk to our community. One thing I have to really commend you on is right from the very beginning of your book Profit First, you actually ask your readers to email you — not just once, but multiple times. Mike, not only do you do that, but I don't know if you remember the name Melanie. She's one of our pet sitters. She's been emailing you a couple of times the past few weeks, and she is just so elated. She's like, “Oh my gosh, he actually emailed me back.” If you're watching, you rock. Mike: Yeah, it's a joy. Bella: I think that tells a lot about you. We've got Jill, Jessica, Pam, Michelle, Adrian, Nicole, Erica — a whole bunch of people. I deployed my bot letting everyone know that you're here. This is the book Profit First. I like to listen to books, and Mike even knows that we like to listen to books. Mike, thank you again. Here's another thank you from me.

With an uncanny knack for connecting quickly with warmth and humor, plus years of practical relevance and experience (ex-Google, ESPN, HubSpot, NextView VC; current founder/show host, Unthinkable Media), Jay Acunzo delivers keynotes that move people to action. Whether it’s with 40 global brand executives, 400 fire chiefs, or 4,000 fired up marketers, Jay challenges others to break from conventional thinking and supposed “best practices” in a way that drives greater results for companies and careers alike. Show Highlights How can an entrepreneur differentiate themselves in the market? [2:15] How do we find what works for us and what doesn't work for us? [7:45] What is an aspirational anchor? [13:30] Can we have an example of how to break the cycle? [16:50] What's one final thought Jay wants to leave with our audience? [18:35] Where can our audience find Jay online?[19:25] Special Offer Check out Jay's book, Break the Wheel: Question Best Practices, Hone Your Intuition, and Do Your Best Work: http://jayacunzo.com/book. Get a free chapter of the book by tweeting Jay: @jayacunzo Links Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 137 of Bella in Your Business. Do you feel like your business is going around on a merry-go-round? Well, I've got news for you. This episode is sponsored by my incredible webinar series called Jump in Scale. It gets you off that merry-go-round and up to the next level in your business. It's called Jump in Scale and it's free for you right now. Just go ahead and sign up at jumpconsulting.net. You will learn how to grow your business, increase your staff, and not be held hostage to business. So go ahead, sign up for free. That's jumpconsulting.net/scale. I'll see you inside. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I've got a little bit of a different topic or road we're going to go on. We're going to stretch your imagination and get you out of that everyday monotony type thinking. My guest today is Jay Akunzo, and he is an author of an incredible book that I suggest you all check out. He has an uncanny knack for connecting quirky with warmth and humor plus years of practical relevance and experience. Jay delivers keynotes that move people to action, and whether it's 40 global brand executives, 400 fire chiefs, or 4,000 fired-up marketers, Jay challenges others to break from conventional thinking and supposed “best practices” in a way that drives greater results for companies and careers alike. So what do you say we take the pet sitting and dog walking industry and flip it on its head because everybody and their mother seems to do things the same way. Welcome, Jay. Jay: I love that you brought up that last point because I, as a longtime pet owner who has purchased services in this industry for years, feel that sting as a consumer. So I'm happy to speak to this audience. Bella: It's not just about another picture of a cute puppy or kitty, right? It's about the user experience — or you tell me, what is it about? How can an entrepreneur who's growing a business really start to think about how they can differentiate themselves in the market and do what you say to do? Jay: So for two and a half years, I started interviewing people that did something that looked crazy in their industry on my podcast. I would run these episodes and it would always look crazy. I'd reach out to the guests and say, “Hey, you do something that looks atypical or refreshing or unconventional. Can I speak with you?” And routinely the issue was that my perception of crazy came from lacking their context. These individuals just made decisions based on their context instead of based on best practices or the status quo in their industry. We get caught in that in every industry — certainly in pet sitting and dog walking, and even up to veterinarians with full staffs. We have a certain cycle we fall into when making choices at work — we cling to best practices or conventional wisdom, or we trend-hop. We're on an endless wheel — hence the title of the book Break the Wheel. We need to escape that and make decisions not based on what works on average, but what works for us. What I set out to do in the book was learn from these stories and find a system to make decisions based on our unique situations, the people we serve, and who we are — instead of what a competitor or an “expert” says works. In this era of endless

Today, we're answering a question I get all the time - how does blogging help me get pet sitting clients? Although we've talked about how important blogging is, we've never really dived into the strategy behind how it actually works! Biggest Takeaway You Don’t Want To Miss In this day and age it isn’t about creating more and more content but using the content you do have and spreading it as far as you can. Blogs are super for repurposing, or what my friend Brian Fanzo calls “upcycling”. And at the end of the day, your customers will always have the same questions. They will get their answers, one way or another. If your blog keeps coming up to answer their questions it will subconsciously show them that you are a trusted local expert. That you care enough to make your marketing shine, that must be a great indication of your work ethic. The very thing they are hiring you for! Show Highlights What’s the premise behind blogging to get clients? [5:00] What is upcycling? [8:00] How do I schedule my upcycled content? [9:30] How do I share my content on different channels? [13:00] Links Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale Blog Post: jumpconsulting.net/get-pet-sitting-clients/ Agora Pulse: jumpconsulting.net/agora-pulse Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 136 of Bella in Your Business. Before we get started with today's episode, I want to know are you burnt out trying to hire employees or maybe you want to hire employees, but you're just terrified of that boogeyman that does not exist in the closet. Well, this episode is sponsored by my free three-part webinar series, Jump and Scale Your Business, and I would love to see you there. It's a must-have to attend if you want staff, you want to grow, you feel like you're held hostage, or you have high turnover. Signing up is as easy as going to jumpconsulting.net/scale. That's jumpconsulting.net/scale. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Hi everyone, good morning. Bella Vasta with Jump Consulting. If this is your first time on this podcast or seeing me, I am a pet business consultant, an author, a podcast host, and a Facebook strategist. I want to get into a question today, and that's something that I've actually gotten a lot, and I really want to break it down. So it's basically, how does blogging help me get clients? We've talked numerous times about the types of blogs you could write, why you should blog, what you should blog about, and how you should promote it. We talked about all this stuff, but never once have we really talked into the strategy of how it actually gets you clients. Because a lot of people are out there right now blogging and they're blogging just to blog. They've got someone they pay five or ten bucks to write a blog or write whatever they want. But there's no real strategy behind it, and what that's like is it's like you're a lightweight and you're going into the heavyweight boxing ring trying to win the champion — and it's just not going to work. So what you need to do is that lightweight arena is your local area. A lot of times I see people making the biggest mistakes where they start blogging, but they don't actually include their local area anywhere in their blog and they don't promote their blog. So what they actually did was just write an international blog that is competing against all of the world. So let's get into it. I've helped so many people do this. I've done it for my own pet sitting company. I've done it for my coaching company, Jump Consulting. It's why you can use us as the Google for the pet industry. We've got over 350 blogs, over 130 podcasts, and like over 200 videos. I basically dedicated my life to answering all of your questions. All you gotta do is use the search feature. I want you to think about your business the same way. Educational marketing is something that's really big these days. So let me tell you a story. When I first started coaching about this blogging thing, I had this friend, Mark Seibel, with Doggy Steps Dog Training. He’d been going on and on, but he wasn’t really getting enough business that he wanted. So we actually sat down together and I taught him this blogging strategy. The results were he raised his rates. Why? Because he needed to stop the flow of people coming into his business. That's how successful it was. It was so successful because he used this strategy and he got more clients. He had the decision to make — eith

Bobby Klinck is a lawyer, but he’s not your typical lawyer. Sure, he went to Harvard Law School and worked prestigious law firms, but if you look at the big whiteboard in his office, you won’t see much about the law. It’s filled with tasks related to platform building, inbound marketing, and sales funnels. Bobby is a full-fledged online entrepreneur, whose area of expertise is the law. He helps other online entrepreneurs safeguard their online businesses. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss No two businesses are alike. That's why it's important to have a lawyer and a CPA that you can trust and understand. Don't just follow advice blindly. You want someone that can explain to you WHY they're making certain recommendations for you. Show Highlights What's the difference between an S-Corp & an LLC? [2:45] What should we know legally-speaking about being an S-Corp vs. an LLC? [7:45] Can you give us the run-down on partnerships and the legalities behind them? [11:45] What does an LLP do? [13:00] From a legal standpoint, can we uphold our service contracts through click-here-to-agree contracts? [17:15] Where can our audience find Bobby online? [19:45] Special Offer Check out Bobby's free training site for online entrepreneurs, The Online Genius Academy: www.youronlinegenius.com/academy. Links Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 135 of Bella in Your Business. This episode is brought to you by my free webinar Jump and Scale Your Business. It's my three-part training series all dedicated to finding and attracting the right kind of people that will scale your business. Did I mention it's free? Listen, you have to attend this if you want to grow your staff, you feel like you're being held hostage, you have high turnover, you feel burnt out, or you're just not seeing the results you want. Join me for this three-part free webinar series. Register now at jumpconsulting.net/scale. I'll see you there. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready — Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Bella: Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta and today I've got Bobby Klinck, who's a lawyer — but not your typical lawyer. I first heard Bobby on Amy Porterfield’s podcast Online Marketing Made Easy, and Bobby, you don’t know this, but I fell in love with you in the car listening to you because you did not sound like that typical lawyer. It was at that moment I shot a message to my virtual assistant and said, “You need to get this man on our show. The pet sitters and dog walkers of the world need to hear from him.” For those of you who don’t know Bobby, he went to Harvard Law School — I’m from Boston, so I love that — and worked at prestigious law firms. But if you look at the big whiteboard in his office, you won’t see much about law. It’s filled with tasks relating to platform building, inbound marketing, and sales funnels. Bobby is a full-fledged online entrepreneur whose area of expertise happens to be the law. He helps other online entrepreneurs safeguard themselves and their businesses. Usually, I wait till the end to say this, but go ahead and stalk him on his website, youronlinegenius.com. It’s fun, informative, and full of resources to get you familiar with the voice you’re about to hear. So without further ado, Bobby, welcome to the show. Bobby: Well, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. I'm glad you fell in love with me listening to me on Amy’s podcast. One of the things Amy has said about me is that I try to make this stuff fun and not intimidating because I know the legal stuff can be daunting and seem impenetrable. So I try to make it not that way. Bella: Yeah, and you're definitely in one of those industries where I think business owners just want to be an ostrich and stick their heads in the sand and pretend like it doesn’t exist. But it’s something that we all need to know enough about so that we can protect ourselves. That’s why I’m glad that you’re here today. One of the biggest questions I hear around your field is: what’s the difference between an LLC and an S-Corp from the legal standpoint? Can you break this down for us — how we decide which we should be and all that? Bobby: An S-Corp is not actually a different kind of legal entity. It’s something you do with the IRS — it has to do with how you’re taxed and how you’re treated as a business. Often you’re deciding whether you’re going to be a standard pass-through LLC or an LLC with what’s called an S-Corp election. The fundamental diffe

Rebekah Radice is the founder of RadiantLA, a digital marketing training and development company, International Keynote Speaker, creator of the PREP Performance Method, and the author of, “Social Media Mastery: A Comprehensive Guide to Strategic Growth.” With over 20 years of experience, Rebekah has trained thousands of growth-driven leaders on her PREP™ Performance Method. Through this four-step process, entrepreneurs to enterprise get the skills, systems, and processes necessary to improve social media engagement, generate quality leads, turn conversations into conversions, and increase revenue. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss: Being authentic on social media is more important than ever in order to use social selling to cultivate our audience. We can leverage social media to gain new clientele by telling stories and just sharing what goes on in our lives in the day-to-day. Social media might be the first place people find you, the last, or somewhere in between - but it is crucial nonetheless. Show Highlights What's the difference between social media, social selling, & social networking? [2:30] How can we use social media to create new customers? [10:00] Do you think that social media for service-based businesses is a first-line or second-line of 'attack'? [15:00] What ONE social media site drives the most amount of traffic, generally? [19:30] Where can our listeners find you online? [21:00] Special Offer Get your FREE download for The Social Selling Blueprint - The 4 Step Process To Using Social Selling Successfully In Your Business. Learn how to convert your social media audience into clicks, subscribers, and sales. Download here: https://rebekahradice.com/socialselling/ Links Jump & Scale Webinar: jumpconsulting.net/scale Rebekah's Website: rebekahradice.com Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 134 of Bella in Your Business. Do you feel like your business is going around on a merry-go-round? Well, I've got news for you. This episode is sponsored by my incredible webinar series called Jump and Scale. It gets you off that merry-go-round and up to the next level in your business. It's called Jump and Scale and it's free for you right now. Just go ahead and sign up at jumpconsulting.net/scale. You will learn how to grow your business, increase your staff, and not be held hostage to your business. So go ahead, sign up for free. That's jumpconsulting.net/scale. I'll see you inside. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready. Bella’s got your chute. Let's jump. Bella: Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta and today I've got a delight for you. From the moment I met Rebekah, I was excited. She is just someone who you want to be your gal pal, but not only that, she’s incredibly knowledgeable. Rebekah Radice is the founder of Radiant LA, a digital marketing training and development company. She's an international keynote speaker, a woman after my own heart, creating the PREP Performance Model and the author of Social Media Mastery, a comprehensive guide of strategic growth. With over 20 years of experience, Rebekah has trained thousands of growth-driven leaders on her PREP Performance Method. Through this four-step process, entrepreneurs and enterprises get the skills, systems, and processes necessary to improve social media engagement, attract quality leads, turn conversations into conversions, and increase revenue. Without further ado, welcome, Rebekah. Thank you for being here. Rebekah: My goodness, I'm so excited anytime I get to chat with you. So we have a whole audience full of pet sitters and dog walkers that are just—well, the industry is exploding, and they are scaling their businesses at rapid rates. We’re going from easily a hundred thousand all the way up to seven-figure businesses, and they are really trying to separate and differentiate themselves. I’m excited to have you on today because we don’t get to talk too much about branding and how it really changes on social media, because I think we're just all trying to not be afraid of social media, let alone actually portray the same type of brand out there. So what's the difference between social media, social selling, and social networking? Let's start with that basic foundation. Rebekah: It's a great question, and I love your audience and what you're doing, and I can totally attest to the growth. I live in the LA area, and we have dog walkers everywhere. Whether you work at the studios—because I'm right around the corner from Disney and Warner Brothers

Becki founded her business, Prefurred Pet Care Services, in 2016 after an incredibly difficult period of personal change and loss. Her hobby quickly became serious, and Prefurred is now an award-winning business employing 13 people! Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss The way that we respond to life, not react to it, determines what happens to you now and in your future. We have to make the lives that we want, and not just wait for it to fall into our laps. Show Highlights Who Is Becki Davis? [2:20] What happened with one of your IC's? [3:20] What was it about the Employee Quickstart & Bosses In Charge Mastermind that helped you? [5:45] What's the difference between a regular pet sitter Facebook group & the Bosses In Charge Mastermind? [7:45] What did your business look like in December of 2017 and what was the big goal you set for yourself in January of 2018? [10:30] How did being able to look back at all the progress you made over the past year make you feel? [13:15] What advice do you have for other pet business owners that want to transform their business, but aren't sure how? [15:50] Tell us your story about when you were waiting tables and you learned that the restaurant was closing. [18:00] Links Jump & Scale: http://jumpconsulting.net/scale Becki's Success Story: /success-story/ Becki's Website: Prefurredpetcareservices.com/blog Jump Consulting Mastermind: /mastermind Use coupon code "BECKID25" for $25 off your Mastermind subscription! Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ http://jumpconsulting.net/scale Transcript: This is episode 133 of Bella in Your Business. Before we get started with today's episode, I want to know: are you burnt out trying to hire employees? Or maybe you want to hire employees but you're just terrified of that boogeyman that does not exist in the closet. Well, this episode is sponsored by my free three-part webinar series, Jump and Scale Your Business, and I would love to see you there. It's a must-attend if you want staff, you want to grow, you feel like you're held hostage, or you have high turnover. Signing up is as easy as going to jumpconsulting.net/scale. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I've got a special treat for you. Becki founded her business, Preferred Pet Care Services, in 2016 after an incredibly difficult period of personal change and loss. Her hobby quickly became a serious business, and Preferred Pet Care is now an award-winning business enjoying 13 employees. I can’t even believe this because every time I talk to you, you've grown more and more. She is one of the strongest people I know and has been an inspiration not only to myself but to many other fellow masterminders and pet sitters all around the country. I've watched Becki completely transform herself and her business every single year, and I'm just so excited to have her on today to help motivate and inspire all of our listeners. Becki, welcome to the show. Hi, Bella. Thanks so much for having me. Absolutely. You are truly someone that a lot of people should look up to and aspire to be, not just because of what you've been able to build but because of how fast it's been. In just two years you've achieved so much, but during that time, you've also had a lot of personal stuff going on that you never let stop you. Now that being said, I know we were just talking before we started, and you said, “Frazzled, that everything’s going around”—and that’s just life, right? But the thing that I love about you is that you don’t let that hold you down. So why don’t you tell our listeners, for those who don’t know you, a little bit about yourself and how you got started in the industry? Sure. So I am Becki. I started my business, Preferred Pet Care Services, here in Central Pennsylvania. We’re based around the Harrisburg area. I actually started my business in my hometown, which was a really exciting thing since my mom and her family have lived there for generations. That’s definitely something that’s helped me out. We started with just me, and quickly—about six months of me being solo full-time—I realized I needed help. I really couldn’t do it all by myself. I sort of took the easy way out and hired a couple of ICs, and about five months after that, I wanted to transition them because it just wasn’t exactly what I wanted for my business. I had a really bad experience with one of them, which I was really fortunate didn’t tank my entire business.

Stephanie Liu is an award-winning digital marketing strategist and live streaming expert. As an ad agency veteran, she spent the last decade and a half helping Fortune 500 companies go from unknown to unforgettable by using social media. As the host of Lights, Camera, Live®, she shines a spotlight on the best and brightest marketers in the industry. Her signature course Lights, Camera, Live is the only online interactive course that teaches you how to turn your ideas, skills, and experience into a captivating live stream. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss With the Internet and social media as a whole moving further and further away from written content, and closer to audiovisual content, live streaming has become a dominant marketing opportunity that you DON'T want to skip out on. When your audience has the chance to interact with you and your business in a raw, authentic, and live way - it can really build a meaningful relationship. Show Highlights Who Is Stephanie Liu? [1:00] Why should business dive into live-streaming? [2:45] What's the biggest mistake you see business owners make when live streaming? [5:30] What is the snooze function on Facebook? [6:20] How can we brand our live streams? [7:20] What can we do to get our audience to watch our live streams? [10:00] The Why/What/How/What-If Formula [11:25] What are some advanced tips regarding live streaming? [14:45] How can we take a live stream and repurpose it in different ways? [16:00] Any final thoughts you'd like to share? [18:00] Where can we connect with you online? [19:15] Special Offer Join Stephanie's Social Media Strategist Group: https://facebook.com/groups/smstrategist/. New members can request a copy of her free Facebook Live Workbook! Links Jump & Scale Webinar: /scale/ Stephanie's Website: http://lightscameralive.com/ SwitcherGo App: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/switcher-go/id1166849233?mt=8 BeLive: https://belive.tv/ Ecamm: https://www.ecamm.com/ Headliner: https://www.headliner.app/ Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 132 of Bella in Your Business. This episode is brought to you by my free webinar, Jump and Scale Your Business. It's my three-part training series all dedicated to finding and attracting the right kind of people that will scale your business. Did I mention it's free? Listen, you have to attend this if you want to grow your staff, you feel like you're being held hostage, you have high turnover, you feel burnt out, or you're just not seeing the results you want. Join me for this three-part free webinar series. Register now at jumpconsulting.net/scale. That's jumpconsulting.net/scale. I'll see you there. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I've got Stephanie Liu with us. She is an award-winning digital marketing strategist and a live streaming expert. As an ad agency veteran, she's spent the last decade and a half helping Fortune 500 companies go from unknown to unforgettable by using social media. As a host of Lights Camera Live, she shines a spotlight on the best and brightest marketers in her industry, myself included as I was on her show. Her signature course, Lights Camera Live, is the only online interactive course that teaches you how to turn your ideas, skills, and experience into a captivating live stream. I am so excited to have her here today to help inspire pet sitters and dog walkers take what is such a cool profession online and show it to the world in a way that delights and inspires people to want to hitch their wagon, AKA open up their wallets and hire everybody to be their pet sitter and dog walker. So without further ado, welcome Stephanie. Stephanie: Hey, hey, Bella. So happy to be here with you hanging out. Bella: I am so excited. And I have to say that first, I think it was Chris Strub—he was on a couple of episodes ago—he was the one who first kind of introduced us. But you are just so delightful, so cheery, so happy. You're one of those people that just really loves to help people, and it shines through. I love watching you in the 360 Marketing Squad and all the things that you do because I learn so much from you. It’s always a great pleasure for me when I can highlight people like yourself to my community because you’ve been so helpful to me. I can only imagine what you’re going to do for them. So let’s start off—why should brands dive into live streaming? Because a lot of people are terrified of this. Stephanie: Okay, well, let

Dynamic. Engaging. Totally rad. These are a few words you might use to describe your latest Facebook video … but they also apply to Kelly Noble Mirabella, self-described social media geek and marketing consultant with Stellar Media Marketing.With more than 11 years of social media marketing experience—and more than a few wacky costumes—Kelly brings tricky social media concepts to life through her fun, clear and memorable social media training videos and classes. Long before social media savvy was status quo, Kelly recognized how social media can take brand recognition, customer engagement, and marketing efforts to a radical new level. What’s more, Kelly has spent the past two years learning to build Facebook messenger bots (aka “chatbots”), and now teaches others how to build them with simple, entertaining and, sometimes, 80s-themed tutorials. Today, she teaches entrepreneurs, small business owners, and working professionals how to use social media to improve their businesses and achieve their goals. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss Chatbots are some of the latest and greatest marketing technology that we have access to as business owners. They might seem complicated and daunting, but they really aren't! You don't need to be a programming or computer science expert to use one. Show Highlights What is a chatbot? [3:20] What is the 24 + 1 rule? [6:00] Are there things people should NOT do with chatbots? [7:00] How do we get started with chatbots? [9:15] What's the difference between emailing your client list vs. chatbots? [17:15] Special Offer: Subscribe to Kelly's YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/stellar247 and join her Chatbot Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/BabyGotBot/ Links Jump & Scale Webinar: http://jumpconsulting.net/scale Kelly's Website: https://stellarmediamarketing.com/ Kelly's YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/stellar247 ManyChat: https://manychat.com/ Kelly's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BabyGotBot/ Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 131 of Bella in Your Business. Do you feel like your business is going around on a merry-go-round? Well, I've got news for you. This episode is sponsored by my incredible webinar series called Jump and Scale. It gets you off that merry-go-round and up to the next level in your business. It's called Jump and Scale, and it's free for you right now. Just go ahead and sign up at jumpconsulting.net/scale. You will learn how to grow your business, increase your staff, and not be held hostage to your business. So go ahead, sign up for free. That's jumpconsulting.net/scale. I'll see you inside. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready. Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I have got Kelly Noble Mirabella with me. I love saying her name. She has quickly become honestly like one of my Voxer besties. We talk all the time, and the girl is so knowledgeable when it comes to messenger bots. Don't get too scared, but she is here with us today to just give us the lowdown, the breakdown of bots 101. Kelly is dynamic, engaging, and totally rad. She's got a ton—a series of really short videos explaining how to do different things in chatbots to an 80s-style theme. Yes, I am talking about teased hair and neon shirts and everything. It's super cute. But she has this real knack for breaking the vernacular down into words and things that we can understand. Because if you're like me, message bots and all of these diagrams and arrows everywhere just kind of make you glaze over like a deer in headlights, right? Kelly's been in social media marketing for more than 11 years. Her company is called Stellar Media Marketing, which, if you're watching the video to this, you're going to actually see that it's very stellar behind her, like the whole ecosystem. Nebula—that’s the word. And so she brings tricky social media concepts to life with her fun and clear, memorable social media training videos I was just telling you about. She has recognized how social media can take brand recognition, customer engagement, and marketing efforts to a radical new level. What's more, Kelly spent the last two years learning to build Facebook messengers, AKA bots, and now teaches others how to do them. So without further ado, welcome, Kelly. Hi. Wow, that was a mouthful, Bella. You did well. I did. I always like to add my own personal thing into it. So, Kelly, as you know, I represent a lot of small business o

Rob Balasabas is the Social Media & Community Manager at Thinkific. He manages the daily curation of Thinkific’s message on social media. You may also find him engaging with their private online community of over 14,000 (and growing) online course creators inside the “Thinkific Studio” Facebook Group. Rob joined the Thinkific Team in 2016, as a Customer Champion where we worked closely with customers to get their Thinkific sites off the ground, and quickly making the leap into the Marketing Team in early 2018. You may see Rob talking about Thinkific, Online Courses, and Digital Marketing strategies on webinars, livestreams and podcasts. When he’s not doing that, you can find him in line at the local taco food truck outside the office or a local coffee shop sipping on a “double-double” :) Biggest Takeaway Who is Rob Balasabas? [2:00] What is Thinkific? [3:45] How can a pet sitting business owner use Thinkific for ongoing training for their staff? [8:45] Can we use Thinkific as a marketing tool? [12:15] Special Offer When you sign up with Thinkific with Bella's affiliate link, you get a TON of bonuses like: 1 Month Free on the Thinkific Pro Plan An on-boarding call with a Thinkific On-boarding Specialist Premium Training Courses Sign Up Here: https://bit.ly/2RwNBmc Links Jump & Scale Webinar: http://jumpconsulting.net/scale Rob's Website: https://socialclub.thinkific.com/ Thinkific: https://bit.ly/2RwNBmc Thinkific Demo Video: https://www.facebook.com/groups/jumpmastermind/permalink/2162201460478145/ Transcript: This is episode 130 of Bella in Your Business. This episode is brought to you by my free webinar, Jump and Scale Your Business. It's my three-part training series all dedicated to finding and attracting the right kind of people that will scale your business. Did I mention it's free? Listen, you have to attend this if you want to grow your staff, you feel like you're being held hostage, you have high turnover, you feel burnt out, or you're just not seeing the results you want. Join me for this three-part free webinar series. Register now at jumpconsulting.net/scale. That's jumpconsulting.net/scale. I'll see you there. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready. Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I have a guy who’s quickly becoming one of my friends. You’re gonna know why later today. He’s been helping a lot of pet sitters and dog walkers almost inadvertently, and for free in a way—at least when it first starts. And this is gonna be an episode that, if you’re feeling like the hiring and onboarding process is a complete mess, you’re gonna wanna listen up. Today my guest is Rob, and Rob, help me pronounce your last name. Rob: Balasabas. You just gotta get the rhythm right and then you’ll nail it. I just know you’re the Rob of Thinkific because you are all over social media. You kill it on Instagram and you kill it on Facebook Lives. We just did one last week, but I’m so glad to finally have you on my podcast. It’s now first quarter 2019. I know everyone’s really interested in getting organized, and I wanted to have you on to kind of show them this awesome thing that a lot of pet sitters in the mastermind have already started doing with wild success. But before we get there—like that little teaser, you guys—Rob, why don’t you introduce yourself a little bit, tell us where you’re from, how long you’ve been with Thinkific, and your backstory. Rob: Sure. Thanks for having me on the podcast. Super excited. Just like you, I’ve been seeing you all over social media and getting a lot of knowledge from you. My name’s Rob Balasabas. I’m with Thinkific. I’m on the marketing team, and my role here is social media and community management. It’s been a really fun ride. It’s been about two and a half years now since I first started here. I started on the support team actually just answering tickets and helping with onboarding and new course creators getting started. I did that for about six months and then saw that nobody was really taking care of Instagram. It was just on autopilot. We were putting up blog post images as posts on Instagram, and it was growing organically. I talked to the VP of growth at the time and said, “Hey, if nobody’s doing it, I can do it. On my way out of the office, I’ll take care of it and engage with our audience there because it’s an opportunity for course creators or potential course creators.” Long story short, they said, “Instagram’s going really well. Do you want to do Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn?” So they moved me over to marketing. Before Thinkific, I worked in a digital marketing agency, building WordPress sites, doing SEO, audits, and paid ads. It was a small startup, but I learned a lot there about digital marketing. That’s cool. So not like I’m interview

Chris Strub is the first person to use live-streaming and Snapchat in all 50 U.S. states. He's also the author of 50 States, 100 Days: The Book, and is the CEO of I Am Here, LLC. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss Social media is more important now than ever and it truly is an aspect of your business that you don't want to ignore or write off completely. It can help you make meaningful connections and engage your with your core audience in an authentic way. The biggest mistake that business owners make is that they post on social media because they feel like they have too. It's important to be authentic and post relevant, quality content - otherwise people WILL see through it. Develop a strategy that you can commit to and see how it can take your business to new heights. Show Highlights Who is Chris Strub? [2:00] Why should I incorporate a social media strategy into my business? [3:30] What social media apps should pet sitting business owners be focusing on? [6:45] How often should I be posting and engaging on social media? [11:30] What do you say to people who think social media is a waste of time? [17:00] Why do you prioritize attending live events? [19:45] Special Offer Join Chris's FREE Facebook Group, SocialWithStrub, where you can share ideas and strategies about social media for your brand. Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SocialWithStrub/ Links Chris's Blog: http://givingdayguy.com Chris's Websites: www.teamstrub.com and www.socialwithstrub.com Jump & Scale Webinar: http://jumpconsulting.net/scale Chris's Article: http://www.teamstrub.com/single-post/FemaleSpeakers Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 129 of Bella in Your Business. Do you feel like your business is going around on a merry-go-round? Well, I've got news for you. This episode is sponsored by my incredible webinar series called Jump and Scale. It gets you off that merry-go-round and up to the next level in your business. It's called Jump and Scale and it's free for you right now. Just go ahead and sign up at jumpconsulting.net/scale. You will learn how to grow your business, increase your staff, and not be held hostage to your business. So go ahead, sign up for free. That’s jumpconsulting.net/scale. I'll see you inside. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I've got another friend with me. So glad that I get to call all these people my friends. Chris Strub is with us, and if you don't know him, you are going to know him by the end of this today. Chris is the first person to use live stream and Snapchat in all 50 states. He's the author of 50 States, 100 Days: The Book, and he's the CEO of I Am Here. Chris is a very giving person. He does a lot of giving days around the country with nonprofits and is just an all-around real, genuine person. Today, he's going to be here to talk to us about a lot of different social media topics. Without further ado, Chris Strub, welcome to the show. Chris: Bella, it's such a pleasure to be back. I'm going to pretend like we screwed up the audio on the last one just so that we could talk again because I love it. Bella: I love it. So Chris, why don’t you give us a little bit more of a background of who you are, where you're coming to us from, and your backstory? Chris: Sure. I recently moved here this month to Greenville, South Carolina, but I'm originally from New York. I went to school in Binghamton, so if you see the green hat that I wear all the time, that's my alma mater, Binghamton University. I quit my job up there in 2014 to road trip around the country to all 48 states. That led to the trip that you mentioned in 2015, where I worked with different nonprofits in all 50 states in 100 days, which led to the book, which I'm very proud of. That book has led to my career as a solopreneur, getting a chance to travel around the country and go to social media events like Social Media Week Lima, where you and I met earlier this year. I’ve also spoken in Denver, Wichita, San Francisco, and Texas. My passion really is working with nonprofits. This week I launched a new blog series called givingdayguy.com, where I'm focusing on helping organizations with their giving day plans. And we're recording right after Giving Tuesday, where on Facebook they raised more than $125 million for nonprofits just in one day, which is pretty incredible. Bella: That is incredible. Wow. That’s really awesome. Thi

April is a dog mom of 2 that just recently left corporate America to run her daycare and boarding business, Rocky's Retreat. Rocky's offers a boutique experience that allows dogs to thrive. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss: There's never going to be "perfect time" to leave your corporate job to become a full-time small business owner. There will always be another hiccup or another goal you want to hit before taking the plunge. April's advice? Acknowledge your fear but don't suppress it. Oftentimes doing something scared can be the kick-in-the-pants you need to propel yourself to greatness! Show Highlights Who is April Cox? [1:45] What was your intention for the business when you purchased it? [2:20] What is your relationship with fear? [3:40] Can you describe your goal for leaving Corporate America? [7:00] How did you learn to be a caretaker for other people's dogs as opposed to caring for your own? [9:00] In what ways did your life change when you left Corporate America? [10:20] What's your advice for someone that wants to leave their full-time job to focus on their business, but hasn't been able to bring themselves to do it yet? [12:00] What attracted you to buy Rocky's Retreat? [14:00] Special Offer Get a free gift for signing up to April's email list at www.rockysretreat.com. She sends out great info like tips and recipes! Links Jump & Scale Webinar: http://jumpconsulting.net/scale April's Website: http://rockysretreat.com Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 128 of Bella in Your Business. It’s a must-have attend if you want staff, you want to grow, you feel like you’re held hostage, or you have too high turnover. Signing up is as easy as going to jumpconsulting.net/scale. That’s jumpconsulting.net/scale. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I’ve actually got a fellow colleague of mine here. I have got April Cox with me, and she is a dog mom of two, recently left corporate America to run her daycare and boarding business, Rocky’s Retreat. Rocky’s is a boutique experience that allows dogs to thrive, led by the amazing April. April’s also a mastermind member who I’ve just been watching her journey. She’s been kicking so much butt and having fun while doing it. Her outlook and her mindset are so inspiring that I wanted to have her on today. So April, thanks for taking some time to sit down and chat with us. April: Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here. Bella: Yeah. So April, for those of the listeners who might not know who you are, could you give us a brief introduction? April: You know, I’ve always been an animal lover and I’ve always been an entrepreneur since I was a little girl, like I had a lemonade stand and I was always just coming up with something to do on my own. So when I figured out that the two could kind of meld, it was kind of perfect. Rocky’s Retreat was actually founded in 2011. The previous owners sold the business, and I stumbled across it in July of 2017 and made the decision that this is where I was going to go with my life. And so a couple of months of paperwork later and I became the new owner of Rocky’s Retreat. Bella: I love it. What were the things that you were looking for when you started the business? Like what was your intention for it? April: Really just to do something that brings me joy. In the beginning of my career in corporate America, I was doing all the things I was supposed to do—making money and moving up and being promoted and taking on more responsibility—but it just never really made my heart happy. It made my checkbook happy. Bella: I think a lot of people can relate to that. We do things because we’re supposed to. These are the next steps. Even from kids, I think we have all these expectations placed on us, right? And so we just start going through this path of, I have to complete school, I have to go to college, I have to get a good job, I have to have—and before you know it, you’re living your life for someone else. Sounds like that’s kind of what you were like—stop. I want to do something that makes me happy. April: Yeah. It was a little scary to think about it because there’s a lot of safety in having a steady paycheck and benefits and all of that. But I just, I almost felt like every day that I went into the cubicle, another part of my soul was dying. Bella: I feel the same exact way. I’ve actually tried to get a couple of remote offices so that I’m not working at home. And every time I go there,

At Viral Ideas, Dave Feinman creates to Inspire. He believes everyone has the right to be fulfilled, in shared creativity, and in the power of defining your why. Dave shares this message through the creative process of making videos. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss When we talk about the three types of videos, we have awareness videos, consideration videos, and decision videos. Each of these types has a different format, aim, and result when marketing our businesses. For each of these types of videos, we want to market them on our Facebook business pages, our Facebook personal profiles, and the big one - YouTube. By creating these different types of videos and promoting them in different areas, we can maximize our video marketing efforts for our businesses. Show Highlights: Who Is Dave Feinman? [1:30] What are the three types of videos we should be creating? [2:30] Where do we promote our videos? [5:30] Can a small pet sitting company get on the first page of Google? [8:00] What's the third kind of video we should be using? [9:00] How can we use Facebook Ads and the Facebook Pixel? [13:00] How do we promote our videos on YouTube? [15:00] Can we get the same kind of SEO if we only use Facebook? Or do we need to use YouTube? [16:00] What's the third place we should be posting our videos? [18:00] What is the correct order to post and promote our videos? [20:15] Links Jump & Scale Webinar: http://jumpconsulting.net/scale Dave's Website: http://viralideasmarketing.com/ Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 127 of Bella in Your Business. This episode is brought to you by my free webinar, Jump and Scale Your Business. It’s my three-part training series all dedicated to finding and attracting the right kind of people that will scale your business. Did I mention it’s free? Listen, you have to attend this if you want to grow your staff, you feel like you’re being held hostage, you have high turnover, you feel burnt out, or you’re just not seeing the results you want. Join me for this three-part free webinar series. Register now at jumpconsulting.net/scale. That’s jumpconsulting.net/scale. I’ll see you there. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready. Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome everybody to Bella in Your Business. I’m your host, Bella Vasta, with Jump Consulting. Today, I actually have a good friend who’s been on the podcast before. His name is Dave Feinman, and he is from Viral Ideas. Dave, how are you today? I am doing amazing. It’s a hot day here in Philadelphia, but it’s going awesome. That’s so cool. So Dave, why don’t you tell everyone a little bit about Viral Marketing and what you do. You’ve been on the podcast before, and we had so much fun, and people loved it so much that I needed to bring you back on and talk about what we’re going to talk about today. I’ll tell you in a minute, but Dave, tell everyone a little bit more about who you are. So we did this podcast before, and we’re trying to get this one in the works to go deeper into some of these topics. Just a little bit of my background: I run a company called Viral Ideas. We do video marketing for social media and online use. We focus on really kind of helping companies build their brand using video marketing, which I know a lot of the people that you work with and the people in your network—that’s something that they’re really looking at doing these days. So hopefully, we can give you guys some nuggets of information that will help you grow your business. That’s so cool, Dave. Yeah, we all know that video is definitely the way of the future. People would actually rather watch things than read things now, right? We’re so captivated by it, but it’s also something that a lot of business owners have trouble with. We’re like, what should we create? How should we promote it if we actually promote it after we create it? And there’s all this craziness. So we want to break it down today for you guys and basically tell you what you should be creating and how and where you should promote it to benefit your business. And we are going to bullet point the crap out of the next half hour here. So we’re going to just bring it straight to you. There’s not going to be any strategy like, what should I do? We’re going to tell you exactly what to do. So buckle up because we are about to jump out of this airplane, and it is going to be fun. So Dave, I’m going to start it with you. What three types of videos should we create? Dave: Basically, it’s three different stages of the marketing funnel from a broad perspective—the awareness stage, the consideration stage, a

Trivinia is the founder of Priority VA - a boutique Virtual Assistant Agency that matches elite level entrepreneurs like Todd Herman and Ray Edwards with highly skilled virtual assistants who “get” the online space and come prepared to deliver massive ROI right out of the gate. Show Highlights What should we outsource? [2:00] How do you know when you're ready to hire a virtual assistant? [4:00] If there is a communication breakdown with a virtual assistant, does that mean the trust is broken? [9:00] Can you describe the different levels of delegation? [11:30] How do we know when we're ready to say goodbye to a toxic relationship? [15:00] What's the best way to communicate with our team? [17:00] What do you love the most about PriorityVA and the people that you serve? [21:00] Special Offer Sign up at priorityva.com/bella to receive your free Ultimate Playbook to Email Delegation. Links Jump & Scale: jumpconsulting.net/scale Jump Mastermind: /jump-mastermind Ari Meisel: https://lessdoing.com/ Loom: https://www.useloom.com/ Trivinia's Website: http://priorityva.com/ Fancy Hands: https://www.fancyhands.com/ Get Magic: https://getmagic.com/ Asana: https://app.asana.com/ Slack: https://slack.com/ Voxer: https://www.voxer.com/ Share The Show: Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 126 of Bella in Your Business. Do you feel like your business is going around on a merry-go-round? Well, I’ve got news for you. This episode is sponsored by my incredible webinar series called Jump and Scale. It gets you off that merry-go-round and up to the next level in your business. It’s called Jump and Scale and it’s free for you right now. Just go ahead and sign up at jumpconsulting.net/scale. You will learn how to grow your business, increase your staff, and not be held hostage to business. So go ahead, sign up for free. That’s jumpconsulting.net/scale. I’ll see you inside. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and this is where I bring you some of the coolest people that have really impacted my life. Today, we have Trevinia Barber with us, and she is the founder of Priority VA. It’s a boutique virtual assistant agency that matches elite-level entrepreneurs like Todd Herman and Ray Edwards with highly skilled assistants who get the online space and come prepared to deliver a massive ROI right from the gate. Welcome, Trevinia.Hey Bella, so glad to be here. How you doing?I’m awesome. I’m so excited to have you here because I think one of the things that I’m seeing in our pet industry is that it’s so exciting that people are actually no longer saying they want to be a six-figure business. They’re like mid-six-figure, seven-figure. And as that happens, you need support staff. But unfortunately, it’s much easier for us to train someone how to walk a dog than it is to train them how to do tasks and help us out. That’s what I really wanted you to come in here today for. You were gracious enough a couple of months ago to visit us in the mastermind. It was so fruitful for all of us. I mean, so much just bombs—and you’re a speaker—so you guys get ready because the next 20 minutes is going to be awesome. And we have show notes for you. So Trevinia, let’s start off with: what should we outsource? Yeah, you know, for you guys, it’s a little bit different, right? And I think that everyone often comes to us asking, “How do I know what to give my virtual assistant, or how do I even know where to start?” And it’s different for every business. For some of you, it might be the billing stuff that just drives you nuts and you want to gouge your eyes out, right? For others, maybe it’s the onboarding of new staff or new clients and that whole customer experience journey that you just feel you need to up-level. If someone else was taking care of it, it’d be better for you. It will be different for anyone. I often say that the best things to outsource are the things that are sucking up so much of your time. For me in my business, it’s email, calendar management, travel booking—things like that—because I’m on the go all the time and people are always pinging me. For someone else, it might literally be following up with people after they’ve just had a new dog walker, like asking how that experience went, creating that real depth to that relationship that maybe you just don’t have time to do. Or don’t want to do, right? And typically those things that we don’t want to do end up taking us the most time because we either procrastinate, put them off, or just dread them. Ari Meisel has a sayi

Jennifer Diepstraten is the CEO and founder of High Ticket Sales Success. She helps entrepreneurs to raise their fees, gain confidence, and find the words to close big sales with ease. Jennifer has grown my own coaching and consulting business to multiple 6-figures in less than two years, sold over $14 million in sales with her sales conversation system, and coached for one of the largest personal development companies in the world. Show Highlights What are quantum benefits? [2:00] Why does positioning your quantum benefits allow us as business owners to raise our rates? [12:00] How can you get in contact with Jennifer? [20:00] Special Offer Grab a copy of Jennifer's FREE e-book, 9 Secrets To Increase Your Fees, Convert More Sales, and Magnetically Attract Top Dollar Clients Who Want To Hire You Before Ever Meeting You!, here: http://highticketsellingbook.com/ Links: Jump & Scale: jumpconsulting.net/scale Jennifer's Website: https://highticketsalessuccess.com/ Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: Thanks for listening. This is episode 125 of Bella in Your Business. Before we get started with today's episode, I want to know, are you burnt out trying to hire employees? Or maybe you want to hire employees, but you're just terrified of that boogeyman that does not exist in the closet. Well, this episode is sponsored by my free three-part webinar series, Jump and Scale Your Business, and I would love to see you there. It's a must-attend if you want staff, you want to grow, you feel like you're held hostage, or you have high turnover. Signing up is as easy as going to jumpconsulting.net/scale. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I am here with an incredible woman who had such a splash in our mastermind months back that she literally changed the face of many websites just by her teachings. Today I'm joined with Jennifer Diepstraten. Did I say that right? Deepstratton? You got it. Deepstratton. Okay. She is the CEO and founder of High Ticket Sales Success. She teaches coaches and experts and niche service providers how to get paid top dollar for their services and close big sales. Jennifer also has a knack for breaking down this scary, intimidating sales topic into easily bite-sized nuggets, and I'm really excited to have you here today. Thanks for joining us. Jennifer: I'm so excited to be here. Bella: 100%. As you know, our community is a bunch of dog walkers and pet sitters. Oftentimes our clients are worth $10,000 to $12,000 a year, and the one thing that I think we all struggle with is this whole pricing structure and strategy. We struggle internally with, “Are we worth it?” or, “Oh no, they don’t want to pay that,” or, “They only want to know about cost.” I’m just going to dive right in here with you. You have this incredible thing called the Quantum Benefits, and I'd love for you to tell our listeners about that. Jennifer: Okay, so here's the deal. If you want to raise your fee or charge more per client or get longer contracts, sometimes it’s not just about charging more per client but signing somebody on for a month instead of a day or for a year instead of a week. Something starts to happen, which is people will say it’s hard to sell because of price resistance, or we have our own internal resistance — like, “I’m not sure people have the money,” or “Can I really charge that much?” And for crying out loud, I’m just dog walking. Never say those words. It’s so much more than that. There’s no “just.” One of the things that I like to teach is how to really see our own value at a higher level so you can charge more and communicate to other people why they should pay you more, without feeling like you have to give more. That’s one thing we always feel — if I'm going to charge more, then I have to give more, or offer more time, or throw in something extra, or justify it somehow. If you're listening or watching, take a moment and think: if I were to double my prices like Jennifer says, in an hour from now you're going to go out, raise your fee, double your prices, and say to somebody, “Hey, this is how much it is now,” what would you do? It’d be exciting and maybe a little bit scary. Across the board, people say, “Well, I would try to figure out what would be worth charging double for.” That’s totally fair. But in most cases, we try to double the amount of service we’re giving or the amount of product we’re giving, and so that doesn’t really give us a raise. I’m all about you getting

Gael Gilliland is the founder of The Legacy Recorder, and is passionate about helping every person record their life story for future generations to cherish. She is also a freelance writer and millennial mother of three future creatives, who in the present day give her daily inspiration and a few grey hairs. Learn more about Gail at her website, Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss Storytelling isn't just reserved for extroverts or those with a sales background. In our lives, we all are storytellers in one way or another. Incorporate this in your business and you will start to see stronger connections with your clients and your staff. Show Highlights Who is Gael Gilliland? [1:45] Why is storytelling so important? [2:15] Who should be telling stories? [5:30] Is there a template we can follow for storytelling? [6:30] What does storytelling look like? [8:00] Is there an example of storytelling that you use in your own business? [11:00] Special Offer Create a memorable holiday moment with someone you love (like mom or grandma) by helping them tell their stories. This free mini-course walks you through the basics to get you started: https://gael-gilliland.mykajabi.com/p/Work-with-someone-you-love Links Jump & Scale: jumpconsulting.net/scale Gail's Website: https://www.thelegacyrecorder.com Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 124 of Bella in Your Business. This episode is brought to you by my free webinar Jump and Scale Your Business. It’s my three-part training series all dedicated to finding and attracting the right kind of people that will scale your business. Did I mention it’s free? Listen, you have to attend this if you want to grow your staff, you feel like you’re being held hostage, you have high turnover, you feel burnt out, or you’re just not seeing the results you want. Join me for this three-part free webinar series. Register now at jumpconsulting.net/scale. That’s jumpconsulting.net/scale. I’ll see you there. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready. Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your host with Jump Consulting. Today we are going to talk all about storytelling because whether you realize it or not, storytelling is something that is really important to your business and all the things that you are doing online. Today my special guest is Gael Gilliland, founder of The Legacy Recorder. She’s passionate about helping every person record their life story for future generations to cherish. She’s also a freelance writer, a millennial mother of three future creatives who in the present day give her daily inspiration and a few gray hairs. Gael, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, 100%. Why don’t you fill in the gaps there and tell our audience a little bit more about you, where you’re coming to us from. So I am in rural Western Pennsylvania, an hour north of Pittsburgh, and I’m here with my husband and kids and dog. I’m originally from Phoenix and made the move to be with my husband’s family. That’s so cool. You and I met a couple of months back in Lima, Ohio, at Social Media Week Lima. You instantly were just like someone that my soul connected with. You were just the most incredible person, and I knew that there would be magic if you came on the podcast. So thank you for being here with us today. I want to ask you first, so we can set a foundation—why is storytelling so important? Gael: For me, storytelling is so important because it helps us create a deeper connection with people whom you may only have a surface relationship with, whether it’s existing family or people we meet later. When you think back to conversations you’ve had and you have an experience where you’ve either heard someone tell a story in a storytelling way or have a conversation in a storytelling way, I feel that people then change their own conversation. They then ask harder questions. They ask deeper questions rather than just the regular, “Hi, how are you doing?” It gives us an opportunity to move past the surface relationships. Bella: I love that. And what I want to constantly do in this podcast might be a little different than others we’ve done. I want to take your amazing knowledge of storytelling and translate it into how it could work for pet sitters and dog walkers. So what I’m thinking—and feel free to chime in here—is that initial phone call that we have with people or even email, because it can be done through email. People write a lot asking those questions before we get into “How much do you charge?” and “What do you do?” It could be really benefic

Abbie Hawkins is the Senior Channel Account Manager for JazzHR, the best hiring software in the pet industry. Listen in to see how over 60 pet sitting companies are turning their "I don't have anyone to hire" problem into "I have too many qualified applicants to sift through" This is a great episode you will want to hear! Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss The two problems you will always be solving in your pet sitting or dog walking company is getting more clients and getting more staff. By having a consistent, on-going hiring funnel, we can solve the problem of staffing once and for all. By always having an abundance of staff that are able to step in at any moment's notice, you are preventing yourself from being held hostage in your business. Hiring isn't a means to an end - it is an on-going process! Show Highlights How do we change the mindset from hiring one person to having an actual hiring funnel? [5:00] What happens if you don't have the right amount of staff? [6:45] How does JazzHR solve the hiring problem on a global scale? [8:00] What are some tips to having a strong hiring ad? [11:00] Can you describe what a knockout question is? [14:00] What are some sample hiring flows you've seen in other businesses? [18:00] How do I proceed when I have resignations and new positions to fill? [18:45] Any suggestions to bring in more applicants? [23:00] Links: Jump & Scale: jumpconsulting.net/scale JazzHR: http://info.jazzhr.com/jump-consulting.html Share The Show: Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 123 of Bella in Your Business. Do you feel like your business is going around on a merry-go-round? Well, I’ve got news for you. This episode is sponsored by my incredible webinar series called Jump and Scale. It gets you off that merry-go-round and up to the next level in your business. It’s called Jump and Scale and it’s free for you right now. Just go ahead and sign up at jumpconsulting.net/scale. You will learn how to grow your business, increase your staff, and not be held hostage to business. So go ahead, sign up for free. That’s jumpconsulting.net/scale. I’ll see you inside. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome everybody to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting, and today I have one of my virtual friends with me. I call this girlfriend because friends look out for each other, and for the past three months, she’s not only looked out for me but for 57 of you—I think that’s the number, or 54, I can’t remember because it grows all the time. My guest today is Abby Hawkins from JazzHR. Abby, how are you? Abby: Great. Thanks for having me today, Bella. Bella: Absolutely. So we are actually recording this on a Facebook Live, but it will become a podcast. I really just wanted to talk about all these woes because there are two things that I tell everyone in our community they’re always going to have to solve, and that’s getting more clients and getting more employees. If we can at least solve 50% of those problems, it would open up our life and our time and our energy to so much more. Forever, what we’ve had to do is post on Craigslist every week or post on Indeed and then sift through things. So I want to first start talking about what you see happen to businesses if they can’t find someone to hire. I imagine that all the people that you start talking with are kind of at that breaking point, right? Abby: Absolutely. When you can’t hire, tasks pile up. You have way too much work to do. You don’t have time for the real heart of your business, and it puts a strain on others in your organization as well. Bella: 100%. Not to mention, you’re not there for your family or yourself. You might be out there in the field doing more work than you actually need to be doing, going through drive-thru every day. It’s very stressful. Can I get an amen in the comments or a thumbs up if that has ever been you listening right now? So how complicated can things get? I posted on Indeed for a videographer once, and I was overwhelmed with all these applications—I probably got about 47 of them. Abby, I didn’t have the time to go through them. It almost gave me a whole other problem. How do you see people sift through all those applications? Abby: People come to us with a variety of different methods. Oftentimes, we see people are coming to us from Indeed, Craigslist, a variety of different sources, and they’re having to sift through all those job sites to find that qualified applicant—logging into Indeed, going into their email inbox, things like that. Ha

Nicole Brown Packin is the CEO of Miami Pet Concierge based out of Miami, Florida. Since MPC’s opening in 2007, Nicole has continued to grow and learn as much as she can about animal welfare. She earned her Small Animal Massage Practitioner (SAMP) Certificate in Maintenance, Performance, and Rehabilitation Massage from Northwest School of Animal Massage. Nicole specializes in Myofascial Release Therapy (MFRT), Trigger Point Therapy (TPT) and Stress Point Therapy (SPT). Nicole is the only SAMP in South Florida with these unique set of massage credentials. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss Be a leader in your community. Get a notice OUT of what you expect from your clients and what they can expect from you. Update them every single day. Do not be a superhero. Let your staff know that you are leading by example and guide them. Be sure to stock up with all the necessary supplies and make a resource list for places of refuge. Your staff are going to want to be heroes, and you want to make sure that you appreciate their offer, but their family and pets come first. Show Highlights What are the first steps you need to take during a natural disaster to protect your clients, staff, and community? [3:00] What's an example of a sample letter to send to your clients during a natural disaster? [5:00] How else can we "take it up a notch" to help destress our clients? [6:45] Can you describe some of the things we need to prepare for in the event of a disaster? [10:00] Summarize the key takeaways of what we should know about disaster preparedness? [17:00] Links Jump & Scale: jumpconsulting.net/scale Nicole's Website: miamipetconcierge.com Hurricane Preparedness For Your Pet Top 5 Ways You And Your Pet Can Prepare For A Natural Disaster Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 122 of Bella in Your Business. Are you ready to scale your business with employees and make all the dreams you ever imagined come true? This episode is sponsored by my free three-part webinar series called Jump and Scale. It’s free and designed for those who really want to take their business to the next level. If you feel like you’ve plateaued, this course will get you to that next level. All you have to do is sign up at jumpconsulting.net/scale. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella discusses anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome, everybody, to Bella in Your Business. I am here today with Nicole Brown-Packin of Miami Pet Concierge, and we’ve got a serious issue to talk about—disaster preparedness. It’s September 9th, 2018, at the time of this recording. Nicole is an awesome member of Better Marketing with Bella and the Mastermind, and I just got to hug her at the Paradise Retreat here in Arizona. So Nicole and I are very close, to say the least. Another one of our PAC members, Maureen Dunn McCarthy, had a question today that she doesn’t normally have to post that much. There’s a hurricane in the Bahamas that has just turned from a tropical storm to a hurricane, and she’s wondering what to do because, admittedly, they don’t deal with this often. But Nicole, who’s based in Miami, does. Last year, I was praying with her through Hurricane Irma, keeping tabs as it plummeted Florida. I thought it’d be great to have Nicole on with us. She also has an incredibly thorough blog we’ll share in the show notes. Nicole, thanks for joining us last minute on a Sunday morning to help your fellow jumpers. Thanks for having me. I’m really glad to be here. And Maureen is joining us, too. What’s up, Maureen and Terri? I have tons of ideas, but I’m in Arizona—the worst we have are fires. I want to hear it directly from someone who’s been through it. It’s Sunday, and this thing is about to make landfall. They predict it’ll hit Thursday, but that can always change. Nicole, walk us through what you’d do right now if you were in South or North Carolina—how you’d prepare yourself, your family, your business, your staff, and your community. I think the most important thing, Bella, is to take a deep breath and not panic because the media can make us a little nutty. First, take care of yourself, your home, and your pets, and then move on to your staff and clientele. I was talking to Maureen this morning and suggested creating an email that outlines everything you need from your clients because they’ll come to you for guidance—you are their person. If you can guide them step by step on what you want, you’ll remove stress, cut down questions, calls, and texts, and everyone can breathe. Also remember, hurricane predictions can change. For example, Irma was expected on Thursday and then Frid

In this episode, Bella sits down with Mia Voss — marketing strategist, Digital Summit speaker, and host of Adventures in Visibility (miavoss.live) — to talk about how pet business owners can use storytelling and personal branding to attract better clients. Mia has produced, hosted, and guested on more than 300 online show episodes and interviewed over 500 guests, and she specializes in helping business owners build a visible, trusted brand online. Her business model combines adventure, experience, and storytelling — showing her audience who they need to know, where they need to be, and which brands are for them. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss Consistency is what you define it as. So often as business owners we have fantastic ideas, but for one reason or another, we just stop implementing them. Or we get busy with other things and forget. Consistency builds your business as well as your brand and helps your clients trust you. If you commit to going live once a week, stick with it! Results will follow as long as you keep persevering. Show Highlights Who Is Mia Voss? [2:00] In what ways did you use storytelling on your recent trip to Italy? [4:00] How did you overcome self-doubt to go after what you want? [5:30] What does consistency do for you in your business and your brand? [7:00] Tell us about how cars play a role in your business and how that intertwines with overcoming self-doubt? [11:00] How often have you been told "no" in your life and what does it make you feel? [16:00] Final Thoughts? [18:00] Links: Jump & Scale: jumpconsulting.net/scale Mia's Website: http://miaonthego.com Share The Show: Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 121 of Bella in Your Business. Before we get started with today's episode, I want to know, are you burnt out trying to hire employees? Or maybe you want to hire employees, but you're just terrified of that boogeyman that does not exist in the closet. Well, this episode is sponsored by my free three-part webinar series, Jump and Scale Your Business. I would love to see you there. It's a must-attend if you want staff, you want to grow, you feel like you're held hostage, or you have high turnover. Signing up is as easy as going to jumpconsulting.net/scale. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I've got a very exciting guest for you. Her name is Mia Voss, and she is an experience junkie who wants to take us along with her—and boy, does she. She's been building an online audience for years, enticing them with engaging interviews on every topic imaginable. Honestly, this is truly a person that you can't stump. There's no topic that's off the table. She’s been a producer, a host, and a guest of more than 300 online episodes and has interviewed over 500 people. Good Lord, woman. Mia combines a business model of adventure, experience, and storytelling, and with each day, she brings out the best in each experience, showing her audience who they need to know, where they need to be, and what brands are for them. Bella: I know you as a person—we met in Lima, Ohio, as we shared a stage, and I just love you. But to be truthful, I just know you’re incredible online, and I don’t really exactly know what you do. So break it down for us. Mia: That’s a tall order, and thanks for having me on. I like it when you’re up in my business. Bella: And I know you’re a gal that can take it—and you’re joining us in two weeks here in Arizona on our girls’ retreat. Yes, we’re calling it the Seven Queens Retreat, which—speaking of working with brands—I’m going to be driving a shiny new Toyota Sequoia and seeing how many of these queens I can fit into that car with or without our tiaras. Mia: That might be for the luggage compartment; I’ll have to take a few of those off. Segueing into that, that’s exactly what I do. I actually represent women over 40. I’m 50-plus, but I represent women over 40. Women make 85% of buying decisions, whether it’s their money or not, and that’s overall buying decisions. That’s something a lot of brands aren’t paying attention to—they’re literally leaving money on the table and leaving a huge amount of the population feeling alienated about their voice. As a travel writer, I work with different brands. I just came back from a three-week trip with Colette Travel. They do guided travel, and they knew I’d be able to represent their target audience and take people along with me. It’s all about storytelling. Every business has a pain point or a

Jessika Phillips helps people master Relationship Marketing, Speaker, as a relationship marketing evangelist she is often sought after for her approach to marketing. She's the passionate Founder of NOW Marketing Group and host of the largest social media marketing conference in Ohio, Social Media Week Lima as well as the host of a weekly live video show called Magnet Marketers. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss When it comes to marketing, the first step is to think about how you are capturing attention. How are you standing out? Attention is the game when it comes to marketing. Usually somebody will take notice of you because you're helping them in some way. Articulate your message in a way that's clear and concise. Create micro-moments that will build the relationship. Make them feel excited to do business with you by creating a unique and enjoyable experience. Show Highlights Who Is Jessika Phillips? [2:00] How do I get started with relationship marketing? [6:00] How do we tie in relationship marketing with buyer personas? [14:00] What does a relationship marketing plan look like and how do I know if it's working? [18:30] What should we be doing on social media to start implementing relationship marketing? [24:45] Describe your FREE social media toolkit? [26:00] Special Offer Social Media Toolkit: https://nowmarketinggroup.com/landing-page/download-social-media-toolkit/ Links Jump & Scale: jumpconsulting.net/scale Magnet Marketers Podcast: magnetmarketers.com NOW Marketing Group: www.NOWMarketingGroup.com Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 120 of Bella in Your Business. This episode is brought to you by my free webinar, Jump and Scale Your Business. It's my three-part training series all dedicated to finding and attracting the right kind of people that will scale your business. Did I mention it's free? Listen, you have to attend this if you want to grow your staff, you feel like you're being held hostage, you have high turnover, you feel burnt out, or you're just not seeing the results you want. Join me for this three-part free webinar series. Register now at jumpconsulting.net/scale. That's jumpconsulting.net/scale. I'll see you there. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your host, and today I've got a treat for you. Jessika Phillips—I met her when I was asked to come speak at Ohio's largest social media convention that she actually puts on. Jessika and I, she's one of those people that you just instantly bond with, one of those people you instantly want to be BFFs with. Today she's on our show to talk about relationship marketing. Did you even know that was a thing? Jessika: Hey, thanks so much for having me. I feel the same way about you and your bubbly personality. I love it. It was your Now Marketing Group that hosted this largest social media marketing convention in Ohio called Social Media Week Lima, not Lima, but Lima. You also host a weekly live video show called Magnet Marketers, every Tuesday. Jessika: Sure! So magnetmarketers.com will give you the sign-up if you're interested in participating in the show and lets you know what we're talking about each week. We go live on the Magnet Marketers Facebook every Tuesday at 4 p.m., talking about how you can be a magnet in your marketing versus a bullhorn. Bella: I love that—magnet versus blowhorn. I want to get into that today, but can you help fill in the gaps for our listeners and explain how you got to where you are? Jessika: Sure, I’ll give you the Cliff Notes version. I worked in corporate America, in telecommunications for about five years. I worked my way up the ranks and loved working with people. This was back in the day when we were transitioning from the big Zach Morris phones to smartphones that could take photos and texts. I was trying to convince people why they’d want photo messaging and internet on their phone, and they’d say, “I just need to make phone calls.” I realized that even though I thought I was a great salesperson, I couldn’t help anyone unless I stopped and listened—figuring out what their pain points were and what their daily life looked like. By using this discovery technique, I learned how the services I offered could actually help them. I got promoted and started working with mom-and-pop shops, helping them market their businesses with little to no marketing budget. I realized people came to these stores because of the people—because they took time with each cu

With new pet sitting and dog walking companies popping up every day (not to mention Rover & Wag), setting ourselves apart is becoming increasingly difficult in a world full of noise. One of the top ways that you can set yourself apart is by using authentic VIDEO in your business. Today, I sit down with Chris Bryant, an expert video producer, to talk about the ways video can help you stand out in the crowd as well as what types of video are better than others. Chris Bryant was born in Danbury, Connecticut and has had a fascination with telling stories through moving pictures since Jurassic Park stomped into theaters in 1993. He launched his video production company back in 2005. In 2013 the company was rebranded as Empire Studios, where he is currently Creative Director and Principal. He also run Studio 12 Academy, an educational resource focused on video production and running a business around it. Chris is sought out for his knowledge in video marketing, and has been featured in Business News Daily, Inc., Momentology and the Everyday Power Blog, among other publications. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss The most common misconception with video is that is has to be professionally done and movie-star quality. This is NOT true. In our industry, I like to say that we are truly selling three things: trust, security, and peace of mind. It may sound a little backwards, but having every single video you make be professionally done can cause people to tune out and not trust you. It can look disingenuous! Chris's rule of thumb is that for every 10 videos you do, really only 1 of those should be professionally done while the other 9 are more off-the-cuff. Video is a way to show your audience YOU being YOU! They want to see you be real, raw, and authentic. Show Highlights Who is Chris Bryant? [2:00] Why do business owners NEED video and what type? [4:00] How does video build a personal connection along with trust and credibility? [5:00] Should video be perfect or imperfect? [7:00] How important is the audio aspect of video? [10:00] How does working with a videographer work? [12:00] What are the biggest mistakes people make when creating videos? [17:00] What are some great online resources for video? [20:45] Special Offer Go to studio12academy.com/bella and you can receive 50% Chris's upcoming video course, 8 Steps To Creating Amazing Video On A Tiny Budget, launching in November! Also, the first 50 students to sign up are automatically entered to win a $500 camera slider. Links Jump & Scale: jumpconsulting.net/scale Studio 12 Academy: http://www.studio12academy.com/ Chris' book, "The Step-by-Step Guide to Maximizing Your Video Views" is published exclusively on Amazon, and focuses on making sure the readers' videos are seen by as many eyeballs as possible. Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 119 of Bella in Your Business. Do you feel like your business is going around on a merry-go-round? Well, I’ve got news for you. This episode is sponsored by my incredible webinar series called Jump and Scale. It gets you off that merry-go-round and up to the next level in your business. It’s called Jump and Scale and it’s free for you right now. Just go ahead and sign up at jumpconsulting.net/scale. You will learn how to grow your business, increase your staff, and not be held hostage to business. So go ahead, sign up for free. That’s jumpconsulting.net/scale. I’ll see you inside. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I’ve got a guest that I actually met on Twitter as we were sitting next to each other at a conference. How funny is that, you guys? Meet Chris Bryant. He is an incredible creative director at Empire Studios. He has a video production company called Empire Studios and is also the founder and lead instructor for Studio 12 Academy. When he’s not running those, he’s a filmmaker and currently in production on a military documentary. Chris has been a wealth of information for me, and I wanted him to be on the podcast today to be a wealth of information for you. Thank you for having me. You are coming to us from Rome today, I hear, which I really appreciate you taking some time away from your vacation to be here for all of us. Chris: My pleasure. It’s more of like a work-cation—going somewhere different, doing post-production, invoices, and following up with clients. But when I finish my work at the end of the day, I stroll around and walk about four blocks from the Coliseum. Airbnb, you gotta love it.

Leveraging technology can take many different forms: video, audio, social media, and more. The real key ingredient is one-to-one interactions in a public forum. This week Brian Fanzo discusses how to do just that. Brian Fanzo inspires, motivates and educates businesses on how to leverage emerging technologies and digital marketing to standout from the noise and reach the Millennial and Generation Z consumers. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss There's a lot of noise in this world between the Internet, the 24-hour news cycles, and more. The best way to cut through the noise is to just press the damn button! It doesn't have to be video or audio. It can be any one-to-one conversations in a public forum. This can extend to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. to help build trust online and keeping that trust online (the hardest part!). Show Highlights What is "press the damn button?" [2:20] How do you lose trust from your online audience? [5:45] What is the best way to build people's trust and keep it? [6:45] Tell us the name of your podcast and where can people listen? [9:00] How can we get over trying to be perfect? [11:00] What is upcycling? [17:00] What's the difference between recycling and upcycling? [19:00] How can people find you online? [24:00] Links Brian's Website: www.isocialfanz.com Brian's Podcast: http://www.isocialfanz.com/fomofanz/ Amy Landino's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR9gMSj0UUxGvgfpNhhF3Jw Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 118 of Bella in Your Business. This episode is brought to you by my free webinar Jump and Scale Your Business, my three-part training series all dedicated to finding and attracting the right people that will help scale your pet sitting business. In Jump and Scale, I will teach you step-by-step processes that will help you find out who your ideal candidate is, how to create kick-ass advertisements to attract them, and how to make the selection process simple. Plus, you'll also receive worksheets to make implementing all of this into your business easier than you can imagine. This is a must-attend if you have staff, want to grow, feel like you're being held hostage by your own business, have high turnover, are way too involved in the hiring process, you feel burnt out, or you're just not seeing the results that you want. Join me for the Jump and Scale Your Business three-part training series. Register now for free at jumpconsulting.net/scale. That's jumpconsulting.net/scale. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your host, and today I have a very exciting guest for you. His name is Brian Fanzo, and he inspires, motivates, and educates businesses on how to leverage emerging technologies in digital marketing to stand out from the noise and reach millennial and Generation Z consumers. Brian: Thanks for having me. Excited to be here. Bella: I am so happy that you are finally here. It's been a long time coming, and I'm just excited to expose you to my audience full of dog walkers and pet sitting business owners. A lot of them are big movers and shakers, and they finally got their business running with employees and stuff. They're really ready to start creating and developing their own strong brand in their community through video and all kinds of content. I know you have so much to talk about. I'd love for you to tell us all about "press the damn button," how easy it is to do it—which is your key phrase—and also this upcycling you do. Brian: I believe everybody has a story to tell. It doesn't mean everybody's story is great, but everyone has a story to tell. The best way to stand out from the noise—amid fake news, bad news, and everything else—is to tell your story. We connect with stories. The reason your business is successful is because of you—your individual skills and who you are as a human. In the last nine years or so, digital and social media made us distance ourselves from what made us great: our story. Offline, we talk about passion and why we love what we do, but online, we just post broadcasts, sales pitches, and generic messages. Millennials and Gen Z—really, any digital natives—see through sales pitches. We don't like being marketed to. We're smarter consumers with more content in our faces and more distractions. So how do we stand out? It comes down to pressing the damn button and telling your story. The “damn button” doesn’t have to be video or

Michael Stelzner is the founder of Social Media Examiner, author of the books Launch and Writing White Papers, and the man behind Social Media Marketing world - the industry's largest conference. He's also host of the Social Media Marketing podcast, founder of the Social Media Marketing Society, and the central character in The Journey, an episodic documentary. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss If you're in a business that involves interacting with customers face-to-face, then you know that there is something magical that happens in the human connection that cannot happen on social media. Although we have video and comments to allow interaction, but it's not until you get around like-minded or relatable people that you find that extra level of energy, excitement, camaraderie, and community. When you come together in a small-group or large-group setting, so many valuable tangible and intangible outcomes can result. Show Highlights Who is Michael Stelzner & what is Social Media Examiner? [3:00] How important has branding been to your company? [4:00] What is your episodic documentary, The Journey, and why do you keep doing it? [7:30] Why is connecting offline so important? [12:00] What are some of the extra activities that happen at Social Media Marketing World? [14:00] Where can we sign up for Social Media Marketing World? [26:00] Links The Journey Social Media Marketing World Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 117 of Bella in Your Business. This episode is brought to you by my free webinar Jump and Scale Your Business, my three-part training series all dedicated to finding and attracting the right people that will help scale your pet sitting business. In Jump and Scale, I will teach you step-by-step processes that will help you find out who your ideal candidate is, how to create kick-ass advertisements to attract them, and how to make the selection process simple. Plus, you'll also receive worksheets to make implementing all of this into your business easier than you can imagine. This is a must-attend if you have staff, want to grow, feel like you're being held hostage by your own business, have high turnover, are way too involved in the hiring process, you feel burnt out, or you're just not seeing the results that you want. Join me for the Jump and Scale Your Business three-part training series. Register now for free at jumpconsulting.net/scale. Before I start this show, I needed to record a quick snippet just for you from me. You're going to hear the incredible Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner and many other things. He is the man who kind of spearheads the Social Media Marketing World every single year. This year it's slated to be the largest—it's almost like the Super Bowl of social media events around the country. It really truly is. It's going to have 7,000 people. And right after the taping of this show, Mike and the team actually asked me to be a speaker. To say that I'm excited is just a major understatement. And I really hope that you listen to this show with open ears and an open heart and consider joining me. It would mean nothing more to me than for when I ask who is a listener of Bella in Your Business podcast, that there are audience members there watching. The topic I'll be talking about is Facebook groups and how to build them in your business from small mom-and-pop brands all the way up to big corporations. The principles are timeless and I'm so super excited to present at this conference. It’s the biggest honor ever. Now here’s the show. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your host, and today I have a long-time waiting guest coming on. I'm so excited to share him with you. Your life’s going to be changed after you hear all of the resources and enormous knowledge that my guest has. Michael Stelzner is the founder of Social Media Examiner. He's the author of books Launching and Writing White Papers, and he's the man behind Social Media Marketing World—you know, that conference that you hear me talk about all the time. It's actually the largest in the industry and arguably kind of the Super Bowl of social media conferences. He's also the founder of the Social Media Marketing Society and the central character on The Journey, which is an episodic documentary that's on Facebook that you should totally check out. Michael: It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me. Bella: 100%. So for those of my listener

It's no secret that Instagram can be a powerhouse social media platform for your business - but I see so many business owners that are just NOT using it to its fullest potential. If you've been wanting to dive deep into the inner working of Instagram and learn useful Instagram secrets, then today is your day! Jenn Herman is a social media consultant, speaker, and globally recognized Instagram expert. She is the forefront blogger on Instagram marketing and her blog, Jenn’s Trends, has won the title of a Top 10 Social Media Blog in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Through her blog, consulting, and speaking Jenn provides tips, resources, and training for small to medium sized businesses that need to structure their social media strategies. Her business background includes Administration, Sales, Human Resources, and Marketing and she enjoys bringing all these skills together to help you grow your business. Jenn has been featured in Inc., Fox News, Yahoo Finance, HuffPost, The Verge, CBS Radio LA, and numerous other podcasts and publications. She is the author of “Instagram for Business for Dummies”, "The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Instagram" and "Stop Guessing: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Social Media Strategy". Learn more about Jenn on her website http://jennstrends.com. Biggest Takeaway You Don't Want To Miss Above all, you have to have a consistent strategy. Being active and taking the time to implement the strategy you develop is key. Your processes will drive the results that get you clients, regardless if you have 50 followers or 50,000 followers. What matters is who's going to find you and bring you business. Build an amazing community of the followers you have and use strategic efforts (i.e. hashtags, stories, following events) to turn that into business. Show Highlights Who Is Jenn Herman? [1:00] Why Do I Need Instagram In MY Business? [3:00] What Are The Different Ways Consumers Can Use Instagram? [5:30] How Do We Figure Out HOW Our Audience Consumes Instagram? [9:00] What Tactics On Instagram Can We Use To Build Our Local Following? [11:45] Should You Always Use A Location Tag? [16:00] What Kind Of Strategies Can I Use For Hashtags? [17:00] How Often Should You Post On Instagram? [25:00] Why Should I Have A Kick-Butt Instagram Page? [28:00] Special Offer Pick up a copy of Jenn's book, Instagram For Business For Dummies, on Amazon here: http://bit.ly/IGBizDummies Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 116 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting, and today we’re talking everything Instagram. So if you’ve been wondering about why you should be on Instagram, how you should be on Instagram, what to post on Instagram, or just how to actually use it for your business, today is your day. Today I’ve got my awesome friend, Jenn Herman, with me, and she is just an Instagram expert. Honestly, if you wanted to know anything about Instagram, Jenn is your girl. She is a go-to expert in so many different social circles. I am so excited to have her here, and it’s off the coattails of her actually coming in and being our expert in the Jump Mastermind. We had fangirls over her—she’s so fun, and I’m so excited to have you here. Jenn, welcome to the show. Jenn: Thank you! I’m so excited to be back with you again and to this group this time. I’m so excited. Bella: For sure. Why don’t you give us a quick background of who you are, how you became this—I'm gonna call you the Instagram queen—and let us know for those who might not know you yet. Jenn: Perfect, yeah. I will take the title Instagram queen. I will not bestow it upon myself, but I will gladly wear the tiara with pride. So I’m Jenn Herman—it’s Jenn with two N’s. I was born in 1980 with a bazillion other Jennifers, so I’ve always been Jenn with two N’s as a way to differentiate myself. I started a blog about five and a half years ago based on social media, and six months into that, I decided to figure out how Instagram worked. I fell in love with it as a platform, but nobody was really teaching it from a marketing perspective. So I just started sharing things on my blog, building up all these tests and theories, and blogging about it. At the time, I was writing three blog posts a week, one of them dedicated to Instagram, so I was creating a lot of content. Within about six months, I was starting to get invited to do interviews, podcasts, and speaking gigs because I became the person everyone turned to for I

Carrie Wallick is the owner iCare4pets. She has been in business for 4 years and started using employees for almost a year and a half. Carrie was a former teacher for 8 years until she decided she wanted a career change and began brainstorming ways she could use her passion for animals to support her life goals. 2-3 months later, Carrie was using Facebook groups and word of mouth to get pet sitting clients, and her business was born. Learn more about Carrie's business at icare4pets.com Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss: When first starting your business, it's really important to determine a set service area. You want to know if your model is going to be expansion vs. saturation. Expansion would mean that you cover many different areas of the city (or even multiple cities). Saturation would imply focusing on one specific city or even area within a city and honing in your marketing efforts to that region. Carrie describes how that after driving for hours on end every day for months, that she quickly decided that saturation and micro-targeting an area was going to be the best fit to support her life goals. Which model do you think would support yours? Sometime it can pay to be picky! We often think that we have to say yes to every person that calls or emails us - but this is not the case. In fact, a lot of the times you will be spending MORE time and energy on "problem clients" than you're gaining. Be picky not just geographically, but make sure your clients fit your client avatar/buyer persona. Accepting only the clients that fit your business model will end up being MUCH more worth it in the long run. Show Highlights Who is Carrie Wallick and how did she start iCare4Pets? [1:00] What were your initial goals for your business? [3:00] What was a typical day when you first started your business? [4:00] How did you decide that covering a huge area wasn't an option for you? [6:00] What advice would you give to yourself when you were first starting out? [9:00] How did the stress of starting out affect your home life? [10:00] Why didn't the IC route work for you? [14:00] How do you fight and push past your demons? [18:00] What was it like adopting your new baby? [20:00] How did your business adjust during Hurricane Irma? [22:00] Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 115 of Bella in Your Business. The next series is going to be a bunch of interviews with amazing pet sitters that I know that will also motivate and inspire you and your business. From time to time, I interview incredible pet sitters who have been through or faced some really amazing challenges that have inspired me, therefore I know will inspire you. If you know of anyone who has an amazing story to share, who is a pet sitting or dog walking business owner, I'd love to hear from you. Just go ahead and email me at [email protected]. Until then, enjoy this next episode. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella’s got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting, and today I have Kari Wallach with me. She is a pet sitter in Florida and the owner of I Care for Pets. We’ve known each other for quite a few years now, and Kari’s story has been really interesting and inspiring to me as I’ve seen her grow and change through so many different life changes. I really wanted to bring her on because I know there are many people listening who will connect to her story. Kari: Thank you. Glad to be a part of the show. Bella: Why don’t we start from the beginning? Tell me where you're located and what made you start this business. Kari: I am just outside of Orlando in Longwood, a little suburb. I was a teacher for eight years and wanted to get out of teaching but didn’t know what to do. I figured I’d find a way to use my passion for animals and live off of it. After going on vacation a few times and using my brother to take care of my dogs, I thought there had to be a way to give this service to people because it just wasn’t working with family. I wanted to be able to trust someone and provide that for others. Bella: Awesome. So how did you get started? Did you start putting flyers up, get a website? How did it all work? Kari: I started with community websites and Facebook groups. We had a big one—15,000 members—in my town and the one nearby. I started there, then moved to Thumbtack, and it grew from there. Word of mouth became big. When I moved, I started my own Facebook group since there wasn’t one. We’re now at 3,000 members, and I literally got three clients from it just

Imagine if you could have the town talking about your business? Or if you could have other pet businesses contacting you to work with you and partner with your pet business? Maybe the local pet store having a flyer in every bag that leaves their store with a purchase and your company's name on the tip of the tongue of the local vets, trainers, and groomers? Wouldn't it be nice if your business was the business always popping out the best and most valuable and relevant news. Today we are going to show you exactly how to become the talk of the town and start partnering with people to help elevate your level of “expert” in your community and become known. What Businesses Should I Partner With? The first thing you'll want to do is look on a prospective business's social media pages. You want them to have a social media following that you can leverage. It is a partnership, which means you BOTH have to pull your weight. I would almost go as far to say that if they don't take social media seriously, you shouldn't try to partner with them. BELLA TIP: The book "Known" by Mark Schaefer will help explain all of this in greater depth. How Do We Approach A Business I Want To Partner With? It can be scary approaching a potential business that you want to partner with, especially if you are a smaller company or not that well known (yet!). The first thing you can do is to like, comment, and share their content on social media. You can also message their business page and ask questions. Try to find out WHO is controlling their social media (this is often their designated media person). Use what Erika and I did as an example! :) How Can I Offer Value In A Partnership? One idea is that you can offer to interview them on either your business page or their's. It will help them get more exposure while you are providing a valuable resource for your audience! You can also pitch them to be a guest blogger on your website, or you to be a guest blogger on their website. Again - gets you exposure and you are providing value to your community. Lastly, don't be afraid to simply just ask them what their needs are. Maybe they want more advertising, clients, or employees. Whatever it may be, find out and brainstorm some ways you can help! Don't be afraid to pitch ideas of how they can partner with your pet business. Share The Show Did you enjoy the show? We would love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review! Click this link – Bella In Your Business Click on the ‘Subscribe’ button below the artwork Go to the ‘Ratings and Reviews’ section Click on ‘Write a Review’ Transcript: This is episode 114 of Bella in Your Business. The next series of episodes are from a previously recorded live event training series that Erica Goodwin and I did together. The following is a past recording, but the information is just as juicy. I hope you enjoy it. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Good morning, everybody! Welcome to the Jump into Marketing show. I am your host, Bella, and I'm here with my girl, Phat. Today we're going to talk to you about figuring out how to actually connect with people in your community on social media. Why is this a big deal? Because when you actually can connect with these other pet stores, groomers, veterinarians, bloggers, newspapers, local pubs, and bar and grills—when you can connect with them—you are now able to provide an enormous amount of value to your entire following, not just your clients. Through that, it makes you look popular. It makes it look like people really want to hang out and be your friend. So why not join your company? That’s what we’re diving into today. First, I want you guys to say what’s up below. Hi, Chloe! Thank you for joining us. We're already live here on Instagram. Thanks for joining us on Instagram, everyone. On Instagram, we're on the Barketing Blog Instagram Live, so if you’re out walking a dog and that’s easier for you, go ahead and put that on—or join our Facebook Live here, too. So, Erica, I’m going to hand this over to you. Why don’t you introduce yourself? Erica: Hi, so for everybody who’s new, my name is Erica. I’m the co-founder of ProPet Software—kennel management software—and also the owner of Barketing Solutions, pet business website management. Basically, we build your website, host your website, and take care of your website moving forward so you can focus on your pet business. Bella: Awesome. And I love your websites. They’re beautiful, responsive, and mobile. Every time I tell someone about your website and they actually get it, I get thank-you notes. So thank you for making me look good. We’re going to be talking a lot about that today, Erica, because we are prime examples of how you're able to partner together with someone to make y

Social proof can be an excellent way to establish trust and credibility for you and your pet sitting business. When we talk about social proof, we mean borrowing third-party influence to sway/persuade potential customers. Today, Erika & I will discuss the different types of social proof, the pro's and con's of each, and how you can use social proof to enhance your pet business! Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss What Is Social Proof? Social proof is borrowing third-party influence to sway/persuade potential customers. Some examples of social proof would be Bella's endorsement on Barketing.co, testimonials on your website from influencers, or even a testimonial from someone who had the same problem as a prospective customer that you solved for them. Social proof helps consumers connect to your business at an emotional level as well as gain trust and confidence, which then helps them make a purchasing decision. Genuine reviews on native platforms are the best. If friends and family have used your services and tell people how trustworthy you are and how they had peace of mind while away, that's money right there! What Is Negative Social Proof? Negative social proof is something you NEVER want to use. It means that you don't publicly bash another company. Focus on your pro's and not other companies' cons. Focus on why you need a professional pet sitter instead of why you shouldn't use a tech company (i.e. Rover or Wag!). Be positive! The negativity towards a competitor can actually be damaging to you. Six Types Of Social Proof: 1. Mini Case Studies This is when you tell a story that hits potential clients emotionally. Did you save someone's house from a flood? Maybe you stopped a break-in? Did you go above and beyond? Do your daily dog walks keep dogs healthier? You'll want to talk about the outcome the customer had with you and what the outcome would have been without your services. If you have facts to back it up, that's even better! Mini case studies are an especially powerful tool for dog trainers. 2. Testimonials/Reviews. This is when you ask your clients to reviews your services on websites such as Google, Facebook, and Yelp. Don't be afraid to ask for reviews! A happy client will happily write you a review. Be sure to add a link to review websites in your thank you emails that you send out post-service. Use these reviews on your website and add them to your social media strategy (with the clients' permission of course!). Be sure to use images when you're posting on your website and to link to the original review to show it's real. Feature your happy customers on your website. This can also display what type of pets you accept (and if you offer retail, this is a great tool!). You'll never, ever want to use fake testimonials or review your own services. Use quotes that are short, specific about the value of your service/product, include a picture, and make sure they match your buyer personas! 3. Social Media When customers share your business with their Facebook friends or on Instagram, that is another form of social proof! Monitor and save all of this positive promotion (can you say free marketing!?). Encourage social proof on social media by posting photos of pets in your care and tagging/telling their pet parents. There's a good chance they will share the photos so make sure you add your watermark! Encourage sharing. Other ways social media can serve as social proof is through a referral program, leveraging local Facebook groups, encouraging geotagging on Instagram, adding social sharing icons to your blog posts, and finding ambassadors that will recommend you to their friends, family, and groups on social media! 4. Trust Icons Trust icons are a form of social proof that makes sense sometimes but not always. If you have special certifications, won an award, or were mentioned in a well-known publication, this can help boost social proof. Do you have recommendations from a trusted Vet, real estate agent, or divorce lawyer? Publish them and play it up to your advantage! Use quotes from influencers (that your customers know) about the importance of professional pet sitting. If you have any media mentions or even a celebrity client that endorses you, that could be huge. Try to think like your customer and ask yourself if it would influence your buying decision (i.e. Chamber of Commerce might not impact your decision but being certified in Pet CPR or being insurance and bonded just might!) 5. Data/Numbers/Facts A single number can be worth a thousand words. What makes you stand out? Have you walked over 100,000 dogs? That shows something - experience! More examples would be 25,000 tired dogs when parents get back from holiday vacations, being a top-ranked service for the past 10 years, an official service provider for the airport, or helping avoid euthanization of 153 dogs because you trained them from aggressi

Facebook Competitions can be proven to be a very useful tool in your business for becoming active in your community and even signing on new clients. However, It’s important to realize that when you run a competition you are not going to get 100’s of new customer inquiries. What you will get though is an increase in your following and brand awareness. It’s then your job to convert those new followers into customers in the future. Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss Why Run Competitions on Facebook? Facebook competitions are a great way to increase your visibility in your area. If you are trying to build your Facebook following, then competitions can be a great way to get in front of new people that perhaps would not have heard of you. People tend to share competitions with friends and family, so it’s a great way to get more people to see your business. They can also help you create a loyal following. If people enter your competitions’ there are lots of ways to then get them to follow more of your channels and content. You could collect email addresses, invite them to like your page or invite them over to another social channel. Facebook contests are a cheap way to grow your audience. Running a good competition can be a relatively cheap way of growing your following. If you collaborate with another brand, then you are tapping into an audience you would otherwise have to pay for. Also, people tend to share competitions more freely than they do blog posts or ads for your services. So, this can be great for brand awareness. The Best Type of Competitions On Facebook Caption This Spot the Difference Guess The….Breed/Location etc? Share a Picture/Story Annual Competition Should You Always Give Away A Prize? I wouldn’t advise giving away a prize every time you run a competition. If you do, then your page will attract people who enter every competition online regardless of the product/Service/Brand. These people are probably not your ideal customers. You could decide that maybe you will run a number of small competitions each week/fortnight and then have one larger competition with a prize every month/quarter/year. Don’t be tempted to run competitions where you give away things like iPads or non-pet related gift vouchers. Again, you will attract the wrong type of person. Instead, think of people you can collaborate with you have a larger audience you can leverage. For example, there might be a popular pet store in town that would be happy to share your competition on their Facebook Page in exchange for promotion with your client base. It also means you share the cost of the prize. How to Convert Entrants to Customers Invite them to like your page Every time someone likes your post you can go into that post and invite them to like your page. If you do this as soon as they have liked the competition post it’s likely that they will like your page. If you continue to create interesting and engaging content, then it’s likely they will continue to follow you and engage with more of your content. Create a downloadable freebie that is related to the competition Can you create something that people can sign up to after the competition, so you can capture their email address? For example, if you were doing a competition about baking for your pets could you create an ebook full of recipes or them. Gather email addresses for larger competitions. If you are running a large competition, then you should get people to provide an email address for entry so that you can market your services to them afterward. Make sure you are clear that you are going to be sending them emails when they enter. Resources: Podcast with Kate telling about her competition: /episode-77-competition-consistency-kate-mcquillan/ Kate's contest: https://www.facebook.com/noseoftralee/ Kate's page: https://www.facebook.com/PetSittersIreland/ Pictures for the competition: https://petbusinessowners.com/facebookcompetitions/ Transcript: This is episode 112 of Bella in Your Business. The next series of episodes are from a previously recorded live event training series that Erica Goodwin and I did together. The following is a past recording, but the information is just as juicy. I hope you enjoy it. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Have you ever seen all these Facebook competitions and wondered if it's actually right for you? Have you seen other people be really good at them and thought, “That’s so not for me”? Well, today we're going to break that down and show you exactly how you can do it—with tried and tested proven results. I'm so excited to bring on my co-host today. You might notice she looks a little different and has a different accent because my normal co-host, Erica, up in Canada, is now spending time laying on the beach in Jamaica. But we have Kate McQuil