Bella In Your Business: Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Podcast

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

It's difficult to start marketing for your business if you don't know who you're selling to. This is where buyer personas come in, a.k.a your "dream client." In this episode, Erika & I sit down to discuss all things buyer personas such as what they are, how to make them, and how you can use them for your business advantage! Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss What Are Buyer Personas? Buyer personas are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers within your target audience. Think of it like a sketch of a key segment of your target audience. BUT, be sure to keep it realistic. Buyer personas can be used to help you understand your customers, prospects, and who you should be focusing your time on targeting. They can help you tailor content to fill the needs, behaviors, concerns, and triggers of different target audience groups. How Do You Make A Buyer Persona? First, you'll have to do some market research and gain insights from your current customer base. Start small. The number of personas you have should depend on the size of your business. Specific targeting allows you to target to get more out of your marketing efforts. You can do research, send out surveys, and interview your target audience. Remember to define from your client's perspective when creating buyer personas. What Are Negative Personas? Negative personas are fictional, generalized representations of individuals that you DON'T want as customers. This will help you "get over" people who don't fit so you can move on. They allow you to not beat yourself up when you pass on a potential client and when new clients try and bargain your rates. In other words, negative personas will save you time! Knowing the type of person you don't want as a customer is sometimes more important than knowing your customer. How Can You Use A Persona? Personas allow you to personalize and target your marketing to better relate to segments. For best results, use your buyer personas to create content for your prospective clients to hit them at different stops along their buyer's journey. For example, you won't want to use the same messaging to a persona who is in the awareness stage and another who is in the decision stage. Other things to try are: Try segmenting your email marketing. Create campaigns targeted at different personas at each stage of the buyer's journey. Make a newsletter for each persona. Create Ads and create audiences on Facebook and boost the ads to the appropriate Use negative personas to filter out those who are a bad fit to lower your clicks from ‘bad leads’ To Set Up Your Persona... You'll need to give them a: Name & Photo. Background "A Day In The Life" Story Goals, Hopes, & Dreams Challenges, Worries, & Fears Digital/Online Habits Biggest Influencers How Your Company Can Help Your Persona Common Objections Real Quotes Marketing Messaging & Elevator Pitch 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 111 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. Welcome to the Jump into Marketing Show. My name is Bella Vasta and I am here with Erica Goodwin. Today, we are going to talk to you all about buyer personas. They’re also called avatars—the one, two, or three types of people that you really want to attract in your business. So if you have ever sat at the computer and wondered what to write, what to put on your website, what to put in an advertisement, how to get the perfect kind of employee or client, or if you’re attracting the wrong people, we’re going to talk all about that today. Erica, I’m so excited because at the end, you’re going to put people through a workshop where they get to leave this training knowing exactly how to do it. If you have your laptop, iPad, or a piece of paper, you can literally make a persona as we walk you through the process. Erica: For those that don’t know, my name is Erica Godwin and I am a co-founder of ProPet Software, which is a kennel management software. I’m also the owner of Marketing Solutions, pet business websites. Bella: I am Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. I’m a pet business coach who helps people from $200,000 to a million scale their business and really be able to walk away from it when they want. This show is also sponsored by my

Facebook Groups are a powerful tool on social media that can serve a number of different purposes to help your pet sitting company. They can be an asset in finding new clients, networking with other local businesses, and becoming a driving force in your community. This week, Erika and I take a deep-dive into all things Facebook Groups to discuss how they can be used to grow your pet sitting company. Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss Before setting up any Facebook Group, we always want to consider the logistics of the group and how you plan on running/growing it. Think about what type of community you want to build and nurture. Is it "Pet Lovers of CITY," "Pet Mom's & Dad's of CITY," or something else? Give some thought to what the description of the group is. Why should people join? What are the rules? Do you allow advertising, pets for sales, and/or negative talk about other businesses? Next, it's time to actually create the group. You'll need to click in the top right of your Facebook browser and select "Create Group." From there, simply enter in your group name, add group members, and then choose the privacy setting of the group. Be sure to pick an icon and upload a cover profile as well. Click "Create" and you are up and running! How To Grow & Leverage Your Facebook Group So now you have your Facebook group - but how do you grow the group? When you are just getting started, I would only invite people that you know personally until you get it built up. Get your grounding and feel comfortable. You should have this in no more than a week! You'll then want to start thinking about the types of people you want in your group. It might be easier to attract businesses who already have a great following on Facebook in your community, and then ask them to invite THEIR community. How can you leverage the group? Use it as a conversation starter at networking meetings. You can also use it as a way to break the ice and connect with pivotal people in your city. It's also an opportunity to do Facebook Live videos where you interview people in your community on split screen. Lastly, it's also a place where you can post lead generations. Do Your Research An important step that you don't want to forget is to research who has large Facebook pages with good engagement in your community. The best way to do this is to type your city name into the search box on Facebook, click "Pages," and then click on "Groups." When you find a group you're interested in, click the page/group, and add the administrator as a Facebook friend. Try to get to know them personally whether it be through a phone call, email, or even over coffee. Share the intent of your group and ask if they would want to help by promoting your group or even becoming a moderator. In return, you might offer them a free plug of their business once a month. There are a few things that you want to beware of when running your Facebook group. It is critical that you lead the group and check in at least once or twice a day. Always respond to everyone in the group, and feel free to find some other Moderators to help you. Try to plan content in advance and schedule it to post (I suggest a minimum of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). You may have to ban people that don't follow the rules or create drama. Be willing to be a leader and keep the group on track. 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 110 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. Welcome everybody to the Jump into Marketing Show. Today we're going to be talking about what if there was a feature on Facebook that you actually could get more clients and get more employees. I'm sure you've heard about Facebook groups, but you're wondering, why do I need to have a Facebook group and what can that do for my business? Today, Erica and I are here to show you exactly how you can do that and highlight three pet sitters who have actually been very successful doing this. My name is Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. I'm a pet business coach all around the world, and I help people expand their companies. Erica: My name is Erica Godwin. I am the co-founder of ProPet Software, Kennel Management Software, and also the owner of Market

Are you hearing that Instagram is a great way to get more followers and customers but just confused as all heck on how to use it? Maybe you started using it but have no idea how you can convert your time and energy in the platform into tangible success? Do you just blindly post without a strategy and see little engagement from local pet owners? Is your follower based more other businesses instead of pet owners? If any of these questions resonate with you, then you'll definitely want to tune in to this episode as Erika and I break down exactly how you can organically grow your following on Instagram for your pet sitting or dog walking business. Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want to Miss: How Do I Get More Instagram Followers? The number one question that business owners ask is how do I get more followers? Before we can get into that, it's important that we make the distinction between relevant and irrelevant followers. It is much better to have just 250 followers of local pet owners following your account rather than 1,000 random accounts from around the world that will never use your service. Therefore, it's not the quantity of followers that is most important, but the quality! How Do I Grow My Local Audience On Instagram? First and foremost, you want to make sure you are using a business profile that is set up and optimized. This means using a professional username (tip: try to keep it as close to your URL as possible), linking your website, and using a high-quality logo as your profile photo. Next, you want to start following local pet owners - like and comment on their photos! Although it will take time, eventually they will start to notice you and will remember you when they need your service. But, don't be annoying! You can also follow local hashtags that your prospective clients follow and search location tags in your area to look for pet owners. Search for nearby businesses, parks, etc. and follow/engage with their followers who are pet owners. Also be sure to see what your current clients post and the hashtags that they use. Use this same technique by partnering with local businesses that share the same target audience. You can run contests that will help boost engagement! On your own profile, you have to put time and effort into consistent posting and be engaging. You can extend your reach with Instagram ads when you have a promotion. Lastly, you can check out Instagram accounts for a local business that's a competitor. Try to study what they're posting and see what's working for them. It doesn't hurt to follow their ideas, but perhaps you can think of even better ideas. Brainstorm with your employees as well! Also, if your competitors have followers, they might be more likely to follow you back since they already like the same type of business. What Hashtags Should I Use? First, you'll need to find the hashtags that your clients are following so you can appear in their feed when they are browsing. Leverage these local hashtags and ask engaging questions! You can use the notepad on your phone to save a few groups of hashtags to copy and paste into the comments section easily. Once you're following a good amount of Instagram users in your area, be sure to like their photos! Continue to like their photos and comment. Eventually, the local Instagram users you follow will follow you back and interact with you. It does take time and you need to be persistent. But don't act desperate or pushy! Should I Buy Followers Or Use An Engagement Bot? Absolutely, NOT! Scheduling software is okay but never, ever, ever buy followers or use an engagement bot that auto-likes or auto-comments. How Can I Get People To Actually Contact Me On Instagram? The number one way is to publish relevant, interesting content that affects prospective clients emotionally. You don't want to sell and you don't want to overpost either. Avoid unthoughtful comments that might be mistaken for a bot. Engage with local pet owners. Be human and be genuine! Interact and respond to comments, messages etc. Lastly, create a pattern and use Instagram stories! How Can We Use Instagram Stories To Generate Leads? Show your business! Have your staff record videos of playing with pets, walking dogs etc. Show off what makes you AWESOME! Be sure to touch on pain points your are solving (think trust and security). Make people want to care about what you are saying by sharing valuable information. Show people you are trustworthy, reliable, and knowledgeable! Resources & Links Agora Pulse Wave.video Visual Content Marketing Strategy 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 109 of Bella in Your Business. The next series of episodes are fro

For most of us, Facebook is one of (if not THE) #1 social media websites that we use in our business. It's such a useful tool for so many things including getting our businesses out there, finding new clients, and even finding new staff. Plus, it's a great way to network with other local businesses in your community to establish those critical relationships. In this week's podcast, I sit down with Erika to discuss 8 things you MUST do well on your business's Facebook page in order to grow your business. Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss: Facebook is ever-changing, but there are a few aspects of the website that will always stay the same. Facebook will always be focused on community and interaction. Understand that Facebook is meant for people who already know and are following your business - it's not really designed for first-time visitors. Don't forget that Facebook is "borrowed land" - in other words, you need your own website as well! One of the biggest questions pet business owners ask me is "how do I start more conversations on my Facebook page?" Or, "how do I get more people on my Facebook page?" First and foremost, respond to everyone! You wouldn't like it if you started a conversation with someone and they didn't answer, so don't do it to your Facebook page visitors. Next, invite people to like your page. There are loads of potential people that you could be inviting to like your page. Aside from our businesses Facebook page, there is another way that you can get more eyes on your brand and content. The best way to do this is to join Facebook groups in your area. Mom groups are especially powerful for pet businesses. Some ideas of useful content to post might be: School bus etiquette for the dog What to do when the dog loses his playmate for school School vacations Kid & dog-friendly restaurants The biggest mistake business owners make on their Facebook page is not using enough pictures! You absolutely must add a picture to everything you post on your page. Social Media Examiner reports that 74% of social media marketers use visual assets in their social media marketing, ahead of blogs (68%) and videos (60%). BrainRules.net states that "When people here information, they're likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retain 65% of the information three days later." A final statistics show that "People following directions with text and illustrations do 323% better than people following directions without illustrations." Resources & Links Adobe Spark iMovie Wave.video Visual Content Marketing Statistics 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 108 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. This is the Jump Marketing Training. We're your hosts, Erica Goodwin from Marketing Blog and Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. Erica is the co-founder of ProPet Software, a kennel management software and pet industry marketing and website professional. Erica: ProPet Software. I know it happens all the time, but it’s okay. Bella: So say it one more time—ProPet Software, not PetPro. Panel management software. And Bella over here is a Pet Business Consultant, speaker, and author, and she’s been helping pet businesses since 2007. Erica: You should see some of the companies she’s worked with—it’s pretty awesome. Bella: Thank you. You guys, typically this training that we’re doing, I mean, Erica and I would probably charge at least a hundred dollars an hour to do this, but it’s actually all coming to you completely free because it’s sponsored by both of our companies. It takes over $200 an episode to produce the show, which sounds crazy, but just trust me when I say that. So I want to thank the fact that we both have these successful businesses providing these awesome services to people. Erica, why don’t you tell them about yours? Erica: Marketing Solutions is my newer company. It’s basically websites for pet businesses. We offer templates at an affordable cost, and then we offer maintenance support on an ongoing monthly fee. Bella: Incredible. Erica also offers a ton of support to her clients, which is one of the ways I got connected with her because my Better Marke

This week, Erika Godwin and I sat down to discuss all things relating to your website! I like to say that this is your 24/7 business card, so it is important that it's always in tip-top shape. Today we'll talk about site design, how to tell if your website needs an upgrade, why you should upgrade, how to upgrade, and more! Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want to Miss: Does My Website Need An Upgrade? There are quite a few tell-tale signs to figure out if your website needs an upgrade. Take a look at your website and then ask yourself the following questions: Is my website unresponsive? Is it mobile-friendly? Has my website been updated within the last few years? Does it look dated and old? Am I using low-quality photos? Do I use old SEO techniques (being sales-y vs. informative)? Does it have a frustrating user experience and is it difficult to navigate? Am I using out-of-date information and plugins (i.e. contact info, staff members, prices, services, etc.)? Do I use a free template? Am I doing ongoing daily/weekly monitoring and maintenance? Why Should I Update My Website If I Have Enough Clients? At this point, you may have determined that your website needs an upgrade. Let's talk about why you should update your website, EVEN IF you have enough clients currently. One of the reasons is that you'll want to make a good first impression when a potential customer lands on your website. A good first impression can lead to increased conversions from organic and paid search traffic. Plus, you'll want to keep current with the constantly changing search algorithms to make sure your website comes up on the first page of Google. From a security side, an up to date website ensures your customer's data is kept securely AND ensures that your website itself is protected. Last but not least, a great website can really help you stand out from your competition! How Can I Update My Website? When you're ready to refresh your website, there are a couple of key things you can do to get the ball rolling. The first thing is to make sure that all of your content is current. This means removing old employee data and updating them with your most current employee biographies and photos. Next, you'll want to replace any low-resolution photos with web-optimized high-quality images. Be sure that your phone number, hours of operation, policies, prices, email addresses, etc. are all current as well. Why Do I Need Frequent Website Monitoring? So now that you learned why you should update your website and how you can do so, let's discuss why you need frequent website monitoring. The biggest reason first and foremost is security. You don't want to leave your website prone to virus, vulnerabilities, and threats. Frequent website monitoring also allows your website to undergo routine maintenance, as well as staying up to date on your tracking, analytics, and optimization of your content for SEO! But you shouldn't do all of this yourself as a busy business owner. Hiring someone to manage your site monthly prevents your website from becoming a one-time purchase that gets ignored. If you're not technical, hiring someone also gives you one less thing to worry about! 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 107 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. Welcome to the Jump into Marketing Training with your hosts, Erica Goodwin from the Marketing Blog and me from Jump Consulting. Erica is the co-founder of Pet Pro Software, a kennel management software in the pet industry and a website professional. And Bella is a pet business consultant, speaker, and author who has been helping pet businesses since 2007. Each week, we'll take turns going over the airwaves, downloading the biggest secrets to grow your pet business. Today, we are going to tell you about the importance of design usability and frequent monitoring of your pet website. On Instagram, I want to say what's up to A Dog’s Life, Yanny, Midwood Pet Sitting, Debbie, and Happy Tales Pet Sitting. On Facebook, I want to say what's up to Asha, Rose, Chloe, Darcy, Sarah, Jennifer, Danielle, and Cheryl. Remember, this is also an interactive show, so go ahead and ask your questions. If we can get to them on air, we will. If we can’t, we’ll answer you personally when the show is o

When we talk about marketing, there is truly an endless arena of ideas and tactics that we can use for pet business owners to get our name and our brand out there. It can be digital or old-fashioned pounding of the pavement. It can be print or even just a simple graphic on social media. But, which one is going to get me the best bang for my buck? Which one is going to help me grow my business? On this episode, Bella sits down with Erika Godwin to take a look at all things bootstrap marketing and advertising for pet sitting businesses. After delving into the world of what makes up a good advertising campaign, Bella shares some of her own personal successful advertising methods that she used in her pet sitting company. Erika Godwin is the Co-Founder and the Chief Marketing Officer of ProPet Software, a boarding kennel, dog daycare and pet grooming management software. She is also an expert on website creation, maintenance, and SEO. Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss There are a number of major problems that pet businesses run into when it comes to advertising. A lot of the time, pet business owners have HUGE time constraints. They're in the field 10-14 hours a day and are just too tired to work on the business itself. Money also poses an issue, as it can be confusing how much or how little to spend - or there's just nothing in the budget at all for advertising. Sometimes pet business owners are afraid. They don't want to do it wrong, lose money, or run the risk of not finishing what they started. For any successful advertising campaign, there are a few key items that need to be looked at. These usually consist of: correct advertisement placement, use of brand colors, use of white space, a specific message, and a specific call to action (CTA). More information about defining your message for your pet sitting or dog walking business can be found here. Pet sitters & dog walkers need to know what they are selling (hint: it is NOT pet sitting or dog walking!). When we look at the big picture, pet sitters are actually selling peace of mind (that you will show up), trust (that you won't steal from them), and security (that you will keep their information secure). Understanding this mindset and tailoring your advertising to play off of it is key. There are a couple of different ways that we can sell emotions through our advertising. Usually, this is done through colors and images. Different images can elicit different emotions depending on whether you're using stock photos, professional photos, or even just the casual selfie. All of these can be effective in their own ways, but all of them must be relevant and timely. 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 106 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. Boom! Here we are. I think we are on Facebook. Erica, say hi. Hey guys, how’s it going? This is an absolutely free training that Erica and I are doing, and we want to welcome you. This is called the Jump into Barketing Training, and we're your hosts, Erica Goodwin from the Barketing Blog and Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. Erica, for those of you who don't know her, you need to go like and follow her. She’s the co-founder of ProPet Software, kennel management software in the pet industry. And I'm Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting, a pet business speaker, author, and coach who's been helping pet businesses since 2007. Erica and I created this training together. We actually have twelve trainings coming to you, and this is the second one. The first one was about keywords on your website. Kristen said that in just two days after following that training, she was already in the local pack for dog walkers and pet sitters. If you don’t know what I mean by “local pack,” go watch that show—it’s something so easy you can do, and people are already emailing and messaging us with great success stories. Today, we’re talking about bootstrap marketing ideas for your pet business to gain over $10,000 in additional revenue. We also want to let you know that the show is sponsored by Barketing Solutions websites and Better Marketing with Bella. Erica: Barketing Solutions are websites specifically designed for the pet industry. We use a template system to offer affordable, professional websites that are fast and rank high in search

Sometimes it can be hard to choose the right terms for Google. There have been a lot of changes in search behavior and search guidelines in the last few years, and they’re constantly evolving. So, you’ve got to understand how to research and use keywords in the current environment which will help you rank for the right search terms on your pet business website. And this is exactly what we are tackling today! On this episode, Bella sits down with Erika Godwin. Erika Godwin is the Co-Founder and the Chief Marketing Officer of ProPet Software, a boarding kennel, dog daycare and pet grooming management software. She is also an expert on website creation, maintenance, and SEO. Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss: What you need to know about how local searches work [3:00] What’s the point of ranking #1 for a search term if it’s not what your potential customers are searching for? Google and most other search engines use three facto help generate their search results. Relevance: How close your business matches to the search terms Distance: If location is added to a search term, Google will calculate based on their location Prominence: How well known is the business? This is based on information Google collects from across the web from data such as Links, Articles, Directories, Google Review Count + Score. What is a site crawler and how does it pertain to search terms? [6:00] Site Crawling and Sitemaps (A web crawler (also known as a web spider or web robot) is a program or automated script which browses the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner. This process is called Web crawling or spidering. Many legitimate sites, in particular, search engines, use spidering as a means of providing up-to-date data). How does this help you? How often do you need to update your sitemap? - The most important thing is to let Google know when you have a new website. Use the internal link and fresh content, such as blogs, to help get more crawling on your site, but you don’t have to update every day. Link old blogs to new blogs, it helps Google crawl your site for search terms. Then Google will more easily find your site when people in your area search for that. Make sure Google knows your location and services you offer: Google Business and Google+: Based on the searchers' location, Google will serve them results based on relevancy. So if you search ‘pet sitter near me’ and you live in Dallas - it won’t show you pet sitters in Seattle. Local Pack + Localized Organic [20:00]: All different things that will show up on your search engine. You want to find the biggest proximity signals, the links below will help you learn the difference between the two and how to utilize them. Don’t look spammy or overuse keywords. Make sure the keyword is used naturally no matter what. You want a natural flow. What are the different types of keywords and how do I use them? [10:00] 1) Head Keywords - basic / big search vol but competitive and may not be worth it 2) Body Keywords - go after more, more descriptive, not searched as often and less comp 3) Long Tail Keywords - a lot of people search for them. A long question like keywords ranks higher. “Should I...” questions are blowing up the internet now. Should I Pay For More Than One Keyword? [14:45] One keyword is a better focus, but make it a general topic. Google often bridges the gap for the other keywords, your website is probably just wanting to optimize the one keyword that is the most important. So, how do know what our customers are searching for? It will fluctuate every day, there are too many factors to know exactly, but there are tools to use that help us. Use a tool for search volume research SE Ranking tools (links below) for keywords you think your client base may be interested in. Find top 5 competitors and plug them into a software for ranking to find out more about how they are doing with their keywords. Stalk your competitors! Don’t blindly blog! With this knowledge, you’ll be able to write blogs that get down to the level of your clients and what they are looking for. Utilize your keywords with your images too! Google image searches are on the rise. Make sure you name your photo offline (in your documents), then describe the image, use ALT text, location, services featured, etc. Anything your website will let you add to the image to describe it, use it to help populate that image in a search. Links & Resources Local Search Ranking Factors: https://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors Keyword Suggestion tools: https://seranking.com/keyword-suggestion-tool.html - https://keywordtool.io/ Competitor Research: https://online.seranking.com/research.html https://www.spyfu.com/ Moz Local SEO - https://moz.com/learn/seo/local Local Link Building - https://moz.com/learn/seo/local-outreach-and-link-building-video Wordpress Plugin - https://yoast.com/ Premium Local SEO Plugin - https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/local-seo/ $69 per year Find Erika at: http://goo.gl/

Our guest today is the founder, owner, and operator of a very busy dog walking company in Hoboken, New Jersey, Heather Gaida. She started walking dogs in 2006 when she was working on her master's degree in education. Upon graduating, she loved walking dogs SO much that she decided to continue dog walking instead of going into teaching. She prides herself on holding her business to very high standards and is passionate about providing the best pet care around. She is always looking for ways to improve her business's systems, technology, training, and development for the team. Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss If you feel overwhelmed in your business and like you're just spinning your wheels, consider a complete overhaul of your business. It might sound terrifying, but you can truly come out of it with some INCREDIBLE results. This may include raising your prices, developing an employee handbook and training manual, and really narrowing down the services you provide. If we focus on too many things, then NOTHING gets 100% of your attention. Don't try to be everything to everyone! Do you live in a metropolitan area and feel like you're constantly hiring and hiring and hiring? Our guest found a unique solution to this problem by hiring a human resource manager. An HR manager keeps an eye on where you need more staff or even have too much. They also make sure there is a steady stream of interviews coming in. While it might not work for everybody, it may work for you! This is just one of the unique ways he has been scaling a dog walking business. Show Highlights Who is our guest and what is her business? [1:45] At what point did you realize that you needed a complete overhaul of your business? How did you start scaling a dog walking business? [4:00] When you first started your business, what were all of the services you were trying to provide & what did you end up narrowing them down to? [6:20] How did your life and your business change once you started saying NO to everyone else? [7:00] When did you realize that there were certain functions of your business that you needed to delegate? [9:15] What are some of the biggest mistakes you made in your business and what did you do to rectify them? [12:00] Describe some of your best delegation tips for somebody that's terrified of that word or has tried it before and failed? [16:45] What are some of your long-term goals and where do you see yourself in a few years? [21:00] Links Join the Jump Mastermind 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 104 of Bella In Your Business. The next series is going to be a bunch of interviews with amazing pet sitters that I know will motivate and inspire you in your business. From time to time, I interview incredible pet sitters who have faced some really amazing challenges that have inspired me and I know will inspire you. If you know of anyone who has an amazing story to share and is a pet sitting or dog walking business owner, I'd love to hear from you. Just email me at [email protected]. Until then, enjoy this next episode. 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 to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your host with Jump Consulting, and today I have a longtime client—and I think now a friend—Heather from Trusty Tails in Hoboken, New Jersey, and soon to be other places as well. Heather, welcome to the show. Heather: Thank you. Bella: I am so excited to have you on today because every time we work together, you inspire and motivate me. You have come such an incredibly long way, just building and building and building. Even that short time you were in the mastermind, you inspired everyone in there. They wanted to know all about your story and how you’re able to do what you do. So today, that’s what I really want to unpack with you if you’d be so kind to allow me to. But before we get deep into it, let our listeners know more about who you are—how you started your business, how big it is, maybe give them a comparison and overview. Heather: My name is Heather Gaida. I started my business back in 2006 while I was in grad school to become a teacher. My business just kept getting bigger and bigger. Before I knew it, I had a business partner and then I had employees. We would split the walks. About three years into it, I decided that I wanted to have kids, so I had to ramp up to make the same amount of money while being home with my children. That was the whole reason I started this business—to have flexibility to be the kind of mom who could be there for her children.

Sarah El Sherbini is a lifelong pet lover with an entrepreneurial spirit. After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in design, she didn’t become a designer. She went full force into the pet care industry, launched PetsGo Pet Care in 2015, and never looked back. PetsGo provides complete and total peace of mind every day to the busy pet parents of Toronto. Learn more about Sarah and her pet sitting company at her website: www.mypetsgo.ca Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss Our businesses can cause us a lot of stress, trouble, and burnout. That's why it's so important to find your "why" and hold on to it whenever you feel like giving up. Nothing is more important than your physical and mental health. Talking to your family, friends, or even a therapist can help get you through these rough patches in your business. Sometimes the first therapist we go to may not be a good fit. That doesn't mean therapy doesn't work! Usually, we have to go through multiple therapists until we find the one that is able to best help us be the best versions of ourselves. If you've ever tried therapy and think it doesn't work and are struggling, try to be open-minded and try it again with a different person or modality. You spend so much time with yourself, so why not learn how to talk to yourself? Sometimes we just need help framing things in the right way, instead of allowing the world to frame things for us. The 5 Second Rule is a term coined by Mel Robbins. It means that if you feel that you need to do something, but feel yourself hesitating, you count down from 5 and then you do it! It seems so simple, but it's not always easy. Show Highlights How did you know that you weren't okay and why? [3:30] How did you accept that "it's okay not to be okay," and how did you move on from that? [8:30] Has Mel Robbins' book, The 5 Second Rule, had an impact on the way you run your business and see your life? [12:00] What happened to your business when you took your foot off of the accelerator and put it on cruise control instead? [14:00] Links: Sarah's Website: http://www.mypetsgo.ca/ The Jump Mastermind: http://jumpconsulting.net/jump-mastermind Remember to use coupon bella25 for $25 off your monthly membership! The 5 Second Rule: https://www.amazon.com/Second-Rule-Transform-Confidence-Everyday/dp/1682612384 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 103 of Bella In Your Business. The next series is going to be a bunch of interviews with amazing pet sitters that I know will motivate and inspire you and your business. From time to time, I interview incredible pet sitters who have faced some really amazing challenges that have inspired me and 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 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. Bella: Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta with Jump Consulting, and today I have another pet sitter spotlight. I'm really excited to introduce you to an incredible person I really admire, Sarah El-Sherbini up in Toronto. Sarah, how are you? Sarah: I'm good. How are you guys doing? Bella: We're awesome here. I want you to explain to our audience a little bit about who you are, where you're from, and a little bit about your business. Sarah: My name is Sarah El-Sherbini and I'm from Egypt. I started my business after graduating from design and realizing I didn’t want to be a designer. I wanted to work with pets, and that was three years ago. I've been trucking along ever since. Bella: And you're not actually in Egypt anymore; you're up in Toronto, right? Sarah: Yeah, we’re serving pet owners in the city of Toronto in Canada. Bella: Awesome. For all of you geographically stumped people here in the U.S., that’s on the East Coast. I didn’t know that until about a year ago when I started getting lots of friends in Toronto. Now I know exactly where you are. Sarah: Yeah. Bella: So you’re traveling far to get to the retreat! Because Sarah’s actually coming with us to the Jump into Paradise retreat. It’s the first retreat of its kind. We rented a mansion here in Arizona, and we’ve got twelve people coming for a weekend getaway. I’m so excited—it’s completely sold out. Listen, you guys, I wanted Sarah to come on here to share her story because of this Pet Sitter Spotlight. I wanted to high

Laura Wright is the owner and founder of PAWright Pet Services. She started this business in 2012 with her husband, Erik, after she was laid off from an insurance company. Neither of them wanted to start over in the corporate world. Since they both had extensive experience with animals, they decided to begin a pet-related company. After Erik passed away, Laura struggled with finding the inspiration and motivation to keep going. Today, Laura describes how she was able to persevere and explode her business after such a tumultuous time. Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss How did you make your first leap from going solo to hiring empl0yees? [3:00] What was your first experience like hiring a bookkeeper and a CPA? [7:00] How did you deal with the death of your spouse in terms of deciding to continue on the business? [11:15] The transition from doing the job of one to doing the job of two [14:15] What kind of advice would you give to business owners that experience trauma? [16:30] Show Highlights If you're just considering the idea of starting a business, seek out what resources are in your local town. Google "small business" and call up the Chamber of Commerce! There are tons of free and low-cost resources that can provide you with priceless knowledge While someone will never experience the exact same experiences as you, there will always be people that go through very similar events. Lean on those people and let them empathize with you. There will always be someone that can understand what you're feeling and help you cope. Don't isolate yourself or beat yourself up about things that you can't change. Links Laura's Website: pawrightpetservices.com The Jump Mastermind: http://jumpconsulting.net/jump-mastermind Remember to use coupon bella25 for $25 off your monthly membership! 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 102 of Bella In Your Business. The next series is going to be a bunch of interviews with amazing pet sitters that I know 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, and 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. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta with Jump Consulting, and today I have a longtime client of mine, Laura Wright with Paw Right Pet Services. Laura, I just adore you. I cannot wait for you to come to Jump Into Paradise here in Arizona in the summer where I can actually just hug you because I just adore you. Right before we started recording, she had some music on in the background, and I was like, “Hey, Laura, can you turn that off?” And she said, “Alexa, be quiet.” And Alexa turns off. I think that’s the best thing ever because I don’t have one. It’s amazing. Laura, welcome to the show. Laura: Thank you for having me. Bella: I love that sweet-as-pie accent. Why don’t you tell everyone where you’re from, when you started your company, and give us a little bit of understanding of who you are and what your background is. Laura: My husband and I started our company six years ago. Before getting into the real job world, I worked with wildlife rehab and primarily with birds of prey. After I was laid off from a job at an insurance company, I didn’t want to go back to that. So I came home and said, “Hey, I’m starting a pet sitting business.” And he said, “A who?” And here we are. Bella: Incredible. How many years has it been? Laura: Six. Bella: When you started it, did you ever think you’d be where you are today? Tell us where you’re at now. Laura: My husband died in September, so that threw a wrench—a challenge—for me. I went through a phase of just not caring. I didn’t care for your cat; I didn’t care for anything. Luckily, I have a good group of sitters who work with me. They were able to pick up the slack and snap me around. I also have a good group of friends who were able to do the same. Bella: That was a really tumultuous time. I want to talk about you, the person, but how did you go from “I think I want to start this business” to building it and having people work for you? Laura: We went to a small business incubator here in town. We went to their first class called “So You Think You Want to Start a Business,” and they gave an ov

When Pam joined the Mastermind, she was working IN her business non-stop. Her to-do list had a to-do list. But with the guidance and support of Bella and the Mastermind team, Pam was able to break down her goals into smaller tasks and take action every single day. This prevented her from feeling overwhelmed and allowed her to focus on what was truly important. Fast forward six months, and Pam is now completely out of the field and has FIFTEEN dog-walking employees! This is just one of the many success stories of pet sitting business owners who have taken their business to the next level with the help of Bella and the Jump Mastermind. One of the key strategies that helped Pam was writing down her goals and ambitions and keeping herself accountable. Instead of being reactionary, she was able to be productive and achieve her goals. Another important aspect was conducting interviews, which may seem daunting at first, but with practice and experience, it becomes easier and helps with confidence. So, if you're ready to take your business to the next level and achieve the success you deserve, join Bella and the Jump Mastermind today! Pam Curry is the owner and operator of Toronto Dog Walking. She and her dog, Holly, moved to Toronto in 2012 with the sole focus in mind of working with animals. In 2015, she founded Toronto Dog Walking and Pam has continued to grow the business at a rapid pace ever since. Currently, she has 15 dog walking employees and is continually adding more. Pam is also one of the most active members in the Jump Mastermind, along with her accountability partner Kristen Corral. In fact, they have been the reigning champions of our monthly accountability challenge for 5 months in a row - wow! Learn more about Pam at torontodogwalking.com Biggest Takeaways Who is Pam Curry & what is Toronto Dog Walking? [2:00] Pam's Mastermind Success Story [4:00] How did you get rid of your "to-do list" and turn it into long-term goals? [7:30] How do you keep goal-crushing when you have bad days? [9:00] What piece of advice do you have for business owners that feel overwhelmed? [10:50] How did you go from hating video to now having your own talk show? [14:50] What does the future look like for you and Toronto Dog Walking? [22:00] Where can you follow Pam on social media? [24:00] Links: The Jump Mastermind: http://jumpconsulting.net/jump-mastermind Remember to use coupon pamc25 for $25 off your monthly membership! The COPE Method For Social Media: /episode-68-the-cope-method-perri-collins/ The Bark Show: https://torontodogwalking.com/the-bark-show/ Pam's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelwithmydog_/ 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 101 of Bella In Your Business. The next series is going to be a bunch of interviews with amazing pet sitters that I know 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, your host with Jump Consulting, and today I actually have the most amazing dog walker located in Toronto with me today, Pam Curry. Pam: Thank you, Bella. I'm absolutely shocked that I'm here. Bella: Why are you shocked? Hopefully by the next 20, 25 minutes, you're going to understand your greatness because I love to pull in the most amazing, inspiring pet sitters and you're definitely one of them on my list. You are the owner of Toronto Dog Walking and I've just been witnessing this miraculous explosion. I don’t mean just your bottom line or your profits—I mean you personally as a business owner. I have been so excited over here that I wanted to shout it from the rooftop. Before we get ahead of ourselves, I want you to tell us about your business. Where is it? How long have you been in business? How many people work for you? Give our listeners an idea of who you are. Pam: I will start off first by apologizing. I'm Irish and I talk really fast. Myself and my Irish dog, O’Holly, moved to Toronto back in 2012. We moved here to work with pets because in Ireland it's not as big as it is here. In Toronto, people's dogs are their childr

As we celebrate the 100th episode of Bella In Your Business Bella sits down with you personally to solve the 2 major problems every dog walking company faces. But first, did you know that as of the recording, the podcast has reached almost 40,000 downloads?!?! None of this would have been possible without all of you! In fact, it is the longest-running and most popular podcast in the pet care industry. Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss Whether you're managing a pet sitting or a dog walking company, one thing is for certain. You can't do it alone! Seeking the right kind of help that you're able to delegate tasks to will help you EXPLODE your business. Even with this podcast, there are multiple people working behinds the scenes to produce the audio, write the show notes, create graphics, promote it online, and so much more! Marketing works 2-4 months before you actually hear from that new client. The key is consistency and staying on target. You can do this with social media by creating videos or asking engaging questions. Be different & be disruptive. Ask yourself, "How am I consistently trying to get new clients?" Whatever it is, it has to be visual, attractive, and showing-and-telling. Hiring is disruptive. But you need to make sure that you are always OVERSTAFFED. Otherwise, your business will not grow because you will have to step in the next time someone quits, gets sick, etc. Be an advocate for your business. We're not always in growth mode and that is okay. At the end of the day, you have to take care of yourself. It's okay to take a personal breather and be on cruise control. Show Highlights The two things you will ALWAYS be doing in your pet sitting business [3:00] Staying consistent with your marketing to gain new clients [6:00] Solving the challenge of hiring [15:00] How to hold yourself accountable [20:00] What do you want to see from Bella In Your Business? [23:00] Links The Google Of The Pet Sitting Industry: http://jumpconsulting.net/ The Answer To Your Hiring Woes: http://info.jazzhr.com/jump-consulting.html The Jump Mastermind: http://jumpconsulting.net/jump-mastermind Remember to use coupon bella25 for $25 off your monthly membership! Employee Handbook and Manual: /pet-sitting-employee-manual-handbook/ Employee Quick Start (Get employees in 30 days or less) /employee-quick-start/ 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: Today is a very special episode for you. This is my 100th episode and I want to bring it back to you for episode 50 where I talked about consistency. Never did I ever think that I would ever reach 100 episodes of a podcast, but it really does come down to consistency and that little dream I used to have when I was a child and I used to play radio DJ. Well, let's get into 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. Welcome to the 100th episode of Bella in Your Business. This is a monumental centennial celebration that I have going on right now, and I'm just so ridiculously excited to share this episode with you. First of all, I want to tell you that if you were to listen to the very first recording I ever did, it was in my walk-in closet, sitting on the floor, talking to my laptop. I didn't have any speakers. I didn't have any microphones. I didn't have anything. I did it in my bedroom on the closet floor because my whole house was tile and I thought it would be the best acoustics. I had no intro or outro, wasn’t really sure what I was doing, wasn’t sure where it was going. All I knew is that I wanted an outlet, and that outlet was Bella in Your Business. Something else that you might not know is that I grew up my entire life being told M-Y-O-B. What that meant was “Mind Your Own Business,” which was pretty funny considering the name of this podcast is Bella in Your Business. In episode 50, I talked about consistency and how it took a lot of consistent work to get to the place that I'm at. I'm so proud of this podcast. At the recording, we've got about 39,000 downloads since we started counting, so it's probably a lot more than that. We started counting about the 20th episode or so, and this first started when my daughter, who is now four years old, was in the NICU. I didn't actually get consistent with a show coming out every single week until about a year and two months ago. Since then, we've just been really rocking and rolling. I owe a great deal of gratitude to Lauren, my amazing assistant, who I would be lost without, and also Chris, my podcast producer. My general rule of

Christina's love & passion for animals brought her to become a professional and certified pet-care expert. Her professional training started back in 2005 and she continues to re-educate herself as time passes just in case new issues or findings in safety arise. By holding high professional and personal ethical standards for your pets care, Christina founded Beach Pupps, a dog walking company, to guarantee your dog receive the safest, most untypical walk around the block service available. Find more about Christina on her website, http://beachpupps.com/ Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss: Whether you structure your company as the usual pay-per-service or as a monthly membership, you need to make your clients feel like you are ALL in. Make them know that your business is your livelihood and that you are there to serve them 100%! Give them extra perks :) When you become strong in your brand and your business, and you become unique! Nobody can really copy you and if they do it's glaringly obvious. Delegation and hiring will allow you to EXPLODE your business. You'll be able to get out of the field, so you can spend more time in the office growing the business and networking with other professionals in the community. There is always someone going through what you are going through or something similar. Find people that you can lean on and get support/advice when you need it. Reach out when you need it. Show Highlights: One year ago, where were you at personally and professionally before joining the Jump Mastermind? [2:00] What does being a professional business owner mean? [4:00] What drew you to the Jump Mastermind and made you go all in? [4:30] How do you structure your company with a membership instead of the typical paying-per-service model? [6:00] What is the difference between pet sitting and dog walking? [7:45] What have you been able to accomplish since January after being in the Jump Mastermind? [17:20] Reflecting on where you were personally and professionally six months ago, where do you see yourself next? [19:00] What advice do you have for those that feel like they are "hitting a wall" with their business? [22:00] Links: JOIN the Jump Mastermind: /jump-mastermind/clkn/https/www.jumpconsulting.net/checkout/?add-to-cart=9225& LEARN about the Jump Mastermind: /jump-mastermind/ 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 99 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, your host with Jump Consulting. Today, I have a pet sitter here with me, actually a dog walker, who has just totally blown me away and that I have begged her and pleaded for her to come on our show. You are going to learn a lot about Christina today. Her love and passion for animals brought her to become a professional and certified pet care expert. Her professional training started back in 2005, and she continues to re-educate herself as time goes by. She holds herself to a high standard of professional and personal ethics, and Christina actually founded Beach Pups to guarantee your dog receives the safest and most untypical walk-around-the-block service available. Without further ado, Christina, welcome to the show. Christina: Hi everybody. I’m so happy to be here. This is a really exciting day. Bella: Yeah, for sure. Christina, I know that you and I kind of officially met at the beginning of this year, although you were following me before that unbeknownst to me. But you joined our tribe of awesome people back in January when we started the Jump Mastermind. I want you to take our audience back—where were you personally and professionally at the end of last year, 2017? Christina: I was really lost, honestly. I didn’t have any guidance about where I was supposed to be. You mentioned I was a professional pet care expert, but I wasn’t necessarily a professional business owner. You can be a great pet care expert all you want, but being a business owner is a completely different aspect. The business was growing, I was a new mom, and I didn’t have much direction. I accidentally found you, and it changed everything. Bella: You said you’re a new mom. Tell us about your child. Christina: She’s actually 17 months today and she’s rambunctious, energetic, and loves dogs and cats just like her mommy. She’s very special and I’m so happy to have her. Bella: Hats off to all the mompreneurs out there watching or listening right now. It’s a topic we don’t talk about enough, and I want to blow the lid off that as we approach our 100th ep

Bri Seeley is a born catalyst and natural truth-teller with a history in counseling, psychology, and entrepreneurship. Despite her two degrees in fashion design, she was unknowingly taken down the path of healing and transforming lives through a series of “accidents,” “coincidences” and divine guidance. She combines personal experience, psychological concepts and Universal Laws with over a decade of coaching and counseling expertise to support people in turning their lives of ‘should’ into the lives they’ve always dreamed of. Her specialty is truly helping people accelerate their destiny and become their future selves today. You may have seen her on NBC’s The TODAY Show, Forbes, Thrive Global, Inc. Online, Medium, New Day Northwest, PBS, and Huffington Post. Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss Being conscious about how you feel in each moment in your day-to-day activities will help you really understand WHY you are doing a certain action. Bri talks about how when she is watching Netflix, she evaluates whether or not she is watching it to escape from reality, numb out, or just relax. When she feels herself using something as a method to escape, she describes how you can realize and self-correct. After all, if you are escaping, you are not living in the moment and finding your joy! Our CELL PHONES are such a distraction and one of the number one ways people escape from their day-to-day lives. Try putting your phone across the room when you're working on something, or even putting it in Airplane mode. That will allow you to fully engage yourself in an activity. If we can learn how to fall in love with the tasks that we don't want to do in our business, we can re-invigorate ourselves to fall in loves with our businesses as a whole. The transformation of finding a place of joy, peacefulness, or even acceptance of activities we aren't particularly fond of can help us attract the other things that we want in our lives. People have an understanding that our thoughts rule us, and that we don't have the ability to change them. Guess what, we do! But it is a difficult process and one that gets harder with age - but it can be done. There are so many different activities you can do to practice mindfulness. You need to figure out what works for you - which will take time and trial and error! Ask yourself - "What do I need today?" This might look like yoga, journaling, exercise, affirmations, coloring, etc. Give yourself the time and the space that you need. If you wake up every day with intention and you commit to being your best self each day, then you are setting yourself up with the energy you need to take you through the remainder of the day. You will connect with yourself and feel so much more grounded, intentional, and successful! Control your life - don't let it control you. Show Highlights How do we use the mindset of acknowledging that someone is actually a human being to our advantage in our business, and not as a detriment? [3:40] Can we use the mindset of finding joy in our day-to-day activities as it applies to our businesses? [10:15] How can acknowledging our thoughts and feelings help us tackle the day-to-day stresses in our business? [12:10] What are some of the techniques you use to practice mindfulness every single day? [15:30] Many successful people have a dedicated morning routine or ritual. How can we improve our livelihood and our mindset with a morning routine or ritual? [18:20] Links Not 'selfish': Women open up about choosing to be child-free: http://www.today.com/parents/child-free-choice-women-open-about-choosing-not-be-mom-1D80097318 What It Really Feels Like To Be A Child-Free Woman: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/bri-seeley/childfree-woman_b_5672613.html Downloadable Offer Free Guided Meditation: meditation.briseeley.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 98 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, and today I’m joined with Bri Seeley. I want to explain to you guys that we sought out someone like Bri Seeley because we have this incredible Jump Mastermind and a lot of people are really fighting their inner self or their inner being, and they're really questioning, “Can I do this? Can I build the business the way I want? Am I good enough?”—all of these psychological demons that we battle with, myself included. None of us are immune to it, and I don't feel like we talk about this enough in general in business, let alone on this podcast. So I&

Brandy Lawson is the founder of FieryFX, a boutique digital agency, and a Chief Online Officer for-hire. Her mission is to help entrepreneurs maximize their impact and success by making the right digital decisions for their business. Brandy's zone of genius is connecting business goals with marketing & technology strategies. Her superpower is analogies. Sure, it's not as impressive as teleportation, but it does help clients grasp new concepts faster than a speeding bullet. Brandy is a mother, a wife, a native of Montana, a current Phoenician, and a co-host of the Northwest Phoenix WordPress meetup. She is also a lover of ridiculous shoes, a captain of her boat on Lake Pleasant, and doesn't miss an episode of Jeopardy. Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss: Brandy started with a pretty unique position in a large company. She was a product director for GoDaddy, she sat between the consumers and the developers. She had to understand the market on multiple levels in order to produce for both interested parties. What is a heat map? It is basically the analytics tool that looks at where people are actually looking on your page. It’s more than just seeing the link that they click on. You can see how far down do they scroll and how long they spend on your sit. Also, it will let you know what are your hot spots on your site. Jump Consulting has changed so much for the better after seeing the analytics. Looking at the metrics of what is working and what is not. Are you building trust? Measure that! Are you trying to sell items or packages? Then you need to create indicators of trust and what it is people are looking for when they look at your business page. How do you start a conversation with someone that can help you with your analytics? Think of it as a building a house. Each part has a different purpose, just like a home you need an architect, a plumber, an electrician. A website is very much the same. You need the analytical data to back up what you are trying to achieve in your business. It is important to start collecting your data as soon as possible. You don’t even have to understand it at first. But if you are gathering the data, then when you are ready for the next step you will have a base. Once you hire someone or have time to learn, you will already have a place to start. Show Highlights: Living at the intersection of Marketing and Technology [1:00] The importance of Google Analytics. Our businesses are online, websites drive business and you need to understand how to make the data work for you. [5:00] Why you need a heat map with on your site. Check out Hot Jar. [7:00] How does one measure trust? How do you know if people visiting your site trust you as a business? [10:45] Building your analytics house for your website. [14:30] What is an order taker? And why you need someone who will ask you, “why?” They will add value by understanding your larger technique. [18:00] How to start with improving your website and incorporating Google Analytics on your website. [20:00] Downloadable Offer: Check out this great offer! Grab Your FREE Custom Visibility & Conversion Report at https://fieryfx.com/jump Links: Check out Brandy Lawson and connect with her online at FieryFX.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 97 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, your host with Jump Consulting. Today, I have my web developer here with me, Brandy Lawson, and I cannot wait for you guys to get to know her. She is the founder of Fiery FX, a boutique digital agency and a chief online officer for hire. Her mission is to help entrepreneurs maximize their impact and success by making the right digital decisions for their business. Her zone of genius is connecting business goals with marketing and technology strategies. Her superpower is analogies. Sure, it’s not as impressive as teleportation, but it does help clients grasp new concepts, which is why she and I get along so well. I totally speak in analogies all the time. She’s a fellow Phoenician like I am, a wife and mom, a native Montanan, a lover of ridiculous shoes, captain of her own boat on Lake Pleasant—which she still needs to invite me to go on—and she doesn’t miss an episode of Jeopardy! Bella: Brandy, welcome to the show. Brandy: Thank you for having me. I’m so excited to chit-chat with you and help your audience understand some more about their websites. Bella: You’ve taught me an enormous amount of knowledge about my own website. I didn’t even know anyon

Leslie Samuel is the creator of the Become A Blogger. He has a passion for education and has taken on the mission of "Changing The World One Blog At A Time". In his podcast, Blogging With Leslie, he teaches solid lessons about how to build a blog that will have an impact, in addition to interviewing other successful bloggers who have built successful platforms and turned them into thriving online businesses. He founded, and later sold, Interactive Biology, a blog dedicated to making biology fun for students and teachers worldwide. This blog landed him a job as a university professor in a doctoral program. After three years, he left that job to be a full-time blogger. His message is simple - Create Content, Inspire Others and Change The World (while building a solid online business)! Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss: Leslie is an educator and a blogger. He’s constantly feeding his brain. There is so much to gain from being a sponge and soaking up all the knowledge around you. As you take in the information you learn, it is important to share it with others. Make sure to check out Leslie’s Podcast on Become a Blogger named “Facebook Doesn’t Care About You.” Facebook and social media outlets are a business and they are not truly thinking about your family. You have to take the reins on how and when you interact with Facebook. What readers are looking for in blogs: VALUE. Answers to questions, solutions to problems and a lot of times business owners don’t see it from the customer’s perspective. Establish trust and nurture your growing relationship. Create a system that converts a reader from someone gathering information from you to someone who wants to do business with you. Get them on an email list, nurture them with value while introducing your services gradually. You really want them to trust you as a source of information and a reliable service as well. Google analytics can have a huge impact on your blog. Even if you don’t understand it, you need to have it on your blog from the start. It’s free and gives you all types of data on your blog. This data is key in knowing what is working on your pet sitting blogs and your website. Show Highlights: Facebook brought Bella and Leslie together through split screen interview technology [2:30] What is Leslie currently learning? The concept of social media and what it does to our minds. He loves it, but there is a balance you need to find your business, personal life goals, and social media. [5:00] What are the mistakes that you should be afraid of in blogging as a business owner? You get into blogging to promote your business, but it doesn’t have to just be there to promote your business. [7:45] Give your blogs a bigger purpose. Create the right content to help them the best. Use your pet sitting blogs to integrate into your sales process. [11:00] The elements and structure of writing great pet sitting blogs. Read it, see it, hear it; use all the senses with pictures, written, video and audio resources. But you don’t have to do it all at once! Choose one and run with it first, then start to incorporate the rest as you can. [14:00] Downloadable Offer: Grab this great spreadsheet calendar to make your blogging a breeze at https://www.becomeablogger.com/spreadsheet Links: Find all the resources at https://www.becomeablogger.com Subscribe to Become a Blogger on YouTube Learning with Leslie Podcast Join the coaching club at bloggercoaching.com Learn more about Bella's Mastermind group at jumpconsulting.net/jump-mastermind 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 96 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 with Jump Consulting, and today I have the sincere pleasure of bringing to you someone who I’d like to say has become a bit of a friend to me. His name is Leslie Samuel, and he is from Blogging with Leslie. He’s the creator of Become a Blogger and has a passion and education for taking the mission of changing the world one blog at a time. His podcast, Blogging with Leslie, teaches solid lessons about how to build a blog that has an impact, in addition to interviewing other successful bloggers who have built thriving businesses online. He founded and later sold an interactive biology blog dedicated to making biology fun for students and teachers worldwide. Did you guys hear that? Biology. Fun. In the same sentence. If this guy can do it, this is going to be a really fun interview for you to learn from. The blog actually landed him a job as a university profess

Today, we welcome our friend, Niki Ramirez, a Human Resource specialist at HRAnswers.org. Niki and her team provide 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. On today's episode, Niki will share her expertise on the importance of being a coach to your pet-sitting employees, and how it can help your business thrive. From setting goals and providing feedback to fostering a positive work environment and developing a growth mindset, Niki will share her insights and tips on how to effectively coach your team. Whether you're a new business owner or an experienced manager, this episode will provide valuable takeaways that you can implement in your business right away. Biggest Takeaways: What is coaching and why should we coach? We don’t always feel like natural coaches or understand the mindset of how to become an effective coach. It is a way we can change the outcome of the “game” as it progresses. [5:00] What do great coaches do to unlock the best potential of their employees? They often provide a vision for their employees [9:20] Are there different types of coaching? And when should we implement these techniques and why? [13:20] Is there any easy way to say “I’m going to be coaching you?” [15:00] How can you coach stubborn pet sitting employees? We want to boost performance but think about coach vs. discipline. If you coach first, you will probably not have to discipline. But sometimes you have to put them on notice. [19:00] How can you find Niki and tap into her resources? [24:00] 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: Bella: This is episode 95 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, and I'm your host from Jump Consulting. Today, I have a very special guest with me. I have known Niki 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 Niki out there in the world to help small business owners like you, the listener, and myself. Niki is actually an HR consultant. She offers compliance support and employee training for small businesses. Her mission is to take care of the HR—the human resources—so that her clients can focus on their business. I was instantly drawn to her and have been lovingly using and abusing her in almost everything I have to offer. Niki has actually endorsed the employee manual that Jump Consulting sells to pet sitters. She's also been my guest numerous times in the Employee Quick Start Mastermind groups that I have to help get pet sitting business owners from solo to employees, and she's been a wealth of information. What Niki does is she is literally a contractor that you can bring on your team, project-based or ongoing, and she can help you exactly with what she said—take care of your employee or people problems. So without further ado, Niki, welcome to the show. Niki: Good morning. Nice to be here with you. Bella: Absolutely. Why don't you go ahead and fill in the gaps and give our listeners a little bit of understanding of how you became what you are today and why you do what you do? Niki: I started working in the realm of human resources and employee training probably about 25 years ago, getting like a paycheck for it, right? And I just fell in love with the idea that I could have an impact on, number one, people's success at work, but almost more importantly, their happiness. By creating a great work environment, we can create great communities. And so that's really why I do the work that I do. If we boil it down to what's driving me and sparking that fire inside, I feel like if I can get out and help my clients with their HR programs and their people problems, their businesses will run more smoothly. They'll be more profitable, their employees will be happier, and maybe long term we'll cut down on some road rage or something like that. I have a master's in business, and that helped me through the formal study of business and human resources. I've also been a dual HR-certified professional for about 12 years, and I just added a third HR certification to my alphabet soup following my name last March. I'm really excited about that. It helps me to give really specific service

We are honored to be talking to the multi-award winning entrepreneur, Chris Marr. He believes content marketing is the only way to set business leaders free from the world of mediocre interruption marketing. Chris is the Founder and driving force behind CMA, the UK’s largest membership organization of its time. He is raising the bar for talent curation, leadership, personal development, and community building. His pioneering work has changed the lives of hundreds of businesses, all through the power of Content Marketing. So, if you're wanting to learn all about content marketing then make sure to tun into to this special episode of Bella in Your Business. Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss: Always be learning and always be growing. Life is a journey of growth; figuring out who you are and becoming stronger and better. You can’t stop trying to develop your skills or philosophies and beliefs, you have to evolve. Basically, it is a deep understanding of your prospective customers and how they find and use the information to make a buying decision. When you learn about content marketing, you are learning about how you have to market a business today. It is a set of techniques, skills and understanding of how to attract customers to your business in the new age of technology. Using all your resources available to access consumer behavior. You have to help people find you. Develop your unique voice and challenge your own education about your own business. Growth is important, you need to learn more and become an expert. And content marketing has a huge impact on your personal growth. It can be philosophical, strategic and also, very commercial. You have to learn how to implement it correctly to impact you and your business in a positive way. Is content marketing social media? No, it is not. Social media can come out after you have your website and business model set up. Create content that you own on your website that generates leads and sales first, then worry about social media marketing. They are not one in the same. How do you integrate content into the sales process? It’s being proactive and intentional with your content. Always be listening to what your customers are saying or asking you when you talk with them. Then when someone new contacts you, you can predict what they will say and you can have your answers ready. Or you can send them content as they go through their consideration stage to the purchase stage. It helps customers feel that they are doing it on their own time, but you are still helping to direct them through that journey a little faster. Show Highlights: Who was Chris before he started CMA? He has always been a very real and down to earth guy. But if you go back 10 years ago, he started as a manager at University of St. Andrews in Scotland as a straight-laced business-type manager for about a decade. Slowly, he branched out as he discovered himself as a square peg in a round hole. [2:00] In order to figure out what your voice is as a business owner, you have to figure out who you are. What do you and your business stand for? This voice connects with your content marketing. [6:00] How do different industries use what they have learned about content marketing to find their customer base? It boils down to sales in all industries. And you have to feel confident that it will drive your business forward. [12:00] Audio, Video, Written are your three major rich sources of content that will help buyers purchase your products faster. [15:15] What is the buyer's journey? It includes being a stranger contacting, considering and purchasing your product. [18:40] Examples of content marketing with videos and emails and how they have been working for Chris and Bella. [22:00] Links Learn all about the CMA Live Conference with tons of amazing speakers that will help you learn more about content marketing at https://cmalive.co.uk/ Find out more about Chris and CMA at http://www.cmauk.co.uk Looking to contact Chris directly? He’d love to hear from you! Connect with him on Twitter - @ChrisMarr101 or email him at [email protected] 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 94 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 with Jump Consulting, and today I have an award-winning entrepreneur with us. Chris Marr believes that content marketing is the only way to set business leaders free from the world of mediocre interruption marketing. Chris is the founder and driving force behind CMA, the UK’s largest mem

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.” [2:30] How to FOCUS for success [6:45] Creating meaningful relationships on Facebook [9:50] New business skills that everyone needs [13:10] Benefits of setting up Facebook Groups [15:30] Advice on how to build your online community [23:00] 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: Bella: This is episode 93 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, and today I have got the queen of Facebook to bring to you. I am so excited. For those of you who do not know Mari Smith, you are going to be a follower of hers just as I am. This woman is absolutely incredible. She is often referred to as the queen of Facebook. She is Facebook’s premier marketing expert and one of the most influential and knowledgeable people in the world on Facebook. Facebook actually headhunted her. I mean, you guys, this is how amazing she is. Mari has gone on tour with the company to teach business owners across the United States how to grow their business using Facebook. Forbes recently described Mari as the premier Facebook expert. Even Facebook asks her for help. Mari is an in-demand speaker, travels the world to keynote at major events, and she also serves as a brand ambassador for many companies. She’s such a wealth of information. Her Facebook Lives are just always so full of value. She has over 1.7 million followers on Facebook, you guys—that’s a lot. She’s the author of The New Relationship Marketing and co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day. Wow, Mari, welcome to the show. Mari: My pleasure, Bella. It’s lovely to be here, and I’m so glad that we had the pleasure of meeting in person recently. Bella: Yes, it was amazing. Mari, what strikes me about you is that you’re the people’s person. A lot of people who’ve achieved such a high pinnacle in their career are untouchable. But you’re just so accessible, so down to earth and friendly. I really

Teresa Murphey is the founder and President of Hire Ventures, Inc. She loves to help simplify all things HR so that business owners can focus on what they do best! As she says, "I started Hire Ventures in 2001 because I saw a need that so many small growing companies had in terms of hiring and managing their people, but these companies didn’t necessarily need a full-time HR person on staff." Hire Ventures started in the high tech, high growth recruiting consulting space but has evolved over the years to cover all things HR & Recruiting. They love working with small businesses that are passion and purpose driven in what they do. Teresa is originally from Montana, but now she lives in Atlanta with her husband and her two daughters (sadly, her 13.5-year-old hound dog passed away in January). Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss: What makes millennials different? It’s a huge generation and millennials are basically the children of the baby boomers and grew up with technology. They have new traits that revolve around that technology. Often millennials are good at multitasking, but they tend to be a little impatient. How does the tech make them different? Human nature makes each generation different. However, millennials grew up with technology and that definitely sets them apart. This generation is more connected socially and grew up with more instant gratification. Why is it crucial to have set steps for hiring process as a small business owner? A bad hire can distract the entire workplace and lower morale. If you have a streamlined recruiting process then you can often evade those issues. You don’t have to have the exact same questions, but a framework for pre-screening is imperative. Then, you can decide to meet with the person to finalize their eligibility. Should you let them access your social media? Yes! Include them and make them feel like a bigger part of your business. They will engage on a level that connects with them. More that that, it can help you if you’re not as comfortable with Facebook live or social media sharing. When people see employees that are happily engaged with the social media presence, then possible employees and clients will get a better idea of how awesome of a company you have. Show Highlights: What is a millennial?[1:50] Born early 80’s and early 2000’s and they can range in age anywhere from 14-37, quite a big range. For the most part, they grew up with technology that increased every year. How is it different when you are recruiting a millennial?< [5:30] If you have a strong recruiting process, then you’ll be effective no matter what you do. However, millennials don’t like to wait and like to know immediately if they have the job and that’s why you see a lot more applicants and faster turnover in letting prospective employees. They want to know right away if they have a chance for this position before moving on to the next. What can you do to help keep the newer generation happy in the workplace? [10:00] They are much more socially connected and they like to have a purpose and feel important. The need for attention can be seen as a negative, but it isn’t always that way. It can open up ways of communication. Millennials have grown up in a time where they want to be a part of something “bigger than themselves.” Motivating your staff [13:40] If we relate ourselves to the millennials, needing to be tech savvy and having constant feedback or recognition. It doesn’t have to be money, it can be little things like appreciation activities. It can be as small as a monthly lunch or awards for different things. Applicant Tracking Program [17:00] This helps you find your employment brand. You can easily implement them to help create a careers page for you and brings tons of benefits. Some resources that you could use [21:00] We don’t like to sell things on our podcasts, but here are some really great resources that you need to check out. Tweetables: [Tweet "“The millennial generation is a huge generation.”"] [Tweet "“I think the millennials get a bad rep sometimes...because people don’t understand them.”"] [Tweet "“You either can complain or you can learn and do something about it. Those are your two options.”"] [Tweet "“If you hire the right person the rest of that employment relationship is smooth sailing.”"] Links: Check out the blog at https://hireventures.com/2018/02/07/how-not-to-hire-a-millennial/ 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 92 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.

Talking to Mark Schaefer is always an inspiration. Not only does he have advanced degrees in marketing and organization, he is the author of five best-selling books and a professor at Rutgers. You can find his books are even being used as textbooks. And he’s so approachable and humble. Today we are getting to know all about his new book Known and soak up all the knowledge he has to offer. So, how do you raise awareness in your community about your business? Mark has the answers and we're ready to listen! Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss: How do you go about building a connection with the community? You have to have a permanent and sustainable advantage in your community as a company. And it’s not about being a huge influencer, it’s more about having a presence as well as an authority to give your business a real chance. Ultimately you want to show your community why your business matter. Is there a right way or wrong way to create an online presence? How do you get started becoming known in your community online? If you want to have a business you have to have a plan, you can not just have a passion. There is no set way, podcast or blog that will undoubtedly lead you to success. However, you do have to have some kind of content. If you’re not having fun, your audience will know, so find a way to express your passion. People will gravitate towards you if you show excitement. What's the best social media to use? It’s great that in our society that we have so many mediums in order to get your business out there. Previously, you had only had print, now there are tons of options. It’s not true that you have to be in all mediums. All you have to do is pick one content source and focus on that. In short, pick the one that you that brings you joy. Have a 30-month mindset before you even think about giving up. Show Highlights: What is the difference between being well known and being a celebrity? [2:00] How to create a plan for getting your business known in your community [5:30] What is needed to really become known? [10:00] Mark’s personal branding notebook and how it helps [14:30] Tweetables: [Tweet "“Don’t let things happen to you, take control of it.”"] [Tweet "“Make it happen, don’t let it happen to you.”"] [Tweet "“Passion without a plan is a hobby.”"] Links: Make sure to check out the brand new revised edition of Known on Amazon today! Find out more about Mark Schaefer at his website BusinessesGrow.com. Here you can tap into his knowledge through his blogs, books, and social media connections! 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 91 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, your host, and today I have a very special guest with you. Mark Schaefer and I met about a year ago at Social Media Marketing World, and I was just blown away by his presentation that resides with his book called Known. Mark is an incredible person with lots of experiences in the world. He's an author of five bestselling books, has advanced degrees in marketing and organization, is a professor at Rutgers, and his books are even used as textbooks. He has seven patents. The list goes on and on, and he is, above all, one of the nicest human beings—humble and approachable. Regardless of how many hundreds or thousands of comments he gets, he responds to all of them. I really wanted to have him on the show to soak up his amazing knowledge and inspiration. Mark, welcome to the show. Mark: Thank you for that very nice introduction. I'm blushing here in Tennessee. See how rosy my cheeks are. Bella: I do. I especially appreciate you making some time to chat with all of us pet sitters, dog walkers, and small business owners. I know your schedule is very packed, and we are very honored to have you here. A lot of us are trying to raise awareness in our local communities about ourselves and our businesses, and I know you’re definitely an expert in this area. I want to start with the fear that people might have—“I don’t want to be known.” They think of the Kardashians. I remember being in your class at Social Media Marketing World when you showed a picture of Kim Kardashian and explained the difference between being known and being a celebrity. Could you enlighten my listeners on that? Mark: Sure. This is a very important distinction. Let me use an example. About four years ago, I was bidding on the biggest contract of my life with the U.S. Air Force. I’m a marketing consultant, and they interv

It’s that time of year again. Something we all have to do, but none of us like it. That's right, it's TAX TIME. And that’s why today we are welcoming Jake Randall, the CEO of Taxbot. Taxbot is a mobile app that focuses on automating your expense and mileage tracking and staying IRS compliant. This is something we all need to know since we all deal with taxes. There is an easier way to keep track of your business and new laws you need to know about. Listen in for all the details! Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss: How has the structure of the tax system changed for small business and solo-preneurs? A lot of the news on corporate tax doesn’t apply to us, we’re mostly just small businesses. The biggest change for us is a new bonus deduction. You get to take your income and multiply by 20% and you get that back. For example, if you make $50,000 in a year you can multiply that by 20% which gives you $10,000 as a deduction. Plus, all rates have mostly gone down, which is great for all small businesses. Have there been any changes that aren’t so good for small business owners? Overall the new tax laws are great, but the entertainment deduction isn’t the best for us. You can’t deduct certain entertainment events. You can still deduct meals, but if you’re taking your clients out for just entertainment activities they may not qualify. What are the chances of being audited? They are actually pretty low in any given year. But what you don’t realize that it can compound. You have a chance every year. Mathematically, if you’re in business for about 20 years then you have a 1 in 3 chance of being audited. This increases as you grow, if you make about mid-six figures then you’re more likely going to be a target for auditing. How can Taxbot help you with keeping track of mileage and receipts? The app can automatically track your trip. It knows when you start driving and you can then easily track your work miles. Plus, it will match up your bank transactions with business expenses. It will prompt you about certain transactions, ask you details about them (for example, with whom were you meeting and what was the topic?) then you can confirm them in your Taxbot. It makes all the headache of keeping track of these minor details so much easier. Show Highlights: Don’t miss out on the new 20% bonus deduction for small businesses [2:30] The difference between expenses and deductions [8:00] What you need to know about the possibility of being audited [9:20] How did Taxbot get started? [14:30] What you can do to learn more about taxes and how to drive your own tax conversation with knowledge [22:00] Links: Learn more about the benefits of Taxbot and connect with Jake Randall at Taxbot.com Also, don't miss some great educational information and video's on the Taxbot Mileage and Expense Tracker on Facebook! Downloadable Offer: Jake is offering a 14 day trial for Taxbot. You can watch the magic happen for yourself and get the most out of your taxes. Simply go to taxbot.com/bella to get start your trial today. Also, get a risk free 50% off of Taxbot's educational tax course when you sign up. Plus you can bundle them for even more 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 90 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, your host, and today, if you’re in my Facebook groups, you might have seen a certain video go around a lot around January. It was about all these tax changes and there was this really high-energy guy with a lot of awesome information. And you know what, guys? I reached out to the company and got them here with us today. I want to blow the lid off of all this tax stuff that we have to keep track of as business owners. I mean, it is the most unsexy, boring, overwhelming, confusing stuff. We’ve never talked about this on the podcast yet, so today I’m excited to bring you a topic. The person I have on with me today is Jake Brandle. He’s actually the CEO of Taxbot, a mobile app that focuses on automating your expenses and mileage tracking and staying IRS compliant. Jake, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me. It’s been great to get to know you and I love what you’re doing. Thank you so much. So I just want to talk everything taxes, and feel free to go off-topic because we often do that on this show. I’m all about the conversations and seeing where they lead us. So let’s start off with all the changes that have happened. How has the structure of this tax system changed for small businesses and solopreneurs? That’

Want to learn how to do Facebook advertising to it's fullest it potential? Join my guest Robert Vance and I to learn all about it! Robert is a husband, father, author and business owner. He spent the first part of his life saving lives as a Fireman, Paramedic and a Police officer. Robert now helps businesses succeed using the internet and marketing automation to grow and expand their business giving them more free time to do the things they love and have the resources to do them. He got involved with the internet in 1997 when he built his first website and has been marketing on the internet in one form or the other since then. Robert has been working with Adwords since 2003 and with Youtube since 2008. Furthermore, he has created several successful funnels for clients that create exponential ROI. In 2015, he became an Infusionsoft certified consultant to further help his clients. And he has been using Infusionsoft to run his business since 2009. Robert is an expert in setting up sales funnels and making sure you can get those that do not sign up or become customers the first time back to your site so you have a better chance to convert them. Show Highlights: What is retargeting and how does it help my business?[1:40] Are there certain elements needed to retarget to the right customer? [4:30] The type of information can we learn from our Facebook advertising that can help us learn about our customers? [7:00] How can a dog walking company attract an audience in their community? [9:50] The benefits of working with a person like Robert and what you need to know about creating successful ads. [14:15] What is the bigger funnel? [16:30] A quick success story from Robert and how you can apply it to your business. [19:30] Tweetables: [Tweet "“It’s scary the stuff Facebook knows about us.”"] [Tweet "“Facebook is the largest database in the entire world and we need to start thinking of it like that.”"] [Tweet "“Retargeting and Facebook ads are only one piece of a bigger funnel.”"] [Tweet "“You need to know how much a client is worth to you.”"] Links: Connect with Robert Vance online! Visit his website at https://www.nitrogomarketing.com Downloadable Offer: Visit the website and request a consultation from the link on the website to find out how Robert can help you. Go to https://www.nitrogomarketing.com and fill out the form! 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 89 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, your host with Jump Consulting, and I'm here today with Robert Vance. He's a husband, father, author, and a business owner. He actually spent the first part of his life saving lives as a fireman, paramedic, and police officer. Now he helps businesses succeed using the internet and marketing automation to expand their businesses and give them more free time to do what they love. Some might even say he’s still saving lives—business lives, of course. He got involved with the internet way back in 1997 when he built his first website and has been marketing on the internet ever since. He's been using AdWords since 2003 and YouTube since 2008 and has created several successful ROI marketing funnels for numerous businesses. In 2015 he became an Infusionsoft Certified Consultant and has been using Infusionsoft since 2009. Robert is an expert—and one that I’ve actually hired—in setting up sales funnels and making sure that you're doing things right so that your customers keep coming back. Bella: Robert, welcome to the show. Robert: Thanks, Bella. Bella: Today I want to get our feet wet with retargeting. It's something new out there, and most of us pet sitters and dog walkers are novices at this whole Facebook marketing thing. Typically, you can find us putting up an advertisement saying we're looking for help or new clients and not really understanding what to do after that. So can you explain to us how we can get the best bang for our buck through retargeting and what exactly that is? Robert: The simplest way to think of retargeting is how you go to Amazon, look at a pair of shoes or a golf club or a dog leash, and then see that same product all over the internet. That’s Amazon using retargeting. Retargeting is a way to get what your customers are interested in back in front of them multiple times so they’re more likely to take action. Bella: So a small business like ours can do that? Robert: Yeah, any business that has a Facebook ad account or Goog

? We are talking with Mike Allton, the award-winning blogger, speaker and author at The Social Media Hat in St. Louis. Mike works with bloggers and businesses to help them leverage every aspect of content marketing. He has tons of knowledge and a website full of resources that you need. Together we talk about everything you need to know about blogging basics. Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss: How do you come up with new and relevant topics? The key is what NOT to write about. You need to write for a business and not from a personal perspective. If you’re doing a personal blog it’s fine to talk about things such as your dog Spot and what you had for dinner. However, when blogging for your business it needs to need to be useful. The content has to answer questions. Whenever you can keep track of your own questions and those will make the best blogs for your business. Do you need more blogs or better content? If you have genuinely good and evergreen content, you don’t have to blog 5 times a week. If your posts are great for your audience, for example, a list of all the dog parks in your area, you will get hits on that posts for months. And you also hit a target customer, a dog owner, and they may end up using your pet sitting or dog walking services. How much should you post? As a small business owner, you don’t have to have a set schedule. Honestly, most people won’t be sitting waiting for your next post. If you miss a post or only post sporadically it’s okay. Nevertheless, if you post good quality posts often, you will see an increase in business. It won’t go fast, but after several months you will see an impact. Equally important consistent and quality posts do help. How long should blogs be? In general, an average post should be between 750-1250 words. It should introduce a topic, discuss it with bullet points and have a closing. In other words, blogging basics are much just like the five-paragraph format that we learned in school. “Cheater posts” are really short and don’t take that long to write, typically about 250-500 words. They are short, sweet and easy to post. However, they can not be considered the optimal quality content that won’t show up that highly in search results. However, it does help to add to the value of your blog. In contrast is what Mike calls, “Pillar Posts” and they are Google search goal. Additionally, these posts are huge magnets for local search traffic and start at about 1250 words. Furthermore, these posts have a huge amount of content and take quite a while to create, but are well worth it. Show Highlights: The start of Mike’s blogging adventure, he loved writing and using social media. Yet, he struggled with finding the right content to draw in clients, but he was able to figure out exactly what to do. [1:20] You can define blogs by “shelf-life.” Some blog topics will only be relevant for a short amount of time, while others are “evergreen,” meaning their content will be relevant for years. [3:40] Pet sitters and dog walkers have a unique advantage for posts. You can write about “The Best Dog Walking Trails [in your city] and that gives you a huge advantage on your blog content. [8:00] How creating content helps draw business. Specifically, your business will benefit from creating quality posts consistently. While it will take time, but end up drawing traffic, leads and eventually customers to your business. In the same ways, the more you blog quality posts, the faster you will see results. After approximately 50 pieces of content created, that’s when you can see exponential growth. [11:50] Blogging basics and the anatomy of a blog. Plus, how long should a quality post be? [16:00] What is a “Pillar Post” and why do you need them on your blog? [20:00] Overall, suggestions for those of you who don’t like to write. First, try and practice writing. As a matter of fact, you may not like only because you think you’re not good at it. It could be that you just need practice it to get better at it. And if you truly do not like to write you can try video! [22:00] Tweetables: [Tweet "“Blogging isn’t something that we can just turn on and start to do...you have to learn, it’s a muscle and you have to exercise it.”"] [Tweet "“The more you blog, the more readers you will get.”"] [Tweet "“Evergreen content: the content that will never grow old.”"] [Tweet "“The content you create, it has to answer questions.”"] Links: Find Mike Allton online at https://www.TheSocialMediaHat.com Downloadable Offer: Free copy of the book, "How To Start A Blog: The Ultimate Guide" to ensure that all your blogging basics are in place and your blog is headed in the right direction. Mike has been working on this book for a little over a year. He wanted to create an initial book to help us with everything we want to know about starting a blog, domains, Wordpress, hosting and everything in between. Get your FREE copy at www.TheSocialMediaHat.com/how-to-start-

Today we talk to Mark Shaver, the owner of Buckhead Paws outside of Atlanta, GA about the importance of workers' compensation. Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss: What is Workers' Compensation? Basically, it is a way to help protect yourself and your employees in case of an accident. There is no coverage for independent contractors. However, when you have employees they qualify for WC which will help cover lost wages and help pay for medical bills. One accident could easily total over $60,000. This can multiply quickly if lawsuits come into play. It’s better to play it safe and have coverage for accidents. Pet sitters that work with a business that is covered under Workers' Compensation have a special peace of mind. In case of an accident, they can take time to heal without having to worry about missing work and bills piling up. When you are an independent contractor, you may not be covered in ways that you should be in a similar situation. You have to understand the magnitude of what can happen if you get sued. And there is so much more comfort in knowing that your business and everything that you have worked for will not be taken away by an accident. Show Highlights: Why Workers' Compensation is important and how accidents happen [2:00] The story that made Bella stunned and speechless. Accidents happen and this is why you need coverage for your business. Some accidents are horrifying, like this terrible tale of a sitter impaled on a fence. [5:45] How close to home it hit for Mark and his staff [14:00] Why you should take a good risk assessment in your business and the peace you get from being covered. [21:00] Links: If you want to learn more about making the big switch from independent contractors to employees, the Employee Quick Start Program, will tell you all that you need. Or, if you want a free download of the 6 steps you need to take to switch from independent contractors to employees you can download your free infographic here 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’ More About Mark: Mark is the very proud parent of three adult children. Also, Mark is a member of Pet Sitters, International; the Georgia Network of Professional Pet Sitters; and The Buckhead Business Association. Not to mention, Mark is also certified in Pet First Aid. Pets have been a part of Mark’s life since he was born. Over the years, Mark has shared his life with quite a collection of critters, including dogs, cats, tropical fish, rats (the pet kind!), lizards, and even a couple chinchillas. His business, Buckhead Paws, was started by a young woman who had a small sole proprietor pet sitting business. To begin with, she started sitting for a friend which extended to a small circle of others. However, soon her life headed in a different direction. Her family was growing and they were moving out of the area. Eventually, friends of friends introduced Mark with this young woman and they struck up a “handshake” agreement for him to take over her small business After some time Mark grew the business and ended up buying it from her and growing it into the Buckhead Paws we know today. Transcript: Bella: This is episode 87 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 Vasto with Jump Consulting, and today I have a very interesting story for you. I first heard about this story when I was doing some one-on-one coaching with Mark, who is the owner of Buckhead Paws out in Atlanta, Georgia. Mark and I were working together for weeks trying to get him all set up to make the big switch. If you're a pet sitting and dog walking company, you know exactly what I mean. That big switch is from independent contractors to employees. You see, Mark realized that he was not going to sit there and have a huge amount of risk and wonder if his whole life savings or retirement was one day going to be under attack because of one simple little incident that might happen in his company where he was sued. When you have independent contractors, there's no coverage for workman's compensation. There's no telling what's going to happen if, God forbid, there's an accident. But with employees, you're protected in so many ways, and one of those ways that we're going to talk about today is called workman's compensation. Specifically put, if someone were to injure themselves on the job and they're covered by workman's compensation, that coverage, also known as WC, will kick in and take over for lost wages—future and existing. They'll

Known across the net as The Prepared Performer, Molly Mahoney is a master at helping entrepreneurs, artists, and direct sales professionals up their visibility and online presence by helping them leverage all of the newest and most powerful features that Facebook has to offer. From attracting customers to your Facebook business page, understanding how to run highly converting Facebook ads, host Facebook Live broadcasts, and how to create Facebook Messenger bots that serve more of your perfect clients and customers in a uniquely authentic way. Biggest Takeaways About Facebook Live That You Don’t Want To Miss: Molly started as a professional performer in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with nine dogs running across the stage. While on tour, she got engaged and then decided to make a change, so she moved and started a vocal coaching business. But with a growing family and business, she had to learn how to leverage her time in different ways to help more people. How do you deal with the fear of Facebook live? They key is you don’t get over it, you just do it (#DoitScared). It’s good to be honest about it. Even Broadways performers can feel the fear, but they do it scared. You have to focus on what makes you uniquely awesome and go with it. SAAVE: Skill Set, Appearance, Activities that you love, Values, Eating (the things you like to eat). You have to go with the flow when you go online live. There is a natural flow that you can’t fight. In fact, it is much better to go with the flow and not feel that you have to follow a script too closely. The ability to go with it shows your audience you are human you can go with the flow, that you are just like them. If you’re too perfect, it’s intimidating. The prepared performance also works for sales in your company. Sometimes you don’t know what to say when a client calls, but being prepared with loose scripts will help you cope with unexpected calls and making sales. Always try to find the positive. Online services will change, there will be unexpected bumps in live broadcasts and in life in general. It’s important to always find the positive in what is perceived to be negative. Show Highlights: How Molly's first online class, Prepared Performer Profits, turned into an amazing lesson that helped her find her path.[3:00] How to use and be comfortable with Facebook live to welcome in clients [5:35] “The Quesadilla of Awesome” [12:15] The prep-work you need to seem perfectly imperfect as a prepared performer. [15:30] How can you adapt to changes online and use them to your advantage? How can you make a negative into a positive? [20:20] Tweetables: [Tweet "“We’re about maximizing our time in the best possible way.”"] [Tweet "“Celebrate the things that make you a uniquely awesome person.”"] [Tweet "“There's perfections in the imperfections.”"] Links: Find Molly on her website: www.ThePreparedPerformer.com And make sure follow Molly on Social Media: Facebook - Molly Mahoney - The Prepared Performer Instagram - ThePreparedPerformer Downloadable Offer: Has anything in this Podcast excited and inspired you? Check out these fantastic offers from Molly and the Prepared Performer! Create more human interactions for your business by learning how to automate your Facebook messenger business page. Molly Bot: FREE ACCESS to Molly’s next LIVE Video Masterclass. Get a FREE Bot Case Study: How you can reach 1 MILLION organically! Access to the Facebook group, Elevate Your Awesome. Head to www.ThePreparedPerformer.com/bella and get all the goodies! 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 86 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 shoot. Let’s jump! Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your host, and today I have the most exciting and entertaining guest for you. So I want you to pull over. I want you to stop what you’re doing because you are about to get super excited. Today I have Molly Mahoney with me from The Prepared Performer. You may have actually seen her at BlogPaws in 2017. Molly is helping entrepreneurs, artists, and direct sales professionals up their online presence by helping them leverage all the newest and most powerful features that Facebook has to offer—from attracting customers to your Facebook page, understanding how to run highly converting Facebook ads, hosting Facebook Live broadcasts, and creating Facebook Messenger bots that serve your perfect clients and customers in a uniquely authentic way. She’s turning heads and taking names. Welcome to the show, Molly. Molly:Thank you. That was not the most eloq

Bella has flipped the script on the Podcast today and is bringing you a one on one look at the hype and hive of becoming a part of a Mastermind. Are they a right fit for your personality and business? Bella breaks down the power and the responsibility of joining a mastermind. Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss: What is a Mastermind? The popularity of Masterminds have been on the rise and they can help your business, but exactly what are they? Basically, a Mastermind is a group of people that have come together collectively to help one another. The difference of opinions, resources and experiences are shared in an environment where people strive to better their lives and businesses. What Masterminds ARE NOT. It is important to understand exactly what they are before you join one. They are not coaching groups. There is “group thinking” but not direct teaching or coaching. You have to be accountable for your own learning from the lessons of others journeys. It’s not a place to vent. They solve problems, but it is not a place for complaints without solutions. Examples of what makes up a great group. Great Masterminds are all about being laser focused. These groups directly set out to achieve specific goals. What's more is that they are primarily member driven. All members put their minds together to help each other stay on target. Also, leadership really does matter. A great leader will help keep the topics flowing with knowledge and authority. Look for a new series all about Masterminds, coming to our blog and Facebook page. A place full of accountability partners, challenges, comradery, and tons of mutual support for growth. Show Highlights: Why would someone join a Mastermind? [2:15] What it takes to be in a Mastermind [6:45] Investments separate groups [10:45] They aren’t just trying to sell you something [12:30] Learn more about Jump Consulting Masterminds for pet sitting and dog walking [13:00] Tweetables: [Tweet "“When you join a Mastermind it’s about overcoming your challenges.”"] [Tweet "“The group is driven by the membership’s ability to support one another.”"] [Tweet "“In a Mastermind, you need to show up regularly.”"] [Tweet "“Masterminds tend to create relationships forever.”"] Links: Visit JumpConsulting.net/jump-mastermind to find out more! Stay tuned to our Jump Consulting Facebook page for more to come on the in and outs of Masterminds! 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 85 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 shoot. Let's jump. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today I'm actually going to flip the script and just talk to you one-on-one personally. So grab your best cup of coffee or drink and relax and take a listen. Today, I want to talk to you about what you need to know before you join a mastermind. The reason why this topic has spawned my interest and why I want to talk to you about it is because masterminds are something that are so incredibly powerful. They can really help you, the business owner, and in return, help your company. The popularity of masterminds has been on the rise and it seems like we might hear about them everywhere. If you're heavily involved in the small business space, I'm sure that you know people who have mentioned being in one. But do you really understand what it means to join a mastermind? Like most things in life, it isn't always right to just join things because all the cool kids are doing it. So I want to take a deep dive today to discover what you need to know before you join a mastermind. But first, let's start off with what the heck is a mastermind. A mastermind is a group of people that have come together collectively to help one another. Typically, they have differences of opinions, resources, and experiences, which makes the group even more powerful. It's a place where the members can work through ideas, make plans, and overcome challenges with many minds at once. It's a place they can feel safe and say things they normally wouldn’t publicly, in an environment where the members can be challenged and vulnerable all at the same time. Typically, there's a strong structure of meetings, attendance, and expectations placed on all members and a cornerstone to maintaining membership. Some meet in person weekly while others meet virtually. Some meet once a quarter at different locations around the country. They vary depending on which one you join. A way to illustrate the mentality of a mastermind is like a gang. I

Bonnie Roill is a “Lifestyle Architect.” Her boutique private practice, B3 Nutrition, specializes in helping women develop their customized blueprint for eating, moving, and daily habits that create a “livable and health-generating lifestyle.” Bonnie's background includes a practicing Registered Dietitian Nutritionist for over 35 years along with accreditation as a Hormone Support Coach, a certified Health & Wellness Coach and Personal Trainer. Her mission is to teach women how they can impact their health destiny through their food, focus, and feet. Her vision is a world where women have the resources to control their health destiny no matter their age or where they live on the planet. Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss: The number one thing people don’t understand is how to fuel their body properly. You have to fuel your body to have energy. If you don’t, you will have an insulin rollercoaster which gives you a drop and results in cravings. People need to eat in the morning to start the engine then properly fuel throughout the day. The lunchtime let down will definitely affect how you feel later in the day. Your bio-individuality (your unique situation and genetics) does play a factor, so sometimes you may still feel sluggish no matter how healthy you eat. However, you shouldn’t feel like you need a nap every afternoon. Your circadian clock can work against you. Natural sunlight helps serotonin which is a natural pick-me-up. What should you eat and drink? The best food is fiber containing carbs such as root vegetables like carrots and beets. Fiber slows down digestion which helps regulate your blood sugar. And don’t forget your protein for energy and a small amount healthy fat (ex: avocado). We also need water, lots of water! Often hunger is mistaken as thirst. A cold glass of water can energize you and also increase your metabolism. Does dog walking count as exercising? One problem is that you don’t get your heart rate up to the level you need, but the fact that you’re getting out and about is very helpful. You can easily be meeting the minimal requirement for exercise. But if you are trying to lose weight you will probably need an extra boost of exercise to go along with the walking. Resistance training is a great way to amp up exercise for weight loss. Women often don’t realize their obstacles that are often anchored in our habits. Medical history, eating habits, medications and thought processes are all the root of figuring out what is stopping you from feeling your best and bringing your best to your business. Show Highlights: How hormones and age can affect women’s daily performance and business [2:30] The importance of and how to alter your circadian rhythm [6:45] How much water you need and the benefits you get from it [10:30] The benefits and drawbacks of claiming dog walking as exercise [16:00] Exactly what is B3 Nutrition? [19:40] How self-care makes you strong for your business as well as the people in your life [22:00] Tweetables: [Tweet "“I don’t think people should feel like they got hit in the face with a frying pan.” "] [Tweet "“Insulin’s nickname is fat storage hormone.” "] [Tweet "“Genes load the gun and the environment pulls the trigger.” "] [Tweet "“Genes load the gun and the environment pulls the trigger.” "] Links: Find out more about Bonnie Roill and the B3 Nutrition by visiting: https://www.B3Nutrition.com Downloadable Offer: Sign up for the session at www.B3Nutrition.com under the header Free Consultation. It takes about 30 minutes. Share my free breakthrough session "Eat Clean(er)*Feel Great* Look Awesome, including my Hormone Profile Self-Assessment checklist. Also, sign up for FREE 5 Strategies for Success Slimming. Join me for my Free 7 Day Healthy Habits for Happy Hormones challenge at www.B3Nutrition.com and select the header "Healthy Habits Challenge." 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 84 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 Basta with Jump Consulting, and today we're here to talk about you. And by you, I mean your health, your nutrition, and how that affects you in business. Many of you might have been following along and known that I went on my own personal health journey last year and I saw the crazy effect that it had. So when I had the opportunity to meet Bonnie Roill, I wanted to bring her to you to help energize and invigorate you as well. Bonnie is a lifestyle architect. She has so many s

Joining us today on Bella in Your Business is Katie Westerfield of Homeward Bound Pet Care out of Historic Centerville, Ohio. She is an entrepreneur (and mompreneur) in the Pet Industry. She is well versed in juggling life and business ownership as a mother of four and wife. In this episode, Bella and Katie discuss the struggles she has faced and how she became a success while managing to raise a family and be a superstar mother! Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want To Miss: The moment you realize you need a staff is when you are turning clients down. They will always find someone who will be able to fit their needs if you can’t. That is when you need to grow to a point where you can hire someone to fill in the gaps. Knowing how to hire and retain staff is key to success. You need to fully invest in them as a person, support them individually and in the workplace. Motivate them to do the job, coach them instead of harping or nagging. You want them to feel like they can come to you. You don’t want to always be a slave to your phone, but you don’t want to miss clients and hurt business. That’s why you need a reliable management team to pass along some of the responsibilities. Being open to change is important to growth. It’s a privilege to be able to have a staff and it can be scary to grow, but it is extremely important. A staff is not a burden, but a great asset to your business. Your business will never grow unless you can delegate your workload. Don't forget to separate your emotions from your business. You have to know when to move on from things that aren’t working, regardless of how much time you’ve spent on it. Always keep in mind where you want to go and continue to move towards it. Do not lose your positive mindset no matter setbacks or naysayers, just go for it. If you fully believe you will succeed, you will. You want to have options, you don’t want to have all your eggs in one basket. That’s why you need to have more than one person that you rely on to help out. You could have one bad egg hold your business hostage. You may have to fire someone who is not a good fit, or you may have a worker or their child may fall ill. That’s why you need to have more than one option. You never want to have your hands tied in a situation because a staff member didn't work out or is unavailable. Show your staff you appreciate them. It’s easy, a simple text message if you know they are upset. A little gift for special occasions like wedding anniversaries, their kid's events, or birthdays. You need to be able to separate a barrier between staff and friendship, but still, let them know your door is open and you are there for them. Knowing that someone cares goes a long way in helping them succeed. Show Highlights: The benefits and drawbacks of running a business from home with children [4:45] Struggles of hiring and retaining staff [7:20] Delegating your responsibilities to your staff [8:40] Being open to change [14:30] How mindset plays a big role in growth [17:30] The business success and the importance of having a staff [20:00] Ideas to reward your staff and show them that you care [22:30] Tweetables: [Tweet ""If something is not working in your company rewrite what you’re doing, change your process.""] [Tweet ""It feels great to be able to extract money from the economy and insert it to these awesome people that work for you.""] [Tweet "“You have to constantly keep looking forward.”"] [Tweet "“Everyone controls that mindset. If you think you can’t, you won’t. If you think you can, you will.”"] Links: Get to know Katie and the Homeward Bound Pet Care team! Find them on the web at HWBPetCare.com Follow Homeward Bound Pet Care on Facebook 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 83 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 with Jump Consulting, and today I have Katie Westerfield with us. Katie is the owner of Homeward Bound Pet Care out of historic Centerville, Ohio. She's an entrepreneur in the pet industry and she's well-versed at juggling life and business ownership as a mother and wife of four children. We're going to talk about the struggles she's faced and her success and how she's overcome them today. Katie, welcome to the show. Katie:Hi, thank you for having me, Bella. Bella:Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for being here. I know many of our listeners are pet sitters and dog walkers and we're all struggling. Every s

Today's Podcast features the inspiring Mompreneur,Randa Clark, from Tailchasers Pet Heroes Inc. Randa started Tail Chasers Pet Heroes Inc. in 2004 with the mission to help people discover, develop, and nurture the human and animal bond with their pets. She offers dog walking, pet sitting, dog training, and pet first aid classes to pets and their families in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. Tailchasers Pet Heroes Inc. received the Super Service Award from Angie's List in 2016 as well as the People Love Us On Yelp Award. In this episode, Randa and Bella discussed some of the strategies that Randa used to turn her pet sitting company into a pet business empire. Do you struggle with multitasking, being a control freak, or successfully balancing the business between you or your spouse? Then this episode is for you! Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss: Instead of devoting your entire life to the business, make your business fit into YOUR life. Scheduling business operations around your day-to-day tasks like picking up the kids from school or spending time with family will help you find that work-life balance that all business owners so desperately need. Also, be sure to give yourself some time each day to work on advancing the business to the next level. It's easy to get caught up in all of the pet sits and dog walks, but ensuring you're taking strides in your business instead of running in place is crucial to success. An office manager is NOT going to be exactly like you - and that's okay! An office manager is a person that is going to allow you to really grow and scale your business so much more than you're able to if you continue to do day-to-day operations yourself. At the end of the day, there are qualified people out there that can answer the phone and answer emails just as good as you do - you just have to find them (and give them the tools to succeed!). Empowering and valuing your office managers to make them feel needed is what will allow them to be successful in their role. A fact-based mindset is a key tool that will help you deal with crises and emergencies that inevitably arise in any pet sitting company. Taking the emotions out of your response and deciding what you can do to mitigate the situation factually will allow you to make the best decisions for your client. In other words, you can't change the past, but you CAN change your response to it! The more time you can spend out of the field, the more time you can spend advancing your business. Randa's advice? Build up a route of clients, and then hand it off to an employee! The more you do this, the more income you'll have on hand, and the less time you'll have to spend in the field. The goal is to have the client's alliance with the COMPANY and not to the DOG WALKER. Show Highlights How Randa learned to multitask to get work done quickly [2:30] Evolving your business and focus; Pet Sitting Vs. Dog Walking only [3:15] Decision making for a better business [7:00] The Good and the Bad of Hiring an Office Manager [10:45] How to let go of control [15:00] Managing a business with your spouse [16:15] Separating yourself from the field for success [19:00] Tweetables [Tweet ""Accept the things you can’t change.""] [Tweet ""The business is a beast that behaves how it wants to.""] [Tweet ""You never know what is going to happen.""] 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 82 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 with Jump Consulting, and today I am here with Randa Clark from Tail Chasers Pet Heroes. Randa and I have known each other for quite a while now and she is one of the most dynamic mompreneurs that I know out there. Randa, welcome to the show. Randa:Thank you, Bella. Bella:For those of you who don't know you or haven't seen you online or in the Facebook groups, explain to us where you're from, where your company is, how long ago you started. Tell us the background. Randa:We are in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. We started our business around March of 2004. It officially opened and actually got clients then. We started everything a little bit before that, but that's when we actually started actively working. It started out as just me, and I got a few employees on board, and then a couple years later, Matt joined on with me. So now we are a husband and wife team, and sometimes the two kids help us out with

Today’s episode features Crystal Hollman, owner of Crystal Clear Photography AZ. Bella and Crystal discuss the importance of photography, graphics and visual appeal to websites and blogs. Show Highlights: Where do you use styled stock photos and why? [5:45] Key things you need to do when shooting your own photos. [9:35] Advantages of hiring a professional for your business images [12:45] What should we look for in photographers? [18:45] The importance of copyrights and business release of your images [20:00] Tweetables: [Tweet ""Photography is a killer way to make your brand stand out." - Bella Vasta"] [Tweet ""You want to be able to use photos for all aspects of your business." - Crystal Hollman"] [Tweet ""You have to look good online - that's the age we live in." - Bella Vasta"] Special Offer We’ve got two awesome things for our listeners! Run over and grab free 5 styled images at Crystal Clear Photography AZ. Or, if you’re ready to take your business images to the next level, sign up for a custom styled image shoot for your brand and receive $25 off. Make sure to give me the referral code – BellaPodcast – to claim the $25 off when booking your session. 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 81 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 with Jump Consulting and today I have Crystal Holman with us. Crystal and I met through good old-fashioned networking. She's a friend of a friend of a friend who I've hired and had great success with. She provides such a unique service that I really wanted to have her in your earbuds today to kind of help explode your mind on photography and in your business with graphics and just the overall visual appeal. Before we get into it, I want you guys to think about what would Facebook look like if there were no pictures on it? What would your website look like if there were no pictures on it? Pictures and graphics are so hugely important. And if any of you have worked with me, you've heard me say that you always want to show up as Cinderella looking for Prince Charming with your hair and your makeup done and your ball gown and everything looking beautiful. Not with your makeup running down your face, your hair falling out and like sweatpants and shoeless, right? You're not going to attract anyone. And that's what I feel graphics do. So without further ado, welcome to the show, Crystal. Crystal:Hi, thanks for having me. Bella:Absolutely. Why don't you give us a little bit of background? Tell us how you became a photographer doing what you're doing today and a little bit more about yourself. Crystal:I started my business almost four years ago, a mom of two girls. I started my business because obviously, like most of us, I wanted to be able to have some flexibility in my schedule, be able to be home and raise my girls. And I loved doing photography. So I really wanted to be able to provide a service to businesses. The whole concept kind of came about when I wanted photos of myself for my own website. I was like, I don't have any photos of me and I don't want to put stock photos of some random person who isn't me with a camera. So, you know, I developed the idea of helping businesses out there get quality images—supporting small businesses and kind of helping them with that and with stock photos. Bella:Because sometimes we need custom stock photos. We all have such unique brands now and are able to do so much with it. So that's kind of where I started with that idea, was just with my own business, and realized that that was a need out there for a lot of other businesses and business owners. So a little bit about the business, and kind of brought me to this point where I'm trying to support and help as many business owners out there with custom images that they can use that are high quality for websites, blogs, and all of that good stuff. So our listeners know—the way that I found you or you came on my radar was my good friend Desiree, who actually is a military spouse, military mom. She does SEO for people. She is stationed in South Korea. And all of a sudden her images just started really popping—her podcast images, her images for her business. They were picturesque of maybe a desk with a little bit of military things thrown in the background, but yet headphones for podcasting or something. It was like these images had been created especially for her. And guess

Bella welcomes guest, Bill Gelderman, the President of the Steering Group. He not only founded The Steering Group in 1995, he is also a Certified Professional Behavioral and Values Analyst, a Certified Attribute Index Analyst. He also has certifications in the renowned TriMetrix and DNA Systems. Find out more about Bill on his website www.thesteeringgroup.com Show Highlights What is the ORION Survey and why should all pet sitters use it for hiring? [3:30] How ACCURATE is the Orion survey about potential hires? [6:00] What is the best way for pet sitters to use the Orion tool? [11:00] What does the REPORT look like from an applicant's survey and how can business owners interpret it? [12:45] How can pet sitters use the Orion survey as a MARKETING TOOL? [18:45] Tweetables [Tweet "The quality of candidates in the pet sitting world is MUCH better than in my other business." -Bill Gelderman, The Steering Group"] [Tweet "Hiring is such an intimidating, convoluted, confusing, and scary process because you could be sued""] [Tweet "I've never heard anyone say 'I love to hire ... it's such a fun process.'"] Special Offer As a gift to our audience, Bill will offer $50 OFF the Orion enrollment fee for anyone signing up before April 30th if they mention Bella. Don't delay! 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 80 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 I have Bill Gelderman with you guys. You may have heard in the Facebook groups talk about the Orion test so many times, and I have been waiting to get you on the show for so long. I am so excited to bring you to my audience. For those of you who don't know, Bill Gelderman founded the Searing Group in 1995. He sought ways to improve the success rates of general quality in hiring. Hiring is a big topic for many of our listeners. Back in the 90s, assessments weren't widely known, so he did a lot of educating. Today, virtually every Fortune 500 company is using assessments as part of their selection or development process. Bill, along with his son Joe, has been supplying the Orion system since 1996. They specialize in companies supplying in-home services like pet sitters, maid services, and home health services. They represent the bulk of the clientele that Bill deals with. The Searing Group has clients in every single state except for Montana. So if you're listening from Montana, call Bill up because he'd love to say every state. Bill, without further ado, welcome to the show. Bill:Thank you, Bella. Glad to be here. Bella:Why don't you go ahead and just fill in those gaps for me? How did you get so excited about this employee background check, for lack of a better word, and really helping employers and being such a service to them? Where does this passion sprout from? Bill:Well, it started when I was hiring people myself. One year I saw that the file of terminated employees was four or five times deeper than the file of current employees. I realized that while I thought I was good at interviewing and hiring people, I wasn't as good as I thought I was. I saw an ad in a trade publication and responded to it and started using it, and it truly changed my whole world. Instead of constantly running ads, interviewing, training, and then repeating that process over and over again, I was actually able to hire the right people the first time, get them trained, get them productive, and be able to spend my time on money-making things as opposed to just going through that grind of constantly retraining people over and over again. Bella:Right, because one of the horrible parts of hiring and interviewing is figuring out if that person on the other side of the desk is lying through their teeth and telling you what you want to hear, or maybe if you're giving away everything that you want to hear. Having a test—and I've actually used your product in my own company. In fact, I challenged your product, Bill. Your product told me not to hire someone and I did, and I made a big mistake. So I really knew that this podcast alone is going to be one of the most popular ones because this is such valuable information for anyone that's hiring. So can you give us a brief overview of what the system actually is? Bill:I have to correct you from using the term “test.” It’s a service. When you use the term test, that implies there are right and wrong answers, and

Erika Godwin is the Co-Founder and the Chief Marketing Officer of ProPet Software, a boarding kennel, dog daycare and pet grooming management software. She is also an expert on website creation, maintenance, and SEO. Show Highlights: What is the difference between an HTTP & HTTPS backup? [3:30] Why do business owners need a virtual webmaster to help keep their sites up to date? [6:25] How do plugins, speed/performance, and SEO all affect each other? [11:45] Is it true that Google won't show my website if my mobile website isn't up to date? [13:00] Are branded emails a thing of the past or an up-and-coming trend? [16:00] What are the biggest mistakes pet sitters make on their websites and social media? [18:00] Quotables: "The more plugins you have, the longer it will take for your website to load - which causes more people to BOUNCE off your website. The more plugins you have, the longer it will take for your website to load - which causes more people to BOUNCE off your website. The more plugins you have, the longer it will take for your website to load - which causes more people to BOUNCE off your website. "SEO is NOT a one and done thing. You have to keep at it to make sure your website stays at the top of Google." "Mobile is now more important than the desktop version of your website! Downloadable Offer: Erika is offering websites to pet sitters for 93% off what it would normally cost. This $5,000 website is only $350 and will include all your own copy and logo. It is a crazy deal that has never been done in the industry. 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 79 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 I'm here with Erica Godwin. Erica, how are you? Erica:Good, how are you? Bella:Good. I am so excited to have you on because you are a wealth of knowledge, and I want to back it up and explain to everyone how I actually found you. It was probably about a year ago. You were killing it on Instagram, and then I got into your group, and just the amount of awesome information that you put out there so nonchalantly and casually is so attractive to me. I love how you are an educating marketer. And I want you to tell the audience a little bit about you. I know you're up in Canada, so yay, all you Canadians. But you also went to college here in New York, and now you have this big business that you are a partner in. So why don't you explain to everyone who you are and how we got here today? Erica:Sure. So I guess backtrack a couple of years. I grew up in Ottawa. I had a hockey and golf scholarship, so that took me down to upstate New York at Elmira College. After that, I came back to Canada after I graduated, and there weren't really any options, so I was really struggling to find a job. I stumbled across a real estate entrepreneur in Ottawa, and he was opening a business incubator. So that's kind of how I got started in business and startups and everything. Unfortunately, that company went under due to lack of funding, and then that's when I met another entrepreneur who is my partner in our software. So basically three years ago, I met them, and one of them is a software entrepreneur and the other one is a kennel owner. So basically, the three of us together, with my marketing background, we ended up founding ProPet Software. While starting ProPet Software, that's when I found out that there were a lot of pet businesses that were lacking in the marketing side, and they had a lot of outdated websites and social media was non-existent or just not done properly. So that's when I decided to start helping, because I like helping people. Bella:So essentially, I started an Instagram page just putting out some tips and tricks and suggestions. From there, people were asking me if there was a blog because they wanted to know how to implement them. So I started writing a blog implementing it. And then I was trying to think how I could help more, and that's when I met Bella, and we kind of discussed some other ways that we can help pet businesses. You're a diamond in our industry. I think you would probably agree with me—there are a lot of things that glitter, but they're not really gold. And you definitely shine, and you are definitely gold—or diamond, I guess. I was like, girl, you need to figure this out. So we're going to get to that at the end of it, but before we do, I just want to lay some truth b

At Viral Ideas, Dave Feinman creates to Inspire. He believes everyone has the right to be fulfilled. He believes in shared creativity. He believes in the power of defining your why. He shares this message through the creative process of making videos! Learn more about Dave at his website: http://viralideasmarketing.com Show Highlights: How can you embed videos into your emails? [5:25] What kind of camera and equipment do I need to make videos? [7:40] What do you need to look for before hiring a freelancer or agency to help you with video production? [10:50] What do pet sitters need to include in their videos & what does the anatomy of a successful video look like? [12:45] What are the three stages of clientele that builds pet sitting and dog walking sales funnels? [16:45] Biggest mistakes companies make when creating videos [20:00] What are the best ways business owners can market their videos on social media? [21:40] Links Mentioned: Dog Caught In House Fire Saves The Day Wise Stamp The Most Comprehensive Guide To YouTube SEO Here is another podcast about creating video content Subscribe To The Show: https://youtu.be/XhdX54hm9iM Transcript: Bella:This is episode 78 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, your host with Jump Consulting, and today I want you guys to think about if you had an opportunity during the sales process to really knock the socks off of your potential clients, would you take advantage of it? Many of us actually do have that power but aren't utilizing it, and it's just simply from our cell phone. Today, my guest is going to light a fire underneath your butt, so get ready because it's going to be one of the episodes you're going to want to listen to twice. David Feynman creates to inspire. He believes that everyone has the right to be fulfilled. He believes in shared creativity and in the power of defining your “why,” which we've talked about so many times on this podcast, and shares his message through the creative process. David, welcome to the show. David:Thanks for having me. It's great to be here. I'm excited. Bella:For sure. You guys, I want you to check out viralideasmarketing.com. When I was doing my own prep work to meet with you, David, I stumbled upon one of these incredible videos that you did that really was, for me, Super Bowl-esque inspired. It was about this little girl and this little boy, and they were playing telephone with a can and a string—very nonchalant, very nostalgic, right? And then it skips forward 25 years, and the girl’s stressed out and crazed. She comes home, and there’s this package. Inside it is this—I'm getting goosebumps talking about it—this can with the rope, and it says, “Call me.” You could just feel her emotion melting back into that moment. And there were no words in that entire video—no narrative, no voiceovers, nothing. It was music and video, and the profound impact that you made was incredible. I want the pet sitters and dog walkers today to listen to your methodologies here and see how they could take the most warm and fuzzy topic, which is pets, and do the same thing in their own business on their own time, on their own budget. So David, where do you want to start? David:There are so many things we can start with. Why don't I fill in the gaps and tell you how I got to where I am? I started this business about two and a half years ago with the purpose of helping business owners, entrepreneurs, and large businesses create video content for social media. Over the past two and a half years, we've worked with about 115 clients all across the globe, creating incredible video content. I think it's the best in the world, but I'm a little biased. From the pet owners' perspective, we actually did a video—just talked to the business owner this morning—about pet ownership in relation to an alarm company. They’re a big regional player in alarms. The concept of the video: there’s a woman straightening her hair in the morning, she drops her hair straightener on the ground, walks out the door, and a fire starts in her house. Her dog's still there, and the dog obviously can’t call the fire department. Smoke fills the room, the dog has a lot of anxiety, and ultimately the alarm company swoops in, saves the day, and changes the course of what’s going on. That really creates an emotional connection to the fact that there’s an alarm company—it hits home for that specific dog owner. Bella:That’s so poignant, because the first place I thought you were going was the dog getting out of the open door. That’s the most obvious thing, right? But you took that to the next level—the fear of this dog dying in a fire that the client caused. That’s amazin

This week on Bella In Your Business, Bella sits down with long-time friend, Kate McQuillan to discuss how she started and grew her website, www.PetBusinessOwners.com. They discuss Kate's story of how she scaled her successful coaching business, and how it can be applied to pet sitting business owners. Bella & Kate tackle a number of topics including: Competition - Why you should or should not care How Kate started her business and builded it The important elements to growing and scaling a business Biggest mistakes pet sitting and dog walking business owners make when starting up How consistency led to a business EXPLOSION! Kate McQuillan is the owner of Pet Sitters Ireland, which she has operated since 2010. She currently attracts 15,000 visitors per month to her website, where 70% of which comes from her blogs that she writes on a weekly basis. Kate has over 32,000 Facebook Fans, which have all come from the content she shares and the way she engages with her fans. Subscribe To The Show Leave A Review: Transcript: Bella:This is episode 77 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 with Jump Consulting, and today I am here with my longtime friend, Kate McQuillan. How are you? Kate:I am fantastic, Bella. It's great to see you again. Bella:Absolutely. Thank you for joining me. For those of you who haven't figured it out yet just by her hello, Kate is located in Ireland, and she is, how do I even say it? I want to say the queen of pet sitting in the entire country. And I can say that because her Facebook page boasts 35,000 people on it. And today, I mean, Kate has just really—I've known you from kind of right when you and your husband started it, and as you guys started expanding and just watching you explode and then going to franchising and then doing this Nose of Tralee competition. And today I really want our listeners to take from you first a little bit about who you are and how you got to where you're at, but also the main lesson today I want is to be about consistency, because everyone is going to be in shock and awe of what you've been able to do. But I really want to drive home the main lesson today about how you have been consistent for years, Kate. As long as I've known you, you may have had your ups and downs personally or professionally or whatever, but you have maintained consistency in your determination to succeed. So Kate, why don't you bring us back a little bit? Tell us about how you started your company and how you got to where you are today. Kate:We started Pet Sitters Ireland back in 2010. It was actually a friend of mine in the UK who was doing cat sitting for a few of her local neighbors, and there was nothing like that here in Ireland. She was actually in the UK, and it got me thinking. I never liked putting our pets in kennels, and this just seemed like the perfect opportunity. Obviously, it's huge in America, but it never really was here. So we had to look into it. We did a few surveys just to see if there really was a market for it in Ireland, and there definitely was. So we started kind of local, and because we were getting so many hits to the website, even with the worst website in the world—it was terrible—we were getting so many inquiries from all over Ireland that we just immediately decided to hire and cover all of Ireland. And that was really how we just jumped into it, not knowing really anything about pet sitting or dog walking at all. I instantly fell in love with social media. If you know me, you'll know that I love social media, blogging, content marketing, whatever you want to call it. And that's really what's been the catalyst for the growth of our business. And like Bella said, I am very, very consistent most of the time, but I just consistently have plugged away at blogging, at social media, just constantly talking to our ideal customers. And I think that's what's given us the kind of catalyst to grow month on month and year on year. It's been absolutely fantastic to go from just a tiny little idea to now a nationally franchised business. Bella:It is very amazing. I am in awe of you, and I always love learning from you. We'll talk about more of this at the end, but you actually have a whole academy for pet sitters because you've been so successful. I always say learn from the best—follow people that you want to be like. And Kate, you're one of those people that the pet sitters and dog walkers listening right now should totally check out. Look at the academy and see if it's for them. What do you do in that academy? Kate:Basically, I have just taken everything that we have done with our business—all the tactics that we've use

Celeste Walmsley from Modern Marketing Advantage is an expert in social media marketing specializing on Facebook to get you in touch with new clients, keep you in touch with your old, and keep you top of mind. She helps solopreneurs, ages 40-65+ harness the power of marketing, on a small budget, to grow their businesses successfully. Client Follow Up: Do you ever have questions for a client, or potential client, but are nervous about doing a client follow up? Or, do you feel like you are trying to hard to "sell" to a client? Celeste Walmsley, an expert in social media marketing, understands, which is why Bella sat down with her to discuss the ins and outs of follow up. Here Is What We Talk About: Celeste & Bella explore all aspects of following up including: How often should pet sitters follow up? What should pet sitting business owners say when following up? How can they sound like they're not "selling"? What effects will a business owner experience when they follow up? How can pet sitters effectively collect information during consultations to set themselves up for successful follow up? Special Gift: As a special gift to our audience, Celeste is offering $50 off her Follow Up Kit. Email Bella to claim this deal! Leave a Review Transcript: Bella:This is episode 76 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, your host with Jump Consulting, and today I'm here with Celeste Walmsley. She is a social media marketing expert focusing on Facebook to get you in touch with new clients, help you retouch your old clients, and to keep you top of mind. She helps solopreneurs specifically between the ages of 40 and 65 harness the power of social marketing on a small budget to grow their business successfully. And on a side personal note, I am a little bit under the weather and that's why you're going to hear my voice today. Bella:Celeste, welcome to the show. Celeste:Hi everybody. Thank you. Bella:Thank you for being here. Why don't you fill in the gaps there for me and explain how you became such a niche social media marketing expert? Celeste:Sure. I've been involved in social media for probably over 20 years and it started with my singing career with MySpace, if anybody remembers that platform. It just kind of came naturally to me. A few years ago, I found that small business owners were finding it a necessity to be on Facebook. What I was finding is I was attracting the 40 to 65-year-olds because they either didn't know how to use it and wanted coaching or they knew they needed it but didn’t want to do it themselves. I just found that that age group was the demographic that needed guidance. The ones that do it themselves are usually the millennials and younger ones. I found I just attracted that type of clientele. I have a lot of patience when I teach, so I can teach someone something very new to them in bite sizes so that they can really embrace it and feel comfortable with the new technology. Bella:I love that. That's fantastic. So transitioning into follow-up, which is what we're actually talking about today. I know that a lot of pet sitters are really wary against follow-up because we've all been on the receiving end of that follow-up call that’s just like, “Come on, leave me alone.” So why don't you walk us through first on how often we should follow up? Celeste:There’s sort of a rule of thumb in regards to when you've actually been in touch with a person initially. Obviously touch base with them. If they've specified a certain time that they want you to follow up—like, “Call me in a week” or “Call me in two weeks”—do that. But rule of thumb is about once a month that you would want to touch base with someone. But you have to be careful to not be selling every time. A really great way to follow up with someone is actually to never really do sales during those calls. I know it sounds kind of weird—then how do I close business? You need to establish a professional relationship with that client. Usually what happens if you have a really good consultation with them is you find out their needs, and it’s the needs that you're following up on. So, you know, if their dog has special requirements for medication or a special walk or a really long walk, you can look at the services that you provide. Maybe you specialize as a particular dog walker who does big dogs that need to run. You can touch base with them in regards to their needs and just see how they’re doing. Someone might say, “Well, my nephew's in town and he's going to be walking the dog for this month, but next month I'm going to need someone.” Give them a call and just say, “How was the walk with your nephew? Did

“Worry less about the impressions your brand will get, worry more about the impression it will leave.” -Aaron Pierson On this episode of Bella In Your Business, Bella and Aaron Pierson, International Branding Consultant, sit down to discuss how he went from an order taker to a problem solver. Bella & Aaron discuss important topics such as: How often business owners should be asking questions versus talking to clients. Why pet sitting and dog walking business owners need to disrupt in their local communities and online, and HOW they can accomplish this. When pet sitting and dog walking business owners need to modify their pricing model Pains, gains, and solutions! Aaron Pierson is also a Best Selling Author and Digital Strategy Director/Founder at Vitals Agency. Learn more about him at his website, www.vitals.agency, where he offers free resources as well as his podcast and his book. Subscribe To The Show Leave A Review: Transcript: Bella:This is episode 75 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 Vasto, your host today. And today I've got something pretty interesting for you. My guest today is talking about disruption in the marketplace. I met him and holy cow, like there are certain times in life where you meet people and they say, “Oh, I do marketing,” and you go check out their website and it's like, “Yeah, you do marketing, whatever.” You look like every other marketer. But Aaron says he does this thing called disruption, and I really wanted him on today because I really feel like pet sitters could be disruptive if they just were inspired. So I hope over the next 20, 25 minutes we get to inspire you to be disruptive in your own thing. So without further ado, Aaron, what is up my friend? Aaron:What is up, Bella? Thank you so much for having me on. Bella:Absolutely. You guys, I want you to know that Aaron isn't just like some rinky-dink business owner. He is a best-selling author, a digital strategy director and founder at Vitals Agency, an international branding consultant. I know you were just in Australia playing with Legos, which we're totally going to get into later. And you're just an all-around awesome dude. Like, I mean, you're also a Lego champion when you were younger, I heard. Aaron:Yo-yo. Bella:Yo-yo? Aaron:Yes, I was 8th or 11th in the world at playing with a yo-yo when I was 15 years old. Bella:That is incredible. So talk to me about more recently, you know, how you started Vitals Agency, which the website itself is disruptive. It's vitals.agency. People are like, “You mean .com?” or I bet you get that all the time, right? Aaron:Sometimes, yeah. I mean, those extensions now—like .agency, .club, .io—are becoming part of what the brand identity is. So we just rolled with that. We wanted something short and simple to remember, so yeah, we landed on that. Bella:I love it. So on your website, there's a quote from you. It says, “Worry less about the impressions your brand will get and worry more about the impression it will leave.” How did this passion for leaving impressions and being disruptive kind of come about with you? Aaron:Yeah, that's a good question. I think what ended up happening was that this isn’t my first agency. This is technically my third. I’ve built and sold another, I had a consultancy, and then how I started Vitals Agency, which is one of your questions, was I realized very quickly what my strengths were as an entrepreneur and what my weaknesses were. To be really successful, it’s not so much diverting and subbing out, but really managing your weaknesses and finding other people who can lift you up in areas where it’s difficult to thrive. I knew my weaknesses after my first go-around at the agency I had built. We had 30 employees, a 10,000-square-foot studio, a massive overhead. It was not the type of business that I was anticipating. When I decided to merge these relationships with my partners Mauricio and Aiden, it was a collective decision. The focus was to create a company where the three of us collectively are way more powerful than we are individually. And that’s what we’ve done. This idea of being very customer-centric—worry less about impressions you’ll get, worry more about the impression it leaves—that’s just a fundamental belief in branding. So many people are worried about vanity metrics: clicks, website visits, likes. I’d rather have one really solid brand ambassador advocating for us and being a voice for our brand and culture than a hundred impressions on a Facebook ad. Relationships are the key to building successful businesses. I’ve built other businesses that were not successful at all. Anything to do with marketing or advertising, both of my agencies were successful, but I

In this episode of Bella In Your Business, Bella sits down with Ian Anderson Gray, the founder of Seriously Social; a blog focused on social media tools. Ian & Bella discuss all things social media including how pet sitting and dog walking business owners can effectively use Facebook, Instagram, and LIVE video. Here is what they chat about: Biggest misconceptions about social media The worst mistakes business owners make on Facebook & Instagram Tips for maximizing your presence on Facebook, Instagram, and live video Differences between web developers and web designers What business owners should look for in a web developer Special Gift: As a special gift to the audience, Ian is offering 20% off of his Facebook Live Courses with discount code BELLA20 here: https://iag.me/products/ Who Is Ian? Ian is an international speaker, trainer, teacher, web developer, and consultant. He has a passion for making the techno-babble of social media marketing easy to understand. Ian is co-founder of Select Performers – a family run web agency. As well as being a geek, husband, and dad to two kids, Ian is also a professional singer and lives near Manchester in the UK. Transcript: Bella:This is episode 74 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, your host, and today I have the dynamic Ian Anderson Gray with me. He is, my gosh, I don't even know where to start. He's the founder of Serious Social, a blog that's focused on social media tools. He's an international speaker, a trainer, a teacher, a web developer, and a consultant. He has a passion for making the techno babble of social media marketing easy to understand. Can I get an amen, you guys? Ian is the co-founder of Select Performers, a family-run web agency, as well as being a geek husband and a dad of two kids. Ian's also a professional singer and he lives in Manchester, the United Kingdom. Welcome to the show. Ian:Well, thank you so much for having me, Bella. It's great to be here. Bella:I have to say, I think you're the first singer I've ever had on the show. I'm going to put you on the spot. Would you mind singing a few bars for us? Ian:Oh dear. I just don't know where to start. Let me think. How about a folk song? Shenandoah, I long to see you. Away you rolling river. Bella:That is so cool. You are now down in history as the first one who has ever sung on Bella in Your Business. So thank you so much. So go ahead and take a moment and fill in some of those gaps for us. I kind of gave an overview of who you are, but how did you end up sitting here with me and being this international speaker and just web extraordinaire? Ian:Yeah, I think we all have these kind of interesting stories. My background when I was at school, I was definitely involved in music. Music was my passion, but I was also a bit of a geek and it's quite cool these days because being a geek is actually a cool thing. Well, I'm not sure it was when I was at school. But when I went to university, I did music, then I trained to be a professional singer here at a music college in Manchester. And when I left, I wanted to see if I could find a way to combine my passion for music and technology. I was doing singing and I was doing a lot of teaching in singing, but I started to build websites. I started a web agency with my dad who had retired at that time. And if we fast forward a few more years, about five or six years ago I set up a blog just for a bit of fun on the side. It always starts that way, doesn't it? And it's kind of funny, you know, I had no idea. In fact, you know, people were talking to me about monetizing, you know, if you thought of how you were monetizing it, and I was thinking, I'm not. But because I was passionate about what I was writing about, I was writing about social media tools. And particularly one of my passions is taking technology that is difficult for people to understand and making it easy for people to understand. Because I get frustrated when I see this documentation written by developers and it's like, it's just so difficult to understand. I wrote all these blog posts that started to get a lot of traction. I wrote one on the tool Hootsuite, which was slightly controversial. It was reasons not to use it. And then I wrote a follow up article on why you should use it. I was looking at the balance between the two. So yeah, I did that. And then I took the courage to get on a plane to San Diego, which is a long way from where I am in the UK. And I went to Social Media Marketing World, which is one of the biggest social media conferences in the world. I went to that. And I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that changed my life. Bec

As business owners, sometimes it's hard to remember to block out free time for ourselves and just RELAX. To figure out how to solve this problem, I sat down with Joy Evanns, the "Say No Like A Pro" mentor.Joy Evanns is the author of Saying YES to LESS. A recovering perfectionist, Joy travels the world to support high achieving women who are tired of feeling drained and spread too thin. She helps them discover where to find time for long vacations, guilt-free lazy afternoons, and quality time with their families. By learning to set boundaries and say YES to LESS in her own life and in her former career as a graphic designer for clients such as Nike & Adidas, she eliminated resent from her relationships, increased her income, and healed chronic asthma and back pain. She is an award-winning author and her second book, Achieve MORE by saying YES to LESS, is due out November, 2017. Listen in as Joy & Bella delve into how business owners can carve out more free time for themselves by discussing: What it means to say YES to LESS & NO like a PRO The importance of setting boundaries, and how you can stick to them How business owners can take vacations and not feel guilty! Get your free gift From Joy: "5 Strategies for HOW to Achieve MORE By Saying YES to LESS" To get this, Text the word STRATEGIES to 444999. Follow the instructions and the strategies will be sent to you via email. Learn more about Joy on her website: joyevanns.com Transcript: Bella:This is episode 73 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, your host, and today I have Joy Evanns, author of Saying Yes to Less. She's admittedly a recovering perfectionist. Joy travels the world to support high-achieving women who are tired of feeling drained and spread too thin. Can I get an amen from some of our listeners right now? She helps people discover where to find their long vacations, guilt-free lazy afternoons, and quality time with their friends and family. By learning to set boundaries and saying yes to less in her own life and her former career as a graphic designer for clients such as Nike and Adidas, she eliminated resentment from her relationships, increased her income, and healed—this is important, you guys, for anyone listening—chronic asthma and back pain. She is an award-winning author and her second book, Achieve More by Saying Yes, is due out in November. Welcome to the show, Joy. Joy:Thank you, Bella, for having me. Bella:Fantastic. Why don't you go ahead and fill in those gaps for me? How did you become who you are today? Joy:So I grew up in a family of achievers. My dad started out as a psychologist and eventually through his career was a CEO of several multimillion-dollar companies. My mom started out as a school teacher and worked her way up to being a superintendent of schools. My sister used to be this little bratty girl who I now fortunately like a lot more, who’s now a doctor of chiropractic and she has a couple of offices with a bunch of people that work for her. Why am I telling you this? It's because who we are is kind of defined by the environment that we grow up in. And so no surprise, I was an achiever too. I was the president of student council by the time I was in fifth grade kind of thing. The pressure to perform underneath that expectation was really difficult and challenging for me though. So I was highly critical of myself. I put a lot of pressure on myself to do more, to be more, to have more. And no surprise that I took that into my career as a graphic designer. I took clients that weren't a fit for me. I did a lot of things that wound up leaving me drained. I said yes to last-minute requests, yes to rush work without getting paid for it, like a lot of things that really left me feeling drained and feeling kind of at the end of the day. And that took a toll for me. The toll, a lot of it was physical. I was fatigued. I felt empty. I had chronic back pain and I got to a place where it really wasn't working for me. And I called what I did gift-wrapping garbage. Bella:Oh my goodness. Joy:I say this because a lot of my clients made products in China. And my job was to package them all up and make them pretty so that people would buy them. And I didn't feel really good and aligned with the choices that I was making. So I was sitting on my bed one day, getting ready to go gift-wrap garbage, and I heard this voice in my head that came through like clear as day. And the voice was basically, “If you don't do something different, you're going to get sick again.” What I haven’t told you is that I grew up with asthma, really bad asthma. I mean, I was on all kinds of medications and still had terrible symptoms. Nobody

Did you know that your MINDSET is one of the biggest determiners of success in your business? The way you approach problems and work towards solutions can be the deciding factor between successfully remedying a problem versus making it 10x worse. So what type of mindset should you have and what strategies can you use to be successful? To answer this question, Bella sat down with Awilda Rivera, a results-oriented success coach that helps entrepreneurs, business owners, and career professionals achieve the success they desire. Bella & Awilda talk about: Awilda's success story in building her business and brand Laying down a foundation by believing in yourself The idea that what you focus on is what you will act on Why it's important to have a WHY Why spirituality & faith should play a part in your business Transcript: Bella:This is episode 72 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. This is Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting, and today I have a peer along with me here. I have Awilda Rivera, who is a results-oriented success coach and she helps entrepreneurs, business owners, and career professionals achieve the success they desire. Welcome to the show. Awilda:Thanks for having me, Bella. Really excited to be here. Bella:For sure. I love just chatting it up, and that's exactly what we're going to do today because I have a feeling you and I are both of the right mindset—together. Not right, but similar, I guess, is what I'm saying. Why don't you give our audience a little bit more of a background? Where are you coming to us from today? How did you get to where you're at? Give us a little background. Awilda:Sure. In just a few sentences, right now I'm coming to you guys from Atlanta. I'm originally from New York. I have a background in law, graduated from law school in 2009, and started this business at www.awildarivera.com in its first iteration about three and a half years ago. I found that the brand was able to expand into some different areas and have been doing this now ever since. Bella:That is so cool. How did you make that pivot from—you know, going into law is a real commitment. So going from that into this success coaching, how did you make that mindset shift? Awilda:Yeah, I think for me there was just a lack of alignment between my heart and my mind, and I really wanted to do something that would allow that to be aligned. I got really honest with myself and tried to listen really closely and let my heart do some of the leading for a bit and was able to organically come to what I'm doing now. Bella:That's incredible. And for our listeners, I imagine this wasn't an overnight process. This wasn't like you just woke up one day and said, “My heart's aligned.” It was a struggle, right? Awilda:Yeah, absolutely. It definitely was not an overnight process. I had to not just let myself heal from the experience of deciding to make such a big change, but I also had to kind of let my family heal and let the people around me heal because, just to give you a tad bit of context, I don't come from a lot of wealth. I grew up in New York City in Brooklyn and was the first in my family to graduate from college and from graduate school. Bella:Wow. Awilda:So there were a lot of—I don’t want to say expectations—but there were a lot of dreams perhaps that they wanted for me that I had to allow for them to mourn so that they could get on board and support me in what I'm currently doing. And you know, everyone seems to be on the same page now. Bella:I love how you're bringing in the experience of others because so many people have expectations of us, and when we want to make that life pivot or decide we’re going to be a pet sitter or a dog walker, sometimes people look down on us, and I could imagine that people would be like, “Well, you're a lawyer. What are you doing?” Awilda:Absolutely, that's 100% it. And that's why I think I have a special connection with entrepreneurs like your audience because when you're doing something out of the box that you feel very passionately about and it seems like your network or your support group isn't behind you, that can be a very daunting thing. That can be something that prevents you from taking the full plunge into that business and really following your dreams. And I'm just here to say that even if you have one person or zero people, as long as you truly believe in yourself and you start to do some of the work while you're in your job, you'll be able to lay a foundation so that you can actually take that plunge. All it takes is for the people around you to see you putting in the effort and getting some of the reward from it. In my first

As pet sitting business owners, difficult clients are inevitable. However, the way you as a business owner chooses to react to the situation is what truly defines you and your business. Liana Sanders of Wet Noses Pet Sitting in Fort Collins, Colorado, expertly handled a major customer service issue in her business, so I decided to bring her on the show to discuss how she remedied the problem. Listen in as Liana tells her tale and offers up some expert advice on handling difficult clients and providing top notch customer service. Some of Liana's tips and topics include: The importance of using phrases such as "This is my understanding of what happened" & "I'm sorry about the stress this situation has caused." Why business owners MUST have good phone and email followup as well as offering to appear in person to talk through the problem. The reason why business owners should make their employees feel like they have their backs by 'shielding' them. Why pet sitting business owners should not offer any resolutions or remedies until they fully understand the situation How businesses thrive when they utilize a 'separation of power' as well as giving situations TIME! You can learn more about Liana on her website and on her blog. Subscribe To The Show: Transcript: This is episode 71 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. This is Bella Vasta with Jump Consulting, and today I have one of our own with us. Liana Sanders is here with us from Wet Nose Pet Sitting and Dog Walking. I am so excited to have her on because she is in one of my Facebook groups and we had a debacle. Now you guys have got to understand that I have a lot of people in my Facebook groups and unfortunately sometimes people just come in there to vent or complain. I was really impressed with the situation that Liana had and how she handled it. I wanted to put her on a pedestal—I know this is probably embarrassing—but I wanted other people to hear about this scenario because we all have these kinds of situations in our businesses. I wanted them to hear about the steps that she took, not only for her own sanity but also to de-escalate the problem, back up her team, and still make the client become a raving fan. This is stuff we learn but hardly ever see implemented. So without further ado, welcome to the show. Thank you. For those of the listeners who might not know you, can you tell us where you are, the background of your company, how many people are working for you, just kind of an understanding of where you're at? Sure. I have a pet sitting and dog walking company in Fort Collins, Colorado, which is about an hour north of Denver for anybody who knows Colorado. We’ve been in business for about seven years now. I have a full-time manager and staff that runs anywhere between about eight sitters to fifteen at any given time, depending on how many are full-time and how many are part-time. Our business is mostly pet sitting. Dog walking isn’t as big here in our area, so we do a little bit of everything and we really specialize in high-needs houses and high-needs pets—a lot of very ill animals and a lot of households where the humans have health problems. We do a very high-end service for people that have really high needs. Which must make it interesting as the business owner. I do. I have a whole other business. My pet sitting manager actually handles the majority of our normal stuff for our pet sitting company. She handles most of the training, day-to-day operations, and scheduling with our clients. I give kudos to our manager—she’s fantastic. She’s been with us for many years, first as a pet sitter and now as the manager. I pretty much step in and handle the end of hiring, management of any situations that go wrong, or any major problems with sitters. I do the marketing and things like that. I have another business that takes the majority of my time. That’s incredible. I want our listeners to know that it’s not like you’re sitting around doing nothing. A lot of people are in that midst right now where they’re trying to hire office managers and it’s daunting. Kudos to you for finding an incredible office manager that can literally help you manage the company so you can manage another company. You are the true definition of delegation and scaling, so congratulations on that. Let’s take us back to this client we’re going to talk about today. Was this a new client or an existing client? This was an existing client. He’d been with us for about a year now. We were actually brought on because his wife was having some severe health problems. We were brought on when they were traveling for healthcare. The situation was always uptight and stressful because they were traveling for person

Have you heard about Facebook Bots yet? If not, now's your chance. It's a brand new feature that has come to Facebook in order to help market your business, while reducing the amount of time you're spending online! On this episode Bella speaks with Surbhi Sinha from PerfectingProfit.com. They discuss the in's and out's of this new technology including: What are bots? How can pet sitters use Facebook bots to their advantage? Surbhi Sinha - PerfectingProfit.com What happens to your bots if nobody messages your business's Facebook page? What is the success rate of Facebook bots? Why is it important that I implement bots NOW? How did this all start? Bella wanted a bot for the Jump Consulting Facebook page, so she searched her network and found Surbhi. She was able to create "Jumpy Bot" on the Jump Consulting Facebook page (go there now and test it out!), and got incredible responses from those who experienced it. So she thought she would have Surbhi on the show! Surbhi Sinha is the owner of PerfectingProfit.com She provides done-for-you bots for online and offline entrepreneurs. DOWNLOADABLE OFFER: Check out Surbhi's free guide to increase your email open rate by SEVEN TIMES using bots in your funnel: http://perfectingprofit.com/bot-guide-2/ Little Extra: What you are seeing here is a broadcast I did to my network of subscribers on my Facebook bot. Within one hour, I had a 75% open ratio and a lot of them replied back to me. Bots can be so powerful in your business. Subscribe To The Show: Transcript: Bella:This is episode 70 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 with Jump Consulting, and today I've got something really interesting for you, something that we've never had on the podcast before. And I'm so excited because I used it and it was amazing. But let me back up a little bit. I found myself at this amazing conference you may have heard me talk about before called Social Media Marketing World. And because of that, I loved them so much, became a member of their secret society, to which I posed a question about a month ago and I said, who knows about this bot thing? And how can it help me? And the incredible Amanda Bond reached out to me. If you don't know Amanda Bond, you should go Google her right now—she’s incredible, unbelievable. And she said, Bella, I have someone that might be the solution to your question. And I met my now awesome friend here, Serby. Serby:Thank you, Bella. Thank you so much. Bella:So I originally came to you a little bit doubting and not really understanding this whole bot thing. You know, I think it gets a bad connotation. You probably hear it all the time like, well, I don't want some automated thing and no one understands that. I checked out your blog that you did and I was laughing out loud. And we all know that people have to know, like, and trust us, and what a better way to do that than bots. Then you showed me all of these open rates and how they're like blowing email out of the water and all of this stuff. And I was just like, you have to come on my show and explain it to people. So let's start from the very beginning. Can you tell me, how did you get into it and start all of this? How long have you been doing it for? Serby:Okay, so it might come as a surprise to you. I started with the online business just about five months back, and I started with Messenger Bot. I have been in technology for about 10 years, working as a corporate consultant with multiple multinational companies. I had a lot of background in technology, but then somewhere down the road I had this daughter. Bella:That’s, I think, 50% of online stories—it starts with a kid. Serby:Exactly. I had a consulting job and I was like, I cannot travel so much with a kid. Every time I went on a trip, she was crying her heart out, and I was like, I cannot do this. So I started looking for options—what other career options were there? And I just stumbled upon this online world and thought, okay, let me check this out. And then I started getting into it and somehow stumbled upon Messenger Bots. It sounded really cool. I heard people talking about it and getting interested, so I decided to have a look. I wanted to get my feet wet with the online thing, so I did an online summit and used Messenger Bots in that. The response was amazing because summits can be boring and hard to get people to turn up for live videos, but I used bots to send notifications and get interaction. The results were amazing. I got consistent 30% open—not just open but engagement—rates. All the experts made sales, and I thought, this is really cool and super effective. So I started building Messenger Bots and getting clients, a