Bella In Your Business: Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Podcast

Are you thinking about buying a pet sitting business? Then you NEED to hear what Crystal Hammond has to say. She's been through the process a number of times, and is an expert in making deals. Listen as Crystal & Bella to discuss: Crystal Hammond - Sitter For Your Critter WHY people sell their businesses The 3 things you MUST know about a business prior to purchasing HOW to transition the businesses clients to the change in management Crystal Hammond has been in the pet sitting industry for almost 10 years. She started her first pet sitting business, Sitter for your Critter, back in 2008 with a handful of clients and have since grown her operations to service over 4,000 clients. She’s acquired several of our competitors companies over the years and started new pet sitting businesses to expand our service areas. Last but not least she’s the proud mama of an 80 pound adorable English Bulldog named Capone. Subscribe To The Show: Transcript: This is episode 69 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 Crystal Hammond with me. Crystal's been in the pet sitting industry for almost 10 years. She started her pet sitting business, Sitter for Your Critter, back in 2008 with just a handful of clients, and since then, she’s grown it to over 4,000 clients. She’s bought five companies and she just keeps going. Like, there is nothing that can stop this girl. And not only that, but she has become literally like my sister from another mister. Crystal and I have become very close this year, and I am just so excited by her. I’ve been begging her to come on this podcast because you guys, your tails are going to be wagging. You're in for a treat. Crystal says she’s so excited to be here. Bella says she’s excited to have her and explains that buying and selling a pet sitting company is something that’s seldom talked about. While Bella has a class on everything you need to know about buying and selling a pet sitting company, Crystal has actually bought other companies—not once, not twice, but five times. Bella says she’s never heard of anyone else buying that many pet sitting companies, and Crystal laughs. Bella says she’s not some major investor or retired corporate person with all this money. She’s an average person. Crystal says she’s 34. Bella says, “There you go, you’re 34 and you bought five businesses and built your own.” She asks Crystal to take her back to the very first opportunity that came for her to buy a company—what it looked like, what intrigued her, and what scared her about it. Crystal explains she started her business back in 2008. The first time she was approached was about a year and a half in, by someone she’d known for a while. The woman was moving to Florida because her husband had a job opportunity and asked if Crystal wanted to take over her business. Crystal said yes but had no idea what it would look like. The first one she did, she actually didn’t pay for. The woman was just so excited to have someone to refer her clients to because in this business, as pet sitters, it’s so intimate. They become close with the pets and the clients. Bella adds that she wants business owners to understand that every day they work in their business, they’re building an asset—it’s like building a house. If you just walk away, you lose something valuable. Crystal continues that the second business came from a couple she knew in her network who had broken up. They wanted to get rid of the business they started together, so they approached her. She knew a little more by then—it was her second acquisition. She knew she’d need to hire someone, and that went well overall. She learned that clients are not guaranteed to stay. When you buy a pet sitting business, you’re technically buying a book of business, not a brick-and-mortar. You’re basically buying a client list. At first, she took it personally when clients didn’t stay, but realized they were just attached to the previous sitter. Still, she learned that paying for a business doesn’t guarantee retention. By the third business, Crystal changed her approach. Before signing the contract, she and the seller reached out to clients directly to let them know about the change in ownership. That made a huge difference and even affected the price. She paid a little more but gained peace of mind and ended up with higher sales because they offered overnights, which the previous sitter didn’t. Clients were thrilled. The third seller just wanted a life change and had two employees. This was Crystal’s first time acquiring employees, which added complexity but worked out well. Bella takes a commercial break. When they return, Bella recaps that the first reason for selling was a move to Florida, the second was a

"Stop dreaming and start doing." When it comes to using social media to explode your business, that's Perri Collins' mantra. But, it's hard to stop dreaming until you actually know WHAT you need to be doing. That's where Perri comes in. Listen in as Bella & Perri discuss: What Perri loves most about social media Perri Collins Similarities & differences between doing social media for a university versus small businesses The benefits and struggles of working with millenials What is the COPE method? How can you save time and resources in social media marketing? Perri Collins designed her first website in 1999 and hasn't stopped playing in the digital world since then. Perri started her digital career working in the media industry, so she has firsthand experience in how to maximize digital content to reach people. She has a degree in journalism and is currently a social media specialist at Arizona State University. Subscribe To The Show: Transcript: This is episode 68 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 Perri Collins here. Perri Collins had designed her first website in 1999 and hasn't stopped playing in the digital world since. Perri started her digital career working in the media industry, so she has firsthand experience in how to maximize digital content to reach people. But most excitingly, and where she is today, I think, Perri is working with Arizona State, my alumni, and I've known Perri online forever, but it wasn't until recently I saw her face to face. And you guys are in for a real treat today, because Perri is an excitable, funny, bubbly, awesome person, and prepare to be excited. Perri, welcome to the show. Thanks so much, Bella. Thank you for the kind words. For sure. You're like one of my favorite people. You always make me smile. And like, I know that our listeners are going to hear your smile in everything that you say. You're just the happiest person. I adore you. Thank you. So why don't you fill in the gaps there for us? Tell us what that website was for in 1999 and kind of how did you go from that to running the social media, I mean the social media specialist at ASU. Well, like most teenagers, I had a lot of angst. And when I discovered that you can start up a website on the internet and start posting things, I got excited. So I would see all my favorite poets and writers and musicians. And I said, well, if they can do it, I can do it. So I learned how to make a website and I posted like all this terrible teenage poetry and things about how horrible life is as an 18 year old. So pretty typical. I'm also an alum of Arizona State University. I have a degree in journalism and when they had an opening, I thought, hey, why not apply and see where this goes? And I have to say, it's definitely one of the best decisions I've ever made. It is super fun working with young people. Arizona State University, for those that don't know, is the largest four-year public university in the United States. We have over 88,000 students. Yes, it's insane, it's massive, but it's so lively. It's its own little city and it's just full of amazing people, whether it's students or researchers or professors or people in the community. There's a lot of ties in and there's a lot of really great things going on. And it's so easy to share that on social media. I love it. And I'm sure content abound, endless amounts of content. Too much sometimes. So before we dive deep into ASU and what you're currently doing, you were once telling me a story about growing up on a ranch and how that kind of helped shape you or whatnot. Do you want to tell us more about that? Sure. So I grew up in the smack dab middle of Texas in a little town called Abilene and not even in Abilene. It was out in the countryside. Abilene was just the nearest town and our first few weeks there we didn't have running water. We didn't have electricity. My mom is a native New Yorker, but she always wanted like land and space and air to raise her children. So she moved us out to the middle of nowhere in Texas right before I started high school and I just learned to adapt to country living and learn how to milk cows and garden and farm and can vegetables and all those great things. We didn't have internet out there until like 1999 or 2000 and it was dial up. So that was kind of crazy. But of course, you know, I took to it instantaneously. I've always loved technology ever since I was young. So it's been unique. It's been very diverse learning about these two different dichotomies, how people in the coun

Being a business owner can be STRESSFUL. So this week, we took a step back to discuss how business owners can manage their stress through meditation and mindfulness. Listen in as Bella and Dr. Kathy Gruver discuss: The definition and warning signs of stress What meditation is and what other coping mechanisms are for stress The definition of mindfulness and how it can improve our health How to combat the "negative tape recorder" in your head Dr. Kathy Gruver Dr. Kathy Gruver is a motivational speaker, award-winning author of 7 books on health and wellness, a massage therapist, hypnotherapist and trapeze artist. Her passion is to educate people, inspire them to live the fullest life they can, and to let them know that they have choices! She’s appeared on over 250 radio and TV shows, am a frequently quoted expert in magazines and newspapers, hosted her own TV show, and created a stress-reduction program for the military. I'm a hip hop dancer and do trapeze to relax. As a special gift to our audience, Dr. Gruver is offering a free downloadable meditation. Claim it here Subscribe To The Show: Transcript: This is episode 67 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 hip hop dancer, a trapeze artist, and an award-winning author of seven books on health and wellness. And you know what she's here to talk to us about today? Motivation. So without further ado, Dr. Kathy Gruver, how are you today? I'm so great. How are you? I am wonderful. I am just so enthralled by your biography here. It says that you're a motivational speaker, you have written seven books on health and wellness, you're a massage therapist, a hypnotherapist, a trapeze artist, and you like to do exactly what I like to do, which is inspire and motivate people, which is awesome. So why don't you give us a background, fill in the details, and tell us a little bit about how all of this became you. Yeah, you know, it is funny because you read all that and you go, how the heck did anybody put all that together? It's a conglomeration of just sort of my entire life. I grew up dancing and acting, so performing was always really natural to me. In fact, I was a theater major. I thought my path was going to be standing in front of people and performing—and it is—but it's what I say: same stage, different outfit, different accent. So now I get to go around the world and motivate people and teach them about health and wellness. Stress is one of my huge topics; that’s just such a huge issue right now. I started out as a massage therapist, very accidentally during my time as a theater major. A woman showed up to our school; she would massage the actors for free, and I didn’t have anything particular to do. So I observed her and I accidentally apprenticed with her for a couple summers and realized I was really good at it and I just sort of instinctively knew what I was doing. So that was always this parallel path—healing on one trail and acting on another trail. And I've been privileged enough to combine those two paths into quite a road and written seven books and lectured around the world, and it's been pretty phenomenal. I have so much respect for you. That's exactly where I want to take the next career path in my life. And what you just said is so indicative, I think, of a lot of our listeners, because a lot of them didn’t just start in their 20s being pet sitters or dog walkers. They've come from many different backgrounds. And I think that's what's so fascinating about the world these days—that we can continuously reinvent ourselves or add to ourselves so long as we have the basic foundation principles in place. And I imagine managing stress. So let's talk about that. What are some warning signs when you can realize—I mean, most people know that they're stressed out—but what are some serious warning signs where we're like, this is not good, we need to change something? Yeah, you know, and it's funny that you say most people know, because I've talked to so many people who think, “Our body’s amazingly adaptable, and its job is to seek out homeostasis.” It wants to seek out that balance, so it starts to normalize things after they've been happening for a while. So you start to think, “Well, I'm just a bad sleeper,” or “I just get these headaches,” or “My jaw always hurts.” And we kind of dismiss that away as aging or “this is just how it is.” Well, that might be how it is, but that’s not how it’s supposed to be. Things like overeating, those moments of not finding passion in the things that you used to once find passion in, the desire to escape, short-temperedness, bossiness, road

On this episode of Bella In Your Business, Bella talks with Javier and Shauna Lee from Geek Ghost, LLC and Tampa Pet Sitters on all things website hosting and Wordpress! Listen in as they dissect: What is a virtual private server and who needs one? Biggest mistakes business owners make when web hosting Why is Wordpress a better alternative than Wix? Companies to consider hosting your website Shauna & Javier Lee Back in 2011, two Techs and a graphic designer walked into a bar. The blueprints for what will become GeekGhost were laid out and the Lee's start offering Web Hosting to a few select design clients. Over the next few years, they expanded to include clients from over 50 countries and across two continents, having launched servers in the EU as well as the US. GeekGhost's objective is to provide Web hosting on par with the bigger providers in terms of reliability and technology while offering a small host feel in terms of support and customer service. Shauna & Javier have been doing this a while and genuinely enjoy what they do. They're happy to help in any way they can! Subscribe To The Show: Transcript: Bella:This is episode 66 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. And today I have a very unique topic for you. I'm so excited, and I think I need to tell you the backstory on this. So Shauna Lee is actually the owner of Tampa Pet Sitters in Tampa, Florida. She approached me on Facebook one day after one of those threads popped up—you know, those threads where people are just ready to pull their hair out because something happened with their website or their server or their host or their domain. I don’t even understand what all that stuff means. So Shauna reached out to me and said it’s driving her crazy. She sees this happen in all of the groups where people are having a hard time with it, and there’s a lot of misinformation out there. So Shauna is here with her tech husband. They actually own this company called Geek Ghost, and they’re here to lay it all out and help us understand this whole big thing called websites. Without further ado, welcome, Shauna. Shauna:Hi, how are you? Bella:Good! So why don’t you expand on that for me and explain how the pet sitting world met the geek world. How did this start? Shauna:I actually have a background in web and graphic design, and my husband has been a tech for years. We started the web hosting company together, and our running joke was that he makes everything work and I make it pretty. After a while, it took off, but I got kind of crazy being in front of a computer all day working from home. I’ve always loved animals—I grew up on a farm—and I had a friend who owned a dog walking business. I started working for her just to get out of the house, and it snowballed. I ended up buying the business and growing it to where it is now. Bella:And that’s what you do daily now while Geek Ghost keeps growing. What drew me to this and made me want to get you on the podcast was when you said you wanted to help educate people and steer them clear of bad experiences or companies that don’t support their users. So I do want to break it down with you and Javier today. Perhaps we’ll bring him on, and he can get into all the geeky stuff. Maybe you can start and he can finish. Shauna:Yeah, I wanted to bring him because while I have a good understanding of how this works from my background, when it comes to explaining things, I sometimes have difficulty finding the right words. It makes sense in my head, but he explains it better. Bella:Perfect. I always equate a website to a house. You have your plot of land, your address, you live in a city and state, and you need security. And with SEO and keeping people on your website, I call that interior decorating—your design, probably, right? Shauna:Yeah, kind of. Bella:So what exactly is web hosting and a server and this VPS thing? And let’s cue the tech. Welcome, Javier! Javier:Hi! Bella:We were just talking about how you’re the brains behind the geeky stuff, and Shauna makes it look pretty. Can you explain what web hosting and a server are? Javier:Web hosting is kind of like internet real estate. A server is like an apartment building, and each apartment is an account. The server runs your email, web files, PHP scripts, and databases, and it’s divided into many smaller accounts for individual users. Bella:So like an apartment building—you’ve got your superintendent, your mailman, your cleaning lady… Javier:Exactly. Each has its own function. Bella:And where does web hosting fall into that? Javier:A website is a collection of files. The web server serves those files in a way that your browser can display them. It’s just instructions telling your browser how the page s

On this episode, Bella spends time with Bruce Irving from SmartPizzaMarketing.com. Bruce Irving is the marketing visionary behind SmartPizzaMarketing.com and host of the weekly Smart Pizza Marketing podcast. On his podcasts, he interviews the leading minds of the pizza restaurant industry. You can listen to his Smart Pizza Marketing podcast at www.smartpizzamarketing.com. In addition, Bruce speaks at conferences about how to better use social media in your restaurant or small business. Listen in as they dissect several tips to maximize local marketing on different social media channels such as Facebook & Instagram. They discuss important topics such as: Tips for micromarketing What's better - Instagram or Facebook? How FAST does FB advertising impact businesses? Pros & Cons of digital marketing vs. face-to-face Biggest mistakes marketers make on Instagram & Facebook How important is VIDEO on social media? What are your top tips for micro marketing? Subscribe To The Show: Transcript: This is episode 65 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 a special treat for you. I have Bruce Irving with me, and guys, I was listening to another podcast, the Social Media Marketing Podcast, which you know I love, and Bruce was on it. Bruce, I remember I was meal prepping, listening to you. I was so excited because I was like, this man is talking about the pet industry. You guys are in for a treat today because Bruce actually helps pizzerias or pizza restaurants all around the country do exactly what we're looking to do, which is to saturate the markets. Bruce is the visionary behind smartpizzamarketing.com and the host of another podcast, which you should totally go check out, called Smart Pizza Marketing Podcast. On his podcast, he interviews the leading minds in the pizza industry, but you guys can learn so much from this. It's global lessons. You can listen to Smart Pizza Marketing Podcast at smartpizzamarketing.com. Bruce is also a speaker, and he teaches us how to use social media better in our restaurant or small businesses. Bella: Thanks so much for having me, Belle. I'm excited to be here today. Bruce: I know it's crazy. I was in the pizza industry my whole life, and I always tell stories on our podcast of how people got into the pizza industry specifically because it's always a unique story. Either their parents owned it, or they went to school for something else, or they thought it would be fun to open a pizzeria—and it's not that much fun, they come to find out. I was the same way. I started off in high school working for a local pizzeria here that’s a well-known brand. I loved it. I wasn’t great at school or testing, so I knew business had to be my way out. Pizza is just what I grew up with and what I knew. That’s how I got started in the business. As I grew older and built businesses in the pizza industry, people would ask what we were doing for marketing. We had a successful restaurant, and that turned into the podcast. Now that’s turned into our agency where we help pizzerias and restaurants use today’s marketing to grow their local business. Bella: I love it. It’s so organic, and I can totally relate. When someone comes to you, they’re probably looking to get more clients, right? What are they doing wrong that you turn around and fix? Bruce: The problem with the restaurants and pizzerias we deal with is they’re busy. Times change quickly, especially over the last five to eight years—way quicker than you think. They may have a successful business that’s grown organically over 10–20 years, but the things they were doing aren’t working today. Direct mail is expensive—it works, but you need a large budget. So we teach operators to use the marketing that’s working today: Facebook advertising, Instagram advertising, collecting emails, and being consistent. We also teach them how to talk on those platforms. What you say on Facebook is different from what you say on Snapchat or email. On the podcast, we talk about what’s working and share data from our agency so others can do the same. Bella: Let’s talk about the differences between Instagram and Facebook. Bruce: Instagram’s great for branding. The feed is for high-quality photos or short videos, while Stories is perfect for behind-the-scenes content—showing your staff, your daily work, what it’s like in your kitchen. A lot of people are afraid of video, so if you use Instagram Stories to tell your story, you’ll stand out. Nine out of ten people we talk to are afraid of video. If you can be that one who’s not—or who gets comfortable—you’ll be the person who stands out in your market. Bella: That’s so good. For pet sitters and dog walkers, t

SEO, or "search engine optimization," is an extremely important aspect of your business in terms of gaining new clients. Why? Because it dictates how your website will show up on Google results! So how can you improve your SEO and how will you know if your efforts are working? Bethanie Nonami of Marley Nonami has the answers. Bethanie Nonami Bethanie is an avid reader (and Audible & podcast listener), movie goer, foodie and loves super fast & loud cars. She helps people grow and scale their businesses by giving you access to your data and understanding the why behind your customers, leads and sales. Bethanie's insight changes the way you sell. Bethanie loves fixing broken marketing systems and business processes to increase your revenues so you get back to doing what you loved enough to start your business in the first place! Listen in as Bella & Bethanie discuss these important questions regarding SEO and analytics: Whether or not your business needs to have a blog The most important aspects to understand about SEO and analytics What a "sales funnel" is and why you need one As a special gift, Bethanie is offering a SEO Masterclass exclusively for Bella In Your Business listeners! Claim it here: http://marleynonami.com/bella/ Subscribe To The Show: Transcript: This is episode 64 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. I'm Bella from Jump Consulting, and today I am here with Bethany Nonami. Did I say that right? No, not me. My gosh, I'm so sorry. I even practiced before we came on. I am bringing Bethany to all of the listeners today because she is a wealth of knowledge. She is a moviegoer, a foodie, she loves super fast and loud cars, but more importantly, she helps people grow and scale their businesses by giving people access to the data and understanding the why behind the sales that our customers buy from us. Bethany's insight changes the way we sell our positioning in the market, and she loves fixing broken marketing systems and businesses to increase people's revenues so that they can get doing what they love to do, which for most of us, it's pet sitters, dog walkers, hanging out with the pets, right? So a lot of us say we don't mind marketing, but anytime, Bethany, I ask my clients—I just did it an hour ago—I go, “So how are you marketing?” They go, “Well, we're baking goodies for the vet.” I go, “And how much revenue has that brought in for you?” She goes, “I don't know.” And I'm like, “I need the numbers to back it up.” So, Bethany, without further ado, fill in the gaps from what I did and explain to our listeners what’s about to come and what you do. Oftentimes, people come to us and they're like, “I need SEO for my website.” We look at their website and it's kind of clear what they do, but it's not really clear. So one of the things that everybody needs to do is they have to understand that you are competing for attention. You are competing against many crappy websites and some awesome websites. The average person sees four to ten thousand ads a day, which is what we would see in a month twenty years ago. Not only do you have to compete with your competitors or compete with them just not hiring you as a dog walker and paying the neighbor kid, you have to be very clear, or they’re going to be distracted in five seconds. Understanding the value of what you bring—because everybody probably has something unique. If you wash the dogs once a week after you walk them, you're like, “I wash dogs once a week.” Something that you can take, the convenience factor, and save your client time or money—that's a differentiator. People shouldn’t have to work with you to learn those differentiations. You should be able to clearly articulate that in three to five seconds because that’s how much time you have before they decide to leave, not open your email, not respond to your text, or not look at your flyer. Anything that you do—three to five seconds. The messaging that is on our website is very selling the industry and not the actual business. The most important thing to understand about your website is it's not about you. Nobody cares about “exclusive,” “premier,” “the best pet sitter.” Who cares, right? We're all busy. If you can save me time or money, or if you can help my life in some way, then say that. So don't think your website is about you and how awesome you are. Imagine that someone's finding you because you're solving a problem. You're trying to make their life easier and continue that conversation with them on your site. If you're listening and you have a pet sitting or dog walking business, the difference between “We are

Throughout life, our paths are constantly evolving. I break the normal rhythm of interviews in my podcasts to spend this next episode sharing my big announcement. No, I am not pregnant. It is something that actually started in my life back in 2012 and I take you on this journey how this seed has evolved in my heart and translated into my life. Admittedly, having a vision is only a dream and it only becomes a goal once we attach a plan to it. In June 2017 I got a chance to attach a plan to it and I am finally ready to show the world. Join me as I I pull the curtain back and you can see what's been happening behind the scenes. From my heart to yours, Bella Video played during the podcast: Subscribe To The Show: Transcript: This is episode 63 of Bella in Your Business. To all my loyal listeners, this next episode is actually going to break the rhythm that I normally have when I interview people. It's not often that I have a big announcement or something to say, and recently I had just that. I wanted to share it with you all here on my podcast because I know that some of you might not have seen the Facebook Live announcement, and I really wanted to share it from my heart to yours. So here goes my big announcement. Hello, Facebook land. We are live. I am so excited that you have joined me. I am so excited. My heart's actually pounding, which is why I know that this is gonna be huge. And I just want to say thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening to me. I am Bella Vasta and you have known me as a previous pet sitting business owner of Bella's House and Pet Sitting that I sold in March of 2016. And you know me as your business coach and cheerleader from Jump Consulting. Well, after today, you're going to know me as something else. And I really want to take you on this journey with me. So please come along. I'm talking to all of my friends and followers and family, honestly, extended family all around the world. And I just really love how the internet can bring us together. And I know that it seems like I do so much, so I figured that this kind of deserved a little bit of an explanation. And I hope that you can get as excited about it as I am. Usually I get to spend my days pouring into your companies, your lives, and your businesses, and now I'm gonna let you into mine and open up the doors behind mine and hopefully you guys can help me. I would love for you to help me. So here's the thing. You all know that life changes and it develops, right? And this is not a life pivot because a pivot kind of means you're moving away from something and it's not. I'm actually adding something. I'm very, very proud to say that I've been able to get Jump Consulting and running in such a manner that I've got my flagship things going. I've got Better Marketing with Bella, I've got the mastermind groups and I've got my Facebook groups and all this other stuff, but I want more. And by I want more, I mean I want to encourage so many more people out there. Back in 2012, I met Marcus Sheridan. Marcus is the author of They Ask You Answer. He said something to me that I’ll never forget. He said, “Bella, you can do it.” Sometimes we just need someone to speak life into us and just to believe in us. That seed was planted inside of me. At that time, I still had Bella’s House and Pet Sitting and Jump Consulting, but I wasn’t going full force yet. I didn’t know how or what, but that seed stayed with me. Life happened—I got married, had a baby, and had a micro preemie who was born at 12 ounces. We were in the NICU for six months. Everything was survival mode. Fast forward—God bless Olivia, she’s amazing now. She’s three years old, in preschool, and thriving. I sold the pet sitting company a little over a year ago and went full force with Jump Consulting. But this year, I hit a breaking point. In January, before our anniversary trip, I didn’t want to get out of bed. I wasn’t myself. Something had to give. A friend introduced me to a fitness program, and it changed everything. I worked out daily for 46 days, lost 26 pounds and 13 inches, and started feeling amazing. You can’t rock your business unless you feel good. I’ve learned that you can have a good business, but you can’t have an amazing one until you feel great inside. In March, I went to Social Media Marketing World. There, I met Marcus Sheridan again. He asked me, “What are your five main stories?” I didn’t know, but that question stuck. Then in June, I attended a local conference called Fast Ink where Damon John from Shark Tank was the headliner. It was life-changing. There was a media pitch event. I was scared, took my name off the list, but then realized I needed to walk the talk. I got on stage, did the pitch, and when I finished, people high-fived me. I was shaking and emotional, but I knew that the seed had started to sprout. I went home, talked to my husband Alex, and cried tear

As a pet sitting business owner, one of the most challenging hurdles you may encounter is hiring the right staff to help you grow your business. Many reach a point where they absolutely cannot take on anymore clients, unless they bring on some extra hands. But hiring is not as easy as it may seem, it requires a lot of consideration and preparation to make sure you're hiring a HERO rather than a ZERO. On this episode, Bella is joined by three successful pet sitting business owners who have been through the process many times before. Listen in as they share their personal stories, tips, and tricks for hiring the perfect pet sitting employees. In three 10-minute segments, you will learn from the best in the business, and gain valuable insights that will help you make the right hiring decisions for your pet sitting business. Don't miss out on this exciting episode! Biggest Take Aways: What is the best way to find pet sitting employees? What's the biggest mistake you've made when hiring pet sitting employees? What's your best secret that you would tell your old self about hiring pet sitting employees Maureen McCarthy Maureen McCarthy has worked with dogs and cats either grooming or pet sitting since 1980. When she moved to North Carolina in 2006, she started Love and Kisses Pet Sitting which she continues to successfully operate today. Love and Kisses Pet Sitting is now an award winning company (4 years and counting!), honored as the recipient of the Best Pet Sitting Business In Union County. Additionally, Maureen's business has attained the 2015 and 2016 Angie's List Super Service Award. Maureen now has 21 pet sitting employees working for her, all of which she requires to continually undergo continuing education to ensure they provide the best service possible. David Steinberg David Steinberg founded David's Pet Sitting while studying in graduate school to become a therapist at the UConn School of Social Work. Luckily, the program was located in his hometown (West Hartford). His friends then demanded he watched their pets when they went away. David happily obliged and before he knew it, David’s Pet Services was a thing. David now has a number of employee's working under him, and is continuing to hire more and more while honing the process. In 2003 Cara Armour co-founded Active Paws Inc., in the Boston, MA area. In 2009, Cara won Pet Sitter of the Year. She is decorated in many accolades and even expanded to opening a grooming and holistic pet supply store. Cara Armour Since 2003, Cara has been trained by the American Red Cross as well as several veterinarians in Pet First Aid and CPR. In 2011 she completed an instructor training course and became a certified Pet First Aid and CPR instructor. In 2015 she co-founded an online Pet First Aid academy and now works as a product and marketing manager for ProPetHero, the Pet First Aid and CPR division of ProTrainings. Subscribe To The Show: Transcript: This is episode 62 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. We're all good to go. I love it. How are you guys? The number one thing that a lot of people are always asking about in the pet industry is employees. Truth be told, there's actually not one way to do it. It's a very gray area. Now, sure, you have labor laws and HR consultants and all that stuff you really have to pay attention to. You also have to develop your own systems and processes. But a lot of us have learned by just falling down, breaking our leg, and getting back up, saying we’re not going to do that again. And that's what today's podcast is about. This podcast is going to feature three very successful pet sitters. The first is Maureen Dunn McCarthy of Loving Kisses Pet Sitting. She’s been on the podcast before and told the story about how she increased her bottom line $5,000 through Facebook and online groups, which I think is incredible. I’m also talking to David Steinberg from David’s Pet Services. David knocks it out of the park with live video and is a fantastic business owner. He’s also written a few blogs for me because he used to be a psychiatrist before becoming a dog walking business owner. We talked about how to establish and enforce rules with employees, so he has a lot to say about the topic. And finally, Kara Armour, who has become one of my really good friends—she’s like my sister from another mister. We’re both from Boston. You should hear us on the phone—we talk fast, loud, and over each other. It’s so exciting. You guys are in for a special treat. The way this is going to go is 10-minute segments where I ask all three of them the same questions. You’ll see the different answers they give. Technology permitting, we’re going to give this our best shot and just have fun with it. At

Procrastination is something that EVERYBODY struggles with - and Eric Twiggs, expert in overcoming procrastination, knows that. But is there anything you can do about it? Join Bella & Eric on this episode of Bella In Your Business where they discuss: Why procrastination is something you need to tackle and overcome NOW A few easy steps to overcoming procrastination How to know if you struggle with procrastination Eric Twiggs is an expert in overcoming procrastination and the author of The Discipline Of Now: 12 Practical Principles To Overcome Procrastination. He has conducted over 28,000 coaching sessions with entrepreneurs, lead organizations of 500 or more people in corporate America, and shared his message with corporations, associations, and congregations across the country. If you have been looking for practical principles to help you maximize your time, minimize your stress, and break the procrastination habit so that you can accomplish your goals and achieve fulfillment. Learn more about Eric Twiggs on his website or Twitter: Website www.ericmtwiggs.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedisciplineofnow Subscribe To The Show: Transcript: This is episode 61 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, everybody, to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting, and today I want you to listen up if you’ve been looking for some practical principles to help you maximize your time, minimize your stress, and break that God-forsaken procrastination habit. My guest, Eric Twiggs, has helped over 28,000 people accomplish their goals, fulfill achievement, and stop procrastinating. Bella: Eric, without further ado, welcome to the show. Eric: Hey, Bella, thank you for having me. Glad to be here. Bella: Thank you so much. This is definitely a topic that we haven’t had in our 60-plus episodes, so I’m so excited for you to just rock it on this topic and tell us everything you know and give us some good actionable things that we can just start doing today. Because I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who hasn’t said, “Oh no, I don’t procrastinate at all.” I think we all do, right? Eric: It’s a common thing that we share. Yeah, it’s very common. The studies show 95 percent of the population admits to having some type of issue with procrastination. Bella: I believe it. Before we dive deep into the topic, why don’t we bring it back a little bit and tell our listeners a little bit about you—who you are, where you came from, how you became an expert on this topic. Eric: I became an expert just through my life experiences and research and study. I had an experience that I talk about in the book back when I was in college that really got me motivated to think about how I use my time. I was in college with my friend Donnell. Donnell was the total opposite of me at that particular time—very conscientious, focused, and purpose-driven. His goal was to be a Marine Corps officer, and he was always telling me, “Eric, you need to get serious.” And I was like, “Donnell, when’s the next party?” We were totally different. We were good friends though, and everything changed in one moment when I hadn’t heard from him in a week or so, and I got a phone call from his mother telling me that he had tragically passed away in a car accident. That changed everything for me as far as how I view time, and I really started to become more intentional as far as how I spend my time. Through a lot of my experiences—in the book, I talk about having 28,000 coaching sessions. I’ve had an eight-year span where I did 12 to 15 sessions a day, back-to-back, on the half-hour. That’s how I got to 28,000 coaching sessions. I’ve also been an executive where I’ve had as many as 500 employees working for me at any given time. All of those experiences with different people and personalities—seeing trends and patterns—is how I gained my expertise. I’ve also read tons of books on the topic. Bella: Incredible. So you’ve definitely walked that walk. Let’s talk about it. Why do people need to tackle procrastination? I’m one of those people who says, “I work well under pressure.” I know I have this big TEDx talk coming up, and I can’t prepare five months in advance—I like to wait until four weeks before. I like to procrastinate, but then that inflicts a lot of pressure on myself. So tell us, why do we need to tackle our procrastination? Why can’t we say, “I use it for the good”? Eric: Procrastination has hidden costs. What’s interesting about procrastination is that you get away with it. You think everything’s fine, but everything’s not fine. There’s a proven link between innovation and preparation. The earlier you start, the ideas start to incubate, and your end product is better. So procrastination has hidden costs—you just don’t realize how much y

On our 60th episode of Bella In Your Business, we have Calvin Wayman. He is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and the CEO of a social media agency called CobbsMedia designed to make corporations, small businesses, and personal brands grow and stand out through the power of social media. Calvin Wayman of CobbsMedia He recently published his first book, which debuted on the Amazon top-100 called “Fish Out of Water: The Guide To Achieving Breakthrough and Permanently Transforming Into the New You.” To find out more about Calvin, visit him on his website: calvinwayman.com Social media can be both daunting and overwhelming. There's not only a variety of different platforms, but each of them have their own uses and strengths. It can be difficult knowing which platform is worth investing your time into, and even harder making that platform lucrative. Listen in as Calvin and Bella discuss: The 4 C's of social media Things that EVERYBODY does wrong on social media Instagram Vs. Facebook - which is better for pet sitters? The impact Facebook Live can have in your business Advice for managing your social media pages while saving your sanity! As a gift to our audience, Calvin has a free downloadable offer for a social media makeover ($300 value!). Learn more about the offer here: socialmediamakeover.org Subscribe To The Show: Transcript: This is episode 60 of Bella in Your Business. Welcome to Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your host, and today we have Calvin Wayman. He is a bestselling author, keynote speaker, and the CEO of a social media agency, Cobbs Media, designed to help corporations, small businesses, and personal brands grow and stand out through the power of social media. He also recently published a book which debuted on Amazon’s Top 100 called Fish Out of Water: The Guide to Achieving Breakthrough and Permanently Transforming Into the New You. Calvin, welcome to the show. Thank you and thanks for having me. I’m pumped to be here. When I met you, you definitely had a colorful life and a lot of different experiences, and I just kind of knew, especially from a social media background, that you’d have a lot to offer our listeners. Stay tuned for the end too, because Calvin actually has something free for you in ways of him doing something pretty cool for you. It’s not just some free downloads, but you’ll have to wait to listen to that. Calvin, you created this “four Cs of social media,” and like the Huffington Post picked it up and stuff, so why don’t you systematically and slowly—because I’m sure we’re walking dogs, doing laundry, meal prepping, doing something while we’re listening—break it down for us. Awesome. So what it is, is there’s one more C—there’s four—and it’s super important to get all four of them in there. To give a little backstory, it’s related to social media. If you’ve tried to grow a brand or gain business from social media, you could spend hours and hours scouring through different tactics—Instagram, Facebook, ads, YouTube, Google AdWords—and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. I asked myself, what actually works? What makes it stick? So I studied people with strong brands on social media, looked at a cross-section of different people, and asked what makes this work—not just tactically, but philosophically. That’s where these four Cs came from. It’s a way to simplify social media so you can focus on four things instead of hundreds: content, context, consistency, and connection. Let’s break it down. The first one is content. If your business isn’t where you want it to be, it doesn’t mean your business is bad or that you’re a bad person. If it’s not growing, it’s because of one simple factor—obscurity. Not enough of the right people know who you are and what you stand for. Content is the gateway to break you out of obscurity. Content is anything you post on social media—a photo, a video, a message. But here’s the key: don’t just post about your business. Don’t say “buy my book” or “hire me.” That’s what 98% of people do, and it doesn’t work. Instead, post about who you are, what you stand for, and why you do what you do. Your content should connect to your “why.” Simon Sinek’s TED Talk Start With Why explains this well. Most people talk about what they do; the few who stand out talk about why they do it. Apple doesn’t say “we build the best computers.” They say, “We believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. Because we believe this, we create beautifully designed, user-friendly computers.” The computer is just the byproduct of their belief. If you’re in the pet business, what do you believe about it? Maybe that dogs truly are man’s best friend. That belief should shine through your posts. That’s the first C—content. The second is context. It’s often misunderstood. Imagine walking into a funeral home during a service and saying, “Hey, I’m sorry you’re crying about Joe. I don’t know Joe, but I have a great dog walking business—here’s my