Making Your Business Your Own w/ Jio Alcaide and Taylor Barconey

WOW.  This episode was so fun! My cheeks still hurt from how much laughing and smiling happened when we recorded this...so you are in for SUCH a treat with this week's episode. As I mentioned on social media - our conversation lasted much longer than the length of this episode because we just couldn't stop talking and so while this is one of my more lengthy episodes...it is FILLED with so many valuable nuggets and much needed humor. 

If you don't know who Smart Bitch Modern Dog Training is, they are a force-free, rewards-based, female minority owned dog training company based in New Orleans, LA co-owned by Jiovany ‘Jio’ Alcaide and Taylor Barconey. I have been "internet friends" with these two incredible women for 4 years now and I have always truly admired their originality and mission to NOT do things the way everyone else has done it.

Jio & Taylor really have carved their own path for themselves when they set out to make their training business specific to THEM and their needs. Whether it's in regards to client intake, how they setup consultations, when they have their down time, growing together within their business - these two know what will and will not work for them and have molded their business to reflect just that.  These ladies are just such a force, their energy is contagious and it really shines throughout the entirety of this episode.

Im so excited for you to check this episode and I hope a little of Jio & Taylor's good energy rubs off on you when you listen!

If you aren't already following Smart Bitch checkout the links below!
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The webinar mentioned in this episode - "How To Avoid Getting F!cked As An Animal Professional"  

Transcript

 Ep.6 Smart Bitches
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[00:00:00] 

[00:00:05] Welcome back to the Leashed Mind Podcast, mental Health and Dog Training. I'm your host, Mandy Boutelle. On today's episode, I, oh gosh, this conversation just like I, I listened to it weeks after I recorded this because I had foot surgery and I need time to heal, so I'm just now editing this and. When I had the conversation, I was like buzzing for two to three days after because it was just so, you know, when you just connect with people that are like-minded and it's just, you know, you're on the same like energy field and just everything, like it just flows effortlessly.

[00:00:42] That's how this conversation went and Jio and Taylor are just such a force. To interact with that just their energy is contagious and it, it, huh. Like just listening to the episode while I was editing it, it [00:01:00] recharged me again. And it's amazing how having a conversation like that and listening to it after the fact can have that hold on you and, and make you feel that way.

[00:01:10] And I feel like that really just. Shouts at how awesome these two individuals are. So I didn't mention this, but I am speaking with Jio and Taylor from Smart Bitch Dog Training. you will hear me gush over them repeatedly in this episode because I have been one of their biggest fans since 2019 when I first like kind of met them on Instagram.

[00:01:33] primarily just because, you know, they are too young, BIPOC, female trainers and they are just not following the rules. they are making their own rules and they are just, oh, their energy is contagious in the way they're handling things. It's, it's so, it sets up their mental health and they take care of themselves and they prioritize themselves in their business and.

[00:01:54] I'm getting so excited talking about this because it's just, this is what I want to see in the dog training [00:02:00] industry. This is what we need more of. And these two have been doing this since they started, and it's just so powerful that they already have that thought process going into how they wanted to start their business.

[00:02:11] They're just amazing. They are also going to be the EMCs for the Aggression Dogs Conference this year, which I am so proud of them. I'm so excited that they are getting more recognition and getting out there more. I'm just, again, I could just, I can gush about these two all day because I just admire their work ethic and their hustle, but also how they really work to prioritize themselves and.

[00:02:33] Their connection with each other and how they talk and interact with each other and handle training clients together. It's just beautiful and magical how well they work together. And I know how rare that is. So these two, just how they found each other and made, this work, it's, it's. Incredible. And you'll see that and and hear that in this episode.

[00:02:53] Um, if you are watching on YouTube, you may see Jio and Taylor like raise their hands a lot. That's how they kind of interact and [00:03:00] play off of each other when they're doing podcasts and teaching and stuff. And I think it's just so cool that they have this communication. It's just they're so in sync and I am just such a big fan of them.

[00:03:10] I will shut up and stop gushing about them and Get into the episodes so you guys can hear and hopefully pick up on their energy. Cuz these two are just, they're a force. I love them so much. I'm so excited. 

[00:03:22] One disclaimer I do wanna put out there before I start this episode there is a little bit of swearing in this episode. So just a disclaimer, if you do have little ears present or you are sensitive to this type of language, I recommend saving this episode for another time. But let's just dig in.

[00:03:39] I have Jio and Taylor here from Smart Bitch Dog Training. Jio Taylor. I am so, so fucking honored to have you guys on my podcast and I'm starting with the fbomb cuz I'm just so excited to finally talk with you guys. Welcome. Yes, hello.

[00:03:54] Welcome. Welcome. Hi guys. Um, Jio here, here. Um, I, I realized I have to actually tell you cuz it's a [00:04:00] podcast. Um, it is a Jio voice. Um, but hi, half of Smart Bitch tuning in. Hi, uh, Jio. You never give enough information about yourself. So my name is Taylor Barconey. I am 30 years old. I make 31 this year. I'm a Virgo. Uh, I'm very proud of that, to be honest.

[00:04:15] Um, that makes a lot of sense. Honestly. I It does. Totally. It does. 

[00:04:19] I feel like both of you are so good about prioritizing yourselves and your lives and taking care of yourselves, which I think is why you both are so successful. Why you guys work so good together as a team.

[00:04:33] Because, you know, as someone who I work with, my spouse and people always ask me how it works, but it's just, we compliment each other so well, we do not have the exact same brain. We don't do the same things and it works. And you guys, it's just, it's fucking magic. Your business. Yeah. And just how you guys work together.

[00:04:54] And I don't know where I was going with that, but That's okay. Um, that's all good. I, like I said, gas me up, I'll just go ahead and, [00:05:00] uh, play off of that. Yeah. Um, it's a journey though. It is a journey. Um, you don't just figure out how to overnight, right?

[00:05:07] No, never. Like, you kind of have to go for a little bit of a spiral. not like a total spiral, but you probably have to at least feel, feel some like, oh, life is not so, like, not what I want it to be. And then, you know, make actionable improvements. Um, for us, I think the reason why we have our shit together, or at least it looks that way.

[00:05:27] I think the reason why is, is where we started, uh, we realized pretty early on, uh, you know, we really weren't even making that much in the beginning. Not, not, not Smart Bitch, but pre Smart Bitch. And we realized pretty, pretty early on that if we were gonna be doing all that damn work, that at the very least we needed to also enjoy aspects of life.

[00:05:45] You know, cuz we weren't ballin', we weren't rich, you know, like we're making a ton of money. So we, we, we had to make sure that, that we made life still interesting. Um, a fear of mine personally is I love dog training. Like [00:06:00] absolutely love it. And I feel like if I don't open myself up to other interests, Yes, I, and I'm only hyper fixating on like one aspect of my life.

[00:06:09] Eventually I'm gonna end up resenting it. And, and that was like one thing, like especially when Covid hit, I was like, I'm so stressed. Like we just built this fucking business and then Covid hit and we're just trying to keep our heads above water. Uh, and we did pretty good. Um, you did. And everybody was like, oh, you guys are, you know, hand handling it with Grace.

[00:06:27] But in all honesty, we're all behind the computers like everyone else. we're dying and all this. And I was like, we really have to kind of diversify our life so that we're not just like Smart Bitch hyper fixating on Smart Bitch, cuz then after a while we might end up disliking it and I don't want that to happen.

[00:06:41] Right. Or petering out after a couple years. Yeah. I totally agree. I wanted to add on that before Smart Bitch. You know, we worked for daycare and I felt like I really actually enjoyed working for daycare and, um, having direct access to dogs, that's, I've found, I got joy from that. Doesn't mean I'm, I love dog training to both of 'em.

[00:06:58] I lovely both, but I [00:07:00] enjoyed it so much. I worked so hard for this company. Literally lost feeling in one of my toes. Um, because I was on my feet for so long. I never, my big toe with Numb for that was a, it was a time I was on my feet too much, but who I really enjoyed, uh, taking care of the dogs, I thought that was so, reinforcing to me and.

[00:07:18] I was one of the employees I felt who really understood dog behavior, but I, I, I wasn't good at reading dog body language back. That wasn't the best. But I under, I understood it instinctively and I knew that the dogs really enjoyed my presence. Like, oh, wow, Taylor's here. She knows what she's doing.

[00:07:32] But I lost myself in that job. Like it became everything. Yeah. And I put out of hours in, and at the end, b And I was like, what was the point of me losing myself in this job for two years? and forsaking all of my hobbies because I, before I, before I got into dogs, I was a avid bike rider, love bike riding.

[00:07:50] And I stopped doing it. I stopped doing everything that I enjoyed. I wasn't really training my dogs where it's something I also enjoy. And I was like, you know what? This sucks.

[00:07:58] I hate losing myself from the job. And [00:08:00] unfortunately, my mom is Gen X. she loses herself in her career as she has. Yeah. She still has a, sorry mom if you're watching this, if you lose this. it is growing up, being raised by Gen X, seeing them lose themselves in their jobs and I'll I, and have kids, right?

[00:08:14] And I'm like, how the hell y'all did this? I, I'm 30 and I can't even fathom having a child right now because I'm just, so, I finally come grips with my own anxiety and. Getting my wants. Okay. I finally know (Saaaaame) how to relax after work. It took me three years to figure this out, but I finally got it down. Do this at this time, take a bath at this time.

[00:08:34] If I don't take a bath at this time, I'm pissed. So that, and you know, my whole point was, it's just I do not wanna lose myself. So, like Jio said, I felt like I was starting to resent being a dog trainer or even having a business right after the pandemic. I'm like, this sucks. I am always working. I wanna play a video game. . We wanted to make sure we did not lose ourselves and we wanted to make sure that we always remember the child and us that loved those hobbies.

[00:08:57] Like there was a time where the child and [00:09:00] me couldn't do that cuz I was in college, I was stressed in college, I was doing exams. I go straight into the workforce and I'm like, wow, this is a very gray coloration life. I hate this. So, Yeah, that's my shpeel for now. I just love the way you explain that. No one has ever articulated that in that way.

[00:09:18] That has been in my head for years, and I have never been able to say it like that. That's exactly how it is, though. You lose yourself and your business and that's, I think that's why I petered out after being a trainer for four years, because I just mm-hmm. Is too much work. And I, it's a lot. Y you know, just this last two years with Woof Cultr, I debated giving up because I, it was just too fucking much.

[00:09:42] And I just, you guys are killing me. Sorry.

[00:09:46] For those that are watching on YouTube, they're getting a crack up out of this. So, but it's just, I lost myself in Woof Cultr. I constantly was thinking like, people don't like this. They're gonna shit [00:10:00] on this. They're not gonna, you know, I, why the fuck am I doing this? Like, it's not, I should just give up.

[00:10:05] And I didn't, but I lost myself, my business and I wasn't taking care of myself and my mental health like tanked immensely because of it. Because I wasn't, work came first. It was work all the time. . And it bleeds into your life if you let it. Mm-hmm. And you have to train yourself too.

[00:10:20] It, it's funny because we work in behavior, uh, assuming we don't, we're listening to, yeah. So, but we don't, right? Like we work with dogs, but then a lot of times, like we don't even see the antecedent arrangements for ourself. My gosh. Like, we don't see that. We haven't turned off the notifications. We don't see that we left the mail of Smart Bitch sitting on the fucking counter.

[00:10:40] Like, why is that sitting there? Put it somewhere else. Because if it's not time to look at that and, and you have to kind of, you have to see it and you have to notice it, and you have to get a little pissed about it because you're like, does this job own me or do I own it? You know, am I doing this job to die to literally am I living to work?

[00:10:57] Yes. Or am I working to [00:11:00] live and, and trying to get it to compliment. And I think, I think the other thing that's really important to note too is, Taylor and I, obviously, we noticed, we got pretty popular pretty fast on Instagram. Yeah. Uh, when we, when we hit the ground running, we hit the ground running, we made sure to take special care of our branding. We got trademarked almost immediately cuz we felt like we had something really powerful. But it's one thing to note is that with this momentum that it looks like we have, because I think a lot of people outside looking and they think that we're like steamrolling through shit. And I think in a way, yes we are, but in a lot of ways we're not. We've actually slowed down significantly, especially last year.

[00:11:37] We really needed to like, take a mental break and really reflect, because everybody, again, it's, this is, it is a little bit of external pressure. It's like, you guys are doing so awesome, you should do this, you should do that, you should try this. We wanna see more of this. And we're really excited to do all of that.

[00:11:54] But at the end of the day, we're just two people. Uh, we don't have any additional staff yet. We hope [00:12:00] to do this. But in order to grow your company, you have to kind of allow yourself to grow too. You can't just be like, okay, now I'm gonna do this. Like, if you don't have the spoons for it, it's not gonna fucking happen.

[00:12:10] so that's one, one reason why even when people are like, Hey, you guys can try this, I'm like, that's a great idea. Give a couple years. I've been for two years. But, I hearing you we're hearing each other, adding it to the list. And this is why, we haven't really like started, we, I have play around with, you know, podcasts and other things to add on, but we literally do not have the spoons at all.

[00:12:33] There's no spoons left. The Yeah, no, we, uh, the, the spoons are in use. They are in use very, uh, purposely. we actually take on the, this is the, the least amount of private training clients we ever taken on. And we like it this way. we figure out a way to make our income the most consistent has ever been in our entire careers.

[00:12:51] But when we add on new things, like the webinar is very purposeful. It's very calculated, of course. It's not like, oh, we just wanna do this and hoping, but I [00:13:00] am afraid of adding a service and that service brought me out. Yes. Because we have experience burnout out after 2020, like said, people will pull us alot of directions.

[00:13:08] and we really appreciated that because we did give us exposure, but end the day exposure is gonna come. My mental health is, once it's gone, is gone. So, right, right. In 2022 I was like, I'm sorry guys, Jio and I really don't, we don't wanna do anything like we will do, for example. Of course. We're very excited about the Aggression Dolls Conference.

[00:13:28] We are like pumped for that. But that's it. One conference this year. Cause after, because well cuz we are still growing our business. Yeah. And that's one thing people are, they don't get, like, y'all Smart Bitch is only four years old and honestly it's still a baby business pandemic.

[00:13:43] Yeah. Okay. Minus is two minus two years because I've been basically two years old in my mind. So it's like, I'm also still growing as a dog trainer. Like, I didn't know some things in 20 19, 20 20 like, oh, I didn't know about that. All right. I guess let me, let me experiment with my dog for a few [00:14:00] months then train the dogs are working with to, do this.

[00:14:02] My whole point is it takes time. Every, it, it, it is a slow growth. I've mentioned this before on our TikTok, I think it was a private video, but I mentioned personally how I used to get frustrated with our growth, thinking that it wasn't fast enough.

[00:14:14] I see. Like our colleagues who have thousands of followers now, but then don't have to sit back and remember Taylor, they have been in business for like 10 years. Yes. Y'all just started, in 2019. Well, I do wanna add also that, you know, because that is a. I'll come back, back to a couple things you touched on, but this is right in front of my brain right now.

[00:14:32] But it's just, I felt the same way with my businesses and it's, you know, I, you want that fast growth, you expect it because it was fast in the beginning cuz people were paying attention. Mm-hmm. And so it slowed down. You're like, fuck, I'm not doing enough, I'm not doing enough. Like people aren't, you know, what do I do?

[00:14:46] Right? But it's also, you guys have a different vibe. You're not catering to the huge masses. You know your audience and you target them. And that in my book is a good business owner. You know your fucking clients, you know who [00:15:00] you want and that's who you work with. And that's how it should be. You don't want to work with people that aren't gonna listen to you, aren't gonna take you seriously and just aren't gonna be your client.

[00:15:10] And I think that's a mistake that some people do make is that, and it's a mistake I made in the beginning of just trying to cater to everyone and make everybody happy. And that didn't work out well. And then when I realized, oh, I need to niche into something specific and I did, I don't, I still am at like 13,100 followers and I don't expect it get bigger.

[00:15:30] Mm-hmm. But I'm happy with that because if you were to see that amount of people in a room, you would be blown away. And that is something I keep reminding myself. It's like, oh, I only got like 16 likes on this thing. But it's like if I was standing in front of 16 people and they were like, I would be probably, you know, pissing myself because I'd be so scared.

[00:15:48] So like it's, it's just having that realiz realization. Yeah. But you guys have, it's the amount you have grown since I started following your account in 2019. And I [00:16:00] remember because I don't know if how I even found your account. I think I found it through Woof Cultr, but I was just like, okay, their business is named Smart Bitch.

[00:16:08] Like, that's fucking badass. And I just, I saw you guys like, you were younger, you were around my age and it's hard to not only just take younger trainers seriously, but just you guys hit the ground running with it. You were just like, look, here we are. This is what we're doing. I think I saw a video, it was a really, really, really old one of Jio, like training a dog on the sidewalk and just the way you explained things, it was a way where I could tell it was easy for the average jog owner to digest and understand.

[00:16:39] And I was just like, yes. Like this is what we need to be seeing. Yeah. So it was me nerding out about you guys. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. no and I think, I think in terms of like how, , we got to that point. A lot of it obviously was trial and error. Um, you're absolutely of correct. I think most, I think, I mean, most animal people-centric businesses, we go in with a little bit more of a people [00:17:00] pleaser mentality cuz we're coming in to fix these people's lives essentially.

[00:17:03] They have something in their life that isn't functioning well. Like it was Taylor and I, we realized that there were aspects that we were like, it pisses me off when I get a message at 10 30 about some bullshit that I've already told a client how to do something, you know, not to be, not to be like snarky towards my clients.

[00:17:19] No, no. It was one of those things where it was like lackies, it was like, I'm recognizing these, these holes. Exactly. Yes. I'm recognizing these holes in my business and these holes are making me lose sleep because I also, well, this is a newer realization for myself, but I also have adhd, but when it's, when it's a new realization, you're just like, wow, why didn't no one tell me?

[00:17:37] Period. Dude, same. Yep. when I saw all these holes and I would get these, I get hyper fixated. It's like disgusting. Like, I will work in my sleep, I'll be asleep, but by 6:30 AM I will have already like built a website in my brain and then I wake up with a migraine and I'm like, I can't do this.

[00:17:52] Like I have, we have to create barriers so that I don't lose my fucking mind. And so that was a big reason why, if you ever, you know, look at our business structure or our [00:18:00] model or how to get in with Smart Bitch, there's a lot of oops. And, we earned the hoops, you know, smart. We put a lot of work in and we show with Instagram, showing our credibility, showing that we're capable of, know, telling people or teaching people.

[00:18:12] we are able to do this. and I hope that other trainers out there are also able to do it too because, it's not inconvenient if you are making something easier for yourself to make the job better for the client, right? So yes, if we're using something like Marco Polo, it's a video. We have an older client, they're not really privy on the phone, but we're like, yo, you got an iPhone, you're gonna download this app.

[00:18:32] That's just how things are gonna go down It's new and it makes everything easy for us. So that's why we like to stick to our guns there. Taylor, any comment? Oh, um, not on this one, I don't think. I mean, everything you just said I agree with, I love that you guys are finding. Because that's another thing that I really admire that you guys have been doing, is just finding other ways to get out there and communicate with clients.

[00:18:52] Like Jio, the course you guys created, like with the little icon Charact that like, look like you guys, like [00:19:00] just the amount of Oh yeah. Effort you guys put in. Yeah. Yes. I just was like, yep. They're just putting so much effort into these things, it's awesome. And you're just, it's, it's a new approach and you're fucking changing things up and I love it.

[00:19:13] That was actually kind of a, a little bit of a mental health thing too. Uh, one of my big things, this I just like really created, like, I'm not doing something artistic. Same. Um, I just like, like take me down, right? Yeah. Like, I'm just gonna be depressed and why am I alive? but, so a lot of ways I'll try to experiment, um, within Smart Bitch. It was kind of nice. It was like, this is kind of for Smart bitch, but it was more for me and I really liked enjoy growing my skillset for different aspects. I realize other people may not really be into that, but for me, I have found ways to try to find other passions within Smart Bitch.

[00:19:42] Tey, I wanna go back to you were saying how you like reading books. you are a big book reader. I am a big book reader as well. But you did touch on something that is very prominent to me as well, and you just said that if someone gives you a dog training book, like no, that's work.

[00:19:57] And that is exactly how I [00:20:00] feel. And I know that there are so many people in the industry that love, you know, taking in all the knowledge and reading about the dog training. But it's, it's, I agree with you. Yes. It's the same thing. Like, it's just, it's not, we love dog training.

[00:20:13] We can nerd on about it for hours, but it's not something we want to spend our downtime doing because it's not relaxing. Learning isn't relaxing. Exactly. And so that's exactly, so yeah, I wanted to kind of get your take on that. And, how do you guys do your continuing education if you're not reading the books?

[00:20:30] Because I know that's sometimes some people focus more on the book reading the courses. I wanna know kind of what you guys focus on. So Okay, so me dial back.

[00:20:39] Yeah. I love book reading. I don't mind picking up a dog training book when I feel like it. How's a, I feel like somebody's making me do it or I have to do it. I am not happy about that. I think, part of that is unfortunately due to school. Yeah. I like school. I actually want people, oh, you know, I like going to some classes cause, some classes are really fun.

[00:20:55] Like, I really enjoy, like, I love philosophy. Like I love debating people like, [00:21:00] oh, that, that did not sound smart. Let me interject right here. Ooh, I like that. Yes. In terms like that is you all day. in terms of like having to read something because I have to, it's like something in me is very rebellious against that.

[00:21:14] So in terms of like continuing education mm-hmm. What I do in geodes too, we latch onto something that we like. We research it a little bit, but we're not, I don't try to fix the order for too long. Like for example, when I discovered Leslie McDevitt's pattern games game changer for us, to be honest, we use them all the time.

[00:21:30] I read the book, pause, skip to some sections, okay, this is a good section for me. All right, cool. Let me practice with my dog. Slowly over time. And then eventually I finished the book and then maybe that took me six months. Right now I'm in the Play Way course with, Dr. Amy Cook. I decided that, you know what?

[00:21:46] I really want this course. I'm gonna decide to do this in February and March. No thoughts after that. My whole point is that this may seem really unorganized, but if I try to organize and plan, continue education all the time, mm-hmm. I don't wanna do it. [00:22:00] It makes me not wanna do it.

[00:22:01] So I like to pick some things and I like to plan it for certain months and call it there. So it may be a book, it may be a course online and I choose that for the month. And that is it. I think I also get a lot of inspiration from social media too. A lot. We follow a lot of training.

[00:22:15] So when I see trainer posting some things and I'm like, Hmm, I wanna learn more about that, I put it back in my mind and I take note of it and I try to research it. Lemme see if any other YouTube videos on this, cuz a lot of our colleagues put all this stuff on YouTube So I may go to YouTube camera.

[00:22:29] Okay. Thank you Noble Wolf. Thank you for explaining this to me. Okay. Now I'm gonna read a book on the person who created this technique and now I'm gonna study it more. So that's how I like to tackle things. It's very informal. It's kind of random. It's strategic though, in a sense for your brain. Think so.

[00:22:42] It is. Okay. Yes, absolutely. It feels like you have control of it, you know? Yeah. Um, which I think is really important. One thing I wanna say though is I, with my anxiety, I get really nervous about putting out content that is incomplete. Or maybe I did it wrong. Jio knows this. So yeah, I will experiment, love my, my, my dogs and [00:23:00] my Guinea pigs.

[00:23:00] I will experiment. Okay, this is not work. Try it again. And Sachi is like, mom, what the hell are we doing? But we're gonna try and then after I feel like, okay, I know this now, then I teach it to our clients and then I post online. honestly, posting online and talking to people about what I'm doing has been one of the best ways to like expand my knowledge too.

[00:23:19] So I post a lot of things. I don't post everything on our social media. I may post on my personal page just to kind of. Just to see, uh, did I do this right? You're experimenting. Yeah. Getting a feel. People are like, oh, you did a good job. And if I get a question like, okay, let me try to explain what I did.

[00:23:33] I'm like, oh, I know what I'm talking about. So that's how I continuously learn and I try to keep it on the forefront of my, okay, let me make sure to look this up more and things like that. I hope they answered the question. You did dude that was awesome. Yeah. I think a few listeners may, um, enjoy the juxtaposition coming from my end.

[00:23:50] I hate school. I hate, I fucking hate school. I was great at it, you know, but I was, I remember being young in school and being told You're the gifted [00:24:00] kid. And I'm like, why the fuck do I have to do all this extra shit? Yes. I was like, this doesn't seem right. Why is everything harder for the gifted kid? I don't even wanna tell y'all I'm smart.

[00:24:08] it feels like a penalty. I'm curious really quick, Jio, in school, were you kind of like inattentive and kind of tuned out and focusing on your own thing or, cuz that's how it was for me. And you would think, well, I had a lot of adaptation, so yes and no. yes, in the sense that I masked, I masked it very well, but no, in the sense that I was raised in an army brat household.

[00:24:32] So, and I'm very Spanish. And so we had a very strict, like, you're making straight A's you're doing this. Oh God, you're doing the, we're cleaning the house on Saturday. You know, love my family. I was very accustomed to that structure, structure, structure, structure, which is, which is why I'm so, um, fluid now.

[00:24:49] I wouldn't say I'm overly fluid. I provide my own structure now and I'm not great at it. There'll be days where I'm like, cool, I brushed my teeth. we're gonna call that a win and try tell you. Yeah. Um, I did find early on, [00:25:00] I really didn't like, all of the restrictions.

[00:25:01] So like in school, yes, I would be still, and I would be paying attention, but like, I was the kid that was always swinging my legs or adjusting positions or like going to the bathroom for no reason. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Like, I just need a walk. I need to move. Like, and I was really good about not being, you know, disrespectful to authority, but I also had a really hard time sometimes with authority.

[00:25:21] Cause you know what I'm saying? Like the whole construct of it's just not, oh yes, it wasn't for me. I was like, why am I here for eight hours when I can finish this work in 20 minutes? Uh, but that's just who I was as a kid. And unfortunately that's kind of who I still am now. Um, I went through college, hated all that too.

[00:25:36] Um, I actually went to college and just decided to do something for fun because I worked pretty hard to get a full ride. So at that point, you know, my family was like, what are you gonna do? And I was like, oh, whatever the fuck I want. Cause you won't pay for it. So I got a stupid theater degree and a minor in dance, which honestly is not stupid at all.

[00:25:52] I'm actually very happy that I got that degree cuz it feeds into my hobbies. Yeah. Honestly, I'm not using it for anything, but, [00:26:00] dance is working into my hobbies, aerial stuff, which is fun. But, uh, yeah, no, in terms of the continued education aspect, like how I actually jump in on doing it, I instantly, I'm just like that person that kind of like rejects things.

[00:26:12] Like the way, like if you tell me to do something, I'm just like, fuck you, I'm gonna do it differently. Like, you, like just, just to see if I can, I don't know, like, that's just the way my brain is. And so like, even with CEUs, like I even have an issue with CEUs sometimes. Like I'm just like, I don't want it.

[00:26:25] no, I don't, I don't blame you Jio for the ceu. I have mixed feelings about CEU too because I'm like, I have to do this so I can get these colds and. Yeah, there we go. But do I, did I really want all the course, course that we have taken? I have, I have taken Jio has taken. we feel like we definitely wanna do 'em like we did the aggression Loves course.

[00:26:45] Love that course. Happy we did that. We will never do anything we didn't wanna do, but Right. Course. See you aspect. it's just kind like that old school, like that's just part of me. Like I have to like shake that off. but in a form of rebellion, this is what I do for my CEUs and I wonder if anyone else would benefit from this.

[00:26:59] For anyone who's [00:27:00] like, Ooh, I need to learn. But like, you feel like you have put a lot of pressure on the thing you need to learn about, like, you know, aggression, if that's your forte. If you're wanna learn about a new technique. So what I've actually decided to do instead is that if I need to learn about something, I put that under work hours and I'm like, this is work, this is work time.

[00:27:16] I'm going to put this under work hours. But if I want to make CEUs, but I also want it to make it a little leisurely, then I choose the CEUs that are very inexpensive cuz I'm a cheap bitch. And I try to pick ones that are just, general interest or something that I don't know anything about. So sometimes I'll just pick one that's like a cat course I have no interest in offering people to train their cat.

[00:27:37] I think cat trainers are amazing and they have the patience of Saint. I don't have that patience and literally my experience behind cats is merely just to keep mine from, you know, being good in my house and not destroying all of my things. Right. Um, and I guess it does, it adds. A nuanced perspective, which is nice.

[00:27:54] um, in terms of like, yeah, I know a little bit about cats, I know, but I, I'm not selling this. But at the same time, I [00:28:00] still get the CEUs for it. so I find it nice that I'm just like, I kind of stretch out and just like, I'm gonna learn about this. Or I like to learn a little bit more about like, some of the new science stuff.

[00:28:08] I'm kind of a, I wouldn't say I'm a science dork by any means. Like, I'm not like, ooh, I need to read all the sciencey things. But I do find it very fascinating when new studies come out and I feel like, of course that's been, that's a big time thing. Like, like I feel like our field makes some serious exponential changes and I like to read that type of stuff or, or do webinars or things like that.

[00:28:25] But as for books, I'm sorry, y'all, they're not gonna happen. They just, I mean, I have them and I think of them and I look at them and I touch them and I'll open them.

[00:28:35] But the reading part, I just, you know, it'll get a little bit at a time. That's, that's me. I'm sorry. I like that though. That's, that's a good approach to have cuz you're not overloading yourself with too much, too much science, too much serious shit. Mm-hmm. It's more like you're kind of just adding to your bag of tricks and like, you know.

[00:28:52] Yep. If someone does have an issue with their dog and their cat, you can say, oh, well I do know this. It's just you're adding to your repertoire. Mm-hmm. Exactly. It's so [00:29:00] smart. Yeah. Yep. And you're not burning yourself out and getting exhausted on one certain topic, which I feel like can Well, another thing thing too, another thing too, this is just kind of like on principle.

[00:29:09] Um, a lot of people not to, not to say it in a harsh way, but a lot of new techniques and things come out are, they're kind of like reinventing the wheel a little bit. sometimes it's just like a similar technique that's re-presented and I don't automatically buy into the things. Uh, not because I don't support everyone, not, that's not the problem.

[00:29:26] It's more so that I wanna see where it goes first. I wanna see, um, is this something that is gonna be built upon, and is this gonna be something that's gonna be worth my attention in, in the long run? Right. And so oftentimes when I'll see something new or if I feel like there's a trend online, I will keep my eyes on trends, but I usually just kind of let them fall through.

[00:29:43] Because unless they hook me in right away, I'm really not interested. I'm like, ah, you know, everyone else thinks this is cool, but I don't really, I don't care. And you don't have to. I think that's okay. Ride the wheel with everybody else. Have to care. Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to be like everybody else, for instance, Uh, I'm not really into [00:30:00] breeding.

[00:30:00] I think there's a huge prevalence. A lot of people are really into breeding and like confirmation dogs and like, I don't give a crispy fried fuck about confirmation dogs. I wish I did. I don't, I think everyone who's really into it is really cool and I'm really glad that I have people to refer to. But if you ask me about any of that stuff, I'm just like, I, you know, it's dog this, I know the breed, this dog, I know what they're supposed to look like.

[00:30:20] But this dog, well, I think that's smart to remove any breed bias too, because you know, people try to bring that in and it's like, I could really be that person that's like, well my dog is part husky cattle dog chihuahua. So I see these traits and it's like, okay, but she's a dog and you know, her traits are just her traits and her genetics.

[00:30:39] So yes, I could not agree more. Um, so I really wanna get into, cuz you know, you guys really grew a lot on social media. But I wanted to ask kind of, cuz you know how social media is in the dog training industry. Oh,

[00:30:53] this is why you'll not me in comments most of the time. Yeah. That's why I have avoided it for however many years [00:31:00] now, cuz I just got, I'm like, ah, I'm just gonna go back here and I'm gonna say something here and then I'm gonna go back here. So, yeah, I wanna know kind of, do you guys have a strategy for how you handle the trolls and negative comments?

[00:31:13] You know, cuz there's always those people that come on and they're like, well, that's really good, but how's that gonna work when you have this situation with your dog and it's like, okay, well thank you for reading my one 32nd video and judging all my training based on that. Right. I could tell, tell you how we handle it right now.

[00:31:27] Tell me Taylor. Taylor loves spicy. We do, we ignore them all. any, negative comments, and I'm actually kind of disappointed about this because I feel at this point I should have my scandal or make mini scandal like so bad. I think like we got a few comments here and there, but they weren't really like trolls. It was just, I would say people overstepping and I'm like, no, calm down. But, um, like, In terms of like negative comments, in regards in comments about our training. We don't get anything.

[00:31:53] And it's very interesting to me that, you know what's funny, I just have, I had this thought. So on TikTok, I'm on TikTok a lot and TikTok is [00:32:00] very interesting. There should be a case study on dog training, TikTok. there's a lot of dog owners on TikTok who are really good at dog training and they post a lot of content and they get the most trolls, they get all the trolls, all the negative comments, all the trolls.

[00:32:12] But in terms of dog trainers like my, like myself, I post stuff and nobody argues against me. Well they had one guy, I remember, I remember this, this isn't safe. I'm like, yes it is what fuck you talking about? It's safe. Like I know what I'm doing.

[00:32:24] I'm a training and after that there were no comments. So I'm just like, I either I shoot 'em down and I, I don't perceive it as such or we don't get those comments. And it's, it's actually, it's kind of refreshing to be honest cuz it, it's allowed us to grow without any worries. Good. Um, but that being said, if we were to see this and leave me, leave me negative comment, then I'm either going to ignore you or we're going to shoot you down Cause we are smart bitch.

[00:32:46] So who'll bitch you out the bitch. It's for a reason. Yeah. So this cuz be mindful and also we are, I think sometimes if there's anything like moderately spicy. I'm not told, or I'm told after Taylor's already handling it. I love that. Cause Taylor needs to hop in and like smooth it [00:33:00] over before Jio gets all Yeah.

[00:33:02] Because If Jio gets in, it's really bad. So I make sure you know that control. You don't wanna do this. You don you don't wanna put them there. If we have to deal with them, we probably would. We will always deal with things professionally, but also, I'm also very outspoken about the, the fact that we're a business.

[00:33:16] Um, and so a lot of times, and I know a lot of times people will mince words online and online and I think this is fine. I think some people find this type of, interaction engaging. I personally do not find social media ultra engaging. honestly, the social aspect just really doesn't do it for me. However, you know, we would approach it professionally, but I also am not afraid to remind people that we're a business and you literally didn't pay me to comment you back.

[00:33:37] So that would probably be my angle. It's just like, if you want me to educate you, you're welcome to buy a service. oftentimes they'll be like, oh, well how this, and, and. The way a lot of times people will phrase their questions is that it's not even asking you a question. They're, they're attacking.

[00:33:52] It's condescending. It is! And it's like, I'm not gonna overextend myself when I have spent x amount of hours on my education and I'm charging [00:34:00] X amount of money just for people to consult with me. So you're welcome to consult with me and you can get my answer at this rate. I think we've been lucky though. We don't get them many you know, if you, if you come from a place of genuine curiosity, then we're going to, definitely comment back. We're one to share our knowledge to you, but if you come at us as if we're doing something wrong or we know we're not, you already lost the battle with us.

[00:34:20] Like I, yeah, it's not gonna happen. We're not gonna, we're probably just laughing really hard in the background But that's so good when you guys, you know, as someone that has anxiety and used to internalize any negative comments I used to get, I'm sure you guys saw like, when I would post on Facebook and be like, ah, these people, and you know, it's, hard not to take that in.

[00:34:40] And I, that makes me really happy that you guys don't get that a lot. But I think it is because of how you choose to

[00:34:47] put your business out there on social media. You have these boundaries. you're just so transparent with it that I don't think you give any wiggle room for people to even try to nitpick because like, I'm sorry. Yeah. I feel, what the fuck [00:35:00] bad thing do they have to say about how you guys train?

[00:35:02] Right. What I post on my social media is sometimes it's very like random, like, oh, this video went viral on TikTok Mini viral we did on on TikTok. I'm put it on Instagram. No thoughts, but I carefully plan out what I post because I'm not really trying to start a back and forth conversation.

[00:35:19] I am showing you what we did, like the video, move on. I don't, I don't really wanna sit here and think about, because we have clients to keep here. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You're putting content out there that's, you're keeping yourself relevant. I want the content to speak for itself and the content I choose. Speaks for itself.

[00:35:35] And if you have a question, ask a question on that, on that comment. And I need to, and if I feel I need to clarify something, then a clarification video will come out. But until then, this is what I, this is what I posted. No connotation. I'm moving on to my life. Because I, that's another thing too. Social media can easily run me and I don't want that.

[00:35:51] And, with my little anxiety, that little, it's not little. Let me, let me not, belittle the anxiety, it can be overwhelming sometimes. And if I don't choose the content like that, then I'm gonna [00:36:00] have more stress about what I have posted and what I do post.

[00:36:02] So yes, what I do choose to show up. Smart Bitch is c arefully planned doesn't mean that we're hiding anything. It's just that this is what I posted. There shouldn't be any questions. You mean there shouldn't be questions, but it shouldn't be any questions. Speak for yourself.

[00:36:13] God, I just, I love you guys. This is so awesome. This is, I I know our listeners are just gonna be like, take it in. I hope you guys do take this in. Cause this is so freaking valuable. Oh my God, you guys are amazing with how you guys approach that with marketing and with social media, you are, Prioritizing your mental health in that you were thinking about your mental health when you were doing that, because you are setting, you're, you're kind of just saying like, okay, this is how it's gonna happen.

[00:36:37] We're not giving this room for anyone to affect us. Yep. And it's just, it's these boundaries. Oh, I love it. You guys are just awesome. You're killing it. Yeah, I'm losing my chain of thought. I'm trying to get it something about our marketing that we like, that we present ourselves.

[00:36:49] Uh, we've mentioned this before. In regards Thank you to, I know it's like we're married or something. Um, it's like, you know, but yeah, in, in terms of how we present ourselves, uh, we've said this before, a lot. In a lot of ways, smart Bitch is, almost a defense [00:37:00] mechanism. Not really like this is who we are.

[00:37:02] Uh, but in a lot of ways it's just like you're hiring smart bitch. So if you don't like cuss words, why the fuck did you call us? And, um, if you don't like people of color, why the fuck did you call us? And you know, things like that. Like, I know that sounds ridiculous, but like, I do think it's really important for people to understand who they're hiring.

[00:37:16] Um, that we are liberal, that we do support all walks of life so long as. That they support others and that they don't hate other people. And we're very outspoken about, you know, if you're going to be a certain way, you can fuck right off. and I think a lot of people see that by default in our marketing.

[00:37:31] not so much just in the dog training realm, but just like who we are. Like, I don't, I know how to speak nerd, but I'm gonna speak like me. And because I'm, the people who pay me are average dog owners, not dog trainers. So like, I don't need to sound like a fucking genius all the time. And BT Dubs sounding like a genius all the time is fucking exhausting.

[00:37:48] Like, I don't wanna fucking look up these words that I learned. Like, yes, I understand the quadrants and the theories and all those things, but like, but are your, I can't even pronounce them damn words. Yeah, no, exactly. I can explain it in another way. and [00:38:00] regardless of what the internet says, a lot of times they will try to spin things out of context.

[00:38:04] Like, oh, you said it like this. Did you mean it like this? Like, nah, dog, just look at the video. You see the captions, you see the thing like if you are trying to derive meaning within this video and what I said outside of all the extra captioning that's on you, I'm not gonna sweat it because that's just what you're doing on social media.

[00:38:20] I don't care how you perceive my message when we made it so clear already. so that's a big one too. It's just, being ourselves and making it very evident. I was like, yeah, there is a bitch with hot pink hair and an afro. Come into your house if you're, if you're ready for this, we're ready for you.

[00:38:33] If not, if you thought this was gonna be like us holding your hands and, telling you that none of this was your fault. Probably not. We never shame our clients, but we will let them know like, Hey, gotta make some changes if you wanna see some change. And I think that they receive it better when they hear it from an actual person and not from just like a dog training nerd, cuz they're like, cool, yes, I hear that.

[00:38:53] And we're like, no, I need you to hear me. the way a new orian would say it exactly. You guys know your [00:39:00] clients and you're knowing how to target them and speak to them in a way that they're gonna transfer this over so that they'll be able to work with their dogs. And I feel like that is something that gets missed so much of the time.

[00:39:10] And I love that you said that Smart Bitch is kind of a, it's, I wanna say it's like almost like a defense mechanism, like a shield for you guys because it's just like this is what it is. Yep. And you guys have these. Yep. I don't know what it is with having that name, but I feel like it just instills these boundaries and it, it shows that you guys have this, I don't wanna say confidence cuz I don't think that's the right word, but it is that, that you If there is a magical word in a different like language that describes this, I wanna know what it is. Well, what you're saying is basically why we named the business Smart bitch. We can I was gonna ask Yeah. Came to us the same time and decided on this name.

[00:39:45] It was very weird. Like, oh, we like bitch. Okay. All right. Smart bitches. Yeah, ballsy. It's, it's ballsy. We were angry. We were both angry at the, well, we just, we didn't want to, um, one conversation that we have, and just so everyone is clear that this is not a comment on [00:40:00] other businesses at all, but one thing that we noticed that we really wanted to set ourselves apart was that there's, there's just this like heavy prevalence and positive, positive, positive, positive, positive.

[00:40:08] Everything is positive, which is great. I, but it doesn't always have to be in the title. And if we want dog training to shift, we're not positive dog trainers. We're just fucking dog trainers and we're doing it the way that we do it. And we're, you know, and so we wanted to get away from this because the other thing that happens with positive is that, unfortunately, and this is some people may disagree with me, but this is just my kind of view of it, is that positive also tends to lean very heavy on like the femininity aspect.

[00:40:35] And the femininity is like, oh, we're not, strict. We're fucking cookie pushers. We're gonna let these dogs walk all over us. There's no way that we could handle aggression. There's no way that this 120 pound girl wet could do any of these things. And so a lot of times we were just like, well, we name our business Smart Bitch, and we say, we're doing these things and we're showing, you know, the proof in the pudding.

[00:40:57] These people can't say that. And they also can't be like, oh, well [00:41:00] they're soft. and so a lot, and like that was kind of it. Like we didn't wanna come across as our competitors in the area too. Were going up against a lot of trainers who differ in. Methods. And, in order to seem attractive in that realm, you almost have to match that.

[00:41:14] I don't know, it's, it's not that you wanna match the aggression or the ooph, but like, they have an oomph, right? Like their marketing is oomph. Their fucking videos are ooph. Even though we are science nerds and we see that there are things that they're not showing, but there's not enough. Exactly. Oh my God.

[00:41:29] So a lot of times with positive training, it's just too soft. It's too fucking boring. And so we like to spice it up and we're just like, Hey, we're Smart Bitch. We're gonna punch you in the face with positivity and we're gonna move the fuck on. And and I think that, that people really received that.

[00:41:41] They were like, oh, I can say the F word, and teach my dog how to wait behind a gate. Yes. The fuck You can, yes. The fuck you can. Oh my God. Yes. We also, I think we said this earlier, but I wanna say it again. it was a boundary. It was a boundary name because we wanted to scare people away.

[00:41:58] and it does scare people [00:42:00] away. I don't, a lot of people don't work with us, I'm sure, because they see us and they see our name and think, oh, that's inappropriate. I don't care. My family be like, I can't say the name. You can say, bitch, I'm 30 now. Yes, I was the baby in the nineties, but I'm 30. You can say bitch, that's fine.

[00:42:14] You can say all of it. I don't care. But it's like, it's inappropriate. I don't know how I feel about that. Well, you probably not gonna be the right client for us cuz we need our clients to have a sense of humor, work with aggression, which is gonna be very, you better laugh. Um, we'll need to laugh. Uh, and need to laugh.

[00:42:28] Um, us showing our face on social media from day one, I think, uh, this was in the past, but I used to feel like a lot of trainers, would be shy about showing their faces and things like that. You know, it could be for various reasons to be honest, but, I wanted to make sure that I have pictures of me and Jio on there because I need people, if you racist, get the hell on.

[00:42:45] Don't even try it. Because when we used to work for a different company, we had to take on anybody. We had a racist and it was not fun to me. It was, it was targeted towards me and I was like, this is uncomfortable. when somebody that pays me money and they're racists, it's hard to uh, you can't just simmer it.

[00:42:59] I mean you can. No, but [00:43:00] you gotta do a delicate, you shouldn't stuff so. Exactly. So we wanted to make sure, not only are we smart bitch, but we are black owned. We are Latino owned, we are women owned and we are LGBT+ friendly, all friendly. And we wanted to make sure that all this is a boundary as well, like.

[00:43:15] Even this is, uh, this is, uh, kind of funny, but we literally just added a, uh, a new, category to our intake form, asking for pronouns. That's so important. You're making people feel welcome, but also you're eliminating. Yeah. If somebody jumps in there and they get all softed up about the reason that we're asking for pronouns, well then just don't submit the application.

[00:43:34] Just don't send it in. You're not for us. You not, you didn't pass. You're not, you're not a Smart Bitch. Sorry, you didn't pass. So before people contact us because, uh, one thing that was, that really sucked about not being in business for ourselves, that we had to take anybody on.

[00:43:47] We could not just cipher through. Uh, you know, maybe you will go, you'll be, maybe you'll be good for a different trainer. We couldn't do that back then. No. Yeah, now we can't. And free, and when you're in business, it's very intimate, so you should have control on who [00:44:00] you're seeing very intimately in your, in their house several days a week if it makes any sense.

[00:44:05] So, well, and you should feel safe going in their home too, and vice versa, like, yes. we forget about safety sometimes cause you and I work together, but, yeah. Um, I think that's so important.

[00:44:17] You guys do that together. Yeah. Yeah, I think so too. Um, this is kind of sad, but there's been a lot of, um, carjackings in New Orleans lately, and particularly a lot of women have been targeted, especially women who are sitting in their car from their phone. I actually had a mutual who was talking about this.

[00:44:31] It's really my age. It's really, it's really frightening to be honest. Um, and when we're together, you know, we know we feel safer, but also, yeah, we wanna make sure that we don't get any like, creepy men going into our house. Yeah, exactly. Um, there's been like, maybe like one time we, we both felt unsafe and we're like, oh, to roll dip.

[00:44:51] I'm getting a feeling. I'm getting a feeling. I don't get feelings often. I'm pretty dense sometimes actually, but I'm getting the feeling today. I think on the flip side of things in regards to our name, [00:45:00] um, on the mental, on the mental health aspect, our business aim and the way that we promote ourselves, um, it also for the people that they do get through to the ones who do wanna work with us and they like what they see.

[00:45:10] I also find that it also helps tremendously in our onboarding process, um, during our consultation, just because we do our consultation online, it is a two-part system. I often find that what we're discussing is usually aggression or something stressful. The parents are just like over it. And, We, whenever we open up these hard conversations and we're gonna be digging and we dig pretty deep, you know, we tell them we're very conversational.

[00:45:30] We let them know, be yourself. You know, if you want to describe your dog as a fucking asshole, then do that. Because at the end of the day, I'm consulting, you paid me for this time. I shouldn't be moderating how you wanna say things. Oh, and because of this, and, and because, because I'm trying to get the most accurate representation of what they're experiencing and, and we're doing our consultations without seeing the dog first.

[00:45:51] We wanna get the information from the parents first. And a lot of times just allowing them to be themselves can not only inform us on what's going on with the dog, but it also [00:46:00] allows us, and it informs us on potentially what type of learner this client is going to be. Um, if they're gonna be more tactile, just, just allowing them to be themselves.

[00:46:09] We can notice like, okay, the way that they describe this suggests that, they're more than likely going to need more attention on mechanics, clicker mechanics, or things like that, you know, just based off of how they describe something. And we often find that because our, our consultations do tend to be rather conversational and that they can speak freely and that they realize that we're people.

[00:46:28] Yeah. I'm gonna drip drop the occasional F bomb if you're comfortable with it. Obviously, you know, limitations. I'm not gonna pop off at the mouth if the woman's like 60 and I think she's gonna have a heart attack if I say the F word. and I'm not gonna pop off at the mouth if there's little kids, but if it's just, you know, usual adults and they're stressed and they're working with the dog who.

[00:46:45] Is aggressive, I let them know, like, yes, we're a positive reinforcement company. Yes, we start with empathy. Um, as, you know, like our, kind of our first area where we kind of approach things, but at the same time, you can love your dog and you can empathize with your dog, and you can still think they're a dick.

[00:46:59] [00:47:00] and I think a lot of people are like very resolved by that. They're like, oh, okay. You know, I don't have to like, everything about the training process. Like, no, yeah, you don't, We're gonna to get it to be enjoyable for you, but if you wanna cuss and swear and cry, do you boo? And oftentimes we get much better results that way because these people are not masking.

[00:47:15] They're just being themselves. They're just talking the way that they talk. And we set that precedent when they met us. I just wanted to ask, like, have you, so have you always kind of had that standard and protocol for consultations? Like, no, from the get-go. Okay. So when you made that shift, did you notice a difference in how your clients, um, communicated with you how they put effort in?

[00:47:35] Yeah. Yeah. So initially we were doing just an in-person consultations. They were incredibly overwhelming. There was too much information to exchange and we wanted to do it a certain way and just wasn't working out. So when we changed it though, um, it changed, it changed dramatically. It, it was, it was, it was definitely a shift.

[00:47:49] A lot of it was because of covid, obviously we all like switched to virtual, but then we realized that it worked better in our favor. Uh, but most importantly it was we saw the shift, in person. Because when you're meeting someone for the first time in [00:48:00] person, most people for that I experience, most people do struggle with anxiety.

[00:48:04] And a lot of it is social anxiety. Oh yeah. Meeting a stranger, letting them into your home, and then they're letting the stranger into their home who's a professional, and they're gonna think I'm coming in and judging their dog when really I'm just, I want to help them, but I don't get the chance to set that precedent as I'm here to help you because I'm already in the house observing the dog and trying to like, get all this information and it's all chaotic and stressful.

[00:48:25] And I don't, when we used to do it that way, we didn't feel like they were getting the attention they were looking for. And I just didn't feel like there was a sense of relief. And I thought it was really important at the end of the consultation for people to have a sense of relief because they were about to buy something very expensive and I wanted them to feel better about it.

[00:48:41] And so that's why we, another big shift about it was like, not only are we meeting them mentally, um, and assessing this information better, because of the way that they feel, they're more confident in making their purchase, which at the end of the day, we're a business. So in a lot of ways, the way that we protect ourself also, makes it a lot easier for us to make money.

[00:48:59] [00:49:00] Dude. Yes. Exactly. Yeah. Oh my God, I Are you sure you didn't go to school for business? Like. No, just weird you guys. Just the way you set yourself up. Say that again. Taylor error. A lot of trial and error That's what it was. But the thing is, Jio and I are not gonna stick something we don't like for too long.

[00:49:17] If I don't like something, if she don't like something, we gotta change it. Like when did you guys was, make that change. The virtual co in, I believe in 2020 if I'm okay correctly. Yeah. And it honestly, it went virtual. Yeah, it went virtual 2020. But we made another big change for the consultation.

[00:49:33] Um, when we, had a client, it was basically constructive criticism. They didn't like the consultation because they felt like what we talked about could have been recorded. And I was like, you know what? We said that's a good idea actually. So the educational portion of the consultation where we talk about like, reinforcement, we don't use certain tools.

[00:49:51] We talk about standard protocol, effective behavior. All we essentially all that stuff. We essentially give them context. Context so that they can answer our questions better. That's what our [00:50:00] first, first part is, so that when we ask the questions, they're ready to answer Yeah. So part one gives, gives them all that context.

[00:50:04] A lot of people come to us with the same and sofa misinformation of Alpha Dog Theory. I did this, it's my fault. I raised them right. What happened? Oh my God, I'm terrible. Sa, same thing. Same thing. And so we, and then part one, you're not terrible. It's not your fault. You're probably, your dog is probably gonna have this way, end up this way, period.

[00:50:20] No matter how they were brought up. And then part two is the actual consultation. When we sit and talk like this virtually, we don't even meet the dog. We don't meet the dog in, in part two, we just talk to the person, dog don't pair our bills. And we, have questions, a lot of questions. Our niche right now is reactivity and aggression.

[00:50:37] So we have a lot of questions because some, you know, some dogs may have a bi history, some may, some may be on the cusp of a bite history. So we have a lot of medical questions. Some dogs may be sick, so medical. And we have these questions pre-made. We ask them, uh, we have 'em, um, done already. And by the end of the consult, this consultation that we have, we find that we haven't had anybody not buy unless we have told them not to buy.[00:51:00] 

[00:51:00] Or we have sh uh, kind of shy them away from, from buying. Yeah, we should go to your veterinary and I don't, they should go to your vet. But it's been really successful and we find that the shift with the part one and part two has helped people, has helped us ask better questions, ask the right questions, get all the information we need out.

[00:51:15] Cuz that's one thing too that we always struggle with is playing good detective. We would be good detectives eventually, but on the front end we weren't always good. And that first session is so key because to get all the information, People don't lie. I think people just don't know. They don't realize, oh, they don't know what to look for.

[00:51:32] It did, right? I forgot about this. Like, and I'm like, that's so important. Thank you. It important to know that your dog shies away every single time you try to put a harness on? That makes sense. Yes. He has a BI history, didn't notice that. So little things. And with the consultation, we're both able to play detective and so we have better consults and we find that, that that starts off our relationship with our clients much better.

[00:51:52] They feel better informed. And when by the time we start carrying the dog, they're in it to win it. They're in it with us, they're in it for smart bitch. They are loyal clients [00:52:00] and we get more, we have been getting more ideal clients this way. Um, another aspect too, I think this is really important for listeners to hear, um, in this regard because I don't think anyone ever talks about this.

[00:52:09] so I am a frequent migraine person. I'm a migraine at least once a week, maybe twice. and I have identified a lot of triggers, but I get more triggers every year cuz that's just how aging goes. You know, you're just like, cool. you wanna sleep past six 30? Here's a migraine. What? Who gets migraines for sleeping?

[00:52:25] I do. Um, but one thing that I, I, I noticed, computer or not, I noticed that consultations gave me migraines. And I didn't understand why for a while. Cuz like I said, this whole ADHD thing is kind of new for me. but I, I started figuring out that when I'm trying to process too much information and I'm trying to deliver information at the same time, my brain tried to break in half and then we started doing it.

[00:52:44] Uh, and then we, and then before we made part one and before we made it a two-part service and we were just doing it virtually and we were still exchanging all of that information, live screaming at a fucking screen computer with the blue light in my face. And then by the time we're done with the consultation, I can't work, I can't work anymore, I'm done.

[00:52:59] I'm literally [00:53:00] just like, I have to send the emails the next day. My head is splitting in half, I'm starving, but I'm nauseous. And I, oh, it's the whole thing. It's something that I deal with all the time. It really sucks. And not throw a pity party by any means. But I think it's really important for people to understand that, when you own your own business, you can set it up to better support yourself as well.

[00:53:17] And I find that since we've made the shift and since we've made it easier for ourselves, which, and it made it easier for the clients too, whether they think that on the front end or not, I don't really care. It's just the ripple. It just carries over Exactly. Exactly. And so because things were more seamless and there was, and there was less stress or it was, you know, I wasn't screaming at a, a computer for two hours anymore.

[00:53:37] Or if I was, it was, I was getting the answers that I needed. I didn't have to like navigate a sentence to get them to answer me a certain way. It was like, right, I've already set the precedent for what this is gonna be like. It makes the, uh, the situation so much smoother. But most importantly, my brain isn't cracking in half, nearly as bad as it was before.

[00:53:54] Now occasionally I still will get a migraine afterwards just cause I'm very invested in our work. It still happens, but it's [00:54:00] not for the wrong reasons anymore. It used to be for the wrong reasons. It used to be because I was overextending myself and then by the time I left the consultation I was like literally almost passing outta my car because I was starving and just like overstimulated and trying to act professional and, and like, you know, damn having unpack for no yeah, no reason.

[00:54:18] But, you know, and so yeah, since we shifted, it gives us a little bit more peace and when the call is done, you know, when, when everything is done, Taylor and I, we call each other afterwards or we'll wait about 15 minutes cuz we both need kind of a break from the computer and the phone talking Yes. To kind of decompress.

[00:54:32] Yeah. And then we'll talk to each other about what we thought about the consultation and that'll be it. And uh, it's a lot easier that way. So, uh, for anyone out there who's struggling with chronic pain of the brain, if you just want sometimes, um, that's me and you can fix it if you just adapt some of your services.

[00:54:46] Migraines are new for me. started getting migraines recently. It's really, it. Very strange and bizarre. But I think also you can structure your business in a way where if you know something is hard, that can be your only session for the day. So even though Ji and I work together, when we [00:55:00] do consultation, that's the only session for the day because our are three hours long.

[00:55:05] Some of them they pay for two hours, but usually it's three hours. We don't wanna talk you for three hours cuz we feel bad. But y'all, when you work on, I, I keep saying People have questions. Yeah. And we You're covering all the bases. Exactly. And it is a standalone service. So if they choose not to hire us, you wanna make sure that they are better equipped and they know what's going on or they know the next steps at least.

[00:55:24] So, three hours, that's a lot. And after that, so I usually schedule consults by themselves. We literally, day, before a webinar, we had one consultation that was three hour, three hours and 30 minutes long. Cause it was two dogs after that we died. Yeah. How'd you do a webinar after that? The next day. See one day. Ok. One long. Yep. Day, webinar only. And that was our off day. And that's another thing to Jio are very particular about our off days. If you're off, you're off. You're off. You're off. Period correctly, off days. Respect them. Um, don't meet me. Get off social media. Um, I have a social media addict, so I'm always on social media.

[00:55:58] So what I have found, I tend to [00:56:00] log out of my smart bitch TikTok and going to my personal TikTok. Oh, it's off day. Taylor, go to your personal TikTok. Look at thee TikTok My new thing, love fashion. Now for some reason, just to decompress your brain off of work channel, I log into dog training, Instagram, dog training, TikTok or dog training Facebook. I immediately get a headache I'm on Facebook. Yes. toxic. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, wow, this just drained me.

[00:56:23] I need a break already. One point. And it's so interesting. So while I have done this is Jio recommended to me, I didn't listen for a while, but I finally did. I turned off notifications for all my social media. I tend to turn off all that so I don't get no notifications.

[00:56:37] So if somebody needs us for real, they, if it, it help as a client, if you're dying, like from my phone on my off days, I'm incognito. I've dropped off the grid. Like if I shared something, it was because I planned to share it two weeks ago and then I just finally got to it. But like, if you're contacting me, you might need to call my phone five times so it gets through do not disturb because everyone's blocked.

[00:56:58] Like, except my husband. And [00:57:00] honestly, sometimes he's blocked too. Love you babe. But no, not right now. Back to, you know, I get sidetracked too, off days. Respect them. We have two off days. We, honestly should have three. I would like Sunday off eventually, but we'll get there and, we'll there is a hot day for our clients, so we'll see.

[00:57:18] but social media, you have to log off. You have to log off. If you are handling your content for your social media, you need to get off of dog training, social media, because it is going to give you so much anxiety. For example, I feel the urge that, oh, I, need to learn this cause I didn't know this.

[00:57:34] Screw that I urge to help. That's what, why yes, why am I scrolling on here To almost make myself angry because we grew up in a day of social media. That's why we're addicted. It's the dopamine hits. Yep. It is. And it's, and even and since I handle our social media, I have be very careful or I'm not gonna wanna do it.

[00:57:56] So I'm literally, there are some days where smart bitch, you wouldn't have any [00:58:00] posts like two weeks. Cause that's what they don't feel like doing it. And I've always, if I don't feel like doing so, I'm not gonna do it. I do. And I feel like it, so we haven't had any other post since the webinar, so I'm far making the post no sense to feel bad about it.

[00:58:10] and I don't have to do it. I also feel like dog tend, like we have to do something because the algorithm says, oh, if the is gonna make you less, um, relevant if you don't post X amount of times a day. And that is true. Instagram meta sucks. I'm sorry. Meta sucks. No, it does I refuse to post every day. I don't want to, I don't even have that much content. No. And like I do on the post, I said, what the fuck are you posting about the whole time? Like it's just, you can only come up with so many things and regurgitate so many things and recycle so many things.

[00:58:41] And how many of these people are actually your clients and paying you money? Baby, that's the one right here. That's, that's the one right there. Like, that's something that I think people forget. but it's just, it's like people pour, I love it. Yeah. No, they, they, people just pour all this stuff into social media, and I hate [00:59:00] seeing it because it's like, mm-hmm.

[00:59:01] Okay. How long did it take you to make that, how long did it take you to type that out and then type out the, you know, video description and then post it, and then you're doing the engaging, and then you're doing this, you're on your phone. How much of that time, how much of that time are you actually making money, and how much of that time could you actually be recharging because you, you know, had a client?

[00:59:19] Like, that's the thing. We get sucked in and we get in this habit of like, oh, well, this person posted this, so I should be posting this. No, because that's that person that is not you. And Yes, fuck, I love you guys so much because it's just, you're so healthy about this stuff and it's so refreshing because so many people aren't, and it's just you're, ugh.

[00:59:39] We have to, we have to be healthy though. Everything I, have dealt with, we have had many events as millennials, life changing, altering events. Oh my God. I think it's a unique American experience too. Here's another one too. Not a fucking pandemic. Yeah. I am tired and if, if I am, if I do not take care of mental health, that is like, I can't, I cannot functions [01:00:00] wrap.

[01:00:00] It's a wrap. I don't, I can't sleep if I don't take care of it. Um, and me not sleeping, I literally get sick. Like, I get physically sick if I lose one day of sleep. Yeah. Physically sick. Like I cannot function. I, my body burns out. So I, I post when I wanna post. I am not posting for an algorithm. And that actually may be why I know 8,000 followers are a lot, but some of our colleagues have a lot more follows. I think if they post a little bit more consistently, they stick to it.

[01:00:23] I just do not have the urge to follow a schedule on social media because personally I'm already a little obsessed with it. So I feel better just doing it when I want to do it. And I actually am, I'm active on Facebook. Uh, my personal Facebook, if you a friend as a dog trainer on social media, dog training content, I'll disappoint you. You about to get random food stuff. Um, me talking about how I woke up on the wrong side, I fell in my bed. This is random stuff. I don't, I don't want everything to be dog training.

[01:00:51] And that's, I actually, I actually stopped and I'm so sorry for anyone who's buried in my friend request, but I actually stopped adding dog [01:01:00] trainers to my personal Facebook. Um, unless I have had personal conversations with them. This isn't because I don't like you, but in all honesty, I find that if I, if I simplify my life in some areas, if I choose to just pay attention to the people I need to pay attention to, such as my family, you know, your circle, my inner circle?

[01:01:19] Yeah. Taylor. Um, yes. Taylor. Yes. Obvious Taylor, obviously Taylor yes. Taylor. - you, you guys are, you're smart bitch, but smart bitch isn't you.

[01:01:28] It's not your. Personality. It's not, you know, your business isn't you, you were individual from that. Mm-hmm. And I think a lot of people get lost in that for sure. Mm-hmm. I think what makes me angry about it is that we're not getting paid for that. And I, no, yeah, I have feelings about working for free. Lots of feelings. Um, you know, my ancestry and my upbringing, I don't wanna work for free at all. Uh, I need to be paid.

[01:01:50] So if I feel like I'm doing something that is very, is this feels like at work, I'm gonna pause. Uh, can I make this, um, something somebody can buy? And that's something we did with the webinar, [01:02:00] to be honest. Like, you know what we're dealing with. Yep. We're dealing with a spicy situation. Let's make lemonade out of this fucking lemon.

[01:02:07] I love how guys just approach everything together. So when you, like, when you were thinking about how you wanted to do, you know, the webinar, um, and for those of, you know, our listeners that may not have caught that, can you just explain like what you guys covered really quick, like what the topic was and then we'll kind of go from there a little bit.

[01:02:27] So the webinar actually, so the webinar came about because we had a, really complicated situation with a client that that drained us severely. Like we had to basically fight back and forth with this client in order to finish him out and ended up, um, not working with them anymore. And, Jio got the idea of the webinar.

[01:02:44] For the listeners, if you're not aware of a webinar, the webinar is called, um, very much non jokingly, very serious. It is called How to Avoid Getting Fucked as An Animal Professional. and that literally was the working title, and then we were like, fuck it, let's keep it. everybody really resonates with this at some point.

[01:02:58] Yes. If you're in business, there's [01:03:00] a chance you might get fucked. And, um, basically, like Taylor said, we had a spicy situation and we decided to make, the better of it. Mm-hmm. And it worked out. I think a lot of people are, are constantly interested in the, I don't know what we are doing. Uh, we're not business coaches by any means.

[01:03:14] We haven't really been in business for that long, but we do feel like we've kind of tackled, um, some areas and we've gotten pretty good at like boundaries or establishing things. So we were like, fuck it, let's share it. Let's share what we've been through. And at the very least, uh, maybe people will avoid going through these things themselves.

[01:03:28] And, uh, so we really structured it like a case study. Um, oh, we, we blocked all confidential information, of course, but we were not holding back. We were actually showing, you know, actual text messages, actual emails, actual back and forth, actual charge back claims, actual lawyer letters, actual scary shit actual contract.

[01:03:45] All of that shit. All of the stuff that, that when you are creating a business, you don't actually get to see. It's all of that conceptual stuff that it's like, oh, I have a template for this. And you're like, but when you're in business, you don't really want a template. You just wanna like, you wanna see it, you wanna know it, you wanna understand it so that you don't, you don't have to go through it yourself.

[01:03:59] And so [01:04:00] that's what we did. We were like, this is what we went through, this is how we handled it. Everyone is welcome to disagree with how we may have handled things. But if anything, I think there's something to be learned, even in disagreeing with it and understanding that, okay, they did this. That's not for me.

[01:04:13] Uh, but this is something that could happen to me. so this is what I wanna do instead. so that's how the webinar came to be. Um, we're actually gonna be putting it up online pretty soon. We're working, we're working that out because it's just two of us. we are working on building up our online course platform.

[01:04:25] it is there, it just needs to be all, you know, set up and tech like Yeah. Tweaked, adjusted, use, all those things. Yeah. We need the spoons and we have some that now, so we hope to expand on our, um, it's, it's not really business coaching, it's more of like giving you a here's our experience, what's our experience, that people don't really talk about.

[01:04:41] Um, they're a business coach that feel like they don't talk about this either. You know, it's kind of like when it happens, oh shit, what do you do? And we talk about that and we may be adding more to that. I think that's just so awesome though, cuz it's also the way you guys approach things. It's not the same as everyone else.

[01:04:57] You know, you're younger, you're fresher, you [01:05:00] are BIPOC trainers, you have different experiences and I feel like people appreciate that cuz it's not the same, you know, business coaches, same, just, it's not the same spiel we've been hearing for however many years. It's different, but it's not any less important and it's very real and this shit can happen and yeah, it, people don't talk about it, so that's huge.

[01:05:22] I actually wanna ask you guys as being young trainers, as being young women, also BIPOC trainers, how Was it just trying to navigate this fucking white lead industry? First of all, oh God. First of all, first of all, yep. But, but second of all, cuz I wanna get into this with you guys cause I wanna hear your, both of your experiences with this.

[01:05:43] Cuz I can't even, you know, I, I have no experience in this, but how was it like doing your first conferences and just cuz that is, you know, not something we see a lot of. And I just wanna know how it was and how you protected your mental health in the process. I know that was a very [01:06:00] long question. I'm sorry.

[01:06:01] No, that's a good question. We love this shit. Give us a platform and let us talk about ourselves. 

[01:06:05] uh, Taylor and I are from the south. You know, born and raised in South. Um, yeah, I can sound like cornbread if I really need to. Uh, I'm from Nashville, Tennessee, so racism is not something I'm fucking, uh, like I've dealt with that, you know, like I'm a Hispanic person in an area where most of the people who lived around me, their direct relations with Hispanic people was either who was cleaning their house or who is building their roofs roof.

[01:06:25] And I know that sounds horrible, but like that is basically what you get lumped into. And then I'm Puerto Rican, which is like, I might as well have told a person I was an exotic fucking lizard. Like, most people don't even know that's part of the us. Um, so, you have to like, over explain it. But anyways, with that, with the childhood, you get a lot of thick skin.

[01:06:40] You get used to just like, just ignoring people and not, you know, not explaining things like whatever. Not everyone needs a history lesson. I, I personally, um, I would not lump myself in as like an activist type by any means. I just kind of like roll along and I, I try to do good and if it works out, awesome.

[01:06:54] If it's not working out, I'm just gonna keep trying to do good. That's pretty much it. but yeah, in terms of like the first few times [01:07:00] dealing with it, I actually, to be honest with you, in our industry, When it comes to industries in general, you have to understand that a lot of times within the industry, people are always paying attention just within themselves.

[01:07:09] So they're like, this is a white dominated industry, or there's certain things that are happening within dog training, but in our experience, it is every industry. It's everything we've always experienced. And so it's, you know, for us, I didn't really even Flint at the fact that this was a white dominated, dominated field because every field is white dominated.

[01:07:25] Any field that I was even interested in is, is always gonna be white dominated. So for me, you know, I by default functioning at a disadvantage, so to speak, but at the same time, you know that, that's just, you know, where we stood.

[01:07:37] But we also recognized pretty early on that if we were going to stand out, we were just gonna have to make our own business. And that's just the way that it was gonna be. But I do distinctly remember whenever we were, it's funny, it's funny when we talk about our past work experiences, when Taylor, uh, mentions that she really loved that job that we came from because I hated it.

[01:07:53] Um, I did it. I, when I came in, I came from a different aspect. I had already been serving tables, doing my own thing. I kind of already had this human [01:08:00] relations thing down. I'm also exceedingly cynical. And I could read people like a book. And um, it was one of those things where like, I came in here knowing that I was working in advances.

[01:08:10] Like I was there to become a trainer and that's it. And I was gonna do what I needed to do and tolerate what I needed to tolerate, you know, to a certain extent, um, to get where I wanted to go. Uh, but at the end of the day, there were always a stepping stone. I know that sounds horrible, but that's the truth.

[01:08:22] And, um, I, it was interesting when I met Taylor, honestly, ta, me and Taylor meeting each other was just like, you know, fate. Um, what, what year did you guys meet? What year was that? It was the second half, 2016.

[01:08:31] That is No, no, that is correct. That is correct. Because I would've, I I started seeking out becoming a trainer in 2015 after I got Beetlejuice. Um, yeah, everything's just kind of like fresh and new. We're just hit ground running. But um, damn, that was actually the first time that I actually noticed disrespect, I guess.

[01:08:46] Uh, not disrespect. I, no, it was disrespect. it was the people who were in the leadership positions. Um, we had gone through several changes of leadership positions because things weren't working out. Taylor and I were not quiet about it. We spoke out, it was a whole fucking scandal. We got fired, we got rehired.

[01:08:59] [01:09:00] It got restructured. We came back and then it got shitty again, and that's when we left and created Smart Bitch. And the common denominator, denominator in all of this was that certain people of our, of course, were white. And although we seemed charming to them, this is what, this is my perspective of how they viewed us.

[01:09:16] Is in the beginning when it was the first person, it was, we were people to be used. They saw us as I'm gonna be able to manipulate these two. And it was very inaccurate reading of us two completely. I was like, idiot, that's not what's gonna happen. Fuck. Um, and then with the second, you know, the second run of people who took over, unfortunately it turned out to be a similar situation. It was like, it was charming that we were, the way that we were, that we were, um, that we were ambitious, that we had ideals that, that we were willing to put in all this work and charming.

[01:09:47] But at the end of the day, I was never, I was never viewed as an equal. You know what I'm saying? Like, there was never this, like, there was never this respect I own that we, that it was, it wasn't I own you. I did. That's really what it felt like. [01:10:00] It felt like you get to do this and, and, and it's really actually verbatim where some of the things that were said was all that we've done for you.

[01:10:07] How can you say this? And at the end of the day, it's a fucking business. Like, I was like, this is the two way street. We've made you a lot of money, you know, and I don't owe you shit. You're not my mom and dad, you know, and I also can't live off of these pennies that you think that you're giving me as some fucking like income.

[01:10:23] Like, it literally was, it was not that much money. It really wasn't enough to really sustain yourself like an adult. And that was it, that we weren't seen as adults. We were seen like this little charming bit of property. Then, you know, when you call people out on this shit who aren't ready to hear it, they double down and get a little aggressive and, oh, how dare you?

[01:10:40] But, but essentially that was my first experience with it, was we noticed it in that regard and that, and honestly that's where we were just like, if we're gonna get away from this, we have to be in charge. And since then, to be honest, I don't think we've really dealt with it directly. I think most of the organizations and the people that we have chosen to befriend or to keep connections with, they've honestly welcome up, [01:11:00] welcome up with open arms.

[01:11:01] And for those who are not necessarily doing the work per se, um, I don't necessarily fault people for not doing the work. but I also am not gonna just be like your bestie, you know, I'm just gonna be like, okay, that's how you are. You may say some cool stuff sometimes and then sometimes you say some stuff that's a little and it is what it's cause that's just the nature of life.

[01:11:20] Uh, so yeah, that's essentially that. And then, um, to answer your conference question, the conference was wonderful, but it was also exceedingly. Overwhelming in the sense that I only had the slightest idea. I knew that we were popular. Like I knew that people were gonna be excited to meet us. Oh, did you underestimate y'all walking through the door to register and it was like, and I,

[01:11:41] no, it was very cool. It was, it was a little overwhelming. Um, it was a learning experience. There's definitely some things moving forward that will be like, okay, in, in terms of me. I can't speak for Taylor obviously. But it was a lot of fun. Um, everyone welcomed those open arms. Um, it was, uh, we obviously brought the, brought the pink, brought the ridiculous outfits. Um, I think I loved your [01:12:00] outfits. I felt like they could be more than dog trainers around us.

[01:12:03] That's kind of the vibe that I get from people when they're around us, is that they, they enjoy that we think similarly in our interests, but we also are more than that. And I hope that I inspire, we inspire more people to do that. To just really lean into themselves and be okay with like, wear the sparkly shoes and train the dogs.

[01:12:18] You can do these things. Yes. For, for me, um, to answer your question, so I used to wanna be a veterinarian. I went to the school to be a veterinarian. I was getting a, I was getting, I was gonna be pre-med biology. Oh, wow. And, Uh, yeah. And I I didn't do well in genetics. so I Psychology and after that I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I kept playing around my head that, ooh, dog training. But I was like, how can I do that?

[01:12:41] Like, how do you become a dog trainer? I didn't know in 2015 and I was looking around and I found the old business, honestly, I am very, um, this may sound harsh, but I'm very suspicious of everyone white in the animal industry until they have proven to me that they are not even just an ally.

[01:12:58] Just cuz Ally, I think [01:13:00] ally is too racial of a term. Um, I think that no ulterior motives. Yeah, no ulterior motives, no ulterior motives. I'm, I'm very, I'm very, I am nice, but I, I do not wanna deal with, uh, ignorance. Like I, I need, I need you to know before talking to me, the don't, just don't talk to me yet. Do some research.

[01:13:17] And so I, I came into the animal industry shielded. Um, you could, I guess you can call it masking, but it was just, I was on guard. Were you anticipating? Is that why? I was anticipating? Um, even though every industry is white dominated, I've always been a little suspicious about, um, the animal industry because I feel like animals are sometimes treated better than people.

[01:13:38] So if there are a lot of white people in the animal industry, I've always been like, this is the industry I'm going into, people who care more about animals than people, and I'm black. Okay. Buckle into this. And even my family was like, you sure, you wanna do that? I mean, you can deal with other kind of racism here, but I don't know what you're going experience there.

[01:13:56] It's, it's not, there's not that many black people in there. So that being, so [01:14:00] that's not limit. Those are my thoughts going into the first job. I have an afro, I've been natural since 2014. Afro Natural. That's what I mean. And yeah, my first job, I went in, I had stretched my Afro out. I made it as big as possible on purpose.

[01:14:12] And I had an interview. I'm like, this is me. Let me see your face. Okay, we're cool. All right, we're cool. You, you need to say anything. So I guess I can work here. And you know, I started to get my, you know, I started to get my, um, my bearings working for the daycare, loving that job, getting to know my coworkers.

[01:14:27] And this is literally my, probably my first full-time job as an adult. So I was very, I was going in there with kind of little stars in my eyes, but at the same time, very guarded. I was doing my job, basically. I like the job doing it. And the same thing Gio said, you started noticing you're being used as a pawn at the same time though.

[01:14:43] That's how all industries are. Yeah. You're gonna be used, you're gonna be used up until you burn out. That's how it is. And for me, I knew I was smart. I knew that I, uh, could go places. I, if I wasn't gonna be a dog trainer, then I was gonna somehow move up in that business and I was gonna find a way to do so if not that [01:15:00] business, but within the corporate of that business, I literally was, I had plans to do that if I wasn't gonna be a dog trainer.

[01:15:05] that didn't happen, thankfully. And I'm happy I don't work for a corporation. No, but I am always very guarded. I don't, I didn't really talk about my political views back then because I just assumed y'all just not on my level. 2016 was a really good year for me because I feel like in 2016 I was able to become more outspoken because of Trump winning, unfortunately.

[01:15:23] Because I get to see, oh, you were one of those people, okay. Mm-hmm. We'll run along and, you know, I've become a trainer. We have Smart and now I have the chance of not having to have people in my space. I am still very guarded. I look, I see social media, I watch people say, um, there are some things that I feel like, I'm like, wow, y'all are interesting.

[01:15:42] Y'all are so close to saying something really problematic. Lemme just be quiet over here, But as a black person in this industry, um, basically I'm guarded until I get to know you. Um, at the same time, I have Smart Bitch so I don't have to worry about being on guard for my clients.

[01:15:55] I feel like our clients, I can be myself day one, but in terms of colleagues and getting to [01:16:00] know other trainers, um, I don't really trust anyone until I get to know them a little bit. And I have a lot of people on my Facebook timeline who I call, they're my acquaintances and I have some real friends.

[01:16:09] But until I feel like you've proven yourself a little bit, like I can I watch what you say, then we can be cool. But, unfortunately that's the reality of being this business as a, um, as a black woman, because I, even though I'm force free, you know, r plus, just because you're force free does not mean that you're more quote unquote woke at all.

[01:16:25] Um, no. Everybody sus until,

[01:16:26] it may come, it may seem harsh, but that's how I protect myself. And that's how I, um, set myself up for success into the arrangement. Uh, I may be more open to adding more friends to my timeline, but I'm not afraid to cut somebody off if I feel like I don't like what they're doing And the thing is, people are not gonna always be outwardly racist to me, of course.

[01:16:44] But they will. I feel like people will treat me differently or they may say something I don't like. I'm like, I'm suspicious of you, tread, lightly. And yeah, that's me, to be honest. Yeah. of Thank you guys for sh just being willing to share that with me, cuz I know Yeah, of course.

[01:16:58] You know, some people don't [01:17:00] wanna talk about that topic, but I think that is very fucking important. It feels good to let it come out again. It's something I had to myself most of my life, so Right. Yeah. I'm suspicious. Well, we're in a, we're in a position where we're safe enough to say it, you know, because before we weren't, it's not like you could go up to your employer and when I, when I did notice things like making little snippy comments I'm just like, yeah, that's really funny that you lowkey racist.

[01:17:24] It's, I can't say that to your face because then I will change our relationship and you're gonna find a way to boot me out because the last thing a white person wants when they're not ready to face that it's to be outed as a racist. you have to kinda swallow it and you just, you're like, then of course when you regurgitate it back up or you present it as what it is, it's like, oh, you're just un grateful, how dare you?

[01:17:42] My favorite Jio when they were like, Taylor, you were so nice. I was never nice. I'm just doing my job. professionalism isn't nice.

[01:17:51] It's professionalism. Like, I think that's something people don't understand is. You know, we're just being professional and just doing what we're supposed to do, [01:18:00] but you know, yep. Say something wrong and it will fucking change. Oh my God. You guys, this whole conversation has just been, oh my God. It's incredible why it's been, it's been long, but it's just like, fuck, we've talked about so much, and I just feel like that you guys have such a healthy outlook, and it makes me so happy that you're giving advice to other trainers, hopefully other young trainers that are seeing this and they are, you know?

[01:18:25] Yeah. Realizing I don't have to do it like everyone else has been doing it for the last 20 fucking years. Mm-hmm. I can make it different. Yep. I can protect myself, enjoy my business, and not be deeply depressed and be overwhelmed by it. Yep. And you guys are really just, fuck, I'm so happy to just know you guys and, and be able to witness this because it's just, it's, it's incredible.

[01:18:47] You guys are doing something different. We're lucky here. We can flip the script on your ass because you've been working just like. You started Woof Cultr the same time we started Smart Bitch, and you have been fucking grinding and now you have a podcast, which just so you are aware, people have been [01:19:00] teasing or, or asking a podcast from us, we need spoons for that.

[01:19:03] And you are doing it so good for you. I barely have this spoons. You have them and you're doing it and it seems like you're enjoying it as well, which I think is the important part. Uh, I think it's, it's really important. Like anything that you go into it, as long as you're enjoying it, it's worth it. the moment, you stop enjoying it.

[01:19:18] Fuck it. Right. Or, or figure out a way to change it, because that's why I'm doing, that's why I'm doing the podcast because I got burnt out with Woof Cultr. I love Woof Cultr, but I realize that there is a serious need in our industry to talk about mental health and I don't wanna see it get worse.

[01:19:33] Yeah. Yeah. You are correct. It can, um, apparently the last, uh, United States census, the average timeline that someone is a dog trainer, they quit within two years. Yes, you believe that? I just got a chill from my, from my top of my head to my spine, because I know, you know what that feels like. My mentor quit. And usually I think it stops.

[01:19:53] It's, it doesn't, it's, it fucking ends before they even get to do it. And yes, because most people starting in corporations and [01:20:00] then they get mistreated and it's, it's what happened to us and unfortunately enough for me and Taylor, we have the result to fight back. We are fighters. That's just who we are.

[01:20:09] Um, but not everyone. Not everyone has that, that way you still have to, not everyone has it. And, and that's okay. That doesn't mean you're a less of a person. In fact, um, it did. It's mental back flips on our mental health too. We had to deal with it, work our way out of it. And now we're still trying to figure ourselves out, even if, again, even if it sounds like we have our shit together, uh, we're still figuring it out.

[01:20:28] And um, yeah, you're absolutely right. Most people do. They quit. They quit before they even get into it. Uh, it's really unfortunate, um, because I think a lot of people get into this industry with rose colored glasses. They think this is gonna be fucking awesome. And unfortunately, our industry, not just trainers, just the animal industry in general is saturated with toxic people or people who think that they know best.

[01:20:48] And because they think they know best and the whole thing is a fucking ego trick for them, they're not necessarily looking at the betterment of the animal itself. 

[01:20:55] People are like, fuck this. I don't wanna be a part of this anymore. Right. You know, I think it's a big problem.

[01:20:59] I think it's a huge [01:21:00] problem. Dog trainers. We have to eventually become entrepreneurs. I, I said this before, Smart Bitch, we wanted to make it, but it was a necessity because nobody else would've power us. Mm-hmm. We couldn't work as dog trainers anywhere and get paid anything like, or have the boundaries you guys have though, either.

[01:21:18] Yep. There are no businesses. They wouldn't have protected you. No, they were not protected us. So we had to make a business. And so with a, as a dog trainer, you have to be an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur is not easy, is not very, very hard. People lost their benefits in during the pandemic. Our people are not making enough to, and they work full-time in their business.

[01:21:40] You and I are lucky enough and smart enough, not saying that people aren't smart, but we have each other to make what we have. Because the economy shifted so we have to shift. So having a business and being an entrepreneur through shifts, like this is not easy. It's hardly mental health. And um, I actually wish I could, it'd be nice if I could work for a corporation that would treat [01:22:00] me fairly and pay me fairly. And I have seen some unicorns out there, like some trans, some trainers who work for businesses and just looking at rare experience.

[01:22:07] But I also worry about them because the thing is sometimes it doesn't always last to seem, you know what I mean? Like, and I get, I don't wanna scare anybody who has worked for a corporation. I'm sorry if I'm scaring you off, but it's hard to imagine people, dog, trainers working for corporation for a long time.

[01:22:20] So have to go in the entrepreneurship. And like I said, it's hard man. It's hard. Um, and we have each other if we're by ourselves. Oh dude, I don't know. No, I think that's so important to say, like you guys having each other and being able to bounce the ideas off each other and communicate and say, Hey, I am not good at this.

[01:22:38] Are you good at this? Like having that sounding board. Mm-hmm. Not everyone has that. And I'm not saying that, you know, you should go out and find a business partner cuz it's rare when you find one that it works this well. Yes. And I think that goes into business partners. Life partners, same thing. It's rare to find something to work that well.

[01:22:55] To be an entrepreneur. Yeah, it fucking helps. I don't think I would, I would [01:23:00] not be where I am if I didn't have my husband and that's just cuz he pushed me to do it.

[01:23:04] I just needed the push. I wouldn't have done But it's having that sounding board to come back to all the time and talk through, it's just so fucking important. But yeah, that's the one, one aspect we didn't even get to jump into is family and navigating that. Um, cuz there's a big aspect of that. When you own a business and you're setting boundaries, it's family and trying to figure out what does that even feel like to be a dog trainer, to be a business owner, um, and to still be a wife or to still have family.

[01:23:28] We don't have kids so we don't have to deal with that. But yeah, that's a whole other aspect of mental health that's very difficult to navigate. To help with this though. I, uh, and I, this is something I wish I knew when we first, um, joined social media to help with the loneliness. If you're by yourself, entrepreneurship, I recommend reaching out to trainers you find cool and network with them online.

[01:23:46] Yes. Basically, somebody to go back and forth with. That's something that Jio and I did by ourselves. Like we were talking to each other for a while. But then we wanted, we wanted more opinions, so we start, we formed a group with a few trainers who we were talking to randomly, and we ended up having [01:24:00] a little Facebook chat with them for like, two years, just shooting off ideas and learning from them too.

[01:24:04] And I feel like having these colleagues and these friends helped us grow. And so even if you are alone, you don't have to go at it alone. You can make connections with other things. I rec, I highly recommend doing that because you gonna need referrals. So you can talk to somebody and somebody who you could message, you know, not all the time, but like a friend. And you can, there are people out there you can make friends with, and I recommend doing it. I recommend doing it as best as you can. You don't have to be a whole bunch. It could be one somebody could talk to who you could bounce ideas off of.

[01:24:32] Ask their honest opinion, um, show them your training videos if you want somebody to look at your training videos. . And I feel like other, um, trainers by themselves, young ones, this is how you build a network. Just message the people. Hey, I'm, that's how we started talking.

[01:24:45] Yeah. I think for anybody who's having a hard time, if they think that, um, befriending any trainers is intimidating, just know that everyone is weird here. We're all weird here and we've all been there. Yeah. But like, but, but like, this is a safe space. Like everyone in our industry is a little odd [01:25:00] because we're all into the one thing, or, and I, I found a lot of comfort in that because, when you're in the right field and you're talking to the right people, you just, you kind of click a little bit more.

[01:25:09] You feel it, oh, okay, we vibe, we see you. You think like me, not exactly like me, but, you know, parallel. so yeah, just know that if somebody is intimidating, um, or if, or if you're like thinking twice or restructuring a sentence or trying to figure out the best way to say hello, just fuck all that. Say hello the way you would you wanna say hello?

[01:25:27] Because they're probably just as weird as you are. Uh, and it'll be all good. Honestly, like 90% of the time I feel like we're, we're just as socially awkward as everyone else's. And so it's like, we're kinda like, Hey, do you wanna talk? And you're like, ha. Yeah. Yeah, sure. And it's, so it's the same thing, exclamation point.

[01:25:44] So, you know, I'm not being like, I'm not too scared of exclamation points. Sure. I'm not too stern. Lighten the mood. Well, I think that is a great way to end this episode. I am just, I love you guys. I am so, so grateful that you graced me with the pleasure of coming on the podcast. [01:26:00] I know you don't do it a lot, so I really take this to heart and really appreciate it.

[01:26:03] No, thank you. Thank you for reaching out to um, you for just as much, just as much an inspiration. I know you're gassing us up, but you really are.