Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Tuscaloosa and Northport!
Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
Jenna Sloss: The Heart Behind The Grooming Barn in Northport
Have you ever wondered what it takes to uproot your life, chase a dream, and build a business in a brand-new community? Join us on the Good Neighbor Podcast as we chat with Jenna Sloss, the remarkable owner of The Grooming Barn in Northport, Alabama. Jenna shares her heartfelt journey from Pennsylvania to Alabama, driven by her passion for the southern charm and hospitality. Listen in to learn how she successfully established her grooming business, fueled by the local community's incredible support. Jenna also offers valuable insights on why professional grooming is essential for all dogs, even the ones with short coats, and how groomers can often handle pets better than their owners.
In this episode, Jenna opens up about her deep love for animals and her unwavering commitment to giving back to the community. Juggling her time between managing The Grooming Barn and mentoring her sister’s softball team, Jenna discusses how her dog, Turbo, helped her overcome mental health challenges and inspired her career in grooming. Discover Jenna's dedication to treating every pet with the utmost care and her initiatives to support a local animal shelter through donations. Don’t miss this inspiring conversation that highlights passion, community spirit, and the transformative power of animals.
#GNPNorthport #TheGroomingBarn #NorthportAL #PetGrooming #SmallBusinessJourney #EntrepreneurLife #PetCare #DogLovers #AnimalLovers #CommunitySupport #MentalHealthAwareness #GivingBack #SouthernCharm #DogGroomingTips #PetHealth #SupportLocal #PassionAndPurpose #PetIndustry #InspiringStories #PetOwners #AnimalShelterSupport
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Patricia Blondheim.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, patricia Blondheim, and today we have good neighbor Jenna Sloss, and Jenna is the owner and everything else at the grooming barn here in Northport. Jenna, how are you today? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing great, thank you. Let's start out by telling our listeners a little bit about the grooming barn.
Speaker 3:The grooming barn has just opened here. It's been not even three months yet. I recently just moved from Pennsylvania close to the Hershey area, so I was doing the same exact thing back home but I wanted to bring it here to Alabama. So I'm fairly new Things business have been amazing. I cannot thank everybody enough for the support and just the word of mouth. So I am super thankful for the fact that I was able to just kind of restart all over again and everybody has been very supportive for it.
Speaker 2:Well, tell us a little bit about that journey. I mean, what brought you from Pennsylvania? You just uprooted everything and here you are.
Speaker 3:Tell us about it. I did, yes. So I'm 24 years old, so I kind of am young. I have a lot of life to live yet. So growing up I played travel softball. I fell in love with Alabama when Jackie was playing in the rain with those girls and they were just unstoppable. That was it for me. I fell in love with it. So I have followed Alabama ever since I was oh my goodness, I want to say 10, 11, alabama ever since I was oh my goodness, I want to say 10, 11, maybe a little bit younger than that.
Speaker 3:Anytime I got a chance to visit somewhere, it was a Bama football game or it was a Bama softball game. I was lucky enough that my uncle actually worked at the University at one point and I was able to take a tour of the University and see things that the college students got to see. And their facility, their workout facility, is amazing. The way that they treat the kids is amazing. So I just I fell in love with just the southern atmosphere. That was what drew me here the southern hospitality, the southern atmosphere. And my boyfriend loves being in the south as well too, so it was kind of nice. We both compromised and just kind of were like all right, we're ready to up and move, so that's what we did.
Speaker 2:It's very different. Wow you, you switched. It was night and day, right.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, definitely night and day we went from having this plan of we were gonna wait to at least the end of this year and then things just so happened to happen it. We, we found this house. We were like we can't pass by it because we have four dogs of our own, can't really rent somewhere that you have four dogs and two cats, and we needed the land in the space. So so we were very thankful that we found the people that we found and the people that help us, and it just all came together and we just took the chance, we took the leap of faith and here we are, three months later.
Speaker 2:Well, can you tell us anything about? I mean, you're pretty much an expert in grooming. You're a young person, but do people. What do people need to know about grooming their pets? What would you say they need to know?
Speaker 3:That every dog can still get a. So, even though it says grooming and everybody thinks that it's just the long-haired dogs that need groomed, that's not the case. Every baby can get their nails done. Everybody can get a bath done. So there's always something little that, sorry, that's not the case. Every baby can get their nails done. Everybody can get their their a bath done. So there's always something little that sorry, that's the little one that oh, I know I got to.
Speaker 3:I got to meet the little nugget the little nugget is upset that mommy had left.
Speaker 2:I know poor sweet thing. I promise we're not doing anything mean to the dog, no I promise, he's just missing. He's missing his mama right now there we go, say hello. I wish our listeners could see this cute little dog.
Speaker 3:I know this is a little little harley nugget say hi, what do you think? But um. Oh my goodness, what were we talking about?
Speaker 2:Well, we were talking about how any dog's a candidate for grooming. But why would you not just you know, I mean, I'm a bad one for just throwing my little dog in the sink and giving it a little soap up Tell me why. Why would I want to spend the money to get my little dog groomed when I can just basically throw him in the dishwasher.
Speaker 3:No, I hey, I understand, I get it. I know I typically understand, because a lot of people don't think that they need to go to a groomer. But with a groomer they listen better with us. They're like children. When they're at home with you, you can get them done, oh so well. You can do their nails oh so, oh so much. You can get oh so much of them dried. But when they're here with me, I'm able to go ahead and get the nails back as short as I'm able to get them. Whenever I have them here, I'm able to get them blow dried as well, as they will allow me to blow dry. Sometimes I don't like their heads being blow dried, which is typical, but they let me do everything, as if a parent wouldn't let them do so to me. That's where I find grooming is a a good thing for the economy.
Speaker 3:I find the grooming is a good thing for any community, just because, even if you're not able to, there are some dogs out there that do not like to be groomed. They will bite and nip and snarl, and those are the ones that I typically tend to take because they have fought with different other groomers to to go through this process. They've. They've gone to the part of. There's a bunch of dogs in there and they get stressed out and anxious. So we're at my shop. I tried to do it more one-on-one so that way they're just running around, they're not being in a kennel, they have the more relaxation of the one-on-one time with me. So that's, they're just running around, they're not being in a kennel, they have the more relaxation of the one-on-one time with me. So that's where I understand that grooming is not always the best, because there are horror stories to it. There are. There are absolutely not great stories to grooming yeah, and there are horror stories.
Speaker 2:You know that the dogs come in and they get thrown in the cage and they get taken out and put back in the cage. But that's I came. The first time I met you was by coming and visiting your business, and that's not the case at all where you're at. In fact, this little nugget the one that we're hearing in the background he's out running around because and interacting with you, because that's the best way to deal with his anxiety, not stuffing him in the cage. Am I right?
Speaker 3:Yes, and that's where I I suffer from anxiety myself, and dogs that are rescue dogs. They, you don't know their story, you have no idea where they came from, you have no idea how they were treated, if they were treated nicely, if they were abused, you don't know. So that's why I liked the fact that when they come in, they get to take off their leash, their harness, they get to run around. There's balls here to play with, there's beds here for them to lay on. They don't get to go right into that kennel right away where they think, oh my goodness, mom and dad are leaving me again and leaving me at some strange place and I'm never going to see them again. So that's where I try to make it a home aspect. I try to make it warming and welcoming so they know, okay, this person's going to take care of me and love on me and I get to go back clean and happy to my parents. That's how I try to run my business.
Speaker 2:Well, jenna, you're a brand new business owner, so I'm not saying you've got a lot of time for this but what do you do for fun when you're not working?
Speaker 3:I honestly I haven't had much time the past three months that we've been here. We've been busy with with our house and with getting the shop set up. But I do help my sister out with with her softball team. So on Tuesdays I'm at games and then on Sundays we're at practices. So it's nice to kind of get to mentor her a little bit. I'm a little bit of a prodigy. I like the collar, since I did the same thing. So I'm trying to get her to be a little bit better of a player than I was. Maybe she can make it to the college level.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Does she have big shoes to fill?
Speaker 3:I mean gosh yeah, between travel ball. She definitely has big shoes to fill. I played, oh my goodness, the one time we played, from six o'clock in the morning till midnight. It was seven games in one day, back to back to back to back. We didn't have any break at all, and the only way I remember this is because I was the very last out. My dad still harps on me to it for this to this day. I'm pretty sure I hit the ball and I got out or something, but I lost championship game for us. That's all I know. Oh no, after seven games.
Speaker 3:I still get harps on for it to this day and I got to tell them like, listen, we played seven games in one day. Being 15, 14 years old, it's kind of tough.
Speaker 2:I know that's amazing. They would have had to wheel my coffin out onto the field. That's how I would be playing the seven-degree game.
Speaker 3:I just remember going. We had a two-hour drive then that night we got home at 4, 4 o A rough weekend.
Speaker 2:Jenna, it sounds like you have like that's just in your nature to meet challenges. You have a business, you played travel ball, you were competitive. It's in your nature to meet challenges, but has there been one that you have sort of felt like it's created some distinct change in your life?
Speaker 3:It's a challenge that you remember for resetting you um, there, there are multiple, there are, yes, um, there's one. I won't fully get into it, um, but I've had a rough time, uh, so the whole reason why I got into grooming was mental health. So I do suffer from mental health and I'm a big advocate for a lot of that. So my puppy that I had at the time, he is the light of my life. He is the joy I'm going to cry. He is the joy of my life. Turbo is amazing. He is the reason that I have just fell in love. I've been in love with animals since I can remember, but he is the reason for everything. He is the reason why I've done what I've done to this day. He is the reason why I am who I am. He, he helped me a lot. He was there when I didn't have anybody. So to me, animals are a godsend. Um, I just don't know what I would do without him.
Speaker 2:Sorry, we all, we all have had that dog in the past.
Speaker 3:We don't have him now. I still have him. He's five years old to this day. He is the best thing ever. But he is one of the main reasons why I've gotten into what I've gotten into. I've definitely had a bunch of hardships in life and when you have nowhere else to kind of turn, your animal is there and they will never, ever leave you. And that's just what he has been for the past five years. He's been my partner in crime. He's been my best friend. He's my boy. Turbo's my boy.
Speaker 2:And I think that really defines how you approach this whole business. I mean this is more than business for you. I can tell you're in the middle of your happy place when you're in your grooming spot, when you're in the grooming barn.
Speaker 3:Yes, this is my home away from home. This is my other happy place and I love it. I would not trade any other day to be here. If I could be here seven days a week, I probably would be here seven days a week. If I could be here seven days a week, I probably would be here seven days a week. But that's where my boyfriend and my dad try to tell me hey, you need to take a break for yourself sometimes you can't keep running yourself down and that's where you take the weekends. But if I could do this day and night, I would do it day and night.
Speaker 2:Well, what would you?
Speaker 3:like our listeners to take away Jenna about the grooming barn, that I absolutely love what I do. I love these babies as if they were my own dogs. I treat them as if they were my own babies. They get the love and affection when I'm grooming them. I groom them as if how I would want my own baby to look.
Speaker 3:So I mean, if you're looking for somebody that's gonna spoil and snuggle your dogs and make sure they're not, really I do have to occasionally put them in a kennel if I have people drop off or whatnot and just for their safety because of the road in the door right here. But I do try not to kennel. So if this is something that people are interested in and want to come check out or even just give me a call, say I'm more than happy to help out, say I'm trying to help um the metro shelter. Right now I'm doing donations for them for the whole month of October because I know that they're looking for some help. They're they're out of supplies, so I figured if that's some way that we can give back and I know actually Turbo is from that rescue, so it helps me too as well to kind of give, be able to get back to the place that gave me one of the most amazing dogs that I've had so far in my life.
Speaker 2:How can listeners contact you at the grooming barn?
Speaker 3:We have a Facebook. There is a website through Square. If you have an iPhone, it's called Square Go and if you search the grooming barn it will pop up. I have all my services on there, the pricing, everything that's included. Reviews are on there as well too, but mostly everything is through Facebook, or you can give me a call at the phone number, which is 205-523-5892.
Speaker 2:And I will link to all that in the description below Jenna 855-5892. And I will link to all that in the description below Jenna, thank you so much for coming by and sharing your precious dream with us the grooming barn.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I'm so glad that my dream was able to come true. This is what I've told myself since the day that I started grooming that I was going to open my own little shop. It was going to be how I wanted it to be, where the babies are going to be stress-free and have the room and the place and do whatever they want. And here I am, five years later. Here you are, the Gary Moore. I love it.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Jenna. Thank you so much. Yes, thank you. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Northport.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Northport. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpnorthportcom. That's gnpnorthportcom, or call 205-809-4910. We'll see you next time.