Transforming Your Dog Training Business (and life!) with Employees

In this episode, Emily Nolan sits down with Kristen Lee. She talks about how hiring the right people in your dog training business and life is an absolute game-changer for dog trainers, along with not just hiring to "fit a need" but hiring to create leaders and developing leadership teams to support you. 

Emily shares her journey as an employee to the owner that inherited a dog training team and learned to be a leader while rebuilding a world-class team.

They also talk about:

• The learning lessons of hiring the wrong people
• How having a team is an asset to your business 
• The challenges dog trainers face when they first decide to hire
• How to hire out & delegate in your life to CHANGE YOUR FUCKING LIFE
• Reinvesting back into your employees & develop leadership roles

Dog Biz School is open for enrollment - get on the waitlist!

Episode Links:
Dog Biz School Website

Instagram - Kristen Lee

Instagram - Dog Biz School

Transcript

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Hey, everyone. Welcome to today's episode of the mind, your own dog business podcast. Stay tuned. It's going to be an epically. Great one. But before we officially get kicked off, you've asked for. We are delivering. I want to make the official official announcement that dog, this school is going to be opening its stores starting March 21st for a limited time enrollment. All right. We officially, haven't been accepting new students since June of 2021. Yes. It's been that long since we did an open enrollment period, but so many of you amazing pet business owners and dog trainers have. Literally beating down our door over the last three months that you're like, or actually the last year that you want in, you want it and you want it. So I got together at the team and we decided to do a really limited open enrollment starting March 21st. That's all I'm going to give you about that. More details to come. However, if you've been waiting to reach out to me or. Thinking about it, or you've been waiting for the right time now is the time to connect with us and get on that freeway list to the person that's been in business for a few years. That's ready to do something a little bit different, right. You know, there's a better and faster way to hit your goals. With your dog training and your pet business while not burning the fuck out, whether that's program design, whether it's as different style marketing to the newbie, that's trying to navigate the waters of running such a successful dog training business while listening to all the noise that's going on in the dog training market to that seasoned as fuck dog trainer that is ready for a new shift. I'm talking to you, my bad-ass business owners that have facilities maybe. Grab go into a new facility or expand your facility into multiple location to maybe looking at your employees at a different level, or to finally crack the code of that high seven figure sales in dog training without the burner. So if you've been waiting and this is your time, you want to get in the pre wait list, there's going to be more details. But if you've been sitting here and you're like, oh my God, I need to raise that. This is your call to action. Yes, I'm using a marketing term called action to go ahead and do that. So get on the pre wait list. Go to doggy school.com forward slash work with us. That's dog. Dot com forward slash work with us. And what we'll do is a team. We'll get your application. It's a small application and we'll get your name in the hat and just like raising your hand and we'll get some more information, confirm your application looks good. And then we'll schedule some time to chat in March for school, if you're going to be a good fit and vice versa. All right. So I'm looking forward to seeing all of you. That had been waiting and raising your hands and eagerly mellowing at my DMS about opening dog new school for enrollment dog, the school.com forward slash work with us toxin. You're listening to the mind, your own dog business podcast. I'm your host, a leading expert in dog business, strategic Kristen Lee guys. Get ready for your journey, your journey to cutting edge marketing and sales. Creating a standout kick ass dog business brand, along with mastering your mindset, that's going to smash all of this glass ceilings that have been holding you back and catapult your dog was this to the next level. With actionable steps you can take right away. We're going to empower you. We're going to grow you as you step into your authentic self. Not only as a dog trainer, dog Walker, or what ever slice the pet industry, you find yourself in. But as that bad-ass entrepreneur, my mission is to disrupt the current norm, cut through the noise, cut through the bullshit and empower the incredible women of the dog business industry. To step into this. Reclaim control and transform not only their businesses, but their lives. It's real. It's raw. It's uncensored. And it's what this dog business industry needs. Let's do this guys. All right, everybody. Welcome to today's episode of the mind, your own dog business podcast. I have one of our favorite guest podcast, peeps that come on here so frequently. It's been a hot, hot minute though. Emily, since you've been on , it's been a while. I think the last one was when you were with, um, you and Danielle and you talked about business partners. Yeah. Like what couple of years? Like way back, I don't even know at this point last year, I think I don't even know a date is, you know, yesterday was even a holiday. I was like, wait, today's a holiday. Like what's. We're like what the fuck is a holiday being a business owner. Like there's never really holidays unless it's like scheduled it anyway. So Emily is here today. Again, she's one of our business coaches. She teaches sales, all that good stuff, but she is here today to talk about employees and being a better employer in your dog training business. Um, what, I also really, really appreciate it about Emily. Despite having the multiple seven-figure dog training business is the fact she is one of the leaders and the dog training space when it comes to building staff and world-class teams, and really investing into her staff members and employees and putting them into leadership positions. So today we are going to talk about why building a solid team and putting employees in a place of leadership is an asset to dog training businesses and other businesses across the globe, across the board, whatever you want. Cool, Emily. Welcome as always welcome as always. And let's talk about it. What is, let's talk about employees in your business. Yeah, thanks for having me on, I mean, this is a really important, like this is a topic close to my heart. Um, I've put a lot of work into my team and feel really inspired for other people to. Kind of feel the way that, or get to the place that I've gotten and see that result. Cause I do know that a lot of business owners are very hesitant about bringing people on board or have just had bad experiences with employees. Can we back up a little bit, can you talk about where you were like when you first went into your dog training business, like the staff that was there to where you're at now that, that almost comparison. Can you kind of share the story of the background of that and how much you built so far? Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So. I did have kind of a unique situation in that I wasn't employee that bought a company that was had some staff members. Um, so I became like a co worker and then I was an owner. Uh, so that was like a little bit of a rough transition for that team. But also at that time in my life, I was 26. Um, I had a lot to learn about and like people management and, uh, I guess, I don't know if this is what you're talking about, but you know, we essentially had to do a couple of generations of our staff until we got to the place where we are now. And each one of those generations was a huge, like learn. Each one was a learning cycle for me. And now we have such a dialed in team, thankfully, after kind of going through some lower points with the crew. Um, Based on just like lack of knowledge and like just the existing kind of conditions that were in the business at the time of selling it to. So I think that, you know, even when you have a employee situation that doesn't pan out the way that you want, um, There's so much to be gleaned from that. That makes it better the next go round. So, you know, you get out of a relationship. That's not great. Doesn't mean that you're ruined for all future relationships. Hopefully you're bringing something into the next one that makes it better. Yeah. I think it's like people and this is like one of those misconceptions. It's like, all right. People. And we're going to talk about like things that we see people doing, but like, You talk about getting you're finally like invested into your first employee. And then like, as always, it's a whole continuous like cycle of improvement and it's like, all right, cool. You invest in your employee. Maybe you have a bad experience. And then you're like, fuck this. I'm not hiring more. Or I'm like scarred from it. Or you do something kind of funky when it comes to like putting people in place in your business. Instead of using it as a learning opportunity. That's what I see a lot of people. So it's like, I'm not hiring anymore. Yeah. If you're, if you're going to repeat the same thing that you did with the previous generation, like you said, of employees, like, then you shouldn't fucking hire, you shouldn't provide jobs. You're right. And people get bitter and they get scared. And I think that that kind of dissuades them and it's almost. One would hope that your first hire would be like a perfect, beautiful experience, but I'm almost going to make that analogy back to dating. It's like, that's like the odds of you marrying your high school, sweetheart, which I think did you meet your high school, sweetheart? Kristen, I didn't actually know my, I married my, uh, rebound, but you know, like most people, their high schools, we heard doesn't work out and that's kind of. Almost there is less odds of that first hire being like the perfect fit as much as it is like a starting place. And that has to be okay. And then you kind of grow from there, but when you do get it right with the team and it starts to get so much easier, the more that you start to create functionality around like team processes and stuff that grassroots. Around like systemizing your work, et cetera. It gets way easier each time. Uh, that's really where you start to expand. And then to your point, you know, you're creating jobs. So I do think there's such a impact it can have on your community. When you start to open up your business as a business owner, owner. Yeah, absolutely. It's one of those things that I had a podcast last week that dropped it was like, people get these whole like, wraps around like, like having like really high prices. And it's like, oh, is it ethical to charge, you know,$5,000 for boarding train? It's like, okay, cool. Are you worried? What ethics are you worried about? Are you worried about that? You're going to be higher priced than somebody down the street. Or is your goal to build like community around and like provide jobs for other people. Cause that's where it like kind of plays into. And I know Emily specifically absolutely loves to provide jobs, uh, bring up female leadership in the dark training industry specifically and like putting people into managerial roles. Right. Yeah. And that has been, I mean, it's been life-changing and actually I'm glad that you're bringing that up. I was thinking about this just in preparation for this conversation. Um, some of the aspects of. Like the unspoken aspects. Okay. Like some great parts about having a team is that your business can make more money. You can help the community in a broader space. You can have actually like different parts of your life back that you don't get necessarily when you're a solo entrepreneur. Um, although there's an exchange and you have to focus on different things too. But the biggest thing for me that I think is unspoken and not talked about is that it helps shape the person I am. So I was 26 when I got into this I'm 33. Now I'm into the ownership space. And without having that reflection of my staff, I was thinking about like this exact thing, like without having. That I felt accountable to re be a role model for, I don't know that my life would have, like, it helped navigate my choices even to have them looking back. So you think like, oh, okay. I have to have all my shit together to be in this space to lead somebody else. No, in fact, the act of leading is what gets your shit together. If you have authentic authenticity at your court, because you want to be the person that you're asking them to be for your business. And so, like, I don't know if that am I'm painting a good picture here, but like it helped me kind of become a more responsible and more well-rounded human. Even just having a staff that relies on you. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think too, The whole thing, going back to like reinvesting back into your people in your business. Cause like I see so many people are like, oh, just hire contractors. Oh, just hire 10 99 or just outsource. And it's like, to me. If you truly want to be like, and again, this is different for everybody's situation too. Cause like even dog with school, we have W2's we also have a couple 10 90 nines that are with us, but it's like, if you truly want to reinvest back into your community and like build people up and provide those jobs, it's like, you do have to take a moment and be like, all right, cool. What is the investment back into my business, through my employees? Is it that we're going to pay them a great wage? Are we going to keep, you know, continuing building what we're building upon, expand even more? Is it continuing in somebody else's education? So all that good stuff too, when it comes to her now. So why do you think Emily building a solid team and putting players in place a leadership is an asset? Like why to you, what does that mean to you building a solid team and making it asset to your business? Well, I mean, just from, I think. It has helped in a lot of areas. I think that one place where a lot of people are most interested in hiring is that they're able to make more money. And that is like, we should just put that on the table. You are, you can do more, you can expand your services. You can bring in a higher yield when you have a team. Um, so that's one asset that's just like kind of cut and dry. And I think that at its core, a lot of people start there and that's a big reason, which is great, but. The thing is, you know, getting parts of your life back when you can offer like outsource parts of the things that aren't fulfilling to you. So you focus mostly on the areas that are what you really at your core want to do. And, um, a lot of business owners, like it's okay to compromise some of that for a while, especially when you're starting out. But there gets to a point where it's like, you're designing a life. Most entrepreneurs get into this because that's. Place they want control over their life. Like that's why you're not working for someone else. So to get a little bit of that control back, actually bring in a team that helps you, uh, create that picture of what you're looking to do. Is that your question though? I'm sorry. That was good. No, this is kind of an off topic question. Do you feel like there needs to be a certain level of maturity to bring somebody in like employees in and run a team? No, like I said, I was 26. They, it taught me everything. Just having to raise my. Self to the standard of being a leader. So I couldn't have done it without, I think looking back without that pressure. So, you know, you jump in two feet in and there's no timeline, either a lot of trainers. Like I think it's just so outdated at this point to talk about like, you need to be training for 10 years before you like, can mentor somebody else. Why? I don't think so. You don't have to have like a decade of training experience to. Teach somebody else, parts of what you do and support your. Yeah. Now I know we chatted about this yesterday and I think this is a really good topic to bring out to the listeners. Is what issues are you seeing? Other dog trainers and dog business owners going through when it comes to regarding employees? So I know you went to a big conference a couple of weeks ago, or like a month ago, we don't need to name it, but there was a similar pattern that you kept seeing when it came to dog trainer and dog training, business owners and other people in the crowd, like bringing employees in, like, what were some of the issues that you see. Yeah. I saw two different spaces like that were kind of consistent either the trainer that doesn't want to bring anyone in yet. So there's still like completely over, you know, they're a solo entrepreneur in a lot of ways. Maybe they have a contractor, but they're just not ready to commit to managing a team. And, and yet they totally have the business to support it. They totally have the clientele. Like they're ready if you look at all other areas, but like emotionally, maybe they're not ready or. I don't want, I really do feel like people just are afraid to jump in with two feet and say, I'm going to be responsible for this person. There's still that lingering fear, which a lot of business owners, it takes a while to get out of that head space of, is this going to be my last client, even when you're the busiest you've ever been? Hmm. Still kind of haunts a lot of business owners. It's like, well, maybe it'll dry up tomorrow. So we have a hard time of going it's, you know, trusting. Okay. I can continue this. And in fact, I bringing in a team and by the way, a team is expansive. It's not just another dog trainer. It can be so many different other things. Uh, I know that I'll be able to continue, um, supporting the business and in fact, grow it now. So that, that initial jump is one phase that I saw a lot of people out where they're not, they just can't get over that initial hump of like starting the team. And then the second phase that I saw were people who had started to bring in teams or had had employees for awhile. They weren't really willing to let go of some of the control into some managerial spaces. And that's like the second year. That can get you like, so first maybe you're like, okay, cool. I'll hire some employees, but you're still micromanaging everything for years even. And then that second killer is we never bring in a manager and that, and the employees essentially burn you out just the way that the clients used to. You know, so those are the two spaces that I saw a lot of people working in and struggling with. Did you ever fall into any of those spaces? Yes. And honestly, we are just, we're a little bit ahead of that. We have a leadership team now. Um, thankfully, you know, I, we did a VIP day with grassroots, like was it a year, a half ago? And we were 20, 20, I think, late 2020s, late 2020. And at that stage, like, I didn't even realize it, but we had been without realizing it, prepping for this. Out of necessity. Like we had these three really great team members, super committed that had grown with the company that were ready and, um, and grassroots really helped kind of paint a picture. And I literally like, just like literally painted a picture on a whiteboard and. And was like, this is, you know, this is how it works. Uh, you got to bring in that support system, like the kennel manager, the training floor manager kind of thing, and trainers. I just, it's hard. You, you have so much, you've put so much into your stuff. You don't want to let it go. You don't want to, you don't want your clients to be, get, you know, any kind of a watered down version of something. Like you're, there's a lot of fear. Um, but my business partner and I had gotten to a point where. We have to start this ball rolling because the space, if you fast forward five years from the moment where we were in that time in 2020, I don't think we would have, we were so quickly headed to burn out again. Um, like, which I think, you know, please correct me if I'm wrong, Chris. And that becomes in cycles. Like you, you work on always managing, not getting to a place of burnout. It's not like you have it fixed. And then it's done forever. Making sure your life stays in a healthy space. So we were kind of headed again to an unhealthy space based on the volume of the company and not having that support team. And, uh, we started the process of that, and then it still took about six to eight months of coaching. And now we're where we have that, that middle management team and we're working with them and they, and you know, what I didn't realize Kristin is that, um, we probably would have lost those employees. Yeah. Uh, not because they didn't love their job with us because they would have outgrown their roles. So now, if not getting the fuck out of the way, essentially, we now were able to like give them the challenge they needed to continue to grow in the company. Yeah. I remember that VIP day. You and Danielle, both yelled at me and Maggie were tough clients. I mean, honestly, we're like the toughest clients of. Like, I think some ways you're like, why did we do this? And then you're like, oh shit, this is why. Okay, cool. Yeah. We like to fight and argue before we accept anything. So it's cool. It's cool. I'm like you tell me something, it doesn't stay with me for like an hour and then again, then I get it. I'm like, oh, okay. That's how you do it. And then I take them on to implement it too. So it's all good. Well, I think that's true. It's a really good, it's called. When your, to top, this is like old school corporate old school, like Misha. It's like when you're so super top heavy of a company, no matter if you're so entrepreneurial, not even yours, but if you have multiple people in your business. So like for example, you and Danielle were the quote unquote managers of everything, right? Like you read like. Yeah, you're two heads of the triangle. And then it's like low. You just had employees after employees, after employees. And there was a note, there was roles and responsibilities, but all the roles and responsibilities rolled up to both you and Danielle and yeah, we couldn't walk away. We couldn't take a vacation at the same time. We couldn't take a, you know what I mean? It was like, we, one of us had to be on there. No matter what exactly and exactly. And then by re organizing the way the business was like putting, like you said, the kennel manager in place to training floor manager, and then I forgot what else? The other role was office manager, manager, Leah, right. Oh, she's awesome. Employee under her. So for her, it's exciting getting off. I'm like all I'll focus with this, but with all that too, it allowed like it again, improves upward mobility in an organization. It also allows you to even expand more. So it's like, that's why Emily ended up hitting, you know, the multiple seven figures in the last couple of years with this type of model. Now, is there ever a time where you see people that wouldn't be ready for something like this? Like putting all these people in place? Um, I think if you're running a kennel at this point, looking back, if you are running a kennel and you don't have your sights set on like a second in command, at least then there's a huge problem because, you know, Your whole company could employ. So if you're running a larger scale business with employees and you don't have some workings of a manager system or, or are receiving some coaching around how to bring in a manager successfully, um, then you are like, it's like, I, I don't know. You're just like building a house now. I can't, that's not even a good analogy. It's like, literally it could be just. Domino effect could take the whole thing out, which I now see how risky it was for us. I mean, at least I had my business partner. So if like one of us died kind of thing, but we'd still gone, but, but it was still pretty risky of a place to be in, to not have other people that knew how to do shit, that we know how to do. Like we were holding so much information in our heads and in our hands. That it was risking the business. And you know, that's really not fair when you have a lot of employees to have to set your business up in such a precarious way. It's not fair to them to be in that situation. Not that they knew that at the time. So, uh, if you have a team and you're managing like a bigger team, there should be a person at least kind of as a protege to you in that management space, I think no matter what. And then for anybody who owns a. It's time to hire. Now, if you ask me, I mean, I don't know if Maggie, Kristen would say something different, but no, I think that hiring is like, just start and it could be a bookkeeper. It could be a business coach. It could be a, a housekeeper, but like start building. Yeah, it doesn't even have to be another dog trainer to begin with. Abso-fucking-lutely well, it's, I want to go back to the point of like the whole house of cards. Like you pull one out, they all fall. Like I had that per well, I had that personal experience the last month with Maggie being sick. Um, my listeners don't know, but my business partner and the CEO, Maggie, Christina, she's been really sick. She actually had, uh, has like toxic black mold poisoning. Like she had like. Yeah, it's insane. I didn't realize how bad it could fucking even kill people. I didn't realize that she was literally having neurological symptoms of like dementia and like stroke, crazy. Like it's like meningitis style. And it was one of those things of the whole exercise of Maggie got hit by a bus or Kristen got hit by a bus. And if we didn't have our operations manager slash uh, Maggie's, uh, business, like the person that we brought in as a business coach, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have the energy today to be talking to you. Like, I wouldn't be able, like, it would have been really fucking bad. Like yeah, we have other coaches and we have other team members that are in place. We have our own, you know, operations assistant and like office manager. But if we didn't have that one person that we train specifically for that one protege style role, like the whole fucking thing would have collapsed. And I don't know what the fuck I would have. Like I would be here, but I would not. With Emily right now, recording. I'd probably be crying to Emily on the back. Well, that's, I mean, so I'm so glad you guys had that. Right. And then like, yeah, it has such a, it, so that just shows the importance of it, but also. Even if it wasn't a disaster situation, you want to be able to have some flexibility in your life and you don't realize how quickly you start compromising that as a business owner, whether it's with employees or with, um, your clients, where you start to just give up all your time and then you're done. And then like you have nothing left for yourself at the end. Week basically. Well, also it goes back to like, whenever somebody is like, okay, I think I'm ready to hire the first thing I always say. And me and you both follow Rachel Rogers of low seven. One of the best pieces of advice I've ever read from her or heard from her is like, what can you outsource and delegate in your life that needs to be done. Right? So like Emily, you have a Bridgette. Yeah. That's like your personal assistant. It takes her everything, you know, one of the, and that saves you. What's how much time does that save you a week where you don't have to clean your house? You don't have to worry about meal prep and everything else like that. I mean, it saved us. And actually looking back, I didn't realize this, but we hired Bridgette as that support system for us kind of in domestic areas and just like, kind of doing these like odds and ends things like returning packages and stuff like that, and really creating a lot of cheer and like, um, happiness around the workplace in some ways too. But we hired her before we started. Journey into bringing in the leadership team. And I couldn't have done it without her because she freed up a bunch of time. I refocused my energy. Then I was able to go back to starting the delegation process with the managerial stuff. Like we just talked about, which then ultimately freed up a ton more of my time. So like Bridget, taking some of those things off of our plates literally helped us re. You have the time to reframe our entire business. And then ultimately we got more time back. And guys, if you don't know this, um, if you want to give yourself a raise without changing anything financially, give yourself some of your time back. And then you're immediately getting a raise because if you're doing the same amount of work, but in, or like if you're getting the same amount done in your business, but with less of your personal time eaten up, you're getting paid. But the apps apps to fucking Lilly. Well, did I did very similar, you know, we have a housekeeper that comes twice a week that comes to do like one deep cleaning twice a once a week. And then somebody who comes and cleans up, straighten his up and as laundry. And I can tell you being able to also provide a job like that for somebody is also really incredible. You're supporting back into your local, you know, your local community, but that also frees up the time where on the weekends, when me and my partner. D R fucking dead brain dead to the world. When we, any time we're not doing tasks, what's going to wipe us out physically at the end of the day. Right. And that not being able, not being wiped out physically from doing laundry, which is, you know, it's a great, it's still a task allows us to actually both best serve our clients to like him as a dog trainer. May, you know, as a business coach and whatnot, and then even more. So I hired somebody now who does my meal prep, which is fucking awesome. I cannot tell you how nice it is to go downstairs in the morning and be like, oh, there's my breakfast, like in a package, you know what I mean? It's as Christian breakfast with the macros on it and everything like that, like that type of stuff, and even go a step further. When, uh, people might not know I'm getting a dog, most likely the spring I'm hiring a dog Walker and potentially a puppy raiser for us. Like even, yeah. Cause it's like we don't have time, you know, and I know, and I know the value of somebody that can actually raise my puppy during the day when it's needed. And then when it gets older and as it's growing, like can provide them Richmond's stimulate simulation, uh, stimulation and like socialization. The dog's gonna sit in a crate while I'm working a lot of the time today. I can't get distracted by it. So, you know what I mean? So it's like practicing what you fucking preach. That's a one, and again, back to that, designing of your life. So if you took a step away from everything you're doing and you're like, well, here's the things I really love doing. Maybe you do really love cooking. Like that's a hobby of yours is cooking or, you know, painting, or you want more time to focus on your job because that really feeds you. I mean, Y you make those, it doesn't have to be stepping away from the job. It can be digging in more, you know, and you strategically put the people in places to give yourself that most potent time, um, used towards whatever's coming up for you. And I will share too, since you shared a little, the same kind of thing for me, I went through this phase. I'm a pretty much like. I'm a workaholic. Like I like to work. I've had multiple jobs, got my hands in a lot of different projects, just like, and like just kind of obsessed about it for the first time in my life. I know for the first time in my life though, over this late summer, early fall, I had to take some personal time. Like I've never. Had to be like, I need to stop working for a second and I couldn't have done it if I didn't have the team in place. And I might not have had, like, it was such a beneficial outcome to take a couple of months and essentially retreat a little bit like not to a retreat, but internally retreat. Um, that has been life-changing for me. So without that, I don't know, I would have missed something in my own. Journey not to sound so fucking Lou, but, uh, that was needed. And you know, so in that moment, the team helps me step away from work and other moments, the team helps me dig back into work so it can go either direction. Yeah. When did you feel guilty when you took that time off? You're like, how dare you? Well, it's a big question. You know what I was in such, I was in a bit of a state of personal crisis. Um, so at first, no. And then, and I'm so lucky. My business partner is so good to me too. She really was like, those. I hate to sound like crazy, but I don't want to sound crazy actually, but she was like, you know what? We needed a break from you too, dude. I know that feeling. I was like, oh, because leading up to that, you know, when you have something come up in your life, there's usually a little building to it. And leading up to that, I've had been pretty manic at work. Like. We were just taken ass, but you know, not necessarily in the most healthy way. And we are. And so being at the front of that charge of people and like really driving this fat bus very fast through a lot, um, I think that the break helped everyone because like I stepped away, they all kind of slowed down to in a really positive way and were able to just self-manage. And then when I came back into more day-to-day stuff, I was able to be really strategic around it. So, no, I didn't feel guilty thankfully because my business partner didn't allow that. Um, and she really made sure that I, she, I knew that it was a valuable thing, but then when you come back in after a little bit of a break and you have clarity, you can start making really smart decisions. Cause you get so crazy. You're like, why am I like running to the store? Getting told, well, you forget where you're supposed to be doing when you're just like so entrenched sometimes. So that step away. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Cause it's like, when you're like super manic with work, like when I get into late, like you, like you said, like a manic phase, like with stuff, usually something else, there's a catalyst behind it, of like, what else is going on. And then it's like, when you take that step back and you're like, oh shit. So for me, when I'll share a, kind of my little journey, if you don't mind me hijacking sockets. So my idea I'm an EDA grant three. I, my identity is. Literally like the driving factor. My motivation is to produce, produce, produce, produce, to get results and have validation. So when we first started implementing teams into dogmas full, when we first, you know, and we've gone through generations of our own employees to as well, like it happens, it's just natural progression of any business successful business. I remember when we first brought in our ops person now, and when we started training him on the coaching and stuff like that, and like, it was like, okay, they're going to handle it Christmas day. It was like almost an insult to me. I was like, wait, what is my job invalid now? Or like when you all did the, um, when you did the sales light retreat, I got a little, I was like, wait, I'm not invited to my own company. You know what I mean? But I knew I had it. You know what I mean? I mean, it was good that I didn't go cause I got really sick during that. But like it's this whole thing, especially to the people that are listening, that like value a lot of their identity in their work and like are considered. Working working, working, it's a mind, fuck. It's one of those like learning lessons that you're going to get, but then you're like, cool. When you come back into your business, you're like, I don't know how to work this. And people are like, it's fine. You shouldn't all can be doing this. You know what I mean? Like, I can't even log into Kajabi now. I'm like, I don't even know how to fucking grant access to somebody. They're like, why is when the CEOs granted access to somebody? You know what I mean? So it's really interesting. It's really interesting that dynamic. So it's a reset that. Yeah, it's a, it's a good thing. Like if you hit that point in your career, like maybe there's people that figure it out from day one, but most people I think have to go through this evolution of like overdoing it, taking a step back, coming in and reorganizing and making sure that their time is spent well. And you know, it's corny to say that book the four hour work week, but I swear, I read that book too. And it was like, you know, it's about systemizing. It's not, it's not groundbreaking information, although, um, for some people, maybe it is, you know, that coinciding with the coaching that I was receiving from y'all at that time, um, were like two big factors because it is about like what you're saying. Like, if you're, are you going to be an owner of an accompany or are you an employee like an employee of your flat? That's a huge one. Huge, huge, huge, huge. Yeah. I mean, I just, I know that if, if you're running a business, if you're doing it all alone, every step of it, like you'll only feel you can only get away with that for so long before it starts to take from you. And then if you have a team and you're, micro-managing every piece of it, same deal there. Um, so it's just about what type of life you want to have. And we spoke about this at that conference. We spoke, um, I don't have children, but you know, children, but really even if you don't like the thing is I can completely mess up my whole business, burn it down, re it just disappear tomorrow and I could restart it and rebuild it. But what I cannot do is get my twenties back my thirties, back my forties back, you can't go back in time on age and health and like time periods in your life, no matter what. So if you miss out on certain aspects of your life, that you didn't get to live. That's it that's done. You can rebuild your business, you can fix your business, you can, whatever, but you can't get that. Oh, absolutely not. Yeah. I'm turning 40 this year and I'm having my midlife crisis bad, but it happens. Right. So it's like one of the things it's like, all right, cool. Like EV we could lose everything and we've had like, shit, 20, 20 Jesus Christ. Like we did at one point lose almost all of our clients. You were there during that, when we lost them as all for clients. And we be like, yeah, we don't get to rebuild 45 days. And that's like the biggest fear of business owners is like, what if I lose it all? But like that shouldn't be the biggest fear. It should be. Like, what if I ended up in the hospital? With cancer. You know what I mean? Something like that. Exactly, exactly what I did. You know what I did lose that year? I lost some of my health though, because we had to hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle, and it was, I was ended up like really sick at the end of the year because of that. Cause it's like, cool. We lost it all with dog, with school for 45 days. That was it. 45 days, you know, you have. Pretty big business. Emily knows us, you know, you do have recurring billables employees and payroll. It's kind of scared when there's only like a couple of grand coming in at that time, but we rebuilt that with Emily's help too. And it was like one of those things like, cool, like now nothing can scare me. Like if anything ever happened again, like if the whole world fucking shut down, it's like, isn't, today's like returned to Pluto to like the whole fucking yay. If like the whole fucking country shut down or the world just blew up. Like, I know the skills, but what I don't have is I don't have my time back. Like you said, so it's fucking crazy. Yeah. But cause I know isn't it so cool that you like were able to hustle that quickly? I mean, I know it's a kind of obstacle or thing, but it is cool when you get to flex your skillset and see what you're able to do. And I think COVID really showed a lot of business owners that, um, you know, some people went in different directions. A lot of people were like, whoa, I w I didn't know what I was capable of. It was, you also had your help too. Cause you were all hands on deck with us and you were also dealing with COVID and your dog training business too. So I went into overdrive, honestly, I lost some of my health during that time too, because I was in like this pretty manic space, but like, like exactly what you said. I was like, people are relying on me. We're going to make this work. I don't know how yet, but we're going to, and then of course. It ended up being really great in the long run. And, you know, there was some positive outcomes that you couldn't have seen, but that's first that first little bit, it was scary. This is just one of those things of where it's like having one of those. It's like, you can't really understand, like I get it, like the fear of losing it all. But like, I feel like once you do it, like once I don't want to say everybody's got to do it once because you don't. Do that, but like when you do lose it all, like, and like you said, you went through a whole personal thing, you felt unstoppable. Like now dog school went through so much fucking turmoil and transition over the last two years with everything we're unstoppable. Like, I don't give a shit like. You know what I mean? Like, not that I don't give a shit, but like we're unstoppable. I know what we've built. And like, you it's, like you went through so much personal stuff at a personal level and a business level now you're like, fuck, I'm unstoppable. It's the whole villain, Eric Christ, uh, villain area. Um, decade I call it. Yeah. Speaks to making you a better coach, a better option or a better business owner, a better employer. And then just like a better person. Like I said, it was top of this podcast. Like you have to go through the breakups through the like people tragedies and whatever to really be well-rounded. It cannot be all beautiful. And so if you're working with, um, God. I really want to say, if you're working with a business coach that hasn't had to rebuild, then you're probably working with somebody that doesn't fully understand. The business world. I don't know if that's speaking out of line, but I just feel that now it's coming to me. Or if you have an employer that's never really had employees before, you know, they're tests running that on you. So you're probably going to, there's going to be some stuff missed or if you've dated somebody that's never had their heart broken. I mean, you know what I mean? Like there's the, they just have like a one-sided view of the world. Well, it's the whole experience factor. It's like, cool. You can educate yourself as much as possible. Like look like what I have, like what I've done in my life and like what Maggie's done too, but it's like, if you can not. Be a better person unless going through some kind of transitional turmoil when it cut, what, I don't want to say a better person, better business owner, and like were prepared and less emotional until you've faced a huge transition. Now that transition doesn't mean losing your entire business or losing your house or losing whatever. But like when you have, I call it in my household, we call it city miles. When you have city miles under your belt versus the long, beautiful highway miles. Yeah. We ended, you ended up being. Overall, a more rounded and balanced person now complete opposite can happen. You can just completely lose your shit and, you know, abandon everything which happens. It's, it's, it's a 50 50, you know, like it's 50 50 when it comes to that type of ship. So those are the moments that make you, what is it like? Calm seas, make shitty sailors. Yup. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. You gotta have the right to tell me whether it's fucking funny. Holy crap. We wouldn't totally off topic, but still topic wheel house somewhere. Yeah. It's in the wheelhouse somewhere. This is what happens when you have two neurodivergent pizza together on this type of stuff. Um, Emily. So I want to wrap this up now that you have the employees in place and you have the right dynamic. How can you describe your life and your business now? Like, what is like, how do you feel? Like, what is it like being able to have everything, you know, all the puzzle pieces. And of course you're continuously improving that and making shifts and learnings, you know, it's not just stagnant, but like what's your life, like not being a better employee. Um, well, you know, this has become, some doors have opened for me that I didn't even know were there around making choices financially and mentally, and with my time and with like the next decade of my life. So by eight, by getting my head above the water, you know, and like, I can see more than what was happening before, when you're like swimming underwater. So, um, that I had no idea. Um, the potential of what I was leaving on the table around quality of life. And I don't just mean like making money actually. Both areas where money was being made when you're grinding your ass off, or when you have like whatever, when you have more money is being made in both arenas. I just, it was actually about choices. Like I didn't have as many choices. And so I have a lot more of that. Now I'm able to turn around and do the parts of the business that I love the most, which is actually turns out is the staff. Like, I love working with my team and building out teams. You know, even with grassroots, like doing that, in-person the retreat space stuff. Like that's my jam. And so I'm able to do the things that make me feel really great. And then, um, Cod, what was the freaking question, Kristen? What do I see now? Yeah. Like what is like, what's it like the after, like what is like the after for now? Like, oh, and it's a little bit, you know what else? No, but you feel a little bit insecure and I'm, and I'm having to work. Like being cool with the idea that I'm not needed every day for every little thing. And, um, and really that like kind of learning how to take care of myself differently because of that. Cause there's a whole dynamic that shows up where you're just like, oh, you know, all my clients need me, but. You don't even know what to do with yourself. Like, do you have a hobby? Are you socializing? Are you dating? Are you spending time with your kids? Are you whatever, um, or building that second business that you dreamed about, do you want to be a multi-pay? Do you want to own multiple businesses? Which, which I do now, like we, I own two businesses. I work with grassroots as a third endeavor and I still have free time in my life, um, on a weekly basis. It seems impossible. It's not. And if you think about these people, there are people that, that are that own 10 businesses. They're part of like restaurant groups. They have all kinds of shit going on and it's, I promise you that they do not micromanage. They have a team and they do not micromanage. Both of those things are happening. Oh yeah, absolutely. They're not in, they're not stuck in the weeds. We call it like they're, they're fucking, they're actually having. Are really good life, basically, because they actually know how to allocate their fucking time and resources and they have those people in play to actually implement those things. It's the whole, you know, big future picture thing. So great. And I think that just don't miss out on that as an entrepreneur. I, like I said before, you've definitely gotten into. Because you love your craft, but also on some level, it was because you didn't want to be controlled by someone else. You don't want to work for someone else. You know, you had the guts to take that leap. It does take some guts. So then don't compromise the rest of your life. And essentially you end up with less freedom than your employee than an employee, because you can never take a break and you can never walk away and you can't take your eyes off the ball for one second, without it just rolling into the street. So like, Don't compromise that part, there is even more beautiful benefit to being an entrepreneur. And if you don't have that guidance around it, look for guidance because the coaching is out there and you can just start making tweaks that have these huge compounding positive compounding effects over the course of your. Fuck. Yeah. Fuck. Yeah, fuck. Yeah. And Hey everybody, that's listening to, if you're like, oh my God, I want to speak to Emily on this a little bit more. Emily's going to be joining us during our limited open enrollment at the end of March. So feel free to get on the freeway list with her. And you could always chat with Emily directly on, you know, being a fucking Abada as employer and like putting people into leadership teams. So Emily's got you on that. She's part of grassroots. So we, you know, it's good stuff. It's good stuff now. Emily. So what would your advice be to people that are listening to this higher? Now, if you haven't started that process of outsourcing or hiring in certain areas, um, you know, the example of outsourcing might be like getting a really good bookkeeper, you know, not like outsourcing to whatever, try to, I don't know something crazy, but like outsourcing these little tasks that you don't need to do or getting a housekeeper, um, And or hiring an employee, someone that answers your emails for you, if you hate doing that and is answering your phone for you or somebody that is doing the dogs, giving your dogs, baths and feeding them, like you could even be a board and train person, you know, primarily working out of your home and have somebody that comes in and is kind of like that kennel tech, even though you don't have a kennel, it doesn't have to be that you have a lot of people think they need the brick and mortar building before they hire. And I actually think it should go opposite. You will need to get your team together. Um, without a ton of overhead, but like investing in the right people and then that will bring in the money. And then if you need to expand into that bigger space, you're going to have that capital to do it. And if you're already in the bigger space, because God, it doesn't see, it seems crazy. I was one of those candle owners and I know a lot of others are, and you don't have middlemen. You're fucking up. That's my piece of advice you are fucking up. Okay. So stop fucking up because you do not want everything that you've built to just come crashing down really quickly because you have one health crisis or a family emergency that like takes the bottom out because you're not there yet. Exactly. Exactly. Well, Emily, it's been a pleasure as always Emily. I know. I love you too. That's why you work with us. Work with us, not work for us, work with us, work with us and yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited for you to talk to some people during open enrollment. Yeah. And if you guys like seriously, you know, it can be really confusing and scary to get started, or even to like, make those transitions. And I can't tell you enough. It's like the idea of working with coaches. It's not about that, you know, they're eager and they're going to know more than you it's that they're able to set, paint the picture outside of your head. That's what I needed at that time. Like I said, a year and a half ago, when we really needed to bring in the leadership team that we have now I needed someone to draw it out for me and for me to go fuck you. And then, okay. No way. I understand. And then I just took that information and we like started making quick moves on it and it came together so quickly. And, but like having that. Person painting the picture for me as what I needed at that moment. So sometimes just that strategic help can be a big game changer for the course of your going in your business. It's a fucking Lilly. Awesome. Well, Emily, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And appreciate your appreciate you coming on and spending time. Cause I know your time is valuable as fuck when it comes to this stuff. So I appreciate you and we'll talk about. Sounds good. Thanks Kristen. Bye Emily. Bye. Hey there. Thanks for checking out. Another episode of the mind, your own dog business podcast. Mind your own dog business is hosted by me personally and produced by the unicorns over at the dog, this school team for more information on how to get in touch with me for more information on dog with school, or to learn more on how we can help you with your dog. Feel free to visit our website at dog, this school.com. Now, if you really enjoy this episode, do me a favor and leave a five star reviews on apple. The reason why, because we want to disrupt more dog training businesses on how people do the business of dogs till next time I.