Mind Your Own Dog Business
Mind Your Own Dog Business
6+ Figures As A New Dog Trainer, Healing Trauma, & Catastrophic Injuries - Ruth's Story
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Dog Biz School is Open for enrollment starting March 28th!
6 + Figures As A New Dog Trainer, Healing Trauma, & Catastrophic Injuries - Ruth's Story
In this episode, Kristen Lee sits down with Ruth Smith Hayter of AZ-Dogs and Dog Biz School's students. Ruth is a complete badass, and it's an honor to share her story with our listeners of the Mind Your Dog Business podcast.
Ruth shares her story of starting, yes, starting a dog training business at the beginning of the pandemic, experiencing rapid growth in her first two years (2021 closing in at 189k!).
Kristen and Ruth talk about:
- What it's like hitting six figures so fast as a baby business owner
- How past trauma bubbles up and peaks its ugly head as you grow as a business owner
- How a career-ending injury for most dog trainers didn't make her skip a beat nor affect her business at all
- Her Grassroots Dog Biz School experience
Episode Links:
Hey, everybody. We're about to get officially kicked off with Ruth sharing her incredible story. Listen, she started her dog training business from scratch in the height of the pandemic in 2020, and ended up closing in twenty twenty one, a hundred and ninety K in revenue. Bite suffering a catastrophic, almost career ending injury. You're going to want to listen to her story because it's incredibly inspiring. And she shares about a lot of the personal development she went with when she was building her dog training business. But before we officially get kicked off, I want to take a quick moment and talk to all of my incredible listeners and supporters of the, my Joan dog business podcast and show. If you've been thinking about reaching out to me, or maybe it's on your to-do list for the last couple of months or even years now is the time to do it seriously. Like I'm being dead, freaking serious, whatever story you have in your head about reaching out to me or the team. It's time to squash that fucking noise between the ears. It might sound something like, well, I got to hit this next milestone before I reach out for help or let me get unfucked in my personal life and my business life before I reach out to get help where I'm so disorganized, I don't even know where to begin or it could even be like, holy crap. I don't even think I can afford to talk to them. Stop it. Even if you don't think you're ready, if you've had that little pain in your gut, that you're like, shit, I've been meaning to reach out to dog the school and Kristen Lee, this is the time to do. Now is the time to get serious with your dog business fix. What's not working fine tune. What is working and most importantly, make the right decisions in your dog training, business, whatever they might be to help you move forward with bigger and better fucking coals. You are not meant to be on the same hamster wheel month after month, year after year. I've been there. I've done that. It doesn't get any. So this is your sign. I got you. The leading team of dog business experts has you. And let's do this together with confidence. Go to dog school.com forward slash work with us. And there'll be an application button. Go ahead. Fill that application out. And one of us, most likely me we'll get to. Very soon, our doors are open for a limited time enrollment starting the last week. Uh, March originally we were going to do the week of the 21st I believe, but we already had overwhelming responses. We have to push out an extra week. This is a limited time deal. The reason why we are only opening it up to people that have been following us for a while that have been interacting with us, people that have been meaning to get it, you know, In touch with us for it's this not a general open enrollment style thing. So if you've been meaning to reach out to us, get with me, go to dogma school.com forward slash work with us and we'll chat soon. And if you have any questions on that, feel free to reach out to me at bad-ass dog biz on Instagram. I got you covered talk soon. Bye. You're listening to the mind, your own dog business podcast. I'm your host leading expert in dog business. Strategic Kristen. 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 business to the next level. With actionable steps you can take right away. We're going to empower. 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 the 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 the spotlight, 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 motherfucking dog Bez podcast, the pet industry pie. I passed. It keeps it real. It keeps it raw. That keeps it fucking fresh. And today I have a very, very, very special guest. She is one of our most favorite trash pandas. Yes, she's a frigging trash Panda, just like dog was school. And. And hater Smith or Ruth. Am I doing your name wrong? Because I always mess your name. That's okay. I mess it up too, because I just haven't fully committed to social, social security and changing it. So you got it. Okay, cool. So Ruth Smith, cause I'm always like Ruthie. I did. She's like, no, it's just a race. I'm like goddammit. And then it's like, no, we always do it to her. We feel so bad. I she's been working with us forever, so I apologize. In advance if I mess your name up again, but Ruth is here to share her story. Starting a dog training business, literally, literally from scratch in 2020 and the height of the pandemic and hitting multiple six figures in 18 months. Yeah. She hit multiple six figures in 18 months as a sole dog trainer, without employees, a facility or anything that doctors think they need to reach her level of profitability. She's here to share her story. And journey with working with Doug, the school, the dog, the school team, and everything else in between. I'm excited to have her here again, super love her. She's fucking a bad-ass she's always putting her head down doing the work and yeah, she's super coachable. So officially welcome, Ruth, how are you doing today? I am good. Thanks for having me. Awesome. So, Ruth, I always like to start these conversations. With kind of a rapid fire bullet point question. Just so the audience can know you a little bit more. So Ruth, what would you say your super power is? Oh man. I felt like does everybody drive this question? Is everybody everybody? What? Everybody dread this question. Yes they do. They actually. Okay. I actually really was excited about this question and maybe it's just listening to the podcast prior, but I would say that my super power is, um, is the opposite of what you would think it is because my superpower would be being stubborn, which is. Funny, because that's usually what I get called in to, you know, for dogs being stubborn. But my, yeah, my superpower is that I'm a stubborn trashcan Panda, and I just never give up. I love it. Were you a stubborn child too? And you got like faulted for that? Oh, absolutely. I got spankings every day because of my mouth. You know, it's funny. It's so funny because like so many entrepreneurial women and people in the industry, like as kids, like we were undiagnosed neurodivergents and we got in so much trouble for that. Like it got reflected at home. Aren't our report cards for being stubborn, not listening, talking too much and look at all of us now. We're all fucking killing it. They should've just put bad ass bitch on their report card and second grade. Exactly. Exactly. So what's the last thing you've accomplished that made you really. So, I'm not sure if this was in business or in life. So I'll say both I'm in business. I would say the new branding, um, is, is definitely been an accomplishment the past few months and just kind of stepping into, into the role that I always knew. I needed to step into, I guess. Um, and then as far as personal, I've started to skate and I'm actually getting decent. So I feel like that's been a good accomplishment. I love your branding by the way. I'm not just saying it because you know, dog was called it. No, but no, because it's such, I remember when we first started talking about it in September and. I used to do a lot of branding for, you know, people in the industry. And I was so far removed and then you're like, Hey, this is what I think I want. And it was just like, Oh, fuck. How are we going to put all this together? And then when it clicked and made sense of like that boho almost retro, but like bad-ass bougie, it looks so good. So everybody go check out her Instagram profile. It's a to Z dogs, right, LLC. Okay. Check out her new branding. It's epic. I love it. I love how the team or graphic designer put it together. It's fucking awesome. And you're going to have merge two, which is really cool. Um, do you have your merchandise store set up yet? Yep. It's set up, um, and it's love on my website. Cool. I'm going to drop the link in the show. Show notes too, as well. She's got some really cool shit and it's super disruptive. Isn't it? Like bad-ass dog, mom or something like that? Dog, parent, um, all of those things. Yeah. So go my listeners go show roofs and support purchase them. Or. Fucking rocket and tag it on Instagram. Yes. Yes, no, you guys definitely. Um, and Jody definitely nailed the logo and the new branding and it's so funny. Cause even once I showed, like, I think I showed my sister and she's like, I can just now see you saying it has rainbows and shit. And I was like, honestly, that is the true statement I've ever heard because if someone's like, oh, what's your logo, I'm going to be like, it's got rainbows and shit. And they're not going to think I'm serious because of my personality, but it does. It has rainbows. It's amazing. I fucking love it. So, Ruth, what's your favorite quote? Oh, so this one, um, is actually, I had had to choose between two. Um, but my favorite is the, the way it goes is everything can be taken from a man. But one thing, the last of the human freedom. To choose one, add one's attitude in any given set of circumstances to choose one's way. And that's by Viktor Frankl in the man searches for meaning. I don't know if you've read that book, but it's an excellent read. Yep. That's fine. It's his story of being, I think he is, I don't know if he's a psychiatrist, but he was in, um, in the concentration camps and he just, he very much shows like everything can be stripped from you except for your attitude. Um, and that's, that's kind of, the book is, is such a good book, but that is definitely my favorite quote. Oh fuck. I'm going to definitely. I'm going to actually put that in the show notes too, in case somebody wants to check that out. Yes. Thank you for sharing. That's powerful. It's super powerful. All right, so let's get into. Now to my listeners at the end of last year, we did a year in review summary with all of our students. And Ruth was one of those that I wanted to highlight today. Um, and just have her share her journey, everything else that goes with that. But this bitch. This bitch close in 2021. Not from when she started in 2020. She closed $189,000 in her dog training business in 20 2100 alone. So holy crap. That's an amazing accomplishment. Like how does that feel? Rude. Oh, yeah, it definitely feels good. It's, it's one of those things that, you know, um, the, the more that you make, um, I feel like the board demons in your past, you expose, um, and that's, you know, that's one of the things you guys preach a lot about as far as. Take care of take care of your shit because it will come up in your business. And so it definitely has not been easy. Um, and I never thought I would make that amount, but here we are. Yeah. Well, it's. Every time, and this is something we really don't talk about outside of like our coaching, but I'm going to share with the listeners every time you hit a significant milestone in your business, financial wise, you have a meltdown around it. So like usually for a dog trainers that comes around the a hundred fifty, a hundred seventy five K mark. Most likely happened to Ruth. She can share about that. It usually hits at like a hundred fifty, a hundred seventy five K and people are probably like, well, if I was making that much money, I'd be fine. I'll be happy. No, no problems if I'd have that much money. Yeah. Yeah. And then it usually hits at the quarter million and then it usually hits hardcore at the 500,000. And then when you have hit a million dollars, You'll have the most epic fucking meltdown ever. And Emily can attest to that too, because you know, I'm gonna blow Emily up really quick. She had one of those last year, which you could over multiple seven figures. Anyway. Can you share about like your, your little bit of the demons when it came to making that much money, if you don't mind. Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, um, yeah, I mean, th th like you said, every milestone and every time you're like, man, I got this shit, then some bus comes out of nowhere and it's like soup. No, you really don't. And so that's, you know, that's been the biggest thing of just trying to. You know, trying to fix all the havoc I did and over-delivering and all of that, um, the first year of business and, and luckily with you guys as coach team and with everything like you guys, you know, without you guys, I would have burned it all down long ago, but, um, it definitely, it's one of those things that, like you said, when people were like, oh, you make that much money. You have no problems in the world. Um, but. It doesn't, it doesn't even seem like we've made that, um, because we're still trucking. We're still, you know, doing the same thing. I'm just not undervaluing myself anymore. I'm actually having boundaries. I'm actually getting my life back, um, you know, and getting to actually have a work-life balance. And so yeah, the, the money is, is one part of it. Um, and I would say what stops people from making money is fear. Um, And that's, that's been the biggest thing is not really with the fear with me because, um, I'm an adrenaline junkie. I'm reckless. Like I don't have much fear. Um, but I've got a lot of trauma and a lot of demons that I've got that I've had to take care of. And I've had to start, um, EMDR therapy. I've had to get all my ducks in a row in order to keep scaling my business and to keep growing as a person. Yeah. Well, what happens to, and this is something that Maggie said before, like one, uh, one of the best forms. It just one of them not saying this is the ultimate form, but one of the best forms of personal development, like everything that you've gone through, your traumas is actually growing your business because you are going to start to uncover the kitty Rocha of your traumas and everything else like that. So you can actually start to get the help that is like, oh, shit that actually need. Yup. Yup. Absolutely grievously. Trust me. I know that I even, I even remember in, um, I think it was like June of last year, or like maybe it was July or September. I might be, my timelines might be messed up of where, and I actually want to talk about that super quick, because a lot of times too dog trainers, especially, I feel like when they make more money, they have to consistently like prove their value and proving quote, unquote, prove their value. By like over-delivering. And I remember you having that conversation with Maggie. She called me afterwards and like, she. Cut. Like what a month of your life back and was like, Nope, this is how you're going to do it. And you've literally got a month ago. Yep. Yep. Nope. And that was, that was definitely one of the things that, um, you know, I've been, I've been in a workaholic my whole life. And so this past year, like realizing why I'm a workaholic and it was all because of, you know, That fun, best friend trauma. Um, and kind of just getting everything, everything in the right sorts has, has been so hard. And, and like you said, the minute I raised my prices, I was like, you know what, like, how could anybody pay this without me? Over-delivering and so I was, I mean, I think I was doing like 12 plus sessions and when Maggie. Yeah, I saved hours and hours of my life when I was having that breakdown and Maggie helped work through it. And, and that was actually, I want to say that was maybe a month after my injury. And so that's all right. Right, right. Yeah. You had that. She had like a debit, you had like a fucking life alternating, like devastating injury that could have put people out of business. Yup. Yup. Um, yep. And so it was, you know, The business of dogs and too big, too big, a goofy dogs just doing, doing their zooms. And they both were over. I think the both were about 85, 90 pounds. Um, and then just took me, took me out like a wrecking ball and I landed on my wrist and just shattered it completely. Um, two, three days later, I had to go into surgery to put everything back together and, and well, it wasn't, it wasn't put back together. It was a plate and nine screws. To hopefully get everything fused. And I mean, if that would've happened before grassroots, I probably would have been like, you know what, here's, here's where I throw in the towel because never in my life would I have thought that I would have been able to, Hey, the health care system. I mean, we all know it's fucked. Um, and so never like when they told me, um, on Monday I was going into surgery on Wednesday. They were like, you have to have three K down, um, in order to go into surgery, but I didn't have. I needed to, you know, I had to go into surgery within two days before everything started growing back at them pretty much. And so, and the fact to be able to take those two, so almost two months off of recovery and physical therapy and. To go under during that time and still be able to make a rep has still have a record year and deal with that injury. Um, yeah, it's definitely been a lot. Fuck. Damn. I, I don't know how I totally forgot about that whole injury. Yeah, that shit was horrible. That was horrible. Yep. Yeah. Every it was shattered and yeah, nine screws. I mean, now I, I throw a mean throw and punch cause I've got like, it's weighted now. Don't do you set off the alarms at TSA airport now? It's like DVD. Yeah. I haven't even haven't even tried or gone that far, but yeah, I can imagine it's going to light up like a Christmas tree she's I just actually want to reiterate that. Simple listeners. Ruth had her record breaking year, financially, 189 K despite using and being out with a fucking shattered wrist that damn like, I just want to like reflect on that. That's fucking huge. That's huge. And that's the thing too. This is actually one of those plugs where like a fusion program as well. It's like, if you didn't have that fusion program, like you said, like you'd be fucked. Like there's no other words to say, like, Fucked. Like, I hate to say. No, no, I would have been fucked. And that's why even on the way to the emergency room, like, I mean, I was still on like adrenaline island of like, this doesn't hurt, even though my wrist was obviously upped up. Um, but I, you know, I even told Alan I'm like, thank God we have grassroots. Think how do we have the fusion programs already going? Or we would have been Sol and funny enough, two weeks prior to my injury is when Alan started working with me. Um, You know, we were finally to the point where I could hire on my husband, um, and have him working for me and stuff. You know, doing his daily job. And it was, it was the first, I think it was the first lesson he came to shadow. Um, and he walked away. He always says it. He says, it's his fault. He walked away to the car to get his sunglasses. And then that's when I fell and broke everything. And so, um, even just to that point of not being completely fucked with my husband, just quitting his job and working for me and being. The business and the braking. Yeah, it could have been a whole shit show Tam, fuck fucking Allen. You can say, I even told him that once I was like, fucking Allen, like God damn it. Allen walk all your fault. It's all your fault. So you started business and I also want to go back to the fact that you started your business in 2020. Can you share a little bit about why you started your business and how you got into dog training and everything else like that? Like how you became a solo? Well, you have Allen and your team, but like how, like the conception of a to Z dogs, like what made you start your dog training business? Yeah, I think. Like a lot of, you know, dog trainers. It's, you know, we find, we get ourselves into a situation, um, with a difficult dog and we, you know, we want to grow and we want to learn and do anything we can for that dog. And so, um, all of mine started, um, when I was a vet assistant, I was a vet assistant for quite a few years before. Entering the training world. And when that, um, when I was a vet assistant, I just, I really wanted a dog. Um, wanted nothing but a dog. To note though, I actually had, went through a breakup, had lost the dog, um, in the breakup. And so I was just pretty much dog obsessed, a dog crazy. Wanted a dog. Um, I got a dog that's for damn sure. Um, the, the rescue that I got, he, um, he had so much trauma and bad things had already happened. Uh, by the time I got him, his name was stark. Um, I think we've talked about stark a little bit as well. Um, but he definitely, you know, even just from the first weekend of having him, he would, he would bite me any time he thought I was putting him up or leaving him or putting him in the kennel. Um, and it was just one of the. It was a very life-changing event. Um, because I remember thinking to myself, like how in the hell, like, what did I get myself into and how am I going to help this dog? Why is this dog biting me? Like all of the above? And at the time I was 20 and had absolutely zero clue. You know what I was doing on the behavior side. We're that, you know, and my, like my superpower of stubbornness, I just kept on trying to find ways to give him the best, the best life and to help his anxiety, spheres and all of that. Um, unfortunately, most people do know, you know, it's not a happy ending story. Um, you know, stark was, I did have to choose to, um, to behavior use in eyes, um, which is one of the hardest things I've ever done. Um, But with that being said, you know, stark stark prepared me for a future that I had no clue I was even going to step into. Wow. Wow. So what were some of the first challenges you experienced as a new dog trainer? Um, I would definitely have to say that is the, probably the overworking, there's a whole long list, but overworking, um, compassion, fatigue that drives then the overworking and then, you know, the imposter syndrome, all of it. Um, but definitely I would say the hardest thing has been setting boundaries and learning. Learning red flags, as well as setting boundaries for my business myself. But, you know, to be able to actually spend time with my dogs and with Alan and my family, that's, that's been the whole, it's a balancing act that's for sure. Can you elaborate a little bit more on setting the boundaries conversation? Yeah. So, uh, pretty much, I mean, I feel like not anybody on everybody will, will walk all over you, but, um, in the, especially in the dog industry, if you do not have those boundaries, things are going be. Pretty much cross tied. And so you're going to get, you know, you're going to feel exhausted and fatigued from all of the hard cases or people or clients. And if you don't have those boundaries set in place, then you get burnt out. And so, you know, I don't know how many times I've told you guys, like, I mean, I was on a one-way ticket to burnout town. Like there's no surprise of that. And so it's definitely the boundaries and. Saying no to people has, has been so hard and I've really had to, I've really had to re shift my mind and say, you know what? It's not saying no to this. It's saying yes to myself and my mental stability. Yeah. Well, I think too, what's really interesting is we've chatted about this before. It's, you know, back in the day, like back in my day, like in the late, like to the late 2010s, I would say like, so like 2010 till I 2018, it used to be like, it would take a couple years, maybe like between three to five years for dog trainers to experience burnout, to the point of where they're just like done now. Two to three years, we've seen people burning out like newbies, like new business owners burning out in the first, like 15 to 18 months, which is insane. It isn't the same, but the industry right now, isn't saying, yeah, yeah. It's, it's an, it's really fucking crazy busy and anybody who has a wait list, don't do it. Um, that's just my thing. Just wanna plug that in, but yeah, it's those boundaries along with having your program set up in a way that supports you? How like Ruth has her fusion program set up that support her allows her not to. Effected by the craziness of what's going on with the call at the dogs and the people reaching out. Plus with the combination of like, you know, the pandemic is still happening with everybody getting new dogs and people being trapped and like feeling like they can't go out and explore doing like, do all this stuff like crazy town does not explain like the amount of. Entitled clients that are coming into a lot of dog trainers that people are like, yeah, I'll take the dog out of care. It's money. It's like, no, no. And I've said this before, it's like no amount of money is worth a fucking toxic client. So absolutely because that the amount of money that you, you know, you thought you got from that client, it's gonna, it's going to be returned in whether it's going to be dispute or a powder review or just making your life hell for a year or however long the contract is. Yeah, it's not going to go well, no. So Ruth, I'm going to switch gears here. What made you first reach out to dog at school and grassroots? So, um, when I first reached out, um, I know that what in 2020, I think I've reached out and got into you guys as baby program into your fusion. Um, and so that was definitely, you know, that. That was like the best start I could have ever gave myself or the business. Um, but the biggest thing that kind of what took me to the next step is, um, I could not get myself over 10 K a month by myself. And I had tried for months on months in, um, you know, that stubbornness, um, and could not do it as well as, um, I was starting to really just, you know, Phil burnout. And, um, that was one of the reasons, you know, to reach out to you guys. And it I'll probably say this as well, um, that it's not in my nature to ask for help, but, um, knowing that. When you need to ask for help is huge. And it's something that we don't, you know, we say it all the time, hire a professional dog trainer, hire a professional dog trainer. And it's like, well, wait a minute. Like I am, I'm a good, uh, you know, bad-ass dog trainer, but I knew nothing about the business. And so that's where you guys come in and have, you know, have helped so much. Yeah. You started with our evolution course. Right? Did you, where are you in. You a dog to school, 2.0 like that whole, uh, the whole school we set up for the whole pandemic shit where you in that, I don't think you were, I was in evolution at that point. That's the baby business, baby. We put you in there. It was a business baby. You went into the business evolution, which is adorable. I love it. Um, and then you went into school afterwards, right? You're like, oh fuck. I need additional help. And then you came into our high or VIP now. Yep. Okay. What do you think is like, what was the moment you were like, oh fuck. Yes. I made the right choice with working with dogs at school and grass. Yeah. Ooh. Um, I think that was probably even just two months after I started the school with you guys and kind of getting, um, getting extra TLC that I think maybe it was a, maybe a month or two later, I was actually able to step away and have a vacation. Um, it was just a very small vacation, a weekend getaway, but even then it's the first vacation I've had in probably. Two to four years. And so that was the very obvious that I had, I had made, made the right choice for my mental and for my, um, for my business, probably. Yeah. Is that the one you had been on your lap? Neuro watching, like, uh, like, uh, educational webinars or something? A little bean. I love her little bean. Now. What, what's been your favorite dog to school? Oh, there's been so many Sarah Durham. Yeah, I would definitely say so. What I wrote down in the notes is, um, which is not gonna make any sense to anybody, but Jody and Emily, but the last night that we were at the light retreat in Tybee island, um, and this is this one's like, totally like not any work-related, but. But we, uh, I think you had heard all the stories about Steve and we were trying to find what happened. So Steve was the neighbor at Tybee island and me being a dumb ass. Like I usually always have RBF. I hope to God that no one ever talks to me or my dogs. Um, but I was trying to be nice. And I was in vacation mood. Um, Maggie had talked to Steve quite a few times. Of course he had, he, um, Steve drove a motorcycle and like, and whatnot. And so I invited him over and was like, Hey, we're having a party tonight. You know, come on over. Um, seemed like a cool guy. He was, you know, playing a guitar or something on the dock. I don't know. But anyways, uh, Steve. As the night went on, just got creepier and creepier. Um, and as we were all talking, we'd realized that Steve had kept asking everybody where, uh, where, what bedroom they were in. Um, and just like really just weird sketchy questions. So, um, so me and Jody were like, yeah, Steve's got to go. And it was so funny because even, even at that time, Jody's like leaving all of us, like all of us kids per se in the house. And he's like, I'll go take care of it. And, and I was like, yeah, yeah. And then I, I followed Judy out and Jody's like, no, Ruth. I said, everyone stay here. And I'm like, that's funny, Jody. I'm like, I started this, I invited him. I'll finish it. And so, uh, me and Jody and Emily were all on the porch with our arms crossed and like shooing old, Steve away, like a dirty trash can Panda and. Just the three of us. That's probably a memory that will always be engraved in our, in my mind, just the three of us just standing there, like bad-ass is just being like, go on, get, like, we don't need this, get the fuck out. You creed up 3% in protecting and protecting everybody else that was there. Yeah. Yeah. Protected the other 20 people. And like, and that was, you know, Poor Jody. I don't know what he, he definitely wasn't. Wasn't shaking me. Cause I'm like that. I'm like the little scrappy dude. That's just there. Like, even anytime Allen's like stay in the car, I'm like, I don't know what wife, you got to tell him to say the car, but it's not me. You went full Chihuahua. Oh yeah. Full fall. Fuck this. Yeah, there is, there is a S we have with dog school, we have events and we did a sales light. I, Emily and I actually just chatted about this in the last podcast. And it was like where it was. We got like about 20 people, 20 dogs, school students it's closed off to people. That's not in school. So if you're interested, you gotta be in school. And you put them all in like a huge beach house and Tybee island and Savannah, Georgia, and all of them sat down and did sales for a few days. And then everybody went out and partied that night. So it was cool. I heard a lot of stories from yes. Yes, definitely. Definitely one of my favorites for sure. Um, but yeah, I think just in general too, like you guys have, you have such, you know, Um, demeanor than most of the dog industry, because most of the dog industry is they're fucking assholes. Um, that's, that's how they treat people. And so for a new baby business owner in trying to navigate all of the, he said, she said, you should do this. You should do that. Y you know, everything as well that you addressed on your last podcast, as far as. Raising your prices and all of that. I mean, it's, I mean, it's, it's so true because people really will, you know, try to tell you to do stuff for free or try to tell you that why would you ever charge that you're a robbery and none of it, it will all burn you out and we'll put you on the same island as good old dog trainer. And. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, that's the thing too. It's like, if anybody is listening and we talk about trash pandas a lot, like raccoons, like the reason why we have so much of that, and we like embody the trash. It's been the year of the trash Panda at 2022 for us is I can't tell you how many times we've been called trash over the last, I would say 12 months by other dog business coaches. I'm not going to name names by other people like other dog trainers. And we're just like, fuck. Be a trash Panda, fucking be scrappy, go for that and then embrace that shit. So yeah, exactly. That's why I called Ruth roofs a fucking trash Panda. We love her for it. Oh, I'm trash Panda. I mean probably have rabies. That was a degree trash. I love that you have rabies. Oh my God. So what would you say to somebody that is thinking about working with us? That is like, I've been thinking about it. I don't know how much they cost. Oh my God. I have heard mixed reviews on them. Oh my God. I don't even know where to start. I'm kind of scared to even reach out to them. Are they mean, are they nice? Are they, are they too expensive for me or. Should I trust the person that had a bad experience with them? Like what would you say to somebody that has like this crazy story? And that's been holding them back for reaching out to, you know, dog, the school, me Maggie, or even the entire team, just fuck it, do it, do it, suck it up and do it. Uh, which I know that's. Definitely in our minds as, um, dog trainers and professionals and business owners of the different hats you have to wear. Um, it's the, it doesn't matter how much money in the world. It costs, um, to trade in your sanity and to not have to close your business. I mean, nobody opens their business, wanting to fail or go into bankruptcy or bankruptcy or any of those things. They, you know, they start. Where's the hope and a dream. And they don't realize that, like you said, at the beginning that all of your past comes up every single, it seems like it comes up quarterly. You do your taxes. And so does the past come up quarterly review check-in quarterly meltdown. It's so it's you think that you need business coaching, but it's more about the you coaching and getting through your past and getting through your fears. All of that is going to show in your business. And so that's where it's really taking out all of the white noise of the industry. And like you said, the people, the people that say you're trash or unprofessional or this or that, well, you know what fuck them. That's exactly it because, you know, All, I think everyone at grassroots, you know, has that attitude of we're bad-ass, but we want to do good for the future of capitalism. Fuck all this other stuff. But like, and that's, that's really where it lies is if you want to grow as a person and keep your business scaling, you have to have help. And if you don't have help, I mean, you're gonna end up burning it down, especially in the past two years, this industry is crazy. Yeah. Yeah. That's the thing it's like, we teach, we teach you to use capitalism to fight capitalism. Yep, exactly. What. It's exactly. Exactly so rude. How can people find you? You can find me on, um, Facebook, Instagram, Tech-Talk all of the above. It's all one word, a Z dogs, LLC. Um, and, and, or my website, which is a dash Z dogs.com. Um, but yeah. Where they are. You can see all the, all the trouble in ruckus that we cause on social. I love it. So we're thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate, cause I know you got a whole bunch of shit going on and everything else. So to take the time today, it's honestly, I don't want to sound like I'm like, it's truly, it really is an honor to sit down with you and have you share your story and you know, as always, we're fucking proud. Done so well, and it's just like, it's such a joy. And again, going back to the whole thing of an honor to see, you know, coming from a baby business owner to where you're at today, I'm so excited for your next 18 months. Like, I can't even imagine what's going to happen, like with you and ADC dogs and everything else. Like you're. Yeah, you're here more to do more than dog training, and I'm waiting for you to have that breakthrough by the way, but that's just a personal coaching note. Oh no, I know. And that's, and that's where I'm excited for the branding and just, you know, just, I want to start a, start a riot in the field. I mean, that's like, you got the same thing with you guys. The industry needs to be disrupted with what we call normal and over-delivering and overworking. And that you're, you know, is highway robbery. If you charge this much, but what about your sanity? What about what you eat? What about the doll? Like there's so much. Yeah. Um, and so for sure, I'm glad to glad to be here and having me, and like I said, I never ever cause actually, you know, I did come from a very, very poor, um, just poverished background. And so, um, if I, if you ever would have said, I would have hit over a hundred K in my life, I probably would have laughed at you and kept on laughing. And for years on end, So it's, it's definitely one of those things that, um, you know, it wouldn't have happened without y'all for sure. Oh, thank you, Ruth. Thank you. All right, so let's wrap this up. So Ruth again, thank you so much. I appreciate you taking the time today. And yeah. So as we've said, if you've been thinking about reaching out to us, whatever story you have in your head, just fucking do it. One of us will you just fucking do it? Like Kansas are two. We might even tell you now that would piss you off because we are tracking. And we don't, that's why you can't just buy something on us, buy something off our website. So, no, we won't take your money if you don't think you're a good fit. So it's all good. Cool. The tail tail tucked tail tucked and saying no, all of that needs to be worked out. So. Yep. Fucking hire them. Don't wait if we, if we offer you help though, if you come, if we invite you into the dumpster fire sketchy dumpster. Oh, we've been, we've called, we've been called trash, like burning dumpsters. We got. The screenshots I can share one day, the screenshots I can share one day. All right, Colver. Thank you so much. We'll talk to you later. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. Bye bye. Hey there, thanks for checking out. Another episode of the mind, your own dog business. 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, how to get in touch with me for more information on dog to 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.