Dog Biz School is open for enrollment starting March 27th! Apply today.
In this fucking badass episode of the Mind Your Own Dog Business Podcast, Kristen Lee sits down with Hannah Richey, dog trainer and owner of Western K9 CA, an elite dog training company on the West Coast.
Hannah (a Dog Biz School student) shares HOW she closed over 45k in dog training sales in Feb. A month, notoriously "slow" for the dog training industry. What's even better than closing 45k in sales? She reignited her love and passion for dog training again after battling mental health issues and burnout.
Kristen and Hannah cover:
As always, it's real; it's raw. And it's what our industry needs.
Episode Links:
Dog Biz School is open for enrollment starting March 27th! Apply today.
In this fucking badass episode of the Mind Your Own Dog Business Podcast, Kristen Lee sits down with Hannah Richey, dog trainer and owner of Western K9 CA, an elite dog training company on the West Coast.
Hannah (a Dog Biz School student) shares HOW she closed over 45k in dog training sales in Feb. A month, notoriously "slow" for the dog training industry. What's even better than closing 45k in sales? She reignited her love and passion for dog training again after battling mental health issues and burnout.
Kristen and Hannah cover:
As always, it's real; it's raw. And it's what our industry needs.
Episode Links:
Hey everybody. Before we get kicked off with Hannah's behind the scenes, look at her $45,000 dog training sales month in February of 2022. Just a quick reminder that dog, the school is going to be open at the school level for enrollment starting next Sunday, March 27th. This time we will be opening the doors to all dog business owners at whatever level you're at with your dog training business, your dog, walking business, your pack, hiking business, or whatever else you do in the business of dogs, including groomers too. In Petters. Now you might be pretty you new to business, or you might be a couple years in and you might think to yourself, man, I just have to get my shit together. I just have to get to a certain level before I reach out to the amazing team over here at dog with school, I just gotta do this. I gotta do that first. I gotta be prepared. if you are a newbie or you feel like you're in the spot of like, I need to be more advanced to get in with us because this school teaches way to advance stuff. This time is for you, especially with our life semester. That's gonna be getting kicked off in the next couple weeks. Now on the flip side of that, you might be sitting here with your arms crossed all suspicious. Like I don't need more Kristen. Like what the fuck? I am barely treading water with the volume of clients coming in. I am consistently putting out fires. I don't need more dog training clients. I don't need more marketing. I don't need more sales help. I don't need fucking more. This is your time to reach out to us too. Just remember, just because we teach marketing sales, we also also help busy as fuck dog trainers and facility owners and kennel owners. Get the fuck outta their business. Re strategize, organize and calm the chaos you might be. Experiencing. So if you've been shy to reach out or have had it on the back burner for months or even years, because listen, I've talked to a few people in the last couple weeks, or like I've been meaning to reach out to you for years, like now is your fucking time. So the thing is, this is gonna be a limited time. First come first serve open enrollment period. Now I'm not saying this to just be like scarcity, scarcity, scarcity. We're only opening the doors for a few people. No, we will have our doors open for a set amount of days until dog, the school gets filled. Okay. But then we close our doors until our next open enrollment period, which might be the fall of 2022. So get your application into me, into the team. And we'd love to talk about you on how we can take your dog business at whatever level you're at to the next level, whether that is your first $45,000 dog training sales month, like Hannah, or your first vacation in years, connect with us. We'd love to chat. We get you more information on our school, how we work and our courses and just everything else. That's pretty fucking cool about dog with school. Cause we are the fucking trash pandas of the industry. All right. So how do you apply? So go to dog with school.com/work with us, and I'll also drop a link in the show notes below. So you can just click on that and yes, there's an app application. We don't just let people buy their way into dog. This school. One of the biggest things about dog, this school is we foster a safe. Community for learning and growth. And we screen all of the peeps that come in because that's just how we roll. That's how we roll. And we want it to be a really great learning environment and make sure everybody's good fit. You can't buy your way into dog to school. You can't test the water to dog to school. You gotta be one of us in order to get all of the good stuff. So if you're shy about on the phone, this is not gonna be the opportunity for you. I can refer you out to somebody else that will just sell you whatever you think you need. But if you're really serious about taking your dog business to the next level, whatever that means, whether it is actually getting marketing that works and lead generation that works and connects with your dream clients. So you can act, actually get some profits into your business for once. And you're not just living paycheck to paycheck, cuz you're not entrepreneur entrepreneurs. We don't live paycheck to paycheck. And remember we generated 55 million of revenue over the last few years for our students or if you're that overloaded. Fucking crazy chaotic business owner. That's consistently trying to put out fires with clients and your staff and your facility and everything else that goes on with that. Let our team step in Jesus, take the wheel dog. Would school take the wheel and clear out all the fucking muck and guck and get back to doing the things you love, whether that is operating a smooth running business, where you can step away and not feel like you're gonna have a panic attack, or if that's getting back into training dogs, which is your first love. So reach out to us dog to school.com/work with us, and we'd love to chat talk soon. Bye you're listening to the mind, your own dog business podcast. I'm your host leading expert in dog business strategics. Kristin 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 gonna smash. All of these glass ceilings that have been holding you back in catapult your dog misses 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 whatever, slice the pet industry, you find yourself in. But as that badass and Conor, 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. Hey, everybody. Welcome to today's episode of the mind O motherfuck dog biz podcast. Yet again, I have another. Fucking awesome. Grassroots dog by school, trash Panda today with me as a guest, say hello to motherfuck Hannah, Joe Richie from Western canine. She's over on the west coast and just like everybody else. That's been on the podcast. She's one of our favorite trash pandas from dog with school, with a mouth that matches by the way guys, she's it's I think it's like 10:00 AM or
11:00 AM her time on the west coast. And she's already drinking. um, only for this podcast, only for this, only for this podcast. She's like, I've about an alcoholic. She tried to get me to drink with her on this one. I was like, eh, I'm not gonna do that. But she has the dark humor and the dang humor to hang with us and not mention an overall badass business woman and dog trainer. And Hannah is here to pull back the curtains. That sounds so dirty. Hannah's here to pull her curtain, pull my curtains back. Ooh. They pull the curtains back of her 45. K is it $45,000 or is it more, oh, you know what? You know what? It's actually, it's completely a lie. It's 43.5. So we're not, we're not totally at my 45 mark yet, but okay. The the month is young, you know, we got a couple days left, so yeah, you're gonna hit 50. I bet you're gonna hit 50 for sure. But she's around 45 K dog training sales month. Let me, let me re reiterate that she's hitting over $40,000 in the month of February 20, 22 of dog training sales. So I wanted to invite her today to share not just the numbers though, because like the numbers are great. Like we talk about numbers, we talk about money. Money's cool. You know, sometimes I, I get anti-money, which is interesting, but I also want her to share. Her actual journey of literally getting her shit together, getting organized refocused after a depressive slump, moving through the muck of burnout and heating, led to where she's at. Now. She's also going to share a little bit of her journey as a dog biz school student. And it's funny because the conversation with, and Hannah goes back a couple months ago, and that's why Hannah's been paying the Kristen and Maggie, right? HR. She's been depositing. We call it shillings over the last couple weeks. it's funny when you become a dog student, we're not, we like to be right. Cause we're right. 99.9, 9% of the time. But when you become a high level VI P client, On top of your coaching, you also pay us from what we're fucking right. mm-hmm mm-hmm Uhhuh. He was like, yes.. And, and it, it ends up being quite a tax. You guys are right. Very often. surprise, surprise. It's like we do this for eight 11, and we're good at it. It's almost like you're experts so weird. I know it's it's interest. It's like, we didn't just set up because we lost the business because we were actually fucking experts in the business of docs. Mm-hmm anyway, Hannah officially welcome. How are you? I am doing so well on this half a bottle of cheap wine. So thank you so much for asking you are welcome. You're welcome. I was, I was so hoping that this was gonna be live so I could be like, Hey, every single time someone comments, grassroots, I'll take a shot or something like that and just get shit faced by the end. it's all right. That could it's. That could be during our workshop or open enrollment. We wanna come live with us. I'm down, I'm down. So every time we could just take shots and just get shit plastered and perfect. That's what we call an unhappy hour. have you ever seen any of our unhappy hours with me and Maggie? No, I haven't. Oh my God. So we do sometimes we'll go and bitch about other business we'll bitch about like how other business coaches rip people off and we call it unhappy hour. We keep it in our pet dog business owners group. And we don't do it just to rag on somebody because with their competition, no, we do it when people get ripped off. So what we'll do is we'll do an unhappy hour and we'll just drink and get or more agitated. Oh God, I love that. I love that. It's amazing. I could do that up a couple about, uh, about a couple, um, dog training companies. So, ah, mm-hmm mm-hmm mm-hmm mm-hmm anyway, so Hannah welcome officially. So I always like to ask, uh, my podcast guest a couple questions so they can get to know you a little bit. Mm-hmm so, Hannah, what is your mother fucking superpower? Um, so other than Downing a bottle of Stella in like less than like 20 minutes, I would say that. I don't know, you know, I would really say that like my superpower and this is not how it used to be, is like, when shit gets really, really hard when like it's really, really dark and you're going through something really, really bad. I feel like my new superpower that I didn't use to have is just being patient and knowing that something is on the other half of this, you Mmm. Because I didn't used to be like that. I've been through, everybody's been through rough times in their life. I've been through shit in my life. You know, I went through something really, really awful in, in college. And back then I did not have the superpower. I was just like, there's no way. This is, this is my life. Now it's never gonna change whatever. But with all the shit that happened this year, or even with 2020, I felt like even in my darkest time, I still was like, It sucks for now. Just sit in your diaper for a little bit. And , I feel like I have to explain that phrase too, but like just sit in your dirty diaper for a minute. Mm-hmm and, and it'll be better. It'll be better eventually. We're gonna figure this out. And I don't know if that really constitutes a superpower, but that's what I really feel like. The one thing that I'm really good at right now is just waiting it out. Yeah. That's a superpower. You're able to know like what you're facing right now, a situation, a dark time is temporary and it doesn't crush you to the point of the fact of like, you can't overcome it and know that there's something else. Like you have fate faith and like fate of what's going on. Like it's not. And I don't. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't even wanna call it, like not giving up or whatever, because it's not even the same thing. It's just like, it's, it's not like, like I'm like towering through it and like getting up every single morning, early in the morning and being like, I'm gonna slay my demons. It's literally like being able to. Like be okay with the fact that I just laid in bed all day long and I feel bad for it and just know, like, it's not always gonna be like this, like it's gonna be better. You know, there's gonna be days when I feel better, you know? Yeah. So it's like, I don't know, superpower. Super power. Well, I think that's also really good to like actually put out there. It's like, cool. There's gonna be days where you need to lay in bed for your fucking mental health. Yeah. Yeah. And it's hard cuz you make yourself feel like really guilty for it too. And that doesn't help. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the whole high fun I was chatting with Ruth about this it's the whole high functioning anxiety entrepreneur. Mm-hmm mm-hmm. Because like, everything is telling you that you consistently have to be going, going, going, going, going, going, going as a business owner, be here, be there, be there, show up, do your admin work, do your marketing, do your sales. And then it's like, internally, like you're fighting your own fucking battles. And it's like, you lay in bed for a fucking mental health day. Cause you deserve one or taking some fucking time off with self. Cause it's not even just self care, but then you're in inner fucking voice is saying, oh, you lazy piece of shit. We'll go your fucking be, you suck. You don't deserve any of this. Mm-hmm mm-hmm yeah. Like that's gonna help. Like what the hell we are like, so freaking hypocritical. Because like, if that, if, if we were, if we had a high functioning anxiety dog come in and we were like, we know for a fact that this dog needs some rest and some balance mm-hmm and then the dog is having a problem with it. We're not like, oh, the dog is so messed up and it's never gonna change or whatever. We're like, this dog needs help, you know? Yeah. But we're so like hypocritical. Cause we don't do those same things for ourself. Like we know that we need rest. We know that we need balance, but like we, oh God, like we're just. We're hypocritical it happens. And that's the thing it's like, take care. It's I always like to say it's like take care of yourself as much as you take care of the fucking dogs that you work with. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah, because it's like, you can't have one without the other and that's the whole thing. It's a recipe to burn. It's like when you're so like focused on the health and the wellbeing of the dogs and you fucking put in the client delivery aspect and you put your needs on the back burner. Now I'm not saying not to be focused on, you know, being a damn good fuck dog trainer. Yeah. But when you put all that stuff in the forefront of your mind and you fucking put yourself on the back, yeah. You put that stuff in the back burner. What happens when you have a pot? Even if it's on low, it's gonna fucking scald and burn and you're gonna be done. Yeah. Yeah. And here's the thing is like, is you can be a really, really stellar dog trainer mm-hmm . But if you're not a good business owner and that, that part of that is putting yourself first. Right. Mm-hmm cause if you had an employee, you wouldn't make your employee go through this, you know, mm-hmm so. If you are not able to be a good business owner and learn the balance of being able to create a system that serves you, then you're not truly being a good dog trainer because eventually, you know, the owners are not gonna get the care that they need. You're not gonna get the care that you need. And then, and then you quit and dogs, it could have gotten help from you. If you had put yourself first, like go into the ethos and they never hear from you because you, you decide to go work for fast food or something, you know, mm-hmm so it's like you, there, there is no way to get around it. You have to take care of yourself and you have to learn how to. Run a business efficiently so that it takes care of you takes care of your owners and takes care of your, your dogs as well too. Mm-hmm and you're not gonna learn that, like from your YouTube video, you're gonna learn that from grassroots. Aw, thank you. Shameless there. you're like, see what I did there, bitches. This is my first fucking question. Put a shilling in the jar. I'm gonna put a shelling in your jar. Um, all right. I'll put a shelling in your empty wine wine bottle. It's not empty. Okay. I was being a little, I was being a little facetious. Oh yeah. Okay. You're like, yeah, I was just defending the fact that I'm not an alcoholic, so, and I'm roasting you over this. It's making you so uncomfortable to the point of like, you're like, I really don't drink that much. I don't, I don't. It's all good. So, Hannah, what's the last thing you've accomplished that made you incredibly proud of yourself. It could be business. It could be personal you, whatever the fuck you want. You know, what's so funny is even with this like crazy sales month that I did, like yeah, of course I was super excited about it, but, um, that like, wasn't the shining moment of this month. It was me falling in love with my business again. Ooh. And like wanting to be here for it, you know, and like wanting to call people, wanting to get out there and train the dogs. Like that's like was the secret was like Maggie called it like months ago. And she said I was self sabotaging cuz I don't wanna do it anymore. Mm-hmm you know, so like the second that I wanted to do this, the second that I was like, I was like, I went out to a private session, not a private session. I went out to a session with one of my board and trained dogs out to Petmart just for like some counter conditioning for like a little reactive dog or whatever. And I was having so much fun that I literally, the session was only supposed to be like an hour mm-hmm and I literally stayed for two hours. Cause I, I was having too much fun. I was having so much fun trained dog and I know what Maggie's gonna say. She's gonna be like, okay, be careful of overdelivering or whatever mm-hmm. But, but like, it's just a marker of the fact that like, I can't even imagine me doing that a month ago. Like a month ago I'd been like hit my hour mark, go home. Mm-hmm I'm gonna go lay in bed for the rest of the day cuz I can't handle it, you know? Yeah. But I literally stay because I was having so much fun training this dog. That like, I just wanted to keep doing it. And then I was like, so excited. I was like, it was like the night before Disneyland, when I, you know, when you're a kid and you're so excited, I was so excited for the day to start over again the next day mm-hmm Cause you know, I had to give this dog a break and everything, cuz two hours was always was a challenge for a dog like that. Um, but I was like, I can wait until tomorrow so I could do this again. So that was like a big change for sure. Falling back in love with your dog training business. That's huge. Mm-hmm yeah, that's fucking huge. Do you have a favorite quote? Yes I do. And it's super cheesy and I like, I like, it gets really annoying cuz I bring it up like all the time, whether I'm talking about dog training or if I'm talking about like people or therapy or whatever. Um, but it's this quote that I randomly saw on Facebook, like a couple weeks ago or whatever. Okay. I'm I'm gonna totally butcher it. I'm gonna totally butcher it. But, um, it was something like when, when like the flower is suffering, like if the flower's not doing well, I feel Kristen, I feel like maybe you posted this. So like, you're gonna be like laughing when you're like, know exactly what I'm talking about. But like, if the flower is like not doing well, mm-hmm , if it's suffering, like not gonna be mad at the flower, you don't change the flower. You change the soil that the flower's in. Yeah. Okay. No, that wasn't me, but I've seen it. I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah. And I just, like, I don't know, like I did know that that's kind of a little bit of what's going on. Mm-hmm I, I was aware of this stuff, but it just, like, I don't know, that kind of helped things to come kind of click together when I realized, like, it's the same thing. Like I would not expect a dog that has reactivity to improve and do well and heal. If I don't get all of these pieces together and look at like the health of this dog, and is this dog getting enough rest? Is this dog getting enough enrichment? Is this, you know, is this dog getting meaningful training? Is this dog getting, um, positive reinforcement for the, the good things that are happening? Like, are we putting all these different pieces together? Um, that that's the soil part, you know, mm-hmm so if the soil's not good, the flower's not gonna be good, you know, mm-hmm and so the same thing with me, it's like, I was so angry at myself for like, why didn't you just do the calls? Why didn't you just do 'em? Or like, why didn't you just mess up that call or whatever, when in reality it's like, how can I expect the flower to be good if I'm like, literally I don't feel good. You know, mm-hmm if like I, like, I haven't done anything to change my environment, anything to change my soil, anything that I would do for a dog I haven't done for myself. So how can I expect. The flower to be any different. Um, sorry. I just went down a rabbit hole with that. No, that's, that's fucking perfect. It's like cool. Like I like plants, right? My office is full of fucking house plants. So it's like, I'm looking at one of my Phil Andros that is like my pride and joy. And if it like starts to weld or get dramatic or starts to die off. Cool. It's not that I'm getting angry at the actual plant. I'm actually getting angry at not the, the care that goes into the, you know, the soil, like you said, the watering, the light, everything like that. So I got you. Oh my God. So I'm speaking to a plant person. So you get it. Yes. I have a plant person. I'm an indoor plant person. I'm really not. I have like, killed so many plants and I keep buying them. They keep diets. So addicting, go with, go with, um, um, uh, anything like a Swiss cheese plant or a nice Phil Adaron there would be a perfect first plant. Yeah. I do have a little tiny little garden in the backyard cuz every single year I try to start one and then it like, it dies. Like I've literally killed like. I've literally killed, you know, like mint. Oh, my God you've killed mint. Yes. you know, like it's, it's like supposed California. How the fuck do you kill mint? It's it's supposed to be like invasive. Like you cannot kill. People are literally like trying to kill it. And they can't. And I was literally like, Ooh, I'm gonna grow this thing and I'm gonna put it in my tea or whatever. And like it died. so I'm really, really bad at plants, but you know what, this year I've got some romaine lettuce and some broccoli in the back yard that it's looking Gucci. Cuz I did my research and I'm working on the soil, not the plant, you know mm-hmm exactly, exactly. Yes. I do love my house plants ever since my, uh, soul dog passed away, I go out into house plants. So it's like, Hey, let's care for another useless fuck in my house. it's no kidding. I know my God it's I can, Hey listen. It's dark and day humor. You can, you can sit. You can sit. I can say, I can say that's the thing is they're just LA ornaments, you know, they don't like, you know, contribute to the household. So they're just decorations. Yeah, exactly. All right, Hannah. So let's get right into it. So I know we're gonna talk about your crazy sales month. Um, for February where you almost hit 45 K, which you're gonna go blow, pass, but you're sitting at like a nice, healthy 43 K for the fucking month. Mm-hmm . Um, but also too, I do wanna recognize you came to dog school. Like what? In 2020 when we opened, um, dog BI school, 2.0, right. Mm-hmm is that how you got introduced to us? Cool. And from 2020 you went from like zero to 25 K and then 25 K in 2020 to don't. Excuse my fucking French, but $250,000 in 2021. Yes. Yeah. It was a pretty big jump. Damn God damn. So people are probably like, do you have a, do you have a huge facility? Do you have this? No, you're like, no, it's me. it was me. I, you know, I do have my, I do have my assistant trainer, Erin who like really did help me a lot with the, the training aspects and stuff like that. Mm-hmm and just like taking things off my plate, but. That. That was definitely all me. Yeah. And just to kind of reiterate the fact, because you do have fusion programs, like you're not over crazy, that's why , that's how people can fucking do it. Mm-hmm yeah. Cool. All right. So I just wanna, I wanna cement that one there. I think that's like what a thousand percent increase. Um, yeah, but I'm not good at math, so same, same. I need a calculator. All right, Hannah. So the, everybody wants to know, how did you close almost 45 K in sales in a month? Um, you know, it just happened really, really fast. I'll I'll actually say that. Um, I don't think I made my first sale of the month until like a week in, so it really reality. It was more like 45 or 43 point 5k sales within like two weeks. Cause I didn't, I didn't, excuse me. Ma'am ma'am ma'am maam weeks ma. But, but here's the thing is like, I, I I'll, I'll tell you. Hmm. Go for it. I'll tell you what, what kinda like led up to it because yeah, go ahead. Like, I, it's, not that I haven't been trying. It's not like, like all of a sudden, like, Ooh, things click together now. Things are perfect. Yeah. I have been trying, let me, let me put this here. Hannah has been working her fucking ass off for this, for. If not for months, for years. Yeah. She's been working very, very closely with us. That's why too, but go ahead. And within the last few months, you know, things like I've been working on like fighting a battle on multiple fronts, like with my mental health, with the business, with moving into this new house, like all these different things. And so it was like trying to fight all these different things at the same time. So it, it's not like, I wasn't, it's not like, like all of a sudden a miracle happened and then it was great. Yeah. Like it's sort of, yeah, but like, honestly there was like probably three or four months of like me, like trying multiple types of fertilizer on the soil and it's like killing the flower over and over again. Right. I was like, I was working, I was grinding trying to figure out how do I break through and get myself on these sales calls and, and make 'em the, the best that they've ever been and really show up for the clients. And I was trying, and it was burning my battery out over and over and over again. And it was hard. It was super duper hard to know. Like that was probably one of the things that was hardest during that time was like, knowing that I was trying mm-hmm I was trying so hard. I was like going to therapy and I was like talking to my therapist about, about like, even about my sales, you know, and like mm-hmm and my avoidance of it and everything like that. And, um, like my boyfriend, I'm sure he got sick in tired of hearing it all day long of like, I'm trying, I'm trying. And I would like, you know, try to take care of my mental health. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna take my fucking vitamins. And it's cool for a walk and shit. You know, I'm gonna go for a fucking walk for my mental health kinda angry mental walk on chick TikTok thing I was gonna yep. Yep. I'm like, I'm trying so hard to take care of my health and help me help the soil or whatever. And I was constantly in contact with you guys trying to figure it out and like, like we were like bouncing ideas back and forth and, and trying to figure it out and. It, it did get better. It's like it slowly got better and better and better as I consulted with you guys and got the care and the support that I needed through this stuff. Mm-hmm , you know, it got better slowly, but it wasn't like it got better, like overnight. Yeah. So like, again, that's another thing it's like, like you have to grind, you have to keep going. Um, and then, you know, Maggie did tell me something last month where she was like, you have to make the actual calls, your self care mm-hmm And I was like, I understand that, but that sounds like the opposite of possible, like, like that is so like, I, I totally understand that. And I want to, it makes sense, but like, holy shit, that's like scary. Right? Mm-hmm but it wasn't until like, it actually happened that I was like, holy fuck. Maggie's right. Give me the motherfucking chilling jar and let me put a hundred bucks in it. Like, because. Um, I had one of my previous clients from like back when I like really first started reach out and ask me about training for her, her new puppy that she got. Right. And this is a client that I like absolutely adored and loved. Right. Mm-hmm that I, I just haven't heard from, for five ever. You know, she, like, I don't know, I haven't heard from her, her and I was like, so excited to hear from her that I got on the phone immediately and it was the easiest sale I've ever made. And like, it recharged me because like, oh my gosh, this is making me tear up. It's the bottle of Ella. Um, but like, it reminded me of the time when I loved my business, you know, it, me of that time where I was like, where I was alive, where like every person was, was so important to me and part of my family and every dog that came through was like an individual to me that I got, like I had the best time with. And it reminded me of that. And that was like the moment that was the spark, that was like, everything else was leading up to it. You know, that, like I had been like working on the soil, grinding away, working on the soil with you guys, trying to get this flower to grow. And then it was like, the sun came through the clouds and the, and the flower, like finally got like some motherfuck vitamin D, you know? Yeah. And, and like from then it just us, it exploded because all of a sudden, like emails that I left opened or whatever, but didn't do anything about were lists of people that were waiting for calls. I didn't do anything about, or Facebook messenger people that I didn't do anything about. I messaged every single one of them. And I was like, I want a hundred more people just like this client, you know? Yeah. Because I love this client so much. Um, oh my gosh. I know why hit me this morning, but. But, and then I started to view those clients like that. You know, it wasn't like I was tricking the clients into like buying something from me. It was like, I was imagining, you know, one of my first clients who was going through hell with her dog, she was trapped in her house with her, her like mildly human aggressive dog that had insane and SEP separation anxiety. She was trapped in the house with this dog mm-hmm and she was heartbroken and depressed. Like she called me and cried multiple times in our first few sessions back in like 20, 20. Right. Mm-hmm . And I was like, thinking about her and I'm like every single one of these people, I'm not, I'm not tricking them into buying something. Like they need a friend and I wanna be that person for them. So, yeah. So it was that first call that all of a sudden, like lit my fire. Yeah. And I called everybody. And I called them as myself, not as professional trainer Hannah. Who's like, hi, how can I help you? Yeah. This is what we charge. But as like, like bad bitch, I'm here for you. Yeah. This shit's hard. We're gonna do it, you know? Yeah. And, and it, and Maggie was a hundred percent on point. The calls were my self care. Boom. Um, because I showed up for people and by showing up for people, I showed up for myself. So, um, sorry, I don't even know what the original question was, but I just had . It was how did you close 43 point 5k in a month? oh yeah. So it was that it was that it was just falling. It was number one, falling in love with my business. Number two, seeing the clients as the people that need me. Yeah. You know, the, the people that like are, they need help and this is how much it costs to help them. I'm not tricking them into buying something they need, they need help. And I'm gonna find my next Caitlins, I'm gonna find my next, um, you know, um, the, the Contreras, I'm gonna find the, the next, you know, Baron and the next Brandy and whatever, I'm gonna find those people and I'm gonna help them. So from then on, like, that's why, that's how I made almost 40 K 45 in like two weeks is because I don't know. I just saw it differently. Yeah. It's the whole thing of where it's where, you know, there's the whole saying, well, you do get into dogs to make money. You know what I mean? But it's, this is where your passion meets business meets showing up for yourself. Yeah. And one of the things that we always talk about in the sales processes is like, Sale, like the first step to self-care in this sounds like really kind of contr, not controversial, but like contrary to each other is the first step in any dog training business in any dog business for self-care is, is sales. Yeah, because like Hannah did like, Hannah know, realize you start to realize this is what's going on with me. And this is where I can start stepping up and start standing into my own. Like whether whatever that means for yourself. Yeah. And. Sales is self-care and self-care sales. I've always said that. Yeah. And it's so hard to explain to people who are, who, like, you know, haven't gotten into sales yet. Mm-hmm because they hear the word sales and they automatically think of that sleazy guy that comes to your door to sell you magazines. You know, mm-hmm, when, in reality, like I wish I could just change the word for it. Like, I don't know, just active listening session with your client or something. Yeah. Because it's not sales it's, it's me hearing out about the shit that they've been through with their dog and how they, they want to return in, but they feel like they can't because they're scared that the rescue is gonna be angry at them. And mm-hmm and you know, they're scared that they're gonna look like a failure to their whole family, because they can't even handle this, this little, you know, this little dog that, that has been abused in the past or whatever. And so they feel bad for the dog and they feel bad for the, for the, um, rescue and they feel bad about how everybody's gonna think about them. And mm-hmm, , it's about like, hearing that. and not trying to fix it. You know, everybody hates a fixer, like just listen for a second. Yeah. Shut the fuck up and listen, shut the fuck up and let the person talk because they've had enough people trying to fix their problems. What they need is for somebody to listen and just understand that what they're going through is really shitty. And then at that point, you say, this is how much it costs for us to put together these different factors to help you mm-hmm and you can do it. We can do it. That's like it. It's not like it's not tricking the client into buying something expensive. It's not manipulation. Nope. It's not manipulation either. It's and it's like, you have to be honest. It's like, this is how much it costs to fix this. Like, I can, I can help you with, this is how much it, like, you have to be honest about that too, but it's not tricking them into buying it. It's helping them to believe that we can do this together and helping them to like, to make that, that really scary step to invest money into this dog that they don't trust. You know, it's scary. And so like, that's what sales is. It's. It's listening to the client and letting them be heard and letting, letting them be heard for the first fucking moment in their entire life. Cuz you damn well know that no one in their family does and the rescue doesn't and the dog. Sure. Doesn't right now mm-hmm nobody hears them. And so it's about like letting them feel heard and cared about for the first time in their life and helping them to make hard decisions that you know, are gonna offer them. Exactly. Are we like answering questions? No. No, that's perfect. It's also, so here's the thing too about sales with, for dog trainers and dog owners. When you do a sales process with somebody on the phone, especially a dog owner as the dog trainer. This is also the testing ground too, of where they're gonna be coachable as a dog owner. Mm-hmm like, they're gonna listen to you as the dog, as a, as a dog training client. Oh yeah. Cause it's, it's one of those things of where if you don't have a, if you have a lot of people or if you have a good ma amount of people, even if it's like 20% of people that you're like, okay, why are people ghosting me in my dog training program? Why are people not doing their quote homework? Homework is lame for dog owners, by the way, didn't do that shit. Mm-hmm um, why aren't they doing? Like, why aren't they putting the muzzle on the dog before I come over or whatever? Not following instructions. I wanna, I'm not blaming the dog trainer, but I wanna say, okay, cool. Where was that red flag in the sales process with them? Mm-hmm did you just sign them up saying, Hey, this is what we do. This is how we can help here's the cost. Okay. Boom. And hang up or send 'em to a form and book, sell them on the, on like your email. No, you can eliminate a good, not all of them, but a good chunk of the people that are not gonna be great clients for you that aren't gonna light you up. Like Hannah has. Yeah. Mm-hmm . With a sales process. Yeah. And that's the thing too. It's like sale. We have such a mindset around sales, um, as dog trainers, dog trainers are finally in the last, like two years, especially cuz of the pandemic. I feel like that's spur. It are finally getting on the fucking phone and doing sales calls. Mm-hmm , which is fucking awesome. Mm-hmm . But we can still fuck'em up and do them wrong anyway. Yeah. Yeah. So, Hannah, what were like in the middle of all this muck that you were going through the last couple months? Cause I remember the conversations and you go through a, you went through a, a very, very, very, um, common thing that we see a lot of dog school students do. Uh, when you get a sales slump, you start to question yourself, you start to question your programs, your, how you're doing things. And I remember, I remember I was in fucking home goods and I was listening to your message. And I I'm usually really good at my boundaries, not listening to messages when I'm not working and I remember cuz it was me and you going back and forth cuz I think the team was off and I was kind of monitoring, uh, your coaching thing. And I remember you're like, but Kristen, Kristen and Kristen, I did sell this. I sold this so many times. I need to go back to this. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember that. And this is one of those common things of where. It's a high it's, it's not the actual product or price point issue. It's a U issue. Oh yeah. Right. so can you share a little bit about that in the middle of that? Well, yeah, for sure. And like, that's the thing is like, I, I feel like, yeah, when I, when it wasn't selling, I was like, something has to be wrong. Mm-hmm something has to be wrong because like, I, I have sold like a crazy mofo in the past. Like the first part of 20, 21 was insane too. Like I sold like mm-hmm $27,000 months, like on a regular basis. Right. And so like all of a sudden to the second half of 20. 21 kind of more towards like November, December, even October, I like was selling like nothing, you know? Um, and so I'm just like, something has to be wrong, like, like, and Maggie talks about sphere of influence too. I had all these other people saying like, oh, it's the economy. Oh, it's, you know, it's inflation. It's this? Oh, I remember our inter intervention call with you. I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All these other like different things going on, like thoughts in your head of like, why it can't work when in reality, like those things take the control outta your hands. When you say like, oh, it must be inflation. Oh, it must be taxes. Oh, it must be that. No, one's getting dogs anymore. Okay, well, those are things you don't have control of. So like mm-hmm, buck up and take the things that you do have control of and do something about it. Right. So anyways, um, I think I'm totally getting off track. I can't even remember what the, no, the original question was going through the, no, it's all good. What was it? Yeah. Going through the muck, like what were some of the thoughts and feelings as you were going through it? Oh yeah. Yeah. So like I had all those different things going around in my head and I knew that they weren't true, but it doesn't matter. Like, like mm-hmm, , you can know that they're not true, but like when you kinda get those like subliminal messages over and over again, you start to kinda like question it a little bit. And then, so I was like, maybe I should just go back to how it was before, when I was selling little 10 day board and trains and three week board trains. Um, and just, just a quick summary summary summary about that. There was a problem with me selling my 10 days in my three weeks, because I was trying to deliver a three week board train in 10 days and I was burning myself out. So I was, do you remember that? Yep. That's why I had to fade those out, but it like that affects the sales too. Cuz obviously statistically you're gonna sell less three weeks than you do 10 days. It's gonna gonna work out to be the same amount of money, but statistically it's gonna be less. So it like, it was already a hard transition for me to like get less sales statistically. I was making the sale amount of money, but get less sales cuz I liked hearing those yeses. I liked feeling like, oh I got this one, I got that one, you know, these little wins. Um, and so I was like, I, you know, maybe I gotta go back, you know, I gotta go back and do two 10 days. Right. Mm-hmm I was willing and that's like, that's the fucked up part. Kristen is like, I was willing, even though I knew that the 10 days were gonna burn me out, I knew that they were gonna fuck me the fuck over again and again. And I was willing to sacrifice myself first. Just to make the business work and that's fucked up. Stop doing that to yourself. stop. Don't repeat your old bullshit. Yeah. Like I like, why are we always trying to like freaking slit our own risks over the business? When really what we need to do is like buck up and just do the thing instead of like sacrificing our own personal mental health by going back to doing goddamn 10 days, right? Yeah. So anyways, the, I think the reason why you saw that message in Costco or Sam's club or whatever, and responded to it, cuz you were like, holy shit. like this girl got calmed down yeah. Yeah. Like you had a thousand reasons why I don't remember the bullshit reasons you had for that. And I was like, Nope. I literally probably would just like, no, I, I think that's what my like, no, uh, it was probably just like a gift that just said like, no, like, no don't do that. no right to jail. right. To jail. Right. To jail. thinking about it right to jail. yeah. So what did you learn about yourself in this process? This whole entire process? Um, same thing be patient like the soil doesn't have to get fixed in a second, you know, mm-hmm like things will come together and I would say, Hmm. I would say stand by your boundaries, you know? Stand by, like, you have to establish like what you're gonna be okay with. And if you're, if you're okay with self-sacrificing over and over again, then you need to go therapy. like, yeah. Like figure out what you're gonna be okay with and shut out the noise too, because you've gotta focus on the stuff that who have control of, you know, mm-hmm I knew, I told you guys this, you have the point. I said this all the time where I was like, I have the hammer, I have the nail. I have the piece of wood. Like, all I have to do is put the nail in the wood and hit it with the hammer. Mm-hmm I know I can do this, like this. I have the ability to do this. And then if you have somebody outside, that's saying like, oh, what? That might be Birchwood. Oh, but are, do you have nails or do you have screws? Like if you have somebody like that outside of your spirit or in your spirit of influence, that's giving you reasons that you cannot do it that have nothing to do with like. Your ability to do it right there. Mm-hmm stuff that's outta your control. Um, it's gonna be a waste of your time. Like you have the hammer, you have the nail, you have the wood, you can do it. And if you're not doing it right right now, it doesn't mean that you're not gonna be able to do it in a month. It just means you've gotta work on your soil and you've gotta make sure that the person behind you is not to telling you that you have screws instead of nails, you know? Yeah. I think the whole spirit of influence is a really good conversation that a lot of people aren't, it's not that they're not ready to hear, but it's something that's not talked about the most because like, listen, the dog training industry, even though it's huge, it's big, it's hundreds of billions of dollars or whatever is dog train uniquely are a very close community and you have to be, and even like your own home and personal life, like I don't listen to my husband for shit. Like when it comes to business stuff, like one of dude, one of his. One of his clients is, uh, did he had a year long client amazing progress. And she was so inspired by the work that she's becoming a dog Walker. Oh. And I was listening to him and I was like, listen to him, give her business advice. I like, you gotta, you gotta leave the house. You gotta go some work. Cause I'm like, I can't right now Uhhuh . But that also being said to, by the, if you're listening, Jerry, call me, please. Don't call Frank . Um, love you love you both, but no. Um, but no, kind of getting back to the more serious point of this is uniquely dog trainers have such a small community and I see there's a lot of community of where you see community. And, but there's some, I'm trying to write, I'm trying to word it the right way. So I don't sound like such a complete fucking, no, just do fine. Just say it because like you have to be, you have to be very, very, very mindful. Of who your sphere of influence is as a dog trainer and dog business owner. Mm-hmm because each of these micro communities all have underlying things. Mm-hmm . So if you're trying to expand your business and you're, for example, and this is one of those controversial things, it's like when you have, you know, a high end dog training program and you have people in your ear, they're like, who, like who, who you think you are for charging this much for board and trains? Yeah. Or people say, no, it's okay. Like you got like, even if like you have a, if you have a bad month, like Hannah did, and you have people like, no, it's okay. Like Phil, you have a toxic positivity. Mm-hmm those little things are, and like, it's great to have a supportive community to have somebody to have your back. Like, that's what we do at to school. But like, You have to be very, very, very careful of the subliminal and subconscious things and the insidious things that can keep you yeah. Really fucking trapped. Mm-hmm so it's just one of those things. Like people think they're supporting each other when they're actually holding each other back. And I'm not saying not have communities like, no fuck yet you, we need more communities, but we have to be very, very, very, very careful what we share. Mm-hmm and what we put out there versus internally in like your internal compass with it. Yeah. If that makes sense. It's hard to also be aware of those things and like see them when they have exactly, you know, exactly. That's the insidious part about it is like, you're just like, oh, it's my boyfriend. Just trying to gimme some support, but then like, realize you're like, okay, that's undermining. Like the way that I feel about my capabilities around my business, you know, exactly another example that just hit me, like explosion of TikTok, dog trainers. Mm-hmm and I see. Something that I haven't spoken about yet, because I don't feel like being fucking crucified for it just yet. But I'm gonna talk about it now. I already know what you're gonna say. Cause I see it too shitting on shitting on dog owners. Yeah. Like it doesn't matter if that's gonna help. Yeah. It doesn't matter if the dog owner's gonna see it or not. But when you start perpetually reading a message that dog owners are stupid, lazy, or you're making fun of a dog owner or whatever, not in a, not even when you shit on dog owners and you talk crap about them to your own community. You literally subconsciously start to program your mind as a deferment to dog owners. If that makes sense. Yeah. And do be very, very weary on that. Like, I don't have much to say on that, but like if I ever see like in dogma school, cause we're all over the place, we have eyes everywhere. Like I hate to say it. But like we've, we've fired clients cuz we've seen them shitting on dog owners. Yeah. Like, like don't, don't do that. That's just, it's again, that's a whole spirit of influence. That's why I talk like a lot of dog trainer, Facebook groups are so fucking toxic. Yeah. They suck. Suck if Hannah wouldn't handle it and was like, yeah, these people aren't buying my problem. Oh yeah. Fucking people are cheap. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm , mm-hmm, what would've happened. You, if you had that put in your head over and over and over again, you, would've not gone outta that song anyway. Sorry. And here's the thing is like, that's the exact thing is like if I went into those calls, thinking like, Ugh, everybody's cheap and these dog owners are not gonna do their work. They're lazy. Okay. I wouldn't, I wouldn't have made 43, 43 point 5k this month. I just wouldn't have, because I made, because I remembered when I loved my clients mm-hmm and I saw them for what they really truly are, which is people just like me that are going through something hard. And I got on the phone and I made 45 K. Yeah. Because I treated them like human beings and that's the thing is. is we're saying like, oh, a dog is a plant and you need to make sure the soil's good. So it grows. Well, we're saying I'm a plant and I need to make sure my soil's good. So it's gonna grow well. Mm-hmm okay. So those people who are shit, talk, their owners, all that, that tells me all I need to know about them, cuz they're not doing shit for their owner's soil. They're not doing a goddamn thing for the soil, for their owners and they expecting the flower to be great. And now they're shitting on the flower, making tos. I don't care if it's comedic the way that they do it. Like they're making tos, laughing at the flower. Instead of doing something about the soil, do something about the fucking soil. If you have a problem with your clients, yeah. Oh my God. I know I can go on a ran about that. well, that's the thing it's like, don't don't shit on your plane. Don't shit on your flowers, right? Like, yeah, there is some shit, there are some fucking shitty ass dog owners out there that are fucking PS and the ass and pieces of shit that you'll never work with. Mm-hmm . But again, that doesn't, that doesn't match the maturity of dog owners. Like, and God like that also too, when we shit on a dog owner, like. It also drives them to try to fix the problem theirselves. And they're more afraid. Well, first and foremost, your job's gonna be a lot harder. Cause they're gonna go watch fucking cable TV show. I'm not gonna name the name of it to try to fix their dog. Right. And get fucking bit in the process. Videos and shit, YouTube videos. They're gonna fucking put E collars on dogs without even fucking understanding the whole of it. The alpha roll dog. Just for fun. Yeah. It's yeah, exactly. And it's gonna make your job exponentially harder. Mm-hmm and then when they finally reach out to you and then you go to them and you're like, they're gonna be more afraid to actually reach out for professional help and they're gonna go into potentially the wrong cancer of somebody else. So just be very careful of what you put out there and how you should on people. And I'm not saying again, It's okay. To have some humor in dog training. Like we fucking use humor in dog, this school. Yeah. And I, we actually teach how to use constructive humor. like, remember the whole content challenge. Yes. But it's not where you fucking shame a dog on I'm on. Right. Okay. I know it's like fine lines and stuff. It's hard to, it is. It's very, very, very extremely fine lines. That's where, that's where you have to do grassroots because like they show you guys the fine lines, like shameless plug here is like, I wasn't, I wasn't even hardly aware of this shit until like recently. Yeah. And I've been doing grassroots for like a year mm-hmm like it again, it takes time to grow and to understand all these different moving factors, just like it takes time to understand your dog and help them. Right. Mm-hmm it takes time to get better. But like I only felt like recently that I finally saw the picture from the outside where I was like, oh God, this is what they've been saying this whole entire fucking time. And it makes sense. Mm-hmm . So, when did you, why did, what was the reason I'm like, when, why, what , what made you reach out to grassroots dog school in the first place? Like, if we go way back in time, um, you know, so like, that was like way back in like 20, 20, like when all the shit just originally went down. And before that I was, I had like four different jobs. Like I was a vet tech. I remember that. Yes. I took your call. Yeah. Oh my God. Yes. And I remember it. Okay. Yeah. So I, I was a vet tech. I was also a groomer. Yes. Um, and I also was a dog trainer Uhhuh, and then I had like Rover sitting clients that were at home, you know, that was kinda like let out and stuff. Right, right, right, right, right. Yes. I remember you. So it was like, it was like all over the place. I worked like all day on, day on the shit, but then, you know what, funny enough, it's like when the, when the lockdown happened and everything like that, suddenly I like did not have anything except for my own clients at. My house, you know, my own Rover clients. And even then nobody's traveling, you know, so it's like we don't have any, we don't have any boarding clients anyways. Um, and the, I was working for a dog treating place at the time I took like a occasionally I would take like my own clients and stuff like that, but I didn't, I didn't feel confident enough to do it yet. I like, I charged like a thousand dollars for a monthlong board and train Aw, literally a thousand dollars for a monthlong board and train that's freaking insane. Um, and I was just like, not confident enough to do it on my own. So I was working for another place as well. I was just doing all this random shit. So COVID comes along. I lose all those jobs because we don't have any grooming clients. Mm-hmm we don't have any dog training clients. Um, the vet clinic is closed, you know, mm-hmm and all I have left is like my own personal clients at home. And I was like, I knew I already did know what I wanted to do in the future. I knew that I wanted to. Opened my own place. I already had like a name for it and business cards and shit. Mm-hmm, like I wanted to open my own place doing boarding and training mm-hmm um, and, but I was like, oh, I gotta wait a couple more years until I save up the money to do it or something, you know, mm-hmm because at the time I was like, dirt broke, AAF, right. a F um, and, um, and then like all of a sudden that happened and I was like, I gotta fucking do something. Right. So I talked to you and you heard me out and you made me feel a herd about my shit. And you helped me to make the hard decision that you knew was gonna work out for me, just like I was saying earlier, you know, mm-hmm and, um, and I spent every fricking last penny that I had to do it. Cause I mean, I didn't have very many pennies. I did not have very many pennies and I had to do all, I had to do many S yeah. I had like three shillings and I spent 'em all, you know, And for the, and it, it got better. I made sales, I had training clients and like, it, it was way better than it ever was. Especially considering that I lost all those jobs, you know, mm-hmm , mm-hmm um, and we, we worked together for, I think like, it was like, I can't even remember how it was, it was two point. I know. Yeah. Yeah. It was like two or three months or something like that. Yep, yep. Yep. There there's a school. Yeah. And it, and it did get really, really good. It got really good. And I started doing stuff on my own and as like my jobs reopened and stuff like that. I was working those jobs at the same time as like, kind of like testing out some of the stuff that I learned from you guys. Mm-hmm and then when the eight week program on, or was it, was it grass 2.0, so it was like three months. It was thinking it was two years of school in like three months, 12 weeks. Yeah. That was fun. yeah. Oh, that was intense, dude. That was intense. And I remember, dude, I remember my first sales call. It was a St. Bernard, like a reactive St. Bernard. And I was, oh my God, shaking. This is what I said on the, in the group this week. If you saw what I said, um, when, um, I can't remember one of our new people, one of our new posted about that experience. And then I, um, responded saying like my first sales call, like I like was shaking on the couch. I literally was like shivering. I was so freaking scared. Mm-hmm um, I have jumbled my words, like an absolute motherfucker. I was like all over the place. Like they probably thought I had like. A problem, you know, like they were like, so they probably thought I was like, like had a stutter or something like that. Like, I, I just could not keep it together. And what was so funny was I pitched them for like a $3,500 board and train, which is not even that big, but for me it was so scary to offer that to them. And on even after like totally just mangling this sales call. the lady like wanted to buy it, you know, mm-hmm and I was like, oh my gosh, I did it. Right. And then she was like, let me get my husband on the phone. And, you know, I wasn't like super good at handling objections or anything like that. So I was like, okay. You know, she was like, lemme talk to my husband. And then she, she got him onto the phone later and I talked to him and it went even worse. And the husband was like, what the fuck? Like, who are you to talking to about dog training? Like, like, we need to call her an ambulance. She sounds not. Well, you know, to the dog chair yeah. She's like the, the husband like probably was weirded out AF and then they ended up not, they ended up not buying. Of course. And I was like, dev is stated. I was like, I was like, I can't, I do it. I can't do it anymore. You know, I was so, so sad. Um, and then basically basically a month or two went by where I was just like kind of chilling, just working with my boarding clients, doing my, trying to like, just figure out what I wanted to do and how to move forward. And I got back on a call with you guys. And I got back signed up for the normal grassroots program, you know, like the, the normal grassroot school. Yep. And then I started like, I got my first 10 K month. Yeah. Just in school, by the way, which for opening for open enrollment, by the way, whoa, join us. Um, but yeah, I got my first 10 week, uh, 10 K month and then I got three months in a row. I got 10 K over and over again. Mm. Um, and then like, and then it turned into like 15 K mm-hmm and then it turned into 20 K. And by the end of that year, this is 20, 21 now. Right? Yeah. By the end of that year, um, I was like doing 27 K months and stuff, you know? Oh, well then towards the end of the year was when I had my shit show, you know, but during that, that whole year we went from 25 K in that, in the, the first month or in the first year of 20, 20 mm-hmm and then 2021, we did. Crazy craziness. Two 50. Yeah. Well also too, like big numbers aside, like starting your business in a pandemic in 2020 and hitting and hitting 25. Oh my God. That's, that's a big thing. Pretty itself. That's still a big thing. Like that's a fucking huge thing. Like it's nothing it's like yeah. Small and numbers, whatever. No, no. like, no, this is, it's still a fucking massive, massive, massive success. Like, yeah. It's crazy. Also, if you think about it, like when did we start doing that? It was like March or April. April. So if you think about it, I started with you guys in April and I had my first 10 K month in October, right? Mm-hmm I had smaller sales and it was still like a big win for me to be like, oh my God, I'm like doing this. Like I'm doing this thing that I've always wanted to do. And I thought I was, I was gonna do this in like 10 years when I had money to do it. You know, I'm doing anything I wanted to do. I was still making money. I made that 25 K after April, you know? Um, and it wasn't until October that I got that. that 10 K month mm-hmm and yeah, it's the thing. Oh, it's 25 K um, net, right? Yeah. So we definitely made more, but after our expenses, we made 25. K I wanna be specific about that. Yeah. Fuck ass. So that's the thing too. It's like people fail, feel like they need like all the fucking puzzle pieces together to like, actually, like, it's like, you don't need money to make money. Like money can, you can make money when you have money. Like, that's so scary though. It's easier, right? It's a little bit easier to make and have your money make money for you. That's a whole other conversation, but like you don't need, I literally went, I just went into our billing system. You put down like $25 to get into school back in then. Oh, did I, did I really fucking knew that it was, it was like 25 or it was like one of those, it was a small deposit, which is fine. I guarantee too, that it was like the last $25 that I had. I think it was, it probably was mm-hmm mm-hmm but that's the thing too. You don't. Yeah, you don't need. Fucking millions or thousands of dollars to get started, like anywhere, like just like the whole trust in yourself with that. Yeah. So what was the moment you were like, holy shit. I made the right choice with working with grassroots and us. And, um, there was like 5,000 different moments. So I don't know if I can really pick one. It might have been that first 10 K month. Okay. It might have been that first that I ever got. It might have been like the fact that I sold a freaking nine K program last year. What the fuck, dude? I literally said that to people. I I've sold more than one. I've sold like a couple nine Ks, a couple seven point fives and stuff like that. But like I've said that to people and they're like, they're like, I would never spend that much money on your, on my dog. And I'm like, you would, if you got on the phone with me, you know, mm-hmm and like, it was like those things, I'm just like that even. Even the person that, even me that did believe in me back then when I signed up for you guys. And I was like this, my last 25 shellings and, and I'm gonna put it down to do this crazy ass thing. And I don't know if it's gonna turn okay. But I believe in myself, I can do this, you know? Yeah. I can do this. It's gonna be okay. We're gonna figure it out. Even that person would not have leave for a second, that I could sell something for $9,000. Yeah. Right. So that was a, definitely a freaking huge one. Maybe my first 27 K month was a huge one. Definitely. This month, I, this stuff would not have been possible. I would've literally like last the, you know, the last quarter of 20, 21, I literally would've just like, quit my job and go a work a Chick-fil-A or some shit, you know, because I would not have even gotten outta that slump. Yeah. Without. The guidance from grassroots. Yeah. Well also think about it too. It's like the money you've invested just in that alone. Like you recoup that within a week. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. It's insane. Oh yeah. Insane. I did. Yeah. It's scary. It's scary at first, you know, it's always scary. It's all. But you should be scared. Yeah. You should be scared. I always make you work harder when you're scared. So . Yeah. And I always tell people, like, when they first join us, like you should be fucking having stress shits the first like day, right? Oh yeah. Like if you can get through that, like you're good. Mm-hmm , it's like we can't push your rock up hill. You do have to do the work, but like, you should be nervous. Like anytime you make an investment into yourself, even if it's like. Like a personal investment, like, Hey, I'm gonna go do this for myself. And you're like, God, I've never spent a hundred dollars on myself. What am I gonna do? You should be nervous with it because it's the whole it's, you're, you're literally, I hate to use the marketing bro marketing term of leveling up, but you are literally leveling up and anytime you make a decision, that's a outta your comfort zone. It should be scary. If you are apathetic, you are a sociopath. I'm telling you isn't it, that phrase, you know, that phrase that's like, um, if your goal doesn't scare you, it's not a good enough goal or something like that. Yeah. Goal it's so fucking true. Yeah. Cause if it doesn't scare you, then it's too fucking easy, you know, you're, you're letting yourself settle for a thousand dollars for a 30 day board train Yeah. Yeah. And how, how, how is that maintainable? Yeah. You, you might be the sign up queen now out and keep signing up, signing up people at that thing. But it's like, talk to me, talk to me in six months. Mm-hmm mm-hmm talk to me in fucking six months where you're gonna be, you are gonna be one of those TikTok trainers, fucking bitching about people. Exactly. And also, I, I wanna specify too. It doesn't mean that you have to sell a low quality board train for nine K. It means. You get the opportunity of being able to offer a program that is worth nine K to your clients. That means you're able to create a full in depth online course for your clients to make sure that they feel educated. Like they're a freaking expert. It means that you're able to hire people to support you, to be able to pick out that dog when it needs to be up and take it for that thing that need, it needs to be taken for mm-hmm like you're able to create a program that is worth nine K to these people. Mm-hmm you're not, I'm not convincing them. Oh yeah. Do a, do a little day train with me for $9,000. I'm like, I'm gonna create the thing that's gonna help you and change your life. This is how much it costs. Yeah. I can't remember again. I don't know if it's a cell. I can't even remember what the question was, but , it's all good. So this is my favorite question, and I I'm interested to see if Ruth had, if you have the same answer as Ruth, what what's been your favorite dog, this school moment, like. Right. Great. You wanna share your, I said too, she talked about Steve. Damn it. OK. But that is the retreat. Talk about it. Oh my God. You like, I swear, like there was gonna be like a body underneath the the retreat, his body house or whatever. Oh my gosh. Did, did Ru already go through the story? I don't wanna like, share your, share your iteration of the story. If this is your favorite moment.. If Jason was here, he could give the best version of it, but it was just like, it was just like the next door neighbor at like our Airbnb or whatever was just like hanging out with us. He seemed cool at first, but he also like asked like a lot of like weird probing to people being like, oh, are you staying here? What room are you staying in? You know, like, it's just like, kind of like, oh, it seems like fine. Until you get more information from everybody else. And you're like, okay, this is not fine. Um, or like, oh, show me the house. I'd love for a tour. And then somebody takes him on a tour, I think, was this, that took him on a tour? I can't remember. I don't know. I wasn't there somebody. Yeah. Somebody took, took him on a tour through the house and he was just like, are there more bedrooms upstairs or something? Like, it was just like, it was like, it was just like, that sounds really innocent. Like poor Steve is gonna hear this podcast somehow. Like, I Steve's a fucking predator. I just, just wanted to say hi or whatever. But like, it was just like weird. He had like a lot of like really probing questions. Um, and there was like, there was definitely something else that he said too, that was like, I don't know, like it kind of made it seem like he was wondering where the men were gonna be at what time. So he could be in the house or something. I don't know. So we all got freaked out and then like the boys like wanted to like hunt him down and turn into a witch hunt. Yeah. Yeah. So and we never saw him again. I, if they wanna do a retreat with us, they're gonna be like, um, is Steve included? No. Right, right. I feel bad. I feel bad. I feel like, like, we're just like, oh, you asked a weird question, right. To jail, you know? Right. To jail, Steve, fuck off. We're gonna bury you. You wanna hang out with us a right to jail, but you also had other good moments at the retreat, the sales about, oh yeah. You know what? I was gonna say retreat, but it wasn't gonna be about Steve. It, it, it's kind of indicative though, of like the Steve situation. Mm-hmm of just like. Being able to be around people that, that get what you're going through, because nobody else does like your boyfriend, doesn't your husband. Doesn't you know, like your friends don't, um, this, this type of job, I think like entrepreneurialism in general is, but like, especially dog training, it's just like freaking so isolating because yes, because you know, people, our age, they make friends like at work mm-hmm , you know, and if you work by yourself, that means you're only friends with the peanut in the corner. You know, like you, you don't have any friends because you don't work with anybody. Um, and so that's super, super isolating. And then also we all, we're always on our, like walking on eggshells, feeling like the other dog trainers are gonna think that we're not good enough, or somebody's gonna say something about our style of training mm-hmm or you know, this shit or that shit, or we're always worried about, um, imposter syndrome of wondering if we're good enough and things like that. So we're already super isolated all the time. And so when you get to together with a group of dog trainers, that freaking finally just accept you for who you are. Mm-hmm and just like here you, uh, out for the shit you've been going through it is mind blowing, changing. It is absolutely life changing to have someone say, oh yeah, that happened to me too. You know? Yeah. So the retreat was that for that reason, um, of just being able to just know that everybody else that I thought, you know, cuz I had seen these people in the Facebook group before, you know, mm-hmm um, I had seen them in there and I had put images in my mind of like, oh, they must be doing so good. You know? Yeah. They must be like, just kick an ass. And I'm just a little old me, a loser in the corner, you know? But it wasn't until I met them, like, yeah, they're fucking kicking ass. They are. But it doesn't come without its toll. And that's the thing is you need to make sure that you are prepared to handle success. Mm-hmm so it's not just about watching the YouTubes and figure the YouTubes. I just . I I'm 90 years old, right? Oh, I did that. I did that last week. I sounded like nine year old, old conservative white man. I was like, I'm like, God, California, too much. I'm like, and I was like, where's my caserole for dinner. It's not ready yet. My God. And then, and then the last thing was we did taxes and I go to my husband. I'm like, yeah, your IRS is gonna mail you your check. And cuz you got a refund this year and he's like, why aren't they direct deposit? Cause I don't want the damn government to have oh my God. We're all old. Now we're all old. One day I said all those three things. I was like, God, it goes, oh my God. The wrinkles are showing, right? Yeah. Well, that's why I get Botox um, but yeah, so like it's not enough just to figure out like how to do your sales right. And how to make up a lot of money. It's like, there's too much else. It, it would be like, if we said, oh yeah, dog training, you just have to get some traits. Yeah. And watch some YouTube videos. It's not gonna cut it, you know? Yeah. You there's too much. There's too money, little intricacies there's boundaries. There's, there's all these different little things that go into, not just making your business, make a lot of money. That's like, literally. The least are your concerns. Mm-hmm so least are your concerns. Your business is gonna make money. What the hell are you gonna do with it afterwards? Are you gonna buy some sharks? Are you gonna buy some sharks and put them in your front room, then you need to call grassroots and get some help. you needed some help bought some sharks. I right with you. So what would you say to the dog business owner or dog trader or whatever that has been thinking about reaching out to us and nervous? Maybe they heard some bad shit about us or maybe they think they don't, they can't afford it, or they've just been kind of putting it off the back burner to like, oh, maybe they'll work with them next year. What would you say to the person that, or has been listening to the podcast forever and just maybe they're intimidated to reach out? Like, what would you say to that person? Just freaking do it. Like what, what do you have to lose? Like literally I literally just went from 25 K to 250 or yeah, 25. Yeah. Sorry. Math in my head. 25 K to 250. And now I did a 45 K month and the month is not even over. I did it in two weeks, which means that if I keep going like this, which it is highly sustainable, because I'm happy with the way that it went. I'm not burned out from the last two weeks. I'm on fire. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to kick ass today. Yeah. And that means that this year I'm gonna double my income again and I'm gonna do it. And I'm also gonna be the happiest I've ever been in my entire life. Cuz I'm gonna do it the grassroots way, which is also setting boundaries, taking care of yourself first so that you can take care of your clients and. and making a business that you're happy about. And that might be crazy for some people to hear like, oh, I love my business, but like, you're gonna get to a point where you're gonna be like, Hmm, maybe I should go work at Wendy's, you know? Yeah. Ma'am this is a Wendy's mam. This is a Wendy's ma'am ma'am yeah. I feel like a lot of people get nervous reaching out to us cuz they might have heard some or maybe they're just like, oh my God. They're so intimidating. No, we're not. We're actually pretty big fucking Teddy bears at the end of the day. Oh yeah, for sure. Just trash pans. I think anything's intimidating at first and anybody who has shit to say is only saying it because they can't keep up. Yeah. You know exactly. Exactly. We are the trash PS. We are the dumpster fire, but we might have rabies. We might have rabies too, as Ruth said, but for the court they're talking shit because. As professionals, it's a lot easier for easier to, it's a lot easier for us to see. Mm-hmm the bullshit that other people are putting out. Like mm-hmm, like, it's a lot easier for me to see like another dog trainer doing something that they really, really shouldn't have. You know, mm-hmm the, the clients might not see that because they're a little bit separated from that, right. Yeah. But like, if somebody's coming after you, it's because they know that they fucked up, you know, and that you guys know, you know, so yeah. Forgot. Say about it all. I gotta say about that first. Um, so HANA, how can people find you if they wanna stalk you. I do have a website that I'm working on right now. It's uh, Western canine. So that's w E S T E R N K. Then the number nine.com. But if you really wanna hang out with me and chill with me, woo woo. Go to my Facebook page or my Instagram. Um, my Facebook page is my full name. So it's Hannah Richie. That's H a N N a H R I C H E Y dash Western kine. I know it's a fucking thing. I hate doing ads for you. Cause I'm like, God Dan, it words Western kine. I know it's it's a freaking bitch dude, but I would switch it back. Here's the thing though. We had that issue. Yeah. I remember having that issue with you. Yeah. It's like it's, it's annoying. Facebook is like, fucking me. They don't want me to switch you back. And also, um, maybe I'm gonna be calling you guys later about this, but there is some Yahoo up in Santa Barbara trying to use the Western canine name. O Uhhuh Uhhuh so I have to have it like really, really specific so that nobody accidentally goes to that. Got you. Weirdos page. So yeah, we're gonna hunt him down. We're gonna go on witch. I got, I got you. Keep hunt. I got you on that. I got keep hunt later. We got you. I got you on that one. Me then you're on, uh, Instagram too. Yes, I'm Instagram. It's Western K nine C a. So letter K number nine. And then the letter C a on there. Mm-hmm cool. Amazing. Yeah. Hang out with me, Hannah. It's been a pleasure. Are you drunk yet? no, I stopped drinking about halfway through. Cause I realized I was shouting into microphone. You talking like talking as fast as I possibly could. I was so excited. So I still got, I still got a half here that I'll save for you next time. I'm gonna see the retreat. Okay. Yeah. We're gonna be doing another sales light soon. I think let it be in Alaska. I have no idea where it's gonna be. Unfortunately, listeners can't come unless they're in school though, but it's exclusive, it's like exclusive party for it is for all of the badest bitches. Yeah. But we're gonna be doing, um, later in this year. A full residential. Um, Ooh, yeah. A 10 day event, which I'm excited. Cause I get to go to that one cause I get to be mean, Ooh. Oh no. I get to be mean personally, which they all, no, I'm gonna conveniently call in sick then really no, no, not a million years. I'm like ma'am my, um, and it might be in New York city. Ooh, classy, classy. It's where my roots began. Yeah. I bring your red bottoms and oh hell yeah. Fucking yeah. All right, Hannah. Thank you so much. I know you gotta go make some sales calls and make your fucking 50 K do. I've got like, I've got like five people lined up right after this call, so. Cool. All right. Let me know if you need anything else and thank you so much, Hannah. I appreciate you and thank you to all the listeners today. Woo. Woo. All right. Thanks. Bye. Bye. 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 person Lee 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, this school, or to learn more on how we can help you with your dog business. 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 review on apple. The reason why, because we wanna disrupt more dog training businesses on how people do the business of dogs till next time I.