Don't postpone your peace because chaos is familiar.
In this episode of the Mind Your Own Dog Business Podcast, Kristen Lee talks to the dog trainers of the industry who find themselves employed by toxic AF employers, whether that is employees of training facilities that do group classes, board and trains, day trains, or even dog training businesses without a facility.
Kristen explains the toxic dynamics that send truly great, experienced dog trainers out of employee roles into business ownership roles. This trend is attributed to various factors, including a focus on profit over quality, micromanagement, trauma bonding among staff, and unhealthy dynamics between leadership and staff.
Kristen Lee also outlines red flags signaling a toxic work environment. She encourages dog trainers to recognize these signs and consider leaving toxic environments an opportunity for personal and professional growth.
Join our free class on 3/21 @ 11 am - click here to save your spot.
Episode Links:
Don't postpone your peace because chaos is familiar.
In this episode of the Mind Your Own Dog Business Podcast, Kristen Lee talks to the dog trainers of the industry who find themselves employed by toxic AF employers, whether that is employees of training facilities that do group classes, board and trains, day trains, or even dog training businesses without a facility.
Kristen explains the toxic dynamics that send truly great, experienced dog trainers out of employee roles into business ownership roles. This trend is attributed to various factors, including a focus on profit over quality, micromanagement, trauma bonding among staff, and unhealthy dynamics between leadership and staff.
Kristen Lee also outlines red flags signaling a toxic work environment. She encourages dog trainers to recognize these signs and consider leaving toxic environments an opportunity for personal and professional growth.
Join our free class on 3/21 @ 11 am - click here to save your spot.
Episode Links:
You're listening to the mind your own dog business podcast. I'm your host, leading expert in dog business strategies, Kristen Leigh. 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 those 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 you We're going to grow you as you step into your authentic self Not only as a dog trainer and dog walker or whatever slice the pet industry you find yourself in but as that badass 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. What is going on everybody and welcome to this episode of the mind your own dog biz podcast, the podcast designed for the pet dog trainer, business owners of today's lovely, lovely world of business ownership and entrepreneurship in the business of dogs. And today is going to be a good episode. Everyone we are talking about. When is the time, what are some of the signs to leaving a toxic employer as a dog trainer? Right? So this goes out, this is a shout out to all of my well seasoned, well educated, well skilled dog trainers that might be working for a facility, a business, whatever it might be, as a dog trainer. And you're starting to see the signs that it might be time for you to get the fuck out and start your own thing. Because, listen. I don't want any of my listeners in this position. If you are agreeing, if you're nodding your head, if you're like, Holy shit, Kristen Lee, a lot of these things that you're talking about today, I am raising my hand and I'm like, this is like, What I'm sitting in right now, because you do not, you do not need to postpone your piece just because of the shit show you are in is familiar. So let's get right into this blunt, very honest and very frank conversation. Of course, as with any spicy conversation I have on here, I do want to kick it off with a disclaimer. Since I know my words can be misunderstood. Or there might be a wrong interpretation on them. Because I know a lot of my listeners on My Drone Dog Business are dog trainers that happen to be employers of other dog trainers. And I want to say to the show, the red flags that I'm going to be talking about for employees that are dog trainers is most likely not about you. If you are a listener, chances are You are an awesome fucking human being and that you absolutely love being an employer. Okay, so this is most likely not an attack on you. This conversation, I want to be very succinct and clear, is not a conversation of where I'm telling people to go fuck over your employer and start a business out from under them. I do not support that at all. Are there shady people that do that abso fucking lutely in any business? And even in the, especially in the dog training industry, people do that. But this topic is not about that, that I'm supporting people that come to your team, learn the ropes on your dime, and then peace the fuck out. I want to be very clear about that because we have those people that come to us. They're like, yeah, I hate my business. I hate my business owner. So I want to be very clear that this episode is covering an exploration of the toxic dynamics that a lot of dog trainers that are happen to be employees right now are facing. And the reason why we're covering In this is the last 12 months in dog bit school. We've seen a huge wave of new dog business owners entering the market. And a lot of the times the waves are people that are exiting corporate. A lot of times there are people like, Oh, I want to start a business. But this wave of new dog business owners that are starting dog training businesses. They're really bright. And they have one thing that's very common. It's the common denominator, is they're seasoned dog trainers. They have the education behind them. They've been training dogs for a few years. They're super eager and driven to really get things kicked off in their business right way, the right way, and right away. And the one thing, that common denominator, we're going back to that again is They're leaving or they left a toxic dog trainer, employer, and business, you know, at first, when I first saw this happening summer of 2023. I was like, Hmm, that's interesting. We had a couple of these in, in, in a row. So mental note, Kristen Lee, speak with the team, starting to see a pattern, right? Five is not a pattern. A couple, not a pattern. After the 10th one, 10th straight person that came to us, I was like, Oh shit, this is a fucking trend. We need to keep some data on this. And then the 20th one. And then. We're like, yeah, we need to talk about this. And then shit, even yesterday in Feb, 2024, February 26th of 2024. Cause it's the 27th that I'm recording this. Our latest student that just came to school, he just exited an employee relationship six months ago and has been building it on his own for that time. Super cool, dude. With a lot of passion for training, a lot of passion of doing it right by the humans and providing a really quality service, but he worked for somebody for 18 months. And he had this gut realization, this like visceral gut reaction about a year ago. And he's like, Oh my God, I fucked up. I went with this employer because they promised me my dream job of working dogs training clients. And I've seen the inner workings and this particular facility is only. Like tracking paws to the ground and people coming through the doors, and it was only motivated by money. Now, yes, before I get into this, money is 100 percent fucking important, right? Like we talk about this all the time, right? But what I'm talking about is those, those facility models, this business number, those business models that are only set up on the quality, the quantity of people walking through the door. And It's insane that 50 percent of facilities and business owners out there do have a quantity based model, right? You see that all the time. There's a lot of people marketing to those people. And this dude who's so fucking cool, I'm so excited that he's on the crew now, student crew now, he's like, It just hit me one day and I was like, Whoa, I'm expected to have this amount of clients to serve or this amount of dogs to serve in this facility. Cause it was a board and training facility. I'm supposed to have like 14 dogs and I'm supposed to get through a whole rotation of dogs and continuously grind, grind, grind, grind through it and cranking out dogs. And he was like, I didn't spend years on my education. I didn't spend my next career because he's not a youngin like he's. He's this is his second career. He's like, I didn't spend my time in my years. And you know, other sacrifices that I made to become a dog trainer to do this. And it was just like one of those things where he's like, holy crap, I need to be out, I need to go do the things and have like the autonomy to do my own business. And he's there now. So it's really fucking fascinating, because you have All these new dog trainer, dog training business owners that are flooding the market, which you all are probably seeing. And they have all the certifications, they've worked their asses off mentoring, getting educated, and they've walked through the dream job just to find it's like anywhere else. That person that is being treated as a number. So it's not even like, it's not even people centered at this point. It's not employee centered. It's not even dog centered. It's numbers, numbers, numbers. On the outside, a lot of these employers, these facilities, these dog training teams have this outside message of like love and light and dog training. It's all about the dogs. And like the reality is, it's just like cranking out the dogs. It's, it's insane. It's absolutely insane. And it's gross, right? And we're also finding, and this is one of those red flags that you need to be kind of marking in your notch here, is a lot of these facilities, these toxic facilities that a lot of people are finding themselves stuck into the chaos that you're feeling almost familiar in the chaos. By the way, if you are like, Oh, it's a crisis. Everything's on fire and you're just calm. Um, my friend, yes, that might be some part of your neurodivergeness of yourself and the way you deal with your, you know, deal with trauma emergencies. But sometimes it's, it's disassociation from being in a traumatic environment. But we're seeing a lot of people, a lot of dog trainers, that are getting the fuck out of these employee relationships. They have toxic as fuck management and leadership and ownership of the companies. Like a reactive boss. That screams and redirects blame on staff when the staff is working and fucking hustling and grinding and getting out dogs. It could even be like a dog daycare or day training situation or group class situation where the trainers have all these unrelenting expectations on them. And then the moment that somebody drops from the program, like a dog, a dog, um, a dog owner is like, no, this is too much. I'm out. Or the dog, um, you have a lower number next month and like one of your spots isn't filled instead of self reflection, the business owner, the leadership, the management team, whatever. They stop and drop fingers at you versus saying, well, Hmm, maybe I can self reflect and say, maybe a system hasn't been updated or maybe our marketing processes and sales processes haven't been updated and they don't reflect the current dog on our market and decision making process and the staff takes the blame, right? You take the blame instead of reflection and saying all those things they're saying, you're nuts upselling in privates or groups. What's wrong with you? This is a script we use forever. You're sitting here thinking like. Yeah, I want to train dogs. I want to help dogs, but I'm just told to do A, B, C, and D. You know, I had the standard operating procedures through on me. I'm doing my job. I'm training dogs. I guess I'll go fuck myself then, right? So that's one of the things that we're seeing. And if you're experiencing this, it might be a consideration that you need to fucking get the fuck out of there is when everything is just redirected and it's toxic and it's blamed on you when management is not taking accountability and leadership. One of the things Dogbiz School with our facility owners and our business owners that are employees, I just had this conversation with a particular person this morning. Because we need to take a, we need to take ability, uh, accountability on our goals and our expectations and how we rely that information to our, to our employees, how we keep them on track, how we also have a buy in as a business owner, because if we don't have buy in from our employees, if we don't motivate them, if we don't train them, if we don't have processes in place and we just redirect blame, Y'all are bleeding fucking really great employees and creating a fucking really, really competitive market on yourself. You know, one thing that it's another really big red flag that we see and if you're an employee of a dog training business facility, daycare, whatever, boarding facility, kennel is You need to get the fuck out is that you're stuck in chaotic and dysfunctional and organized Uh, messes of businesses while also being ruled with an iron fist. Yeah, sure, your leadership, your owner, the management has put procedures in place for procedure checklist sake, but management and leadership cannot get their shit together so balls get dropped. And who's to blame? The staff. And it's gross. And it's super frustrating because the management thinks they have their operational shit together, because on paper they do, but SOPs failed because they're not updated, or they're just stuck in their own trauma or gossip groups and everything else like that, they take it out on staff and it's not fucking fair. What we're also noticing too, if you're a business owner, I want you to listen to this one because I know I'm going back and forth, your operations managers are getting the fuck out. You are losing really great operations managers. And as somebody that specializes in business operations systems and processes and everything else around that It takes a lot for a really good operations manager to get the fuck out. I'm telling you So it goes also hand in hand, another red flag that you need to look out for if you're an employee of a business is if you're invited to a staff meeting or you have staff meetings just to have staff meetings and your feedback is not taken into account. Now, a lot of the times employers and management has to take your feedback with not necessarily a grain of salt, but they have to say, okay, I'm taking feedback, am I noticing a pattern, or is this something that we can kind of put on the side because it's a personal thing, right? But what we've noticed with a lot of the employees that are leaving is they have really great feedback to the owners, uh, the business, and they're like, Hey, I really think if we do A, B, C, and D with our programs and how we deliver really great training systems and and processes to our dog owners, we'd get quicker results and a better quality training output product, essentially. Right? And the owners are like, yeah, okay, cool. And they move on. Right? And it's super frustrating. Another red flag that you need to be on the lookout with being an employee of a really toxic boss is trauma bonding with other staff members. Listen, I love a good trauma bond. I love a good trauma dump once in a while. It feels if somebody's a willing, consenting participant in the trauma dump, right? But we have to be very conscious that this is also unhealthy too. Right? This is super unhealthy. And when one of you leaves the facility, the kennel, the daycare, or wherever else you work, it's a big fucking deal. It's a big deal. Like you feel like your heart and soul has been ripped out. Your work bestie's gone. You're like, no, I'm so happy for you, but come back. So there's a cycle of people and employees and staff coming in and out. That is a huge, huge red flag, huge red flag. And if the boss is insistent on keeping bare bones staffing while the workload increases, or they're not keeping up with staffing demands. Dog increase is coming in. Dogs are coming in. Hell yeah, they're coming in. Those fucking four, four paws on the floor are coming in, but the staffing isn't increasing and it isn't meeting the needs. And I'm going to say this too, my brothers and sisters in Christ of dog trainers, it's my new favorite thing. My brothers and sisters to Christ. It is not normal. It is not normal at all to have a designated crying kennel. Listen, I I can appreciate a cry once in a while at work. If I'm super frustrated, if I'm super angry, if I cannot get my words out, sometimes I will fucking cry. Okay. But it is not normal where you have a designated crying kennel or a room, equipment room, washing room, food prep room for the dogs, that you go and cry almost every day. That shows me there is an unhealthy, toxic dynamic going on. So, yeah, let's, let's, let's check, let's check yourself. Right. And again, it goes back to also another red flag is the quality or not the quality, fuck quality is number one. It's a green flag, but the quantity of the dogs in and out. One way of training. One way of doing things. One system of training dogs. And that could either, it could be on both sides of the fence. It doesn't matter if it's a force free facility that does puppy classes, puppy preschool, group classes, private sessions, or a multi billion dollar franchise chain. There's only one way. One way. We only do it this one way. We always offer this one thing. And you know dogs can do better. And it's only about the fucking numbers coming in and out. Because it's been that way for years and the management takes no feedback on that. Another huge fucking indicator that you need to get the hell out, and this is one that I I mean, all of them are on my top list, but one thing that I cannot stand, and I do also when we hear this with students that are coming in, we fucking fire them, is gossip from the management and the ownership. Listen, it's going to happen in any business, in any groups of people. It's just like a sociological thing. But when leadership and management participates in gossip and talking smack about their employees and their clients and all that type of shit, That is so toxic, that is so clicky, that is so high school, and it shows such a limited mindset, and where these people are with their maturity level, and they shouldn't even be business owners, right? So if you know that, and you see your bosses gossiping, like, employees are gonna gossip, I don't, I like the tea too, but when management openly does that in front of, They're staff, the owners do them for yourself, get the fuck out of there, right? In micromanagement, whoo, being micromanaged. When you don't, when you are micromanaged as an employee, you know what happens? You might feel this, you have a high set of expectations on you and you feel like you can't make a mistake. Have you ever felt like you can't make a mistake at work without being, you know, like, come like, brought down upon. That's not good. Micromanagement is not good. Micromanagers usually are really bad at their jobs. That's why they're micromanaging you. Truth be told. Listen, I was corporate for 15 years. I've dealt with micromanagers. I was a micromanager myself at one point. I caught myself one of my staff members called me out. They're like, you're micromanaging me. And I went to my mentor and I was like, Hey, I'm being micromanaged. Am I, am I a shitty person? They're like, no, you're just not efficient at your job. So you're taking it out on your client, your client, your employee, your staff member. And this one came from a student that just recently joined our school. And I was like, holy shit. When your boss leans into you unhealthily for emotional support. Meaning, they let it out loud and clear when numbers are down, and they're freaking out about staff, about expenses, about payroll. Oof. You, as an employee, as an employee, do not need to know that. You can, they can say, you know, we have to have a focus on, you know, getting a push in. But you should not know that your boss is fucking internally flaming out and having a fucking massive panic attack about money. Right? Hot and cold days. One day you go in, everything is great. Everybody's in alignment. Everybody's working. The music's playing. Everybody feels good. And then the next three days are just total shit shows. If your stress levels are through the roof, if you have high cortisol levels, look up the signs of high cortisol and you're developing unhealthy coping mechanisms, you need to get the fuck out. No job is worth, I don't care how much you're, you can be paid a million dollars a year. You can pay me two million dollars a year. I will not stay in a job that keeps me unhealthy. My body is, my body's the only thing I got on this planet for the next how many years I'm here. And it doesn't matter. We gotta take better care of ourselves. That's why a lot of people in the industry are fucking dropping like flies from major health disasters and events. And you start to become apathetic and resentful. Apathetic is like, nah, I'll just do my job. I have no bison. It's not my responsibility. Eh, meh. You start to question, like, why did I even do this? And it's because of your fucking job. It's because of your job. So you didn't become a dog trainer for this. Like, you did not become a dog trainer to continuously crank out dogs in an output based system only on numbers and profit. You know the dogs deserve better. Like, deep down, in your gut, intuitively, you know the dogs deserve better. You know the dog owners deserve better. That's why a lot of people foster some guilt around this of like, Hey, how is my employer charging all this money? And I know the fucking product is shit at the end and you deserve better. You need to have a serious conversation with yourself and use the things that we chatted about as almost a quality of life scale for yourself. And if you need to start to think about, should I start my own business, right? And if you are experiencing any of these signs, it doesn't even matter if like, put a finger down 5. You need to start seriously re evaluating where you want to go in life. It might be finding another facility to work at. It also might be thinking about potentially building a dog training business that doesn't feel intimidating, but empowering. Now, okay, I said that, but I want to say this. I know. Your lovely little brain kicks in and says, Yes, fuck my employer. They are toxic. I hate them. Meh, they shouldn't be business owners. But you're like, I don't want them to be mad and start shit. Listen, if you're ethically leaving a business because you cannot be there anymore, you know you can do better. You can provide a quality service. Their feelings, their trauma, not trauma feelings, but their gossipy feelings, their childlike feelings of this, that's on them, boo. You're gonna be building your own thing. You're gonna be providing the services and level of care that they don't even fuck about. Like, they can't even Think about that, because they're just focused on the drama, they're focused on the numbers, and they're focused on continuously getting clients through the door. Output versus quality. If they get mad because they're drama driven, Let them get mad. They're going to be fucking mad if you left and just sat at home and did nothing all day. Okay. And for my peeps that have escaped, that have left and said, fuck you and started the last and started a couple of years ago, or even like started like six months ago. Hell yes. Y'all are awesome. But I also know it can be hard to start a new chapter because you have this backend stuff that you're worrying about. You still have some trauma coming in from that old job and you're starting a new chapter and there's a lot of things to do. So. What we've done, because a lot of people that are entering the industry right now are starting a new chapter. We're doing a live class for this March 14th, 11 a. m. Eastern. If you want to come, great. If you can't register anyway, we'll get a recording. And what we're going to do, it's going to be a supportive style live class, okay? We're going to be like, if you've seen these things, time to get out. If you got out, awesome. What are some of the next healing steps you can make in your business? Like venture, like how can you start to learn to heal from a toxic business and start your own empowering business where you actually feel good about the things that you're doing, where you're offering ethical training, where you feel good about the programs that are quality based on quantity base, where even if they're a little bit more expensive from your previous employer, that's awesome, where you can actually feel empowered by bringing in and attracting the right clients that mean the most to you. Clients that don't just expect the cheapest product, clients that want to connect with you, that want to pay you a premium for your services because you deserve that. And we support that and we love that. But we also want you to feel supported in this because it's hard. Listen, I've had a toxic employer myself and it took me a good two and a half years to recover from a really traumatic. Employee relationship, right? This is not, this is back in 20, I'm thinking in my brain here. When I graduated, my grad degree, so 2015 and it knocked me on my fucking knees. Listen, had a corporate job, did really great in my life, my first 10 years in corporate. Fucking got my grad degree, traveled the world with work, and I had, I happened to have a really great opportunity to go back to a company and work for somebody who promised me my dream job, promised me autonomy, promised me creativity. And it turned out to be a narcissistic boss, and it was one of the most toxic work relationships I ever had. I was only in there for eight months, and fortunately, I was able to get the fuck out. But, I used that, and I used those, those lessons I learned. I also had therapy for that, by the way. I do support therapy, and And through that, I, I didn't see obstacles, right? Because I went to an, I got another, I was in the same company, but I went to a different position. But from learning from that, I realized I'm actually a really powerful person. I'm actually really meant to be doing what I'm doing today. And I used that, but I had the support. I had the strategy. I had the solid foundations and I built from there. And here am I, here I am today talking to you all, sharing my story. And that's why I wanted to talk about this today, because again, we're seeing the trends. Even if you're not one of those people, if you're an employer, you got to listen. People are leaving in droves and they're starting their own businesses, not maliciously either. They're starting their own businesses and they're being empowered by your, their businesses. And that's the thing about, you know, being a business owner is you can have the freedom and autonomy. And if you're, if you have. Dog training. If you have a dog training employer, you should also have some freedom and autonomy, right? It's not a free for all, but a lot of you are finding yourself trapped in these really fucking shitty Employer relationships and your employer should not fucking rule you with an iron fist They should not have unrelenting expectations while paying you fucking pennies for the skills that you've done and I get it you might have work you might have work or you're working for somebody because at first Building a business seemed really scary. It seemed like there was a lot of shit to do. It seemed like there was a lot of risk. You know what's at risk by staying in a toxic relationship with an employer? Your health. Your future in dog training. Again, you became a dog trainer to help people and to help dogs. If you burn out because of a shitty fucking employer that has you crying with your fellow trainers and the staff and they don't give a fuck about your emotional well being and your emotional health and your physical health, how are you going to last being a dog trainer for the rest of your life? You're not. You're going to fucking crash. You are going to crash and burn. You are going to be like those, those influential dog trainers that are literally, literally going down with catastrophic diseases right now. You don't deserve that. You are better than that. And you need to give those fuckers a middle finger. And there are some really horrible people out there that have facilities and businesses. Again, not my listeners, but there's some really, really bad people out there. And I've seen the dark side of it in the last year. Okay? So, you are worth it. If you're interested in starting something fresh, if you've started something fresh, love to support you. Come to class. We ain't telling you shit. We'll get you the foundations, we'll get you feeling empowered again, we'll create, we'll create autonomy back in your business and your life and get you rocking forward. All right, y'all, it's been great. I'll talk to you soon. Registration links in the show notes. I'll talk to you later. March 12th at 11 a. m. Eastern. 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, Kristen Leigh, and produced by the Unicorns over at the DogBizSchool team. For more information on how to get in touch with me, for more information on DogBizSchool, or to learn more on how we can help you with your dog business, Feel free to visit our website at dogbizschool. 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 want to disrupt more dog training businesses and how people do the business of dogs. Until next time, bye!