Mind Your Own Dog Business

Busting The Referral Myth For Dog Trainers & Dog Walkers

August 06, 2019 Kristen Lee Episode 11
Mind Your Own Dog Business
Busting The Referral Myth For Dog Trainers & Dog Walkers
Show Notes Transcript

"Do a good job, and the results will speak for themselves?"

"Your clients are your best marketing machine!"

Yeah, back in 2005-2009.

You guys, if word of mouth is the lifeline of your dog walking business or dog training business, you need to listen.

Sure, that works, to a limited point. And, I don't know about you, but most dog walkers or dog trainers don't have the time nor patience to grow at that pace. 

In this episode, Kristen Lee discusses the old referral and word of mouth myth to grow your dog training business and for all the dog walkers out there too. 

Enjoy this spicy episode. 

Speaker 1:

You're listening to the my drone dog business podcast. I'm your host leading expert in Dog Business Strategic Kristin lease guys yet ready for your journey, your journey to cutting edge marketing and sales, creating a standout kick ass dog business and brand along with mastering your mindset that's going to smash all these glass ceilings that have been holding you back and catapult your dog was to the next level with actionable steps you can take right away. We're going to empower you. We're going to grow you as you step into your authentic self, not only as a dog trainer, dog walker or what ever slice the pet industry you find yourself in, but as that Bad-ass Entrepreneur, my mission is to disrupt the current norm, cut through the noise, cut through the bullshit and power 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.

Speaker 2:

[inaudible]

Speaker 3:

hey guys, and welcome to today's episode. It's going to be a spicy, slightly controversial style episode. It's all about the referrals, referrals for a dog, walkers or referrals for a dog. Trainers and I, good old saying that, good old rite of passage of do a good job. The results will speak from yourselves and your clients will get you more clients. I'm here your girl, Kristen Lee, to say yes, but no, no guys, that advice, which has some merit to it, it does. Don't get me wrong, I'm not retracting that, but there are better ways to rely on the cash flow, the life blood of what courses through your business survival. Then just fucking referrals. So we're going to get right into that, but I first wanted to give you a few quick updates to the podcast. Now a few of you guys reached out to me. You're like, Kristen, why aren't you doing this every week? I'm trying guys, right? Like, I have a lot of stuff on my plate, but my goal in the next couple months as my schedule kind of settles down as I'm traveling, I'm gonna actually bring my mic because I was always afraid to kind of bring my mic because I didn't want it to kind of affect the audio quality and all that fun stuff. But I'm going to actually be a little bit more consistent because the thing is I can't you how fucking pieces of content that I want to cover, uh, on this podcast. So your girl is not going anywhere and I'm making a commitment to make sure a new episode gets released every Tuesday. Now, something super cool that I'm really jacked and excited to talk about too, is on Thursdays I'm going to be doing a listener questionnaire. So each week I get a ton of really great questions in from all my listeners. I get it from Instagram, I get on Facebook, I get emails, all that stuff. So what I decided to do, because chances are they're the same burning questions that you guys have as dog walkers, as dog trainers. So I'm going to answer them on Thursdays. I'm going to select one question each Thursday, maybe two, depending on how long I can kind of go on and rance for it. You guys know me, I'm really well known for radiance, but if you do have a question, I'm actually inviting you to send me a private message. Send me a DM at dog Walker, coach on Instagram that's at dog walker coach on Instagram or semia a Facebook message or just shoot me an email at Kristin at dog walker, coach.com and your question might be featured. Well most likely we'll be featured in. The thing too is if you are afraid to ask a question cause you might feel quote unquote stupid regarding something, there are no fucking stupid questions like legit because I can tell you if you're brave enough to ask a question, the person next to you is probably sinking thinking the same thing, right? So go help another brother or sister out and ask your questions. I'm happy to answer them and really start bringing more disruption to this archaic yet growing industry. So what did I want to talk about today? We're going to hop right into this. I wanted to talk about referrals, referrals, if you are a dog walker or referrals if you are a dog trainer and the overreliance on it. So a lot of times what I've seen over the years, and you know, back in the day when I first started my very first business as I was still working the corporate 500 you know, as a young exec and 20 a 2005 I keep saying 2005 for some reason cause I keep thinking it's 2019 well it is 2019 but I'm still use the same 2019 or whatever. So when I first started, when my my rolled out the business from my husband, he's such a lucky dude by the way. I mean I build these friggin six and seven figure business for him and all he's got to do is show up, train the dog and arup the motherfucking rewards. He's such a lucky guy. Love you babe. So when I first started the business back in the day, there was no face. Oh, there really wasn't Facebook. I mean there was my space, but there was no apps. There was no apps for it or there was no, you know, really any social media advertising basically you could do like some Google ads or you could do, you know, white pages ads and things like that. So what happened was back in the day, the way you built your business was through blasting your business cards everywhere, which is still, there's a strategy behind that. Don't get me wrong that my clients use and referrals, right? So if one person likes you, they're going to tell everybody. And it's a really good method for back in 2015 a 20 2005 there I go with the 20th in 2005 to maybe like 2010 ish before like the whole Facebook advertising and Instagram. And we'll Instagram's a little bit younger than that, but before different ways of online digital marketing. So, but what I see today and what my clients show me screenshots and everything like that, and I see it in these like local support groups, is people still rely on using forms of marketing through referrals. And the thing is, it's mostly the older generations of dog walkers, pet sitters and dog trainers saying, just, you know, guys, do a good job. Show your results. And the people will come, yes, you should always do a good job. He should always be, you know, an ethical trainer, ethical dog, Walker. And we're not going to get into training methods, by the way, because I'm not going into that dumpster fire of the training wars. But the thing is, it's like you can't rely on word of mouth alone just to build your business, especially if you're, if you're struggling or if you've been in business for a couple of years, right? Because what happens is when you just do, you do the work and your volume speaks for results, you don't have control over your fucking marketing, you don't have control almost over your sales process. And what happens guys, you take this archaic advice, which again, I'm not downplaying it. I'm not saying it doesn't work. There's always going to be a strategy behind it. But you take this advice and you rely on your clients to get you new fucking clients. And that's just, that's just mind boggling to me. Right? You don't let your customers speak for you. Why? Because chances are there's disseminating the information and I see so many people doing this and the messages get mixed up and again, short, it works. It works, it works, it works. But it's, it's, it's just out of your control. And what happens guys, is you don't consistently have a steady stream. Or if you do have a steady stream of people coming in, chances are your clients, your dog training clients, your dog Walker clients, and if they're not, maybe great clients, maybe they don't respect your time, your boundaries, your level, you know, your value. We talk about value a lot on the show, on the mind, your own dog business podcast. What do you think happens? Birds of a feather motherfucking flock together, right? So my thoughts to you is yes, half referrals in your back pockets. However, remember that thing I always talk about dial boodle thing with starts with the n the niche, the niche or whatever you want to call it. When you have a solid niche to find, when you know the client you want to work with or your sole client declined that respects you that is ready to buy. When they reach out to you and you have more of those clients primed and prompt and ready through different marketing channels, different digital marketing, different lead gen channels. That's where the referrals work for you. So the thing is it's not sit back and wait and see what people come to you guys. You have to, you have to realize dog training is in 2019 2020 already we are online businesses. Dog Walking is 2019 2020 are are we are online businesses even if it's a dog business, yeah, you might have a brick and mortar location yet you do serve as people back and forth. But we have to come up with the Times that we have to re format the way and we look and revisit the way we connect with people, the way we have conversations with people versus sitting back and letting people come to you, right? Because if you're struggling in your finances, if you're struggling to bring in barely five 10 k a month, and you're like, well, I have my clients to refer me and I'm a damn good dog trainer. I'm a damn good dog walker. My work will be known one day. Yeah, 1415 years ago that would have worked, but this day the consumer is so educated and the consumer is also super fucking stressed and they're ready for a solution. What if, what if, right now through different channels and marketing, it doesn't have to be paid marketing. It doesn't have to be paid Facebook ads. It doesn't have to be paid Instagram ads, but if you are able to connect with this people versus waiting for them to come fall in your lap and sell them a solution, whether it's a 1200$1,500 a month dog walking package, yes, don't even start the self limiting beliefs with that shit or maybe a five or 10 k dog training package which is set up so you don't burn yourself the fuck out and you're out on the road every single night going back and forth when you combined all that stuff, guys with the interpersonal relationship with knowing who your niche person is, who your ideal client is, I don't even like to use the word, I'm going to stop using the word ideal client because it's like, it's such a trendy word right now. It's a fucking niche person. It's the person that you know that are telling themselves a story and then you're going to show up with your fucking solution, right? That's what you need to do and have your referrals in your back pocket. But I can you, I can tell you it's not the most efficient way where it's with your time, your boundaries, your values and what you offer to grow a six and seven figure dog training business to grow a six and seven figure dog walking business. You do have to be proactive guys, and I know, I know you are so fucking busy with everything you do, but we can't put the responsibility of relying on clients to get us more clients. Referrals a great, again, don't get me wrong, especially when you have the most amazing clients, but again, remember birds of a feather flock together and you want to be able to establish a process where you know the most amazing people can come to you, where you have control of the conversations, where you could be like, okay, cool. You know, I know group classes aren't really working anymore in today's modern dog owner. What are working really innovative and fusion programs and born in trains and you know, day trains. Same thing with dog walkers. You know the typical 20 1820 minute walk for$18 guys, don't get me started on that one cause all you guys who are dog walkers out there, you're charging$18 for 20 minute walk. Scrap that fucking shit right away. But when we start to create these innovative solutions and we have them geared towards the niche client and you connect to with them via different platforms, whether website, whether Facebook, whether a Instagram or linkedin or Twitter or wherever the fuck you want to do, those people are going to be more primes. There are people looking for you right now and by you sitting back right now like look, think about it right now. You're listening to me. Thank you. I love you. You're amazing. And if you're in the old school thought of, okay, I'm going to do a good job and the results are going to speak for themselves and I'm going to let my customers be my best marketing and referrals system and you're not at the point right now where you're bringing in 10 15 k a month. It doesn't matter if you have clients or you. Doesn't matter if you have employees or not and you're just waiting for these people to fall in your lap because you're doing a good job and you're posting everywhere. You need to look and be honest with the fact of where you're falling through the gaps. Skies, right? You don't want to keep falling through the gaps. People are out there. They want what you have, they legit are looking for you and the moments you show the fuck up authentically, the moment you connect with them and then you spur a conversation, see what the hell they need and then you convert them into a client, it's going to be easier for you. The relationship's going to feel so much better. You are going to have control in say over your marketing and your sales process versus, oh, I'm just going to let somebody come to me. I'm going to do the best results guys. So told you this is going to be one of those spicy episodes, but yeah, you know, don't let referrals be the lifeline of your business because you've all seen what happens when shit goes downhill. People are social media warriors. Today. I mean, if one little thing gets out about your business, I'm not doing this as scary yet either. Guys like I am not doing this as scary. You add up at all, right? There are so many dumpster fires going on, but one little incident or you know, a misunderstanding or a mishap and all of your clients are just referrals and they all know each other and buddy buddy and what happens if they stop talking about you? What happens if your referrals stop talking about you? Now you're probably thinking, Kristen, well I walked packs and a million dogs and I have like 20 dogs in a pack and we do all these great pictures and stuff like that. That's great. Right? Like I have, that's where my roots are. Guys, might you pack walkers? Are My roots like you guys are my homeys like I've been out there from 20 2005 at beyond, right? That's how we started. However, people do stop thinking about you and talking about you. No matter how many pictures you know, chances are a lot of other people that are liking your stuff aren't perspective dog owner clients. There are other dog trainers, they're other dog walkers. So moral in the points of the story I want to get home before we kind of sign off and wrap this puppy up. Get it wrapped. This puppy up is don't wait for people and your clients to come to you. Explore who your ideal client is, who your niche client is. Connect with them, connect with them through your website, connect with them through your marketing materials. Even if it's business cards, connect with them through other dog friendly businesses on a deeper level. Know who they are, tell them the story they are not telling themselves because they are avoiding it cause they're in so much pain. Have conversations with them, see what they fucking need and offer that shit at a high value versus I'm open for business. People would just come to me when they come to me and listening to old bull shit. Advice from people that are exiting the market that are basically jaded for years. Jaded for years, which has happened. I love you guys that had been in the market for a long time, but there's a new generation coming in here and you guys gotta get your focus going on and I want you to walk away with an understanding. You do have control of everything. It's just you kind of standing up claiming your badass expertise, your baddest expertise as a dog walker, as a dog trainer, and owning yourself as an amazing authority figure in your local market. All right guys. So I'm gonna wrap this up and I want to thank you for sticking with me today and I love your feedback on this. So thank you again and again. Don't, don't put all your eggs in one fucking basket guys.

Speaker 1:

Hey there. Thank you for listening to another bad-ass episode of mind, Jiro Dog business. If you haven't already subscribed, what are you waiting for? Oh my God. Go and subscribe now so you don't miss out on any of our content pack. Doug business jam sessions plus special offers that I'm gonna only be sharing with my amazing Doug Business Entrepreneurial podcast listeners. Now. If you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a five star kick ass review. So more amazing dog business owners just like yourself can find us and starts to transform and disrupt their businesses and their lives unapologetically. And if you feel so inclined, feel free to tag me on Instagram with a screenshot of this episode and Holler at your girl. I'm at dog Walker coach. You can find me dog walker, coach, and I'll pop up and I'll give you a special shout out. All right guys, until next time, bye.