In this episode of the Mind Your Own Dog Business Podcast, Kristen Lee sits down and talks with Heather Law, from Heather Law Dog Training in South Central, PA.
Heather shares her story of how she went from career education and part-time side hustler as a pet sitter to a full-time, profitable dog trainer. She made the challenging transition twice: one from a petsitter to a dog trainer and then FT teacher to FT Dog Trainer.
Heather shares her challenges in two difficult transitions and how she overcame them to be where she is today as a successful dog trainer.
If you're a dog walker, a pet sitter, or someone in the pet industry looking into transitioning into a dog trainer role and building a successful dog training business, this episode is for you.
Links:
Dog Biz School Website
Work With Dog Biz School
Instagram - Kristen Lee
Instagram - Dog Biz School
In this episode of the Mind Your Own Dog Business Podcast, Kristen Lee sits down and talks with Heather Law, from Heather Law Dog Training in South Central, PA.
Heather shares her story of how she went from career education and part-time side hustler as a pet sitter to a full-time, profitable dog trainer. She made the challenging transition twice: one from a petsitter to a dog trainer and then FT teacher to FT Dog Trainer.
Heather shares her challenges in two difficult transitions and how she overcame them to be where she is today as a successful dog trainer.
If you're a dog walker, a pet sitter, or someone in the pet industry looking into transitioning into a dog trainer role and building a successful dog training business, this episode is for you.
Links:
Dog Biz School Website
Work With Dog Biz School
Instagram - Kristen Lee
Instagram - Dog Biz School
You're listening to the mind, your own dog business podcast. I'm your host leading expert in dog business. Strategic Kristen Lee guys. Get ready for your journey, your journey to cutting edge marketing and sales, creating a standout kick ass dog business grant. Along with mastering your mindset. That's going to smash all of this glass ceilings that have been holding you back and catapult your dog business to the next level. With actionable steps you can take right away. We're going to empower 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 the bad-ass entrepreneur, my mission is to disrupt the current norm, cut through the noise, cut through the bullshit and empower the incredible women of the dog business industry to step into the spotlight, reclaim control and transform not only their businesses, but their lives. It's real. It's raw. It's uncensored. And it's what this dog business industry needs. Let's do this guys. Well, hello, everybody. Welcome to today's episode of the mind, your own motherfucking dog biz podcast. I am excited today because I have a guest I love, I honestly truly love guests interviews. I am making a commitment to do mostly guests interviews for 2022, and to really, really, really shine the platform on all these bad-ass motherfucking dog trainers, especially women in this. So today I have a very special guests of Heather fucking law. I know she's probably cringing already that I'm cursing Heather law firm, Heather law, dog trading. Isn't that that's such Heather. Remember when we did some of your rebranding and I'm like, God damn it. I love your name. And we need to call it Heather law doctrine. And you're like, oh exactly. Um, she, this is Heather from Heather law dog treating and she is a dog training company based in south central PA. Shout out to the Gettysburg area, Hershey area. I have some family up there and today Heather is here to share her story of how she went from a career of being an educator to individuals with severe disabilities and part time side hustler as a pet sitter to a full time motherfucking profitable dog trainer. She made this challenging transition twice. Homelessness is bad-ass. This is one of those things where we see a dog with school. We have a lot of people come. And they're usually like, Hey, I'm a pack hiker. I want to be a dog trainer. I want to start sanding into dog training or I'm a pet sitter. How can I get into dog training? And a lot of people end up in this like purgatory. So the reason why Heather is here today is to share her experience of making that transition twice. I believe Heather is the most successful. And dog biz school history to make this transition, not only once, but twice, and to really stand into being a business owner and entrepreneur as a woman in the dog industry. So Heather, welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you. How are you doing today? I'm great. Great. And you're like great help. I think I told you I was little surprised you asked me, but then the more I've thought about it, I said. More people need to know they can do this. Yeah. Yes. And I want to be transparent to all my listeners out here just to have this kind of little kind of asterisk next to it, how there is a dog with school alumni, and she is a current student. She's not been paid for her doorstep. And I told her not to endorse us if she didn't want to as well. Awesome. So. Speaking of which, which actually is super quick to, um, just to let all my listeners know dog with school, we're going to be actually hosting a eight week course, starting February 8th on transitional strategy. Very similar to what Heather went through. So if you guys are interested, you know how to hit me up anyway, Heather, I'm going to get back to you, Heather law, motherfucking law. How the, how long have you been in the business of dogs? About five years. Five years. I'm still a baby. Your sophomore. I would say you're a sophomore. You're a sophomore. Now, what would you say Heather is your superpower? Well, I'm a registered behavior technician, which gives me the ability to quickly see behavior, but then to be able to see that behavior to make a connection to not only the dog. But the human attached to the dog. So I get a set a lot. Well, my dog doesn't do that with anybody else. And or the family goes, oh, how did you do that so fast? And I just see the behavior, cause that's my trade. And I can make a connection to the dog and the human rather quickly, because I've had many years of being able to do. Yeah, that's one of those things of the whole, it's like, cool. You can train the dog, but what about training the human? I actually hate that term training the human, because one of the things is it's like facilitating that process, right? Yeah, exactly. So what's the last thing you have accomplished that made you incredibly proud? Well, um, just prior to January, This January in new years, I became a certified CPR instructor for pet pets and first state. So I just did that. And so I was like, wow, I can do that so fast. So I was shocked. I was going to be able to do it in the timeframe I gave myself to do it. So that was pretty impressive. Awesome. Yeah. You know, one thing that I know there's a lot of talk, we hear a lot about, um, Like the first aid certified stuff I went through that course, like probably like 10 years ago. And I learned how to do the Heimlich maneuver on a pet. And I can tell you, in 20 19, 20, 20, April, 2020, I had to do that on my, when my then senior dog. Cause she aspirated and she had food stuff. It saved her fucking life. And then I had to do mouth to mouth with her and like get her back. It was like, it was worth like everything kicked in. So everybody go get fucking certified and CPR and all that stuff for this dog. Cause you never know you it's like children. You never know. Um, so what's your favorite quote? My favorite quote is grand forcement drives behind. And the reason is whether it's positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement, it actually controls what the behavior. Is that happens. So if it's negative reinforcement, which people don't like to think about that if you have I'll use quick example, if you have a headache, you go and you take Motrin or Advil. And why do you always go when you start to even feel a twinge of a headache? Because you're oh, got reinforced by taking the Motrin to will leave the headache. So you quickly see the punishment or the negative piece would be the headaches, the pain. So you'd. Uh, a way to avoid that is you take the Advil. And so, and even using the positive, what, when people have said to me, well, how did you get my dog to do that? They listen to you so much better. Well, they only, they have a shorter history with me. Number one, and I've reinforced every behavior. I like. Giving them a little pat on their head, whether it's giving them a tiny piece of kibble or a tree, they are much quicker to do what I ask, because all they know is something positive things get added to their life as opposed to getting taken up. Nice. Well, you know, it, you know, it's one of the exercises my husband likes to do with people when he's explaining those terms. Cause he's not really into the whole, you know, he knows all this stuff, but naturally being a professional. And when he likes to break it down to layman's terms, he actually goes into somebody's car and he's like, all right, let's turn your car out. And let's just back it out of the drive and don't put your seatbelt on and let it ding and let a ding and let a ding till you can't take it anymore. And then, yeah. And then he does like, okay, put it on now. Yeah. And they're like, oh shit. That's how it works. It's his favorite? Yeah. That's his favorite exercise to do with people? When, you know, when he first gets them, he turned, he doesn't do it as much anymore. He turned it into, you know, in his fusion program or whatever, but it's his favorite exercise. It's his favorite exercise. All right. So let's get into it. So Heather, what made you start with pet sitting and dog walking? Kind of a supplement to what you're already doing in the edge, a severe education, a severe disability education. Well, I think I started to feel a lot of stress. Well, I know I did from working for all the years, 20 plus years with individuals with severe, severe disabilities. And so interestingly. A close family friend said any chance, you'd be interested in watching our dog we're going on vacation and we can't take them. Would you be interested? Just kind of like random question. And I said, sure. And they insisted on paying me because they were going to be gone for a week and they were, they were not wanting me to just hang out with their dog. They're like, no, we're paying you. I was like, well, I wouldn't, I'm not charging you. They insisted paying leak. Um, I spent a week with him and then after that, she was like, well, what did you think? And I said, oh my goodness, it was so much fun. I got to swim in your pool because it was the summer that swim in your pool, took them for walks. This was great. She mentioned it to somebody else and somebody else. And so word of mouth started that way. And then I started saying, I think I want to try to do this as something to kind of give me a break from the mental work that you do all the time with individuals with disabilities. And I started to. Kind of thing. I was like, how do I do this? So I sat down, I remember it. I was, I sat on the couch and I said, what would I call this? I think we had a snow storm. And I said, what would I call this? And I was like, ah, sitter for, for babies. That's all I could come up with at the time. And so I'm not great with that. You go Kristin, um, coming up with names and that was what popped into my head. And I said, okay. I said, huh, they have stuff about Facebook. People have pages. I know this sounds like I'm talking like 20 years ago. Like, I don't know what I'm doing, but I just w I never created a group or he page on Facebook at the time, at the time of doing this. So that was like four and a half years ago. Created the page, kind of mentioned it to some family, friends, my hairdresser. She mentioned it to some friends just kind of threw that little word of mouth. And then that summer I was booked. I was hardly home. I think I was booked every weekend. People found me on Facebook. They were like, oh, and then I did try Rover. Um, only once I got one or two people hitting Rover, but then I have not touched that. Um, since then, um, Gone went through the, I, the idea of how to throw, cast a net to get people. And at the time, I didn't know any, I didn't know anything from grassroots. So I almost felt I needed to say yes to anybody and everybody that wanted. And I was, and there were some that I was like, Ooh, I'm not too sure about this one. After I would like to do a quick little meet and greet, and then there were some like, and I never thought to take a down payment, any of that. Cause I didn't know at the time when you're learning something new, you never know. Um, so that's how it started. And um, it grew, it gave me a mental reprieve from my Monday through Friday, mentally intense work that I was doing. Yeah, I think your story is going to hit home and resonate with a lot of people, especially how they started to get into the industry, whether they started as dog training, or pet-sitting very similar to yours. It's like, all right, I did this once. I kind of like it. And then it's like starting that whole process out, which is fucking awesome. Right. So it's. Story of what you went through and yeah, I like that. Now, did you always know you wanted to be in the pet industry? Were you always drawn to animals? Like even as a child or was it like, you know, it's kind of cool now you're like, holy shit. This is my life. When I was a young kid before like high school and stuff, you know, everybody always goes, well, do you want to be? And I was like, I want to be. And then I realized how much schooling there was. I'm not smart enough for all that and all that math, but get that because then I also learned, they only take such a small percentage of people that even apply to go to that school. And I said, I can't do that. There's no way. And then I also. Always liked working with kids. And I was GRA I gravitated toward children with disabilities. And then I started working with a lot of children with autism was my main area. But then as I went into the more school district area, it expands to all different individuals with disabilities, but I now. Life goes in a full circle. I wanted it to beat work with animals as a child and now full circle. Um, I mean, I'm not dead yet, but fortunately, but I full circle come around that. Now I'm doing something I wanted to do as a kid. And I have some close contact with a lot of vets, a lot of groomers. I really see how the pieces get moved around. Even when we don't realize that the pieces are moving, that they are being placed. Nice. Nice. Now I want to start to talk a little bit more about your transition from both sides. And again, you did the most challenging transition twice first again, making the transition to a dog trainer from a pet sitter. Uh, because again, a lot of people find. That's where a so many people get stuck. It's like, and this is nothing against the people in the industry of pet sitters and dog walkers that want to become dog trainers because they have experienced, they have a lot of hands-on fucking experience, and most of them are doing services already, but it's starting to make that transition over where people really get stuck. And like, we're working with a few people right now. That are actually, it's scary at first. Like I'm always, I'm not going to be not honest about it. Like, you do lose a huge chunk of your clients at first, but the way we set Heather, you know, the way we think set people up, it's, it's not, it's not a big deal. So a lot of people get stuck in this like crazy purgatory of comfort and then also like imposter syndrome and confidence, and then just, you know, used to doing the business their way. So. But you did it twice going from petsitter to dog trainer and then shifting your entire career into being an entrepreneur. Can you share with the listeners a little bit about making both transitions? The first one from pet sitter to dog trainer and then the next, and when you're like, okay. Now I'm going to start, start in the industry full time. This is going to be my full-time career. This is going to be, you know, my bread and butter for my life. Right. Um, when I started transitioning from pet sitter to trainer was I met a number of people, interestingly that were trainers or have worked with dogs that needed a pet sitter. They trusted. So one in particular had four Australian shepherds and she had them working training. Um, but then when she. Valued her dogs so much that she couldn't leave them with quote, unquote, just anybody. Those were her words. And she, I mean, I went through a pretty rigorous meet and greet and training with her because she, and when I met her, she said them raw, first time I've ever had anybody really tell me about a raw diet. And she was like, but I have a lot of money invested in my dogs. I can. Leave them with just anyone can ask the neighborhood kid. So when I met her and we started doing things, she would show me, especially because of how her dogs were a few different things, how she would quote unquote, work with them, um, in how she would walk with them. How, what her recall words were, things she would have them do when they were on a walk. So if I hadn't met her, I think that. Be as comfortable going with some more challenging dogs, because I don't have that 10 years of history of working with those dogs. But while I met her, she also sat down and said, let's rework your let's do a write up for you, have a website. Right. And I was like, no, I don't know, website for page goes, let's write up a bio to put your webs, to put on your website and get you a website. What are you talking about? Because I didn't, I wasn't thinking that and then said, I see it, you have the education, you know how to teach people, get into doing some training. So I said, okay, I'll see what she's got. I see what happens first time I built away. Um, and she helped me do a lot of that. Then what we did, then I met another person who was a trainer and she said, let's go, come with me to some of my trainings. After I met her, worked with her jobs. And then she asked me to help her during her. Training sessions. She asked me to help her with a whole course and I did. And then there were a few people show me, give them to my business cards for pet sitting, dog walking, whatever it was. And there were a few that needed a little extra help. And when they asked for that extra help, she. Either was like, oh, you go help them. And I said, okay, I'll go help them. So I worked with them a little bit in that class. And then at the end, they either messaged me, emailed me, called me whichever they did and said, can you come and help us with our. We need a little more help hands-on again, I did not know grassroots at the time. I was just pulling numbers out of the, out of the air with what I thought was a fair price. We just got an application that popped up as we're talking. And it said she's like, I literally pulled numbers out of the air. What's fair. And what I can do, he just said that really what I just popped up on my screen. That is funny. So I, but if I didn't go to that class, I wouldn't see how a group class was run. And a lot of my stuff that I still do is a lot more one-on-one, but getting into doing a couple more group ideas, going down the line, um, since I've been working with grassroots, so it's not all going to be privates. And so that's how that started, but how I ended my. Career in education with individuals with disabilities. My contract, I was contracted employee from a school district and my contract ended at the end of the school year. And I kind of toyed with the idea for a little bit. I knew I was. Potentially wanting to change because of doing this for 20 plus years, knowing that as mentally getting burned out, I loved all the times I was spending what the jobs. So my contract was ending at the end of the school year. And I said, it's a prime time to try and see if I think, and I really thought in the very beginning, I would only do it for the three months of the summer. And I would potentially go back to. Education in the fall. And then I said, why my schedule is jam packed. I don't have, I don't have time to go back to school. I wouldn't be able to help as many families in dogs if I was working my other job. So that's when I said, okay, if this is what I'm supposed to do, I know this is the way my life has been. If they are supposed to happen, the door's always open if they're not supposed to happen at that time, the door closes. And so you have to be patient, but you also have to know, can you do that? And some people say, no, I can't. And I did have, I will say I did have the. Piece of last year, I was able to build my with grassroots, build my training business while still being an educator. But then I was still able to use all of that and then say, okay, summers happened. And the contract's ending. And I kind of knew that contract wasn't coming back, but it didn't mean I didn't have other offers potentially coming in. Um, but I was like, okay, now's the time to do it. And I'm six months in seven months, I guess you would say that I'm in. Um, loving every moment of it. Yeah. Well, I remember, I think, I believe, yeah. I remember having that conversation. Me, you and Maggie having a conversation during like one of your quarterly is like Q2 or Q3 portalets you're like, well, I guess I gotta, I gotta make this happen or I don't. So let's do this. And we kind of build out that, that kind of plan for you to actually start to get you on that, that way. Lo and behold, here we are now. And then miss miss spending, uh, my Christmas holiday in the tropics. Yes. Well that was, that was kind of interesting. It was definitely a vacation, but it was actually part of, one of my puppies that I've worked with since they've had him and they moved in November and had cost the idea to me, what I want to come down. Stay with them. See him, help them out while they got to see some family and things. Sure why not? And so I did, it was a vacation, but it was also because I have some high-end clients that I'm able to do that stuff. Yeah. Excuse the fuck. Out of me. I had no clue on that one. Totally fine. No, I'm joking with you, but that's awesome. I had no clue that you actually went down there to provide a service to that's the thing too. That's what people don't realize. It's like, The high end people that you want to work with and the people that are like totally like in your, in your collection, like they will take you to places like this as a dog trainer and people don't understand that. I'm like, no, look I told you about it. That's fine. Well, it happened all the time. We both said even at the end, we don't know because they know I'm busy at different things, but that the off. I have left it as, let me know when you might need it. And I can probably make it work out. Um, maybe not instantaneously, like don't tell me today, you need me tomorrow. Cause that most likely isn't happening. But if you, but again, if they are in your niche and they are somebody that definitely is in your group of people, things do work out and they. Well, and it's not, it doesn't even always feel like work. You actually become friends with those people and yes, they know you're providing a service, but at the same time that you are able to almost call them out. Not that I call my people out. But with like, if you have a good friend and you have a person that you're doing something silly with, they're able to say, Hey, what are you doing that for? And so sometimes we, I look at that and I think that's part of quote, unquote, my superpower, that I can look at the pattern of the behavior with the dog or the human and say, oh, the reason he's not sitting for you, simple behavior is because you're saying sit and you kind of walk. Well, he doesn't know if you're serious or not. So if you say I said sick, the dog, then sit. And I said, and stay still not at first. And then as the person learns and the dog learns, you can move and then still give the dog the cue and they should still be able to do that. Yeah. So what was the most challenging aspect of shifting, and I know you talked a little bit about how you made that transition from petsitter dog trainer, but like. Internally, what was like one of the most challenging aspects of making that shift to pet sitter to dog trainer? Like what was one of the toughest lessons you learned during it? Um, I, I definitely patients and I know people who will say that a lot, but I also had an also trusting my. Not just my instincts, but the things I've learned. And so I know Maggie has said this to me a thousand times, you know, more than you think you do and trust your instinct and. Okay. And at first I'm going, well, why does she keep telling me that? And it's because I have to learn, I have to repeat it. And so is actually something that is on my screensaver of my phone. And I've written it there because it's eyes taken or whatever picture, but I've put the text on the picture. So when I glance at my phone, It's in front of me. So when I'm going to do a sales call, it's there. And when I go to answer an email or a call, it's sitting there. So I'm seeing it thousands of times a day, because honestly how many times do we pick up our phone? And also how many times do I pick up my phone to take pictures of the dogs or take a video. But before I get there, I see my screen. That's awesome. It's a whole reinforcement thing too. Yeah. Yeah. So what was one of the more, I like to say more brutal things from shifting from, you know, contracted employee to self-employed as a dog trainer. I think at first I was going where's my paycheck. Okay. Do you get paid every two weeks? Let's say yeah. So you're like, oh, okay, I'll get the alert on my phone or I'll go glance at my bank account and okay. My paycheck's in there. So then going, wait, my paychecks don't come every Friday. And not that you can't set them up to do that, but in the very beginning, it was. Where's my money going to, I knew where it was coming from my head, but just breaking that pattern of you get paid every two weeks or you get paid once a month or whatever, the cycle of payment you're used to from a employee. Business to being the employee or being the owner of the business, makes it a little challenging at first you're like, oh wait, what's that? Where is that? And so then I was like, oh duh, you just move it from your one account to your other account. And so seemingly silly thing to not think about, but it is that mental shift of I'm responsible for where my money's coming from. So if I don't say. That's my that's my fault. If I don't look to continue to build my business. I can't say anybody failed, but me, because I didn't make the phone calls, I didn't put the work into it. And yes, I know I have to work on that next week and this week. And because it's the whole week of coming back from a vacation that you're like getting everything back running and knowing I've just started a few clients and gone, okay, where are they going to fit? But that goes into how, why you work with grassroots because they teach you a lot of those things of how to, because. There's a number of businesses out there, that'll say, oh, I could teach you how to build your business. But the difference is grassroots is all pet businesses and dog businesses were not saying that businesses and business money isn't money, but I think it is different when you're looking at where people are teaching you, how to find your clientele, where to work on your niche and all of those things, um, definitely is where grassroots definitely. Yeah. Well, I think too, because I made that transition from being corporate employee, you know, for many, many, many years, and having that structured day and whatnot to, you know, full-time entrepreneur a few years ago and it's it, you know, it's we always like to say, cause right now, like right, what's happening in the U S and across the world right now, like put politics aside, the gray resignations happening and everything else like that. And a lot of people are moving into self-aware. And I think one of the hardest shifts is two and it's one of those things we have at the back of our mind consistently. But it's like, if, if I go, if I go into my full-time. Right. And I just show up, I answer a few emails at Corp at my corporate job, and I really don't give a fuck. I know I'm going to get paid on the 15th and the first of the month, you know what I mean? If I go into my, my job now, you know, as code or grassroots and I don't perform, or if I don't, you know, if I don't serve our clients, you, everybody. Yeah. And everything like that, I run the risk of not being able to make payroll for nine full-time people. Not only me and it's this whole it's this whole assumed risk thing, but at the same time too, I think it's, I don't know. You have to be a little bit of adrenaline junkie, I think, and a little bit fucking crazy. Not. I don't want to sound able us when I say that, but to be a little bit, you know, you have to have a different way of thinking in order to, you know, be self-employed and being able to keep that shit together. Cause honestly like a corporate job, a frigging and a regular job, man, that's just comfortable back in the day. Like my dad, my dad's a boomer. He was, you know, he's he went and he had a same fucking job for 50 something years, you know what I mean? And he went in, he clocked in, he did it and he worked for the federal government. He did his job and then he clocked out and now he's enjoying. You know, for me and you and for everybody else, that's listening. It's like, man, you know, if something happens, like it could be dramatic tips anyway. But on that road, I try to tell that to people that are like, well, you're so lucky you get to do this. Yes. And yes, it, yes. And if I, if we fail, my whole team feels, you know, just not even just me, but like, you know, I got, I got nine other mouths to feed an organization too. Right, exactly. Okay. Sorry. Let's get off topic. Cool. So tell me, can you share a little bit vaguely, I'm going to put that in there because I don't want you to give him the goods. Can you share a little bit about how you did this? Like how you made that shift to make it work to where, you know, you're profitable, I would say nicely profitable. You are comfortable and you feel confident. Like how would you, can you share a little bit of. What you kind of do? I don't want to hear too much. Um, well, uh, in 2020, when the pandemic hit, I, I did, I did, I actually was at clicker expo in Lewisville, Kentucky and went and we got, we were there, we were there one day and they turned us around and told us to go home. We were like, okay, what's happening? And they said, people are. The whole idea of people were afraid. They weren't going to be able to get home. Nobody knew what was happening because of course with like clicker expo place, they have people coming from all over the world. So some of their speakers that were from all over the world where. Canceling at the last second and saying, we're not coming, we're their speakers and they're going, we're not coming. It was my, I was like all excited. I was my first expo and I am like, okay, I don't know what's happening. And I get a phone call from my supervisor at the time. And she said, check your email. I know you're on vacation. You need to check your email. Stuff's happening. I'm like, what is she talking about? And because I was still on edge. And that was when they said do not come back to the building. Like if you needed anything from the building, you have this amount of time to get it. If not, you can't come back until we tell you, you can come back and I'm going, what in the world? So I'm sure everybody else was doing that too. But I come back and I get a call from one of the unicorns that grassroots. And they say, would you be interested in doing, because I think that's. At the same time, a questionnaire or something that came on Facebook from one of the ads and I get a phone call and they said, would you, we see you're interested. Give me the whole spiel. Would I be interested? And I remember going, what is it going to cost me? Because I know there has to be a cost factor. And they said, well, it could be. And they get named to figure. You mean, you want that right now? And she says, no, you could say, I said, can I, at least I just came back from being away. And I wanted to see what, what, what life was going to be, all that kind of stuff. And I said, can you call me back in two days? And she actually did it resembling, uh, so today's Emily called me back and said, okay, so what do you think? And I said, I'm going to do it. And I haven't looked back. And even during 2020, when I didn't know if I was still going to have a educator's job, if I was getting a paycheck from doing all of that. I jumped into grassroots two feet. It's like, let's just see what's going to happen. And that within a couple of weeks of, or I guess it was like part of 2.0, I actually sold a six month program and I never would have. I would have been able to do that as a trainer. So I think that's also where I knew I could potentially leave education because while we were shut down, I was able to still go and work with this family that had hired me to do a six month program because I didn't have. Going to school. I was like, okay. And they paid it. And I was like, okay, this is nice. I'm enjoying this. And I saw there, that was the, the little window of light that showed me that, okay, this is potentially going to work. It wasn't a full door open. It was here. I'm going to show you. You're going to be able to start doing this. And then it has grown and shown me the, and the door is completely open, um, that to walk through and see what's going to happen. Yeah. Yeah. I remember when you came into 2.0, because I specifically remember you came in a little bit late, I think, like a week or two late towards that. Yeah, because we were still, we had like the doors open still, but we were still letting people trickle in as needed. And it's funny because 2.0 now is like our, our flagship course, it was literally, it's literally like what, two, three years of our education crammed into like, Three modules. It was insane. I'm actually super I'm S you know what, honestly, though, I'm super proud that the whole team went together and built that too. I'm just kind of, you should, you shouldn't be. And I have said to numerous people that have said, well, how are you doing this? Like, and different things like that. Even clients that are like, oh, hi, I know you wanted to leave education, but you didn't seem happy. I know it was hard. Scheduling everything. W, how did you do that? And I said, if I didn't take this course that I started during the pandemic, I don't think I would have been able to do it and not meaning that. And it is to give kudos to grassroots, but also to say, sometimes you do have to just jump and see what happens and be willing to accept what the outcome is. Is it going to be. Uh, flop or is it going to be where you actually sore? Because same as the baby bird, they don't know if they're going to fly until they're kicked out of the nest. So if you're a frog and you go to jump out of a nest, Jump you're going to land, but you're not going to fly. So it's kind of thinking a little bit further down, like, is this something I, and other people, as I think about this now, too drastic have noticed and said, I could do this a long time ago. And I didn't know. I was like, what are you talking about? They're like, you could do this. And I was like, I don't know about that. And it's people saw things in me that I didn't see myself right away. And I think sometimes we're blinded by. It's also a little out of the norm of what I usually do. And I also think there's some times, unfortunately, Societal idea of what you should do and not to say dog trainers are not intelligent people because we all are. But there, I think some people think it's an easy job and it's really not. And the ones and we saw during 2.0 and during the pandemic, so many businesses closed because they were banking on those, not scalable. Training sessions and they didn't know what to do. And not saying that I knew what to do, but in hindsight, I did have an idea of what to do. And I mean, that's also where I saw pet-sitting on my pet sitting started to close because people. Me for even that summer. And there were like, we can go, we're not going anywhere. We don't know what's going to happen. So I also saw, okay, I'm not pet sitting, but I can go train on set on the weekend. I can go do this. And so I started building it with that idea of not that I was shutting down pet sitting, but that I wasn't sure what was going to happen with that. Because then, and again, who knew. After the summer of 2020, where people going to want to go and travel again? Well, then 21, I get spammed with people asking me to pet sit because they haven't gone anywhere for a year. And so I was busy with some of that as well. And then I also built out, which was, which is nice. With doing some pet sitting. If you're looking to get into the training, you can leave the dogs because most people have gone back to work. Um, or their dogs are okay while they leave. But I was able to leave the animals and go out and work on training. And so I was able to do both. And even while I pet sat, I sat all kinds of animals, not just dogs and cats. I did farm animals, chickens, a chameleon, birds, you name it? I probably did it rabbit. Um, which is kind of funny, like, well, why would you do that? And it's because I enjoyed the animals and, but then I continue to gravitate toward the docs and that's where I said, okay, I'm going to definitely invest more. And I guess that's what it is. She I've invested more into the training, not only for myself, but also to build that side of the business and titrate out the. Yeah. Okay. So I just went on a whole big tangent. No, that's fine. That's fine. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, a lot of, I know specifically pet sitters got nailed the most with the whole pandemic thing and a lot of them fucking clubs down a wad of them. And I know some haven't even recovered yet, but 2021 was. It was the year for the dog Turner. I would say everybody has worked their fucking asses off and everybody's exhausted now, 22, I feel like it's, it's still going to have that kind of recovery. I think it's not good. It's still gonna be busy, but I don't think it's going to be as frantically busy as it was. So I think there's going to be, it's a good year of like hunkering down and getting your shit together and getting shit straight for 2022, because I think in 2023, if I'm not mistaken, We're going to probably have a repeat of 20, 21 where there's a huge uptick against, we don't know what's going to happen right now. Cause like right now, like what's January, 2022, like we're in a big back fucking full swing of fucking cases going up. So, and who knows, there's going to be more restrictions again. So anyway, that means potentially more dogs coming back into the picture because people are going out and getting more dogs again and everything else like that. So Heather, what would you say or offers words of advice. That was in your shoes a few years ago, if you want to do dog training and you can find some people that you can mentor under, definitely do it that way. I think I ha the difference with me was I know behavior. And so I know this is going to sound like egotistical, and I don't mean it that way. Behavior is behavior. Doesn't matter. The species. All species have behavior. So if you know how to read a behavior, yes. They respond differently to the behavior. So like a kid can't talk to me. I mean, it's more, a lot of my kids couldn't talk to me, but they would act out because they couldn't use their voice. So then we would teach them how to communicate to us without. Aggression. So, uh, that's I think one of the reasons why I can look at a dog and say, I see why he's jumping at you because you're giving him tons of attention or things that are happening because dogs can't talk to us with a voice. Yes. Some people say they can, but I don't always agree with that, but that's a whole other agenda, but dogs have behavior. So the behaviors are still the same. It just is the way they use it is a little different. Um, but get with people that you align with and that you trust, they're really interested in building this. Business. And I'm not just saying it because it's you and I on your phone. I really would say, go look at grassroots. I've had a few people on some weird private Facebook groups that are like, oh, how do you do this? And I'm like, goat, if you have a question about your business and you are in the pet industry or dog industry, go look, go have a conversation with you and Maggie or the team and say, this is what I want to do. And instead of. Free advice that doesn't help you time. Exactly. And then you come back two years later and go, I wish I would've done what they told me two years ago and, or even six months ago and whatever the period of time is. And I'm not saying that it's that maybe grassroots doesn't fit everybody. I know you said, oh, you're I was probably cringing because you were cursing. And I said, no, I, I know how life is. It doesn't offend me. Um, but, but there are things that I do align with you and that there are things that we do similarly. And that I definitely will say, I I've said repeatedly through this. Investing the money and the time in to that in 2020, I wouldn't be where I am today. Yeah. Yeah. Because I didn't know. I was like, I mean, yeah, I could have attempted it, but I wouldn't be, and I wouldn't be able to again, go with my niche and I know people say, oh, that's just that cliche word that everybody uses. In that having your niche, you're able to, for lack of another way to say it is pick and choose who you want to work for and work with, because I'm not saying that there are tons of people that need dog trainers and there's always other trainers. Well, I may meet somebody and they just are not getting. Um, offering to them. They're just not invested in the way I would think they would be invested. It's not saying there's a problem with them. It's just, we're not, we're not going to work well together and we're not going to accomplish what they want to accomplish for their job. So there's somebody else that they may align better with. And so learning, even just learning who your niche is, is going to make a huge difference to. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it. And yeah, Heather, it's been fucking awesome. If people want to find you, how can they find you? Um, they can find me on Facebook at Heather law, dog training. Um, I have a website www Heather law, job training.com. And my email is Heather law. Doug training at Gmail dot. Awesome. Well, Heather, it was a, oh, Hey, you're on Instagram too. You were on Instagram. I know that I did actually change my Instagram name to take away the pet center piece. And so it should just be coming up as Heather law, dog training. But if not, they can shoot me a message. You can add that in the notes. I would definitely well. Okay. No worries. No worries. Awesome. All right. Well, Heather, I'm gonna, I'm gonna sign off for now, but thank you so much for your time and it's been awesome and pleasure to have on. Thank you so much, Kristen. Have a great weekend. You too. Bye. Okay, bye. Hey there. Thanks for checking out. Another episode of the mind, your own dog business. Mind your own dog business is hosted by me personally and produced by the unicorns over at the dog, this school team for more information, how to get in touch with me for more information on dog with school, or to learn more on how we can help you with your dog. Feel free to visit our website at dog, this school.com. Now, if you really enjoy this episode, do me a favor and leave a five star review on apple. The reason why, because we want to disrupt more dog training businesses on the, how people do the business of dogs till next time I.