From Corporate Healthcare to Running a Pet Care Company

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I love sharing my story.

No. And if you would have told me ten years ago I'd be doing this now, I would not have believed you. I very much am like a structure person and I like guidance. I like ladders. I've always loved to climb the ladder. It started at McDonald's with my first job. I started at 15 as a fry girl, and by 18 I was a shift manager. So I very much like handbooks and policies and procedures and structure. And to me Entrepreneurship was always this huge risk that I didn't think I had it in me to take. And I think part of that is is growing up in poverty. You always want to make sure you know where your your next check is coming from. and I also don't think I had the confidence. I I wouldn't have been ready to do this until this point in my life. So no. The entrepreneurial part of my soul was I would like to say discovered. It wasn't made. I think it was probably already in there, just hiding under a lot of other stuff.

realize they were gonna do it so raw, so

That is a really great question. One of the things I can tell you, because I also went back to school as part of this journey, was I realized I was intelligent. So that was like a huge launching point for me. Like working in the doctor's office, I was like, this is fascinating. This is fun. You know, my my mom went to medical assistant school when I was young and I would help her study. So there were some things that I knew about healthcare that I was like, this is fun. And then when he was like, you really should go back to school. So I started going back to school for nursing and I had a 4.0. Like I was, I loved school. I loved going to college. I love I was like, man, smart. And so once I made that realization, other things started to snowball from that. It's like, okay, I'm I am good at identifying process improvement. It's something that comes very naturally to me. My husband likes to joke if we go to a restaurant or on vacation, he's like, don't center a survey unless you want standard operating procedure created for you or for improvement. So I I realized that was something that came natural to me that I see a problem, identify it and I want to fix it.

Cool smart. I didn't think I was cool smart. I I thought I would have described myself as street smart, not

switched to surgical tech so I became an a s yeah, an operating room technician. So I didn't love sickness. My older brother died of cancer when I was nineteen. So it was really hard for me to be in a hospital and on the floor and where people are talking. Like to me, the operating room was a much much more comfortable place 'cause the only people you're talking to are your colleagues. Your patients are asleep, so you truly just get to focus on the medicine. And fixing the patient and being a part of that versus the the emotional part of it. So

No, no. Summer off.

Let my career on fire.

No, not at all. And I think it's true of a lot of gen Xers. I think we grow up we grew up rather as survivors. We grew up as, you know, latchkey kids whose parents worked all the time. And, you know, I know I personally had a latchkey and as of the second grade was home by myself at three o'clock in the afternoon watching Three's Company, like which w would never happen in this day and age. But, you know, we We are a generation that has seen so much change, probably just as much as the baby boomers. And I think that has created a work ethic in all of us that is the strongest of all generations. But to that flip side, I think we also don't know when to say no, when to create boundaries, when not getting promoted is totally okay, because maybe that promotion doesn't fit with your life. Or you you don't have to work eighty hours a week to be successful at what you're doing if you figure out how to work. I hate cliches, but smart so I for me it was an instinctual journey of sorts. I I but I didn't realize it until I was in it. Like I was truly looking for a place where I would feel valued, which everyone everyone does that. Everyone wants to work right where they're respected and heard and they felt they feel valued. But I also didn't know about myself where I truly need to see that I'm making a difference. It matters to me. Looking myself in the mirror every day is important to me with a clear conscience. So I was going from the surgery center company that I worked for and I like to say grew up with. I was with them for seven years and they were getting ready to sell to a large healthcare corporation. And that terrified me. Like where I don't have a lot of formal education, whereas my peers have master's degrees. So I got out before I was pushed out. And maybe that would have never happened. Maybe that's an assumption I made on my own, but I Was concerned about how I would support my family. So I went to another large private equity backed healthcare company. I learned an immense amount of things with them in the two years that I was with them. It made me a better speaker, a better presenter. you know, I was presenting slide decks with huge metrics. it made me more technology savvy.

But I still There was something in my heart just saying, This isn't the place for you. So I thought, well, maybe switching to a different kind of healthcare company will find my purpose. And it was just more of the same. It was more of just constantly wearing your PL like on your chest and living and dying by that EBITDA you're working towards so someone can sell. and not about the people. And I was expecting different things with different companies and seeing the exact same result. And it just got to a point where it was truly killing me inside. Like I hated getting up every day. I hated going to work. This last company made me go sit in a cubicle. That is the most absurd. Did you go through cu COVID? 'Cause there is no need for anyone to do anything in a cubicle anymore, especially if you want someone to feel empowered. To me, there's nothing more demoralizing than getting stuck in a cubicle. So to all the employers out there, please stop with the cubicles. and it and if you have ADHD, it's impossible to work in a cubicle too. Cause I'm like, IT's getting a phone call. What side do you getting a phone call? So when you can hear every department around you, it's very distracting. But anywho, I'm digressing. So I did not have a plan. And this is all very unlike me because I plan everything like trips are in a PowerPoint presentation. So I just reached a breaking point, one that I didn't know I had. And my husband and I had been talking about looking for something else or working for ourselves or me just getting a different job because we discussed my unhappiness and the fact that I was just repeating the same pattern over and over again and and getting the exact same result, which is the definition of insanity. So it had been discussed, but there was no like Hey, I'm gonna go to work and quit today, which I did from the airport. So not my best, most professional moments, but definitely I feel like it had to happen at the at this point. Like I do some of my best work in states of chaos. So I

Chaos for myself and then it was like, What well what do I do now? So I called my husband from the airport crying in the car, like, I just quit my job. I'm so sorry. He's like, Just come home, we'll figure it out. He's like, We've got this. So we I did take a couple of months off. I had missed almost all of my daughter's high school career and her senior year and all the fun things because I was always traveling and working. And my youngest was about to be a freshman and I didn't want to repeat that. so it really took the summer to be the mom that drove the friends everywhere, that hosted the pool parties. I really just gave everything I had to my family, which was absolutely necessary at that point. So I don't regret any of it to this day. It's all led me here. So

Yeah. Okay. So I was on LinkedIn actively looking for jobs and applying and and but doing it with a sense of dread, which I can look back on now, just feeling like I'm reading these job descriptions and and these operations roles and it all just gave me the same cringy feeling. And then Tony Tony Carrera from the franchise group dot dropped into my DMs and said, Hey, is this something you would consider? And I was like You know what, I never really thought about it before. let's get on a call. And he he stuck with me for months and months and months. I went through a lot in in those months. We started talking, I wanna say, in June of twenty twenty four and I wrote the check to Woofies two years ago yesterday. So

Yeah. So it was the whole summer and early into the fall. And Woofies was actually the very first franchise that I met with. And Tony was great. He like s met my husband and I, like, what are your strengths? What do you love? What do you like? What do you hate? Like, what do we need to stay away from? And it really was like matchmaking with a business. So we met with four different franchises. There were some that right away I was like, no, I'm not gonna wanna do this. There were some that took me a a minute before I realized I would absolutely not be inspired to wake up and do this every day. And unfortunately I made it all the way through like the pro forma phase, which no one likes to do a pro forma. So it was good practice.

Yeah. And I thought I couldn't afford it. But what really was happening was Woofy's was the most transparent on phone call number one about what this would look like. And other companies that I talked to would disclose more financial obligations the further along in calls you got with them, which was a huge turnoff to me. Like if you're not being transparent in the beginning, what's our future relationship gonna look like for us? So for me, those were breaking points. Like I have to buy a brick and mortar in the first 12 months in South Tampa? Absolutely not. Do you know how expensive it is to live and have any sort of property here for a business? It's insane. So right away, that obligation when that came up on phone call number four, I was like, and we're done here. So yeah.

That's an important bullet point. Like a billion dollar bullet point that you don't leave off.

Yeah.

It really whoopies did check all my boxes. So I've always been a huge animal person and I we have a house of four dogs and three cats. So we're it's my poor husband is just a victim in all of this. I solely take responsibility for my obsession with rescuing animals. But I didn't prior to meeting whoopies, I didn't know how one could make pet care a profitable career. Like how do people pay their bills, just walking dogs? So that that was one part of it. The culture there. from phone call number one to the to now, everyone consistently shows up with the same positivity, solution based responses, encouragement. But when you do have those days that suck, there you do have an operations person, a support that you can lean on. And no one understands better than the people who have done it because everyone within The whoopies franchise at the top has has gone through all of the things that we've gone through. So I it was super important to me that there was someone at the top, being Amy Addington, that if push came to shove and I needed to call her, I could call her. And I wanted to feel like that was always gonna be the case, regardless of how big we got. And and to this day she'll still she'll see something on my socials and she'll text me like I'm just so proud of you. So, like that part was really important to me because I feel like I'm that person as a leader. and I want to be surrounded with people, by people like that rather. So and then the other part of it was autonomy. I did want a level of autonomy. I did not, I was done with people telling me what to do as as part of my exit strategy. So I really wanted it was important to me that like Yes, you're giving me this business model and all the technology and all the things that come with your franchise fee. But at the end of the day, I wanted to be able to lead my team how I want to lead my team. I wanted to show up in my community and get back the way I wanted to, or and I wanted South Tampa is a very niche place to live. And unless you live here, you don't know what it's like. So it was important to me that they would understand that I've lived here for twenty one years. I know. what works in this town and what doesn't and just sort of let me let me do my thing. Give me enough rope to hang myself. Which they've they've done, but they never let me hang myself. They they really I mean, even the gentleman who oversees the van stuff and issues with the van, like everyone is just so collaborative and solutions based and there's no complaining. There's no gossiping like you get in healthcare. It's just really a positive, loving place to be every day. So and I try very much to make my team like that too. So

Yeah.

beginning I did. And and I think it changes for all of us. There are there are those of us that have opened and just hired a team and run the day to day operations from from a desk or a couch or wherever you're on your laptop.

And there are some of us that were just in it. We the team that I started with, so eight other franchise eight franchisees started at the same time. So I'm part of that little cohort and we all went through training together. Well, Woofie's requires us to do a certain element of grooming education on the platform that they use. Well, I got assigned the wrong class. So I took the actual groom tech certification class and my all my other cohorts did not. They took the required class. And I didn't know and Woofies didn't know until the end. So I'm just taking these and the so they were teasing me 'cause I'd be like, Well, that's a curry brush and they're like, No at all. But It was just funny 'cause at my core, that is who I am. I'm just curious by nature, so I like to know as much as I can know. So in the beginning I did it all. I answered the phone, I did the dog walks, I was doing the baths 'cause I couldn't find a groomer, but I had this super expensive van in my driveway that I needed to be generating revenue instead of just taking my money. So I did it all. And it was it was an amazing learning lesson, but it was not something I was enjoying. Felt alone on this island and tired and I never ever had it was 18 hours a day. It was me answering messages in the morning, going out and doing walks or baths, and then coming back to my desk and doing the invoicing, answering messages, returning clients' emails. So it was sun up to sundown every day. That said there was value to that. It it gives me perspective when I'm talking to the employees. And I think they all respect that I've done everything they all do. Yeah.

So and I that's who I've always been as a leader. I don't feel like you as a leader, if you have the privilege of being in that role, you shouldn't be above doing anything. And you should know what every job in your company looks like inside and out and be willing to perform any role within your company. I feel like that that is a huge respect builder, but it also makes you a really, really effective and empathetic leader.

So now we're almost two years in and my day looks completely different. It is I have a full time assistant now, my Sabrina. I don't she's like an internal organ. I don't know if I can ever live without her now that I have her. I told her as much this morning. I was like, Man, if I had found you a year ago, the business would be in a much better place. She's just she's everything I looked for for two years. So she does the day-to-day operations in all the phones, all the answering clients' text messages, their emails. She schedules the staff. She coordinates with the lead pet sitter. She does all of that. I work on more strategy now. So we work together physically once a week. We go over what our social media campaigns are at the moment, where we're where we're gonna do events, where I'm networking. I belong to an all female B and I that is a huge lead generator. Yeah. For us. So I am out now truly running the business It's only been this way for two weeks, so don't give me too much credit, but it's very

Yeah, it's really nice to get up, check the schedule, make sure everything's okay, be supportive of the staff. I check in with the staff. If I recognize that person's got this difficult dog on the schedule, I'll check in with them. How are you doing? How have the walks been? is there any support I can give you? Are you having a tough week, day, whatever? So it it's a different feeling altogether and I much prefer. Yeah. Yeah.

I I feel like it's been me pulling a lot of levers over the last two years to see what works and what doesn't because what works for me here is maybe not working for my friends in New Hampshire. So although Woofies does a great job with you know, we have our website is hosted universally. So we all have the same website hoster. They give us guidance around how we can optimize that and where we spend our money with that and how we should be changing things up to stay relevant within Google. And then we do have a marketing budget for CO and LSA and all the things. And that is In the beginning, I spent a lot of money on that because that was a huge driver for me. Nobody knew who I was until they were Googling pet sitting or mobile grooming. So in the beginning, my funds were almost a hundred percent Google Google related. And then some of it went to trying to get to local events. South Tampa is kind of funny. There's not a lot of local farmers markets or things like that that you can join as a service-based business. You have to be a product selling business to be in a lot of the so we've had to get creative, which we're still that's still a work in progress.

But the networking is a huge part of it. The B and I has been, it's not part of the national BNI. It's some girls in our we have an all moms group in South Tampa. And some some business owners just decided to put together their own thing of female Specifically women and moms that own businesses and what that looks like. because it's different trying to, in fact, our meetings occur after all the car line schedules have dropped. So everyone's last car line run is like nine, and our meetings start at 9:30. So we tailor it to our busy lives and all of the many hats that women wear. So it's a mutual respect around that table and We it is like a sisterhood of women who really just want to take care of each other and help each other's businesses grow. So I would say the last six months of that has been a huge lead and revenue generator for me, just building those relationships.

It's it shifts with the seasons really. and I mean the goal is to have a fifty-fifty split within the franchise of your grooming is fifty percent of the business and pet sitting is fifty. It when I didn't have a groomer, I turned that part of my Google off altogether because it didn't make sense to spend money and just turn people away. Right now I'm booking about three weeks out, so I've turned down the Google funding on grooming because I'm losing them anyways. When they call and I can't get them scheduled for three weeks and I don't have a weekend groomer, they just go elsewhere. So I'm focusing on the pet sitting right now because that's where the business need is, maybe not the community need. But we while we're while I'm actively trying to find a groomer in the background. I'm trying to Sabrina's working on getting us into condos for pet sitting and dog walking so that we because we s there's nothing stopping us from ramping up that side of the business. So we're focusing on that right now within especially there's a lot of communities with baby boomers that maybe don't want to take their dog from their pet house downstairs. And so those are opportunities. So it really the season changes. our needs and what makes sense to go after, but also the demands of the community. But then also our shortcomings within the company sometimes are driving how we market and where we grow our business. So we actually had a groomer that was going to come on board for weekends that was getting ready to order the second van and yesterday he pulled out. So we had a quick little staff meeting and I'm like, this is what it is. We're going to rally. This is how this is what we're going to focus on. We're gonna go back to finding a weekend groomer. We're gonna grow the pet sitting side of the business right now. And we're just gonna pause on making any decisions around the grooming side of the business. Yeah. So yeah. It's I think it's important to have your finger on the pulse of all the things because the climate within your business, within your community, within the industry is always gonna be changing. So being able to balance all those things to make them work in concert together is like a daily, daily Fluctuation, I would say.

It has been the bane of my existence since day one.

This has been a journey too, because I went from managing doctors to managing 20 year old dog walkers.

It's it's been a learning experience for me because I've never managed Gen X or Gen Z before rather. So it is a whole I've been reading books, I've been really trying to figure out how to rally. So it's been it's been a journey of self growth for me. Like how can I learn to become a better leader and get through to these folks and not just get through to them but inspire them and empower them. So I've had to do the work on my end to be a different leader than I was for the last decade. So that's that journey just within me has affected everything. I think I was naive to go into it and think that everyone had the same work ethic that I do. And and generally doctors and nurses generally speaking have a pretty solid work ethic. So to shift gears like this entirely required me shifting gears too. And that's not something I did in the beginning. I think I expect a lot of myself. So then I also expect a lot of other people and then I'm disappointed. So I've had to sadly lower my expectations. But I think what was really important and and what we do now moving forward is I am crystal clear on what my expectations are from the interview. I it in a very respectful and kind way, but just like I don't want to waste your time. So I'm I'm gonna get really specific on this is what I need from you as an employee. So do you think you can show up like this consistently at least 95% of the time? Can you do these things? I also get really clear on the fact that this is a business and an important part of the community and our reputation and our brand is very important to me. So if you are not acting in alignment with our culture and our brand, I'm I've had to learn to hire slower, fire faster. So that's been and I you always want I think if you're not hopeful around everyone's best intentions and the outcomes, then you become a miserable human. So I don't ever want to stop. holding on to like I have really hopeful expectations. I had really amazing expectations for this groomer that just bailed on me yesterday. but I also recover from the disappointment a lot faster than I did two years ago. I had a groomer that started with me full time. She had launched another grooming business. That person went out of business. She was sold me on she how she's gonna help me, blah, blah, blah. And then she started calling off all the time. And then she just stopped coming to work. And you would have thought that my high school boyfriend just broke up with me because I was heartbroken. Like I was embarrassed 'cause I had to call all my clients and be like, My groomer didn't come back to work and I don't have another one and I don't know when I can groom your dog. So all those clients I had worked months on building reputations with, I lost all of

And I had to start all over again. And so went through two more before I got to this one who is amazing. I love her. She just bought a house ten minutes from me. We we I think she sees that we really truly care about our company and our employees and she wants to be a part of something bigger. so it was just she wasn't meant to find me two years ago and and I wasn't meant to find her. So it's It's still an on journey of how to manage things that don't make sense to me. And I think it's really easy to be like, it's it's Gen Z and it's their work ethic and they're lazy and they're this and they're that. There's actually a book that's called Everybody Gets a Trophy that's very helpful. A leadership book to s to learn how you can adapt your own sales, adjust your sales to align better with generational gaps with your employee. So

I've learned to soften my approach. So as

as as a as a Gen X type A personality that worked in the operating room for a number of years, there's certain personality traits that come along with that. So if there's any OR nurses listening to this, they know exactly what I'm talking about.

We we are a different breed of human from the rest of the world. So I had to learn to soften my approach. I always thought I was. An empathetic person, but I don't know that I was as empathetic as I thought I was. I really needed to. Sabrina has been. She's been with me in two months now, I think. And she truly sees the best in people and helps me be better about seeing the best in people. I had a colleague at my last healthcare job that we would have project management calls, and she would say, first off, I'm starting this call that we are all assuming good intentions. So if there is feedback on this call, you need to assume that that's coming from a good place and not that someone is starting to try to s to start a disagreement. So I'm trying to incorporate her mantra into my life every day of like I need to assume that this is well well intended, which is easier to do on some days than it is others. But it's I've It's almost like I have seven children now that I was 'cause they're all the same age as my oldest pretty much. So I am trying to parent and lead at the same time.

And maybe some people wouldn't agree with that approach, but they all do call me their work mom. And I think there's a component of like they don't want to disappoint me. So I try to sometimes I give them advice that they maybe don't want to be like, well, your car, you should probably get that taken care of, because otherwise this, this, and this could happen. And then it's gonna be more expensive. And then you could so I give them unsolicited mom advice all the time too. So I just try to change. the dynamic of my relationship with them to be more nurturing and inspiring than it is leading.

thumbs without them realizing that I'm leading them.

Better adult.

Now

No, they've all had other jobs. They a lot of them a lot of them have side hustles. A lot understand So I for I mean, for everyone except one employee, I am their second job.

So a lot of them are doing multiple things, whether that's working in a restaurant on the weekends or Friday, Saturday night sort of thing, or I have one that does music production. she does music video editing and she's trying to break into the music scene.

I have one that's an executive at a furniture company that I found her through Rover and stole her.

So she works remotely for a furniture company and then so when she does boarding for me, she still just has her job. It's she just has a dog with her all week.

I've had to get creative about where where I find people and how we make it work. Sometimes it's a little like if somebody's gonna be gone longer than the promised time that we give to clients, I'll go and do a walk at that client's house. So we're still meeting their service expectations and that person can go do their second job without having to miss out on both revenue opportunities. So

I don't know that there's like one size fits all solution to anything in any business. So we're just constant I'm constantly like, how can we make this work?

Yeah.

It depends on what you're looking for. And and again, it's levers that I've changed up how I've done it. But groomers, LinkedIn, no. Not for anything that's with that. I've tried, no, not not for these roles. Even even for my administrative assistant, that I used Indeed for. I used Indeed for groomers because groomers do look on Indeed. Pet sitting I use Indeed a little bit too. It's just Indeed is a great like fishing that to cast, but it's it's not as effective as I think it could be or should be for what it costs.

I've tried to put every parameter under the sun to discourage people from applying to my grooming posting that have no grooming experience and they'll answer all the questions, no, no, no, no. And then they'll still apply. And I'm like just like, well that just cost me money. Thank you.

So I feel like indeed could do some better job without charging companies an arm and a leg that they do for subpar. I mean, how many businesses get to sort of do okay at what they're doing and still charge an arm and a leg and still get paid for what they're doing?

Yeah. So one of the things they do is a referral program. So if another employee brings someone else on board and that employee makes it to ninety days, they get fifty dollars.

And then social media. I've really turned to that, especially for the groomers, because there is a lot of Facebook pages for groomers, groomers for hire, groomers of Central Florida, blah, blah, blah. So I do posting on there. I do posts on Instagram. The my full time groomer that I have now, she found me through Instagram. So it's yeah, we are starting to get more people that are finding us and they go right to our job application link on our website and And apply. So I wasn't doing constant recruiting, but now that it is passive in a sense that I have a live application on the website that anybody can apply at any time. I don't do the indeed as much. In fact I've paused on it altogether right now. Just trying to find a groomer organically.

A little bit of both. So I think there's still opportunity to optimize the one band that we have now. One of my pet sitters wants to learn more with the business and take on more roles, but has a full-time job as a preschool teacher. So during her breaks, we're teaching her to become a bather and she'll do that certification. And then she'll be bathing for me on the weekends. So we can hopefully find a groomer to throw into that mix somewhere too. I really want to maximize the usability of the van before I buy a second one. But it is on the docket for next year. I've started the conversations, I've started the planning of what dogs are going on the van. So it's a goal for Q one twenty twenty seven, but I'm definitely not pulling that trigger until I have I have this van running seven days a week. So

Yeah, absolutely.

It's terrifying, but I I also look back on everything I've tried in my life and very rarely does anything fail. So I had to remember that going in. So like I even killed it working at McDonald's. So I'm I'm gonna kill it at this too. I just needed to have the faith in myself. I know I have the intelligence, I know I have the work ethic. I know the opportunity is there and I know I have the support so I just needed to suck it up and put my big girl panties on and get it done.

content. Well, I'm I'm super proud of our Instagram page because it's so much fun. So definitely follow and all of our contact information is on that. But we just got a link tree with all of our perks of being part of our whoopies pack. So it's Whoopies South Tampa all one word on Instagram. And then that link links us to all the things. But yeah, Sabrina and I have a lot of fun with our our Instagram. We really incorporate all of our clients, dogs, and fun facts about different breeds. Like we just we have a lot of fun with it. In the beginning I hated it, but she's made me grown to love love this old lady loves social media now. I'm even on the is Sabrina

She is, yeah.

Canva and it's like watching wizardry happen. I'm like I can prepare you a sixty page pitch deck if you'd like. I can show you how to do that. And a pivot table. Do you know what a pivot table is? 'Cause I do

Use it. So

Thank you. This was a pleasure.