211: The Power of Blogging with Ali Smith
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Summary:
How do you connect with your ideal clients? One of the best ways is blogging. Ali Smith, owner of Rebarkable, shares her story of blogging as a way to turn her business into a high value machine. She gives tips on what makes a good blog, getting over the fear of imperfection, and how to repurpose your blog. Ali discusses how to reach quality clients and having peace of mind in business.
Topics on this episode:
Benefits of blogging
Reusing topics
"Gotta risk it for a biscuit"
Building relationships
Mental health
Main take away: You ARE an expert with advice to share.
About our guest:
Ali Smith is the founder of Rebarkable, she's recently moved from just outside of London, UK to Maryland, US and champions force free training methods. Ali, 32, is passionate about helping her clients get the best from their puppies and helping them avoid future issues by not just training them, but also helping puppy parents understand their dog so they're more capable of being a confident and adaptable family member. That thing for my business was blogging. I found that blogging turned my business from being low value (both to me and my clients) to being much higher value. The clients were better quality, the knowledge they had was better, and they were much more reliable clients in term of payment and had easier dogs. And that was down to the fact that they knew how I worked, they found me easily on google, and they knew who I was before I knew them. It was also really a good thing for my mental health and work life balance because my clients knew I was investing in my business and in them!
Links:
Rebarkable: https://rebarkable.com/about/
Rachel Spencer: https://www.publicityforpetbusinesses.co.uk
Rachel on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/publicitytipsforpetbusinesses
Bella Vasta: http://bellavasta.com
Bella on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jumpconsulting
“They ask, You Answer”: https://amzn.to/3xWbw41
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
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Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
clients, writing, dog, blogging, people, pet, blog, business, blog post, read, piece, post, questions, gift, topic, sit, content, process, bit, connect
SPEAKERS
Collin Funkhouser, Ali Smith
00:17
Hi, I'm Meghan. I'm Collin. And this is pet sitter confessional, and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter
Collin Funkhouser 00:24
brought to you by a time to pet and pet perennials. Allie Smith found a way to make her business to do something more for her and connect with her clients on a different level and do something new for her business. And that was blogging. And so today, we're really excited to talk to her about how blogging, changed her business, changed her mental health and helped her better communicate with her clients and build better relationships. So, Allie, thanks so much for coming on the show today. Could you please tell us a little bit more about yourself?
Ali Smith 00:57
Yeah, absolutely. Colin, and thank you very much for having me. So I'm Allie Smith, I am the founder of remarkable and I used to be a dog walker, and pet sitter in the UK. And I know he's a dog trainer. So I got made redundant out of my job as an accountant in London, and sat back and went, Okay, well, what do I want to do with my life. And, and I had, I was, I was gifted that opportunity to sort of review where everything would be. And, and that was at one point, when I had applied for a few jobs that I didn't really want. I looked at my, my young dog at the time on what your what I want to be working with, that's what I want to be doing. So I looked into it, and then took all the necessary courses and things to make sure that I was adequately trained hitting the road and, and set up for myself was that I don't story, right.
Collin Funkhouser 01:53
And so you're you're you're running your business, you're operating your business, why did you decide that you needed to start blogging as part of your business?
02:02
Well, I mean, it's one of those things that when you start a business, everybody goes, you should have a blog, Google really likes it. If you have a blog, and you sit there and go, Oh, my God, not another thing. Please don't make me do another thing. Yeah, I really don't want to have to do another thing. Because we wear so many hats, right? We sit there and we're doing social media, we're doing all of our own graphics, or photography or copywriting at like for the website. And you sit there and you just go, I don't have time. And so what I did have time, I sort of sat there and went, Okay, what's this whole thing about, looked into it, I wrote a couple of like, really, really vague posts just to sort of see if there was anything worthwhile in it. And they didn't do great. I'm being very honest. And then I sort of sat back and I wrote one piece, and it was actually about my mental health and my dog end, and how he helped. And everything, there's a few things that sort of contribute to actually finally getting over things, right. And between sort of blogging and my dog, and various other things, it kind of all came together and working for myself. And it, it became one of those things that was like, I'd actually found traction with that one when I sort of shared my own experience and and become that little bit more vulnerable. It very much translated to people. And then I started getting a little bit more. Oh, this is what blogging is about. This is what it is, this is what people want. So I sort of sat there and took stock. I actually didn't I stopped writing after I wrote that bit because I got confused, a little bit intimidated as to how to continue. It's funny how these stories will sort of unfold, isn't it? But I got intimidated by that. And I went oh my god, what did I do with that one? And how do I do it again, right. And then, and then I took a course, I took a course with Rachel Spencer, who is a publicity. She runs. Like, she runs a Facebook group called publicity tips for pet businesses. And she she was doing a blogging course and I went okay, let's see what this is about. And let's see if I can actually figure out how to do this. And it works. Pretty good to say, and then I just sort of started producing content on the regular and then I started seeing results from it. And my little my very small dog walking, pet sitting business started getting ranking on Google on the front page of Google for things that weren't like dog walking pet sitting in my area. And I was like, Okay, good. I'll help How is the little teeny tiny dog walking business? doing that? That's, that's very interesting. So, yeah.
05:10
all start?
Collin Funkhouser 05:12
Well, and I think, you know, you're right, we do kind of get bombarded with things to do in our business. And blogging is definitely one of them that we get told to do because, right, there's just there are a lot of things that come from that. And I love how, you know, you wrote a couple, and it didn't get traction, and then you had one that was, it sounds like it was a little different than what you normally wrote about. And I think one of the biggest stumbling blocks for many people is the topics that to write about, or for their pet saying business. So how, how do you come up with topics? Or what are some topics that you recommend people write about?
05:55
Right? So the very first thing you can start doing is not going? What should I write about? It's what my customers are asking. So for example, you I mean, I know you work in the industry. How many times do you get the same questions when you have an amazing group? How many times do you get asked the same question when you're out on a walk by somebody who's going away on holiday? And they're like, Oh, well, could you do this? It's like, yep, I do. Absolutely. And you give them the same? Same answer. Basically, they almost become like, screw, right? That you just run through in your head, and you can read it off really quickly. And that pretty much where you should start with blogging, in my opinion, because they're the questions that are really important to your audience, and your potential audience. So like, questions like, what can I expect at a meet and greet? What's going to happen when you pick up my dog? What's gonna happen when you're teaching my or making sure that my dog can recall? Because we've all been in that situation as a dog or Grimshaw, where somebody promises you that the dog's recall is perfect. And then you go, Okay, if they're perfect, that's fine. And then you try it, and then they don't listen. And you're panicking, right? And then we'll put that process in place, don't wait. Yeah, we all have these processes that are in place, and they're not always obvious to our customers, and they're not something that you can necessarily put on a sales page, like, actually go into the process and help your client to actually understand. And, to me, that's where the value really lies for a small business, because you can you can give them insight and show them why you're different than everybody else in your area. And it, you know, other than a little bit of time, it's free, which is, which is really cool.
Collin Funkhouser 08:02
Yeah, and I think, just starting with those very common questions, I'm sure everybody could take the next five minutes and write out the 15 most common questions that they get. And if you blog once a month, that's over a year's worth of content that you already have you and and you might think, Well, you know, nobody's gonna want to read that right? Or no, that's what what's good is that going to do? But if you've been asked that question twice, it means that there are, almost every client that you're going to have is going to have that question. And then you start feeling your clients are gonna start feeling like, wow, this person knows exactly where I was going next, or Wow, this person already has all their bases covered, it feels like they've they know me, like, Yes, because everybody asks me this question.
08:50
Exactly. And the best, but the better part is, is they get to know you, through you answering that question, in my opinion, at least that that's like the really big that builds trust. And, you know, in our industry, trust is paramount, because they don't necessarily have the tangibility that you have with a daycare where, you know, or like a daycare for children. Sorry. When the child comes home, and they go, have you had a good day, and they go, yes, no, it was awful, I got bullied this. Can't tell them that. Whereas if they can get some insight as to your processes via some written words, they're going to trust you a lot quicker. And a lot more. Then, you know, Susie down the road, who doesn't blog, who doesn't give that sort of transparency?
Collin Funkhouser 09:45
Right. And I think I think that's one of the biggest to me, when I think of blogging. I think it's one of the biggest benefits that you get for your business is that people get to hear your not hear your voice, but they get to know your voice. They get to know your written Your written content, they get to know how you approach problems, they get to know how you plan to solve things. And it's this kind of marketing thing where, again, if they land on a page that has even six blog posts that are going to answer immediate questions that they have. That's, that's a huge trust factor that all of a sudden they go, okay. This, this random internet person who's going to take care of my dog knows what they're talking about.
10:28
Oh, absolutely. And that to start off with is just one of those things that if they know you, you go into a meet and greet with them. And they've already got their big questions answered, yeah, they're not wasting that time that you usually spend sort of 30 minutes going through, okay, well, this is what happens, this is what we do, blah, blah, blah, which they inevitably forget. And you end up answering again. So you will cancel this meeting, and they actually already know your process. They already know what to expect when you go into the meeting. And it just makes everything so much easier. Because you've fought the battle already, you've won the battle, basically, before you've even walked in the door. Right? And that that's invaluable in business, right? Well, yeah,
Collin Funkhouser 11:17
cuz it's saving, it's not just saving their time, it's saving your time, right, you're able to take, instead of answering those questions, you're able to spend the time getting to know the dog, do the temperament assessment to see how they're reacting, do all the things that we actually want to be doing, we don't really want to go to a meet and greet have to describe what our onboarding process is like, or you know, the ins and outs of our other parts of our policies or these other questions, we want to get there and know the dog and make sure they're going to be a good fit and make sure the owner feels comfortable. And so it allows us to focus on those aspects that we actually would rather be doing.
11:53
And when they're already sold on you, it then just becomes a one way interview. Is the dog right for me? Is the Dhokla fit in at the time that the owner wants them to go in? Or are they gonna argue with fluffy print on it? It's true, isn't it? It's one of those things that you do when you walk in, you instantly go, Okay, so 11 o'clock, we've got dog ABC, is this dog going to fit with them. And then you start working around that. And if it becomes that one way process, and they're trying to like go my dogs awesome, honestly, they're really good, then you're the one where you're the one in the sounds on it's like you've been given that position of power that and it means that you get the control in your business, yeah, to create the service you want to create, as opposed to taking everybody in anybody to like to fill a gap and make sure that you get paid, right. So this way, you can actually create services that are above and beyond. And that's all with writing a blog.
Collin Funkhouser 13:03
Which, which again, it sounds really, really simple, right? It sounds so simple. And and so from your perspective, what what makes a good what makes a good blog for somebody and petsitting dog walk or training,
13:18
personality? It's got to be personality because if you read Okay, so let's let's say in the example that everybody in the industry took this advice everybody's got a blog, everybody's running to the same speed. And what's the difference when you read something when you gravitate towards something, it's going to be when somebody is speaking in a way that you understand in a way that works for you in a way that you can sort of sit there and actually engage with and then you're kind of finding like like minded people and that like mindedness is also going to help make sure that you are you have a successful business relationship together isn't it? That to me, I think is the big part is to make sure that it's packed full of personality. It's you know, it's you want a page
Collin Funkhouser 14:13
with which which is which can be scary because we it means we have to be comfortable with ourselves I mean a it has to we have to know ourselves and then be we have to be comfortable with who we are and then see we have to be okay with letting other people see that in our business. But when people connect with it, we know we're going to work well with them because we've put ourselves out there It's like putting it's like making little copies of little bits of who you are on your website that people can see that they can read and they can start getting to know you. Have you heard of time fed Chris a and from raining cats and dogs has this to say
14:48
becoming a time to pet client has been a game changer for us. We can give our pet services clients real time cloud based information they never imagined they'd be interested in Most importantly, to me personally, I can better manage my company and look forward to more. And not a small thing, times a pet is responsive to my requests for new features, and modifications to existing one,
Collin Funkhouser 15:13
if you are looking for new pet saving software, give time to pet a try, listeners of our show can save 50% off of their first three months by visiting typepad.com slash confessional. I know for me, I try and write like my old high school like research papers very, very formal, very, and people might not be comfortable writing, if someone's listening to this going, I'm not a very good writer or I don't I'm not comfortable writing, how can we start to overcome some of those fears of of our actual written documents and in getting over and through that process.
15:50
So most of us have hang ups about like our high school, English teachers, I know I do. Still have nightmares.
15:59
Oh my gosh, it's just something that's quite terrifying, isn't it. And so I want to say you're never going to appeal to anybody, whether you're a good writer or a bad writer or otherwise. And so don't try to I mean, we have a lot of expectations. And it's like when, you know, adult, new dog owner or puppy parent, whoever gets a new dog, and they want them to be perfect. Stop striving for perfection, there's no such thing and the more time you spend obsessing about it being about you being a good writer, or about the dog being perfect, it's just not going to happen. So try if you can to throw that out the window, and just go for it. Because it's that's going to be a barrier that you just don't need. And if you are struggling, there's no harm in getting a friend or relative, whoever, or even a paid professional to proofread the first view and go, what do you think? How do you feel about that? And if you don't feel comfortable publishing it, don't publish it. So you know, you're only beholden to you before you start. If you want to practice a few times and write it out. Once twice, three times and go. That's not hitting more I wanted to hit on publish it. You don't have to put it out.
Collin Funkhouser 17:21
Yeah, there's no nobody's holding your feet to the fire to hit Publish once you once you write it. And I know for me, part of that realization is okay, I'm not happy with how I'm currently writing or my current writing ability. How do I get better at that? Do I need to write more, I need to practice it this. And I need to get stuff out there and get some feedback. And what what I count let's what's good about that process. It's this iterative process of writing and getting feedback or writing and learning and writing and practice. And you just have to kind of do this over time to become more comfortable with it. And then what I also like about that is that after you know, maybe a year, you're like, oh, what am I gonna write about? You can look back at some of your old posts and go, Oh, that one needs to be refreshed. And I'm better at writing now. And
18:11
I know that story. I know, that's the real live, I look back at some of the stuff that I like, I started writing and I'm like, Oh, that's not. That's not doesn't even sound like me, why am I Why did I write, but that's just part of the process, right? You learn as you go, you said it's, it's part of the fun of it. And I think if you just try and embrace it, you you make quicker strides than you think you will.
18:37
So I'd like to know a little bit about your writing process, how you go through that process from from from idea to implementation to publishing and what what does that look like for you?
18:50
Um, so to start with, my ideas come from all sorts of places. So I mean, whether that's from my actual clients, who are going to focus on some really weird This way you can I have no idea why. And you sit there and you go gone then. And then and then you go, Okay, well, actually, it's just this. And then you can go, like the blog post can be you don't have to refer the client and they're very peculiar question. But you can go my puppies doing a weird thing. What is it? And that is pretty much a blog title question a blog title, right? And then you just sit there and you answer it again. And then like facebook, facebook groups are great, because you'll notice that the same questions get asked, right, so whether you're in a German Shepherd group, and they're going, my puppy is five months old, and his ears haven't come up yet. Is that normal? And you start going? That's a common question. You can answer that pretty quickly. That's not like, that's not that tough, right. So and you But you can easily sort of get a very short blog post out there. And then anytime that somebody asks it in the future, you can share it and go, here's your answer. But then the writing process, I mean, once I've actually got a firm idea, I'll sort of try and plan it through in about 15 minutes. And then it's a case of writing. So then the writing depends on how long how involved the piece has to be, because like, I've got some really long form pieces now that are like a few 1000 words. But most of them, I mean, a normal sized piece will take about an hour, maybe an hour and a half to write up. But it's the editing in WordPress that takes the time from, from the pictures and doing all that stuff. That's that's the time consuming bit for me. But what, four hours, maybe?
Collin Funkhouser 20:53
Yeah, yeah, and if you are spreading that throughout a week, or maybe two weeks, depending on how you what your release schedule is of how frequently you're blogging, you know, it really doesn't take that much time. It's just time that you have to spend doing that. Right. And, and I think, you know, you mentioned there about how the length can vary. And I know my brain tends to get hung up on that kind of thing of going, Well, how long does this need to be? is there is there a length that is this optimal or that, that you have found that connects more with people? Or is it really just topic driven have it needs to be as long as it needs to be to address the topic?
21:35
The latter. So it's one of those things that you can obsess or you want. But it if you sit there and you ramble on for 5000 words about something that should have been 500 words, nobody's going to read it, because it's not going to make enough sense, you're not going to get to the point quick enough, you're not going to get it becomes like a false economy. So you're investing a lot more time than you need to. And then you're not going to get the hits that you want. And you're not going to get the results out of that. And people then people who are reading it are going to sit there and going, why is she waffling? is she being me in this instance, why is she waffling on about this, this is really this doesn't need to be said. And then if. And then if they don't just scroll to the bottom and find the answer in the short version at the bottom, they're just going to click back and go read somebody else's that's more direct with the answer. So unless it's something that actually needs discussion, and like there's actually a lot of factors to it that say, aren't often considered. And then, you know, make it as long as it needs to be. And that's it. You don't need any excess in there. We have enough fluff in our lives. Right? Right.
Collin Funkhouser 22:52
Yeah. And I think I think part of that comes from when you sit down to write on a topic, you stare literally at a blank page, and there's a it's overwhelming because it's blank, then B all of a sudden, the as you write, it's like, is this sufficient? Is this enough? I don't know, there's still a lot of blank space here. And being comfortable with that space and going Did I answer the question? Did I provide value? It doesn't make sense. Okay, at that point, it's done, right, it's complete, and you can post it. And again, that but that just is part of this process of learning about how you write what your writing style is, I know, for me, I tend to write either extremely lengthy, very, very wordy verbose sentences, or in bullet points, and there's not much in between. So
23:41
I know that there are times where you just can't stop the words and they just keep coming. There's worse places to be, right.
Collin Funkhouser 23:54
But it's, it's this knowing, okay, how do I need to cover this topic? And, and when you're writing topics for things that either a you have experience with, or B, you get common questions on, that's those kind of flow a little bit easier. I found, oh, it's it's when all of a sudden we have to start pulling in research, or we're doing adding links to outside sources that we can kind of get hung up. So do you find yourself writing a lot of articles that are writing a lot of blog posts that are pretty research intensive? Or are they mostly trying to answer common client questions?
24:29
Okay, so definitely do a lot of common questions because they're going to flow so like, for me, they flow a lot quicker. And you can very quickly put a blog post together. And if you're on a time limit or similar, it's so much easier, versus throwing in the old one where you've had like a load of research and you can really pack it full of value is also important because you know, your audience when when you get to that sort of stage that you're comfortable Post like that, your audience is going to value it because you've, you've taken the time to consolidate a whole bunch of like other people's work efforts, other people's. Like, like, for example, I did a post on some of the best online training courses that you can take for your dog, like to train with your dog. And that that took a lot of time to put together together. But it's such a valuable resource for people to actually sort of sit there and go, Oh my god, she's actually just shortlisted like the best one for this. And this and this, and my dogs really struggling with separation anxiety, I am going to go take that course. And if you can provide those, like, really quickly feel customers, that's just such value add add for them. And it takes time, but it's its value.
Collin Funkhouser 25:57
Yeah, and I think we can get caught up in the feeling of not being an expert in a particular field. And I think stepping back and going, that's okay. That's why you're writing the article, right, you get to write that article, because you have the time. And whether you believe it or not, like you have more knowledge about a topic or more experienced at the topic than you imagine. And even though you aren't the world renowned expert in something, you can still go and do the research for other people and put together something so they can have. So it's not about, Oh, I know everything. And I don't have to cite any sources, it's okay, I get to put some stuff together and tell a story in my voice that's going to help my clients and they're going to be better for it.
26:41
Absolutely. And sometimes just that adding that element of personal experience to something because normally you write about something, you've got a passion about right. And adding that element, the personal experience makes it so much more relatable for your audience. And if they can gravitate towards your tone, they're more likely to trust anything else that you put in there anyway. So if you're making other people's work more accessible, that's great.
Collin Funkhouser 27:08
When we are writing, and sometimes when we're writing under stress, there's this temptation to sometimes, you know, maybe just copy and paste a little bit from other blogs or other sources and publish that. Why Why talk about that, and maybe why that's not the best practice that we should be doing
27:26
for legal reasons, and you really want to be starting to go into that territory. People don't want to hear somebody else they want to hear you. And that's like somebody who's new to blogging, and I would have said the exact same thing, like a couple of years ago, I really got nothing, don't Who am I to be talking about this stuff is actually right, you will that pet care provider, they want to hear from you. They want to know what you're interested in, they want to know what you're like, totally obsessing about at the moment in the world of like canine research, or whatever it is that you're particularly passionate about, whether that's like the local offley dog, who you don't want to talk about it like by name, who comes up and pesters everybody, you want to make the point to your local audience by stream, isn't it, we've all been there. And you want to make the point to your local audience that, you know, having dogs off lead with no recall is not responsible. And that you want to do it in a nice positive friendly way. Or there's just so much that you can convey in your tone. Even if like you sit there and at the end of it you you link to a really a much bigger campaign. So like on that previous example, the the respect the lead campaign, you know, if you if you refer to that, at the end of it and just sort of gave your story at the start, you're giving, you're giving pause to somebody, you're going to have people resonate with that because they've obviously had the same incident with with Fido in the park. And yeah, it's it's your voice they want to hear it's not somebody else's, they want to know from you how you're experiencing things and that that tone is just, you know,
Collin Funkhouser 29:17
it's so important. You're right. And and I think that many times we do discount ourselves, or you know, you said Who am I? Who am I? Why is anybody going to be reading this or listening to me or care about my thoughts? But they do especially your existing clients, especially people who are out there who have questions who may who know you know, of you, when you start putting this content out there, you immediately become kind of the center of attention about it. And people do look for them and they do you know what i was i know when Megan and I started blogging in our, for our business, and we were shocked by the people who read it. We were like why why are you reading this? What what Like, what are you doing?
30:02
But you've got nothing better to do with your life and then spend five minutes reading my blog post that I'm pontificating about something that, oh, okay, no, you do care.
Collin Funkhouser 30:15
But they enjoy it. That's the other part. Because they like you, right? They're your clients, they respect you, and they're looking for information on you, they view you as a resource and a place to go and a hub for all this information. Blogging is a way to, to help pull that all together. And so I think just taking one step back, and knowing that you're gonna put it out there, sure, there may be some people who don't like the way it's written or disagree with some points, but it is going to connect with others as well. And, and to not be afraid of that and to embrace that.
30:46
And actually embrace that controversy. Because, like what you just said, there, if people don't agree, that's great, because the more discussion you can create around the subject, as long as it's like, mature, constructive discussion, as to, yeah, scary people being trolls. The more discussion you can create around something, the more you're actually going to bring in an audience, the more eyes You're actually going to get on your stuff. So, you know, don't don't be controversial for the sake of being controversial. But if you have a really passionate opinion about something, don't be afraid to actually go, Well, here's my thoughts. Because that's, that's, that's good content. That's really good.
Collin Funkhouser 31:28
So we've come up with topic ideas, we've gone through a process of writing them and publish them kind of overcome our fears of getting our voice out there. We've got this blog, it's posted on our website, what do we do with it, then what should we be doing? What should we not be doing with that with that post?
31:46
Well, you should not be doing is just leaving it alone and pretending like it's all going to be fine. Because if it gets no views, and I mean, that's one thing, but leaving it alone, and just sort of letting it stagnate is not going to be any benefit to you. You've already put the hard work in. So make use of it on your social media in those days, where you are sitting there going, Oh, what am I gonna post about today? Pull a quote for your blog post, and just sort of summarize it and go, this is my thought on this, or this is you know, it, tech season's coming, make sure you've got your preventative in, like, on and you haven't forgotten this month, and, and make sure that you know, you you're following these guidelines, here's my six best tips for tick prevention. And then you stick the link in bio it up to your blog, and all of a sudden, your audience on Instagram has got a whole new bit of content that they probably that they may not have known existed. If you've got a newsletter, or email, subscription list, send it out to them. Make sure if your local Facebook groups allow it, send it out there too, because the more you can sort of leverage that for you, the better it's going to be. And because the more eyes you get on it, their potential clients, every single one of them, because if they're reading about tick prevention in Somerset, which is a place in England, and then, you know, they're your clients, they're literally on your doorstep if they're reading that piece. So why not? Yeah,
Collin Funkhouser 33:29
well, and I'll say that the but you know, maybe that person that's reading it right now, maybe they don't need a pet sitter or dog walker or a trainer, but they may know somebody down the line who does. And they have now read your blog, and they are going to be doing some peer to peer marketing right for you in the background. And you have now helped convert that because you You didn't that person who read it was convinced and was sold on who you are and your services by your blog post. You know, we've had that happen when the person they don't have a dog, but they were still interested in what we wrote. And they shared it with their neighbor who had a dog and said, hey, look, I just read this blog post, I think it's going to really speak to you. And so you don't know who's going to share and how it's going to connect with people unless you put it out there.
34:16
Exactly. And you have to there's a phrase in England and you've got to risk it for a biscuit. And that's that is how you know marketing works. You've got to put yourself out there in order to see if it's going to work. And if it does, this, this it makes your life so much easier. And as a as a business professional, because like I said, you go into a meet and greet it's different you go like the clients you get off the back of these things. I noticed a substantial difference. Before like my clients I got pretty blog to those that I had post blog, and like consistent Look at that. And because they were just they were the easy clients, you know, the ones I mean, were like, they pay you on time, they respect your time, they don't email you or message you at one in the morning, they and then ask the next day, oh, have you got a spot at 10am. And it's already knowing and they don't mess you around. They're the ones that you really want to keep on your books, right? And if you could have less conflict, better quality clients more consistent money, because you're investing in yourself and in your business with more hours every couple of weeks. It just, it makes so much sense. In my opinion,
Collin Funkhouser 35:42
I would love for you to talk about how some more of those changes that you saw, personally, when you started to when you start to blog regularly, what are some of the maybe peripheral things that you saw change and responses that you got over time?
35:58
I mean, there was the obvious like my existing good clients were like, Oh, my God, I really loved that, that thing you wrote about a certain product, or let's say, I hadn't even considered using a holy rollable was a as an enrichment toy. And you know, Brody loves it, he's really found that engaged, like, he's, he's really enjoying it, it's great. You know, he's a happier dog. So my existing clients were getting new tips that they'd never considered. And as a result, the dog was happier in their home, which made them easier to train, which made them easier for me when they're out on a walk to. And then the the clients that I didn't have yet, I'd walk into the meeting, and they'd be like, I felt like I already know you. Okay, that's weird. Because I don't know you. But that's nice to hear. Why it's true, isn't it's not you must get it with a podcast all the time that people are like, Oh, my God, Colin, I know you so well. And you have no idea why. It's slightly peculiar The first time you hear it, but then you sit back and you go, Oh, no, that's a good thing. Yeah. You, you pick up better clients. And they're just like, the dogs are easier, because they're listening to like, the fact that you have this process for recall, and they've read that piece, and they've gone, oh, that's how she does it. Maybe we can do something similar. And then when you sort of all start on the mining processes, you start aligning the way that, like you run your business, and how they raise their pet. And then it all kind of comes together. And it just makes life like 100 times easier. And, you know, like I said earlier, you're getting paid on time, you've got easy dogs, you've got easy clients. And if you have to cancel something with a client, and you know, say, you've got a dentist appointment, it's an emergency. And normally, the response will just be absolutely fine, as opposed to getting any sort of conflict, then I find that they're more willing to work with you because it's like, they know and trust you more than the impact you can make when you drop off their dog when they're not there. Or when your pet sitting. And they're not there. Because that's that's sort of our job, right that the owners down there, so you don't actually interact with them much. And if this is the way you interact with them by guiding them in the best way to help you as such, then you your business just gets easy. And that's that's the goal.
Collin Funkhouser 38:41
Yeah. Well, you're right. And I think you said again, have that that trust factor that many of the behaviors that we see in clients that we that frustrate us, that keep us up at night. I think a lot of times that comes from the fact that they might not inherently trust us just yet, or they don't, they're unsure or they're nervous about something. And that's a lot of times to be expected. And when we think about ways of how can I you know, I provide the best service and they still don't trust me or I do all this stuff, and they still don't trust me what what's going on? And to add it add a piece of that puzzle going? Well, if if you had something out there that was informing that was educating and was building a relationship without you having to be present. Wouldn't that be great? And that's what that blog does, that pulls all those pieces together and your your right clients start to you know, proverbially, their shoulders start to relax a little bit and they go, okay, yes, this person, I know them a lot better. And B, they know what they're talking about, and they know what they're doing. So, okay, I can I won't text at 1am because of something that came up.
39:52
Oh, it's true, isn't it and like, when you consider that you're spending that four hours say I'm writing a blog, formatting it, putting it up as like pushing it out to your audience and making sure that they get their eyes on it, you're actually building relationships with what 2030 clients at a time, for hours, that time investment versus the relationship investment. Huge. And it just means that they're more likely to refer you on as well. So you're going to get new clients from them too, because they're happier
Collin Funkhouser 40:32
with you and your service will end You know, you you get in touch and you get some more contact and touch points with clients who maybe don't use you regularly. So you're staying in front of them staying top of mind. And it does kind of work again through this almost direct marketing as well. It's we get both we got both sides of cookie this time we get the the marketing and we get the relationship building through through our words about things that are relevant to our business. And for topics coupler interested in
41:00
when you were making that much headway in your business for hours. I don't see how it's a loose
Collin Funkhouser 41:09
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42:40
Yes, absolutely. Because like, we've all been there, right where you're you're working 1415 hour days, and you're getting stressed the money is not where it should be at the right time. And which means that you know, you're you're stressed about that too. And if you're running your own business, you can't be doing all of that stuff, you can't be behind every step because it means that you're just going to go out on a walk or go out to your pet sets, and you're going to be stressed, and there's no need to be stressed. Like the whole point, most of us go into business for ourselves, right? To bring back that work life balance to do something we love, because we enjoy it. And when you lose that, then your mental health starts deteriorating and you just can't, it becomes a bit of a downward spiral. Right? So if you can change that, and I know, it's harder than to carve out for hours because you're working stupid hours. But if you can, and even if it's once a month, like like we said, it will help you sort of, or it definitely helped me to make that change and to bring that back to balance which was which was the ultimate goal. Right?
Collin Funkhouser 43:58
Well and to you know, there's there's so much that gets tied up into this of, of Okay, you know, what am I stressed about? Am I stressed that I'm not getting the clients and want Am I stressed I don't have the relationship and one of them and I stress that I don't have content to post elsewhere. And we've we've talked about all three of those things of reuse, repurpose portions of the blogs that you've had in the past to continue to be able to have things to share. And even you know, we found just doing direct link to the blog. Sometimes someone has a question in a local Facebook group or a client has a concern. We go Yep, we wrote about that here that is and it's our resource, with links and everything included into it. And those little touches really go a long way to allow us to know that, again, that that those relationships are there and and that's really what I'm hearing from you. And I know we've talked about it a lot on this. It's just that central to what blogging does for our business here is it builds those relationships and it helps nurture those, the when we're connecting with others.
45:00
Yep, absolutely. And, you know, if, if the dog can't convey or if the cat or the fish, I don't know, can't convey exactly what it is that you know we're doing for them, we still have to do that we have to sort of quantify what we're doing. And the easiest way to do that is to do it on mass, you know, don't do it every time, don't do it every time you walk into a meet and greet every time that you come home, and you know, the client goes, Oh, I just paid however much money for you to come in. And you know, you didn't even pick up the the piece of mail that came in this morning. And it's like, oh, yeah, but I did actually do all of this other stuff that you're not seeing. And that frustration is only coming because of the lack of communication, right? So if you can go well, okay, no, I didn't pick that up. But I did do a few things such as blog, if you want to know more about the process, or, you know, be reminded about what happened. There's a summary in this blog post, and those sort of that ability to just refer to something and push your GRE IP client away and just go with the answers here. This is what you signed up for. Yeah, you know, then you deal with other problems too. And even when you've got inquiries, and you can go, Well, okay, so you're really interested in service, I would love you to read this piece on what's going to happen in the meet and greet this piece on what the onboarding process is, and this piece on what actually happens on a walk, and you fire them off those three pieces, if they read them, you've got a good client, you know, you've got a good client. And, yeah, you can turn your business from being hard work into being quite easy. With a little bit of time and investment.
Collin Funkhouser 46:59
I want to talk about more some of the the nuts and bolts of of a blog piece, you know, we've talked about the writing, we've talked about the topic and the personality that we should have in it, what are some other elements of a blog, that are going to help make it stand out and connect with our clients.
47:16
Um, pictures are great. And so like, especially if you're talking about your services, you like the left, you can use stock photos, which is a real temptation. And the more you can use actual photos that you've taken, say, have your dogs on a walk or have the Happy Cat that you've looked after. And the more it's going to resonate, and you know, every time you put in somebody's dog, they get a real kick out of that. Puppies on their website, isn't that cool. And they're actually more likely to share it. So it works in so many ways. And then, you know, if you want to go into the real techie bit of it, you've got you know, head, like your headline is your job, your titles, your, your alt tags on pictures, if you really want to start getting into it. But my recommendation would be not to to start because the more you can just sort of produce something that you're happy with. You don't necessarily care if it gets ranked on Google or, you know, the fact that because it's actually made for your audience, you can take a little bit of the stress out of it. And then as you get comfortable with your content, and producing on a regular schedule, you can look at how to upgrade, and how to put in all tags and how to put in metadata and all the other scary terms that come along with vlogging.
Collin Funkhouser 48:49
Yeah, and I love that I love that process of a first began to get comfortable writing, we got to get comfortable in this process. And then we can add some complexity and because yeah, that all that all stuff can come later, let's just start working this muscle to to get to get into this process and to get better at it to build our skills and then right and then add all those tags and metadata. And and get it formatted differently, or, or, or more for for SEO. But let's just make that connection with our clients first and then move on to that.
49:23
Cuz you can also use it as like your little testing ground, right? If you're only writing for your clients, it's a lot less scary than writing for the rest of the world. Or even like your local town, you know, if you already know your clients, and they already know you, you can you can test around in that little in that little pond before you make the pond bigger. So it makes a lot of sense to to not run before you can walk
Collin Funkhouser 49:48
well and to you know, we can always go back to those first blog posts and not only rewrite them but add all of that stuff. Once we get more comfortable with those tools in that process too.
50:00
Absolutely. And it's actually really encouraged to do that. And because that's something that Google really likes is to see your content updated semi regularly. So they got extra bonus for doing it that way.
Collin Funkhouser 50:14
Well, and so, you know, one of the things that I know, you know, we've talked a lot about topics, you know, over and over again, but I know that that tends to be really big sticking point. what's the what's the proper way to to reuse or to to go back to the same topic? Can I just is my Is it okay to copy and paste all the same text and just change from the metadata? Or should I try and rewrite big portions of it.
50:40
Um, it depends on your method, if you're planning on just sort of going into the the blog itself, and editing it is going to be the preferable way if you're doing like minimal changes, as opposed to like, copying the whole blog posts from reposting it because one of the things Google doesn't like is duplicate content, it makes it it makes your site look like it's more like spam. So it Yeah, it's it's not a good thing to have like lots of the same content. But if they're sort of like a squat, 25 to 30%, change, you should be fine. And so if you do want to write or rewrite big swells a bit, by all means, I personally, I would junk the old article and just do a new one. And, you know, use the old one as a template, but just just give it a rewrite, and make it look a little bit fancier and hopefully make it a little bit more engaging, because you've learned something in the last however long between you posting it and reposting it. And right. But you know, if it's too similar, definitely just do an audit on and just tweaking what you need to tweak in,
Collin Funkhouser 51:53
again, figuring out what our goals are for the post and exactly what what we're what we're trying to get out of it and knowing that ahead of time versus Okay, I've got to burn it all down. I've got to start from zero. Well, not you know, maybe not maybe, maybe not. But do some do some thinking about it before you get to that point.
52:12
Absolutely. And the only other thing is if you're doing a slightly different angle on it, and then definitely do like a new post. So if you're doing like, Well, last year, I said this this year is slightly different. So like if it's a seasonal things, so if it's like an annual, like the algal blooms, right. So you know, in England, we get a blue green algae that like blooms in the ponds, and it's really dangerous to dogs. If something is changed, like this year, and you know, you've got in there like a list of the ponds that are really, really affected this year, let's say, then, you know, just stick 2020 on last ones on last year's posts, and but 2021 on this year's post, there's no harm in going and grabbing a bunch of the same content, putting that in and going. This is what an algal bloom is because that hasn't changed from this year to last year. Right. And, and explaining it that way. And, you know, there's no harm in grabbing that. But make sure a nice chunk of it's different, and you'll be fine.
Collin Funkhouser 53:14
Yeah, well, I'm thinking too, about you know, about holidays or parades in your town. You know, you went one year and you wrote a blog post about it, you went to it. And if you learn something different or have different recommendations, or there are new or different things to do, that's a great way to pull that article updated for the next year. And continue to add to it over time.
53:36
Absolutely. And if you do want to just add to it, as well as a good, good way of doing stuff like that, because like with a parade, they'd be all like festival or whatever it is that there'll be a good chunk of similar, so you can definitely leverage off of it. But then, you know, you've got the flip side where if you've got a whole new piece, it's another it's another piece on there, right, as opposed to just an edited piece. So it depends i i'd probably prioritize that depending on time, is how I'd go at that. Like which one is going to get me the best results and how long will it take?
Collin Funkhouser 54:08
Yeah, again all about our goals and who we're trying to and the message that we're trying to get get connected with and I think that what you've said before of starting simple to just get in the process to start doing something to get over those fears does just start and then add complexity.
54:29
Yeah, as we're as we're suffering from PTSD from the the demarcation that we had from from high school English, and not using the proper syntax or whatever it misusing a semi colon, put put all that stuff aside. And, and know that it's okay to just just start. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So what are some of your favorite resources for getting started in blogging and learning some of the ins and outs?
54:56
So I know I mentioned Rachel Spencer earlier. She is Just really wonderful. She's a real sweet pup. She She runs a free Facebook group called publicity tips for pet businesses, which is like my ultimate favorite. And then we've got Bella vasta. She does some wonderful stuff on general content marketing. And blogging is part of it. They're all in pet space. And oh, the book by Marcus Sheridan is really good. It's called, they ask you answer. And it's very much again, focused on the client and making sure that you're answering your clients questions. It's actually on Audible, which is where I listen to it. Because I'm really bad about actually sitting down with a physical book. I do like an audio book, while you listen to it on a dog, don't you as opposed to having to like make time and sit down and read? Yeah, that's why podcasts do so well, right? Yeah, that kind of my three top I think, for blogging, and whilst Marcus Sheridan's book isn't pet specific, it's it's really valuable.
Collin Funkhouser 56:03
I have thoroughly enjoyed this conversation about blogging and walking through each stage of content development, and even repurposing it and reusing it for different things, and just how, at the end of the day, it's about connecting with our clients, and really being able to run the business that we want to be running for our mental health and for the betterment of our clients as well. But I know that, that there is so much more to this topic. And so if people want to get connected, pick your brain on it. How best can they get connected with you?
56:37
Um, with me specifically? You you find me on remarkable calm. So that's like remarkable, what would there be because I'm, I like to make plans. And me an email and, and, you know, I'm always happy to help somebody who's getting into it and point you out some great free resources to start you off. And then so I, you know, I if you aren't willing to pay people to assist you, I know the right people to go to him as well. Because I've gone through that process. And we've learned that part already. So I can give you the benefit of my knowledge there.
Collin Funkhouser 57:13
Well, that's awesome. And yeah, both Rachel and Bella have have podcasts. And I will I will have links to, to their websites to their Facebook groups and podcast. And to that book that you mentioned, they asked you answer in the show notes so that people can click right to that so that they can can start learning today and start doing something for the business and to get the benefits that you have seen Allie and again, I really thank you so much for coming on the show today. for sharing. This has been a wonderful conversation. And I just I guess can't thank you enough. Oh, no, thank you for having me. It's been a really,
57:49
I've laughed a lot, which is lovely. When you're on any podcast, right? You want to or any interview, you want to have fun on those things. So it's been great being here. And thank you
Collin Funkhouser 58:00
risk it for a biscuit is my big takeaway from my conversation with Allie. And I think that expands beyond just trying to get started with blogging that expands to many aspects of our business and running the pet care business that we want to be reading. At some point we have to come to the decision of is this worth the reward that I'm seeking. And as Allah explained, blogging is so much more than just banging away at a keyboard to make words appear on a screen. It's about building a relationship. It's about building trust. It's about building a familiarity with your community and with the clients that you want. And you're connecting with your clients, through the topics that you're covering, how you're covering them through exposing your personality and injecting yourself and your opinions into the pieces that we're writing. I struggle with writing more personalized pieces of information, I do write more dry, informative pieces. And I know that that's a big thing that I have to work on when it comes to our blog. Because we do want to be connecting with people. We want them to feel familiar with us and like they know us and be able to share our knowledge and information along the way. We'd love to hear your experience with blogging, how it's gone for you what your writing process is, and have you share some of that information as well. You can send us an email at feedback at petsitter. confessional or tag us on a post on social media. We're at petsitter confessional on Facebook, and Instagram as well. We want to thank our sponsors for today's episode, timed pet and pet perennials. And we really want to thank you for listening for sharing and for just being so wonderful. And so we hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we will be back again soon.
