591: From Lions to Labradors with Leanne Burger
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What happens when you treat pet sitting not just as a job, but as a serious and deeply rewarding responsibility?Leanne Burger, owner of Going Away Pet and House Sitting in South Africa, shares her journey from raising lion cubs to building a thriving team of pet sitters and groomers. Leanne shares how her passion for animals, commitment to trust, and attention to detail helped her business flourish across multiple cities. She explores the deep responsibility that comes with caring for both pets and homes and the balance needed to maintain quality as you grow. It’s an inspiring look at how love, professionalism, and hard work can create a business that changes lives — both for people and their pets.
Main topics:
Building trust with clients and staff
Importance of attention to detail
Managing business expansion
Educating clients on pet care
Balancing passion with boundaries
Main takeaway: “Pet sitting is a serious business, but it’s an awesome responsibility at the same time.”
Taking care of someone's beloved pets -- and their home -- isn't something we ever take lightly. Every visit, every walk, every overnight stay carries the weight of trust placed in us. It's a serious responsibility, requiring professionalism, attention to detail, and genuine care. But it's also one of the most rewarding jobs in the world. We get to build relationships, make a difference in pets' lives, and be a source of peace for their families. That's why we show up every day with both dedication and gratitude -- because caring for pets is not just a service, it's a calling.
About our guest:
Leanne Burger is the owner of Going Away Pet and House Sitting and Mobile Pet Grooming based in East London, South Africa. Her passion for animals began early and expanded during her time raising lions and working in wildlife care. Since 2005, Leanne has grown her business to a team of over 24 pet sitters and groomers across multiple cities, focusing on trust, professionalism, and personalized care. With professional certification in dog grooming and a strong heart for helping others, Leanne’s work enriches both her clients’ and employees’ lives.
Links
Website: https://goingawayel.co.za
Email: admin@goingawayel.co.za
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoingAwayEL
Instagram: leannejburger.goingawayel
Kevin Richardson: https://www.lionwhisperer.co.za
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet sitting, house sitting, pet grooming, South Africa, pet care, business growth, client trust, pet behavior, pet feeding, dog walking, pet care industry, pet care lessons, pet care services, pet care expansion, pet care challenges
Speakers
Leanne Burger, Collin
Collin 00:01
Welcome to pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Today, we're brought to you by our friends at tying to pet and our amazing Patreon supporter. Well, hello everybody, and welcome back. The passion for pets truly is a global thing, and we're really happy today to have Leanne Berger, owner of going away house sitting and pet grooming, all the way from South Africa, on the show to talk about her journey into pet care, what the industry is like in South Africa, and some of the lessons that she's learned along the way. Leanne, I am super excited to have you on the podcast today sharing your story for those who aren't familiar with you, or you know, kind of what should you do? Please tell us a little bit more about
Leanne Burger 00:46
yourself. Yes. Hi. Collin Shane, thank you so much. I'm so blessed to have you guys do a podcast with me, and it's really awesome to to know you and to get to know you guys and listen to all your podcasts. So my name is Leanne Berger. I'm from South Africa. I live in a little town called East London, which is about three hours from Port Elizabeth. I was born in Cape Town, and I've had quite a serious journey in life. I have learnt many lessons along the way. I've traveled a lot, but going away was basically like my baby. It was something that was on my heart. I've always loved animals. I grew up with many pets. I had seven cats. My grandparents had dogs all the time. So we always had animals in in our vicinity. You know what I mean? So it was a passion from a from very, very small. And when I matriculated, I actually did a job at a company called the Lion Park in Johannesburg, and I raised little baby lions and carrills and hyenas, and that's really where the wildlife came in as well, not only just domestic animals, but wildlife. And it was amazing the things I've learnt in the five years that I was there, you know, how to raise an animal from Baby until, like, a year, and it just taught me a lot about behavior and how animals are. The gentleman's name is Kevin Richardson. He is a public figure in South Africa and ja, once that happened, I literally, I just started traveling, and I traveled all over the world. I mean, I just went to London, then to Italy, and then came back to Cape Town and stayed with my family. And when I was in Cape Town, I didn't have a job, so I kind of started thinking, Well, let me start walking dogs. And I walked these dogs, and then all of a sudden, I had the newspaper interview me, the citizen in Cape Town, and asked me, what I do and how, how did this all come about? And they did a full on article. It was quite hectic. I was quite like overwhelmed by why did they want to interview me? And time went on, and I got a job, and I just did it on the side, and it just grew in Cape Town so quickly, so fast. And it was like word of mouth, and fast forward. I then went to Johannesburg, and I got retrenched. I lost my job, and I thought, well, let me do this pet sitting on the side. And I didn't even do house sitting back then I actually did only pet feeding. So I would just go to the houses and actually feed. I made enough money to pay my rent for three months. It was amazing. It was like a blessing of note. So then I thought, well, this is something that needs to stay with me and life. Moved on. I moved I went to Zimbabwe, I went to London. I went back to Cape Town, then I went back to Joburg. I went to game lodges. I managed lodges in game reserves. It was just amazing. And then I started doing a lot of admin, and then somehow I ended up coming back to East London, and I started like my full time job, but then this was on the side. And you know, I always did going away by myself. I never actually employed anybody. So I got so busy that I couldn't cope with my full time job and the pet sitting and the house sitting. So I actually asked a lady named Roxanne, and I said to her, don't you want to join me? And I was quite nervous to begin with, because now I've been running this thing by myself. I've been the one doing the pet sitting and the house sitting and looking after the animals. And I just, I thought to myself, let me just take, like, a jump and like, try and see and take a chance and see if this is going to work, to be quite honest. Collin, I won't lie. The last 15 years, I've blinked, and this little business has just gone. It's just exploded, um, something happened, and I literally got the niche in the market. And then I started hiring another pet sitter and another pet sitter, and. Another pet sitter. We now currently in 2025 and I have about 24 sitters working for me in East London alone. We're in PE Grahamstown and Cape Town now. So it's really been something that's just snowballed quite quickly, and people have caught on to this. But also people need jobs. So, you know, I'm helping people who who don't have an income. So my retired ladies, they they come to me and they want an income, so then they do the pet sitting for me. So everyone who works for me is like an independent contractor and and then you have students, but you have older people as well, and it really works well. The clients are looking for somebody that they can trust. They trust me as a as a business, and they know what I stand for, and my standards are pretty high. And then the people who need an income are able to do this on the side. And it really just works. And I've really trusted people along the way, and I've just gone with it. And sometimes you learn good lessons, sometimes you learn bad lessons, but you learn along the way. And I honestly can tell you that everything in my life has kind of geared me up to run my own business. So I got married nine years ago, and I decided to leave my job for good. So like my corporate the corporate world. So I was a secretary, I was a receptionist, I was a data capture. I've been switchboard, I've done all kinds of of admin. I've done payroll and all of that. So every job that I've done has kind of geared me to be running my own business by myself. And when I got married, I actually then I decided to go do dog grooming, because I thought, well, if I'm going to leave the corporate world, I need another income, something else to do to sustain me, because the pet sitting wasn't going to sustain me long term and every month. So my husband gracefully said, yes, sure, you can leave for three months and go to Cape Town and study dog grooming. Well, I did, what a small way. Yeah, it was the best thing I ever did. I've learned so much with dog grooming as well. It's been such an eye opener to another side of pets. It's like another world, um, I I've learned so many valuable lessons with that much faster than I did with the pet sitting in the last 20 years. So the grooming has only been around for about Since 2020, 2017, um, and I got my certification. I was professionally trained. So then I came back to to to East London, and I ran my business, the going away hobby, my baby by myself. I had no income, and now I'm doing pet sitting, I mean pet grooming as well.
Collin 07:58
And that
Leanne Burger 08:00
also, I created it, I came back, I did it for a year. I was so busy, I had so many bookings that I couldn't cope. I actually had to hire people. So the same scenario happened, like the pet sitting. I just got too busy. I couldn't handle the workload. Um, so I hired people. So then I started training dog movements. Now I have two people on the road, and they are fully booked. We are fully booked for like, six to eight weeks. Every single whenever you call us, we fully booked. So it's really is been an amazing journey, and I don't regret a thing. I don't regret leaving corporate world. It was the best decision I ever made. I I'm happy. I love my job. You know, I always do hashtag. I love my job. I love what I do. I love the passion. I love the animals. I mean they just they give you so much love. And it's like you can feel like you're in a different world when you, when you are sitting with them and they and they depend on you, and they look to you to feed them and to cuddle them and to walk them. And it's just, it's so awesome. I do like house visits. So I'll go and house it. I'll go and visit my house sitters. And it's now it's time for me to communicate with them as well. And I then also get to to see the dogs. And I did three hours the other day with a puppy, spaniel. Well, I tell you, I was in heaven. I was like, I sent my my husband a picture. I said, Please, can we get a spaniel? I need a spaniel. Oh, no,
Collin 09:34
that's one of the dangers of the job, is that you run into so many cute little critters, and all of a sudden you go enough of these in my with you, yeah. Leah, your story. I love how at each stage you you reflect back on it, going, Oh, this is your pull from, okay. This prepared me for this, and, oh, wow. And this prepared me for this, and this prepared me for this. You know, as far as your your business growth, there. Or do you feel like it's because just nobody else was really doing this kind of thing in South Africa, or it was, it was how you were doing this and how you were getting connected to people? Or, you know, what do you attribute to that kind of growth over the last, you know, 15 years? Yeah, so I
Leanne Burger 10:19
definitely think that, to be quite honest with you, I thank God for the grace that he's given me. And this, this, this ability to be able to love animals and to and to cherish them as my own. But I think, you know, back in 2005 when I started it in Cape Town, it was very new, very new, and people were very skeptical. But South Africa has come a long way over the last, like 20 years, and they are loads of pet sitters now. But I think it's also because, you know, you have to have a passion for it. And I think people saw my passion, that I wanted to do this, and I really, truly have a love for animals, so I think that's kind of what drew people in. And I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I want things to be done like correctly. But, you know, I worked in lodges, so you know, if the pillow was put in a certain way, if I'm house sitting, that is how I teach my sisters, you must put the pillar exactly back. Um, it's just that form of structured house sitting, and you leave the house exactly like they left it. But even better, yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah. So, so it's, there's a standard that I have created that, but I think my passion is what people saw in the beginning. You know what I mean, like my real love for what I do?
Collin 11:45
Well, that's what ties it all together, right? That attention to detail can't kind of is meaningless unless there's a purpose behind it. And your passion for pets. You know, when we bring our passion to this, I go, we can go, wow, I've got these skills, and now I can use them for this one particular thing. And I love how you brought in that example of how you worked in lodges. And from from lions to lodges, and we're going to get to lions, don't, don't worry, we're going to go back to lions real quick. But from the lodge perspective of it, from from the clients, you know, perspective, they want to walk into a room. They want to walk and thing and see things well done, well placed, well kept, well maintained, clean, orderly, like that, that that that makes an impression on somebody, and how, how? More so with a client coming back home, they want to see their that their house has been well maintained. Because if they see that the pillows have been put back and are nice, what else did you take care of? What other details Did you pay attention to, right? That that's gonna all of a sudden there's these visual cues where they're like, oh, this was well done, and they really did a good job here. And it's because it's hard to communicate the work that we do, because the clients aren't there. They don't see us. I mean, I'm sure, you know, cameras or whatever, and people watching, but like, but they don't get to see the detail that we put in so finding ways like, here's the pillow, here's how we stack the mail, here's how we turn the lights, here's how we wipe counters, here's how we like all of that communicates to the client that you're there for the details, because details matter, and for pets and homes, it's the difference between a wonderful experience and a terrible one,
Leanne Burger 13:22
definitely, definitely. I mean, we've, we've had, obviously, people's lives are busy, and then you come into a weekend and there's a pile of dishes left for you. And I always use this as as a thing, because even though there's a pile of dishes, it, it might be like, Oh, sure, but I've gotta do dishes now, but it's, it's, we are there not only to be cleaners, but we are there to keep the place tidy. Maybe mom's running around and she's trying to pack the kids bags for for for travel. You know, you've got, you've got a lot of on your plate, and you've never had time to do the dishes. So I always just tell my sisters, do the dishes, and they're more than happy to do dishes. You know, keep the pillow straight. Make sure that they leave little gifts for their clients. You know, something so small, like a little card saying, Welcome home, Bruno. Really missed you. Lots of love Linda from going away. You know, just little things like that speak volumes to clients and the attention to detail, and the smallest detail, some clients say, as if you weren't even here, the house looks cleaner than than I left it and and honestly, that is what makes us like, Yay, we did a good job. You know, we know we did a good job. And the feedback is so vital for the for me, but also for my staff. You know, it is, and it uplifts them, and it really helps them.
Collin 14:43
One of the you mentioned that it wasn't even like you were here. We had a we don't do live in care and housing in that way we used to. That's how we Megan and I got started. We did almost exclusively staying in people's homes for, you know, weeks and months at a time, sometimes. And one of the things that we learned to do. Was when we came in, we would take pictures of everything. I would never like taking a picture of the bed. And I remember so that I knew how to make it when, like, where did the pillows go? Because after two weeks, I'm not going to remember the order of pillows or these things go. And I remember the client getting back and messaging, and they said, Did you even sleep in the bed? Where did you sleep? It's like, No, I did sleep. I just made it, and they were so blown away by that little thing of like, yeah, the last two days of house sitting are are stressful. We get stressed out about them because it's the cleaning, it's the getting things back in place, the rearranging, it's the doing the laundry and getting the things put away. Like, but that it was worth it to us, because I knew that if I had had somebody in my home for two weeks. I didn't want to have to come home and clean a darn thing, right? Like, I didn't want to have to come home and clean dishes and dust and do all this stuff. It's like, that's kind of why you were there. That's kind of where the client expectation is of, well, you're here, you're living here, take care of it, like it's your
Leanne Burger 15:56
own. Yeah, yeah. No, definitely, definitely. And, I mean, even just stripping the beds. I mean, that's something that I learned in lodges. You've got to strip the bed and put the stuff in the you don't have to make put the washing machine on, but at least strip the bed and show the client that you have gone that extra mile and that you are considerate to them coming home and they you know, even if you ask them, Can I put new linen on? And then we put new linen on. If they say no, just throw it in the washing machine. We'll put it on when we get home. It's just one more thing they don't have to worry about. You know, traveling can be tiresome sometimes, and when you come home, you don't want to come to a dirty house. You want to come to a clean house. That's in order. Your animals are good. Everything's everything's in order. Everything's good. Have
Collin 16:40
you heard of time to pet? Dan from NYC, pooch has this to say,
Leanne Burger 2 16:43
time to bet, has been a total game changer for us. It helped us streamline many aspects of our operation, from scheduling and communication to billing and customer management. We actually tested other pet sitting softwares in the past, but these other solutions were clunky and riddled with problems. Everything in time to pet has been so well thought out. It's intuitive, feature rich, and it's always improving. If
Collin 17:05
you're looking for new pet sitting software, give time to pet a try. Listeners of our show will save 50% off your first three months by visiting time to pet.com/confessional so so as far as your services now, I know you mentioned how you started off, just doing, you know, pet feedings and kind of these come and goes. What's your makeup of the business now, between the, you know, dog walking or drop ins versus house sitting versus grooming, kind of, how does those proportionally lay out?
Leanne Burger 17:32
Okay, so, so our main service is 24/7 house sitting. So people ask us to stay all day and all night. And that, I would say, is 98% of my business, um, 98% of my clients want that. They want someone in the house. It's also security, you know, and then also, you know, you get your animals that have separation anxiety, so that's also what they want to do, especially the Yorkies, the little dogs, they don't want you to leave. Obviously, the sitters are allowed to leave for a small period of time if they need to pop to the shop or go home and collect something. But then, you know, 80% of the time they are at the house, they don't leave, and they pay for that service. And then our next one down is just normal house sitting, which is just in the evening. So like the sitter will arrive at hoppers five in the evening and then sleep over and then leave the next morning for work, or whatever the situation is, and it's and it's obviously a lesser fee. So the 24/7 is the highest fee that we charge our service. Then we do do feeding, but feeding honestly, very few and far between. I would say we maybe get about two feedings a month. The rest of it is all house sitting, 24/7 dog walking. That is something that we don't do a lot of. We've only got about three clients in East London that we do dog walking for. It's not something that is, is a service that people really, really want. I think people take the dog to the beach. So I live on the coast, um, so they take the dogs to the beach. It's not like living in the city. There's a big difference between the city life and then the coastal life. So people will preferably like to come home, take the dog, get the good dog in the car, go to the beach. Whereas if you come home from the city, you don't really want to go walk around in the city. You'd rather hire a dog walker to go, which works, you know, especially overseas, the dog walkers are, it's huge demand. And then the grooming is, obviously, it's actually a totally separate business. So it's run on its on its own, and we are, we are busy mandator fighting like we are grooming poodles. We shaving Schnauzers. We doing cowboy cuts on your Yorkies. We're doing nails. We're doing all kinds of things. So I train my groomers as I was trained as a professional dog groomer, and then also I educate people. So. So it becomes the grooming has added such value to my business, because I've learned so many things. Like, for instance, a husky, a lot of people just want to shave your Husky, right, because the Husky is getting hot. But there's a lot of actual information that people don't speak about. And Huskies are not meant to be shaved. They have what you call a double A double barrel coat hair. So they have two different hair follicles coming out. If you take that away, dogs are not like us, like if it gets hot you want to take, you know, wears like a little dress or whatever, for a lady you know, and go out for some shorts and whatever. But for a husky, their temperature is different. If you take their hair away, they actually become hotter. Their hair regulates their temperature, so like little things like that, I want to educate my clients and teach them look rather. Have an informed have an informed decision to make that you've got the right information so that so that you don't, you don't make the wrong mistake without the information being told to you begin to in the beginning, you get what I'm saying. Yeah,
Collin 21:04
having informed clients really makes a world of difference. It makes it a lot easier on us as the business owners. Now it takes effort. We have to spend time resources. I have to go get an education. I then have to care enough to share that in a way with my clients, so that they can take it in and then, you know, be consistent with it and remind them. But when we can have highly educated clients, and that's an aspect that I didn't appreciate when Megan and I first started, 13 years ago, of having highly educated Pet Pet owners and that they knew everything about their pet. Obviously, we trust them, and we go, Well, you're the pet owner. You know what's best? Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they've never learned best practices. And so yeah, there, there is that role of going, I, I am a professional. I do have a role and obligation and educating this person and and that way I can build a relationship with them, so that, if it's a first time Husky owner, maybe I can make their Husky only owner, owning experience really amazing, and they can fall in love with their Husky all you know, all the more, the more they learn about them and kind of deepen their relationship with their pet.
Leanne Burger 22:14
Yeah, and I mean, it just makes life a lot easier if you have the knowledge. What better thing to do. Do we want to make our pets lives better, you know, and and, and healthier and and free of of like, ah, the dogs now mattered. What do we do? You know? And just just brushing your dog, a husky, especially twice a week with the correct tool, will make a huge difference, not only to you, but to your animal as well. So that's where I come in with the education I give them, the advice I say, This is what I advise you to do to make it better going forward, but for both human and animal,
Collin 22:53
you know, yeah, now we, we know a lot of people surrender their pets because of minor inconveniences, right? They may have a misunderstanding about behavior, or they didn't know the costs of ongoing grooming. I know that's one thing with the breed, the doodle, right? It's, you know, pool mixes whatever, and people often misunderstand the grooming requirements for that dog. And so you can actually find a lot of doodles that people paid a lot of money for in pounds and in kennels, because people go, Oh, I can't keep up with that. And so training them of going, Hey, here's some stuff you can do at home. Here's what's actually proper maintenance, here's what's upkeep, lowering that cost of ownership for that client, allowing them to keep that pet for longer. And that goes across the board. Behavior issues. We see it all the time. Where clients are, they call, oh, my dogs aggressive. I can't have an aggressive dog. It's like, well, no, your dog's reactive because it's scared. So let's work on something and and if we really want to see people living their best life with their pets, we we can't. We get to, like, there's that word, I get to step into this and now help you have this better relationship with your pet when you didn't have it before. 100% and it's
Leanne Burger 24:01
a bonding I mean, brushing, even brushing a cat, it's, it's a bonding time between you and your animal. And I mean, it's, it's so valuable, and you can't take that time back. You know what? I mean, if you spend your time with your animal, your animal is going to reciprocate the love back to you. And how better to receive love? That's amazing. I mean, they do it, you know, you've left the house for five minutes, and they you come back and they're so excited to see you, you know, like a dog, that is as if you left for a year. I mean, that's just, that's awesome, yeah, well,
Collin 24:35
and I love how you, you know, you identified a lot of the pain points for your services. You know, when you talked about that 24/7 house sitting, you know, you mentioned this is security, this is separation anxiety. It's a it's also just a high level of care that I know a lot of pet owners want. And so how are you communicating these aspects to people? Or do you find that they already know exactly what they want and how your. Fit in with their life.
Leanne Burger 25:02
It's, it's a bit of a mixed signals there. So I have someone who contacts me, and then they tell me what they want, and then I would suggest to them, or I would say to them, okay, we have these services, sure, but saying that there are still so many people who are very wary of having a pet sitter in their home. Remember, it's a huge responsibility. It's your private stuff. It's your private home. It's, it's, it's your home. You know what I mean? And to trust somebody to come into that is quite sometimes I have to try and, like, really push them and say, Please, you can trust my citizens. We've been doing this for 20 years. There is a huge, huge reviews on us, on Google and on Facebook that I try and push with people, because it's word of mouth that helps so much. My business has honestly. I have hardly done any advertising. I pay very minimal advertising, and my business has grown from word of mouth 100% so for me, it's you create. You create that first experience with them that is amazing. And they are so overwhelmed by the awesome service of this of the sitters and the company. And then they they want another one so that it's like, you basically lock them in. So they're like, Okay, great. Now I've experienced it. I know what you're talking about. Leanne, awesome. We're good to go for next weekend, you know. And we have so many repeat clients. I mean, some clients use us every weekend, some clients use us once a month, some are once a year. It all depends, and we can never predict that. So it's, it's, I don't know how, but every month I just pay the bills. Everything just gets done. It's like, yeah, it's a true miracle, actually,
Collin 26:52
no, it's a great reminder to focus on the quality service, right? Because without a quality service, everything else is kind of meaningless, right? And I think often we can get over our skis. I can get ahead of myself and start promising things that maybe I can't really deliver on. But I say things because I know I think that's what they want, and then somebody takes me up on that offer, you know? And and then I actually can't follow through. And I got the client, right? I got the client, but I'm going to lose them in the end, because I wasn't able to deliver. And when we focus on the quality of what we do, when we focus on that, as you said, that amazing experience, we do want them to have that overwhelming like, like, jaw drop, what just happened, of course, especially for especially for people who are really skeptical and and that is something that we I have to remind myself every single time somebody calls me and asks and invites me into their home. Of this is, this is scary for them, right? This is This is weird. This is something that they may have misgivings about, they're unsure about, they're wary of, as you said, and as it can become so normal to us, of like, oh, yeah, this is just what I do. What's the big deal? Why are you so worried? Of course, you can trust me, right? And yet we have to remember, like, this is a big step for people, and to never take that for granted, because that that can really hurt
Leanne Burger 28:19
us. Yeah? Well, I mean, I have, I've had quite a few people who have said that they don't go away because of the fact that they don't know who they can trust, and they don't want to leave their dog. And they have this, you know, I think almost the people have that separation anxiety with their animal. My mother in law, also, she won't leave the house for longer than an hour. She's gotta go pick up the dog, you know. So it's, it's, it's, it's breaking that and making explaining to the client that, you know, it's okay, I promise you, your dog is going to be 100% alright with one of my sitters, and we will love them as our own. And if they need to pee at three o'clock in the morning, we will wake up at three o'clock in the morning and let them out. Do you know what I mean? So whatever the client wants, that is what we will follow that routine. We stick to the client's routine. We don't veer from that at all. So they tell us exactly what they want, and we execute it as they ask. Mm,
Collin 29:19
yeah, we, I often find some clients, they can feel bad for asking us to do things. I don't know if you ran into this, where they're like, Oh, well, you don't have to do that. Like, we do this all the time, and this is what we do, but you don't have to. And I think I and I go, No, like, that's exactly what we do. That's That's why I'm here, is to do what you do. And you can, once people get the concept, all of a sudden it's like, oh, oh, yeah. Well, and also, here's this other list of 100 days, right?
Leanne Burger 29:49
Well, my contract between the client and the sitter and me, like my client information form that we give clients when they join us, is so long and. It's like, literally, can we use the washing machine? Is there anybody coming on the property? Obviously your vet and your emergency details and stuff, but the one that we have situations with is picking up the dog poop. And the clients say to us, no, don't worry. You don't have to pick up the dog poop. But I train my sitters that we actually have to, it's a hygiene thing, and we have to remove it. But you'll be surprised. So many clients say, Oh, don't worry. You don't have to do it. But my sisters would then, you know, reciprocate to the client, saying, No, unfortunately, it is part of our job, but we do have to do that, you know. And that is one thing that we've had a situation with clients where they almost say, please, don't, you know, they feel too embarrassed for us to pick up the poop, but that is our job. That is what we do. You know?
Collin 30:49
Yeah, we're there. We are there to we are there to help, to be helped, to serve them. And it comes from love, and it comes from passion. And I think you're right. People can get self conscious. Owners can get self conscious about what they're asking, and to come along and we, I did a meet and greet where I, you know, came over and meeting the clients for the first time, and they're going on and on, and they're just talking, and I'm taking my notes, and I'm just and all of a sudden somebody stops and looks at me and all and you can tell like they all of a sudden became really self conscious, and they went to, Do other people? Do other owners? Do they talk like this? Do Is this the kind of list like, and I was like, everybody's different. It's fine. The more detailed, the better. Like, I can handle this? Yes, Liam, I did want to go back in time a little bit, because we skipped over it pretty quick. And for your time raising lions, I feel like we need to dedicate this a little bit more time to this, talk to us about what this was like, because, you know, I did. I didn't know this was a thing that people could do, and I was again, immeasurably jealous of what of your time there that you got to spend doing this.
Leanne Burger 32:00
Yeah, so it was just matriculated, and it was my first job ever, and it was, it was this Lion Park, and they basically had camps of lions, and then the lions would have babies, and some of the babies would, you know, get rejected, or whatever the situation was, and then I was in the nursery area, so any babies that came to us, so it was, it's like, it's like a zoo, but it's not, please, I don't, I don't want to, like, go into any hectic things about zoos and and stuff. But it's, it's, it had animals in it so that people could come and view. Do you know what I mean, they would, they would drive through the the lion camp, and so these animals would have babies, or babies would come to us, and we would have to raise them. So I literally started at the bottom, and eventually, after five years, I became the nursery manager. So I would train staff to make bottles for hyenas. I raised a hyena. Her name was Gina. And most amazing experience, six o'clock in the morning, I would get there, open the door, and she'd be screaming for me. She would want me and the bottle like, now, there's no time to waste. You must feed her now. And she would get, like, two egg yolks and then some long life milk, and literally, a hyena will finish that in seconds. It's gone. Then you have to make the second bottle. Um, so it there's a lot of cleaning, there's a lot of cages. There's a lot of pooing and wearying. You've gotta clean their bums because they are babies, and they don't know and their mom's not around, or something happened, you know what I mean, or mom just rejected the baby and that now we've got to look after it. So it was the most amazing experience of my life. If I could turn back time, I would go back and do it again. You know, I had so many different experiences, with lions, with Caracals, with leopards, hyenas, brown spotted hyenas, jaguars, cheetahs. It was just, it was just mind blowing and ja, it was just, it was a very interesting every day was different. You know what I mean, um, I we were, we were transporting the one line, the one day, um, she must have been about, maybe about a year and a half old, and the cages are pretty like, I'm not saying clay cages, but they're like enclosures. They're pretty close to each other, but you can't just walk a line from one cage to another. You know, that doesn't happen. It's not like a dog. So we would put with the lion or the hyena in the back of a Bucky, and then we would transport them to the cage or the enclosure, and then, and then open the Bucky, and then she would jump out, you know. So this was a regular thing. We would move them around, and also for enrichment. So Kevin Richardson. Richardson is the person who taught me, um, you can go and google him. He is quite a. I'm quite well known in East London and but I mean in South Africa, he has actually traveled the world to teach people about lions and all of that, and to conserve lions. So it's quite it's quite an interesting thing to watch him and actually see his journey. So when you have free time, you should do that. So he taught me so much. And I the one day we were moving this one lion. So I'm getting to my story now. That's quite interesting. And that's like my, I wouldn't say my party trick, but it's, it's quite an interesting thing the so we're putting her into the into the Bucky, and as I close the canopy, and he takes the tailgate behind, underneath, and we closing her in. She gets such a fright that she runs from the back, from the front of the of the Bucky right over us. So my hands here, and Kevin's below me here, having the tailgate, and she runs past me. My My arm was like this, and all I felt was this claw going into my arm. Oh,
Collin 36:07
and Kevin's
Leanne Burger 36:08
got like claw marks all the way down his back. He's not badly injured. He's bleeding, but it's not like stitches. I look down at my arm and I see white skin, and I see my bone, and I'm like, I was absolutely I was like, Oh my gosh, it's going to start pouring so it's literally there. So it's really small now, but it was, like, really big. I had to have my arm in a sling and stuff. So it went through my muscle and everything. So I had seven stitches, um, but it didn't bleed the whole way to the hospital, which is great. Kevin was getting fixed up, and then I was in the hospital, and everyone's like, Oh my gosh, what happened to you? And I said, No, I've got attacked by a lion, but I wasn't attacked by her. She just, she just ran over me, and she just accidentally, like, gouged a big hole in my arm. And then when I went back to go and get the stitches out at the hospital, they all the nurses were laughing. They were like, Oh, this lady, Look, she's been attacked by a lion. So it was, like, quite a quite an interesting story to tell people, you know. But, ja, it was an amazing experience. And I don't regret a thing. It was beautiful. I had huge connections with Gina and a line named Jasper. Um, I've even still got a picture of Jasper and me and ja, it's like, I think of them, and my heart really like pounds because I miss them. You know, it's, it's you create that bond with that animal, and it's quite unique. Well,
Collin 37:46
especially when you're doing from the bottle feeding and raising and here day after day, this is reliant on me. It's reliant I've got to be here. I can't not show up, right? And and I'm there. Depend on me for everything. And that aspect of dependency, when we think of, you know, kind of how that translates into your business now, is like, well, these, you know, these, these pets, they've got to go outside. They depend. If I not here, if my team isn't here, they don't get fed. They don't get to go outside. They don't get the enrichment. They don't get this stuff. And that is something that's really hard, I think, for a lot of people to understand, is just that level of dependency. You know, we've, we've had it where, you know, the weather's bad, and somebody goes, well, you're not actually going to go out and, you know, do that, are you? And it's like, Well, who else is going to and where are the dogs gonna you know, like, if I don't show up, the dog doesn't get its medication. Like, if I there's no option here. And that's that's where a lot of people start to like, that's where the seriousness really starts to come in to exactly what we do and the level that's required to do it. Well, love the podcast. Help keep the conversations going strong by becoming a Patreon supporter, you get access to exclusive, extended interviews and join our first Friday meetups and score some serious good vibes knowing you're supporting something you love. By becoming a producer of the show, you can help the show continue to move forward, do the interviews and get you the information you need to thrive, both in your personal life and in your business, learn more and join today at Pet Sitter confessional.com/support,
Leanne Burger 39:28
pet sitting is a serious business, and it's a huge responsibility, but it's such an awesome responsibility at the same time, you know, it's just such a I'm so I'm so grateful that I'm just able to do this every day. Is, is amazing for me. You know, I'm so thankful that for the last eight years I've been able to do this, and I've been able to to earn an income and and and give other people a chance to earn an income as well. That for me is, is is massive in my life. Well.
Collin 40:00
And I wanted to touch on that aspect, because you did mention that when you were walking through your story earlier, Leanne, of, like, of of that you get to give people income and jobs and and that that's that is something that I sense, that you take immense pride in. You know, what? When did that start? Or when did, did you immediately see the value of what you're doing for your local community in this way, or did it kind of, you know, did it dawn on you over time?
Leanne Burger 40:26
You know, I think, because I deal with so many CVS so a lot of people do send me their CVs, and they they want to do this, and then I get to hear all their stories, and I get to hear why they want to do this, and what they're going through, and they've just been retrenched. Or, I'm 63, years old, and noone wants to employ me, and I'm like, well, I need staff, you know, let's, let's let I scratch your back. You scratch my back, you know. And over time, I just realized that this is, is, is an awesome opportunity that I've been given to be able to do this, but not only me, my clients. You know, if I didn't have all these clients, I wouldn't be able to do do this and give people an opportunity for an income. So I'm so grateful for my clients and for people referring me word of mouth and my staff as well. You know, it a business is not built on just the owner. It's built its legs are its staff, you know, and that is also very important. There's been sitters that have worked for me that have been gone for six years, but they built such amazing building blocks on my company and and were so professional in the way that they did pet sitting that it helped me grow a little bit better. Yeah,
Collin 41:43
that's one of the most satisfying things when you do get to bring somebody into your company and you see them flourish, and you're like, I we've, yeah, I've had, we've had, we've hired people. And I'm like, Oh, wow, all of the dogs love you, like, way more than me. I'm a little that's fine. I'm going to be over here in a corner. It's okay, whatever. I'm fine. But then to see them using their giftings, their talents, things that they're blessed with, like, it's very fulfilling from that perspective of like, yeah, this I had an opportunity, and I gave it to this person, and look, look how they're flourishing. And then it does. It reflects back on the business. And going, there they are helping me, you know, build my brand. You know, you know, they're building recognition. They're, they're making me more professional. They're, they're raising the bar. And to also know that our quote, unquote little businesses, like they help other people meet their own goals, like financial goals, or their personal goals or right? That aspect is something that Megan and I did not really appreciate, even when we were first hiring people. I think it did take, you know, maybe a year into when we started to have meetings with people and talk to them and go, Why are you still out with my company? Because it's hard, and this is kind of weird work. And they're like, Well, you know, like, I just, I wake up every day more excited than ever that to know that this is what I get to do, and realizing, I think, you know, I had one person tell me that, and I was like, oh, that's like, a me, that's like, I wake up excited and oh, right, right. It's so much bigger than what I'm a slow learner, like, you know what I'm trying to say here, it takes, me up.
Leanne Burger 43:26
Your Honor. I mean, I think running a business, you know, you do, you learn. You learn invaluable lessons all the time. And we never going to be perfect, but we do strive to be better every day, and learning lessons makes us better every day. So I'm very grateful for the the talents that the sitters have. And just to give you an example, there's a lady named Kelly who works for me. Some of the sisters have been with me for like, six years, so that long term sitters, you know, and Kelly has got such a talent for photography. There's riyanka as well, also amazing photography. So I've seen these talents, and I'm like, Hey, hold on a second. Maybe I can use them while they're house sitting. Um, Achilles got a gift for for writing. So she's got photography and writing. So now she's done all these beautiful posts on our page, on Facebook and on Instagram about a day in the life of a pet sitter, and then she writes this beautiful story about fluffy the dog, um, and it just, I'm so grateful to have her on my team, because that, to me is I can't replace that. You know what I mean? She is Kelly is unique in what her talents are, and riyanka with her photographs, and the way that she does marketing, it's so beautiful. So I've seen those, and then I've called them in and said, okay, cool, let's try and do this, you know. And Kelly, when you take photographs of of Lee's dogs, let's, let's put them on Facebook and tell a story about the dogs. You know, people want. To know us, and they want to know the dog stories, but
Collin 45:04
that takes as the manager, as the owner, paying attention to what people are doing right, that that doesn't just happen like you do. Have to be intentional and to recognize what people are doing, and to recognize those excellent skills, or, you know, those gifts that client, that that team members have because it we can just say there is certainly one way to manage where we send them out into the field, and then we shut our door and we just never interact with them. But it's no they're they're on your team. Like, encourage them, bring them in, elevate them, you know, use their gifts and talents, like that's and, you know, obviously, if they want to, you have that conversation. We've had that with several of our team members of like, Hey, I noticed you're really good at XYZ. Would you be interested in doing more admin work or posting more photos and having that, just have that conversation, to give those opportunities to people. Is it really makes it feel a lot closer, and people feel invested in the overall business? Definitely, I agree. Now, when did you start expanding into other towns? You know, because you said, you know you're in East London. You're Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Grahamstown. How did that process
Leanne Burger 46:11
start for you? Okay, so obviously East London only started. I only got I only started in East London in about 2011 So, and then that's when I did, I think 2012 I probably hired Roxy, who was that first sitter that I took that leap of faith and like, Okay, I'm going to now share my business with somebody. But it was the best decision I ever made. And so from there, I kind of stayed in East London for a while, but now, because everybody talks, so obviously someone tells somebody, and then I started getting CVS from PE. So what it was actually first Grahamstown, so I started getting CVS from C, from Grahamstown. And I thought, Okay, here's a need. Let me provide a service, yeah, so I would match the two. So Grahamstown started after East London. Then I got CVS from PE and I did the same thing. So I matched the people, so I hired some staff, and then I started advertising. Then Cape Town has just literally, last year we started in Cape Town. I've only got two sitters so far, but we're starting to market, and they're going to be in the area. So that's going to be quite exciting to start that. But in for two Decembers in a row, I've had people book me from Johannesburg. So now I'm thinking, Okay, so now I've got people wanting me for Joburg, but now I don't have any staff in Joburg, so now I have to try and get staff so I can help the clients. But I don't know if that's too much for me, like I don't want to bite off too much. You get what I'm saying. I don't want to overwhelm myself. I'm one person in this business. You know what I mean. I run everything myself. So it's quite I have an admin lady who does my invoices and stuff for me, but I'm the only one. There's noone else, you know what I mean. So there's no like, I don't have a team behind me helping me. I get advice from my accountant or my husband, or, you know, a friend, or, you know, that type of thing. That's why it's so amazing that I found you and the people you know, you know, your links that you put on your website, it's just amazing. I literally went through them today, and I was like, Hey, this is awesome stuff. I need to, like, you know, do some some research here. And it's so good to communicate with people so I don't feel alone. You know what? I mean, so, ja, it's been, it's, it's, it's PE, ja, so it was kind of Grahamstown, then PE, now Cape Town, and then I'm thinking of maybe Johannesburg, but I don't want to do that yet, because I don't want to, you know, you said in the beginning something about, you know,
Collin 49:02
over over, what's the word
Leanne Burger 49:05
over? Delivering and under? Under, promising, promising and under and delivering? I don't want to do that. I don't ever want to be that person. I always want to give them an opportunity to have a service. And we we got more than our service. So I don't want to promise that I'm going to go to Joburg, and then I can't deliver. So I normally just respond to the people and say, I'm so sorry. We are not in Johannesburg yet, but hopefully in the future, I will be, you know, but for me to manage it from here is very difficult. I would have to get a manager there. So I am looking to get a manager in Cape Town. I can manage Graham's Grahamstown and PE myself because it's traveling distances, so I can go and travel, but Cape town's a bit far for me, and Johannesburg is a bit far for me. So I would, technically, if I had to go to Joburg, and we'd get big in Cape Town, I would then have to hire managers to manage it for. For me there, because it's just impossible for me to do it from here.
Collin 50:04
Yeah, and that's that, is that, that juggling act that we have to do? You mentioned, like, I don't have a big team and, and I think everyone, like the rest of the community, thinks that, like, when they look at, like, just like our sing business, you know, I'm sure they think they've got admin, they've got help, they've got support staff, they've got a manager, they've got a social media person, and it's just Megan and I like when we're like, barely keeping our heads above water here, it's hard to take on those big projects and balancing out what commitments do I already have and and I think something that's helped Megan and I is the do, would I have to sacrifice quality to make this other thing happen. And sometimes it's quality of my sleep, sometimes it's quality of like my family time, or quality of service or dedication or responsiveness that I that I hold dear, and knowing that I just, I just can't have everything. And sometimes those limitations are there, and I have got to then be patient a little bit longer, and I'm one of the least patient people in the world. People in the world, and so that is really hard for me to to wait until I'm already and we've got to structure and support built for the next level.
Leanne Burger 51:10
Yeah, I think there's boundaries, though. You know what I mean? Like having your own business? You know, family time is family time. When it comes to five o'clock, you do need to clock off, but also you have an expectation on yourself to help your clients. If I have a house sitting and it's, it's at six o'clock at night and they call me, they all have my emergency number, so my sitters in emergency will phone me so but I've learned to to, I have to switch off at five o'clock, because otherwise, you know, you you start blurring the lines between business and your life, and you actually your family life go to the side, and your business takes over. And that's where I'm explaining about the boundaries. We've gotta learn to have boundaries. But I mean, I eat, drink and sleep, going away all the time. I wake up in the morning at like, five o'clock and I'm like, Oh, I've got a business idea. And then I write it down, you know, but I have to stop myself, like, no, Leanne, you can't do that. Now, it's, I have to do this and this and this this morning. So it's, it's, my brain is, like, always going for the business, but I've got to tune it out until it's the right time. Well, so how do
Collin 52:24
you make that decision of whether to move forward with an idea or not? Because I think that's one thing where we never want to, like, stifle innovation and stifle our thoughts, but I don't want them to go to waste either. So like for you, how do you balance the the desire to to always do new things while being patient and knowing what to implement and when,
52:46
um, it's called Google Calendar and tasks,
Collin 52:50
I'd love it. Yes, yeah,
Leanne Burger 52:52
if I don't write something down, I'm going to forget it, because I'm literally, I am running around like a headless chicken most days. So because I'm running both the businesses, I've got to be in both places at once. If there's an emergency here, I've got to deal with that if there's emergency there, but a deal with that. So I'm literally ready 24/7 I never know what my day is going to bring. So I use Google Calendar a lot for all my tasks. So if I have an idea, I write it down and it will be a task to do, you know, going forward, and then business ideas. Then I will post it to the group, and I'll say, Hey guys, there's a dog walking event coming. Who wants to join me, you know? So I would pose it to my team and ask them, do they want to join or do they think this is a good idea? So I actually ask their valued opinions on decisions that I make as well, because for me, it helps me make a better decision. Because I've I've asked their input, and I need their input, they sit us, you know what? I mean, they do this. So for me, to get their input makes my decision a lot better and easier to make. At the end of the day, I know that I can't do Joburg now, like I would love to, but my capacity is at the fullest. Now, if I go any bigger, I'm going to have to hire a manager. Do you know what I mean? And I don't know feasibly if I could do that, because you don't know how many bookings I'm going to get at Joburg. You know what I mean? So we don't know when people are going away on holidays, so it is, you can never forecast your income, or how many bookings you're getting, or how many house sittings you're getting this month. You literally, it's literally, like, a lucky package. Or when you get a booking, it's like, yay. You know, the estate agents they they ring that bell. It's like, us, we get a booking. We're like, Yay, we got a booking, you know. And then we get another booking, and then it's quiet for a week, and you're like, what's going on? Something's wrong. And then the next week you get like, six bookings, and it's like, Yay, you got a booking, you know? So, ja, it's just the capacity. I don't want to overwhelm myself, otherwise, I'm going to start dropping the ball. So. To I've gotta keep things controlled and organized. Otherwise, yeah, it's not gonna I'm not gonna manage.
Collin 55:07
Yeah, it is that balance of knowing I'm Where, where are my limits, right? And what am I? What, how? What's the next thing I wanna take on? Do I personally have the physical, emotional, mental capacity to take that on, because we right. We don't want to launch into something and have it crumble because we weren't able to see it through like whatever we want to do, we want to do with excellence, and we want to we want to do right by our team, by our clients, by our community. And you know, not to say that, you know, we can't ever get, quote, unquote fail, but if we something isn't successful, I don't want it to be because I was too tired to remember to put something on the calendar like I want something else.
Leanne Burger 55:48
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, just lots of notes and writing notes and trying to remember things is just writing it down is important, otherwise you're going to forget. I mean, we all human, so we can't I'm not. I would love to be superwoman, but I can't. You've been you've been
Collin 56:04
pet sitting, and you've been running your business, and you've been involved in the pet industry since 2005 and I know your passion's been lifelong. What's maybe one of your biggest lessons since you've been doing this? Wow,
Leanne Burger 56:20
that's quite a question. Thanks. Sure. I think to give people grace and understand them where they're at. You know, you have I deal with staff, I deal with clients. So it's very people orientated. We're never too old to learn. We are always going to learn something. No matter how of an expert you think you are, you're always going to learn something. Something's always going to crop up. So that, that has been something for me, but also just to understand where people are. You know what I mean? To understand that, okay, the lady's having a hard day. Let's try and help her or understand that you've canceled your booking because your mom is not well and you have to stay here. You know what? I mean be having that personal understanding of where the client is at or the staff member is at, I think has probably been one of the biggest lessons for me, yeah,
Collin 57:22
Leanne, I want to thank you for coming on the show today and for sharing your story and your passion with us and giving us a little bit of insight into how you do that, how you make sure that those clients have a wonderful experience and have that peace of mind that I know you desire, that they have. There's a lot that you do, and you do a lot of exciting stuff, and it's always so much fun. So how can people get in touch with you and follow along with everything that you're doing?
Leanne Burger 57:46
Okay, so we are on Facebook. We have a Facebook page called going away pit and house sitting and mobile pit grooming. And then we also have a website, www, dot going away, el.co.za, and then we have an Instagram page as well. You can just Google going away East London, and it'll come up. Okay,
Collin 58:04
well, I will have those links in the show notes and on the website so people can get connected and start seeing all the cool stuff that you're doing. Leanne, I can't thank you enough. It's such an immense pleasure to have you on the show today. Thank you so much.
Leanne Burger 58:15
Shame, thank you, Collin. I'm so humbled by chatting to you. It's been amazing. Thank you so much for for for calling me and asking me to do this for you. And ja, I hope, I hope this isn't the last time we we chat. I hope we stay connected. And ja, it's amazing to to be able to do this. Technology is wonderful.
Collin 58:38
It it is, it is. And yes, I will. We will definitely be doing a follow up to see how your expansion into Joburg goes and what you've done with that, because I know you're going to do it, so that's fantastic. Thank you. Leanne,
58:49
thank you. Thank you so much. Collin,
Collin 58:52
how do we help people overcome being wary of the services that we offer by creating a first amazing experience that first time they get to see and experience your business is what sets the tone. And importantly, we have to remember this is not when we first do the dog walk or the pet sit or the litter scoop. This starts all the way back during the onboarding process, and even before that, in our presence, whether that's online, offline, phone call, text message, how are people experiencing your business? Are they blown away by that, or are they left wanting more when we look to build trust and overcome the barriers that people have to using our services and our business, it starts from the very beginning, just like an interview. It starts before the interview starts. So are we prepared for that, and are we thinking through exactly what our clients and potential clients get at every step of the way? That is truly invaluable. We want to thank. Our sponsors today, time to pet and our wonderful Patreon supporters for making this show possible. We also want to thank you so much for listening. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week, and we'll be back again soon. You
