715: Starting Over and Growing Stronger with Meagan Cervini
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What happens when an unexpected opportunity takes you across the world—and then brings you back again? Meagan Cervini shares her journey from managing dog daycares in Canada to helping launch a facility in Dubai, and ultimately building her own business back home. She reflects on the lessons learned from different work environments and how they shaped her approach to client care and team building. Through challenges, self-doubt, and growth, Meagan developed a business rooted in relationships and trust. This episode highlights the power of experience, resilience, and doing things your own way.
Main topics:
International pet care experience
Transitioning into business ownership
Building strong client relationships
Overcoming fear and self-doubt
Team growth and hiring challenges
Main takeaway: “I’m allowed to be scared, but I’m not going to let that fear take over my decisions.”
Starting something new in your business will always come with fear. The question isn’t whether you feel it—it’s what you do with it.Meagan Cervini shared something powerful: you’re allowed to be scared. That feeling doesn’t mean you’re making the wrong decision—it means you’re stepping into something that matters.
The key is not letting that fear control your next move. Growth in pet care (and in life) often looks like moving forward even when you’re unsure. Every new client, new hire, or new opportunity comes with uncertainty. But those are also the moments that shape your business the most.
You don’t need to eliminate fear—you just need to lead through it.
About our guest:
Meagan Cervini is the owner of Meagan’s Paw Squad, a dog walking and pet sitting company based in Ontario, Canada. With over 16 years of experience in the pet care industry, she has worked in boarding facilities, managed dog daycares, and even helped launch a pet care facility in Dubai. Meagan brings a relationship-focused approach to her business, prioritizing communication, trust, and personalized care. She continues to grow her team while maintaining a strong connection with both clients and their pets.
Links:
https://www.instagram.com/meaganspawsquad/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553555017851
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Pet Sitter Confessional, its hosts, or sponsors. We interview individuals based on their experience and expertise within the pet care industry. Any statements made outside of this platform, or unrelated to the topic discussed, are solely the responsibility of the guest.
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Collin 0:00
Paul, 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 Time to Pet and Pet Sitters International. Making big jumps, not just in our business, but in our lives, sometimes is just part of it. How do we make jumps? How do we know when we need to make a change in our life, and how we roll with everything that comes along with that? And today I'm really excited to have Megan Cervini on the show to talk about her overseas experience in pet care, and how she's transitioned back over into Canada to continue dog walking, and everything in between. Megan, I'm really excited to have you on the podcast. For those who aren't familiar with you, would you please tell us a bit more about who you are and what you do?
Meagan Cervini 0:48
Well, thank you for having me on the podcast, longtime listener. But yeah, my name is Megan Srivini. I've been working in the animal industry for about, oh, it's like 16 years or more, and I own and run Megan's Paw Squad, which is a dog walking and pet sitting company here in Canada. I have three staff, and we service Mississauga and Oakville, which is in Ontario, and actually, this August will be hitting our five year anniversary. Oh,
Collin 1:27
that's fantastic. Congratulations on five years. I mean, that's, that's a, I mean, that's a big landmark to hit. How are you going to be celebrating?
Meagan Cervini 1:37
Oh, definitely something for the clients, like a little tidbit, I love doing like little things for all the clients for like holidays and everything, so definitely something for them, and then probably do a little celebration with the staff, like go out or something like that.
Collin 1:55
Now I know that that's always a really big discussion around holiday times and anniversaries with clients. How do you, what is that process like for you, Megan, to decide how you put those gifts together and who gets one, and how? What's it like budgeting for that too? Because that can be like really overwhelming as a business owner to be looking at. Maybe I served, you know, 100 clients or 150 clients this year, going, man, what do I, where I come up with a gift ideas for this kind of thing?
Meagan Cervini 2:25
Yeah, absolutely. And, like, Christmas time is definitely the biggest, and over the years I learned how to minimize that list. I will always, I at first started putting so many clients, or almost like all the clients I would have, and then some clients I wouldn't see at that time, so then I still have some Christmas gifts that I never handed out from like a couple years ago, so I learned like I would do like my regulars that are that book like weekly, or we have monthly, or we see all the time, and then my clients like for overnight boarding that only do overnight boarding and not walking, I'll do like maybe a little like a card with like a little goodie for the dog or anything like that, but over the years, definitely like holidays, like Valentine's Day, Halloween, like we just like to do something small, but something just nice that the client, like, will appreciate that we're going out of our way to, like, we're always thinking about them,
Collin 3:35
and I think that's what exactly what that is, like, I'm thinking about you, you're a priority that communicates your priority to me, and many times, especially when we think about, okay, somebody's come into my business, they've used me for, you know, maybe one walk or maybe one little vacation thing. What's my next interaction with them, right? Is exactly
Collin 3:56
right, is it they, the next eight months later, they pop up and they're frantically trying to get out the door and do all this stuff, and I've like, there's no relationship there, and finding these little, yeah, we have to admit, like, kind of lower cost, or at least more affordable options for our clients, because you're just trying to have that little bit of connection with everybody and maintain those, those touch points,
Meagan Cervini 4:20
yeah, and I find like a little bit goes a long way, like it doesn't have to be so extravagant, and that's where, like, again, like I learned over time, so you're not breaking the bank.
Collin 4:34
I remember one of the first years that we were going to try that, yeah, we went out and like worked with a local artists to get these handcrafted and customized ornaments for all of our clients, and all of a sudden it was like, oh man, I really like this, this ornament, it's, you know, it's $20 man, that's not too bad. And then all of a sudden we were going, we need 100 of these things, exactly.
Speaker 1 4:55
Okay,
Collin 4:57
what do I need to make. This, and you're right, like a lot of part of the what we do, we serve people all year round, and so this isn't a use me next time, so I'll give you a gold bar. This is a I really appreciate what you do, and here's a little thank you. It's not, doesn't have to be all of our relationship is just gift giving, but it is a way to recognize that relationship that we do have.
Meagan Cervini 5:20
Yeah, and it's fun to do too, like I love giving gifts.
Collin 5:24
Now you said that you've been in the pet care industry for 16 plus years. What was life like before you started doing all this fun stuff?
Meagan Cervini 5:36
Well, I was actually.. I wasn't. I didn't even know I was going to kind of like go on this path, like I was in school, and I was actually, I graduated in majoring in psychology and minored in family and children's studies. So my plan was to work with children, actually, so I didn't really know I was going to work with animals, and at that time, like, this wasn't really a big industry, like dog walking wasn't really known, dog daycares weren't really known, everything like that. So that was kind of interesting that I kind of ended up in this way. It's a long story of how, like, that kind of got started, but I, while I was in school for university, I started working for a boarding facility, and that was my first exposure, or boarding company, actually. They had no facility, because you boarded the dogs in your own home, so that was my first exposure to anything like that. From there, when I finished school, I was actually having a hard time finding a job in anything that I kind of liked or I was interested in. So I was looking online and I ended up finding a dog daycare, and I was like, I don't know what is even a dog daycare, like I don't understand what that is. So I, when I went for the interview, I was like, what is this like glorious place? Like, this is amazing. I get to be with dogs all day, everything like that. So I, that's how it all started. Started working there, and then from that dog daycare went to another dog daycare and I ended up staying there for seven years and became the manager of that facility pretty quickly, so that was like pretty incredible, that like I kind of, how life just took me in a completely opposite direction.
Collin 7:40
What was that like? I mean, if you're going to school for something, you have a passion, you have a desire, you see yourself fitting into that. For you personally, what was that transition like out of school and now going into a different field for something that you didn't, you know, you weren't trained in, you didn't have that background, that wasn't where you thought you were going
Meagan Cervini 8:02
and It, yeah, like, it just wasn't.. I don't know, there wasn't really even like a mindset of like, okay, this is what I'm going to be doing now for the rest of my life. I think I just.. I naturally had like a talent for it, and I just absolutely like. I loved going to work every day, and it just wasn't even a thought anymore of what I went to school for. It was just like, I think this is just what I'm meant to do, and I created such great relationships with, like, the people around me, which definitely helped a lot,
Collin 8:43
yeah. It's one of those things, of sometimes I mean, going through school, especially just in life in general. You don't know what you don't know. You can only have so many lived experiences. I can only live one life at a time. I have yet to figure out how to do more. Like, we'll see what happens, but, like, I, as you have new experiences, now all of a sudden you have more information, and you can make those decisions. Oh, I didn't know about this. Look, how this fits in with me, and that kind of like being open to opportunities and options and experiences is one of the things that I've found that, as a, like, as a business owner, that's absolutely essential to continuing to show up every day, and for the longevity of you in your business.
Meagan Cervini 9:29
Yeah, absolutely. Now,
Collin 9:33
when did you make the jump to Dubai? Because this is the part of the story that I and I went.. I have to zero in on this. You're doing the kennel text, you're managing a kennel. What happens in life at that point?
Meagan Cervini 9:51
Oh yeah, yeah. This is incredible, and I'm so happy I was able. To do it, but yeah, funny enough, just randomly one day I got a message through LinkedIn, and it was just this, this guy that he was from Dubai, but living in New York at the time, and wanting to move back to Dubai to be closer to family, and he had two dogs of his own, and there were no daycares in Dubai that he felt comfortable to send his own dogs to, so he's like, 'I'm going to open my own daycare facility, and he, he's like, 'With all your experience and everything, I would love for you to come and be a part of it. Um, so my first thought was immediately this is a scam, this isn't real. Um, and for the life of me, I don't remember the in between of like from that thought to like I flew to New York for my interview, like my mom came with me just to make sure everything was good, and that's when it, like, everything was real. I was like, okay, like, this is this is legit, and this is gonna happen if I do accept it. So I was interviewed, I was offered the job. Then from there I flew to Dubai before even moving there to see if this was something I was willing to do. I had never been to Dubai before or anywhere in the UAE, so it was definitely incredible, like interesting, incredible at the same time, and three months later from that I picked up and moved to Dubai to start this new journey.
Collin 11:47
Was it the it's in Dubai? Was it in the I'm starting something brand new? What was it about you that specifically attracted you to that opportunity?
Meagan Cervini 11:59
Um, no, it wasn't necessarily Dubai, but probably could have been like anywhere in the world. I had just always wanted to move away and like work and travel somewhere else, like I was like, "Oh, I'm not meant to just stay in Canada forever, for like a long time I would always say, like, oh, I'm going to move somewhere else like one day, and didn't think it was ever going to happen. This kind of just fell into my lap, and then just in general to have that experience on top of it, like I've been working at the same place for so long, I like, who can, who else can say they had that opportunity to like go within the same field that they're working in, like, go and be able to open and run, like, their own facility.
Collin 12:49
Yeah, I mean, it's a fantastic opportunity, and I definitely agree with you. It definitely sounds like a scam. Right at the beginning, I was like, "Oh, my.. I know,
Meagan Cervini 12:59
I forgot I even had a LinkedIn account, like
Collin 13:02
you're, you're over in Dubai, like working directly with the owner to get this thing built and off the ground. I mean, how, where are you pulling from to make this something that you're, you're proud of, and that you know is a better standard, because you have somebody who's standing there going, I'm doing this because I couldn't find what I liked elsewhere. So, what's that creative process like? If all of a sudden making kind of like the best it can be.
Meagan Cervini 13:30
Yeah, like we, I was pulling from obviously the daycares I had worked at before, and then over time, like I would have, like, notebooks of ideas of things I wanted to do with, like, if I ever had my own facility, because that was always a dream of mine as well. Still is, like, who knows what will happen in the future, but yeah, so I always, I had tons and tons of ideas, so it was really nice to actually have someone willing to listen and incorporate a lot of my ideas, like the other, I was a manager of, like, I didn't, I didn't really have a lot of say with certain things, so it was really nice that, like, pretty much she was like, here's everything, like, do what you want,
Collin 14:20
I mean, that's a lot of freedom, but it's also, I'm sure, I mean, what about pressure of actually pulling this off? Pulling, did you ever question whether you're actually going to make it work?
Meagan Cervini 14:30
Yes, yeah, it was like maybe a month or two, and I had to sit down with him, because I'm just like, I don't know, it's a lot like if you're dealing with like even say staff that don't speak English,
Speaker 1 14:46
yeah.
Meagan Cervini 14:46
So like I had to figure out a way like how to communicate with them every day. We made it work, but it just like that was a huge thing that was difficult, or like the difference in like. People, and how they see, like animals or pets. It's just like a lot of the time I had to remind myself, like, I'm not in Canada anymore. So, yeah, so, like, a few times I was just like, I don't, I don't know if I can pull this off. So, and it ended up like I was only there for seven months, I was supposed to be there for two years, so it wasn't all what I expected, but I'm still happy I did it
Collin 15:34
well. So, how would you put, describe, you mentioned maybe you know the difference people, how to treat pets, and ideas around that, and what was the industry like, you know, overall, and kind of the kind of clients that you were serving with the boarding facility there,
Meagan Cervini 15:49
so like it's a huge market there for sure, tons of expats, like so many people have pets, and a lot of them are working long hours, and a lot of them, tons of people were traveling all the time, like we would have dogs at like months at a time, because people were just off traveling for so long. Um, that's like not something that's.. I'm used.. I'm used to, like, I think the most I've ever had a boarding dog was a month, but yeah, we would have dogs for like three months, five months, like it all depended, like especially if people are like moving to Australia, so the dog has to be quarantined for like two to three months, so they would stay with us, so it just all depended on that, so there were a lot of dog daycares in the area, and they were all situated very close to each other, so like where our daycare was, like I could look one way, there was a daycare, look another way there's a daycare, they're everywhere, so you definitely had to find a way to stand out compared to the rest, and actually, dog walkers, like, don't really aren't a thing in Dubai, like, they don't really exist. There might be some companies. It's been a while since I've been there, but a big thing is you're not able to walk a dog with the weather during the day, so, like, especially in their summer months, like, you have to walk your dog be like first thing in the morning, like between five and six in the morning, and same with like at night, you have to wait till the sun goes down, you have to wait till it cools down, so yeah, so dog walkers are nothing like here in North America, like I learned that pretty quick when I rescued a dog when I was there, so I had to actually like keypad train her, and I'm like, this is so strange, like not able to actually walk her to take her outside. Yeah,
Collin 17:51
oh, that's wild. Really changes the, yeah, that idea of what it means to care for your dog, right? And here's a big limitation of, yeah, when you're in the desert region, it's too hot to go out and walk, you just things you don't think about. Well, obviously, then we have to do this inside, so of course daycares are going to explode and be super popular.
Meagan Cervini 18:13
Exactly. Yeah.
Collin 18:15
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Speaker 2 18:19
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Collin 18:40
If 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 I mean, so you're in a really, really competitive and tight market, like if you can step out and see competitors from the front of your building, like that, that's almost, you know, we wouldn't.. it's hard to even think about what that would be like, and kind of the pressure that that would have on to see, like, I guess that really caused you to dig into and go, what, what does make us different? How are we.. how, because how do you separate yourself from that, that kind of tight market where you're literally looking at competitors across the street,
Meagan Cervini 19:22
on like, I would say a big thing the owner did was not to, like, toot my own horn, but he definitely, like, advertised me quite a bit, so it was like the experience I had, and definitely pushed for that, like a lot, and he was, he was really good at just like selling the idea of like kind of like high-end luxury services, and he was very flexible with a lot of things, like we. We let clients get away with quite a bit that I wasn't okay with, but we were like a 24/7 based, like if a client wanted to pick up at midnight, we're okay, like he was okay, we're okay, you can pick up at midnight, or if you want to drop off at four in the morning, we'll let you do that, so he definitely, I think, did a lot of things at first to get those clients in, and then the clients realized the level of care and everything that we did provide, and he was very good at, like, partnering up with certain companies, so, like, another thing was, like, dog parks aren't like don't exist either, so he actually partnered up with a company and opened up like the very first dog park, and and you would have to get a membership to like enter the dog park and everything like that, or he partnered up with another company that had their kind of version of a dog park, which was completely just in the desert, so that was like a service we would bring the dogs to like twice a week, which was like amazing, like clients loved it, and it was really amazing. Yeah,
Collin 21:20
well, and what I love about that, Megan, is you mentioned two things, like one, you have to have something that attracts people's attention first, but secondly, the service has to actually be amazing, like you can't - it's one thing to get attention on your business, it's a completely other thing to hold and maintain that relationship, and then I think too often we can focus on one or the other. Well, I'll just focus only on my amazing service, but I'm not going to tell anybody about it. Why would I do that? Like, that's crazy. Market and talk to people, no thank you. Ver, and then there's the well, I'm going to go out and, you know, kind of over promise and talk about these amazing stuff, but I'm not going to change my service or work on any of my customer experience, or any of that stuff, and so it kind of be this mismatch of people can feel misled, and they feel, and so you have to do both if you're not exactly
Collin 22:10
getting attention in proper and ethical ways, right. Yep. Step one, step two, be amazing, so that when they actually experience that, that's something I think about a lot of. We offer amazing care. Our walks are different. We handle cats in a unique way. The only way the clients can really understand that is if they try us. And so I've got to get attention for them to in the door. Now I've got to execute and be amazing, and then they stick around. And to hear that, that's exactly what was happening over there was, hey, I gotta stand out in some way, but also we do have to be really good once again.
Meagan Cervini 22:48
Oh, yeah, and we, we got busy really quick, like it did not take long before we were like we were over capacity.
Collin 23:00
It doesn't, yeah, it does, and that's one of those things, too, of it. Only takes a couple of people, and all of a sudden, like, we're not talking, whether you're in daycare or dog walks, we're not talking about suddenly there's, you know, I need hundreds of people to be busy, or hundreds of dogs to be busy, it's, yeah, 10 makes a big difference in a lot of cases, especially with dog walking, when you're doing the solos, you know, individual walks or whatever, but you, so you, you're over in Dubai, and then you transition back over to Canada.
Meagan Cervini 23:33
Yeah,
Collin 23:33
why did you try and go back into kennels and kennel management at that time?
Meagan Cervini 23:39
I actually didn't. There was a point when I was in Dubai early on when I was having a little bit of a hard time, and I did think about going back to the daycare that I had left, but I was like, it's not.. I'm like, I want.. I wouldn't want to just be back as a manager position, I would want to be like a partner and have like a percentage of the company, like I'm like it's not the same. When I was coming back, I had a friend at the time - we're not friends anymore, but we kind of did work together to kind of some capacity before I left, like nothing was official, but we did like lean on each other when needed, so when I was coming back, I was like, okay, I know for a fact I don't want to work for anyone else, I want to work for myself. So I partnered up with my friend, and I went under her company name, so I started dog walking, and then I went back to overnight boarding, because I was actually already doing boarding while I was working at the other daycare, because that wasn't a service that we provided, so I had clients like come up to me and ask, well, one client in particular started the whole thing, she. Just like I've had bad experiences with a daycare or sporting facilities in the past, like I trust you, we love you, our dog loves you, like is this something you would want to do? So I was building kind of my own client base with that while still working at the daycare, so when I was back in Canada, and I was like, okay, this is like I'm going to do my own thing, and I'm just so I reached out to those clients and told them I'm back in Canada, this is like the new venture I'm doing, this is like dog walking, boarding, it's going to be like full time, so a lot of those clients actually left that dog daycare and followed me, and would, and started dog walking, and everything with me. So I like very much lucked out, where I wasn't really starting from scratch, I was already starting with a little bit of a client base.
Collin 26:00
What do you think was different about coming back where you had that mindset of I want to work for myself?
Meagan Cervini 26:10
It was almost like I felt personally that it was almost like I was moving backwards if I went to work for someone else again, and not moving forward when I got back to Canada, because it wasn't all of what I thought. When I did come back, I almost felt like a little bit defeated, and sad, sadly, like I failed a little bit. So I was, I was like, I, I've gone from like so many toxic jobs and bosses that I'm like that's not something I want to go back to. So I was like, I, and I felt in order to move forward, I was like, I'm gonna do my own thing, something that's mine,
Collin 26:58
that something that's mine, I think. Is so I think there's a lot of us who have reached that point in our journey in starting a business. Of I have seen ways to do this well, I've seen a lot of ways to do this poorly, and on some level it's just, man, there's got to be surely this can be done differently, surely, and I've got some ideas and some some figures about how to make this actually work and do this differently, and and maybe if I try this way it'll actually pan out, or I can be happy with how this is going to work, but that must have still been a little again anxiety induced, I mean, you said you had to work through some self doubt and some discipline, you know. Hey, I, I failed in this. So, how did you like move into being confident enough to start this?
Meagan Cervini 27:55
Um, definitely, yeah, like a mix of like trying to be, to have like to be brave, but also like to accept to be able to make that jump, like I was trying to have a mindset of like I'm allowed to be scared, but I'm not going to let that fear take over, like my decisions, like you, and I know it's easy to say, like everyone fails, or it's like learn from your mistakes, and everything, that, but like in that moment you're just like, okay, it's everything, so if I do fail, then like what do I do next, so a lot of it was like trying to tell myself, like, it's perfect, it's perfectly okay to be scared and don't let that determine, and everything, and like, hey, I moved to a whole other country and tried it, like, I don't have to wonder now, like, what if so, if I can do that, I'm like, what? Like, I can do anything,
Collin 29:07
coming back to where I'm from with people I know who actually like me, probably gonna work out, but that I love how you said you start off by saying I'm allowed to be scared, and I know that often we don't give ourselves that even permission, because it can come across as weakness and vulnerable, and we have that mindset of no, I'm not allowed to have these negative feelings, I'm not allowed to do these things, because then that means I may fail, or I am weak, or I am whatever. So I'm just going to block all that off and put it off the side. So you know, you starting.. no, I'm allowed to be scared. This is scary, right? I think you know, just admitting, "Hey, I'm going to do this new thing. This is really scary, expanding a service area, taking on new clients, hiring, offering a different service, you know. Saying no to a client, raising prices, all of that, we have to like that is scary stuff, but like you said, Megan, it's then what am I actually control, what's actually controlling my decisions, is it the values that I have, is it the vision that I have for this, or is it my fears, and which one of those is really going to get me to where I want to actually be.
Meagan Cervini 30:25
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of like self trust involved, like you, you have to remind yourself like you've handled hard things in the past, like you've adopted, like you adopt, like I've adopted to new places, new roles, so like, if you can handle all these things, like, what? Well, yeah, like, why, why hold yourself back? Like, you have to think, like, what's the worst that can happen, and a lot of the time it's not.. it's I overthink so much, so I'm like, a lot of the time it's just myself that's the problem, and not not the actual situation I'm dealing with.
Collin 31:10
I love you know the part of what you said there is, look back to what you've already overcome and the how much you've progressed through that, and don't discount things that you've overcome. It can be easy to say, well, that wasn't that big of a deal, right? Of course, I was going to make it through that. Well, no. Flash back to five years ago, remember how there was no guarantee, and you were actually a little bit panicked, and now you're doing this hindsight with rose-colored glasses, like that is really easy, of to sometimes look back on our lives and go, well, yeah, well, obviously it was gonna, it was gonna be fine. No, there was no guarantee. I think about that a lot when Megan and I went out and started our own, we went full time in our business six years ago, and how at the time it was like crunching numbers, we were trying to forecast, we were planning, we were just.. it was like all like just all consuming, and yet when I look back on that now, I'm like, oh yeah, well, you know, we were fine, it was gonna be fine. No, six years ago Collin was panicked and freaked out about this, and had no idea what was actually going to happen, and yet the hard work, the grace of our clients, and the service that we did, like all that, did pan out. And so now, whenever we go to look to do the next big thing, it's, hey, well, we got through, we did get through that, it wasn't easy, we had to work hard, but it actually ended up being okay in the end.
Meagan Cervini 32:44
Yeah, like you, you definitely have to just try to move forward, and because no matter what, like, something's always gonna.. it can get messy, it's gonna be stressful, is everything, but like when a new opportunity comes up, like I will obviously still get scared, but I've tried to build that enough, like proof for myself, that like I can handle it. Yeah, and you know what, like it's no harm in learning as you go as well,
Collin 33:13
because it turns out we don't all know everything. Hi, I'm Collin. I don't know everything, I have to learn as I go. It's good, I'm gonna have a new experience, and it's your, your, your back over at Canada. You're offering dog walking, you're doing some boarding and things. When did you start bringing on people and growing your team?
Meagan Cervini 33:34
Oh, for staff, so it wasn't actually planned. So, funny enough, I had - I was very lucky, I had a friend, like my best friend, was working for me, and she was working a full-time job, but then just filled in here and there, mostly was helping with, like, overnight boarding, and then would help here and there with walks, and she left that job, and then kind of came full time, so I didn't really have to, I didn't have to hire someone, even though she, she was staff, but she was actually leaving and going to travel for a bit, so then I was, then I was in very much panic mode, of like, I need to hire someone to cover all the clients that she's been doing, because there's no way that I can do everything. I've tried that before, and never works, but so I was kind of like forced, either to, yeah, to hire someone new or let go of these clients or try to do it all myself first, and then see how that goes. How that goes, which would be, I would burn out, so. So, so, yeah, so I hired someone, and I was very lucky to find the person that I did. It was a long process, as I'm sure many dogfonkers have experienced, just finding that like one right person, and it's been amazing, and he's been with me for over a year now, and even the other staff kind of like fell into my lap, like the one girl is one of my client's daughters, she just happened to mention to me, and she was, they were looking for a job, and I interviewed her, and it just clicked right away, and then the third step, funny enough, is my mom, so she definitely helps me quite a bit. I'm very lucky to have her.
Collin 35:55
And now a word from our friends at Pet Sitters International.
Speaker 3 35:58
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Collin 36:26
Well, I love that, because it's well, this was somewhat born out of necessity, but taking advantage of that, and now you're able to add and build and grow this team of, you know, a lot of cases, I know a lot of people where it's, hey, if I hadn't made that first hire, I wouldn't have hired and grown my team and continued to expand, right? If I hadn't had done that thing the one time again, you learn, hey, hey, I can do this now, I have these people in my life and they want to work for me, I want it, all works out, and you're able to continue to grow and serve your clients, and that that's just part of again looking at those situations and going, where's the opportunity in this, and how do I take advantage of it? Not in a.. when I say that, I know a lot of people, it's not a take advantage of it in a negative way, it's how can exist for the best for both people, like that's really where there's a lot of power,
Meagan Cervini 37:23
yeah. Because that will, that, that's going to be like my next step, because I actually ended up moving over a year ago. So, even the areas that we service, I don't even live in those areas anymore, but I haven't been able to let go of the clients that I do have, and I make that drive every day, and it could be anywhere from a half hour to an hour for me to get to that service area. So that'll be the next step, is hire someone to take over those clients, and then I'm able to build in the new area that now I'm living in,
Collin 38:03
yeah, that's so exciting, and this, it kind of just, it's one of those things of, well, yeah, of course, you would just do that. Well, you know, two years ago that wasn't on the playbook, that wasn't, you didn't know that was good, you've, you know, you've come from the kennel, you know, stint in making and managing and developing one in Dubai. Coming back over, what? How are you doing things differently based off of your experiences? And I know that's a really broad question, you know, like, you know, how are you, I guess, you know, just doing business and treating people, and certainly, how is that different based off your experiences?
Meagan Cervini 38:40
Um, I would say, like, a big privilege was, like, would would be like that I was able to work for so many different companies in this industry, so it helped me figure out, as you said earlier, like, what I really like and what I really don't like on how to run things, so it showed me like the best parts of like standards and structure and professional professionalism, but it also showed me like how things could be a bit too impersonal or rushed, so I took the things I loved and left behind the parts that I didn't align with my values, so because I've built my services and everything around like my real life experiences across all those different companies, and it's not just one way of doing things, I've seen what works and what doesn't, so, and I'm still learning as, as we go, it's always good to broaden your knowledge, and, and everything, so I'm always happy to learn, but I think that is like a huge thing of what sets me different is. Like all the multiple experiences,
Collin 40:03
and you know it's one of those things, of in the time, in the moment, I'm sure some of those experiences were like, this isn't fun, I don't like this at all, and why did this have to happen, but now you're going, ah, there's a lesson I can apply the lesson, and I can do something different, I can cry there, that's where, hey, I went through that, so I could make this right, I, oh, that happened to me. So now I can implement it in this way, and that's part of when we look at either past mistakes or past experiences or past things that happened to us. Part of that process is, you know, saying, okay, that happened. Now, what is that? What is that? What's the implication now for how I behave? What's the implication now for how I interact with my clients, because everything that you've done and do, and this service, this industry is nothing but serving people. You know, how what kind of lessons about customer service and customer, you know, journeys have you provide? You know what, how do you provide excellent, you know, client experiences.
Meagan Cervini 41:04
Yeah, definitely. And it's funny, I never thought of this as a customer service based like industry or job. I think until I think maybe your podcast or an episode you talked about or something, and I was like, but it's so true, like, we, like, the people are trusting us with their family members, so I, a big thing, like, I, I want my clients to feel like seen, I want them to be heard and really informed, like, communication is huge. I'm very responsive with my messages, confirming bookings clearly. I send regular updates with photos, notes for the services, that way, like, if they're at work for their walks, or if they're on holiday for boarding, they still feel connected with their pet and everything that's going on, and absolutely completely transparent at all times, the good, the bad, make sure that they're always aware, but I will say the biggest thing is the relationship with the client, so like obviously not only focusing on the bond that you make with the pet, I love making that relationship of that bond with the person, like a lot of my clients I've known for like 12 years, 15 years, like I've known I've grown up with their, their babies, so a like, I love when that bond turns more into more than like just a one-time booking, it's like a long-term relationship, and I know, like, so many companies, and everyone says, like, oh, we treat, we treat your pets like they're our own, but I love to actually, like, put that into action, like, when with my boarding dogs, like, they are truly treated like they are my own dog, like, I take in boarding dogs on vacation with me, I do activities that are so, like, I make sure that they're pet friendly, like I go to a winery, so they're pet friendly, and bring them the dogs with me. I go to drive-in movies, I create that, like, type of experience, so that bond with the person, they know that their, their dog, their cat is being definitely like well taken care of, like I even have some clients, I'm in a couple of their wills that if something were to happen to them, I get their, their pet.
Collin 44:00
Oh yeah, I, I've said it a lot, but I have to remind myself, and even some of our own team members, of the.. I have been doing this for 14 years now. A dog has never called me, needing to take itself on a walk. A cat has never paid me after I've scooped the litter box. It's always a person at the end of that, right, it's a person who's got fears, anxiety, stress, biases, previous experiences that they are bringing into this, and if we're not kind of ready to catch the person, the whole relationship gets off to a weird start, and we're kind of cross talking at that point, and I love you, start off by saying, I want my clients to feel seen, heard, and informed, I love, like, I can't, like, yes, amen, that enough of this is such a wonderful statement to have with, like, this frames all of my client interactions, all of my client communications, all of my services, all of how I'm designed, how they interact with them. If it does not do these three things, we need to change it. Yeah, we do something different, right? And that whole like herd aspect, that's a part that gets left on the table by a lot of people that hurt. Does the client actually feel like they're involved in this, or am I just kind of stiff arming them and saying no, no, let me handle this, you go away, that that is definitely a way to do pet care, but to allow now, certainly there, I'm sure you've had situations where you've had differing opinions with a client, like how, how do you walk through that and still make sure that they feel heard?
Meagan Cervini 45:35
I would say, in general, um, yeah, if there was something like a client wanted me to do that I didn't quite agree with, I just, like, I would just explain exactly why I didn't agree with the situation, or with whatever they wanted me to do. I would like, I, I wouldn't just like say no, absolutely not. I'm not doing it like I would, like I would talk to them and have them understand, see if we could have like a common ground or if there's any like an in between of like that we can do instead, like meet each other halfway, and I like it's, it's funny, like it's not. I'm happy to say that, like, I'm very rarely have taught any of those situations.
Collin 46:27
That's that kind of means you're really aligned with your clients. I know early on, I know one that we encountered quite a lot was with clients who'd say, I want you to walk my dog on a prong collar, right, a prong call, and it sure a lot of, a lot of thoughts and concerns around that, it's something that we are going to push back gently on, and say, hey, and here's, you know, how we handle that, it's the why, why do you want that, why is that something that you, you'd like to have happen, and we want to figure out what's the goal for the client for having this done, and then we can say, oh, you're really concerned about pulling on your 100 pound dog, gotcha. Here are some other tools and other ways that actually you may find more effective, and to meet your end goal. So, part of that's just saying, why do you want this to happen? Maybe understand some of the context around that. Another one for us was we had a client who was just adamant you come into the house, it was for cats, you come into the house, you would turn on the master valve for the water, and then you would do the visit, and then you'd shut it off at the end, and it was so annoying, it was buried like way down into the basement, up in the rafters, like it took so long to do this, and it was like I remember going through talk to me about why this is so important that we do, can we just leave it on? And I remember her going, no, because 10 years ago we had a pipe burst and our house flooded, and I never want to have to go through that again, and I was going, okay, fair, well, we'll will handle the valve from that. We'll allocate a little bit of extra time, right? Like, once you can hear people, sometimes the why or their background or their history, man, that just opens up a whole lot. Now we have such an amazing relationship with her, and like trying to find those things with all of our clients, it really helps make sure that both people understand where everyone's coming from.
Meagan Cervini 48:26
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I would like it's such a rewarding part of the job to have that relationship, and it's really amazing for me to see even my staff now like coming to me and be like, oh, like, it was my birthday, like, just recently, last month, one staff, he was like, it was my birthday, and I didn't even tell him, client didn't even know, but she somehow found out, I forget how, she, she got on the gift, and like, he was like, that was just so nice, and I was like explaining to him, I'm like, you understand, like, like, their people's pets are their everything, and like, they are trusting you with that, like, their child, and you're coming into their home, you're you over time, you do create like such a great relationship. So it was like really amazing for like my staff to start to experience the same thing,
Collin 49:21
yeah, yep, to that relationship, and it really, that kind of connection, then means that you know it's the, they're going to work like they're going to work to serve that person better, because they know that person, they understand that person, and that really helps that that service and just that connection that they have, right there's just it just benefits everybody. Megan, I really want to thank you for coming on the show today, and for sharing with us your stories and adventures, and how you focus on serving clients well while also treating your team well and growing something that you're proud of and that you want. To be leading for those who want to get connected with you, pick your brain on all this stuff and learn more. How best can they do that?
Meagan Cervini 50:08
Well, you can find me on Instagram at Megan's Paw Squad. I have a website at www dot Megan's Paw squad.com or Facebook, which I don't use very often, but just Megan's paw squad for everything.
Collin 50:30
Hey, do you know what? Nice. Well, well done getting those handles. Well, I will have all of those in our show notes and links to our website, so people can get connected and follow along with you. Megan, this has been an absolute wonderful conversation. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Meagan Cervini 50:51
Thank you so much for having me. This was great. I
Collin 50:53
don't have to be the one to tell you that running and operating a business can be scary. There's a lot of pressure on us, there's a lot of unknowns that we are taking on, and so I really loved when Megan said that she is allowed to be scared, but she's not going to let that fear take over her decisions. How true in everything that we do when we run a fear-based company and make decisions out of fear, all we are doing is running away. There's never any planning or forethought or thinking through issues or problems. It is just react, react, react. You have the agency and ability to take control over those situations. It's not always easy, but it is worth it. And when we can step back and make decisions out of opportunity and with clear minds, the business and the decisions get easier and easier. We want to thank today's sponsors, Time to Pet and Pet Series International, for making this show possible. And we really 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.
