721: Rebranding For the Clients You Want with Rebecca Thompson
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What happens when your business changes faster than your brand does? Collin talks with Rebecca Thompson of Skyline Dog Walkers about rebranding, shifting toward dog walking, and learning how to communicate what makes a business different. Rebecca shares how she moved from teaching into pet care, built a team-based service model, and began using data alongside instinct to make stronger decisions. They also discuss visibility, social media, client acquisition, and the challenge of leading a team through change. This conversation is a reminder that growth requires clarity, consistency, and the courage to keep showing up.
Main topics:
Client acquisition through visibility
Rebranding with business clarity
Team-based dog walking systems
Balancing data and instinct
Creating emotional client connection
Main takeaway: “We cannot live on vibes alone.”
That line from Rebecca Thompson is such a powerful reminder for pet care business owners. Our instincts matter, especially when we know our clients, our team, and our service deeply. But if we only make decisions based on how things feel, we can miss what the data is actually telling us. Growth often happens when we combine our gut with real information: revenue trends, client behavior, service demand, team capacity, and marketing results. That is where we start making decisions with both confidence and clarity.
About our guest:
Rebecca Thompson is the owner of Skyline Dog Walkers in Houston, Texas. After leaving the classroom as a teacher, she built a pet care business that has shifted heavily toward dog walking and team-based service. Rebecca recently led her company through a rebrand to better reflect the elevated, reliable, and relationship-focused experience her team provides. She is passionate about building systems that support clients, pets, and employees while continuing to grow as a business owner.
Links:
Skyline Dog Walkers: skylinedogwalkers.com
Instagram: @skylinedogwalkers
Email: info@skylinedogwalkers.com
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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 0:02
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 Dog Co. Launch, guiding not just ourselves but our business and our team through big changes and setting new vision and working towards large goals is something that a lot of us find ourselves in the middle of doing or wanting to do in our business, and so to talk about this and many, many more things, I couldn't think of a single better person to have on the show than Rebecca Thompson, owner of Skyline Dog Walkers, on the show. And Rebecca, I'm really excited. Yes, for those who can't see the video, Rebecca is showing off her brand new shirt and logo, we're going to talk about that. But Rebecca, for those of you who, for those who are listening and haven't heard of you, don't know who you are, please tell us a little bit more about about yourself and what you do.
Speaker 1 0:53
Yeah, I am Rebecca Thompson. I'm here in Houston, Texas, born and raised, my favorite city ever that I can't wait not to live in. So that's a complicated relationship. But I started my business about three years ago, and we started as overnights and boarding mostly. And now we are 75 or 76 actually percent dog walking. So been a like a total flip. But I wouldn't have an end of any other way.
Collin 1:22
Now, three years ago, what were you doing three and a half years ago, or 3.1 years ago?
Speaker 1 1:28
I was a teacher. I was teaching sixth through eighth grade at that point, and getting a lot more gray hair.
Collin 1:38
And so, why the switch from teaching into pet care?
Speaker 1 1:44
So, as you know, teachers don't really get paid a lot, and there's a lot of stressors in the day-to-day roles. And I figured, you know, I wanted to get my own dog, but I didn't want to be gone all day. So I decided to start pet sitting to kind of kill two birds with one stone, and I don't know about killing. Oh my god!
Collin 2:12
I'll tell you the joke. Talk about
Speaker 1 2:14
killing birds.
Collin 2:15
I'll tell you the joke that we used to tell people when we first we were making our new there. She was her degree was environmental toxicology. Mine was in natural resource management, and so the running joke. We I would tell clients this because they'd like. So what do you and your wife do? And I would say, oh well, I'm getting a master's in natural resource management. Megan's getting a degree in environmental toxicology. So she kills things. I keep them alive, and that's the balance we have in our marriage.
Speaker 1 2:41
Great balance, great balance.
Collin 2:42
Amazing, we had anybody let us walk their dogs.
Speaker 1 2:47
I just thought pet sitting was a good solution to getting more money and also curbing my desire for a dog. And then, like two months later, I got Chloe, so it didn't work out that way. But yeah, and then I just started getting more requests than I could do by myself, and I really wanted to look to exit the classroom really soon. And so, when was that? May 2023. I said goodbye, classroom, and here I am.
Collin 3:20
Wow. So as we were recording this, we're sitting in May 2026. So yeah, you've been doing this, you know, the three full three year exit at this point.
Speaker 1 3:28
Yeah, it's been crazy, but I I love this crazy better than the other crazy that I was dealing with.
Collin 3:37
Well, so this is a question that I have been asked recently of why are you still doing this? What keeps you around? So for you, Rebecca, I mean you've been through a lot. There's a lot of things going on. Why do you keep coming back and keep showing up every day?
Speaker 1 3:56
So, short answer, probably my addictive Personality. Love your answer. Probably, I mean, teaching. I never saw necessarily the end game. Like you just pour into, pour into, pour into, pour into, and then on your end, you don't-you're not building up yourself. You're building up other students, which is wonderful and so beautiful when it comes full circle and they end up changing the world. But oh my gosh, you can only do that for so long. And with my business, I'm still able to have those like pour it into parts with my clients and their pets and my employees, but I really, I guess, I see it more actively. Like I see the benefits actively, and then I'm also able to benefit myself in the long run and build this for me and for my team and for everyone that.
Collin 5:01
It's it's that investment aspect of well I know when I do X Y Z when I run the payroll well whenever I get the training SOPs taken care of when I get the marketing campaign nailed that's investing in building into something that has like that both immediate but also long term impacts to more than just you that you can see it's really tangible, and it may take a little bit to get there, depending on what stage you're in. But that, like, I walked a dog today so that the client could do whatever, like, live their life. That's an immediate impact on somebody, and that kind of, yeah, I will say that's a little bit of addictive. Of like, okay, how do I do this? And I'm sure you've also got like this. Hey, I have to solve this, and I, you know, kind of sounds like you kind of maybe like a little bit of that problem solving, a little bit of that chaos, a little bit of that unstructured nature of it is what we do, and we all find that little bit of what about my current business do I enjoy, and let me do let me find ways to do more of that.
Speaker 1 6:03
Yeah, thank you for saying that. So much better.
Collin 6:07
Well, and so you started off doing a little bit of everything, right? You're doing some overnights and some stuff, but you've done a name change recently. Why did you do that?
Speaker 1 6:21
So last year, my goal was to double my revenue, and my prize to myself was to get a new logo, like professionally done. And I was like a week away from my branding day with Pet Marketing Unleashed, and someone else in a conversation-it was a group conversation with Michelle-and someone else was changing their name, and so I kind of piggybacked off their rebrand question and asked a different question. And Michelle was like, "Well, are you open to changing your name? But oh, I wasn't planning on it, but why not? I mean, I'll try whatever Michelle says. She she knows what she's doing. She helped me double my revenue last year, so obviously she knows ways that I don't I don't think of where I'm not aware of, so then I was like, okay, I'll do it, and I'm glad I did. I've already, I mean, that was January, February, and I launched my rebrand beginning of March, so almost two months ago, and I've already seen a difference in the inquiries and leads that we're getting,
Speaker 2 7:42
really.
Speaker 1 7:43
So that's interesting.
Collin 7:46
Now you doing the whole rebrand, the name change, everything. Why? Why was that important for you to to do? I mean, you said that was a gift to yourself to do a rebrand at that point. You know, a lot of people may be in business 510, 15 years with the same kind of brand and what they're doing. Now you've been you were in business two and a half years. It sounds like by the time you were like, "What do I need to change? Like, where did that initial kind of thought come into this?
Speaker 1 8:15
So I'm in Houston, the big city. Yeah, I love Houston. I wanted when I first started Skyline. I wanted a city vibe and a Houston vibe without saying Houston because I didn't want to box myself in. I don't want to live in Houston forever. Maybe my business will be here forever, but I don't know. And I want it to be open. So Skyline was a very Houston City vibe that could change to another city, but that's about where most of my thinking went when I started my business. And my logo was literally like a few minutes on Canva, and that was it. So, at through the two years, two and a half years, I just started seeing more pop up, more new businesses, new pet sitters, and almost all of them had the skyline, and they were Houston this, Houston dot, Houston, this, houston.so. it makes sense that their logo is a skyline, but then it just started to feel very much like, well, I know we're different, but I don't look different, and I need to look different. And we give a more elevated service. Our clients are a little bit more on the higher end of you know pricing, and if my brand isn't matching that, what are we doing? So that's kind of where all that came at.
Collin 9:49
I you said that phrase. I know we're different, but we don't look different. And man, that's a really frustrating. It must have been really frustrating to be sitting there going. But you have no idea. You have no like to the clients. Like you have no idea everything that we do and how we put it together. But just if you put a splash page of all the logos of everybody in my area, man, what what does actually that communicate? And that that as a business owner is incredibly frustrating to make sure that you are. It's like, well, I am different, but do they know I'm different? Can they tell that I'm different? Like that's a real, real distinction at that point.
Speaker 1 10:33
Yeah, and the short answer to everyone is no. They don't know you're different, and no, they don't even know about you. So you got to get loud. You got to get visible. You just got to like saturate wherever you are, and most of us don't do that. So
Collin 10:49
why do you think a lot of us don't? We we don't include like it's it's hard for for us. Like it's not something that we like natively want to do. So like why do you think that's hard for people.
Speaker 1 11:04
Therapy time. Therapy
Collin 11:06
time. Okay. It
Speaker 1 11:07
depends. Yeah. I think a lot of us started our business as a way to care for people, right? And it became something we weren't prepared for, which is lovely and beautiful, but I think a lot of us haven't mentally and emotionally come to a place or arrived to a place where we want to shout it from the rooftop, and I think a lot of us that have teams, especially, there's some sort of feeling of imposter syndrome, and you know, oh my God, what am I doing leading all these people? So there's that portion.
Collin 11:51
Yeah.
Speaker 1 11:52
But I think there's also the portion of we think we are shouting it from the rooftops, but our rooftop is a one-story house in the middle of a neighborhood where, like, no one is gonna see you or hear you. So, yeah, yeah,
Collin 12:11
yeah. Or our shout is actually a little quiet whisper to ourselves in a corner, right? This is yeah, and I that that's me. Like I'll raise my hand to to that of every time I'm like, oh my gosh, we are talking about ourselves so can you imagine we're talking about ourselves so much, and Megan will go, Collin, this is the this is the first time in two months we've mentioned something. I'm like, oh, okay, well that's not that's not so bad, but you get and I think a lot of that is this almost this fear of success too of well if I put myself out there what if people actually turn and start using me or what if they find out that like I'm not as what if they what if they and so I'll just let them figure it out on their own and then I'll be you know super secret over here in a corner and then we wonder why we wonder why we don't get the phone calls. We don't get the inquiries because you're right. People, they're not looking at you. They're looking to solve a problem. And do they get that when they when they're when they're scrolling? Have you heard of Ty and Pet? Dan from NYC Pooch has this to say. 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 timetovet.com/confessional.
Speaker 1 13:48
And people consume well. First of all, people go about their day, and mostly internally, they're in their thoughts. They're in whatever's happening in their life.
Collin 14:02
Yeah,
Speaker 1 14:02
they're probably not gonna see your flyer just because they literally passed it. So there, you know, you gotta take into consideration some statistics. Like, not everyone that has eyes is gonna see what you're putting out there all the time. I don't know. I don't know. No, you're you're. It is.
Collin 14:23
It's it's. Oh man, I'm so out there. Everybody's going to see me, and it's like nope, nope. Statistically, they're on their phone. They're talking to somebody. They have other thoughts, other concerns. The trick is, am I going to be there when they when they show up, right? When they're when they're there, and am I going to click with them? And I mean, you. So, how have you been? What are things that you've been doing to be more shouty from the rooftop? You know, and on the right, I guess first off, how did you identify which rooftop you needed to be shouting from to connect with your clients?
Speaker 1 14:58
Ooh, good question. I think I have settled on. I need to be shouting from multiple rooftops. Rooftop, whatever I said. Yeah. So there's that. Not. I mean, I can't shout from every rooftop all the time, right? I'm one person, but I can have a few rooftops that I know have more acoustics,
Collin 15:31
yeah,
Speaker 1 15:32
better acoustics in that neighborhood, I guess. The one of my biggest reframes that I've had this year is that you know social media can feel very intimidating. It feels like there's this expectation I think people have. You're a business owner in 2026, which means you have to be a content creator, and it's just this negative feeling to think about it like that. But to reframe that and say no, it is 2026, and I am able to, and I can easily get in front of 100 or 1000 more people that I wasn't able to get in front of 20 years ago. Like, oh my God, why am I not doing that? That's amazing that I'm able to do that and so easily. Just like from this thing that I already carry around all freaking day, like your phone just is always readily accessible to you. I think that has been the best reframe I've had so far this year, and just embracing that a little bit more, getting out there. It is every time I put on my camera, it is a little bit of anxiety here, a little bit of doubt here, a little bit of whatever else, but just I gotta step past that and just do it. And every time I do it, it gets a little easier. So
Collin 17:12
I love that. Of it talks more about the opportunities and what I'm doing something for. Again, that reframe into that positive aspect of I'm gonna like this, but man, there were there. How many businesses 20 years ago would have paid millions of dollars for this kind of possible exposure? And I get it for free, or if I boost a post, right? Like, okay, oh, oh man, I paid $50 to boost this post, and it's just like this kind of the spoils that we have open to us, really, I I think that is both terrifying for some people to think, oh man, with one post I can get in front of 1000s of people. Okay, let me go spell check this one more time. But then the well, I've got to get it out there because the whole point of me being a business is for me to be serving people, and the only way they know about me is if I'm out there. I mean, you've been doing like one of my favorite ones that you did recently. You did this comparison to the millennial marketing and the Gen Z marketing. And Rebecca, I was laughing out. I because I read the millennial marketing, I was like, oh, that's really good. And I was like, I was like, oh, oh wait, it's just talking to me. Such a me too. Because I was like, yes, this is perfect. I'm like, oh wait a minute. It was such like a like like a punch to my face about who do I think I'm talking to, ultimately. Who do I and that sometimes I have to talk to different people other than what I may naturally be inclined to. I mean, do you struggle with that?
Speaker 1 18:46
Yeah, yeah. I do not view myself as my ideal client. So, with the rebrand, that was-I remember they gave me the-they're like, and what did they call it? Like I filled out my questionnaire about my ideal client, and then they gave me back this board of where they thought I was head in, and my first question was, "I love these colors. Is that bad? Because I'm not my ideal client. So they were like, "No, it's not bad. So I do love my colors. Literally, my heel color is the color of my bedroom. So I was like, "Y'all got this spot on, but I'm not my ideal client, so I don't know how this is gonna go. Yeah, but yeah, it's just I have two main ideal clients, and they're different generations, and now Gen Z is coming into the mix because they're on their own and they're getting dogs. And they need support, and some of them have like really great, busy, professional lives. So now it's like, okay, I've got to add another one into the mix and learn how to talk with them, which I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on from being in the classroom with them. But yeah, it's crazy. Just once you think you got it, you got to add something else, and it's just crazy.
Collin 20:25
Yeah, because you and that you had that caption of something like "same same purpose, different generation, or "different generation, same purpose. And I just again was like, "Yeah, because Gen Z is like the oldest Gen Zers are like 28 or 29 this year, and that just doesn't seem like that. What? What? Okay. Well, yeah, I have to connect with them in some capacity, and not in a like, like I just it's it's it's a okay. There are people out there who need my services. How do I do that appropriately? And that's an ever evolving door that we're kind of working through.
Speaker 1 21:04
Yeah, so true. And then, you know, I think you can once you get the rhythm and the vibes of each, you know, ideal client you're trying to target, it gets a little easier, but then it could still change a little bit here and there as time goes on, and you know we're just we're just going with the flow,
Collin 21:30
and that's so important, right? It's just like okay, I don't my I might not know all of the answers, but at least I can try. And one of the things about having a lot of this commoditized down to our phone in our pocket is, well, shooting video. That's basically free, right? It just takes me a little bit of time. I'm not having to pay a camera crew to follow me around and do all this stuff. So what? It's okay if I have to do four or five, 100 takes. I just cost myself time, and now I can really work refine this. Or if I'm working in Canva and making these graphics, well, that's something that we can just kind of churn through kind of quickly until you find that. But it's that iterative process of okay, what later? Let me try again. And that that gets back to that a little bit of addictive personality, I'm sure too. Of oh, that didn't work. What else can I do? Oh, that didn't work. What else can I do? Or I did that. Okay, how do I do more? 100%
Speaker 1 22:22
I am. I've been doing more social media this year, so probably heavily like two or three months, right? So I'm now starting to try. It's like a game of reading my dashboard and the analytics for this reel versus that reel, and like what the curves mean. And as soon as it drops here, it means that I had a my first three seconds wasn't engaging enough, right? So I need to change whatever I said. And if it drops over here, it's actually a good thing, and that's fine. That's natural. And if it drops here, that means whatever I was saying there just didn't catch anybody, so I probably just need to say something different and try that next time. So it's just, I mean, it's this big puzzle, but it's starting to feel a little less intimidating the more I dive into it, and the more I just kind of like spend a few minutes a day, looking at this and looking at that, and watching this video, breaking down the analytics over here, and it's a learning experience, and it's fun, intimidating, scary, and ridden with anxiety all at the same time.
Collin 23:38
Well, you're doing that in the context of the rebrand, the name change, like a lot of newness. Were you worried about this change in direction for your business as you shifted away from the the pet care into the dog walking and how you looked, and now how you're sounding? Like that's that's kind of an overall, like sounds like a business personality kind of change for you. Was that concerning or worrying to to you?
Speaker 1 24:07
Well, first of all, Collin, everything is concerning to me.
Collin 24:11
Okay, fair, fair. Okay, everything.
Speaker 1 24:16
I I have a little anxiety, if you can't tell, so you know when I started the business, I I should go back and calculate how much pet sitting and boarding we were, but it was like almost everything, and I pivoted kind of naturally a little bit, but then when I started dog po, I just went full into only talking about dog walking because eventually I would love to be like nine to five or even 10 to four. I mean that is the dream, right? Yeah. Um. And so last year we got to 70% dog walking. So I feel like our name change and rebrand was like plain ketchup. We already had a shift in identities
Collin 25:16
as
Speaker 1 25:16
a whole, but our name didn't reflect that anymore. Our branding didn't reflect that, like, so we just kind of needed to catch up and get with the times.
Collin 25:29
Well, it's it's a it's a good reminder of if we're not keeping our finger on the pulse of our business, sometimes we don't notice that shift or that change, and sometimes if we're not, it's not sometimes. But when we don't monitor and track some data, you know, it doesn't have to be all 1000 different pieces of data and information. But the only reason that you really knew that, I'm sure, was a from feel of, huh, we're not doing as many late nights as we used to, and huh, I'm not really as that busy on the weeks that the weekends that I used to be, and huh, like a lot of those. But also being able to go back and look and say, okay, revenue from dog walks. Oh, that's a bigger number, right? Okay, like this we're seeing, but but that took looking, like take that intuition and actually looking at our business, and that's a key aspect. That how did what helped you make that change and have confidence in the change. You could look at your business and see the change was already there. If we were just kind of like, I know a lot of us go with our gut, just kind of intuition and kind of well, I don't know. I guess this is kind of what I think I should do. Man, there's a lot more writing on that I think than we anticipate, or a lot more anxiety that can come from that, and until you can look at the data and go, "Okay, I actually have confidence in this because it's kind of already a thing.
Speaker 1 26:48
Yeah, I'm very much like a I make decisions on vibes.
Collin 26:53
Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1 26:54
and that's that's been a big wake up call, I guess. I'm trying to get a little bit more into data, and it's it sucks to be honest, but I'm doing it. It's fine. I'll do it little by little.
Collin 27:09
Sorry, Michelle. Yeah, it's fine. Vibe, I vibe decisions. It's one of those things of like ultimately, like nobody knows your business like you do, and sometimes we just have to go on that gut decision and that gut instinct that we have, like that has served us well. So it's fine to trust that. I think the other aspect, though, is there are ways to add supporting evidence in cases, and I think especially if we think we can only vibe right. I'm definitely one of those of like, oh, I don't, I, I think the only way to understand this is just to vibe my way through it. Until kind of recently, it was more of a okay. I can do a yes and here. I can have the vibe, the instinct, and then I can go look for more hard data to either support or tell me something different. And that that all of a sudden becomes really powerful in our decision making and the direction that we set.
Speaker 1 27:59
Yeah, we cannot live on vibes alone. We would end up a little bit hungry, I think. But yeah, the data is important, and I mean, it doesn't have to be everything. Like, there's not this; it has to be 100% this, 100% that. But I think when they work together, that's where the magic happens.
Collin 28:22
Well, and so you're also, but you're not doing this by yourself. You have a team through this. What was it like, and what is it like leading your team through this identity change in your business?
Speaker 1 28:36
I think it was good. I mean, when I told them about our name change, they were all like, "Oh yeah, that's awesome! You know, they they were along for it, and you know, now I think we're kind of on there. There was a while, which I think we're still kind of in this, where we have like two identities almost, so I think we're kind of on the tail end of fully skyline dog walkers. But I think overall, the team already knows we do mostly dog walking, and they were excited about it. They liked the logo, they liked the colors and the branding, and they were excited to get, you know, that it's more beautiful than the one I made. So they were excited to have that on their uniforms versus like this canvas skyline. I don't blame them, but I think also now is still it's still a time to work and make sure the new people coming in kind of understand we're still in this period of shifting a. Little bit, so I think that's where the more difficult and challenging part has been. But the new people also are kind of like, okay, great.
Collin 30:11
Every time we've changed something or had a slight identity shift or we're working on something in the background, I tend I forget just how accepting the new people are of this-that's the reality of it. They just-they come in. They're like, "Oh, okay, part of this is on fire, and we're having fun. And everyone, okay, cool, yeah, okay. Well, this is got it. What What do you need me to do? Meanwhile, I'm yeah, I'm stressed. I'm anxious. I want to make sure they really connect and they they understand the answer. And nine out of 10 times, the new people come in and they're just like, "Huh, okay. And what? What? And and yeah, can I go do my job now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got it. Yeah, you go.
Speaker 1 30:49
Yeah, so true. And then you know, the one out of 10. There's a reason they're one out of 10, and they probably don't stick along. Right.
Collin 31:01
So has that has that changed? I mean, you've you've had long standing you know values and and a vision and mission for the business. How are you with with your new hires and your existing team? How are you now like really living those out though? Because a lot of us have like we have words on our website, I have things that I say on social media, but how do you actually give meaning to those on a day-to-day business? You know, throughout the day-to-day.
Speaker 1 31:33
What a loaded question! I think this is my biggest area for growth right now. I really emphasize these things when they come on as a new team member, but I need to draw a line connecting my decisions and my feedback with the team to those mission and values, and I think I do a little bit, but I don't think they quite correlate what I'm trying to say. You know,
Collin 32:15
yeah.
Speaker 1 32:15
So I definitely want to just like keep them more front of mind than they currently are. So yeah, that's definitely going to be my growing pain this year. I think
Collin 32:30
it's really hard. I think it's really because a lot of times we're just not in that mindset of teach and connect this to mission. It's a lot of times it's solve problem now, get this taken care of, put out fire, answer the question, move on, and this is something that I I really struggle with. The okay, sounds like you didn't lock the door. Well, because our mission for our clients is to da da da da da da, we always want to like that's not where my brain goes, and first thing, I'm just being very honest here. It's
Speaker 3 33:04
just
Collin 33:04
not. But the more we can get into that mind, the more we I can I can start pointing it back. The more it starts to become more self-regulating, because they start to make that connection, and I have to I stop having to make it for them, and that just that does just take time. Of how do I ground grind this into everything that we do? And we tried at one point in our like, and it's still there in our manual and our training stuff. Of like, here's this big long how to, and then in the footnotes, it's and here are the the parts of the mission or the vision and the values that it connects to, right? And then the next, but we you have to, but to make it come alive, it means you have to talk about it, right? It has to, you have to show up and be in front of people, and that does just take effort. And having either team leads or trainers or yourself, who that is your first thing that it's rewiring my brain to think in that way, it does start there.
Speaker 1 34:04
Yeah, because I can't expect them to do anything that I'm not doing.
Collin 34:11
Yeah,
Speaker 1 34:11
like you said, I'm like, oh my god, okay, let's stop this problem.
Collin 34:14
Oh yeah, it's so hard not to be in that mindset of you're at a visit. This thing happened. Let me take care of this, and let's move on. Like, oh, let's just push it away, and instead flipping that and trying to go, okay, let me just take a couple more seconds here to really explain this, so that you, you get this.
Speaker 1 34:34
Yeah, a couple seconds makes all the difference. If
Collin 34:41
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Speaker 1 35:54
So I think a lot of you know dog walkers and companies, at least in in my area, they do one or two things very well. Like they're either really reliable and they have great systems, or they connect well, super emotionally, and on like just have amazing connections with their clients and the pets, and they're reliable, but they don't really have systems. You know, like they have. There's like this golden triangle, I guess, that I really want us to achieve. And so I think as I get to know more more service providers in the area, it just comes really evident. Like there's one of these points is missing, and that's not for everybody. It's just majority that I have been able to kind of like study a little bit. So I really want us to be able to be that reliable service, it's amazing to me how many stories our clients still have when they come in about people not showing up, people not doing this, people not feeding, people not walking. I don't know all the things. So I want us to be the most reliable. I want us to be able to build that emotional connection as a team to the client, where our clients feel connected with us as a business as a whole, rather than just that one person. And I still want them to feel seen because you know it'd be easy to make them not feel seen since we're a team. But then I also want them to feel supported with our systems, and I want our system to work super well. Oil machine, like let's go. We have a system for this. We have a system for that. We don't need to, you know, scramble and panic, or you know, we have a system, we have an answer for these things. So that's kind of the the golden triangle that we're shooting for. And I think ultimately we do well. There's room for improvement, of course, but yeah, I want to be all of those things for our clients,
Collin 38:24
and it's a it's a wonderful reminder, Rebecca, that the differentiator doesn't have to be at the leash. Doesn't have to be at the leash when we're out there with the dog. Now you have a lot of systems for training and all that stuff going on there, and but it's the what is the client experience? It's what I hear. What you're talking about there? Of okay, what differentiates us? How does the client experience interacting with me? And that that is an aspect that I will tell you that not a lot of people really really consider because I'm here to walk dogs. I'm here to take care of cats. I'm here to, yeah. But and I've been saying this for years. But like, I have never a dog has never called me for a dog walk, and a cat's never tried to pay me after scooping its litter. It just has not happened. And the day that that does, then everything that we've said is completely wrong and off the table. But for now, it's still a person that calls, that has that problem, that concern, has had a bad experience, has had trauma from something in the past. Somebody not showing up. These things, and so when they interact with us, do they feel like we used to joke a lot of times? Like, oh my gosh! Like new clients must feel like they're just going through a buzz saw to start using my company, and I don't want that feeling for a new potential client. I don't want that feeling for anybody. Like it should be warm and welcoming. It should be confident and professional. It should be well thought out. That ultimately is okay. Hey, you know, above and beyond the dog walk, I know you. Got me. I know Skyline Dog Walking has this under control. That that's that whole other layer that we miss. That that just is like, and that takes time to build.
Speaker 1 40:14
Yeah, and it is hard because there's a lot of moving pieces in each of those categories, but I think it is ultimately possible, and I do think a lot more service providers in general should be considering it.
Collin 40:32
Yeah. Well, it's I mean, if you just dive into that first one, okay, most reliable. Okay. Well, what is that? What are the implications of that? Okay. Well, do I have a way of knowing where I'm supposed to show up? Okay. Do I have systems to remind me to be there? Do I have a way to catch if I don't? What if I can't make it? Who's going to show up behind me? Okay. Who's going to show up behind them? What's going to happen? Like, what's going to happen if it's last minute? What's going to happen if it's same day? What's going like? All of that stuff is our systems and policies and procedures that get us to that point us upwards to most reliable, and there's 100 other things that fall into that as well, aren't there? Like the first the check-ins, the check-outs, all that stuff is like that sounds like a lot, and it is. But if the goal is to be most reliable, this is important to us, and you know, like the emotional connection stuff, like especially like as a team, like you use team base, so you can swap anybody in at any time to walk any of the the dogs.
Speaker 1 41:32
10 out of 10, recommend guys. It's so nice.
Collin 41:37
Did you did you struggle with that at all? Getting to that Point
Speaker 1 41:44
as I got more away from pet sitting, not so much. But I think pet sitting is just that's kind of the expectations that clients have because that's all they've ever experienced. Typically, with dog walking, it's a little easier to explain and talk about the pros and the benefits of that. So I think there's kind of some nuance depending on what your service line is. Yeah.
Collin 42:14
Now, what you you you really enjoy that? What are some some of the biggest benefits for maybe people who are on the fence of going team based. The
Speaker 1 42:23
biggest one I've actually been able to experience, which is beautiful. So I have a reactive dog, and she's just fearful of new people, new, new, new, new. But the more she's on the schedule, or the more she's on, whatever. Right? Does that make sense?
Collin 42:48
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 42:48
Okay. The more she's on the schedule, the more she warms up a little bit quicker to the next person, the next new person, the next new, especially male. She's one of those, but that's my favorite thing to have experience because now when I have a client, they're afraid of mail. Okay, are they really? Because I mean, we can help you with that.
Collin 43:17
Yeah,
Speaker 1 43:18
and then they don't really have anything to say. Don't take
Speaker 4 43:23
a drink right
Collin 43:24
then. Oh no! But you know it's it is because you can say, "Hey, here is actually how our service natively, naturally solves that problem, and you just and you just get that right. You just get a bunch of amazing friends for your pet that are all going to act the same way, trained in the same way, have all the oversight and knowledge to handle them. That kind of consistency will really help here, and that all of a sudden just like unlocks a lot of like, like okay, what else can we do here?
Speaker 1 44:00
Yeah, and there, I mean, there are certain types of dogs that we just can't take because we're team based, and I understand there are more. There's a there's a scale of reactivity, right? And I know my Lacy girl, she is not on the the furthest part of that scale, right? She's more just on the fearful, shy side of her reactivity. But a lot of pet parents just have kind of written it off almost for their pets, and they shouldn't do that. They're like, there's so much opportunity there for your pet,
Collin 44:43
and it's so hard to break through that because if it's been years of well, I tried one time with my friend, and then months later I tried with so and so, and they're just they just can't do it. Like, but let me introduce you to this system, right, of how we're going to to do this, and and and and. But those boundaries, those barriers are a lot of those are pretty entrenched and ingrained. And until they experience it, it's hard for them to really conceptualize how that's going to benefit them.
Speaker 1 45:11
Yeah, yeah, it's true.
Collin 45:14
And it, you know, it is. But it's also then important to go, okay, because I can swap anybody at any time. We still have to have that emotional connection with that pet and and the owner of so like what's that look like to make sure that one day it's somebody the next day it's somebody else next day it's somebody else not for any particular reason other than you may have somebody called out somebody's sick somebody's whatever like that all of a sudden I know is a stumbling block to a lot of people too
Speaker 1 45:40
Yes. This is gonna sound bad. I didn't make this sound not so bad. I purposefully make sure our clients are not getting used to the same person. I if I see they've had the same person for a couple days that week, I'm like, oh, gotta switch them. Gotta gotta make sure I am putting multiple people in there. And I I know there are certain types of pets that would not do well with this scenario. And as professionals, we know the difference. So just hear that I'm not talking about those, but if we have a client that's five days a week, they're going to have three people that week, at least, if not a different person every day. And I know not everyone's going to agree with that. That's a hot take, but it just is so much better operationally. It the pets tend to do super well, and they just they have their friends. They have groups of friends, and it's not just the one person. And their world is bigger, and they get loved in different ways, and they just they have a ball. So why not? Why would I keep that from them?
Collin 46:58
Well, and then the client gets to see that in the updates too, right? Like that's what's so powerful. So we, like, we are a fully team-based business who does pet sitting three to four visits a day for clients. The morning person is different than the afternoon person is different than the evening person. Weekday people are different than the weekend people. Okay, like so. If somebody travels over the course of five days, they may experience nine to 10 different people, depending on scheduling and availability. And what this allows us to do also is, okay, I now have extreme flexibility in route planning, scheduling, backups. Everything's ready to go. My clients get the benefit of the reliability, the multiple people, the friends that they're going to make, and we've seen the quality of service go up because now, if I have five different hands and eyes and ears and people in a visit, do you think I'm going to get five unique opportunities to catch things that may have been left mistakes, you know things like that that somebody else didn't catch. Yes, we saw it when it was just Megan and I. I would go into a visit, and then I would leave, and Megan would come in and go, "Did you know that there was a can and that's not washed on the counter? And I'd be like, "No, because I don't see those kind of things when I'm in visits, you know. And she'd be like, "Okay, so, and now we get that same kind of benefit of okay, everybody's doing a little bit for the visits, and it's just like all around it really helps. And like you said, Rebecca, there are instances where this just does not work, and so we don't take those kind of clients on, and that's part of the screening process. Of we know how we operate, we know we work for a lot of people, but not everybody, and that's just kind of how we have to accept that at that point.
Speaker 1 48:44
Hell yeah! You don't have to put that in there, but I just want to say hell yeah. Proud of you, Collin. So many, especially heavy pet sitting businesses just think it's not possible, and it is possible. It is all about how you frame it to the client, and like I don't know, like you said, you have more eyes. You know, I would rather have 10 eyeballs than two, and make sure I'm seeing everything. And then also, the correction doesn't have to come from me as the big scary boss lady. The other team members can say, "Hey, like by the way, someone left this. Like let's just be mindful. And it's just less scary coming from their peers rather than like I'm always the one saying, "Hey, you left this on the counter. And I totally get that. Like it, people just don't see everything that other people see. Like, I don't know. Can I ask you this question? This does not have to go on the podcast. No, but I'm I'm collecting data.
Collin 49:54
Okay.
Speaker 1 49:56
Let's say you have a wet can of food, like you know the. Little, little can.
Collin 50:02
Yeah,
Speaker 1 50:02
and the client gets, or like the pet gets a fourth of the can. How would you divide the can?
Collin 50:12
Depends on how thick the can is. If it's a deep can, right? Like, like a skin, the thin one, yeah, skinny one. Okay, well, I would pre cut if I if I opened it I I mean I would pre cut my four pieces
Speaker 1 50:26
how
Collin 50:27
how straight line down make it like a cutting a a pizza okay right and then and then across horizontally so that there's a 90 degree angle with both lines that intersect. That was
Speaker 5 50:42
perfect.
Speaker 1 50:43
That was the reason. Me too. Okay. But oh my gosh, so many people don't won't do that. It's like been 5050. I've been polling people ever since this happened, and people will cut it down the middle in fours. I know. I don't believe that. I didn't think anyone would ever do that, but apparently it's about 50-50 so far. I've been polling people for about two weeks. It's crazy. It's crazy.
Collin 51:09
Huh? I I don't. That makes me very uncomfortable. Actually, I think I'm going to have to go for a long walk and think about that. That's not okay.
Speaker 1 51:20
Yeah. Anyway, all that to say, people do things way differently.
Collin 51:24
They do, and there's there's there's richness in that. There's beauty in that. In that we can all write reports differently, take photos differently. We're all going to have different ways. But when they have the same foundation, that all of a sudden becomes really powerful. Of now, like just unleash that power upon the client and the and the pet, and and it really changes a lot of stuff. And that's where that emotional connection comes in because now, oh my gosh, 10 people have commented about how amazing my dog is. Oh my gosh, look at how you know 10 people have done this, and 10 people have worked on this, and so many people have worked on this, and all of a sudden, your dog is acting better around people when they're out with you because of that conditioning. Like there's just, yeah, I could go on for a long time about that, but it's all. But that does take the systems. The only way that that really works is if you've got systems nailed down and you have those. So you really have to work on the back end so that they can feel supported.
Speaker 1 52:19
Yeah, and even when you think you got it all, something reveals itself. So that's fun. But yeah, I mean, it's ever we're ever learning. There's no place of arrival. There's no magic bullet. Like there's nothing that's just gonna be like bippity boppity boo. You have the perfect business, and it's never going to have to change,
Speaker 6 52:41
right?
Speaker 1 52:42
But I think that's that would be a waste of our human existence if we could just like arrive at that place and be there forever. Like we have to evolve, we have to learn, we have to keep working and improving and changing and pivoting and all those things, things.
Collin 53:04
Rebecca, I really want to thank you for coming on the show today and for sharing with us your story, as well as encouraging us to keep going, trying new things, and connecting to things that matter. For those who want to follow along with all of your cool stuff, check out your amazing brand and get ready for your website whenever it gets posted and gets launched. How best can they do that?
Speaker 1 53:25
Calling me out right now. Instagram is the way to go at Skyline Dog Walkers. You could also email info at SkylineDogWalkers.com. I'm on Facebook, Rebecca Thompson, but there's probably a lot of Rebecca Thompsons in the world. So, good luck.
Collin 53:46
Well, I will have links to the to all that in the show notes, Rebecca, and on our website, so people can get connected with you. This has just been an absolute joy and highlight to my week. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Speaker 1 54:00
Thanks, Collin.
Collin 54:02
I love when Rebecca said that you can't live on vibes alone, and it's such a powerful reminder to us. Our instincts now, like our instincts, do matter, especially when we know our clients, we understand our team, and we get our services deeply because we created them. However, if we only ever make decisions based on how things feel, we are going to miss what the data is actually screaming at us. True and sustained growth happens when we combine our gut with that real-world information, so we understand the revenue trends, the client behavior, the service demand, and how that changes from season to season. And we actually can understand what our team capacity is, and we can link our marketing to results. That is where we start making decisions with both confidence and. Clarity. We want to thank today's sponsors, Tyned Pet and Dog Co Launch, for making this show possible, and we really want to thank you so much for listening. We hope you have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your week, and we'll be back again soon.
