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Welcome to the Never Been Promoted podcast, where we're all about helping you cut the tie to all that holds you back. The excuses, the fears, the people, that sense of entitlement. Cut the ties so you can unleash your inner entrepreneur. Your host, Thomas Helfrich, is on a mission to make more entrepreneurs in the world and make them better at entrepreneurship.
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Welcome to another episode of Never Been Promoted. We're going live here today with Nancy Hassel. We're gonna look into the pet industry and look at here's some entrepreneurial, perspectives on how that industry is, you know, it's rapidly growing. We're gonna talk about, how influencers influence. You know, Nancy, by the way, is a host of a podcast called, I believe it's like digging into, into the pet industry. I'm gonna guess that she's probably either a, a dog fan or a honey badger. You just don't wanna honey badger don't even care. I don't know if you guys know that video on YouTube, but it blew up YouTube at some point. Maybe she has a honey badger. Maybe maybe a wolverine. We don't know. Something with claws or grizzly bear. Grizzly bears claw. I doubt she has a grizzly bear. It's not a pet, actually, but that's not what we're gonna talk about either. We're gonna talk about entrepreneurship today. It's gonna be fun. Listen. This is your first time here. Our mission is to help entrepreneurs get better at entrepreneurship by cutting the tide, all the the things that are holding you back. So you can really get out there and truly unleash your entrepreneur. It's gonna help you be free, help you be, feel a more sense of purpose and a more fulfilling life, specifically if you kinda find yourself stuck in a in a job. Specifically, if you've never also Never Been Promoted, I can help you with that one. I can also show you how to get asked to leave. I'm very good at that. Alright. Enough shameless plugs, but the last one is go to youtube.com and subscribe @neverbeenpromoted. Alright. Let's bring Nancy on. Nancy, how are you? Hey, Thomas. Good to see you. Too. I I'm, but very appreciative of you being here. Please don't stick your pitbull on me. I don't
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Listen, don't You're talking. I do have a pitbull. Don't start with the breed stuff.
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Or so I I have I know, it'll be very obvious in this conversation how little I know about the pet industry because I have 2 cats that we strategically may wanna let out of the house just so an owl can play with them.
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Stop it. Dogs can defend themselves. Cats can't, Larry. Cats can, but not not for an owl to take them.
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We had 2 other cats. I'm pretty sure one had hearing issues because he did not see that car or hear it apparently. Oh, Jesus. And and I could drop, like, a saw by it and it would not move. Oh. And he was like, are you can you hear? Listen.
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Cats are huge in the pet industry right now. It is one of the biggest part of the areas that of the market that's growing.
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Cats. Really. Cats. Yep. 1 okay. Before we get into this Mhmm. Do you wanna do a a well, let's start. Are you do you favor cats or dogs?
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Neither. I have a dog. I've had cats. I love all pets. I mean, I'm definitely a dog person, but I wouldn't say dogs over cats or cats over dogs. I like them all. Okay. How about this? Get go over ball python? Well, the ball python is not venomous, so, you know, they don't move too quick. I know a few people that have them. I'm not really into the reptiles, but they don't freak me out. Like, some people get really scared of them. They don't bother me.
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I had a goldfish. We had a goldfish we won at a fair, and, like, literally carried it home, walked home half mile with it in a bag, and we've had goldfish before. They always die after whatever. And and so I put it in the the tank that we a little 5, 10 gallon, little tiny typical tank. Right? Yeah. But a 5 gallon, a little bigger, had some space. His name was Fart Nugget, just to be clear. The kids named it. And they never took care of it, and it just became like a algae pool. Oh my gosh. So 3 years later, the thing's still alive. Yep. My and then my house thing living I know. Those The one time I was like, you know, I'm a clean it, make it look good. Killed it because the water it liked that water, and then I put clean water in that probably was so loaded with bleach and god knows what else we have, ended up killing it. Like
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Oh. I felt so bad. Yeah. That happened. My office didn't smell anymore like a cesspool of Well, there you go. Those those goldfish do live a long time. You know, they have that in, Brooklyn right now. They have that city sidewalk goldfish pond. I don't know if you've heard about that. No. There's a leaky fire hydrant, and somebody dumped fish in. And it has 24 hour guards, and there's, like, an aquarium now. It's the craziest thing. That sounds like something New York would do. Don't touch it. Yeah.
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And, actually, the mafia's owning it. They can't, like you look at it, you gotta pay $5. Take a picture of the full picture. Oh my god. You need protection. You need protection. Alright. Nancy, you wanna do a you wanna you wanna go back? You wanna set up what you do today and go back in time far enough to make sense to kind of, you know, set up your kind of journey story a bit. Yeah. Sure. So, I run American Pet Professionals, which is a business networking and multimedia
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organization for anybody in the pet industry. So we focus on overarching. So we have veterinarians. We have retailers, pet product manufacturers, dog walkers, pet sitters. And I started back in sitters. And I started back in February of 2,009 because I wanted to unite the industry, help people that were coming in to the industry, understand the industry, grow, learn, expand their business, and we were originally Long Island Pet Professionals. We rebranded in 2013 and, to American Pet Professionals, and we're celebrating 15 plus years in business this year. So it's been a lot of fun and a lot of work. I bet.
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It's a huge I mean, like, in 16 years, how much has the industry grown? It depends on
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So when I first started out, I would go to, like, networking events as a pet professional, and I would be talking to all the people in the you know, like, the lawyers, all the people, and they would say, what do you mean pet professional? They had no idea what I was talking about. I'm like, well, do you have a dog? Yes. Do you go to the veterinarian? That's a pet professional. Oh. And then at the time, this is, like, 2008 ish before we launched, I would say, you know, the pet industry is a $40,000,000,000 a year industry, and then, inevitably, the lawyer, the banker, the accountant, everybody would be handing me their card. What? What did you say? 1,000,000,000 with a b? I'm like, yes. And now we're at a 147,000,000,000 as of 2023, so it'll be higher this year. So we always get the numbers in at Global Pet Expo down in Florida in March of 2025. So we'll get the the actual official numbers for the US. Overall, globally, it's 300,000,000,000
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plus. So it's really a Oh, that's just US. Yeah. Oh, wow. Ginormous industry. Yeah. So in the at the conference, is it a pet friendly event?
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It is for b to b. So it's really, your pet has to be allowed. It's not for any any pet parent just to come, but they have a lot of pet influencers that go to the conference now. So it's quite interesting to see how that wasn't a case, you know, a few years ago, but now it is. Well, in this industry, right, so you've built your company. You do you wanna talk a little bit about your journey of building Yeah. And how you would label your company? So it's it's it's a lot of things, but it's some are you consultancy? Are you more communities? Like, what's the is average like, how do you label your company? And and tell me about maybe the evolution of that a bit so we I we can get a little learnings from what you Yeah. Absolutely. So, you know, when I first was starting out I'll start with myself. Makes it a little bit easier. You know, there wasn't a lot of places to go to you know, you could read about the pet industry and all the pet trade magazines, which I was doing for many years prior. But to learn about the pet industry and have that camaraderie of working together, one thing that I never liked in the pet industry is competition. If you had a, let's say, pet store and you thought the pet store 5 miles away was a competition, I always was of the mindset and still am if we work together, you're gonna build your businesses together instead of viewing each other as competition. And so that was one thing that I wanted to do, and I was also always meeting a lot of people that were wanting to know about the pet industry. And it is kinda funny how we started. I'll give you a quick synopsis. I was speaking at an entrepreneurial event of how to get your business in the news because I have a public relations background, and I happened to be sitting next to the only veterinarian. I think there was, like, 60 people at the event. And she asked me, are there any pet professional organizations locally here on Long Island? I said, well, there's a veterinary one. That might be, you know, something for you to be interested in. And after the event or as I was sitting at the event, I was looking around thinking, I can host a networking event like this. And she was also the 3rd person that asked me in 3 weeks or 2 weeks about a pet professional organization locally. And I was like, And that kinda spawned the idea of all these people asking me. I'm like, well, why don't I host it? And we hosted our very first one February 2009, and it was the middle of Long Island, the middle of the winter. We had people from 3 different states attend that event. Wow. All, yeah, all 5 boroughs of New York City and from all over Long Island. And I was like, oh my god. I called it from, like, Minneapolis. Perspective. People don't leave their boroughs, typically. Right. People on Long Island don't like to go, like, 20 minutes away. Street. Yes. They don't like to go 20 minutes away. I drive everywhere. So I was like, when people are registering to come, you know, emailing me and, of course, because I had a public relations background, I sent out a press release about it. So we initially got a lot of press. We've had, you know, reporters come to all of our holiday events, which we raise, bring food for some of the local pet pantries and stuff like that. So all that just kinda started to snowball, and by the 3rd event, people were like, how do I join? Because I had a little Facebook group way back when before they are what they are now. And I was like, I guess I need a website. You know? So I kind of, like it just kind of started. It wasn't like I had a business plan, you know, and sat down with all these people. You know? I had dabbled in the pet industry for years prior, thought I wanted to do retail, decided I did not wanna do that. I loved it. I still love retail, but I didn't want my own store. So it was really interesting. So, you know, we just started by providing education, and that was my main goal. So every month, we had a different networking event at a different location, and we had a different guest speaker that was either trending, something that people needed to know to help grow their business, and we've done that ever since. We've had events in many different states across the country over the years. The last few years, we've done, online events like everybody else. We were doing Zoom events, like, a couple of years before the pandemic, so that wasn't really anything new to us. And we've had members from all over the country. So our main goal is really to provide education, provide connections. We host a mastermind event every month, a webinar every month, networking every month. We do a lot to make sure that if somebody is starting out or even if they've been in the industry for a bit and they're feeling like they need that support, they can reach out to me. They can reach out to our hundreds of members, people that they've met. It's really just a a really wonderful community of people that, you know, the end goal is to have it be, amazing for pets and pet parents. Right? Whether it's a pet product, a pet service. And the main goal for us is for the pets to have a better healthier life, and so it all trickles down to the pets. That's what happens. Right? So we have a lot of fun, and I love I've also have a TV background, so I worked as a producer for ten plus years, so I always love video and all that stuff. Social media, getting people together that way.
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And and, I mean, that's a great start. Like, you you get that indicator that people care. People I mean, but sometimes I see what people do with pets. I'm like, you don't even do that for your kids. Like, I mean, it's like It's true. Themselves. Yeah. Or or themselves for sure. Like, you know, like, you get your dog cut, like, once a week. You haven't got a haircut in months. Like Right. Anyway, humor. But, along the way, what was kind of one of the more difficult things you had to overcome?
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You know, I think really just getting people to understand what we do in the beginning because the people that joined, we still have members from, like, that very first, event, literally from the first event that we had. But I think just overcoming the struggles that any pet business owner or any business owner has to come, you learn about things that you didn't anticipate. Right? I always tell my members, if they're having, you know, a tough time, if there's a bump in the road, it's a bump in the road. And then each time a bump in the road comes, you'll know how to handle it. You'll be a little more prepared for it. Even if you don't expect it, you'll know how to deal with it. So I think for anybody running a business, it's like a roller coaster. You know? Some things come at you that you're just, you know, really not prepared for, and then you learn how to be prepared for that for the next time. And some of those things can't be taught as much as we can give all the information. Every business is different, and everybody has a different type of business. If you're running, like, a doggy day care, it's different than running a, you know, pet product company. So there's a lot of variables to it.
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What, what would you recommend to somebody who's kind of trying to get in the space as an influencer? So I think let me first of all, define what an influencer is for the pet industry. You said I think, you know, off camera, you were saying something like there's more and more of these going on. So I'm define what it is and and just talk about that a bit because I'm curious, like, is it real? Is it not? Like, is it effective? Like, I'm I'm I hear influencer. I just think someone who didn't wanna get a job. Well Which is fine. I'm okay with your jobs, but that's what I hear first in my head. Right. Right. Are you really an influencer? I'm in some market.
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It really depends. Right? So you can be a per a person that's an influencer. Right? Maybe you're well versed in the pet industry and you or, you know, pet products, and you've been doing these different things for your dogs and you've been learning over the years, and you could talk about, you know, all of the things that you use for your dog, whether it's a product or training or what has worked, you're gonna influence people by putting your information out there. If you're in the pet industry or not, putting your expertise, your information, your experiences, and letting people know, like, this is what worked for my dog or cat. This may not work for yours, but this is what I do. So you could be an influencer as a person. You could have a a pet influencer. Right? There some of the pet influencers in the space right now have millions and millions of followers. It's really kind of mind blowing, and that has kind of been a thing for a while now. It's not really anything new. And their pet parents, their full time job may now be a pet influencer. So we have a lot of people in our community that I know personally that, you know, just watching their journey from starting out to now, like, blowing up on YouTube and TikTok and really putting the information out there, and they're doing it with their whole heart because it's not just about having a job. They want pets to be healthier. They want products that they know will work for their pets to be seen. So whether they have a relationship with that product company or not, you know, they're gonna talk about it. So I think those are the true influencers. There's a lot of people that are coming into the space, and I always say there's nothing wrong with that. Like, I'm happy to meet new pet professionals, whether it's in the business aspect or the influencer aspect. But as a pet parent listening to an influencer, there's a little cool tool called Google that you can always look something up if you're not sure.
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I've I've asked a question out there. Who's your favorite,
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head influencer? Oh god. I am such a middle of the road kind of person. It's hard for me to pick favorites. I think a favorite that a lot of people will know that people see that is their favorite is, like, Brody That Dude. You probably have heard of him. He's adult he actually goes to some of the industry conferences. Of course, I'm gonna be biased and say my own dog, full plug, Cody the bluenose on Instagram and TikTok if you wanna follow him. There's so many. There's Mangus who's a service dog for his, pet parent. There's so many. But there's some really big names out there that, you know, there's been actual conferences, just for the influencers over the years.
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That's I mean, it's a huge industry. I mean, how could you not? If I had a pet, I would I would probably be a different kind of pet influencer. I'd be like, here's why you don't buy a cat. I I grew up with cats. I love them, but I think they need to be outdoors. I think all pets should be outdoors, and I'll tell you what No. Meant to be outdoors because they're animals. Not to do it. No. Meant to be outdoors because they're animals. There are some humans who should be outdoors, just to be fair. I I don't wanna discriminate. You are. Here's why I wanna be a dog owner. And I I I think dogs are cute and nice. I like I'm always like, oh, you're gonna go away. Like right? So, in my neighborhood specifically, this is my reference. First of all, everyone claims they will go pick up pick up poop. Mhmm. I know for a fact no one in this house would go do it but me, and I don't want to. But I'll do it because it's you know, you gotta keep you gotta do the right thing. Well, it's if you don't wanna do it, you can hide a poop picker upper. There's 1 in every neighborhood that will come to your yard and pick up the poop. It's it's not even it's like when you walk them. And what I see are these other you know, I'm 48. I see these guys 10 years north of me, and it's just the dudes walking the endless dogs that they've acquired through the years. And all they have are they're just cleaning up, catching poo, and I can't stand the smell. So I'm like, that's me if I do it, if I if I cave in.
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Listen. They have poop scented bags now or lavender scented poop bags now. So solve the problems. I just wanna complain, damn it. Can I vent?
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You can vent all you want, but I'm gonna come back to you. I don't even have, which is funny. But this is why I I, you know, this is where I'm kind of, like, you know, like, this is why I don't do it. Now give me 10 acres, I'll throw a German shepherd out there and say run free, you know, poohoo. I call him poohoo, I think, or poohoo. I don't know. Anyway, the, the idea being is, I think having a pet is a fantastic, you know, thing for kids and and life and stuff, but it is work, because I was leaning to there. Yeah. Where do you see in in that trend? Like, do you see there's a lot more pet owners, but are people getting better, at
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being a pet owner, or is it getting worse? I think they are getting better because there's a lot of information out there. I do think that if you are a pet business owner, education for your pet customers is so important, and it'll help you lead and stand out in your if you have a store or a business or whatever. I think it's really important because as pet parents, if you ever see somebody ask a question in, like, let's say, a pet parent Facebook group, what do you use for this? You get a 100 responses. And some of them might have, like, the same response, but it can be really overwhelming. Like, okay. Wow. That was a lot of information. Then you still have to do your research and figure out what is gonna be the best for your pet, whatever it is that you're looking for. So I think they are doing better. I used to teach a responsible dog ownership class from 2,008 to 2013. We taught in person over 25 100 pet dog parents or about to be dog parents, and we had trainers and veterinarians in the class. There were no dogs in the class. It was purely educational so they would understand how to be a more responsible dog parent. And, you know, it's a really interesting thing. I think that is really important because, you know, like you said, if people don't pick up after their dog or their dog is running loose when it shouldn't be, you know, there's definitely education behind that.
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What, what what technology is going on in the industry? It seems like there's tech, AI, automation everywhere. Yeah. How's this impacting,
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the pet pet world? Yeah. It's it's growing a lot now in the pet industry. I always like to say that it has gone kind of, like, up and down. There's always been tech, but some of the products that were, like, groundbreaking maybe 5 to 7 years ago, you don't see anymore. But now there's more things like wearables where your dog could wear a collar, and it'll track how much exercise and the heart rate just like the watches that people wear. And then you can send that info to your vet. So that's pretty incredible. There's cameras that you can, you know, press in and say, you know, hey, Buster. What are you doing in there? And you see the dogs like this looking at the camera, the videos. It's pretty funny. So you can check-in on your dogs. There's all kinds of products. AI has really been, a big impact into the pet industry. There's so much to AI. This could be a whole another podcast. You know? So I I really think it's something that if you're interested in tech or you have an idea, do your research. Look to see what's out there. One of our members has a brand new tech product that's about to launch. It's gonna be really cool. I can't wait until his product is available. It's gonna help people that are have service dogs as well as people that are training their dogs to go out to the bathroom. So if you ever do get get a dog, Thomas, it might work for you.
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Well, I don't I don't rule out anything, but I it I'm ruling it out now. Okay. Maybe did you I the wearables are interesting too, because well, I think I saw some people been hooking up tiny little, like, almost small miniature GoPro cameras on their cats. Yeah. All day, And they're blown away by what the cat does all day. They're like, holy moly.
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When I was a kid, I had a indoor, outdoor cat, and I always wished that there was a camera. This is you know, I'm not young, but I'm not that old yet. We're close in age. And I always wish there was a camera to go see what this cat was doing. Where is it going? And that is also one of the wearables. Right? So you can track where the cat went, or you can build a boundary for your dog. If your dog goes past that boundary, you'll then get a text alert saying that your dog went too far. So that's also part of some of the wearables, tracking, all of those things. But, yeah, the little cameras, I've seen some of those videos. It's really quite fascinating to watch, and we all get stuck watching when this cat is wandering off too. Oh, a cat video.
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Yeah. Mike Mike gets stuck on fishing channels. You know? Actually, my some of my favorite videos in the world are cats beating up other cats. It's like they are other humans. It's to me, it's just the funny because, like Yeah. When dogs do it, you don't know if someone's gonna get murdered, but when a cat does it, it's just funny. So, I I like that. What what, in in the in your world too, like, from the pet industry itself, as you as you kinda look out to the future a bit, what what kinda concerns you the most? Maybe state state US versus globally. I mean Yeah. You recently obviously heard a debate where people are eating the cats and dogs. Oh, god. I had to say it because it's so relevant today. And I just it to me, it's like, I don't care what side of the aisle you may or may not be on, but that was just funny. Tragically funny. Anyway, which what do you prefer, cat or dog? Who's there? What are you most concerned about it? Yeah. Except people allegedly eating the the pets. What what else concerns you maybe in the future? Well, aside from that nonsense,
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for the pet industry in particular, I don't know if I have concerns really for the pet industry. I think as people come into the industry and, you know, have a great idea of product, I always say that they should do their due diligence and really look into see what's out there. Go to the trade shows, get a feel for the industry, learn about it, understand it. Because, you know, I'm always kinda heartbroken if I hear somebody that has a really great product, but maybe I've seen, you know, 15 similar type products. Not to say that theirs won't take off, but it could be something that, you know, maybe if they just look into it a little more that, you know, maybe not putting all their time and effort into that or developing something else that they've been thinking about.
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Yeah. You know what? Well, any product development, like, right, like, is your even as you look at your organization, right, have you ever been to that spot yet where you know you missed you made a either an error by not going down a path with your business? Like, you're like, oh, I should've done that. I knew I should've. Or did you avoid one ever? Like, we were like, I'm so glad we didn't do the the app or something else. If if you have that if you face that situation in your business. I would
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say I'm pretty evenly keeled on watching the industry and paying attention to what goes on. There's a lot of spin offs of, you know, similar things, but I always say that everybody has their own voice. So you can't get caught up in, like, they stole my idea or unless, you know, it's gonna affect your business. Right? But there's always gonna be somebody that has something that's similar to yours and stuff like that, whether it's a product, whether it's a service. And I always just say focus on what your idea is. We never did an app. I never still I don't regret that. I never wanted to do an app. Some apps are amazing for your business, but for us, it doesn't really it's not really necessary. So that's something that I'm glad I didn't do, to answer your question. I've been approached a 1000000 times about having an app, but it really didn't make any sense for our business. I think that, you know, you really just try to look at the overall picture. I think don't get caught up in the shiny things is one of the pieces of advice because we all wanna be, you know, blow up here and blow up there on social and this and that to grow our businesses. But I feel like you could be pulled in every direction, that you'll waste time in certain directions. Really do your due diligence and research what you're what it is that you're gonna do. And set a clear goal for your path, you know, for your business path. What is it gonna be that you wanna do? It's really important. Well, let's take a so fast forward to your what what's your what's your goal you're gonna obtain? So my goal is always growing to getting more members, and we've just had a bunch of members join in the last week. So that's always exciting because a lot of people are still coming into this industry brand new, not knowing a lot about the industry, which, you know, when you're working a full time job and your new pet product or your new, pet business is your side hustle, you don't always have time to pay attention to everything. So I love to be able to provide that information for our new members that join or for people that are brand new coming into the industry. We just met somebody over the weekend who has a product, who is very green to the industry, but not green to what he's doing. So I was already able to, like, chat with him and say, oh, you need to look at this. You need to look at that. So my goal and, you know, growth for 20 25 is to always be growing our membership and helping those pet businesses and nonprofits and animal rescues. We have a lot of members in that realm as well grow.
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Well and is your as the industry is expanding, Luke, what is there are there areas that are really struggling for for and and what would be the reason for it? Because I'm thinking, like, it's you know, as from an entrepreneurial standpoint, hey. You're thinking about jumping in the pet industry. It's huge. Yeah. I love animals or pets of some sort. Where would you say, hey. Maybe stay away from this part of the market? You know, because it's it's shrinking. You don't want a shrinking market. Yeah. There's an area in the market industry. I wrote an article in, I think, Feb no. June of this year,
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about, you know, retail stores that have been struggling in the last year, year and a half. Right? And it's not all retail stores. So there are some retail stores that are doing fantastic, but paying attention to that, speaking to a lot of our retail, owners that are have shops and stuff, seeing stores near us close has been kinda sad. You know, a lot of it is online shopping. So if you're a pet parent and you're going into a store to get all this information from the person telling you know, in the store, whether it's a manager or the owner, and then you leave to go buy it somewhere else, you could be attributing to putting that, business out of business. So that has been one area. But on this flip side, I've seen a lot of new stores open recently. So, hopefully, they will do well. Also, we have a member that has franchised their business, and they're doing really well. So I would say if you're thinking about it, try to niche down. Speaking of cats, we have a member who is in New Jersey, and her store is just cats. It's amazing. And she's very got a very fine eye on what the products are and what she has in her store. So it's quite interesting. If you can do boutique y type of store, that might be your avenue as well. So really do your research. I don't think it's an area that's ever gonna go away, anything like that. I just think that, you know, it could be an area that you're thinking of opening a store in the next 6 months to a year, you might have some hurdles to get over to get people into your store. Yeah. The,
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I was recently on a a TV show called The Blocks. It's an entrepreneurial, reality show. And without saying the results, one of the people who did really, really well was a, is her name is Erin. She lives in, you know, tiny tiny, like, whatever in Texas, and and it's it's a pet grooming, business. It doesn't come in a year or something like that in pet grooming. And I'm like, you know, why why do I get online and do podcast every day when I can hire some people to who love the trim and do dogs, like, maybe I should but but the the service aside, because if you can add the human element of, hey, you personally feel good, you know, the dog's treated well and you have fun with it. Mhmm. And it it just be that becomes a much better, I think, brick and mortar type business because that doesn't go away. Because even in and when when you have pandemic type of things, you could throw a mask on and drop off, you know Yeah. Who keep the growler.
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You're so right. The services area is a very big part of having a successful retail store. If you can have grooming, if you can have self bathing, you know, for your dogs, bring your dog you where the owners bring the dog in and give them a bath, and they don't have to clean anything up, that's a really great convenient area. There's, you know, stores that are adding services and something that will help the pet parents hosting events. We have a pet events newsletter we've been sending out for 15 plus years. It's such a big deal to host an event and keep hosting and keep doing something different and fun to get those people to come into your store. I think that is a game changer because I know personally when people have events, I watch more people learn about I go to stores because I'm like, oh, they're having a cool event. Let me go to that. Right? What and it's also here's a card you ever joined.
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I see what you're doing there. There. The, the the the business that just popped in my mind Mhmm. Is like an indoor swimming pool for dogs. Mhmm. You because I don't think dogs fight nearly as much when they're swimming. They can't. They're like Well, you have a you have a a we have to get you around some happy go lucky friendly dogs. I only notice dogs when they're about to kill each other. So, like, see see see? Confirming. Little dogs are the ones you gotta worry about, not the big ones. The big ones sit there until you really, really, really, really have made them mad, and then they still just growl. But think about that. Imagine if you had a little business where, you know, you just it's an old pool.
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Yeah. Like, we have a we have a dog swimming pool. Only dogs allowed. Yeah. They have there are businesses that have that. They have multiple. There's even businesses that are now dog parks and bars, which has kind of taken over in a lot of areas of the country. We still don't have one here where I am in long on Long Island, but, you know, I'd be nervous to go to that. I think it it could fit for everybody, but I'm like, who's paying attention? I don't want my dog, you know, so far away, but a lot of people love it, and they do really well. So, you know, the the way to come up with the you know, there's also bar there's also, like, cat cafes where you can go get a cup of coffee and hang out with the cats. There's also dog cafes where you can go get some food, and then you go in and hang out in the dog area. You could bring your computer and type. You could bring your dog with you. So, you know, making the world a little bit more pet friendly, responsibly, I always say, is is a lot of fun. So there's so many different ways that you can open a business that is brick and mortar that might not necessarily just be retail. Right.
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I heard Michael Vick's opening 1 here in Atlanta. Oh, don't even start. Too soon? Still too soon? Yep. Always. Michael Vick, Atlanta Falcons quarterback, very successful quarterback, decided to have a illegal dog fighting ring, and I think believe he went to jail for several years for tax evasion because that's how they get him. Mhmm. I think it was only, like, a misdemeanor fine for the dog side, but the tax evasion side, I've got to go for, like, 10 years or 5 years or some kind of crazy number. Anyway, too soon. Okay. You see where my humor goes? This is I see. This is You should you should be, a New Yorker, really. Right. I'm I'm trying to just relate to you, like, this is who I I I don't wanna talk to him. He's like, everyone else in New York just like, oh my god. Blah blah. I I your industry, by the way, is is phenomenally to to me, it's crazy because I think the baby industry is, like, a 100,000,000. No. But but globally now let's expand this. You are you you're typically your organization is focused on US
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Mhmm. Members? Yes. Do you have any plans for, excuse me, for global domination on one? So we have had members from around the world that were either had, you know, offices in different air different countries, and then they had offices here. So, you know, they just said that they were here in the States, but we've had people from around the world. I'm not re renewing or changing rebranding, I should say, my business name from, American Pet Professionals to International Pet Professionals. I think, you know, we globally, we use LinkedIn. You know, I do speak with a lot of people from around the world on a pretty regular basis. We meet a lot of people at the trade shows from different areas, so that's always a really great way to gauge. There's also a lot of different industry events in different areas of the world that are pretty, amazing to go to. So it's, definitely a global, you know, industry, and it's fun to see countries that maybe weren't as pet business related now becoming pet business related and realizing that there is something for them. So I love to see that as well. Yeah.
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There's a question that I should have asked you but did not. What was that question?
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Oh, for me? I don't know. I feel like you've asked me a lot of questions. I think you covered all your bases.
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What's your basis? It's not my basis. Those are your basis. Right. What what what what Billing say is, like, if, if you had to do it all over again, what's the one thing you would not have done in your journey?
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I don't know. I don't I don't think there is something that I would not have done. I used to do public relations for the pet industry, so I had clients alongside growing this business, which was really great because I was a PR person for 2 years. I worked for a company where I got my degree. And I did that until 2018, and then I decided I no longer wanted to do that. So, I have fantastic clients, but I'm glad that I stopped that because it was a lot of work. So if anybody's looking to hire a PR person, you wonder why they charge so much, it's a lot of work.
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So be good.
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To get people, you know, what they're asking, what they're hiring you for, and they should have proof of work, and they should have referrals and all the things. But I would say that's probably the one thing that I'm glad I don't do anymore. I loved doing it probably more than, I should have, but, you know, it's it's sometimes you have to figure out what your next path is, and moving forward without doing that was really what was I was focused on. I really just want to focus fully on American Pet Professionals.
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I appreciate that. Thank you, by the way. Shameless plug time for you. Don't go away anyone listening. This is who who's gonna get who should
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go where and why? Yeah. So if they wanna learn more about all the things that we offer, you can go to americanpetprofessionals.com. There's a lot of information on there. We have a lot of free information on there as well. If you wanna read our blog, there's a lot of stuff on there that you might learn something, rest of the podcast that you mentioned earlier, digging into the pet industry for a dog, not a wolverine that you said earlier. And if you wanna follow us at American Pet Pros, we are at.
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Awesome. That's fantastic. And the the the podcast you have, you know, typically, you know, tell me about that a little bit too from a a
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you know, who's your audience for that? Who is it, you know, the guests? Just you talking? Tell me about the the podcast a bit. Yeah. The podcast we started 2 years ago, basically, because we did something like this. We've always hosted a live interview show, and then my producer said, hey. I'm, you know, gonna start offering podcasts. I said, alright. Let's pull the audio from there. And then I have a bunch of solo podcasts for myself just giving information and tips and ideas for the up and coming pet professional or somebody that's, you know, maybe a couple of years in. So I have a lot of fun on the show really digging into what their background was, and the best part of it is that learning about, you know, what people were originally starting doing, what their corporate job was. They always had a dog or a cat or 2 cats, and then what did they want they what they wanted to do, and so we really just dig in and interview and ask all the questions and pull out some advice, and I think it's inspiring. Everybody has their own story of how they got into the industry, what they wanna do, kind of like what you do here, asking all your guests. So it's a lot of
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fun. You know, I feel like you're just scratching the surface. There you go. You know, you gotta groom your your your guests as well. The pet puns are endless. Right. You you gotta comb through the the thick of it. Yep. Gotta get those burrs out and take thank you, Nancy, for coming on the Vampyrin. Thank you so much for having me. This was a lot of fun. I appreciate it. I'm gonna put you in the periwinkle room. No no no snacks. I'll be right back, but Alright. Thank you. Appreciate it. If everyone who made it here today, thank you so much for listening to, Nancy's story and, her journey. Very cool organization. Definitely check them out here at americanpetprofessionals.com. I appreciate everyone who's listened. I hope you learned one thing today about the industry and maybe one thing, that you you're like, hey. I I guess I could do that. I I've I've gotten over some kind of hurdle. I've cut a tie to something to help me, be better at entrepreneurship. So that's our goal. That's our mission. And until we meet again, I want you to get out there and, go unleash your entrepreneur. Thanks for listening.
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Thank you for listening to the Never Been Promoted podcast. If you liked today's show, subscribe at youtube.com forward slash @neverbeenpromoted. Until next time. Get out there and go unleash your inner entrepreneur.