August 18, 2020 • 35 mins
FYI!!! Carla Marie is no longer the host of a morning show in Seattle but she is still supporting small businesses in every way possible. She’s even started her own small business with her radio cohost and best friend, Anthony. All of the links below will help you stay up to date!
Follow Carla Marie on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/thecarlamarie/
Watch Carla Marie and Anthony’s Show on Twitch
twitch.tv/carlamarieandanthony
Sign up for The Carla Marie and Anthony Show newsletter to stay up to date:
https://view.flodesk.com/pages/5f516ae62c60490027b9ec20
Email Carla Marie
SideHustlersPodcast@gmail.com
Text Carla Marie and Anthony:
201-305-0894
Follow Carla Marie and Anthony on Instagram
http://instagram.com/carlamarieandanthony
Subscribe to Carla Marie and Anthony on YouTube:
YouTube.com/CarlaMarieAnthony
Follow Carla Marie and Anthony on Facebook
http://facebook.com/carlamarieandanthony
Email Carla Marie and Anthony
CarlaMarieandAnthony@gmail.com
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Side Hustlers podcast. I'm your host, Carla Murray.
Thank you so much for being here. This podcast supports
small business owners. It follows and tells the stories of
people who are following a passion outside of their day job,
and a lot of these people they might be starting
their side hustles now, right in the middle of a pandemic.
On recording this in August twenties. If you're listening in
(00:22):
the future, hopefully the world is a little bit different,
but also hopefully some really cool things like different side
hustles and businesses have come out of this. I know
a lot of people are taking this downtime to look
at what's really important, and I am one of those
people right now. I know I mentioned a few episodes ago,
but I lost my job a few weeks ago. I
was a morning show host. I've worked in radio for
(00:44):
ten years. I hosted my own show for four and
a half years, and now I don't, so it's kind
of crazy for me. This podcast was my side hustle.
Now I guess it is one of my many side
hustles because I'm doing other things. So my co host,
Anthony and I both are not on the morning show anymore.
So we are doing our own little thing and we
are streaming a show on Twitch every day. Twitch is
(01:06):
just a video platform. You can get it for free.
Twitch dot Tv, Slash Carla, Maurie and Anthony. Link is below.
I would appreciate any support can give us right now.
It's super helpful just to hit that follow even on
this podcast, if you hit subscribe, leave a review. All
of these things matter. Actually just switched podcast platforms, so
that's really cool. And we're gonna get more support and
(01:28):
more promotion for the podcast, which means more people listen,
which means more small businesses get supported. So I'm super happy.
But okay, this week's guest. Her name is Lindsay. She
lives in the Philly, South Jersey area, and she has
a pet care company. It's called Achilles Total Pet Care.
Link is below to check her out. But Lindsay built
this company because she hated her day job so much
(01:49):
and she knew she had a passion for animals and
pets and she just launched her own business. And this
podcast is about finding your passion and building off of it.
So this is Lindsay's story for a lot of people.
You know, why are you when do you know what
you want to do and this is something you want
to do, do it. I'm a hustle, side shod hustle,
do it. I'm a hustle hustle do it. I'm a
(02:13):
hustle shot hust Come on, ask about me, yo yo.
It's the side Hustless podcast we call The Root. Okay, So,
coming to me from Philly today is Lindsay. Hi, Lindsay, Hello,
Carla Marine. Now are you in Philly proper or around
Philly or I'm around Philly just in the suburbs. War
He's okay. Cool. So you and I actually met back
(02:36):
and we're going to talk about that in a little bit.
But you sent me a d M on Instagram, and
I'm actually gonna start by reading the d M you
sent me. I know it's probably gonna be weird to
hear your own words, but I have to read it. Okay,
you said, Hey see, I'm so excited to see what
you and Anthony come up with. You guys are the best,
and your future looks great. Not sure if I still
qualify as a side hustler because I'm now ten years
(02:58):
deep into my pet care business. I started while working
a nine to five. That made me so miserable. I
would cry every Sunday night, and ten years later, I
still lose my mind with every new client. I get
it's not glamorous and I'm not rich and I'm not
selling anything, but my journey has been interesting and awesome.
So now, having just relocated while balancing this COVID nightmare
(03:18):
and a young daughter, my business has taken a beating,
and that's a whole other story. Anyway, I'm in Dirty Jersey,
just outside of Philly, so I'd be honored if you
consider chatting with me for your podcast. If not, good
luck with everything. I've been a longtime fan and MDF,
which MDF is our my Day Friday podcast. But Lindsay,
you obviously qualify you're on the podcast. You were a
(03:40):
side hustler. I want to hear your whole story. But
then you also dammed me and told me that you
were drunk when you sent that. I totally was, and yeah,
two glasses deep in a nice bottle of chardonnay. You
know what I needed, the liquid encouragement, because sometimes you
just don't know if you qualify. I don't know that.
I always see myself as a side huff slur because
(04:01):
I feel like there's so many movers and shakers out there,
and I'm not necessarily it's terribly aggressive person I don't know.
Sometimes maybe it's just that imposters just gonna say that
my friend is called imposter syndrome, and if you're listening
or not, you're like, what the hell is imposter syndrome.
It was actually reading an article about it yesterday. I'll
find it and I'll link it below in the description
of this podcast. But it's this thing where like you
(04:22):
feel so confident and all of a sudden you're like,
no, no no, no, wait, I don't deserve this. I shouldn't
be doing this. And me personally, I've gone through this
so much over the last few weeks thinking I never
should have had a morning show. That's why I got
taken away. So you looked at me just now and
I'm like, oh my god, don't do that. I'm going
to tell you the same thing, lindsay, don't do that.
Thank you. You've worked your ass off, obviously, you've been
(04:43):
doing your business for ten years. It was a side
hustle at some point. So first of all, tell us
what Achilles pet care even is? So Achilles. Subtle Pet
Care is a pet sitting and dog walking company that
specializes particularly in rescue dogs. We love bully breeds like
pit bulls. You know, sometimes the breeds that other companies
(05:05):
may not be comfort taking on, which I think is
so you know, crazy, but you know, everybody has their
own comfort level. I specialize in giving personalized care. I know,
a lot of times when you see a dog walker,
you picture either like a little lady or sometimes you
know a hipster in the city with like fifteen little
peoples on the end of the leash um And that's
not necessarily what it is or what we do. We
(05:27):
give each pet individual care, so you're I'm not yeah,
I'm not going to take your your giant dog and
try and manage it with a little tiny dog. And
I'm going to make sure that you have peace of
mind that you know, Fifi has the pink bull in
the left corner and Fido has the blue ball in
the corner. Because I know having a lot of misfit pets,
(05:49):
because I did a lot of work and rescue, which
we'll get to. I'm sure that's really important because if
you don't follow someone's schedule exactly, things can go really wrong,
and for me, I had a really hard time going
away and getting coverage for my pets, and I thought
that maybe there would be a need for someone like
me out there that was kind of willing to take
all those misfits at other pet sitters might have a
hard time life. So then why pet care? Do you
(06:10):
mentioned you've worked with rescues, Like, where did your love
for pets come from? Oh? Gosh, I think I was
born with it. My whole family just has a passion
for animals. But I started volunteering at an animal shelter
while I was working at my job of doom Um,
and I found I found a lot of happiness and
joy just being with these animals and helping find them
(06:31):
homes and fostering. I know, you know, the fostering joy
and also heartbreak. I know it is gut wrenching sometimes,
but I mean, I just I loved it so much,
and I just thought if I could somehow take my
love of animals and make it into a career, how
amazing that would be. And I was lucky enough that
I one of I made so many friends in volunteering.
(06:53):
One of the women that I met had her own
pet sitting in dog walking business. She was a great
mentor to me. We're still friends to this day. She
still hooks some clients and I just I kind of
was able to marry the two and it gave me
tons of experience managing these crazy dogs that other people
don't want to do. So that was it, and then boom,
you have your own company. So what is this. Let's
go back to this job of doom. I don't want to.
(07:14):
I hate to take you there, but tell me. Can
you tell me what the job was? Yeah? So it
was basically a job doing marketing for just a floor
covering company. It was nothing, nothing special, nothing unspecial, but
it was I mean, I would venture to say it
was a pretty toxic masculine work environment where you know
you're being told every day you need need to tell
(07:36):
me book ahead. I don't. Yeah, it was just it
was just one of those things where you know, Sunday
night would come in your your stomach would just start turning.
I would sometimes be in tears. Oh it was. It
was pretty awful. You know, always a threat of a
layoff or you better look busy when somebody walks by.
I remember sitting at my desk and clicking an Excel
spreadsheet to my desktop to an excel s fread sheet
(07:57):
to my desktop. Because it was a company that was
dominated it by men, so they didn't really give women
a ton of responsibility. Your job was to just like
rearrange the spreadsheet fifteen times. Yeah, and my boss, I
would say, we borderlined on him being quite inappropriate at times. Um.
And it was a company that was very small. He
was the best friend of the owner that was really
nowhere to go with it. So it was just one
(08:19):
of the things. And you know, I'm applying for jobs.
I had a college degree at that point, I'm applying around.
I'm trying to get out and I couldn't. Nobody was hiring.
It was two thousands, and it was gonna say, yeah,
so two thousand. Then you launched Achilles Total Pet Care
while you were working at the job of doom. Correct.
How did that play out? Then? How did you find
time to take care of pets while you're working a
(08:39):
full time job? So I started just pet sitting. So
it's kind of there's two different aspects of well, there's
actually many, but two main aspects of business. There's there's
pet sitting, which is like Carl Murray is going on vacation,
Who's gonna come take care of my kittie cat? So
that was pretty easy to work in. So I would
either bring pets into my house if I could, or
I would go to their house after hours, you know,
in the morning for work, you know, tenner time, bedtime,
(09:02):
And that's where I started. So I would do that
on the side while I was still working my regular
job of doom. And then once I left that, I
was able to start incorporating dog walking midday for Carl
Murray's going to work and her dog needs to be
let out and walk kind of thing. That's great that
you were able to do that while work in the
nine to five. So then how long were you doing
(09:22):
the side hustle before you made the jump? Because this
is different for everyone. I've heard a ton of different stories.
I've heard a ton of different reasons. I've heard people
get let go and then that's why they do it.
They were kind of pushed. It wasn't necessarily a jump.
So what was your I'm done, I can do this
full time. Well, it actually didn't go quite that way.
I uh it was. I would say it was probably
four to six months before I said to my husband,
(09:44):
I really need to get out of this job. Like,
I know, the business is still small. I know he
was he's a UPS driver, which is union, and he
was still getting established there that I know it might
not be the best time, but I cannot do this anymore.
I I gotta put myself in to the pet sitting
and dog walking full time, and I can't do that
while I'm working at this job. So I would say
(10:05):
it was probably about four to six months that I
so joyously gave my notice to which at that time
I bust. He was always trying to turn all of
us against each other. He instantly pulled my friend into
the office to tell her how much I was going
to fail and how much I was going to regret it,
which of course she reported back to me Abe too,
I know, well this company, this guy, but she said
(10:27):
to him, and I'll love her forever before and she's like, well,
if she fails, you're really not paying her that well here,
so it doesn't really matter anyway. But anyway, Yeah, so
it's about four to six months I gave him my notice,
and uh, but I actually ended up taking another job
to help promote my business along with my volunteering. Part
of my job there was to go to a local
(10:48):
pet store and clean out the cat cages there. We
we had our cats set up and pet store. So
Molly's do animal rescues? Who I work with here? What
rescue did you work with? It was called before He's
animal orphanage just around the corner from where I live. Now,
that's awesome. So what happens here? Motley's do sometimes if
they don't have fosters, if they have too many kittens,
they'll work with local pet stores and they'll have the
(11:09):
cats be there either overnight or during the day, like
in the little viewing things, so that people enclosures disclosures.
Thank you you got there, We go Tiger king learning
so um this way, so that when people go in
there for their pet food, they're seeing these rescuable animals.
So it was your job then to go in there
and clean the ones that you guys use. Okay, so
when you were doing that, how did you market your business?
(11:31):
So I started to obviously get to know the managers
and the workers there. I said, I'm like, you know,
I gave up my job. I'm doing the pet sitting.
Got any part time work? For me, so they let
me start working there. I'm not big in social media.
I have my Instagram, that's it. I barely use that.
So I was an old school like I was printing flyers.
I hung them up there I went, and then they
would pass them out to customer and it came in
(11:53):
my business cards. Yeah, and they really pushed me. That
store really helped me to get started. Honestly, so many
of my first you can shoot them, whatever store it is,
you can shut them out, Pet Value, Glouster Township, thank
you so much. Yeah, they really they hooked it up.
A lot of my first clients came from them. So
I did that for probably another for the six months,
maybe longer. Actually I did it until I got pregnant
(12:14):
with my daughter, so it's probably more like a year
or so. And I just kept scaling back my hours
there as my business got. Business very really flexible with
me yet until it was like, hey, now I'm gonna
have this baby and a business, Sorry, I gotta go,
and that they were like totally, So you make the
jump to full time being pregnant and pet sitting and
pet care and all of that, what is it that
like for you? Luckily, my fabulous sister Gina, who you know,
(12:38):
was very helpful in taking on some of the work
with me as I got because at that time business
was really booming. Um, so she was doing some of
the work. I was doing some of the work because
those days can truly run from seven am to nine pm.
So we were just kind of diving up the time.
And yeah, I mean we just we just made it happen.
I mean, twenty five thousand steps today, we made it happen.
(12:59):
Oh my god, that's nugs. So then when you when
you have a newborn baby and you have a business
like this, I would be concerned of taking maternity leave
because then that person is going to find someone else
for their dog. So what do you do what maternity
I and my sister said, you better tell her this part.
I worked up until the day I went into labor.
I did. I worked up until that morning. And I
(13:21):
think my sister's like, look, when when the baby's born,
I'll just do it all for you. Yeah. So I
had it. I actually had a sincerean section on top
of every despite my I'm gonna go natural Sinsian section,
so that's a little extra recovery. But I do remember
about four weeks after my daughter was born, I'm like,
let me just go out and give it a whirl.
And I remember one of my dogs was so happy
to see me that she kind of plowed into me,
(13:42):
and I had no stomach muscle. I just felt like
I just fell. I was like, oh, I guess I'm
not quite ready yet. But you know what, there really
wasn't It was a few weeks and I was back
at it. I had a very supportive family. My husband
was still on paternity leave, so he was able to say, yeah,
so you know, my sister was an amazing help I
had hired one other girl who from that pet store actually,
who was helpful too, and my family and my parents
(14:05):
were willing to come stay with my daughter. Yeah. I mean,
really shout out family, man, What will we be without them? No?
I know, and I preached that all the time that
family is so so important. You know. They're the kind
of people that you can lean on for this and
not feel bad about, but just be grateful for. If
it's you know sometimes or someone like oh, I have
to pay them back in some way, but like family, Nah,
(14:26):
you've got your whole life to fa back. It'll happen
at some point. I'm like, you'll be old some day.
I'll pay it back, I promise. Okay, So how old
is your daughter now? My daughter now is seven years old,
and she is my best little helper. That's I'm sure
she freaking loves this. She loves my job on my
worst down days and I'm like, oh, I just She's like, Mommy,
you can't what will shea do? And what will this
(14:47):
dog do? And like she just yeah, I mean they
become like family. And some of these talks have been
walking for nine ten years. Oh that's so incredible though.
And my cat sitter is a friend here who used
to live in my apartment building and she's now a
very close friend. But oh my god, I can like
I told her, you don't understand what you do for
(15:07):
me because you give me this peace of mind that
I can travel and do the things that I've always
wanted to do while still having Like I almost didn't
adopt the girls because I was like, I travel all
the time. There we are jokes on me, but I
was like, I can't adopt the girls. I travel all
the time. And then I did adopt them, and now
I'm able to have that peace of mind and travel
(15:28):
and still have them who I love so much and
have them in my life. So pet sitters and people
who care for your pets are saints, you know what, Carlo.
Many makes me feel so good to hear you say that,
and I hear that from my clients all the time, like,
we don't know what we would do without you. I
haven't traveled in years until I found you, because nobody
understood my pets the way you do. Nobody gives me
the good feedback that you do. I just I know
(15:50):
you're gonna be there. I don't have to worry about
you being late. It's just priceless. We definitely don't do
it for the money. We do it for the love
of our clients human and and for babies. And I mean,
like I said, I'm not a terribly as sort of person.
I'm not trying to take over the world here. I
just want to do a good job and that's fine,
and that's amazing, And as long as you're happy, that
is all that matters at the end of the day.
(16:12):
But Linda, why do you think you Like you said,
those people have never found someone like you. They don't
go on vacation they haven't gone on a vacation because
they never found someone like you who cares for their pets.
What is different about how you run Achilles total pet
care compared to other people, Some would say, I'm a
bit of a control freak. Ready, um, I will come out,
(16:33):
I will meet with you. I will give your pet
the specific needs and the specific care that it requires.
If your dog has even so much, I've had talks,
but if even had aggression issues, cats that need a pill,
that like you have to just yeah, I mean it
sounds crazy, but some pet sitters will charge a ton
(16:54):
extra for that. They won't do it at all. And
another really important aspect of this business, bully that or not,
is being tight with your competition. And I know that
sounds really weird, but it's your backup, it's your lifeline.
If you're good at this job, your competition is your
best friend, because you're going to get the work regardless.
There's enough pets and enough work to go around. But
(17:15):
when I'm in a bind now with COVID, which I'm
sure we'll get into, needing to take extra time off,
I've been able to lean on other sitters that know
I'm dependable and that they can count on me in return,
have I have a strong backup system, so if God
forbid something happens, I've got backup. I've got people who
will vouch for me, who know that they can step in.
(17:35):
And I love their pets, And that's really what it
boils down to. I do. I love them, I adore them,
and Mike, I think just my experience with them, but
handling these big dogs, Yeah, the whole rescue thing is
just that's an invaluable experience that you can bring to this,
because there's anyone who say I can. I love pets
and I love taking pets. I'm gonna start a business.
(17:56):
But when you work with animals in that capacity who
could be coming in sick, coming into the rescue of
the shelter, you know, having three limbs, whatever it is,
I mean, you're working with some of the animals in
the most vulnerable situations and you've learned so much from that.
And I've seen that firsthand with Motley Zoo when they're
up all night bottle feeding puppies like it's crazy. So
(18:18):
you you learn everything, and I see what they do,
and I know that you put that same kind of
love into your business. But you said you're a control freak.
What is that scheduling? Like when you mentioned earlier, someone
could be a morning afternoon and then you've got dogs
or cats at your house, Like, what do you use
a certain system? How do you schedule all of this?
I do. I actually have software that manages it for me.
(18:40):
So if you're booking with me, Carla Murray, I'll put
you into my system and I will say, Okay, Max
and Caroline need a visit at at both seven am
and seven pm for feeding and litter and medication and
all of these things, and they go into my system.
I will send you a comp formation that I'm going
(19:01):
to be there. You'll see what it's going to cost,
and I will come in. I'll do everything you ask,
and then I will send you feedback saying Carl Murray,
Caroline was playful today and she ate all of her
lunch and she didn't want to take her pill. She
was being a stinker. But I got it down and
and yeah, and then I'll send it to you and
you'll know I was there, and you have that piece
of mine because you don't want to every wonder like
where they there, what's going on? I know? So yeah,
(19:21):
you'll know, you'll know we were there, and you'll know
we're coming and you'll yeah, there's no surprises with us. Well,
we'll take care of them. And like I said, we
bring the issues, we can handle it. That's really awesome. So,
by the way, anyone who's like, well, I need her,
how do I get her? The link is below. It's
Achilles Total pet Care dot com. But you can follow along.
Everything is linked below. As we're recording this, it is
(19:43):
August two thousand, twenty, the year of doom, the year
the year of my business. So one of the first
things when COVID hit and everyone started working from home.
I actually I remember saying to Anthony, my co host,
I said, oh my god, all of these dog sitters.
Because if I'm working from home or I'm concerned about
the economy, that's one of the first things I'm gonna come.
(20:04):
I'm just gonna do it myself if I'm from home,
or I don't need someone, I don't need to take
my dog to daycare. So obviously you took a hit.
So what has this year been like for you as
a pet care business. It's been pretty tough. We also
not to sidetrack too much we moved during this whole thing. Also,
so most of my clients, obviously we're home, bless their hearts.
A lot of them still have me come just to
(20:25):
get their dog out so they don't have to be
bother way, and that's that's part of becoming part of
the family, I think, is that they still want you there,
that they don't want their dog to miss you kind
of thing. Yeah, so I have had a few, but
now I'm traveling a lot further. I used to be
in a different location, so I still have It's a
very localized type of business, like you don't want to
do a ton of traveling. But my plan was I
still had a huge business where I used to live,
(20:47):
so my plan was to be able to just travel
back there and do it. And then when COVID hit,
it was like, well now I'm only doing two or
three walks a day. So yeah, yeah, that that got
that that's tricky. But that also where having fellow sitters
in your back pocket comes in handy, because it's like, oh,
I can't make it down there, it's I only have
(21:07):
one today, would you mind doing it for me? They're like, absolutely,
my problem. So that's been helpful pet sitting forget it there,
there's nothing right now. I mean I don't. I think
I've had a couple of cats sporadically here and there.
That's because owners are probably like they're driving me nuts.
They hate me. Like my cats, I feel like, are
so excited that I'm about to head out on this
road trip because they're like, why is she home all
(21:28):
the time this year? Yeah? Yeah, I think everybody's pets
are kind of like you're still here. To add to that, now,
my daughter, who typically would be in school or would
be in camp, is now home with me. When when
it happened in spring, I said, mel, put on your
walking shoes, like we're gonna go walk, and she came
with me, but it just got too hot for her.
I mean when your dog walking, part of it is
(21:49):
walking thirty minutes, thirty minutes, thirty minutes, which in a
hundred degree weather, Like yeah, I wanted to bring that up.
If you're listening from Seattle, you do not understand the
pain of the East Coast summers. It's a hundred degrees,
but it also feels like you're just walking into wetness,
Like the temperature is just it's a lot and most
(22:09):
days in the summer in the East Coast, you're almost
advised not to walk outside. I know my mom can't
when it's certain temperatures. She's recovering from her heart surgery,
and once the heat hit she's been on a treadmill
now instead of walking outside because it's so unbearable. So
as a dog walker, getting the dogs outside, I mean,
I'm sure even they're like, wait, why are we doing this?
It's hot. Yeah, you do have to monitor the type
(22:30):
of dog. How you know, what time of diet is.
A lot of people are like, can I have when
at eight o'clock in the morning. I'm like, yeah, sure,
but yeah, I mean a lot of them. One of
them loves to be hosed down. So I hose her
down real good first, and then yeah, she loves it,
and then we go for like fifteen minutes because I mean,
she just can't do a half hour in the heat.
But it is, it's it's a lot of walks in
a row, and it's a lot it's too much for adults,
(22:51):
let alone a child. So that's also been really fun
trying to, you know, throw her on my back and
bring her along. But you do what you gotta do
when you're the business owner, when you're doing it for yourself,
you do what you gotta do. Absolutely, and I see
your shirts as professional pet lovers that like your official
shirt of the business. Yes, definitely is Do people stop
you ever and be like what is that? Yeah? Or um,
(23:11):
They'll say, oh what does what does professional pet lover mean?
Are you a vet? Are you a group sat? Like? No,
I'm a dog walker and I'm a pet sitter and
I'm a first and foremost I'm a professional pet lover.
So that's it. I say, serving, serving wiggily but since two,
that's what I do. Okay, I love that. I think
that's what your shirt needs to say. That'll get oh
(23:33):
my god, that's hilarious. There you go. People probably like
what it does. Bring a couple of head scratchers for sure,
They're like that mean, yeah, have you I don't know
how this world works. Have you ever thought about going
into grooming or is that like a whole another Yeah?
I have considered it. Then I'm looking at brick and
mortar and that sort of thing, and that scares me.
(23:54):
I'm a very scared person. Pet sitting and dog walking
there's not as d of overhead. With that, there's not
a ton of risk. You know, there's sure you can
get a mobile one. I know they look so cool,
but yeah, I really I have considered doing that. Um.
I used to do transportation and a bunch of other services.
But you know what, as time went on and my
(24:15):
time was being stretched, I just realized I kind of
had to focus in on something more Marvic. Yeah, and
I actually in recent even before COVID hit, in recent years,
had really scaled back my pet sitting, the stuff that
was seven am and set at nine pm. And you
also have to start kind of even terry picking your
clients a little bit as you get busier, because the
person who books you and then cancels you, and then
(24:37):
like you just you can't not work. It's not worth
it after a while. So yeah, I kind of went
with the dog walking because the schedule worked the best
for me. And now I'm waiting to see what happens
with COVID to see if I can maybe bounce back
and branch off again. And and because at one point
it was great, it was so busy and I'm hoping
to get back there again. I'm just I'm kind of
riding out right now you will, we all will. I
(24:57):
love that you said you kind of just focus on
one thing, and I have this it's you know, it's
great to dream and it's great to have these ideas,
but I have that same issue too, where it's like, wait,
I am doing too many things that you know, the
main thing isn't getting the love anymore, and we're not
focusing on that. And I think that's a great tip
for anyone who is in the middle of a side
hustle or a business owner or dreaming of owning their
(25:19):
own business. Don't forget the main reason why you're doing something,
and what is your your main thing. It's okay to
have a million things that you're doing, but you have
to water them all basically at the end of the day.
And what is that you know, that main plant that
needs the love, that's really going to either bring in
the money or be the core of your business. You
can't forget about that. And we all do that because
we're dreamers. You know, everyone who's on this podcast, we're dreamers,
(25:42):
were go getters, were creative, and it's it's tough to
kind of hone in. But I'm glad that you brought
that up and that you did because I get it. Yeah,
it is. It's easy. It's so easy to want to
say yes to everything, especially when you're first starting, but
eventually it will burn you out. So yeah, you kind
of have to just focus in and say, okay, years
where my time is best spent, Here's where the most
(26:02):
money is made, Here's where I can get coverage easiest
if I need it for something. Yeah, and then and
then go with it. And then once once that maybe
takes on a life of its own, you can start
kind of putting your feelers out other ways. Again. Yeah,
the balance of being a business owner or a go
getter is knowing when to say yes and know anyone
to say no because you hear all these like quotes
and advice that's like, just I've said it, just say
(26:25):
yes to everything, And that's a great tip for when
you're starting out in a career or something. But you
also have to learn when to say no because you
will get burnt out. And I've I've said both. I'm like,
I'm gonna say no this year or I'm gonna say
yes this year. But it's a matter of really when
to say no when to say yes. And that's if
you can figure that out. You're set, but it's hard.
(26:46):
It did. It took a while, and I mean my
sister working with me, she would laugh at me, like
why are you doing this one random pet sit on
a Saturday night for twenty dollars? Like why are you
doing that? I'm like, you know, I think it's time
to revisit my and a little and that's what family
is also for as well. Okay, so you know, so
we have to talk about when we met. So you
(27:08):
and your sister have actually been supporters of Elvis around
in the Morning Show where I used to work of myself,
of Anthony and I in the show that we've had
together in some capacity since before then and in well,
I don't even remember, Like, I know, you guys came
up to visit the show in New York City when
I was working there at the studio. But how did
that happen? I know your sister Gina's there, So how
(27:31):
did what the hell happen? You emailed? What do? Okay,
so backtrack at Tenney bit, I did find Elvis during
the Morning Show when I started the business. F y,
I don't know. I told that. Actually, yeah, it was
I remember it was right around Halloween and I was
pulling up to a pets At shuffling through stations and
I heard a David Brody phone tap that that made
me so mad. I said, hate mail. Do you remember
(27:51):
what it was? I do. It was about dog breeding
and I was working in rescue and I was like,
that's not funny. I was. I was, I don't even
want you know whatever, like it. Wait for him to
hear this. He needs to ye. But then I was like, well,
actually this is kind of like I started hate listening
and I just fell in love with you guys. I
was like yeah. And then I was like, Gina, you
gotta listen to the show. And yeah, the rest of history. Okay,
(28:11):
So two thous I called into the show. I don't
even remember why. I just probably just trying to be
first caller or whatever. And you and I had a
good time on the phone. You were wonderful as always think,
and you were going to send me a shirt. And
I got my shirt and I ripped the package open.
I'm like, yay, and then I kind of looked in
there and there was this letter that I had actually
ripped by accident. I'm like, and it said congratulations you
(28:35):
won a tour of the Elvis Durand studio, and I'm like,
what the what what happened here? I called my sister screaming.
I'm like, I don't know. Carl and Ray must have
thought I was amazing because she invited us to the
story before we get to the rest the story. I'm
laughing now because that probably was a mistake. It was okay,
because that's that's true. Okay, that's sure. It would go
(28:56):
to um. So there was a charity event. A lot
of times we would auction off to ours, so I
probably printed there. Okay, wait, keep going, this is great.
I didn't even remember this. Oh yeah, So you're like, um,
did you win it from a chararity? Like emailed? You know?
You were like, did you win it from a charity?
I was like, no, I was just first caller of
the day. You were like, oh my gosh, I think
one of my interns. Thank you that mistake, but drink. Yeah,
(29:17):
You're like, but no worries. We'd love to have you. So, yeah,
we you invited us down that you guys were redoing
the studio at the time, so it took a while
for us to all get together, but we did and
it was one of we still say it was one
of the best days of our life. We had so
much fun with you guys. On the anniversary of it,
we always text, oh my god, you have to send
me do we You still have pictures? You have to
send them? Oh yeah, totally, okay. I look at them
(29:39):
every once in a while. It was summertime, wasn't it.
It was it was June. Yeah, yeah, see I I
and I remember you guys coming in And I always
bring this up because you guys knew so much about
the show and about everyone on the show that we
actually had Josh, who works for al Us around in
the morning show interview you guys to see how much,
like trivia, you knew about all of us in our lives.
(30:00):
Like you guys knew my boyfriend's name at the time,
and you knew like his Instagram handle or something crazy.
And it's just it's so cool to see how much
you've invested in, how you've supported at the time people
you didn't even know. Yeah, and then you've had us
call on the studio. You called us a couple of
days later and had us on air and had us
go against Greg t. I mean, it was the whole thing. Yeah,
it's fantastic. Yeah, it's cool when when you meet people
(30:22):
like you guys who are amazing, supportive, fun and like
in for the ride, Like I know I could call
you if I needed you guys to be on the
air to have fun with something. So of course now
and you, guys, Carlin Mae, You've always been such an
amazing inspiration to so many people and even just kind
of being with you with what you're going through now
and not that you want to hear this, but it
even makes you more real and more you then if
(30:44):
it's even possible then before like it's it's like thank you.
Even somebody is successful and motivated as Carl Murray HiT's
his rust spot, then it's true. In the radio world
you always want to be relatable. And I mean really,
I guess in any industry you want to be relatable
to some extent so that someone relates to you and
wants to buy from you or work with you or
(31:04):
get your service. And it's funny. I was like, man,
I've never been more relatable and there's millions of people
with the other jobs and me too, and it's like,
how are we bouncing back from this? And and I'm
lucky that I have this insane support system. I don't
you know, I'm not an accountant who lost my job.
I'm so grateful that I have people like you guys,
and people who listen to our Monday Friday podcasts or
(31:25):
stream the new show that Anthony I are doing on
Twitch a few days a week. It's just we have this. Okay,
we fell, but we have everyone who just caught us.
Now we're all kind of building this together, and it's
it's so different than what the average American is going through. However,
that gut punch, it's real and it's relatable, that's for sure.
It is. And you know, we we wish you the best,
but we know you're gonna be fine. Thank whatever you
(31:47):
do is going to be amazing, and we're gonna be
right here being weird, like, oh, I love it. I
love how this podcast from the corner. No, we don't
watch from the corner, just watch. You're not crapy, You're good.
But I love how this podcast went from how you
worked your ass off too. You went from a job
that you hated to finding something that you love and
spending years doing to talking about just the most random
(32:10):
thing because we've known each other for so long, and
the connection is what I talk about in every podcast,
how it's important to know people and to interact with
people and to be a good human And that's how
we've been able to know each other all these years.
I mean at least six years at this point. We've
been in touch through social media and it's important to
have that. It doesn't have to be social media, but
(32:32):
it's important to make connections with people. So thank you both. Yeah, No,
I agree, it is so important and just kind of
going back to what I said, Yeah, and this in
my industry in particular, like women help each other man
like we don't. We don't. We don't pull each other down.
We build each other up, we throw each other business,
we help each other out. And if everybody could do
that a little more, I think we'd all be in
a much better place. Yeah, I can agree with that one.
(32:54):
I think that is actually like the best place to
end on. So thank you for that. Thank you, Thank you, Gina,
I know you're sister popped in. Thank Higiena. You can
say hi, we can hear you hello. Thank you guys
so much for doing this. I appreciate it. Lindsay and
everyone goes support Achilles Total Pet Care. Link is below,
even if you're not in Philly, like just go click
on the website check it out. Thank you, Carlam. I
(33:15):
really needed this right now, honestly, so thank you. It
reminds me why I'm here and that I can make
it through and do not forget the dogs. Need you,
Like your daughter said, thank you so much for having me.
I really did need this and it was good to
say you you too. Thank you again for being here.
I appreciate you. Thank you for supporting Lindsay. If you're
in the South Jersey Philly area, check her out, have
(33:36):
her watch your pets, take care of your pet. Link
is below. It's Achilles Total pet Care dot com. And again,
I am also doing a show right now at this moment.
It's three days a week. It's about to be every
single day Twitch dot tv, Slash Carla, Marie and Anthony
with my co host Anthony, and it's just almost like
a podcast that you're watching, but also like a morning show.
(33:57):
There's a lot of different things going on. But link
is below. We are about to head out on a
cross country road trip from Seattle to New Jersey and
then back to Seattle and we're gonna do stops in
a ton of different cities, posting the list of cities
to Instagram. This week it's at the Carla Mury. You
can check it out there. But we're gonna stop in
cities and we're gonna do a video stream and a
(34:18):
podcast in every city, so I could be coming to
your city. We're gonna have T shirts you can buy
that are fun employment road trip toward t shirts. It's
super cool and it would be really awesome to meet
you safely and socially distancely, so um follow me on
Instagram at the Carla Maurie can also follow along at
Carla Maurie and Anthony, I would love to meet you.
Even if you don't listen to the Carlo Marine Anthony Show,
(34:40):
when you just listen to side hustlers, I still love you.
That's cool. I appreciate you for supporting me and not Anthony.
It's totally cool, but thank you for being here. Seriously,
I appreciate you. I know all of these side hustlers
appreciate you for supporting right now. If you do have
a side hustle, you can reach out to me. All
of that stuff is below would love to hear your story.
This podcast has been and produced by Houston Tilly and
(35:02):
until next week, keep hustling and be a good human
This is the Side Hustlers podcast. I'm your host, Carla Murray.
Thank you so much for being here. This podcast supports
small business owners. It follows and tells the stories of
people who are following a passion outside of their day job,
and a lot of these people they might be starting
their side hustles now, right in the middle of a pandemic.
On recording this in August twenties. If you're listening in
(00:22):
the future, hopefully the world is a little bit different,
but also hopefully some really cool things like different side
hustles and businesses have come out of this. I know
a lot of people are taking this downtime to look
at what's really important, and I am one of those
people right now. I know I mentioned a few episodes ago,
but I lost my job a few weeks ago. I
was a morning show host. I've worked in radio for
(00:44):
ten years. I hosted my own show for four and
a half years, and now I don't, so it's kind
of crazy for me. This podcast was my side hustle.
Now I guess it is one of my many side
hustles because I'm doing other things. So my co host,
Anthony and I both are not on the morning show anymore.
So we are doing our own little thing and we
are streaming a show on Twitch every day. Twitch is
(01:06):
just a video platform. You can get it for free.
Twitch dot Tv, Slash Carla, Maurie and Anthony. Link is below.
I would appreciate any support can give us right now.
It's super helpful just to hit that follow even on
this podcast, if you hit subscribe, leave a review. All
of these things matter. Actually just switched podcast platforms, so
that's really cool. And we're gonna get more support and
(01:28):
more promotion for the podcast, which means more people listen,
which means more small businesses get supported. So I'm super happy.
But okay, this week's guest. Her name is Lindsay. She
lives in the Philly, South Jersey area, and she has
a pet care company. It's called Achilles Total Pet Care.
Link is below to check her out. But Lindsay built
this company because she hated her day job so much
(01:49):
and she knew she had a passion for animals and
pets and she just launched her own business. And this
podcast is about finding your passion and building off of it.
So this is Lindsay's story for a lot of people.
You know, why are you when do you know what
you want to do and this is something you want
to do, do it. I'm a hustle, side shod hustle,
do it. I'm a hustle hustle do it. I'm a
(02:13):
hustle shot hust Come on, ask about me, yo yo.
It's the side Hustless podcast we call The Root. Okay, So,
coming to me from Philly today is Lindsay. Hi, Lindsay, Hello,
Carla Marine. Now are you in Philly proper or around
Philly or I'm around Philly just in the suburbs. War
He's okay. Cool. So you and I actually met back
(02:36):
and we're going to talk about that in a little bit.
But you sent me a d M on Instagram, and
I'm actually gonna start by reading the d M you
sent me. I know it's probably gonna be weird to
hear your own words, but I have to read it. Okay,
you said, Hey see, I'm so excited to see what
you and Anthony come up with. You guys are the best,
and your future looks great. Not sure if I still
qualify as a side hustler because I'm now ten years
(02:58):
deep into my pet care business. I started while working
a nine to five. That made me so miserable. I
would cry every Sunday night, and ten years later, I
still lose my mind with every new client. I get
it's not glamorous and I'm not rich and I'm not
selling anything, but my journey has been interesting and awesome.
So now, having just relocated while balancing this COVID nightmare
(03:18):
and a young daughter, my business has taken a beating,
and that's a whole other story. Anyway, I'm in Dirty Jersey,
just outside of Philly, so I'd be honored if you
consider chatting with me for your podcast. If not, good
luck with everything. I've been a longtime fan and MDF,
which MDF is our my Day Friday podcast. But Lindsay,
you obviously qualify you're on the podcast. You were a
(03:40):
side hustler. I want to hear your whole story. But
then you also dammed me and told me that you
were drunk when you sent that. I totally was, and yeah,
two glasses deep in a nice bottle of chardonnay. You
know what I needed, the liquid encouragement, because sometimes you
just don't know if you qualify. I don't know that.
I always see myself as a side huff slur because
(04:01):
I feel like there's so many movers and shakers out there,
and I'm not necessarily it's terribly aggressive person I don't know.
Sometimes maybe it's just that imposters just gonna say that
my friend is called imposter syndrome, and if you're listening
or not, you're like, what the hell is imposter syndrome.
It was actually reading an article about it yesterday. I'll
find it and I'll link it below in the description
of this podcast. But it's this thing where like you
(04:22):
feel so confident and all of a sudden you're like,
no, no no, no, wait, I don't deserve this. I shouldn't
be doing this. And me personally, I've gone through this
so much over the last few weeks thinking I never
should have had a morning show. That's why I got
taken away. So you looked at me just now and
I'm like, oh my god, don't do that. I'm going
to tell you the same thing, lindsay, don't do that.
Thank you. You've worked your ass off, obviously, you've been
(04:43):
doing your business for ten years. It was a side
hustle at some point. So first of all, tell us
what Achilles pet care even is? So Achilles. Subtle Pet
Care is a pet sitting and dog walking company that
specializes particularly in rescue dogs. We love bully breeds like
pit bulls. You know, sometimes the breeds that other companies
(05:05):
may not be comfort taking on, which I think is
so you know, crazy, but you know, everybody has their
own comfort level. I specialize in giving personalized care. I know,
a lot of times when you see a dog walker,
you picture either like a little lady or sometimes you
know a hipster in the city with like fifteen little
peoples on the end of the leash um And that's
not necessarily what it is or what we do. We
(05:27):
give each pet individual care, so you're I'm not yeah,
I'm not going to take your your giant dog and
try and manage it with a little tiny dog. And
I'm going to make sure that you have peace of
mind that you know, Fifi has the pink bull in
the left corner and Fido has the blue ball in
the corner. Because I know having a lot of misfit pets,
(05:49):
because I did a lot of work and rescue, which
we'll get to. I'm sure that's really important because if
you don't follow someone's schedule exactly, things can go really wrong,
and for me, I had a really hard time going
away and getting coverage for my pets, and I thought
that maybe there would be a need for someone like
me out there that was kind of willing to take
all those misfits at other pet sitters might have a
hard time life. So then why pet care? Do you
(06:10):
mentioned you've worked with rescues, Like, where did your love
for pets come from? Oh? Gosh, I think I was
born with it. My whole family just has a passion
for animals. But I started volunteering at an animal shelter
while I was working at my job of doom Um,
and I found I found a lot of happiness and
joy just being with these animals and helping find them
(06:31):
homes and fostering. I know, you know, the fostering joy
and also heartbreak. I know it is gut wrenching sometimes,
but I mean, I just I loved it so much,
and I just thought if I could somehow take my
love of animals and make it into a career, how
amazing that would be. And I was lucky enough that
I one of I made so many friends in volunteering.
(06:53):
One of the women that I met had her own
pet sitting in dog walking business. She was a great
mentor to me. We're still friends to this day. She
still hooks some clients and I just I kind of
was able to marry the two and it gave me
tons of experience managing these crazy dogs that other people
don't want to do. So that was it, and then boom,
you have your own company. So what is this. Let's
go back to this job of doom. I don't want to.
(07:14):
I hate to take you there, but tell me. Can
you tell me what the job was? Yeah? So it
was basically a job doing marketing for just a floor
covering company. It was nothing, nothing special, nothing unspecial, but
it was I mean, I would venture to say it
was a pretty toxic masculine work environment where you know
you're being told every day you need need to tell
(07:36):
me book ahead. I don't. Yeah, it was just it
was just one of those things where you know, Sunday
night would come in your your stomach would just start turning.
I would sometimes be in tears. Oh it was. It
was pretty awful. You know, always a threat of a
layoff or you better look busy when somebody walks by.
I remember sitting at my desk and clicking an Excel
spreadsheet to my desktop to an excel s fread sheet
(07:57):
to my desktop. Because it was a company that was
dominated it by men, so they didn't really give women
a ton of responsibility. Your job was to just like
rearrange the spreadsheet fifteen times. Yeah, and my boss, I
would say, we borderlined on him being quite inappropriate at times. Um.
And it was a company that was very small. He
was the best friend of the owner that was really
nowhere to go with it. So it was just one
(08:19):
of the things. And you know, I'm applying for jobs.
I had a college degree at that point, I'm applying around.
I'm trying to get out and I couldn't. Nobody was hiring.
It was two thousands, and it was gonna say, yeah,
so two thousand. Then you launched Achilles Total Pet Care
while you were working at the job of doom. Correct.
How did that play out? Then? How did you find
time to take care of pets while you're working a
(08:39):
full time job? So I started just pet sitting. So
it's kind of there's two different aspects of well, there's
actually many, but two main aspects of business. There's there's
pet sitting, which is like Carl Murray is going on vacation,
Who's gonna come take care of my kittie cat? So
that was pretty easy to work in. So I would
either bring pets into my house if I could, or
I would go to their house after hours, you know,
in the morning for work, you know, tenner time, bedtime,
(09:02):
And that's where I started. So I would do that
on the side while I was still working my regular
job of doom. And then once I left that, I
was able to start incorporating dog walking midday for Carl
Murray's going to work and her dog needs to be
let out and walk kind of thing. That's great that
you were able to do that while work in the
nine to five. So then how long were you doing
(09:22):
the side hustle before you made the jump? Because this
is different for everyone. I've heard a ton of different stories.
I've heard a ton of different reasons. I've heard people
get let go and then that's why they do it.
They were kind of pushed. It wasn't necessarily a jump.
So what was your I'm done, I can do this
full time. Well, it actually didn't go quite that way.
I uh it was. I would say it was probably
four to six months before I said to my husband,
(09:44):
I really need to get out of this job. Like,
I know, the business is still small. I know he
was he's a UPS driver, which is union, and he
was still getting established there that I know it might
not be the best time, but I cannot do this anymore.
I I gotta put myself in to the pet sitting
and dog walking full time, and I can't do that
while I'm working at this job. So I would say
(10:05):
it was probably about four to six months that I
so joyously gave my notice to which at that time
I bust. He was always trying to turn all of
us against each other. He instantly pulled my friend into
the office to tell her how much I was going
to fail and how much I was going to regret it,
which of course she reported back to me Abe too,
I know, well this company, this guy, but she said
(10:27):
to him, and I'll love her forever before and she's like, well,
if she fails, you're really not paying her that well here,
so it doesn't really matter anyway. But anyway, Yeah, so
it's about four to six months I gave him my notice,
and uh, but I actually ended up taking another job
to help promote my business along with my volunteering. Part
of my job there was to go to a local
(10:48):
pet store and clean out the cat cages there. We
we had our cats set up and pet store. So
Molly's do animal rescues? Who I work with here? What
rescue did you work with? It was called before He's
animal orphanage just around the corner from where I live. Now,
that's awesome. So what happens here? Motley's do sometimes if
they don't have fosters, if they have too many kittens,
they'll work with local pet stores and they'll have the
(11:09):
cats be there either overnight or during the day, like
in the little viewing things, so that people enclosures disclosures.
Thank you you got there, We go Tiger king learning
so um this way, so that when people go in
there for their pet food, they're seeing these rescuable animals.
So it was your job then to go in there
and clean the ones that you guys use. Okay, so
when you were doing that, how did you market your business?
(11:31):
So I started to obviously get to know the managers
and the workers there. I said, I'm like, you know,
I gave up my job. I'm doing the pet sitting.
Got any part time work? For me, so they let
me start working there. I'm not big in social media.
I have my Instagram, that's it. I barely use that.
So I was an old school like I was printing flyers.
I hung them up there I went, and then they
would pass them out to customer and it came in
(11:53):
my business cards. Yeah, and they really pushed me. That
store really helped me to get started. Honestly, so many
of my first you can shoot them, whatever store it is,
you can shut them out, Pet Value, Glouster Township, thank
you so much. Yeah, they really they hooked it up.
A lot of my first clients came from them. So
I did that for probably another for the six months,
maybe longer. Actually I did it until I got pregnant
(12:14):
with my daughter, so it's probably more like a year
or so. And I just kept scaling back my hours
there as my business got. Business very really flexible with
me yet until it was like, hey, now I'm gonna
have this baby and a business, Sorry, I gotta go,
and that they were like totally, So you make the
jump to full time being pregnant and pet sitting and
pet care and all of that, what is it that
like for you? Luckily, my fabulous sister Gina, who you know,
(12:38):
was very helpful in taking on some of the work
with me as I got because at that time business
was really booming. Um, so she was doing some of
the work. I was doing some of the work because
those days can truly run from seven am to nine pm.
So we were just kind of diving up the time.
And yeah, I mean we just we just made it happen.
I mean, twenty five thousand steps today, we made it happen.
(12:59):
Oh my god, that's nugs. So then when you when
you have a newborn baby and you have a business
like this, I would be concerned of taking maternity leave
because then that person is going to find someone else
for their dog. So what do you do what maternity
I and my sister said, you better tell her this part.
I worked up until the day I went into labor.
I did. I worked up until that morning. And I
(13:21):
think my sister's like, look, when when the baby's born,
I'll just do it all for you. Yeah. So I
had it. I actually had a sincerean section on top
of every despite my I'm gonna go natural Sinsian section,
so that's a little extra recovery. But I do remember
about four weeks after my daughter was born, I'm like,
let me just go out and give it a whirl.
And I remember one of my dogs was so happy
to see me that she kind of plowed into me,
(13:42):
and I had no stomach muscle. I just felt like
I just fell. I was like, oh, I guess I'm
not quite ready yet. But you know what, there really
wasn't It was a few weeks and I was back
at it. I had a very supportive family. My husband
was still on paternity leave, so he was able to say, yeah,
so you know, my sister was an amazing help I
had hired one other girl who from that pet store actually,
who was helpful too, and my family and my parents
(14:05):
were willing to come stay with my daughter. Yeah. I mean,
really shout out family, man, What will we be without them? No?
I know, and I preached that all the time that
family is so so important. You know. They're the kind
of people that you can lean on for this and
not feel bad about, but just be grateful for. If
it's you know sometimes or someone like oh, I have
to pay them back in some way, but like family, Nah,
(14:26):
you've got your whole life to fa back. It'll happen
at some point. I'm like, you'll be old some day.
I'll pay it back, I promise. Okay, So how old
is your daughter now? My daughter now is seven years old,
and she is my best little helper. That's I'm sure
she freaking loves this. She loves my job on my
worst down days and I'm like, oh, I just She's like, Mommy,
you can't what will shea do? And what will this
(14:47):
dog do? And like she just yeah, I mean they
become like family. And some of these talks have been
walking for nine ten years. Oh that's so incredible though.
And my cat sitter is a friend here who used
to live in my apartment building and she's now a
very close friend. But oh my god, I can like
I told her, you don't understand what you do for
(15:07):
me because you give me this peace of mind that
I can travel and do the things that I've always
wanted to do while still having Like I almost didn't
adopt the girls because I was like, I travel all
the time. There we are jokes on me, but I
was like, I can't adopt the girls. I travel all
the time. And then I did adopt them, and now
I'm able to have that peace of mind and travel
(15:28):
and still have them who I love so much and
have them in my life. So pet sitters and people
who care for your pets are saints, you know what, Carlo.
Many makes me feel so good to hear you say that,
and I hear that from my clients all the time, like,
we don't know what we would do without you. I
haven't traveled in years until I found you, because nobody
understood my pets the way you do. Nobody gives me
the good feedback that you do. I just I know
(15:50):
you're gonna be there. I don't have to worry about
you being late. It's just priceless. We definitely don't do
it for the money. We do it for the love
of our clients human and and for babies. And I mean,
like I said, I'm not a terribly as sort of person.
I'm not trying to take over the world here. I
just want to do a good job and that's fine,
and that's amazing, And as long as you're happy, that
is all that matters at the end of the day.
(16:12):
But Linda, why do you think you Like you said,
those people have never found someone like you. They don't
go on vacation they haven't gone on a vacation because
they never found someone like you who cares for their pets.
What is different about how you run Achilles total pet
care compared to other people, Some would say, I'm a
bit of a control freak. Ready, um, I will come out,
(16:33):
I will meet with you. I will give your pet
the specific needs and the specific care that it requires.
If your dog has even so much, I've had talks,
but if even had aggression issues, cats that need a pill,
that like you have to just yeah, I mean it
sounds crazy, but some pet sitters will charge a ton
(16:54):
extra for that. They won't do it at all. And
another really important aspect of this business, bully that or not,
is being tight with your competition. And I know that
sounds really weird, but it's your backup, it's your lifeline.
If you're good at this job, your competition is your
best friend, because you're going to get the work regardless.
There's enough pets and enough work to go around. But
(17:15):
when I'm in a bind now with COVID, which I'm
sure we'll get into, needing to take extra time off,
I've been able to lean on other sitters that know
I'm dependable and that they can count on me in return,
have I have a strong backup system, so if God
forbid something happens, I've got backup. I've got people who
will vouch for me, who know that they can step in.
(17:35):
And I love their pets, And that's really what it
boils down to. I do. I love them, I adore them,
and Mike, I think just my experience with them, but
handling these big dogs, Yeah, the whole rescue thing is
just that's an invaluable experience that you can bring to this,
because there's anyone who say I can. I love pets
and I love taking pets. I'm gonna start a business.
(17:56):
But when you work with animals in that capacity who
could be coming in sick, coming into the rescue of
the shelter, you know, having three limbs, whatever it is,
I mean, you're working with some of the animals in
the most vulnerable situations and you've learned so much from that.
And I've seen that firsthand with Motley Zoo when they're
up all night bottle feeding puppies like it's crazy. So
(18:18):
you you learn everything, and I see what they do,
and I know that you put that same kind of
love into your business. But you said you're a control freak.
What is that scheduling? Like when you mentioned earlier, someone
could be a morning afternoon and then you've got dogs
or cats at your house, Like, what do you use
a certain system? How do you schedule all of this?
I do. I actually have software that manages it for me.
(18:40):
So if you're booking with me, Carla Murray, I'll put
you into my system and I will say, Okay, Max
and Caroline need a visit at at both seven am
and seven pm for feeding and litter and medication and
all of these things, and they go into my system.
I will send you a comp formation that I'm going
(19:01):
to be there. You'll see what it's going to cost,
and I will come in. I'll do everything you ask,
and then I will send you feedback saying Carl Murray,
Caroline was playful today and she ate all of her
lunch and she didn't want to take her pill. She
was being a stinker. But I got it down and
and yeah, and then I'll send it to you and
you'll know I was there, and you have that piece
of mine because you don't want to every wonder like
where they there, what's going on? I know? So yeah,
(19:21):
you'll know, you'll know we were there, and you'll know
we're coming and you'll yeah, there's no surprises with us. Well,
we'll take care of them. And like I said, we
bring the issues, we can handle it. That's really awesome. So,
by the way, anyone who's like, well, I need her,
how do I get her? The link is below. It's
Achilles Total pet Care dot com. But you can follow along.
Everything is linked below. As we're recording this, it is
(19:43):
August two thousand, twenty, the year of doom, the year
the year of my business. So one of the first
things when COVID hit and everyone started working from home.
I actually I remember saying to Anthony, my co host,
I said, oh my god, all of these dog sitters.
Because if I'm working from home or I'm concerned about
the economy, that's one of the first things I'm gonna come.
(20:04):
I'm just gonna do it myself if I'm from home,
or I don't need someone, I don't need to take
my dog to daycare. So obviously you took a hit.
So what has this year been like for you as
a pet care business. It's been pretty tough. We also
not to sidetrack too much we moved during this whole thing. Also,
so most of my clients, obviously we're home, bless their hearts.
A lot of them still have me come just to
(20:25):
get their dog out so they don't have to be
bother way, and that's that's part of becoming part of
the family, I think, is that they still want you there,
that they don't want their dog to miss you kind
of thing. Yeah, so I have had a few, but
now I'm traveling a lot further. I used to be
in a different location, so I still have It's a
very localized type of business, like you don't want to
do a ton of traveling. But my plan was I
still had a huge business where I used to live,
(20:47):
so my plan was to be able to just travel
back there and do it. And then when COVID hit,
it was like, well now I'm only doing two or
three walks a day. So yeah, yeah, that that got
that that's tricky. But that also where having fellow sitters
in your back pocket comes in handy, because it's like, oh,
I can't make it down there, it's I only have
(21:07):
one today, would you mind doing it for me? They're like, absolutely,
my problem. So that's been helpful pet sitting forget it there,
there's nothing right now. I mean I don't. I think
I've had a couple of cats sporadically here and there.
That's because owners are probably like they're driving me nuts.
They hate me. Like my cats, I feel like, are
so excited that I'm about to head out on this
road trip because they're like, why is she home all
(21:28):
the time this year? Yeah? Yeah, I think everybody's pets
are kind of like you're still here. To add to that, now,
my daughter, who typically would be in school or would
be in camp, is now home with me. When when
it happened in spring, I said, mel, put on your
walking shoes, like we're gonna go walk, and she came
with me, but it just got too hot for her.
I mean when your dog walking, part of it is
(21:49):
walking thirty minutes, thirty minutes, thirty minutes, which in a
hundred degree weather, Like yeah, I wanted to bring that up.
If you're listening from Seattle, you do not understand the
pain of the East Coast summers. It's a hundred degrees,
but it also feels like you're just walking into wetness,
Like the temperature is just it's a lot and most
(22:09):
days in the summer in the East Coast, you're almost
advised not to walk outside. I know my mom can't
when it's certain temperatures. She's recovering from her heart surgery,
and once the heat hit she's been on a treadmill
now instead of walking outside because it's so unbearable. So
as a dog walker, getting the dogs outside, I mean,
I'm sure even they're like, wait, why are we doing this?
It's hot. Yeah, you do have to monitor the type
(22:30):
of dog. How you know, what time of diet is.
A lot of people are like, can I have when
at eight o'clock in the morning. I'm like, yeah, sure,
but yeah, I mean a lot of them. One of
them loves to be hosed down. So I hose her
down real good first, and then yeah, she loves it,
and then we go for like fifteen minutes because I mean,
she just can't do a half hour in the heat.
But it is, it's it's a lot of walks in
a row, and it's a lot it's too much for adults,
(22:51):
let alone a child. So that's also been really fun
trying to, you know, throw her on my back and
bring her along. But you do what you gotta do
when you're the business owner, when you're doing it for yourself,
you do what you gotta do. Absolutely, and I see
your shirts as professional pet lovers that like your official
shirt of the business. Yes, definitely is Do people stop
you ever and be like what is that? Yeah? Or um,
(23:11):
They'll say, oh what does what does professional pet lover mean?
Are you a vet? Are you a group sat? Like? No,
I'm a dog walker and I'm a pet sitter and
I'm a first and foremost I'm a professional pet lover.
So that's it. I say, serving, serving wiggily but since two,
that's what I do. Okay, I love that. I think
that's what your shirt needs to say. That'll get oh
(23:33):
my god, that's hilarious. There you go. People probably like
what it does. Bring a couple of head scratchers for sure,
They're like that mean, yeah, have you I don't know
how this world works. Have you ever thought about going
into grooming or is that like a whole another Yeah?
I have considered it. Then I'm looking at brick and
mortar and that sort of thing, and that scares me.
(23:54):
I'm a very scared person. Pet sitting and dog walking
there's not as d of overhead. With that, there's not
a ton of risk. You know, there's sure you can
get a mobile one. I know they look so cool,
but yeah, I really I have considered doing that. Um.
I used to do transportation and a bunch of other services.
But you know what, as time went on and my
(24:15):
time was being stretched, I just realized I kind of
had to focus in on something more Marvic. Yeah, and
I actually in recent even before COVID hit, in recent years,
had really scaled back my pet sitting, the stuff that
was seven am and set at nine pm. And you
also have to start kind of even terry picking your
clients a little bit as you get busier, because the
person who books you and then cancels you, and then
(24:37):
like you just you can't not work. It's not worth
it after a while. So yeah, I kind of went
with the dog walking because the schedule worked the best
for me. And now I'm waiting to see what happens
with COVID to see if I can maybe bounce back
and branch off again. And and because at one point
it was great, it was so busy and I'm hoping
to get back there again. I'm just I'm kind of
riding out right now you will, we all will. I
(24:57):
love that you said you kind of just focus on
one thing, and I have this it's you know, it's
great to dream and it's great to have these ideas,
but I have that same issue too, where it's like, wait,
I am doing too many things that you know, the
main thing isn't getting the love anymore, and we're not
focusing on that. And I think that's a great tip
for anyone who is in the middle of a side
hustle or a business owner or dreaming of owning their
(25:19):
own business. Don't forget the main reason why you're doing something,
and what is your your main thing. It's okay to
have a million things that you're doing, but you have
to water them all basically at the end of the day.
And what is that you know, that main plant that
needs the love, that's really going to either bring in
the money or be the core of your business. You
can't forget about that. And we all do that because
we're dreamers. You know, everyone who's on this podcast, we're dreamers,
(25:42):
were go getters, were creative, and it's it's tough to
kind of hone in. But I'm glad that you brought
that up and that you did because I get it. Yeah,
it is. It's easy. It's so easy to want to
say yes to everything, especially when you're first starting, but
eventually it will burn you out. So yeah, you kind
of have to just focus in and say, okay, years
where my time is best spent, Here's where the most
(26:02):
money is made, Here's where I can get coverage easiest
if I need it for something. Yeah, and then and
then go with it. And then once once that maybe
takes on a life of its own, you can start
kind of putting your feelers out other ways. Again. Yeah,
the balance of being a business owner or a go
getter is knowing when to say yes and know anyone
to say no because you hear all these like quotes
and advice that's like, just I've said it, just say
(26:25):
yes to everything, And that's a great tip for when
you're starting out in a career or something. But you
also have to learn when to say no because you
will get burnt out. And I've I've said both. I'm like,
I'm gonna say no this year or I'm gonna say
yes this year. But it's a matter of really when
to say no when to say yes. And that's if
you can figure that out. You're set, but it's hard.
(26:46):
It did. It took a while, and I mean my
sister working with me, she would laugh at me, like
why are you doing this one random pet sit on
a Saturday night for twenty dollars? Like why are you
doing that? I'm like, you know, I think it's time
to revisit my and a little and that's what family
is also for as well. Okay, so you know, so
we have to talk about when we met. So you
(27:08):
and your sister have actually been supporters of Elvis around
in the Morning Show where I used to work of myself,
of Anthony and I in the show that we've had
together in some capacity since before then and in well,
I don't even remember, Like, I know, you guys came
up to visit the show in New York City when
I was working there at the studio. But how did
that happen? I know your sister Gina's there, So how
(27:31):
did what the hell happen? You emailed? What do? Okay,
so backtrack at Tenney bit, I did find Elvis during
the Morning Show when I started the business. F y,
I don't know. I told that. Actually, yeah, it was
I remember it was right around Halloween and I was
pulling up to a pets At shuffling through stations and
I heard a David Brody phone tap that that made
me so mad. I said, hate mail. Do you remember
(27:51):
what it was? I do. It was about dog breeding
and I was working in rescue and I was like,
that's not funny. I was. I was, I don't even
want you know whatever, like it. Wait for him to
hear this. He needs to ye. But then I was like, well,
actually this is kind of like I started hate listening
and I just fell in love with you guys. I
was like yeah. And then I was like, Gina, you
gotta listen to the show. And yeah, the rest of history. Okay,
(28:11):
So two thous I called into the show. I don't
even remember why. I just probably just trying to be
first caller or whatever. And you and I had a
good time on the phone. You were wonderful as always think,
and you were going to send me a shirt. And
I got my shirt and I ripped the package open.
I'm like, yay, and then I kind of looked in
there and there was this letter that I had actually
ripped by accident. I'm like, and it said congratulations you
(28:35):
won a tour of the Elvis Durand studio, and I'm like,
what the what what happened here? I called my sister screaming.
I'm like, I don't know. Carl and Ray must have
thought I was amazing because she invited us to the
story before we get to the rest the story. I'm
laughing now because that probably was a mistake. It was okay,
because that's that's true. Okay, that's sure. It would go
(28:56):
to um. So there was a charity event. A lot
of times we would auction off to ours, so I
probably printed there. Okay, wait, keep going, this is great.
I didn't even remember this. Oh yeah, So you're like, um,
did you win it from a chararity? Like emailed? You know?
You were like, did you win it from a charity?
I was like, no, I was just first caller of
the day. You were like, oh my gosh, I think
one of my interns. Thank you that mistake, but drink. Yeah,
(29:17):
You're like, but no worries. We'd love to have you. So, yeah,
we you invited us down that you guys were redoing
the studio at the time, so it took a while
for us to all get together, but we did and
it was one of we still say it was one
of the best days of our life. We had so
much fun with you guys. On the anniversary of it,
we always text, oh my god, you have to send
me do we You still have pictures? You have to
send them? Oh yeah, totally, okay. I look at them
(29:39):
every once in a while. It was summertime, wasn't it.
It was it was June. Yeah, yeah, see I I
and I remember you guys coming in And I always
bring this up because you guys knew so much about
the show and about everyone on the show that we
actually had Josh, who works for al Us around in
the morning show interview you guys to see how much,
like trivia, you knew about all of us in our lives.
(30:00):
Like you guys knew my boyfriend's name at the time,
and you knew like his Instagram handle or something crazy.
And it's just it's so cool to see how much
you've invested in, how you've supported at the time people
you didn't even know. Yeah, and then you've had us
call on the studio. You called us a couple of
days later and had us on air and had us
go against Greg t. I mean, it was the whole thing. Yeah,
it's fantastic. Yeah, it's cool when when you meet people
(30:22):
like you guys who are amazing, supportive, fun and like
in for the ride, Like I know I could call
you if I needed you guys to be on the
air to have fun with something. So of course now
and you, guys, Carlin Mae, You've always been such an
amazing inspiration to so many people and even just kind
of being with you with what you're going through now
and not that you want to hear this, but it
even makes you more real and more you then if
(30:44):
it's even possible then before like it's it's like thank you.
Even somebody is successful and motivated as Carl Murray HiT's
his rust spot, then it's true. In the radio world
you always want to be relatable. And I mean really,
I guess in any industry you want to be relatable
to some extent so that someone relates to you and
wants to buy from you or work with you or
(31:04):
get your service. And it's funny. I was like, man,
I've never been more relatable and there's millions of people
with the other jobs and me too, and it's like,
how are we bouncing back from this? And and I'm
lucky that I have this insane support system. I don't
you know, I'm not an accountant who lost my job.
I'm so grateful that I have people like you guys,
and people who listen to our Monday Friday podcasts or
(31:25):
stream the new show that Anthony I are doing on
Twitch a few days a week. It's just we have this. Okay,
we fell, but we have everyone who just caught us.
Now we're all kind of building this together, and it's
it's so different than what the average American is going through. However,
that gut punch, it's real and it's relatable, that's for sure.
It is. And you know, we we wish you the best,
but we know you're gonna be fine. Thank whatever you
(31:47):
do is going to be amazing, and we're gonna be
right here being weird, like, oh, I love it. I
love how this podcast from the corner. No, we don't
watch from the corner, just watch. You're not crapy, You're good.
But I love how this podcast went from how you
worked your ass off too. You went from a job
that you hated to finding something that you love and
spending years doing to talking about just the most random
(32:10):
thing because we've known each other for so long, and
the connection is what I talk about in every podcast,
how it's important to know people and to interact with
people and to be a good human And that's how
we've been able to know each other all these years.
I mean at least six years at this point. We've
been in touch through social media and it's important to
have that. It doesn't have to be social media, but
(32:32):
it's important to make connections with people. So thank you both. Yeah, No,
I agree, it is so important and just kind of
going back to what I said, Yeah, and this in
my industry in particular, like women help each other man
like we don't. We don't. We don't pull each other down.
We build each other up, we throw each other business,
we help each other out. And if everybody could do
that a little more, I think we'd all be in
a much better place. Yeah, I can agree with that one.
(32:54):
I think that is actually like the best place to
end on. So thank you for that. Thank you, Thank you, Gina,
I know you're sister popped in. Thank Higiena. You can
say hi, we can hear you hello. Thank you guys
so much for doing this. I appreciate it. Lindsay and
everyone goes support Achilles Total Pet Care. Link is below,
even if you're not in Philly, like just go click
on the website check it out. Thank you, Carlam. I
(33:15):
really needed this right now, honestly, so thank you. It
reminds me why I'm here and that I can make
it through and do not forget the dogs. Need you,
Like your daughter said, thank you so much for having me.
I really did need this and it was good to
say you you too. Thank you again for being here.
I appreciate you. Thank you for supporting Lindsay. If you're
in the South Jersey Philly area, check her out, have
(33:36):
her watch your pets, take care of your pet. Link
is below. It's Achilles Total pet Care dot com. And again,
I am also doing a show right now at this moment.
It's three days a week. It's about to be every
single day Twitch dot tv, Slash Carla, Marie and Anthony
with my co host Anthony, and it's just almost like
a podcast that you're watching, but also like a morning show.
(33:57):
There's a lot of different things going on. But link
is below. We are about to head out on a
cross country road trip from Seattle to New Jersey and
then back to Seattle and we're gonna do stops in
a ton of different cities, posting the list of cities
to Instagram. This week it's at the Carla Mury. You
can check it out there. But we're gonna stop in
cities and we're gonna do a video stream and a
(34:18):
podcast in every city, so I could be coming to
your city. We're gonna have T shirts you can buy
that are fun employment road trip toward t shirts. It's
super cool and it would be really awesome to meet
you safely and socially distancely, so um follow me on
Instagram at the Carla Maurie can also follow along at
Carla Maurie and Anthony, I would love to meet you.
Even if you don't listen to the Carlo Marine Anthony Show,
(34:40):
when you just listen to side hustlers, I still love you.
That's cool. I appreciate you for supporting me and not Anthony.
It's totally cool, but thank you for being here. Seriously,
I appreciate you. I know all of these side hustlers
appreciate you for supporting right now. If you do have
a side hustle, you can reach out to me. All
of that stuff is below would love to hear your story.
This podcast has been and produced by Houston Tilly and
(35:02):
until next week, keep hustling and be a good human
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.