GroomPod 470 Honoring a legend, stinky feet, Zymox and Growing your business transcript

Susy Hello, groomers. You found the groom pod. Welcome to our virtual salon. My name is

Suzy and I'm your host. I'm a mobile groomer from Seattle, Washington. And anybody who

knows me will tell you I love to talk, especially about my job. And one of my favorite people to

talk to is my friend and mentor and the co-star of the show, the curator of ingredients, Miss

Barbara Berg.

Bbird Hey, Suzy. So happy to be with you this lovely Sunday. It's a lovely day here in South

Carolina. And, uh, but I can see outside at your windows that it doesn't look like a too terrible a

day there in my state of Washington. But you're not floating away.

Susy It's ten to eleven, and it looks like it's four in the afternoon.

Bbird Ah.

Susy It's really dark. It's dark. It's not raining right now, but it will be, because that's what

happens here. But I'll tell you what. We have a packed show, Barbara, today. But we have to

start kind of. We're going to start on a heavier note, though. Recently in the grooming world,

we lost a true giant. We're taking a moment to honor the life and legacy of Chris Christensen, a

man whose innovations quite literally changed the way we work at our table. And then after

that, after we pay our respects, we're shifting gears to something a little more pungent. We're

talking about Frito Feet and what causes the corn chip smell and how to manage it in the

salon, and how to help our people at home. And then we're bringing some fresh twenty twenty

six ready ideas on how to grow your client list and build a brand new brand that keeps those

books full. Plus, we're going to be doing a deep dive on Zymox products.

Bbird Yeah, let's get going.

Susy Welcome to episode four hundred seventy of the Groupon. Yay! We wouldn't even be

here if it wasn't for the support of our sponsors. And those sponsors are Best Shot Show

Season, Precision, Sharp Groomer and Stashko. And you guys can sponsor us as well by

going to the podcast website, the podcast, and joining us on Patreon or sharing it with a friend

or liking or, you know, all of those neat little things. But what's new this week is brought to you

by Groomer Software.

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Susy Well, before we move on to our first appointment, I want to take a moment to honor a

true titan in the grooming industry who we recently lost, and that is Chris Christensen. If you've

ever picked up a Chris Christensen t brush or marveled at the finish of a white on white

treatment, you've experienced Chris's genius. He didn't just manufacture products. He

revolutionized the way we think about canine aesthetics. Starting in nineteen ninety, Chris saw

a gap in the market while others were making generic tools. He was obsessing over coat

specific solutions. He treated dog grooming like eye and hair care, focusing on the science of

the follicle and the ergonomics of the brush. Chris was a fixture at trade shows, always ready

to listen to feedback and share. His passion for grooming. World feels a little quieter without

him, but his legacy lives on in every beautifully finished coat and every grooming kit around the

globe. Rest in peace, Chris, and thank you for everything you gave to our community. So I got

to work with him in developing his ear cleaner pretty closely. It was really fun. I got to test the

product and give him feedback, and then he'd adjust things and he'd send it back out to me.

And so I got to know him a little bit that way.

Bbird So what product was that?

Susy It was his ear cleaner when he first came out with it or readjusted whatever he had

before. And it was really fun. I loved to be involved in that kind of product development. I I

know you've done a fair amount of product development yourself. It's fun, it's interesting. It's

neat to see the end product after you've given feedback and they've changed something. But

at the end, he gave me a really cool hairbrush that was made of fancy hardwood from Africa.

Bbird Blackwood, right? Yeah.

Susy Oh yeah, I still use it every day. It's my favorite hairbrush. I've never needed to replace it.

The pins have held in place because that was way back before the newer manufacturing

methods. Oh my gosh, I love that brush. I liked having dinner with him. He was fun to talk to.

He was an interesting hippie guy. And uh, yeah. What? You worked closer than I did with

them? Certainly. Do you want to share any of your feelings?

Bbird It's a loss to our industry, but he's been gone for a few years from the industry, so I. We

knew that it was going to happen, you know, like we thought maybe he would live on forever.

But I had a great year working for. It was my seventieth birthday, and I was going out to trade

shows and speaking sponsored by one of the top companies in the industry. It was like a real

high. I loved it, and then I spent time at the booth selling whatever, you know, selling. I had a

funny experience, though, because I had my own little philosophy of retail that is that I would

coach the customer to choose the right tool for the job. Um, and so one time a customer

picked up a comb and they were telling me about what the the dog's coat was. And I said, well,

no, this is not the comb you want. You want this other comb? Oh, man, I got in trouble for that.

Oh, because that's not how you sell. Yeah. If they pick it up, you ring it up. You don't question

their choices. If it doesn't work out, they'll come and buy another one. So I don't know. So I got

that that was a little bit of a disappointment. So there were ways in which Chris Christensen

and I meshed in ways in which we clashed. And in spite of that, I adored them, and they loved

me. and it was a great fun. Lots of good dinners. Um, and I subsequently was offered a full

time job for them, but I would have had to move to Bumfuck, Texas.

Susy Oh.

Bbird Their their property was on the same lot as their factory, and it was in a very rural small

town in Texas. Totally not my kind of place. No. I, I respectfully refused the job. I just though

they were going to they have a had a double wide trailer on the property that they were going

to let me live there. You know, it was like no rent. No, you know, I could bring my dogs. They

would have a safe yard. All of the it was just a lot of good reasons to go. And, um, I just

couldn't I just couldn't give up my independence and become that dependent on an employer.

So I thank them immensely. They, they other little interesting feature is that they only used me

for one year, because three of the other trade show promoters came to the Chris Christiansen

booth at Inner Groom. It took Chris and his wife, Lisa often, and they advised Chris not to use

me because one time, for example, I wrote a blog post about using dish soap on your shown

dish soap, vinegar and um. I forget what my third ingredient was, but it was before we had

hypoallergenic, uh, shampoos that were really meaningfully hypo, and it had already been like

ten to fifteen years before that. They but you see, I was so threatened by the vendors that the

vendors didn't want me because I had this thing about ingredients should be disclosed. And it

was so threatening that, you know, they all ganged up. My contract was not renewed for further

speaking. And I loved it. I just loved it. I loved working with Chris. He was such a nice guy, just

a genuinely nice guy. And he and Lisa were so passionate about their business and so bright

and with it and cool people. It was really special. And he was a perfect ambassador for our

industry, because he was such a gentleman and so well spoken and so well thought of. It was

great, a great blessing that I got to work for him for a year.

Susy Yeah, it's a real loss. Definitely. They had sold the company prior, so that really doesn't

affect that part of it. But anyone who knew him, probably at some point in time, got a chance to

chat with him at a trade show and recognized what a cool dude he was. And he, like I say, will

be missed.

Bbird Yeah, and I got everything for free. Everything I wanted any scissors that I wanted, any.

Anything that I wanted I got for free for that whole year. Whoa, that that was wonderful.

Susy Ah, it's so nice to be you. It's even nice to be on your coattails. Sometimes I get a little of

that.

Bbird You're getting it. You're getting it. You're becoming famous in your own right, girl. Don't

sell yourself short. You're not just the technical person.

Susy I do like being the technical person, though. But yes, thanks for the recognition there.

Bbird Well, I know, I'm glad you do because I don't like it at all because I, I have meltdowns.

Okay? It's true, I have big meltdowns. But when the when the technical shit doesn't work.

Susy Well, we always survive, though. Here we are. All right, well, let's take a quick.

Bbird Well, thanks.

Susy Thanks. Let's take a quick break, and then we're going to be back with our first

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Ready groomers. Here comes our first appointment. First, we're stepping into a topic that every

pet professional knows all too well. It's that scent that hits you the moment a dog walks onto

your table. That unmistakable salty corn chip aroma that we affectionately call Frito Feet. Eat.

But beyond the funny name, what's actually happening between those paw pads? Why do

some dogs smell stronger than others? And where do we, as professionals, draw the line

between a routine bath and a medical referral? Barbara, I know you've seen it and smelled it,

so let's dive in. What's the science behind the snack food scent? And how can we keep our

clients paws healthy and fresh?

Bbird All right. Tell us, is he.

Susy The Frito smell happens when Pseudomonas and Proteus. Proteus bacteria produce a

yeasty, sweet corn like odor as they break up the sweat and the skin cells. And as you guys

know, dogs have sweat glands in their feet and in their nose. Those are the only two spots on

a dog that actually sweat. So the feet, just by the way they are kind of constructed, encourage

warm and wet That environment, which is what bacteria loves. They warm and wet is their job.

Man and dark.

Bbird That you know, like in between the toes darken there. Yeah.

Susy It's a big problem here in the northwest. I mean, a huge problem because the dogs are

constantly if they go outside to pee, they're getting their feet wet. And unless, you know, that's

what the smell is, you don't know that you probably should dry your feet off, dry your dogs feet

off. A lot of people end up having to do that just because they don't want the dogs feet to be

irritated.

Bbird And and you know why that is? Pseudomonas. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the invisible

enemy of all dog groomers. Because it lives in water. It lives in mud. It lives in rain. It It lives in

the bathtub.

Susy It's everywhere.

Bbird It's everywhere. It's it's it's everywhere. The only thing that keeps us from not surviving

Pseudomonas aeroginosa is that it has some enemies. But that's another podcast. So.

Susy And then their feet get sore, and then what do they do? They lick.

Bbird They. They lick and lick and lick and lick and lick or they itch even before they get sore.

They might itch, you know, like sometimes a dog can itch in a place where it can't reach and so

it'll lick its feet.

Susy I tell people that and they're like, really? And I said, yeah, there's a problem right here on

the dog's butt, but the dog can't get to his butt there. So it licks something it can get to, like the

inside of the thigh or the belly or somewhere where they can get it. So you've got to be a

detective. And the mouth has bacteria too, because it's kind of can be gross with some bad

teeth and stuff like that. So they're introducing more bacteria into the environment, making it

wet. It's constantly being irritated. Uh, what can we do though? What can we do to combat the

whole scenario? And I was always taught that trimming the hair out of there is a good idea. I

don't know how people feel about that these days, though, since it's a little bit like ear hair

where ear hair has a function in that it wicks stuff out of your ear. But if you leave the ear hair

in and it gets no air in there, it doesn't dry out. It can grow the same kind of stuff that the feet

grow. How do you feel about that?

Bbird I think it's important to trim the hair on the feet so it doesn't have unnecessary slippers.

Hello, Cavalier.

Susy Do you dip in?

Bbird We do clean the feet, the bottoms of the feet as groomers. But when I went to Scotland,

I stayed at the home of somebody that had a school of grooming in Scotland, and she told me

that in Scotland they didn't clip in between the pads of the feet because it was considered

protective.

Susy That's exactly what I wonder.

Bbird So excuse me, the Westies are still working dogs in Ireland. But speaking of Westies,

they're one of the dogs that has a bigger chance of getting skin problems. I'm going to be kind

of getting into some of that, uh, now that I've, um, hooked up with Chris Pearson. Searzall. Or

we call her Pert Pierce stole.

Susy I invented that.

Bbird That's your new name? Chris. Susie, accidentally on purpose invented that name

because she started to swallow Chris's name while she was introducing him to y'all. We think

it's a great name for her, because those two names you always getting forgetting which one is

supposed to come first. Because some of her names, one of them's her maiden name and the

other one's her married name. And she kept going back and forth with her husband. She would

take his name and would be Pierce and circle, and, I don't know, it was just. It was. It was

changing.

Susy And this is her new name we heard.

Bbird So this is her new name.

Susy So you're going to do a little bit more in in that stuff. Do you have something coming up

maybe.

Bbird Yeah. Well, yeah, because because Chris and I and some other of the advanced canine

aestheticians that have certification that we're coming out with a online magazine called. The

canine aesthetician.

Susy Cool.

Bbird Say that five times fast. It's going to be an online journal. And, um, there's going to be

several contributors, and I'm going to be contributing a monthly column on ingredients. Uh, of

course.

Susy I got really excited when I heard about this.

Bbird There's going to be an at the tub column, especially for tips and stuff about lotions and

potions to use in the tub. And it's going to be just like, really top notch and also fun. And no

ads. We're not getting paid. It's a labor of love because we love you. Why should I start making

money now at the gotten by?

Susy Well, we I was really excited to hear about this. And then I found out that it's at this point

only available to people who have taken the the course.

Bbird It is to start out. Yeah, I was going to I needed to ask her. That's got to be some others

like guests. You would be my guest or people who have other canine Aesthetician certification,

who certified under Michelle Michelle Knowles.

Susy And you and Chris may be doing a webinar coming up, so stay tuned for that. In

Scotland they don't cut the hair between the pads, do they cut the hair off on the bottom of the

pads? Because I do think that helps an inside dogs. Anyway.

Bbird Well, and I think, I think there, there are times that just as with plucking of ears, there

are times where you look at the inside of a dog and you know that that is icky. There's cactus

in there or something.

Susy A big rock, a mat, a solid mat in there that probably feels like the dog's walking on a rock.

Those have to come out and sap is another one. If you've got sap in there, that's got to come

out. But as a rule, don't dig in there, maybe and irritate that area if you don't have to, because

then the licking starts and then the moisture and it becomes like an avalanche.

Bbird There are two things that I would tell. There are three things I would. I would tell the pet

owner a few things.

Susy And they are.

Bbird And I'll and I'll think of them in just a minute. It's so fun being eighty six years old. Yeah.

No, I would I would ask the owners to put the dog on a good probiotic supplement for dogs

because there is an undeniable, scientifically established, reestablished, reconfirmed

connection between the health of the biome in the gut and the health of the biome of the skin.

So there's a gut skin connection, and it starts with the gut. It doesn't go from the skin out. It

starts with the gut. And if the gut is lacking in, uh, the right kind of micro biotics, it can't send

any messages or anything through the bloodstream to the skin. I don't know how the skin is

signaled by the gut, but somehow there's a traffic pattern. And what you want on both places is

a a real diverse, just like the kind of environment I want. I want a diverse environment, I want

people. I want little people. I want big people. I want every color. I want different languages. I

want. I loved living in San Francisco. Susie was that I could walk down a city street and hear

these different languages being spoken. I loved that. Anyway, what am I saying?

Susy Tangent.

Bbird Oh, put the dog on probiotics and put an Elizabethan collar or some kind of a non

chewing mechanism on the dog. Don't let it lick its feet until the itching and everything stops,

until the feet heal. Because otherwise they'll just go right back to it. They won't leave it alone.

And it's just for a couple of weeks out of their little lives.

Susy So what's the third thing? So probiotic protect the area with an e-collar or a barrier of

some sort like socks.

Bbird To to do something that, that humectant kind of a lotion or potion to moisturize the skin

and help it return to a healthy balance. And if I think of a if I think of my original third number,

I'll, I'll let you know.

Susy Okay. So I think when you bathe that dog and your shop, you do the feet separately with

either chlorhexidine or an antibiotic antibacterial shampoo on the feet. Do that when the dog's

in bath. But I don't think you need to do the whole dog in an antibacterial or antifungal

shampoo. But I would do that myself and wash it out really well.

Bbird Yeah, let's talk about that Because I think you're right on that. If people are using a

chlorhexidine because the chlorhexidine can really kill too much of the good stuff that's on

there. And although it doesn't seem to be a total disinfecting for one application or even

several applications, the skin biome takes a big hit when you use chlorhexidine, and it's just

will keep the dog skin always working. Just trying to keep up with the inability of the good

bacteria to do their job. That killing off too much of the good stuff along with some of the bad

stuff.

Susy I'll counterpoint that there's an overgrowth. There's an overgrowth in the in the pads. I

think that you do need to kill some of that off, because chlorhexidine doesn't kill everything.

And we're not talking about doing it every day. We're talking about a dog that comes through

your shop, and you notice that the feet are inflamed, or one that has been at a vet hospital,

and you've been instructed by the vet to use a specific type of thing on the feet if they've gone

to the vet for that. But then super important after the bath and after the antifungal is like you

were saying, put something moisturizing in there. Also, I think gold bond medicated powder

might help in the pads of the feet in the in-between time. What do you think of that? They won't

like to lick it.

Bbird I don't like it for feet because they lick their feet. Unless you can just promise.

Susy Well, if you're already using an e-collar or a barrier on the feet, maybe a little gold bond

instead of, uh, instead of the.

Bbird Instead of the chlorhexidine.

Susy Either instead of chlorhexidine or instead of chlorhexidine and the moisturizer because

the wet environment, the moisturizer is going to keep it moist in there. If you put the gold bond

in, then it's got a little antifungal kind of an action in there, and then it would also dry it out just

thinking out loud. I don't know. That's why I'm posing the question. So you guys will have to

come up with your own thoughts on this. I'm asking Barbara because she has more sciencey

knowledge than I do. I've got more vet in my ear kind of stuff, so that's why I'm thinking drying

it out rather than moistening it up. But I understand the need.

Bbird I am anxious to tell you about the Zymox shampoo. Um, what a great segue. I kind of

wish that we had that conversation first.

Susy How about if we have it right now?

Bbird Well, we're going to have it right now.

Susy Well, we were going to do another topic in there, but we don't have to. We can just go

straight into the zymox right after this. Let's do that.

Bbird Okay.

Susy We're going to just take a quick break right now, and then we'll be back with, uh,

Beaver's classroom. Hey, grumpy listeners, clear your calendars for March twelfth. The

legendary show season ten sale is back in Tucker, Georgia, and it's bigger than ever. We're

talking free door prizes for everyone, massive raffles from Utsumi and Groomers mall, and a

chance to win a canine two dryer from Electric Cleaner Company. Learn from the best with live

demos by award winning masters Nathan and Katie Austin. Plus enjoy free shipping on all

show season brand orders placed at the event. Coffee and lunch are on the house, but you

must RSVP for a ticket. Head to show Season grooming right now to register for free. See you

at the tent. Groomers, take your seats. It's time for bird's classroom. So one of our people

asked about Zymox shampoo. Barbara. Let's talk zymox.

Bbird Oh, I'd be glad to talk Zymox because I very much enjoyed taking a deeper look at this

brand, and I really wish I had done it sooner because I was very impressed. I first of all, I'm

impressed with their marketing because they don't they don't overblow it. You know, they they

it's like show season, just pretty much straight descriptive terms that you understand and not a

lot of Fluff and hype. Um. Practically none. It's just straight on. So a long time ago, I used the

zymox ear stuff to clear up a nasty yeast infection in a dog. Either that I groomed or was one of

mine. I can't remember right now, but it worked really well. And I've used it several times on on.

Kind of like nipping dog ear infections in the bud. And I knew it was enzyme driven because

the name hello Zymox Zyme ox. So I bought I said, oh God, I need to take a look at this. And

I've got dogs, two dogs that have got this strange skin thing going on. Right. And so I bought

the shampoo and the conditioner. One thing I loved about the conditioner, Susie, is that you

could use it as a leave in a rinse through, or a salve.

Susy That's nice.

Bbird So I can put this stuff, which is it's basically a conditioning conditioner, but it's just made

so that it can be safe staying on the skin. And it's actually good for staying on the skin because

it's got this enzyme system which is three enzymes.

Susy This is very applicable for the feet thing. I think that's pretty cool.

Bbird They've got a foot product that I'll get to.

Susy Oh cool. Well let me just say this. If you, um, tell your owners to dry the feet. That's one

thing. When they come in from the wet, the other thing is if it gets bad, send them to the vet.

Bbird So Zymox has these three enzymes that work together. I'm going to just tell you what

they do. They work together to make it be antibiotic and antifungal. They work together. They

are the same enzyme system found in mother's milk, colostrum, that protect the baby, the baby

skin from popping out of the womb and freaking out and getting a dysbiosis. Right.

Susy A who? What?

Bbird Dysbiosis means an imbalance. Dysbiosis. Biological dis biologically. Something went

wrong. Osis right. Dysbiosis. Got it.

Susy That's a good one.

Bbird Vocabulary word for the day. There'll be a test of. The three enzymes that are called the.

Like the L3 system.

Susy Uh-Uh.

Bbird Lysozyme, an enzyme that works as a natural biotic by breaking down the bacterial cell

walls. That's a good way to go if you're a bacteria. Okay.

Susy Effective.

Bbird It's effective. It's quick. It's there. They're out of there. Lactoferrin. Lactoferrin is a protein

that binds iron, making it unavailable to bacteria. And it also has direct bactericidal and antiviral

properties found then again found in the baby's milk And lactoperoxidase is an enzyme that

generates potent antimicrobial compounds. The lactoperoxidase is the peroxide that works

with the other two to make the antibiotic magic. The stuff has been researched. It does not

disrupt the natural skin biome. It doesn't. It's proven. It's scientific. It's established that there's

very little upset. Maybe a little teeny spillover. Whoops. I accidentally killed you. Sorry. Um.

Don't get me dramatizing the podcast. Be another whole thing. Okay, so, hey, then in addition

to the to the L3, the big three, they also utilize vitamin D3, which is a moisturizing vitamin, and

oatmeal which oat extract not oatmeal, but oat extract, which is a really decent moisturizer for

the skin. So this product, it has just a very kind of complicated, upscale cleansing mechanism

using Peg eighty, Sorbitan, Laurate and a bunch of other things. It's a very good cleansing

system with a couple of other things for the formula and added this L3, the three enzymes with

the oat extract and the vitamin D3.

Susy That complex of things is in everything.

Bbird It's in everything. And they have an oral product for bad breath. They have a foot, they

call it. Oh, let me read to you. I've just ran into a really interesting statement about topical use

of vitamin D3. Vitamin D3 offers benefits like reducing skin inflammation, boosting immunity,

promoting skin repair, and fighting signs of aging. As if a dog cares by improved barrier

function, improving the barrier function, they aids in cell turnover and protecting against

oxidative stress. this vitamin D3 is one hard working additive vitamin that I can get behind.

They use it in their shampoo. They use it in their conditioner that you can use as a topical

lotion, and they use it in the foot stuff. I think they use it a lot, and I think that there again, bad

itching is often a result of really dry skin. If the skin is inflamed and licked, it's going to have a

lot of moisture loss. TSW Transepidermal Moisture loss.

Susy This is cool. So their foot thing is called Funky Paws.

Bbird Yeah. Funky paws.

Susy Also for the folds on the Bulldogs and the bloodhounds and the. Yeah. And all that stuff.

So I want to try some of this stuff now. I remember getting a sample from them somewhere

along the lines and liking it, but I've never actually bought the product, so I might have to look

into that.

Bbird Of all of the things that I've used on my dogs to try to clear up this scaly, you know, like

they don't smell like Fritos or. But there again, when it comes to my dogs, I have sometimes I

don't smell them.

Susy Nose blind.

Bbird And nose blind, or either that or I, I automatically hold my breath.

Susy I think I call that a grooming survival skill. Sometimes you just have to do that.

Bbird The shampoo. I've given little to baths, but the first bath boom! I was way down the road.

The overnight the lesion started releasing some scabs, you know, releasing scales that are

formed, the scab that covers the. The inflamed skin. So I, I really like that. Two days later, I

was able to comb out a whole lot of little scabs. And Marco, I used the conditioner as a salve

on the lesions. And he also cleared up right away. Still got a little bit happening, but, uh, they

probably need two or three baths of this, but it's very good stuff. And it's been tested and

discovered that it does not kill off the friendly bacteria and microbes that live on your skin. That

is the important part we're just getting to appreciate the importance of the skin biome. More

and more as it's being studied and the science is coming out. So what's really going on there?

It's fascinating.

Susy Very cool.

Bbird Well, for me. But then again, I'm old.

Susy All right.

Bbird I love this stuff.

Susy Now let's just briefly discuss things we can do in twenty twenty six to get more clients.

Because now that we've tackled the science of the skin, let's talk about the backbone of any

successful salon or shop or mobile. And it's the schedule. We all want a fully booked sign in

the window. But in twenty twenty six, getting clients isn't just about putting a flyer out on the

coffee shop corkboard. It's about branding and community and wow factor that keeps people

coming back. How do you attract your dream clients and more importantly, how do you make

sure they never want to go anywhere else? Barbara, I think my favorite thing that you can do to

set yourself apart is have a specialty. I am a specialist in that. I'm super duper good at

customer service and I am good with difficult dogs. I am not a scissor. I don't have special

breeds. I do better than others. I do special temperaments better than others. So that's where

my area of specialty is. Do you think specialties help set you apart?

Bbird I do, but don't become a go to Rome. Expert, because you'll get stuck with those dogs

that hate grooming and have the weirdest coats in the world. And I made that mistake. That's

funny. But in my earlier days, uh, for. For a number of years, I was be shown Specialist. But of

course I did all Aubrey's welcome Fide master groomer with his own specialty. And but then I

realized that that was not exactly a model for profit because we take so long to do, and I was

doing them all in little abbreviated show trims, you know? And people loved it because they

loved their fluffy dogs. But I couldn't do as much work per day and make as much money

especially it was okay when there was just like one a day, but when there was just like three or

four a day, I had to say, oh, another one of my specialties was standard poodles.

Susy Oh, Barbara, that's crazy. I guess what Barbara is saying is choose your specialty wisely.

Bbird A good thing to do is sort of like cruise around your neighborhood or your community for

a while and get a sense of what dogs are are popular, what's showing up in your neck of the

woods and then specialize in that?

Susy That makes sense.

Bbird Boy, you you could make money in Tucson, Arizona. Just specializing in Chihuahuas up

here.

Susy It would be doodles, unfortunately. I'm sure that's kind of the case everywhere, but I think

variety is the spice of life, which is why I choose a temperament type of a specialty, because I

like to do every kind of dog out there. I like to try them all, although I'm definitely better at some

than I am at others.

Bbird I landed well after I did be shown in Standard Poodles for years. I did back to my original

which was terrier breed profile and so it wasn't showed terriers or anything like that, but it was

like adaptations of the breed, standard trim on pets. And that was a big that, that really it made

me stand out. And it also kept clients with me.

Susy For sure. And there's variety in that.

Bbird And there was variety. There's much more variety interiors, and generally speaking, they

didn't take as long to do as be shown or standard poodles.

Susy You could also do start to finish grooming. There's a lot of different ways you can do it.

Uh, but having a specialty, it helps people to find you. You also need to be able to be found

online because in today's world, people are going to Google dog groomer near me and see

what's out there. Yeah. Yep. So that you don't have to pay for that. But you do need to talk to

someone who is an expert at the search engine and what's important and keywords and all

that, and focus on that. I like to tell my clients that I'm looking for people, and when you tell

your clients what kind of people you're looking for, you can get pretty specific. So you could

say, I'm looking for terriers. Do you have any friends that have terriers that are looking for a

groomer or something like that? Because your clients really are your best advertising word of

mouth between your clients?

Bbird Yeah, if you can get referred by a vet. Vet referrals are gold. You know, they're they're

just golden. Even if you don't have a high expectations to go around to all of veterinary

establishments and and introduce yourself because just being a known face, you know, and if

you have to go every month and see how your cards are doing, and fill up the holder again and

talk to the receptionist person who books the appointments. Yes.

Susy And they love to have someone to refer to as a former vet receptionist. You get asked

those questions a lot. Where do you go for training? Where do you go for boarding? Where do

you go for grooming? And a lot of that hospitals know that having grooming is oftentimes a

bigger hassle for them than it is a benefit, although it can be fantastic if you train the groomers

right to spot things and to to get vet care when needed. That's how the vets make their money.

But I'm a proponent of bribes. I like to bribe. One of the ways I have always bribed these

people to mention me is by doing some free grooming. I will groom the receptionist dog for

free, or I will groom the vet owner type dog for free and let them know you know have some

personal experience with the way I do things. And then I will always show up with cookies or

donuts or pizza when I go over to talk to those people because they remember that. Totally

remember it. Add the cards given to the receptionist, given with a box of cookies, and that will

make an impression. And then they will always remember you when that phone call comes in.

Make your community connections for sure. Include the pet stores and the boarding places

that don't do their own grooming. Uh, you know, sometimes if you're mobile, you can work

something out with boarding kennels where you go by and do the dogs there once or twice a

week or something. It's also important to use the internet by making Insta moments for your

Instagram, or little reels for Facebook, or things that get the dogs out there, or your services

out there, or your face out there so that those pop up when they search for the groomer near

me as well. And then lastly, I think pre-book your regulars so that you know how many people

you actually need. Make sure they're coming back and also telling their friends and that's it.

Barbara, anything you want to add to that?

Bbird You have to use a shotgun approach. Unfortunately, one single thing isn't going to do it.

You have to keep doing. It's your work. When you don't have the work, got to put in the time.

The better you know your community and have contacts and network around you, the more it

will bring people in. Because just putting up a sign, unless there's like nobody within miles, it's

not going to do much of a difference because there's a lot of groomers out there doing their

own thing. What's different about you? Well, what's, you know, special.

Susy Oh, she brought cookies. That's oftentimes all you need is a receptionist.

Bbird The cookie creamer. Yeah.

Susy That lady that brought the cookies or that dude that brought the cookies. Yeah, definitely.

Okay, cool. Well, I think we can call this a show and box it away and set it in line to be edited.

And I'm happy to say, for those of you who don't know, which is most of you, Barbara is having

surgery tomorrow on her knee. We'll just leave that at that then. Well, thanks for being here,

everybody. Thanks for supporting our sponsors. Thanks for supporting us at the website.

Remember to share us with your friends. Hit that like button and happy grooming everyone.

We'll see you next time on the groom pod.

Bbird Bye now and take care of yourselves because you know we love you.