Lianne Shinton (00:02)

everybody and welcome. I'm Lianne Shinton from Automation Dogs and welcome to my podcast. ⁓ I run a software for dog trainers. I help dog trainers with their business. And a lot of times my podcast topic is about helping dog trainers with their business. And today I have the pleasure of bringing to all the dog trainers my coach, Tim Moses from Peterson Acquisitions, build to sell. Welcome, Tim.

Tim (00:29)

Hello, thank you.

Lianne Shinton (00:32)

So glad to have you

here. So you are just a wealth of knowledge. I have shared your contact information with many dog trainers. I know that you help other dog trainers as well. And I guess where we should probably start is if you don't mind just introduce yourself. I already kind of said you're my amazing coach, ⁓ life changer, business changer. ⁓ You know, every week we meet and it's really, really helpful.

Tim (00:53)

Yeah.

Lianne Shinton (01:00)

me so much with my business and my life. So thank you.

Tim (01:04)

Well, thank you. That's that means a lot. Yeah, I am a I'm a business coach and mentor for for business owners like yourself. I work with business owners who are just struggling and living in in chaos. So I helped them focus on building a team that they can rely on and count on, help them find the profits that they're bleeding within their company. ⁓ And together that

that leads to more freedom and more wealth. ⁓

Lianne Shinton (01:37)

That was a very quick intro. Thank you. Awesome.

So I guess what I want to dive into is some things that might help dog trainers that I hear from them. And one common thing that I hear is I ask all the time, what happens when a lead comes in to your website? They call you.

Tim (01:44)

So I'm going to switch.

Lianne Shinton (02:01)

They fill out your contact form. What does that process look like? And I hear it every day where folks will tell me, I call them back. I get back to them within 24 hours. So I'd love to hear your take on that.

Tim (02:13)

Yeah.

Yeah, brutal. I hear that a lot as well, you know, and I think the root of all evil to a business is solving for revenue. How do we create more revenue? And it and that starts with the lead gen, right? ⁓ You you spend money, you make this investment to attract somebody into your ether ⁓ and you put all this time and effort in getting them to submit.

their information so that it comes to you in some form of a lead and then we're supposed to call them up and follow up with them and try to convert them to a sale. ⁓ you know, 24 hours is just the deadliest sin when it comes to sales and ⁓ marketing. ⁓ You know, there's scientific evidence, empirical evidence that shows

that a lead must be followed up with in five minutes. And you actually have a 400 % chance of not closing the business after 10, after 10 minutes. So 24 minutes or 24 hours later, you have really put yourself behind the eight ball and the likelihood of you converting that person is really slim because we live in a, in a world of

⁓ expedition, everything's going to be expedited, right? Because we've been putting this off by the time they finally find some time to put in that information and contact you. They've now set their minds that they're going to take care of this. And if they don't connect with you in the first five to 10 minutes, they're moving on to that next person in Google. And we like to say the best place to hide a dead bodies on page two of Google search.

Because nobody goes there. Nobody even makes it there. They contact the first maybe three or four people on the Google page and they look for results. And if you're not contacting them within five minutes of that lead coming in, you're going to lose the deal.

Lianne Shinton (04:32)

Absolutely. And I think this day and age with AI, chat, GPT, you know, that's why people are just so needing those quick responses. And studies, like you said, have shown this is the way it is. It's 2025. It's probably going to have to be faster next year. And so I think we can agree that speed is the number one factor when you're trying to convert those leads.

Tim (04:51)

Yeah. ⁓

Yes. And, you know, most business owners, majority of the businesses in this country are, are solopreneurs. They're insurance agents, they're real estate agents, they're marketing people. You know, they're, they're some kind of an independent agent. So if they're on sales calls or podcasts, like we are right here and leads are coming through, they've got to come up with some creative ways to automate.

their systems so that they're making contact while they're working with other people. Right. And that's one of the things that I love about ⁓ your business automation docs is, you give that that automation that's so important. And we've had to incorporate the same kind of automation on our back end as well, because, you know, myself and other coaches and mentors is we're meeting with our clients and, ⁓ you know,

involved in our in our own businesses throughout the day. We can't always just be sitting here with our hand on the phone waiting for somebody to call. We've got to have some kind of a system in place that's going to attract them and keep them on the hook until we can get to them. So ⁓ it's I think it's a big misconception in within the business world of what's acceptable.

Right. And in most cases, a same day response, that's acceptable to maybe replying to a customer or a complaint or a need. Right. But when it comes to lead generation, they've got to they've got to get in under that five minute mark.

Lianne Shinton (06:46)

Absolutely. It can make or break a business. And I shot a video the other day and what we're talking about is reminding me, have you ever walked into like a restaurant or a store and the person behind the counter is just like literally like trying to kill you with their mind? Like they're looking down, they're like, ⁓ I don't want to talk to you. And with us as dog trainers, we may not have a storefront where someone's walking in.

But our website, our socials, that's our storefront. When people walk in that door, when we ignore them and that's how it feels to them, that's poor customer service.

Tim (07:24)

Exactly. Yeah. And, ⁓ you know, I heard something recently, right? Like what you what you don't change, you choose, right? So in this world that we have today, we have so many options in front of us. And I think all of us are now ⁓ kind of trained to that instant gratification. So I need it now type scenario. And, ⁓ you know,

I think same day response, like when it comes to customer support is realistic. And I tell my clients like, you're going to get a same day response, but that doesn't mean I'm going to solve your problem the same day. That just means that I'm going to acknowledge you so that when you go home to your family or your friends and you're breaking bread, you don't have to break that piece and say, I wonder if Tim got my email about that. Right. ⁓ I think.

It's I think it's the best policy to just say, Liam, I got your email today. I'm taking a look at this. I'll have answers for you tomorrow. And I see so many business owners setting themselves up for failure by by thinking that they have to deal with this right now. And as business owners, you know, we've got fires burning everywhere all day long. And if you're just running back and forth in between fires, being a firefighter, how do you work on your business?

You know, instead of instead of dealing with clients and putting out fires all the time, how do you find time to manage your day and prioritize so that you can actually work on the business or your people and help develop them so that come the end of the week, when you clock out at five o'clock, you're not dealing with the same business that you started with. There's got to be consistent growth. And if you're just constantly.

you're going back and forth and trying to deal with crisis and be a responder to all these buyers, you're going to run yourself ragged and it's never going to happen. And I think that's why most business owners feel like they're on that perpetual hamster wheel that just never stops.

Lianne Shinton (09:44)

definitely been on that wheel. I think we as dog trainers, like I like cleaning and making sure my kennels clean. And that to me gets my effort, not that lead that's sitting there. well, I can get back to them, but I really want to make sure these kennels are clean and these dogs are walked and these dogs are trained. But let's talk about that lead and how much that...

Tim (09:47)

We all have.

So.

Lianne Shinton (10:14)

Lead is costing me.

Tim (10:16)

Yes. Yeah, it's about reprogramming, ⁓ That mess in the kennel, it's gonna be there in five minutes, right? So it's just gonna take a quick five minutes to call that lead back and have a conversation with them and schedule a consultation with them, right? So that problem, it's still gonna be there when you're done. ⁓ So we like to say call the damn leads. Call them.

stop procrastinating and putting things off. It's an avoidance.

Lianne Shinton (10:54)

It is an avoidance. I wonder if it's like, we're to call them and they might say no. Like, I don't know why we avoid that. Maybe we're not business folk at heart. We're dog trainers. Maybe talk to us about the avoidance. Why would we avoid working those darn leads?

Tim (10:54)

So what are you avoiding?

Thank

Well, there's a lot there to unpack when it comes to avoidance and everyone's in a different part of their journey, right? If I'm a business owner, maybe I'm a dog trainer just starting off and maybe leads are coming in and maybe I've got a little bit of that. ⁓

⁓ what do they call it? Mike, like I'm, dealing with an identity crisis. Like maybe I don't feel like I'm valid enough or I'm qualified yet because I don't have a lot of experience. I'm just starting off. So picking up the phone and talking to a dog owner about training their pet. I, I could feel a little bit vulnerable doing that. Right. And unfortunately that's just part of the journey.

You know, you got to just push through it and find a way to overcome it. ⁓ I, ⁓ you hear a lot like fake it until you make it. And I think that's a good way to start off, but I don't think it's a great way to live by. Right. Because I think if you're constantly just faking it to make it at some point in time, you start to believe that lie. But I think starting off to pick up the lead, it's a, it's a good thing to do it. But other people are.

You know, maybe just intimidated by, you know, talking to them and, you know, afraid of getting the no, right? Or maybe they also have an issue with like titles, like talking to people of higher authority. So depending on where they see themselves within the social classes can also dictate how they're interacting with other people.

Lianne Shinton (12:48)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Tim (13:09)

So there's an amazing book. It's a really dry read, but it really goes through like the 15 different psychological behaviors that we as salespeople go through during our prospecting and lead nurturing cycles. And it tells you how to like cope with them and overcome them. And really at the end of the day, the best...

prescription to overcome whatever it is that's in front of you is to just face it and push through it. And, you know, as you push through it, you become better at it. You get more repetitions and you develop better strengths so that you overcome it and you kind of look back on it and you realize like sometimes I'll chuckle and be like, I

Lianne Shinton (13:42)

Mm-hmm.

Tim (14:01)

I can't even believe like I was even a little bit worried about that. That was nothing. That was easy. I, you know, I can't believe I, I was reluctant to pick up the phone and call those leads. I wonder how many, you know, how many thousands of dollars I cost myself because of that. and it was nothing.

Lianne Shinton (14:24)

That was awesome. I think another reason for avoidance might be that we are burned out or maybe triggered. ⁓ Someone leaves a message and they've got maybe two sibling dogs that are fighting and we just had a client with the same kind of thing and, you know, just, just burnout.

Tim (14:47)

burnout's at the top of the list. ⁓ I've had salespeople on my team, ⁓ you know, just kind of walk into it with, with bias. You know, they automatically think because the last five leads haven't been good, but the next few aren't. And, you know, I've, I've always tried to play a game with when it comes to, to sales with.

Lianne Shinton (15:03)

Yeah.

Tim (15:14)

with our leads and our prospects and, you know, for every one lead that I get, that illustrates a dollar amount, right? So let's say for every one lead, it's worth $20 to me, right? Irregardless of what the business, you know, spent on it, but let's figure.

kind of work it out the numbers, right? If I have to get 20 leads in a month to make $2,000, then each leads, or 20 leads to make, ⁓ let's ⁓ say $1,000, right? Then ⁓ I've got to go through and work through a certain number in order to get there. So I try to put a dollar amount on it and create more of a game and think of it

as the way to win the game is to work through less leads to make more money. So then that each lead becomes more valuable. And psychologically for me, that helps me go into that to where I'm anxious for those leads. So regardless if I'm burnt out or not, I'm kind of playing this game with myself while I'm working through these leads and trying to play against myself to make it more valuable.

Right. So it's, it's a, it's a different way of looking at it, but I think that's, that's really the best way to overcome whatever, you know, season you're in right now. Right. So if you find yourself with a stack of leads there and you're not eager to pick up the phone, there's something going on. There's something inside that's, that's not causing you to just

Lianne Shinton (16:44)

I like that.

Tim (17:13)

automatically pick up the phone and call them or be anxious to talk to them. And I think that's a good time for you to just take a deep breath and pause and really reflect and think through it and try to understand what's causing you from, what's preventing you from picking up the phone? What's getting in your way? Why are you procrastinating? And once you can identify that, then you can start a sift through it and start to overcome it and come up with a game plan.

Lianne Shinton (17:41)

And us dog trainers are quite the competitive bunch. We like to compete in dog sports. So when you said, you know, something about playing the game, yeah, that could be very powerful for our group.

Tim (17:55)

Yeah, yeah. You know, when I started off early, early, early in my sales career, ⁓ I was, you know, I went into the mortgage business and one of my mentors, his name's Todd Guymon, awesome guy. He was ⁓ like a college basketball coach at one point in time and just a great mentor. And, you know, as we were going through,

looking at our numbers and trying to figure out, you know, how many calls do I have to make in a day? How many leads did I have to come in, you know, would have to come in? How much money am I wanting to make? Okay, this means I have to get X amount of deals. And he really helped shape the way I looked at my sales early on. And that gave me a strong foundation because I was able to measure everything.

And in our coaching, in our, in our world of, business coaching, we always say, whatever can be measured can be managed or whatever can be managed can be moved. Right. So if your revenue is the lifeline to your business, then lead gen has to be the number one focus. You have to become a master of it in order to become a master of it. You've really got to measure it and you got to manage it.

so that you can move it and become masterful. So once you become masterful, then you can start to teach and develop other people on how to do that.

A lot of business owners are struggling with this. if you're out there listening and you're struggling with this, trust me, you're definitely not alone. Everyone goes through it. It's just part of the journey that we get to go through as business owners.

Lianne Shinton (19:51)

Yeah, and for me, when I started training dogs at 17, I was just like, I love dogs, dogs are cool. Oh my gosh, I want to learn everything about dogs. But if I had put 50 % of that effort into learning more about business, that would have been such a better idea. But like you said, it's the journey.

Tim (20:12)

Yeah, yeah, it is the journey. You know, and there's a, I think there's kind of ⁓ a shift right now in the world of like trying to find a shortcut around that journey. You know, everyone's trying to get things done fast or get done things quickly or the easy route. And, ⁓

I learned early, early, early on in my journey of business entrepreneurship is the fastest path, the fastest, most efficient, cheapest, and most rewarding journey is going like right through the jungle. Like don't spend time looking for shortcuts or ⁓ fast ways around things ⁓ or avoid the tough stuff.

barrel through it. And once you learn how to charge through that, you're going to move so much faster as a business owner. And you're going to look back and be like, man, that was a wild ride. You know, was it hard? Yes. But the fun is in the battles. It's in those daily battles. But that doesn't mean like to create your own battles. The world's going do that for you. So stop creating your own battles.

Lianne Shinton (21:33)

So.

Tim (21:38)

call the leads, right? Set the right expectations and operate daily with intent. And if you can get those three things down, it will get you a long way.

Lianne Shinton (21:52)

Yeah, that's the fast track. Now, when you kind of give that visual of like, just go through the jungle, like stay focused. And this is shifting a little bit, but I'm the kind of person I consider myself entrepreneurial. I have these ideas and I'm like, I messaged you and I'm like, hey, Tim, I got this idea. What do you think about this? And you have helped me to...

stay focused. And I talked to other dog trainers, I just spoke with one today and you know, all over just with things thinking, well, maybe I'll move, you know, and just, just so much going on with her new business, her location. And she's like, I'm not sure if I'm happy here, I got new neighbors. And from what you've taught me, my advice was to just

dig in, maybe sing to welcome, drop off a welcome pack, introduce yourself. They'll probably freaking love you because you can board their dog right there. Such a great resource. you know, us dog trainers and entrepreneur spirits were kind of all over the place. And when we're all over the place, we're not focused on the thing that actually would move the needle.

Tim (23:14)

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, what's the easiest way to gain focus?

Lianne Shinton (23:21)

Do the thing.

Tim (23:23)

Well, before you do the thing, how do you know what to do?

Lianne Shinton (23:31)

talk to you.

Tim (23:33)

That's a great start too. But in that conversation between you and I, right, we're going to put together a plan, right? We're going to go through and we're going to take a deep breath and we're going to write out everything and then prioritize it, right? So as we have all of these amazing ideas and all these things that would be awesome to initiate or to incorporate into the business,

or to do or maybe side journeys, et cetera. Like you've got to put everything in order and then you have to prioritize that. And then once you've been able to prioritize it, then you can start to create an action plan behind it. So creating a strategic plan gives you that flight path to success, right? Otherwise you're just bouncing around like a, like an atom, you know, just moving around.

and chaos in unstructured order. uh, you know, doing that can get really exhausting and it can get confusing too, because we can get easily excited about this shiny new thing over here, but yet we've got this business and priorities and clients and dogs and all these other responsibilities over here. So before we go and get distracted with this shiny other thing here, we need to pay attention over here and make sure everything's prioritized and put in order. Right.

Lianne Shinton (24:38)

Mm-hmm.

Tim (24:58)

So ⁓ everything's got to be operational with a strategic plan. And then from that strategic plan, there's actions behind it that is going to lead to the results.

And that is probably the easiest way to keep your vision and your, I guess, your journey organized and keep you from getting too distracted. It's not so much about blinders, right? But you got to put things in place to create guardrails to keep you kind of going down the highway and not

veering off into the ditch. And you know, a lot of business owners, that's, that's where, you know, a mentor or a coach comes in place because being a business owner sometimes is a, it's kind of a lonely journey. Sometimes our spouses or our family or our friends may not really be able to relate. Maybe they're going to their nine to five. Right. So

Lianne Shinton (25:57)

huh.

Tim (26:08)

The they, carry a very different stress than, they're carrying. Um, or, know, maybe, maybe you're in a struggling business and, know, maybe your family is just, you know, every time you talk about it, they just kind of roll their eyes and you can feel it in the room. So now you're reluctant or uncomfortable to bring anything up and talk about it and confide to them. So, you know, keeping, uh, you know, having somebody in your corner to kind of hold you accountable and to keep you moving.

in the right direction can really help you rebound and turn your business around. then, know, 90 % of it's just mental warfare, just thinking about things in a different way. There's no magic beam for it. It's just applying some...

some core basic principles to it and then execution.

Lianne Shinton (27:03)

And when you were talking about how lonely a place it is and how hard being an entrepreneur is, I commonly see dog trainers as like a mom and pop shop. It's generally a husband and wife that are in this together and the stresses for a couple to move through in a business that they share.

Tim (27:30)

Yeah, yeah, that's a, that is a tough dance to do too. I'm not against it, but.

That's ⁓ when you have your significant other with you as a business partner. ⁓ If either one of you aren't on the same page, then it can create a lot of extra headaches. Right? So that's even more important to sit down every three months and just, you know, line out what your strategic plan is for the next, you know,

the next three months and who's going to own what, how are we going to do this, et cetera, ⁓ and divide and conquer together because, you know, it's a three legged race. And if you can't tie, you know, you got to tie your partner to, your legs so that you guys can constride and move together at the same time. But you also don't want to take the, those frustrations, you know, home either.

At five o'clock, it's real easy to sit there and now all of sudden your dinners are consumed with business talk and stuff. And that connection during lunch or dinner or in the evenings now fades away. And now it's just like, you're just business partners. ⁓ And that can start to root away and really...

decay the relationship and it will usually start in the on the personal side of it and then it will bleed into the business. And you know, it's not a it's not a hard thing to fix either. So, you know, it's just a matter of communication and give and take. Right. ⁓ You don't have to have the same ideas on on the strategic plan, but it's like, OK, well, you go take that. I'll go take this.

This is what I'm going to do. What are you going to do? Okay, great. Now let's go do it. Right. It doesn't mean that you have to be, you know, exactly on the same page, but you, gotta know where each other's going and how you're spending your time and where those investments are. And then my biggest, you know, advice would be, you know, at five, six o'clock in the, in the evening, after you're, you're done, maybe have just a quick recap of the day.

And then leave it there and you know, start your next morning off 7 30, 7 45, seven o'clock, something like that. Spend a little bit of time to recap, talk about the day, pick up where you left off, what needs to get addressed today. Maybe something popped up yesterday that needs addressed immediately. Who's going to take care of that and you know, go and go and execute charge the day and seize it. And, um,

Lianne Shinton (30:14)

Yeah.

Tim (30:41)

You know, I always talk about people being reactionary instead of like operating with intent. And as business owners, either, either you're working by yourself or with a couple, it's real easy to just start becoming reactionary. And, you know, you're just moving all around. If you're operating with intent, you're going to start to feel that chaos dwindle.

Lianne Shinton (30:50)

Yeah.

Tim (31:10)

So ⁓ it's an interesting balance for sure.

Lianne Shinton (31:11)

Let's go.

Well, you had some inspiring points there, even though we are talking about something that, you it's hard. Most people can't cut it. ⁓ There was something about the strategic plan. When I first met you and you were showing me the journey of a business and having the strategic plan. And it was once you've been in business a while and things kind of level off.

And that's where there can be big problems if you're not careful. Could you share a little bit? Do know what I'm talking about?

Tim (31:51)

I so. you talking about like towards prosperity? Like, yeah. Well, you know, I think, you know, we, we refer to it as the, five steps to freedom. So we've broken down the, the life cycle of a business into five steps. The first step would be chaos or creation. So this is when you've, you just decide you want to become ⁓ a dog trainer. And this is the fun part.

Lianne Shinton (31:54)

Yes.

Tim (32:20)

Right. You get to think of a name, a logo, maybe you're picking out a place, you're putting together your training programs, you're building your website, you're getting your business cards, maybe you're getting shirts. Like all of that's fun. And then, uh, you know, about 60 to 90 days, things kind of start to feel like, Oh, things gotta get real. Like we got to start selling and making some money. So then we enter into the chaos stage and believe it or not.

I talked to business owners that have been in business for 20 years and they're still living in chaos. They, they just can't figure out how to get out of their own way. They can't figure out how to get organized, how to delegate, how to build a team, how to market. And they're, they're just living reactionary. Right? So once you learn how to, how to operate with intent, then you can start to develop and move into the third stage. What we refer to as control.

So once you have controls in place and you're operating with intent, you're able to work on the business rather than in the business, that fourth space, that's prosperity. now that prosperity stage, that's where most businesses end up really getting hurt. ⁓ We like to say they die of indigestion and not starvation. So if you were to go and look at, you know, the life, life cycle of the business over the next 10 years, you're going to find

every year that they're in business, the propensity for them to go out of business increases. Now, logically, you would think, Leanne, that if a business has survived another year, it's weathered the storms of another year, and maybe it's become more profitable and grown, you would think logically that every year, its chances decrease.

Lianne Shinton (34:17)

Mm-hmm.

Tim (34:18)

But that's not the case. And the reason for that is, is a lot of times they'll get to that prosperity or control phase somewhere in there and they duplicate, they expand, they grow, or they go into a different area. So maybe I'm a dog trainer and I'm a great dog trainer. My clients are, you know, love me. I'm getting great feedback. Maybe I decide I'm going to start training cats.

So now I'm a cat and a dog trainer. So now we've got two different divisions and maybe the cat trainer come to find out there's not a big need for cat trainers out here. And now the cat trainers becomes a profit or ⁓ a cost center instead of a profit center. So it's eating the profits off my dog training business. And now we end up going out of business, right? Or maybe I say,

I'm in, I'm in Kansas city and we're doing great. feel like I've taken on the market. We've got a good name stake here. I'm going to move out to Topeka or Oklahoma city or Omaha or St. Louis, something nearby. And, you know, if, if you haven't created a model that you can multiply and you haven't mastered that model, then you're set up for success. It's almost like.

thinking having a baby in a struggling marriage is a good thing, right? All you're gonna do is just duplicate the problems that are there.

Lianne Shinton (35:49)

Hmm

duplicate the problems.

Tim (35:52)

Yeah. So, ⁓ and that's why most business owners will, will end up finding themselves struggling or your favorite restaurant. Yeah. You go over that every Friday night and there's a line out the door and they're doing amazing. And then they open up a second location and seems like things are great. But a year later, they're both out of business. They're shutting up the doors because they didn't create a model that could

that they could replicate and show the same success.

Lianne Shinton (36:28)

Very interesting.

Tim (36:31)

So if they manage to weather that and get through prosperity, then the fifth final stage is wealth. And I think that's what all of us are on this journey to achieve, right? ⁓ We're looking for wealth of some capacity. We're trying to grow this out and we're looking to achieve this dream that's greater than what

any nine to five job could give us even if it's got an amazing benefits package and 401k and all that other stuff. We want to be the captain of this ship that takes us to this new destiny that is far greater because inside we all think we deserve it. We all think we deserve to make hundreds of thousands of dollars and we've got this big dream to have

You know, our name, our company names and neon lights flashing, you know, and, everybody knows us as the best and the greatest. And that dream's achievable. It's, it's actually easier to do than what most people would think because your competition is making it so easy. Majority of business owners just aren't doing the things that they need to be doing.

that's going to get them there. They're spending all this time back here at the drawing board trying to be creative, trying to think up of all the shortcuts of how they can get around the jungle instead of going through it. What's the magic pill? What's the Autobahn that we can put our business on? How do we get there fast? How do we beat our competition to the finish line? And they spend all this time at the drawing board trying to figure it out. And

Lynn, you and I, we've talked about Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, right? Every cartoon with the Wile E. Coyote starts off with Wile E. Coyote drawing this intricate plan of how he's going to catch the Road Runner. And he never does, right? Because he fails an execution. So most of your competition out there is failing an execution. And instead of just trying to...

Lianne Shinton (38:47)

Yes.

Tim (38:51)

to make tweaks and figure it out and figure out how to execute. They don't think, they don't point the finger at themselves and be like, I failed at executing. They're like, ⁓ that was a bad plan. Surely it wasn't me that was the problem here. It was the plan's problem. So now I've got to go back to the drawing board, scrap the whole thing, reinvent the whole plan, and now go back and do it. Well, if you continue to be a poor executor,

and you can't see things through, you don't know how to measure it and manage it to move it, you're gonna get the same results over and over and over again, which is why majority of these business owners live in chaos.

Lianne Shinton (39:34)

Mm-hmm.

Tim (39:36)

They get the same results. They're just doing it different.

which is why their family and friends roll their eyes every time they bring it up.

Lianne Shinton (39:51)

When you mentioned the competitors and how it is achievable, what you're talking about, the dream is achievable. And when you mentioned the competitors, that stood out to me because in the last three days, I've spoken personally to three dog trainers who have told me that they have heard from someone when they picked up the phone, you're the first one that picked up the phone or you're the first one that called me back.

And that's exactly what you just said. Your competitors, they're not going to make it because they're not working their leads.

Tim (40:30)

Yeah, I had to learn a long time ago to stop. used to put a lot of stock into, to paying attention to what my competitors were doing. Right. I think I, you know, took some, you I don't know, marketing or business class or something like that in college. And it was, you know, all about like doing a, doing a SWOT analysis on your competition and, really putting a lot of stock into what they're doing and the trends and this and that. And, know, I started to,

realized that I was putting way too much ⁓ interest into what other people were doing and trying to duplicate them. And then I felt like I lost my identity in that, right? Because now I'm trying to blend my business or myself into them. So rule, you know, reason number one, not to do it, you're going to lose your identity. Right. But

Reason number two is they're not doing it. I don't know how many times I get on our neighborhood Facebook app and somebody's talking about needing, you know, a driveway addition port or something like that for their kids' basketball hoops or they want a pickleball court put in their backyard. And time after time, again, they talk to a contractor and the contractors just don't even show up.

They're like, what do I have to do? Like, I'm, I'm even offering like a, I'll pay you for the, for, for a bid or a quote, just come out and tell me how much it's going to be. And then they'll sign it and they'll be like, yeah, we'll, we'll call you. And then they never hear from them again. ⁓ that's, it's just absolutely insane. And I hear it all the time from business owners, ⁓ you know, all over the place with their other vendors.

Right? So I think it's ⁓ a very big problem. And I have to say shame on shame on them if they're the business owners, right? Because it's the business owners that are allowing it to happen on their watch. They're not taking ownership of it. And you know, that's something that we really make sure that we inspect.

in our businesses, right? You have to inspect what you expect. Don't assume that you're just because you've got a bunch of adults who you believe to be competent people who you're paying well. Don't assume that they're going to be doing it the way that they should be, right? You have to inspect it. You have to have systems in place. You have to have some kind of a CRM in place so that you can track and

and monitor and make sure that they're calling people and following up and showing up for appointments. ⁓ Because a lot of business owners, they're just asleep at the wheel and they're the prisoners are are running the ward here and they're just not showing up.

Lianne Shinton (43:40)

Yeah.

Tim (43:45)

That's how you're going to beat your competition.

Lianne Shinton (43:47)

So love it. I love it. Like it's that competition nature that us dog trainers have too. So lean into that. ⁓ Inspecting what you expect. And I think I need that. You mentioned earlier too, having someone to hold you accountable, like accountability, inspecting what you expect. I need that. I'm sure you need that. Like we've got to kind of have...

Tim (43:55)

We own it. Yeah.

Lianne Shinton (44:15)

checks and balances and that is where like the software that Automation Dogs implements, you can see how many calls came in. You could see how many calls were missed. You can listen to the calls. Now I know that when I answer a call, I try to breathe life into it and people can hear that when they call you and you're like,

They can feel and hear that and they're supposed to trust you with their pet, their family member. So, yeah.

Tim (44:50)

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a big one. Right. And, you know, we use the same system in all of our businesses on this side of the screen. And the reason for that is so that we can inspect it. I want to, you know, I don't want to, you know, it's not just going and looking at somebody in a dashboard, right? I want to go and look at the quality. I want to make sure calls are being made. want to...

Lianne Shinton (44:55)

you

Mm-hmm.

Tim (45:19)

Listen to those calls. want to hear the tone. want to make sure that they're positioning the business correctly. I want to make sure that they're putting some salesmanship into it, that they've got some energy and their tonality and their speed of their voice is being used in the right way. ⁓ That they're not just text messaging, you know, back and forth. I cannot stand in a sales work like in the sales department when salespeople hide.

behind emails and texts. It drives me nuts. And the biggest reason is everyone reads angry. If you're going to read an email or a text from somebody, the chances are you're reading it angry. They can't hear your tone. You know, I don't care if you put it in caps and bold and colorful letters and emojis and all of that. They're still going to receive it in a negative way. the what?

It was intended and you're not going to have the same impact. Plus the sales cycle so slow waiting for somebody to reply. I want to like get you on a call. I want to talk to you. I want to listen to you. I want it to be gritty. I want to an opportunity to play that hot and cold game with you to find out what it is that you're exactly looking for so that I can say, Liam, I am so glad that we found ourselves on this call today because I have exactly what you're looking for.

What you just shared with me is exactly what we can deliver. I can't wait to present this to you.

And then I can go into it. Imagine trying to do that in an email or a text. It's not going to carry the same gravitas.

Lianne Shinton (47:04)

And I think when you said, I think hiding behind like a text message, taking the easy route. And I see that commonly where folks will send, someone will ask a question and they'll get a text message back. Your text message really shouldn't be more than 160 characters. It should be short. And I see like they wrote a book and they're just like, here's the information you asked for. And that's a lazy game.

Tim (47:05)

Thank you.

It really is. Yeah. And then follow ups, know, after every, after every call, we're looking for a follow up email, kind of a CYA email, right? Hey, Leanne, really appreciate the conversation that we had tonight, you know, per our discussion or as we discussed, here's what you can expect and here's what's the, you know, the next steps, right? Because I think that

illustrates communication upfront. And we live in this world where we're all carrying cell phones and we've got email and texts and all of this, all these devices kind of strapped to us. But yet we're still not communicating effectively with our clients. We're, know, how is that, how's that even a possibility? There's no excuse for it.

So we, we look for a lot of ways like your system, right. To automate that and to remove a lot of that heavy lifting. ⁓ So how do I automate those follow-up calls and just put them into a, into a pipeline where it's tied to an automation and that automation is, you know, backed by text messages and drip campaigns or drip emails, just automatically go into do it that way. I'm not putting so much of a burden on my team.

and they can focus on what's really important and not have to spend all their time trying to craft texts and emails.

Lianne Shinton (49:04)

Yeah, I think like one of the hardest parts for me was to follow up with someone when I didn't close a sale. And part of that came from mentors that I had been told, you know, hey, if you don't close them right in the sale, then that's it. You're not going to close them. And then I learned later, that's definitely not the case. And so I, you know, was manually supposed to follow up with people in my mind. I'm like, come on, Leanne, you can do this.

Tim (49:26)

Yeah.

Lianne Shinton (49:34)

But the Canadianism in me is like, sorry, I know that you said you wanted to do this, but I'm just following up. And it was so stressful for me and I was busy. So it didn't get done. And so I created automation for that because, you know, I'm kind of a wuss about it. I'm Canadian. And when I, I remember when I built the automation and it was very simple, it's just like checking in, you still interested, you know, something.

along the lines, just a friendly check in. It was great chatting with you recently. And I remember when I first sent it out and it was a family who had just gotten a whole bunch of sibling Belgian Malinois. And I know you have a Belgian Malinois, so you know, a whole bunch of female Malinois, all sisters. And I'm like, whoa, they need training. Why didn't that close? I don't understand it.

And some people like me have buyer's paralysis. They will not make a decision right then and there. And when I followed up, I put her in the automation and the automation followed up because I'm a bit of a wuss. And she was like, right away, I'm so glad you checked back in. Yes, let's get started. And I remember it because who can forget like these Belgian malinois and the situation they were in. And one of them was named Letty, which I thought was super cool from Fast and the Furious. Like, what a great name.

Tim (50:34)

Yep.

Yeah.

Lianne Shinton (50:58)

And it just like, it's so

memorable and impactful that this client is going to be right out of the gate. It's easily a $15,000 sale because they have like three malinois that need training. But long-term, those dogs can't board anywhere else. They need to be with us. So we've got a ⁓ lifetime client that, you know, pays a lot of money. They got all these malinois. So that was so impactful to me that I increased my bottom line.

just by popping them in the automation, how simple.

Tim (51:29)

Yeah, yeah. You know, ⁓ that is a that is a great call out. You know, not a lot of people follow up, but that that also holds true with the leads. Right. ⁓ You know, evidence shows that the average salesperson only calls the lead like one to two times, maybe three. And then after that, it really falls off. ⁓ So, you know, to think that they're going to be following up or

Lianne Shinton (51:40)

Mm-hmm.

Tim (51:57)

you you're going to be following up. That's, you know, that's hard to do. ⁓ cause we get busy, right? We're operating with these blinders. We've got all these fires. I think the average business owner, even myself, sometimes I wake up, I start my day. I've got this laundry list of things that I'm going to accomplish. And I'm like, yes, I'm feeling great. I'm going to go tackle the world. I'm going to kill it. I'm going to get all this done.

And then at six o'clock in the, in the nighttime, I'm like, when I'm wanting to shut it down, I look at my list and it's gotten longer. It hasn't gotten shorter. It's gotten longer. So you think I'm going to find time in there to follow up with somebody that told me no two weeks ago? Probably not. Right. So if I have a system on the back end to do the follow-up for us and to keep things, you know, nurturing, ⁓ and we,

Lianne Shinton (52:35)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Tim (52:48)

take a watch our click rates and look at all the statistics on the back end, right? To make sure that we're being effective in our communication with them, right? Even though we're not sending it out each individually and press and send whatever email, but as they're going through, we're looking at the statistics of open rate, click rate, read rates, all of that. then,

When are we losing them? When are they dropping off? And then how do we assess it? How do we hold them? How do we make tweaks or adjustments to hold their attention longer? And those aren't like quick turns, right? You can't steer that ship like overnight. Those take a lot of time to look at the statistics and the numbers and get the desired results that you're looking for there. ⁓

When we come back to the, the part of the conversation, you know, your, your sales conversation, you can, you can actually avoid a lot of that unnecessary, like awkward followups and stuff by structuring your sales process in the right way. Right. You and I, we've talked about in our sales trainings about.

Lianne Shinton (54:09)

Tell me more.

Tim (54:13)

you know, just the bare necessities that you need in a discovery. So when you get on that call with a prospective ⁓ pet owner who's looking for, ⁓ you know, training for their, for their fur animal, it's like, you need to understand what it is that they're looking for. What is their budget? So we refer to the acronym BANT, B-A-N-T.

This is like the bare minimum. And if you get the bare minimum, it's going to save you so much time and headache and heartache and disappointment. So what is their budget? Right? How much are they wanting to invest? ⁓ What is their timeline? What are their needs? Right? And then ⁓ what is their alternative? And then who are the decision makers?

Right. So if I'm talking to a prospective client, I'm, and you don't want to have like an interrogation that you, the art of it is, is really making this feel like a conversation and, you know, finding ways to weave these questions in. So it flows nicely, you know, I might say, so, ⁓ you know, who else is in the home, you know, with you and your dog. Right. ⁓ it's me and my spouse and two kids. Great. ⁓

So should your spouse be a part of this conversation? Do they know that we're having this conversation? Yes, they know. We talked about it. They're excited. Excellent. What are they excited about? What are you excited about? What are you looking for? When you think of dog training, what is it that you're looking for? What is it that he or she is looking for? What is your timeline? What criteria are you going to need? What's the evidence that you're going to need to see that I'm the right dog trainer for you?

So if you can kind of ask in a structured framework, these questions and get that information upfront, you pretty much have created the rules of the game, right? So now I can say, okay, Leanne, so if I understand you and I think I do, you're looking for a dog trainer that's got experience with Malinois, your budget is $1,500 a month, you're...

You'd like them to learn at least the basics, ⁓ you know, sit and stay and lay down and, you know, some other general commands, heal, et cetera. ⁓ You want them to start leash walking, et cetera. And you'd like to start in the next four weeks. Do I have that right? Like, if you say yes, now there's no way out.

All I have to do is present exactly what it is that you're looking for. And I don't have to say, so what do you think? Or how does that sound or anything like that? I can just say, this is amazing, Leigh Ann. We're going to be a perfect fit. Let me introduce you to our training packages. ⁓ You can't go wrong with any of them. I have some suggestions on which one I think is best for you, but I'm interested in hearing your insights. A, B or C.

Hey, I think that's a great one. But I also think this one might be a better fit. And here's why. Which would you like to do? Great. Now we can get you signed up and you just move forward. Right. Now, if they turn around and say, well,

Lianne Shinton (57:48)

Thank

Tim (57:54)

We just put the deposit down on our dog and you know, we're probably not going to have it for like three months, right? They're way ahead of the curve. They're just eager and doing their homework. Then I'm not even gonna like really have too deep of a conversation, right? I'm going to get to know them a little bit and talk about it. I'm going say, Hey, you know, it'd be best when your dog is, you know, three months old, four months old or whatever, like let's have another call.

And let's understand the temperament of the dog, where it's at, how things are going, and let's jump from there. I'm going to save myself a lot of heartache from trying to sell them now, not understanding this is the situation. Does that make sense?

Lianne Shinton (58:32)

Yeah.

Yes. Now, could you share a little bit if someone has a dog that might be a bigger problem and there's that sense of urgency where this dog is nine months old now and if they want to wait three months, ⁓ boy, they're just going to ride this out while the dog's going to go through adolescence and everything and then we've got a much bigger problem and

more repetitions and patterning in the dog's behavior. So could you talk a little bit about how we could create a sense of urgency with that type of scenario?

Tim (59:17)

Yeah, there's a couple ways to do it. One of the ways is to start off and say, you know, so I work with two different types of people. I work with customers and I work with clients. A customer kind of just tells me exactly what they want and I do that. A client, we take more of a consultative approach. They lean on me for my expertise and my knowledge and understanding of it.

And they really take that for value. Right. So which relationship here do you prefer?

client. Excellent. think that's a great choice. You know, I've been a dog trainer now for over 27 years. I've got a lot of experience, especially with your breed of the dog. And based on, you know, what you've told me, I think time is of the essence here. I think this is, you know, an easy fix now. But if you don't address this now and you wait three, four months down the road,

I think it's going to be a bigger problem and it's going to be a lot harder to reverse and correct.

Now, the other thing that I like to try to figure out is like, what is the impact? Right? So let's say this dog is having a lot of problems. I might say, well, Liam, these negative behaviors that your dog's presenting, how is that impacting you and the family?

Lianne Shinton (1:00:51)

It's very stressful and she's destroying our home and we're so embarrassed by her. Our neighbors hate us.

Tim (1:00:59)

Yeah. ⁓ so I can only imagine you're, basically living in a household with somebody that you sounds like you, have a hard time tolerating, right? They're destroying your stuff. They're, they're annoying you. They're embarrassing you. They're stressing you and all of that. Right.

Lianne Shinton (1:01:10)

Yes.

Tim (1:01:21)

So if there were a solution to fix this, is that something that you would like, is it, is it so impactful to, your lifestyle right now that you're willing to wait, or is this something that you really need to address like right away?

Lianne Shinton (1:01:37)

I need to address this right away. Yeah.

Tim (1:01:40)

I thought you would say that. So let's go ahead and look at our calendar and let's figure out how quick we can get you in here. I think I might be able to move some stuff around and get you in as early as tomorrow or Saturday morning. What do you think? Yeah. So the first method is to ask them, right? Like, how do you see me? Do you see me as a person of authority here or a subject matter expert?

Lianne Shinton (1:01:53)

Yeah, tomorrow.

Tim (1:02:07)

If you do, then I'm going to give that advice of this really needs to be addressed quickly. Right. If I went to my doctor and they said, Hey, we, found a spot on this test that we don't like. we really would like to get you in like immediately and have that checked. Are you going to leave there and be like, I'll wait six months.

Lianne Shinton (1:02:30)

you

Tim (1:02:34)

No, because it's coming from a place of authority. This is a subject matter expert, right? I might get in my car and Google it, right? But at the end of the day, I'm gonna end up scheduling it. The other method though ⁓ is to understand like, hey, how is this problem impacting your life? How great of a problem is it? Is this something that you really could, like if there's a way to change it, would you continue living with it?

Lianne Shinton (1:02:44)

Hmm.

Ooh, I like that.

Tim (1:03:06)

Or, you know, what's the cost? Well, you know, I don't know. It's, you know, maybe you got a client that's him on about your costs. I didn't really realize it was going to cost so much. You know, I thought it was going to be like a couple hundred dollars. Right. I can understand why you think that would be the case, but you you said he's, you know, eating furniture and shoes and stuff around the house. Average pair of shoes is what? A hundred and $150 now. How many more pairs of shoes should they eat?

Lianne Shinton (1:03:20)

Okay.

Hmm.

Tim (1:03:35)

coffee table, chairs, legs, couch, cushions, et cetera. Like now we're getting into the thousands of dollars, right? And guess what? It's inevitable. You're going to have to pay somebody to train this dog or you're to have to train this dog at some fashion. So if we're looking at it, the longer you wait, the more it's going to cost you. So I understand that, you know, this is a bit of a sticker shock for you today, but

Lianne Shinton (1:03:38)

couch. ⁓

Tim (1:04:03)

As somebody that's been doing this for 27 years, I can assure you, you're going to have a real sticker shock in six months, you know, after you look at what it's chewed up and what it's cost you over that time. So that being said, let's go ahead and schedule you. Let's get you in here tomorrow. Let's, know, get an evaluation going and see if we can turn spot around.

And no, not pressuring, right?

Easy, easy talk track. It's just about positioning. ⁓

Lianne Shinton (1:04:37)

and lots of questions.

Tim (1:04:40)

Lots of questions. Questions are the key. You again, going back to that physician analogy, right? You wouldn't want to go to the doctor, sit on that horrible, you know, paper covered cushion. And then they just walk in and they say, so how are you feeling bad? Well, here, take this, right? You'd like them to ask some questions to diagnose what the problem is before they make a prescription or prescribe a problem or a solution. So

Lianne Shinton (1:05:05)

Hmm.

Tim (1:05:08)

⁓ as salespeople, sometimes we're really quick to kind of be like, I know exactly what it is. Well, you may know exactly what it is, but your client doesn't. So to make them feel heard and to make them feel confident in their decision, it's really important to take them through that sales journey and understand what it is that they're trying to solve for, how it's impacting them, what their timeline is, what their budget is. And I also like the alternative.

Lianne Shinton (1:05:18)

Right.

Tim (1:05:36)

So Leanne, if you don't train your dog, what's the alternative here?

I don't know. haven't really thought about it. Well, probably going to continue to eat, eat your furniture, poop in corners, harass visitors when they come to the house, misbehave, run off, bolt, you know, not listen, bark incessantly, continue to, you know, be a terrorist in the house. Like, so what's the alternative to that? Cause that sounds miserable. Training them, obviously.

Lianne Shinton (1:06:18)

Awesome. Hopefully some dog trainers got some good takeaways today.

Tim (1:06:24)

Yeah, I hope so. We covered a lot.

Lianne Shinton (1:06:26)

Yeah, I really liked when you gave the doctor analogy and just like, here's your pill. And they didn't even ask any questions. Yeah, we as dog trainers, we have to pretend we're the client. And I think that was a great analogy to put us in a different scenario. And the questions are so important. The doctor is going to ask you questions to triage the situation. And that's what we need to do. And it shows we care.

Tim (1:06:57)

Yeah, it really does. ⁓ Because that, that first evaluation as you're evaluating the dog, they're judging you too, right? They're evaluating you to see if you really care. Right? Are you just somebody that's like collecting clients for the sake of, you know, doing it? Or do you can, are you really passionate about what you're doing and you're going to give a good result? ⁓ Because

It's not just training, right? They're looking for a return on their investment. making an investment in this animal. They're educating that animal. They're teaching him and they're relying on you to do that. So there's got to be a return of investment on the back end. ⁓ So the only way to figure out what that investment is going to be or that return is going to be is by asking those questions.

Lianne Shinton (1:07:49)

Yup, and it-

Tim (1:07:50)

Go through

that recovery.

Lianne Shinton (1:07:53)

And showing you care,

it's important right in the beginning too. Like when we first started today's conversation, when the lead comes in asking questions, what's your dog's name? Boy, breed is your dog. that's a cute name. I love that breed. They're so active. Just asking questions through that whole journey, it shows that you care and it helps build that trust.

Tim (1:08:16)

Yeah, totally. Yeah, you really want them to be excited to work with you, right? Because although that dog might be problematic right now in a new sense, right? You know, at the end of the day, when the dog's like on its bed just sleeping, they're like, it's so cute. Like, I just love him. Why can't he just be like this all the time? Why can't this dog just be this cool?

It has the ability and I think for some owners, like I know I went through it myself. One of our first dogs was a Britney Springer. And, ⁓ that's another dog that's super high energy and definitely not really a house dog. And, you know, we, we had it as a house dog and one of my favorite pets, ⁓ to this day, that dog just did not want to listen. Right.

And, ⁓ we had multiple trainers and they were like, this dog's untrainable. It just has too much energy to concentrate, you know? So finally I figured out like, you had to like really wear the dog out, like, hey, play fetch and stuff with them just to get them to a point to where he would calm down enough to start listening commands. And then the e-collar really, really helped out. But, ⁓

You know, I still love that dog, even though, you know, he was terrorizing my house. I still wanted the best for him. So I'm going to turn him over to somebody that I think doesn't care.

Lianne Shinton (1:09:52)

Yeah.

And what do you think, I know we've got a long time and I really appreciate your time, but what do you think about asking the client a question to have them kind of have a dopamine spike when you ask a question like, what do really love about Maggie?

Tim (1:10:16)

Those are all great questions, right? ⁓ You know, I love malamás. Why did you choose malamás? Like, what do you love about that breed? Or how did you end up with ⁓ that kind of a dog that's unique and fun? know, like, tell me about it. So I think those are great questions to build rapport.

Building rapport is just as equally as important, right? Get them talking about their dogs and all the positive, like to your point, like the dopamine spike. Get them happy, right? High-side, high-breaker. Yeah.

Lianne Shinton (1:10:52)

Get him realizing, yeah, like, and get him realizing, like, because we're poking

the pain, we're like, he's driving you crazy and, ⁓ but maybe have him have perspective. Like you said, when they look at the dog, he's laying on the bed, why can't he always be like this? We do love him. Like just tapping a little bit into that and get them to be like, yeah, he's worth spending this money on that you need in order to make him help him.

So yeah, just getting them to be a little bit like we do love them.

Tim (1:11:20)

Yeah.

Right. Yeah. Cause at the end of the day they do. That's why they're calling you. Right. Any objection that they give you is really just a smoke screen. It just means that you didn't cover it with them yet and they need more information. Right. I'm, I am like you, like I'm

Lianne Shinton (1:11:31)

Yeah.

Tim (1:11:49)

I think I usually have my mind set. Like when I go to buy something, make a purchase or do something, I've pretty much already made up my mind that I'm going to do it. Now I just need to know that now I need to just make sure that whatever I've decided is a good decision. Right. And if I'm leaning in on somebody and I can't tell for certain upfront, then depending on my mood, sometimes I lead the salesperson, right?

And we can't really always expect our clients to do that. Right. I know myself well enough and I know sales well enough that I know how to lead a salesperson through my through the buying journey with me and get them to tell me what it is I need to know for the sake of time. But, you know, a lot of a lot of people feel like they need to be. You know.

close guarded, hold their cards close to themselves so that, you know, it gives them negotiation power and stuff. And I find that that really hurts, you know, more than anything. So I like to ask a lot of questions and get as clear of a picture as possible so that I can diagnose it because knowledge is power. The more knowledge they give me, the more bullets I have that I can start adding value into how working with me is going to

You know, create value for them and give them a return on investment. And I might say, what other evidence do you need to feel confident and moving forward? Like if they say, you know, Hey, I need some time to think about it. Great. Liam, pull up your calendar. Right. Immediately start talking about when you can schedule, get a followup scheduled. ⁓

Lianne Shinton (1:13:37)

Yeah.

Tim (1:13:38)

because that's going to make them feel heard immediately and disarm them, right? Hey, Leanne, so we've got the schedule for, you know, Monday at three o'clock, just out of curiosity in between now and Monday at three o'clock. What are you going to be thinking about?

When you say you got to think it over, like, what are you going to be thinking about? Nine out of 10 times, whatever they say is what their real objection is. And now you just have to overcome that.

Right. So if they say, ⁓ I just really need to think about, you know, timing, it's, you know, a week before Christmas and, know, a lot of things going on right now. ⁓ I just need to, you know, make sure that, that it's, you know, that it's good timing for us. Okay. That's fair. And then in the beginning of the conversation, you had mentioned that you had a budget set aside of XML.

If we can align you with a coaching package that meets that budget, would you have any reservations in moving forward? No. Okay. Well, let's, let's focus on that then. So let's, let's talk about, you know, the packages that, are within your budget, which is all of them. So you can rest easy there. You, can't make a bad choice here. ⁓ so let's go ahead and take a look at that. And then.

you we can go ahead and get you started. We won't even need to meet on Monday now.

Lianne Shinton (1:15:18)

I like it.

Tim (1:15:21)

learning just the small things. And ⁓ I think you've looked at sales gravy, Jeff Blond.

Lianne Shinton (1:15:31)

yeah, Jeff

Blunt, listened to his podcast.

Tim (1:15:33)

Yeah, you can learn so many good sales tactics from him and how to navigate through overcoming objections because I think that's the, know, besides calling the leads timely, learning how to position yourself and overcome objections is going to be the next thing in order there to help you take your business to the next level.

Lianne Shinton (1:15:38)

Mm-hmm.

Lots to learn. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it is. that's, think with us as dog trainers, we always want to learn about dog behavior, dog psychology. But if we leaned into human psychology, it not only helps us coach the clients to help them to train their dog, but also to help them through this sales journey.

Tim (1:16:02)

So much. It's a great memory though, isn't it?

Yeah, so much so.

Lianne Shinton (1:16:27)

Awesome. Well, we have gone over an hour. I so appreciate your time today.

Tim (1:16:29)

Yeah.

Yeah, thanks for having me. This has been fun.

Lianne Shinton (1:16:36)

Is there anything else

you'd like to share?

Tim (1:16:39)

Now, if anybody's interested in learning how to grow their business and get out of chaos, please feel free to give me a call or go to our website at PetersonAcquisitionsBuildToSell.com. And you can schedule a free coaching call with me. And happy to hear from you and your journey and how we can help you.

Lianne Shinton (1:17:05)

And if anybody didn't catch that, of course you can just rewind. But just reach out to me because I'm happy to share and ⁓ be a good testimonial for Tim because he's helped me so much. And I know he's helped other dog trainers as well. So thank you, Tim, for that and for today.

Tim (1:17:10)

Thank

Well, thank you. I really appreciate it. It's, ⁓ I love working with you and, and, ⁓ some of the other dog trainers. It's a really interesting industry. I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd know so much about, dog training. It's fun.

Lianne Shinton (1:17:38)

It is, it is. Yeah, well, thank you, Tim, and thank you everybody for listening. If you would like to hear more conversations like this, of course, subscribe, follow, like, so that you can hear the next one. And again, I'm Leanne Shinton from Automation Dogs, and thanks for listening.