What does it really mean to build a business that supports your life, not just today, but long into the future? That question anchored powerful sessions at DogCo Summit 2025. Featuring Jamie Trull, Michelle Kline, and Angela Reinbacher, this theme explored the deep connections between money, mindset, and long-term success. These weren’t just talks about finances or strategy, they were conversations about clarity, confidence, and purpose.
From understanding your money personality to making peace with profit, from building brands that attract clients to leaving behind a business that lasts, these sessions gave attendees the tools and the inspiration to lead with both heart and intention. What follows is a look at how these insights unfolded, and what they mean for pet care businesses ready to grow with purpose.
How Your Money Personality Impacts Your Pricing, Profit, and Growth: Jamie Trull's Keynote at DogCo Summit 2025
Jamie Trull took the stage at DogCo Summit 2025 to a standing ovation and kicked off the event with humor, heart, and a welcome surprise: a presentation on money that didn't include a single spreadsheet. Instead, Jamie invited the audience to reflect deeply on their own beliefs, habits, and feelings around money through the lens of "money personality types."
A self-proclaimed "numbers nerd," Jamie shared her journey from corporate finance director to entrepreneur and profit strategist, including how becoming a mom drove her to build a more flexible and impactful business. What started as virtual CFO work evolved into a full-blown educational platform that has helped thousands of small business owners understand their finances better. Her mission: to empower entrepreneurs to use their unique strengths to build more profitable, sustainable businesses.
At the heart of her keynote was a provocative idea: financial tools alone aren’t enough. What really drives change is self-awareness. Jamie shared that when people fail to stick to a financial plan, it’s not because they’re lazy or bad with money, it’s often because that plan was never designed to work with their natural tendencies. Recognizing your money personality can be a game-changer in how you make decisions, set goals, and grow your business.
Drawing on the Sacred Money Archetypes framework, Jamie introduced eight money personality types: the Accumulator, Alchemist, Celebrity, Connector, Maverick, Nurturer, Romantic, and Ruler. Each has its own beliefs, superpowers, and blind spots. For example, Accumulators are natural savers but may hesitate to invest in growth. Nurturers are incredibly generous but often struggle to set boundaries. Mavericks thrive on risk but can lose focus chasing too many ideas.
As Jamie walked through each type, laughter and knowing nods rippled through the room. Many attendees saw themselves in more than one personality, and that was the point. Our financial choices are rarely black and white, they’re often a tug-of-war between competing instincts. The key, Jamie said, isn’t to change who you are. It’s to understand your patterns and work with them.
To bring it all home, she connected the dots between money personalities and business profitability. Where one person might find hidden profit in raising their prices or cutting waste, another might need to let go of old ideas or stop undercharging out of guilt. Each personality type has a unique path to more profit, and by understanding your own tendencies, you can find it faster and with less friction.
Jamie closed with an exciting announcement: her new book, Hidden Profit, will be released next month. And thanks to the generosity of DogCo organizer Michelle, every attendee will receive a copy. The crowd erupted in applause.
Jamie’s keynote was a powerful reminder that the most important financial strategy isn’t just a spreadsheet or a system, it’s self-awareness. At PetPocketbook, we believe that when you understand how you approach money, you can make better, more confident decisions. For those who value clarity and structure, our Reports dashboard surfaces just the data you need to make smart choices—no digging required. And if invoicing and payments have been a source of stress, our automations help keep your cash flow steady without extra effort. Whether you lean towards saving, serving, or scaling, we want to help you run a business that supports your goals, your values, and your life.
Jamie left us with one lasting message: your unique strengths are the key to your success. Embrace them. Build with them. And your business will thank you.
Coffee & Cash Flow: Answering Your Financial Questions
Michelle Kline and Jamie Trull brought a mix of clarity, candor, and encouragement to the DogCo Summit stage with their session, “Coffee & Cash Flow.” Their conversation tackled some of the biggest financial questions facing pet care business owners—and didn’t shy away from the tough stuff.
They kicked off with a simple truth: the difference between businesses that scale sustainably and those that stall often comes down to one thing—paying attention. Jamie encouraged attendees to think like a CFO, even if they’re not numbers people. That means knowing both your past (bookkeeping, taxes, profit and loss) and your future (forecasting cash flow, timing payroll, planning for investments).
One major theme? Get strategic about your numbers. That includes:
- Knowing your profit margins, both overall and by service. Jamie emphasized the importance of understanding what you actually make after labor costs are factored in.
- Watching your labor percentage, 50% or less is a good rule of thumb for many pet care businesses.
- Using metrics that matter, not overwhelming yourself with data for data’s sake.
- Planning for profit, not just hoping for it.
They also tackled common challenges head-on. What if your business doesn’t feel financially sustainable, even if you’re busy? That’s often a margin issue, not a sales one. What if you’re afraid to raise prices? Jamie reminded us that being the cheapest in your area doesn’t serve your team, your business, or your longevity. And if you’re not charging enough to hire help, that’s a red flag—not just for your pricing, but for your business model.
One of the most practical questions came from the audience: What do I do if I feel overwhelmed by financial decisions or if I’m avoidant with money altogether? Jamie’s advice: don’t fight your nature, work with it. Automate what you can. Use consistent frameworks to reduce decision fatigue. And remember why this matters in the first place.
They also explored:
- The emotional side of profit, especially for nurturers who feel selfish protecting their margins
- Pricing as a lever, not a last resort
- How to think about debt (hint: it’s not always bad but it must be strategic)
- Making smart investments by knowing your customer lifetime value and tracking your return
Their conversation wrapped with a reminder that money is just a tool—and financial confidence is built through practice, not perfection.
At PetPocketbook, we’re firm believers that small improvements in financial systems can create huge returns in clarity, confidence, and sustainability. We appreciated how clearly Jamie and Michelle emphasized the importance of making financial decisions with intention—and we’ve built PetPocketbook to help make that easier. Our Reports dashboard is designed to surface just the information you need to make smart, confident calls in your business. No digging. No fluff. Just the numbers that matter.
And because good decisions depend on good data, we also help you keep your cash flow smooth with automation that takes the stress out of getting paid. From scheduling and tracking services to sending invoices and collecting payments, our tools are built to work in the background so your business keeps running—and your books stay accurate—without all the manual effort.
Angela Reinbacher: From struggle to success through marketing with Meta Ads
It started with a question, one that felt both bold and vulnerable: “At what point do I close my business?” That was where Angela Reinbacher found herself in 2023. After a promising first few years, her pet care company was stalling. Revenue flatlined. Cash flow was a daily worry. And even payroll, which had always been her top priority, was becoming impossible to meet.
Angela didn’t share that moment to dramatize the story she shared it because it was real. Her honesty set the tone for one of the most resonant talks of DogCo Summit 2025. Through humor, humility, and a generous breakdown of her experience, Angela showed how a single shift, investing in Meta ads, turned her entire business around.
Before the turnaround, she had tried everything she could think of: word of mouth, posting in Facebook groups, shouting into the void every Monday that her business was accepting clients. But it wasn’t working anymore. She needed a new way to reach people — and fast. With just $100 to spend, Angela made her first Facebook ad.
It wasn’t perfect. It was a short, simple video, run through Meta Ads Manager, not a boosted post. That distinction mattered because Ads Manager gave her the power to choose exactly who saw it, where it appeared, and what it said. She set her goal as “Traffic” instead of “Leads,” knowing she wanted people to land on her website, not fill out a generic form. She targeted pet owners in her zip code and included compelling video content with text overlay, knowing most people scroll with the sound off.
And it worked. In that first month, $42 brought her 80 clicks. Encouraged, she invested more — $110 in the next month. By the end of the year, she had spent just under $6,000 total on ads and brought in $114,000 in new revenue. That wasn’t just growth. That was survival. That was transformation.
Angela’s honesty about what that shift made possible was just as powerful as the numbers: she hired a general manager, got out of debt, and created space to take care of herself when life got hard. In 2024, she was able to take time off to grieve a loss and care for her health — and the business didn’t just survive, it thrived. That’s the kind of scaling that matters most.
She didn’t pretend it was magic. She broke down exactly what made it work: choose a traffic objective, use Meta Ads Manager (not the boost button), run videos with text overlay, target specific demographics, set a modest daily budget, and give the ad 2–3 weeks to settle before judging results. When an ad performed well, she duplicated it and changed the target audience to compare. When it didn’t, she shut it off and tried a new angle.
She also reminded the room of something simple but crucial: don’t stop marketing when you’re busy. Marketing is what keeps you from hitting a slow season later. Keep at least one evergreen ad running. Keep building your brand even when you’re at capacity. Otherwise, you’ll be starting from scratch the moment things slow down.
Angela’s journey reminded us that marketing isn’t about vanity metrics or overnight wins. It’s about building a bridge between the business you have and the one you want, with clarity, creativity, and a willingness to experiment.
At PetPocketbook, we’ve seen firsthand how that kind of clarity fuels long-term growth. When you’re investing in marketing, it’s just as important to have tools that help you scale sustainably. That’s why our platform is designed to make bringing on new clients easier. So you can grow faster while giving your clients a polished, personal experience that’s scalable. And don’t forget, our intentionally simple Reports dashboard that surfaces what you actually need to know — we want pet care pros to feel confident making decisions, not buried in data.
Angela’s story was about more than ads. It was about possibility. That growth, that freedom, that breathing room she created? It didn’t come from luck. It came from choosing to try, track, learn, and iterate. It came from believing that her business and her life could look different.
And that’s something every pet care provider deserves to believe, too.
From purpose to legacy: what scaling really means in pet care
The room was already buzzing when Michelle Kline stepped onstage, but you could feel the energy shift when she began to speak. This wasn’t just a session. It was a sendoff, a call to keep the conversation going long after the last slide. And if there was a central thread through it all, it was this: purpose doesn’t end with success. It grows into legacy.
Michelle opened her session with a personal story that set the tone for everything that followed, not just a story of how she started her dog walking business, but of how a traumatic, near-death experience clarified what she wanted from life. In the moments she thought might be her last, she wasn’t thinking about spreadsheets or email. She was thinking about the people she loved and the work she hadn’t finished. She realized she wasn’t ready to go because she hadn’t yet built what she was meant to build. That realization became her turning point. She no longer wanted to run a business that served her in the moment, she wanted to build something that could last.
That shift, from purpose to legacy, is what Michelle now helps other pet care business owners navigate through her company, Dogco. And it’s what her closing keynote at DogCo Summit 2025 was all about: naming the moment we’re in as an industry, owning the power we have to shape what comes next, and committing to the kind of leadership that can take us there.
Michelle traced the evolution of pet care businesses over the last decade, from solo operators with a book of clients, to teams with systems, staff, and saleable value. What began as invisible labor has become a recognized, essential service. And what used to feel like side hustles or passion projects are now scaling companies, capable of real revenue and real impact.
She didn’t shy away from the challenges, either. More visibility means more competition, not just from fellow solo providers, but from franchises, private equity-backed platforms, and national brands. The pace of change is fast, and staying ahead means more than just marketing harder. It means developing better people strategies, stronger processes, and a deeper understanding of your profit.
Michelle laid it out clearly: you can’t do everything at once. But you can figure out what your biggest constraint is, what’s holding you back right now, and solve for that. Whether it’s hiring, retention, training, or finances, you start with your biggest bottleneck, and you build from there.
Her message was hopeful, but it wasn’t fluff. She spoke directly about what it takes to attract and keep great employees in today’s market, including the need to build a workplace culture that people want to be part of. That means having a clear brand and strong word-of-mouth in your community. It means compensating people not just for time, but for impact. And it means building real relationships with your team.
She also called out a hard truth many business owners overlook: admin costs often feel like a burden, but they’re essential for scale. The companies that grow successfully figure out how to structure roles and responsibilities in a way that protects profit without burning people out.
At PetPocketbook, we see this in action all the time. The pet care providers using our platform aren’t just managing staff, they’re building companies that run well even when they step away. We’ve designed our tools to support that transition: simple team scheduling, earnings tracking, and centralized access to the information your staff needs, all without charging more for each person you add. And while our software simplifies the day-to-day, our role in the industry goes beyond the platform. We share tools, resources, and insights to help pet care professionals grow sustainably and in alignment with their business goals, so they can scale with clarity, not chaos.
But her biggest point? Profit isn’t selfish. It’s what creates room to experiment, to weather setbacks, and to grow. It’s what allows you to hire help, invest in marketing, and eventually, if you want, sell your business on your own terms. Profit is the engine that makes legacy possible.
Michelle didn’t promise it would be easy. But she made it clear it’s possible. The next decade of pet care belongs to those who are ready to lead — not just in revenue, but in responsibility. And she reminded everyone in the room that they’re already part of something bigger. The work doesn’t stop here, but it starts with believing that your vision, your purpose, and your legacy are worth building.
And after a weekend like this one, that belief felt a little more within reach.
Looking Ahead: Scaling Systems with Intention
This year’s summit made one thing clear: there’s no single path to scale. But whether it starts with your mindset, your finances, or your marketing, scaling is ultimately about systems — the frameworks, tools, and habits that turn vision into reality.
Next, we’ll explore how pet care pros are designing their operations to support growth without sacrificing quality. Stay tuned for insights on building systems that scale with you — and support your business at every stage.