In the previous recap, Money, Mindset & Legacy, we explored the heart behind your hustle. Those sessions uncovered the deeper reasons we do what we do: our relationship with money, the confidence to charge what we’re worth, and the vision of the future we’re building. It was about purpose, the kind that fuels sustainable success.
But purpose without structure? That’s a fast track to burnout.
That’s where this next theme comes in: Systems, Leadership & Sustainable Scaling.
These sessions shared the real-world playbooks for growing your business without losing your mind or your weekends. Whether it was Robert Strickland’s approach to automation, Collin Funkhouser’s intentional path to scaling, Shane McKenzie’s leadership framework, Joe Latona’s recruiting expertise, or David Peterson’s refreshingly simple take on email marketing, each speaker came back to the same truth:
Freedom follows structure.
What it's really like to be on the other side of you: a leadership deep dive with Shane McKenzie
There’s a question Shane McKenzie posed during his session at the DogCo Summit that landed like a gut punch: What is it like to be on the other side of you? It was a moment that shifted the tone in the room from laughter to reflection—and it framed everything that followed.
In his keynote, From hands-on to high-level: a leadership framework for sustainable growth, Shane shared the story of how his leadership style nearly broke the business he helped build. Through humor, hard lessons, and a framework rooted in real-world experience, he offered a roadmap for pet care business owners ready to grow beyond doing it all themselves.
The core of Shane’s message was simple but profound: systems run the business, but people run the systems. For those of us in the pet care world, it’s a truth we feel every day. Whether you’re training a new sitter or coordinating schedules across a team, your success isn’t just about having the right process. It’s about equipping people to carry it out and trusting them to grow into more.
Shane’s leadership journey began like many do: by necessity. He wore every hat, built every system, and took pride in how much he could get done. But as the company grew, so did the gap between what the business needed and how Shane showed up. His team was afraid of him. They described him as a control freak. One even called him a cancer to the culture. It was brutal feedback but it became the turning point.
That turning point sparked a new way of leading, and eventually, a framework Shane now teaches to other leaders: clarity, curiosity, and accountability. First, equip your team by clearly answering the five questions they’re already asking: What do you want me to do? Who do I go to? Where are the resources? When is it due? Why does it matter? Then, when things go wrong, and they will, stay curious instead of jumping to solve. Ask what happened, what their plan is, and what they need from you. Only then are you ready to model and hold the standard through meaningful accountability.
At PetPocketbook, this framework hit home. We’ve seen how much stronger a business becomes when its people feel trusted and guided, not micromanaged. The pet care providers we serve often hesitate to delegate because they’re worried things will fall through the cracks. But as Shane pointed out, when you’re the bottleneck, you’re not building capacity, you’re building dependency. And no one scales a business that way.
One of Shane’s most powerful reframes came around the idea of accountability. Instead of treating it as something punitive, he defined it as a conversation that helps someone maintain ownership of what’s already theirs. Not blame. Not shame. Just clarity and support. When someone misses the mark, it’s not about catching them, it’s about helping them course-correct.
There were light-hearted moments too, stories of southern sayings, cocker spaniels named Dixie, and the time he asked his team for honest feedback expecting gratitude and got hard truths instead. But every story reinforced the same message: leadership isn’t about being the hero. It’s about being the guide.
For pet care business owners looking to grow without losing their soul, Shane’s session was both a cautionary tale and a call to courage. Growth doesn’t just require better systems. It requires better conversations. The kind that make space for your team to think, to struggle, and ultimately, to rise.
You can check out Shane‘s work at Relevant Leadership Solutions.
How automations gave Robert Strickland his life back and how you can reclaim yours
When Robert Strickland said he got back two months of his life using AI and automation, the room didn’t erupt in applause. It got quiet. The kind of quiet that happens when a truth hits close to home.
If you run a pet care business, you know exactly what he meant. The constant client follow-ups, the admin overload, the weekends lost to inboxes and onboarding. And yet, automation and AI still feel out of reach for many pet care professionals it’s either too technical, too expensive, or too impersonal.
At the 2025 DogCo Summit, Robert of founder of Next Level Pet Business and a longtime pet care provider himself, made a different case. His session, "How I Got Back Two Months of My Life," wasn’t a sales pitch for some magical tool. It was a practical, heartfelt guide to rethinking time, systems, and scale.
Here are a few takeaways that stuck with us long after the slides were over.
Robert started by naming something we all know but rarely say aloud: the emotional toll of manual work. Not just the burnout, but the slow erosion of family time, creative energy, and confidence. "How many times have you said no to a holiday dinner because you're still working?" he asked. It was rhetorical, but many of us nodded anyway.
What set this session apart wasn’t just the urgency. It was the mindset shift Robert invited us into. Instead of asking what automation costs, ask what it gives back. He calls it Investment Time Return (ITR), and it changed the way we think about growth. Ten minutes saved each day adds up to a week and a half a year. An hour? That’s nine full workweeks.
It reminded us of what we see in the PetPocketbook community: when pet care businesses reclaim just a slice of their time, they spend it where it counts. Building relationships. Growing revenue. Actually resting. And in some cases, making space for long-delayed dreams and big-picture strategy.
Robert also broke down what automation is, and what it isn’t. It isn’t just a chatbot or a tech fad. It isn’t here to replace judgment or relationships. Automation is your assistant. It sends review requests so you don’t have to remember. It flags client messages with a bad tone before they spiral. It helps every part of your business run just a little more smoothly.
That distinction mattered, especially for an audience used to doing everything themselves. And it surfaced something we often hear from PetPocketbook providers: the best systems still feel human. They aren’t about removing your voice, they’re about protecting your time, so you can use your voice where it matters most.
One of the more striking stories Robert shared was about sentiment detection. With hundreds of client messages coming in each week, he no longer reads them all. Instead, AI reviews the messages and surfaces the ones that show frustration, urgency, or a break in tone. The result? He and his team can address issues faster before a client ever feels ignored.
The onboarding process is another area where automation shines. Robert walked through how he uses AI to listen to audio notes from meet-and-greets and convert them into polished visit instructions that match his brand’s voice. That consistency not only saves time, it builds trust with staff and clients alike.
And then there was the moment he pulled up a report from his booking software: a list of nearly 1,000 "dead leads" in a city of 80,000 people. All potential clients who had reached out, but never booked. With automated nurturing campaigns in place, those leads turned from lost opportunities into long-term relationships.
Some of the most memorable moments came when Robert talked about early tech frustrations. Dial-up internet. Clunky training manuals. Handwritten visit notes. The nostalgia drew laughs, but it also made a deeper point: every tech leap feels overwhelming at first. But when we adopt it early, we grow into it.
And pet care needs room to grow. That’s why this session hit home. It wasn’t about hustle. It was about health. For you, your business, and the relationships you built your career on.
Whether or not you’re ready to build out smart workflows today, this session made one thing clear: the future of pet care isn’t just efficient. It’s intentional.
Want to learn more? Check out Robert’s Facebook group, Next Level Pet Business.
Inbox 101: email marketing without the overthinking
David Peterson, owner of Bethesda Dog Walkers and the former Email Marketing Director of Creatably, an ad agency, opened his session at DogCo Summit with a question that hit home for most pet care providers in the room: “Who here has an email list they regularly use?” Not many hands went up and that was exactly his point. Email marketing often ends up on the “should do” list, but rarely makes it to the top of the to-do list.
That’s a missed opportunity. Because while social media gets all the buzz, email still delivers the highest return on investment across all marketing channels. And as David pointed out, it’s not just about the numbers. It’s about the direct, personal connection you can build with your clients, if you approach it the right way.
For pet care businesses, that means writing like a human, not a brand. It means sending simple, targeted emails that sound like something you’d send a friend. And it means embracing imperfect action over perfect design.
David walked us through the most common traps that stop pet care providers from using email effectively: overthinking, overdesigning, and overcomplicating things. He also shared practical, low-lift ways to get started or get better, whether you’re sending emails to 10 people or 1,000.
One of our favorite reminders? You don’t need to be fancy. In fact, plain text often performs better. The best emails look like they came from a real person, because they did.
David also emphasized how much subject lines and segmenting matter. It’s not about crafting the cleverest headline or building a huge list. It’s about relevance. A short, friendly subject line like “I heard Bingo was having a birthday” will get more attention than any award-winning tagline. And sending the right message to the right client, dog owners versus cat owners, regulars versus ad hoc clients, will always go further than a generic blast.
On the automation front, David shared a few essentials: a welcome email, a birthday message, and a re-engagement check-in. Each one gives you a chance to show up in your clients’ inboxes with warmth and intention, not just updates. And while these emails can be automated, they should still feel personal. Think: short, sincere, and signed by you.
One unexpected takeaway? Ask for replies. Encouraging your clients to respond, especially to automated emails, signals to email providers that your messages are wanted. It’s a small move that can make a big difference in deliverability.
We loved David’s reminder that email isn’t annoying when it’s useful. You’re not interrupting, you’re connecting. If someone unsubscribes, it’s not a failure. It just means your message isn’t for them right now. That’s okay.
At PetPocketbook, we’ve seen how small touches can have a big impact. You don’t need a fancy tool or complicated CRM to get started. You can send simple, segmented messages to your clients right from PetPocketbook and they’ll get delivered via email too. Whether it’s a quick note to everyone or a message tailored to a specific group, it’s a way to stay top of mind and build trust.
If you’ve been sitting on an email list, consider this your nudge to dust it off. Start with one message. Keep it short, honest, and helpful. Your clients will appreciate it and your business just might, too.
This session reminded us that connection doesn’t have to be complicated. With a few thoughtful steps, pet care providers can turn email from an afterthought into a real asset. It’s not about doing everything. It’s about doing a few things well and doing them often.
If → Then: Scaling Dog Walking Teams Through Smart Recruiting Decisions
What if you could grow your team and improve it at the same time? That was the central idea behind Joe Latona’s engaging and refreshingly honest talk at DogCo Summit 2025. As the founder of Walker Scout, Joe brought his deep experience, and heartfelt storytelling, to the stage to make a powerful case for investing in smarter recruiting.
He reminded us of something simple but often overlooked: dog walking is a people business. If your team is the product, then recruiting isn’t just an HR function. It’s business strategy.
Joe opened with a personal story about his time at Windy City Dog Walkers, where he grew from dog walker to HR manager. Over 11 years, he learned that putting walkers first isn’t just good leadership, it’s good business. A team that feels seen, supported, and set up for success will stick around. They'll care deeply about your clients and their pets. And they’ll refer people who are just as passionate. His loyalty to that experience still runs so deep that, as he put it, “If my old boss called me today, I’d get on a plane and go walk a dog for him for free.”
Next, Joe walked through some sobering stats: right now, Walker Scout hires one person for every 80 applications they receive. That doesn’t mean every pet care business needs that many applicants but it does illustrate the importance of reach and conversion. Pet care providers often work with limited visibility and tight budgets, and in a tough labor market, that can make recruiting feel like an uphill battle. But Joe also pointed out that low application volume isn’t the only issue. Sometimes, the volume is there, but the quality isn’t. That’s where the real opportunity lies: in setting up a recruiting process that attracts the right people from the start.
Joe shared how refining job posts, simplifying applications, and opening up access to interviews can dramatically increase both candidate volume and quality. Some of his tips: keep job posts short (3–400 words) for entry-level roles, make it easy to apply on mobile, focus less on experience and more on attitude, list wages clearly and competitively, and consider W2 over contractor arrangements, especially for newer candidates.
He emphasized the power of internal promotions too, not just for morale or retention, but because team members already know your values and clients. Recruiting for managers externally is expensive and time-consuming. Growing leaders from within can be far more effective.
One of the most memorable ideas Joe shared was the “W2 game”: start with 10 walkers, end the year with 10 walkers, but send out 50 W2s? That’s a retention problem. “America doesn’t have a recruitment problem,” Joe quoted a consultant as saying. “It has a retainment problem.” The goal isn’t just to fill roles. It’s to build a company culture where people want to stay and grow.
We loved Joe’s emphasis on building a walker-first culture. At PetPocketbook, we believe that when you make things easier for your team, you make things better for your business. Our platform helps you do just that, by making it simple to schedule walks, track earnings, and centralize important info so everyone feels informed and supported. And because we don’t charge more for additional team members, you can scale your staff without scaling your costs. It's one small way we help pet care businesses grow with confidence.
Joe’s session was a timely reminder that people are the heart of every pet care business. The better we get at supporting and developing our teams, the stronger our businesses become. Recruiting isn’t just about filling a spot,it’s about building something that lasts.
How to scale like Melinda May: choosing the right whale and taking your time
Some sessions hit like a splash of cold water. Others feel more like a warm exhale. Collin Funhouser’s talk at the 2025 DogCo Summit, Slow & Steady: Scaling Without Burning Out, was the second kind. Honest, vulnerable, and disarmingly funny, it reframed what growth can look like for pet care providers who want to build something lasting without losing themselves along the way.
At the center of Collin’s message was a poem from Shel Silverstein, the story of Melinda May, a little girl who eats a whale; slowly, steadily, over 89 years. It’s the perfect metaphor for sustainable business growth: choose the right goal, take it one bite at a time, and let go of everything that doesn’t align.
That alignment piece is where Collin started. So often, pet care providers pick up new services, clients, or projects not because they’re strategic, but because they feel like they should. A Facebook post said it was a good idea. A competitor offered it. A conference panel mentioned it. The result is a plate full of driftwood, not real progress, just busyness. As Collin put it, we don’t just risk biting off more than we can chew. We risk chewing on the wrong thing entirely.
At PetPocketbook, we see this all the time when providers try to scale without a clear filter. Growth isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing more of what matters to you. That means starting with your values, not your revenue targets. Do you want more family time? More predictability? More time in the field instead of behind a desk? Then build your systems and services around that. Because chasing someone else’s version of success leads straight to burnout.
One of the most powerful moments in the session came when Collin described the Inuit tradition of harvesting whales. Not just as a survival tactic, but as a community effort. A whale represented abundance but only if it was brought in wisely and shared across the village. No one person could do it alone, and no part of the whale could be wasted.
This image landed deeply. In the PetPocketbook community, we often say that scaling isn’t about hiring faster. It’s about building a team that understands your mission, shares your values, and knows their role in bringing your whale to shore. Letting go of control, whether it’s visit notes or admin passwords, isn’t just about efficiency. It’s what turns your goal into something the whole team can own.
And sometimes, the best growth choice is to let a whale die. That was another reminder from Collin: not every idea deserves to be scaled. He gave the example of trying to add poop-scooping to his business. It checked the boxes. It could have made money. But it didn’t align with the kind of business or life he wanted to build. So instead of pushing through, he pared it back, offering it only to existing clients, only when bundled with other services.
That kind of decision-making takes clarity and courage. But it’s also where we see the most successful pet care providers thrive. They test before they scale. They ask hard questions. They use their values like a compass, not a marketing tagline.
In closing, Collin reminded us of what growth actually demands: resilience, not speed. From Sarah Blakely to James Dyson, the stories he shared weren’t of instant success. They were of grit, patience, and dozens of iterations. Scaling thoughtfully means choosing a direction, staying true to your identity, and trusting that the right clients, teammates, and opportunities will show up when you do.
Because at the end of the day, pet care is personal. And growing a pet care business that lasts doesn’t mean becoming something you’re not. It means becoming more of who you already are, one bite at a time.
You can learn more and listen to Pet Sitter Confessional, a podcast hosted by Collin and Megan Funhouser.
These sessions weren’t just tactical. They were transformational.
They showed us that scaling isn’t about going faster. It’s about going deeper: into your values, your systems, your team, and your time. It’s about reclaiming space to think, to rest, and to lead.
As we move into our next theme: Brand, Clients & Connection, we’ll shift from the systems behind your business to the soul in front of it. These next sessions will explore how to build trust, tell your story, and create a brand people remember.
Because at the end of the day, scaling isn’t just a numbers game. It’s a people game. And that’s where we’re headed next.