Let's Talk Dog Business

In this episode we sit down with Dr. Isla Fishburn from Kachina Canine to explore the inner work that quietly drives your dog business. We talk about the pressure to have perfect dogs, the wobble when a heart dog dies, and how much old family stories about money, success, and being “too much” become your beliefs and shape your prices, boundaries, and visibility.

Until you look at this inner stuff and do the soul work, no amount of strategy will make your business feel stable or satisfying. Your dogs (and clients’ dogs) are constantly flagging your issues up for you. Today, you will finally know how to notice and take the right action. If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing “all the right things” but still don’t feel solid, this conversation is for you.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Soul Work Runs Your Business: The beliefs you carry about not being enough, needing to be perfect, or fearing judgement quietly drive your prices, your marketing, your boundaries, and how heavy your work feels.

Your Dog Is A Mirror: The behaviours that most trigger or embarrass you in your own dog often point straight at your own fears around control, competence, and being seen as a “proper” professional. Learning how to notice and address this really helps you with your soul work.

Grief Hits Your Identity And Income: When a heart dog dies or your role changes, it’s not just sad, it can shake your sense of who you are, why you do this, and how you show up in your business.

Old Family Stories Shape Your Choices: Messages you absorbed about money, success, and not being “too much” still dictate what you charge, what you invest in, and how visible you allow yourself to be.

Inner Work Before New Strategy: Until you start looking within and naming these patterns, no new offer, niche, or marketing plan will give you the ease and confidence you’re really craving.

BEST MOMENTS

“If we're not doing our soul work, then that spills over into our dreams, our desires, our passions, what we want to create in our businesses, our professional life, our personal life, the support we want to give to animal guardians."

“We have to go within to identify our soul work and really what's at the core of it is our separation. We feel so lost, which is why we are constantly seeking better - Better results, better achievements.”

“Our animal friends love us regardless because they love themselves regardless. But we don't do that to ourselves. We have these conditions, these belief systems, these labels.”

ABOUT THE GUEST

https://kachinacanine.com/

https://www.facebook.com/kachinacanine

https://www.instagram.com/kachina_canine_wellness

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8hsAKAco_te9k5AL2t-ZQQ

IMPORTANT LINKS

https://www.caninebusinessacademy.com/gsd-buisness-accelerator

https://www.tiktok.com/@letstalkdogbusiness

https://www.youtube.com/@LetsTalkDogBusiness

Website www.caninebusinessacademy.com

Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/caninebusinessacademycommunity

Let´s Talk Dog Business Strategy Book - https://www.caninebusinessacademy.com/buy-the-book

Email: hello@caninebusinessacademy.com

ABOUT THE HOSTS

Jo Moorcroft and Vicky Davies are dog behaviourists, business strategists, and co-founders of Canine Business Academy—the UK’s go-to hub for dog professionals who want more than just a logo and a dream. With a combined passion for dogs and business done properly, Jo and Vicky have helped hundreds of canine professionals build sustainable, profitable businesses rooted in real impact.🏆 Their award-winning work has earned recognition including:– UK StartUp Awards: Business to Business (Midlands)– Small Business Awards UK: Most Innovative Small Business 2025– Business Awards UK: Most Innovative Pet Product 2024– Plus shortlists at the Women in Business and Great British Businesswoman Awards They’re also No.1 bestselling authors of Let’s Talk Dog Business Strategy, featured on BBC Radio, FOX, NBC, and more—with 63,000+ downloads of this very podcast. Their philosophy is simple: Give a shit. Get shit done. Get results.

This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

In this episode we get honest about sales objections and what’s really going on when people say, “It’s a bit expensive” or “I need to speak to my partner.” We look at why this objection to buying is so often just the polite default excuse in British culture and how to respond in a way that changes their minds.

We discuss how your own fears about being seen as too expensive can actually help create the very objections you dread, and why your brain goes straight into panic, justification and people-pleasing on discovery calls. Then, share simple ways to turn things around – how to see objections as protection, not rejection, ask better questions instead of freezing or discounting, and why trying to fix your money mindset and how you handle money related objections on your own is practically impossible.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Money Objections Aren’t Always About Money: When someone says, “it’s a bit expensive” or “I need to speak to my partner,” it’s often an automatic performance, one that covers the real reason they aren't buying. It’s the easy, polite thing to say, especially in British culture.

Your Brain Helps Create the Objections You Fear: When you go onto sales calls afraid that people will say you’re too expensive, you expect it and are hyper focused on hearing that. You often end up manifesting it. The stories you tell yourself before the call really shape what you pick up on during the call.

Treat Objections as Protection, Not Rejection: Most objections are a safety mechanism, not a verdict on your worth. If you see them as defence and protection on the part of the would-be client, you are more likely to respond calmly and tease out what the real issues are so you can address them.

You Can’t Untangle This Alone: Shifting how you handle objections surrounding money is nigh on impossible on your own. You need someone to help you notice your patterns, challenge your stories, and keep you on track when negative beliefs creep back in.

BEST MOMENTS

“Work on your money mindset.”

“If you don't explore their objections as early as possible, mitigate them, expect them, anticipate them, and set the scene for those objections... It will bite your ass later.”

“We have to explore objections with an open mind.”

“I need to go and speak to my partner. It's a stall tactic.”

“It is incredibly difficult if you are trying to develop this skill by yourself.”

“Explore it a little bit more and find out where that comes from, why you think potentially that could be a reason not to buy.”

SOCIALS AND IMPORTANT LINKS

https://www.caninebusinessacademy.com/gsd-buisness-accelerator

https://www.tiktok.com/@letstalkdogbusiness

https://www.youtube.com/@LetsTalkDogBusiness

Website www.caninebusinessacademy.com

Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/caninebusinessacademycommunity

Let´s Talk Dog Business Strategy Book - https://www.caninebusinessacademy.com/buy-the-book

Email: hello@caninebusinessacademy.com

ABOUT THE HOSTS

Jo Moorcroft and Vicky Davies are dog behaviourists, business strategists, and co-founders of Canine Business Academy—the UK’s go-to hub for dog professionals who want more than just a logo and a dream. With a combined passion for dogs and business done properly, Jo and Vicky have helped hundreds of canine professionals build sustainable, profitable businesses rooted in real impact.🏆 Their award-winning work has earned recognition including:– UK StartUp Awards: Business to Business (Midlands)– Small Business Awards UK: Most Innovative Small Business 2025– Business Awards UK: Most Innovative Pet Product 2024– Plus shortlists at the Women in Business and Great British Businesswoman Awards They’re also No.1 bestselling authors of Let’s Talk Dog Business Strategy, featured on BBC Radio, FOX, NBC, and more—with 63,000+ downloads of this very podcast.Their philosophy is simple:Give a shit. Get shit done. Get results.

This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Most dog trainers still focus on selling their time in sessions. A well-used model that feels safe, but often it ends up holding you back and leaves your clients with only a partial solution to their problems. In this episode we unpack what can go wrong when you use a session-only model and how to change things to avoid those issues.

We cover why a session-only business often leads to, pressure to prove your worth in one hour, undercharging for all the support you quietly give, and that nagging feeling that results don’t match the effort you’re putting in.

We show you how to think beyond hours-for-money, how to make your support more effective and sustainable, and how to design offers that make you a profit while getting better results for your clients. What you learn today will really help you, even if you decide not to ditch sessions completely.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Just selling sessions isn’t necessarily bad, but it does quietly put the focus on time spent instead of the change you are working with the client to achieve.

When you only sell hours, you tend to feel pressure to prove yourself in that session. Your focus can end up on that more than on what the client needs and how they are doing.

It’s your job to guide your clients towards the level of support that fits their problem. They are not the best person to decide whether they need 1, 3 or 5 sessions.

A lot of the real value you provide e.g. answering questions via email or online, technique videos that can be accessed outside of sessions, emotional support, is given away for free. Moving away from the session only model provides an opportunity to change that.

Moving from a session mentality to outcome-focused offers doesn’t mean you can’t sell single sessions; it means sessions become one tool among many.

BEST MOMENTS

“So, the question is, how do we get out of session mentality? And do we need to?”

“You're helping them (the owner). They're the reason that they've reached out, not the dog.”

“I don't need to be a dog trainer. I need to be a support system for that person.”

“Selling sessions isn’t the problem. The problem is when we design our offers around our fears instead of our clients’ outcomes.”

SOCIALS AND IMPORTANT LINKS

https://www.caninebusinessacademy.com/gsd-buisness-accelerator

https://www.tiktok.com/@letstalkdogbusiness

https://www.youtube.com/@LetsTalkDogBusiness

www.caninebusinessacademy.com

https://www.facebook.com/groups/caninebusinessacademycommunity

Let´s Talk Dog Business Strategy Book -

https://www.caninebusinessacademy.com/buy-the-book

Email: hello@caninebusinessacademy.com

ABOUT THE HOSTS

Jo Moorcroft and Vicky Davies are dog behaviourists, business strategists, and co-founders of Canine Business Academy—the UK’s go-to hub for dog professionals who want more than just a logo and a dream. With a combined passion for dogs and business done properly, Jo and Vicky have helped hundreds of canine professionals build sustainable, profitable businesses rooted in real impact. Their award-winning work has earned recognition including: – UK StartUp Awards: Business to Business (Midlands) – Small Business Awards UK: Most Innovative Small Business 2025 – Business Awards UK: Most Innovative Pet Product 2024 – Plus shortlists at the Women in Business and Great British Businesswoman Awards They’re also No.1 bestselling authors of Let’s Talk Dog Business Strategy, featured on BBC Radio, FOX, NBC, and more—with 63,000+ downloads of this very podcast. Their philosophy is simple: Give a shit. Get shit done. Get results. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

What does success actually mean to you? And is it really your definition?or one you’ve picked up from everyone around you?

Today, we look at why it’s so easy to get caught up in someone else’s version of success, to end up simply doing what everyone else does running the same type of classes and making the same offers. For so many trainers following the crowd leaves them feeling deflated, bored, and unfulfilled.

We have been there and have come out the other side. Today, we run a business that works for us as well as for the people we help. We explain how to pause and identify what you are really trying to achieve, then find the strength to go after it regardless of what others around you say. You will learn how to recognise the fears that are holding you back and overcome them.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Stop Chasing Someone Else’s Version of Success: It’s easy to look at what other trainers are doing and convince yourself you should be doing it too. Just because something works for someone else doesn’t mean it belongs in your business.

Specificity Can Feel Scary: Keeping your version of success vague might feel safer because not defining something lessens the chances of your feeling like you’ve failed. But the more specific you get about what you actually want, the easier it becomes to make decisions that move you towards it.

Don´t Let Fear Hold You Back: Everyone feels a bit fearful about doing things differently, it is normal to feel it but don´t let it hold you back. Be especially aware of how your fear of what others will say is holding you back.

Failure Isn’t Always Failure: Trying something that doesn’t work doesn’t automatically mean you’ve made a bad decision. It provides useful information about what you enjoy, what your clients need, and what fits your business.

Give Yourself Permission to Notice What’s Working: Success can become so focused on the next goal that you forget to acknowledge what you’ve already created and achieved. Sometimes you need to stop, look around, and actually appreciate achieving the things you once thought you’d never be able to do.

BEST MOMENTS

“It's so easy to get caught up in somebody else's version of success.”

“Be brave enough to explore something that's a little bit different.”

“Which version do you want to be of yourself?... do you want to be the play it safe? ”

“Are people actually going to think those things that you think they'll think?”

Ready to stop second-guessing your business and start building it your way? Come join us inside the Mastermind and get the clarity, strategy, and support to make it happen at https://www.caninebusinessacademy.com/

SOCIALS AND IMPORTANT LINKS

https://www.tiktok.com/@letstalkdogbusiness

https://www.youtube.com/@LetsTalkDogBusiness

www.caninebusinessacademy.com

https://www.facebook.com/groups/caninebusinessacademycommunity

Let´s Talk Dog Business Strategy Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lets-Talk-Dog-Business-Strategy/dp/1068791705

Email: hello@caninebusinessacademy.com

ABOUT THE HOSTS

Jo Moorcroft and Vicky Davies are dog behaviourists, business strategists, and co-founders of Canine Business Academy—the UK’s go-to hub for dog professionals who want more than just a logo and a dream.With a combined passion for dogs and business done properly, Jo and Vicky have helped hundreds of canine professionals build sustainable, profitable businesses rooted in real impact.🏆 Their award-winning work has earned recognition including:– UK StartUp Awards: Business to Business (Midlands)– Small Business Awards UK: Most Innovative Small Business 2025– Business Awards UK: Most Innovative Pet Product 2024– Plus shortlists at the Women in Business and Great British Businesswoman AwardsThey’re also No.1 bestselling authors of Let’s Talk Dog Business Strategy, featured on BBC Radio, FOX, NBC, and more—with 63,000+ downloads of this very podcast.Their philosophy is simple:Give a shit. Get shit done. Get results.

This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Running a dog business isn’t just about being good at what you do with dogs. It’s about getting noticed, building relationships, creating a customer experience people want to return to, dealing with the unexpected and having the confidence to keep putting yourself out there. All of which Danny Nelis-Rouse from Tug-E-Nuff has experienced and successfully navigated.

In this episode, he shares hiw journey from a small agility-focused business to a bigger brand, and the lessons he’s learned about networking, resilience, customer service and putting yourself out there.

Danny shares how Tug-E-Nuff started with his mum making a food toy for her collie who couldn´t be persuaded to play, why working with dog trainers opened up a new market, and how he became more confident as the face of the business.

We get into handling controversy, owning your mistakes, managing difficult customers, knowing when to wait before responding, and why sometimes the best thing you can do at a disastrous event is look for the opportunities underneath the s**tshow.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Own Your Mistakes: If something goes wrong, don’t become defensive. Listen, acknowledge it, and work out how to put it right.

Networking Is A Long Game: Building genuine relationships and finding your club creates opportunities long after an initial conversation.

Don’t Wait For People To Come To You: Events and social media provide opportunities to start conversations, build awareness, and create relationships. Don’t be a wallflower; engage with people whenever you can.

Sell Solutions Not Products: Understand the problem your customer is trying to solve and demonstrate that you have a solution. Explaining how your product or service solves a problem is what matters.

Push Yourself Outside Your Comfort Zone: You probably won’t be as bad at it as you think. Try new things, learn from them, and use that experience to grow.

BEST MOMENTS

“I’ve worked on myself a lot… I would have hidden behind the business and been like nobody wants to hear about me. But they do.”

“You've got to just be resilient and pick yourself back up again if anything gets in the way and find the opportunities.”

“Ask, what is it that you offer people, and how can you identify the pain that those people are in or the problem that they have?”

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable just selling somebody something and saying bye, you’re on your own now.”

ABOUT THE GUEST

https://tug-e-nuff.com

Tug e Nuff partner programme - https://partner.tug-e-nuff.com/

SOCIALS AND IMPORTANT LINKS

https://www.tiktok.com/@letstalkdogbusiness

https://www.youtube.com/@LetsTalkDogBusiness

Website www.caninebusinessacademy.com

Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/caninebusinessacademycommunity

Let´s Talk Dog Business Strategy Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lets-Talk-Dog-Business-Strategy/dp/1068791705

Email: hello@caninebusinessacademy.com

ABOUT THE HOSTS

Jo Moorcroft and Vicky Davies are dog behaviourists, business strategists, and co-founders of Canine Business Academy—the UK’s go-to hub for dog professionals who want more than just a logo and a dream.With a combined passion for dogs and business done properly, Jo and Vicky have helped hundreds of canine professionals build sustainable, profitable businesses rooted in real impact.🏆 Their award-winning work has earned recognition including:– UK StartUp Awards: Business to Business (Midlands)– Small Business Awards UK: Most Innovative Small Business 2025– Business Awards UK: Most Innovative Pet Product 2024– Plus shortlists at the Women in Business and Great British Businesswoman AwardsThey’re also No.1 bestselling authors of Let’s Talk Dog Business Strategy, featured on BBC Radio, FOX, NBC, and more—with 63,000+ downloads of this very podcast.Their philosophy is simple:Give a shit. Get shit done. Get results.

This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/