Real Connections: Collaboration is the Key To Growing Your Pet Business

I’m so excited to have Lashonda Geffrard, the founder of Black Pet Business Network as my first podcast guest of Q4. This quarter is dedicated to learning about collaboration and networking. Something Lashonda is an expert at! In this conversation, she shares how she came up with the idea for the Black Pet Business Network. It was born from a desire to connect with grooming shop owners during the pandemic to see how they were running their businesses amidst shutdowns and quarantines.

It's Q4 and here at Wear Wag Repeat the theme is collaboration. All podcast episodes, work in Wear Wag Repeat Society and other resources are dedicated to supporting your networking, collaborations and partnerships.  Here's what I have in store for October to help you grow your pet business: Expert Interview with Lashonda Geffrard, CEO of Black Pet Business Network and owner of The Paw Shop, a grooming salon in Orlando, FL. We're talking about networking and how to diversify your community with real action steps. I'm already implementing her advice! Wear Wag Repeat Society Lesson: Going live today, in my membership for petpreneurs we're looking at how to make the most or virtual networking, how to find networking calls or local events and how to make sure people can figure out how to contact you (an essential part of finding new collaborators!) Speaking of virtual networking… you’re invited to my Petpreneur Virtual Networking event on October 9th. RSVP for this free event! 

We made it to the end of the Blogging quarter in Wear Wag Repeat! I've shared amazing guest interviews and lessons about why you need to blog for your pet business and how to make the most of your content so it drives traffic and sales long term.  In this episode I answer a question that came up from a Wear Wag Repeat Society member. What do you do after you hit publish on a new blog post? So here you go... 5 things I do after a blog post is published. Catch up on Expert Interviews about Pet Blogging: Ep 323 What to Blog About to Drive Sales with Pamela Keniston, Big Paws Marketing Ep 326 Plyaing the Long Game with Content That Serves Your Audience with Caitlin Brown, Sparkles & Sunshine Ep 330 How Online Authority is Essential to SEO for Pet Bloggers with Jessica Shipman, BlogPaws We've also covered blogging in lessons this quarter in Wear Wag Repeat Society: Internal Linking and How to Optimize Existing Blog Posts How to do Keyword Research to Write Posts that Help Your Audience KeySearch Demo, LinkWhisper Demo and more! Join Wear Wag Repeat Soceity to learn how to grow a profitable pet business alongside like-minded pet lovers! I'm hosting FREE petpreneur networking calls. The first one is October 9th. Save your spot! 

If you’ve been listening to this podcast lately, then you know how important blogging is for your pet business. But does it still feel overwhelming? Then you’re going to love today’s expert interview with Jessica Shipman, the accomplished COO and CMO of BlogPaws. Jessica and I explored some exciting trends and tactics that every petpreneur will find useful when it comes to keeping their blog organized and efficient.  We’re both excited about the shift back to long-form content! Jessica shares great advice on how to adapt your blogging and social media strategy to today's algorithms.  We also cover these pet business blogging tips: The top three SEO essentials you need to focus on when creating new blog posts. How to create a content catalog and track your blog's performance using a tool such as Airtable. What a content brief is and how it can streamline your writing process, making your posts more effective and focused. The importance of Google's E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust) guidelines and how to apply them to build trust with your audience. Join me for BlogPaws LiVE in Boulder, CO, this November 15-16 and use my discount code for $30 off your registration! CODE: TORI30

It's September, and there's a lot of exciting things coming up this month! Listen to this solo episode with Tori Mistick, founder of Wear Wag Repeat, to learn about pet business strategies and events to grow your impact this month.  Topics discussed:  Wear Wag Repeat Society's September Blogging Challenge is off to an exciting start! Pet pro members are setting blogging goals for the month from 1 post to 30 posts! I'm excited for weekly co-working sessions together.  September Expert Interview: Jessica Shipman, COO & CMO of BlogPaws. We talk about how to keep your blog content organized so you know you’re writing about the most strategic topics for your business, and she explains why Google’s new EEAT framework Register for BlowPaws LiVE Nov 15-16 in Boulder, CO, get $30 off with TORI30. I will be giving 2 talks at Pet Sitter World in Niagara Falls, NY with Pet Sitters International. That event is September 19-21.  Stay tuned for big Virtual Petpreneur Networking Events coming up in Q4!  

Join the September Blogging Challenge that kicks off on Tuesday, September 3rd! It's happening inside Wear Wag Repeat Society: https://wearwagrepeat.com/society/

This question came up on the monthly Hot Seats call in my membership, Wear Wag Repeat Society. How do you know if keyword research for blog posts is really worth it? Can you show an example of a blog post written with keyword optimization and one without? Yes! I happen to have 2 great examples to illustrate this answer and I'll cover them in this special audio and video episode of the Wear Wag Repeat Podcast.  The 2 blog posts I'm using as an example are: Keeping Up with the Jones' Dog: Dealing with Dog Mom Guilt Indoor Enrichment for Dogs: Ideas to Entertain Your Dog at Home You'll see (or hear!) that the blog post I did keyword research for has performed much better over time than the one that I am equally passionate about, but didn't do keyword research for.  Want to learn more about blogging for your pet business? Check out Wear Wag Repeat Society!  See the video version of this podcast episode on my YouTube channel. 

Do you feel like your blog posts are like a collection you started a long time ago and now they just sit on the shelf and collect dust? Blogging can be discouraging if you’re not seeing traffic and results from your posts. Q3 theme - July interview with Pamela Keniston and solo episodes from me. Our August expert is Caitlin Brown from Sparkles and Sunshine Blog. I’ve known Caitlin for years and I’m always so impressed by the perseverance she has to keep creating fun, engaging and helpful content. Caitlin creates a lot of content and she’s a data nerd as much as I am, so I’m excited to share this conversation with you. Everything we discuss applies to bloggers like us and pet business owners who use blogging as a marketing strategy. We share advice on playing the long game when it comes to your blog content and why it’s so important to write helpful content that serves your audience. If you’re putting a lot of effort into these posts, they should still be relevant a year or two from now. Or even 10 years later, like some of my most popular blog posts! We touch a bit on keyword research, but if you want to learn more about that go listen to last month’s episode for a deeper dive. If you’re in my membership, WWR Society, we also have several lessons including screen share videos on how to find the right keywords to blog about. OK… bit finally, Caitlin and I also talk about Pinterest on this episode. We are both big believers in Pinterest because it continues to drive a ton of traffic to our blogs. If you need help with Pinterest, make sure you’re on my email list so I can let you know when Pinterest for Petpreneurs Live is happening. Pinterest works a lot like Google, you need to give it time for momentum to build. When we do the live round of my Pinterest course we’ll be focusing on pinning winter content.

August is full of exciting updates for your pet business! After Tori shares a personal update about her dogs Burt and Lucy, she goes into everything you can expect from Wear Wag Repeat this month: Wear Wag Repeat Society: This month’s theme in my membership is profit-focused keyword research! Learn to use keyword research tools and Pinterest research to drive traffic to your pet business's key sales pages—products, services, online courses, sign-up forms and more! August Guest Expert on the Podcast: Caitlin Brown joins us on August 14 to discuss evergreen content and Pinterest. You might know her from her website, Sparkles and Sunshine Blog, where she documents life with her dogs, cats and horse. Learn from an Upcomgin guest Expert: Email marketing guru Liz Wilcox will be on the podcast this fall! But I can't wait that long to tell you about her new program called The Launch Course. She's teaching how to launch your new thing (course, service, product, etc.) with just EMAIL—no ads, social media, or webinars. Check out The Launch Course with Liz Wilcox.  Pinterest for Petpreneurs LIVE: Another round is coming at the end of August! This is perfect timing to pin holiday or winter content for pet parents and drive traffic to your website on autopilot. Stay tuned for more details. Join my email list to stay updated on everything mentioned in this episode!

  In this quick episode of the Wear Wag Repeat Podcast, host Tori Mistick shares a smart strategy to enhance your pet business: turning your frequently asked questions (FAQs) into a blog post. While this seems too simple, there's actually a lot of smart strategy behind this! Episode Highlights: Why an FAQ blog post can improve your search engine rankings Ways to save time by consolidating common questions Building trust and credibility through detailed and transparent answers Enhancing user experience by creating helpful content Bonus Tip: Using internal links to connect related content and boost SEO, just like we talked about in Episode 323 with Pamela Keniston Links and Resources: Visit my website for more resources to grow your pet industry business online Send me a DM on Instagram @wearwagrepeat Check out B-School for additional business growth resources: Summer Fast Track Session is NOW OPEN!  I'm proud to be the only affiliate partner of B-School who is in the pet industry! The link above is an affiliate link. When you sign up through me, I get to provide you with extra support!