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IN BUSINESS SINCE 2002. ALWAYS KEEP JUMPING.
Jump Consulting

Celebrating 400 Episodes With The Most Inspiring Guests On the Podcast / Ep. 400

400 episodes
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Join me as I celebrate 400 episodes of the Bella In Your Business podcast!

I couldn’t be more thrilled to reach this milestone with YOU. From humble beginnings recording in my closet with a ten-pound MacBook to now, with a professional setup and a decade of experience, this journey has been nothing short of incredible.

In this special episode, I take you through the highs and lows of the past ten years, sharing the raw, unfiltered reality of building a business. Hear about my early struggles, Olivia’s time in the NICU, and the challenges of balancing single motherhood with coaching and running a business.

I reflect on past episodes, from tackling imposter syndrome to overcoming burnout and isolation. You’ll hear inspiring stories from guests who transformed their businesses and lives, like Jennifer Jasmin growing her team from one to seven, and Randa Clark‘s amazing growth mindset.

Whether you’re new here or an OG listener, thank you for being a part of this journey. Your support means the world to me, and I hope this episode empowers you to take risks, embrace imperfection, and keep pushing forward.

Here’s to 400 episodes and many more to come!

Timestamps:

[00:00] Celebrating 400 episodes

[02:14] Impostor syndrome and perfectionism

[06:00] Highlighting past guests and clients

[12:06] Hiring, leadership, and business processes

[20:00] Motivation, action, and mindset

Notable Quotes:

“The only person that you’re in competition with is yourself. Are you better today than you were yesterday, last week, last month, and last year? That’s the only thing that matters.”

“You don’t have to stay in the rut if you’re in the rut.”

“I just want to encourage you that done is better than perfect.”

“Your brain does not know the difference between reality and what you’re thinking. If you don’t believe me, go look it up. And that’s why they say fake it till you make it. Start telling yourself what you see yourself in.”

Resources & Links:

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Transcript:

Welcome to another episode of Bella in your business. My name is Bella Vasta, and, oh, my gosh, you guys, this is the 400th episode. 400. Okay. Um. I never thought that I would ever get to 400. I don’t know where I thought I would get, but I’ll never forget in my first house recording on my MacBook, which back then was, like, ten pounds, and I didn’t have a microphone. My whole house was tile except my closet.And so I would go and I would record in my closet because it was the only place that it didn’t echo too much. And I first started it off talking about how to get employees. It was, like, literally episode number one, how to get through the hiring slumps. And it’s actually our third most popular episode. And I just want to tell you, if you haven’t heard that one, I would highly recommend that you go back and look at that. Now. That was ten years ago. Ten years ago. How crazy is that now? My first year or two, I had started it when Olivia was in the NICU, and I didn’t become regular, like, every Thursday until probably about the third year. And then we showed up with the consistency of every Thursday. But I know a lot of you out there have imposter syndrome. I was actually just talking to someone yesterday about that, and, you know, you’re always looking at what other people are doing, or you always want things done perfect. And I just want to encourage you that done is better than perfect.

And when you can do that and you can realize that, you know, nothing’s going to be perfect, and you can just correct and continue, as my friend Christina says, then you’re going to get that momentum going and go back and listen to that episode one. You know what the episodes sound like now. I have this nice, cool, sure. Microphone. It’s makes my voice sound like butter. And I also have a producer. We have different intro music. I think our podcast cover has changed about three times over the years. Truth be told, I’m going to change the jingle soon, coming in and out. However, I’ve just been so busy this summer. So, again, in a perfect world, we’d have a whole new, you know, jingle for the 400th episode. But you know what? Hi. I’m. I’m human. I just turned 42. I’ve got a now ten year old daughter as of two weeks ago, and. And I’m a single mom, and I’m a business coach. I’ve been in this industry for 22 years. I’ve been coaching since 2007. That’s. That’s kind of crazy. And so I want to put that perspective out there for you because I don’t ever. I don’t ever want you comparing yourself to other people. And this is. I wasn’t even going to go here because I have a whole, like, thing that I want to talk to you guys about today.

But don’t ever compare yourself to someone else because, you know, this is my 400th chapter, right? So if someone were to start off a podcast today and be like, oh, Bella, like, it doesn’t sound like your podcast today. And of course, I also have much room to grow. But, you know, my first podcast is very humbling. It’s all of my ums and my just rattling off stuff and the echo ness and the silly intro and outro and just even how my vernacular, my picture, it used to be like a cartoon of me jumping with holding a parachute. The whole entire thing has come such a long way. Our show notes have developed over time, and so just don’t compare yourself to anyone else except for yourself. The only person that you are in competition with is yourself. My daughter being born at 12oz in a NICU for 182 days while I had my pet sitting and coaching company totally showed me that. Do not compare yourself to anyone else except for yourself. Are you better today than you were yesterday, last week, last month, and last year? That’s the only thing that matters. So, as I reflect on 400 episodes, um, we are the longest pet sitting podcast because we started ten years ago. That’s insane.

So if you ever question my dedication and my love for you guys, consider this my labor of love. Because most of the time, except for today, when my daughter is sitting here next to me with her headphones on, on her iPad, learning Spanish on Duolingo, because our housekeepers are here cleaning the house right now. Don’t ever underestimate how much I truly adore you guys, because I’m just sitting here in this office by myself, talking into my microphone, hoping that you guys listen and you download it and you pay attention to it. So I wanted to kind of give you a gift, because I also know that as a content creator myself, I know that there’s so much information out there, and it’s very easy to get overwhelmed or like, oh, my gosh, Bella. Like, I don’t remember or, you know, wanting something, but not realizing that we already have it out there. So, first, I kind of wanted to go through and give a nice shout out to a lot of the guests and my clients that have been on. And if you have missed it, I want you to. I want you to know about it. So, most recent, I’m going to go from the recent to all the way back, and I’m going to give you the show episode numbers, too. And we’ll include this in our notes as well.

So, most recently, like, five episodes ago, we had Jennifer Jasmine in, and she talked about how she’s been able to grow with all of her goals that she had set in the mastermind. She went from, like, one to seven employees in a year. And also how her previous life of being a meteorologist combined with being in the pet industry, she was able to help her hurricane area and kind of start a class about hurricane preparedness for pets in her community, and how that’s been, like, a really great marketing thing, but also how her business has helped get her out of her shell and her introvertedness become extrovert, and all of her anxiety. So if any of that strikes a chord with you, I’d highly recommend you go check out episode 395. Not to be. Well, to keep going here we got episode 379 with Angela Watts, and it was a secret of getting lots of employees. She is a powerhouse, and she is so exciting to listen to. Um, she was basically talking about how she overcame her burnout. I know a lot of us have experienced that. But then how she found support in the industry to help get her out of it, and that the business goals and marketing strategies, um, for the dog walking and training service, and how she outsourced certain things, like social media marketing, um, to, like, better marketing with Bella, and the crazy results that she had, like, thousands of dollars uptick because she joined I better marketing with Bella. Um, and it was just really inspiring just to hear the ups and downs, because I think oftentimes, again, going back to the whole, do not compare yourself to anyone else. She, you know, went through the hills and valleys, and I’m sure still will. We all will. It’s part of life. And coming up on hills and valleys, this next person I met years ago, years and years ago, probably. I don’t know, um, at least back in like, 2008, 2009, maybe.

Uh, Randa Clark from tail chasers out in Chicago, uh, Illinois. Uh, and that was episode 377. And she talked about overcoming fear and starting and growing a business. They started with just a dog walking company and kind of living, I believe it was kind of in the cities or the burbs. And they ended up moving their entire family to this compound that had, um, where they live on it, but there’s also a boarding facility. And then they bought a couple other boarding facilities, and then they got pet wants it, which is a pet food franchise. And they just. She just has this amazing growth mindset. One of the things I love about randa, and if you listen to this episode, you’ll hear, is that she perfects a job and then puts herself out of business or out of a job. Right. So that she can delegate it out. The other really cool thing about Brandet is that she’s got two amazing boys. One of them is the same age as my olivia, and her and her husband and the boys, they all have really made it a family business, and I really admire their work life balance, and they’re just really good people. So if you want an inspirational story and that kind of hits, you, go check out episode 377. Then we also had episode 375, another kind of long term client of mine, beau.

Absolutely incredible what he’s done. He has bought multiple businesses in multiple states, and he has this amazing tact for leadership development and overcoming fear in business and then creating systems so that he can run these businesses from afar and. And then. And focusing on buying and managing businesses with a focus on legal and ethical considerations. And so that one was just, like, such a great high level. Wow. Like, look at that vision and what is possible. So if you want to get lost in really great stories, I also suggest you check out episode 375. And then, not to get back into the tumultuous part of business again, but episode 366, I had two special guests on, and that was Kathy and Tracy. And I wish I could hug those girls. They are just. Or women. I wish I could. I mean, they’re. They’re so amazing. And that was on overcoming isolation and the stories of hope and resilience. And now there’s a thing called compassion. Uh, compassion fatigue. We didn’t actually talk about that on the episode, but I think it’s very rampant in our industry, in the caregiving industry, where we just care so much about other people that we almost forget about ourselves. And then we just kind of start getting into this rut or we get into isolation, and we don’t really start talking among people because we don’t want to bother them with our problems. And they share their experiences with that and the challenging negative thoughts and the importance of having. Standing up to fight back on that and get a community around them and their experiences and how it’s changed once they had joined the mastermind group and started attending local events. And so if that’s something that you, you know, struggle with, definitely check it out. They talked about the importance of gratitude like minded individuals for support, rediscovering passion and purpose.

Guys, you don’t have to stay in the rut if you’re in the rut. And then back to another inspirational story is Tiffany Lewis out in Baltimore. Episode 365, what it takes to hire 50 plus employees. She’s faced challenges of hiring and transitioning from independent contractors to employees. The importance of having formalized hiring processes and employee benefits. Transitioning. I’m sorry. Yeah, more formalized hiring process, creating a healthy workplace and being supported, like, create, like, being a supportive boss to her staff and just the unique ways that she takes care of her team and the structured onboarding. And it was really inspiring and really expanded your brain to think about how this is what we could do. And I think at the end of the day, when you start hiring employees, everyone gets into this industry because they love the pets and they want to be with the pets, right? But what you don’t realize is that as you scale your business, you have to love people. And that’s why we focus a lot on leadership and. And developing processes and workflows. And this next episode 364 with Becky, um, how to get 150 applicants in a week. What? Um, she talked about her struggles of hiring, transitioning to a new hiring mentality, and that was like a. A big light bulb for a lot of people, because it goes from, how can you help me? To, how can you work for me? And I think a lot of people, when they first start out and they’re hiring, they really are just like, oh, I need some help. Yeah, can you help me here? And it’s not really like, this is a job. I need you to work for me. Here’s the rules. And then she also discussed the significance of a systematic hiring process, steps to a successful hiring process, building a strong company culture, which you have to hear those stories. She implemented so much of what Joey Coleman, who was also on this podcast and a guest in the mastermind, came in and described to us from his book. And it’s been pretty pivotal in her developing her company culture and retaining employees. I mean, think about it. Like, if you had such a bomb like process that you never had to hire employees, like, again or not for, like, two or three years, once you hire them, how would that change your business? How would that take the time away from all of the energy and time and money you’re spending in hiring, onboarding, and training and. And supporting staff, as opposed to if they were just there for a long time? Like, what would that do in your business. Whoa. That’s just amazing. And so that was episode 364 with Becky Lee. And then another. Another one. This is the last one. I’m going to tell you about 360 with Leia. And she talks about doing something I know so many of you guys are doing, and it’s spending time in places you have no business being in. And for Leah, it was canva. And she was spending about an hour a morning in canva creating stuff until she joined the better marketing Bella program.

But she talks about the social media myth, the power of consistency, the need for a better approach, all of the results that she had in her business by allocating her time towards revenue generating activities instead of taskrabbit kind of things. And the importance of persistence is really, really cool. All right, so I hope that, you know, if, if you want to hear stories of other people that are, you know, every time I have them on, we have a goal. It’s not just talk and talk and talk for an hour and rambling. It is literally like, this is our point. This is our story. This is what I want to know about. Teach our audience about it. And that’s what I really appreciate about all of the guests that have been on. They have openly and freely shared all of their ups and downs, because it’s not all glitzing, glam and beautiful and. And there’s so many valleys, there’s so much isolation, there’s so many challenges, there’s so many knockdowns. But the difference is, when you’re a jumper, you jump back up and you say, try me again. But you’re not going to get me the same way because I just learned. I learned failure is something that excites jumpers. Failure is something that you learn from, that you learn. Okay, I know 99 ways not to do it. And I finally found that one way that we can do it. Jumpers do it differently. I am all about giving you guys as much motivation and inspiration that I possibly can. But this podcast has always been a lot about actionable tactical advice. Becky even said recently, and you might have seen it on my instagram, Bella Vasta, that she takes the podcast episodes and she puts it into AI and has a. I create the transcript and then takes the transcript and says, make an sop out of it because I do so much teaching on it.

So I hope to motivate you to action, because motivation without action doesn’t mean anything. I want you to take action, pick one little thing. And so things that can motivate you, definitely, like motivational episodes, 358 is about facing fear and how to conquer the inner critic. 359 is about bouncing back and unleashing the power of resilience. 367 is breaking free from isolation. 380 is because you get to pet lessons and lessons and blessings. I loved doing that one, by the way. Number 380, it’s a whole mindset. Switch. Episode 395, prepare your pet business for hurricanes. And so those are all very motivational. Like, wow, I could do that. That’s a great idea. Then we’ve got marketing episodes. So how to use your email marketing in your pet business? Episode 166, we’ve got three easy ways to use social media to gain more clients. Episode 311 top five most effective ways social media tips for dog walking business owners 313 and four things you should stop doing on social media so you can start getting results. Because a lot of people are just not really that effective. And that was 335. I could continue. There’s. There’s so many more that we could do in training. Just how to train your employees. It’s episode 303, three ways to attract great employees. You probably haven’t done guys training. This is part of the leadership development in episode 382, how to have great staff meetings.

Your employees will be begging to attend. All of these things are, like I said, I want to. I hope you pick one or two from this episode and think, yeah, I need to go back and listen to that. Because like I said, I really want to be. I want to be that voice in your head. Okay? Get rid of that negative voice telling you 50 ways you can’t do something. And let me show you how you can do it. Let’s work together. Let’s do intensive together. Let me fly to you. Why don’t you come to Arizona? I’ll put you up in an Airbnb. Now is the time before we get into the holiday season, before we get all busy with life and. And. And, um. And. And visits and walks and all this stuff. Let’s work together. Let’s join my community, the mastermind, where literally jumpers are doing it different. Do you know that I have clients that don’t do any face to face interviews or face to face consultations? Scary, right? No, not. Not really. If you know the right things to ask and how to screen and do it, it actually is not as scary as you think it. If you think it’s scary, reach out to me, because I’m. I’ll help show you. I’ll help. I’ll help show you. And at the end, if it’s not right for you, that’s cool. But don’t knock it till you understand it. Keep that mind open. You don’t have to agree with everything, but keep your mind open and get curious. Get curious about everything in life. So as we embark on episode 401 and on, I have no idea when this podcast is going to end. I have no idea if I’m going to create another season or section. I’m not really sure I’m open to what you think. So. So let me know.

Drop me a message, [email protected]. or get me in the DM’s on Instagram or Facebook. I’d love to hear from you, and I just want to sincerely thank you for your time. Because time is one of the most precious commodities that we have, and I take it very, very seriously that I get to be in your ear. So thank you for listening, um, to the podcast today. Or maybe you’ve listened to all 400, but what?

In any case, I just want to remind you to always keep jumping. Because if you keep jumping, the momentum will keep going. And what will happen is you’ll never get stuck in the muck, in the quicksand and get sucked in and die. You have to keep the momentum going even when you don’t feel like it. You have to fake it. And the very last thing I’m going to leave you with is remember this. Your brain does not know the difference between reality and what you’re thinking. If you don’t believe me, go. Go. Look it up. And that’s why they say fake it till you make it. Start telling yourself what you see yourself in. Thank you. And I will see you next week. Bye.