You didn’t start your pet business to be a firefighter… so why does every day feel like you’re putting out flames?
If you’re constantly answering the same questions, fixing mistakes, and making every decision yourself, that’s not leadership—that’s survival. And let’s be real… it’s exhausting. AI for pet business leadership is changing that.
The business owners using AI right now? They’re getting hours back in their week, making faster decisions, and actually leading instead of just managing. And the ones who aren’t? They’re falling behind—FAST.
In this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on how AI is making pet business owners better leaders, cutting out the chaos, and getting them real results. AI for pet business leadership is about giving you the tools to lead with confidence and clarity. I’m talking about tough decisions, team management, and running a business that doesn’t rely on you 24/7. If that sounds impossible, you need to hear what’s happening inside my community.
Because here’s the truth: Leadership isn’t about doing more—it’s about doing the right things. If you’re constantly caught up in daily tasks, second-guessing your decisions, or struggling to get your team to take initiative, it’s time for a shift.
I’ll also share real stories of pet business owners who’ve embraced AI, implemented smarter systems, and completely transformed the way they operate. The difference? They now run their business instead of their business running them.
Oh, and I’ve got a BIG announcement—one that could change the way you work in 2025.
So… are you leading, or just keeping up? Hit play and find out.
Timestamps:
[01:24] The email strategy bringing in $$$.
[03:57] Bots are changing businesses—here’s how.
[08:06] AI & leadership—stop overthinking, start leading.
[10:40] The decision mistake costing you money.
[14:00] The 100-day rule that keeps teams & clients.
Notable Quotes:
“If you’re making every decision, constantly putting out fires, and hoping your team just ‘figures it out’—that’s not leadership. That’s survival. And it’s exhausting.”
“You can’t scale chaos. If your business falls apart without you for a day, you don’t have a business—you have a job.”
“Micromanaging isn’t leadership. If you’re answering the same questions over and over, you don’t have a team—you have task-doers. And that’s costing you time and money.”
“AI isn’t replacing leadership—it’s giving business owners the tools to step up, make smarter decisions, and actually run their business instead of letting it run them.”
“What are you doing differently in 2025? Because staying stuck in the same patterns and expecting different results? That’s not a strategy—that’s a cycle. And it’s time to break it.”
Resources:
- Jump Mastermind
- Use Code: Bella25
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Transcript:
Welcome back to another episode of Bella in your business. My name is Bella Vasta. Today I’ve got a couple of updates for you. First of all, thank you so much for listening last week and having fun with me. I love the feedback I got and I love that you guys were able to see just by hearing the craziness that I put into AI in terms of like, you know, my prompts. It. I got a lot of feedback and it was super great that, you know, you guys feel like you don’t have to talk perfectly to it, right? Because there is, there’s a different way for me to like talk on stage, talk on a Facebook live, on a podcast, talk to text, and then to AI. You could be a blubbering idiot as you probably heard me sound like, okay, we got to get into a little bit of praise report, if you will, because this is like so amazing.
There’s so much stuff happening and I’m committed to celebrating every single week all of the wins that are happening. First of all, we. I can’t even take credit for this. Okay, so you guys might have remembered back in November. No, it was early October, the end of October. I wrote this really cool email and it was Mariah Carey. And you know that saying that she goes like, it’s time, but it’s like Mariah Carey at like her highest octave. I’m not even going to try to do it.
And. And then there were like memes everywhere of like she’s, she’s thawing out, you know, it’s almost time for Mariah Carey’s season, you know, and all her song and stuff. And so we use that meme because it was, it was timely and we were basically telling people, don’t forget to book for the holidays. Well, one of my members who is absolutely amazing, Carlene and La or La La. Leia, they saw, they, they remembered that I had done that and they decided to kind of redo the email and kind of like bring that back to life for spring and summer. And so I was like, yes, that’s a really great idea. So I created three different emails for everyone to choose from with three different meme ideas to also put on there. And there’s a certain way to do these things because it’s not just an email saying book now because it’s never going to work that way or you’re not going to get as high of an open rate or, or like interest.
Right? Because the mistake that a lot of business owners, not just pet sitting but any kind of business owner does is the only time the email is when they want something. So it’s like, hey, our prices are going up, our policies are changing, or we need you to book now and give us money. And none of that is ever fun. Right? And the world that we live in, with memes everywhere and gifts and it’s just. It’s so easy to just be, like, really fun. And it does a lot. Like, if you can evoke emotion for people, it does a lot. So these emails are specifically designed.
I have them specifically designed to have amazing results. And we’ve had the results already rolling in. They’re still rolling in right now as of this recording. I just saw another one that just said another $884 came in two days ago. I got something that said 15 $24, and there’s more. I didn’t write them all down, but it’s just, it’s so cool to watch this stuff happen in a time that matters to the next couple months. You know, it’s too early to start talking about summer, but it’s just. It’s really great the way that we position it and the different tactics that we use.
It works. It absolutely works. And otherwise, would these people have booked? Maybe. But to get them all in now so that these business owners can know how busy they’re going to be. I mean, I have business owners that are already booked like 70% for March, and at the recording, it’s February 24th. And so they know and they can plan ahead and be like, well, we definitely need to start hiring some more people now, because it’s not even March yet and we’re already that booked. Right. So that’s really cool.
Something else that’s happening, and I’m not sure if I’m going to release it today or tell you guys, but I think I’ve told you that we. I’ve been teaching people how to do bots for different areas of their business, and now we’ve got a couple of things that have been happening from it, which is really, really cool to see it happen. So it goes from me having the idea and getting excited to do it, then it goes to the business owners excited to do it, but now they’re getting buy in. So a couple of things are happening. One, I’m getting screenshots, and if you follow my Instagram stories, you saw it like last, last week. I’ve got screenshots of people saying, oh, my gosh, my team is using the bot. And they’re so excited that other people like, oh, geez, in the company They’ve had their business for 20 plus years. They are boomers, okay? They’re in the older generation and they are creating these, all right? And they’re saying, oh my gosh, I’m gonna have my team go break it.
Because that’s one of the, like, once we create them, I encourage people to have their team go break it instead of presenting it to them as like a training. It’s like, hey, we got this thing. Go play around and try to break it. And it’s kind of cool because it shows where your vulnerabilities are or what you need to fix. And it’s, it’s really, it’s really amazing. Gets everyone involved. And so it’s just, it’s, it’s really, really cool to see this happening. One of the bots, and they’re all different, they all have different purposes.
One of them, my, my one on one clients, a couple weeks ago, we talked about, we demoted someone and promoted someone else and this person has just like taken it and run. And they actually sent out one of these emails and her office manager had no idea that this email went out. And they got like five bookings in like an hour. And without this business owner even knowing, this office manager who has just been in the position for like four days, knew how to go in, approve and assign these sitters. Because we had this bot that she just asked the question she needed to and got it done. And the business owner comes in and she’s like, oh my gosh, like 4, 4, 4 bookings were scheduled for the client, like confirmed with the client, scheduled with a sitter. And I didn’t even know, I didn’t even know any of this happened till at the end. And it was 100% accurate.
How amazing is that, you guys, I, I’m not even gonna go down that tangent because today we’re talking about how to be a good leader. And these are all examples of being a great, great leader. I’m so proud of all of what’s happening. And you know what? I am going to tell you because I’m the worst at my own secrets. Guys. I am working on something for the general public and it is. I’m gonna start up doing classes again. And my first class is I’m gonna teach you how to do this bot class.
So if you’ve been wondering how to do, really wanted to take the leap to completely become a jumper and join the community, I’m still going to be able to teach you how to do this one thing that is going to revolutionize your business in 2025. So stay close. I don’t have the details yet for you. I don’t have the date, the time and all that stuff, but I have not only, you know, the outline for the class and the know how, you know, like, I’ve already trained on this, but I’ve actually got people that I’m going to be showing you in the class how they are successful. So this is not just a pie in the sky idea. This is what your colleagues are already doing. And if you don’t, I mean, it’s your choice, but I don’t want any of my jumpers being left behind in the dust. I don’t want any of you guys spending 10 hours doing something when it can be done in an hour.
Or no, let’s be more realistic. Let’s say two and a half hours versus ten hours. Um, that’s time and that’s money. And those are problems. And the reason why you started this company was to have time and financial freedom. If you boil it all down, that’s what it was. So that you could spend more time with your family, go on trips, do what you want, when you want, yada, yada, yada. All right, let’s get into it because today we’re going to talk all about how it.
How artificial intelligence can make you a better leader. And of course we’re going to do the. No, no fluff, inspirational stuff. And I, I mean, like real leadership, the kind that makes or breaks businesses. Because the hard truth is most of us were never taught how to be leaders. Okay, maybe like when you were running around outside playing with kids or something, like as a kid, but. Or you were like the captain of some sports team. But we were, we were taught how to be employees.
We were taught how to be good little followers and soldiers and rule followers. We were never taught how to be a leader. No one sat us down and said, here’s how to build a team. Make tough decisions, handle pressure like a boss. So what’s happening? Like, we just wing it and we make mistakes and then we usually get down on ourselves. And we think leadership just means giving orders, hiring people, and hoping for the best. But if you’ve ever worked for a bad leader, then you know that’s not how it works. A bad leader is reactive.
And I want you to think, are you reactive or are you proactive? They don’t support their team. They avoid conflict and tough conversations. A great leader is very strategic. They make decisions with confidence. They support and empower their people. They don’t Just manage the day to day. They lead with a vision. And guess what? AI can help you become that kind of leader.
And not because it replaces you at all, but it gives you the tools, the insight, and the clarity. Clarity to be better. Today I’m breaking it down. One, we’re going to talk about how to make tough decisions. Two, how to handle emotional situations without losing it. And how to train your team so they actually stick around and become advocates for your business. So let’s start with the big elephant in the room, the decision making part. Because I know that so many of you have decision paralysis, and leadership’s not about having all the answers.
Sometimes the answer is, I don’t know. But it’s about making decisions with confidence, even when you don’t have the answers. Most pet businesses struggle here because decisions, like, are scary. What if you make the wrong call? What if someone’s upset? What if you don’t have enough information? So what do you do? You stall, you avoid, and you keep yourself busy with other things instead of tackling the hard stuff. All right, let’s have real talk. I have a client that knew she needed to fire an employee. This person was unreliable, messing up schedules. Clients were noticing.
And, like, literally, I asked her, I said, if you were gonna hire this person right now, knowing how you knew how they work, would you, Would you hire them? Now she’s like, no. I’m like, then why are you keeping them? That she kept waiting, and she kept telling herself, maybe it’ll get better. She was afraid of the confrontation. She was afraid of them being disappointed or sad at her. And then a major client complained, left a bad review, and she lost thousands in revenue. Making not making a decision is making a decision, and usually it’s the worst one. And so AI doesn’t just make decisions for you. It makes them easier.
It forces you to step back, look at patterns, data, the facts, instead of getting stuck in fear. If my client had looked at the actual data on how many complaints that employee had received, she would have made the decision sooner, before it hurt her business. It might have even helped her think about how to make that decision and how to deliver that decision. But let’s be honest, because leadership isn’t just about strategy. It’s also about dealing with people. And people come with emotions. I know I do. Employees who feel undervalued, clients who get frustrated, team conflicts.
If you’re not careful, you get sucked in, and you take things personally. If you’re not careful, you become the business. And at the end of the day, you’re not your business. I don’t care if it was your blood, sweat and tears and you created it and it’s your namesake. You are not your business. You are a representative of your business. Don’t forget that if you’re not careful, you will get sucked in and you’ll take things personally. But what great leaders understand is that emotions matter, but they don’t lead the decision.
For example, I once had a client that was constantly over explaining herself to her employees. If someone questioned decisions, she’d spend hours justifying it just to make sure that everyone was happy. We call this people pleasing and we talk a lot about this on my intensives. But guess what? That’s not leadership. And AI can help you cut through that noise because it gives you a big picture view of what’s actually happening. It lets you step back and ask, is this an isolated situation or a pattern? Is it an emotional reaction or a real business problem? What does my team actually need? Now? Instead of getting stuck in the weeds, it can help you focus on the facts and not the feelings. Great leaders don’t just react. They observe, they analyze and they act with confidence.
And sometimes you just need a sounding board. Sometimes you might be a verbal processor like I am and just getting it all out of your head and talking and seeing what kind of solutions or out of the box ideas can come from it is really, really helpful. Now let’s talk about one of the biggest failures I see. It’s a lack of training and support. Most business owners think hiring is the hard part. No, Keeping employees engaged, trained and thriving is the hard part. Because here’s the deal. If you don’t have a system to train and support your team, you’re just setting them up to fail.
This is why I love the 100 day rule. If you’ve ever heard of Joey Coleman’s Never lose a Customer Again, it’s about how the first 100 days determine whether a client or employee leaves or stays. And let me tell you, we have Joey Coleman teaching this in the Mastermind. And we have lots of Mastermind members that use this for clients and staff. They have an entire program built out. We have lots of conversations about this in my community. And this is one of the backbones that make jumpers different. This is one of the things that keeps clients with the with the company.
It’s one of the things that keep sitters with the company. And that’s a really important thing to do because getting new employees and clients costs a lot of money. But if they don’t feel supported in the first hundred days they’ll leave. If they don’t see the path forward, they quit. And if they don’t understand expectations, they will get frustrated. And AI can help you build a structured, repeatable 100 day employee experience. When should check ins happen? What milestones should employees hit? What kind of feedback loops need to be in place? Great leadership doesn’t. It just doesn’t hire people and then hope for the best.
They create systems to make their teams wanted to stay and these systems we’ve created time and time again, years after years. This is why you hear the success stories with my jumpers. Because they’re learning how to be good leaders through all of these things. Through creating training and support, through handling emotional situations, through the hard truth about decision making. They’re not running to random thousand group Facebook group where every Tom, Dick and Harry is giving their opinion and you have no idea what kind of life they are actually living. And if you want to replicate it or not. That just blows my mind. I saw someone yesterday post something about why aren’t I getting more engagement on Facebook and Instagram and they said I’m doing this, this and this and no one cares about what I’m writing.
So upon a little bit of investigation, this person was 13 years old. And these grown people are giving this person ideas, but they’re like talking on like a kindergarten level, literally. This person doesn’t even have a legitimate business. I mean, good for them. I all the power to young entrepreneurs. Absolutely. Every day. But what are you doing in your bit? Like how are you taking time away from whatever it is that you need to do to go and help this person when your own Instagram and Facebook has no following? Like I, I don’t get it.
So as I kind of conclude this podcast, I want to ask you, like, what are you doing differently in 2025? Also, we’re about to hit March here in two days. It’s March at the launch of this, this is, this is going to be coming out February 27, 2025. Okay. What are you doing different in your business? I just kind of laugh and think back to like around 2008 when I was running my own national pet sitting organization. I don’t know if you knew I had one. And, and I was doing videos trying to explain to people in a forum that they needed to have a Facebook page. And now I’m here, like, let’s see, this is four, five, six, 16 years later. God, that sounds really old.
And I’m explaining to people that you need to have bots and bosses. Just the beginning. Like, it’s not like this is here, it’s like this is evolving constantly. And so to get in on the ground level right now, it is so easy. The training on how to create your own bot is literally like it’ll take you five minutes to do it. You’re gonna laugh when you see how easy it is. In fact, I showed my community how to do this and One of the OGs went and created five of them in 24 hours. I was like, whoa girl.
Like, you don’t need five. You don’t like you’re overcomplicating it. But it was so easy that she just went nuts. She went buck wild. Which was amazing because I love the action that it inspired. So I’m going to ask you, what are you doing differently in 2025? How are those 2025 goals from January coming? We’re 60 days into it. Have you developed new habits? Have you changed new things? Or are you still struggling with the same thing? Because if you are, you and I need to talk. You need to go to jump consulting.netforward/20, then we need to get on a call together.
Or you need to just join our community and be around a bunch of other people that are kicking ass, taking names and making money and taking time off, taking months off at a time from their business. We got people all at all different stages that are just starting with employees to opening up like their fifth location and everything in between. It does not matter where you are in your business. What matters is your mindset. Do you have a winning attitude and a can do attitude. That’s what qualifies you as a jumper. And I want to see you. You can use Bella 25 for the next week for $25 off.
So get in there now. Instead of 1 77, it is 25 off that and it’s just month to month. So if you get in there and you don’t like it, you absolutely can leave. But I guarantee you that if you show up within the first week, I will make you your money back or I will refund your membership. It is gonna. It’s so easy. I mean, if I walked you into Vegas right now and I gave you, I told you, put a hundred dollars down on a table and you get $200 back, would you do it? It’s like a no brainer, right? That’s what I’m offering you right now. So come join us.
Check out my Insta, my Instagram, my Facebook. I am posting success stories on there multiple times a week because that is how many I get. Every single day I get something else. I have one person who she just told me and she named her bot Pam. She said that her team is now asking Pam stuff and they’re never, they’re not calling her or her office managers. Do you know how much time that cuts down on now when you’re, when your office managers are using time, guess what that’s doing that’s costing you money. So if your sitters aren’t bothering your office managers with questions, that’s saving you money and empowering your office, empowering your employees, which is just really helping your company culture. I just can’t see, I can’t wait to see how high these, these jumpers fly this year.
They already are and I’m so proud of them. All right, this has been another episode of Bella in your business. Please remember that when life gets down to always keep jumping.