Ep 210. Why Brand Recognition is More Important Than Chasing Customers

Summary

The Scoop With Erica Krupin – Ep 210 Why Brand Recognition is More Important Than Chasing Customers
July 6, 2026

---

Episode Overview

In this episode, host Erica Krupin sits down with Cesar Moreno, owner of Stinky Tales Pooper Scooper Company in Downey, California. Both Erica and Cesar started their businesses around 2017–2018, forming part of the so-called “new wave” of dog waste professionals. Through a highly relatable and candid conversation, Cesar and Erica revisit their early days, compare business growth journeys, and get real on the value of brand recognition, content creation, and navigating ups and downs in an unusual industry. The key message: building a trusted, recognizable brand can carry a business further than just rushing to land as many customers as possible.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins & Industry Beginnings [02:41–09:00]

• Cesar launched Stinky Tales in 2018 in Downey, CA, after identifying a gap in his local market.
• Inspiration came from his own experience—stepping in dog poop barefoot!—and the realization that pet waste removal was virtually unknown in his area.
• Found initial resistance explaining the job: “When I said pet waste removal, I had to over explain myself so much. Dog waste removal, what is that? You go to people's homes like, who pays for that?” [07:32, Cesar]
• Both Erica and Cesar credit spouse support as essential when launching such a nontraditional business. “To have that person in your corner means so much.” [06:12, Erica]

2. Building a Brand vs. Chasing Customers [09:32–12:09, 17:57–21:07]

• Cesar’s marketing lessons from his prior career in automotive events highlighted the power of branding over transactional selling.
  • “I noticed that branding was very important in this industry.” [09:32, Cesar]
• Initial business name confusion led to a near-lawsuit, which forced a rebrand to Stinky Tales: “It was the biggest blessing ever... that’s when clients started coming in. It seemed like the name was catchier.” [10:41, Cesar]
• Erica and Cesar agree: slow, deliberate growth protects both service quality and mental health. It’s easy to compare yourself to peers but critical to define your unique path.
  • “Don’t beat yourself up. I used to beat myself up all the time, man. I'd be like, you're a loser.” [19:48, Erica]

3. The Power of Social Media & Organic Content [12:19–17:45, 22:36–24:56, 37:10–57:40]

• Early days: Little content existed on dog waste removal; both hosts learned via trial and error.
• Cesar’s approach: share authentic, varied content—time lapses, behind-the-scenes, even messy or ‘imperfect’ clips.
  • “I use my old iPhone. I have an iPhone 13. Literally just grab the thing and I would put it on the floor... my videos are far from professional.” [44:06, Cesar]
• Consistency over polish: “Just shoot content. You're not—you don't know what's gonna hit. It's like fishing.” [54:16, Cesar]
• Value of documentation and being relatable: “People want to get to know you... we need to come off as trustworthy.” [47:18, Cesar]
• Social media serves as the key lead generator—especially Instagram and Yelp in Cesar’s LA-area market.
• “Brand recognition has paid off. When the new guys are posting up their signs, people Google ‘dog waste removal’ and guess who pops up first? It’s a numbers game.” [37:10, Cesar]

4. Content Creation: Process & Practical Tips [43:41–57:40]

• Frequency and quantity matter: Post often, even if content feels repetitive or unpolished.
• “All those videos, even though there were a lot of the doubles, it was the same... that's why I ended up going and cleaning it back up.” [52:17, Cesar]
• No need for expensive setups. Use your phone, a nearby bucket, and shoot what comes naturally: “Just freestyle it. It's going to be the best content.” [52:28, Cesar]
• Use content to warm your market by showing—not just telling—what dog waste removal is.
• Best performing post: a “horrible” video with a bad angle and background noise went viral, drawing customers and even corporate interest. [54:11–54:16]

5. Market Differences & Service Strategy [25:06–36:37]

• The LA market demands full-service packages—including deodorizer—not just scooping.
• Free initial cleanings are uncommon for Cesar; instead, he occasionally waives the setup fee for easy jobs.
  • “No one in other industries gives stuff for free, you know, why would we do it?” [25:06, Cesar]
• Pricing and workflow are tailored to small yards and high cost of living:
  • $25/week for one dog, $5/additional dog; 5–10 minutes per yard; teams of two for efficiency.

6. Managing Growth & Operations [17:57–19:12, 36:37–41:43, 57:40–62:13]

• Slow, steady expansion: ~170 customers took eight years, with customer retention prioritized over rapid scaling.
• Team-building: Cesar now has four employees and values established, loyal staff—especially his longtime right-hand man, “Big Steve.”
• Brand recognition means even other local service providers (contractors) identify and recommend Stinky Tales.
• Content creation and business operations are intertwined—posting is done in real time, in the truck between jobs, to avoid eating into family time.

7. Healthy Boundaries & Balancing Roles [62:00–66:34]

• Social media and business tasks are handled during work hours; posting doesn't interfere with family life. [61:15–61:52]
• Both Erica and Cesar agree: it takes time to develop the emotional intelligence and self-knowledge necessary to handle the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship.

8. Advice for New & Growing Scoopers [63:34–70:18]

• Don’t obsess over customer count—focus on learning the business and developing resilience:
  • “Learning the business, the scooping part, that's the easy part. The getting the customers, the being a dad, the being a brother, a son, husband, boss, friend, mentor—that’s the part I wished I knew.” [63:34, Cesar]
• Everyone’s journey is unique; comparison is corrosive.
• Document your process, even when it feels awkward—you’ll be grateful to have those memories and insights as you grow or pivot.

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “To have that person in your corner means so much.” – Erica [06:12]
• “I wasn't too worried. I did want a lot of customers, but I wasn't worried about getting a lot of customers because I couldn't handle them.” – Cesar [37:10]
• “Just shoot content. You’re not–you don't know what's gonna hit. It's like fishing.” – Cesar [54:16]
• “People want to get to know you... We need to make sure that we come off as trustworthy.” – Cesar [47:18]
• “For me, it was brand recognition... you get a lot of customers, but if you're going to lose customers as you're getting them, then no one knows who you are.” – Cesar [37:10]
• “The longer I’m out of the field, the harder content creation gets.” – Erica [49:15]
• “If it wasn’t for slow growth... business probably would have failed. But because I had to learn it… that’s the part I really wanted to learn—what makes the business run.” – Cesar [63:34]
• “My dream since day one was to be out of the field. And that’s the goal this year: not be in the field, work my way out, and focus on those commercial accounts.” – Cesar [69:00]

---

Important Timestamps

• [02:41] Cesar’s origin story: how Stinky Tales began out of a personal mishap and spotting a market gap.
• [10:41] Learning from a forced rebrand: “Biggest blessing ever.”
• [17:57] Slow and steady growth: “Managing both jobs and the pooper business.”
• [25:06] On free initial cleans and market differences.
• [37:10] Branding, content, and being recognized in public.
• [44:06] Behind-the-scenes: content creation process explained.
• [54:11] The “worst” video goes viral and lands corporate interest.
• [62:00] Managing social posting, boundaries, and family time.
• [63:34] What Cesar wishes he’d known eight years ago.
• [69:00] Looking ahead: goals for customer growth and getting out of day-to-day scooping.

---

Where to Find Cesar / Stinky Tales

• Instagram / Facebook / Yelp / TikTok / Google: Search Stinky Tales

---

Final Takeaways

• Authenticity and consistency in branding and social media create long-term value over shortcuts and hype.
• Building in public isn’t always comfortable, but it brings growth, recognition, and community support.
• Success in the pooper scooper industry, as in any field, comes from learning the business inside and out—not just chasing the most customers.

---

For more actionable industry insights and honest stories from those “doing the thing,” follow The Scoop with Erica Krupin and connect with Stinky Tales on Instagram.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to the Scoop with Erica Kruipen. Your host is the owner of Kruipen's Poop and Scoopin. She's built a six figure dog waste removal business and loves talking a little crap with like minded folks. Starting and growing a small business can be scary, but Erica wants to share some tips and tricks that she's picked up along the way as she continues her entrepreneurial journey. She hopes this podcast will educate and inspire you to think outside the corporate box and do something a little crappy like scoop dog poop. And now, here's Erica

[B]

what's Up Scoop Podcast. I'm your host, Erica Kruipen and on today's episode, we're gonna take a stroll down memory lane. I have a special guest on and I know, I'm like, oh, we got a special guest. I'm telling you, this one is extra special. It's because I personally have been in business for eight years and there's just something about interviewing and chatting with somebody that pretty much started when you did. And you've watched them on social media so you feel like you've been through things together because the poop scooping industry and business in general is up and down. So I'm super excited to welcome Cesar for the podcast. He is the owner of St. Stinky Tales Pooper scooper company Business. And thank you, thank you so much for waking up early and hanging out with us today.

[C]

Good morning, Erica. Pleasure being on your podcast. Very excited. Actually. It's been a journey. We're going to be going down memory lane. You brought me down memory lane. Actually, the questions you sent me have made me remember a lot of stuff and steps and experiences that I've gone through over the last eight years. So I'm excited. I'm ready. Let me know what you guys want to hear. I'm here to let the fans and your podcasts and your podcast followers know what I'm about and what I'm here to share and hopefully everything. The information I share helps everyone out.

[B]

Oh, it's going to be so good. So, I mean, I, I've been a fan, I followed you for quite some time, but the listeners might have not. And we do have a lot of, you know, new scoopers. You and I, we kind of talked about it at that time. When we got started, we were like, we were the new wave of scoopers, but now we're like the new old wave of scoopers. So first of all, what year did you get started in business? Where are you located and how did you choose your awesome business name.

[C]

Well, my name is Cesar Moreno. I started in 2018, year of the dog, interestingly. So my wife was pregnant at the time. 2017. I was just recently married in July. My wife was about maybe two, three months pregnant. I was traveling a lot on the road with my previous job. My sister in law was supposed to scoop up the dog poop. I kickboxed barefoot because I was very passionate about kickboxing at that time. When I got back from the road, I stepped on dog put dog poop barefoot. And that's where I got the idea. Originally, me and my wife during her pregnancy, we wanted to open a business. We thought about scooping ice cream and I looked at the franchise fees for the company that we wanted to join and it was like 80,000, $100,000 and I definitely didn't have that. Well, me being crazy, I came up with the idea newly. We remarried. My wife sat her down and said, hey, what do you think about scooping up dog poop? She gave me this crazy look and she said, yeah. And I was like, what? So I looked up the industry. There was really no around my area. So I'm based out of Downey, California. We're about 12 miles southeast of downtown LA. So Big Market 2017, there was no one around me. The closest guy I believe was about 40 miles and he had been in industry about 20 years. I don't know if he's still in the industry, but he didn't really post much on Instagram or social media. I noticed that the older generation of scoopers weren't on social media. So 2018, fast forward, I stepped on dog poop, I pitched my wife and here we are eight years later. What started as a joke of an idea now is paying the bills, is paying for the employees, is paying for the mortgage, is paying literally for everything. I'm very blessed for my wife to move forward with the idea and say, yeah, we should do it, not knowing what we were getting into. For me, this business has really been a blessing. Sorry if I'm getting a little emotional, but I'm gonna hold through. So yeah, 2018 is when we start our business. The business name is Stinky Tails. Originally it wasn't Stinky Tails, it was another name. So this. And I learned a lot from that experience. I almost got sued, to be honest. So six months into it, I almost got sued. But we could go back into that. But I did start my business. My journey started in 2018 not knowing what I was getting into. There was no one to Follow. The people that were in the industry were doing well, but we didn't know what the secrets were. The secrets are all out there. I feel like everyone talks about the industry, everyone's become an expert, but there's various ways of being in this industry and being successful in your own way. Everyone's success is determined a lot different. For me, it was having free time, and I valued my free time and this business has allowed me to have that. So, yeah, 2018 was the year I started, the year of the dog, and I was a solo scooper.

[B]

Oh, we just have so many parallels. I kind of want to go back on what you had said when Josh and I had gotten married in 2017 as well. We were newlyweds. We didn't have. We didn't have a baby on the way, but we were just getting started. And I. When you were getting emotional, kind of talking about when you had asked your wife, hey, I'm going to start this poop scooping thing. What do you think? I did the same thing with Josh. And it's to have somebody that is on the crazy train with you, that just supports you and they believe in you so much that it's like, I'm gonna do this crazy thing. I don't know what it's going to look like, but I want to give it a shot. And to have that person in your corner means so much. And I'm so happy that you had that.

[C]

It really does. And me and Pam had only been married a couple months, but we had talked about starting a business and we didn't know each other that well, but it was something that I wanted to do and it's something that she wanted to do. And I'm glad she said yeah, because if she wouldn't have said yes, I don't know where we would be. You know, there's a lot of things that have happened throughout those years, since 2018, the pandemic.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

Not trying to get plugged, but a lot of stuff has happened. You know, prices of gas, just everything and anything. And I'm willing to share that information with you. But yes, it's very important to have a good support system. This is. This is a very crazy idea. This isn't. You could tell this is an industry that wasn't really known at the time. Plumbers are known, electricians are known, gardeners are known. Plan full service. Guys are known. But when I said pet waste removal, I had to over explain myself so much. Dog waste removal, what is that? You go to people's homes like, who pays for that? So that's why I got really involved in social media or I was forced to post on social media for people to know what the industry was. I'm not giving myself a pat on the shoulder, but I feel like me and you have put. Or others as well have put dog waste removal on the map. There was others before us, but on the new wave of the older, newer people, I feel that you've done very well on YouTube. There's others that have been doing great on Facebook. I feel for me, Instagram has been a strong source of social media for me to get my customers. But just to. To go back, it is important to have someone who is very supportive in this industry.

[B]

Yes. Because as. As if anybody is listening right now and they have, they're just thinking about getting started. The emotional roller coaster that you're going to ride through in this business of, like, things are great. This is the worst decision ever. What's going to happen to my business? I'm kind of curious to you because I went through the same thing when Covid happened, when they shut down everything. Like, what was your thought process? Because I went and delivered pizzas. Because I was like freaking out.

[C]

Well, the last job I had, I was in that industry for about 12 years. So my background was in public speaking. So I was in the automotive industry. I worked auto shows. So I traveled the nation and I worked in the automotive circuit for a major automotive company. And that's where I learned a lot of my branding, to be honest, from the big dogs. And I saw what they would do. We would work a lot of marketing events. And I noticed that branding was very important in this industry, but. I lost a little concentration there.

[B]

But no branding is important. Which actually gots me thinking when I. Because we had, we had similar logos and I remember I was posting and I seen your stuff pop up. And so when you said that when you brought up the lawsuit that you were worried about getting sued, you thought the same thing. I was like, I hope he's not going to sue me for using his logo. So that's why I was like, I got to do something different. And then I went on the journey of like, you know, whatever it is now.

[C]

Well, I think that you're. They say your name is your destiny. And with this, in with this, with this industry, I believe a name is very important. Something catchy. I thought the name was good in the past, and it was probably good, but it was already taken. The person that already had that name wasn't really using it and I thought, we're on different sides of the country. It didn't really matter. But you learn from your experiences when you get that letter. And to be honest, it was the biggest blessing ever for that person to send me that letter. Because when I changed my name to Stinky Tales, that's when I came became the most successful. And that's when clients started coming in. It seemed like the name was catchier. People gave it a jingle. Stinky Tales sounded funny. Right. But I changed the name in May. So I started in January. By May, I was almost getting sued. I possibly only had about seven customers. And I went to a business attorney and they're like, hey, if you're not making thousands of dollars or tens of thousand dollars, just change the name. It's not worth it. You're going to lose money and this business isn't exist. It's not going to succeed because the name's not yours. So in May, I changed the name and that's when we officially became Stinky Tails. And I used. Like everyone else, we were using the same generic little logo. But it worked. Until this day. It's still working.

[B]

It does, it does. Because it was from. I think. Was it from vistaprint?

[C]

Vistaprint, yes. A little squared that everyone mostly uses that I saw for years and years.

[B]

Yeah. May, my editor, when you're editing this, please pop up a picture of that. Of that business card. Because it's just. It's so. For me, it's iconic, you know, with this industry. Like you were saying the. Like the OG is right. If you name them one, you name them all. But a few that are coming to mind with the content because that's the reason why I started creating content. Because there wasn't. There was nothing. I'm like, I don't even know what we're doing right now. It was you then the new wave. It was Courtney San Diego. Yep. She and then Anthony Sales are. Yes, he was. He's creating content. And so it was just nice. It was nice to like lean into each other's being nosy, like, what's going on?

[C]

And it seems like everybody's content is a little different. Some are going for the funny or more. Some are going for the educational. I was just posting. Yeah, I didn't know what to post. The person that I felt like was my mentor at the time, who I had reached out to a couple months into was Jim.

[B]

Yes, Mr. Kingapoo. I. Did you watch his YouTube? The show?

[C]

The reason when I pitched my wife and I told her about Poop scooping. I had looked up poop scooping and I found Jim's video on YouTube and I was like, wow, this guy is making some serious dough. I want to do what he's doing. And long story short, I reached out to Jim about like seven months into being into business because he was the only guy that I could probably follow an example from. But he wasn't posting anything online until this day. He doesn't need to, but there wasn't any examples. And I believe Courtney came possibly like 20, 20, maybe two years later.

[B]

Yeah, because she, she was watching content on YouTube and then she had a corporate job and then finally she was able to quit her corporate job and be a full time scooper. Like you like paying the mortgage, paying the bills, paying employees.

[C]

So there wasn't many people on Instagram, social media, Facebook, like now everyone lets you know, like, hey, you should post this or you should pay for an ad that wasn't really something that I was hearing or someone I could follow. Or this, this Cooper is posting this, or this is something that they're branding or they're giving a. They're giving away free cleanings. Even that in itself, you know, I had nothing to follow throughout the first, I'm gonna say first two years from 2018 to 2020, it was just posting those generic pictures of that. You. You've seen it and you probably posted it. It's a white dog, looks like a boxer, and it's scooping up dog poop.

[B]

We've all done it.

[C]

That, that guy. A couple generic pictures. Th. That's what I posted for the first six months. Couple pictures of myself or new customers that I had got throughout the months. I would post their dogs and it wasn't really videos. I didn't know what to post. Sometimes I would just post dog poop pictures and people like, why are you posting that? But then I would have people that were into that stuff, like something out of like some people like pimple popping videos. So I was just posting literally everything. When I started, I didn't know what to post. I believe I wrote it down. My first post was January 8, 2018. The post read, Mondays are rough. Let us take care of your dog's business with the most generic picture. That was, that's how my business started. And that's. That's where we began. January 8, 2018. My daughter was born on the 16th of January and we launched on the 8th of that year. So before my daughter was born, me and my wife were hustling and trying to get customers? We had none. But obviously it wasn't stinky tails at that time. It became stinky tails five months later.

[B]

How did you get your first customer?

[C]

My first customer was obtained actually. I went to a cheerleading event. There was a cheerleading competition. I remembered that the company that I worked for did marketing and they would show up with pop ups, they would show up with brand ambassadors, they would show up with giveaways and free stuff and we're in la. I faked it till I made it. So I showed up with my 10, I showed up with my business cards and I started talking to, there was other vendors there and people started coming up to me and they say, what do you do? I said, I scoop up dog poop. Not having one customer, not even. I had never scooped A yard lady came up to me. Her name's Alondra. We're still friends to this day. I've been to her daughter's graduation parties. She's come to my house, she's been to my baby showers. Alondra, if you're listening to this, I appreciate it. You are actually my first customer. I met her at, here at Downey High School, I believe her daughter was at a competition. She came up to me, she said, what are you doing? I said, hey, we scoop up dog food. She was like, hey, I have a problem with that. My kids ain't scooping it up. I showed up and she was officially my first customer.

[B]

That's amazing. All right, so we have our first customer. You're still friends with her. Everything's great. What does your business look like today? Eight years later?

[C]

We are currently at 170 customers. Most of my customers either weekly or twice a week services. I believe we're pretty busy. It's been slow growth for me. Very slow growth. I feel like in the earlier days I was managing both jobs. From 2018 to 2022 I was managing both. I was managing my other job and scooping up hoops in the morning. So my other job was an afternoon job and it was more of a part time job where we'd only work about 130 days a year. So I had a lot of time to build this business in, through, throughout, throughout the month. But currently we set about 170 customers that I that have. Most of them have been with me since the beginning which is pretty cool and I'm excited. Like I said, it's been slow growth. I've seen others in the industry grow very fast but I'm glad I the growth was slow because I, I'VE learned a lot. I feel like if I would have grown fast, I would have made a lot of mistakes that possibly would have made my business fail.

[B]

And I'm really happy that you brought that up because I don't know if you felt this way, which I can imagine you have. When you see the others that have grown way faster and they have been in business way less time, it is so easy to compare yourself to them. And I think it's really important for us to not. Because, like you had mentioned earlier, everybody does their business differently for what works for them. And we're all on our own journey. And so we. It's really important for us to, like, stay focused and be like, okay, this is what's working for me right now.

[C]

Correct.

[B]

It's not a rush. It's okay. We're gonna get there. Like, don't beat yourself up. I used to beat myself up all the time, man. I'd be like, you're a loser.

[C]

I bet I beat myself up quite a bit once the Facebook pages started showing up. I believe we're a few originals. There was possibly like 300 people. And then I haven't been on the pages for a while just because I wanted to stay in my lane. I'm not an expert. I'm far from an expert. There's possibly 100 ways of scooping up dog poop. Everyone does it different, but for me, I feel like whatever I've done has worked for me in my market.

[B]

Right?

[C]

Everyone's market is different. I'm in la. People I feel are on social media more in Los Angeles or always looking at something, whether it's for food or the newest, the newest trend. Everyone. If the new thing is have is having a poop scooper, then everyone wants to have a poop scooper. So I feel that here in la, the market's a lot different than everyone else. And my growth has been a little slower because no one, I felt like it's been hard to let people know what poop scooping is.

[B]

You had to warm up the market.

[C]

We've had to warm up the market a lot. So for all the new guys that are coming up now, I've been seeing their signs everywhere. Free scooping here, free quote here, all over town. I feel like we've been helping them out to at least have an idea of what to post on their videos because I didn't have someone to let me know, like, hey, this is what you should post, or this isn't going to work. Mine's been all trial and error. And to be honest, I just started recently cleaning my Instagram because at one point throughout the almost eight years, I had reached about 7,000 posts. And last year I decided to clean up the page, the Instagram page. I was able to see what was working and what wasn't working. Over the last eight years, I kind of did an analysis of demographics of who was my ideal customer, age group, city locations. I broke it down and I cleaned it up. I believe I have only about a thousand posts now that. Yeah, so it took me about two months to clean it up in 2025. Like from November of 2025 to about January, I deleted about 6,000 posts.

[B]

So when I see your stuff, to me you're like the king of time lapse. Like time lapse and showing what goes on behind the scenes and like the process.

[C]

Correct. That's what I was focusing on. Because not every knew what not everyone knew. When I explained dog waste removal, what, what it was. So the easiest way was when we'd go to a party and say, what do you do? I'd say, why pick up dog poop? They're like, what, you scoop up dog poop? That's what I do for a living. Well, explain it to more. And I would, once I'd explain it to them, they still wouldn't understand. So then I would just pop on Instagram and say, here, check this out. Oh really? You scoop a poop, you deodorize, you go to people's homes. It was easier for me to show people what I did when I went to events versus explaining to them.

[B]

Yeah, show them, not tell them.

[C]

Correct.

[B]

You do it. You do it so well. I've said it before and I'll say it again. One of the hardest parts of running my business is that most of the people in my life just don't get it. So getting in rooms with business owners who are actually doing what I'm doing, who have been there, have done that, has changed everything for me. ScoopCon 2026 is going down October 2nd and 3rd at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas, Texas. It's a two full day event with expert speakers, real training, networking with serious business owners. We'll have a catered lunch and then there will be a VIP after party and every every attendee will get an exclusive event jersey. There's also discounted room blocks at the Hyatt so you can stay where the action is. If you want to go to the vip, the private casino royale night where we will have a seated dinner, premium drinks and High level networking with top operators. It's totally worth it. And if you're thinking to yourself, I don't know if I can afford, afford this, don't worry, we have financing available. All you need to do is go to scoopcon.com to grab your ticket. So don't sleep on this. Go get your tickets and I hope to see you in Dallas. So my question to you is market wise, because we were just talking about the market. You said California is a little bit different. Can so can we talk about what's different about the market? And then I am curious because it's the hot topic of the free initial clean versus not the free initial clean. What's your thought on it?

[C]

No one in there, no other industries give stuff for free, you know, why would we do it? If it works for you, great. Like I said, for me it's been slow growth. I offer free deodorizer. My market's a lot different. Anyone could scoop up dog poop. But here in California, our yards are small. There's a lot of concrete, grass, and people like having the full package.

[A]

So

[C]

I don't offer free cleanings. I give the full package. So my service includes the scooping of the poop and the deodorizer. And some, not all customers get deodorizing because some opt out and some just have dirt. So we're not going to deodorize those properties. I normally deodorize like concrete areas, grass areas, but I'm going to say not all my customers get deodorizing. Some of them want it, some of them don't. I give them the option of they're going to get the full package. Louisiana is like that. Everyone always wants the best. I feel like no one wants to stay behind. That guy has the latest car, they want the latest car. So we just give everyone the full nine yards of giving them the full service. So when it comes to giving free stuff out, like free cleanings, I'd be screwed sometimes. I couldn't show up to a house and clean for two hours for free. Now bad.

[B]

Sometimes so bad.

[C]

Now can I waive the one time fee? The initial cleaning fee? Possibly. If I show up and it's going to take me five, ten minutes, I'm okay. I'll waive the initial cleaning fee and we'll just run with the, with the weekly recurring schedule fee.

[B]

Yeah. So I, I don't love the free initial cleaning either. The only time that we do it is in the winter time when we have a bunch of snow on the Ground and somebody wants weekly service. We're going to show up and we're going to scoop. Maybe we're going to pull seven piles, okay. Because there's a bunch of snow on the ground. Like, wait. So there. I will use that as, like, a lead magnet. And I've went back and forth with it, and I have found. Me personally, when I have led with a free initial cleaning, I just. I don't know. I haven't gotten great customers. Like, no,

[C]

you know, it's. It's free. When someone gives you for something for free, it's. Sometimes you don't value it or cherish it as much. But our jobs are hard. That's what people don't understand. We have to show up, put gas in the truck, get ready for the day, wake up, uniforms, equipment, tools. And to give something for free, it's kind of hard. I just can't do it. I'll sanitize for free. I'll deodorize for free. That doesn't cost me much money and time, to be honest.

[B]

You know, I've. I've purchased the deodorizer. I've purchased it every single year. And I keep telling myself I'm gonna launch it, and I just don't. I just don't do it. Well, I finally had a customer come out in the backyard while I was scooping, and she's like, hey, I want that deodorizer. Start on Monday. And I was like, okay, nice. Perfect. So I spent all weekend, like, getting prepared, like, mentally preparing myself. I'm like, I don't even know how this is going to go. And I remember watching your videos, because I was. But I don't have the same product as you. I'm using something different. And I show up, and her whole backyard's tore up. Like, the whole backyard. And I was like, what in the heck? And so I was like, I'm guessing we're not going to do deodorizer today. And she's like, no, not today. And so part of me was, like, sad because I had amped myself up so so much for it. And then it didn't happen. But then I was relieved. I was like, okay, I got a little bit more time to, like, figure this out.

[C]

I feel like the deodorizer is possibly my biggest seller, so that works for me. People want to get rid of urine smells out here. Once you scoop up the poop, smells gone. But it's almost like going to the car wash and they say, do you want a free deodorizer? And you're like, heck yeah. What scent do you want? Cherry vanilla. So I treated my business similar to that. But I did notice when I first started that when I would scoop that, the lingering smells of the urine there. So for me, deodorizing doesn't really take too much time and it's cost effectiveness of the product I use. It's, I could probably wash about 30 houses in one day and it's not going to put a dent in my pocket, to be honest. And the customers love it. A lot of my customers tell me that's the main key selling point for me out here in California. They like the deodorizing part the best.

[B]

So do you when you set your pricing? I don't think I asked, but let's say what's an average size yard for

[C]

your services here in California? Pretty small. I would say not even an eighth of a quarter acre. Very, very small.

[B]

Yeah, it's probably, it's probably smaller than that.

[C]

Very, very small.

[B]

So from start to finish, let's say from the moment you arrive to somebody's front of their house to the moment you leave their property, how long are you on that property for?

[C]

Depending on the property, five to ten minutes.

[B]

With deodorizer?

[C]

Yes. Wow. Yeah. A lot of our customers are occurring on the weekly schedule or twice a week schedule. And it's, it's really quick. I, I, it doesn't take that long.

[B]

Is that with one person or two people?

[C]

Myself, I could do a house myself, about 10 minutes. Two people were five to seven minutes. It, it's just for me, I like working with, with, with another. We, we, we move through.

[B]

I've seen that in your videos. And so that's why I had brought that up because we, we work solo for regular recurring, for initial cleans and spring cleans, we do two. And so I was just curious with having two people, how does that look like? Is it one person scooping the other one's getting the deodorizer set up.

[C]

We have to be in sync. Me and the technicians have to be in seek. So we show up. One person goes on the other side of the yard, I go on the opposite side. We could be scooping at the same time. Once I clean half of the yard and I notice that the other scooper is about to be finished, I just start deodorizing. They start bagging up the poop, throw it away. By the time they throw the poop away, I'm washing and deodorizing the buckets. I start putting my water Hose away. They're already loading the truck and we're on to the next house. It's really quick. It just has to work in sync.

[B]

Now, do you have your pricing set up to accommodate a team of two?

[C]

Correct. Yes. So the prices here in California is very expensive. Gases are gas prices expensive. So I, our weekly rate starts about $25 for one dog and each additional dog is $5 more. So it, the prices are pretty competitive. When I first started, my prices were not at 25. I'm gonna say my, my initial rate was $13. So I've learned throughout time that I had to value the time, the gas, the drive there. And when I first started, I didn't take none of that into consideration. I just was so happy to have a customer. I was driving from one side of town to the other. It was like a 30 minute drive or a 15 minute drive in between houses. So I was only scooping two houses and it would take me about an hour and a half. Plus I would be playing with the dogs, I had time to talk to the customer and all that good stuff. Now with 170 customers, our Fridays are the busiest day. We service about 60 customers. And me and Mike Scooper could probably scoop about 35 to 40 houses on a Friday. So we're averaging anywhere from 3.5 to 5 houses an hour.

[B]

That's amazing. You guys are killing it.

[C]

Yeah. So as a solar scooper, I could clean about three houses, four houses max. But on a long day, you start getting tired and your shoulders start hurting, your wrists start hurting, the heat starts getting to you. But I didn't have a helper until 2020 when the pandemic hit. And that's when I went all in. My other job was in public speaking. And obviously with the pandemic, all those jobs were gone. No more public events. So that's when I got a helper, when I got, when I was about 50 customers.

[B]

Is that when you realized you had to raise your rates when you hired?

[C]

Yes, I definitely had to raise my rates. And I had used another deodorizing product and it was getting expensive. It was like $15. Well, at that time it was like $10 a gallon. And I was going through like five gallons of deodorizer. So I was spending a lot of money. So fast forward, the product I use now is more cost efficient and I just use like a capsule takes and that capsule might, I might be able to deodorize up to 30 houses. So that part I'm going to say has, has Been a big, a big selling point for me. The deodorizing.

[B]

Yeah. I think because you're in that warmer market, like for us, because I know, I know what deodorizer you are, you use. But I'm not going to say I won't. For us, because it gets so cold here, we only have water access between like the end of May until like September with outside water source because our pipes freeze because it's so cold. So I was like, oh, yeah, I don't really know how that works.

[C]

It doesn't rain much and right now we're just battling the heat. But to answer your question for me, the, the, the two scooper system really works great. It's something that I've been used to for the last six years. We're able to knock out more houses. I feel like I don't get as tired as much as a solo scooper. I was getting tired and managing the other job as well. So scooping in the morning and then going to my afternoon job when, when I had to go was getting very demanding on my body. So that's when I just hired my first, my first scooper in 2020. And he would only help me out like three hours a day until we started getting busier. And that's how we began. And now we have about four scoopers who scoop on their own. So I have two scoopers who go on their own route and then I have my scooper, Big Steve, who helps me out. And me and him are pretty solid. So he, he pretty much can read my mind. He knows all my customers. He's been with me about six years.

[B]

And that's so nice when you have somebody that's been with you so long because it's like they're like an extension of you.

[C]

Correct. He's more than. He's. He's more family, to be honest. Yeah, he's my right hand, my left hand. So he's been a blessing, to be honest.

[B]

That's good. I love it. Okay, so when we talked about what it was like getting customers in the beginning, it was very like boots on the ground. What does it look like now with. You know, the market has changed and the game has changed just in general.

[C]

The game's definitely changed. Right now what's working for me is Instagram, Yelp I now that where Instagram and Facebook link. Whenever you post a video, it automatically uploads on Facebook. That's been great because now you don't have to do double the work. But what's working for me Right now at this moment is Yelp, Instagram, Google starting to work a lot more now. I got into the Google because I do follow your YouTube page. I. I do see what the new scoopers are doing. Everyone's focusing on the reviews on Google and stuff like that. Like I said, I didn't really focus on that because I didn't know who to follow or. Or who was the person to look at when it came to social media. But what's working for me till this day is Instagram. I was at a customer's house yesterday and someone pointed at me and they're like, stinky tails. And I was like, who is this guy? Well, it was a contractor that was working at my customer sales, putting artificial grass. And they say, I follow you. And I said, do you? And he's like, yeah, dude. He's like, I've been seeing you around. He's like, you clean your customer's house? What do you do here? Do you do orderize? And I said, yeah, I deodorize. He said, man, he's like, I've been looking at other people, the copycats. And I said, what? He's like, yeah. He's like, but I haven't called you because, you know, he's like, life stuff happens and, you know, my wife and the kids have been picking up, but he's like, I'm going to give you a call. I said, well, dude, where do you live? He says, I live in La Mirada. Said, I'll be there today. Send me your phone number. Gave him my phone number. He gave me a call. So to this day, customers come from the branding. Those years of me posting, that generic picture of the dog scooping has paid off. I feel like I said, it's been slow growth for me. Do I wish I had the 500 customers? Yes. Was I ready for them at that time or am I ready for them now? Possibly not. I just have to be a realist. I could handle what I have now with the crew I have now, but the branding that I've done over the last eight years, like I said, I've learned from the big companies that I worked for. It was just posting, posting, posting, posting, posting. Whether it worked or not, whether it was one view or one like or zero likes, the branding has paid off. And that's what I feel that the new people have to understand. You get a lot of customers, but if you're going to lose customers as you're getting them, then no one knows who you are. And for me, it was brand recognition. You know, I wasn't too worried. I did want a lot of customers, but I wasn't worried about getting a lot of customers because I couldn't handle them. I had another job when I first started. I was going to make myself look bad. If anything, I was going to not show up to the appointment. I would have to cancel an appointment. So I didn't want any of that to happen. But right now, all my customers come from the branding, whether it's Yelp, Google, Facebook. You look up stinky tails, we're gonna pop out. I've noticed people, I get calls from Florida, Colorado. People think we're in their state, but we're not. When the new guys are posting up their signs, free quote, they just, it says dog waste removal and a phone number. Well, no one's taking a picture. They just saw dog waste removal. So when they Google dog race removal, guess who it's popping out first. It's been a numbers game. I feel that the more you post, the more people are going to know about. Not always are you going to get customers from posting, but it's brand recognition now. It's starting to pay off. Now, the people that didn't call me eight years ago, four years ago, six months ago, that have seen my videos, that have seen my posts, when I run into them in the street or they point at my truck, they're like, hey, Stinky tails are like, they'll. I don't even know who they'd be, like, where's Big Steve? That's not even his name. His name's Esteban. But social media named him Big Steve. So even in social media, he's a character. And there's been times that Big Steve has been more popular, is a lot more popular than I am. I post, I'm on the videos a lot. But when I post my employees, who is Stevon or Steve? His videos pop out, they go wild. They'll get views that I'm like, what the heck? Like, it's just a picture of him scooping poop. The video I thought was going to hit doesn't hit.

[B]

Do you want to launch or grow your pooper scooper business? If you answered yes, it you have to check out the Poop Scoop millionaire community created by Will Milliken, the president of a seven figure dog waste removal business, Swoop Scoop. You will gain access to the same strategies he used to scale his business from zero to over 2,000 reoccurring customers in just three years. Community members will receive exclusive access to his community forums with industry Leaders business courses are running, Facebook ads, commercial services and so much more. You'll get downloadable pooper scooper documents, live coachings and trainings, and access to verified one on one coaches and vendors that is a perfect fit for you, including a gold level Google product expert that can help you with all of your Google troubles. Space is limited, so please join Poop Scoop millionaires [e-mail] or click my link down in the description.

[C]

But yes, social media has been great for me. I don't really focus on Google. Everyone works on what they want to work on or focuses on what's working for them, which is whether it's paid ads or not. But for now, for some reason when you brought up that you wanted me to talk about social media, I thought about Instagram. It's like Instagram's been what's worked for me. I figured it out. I paid people to try to figure out and it failed. You know, when I paid others to make videos, the videos didn't get any likes. When I post a video randomly where there's audio and dogs barking, video could get 30,000 views. So there hasn't been one type of post that brings in a customer. I believe it's been accumulation of all those posts even though 6,000 posts that I've deleted over the last couple months.

[B]

Okay, so my question is, yeah, you've, I mean you've got a formula down. It works. What, what does the content creation process look like for you? Because the, I'm gonna say the older generation or people that just don't do social media don't do content. A lot of them overthink it. They think they need to have like some big phone and they don't realize that they can just use their cell phone.

[C]

I use my old iPhone. I have an iPhone 13. Literally just grab the thing and I would put it on the floor. I have no stand. I would use my, my bucket, my poop bucket. I mean not the poop bucket, my five gallon bucket where I put my water hose for my deodorizer. I would flip it around and use it as a pod. A lot of my videos, I would put the, the phone against the wall, a brick wall. So you, there are a lot of angles from the floor. They're not professional at all. My videos are far from professional. Lately I learned how to put clips together. That was new. When I first started, everything was horizontal. That's why I was, I had to get rid of those, those, those posts. A lot of the posts I got rid of were were filmed in horizontal.

[B]

Did you save them by any chance?

[C]

I didn't. It would be too much to save. Not enough storage on the phone.

[B]

Gotcha.

[C]

But I have enough content for me to post on other platforms, whether it's TikTok, YouTube, Facebook. That's something that I'm going to start doing again. I'm going to go through all the posts that I have now and start reposting on other platforms. But I'm going to say that I do have a. Now, I do have some kind of format. I've been. I've been focusing more on pictures, the carousels. I try to post every other day now. When I first started, I would post like four or five times a day because that's what the experts would say. And I believe that's true. Because you want to get the name out there, you start figuring out the hashtags. That's another thing. Not every hashtag works. Sometimes the algorithm doesn't like you. One day you have 30,000 views, the other day you have four views and you believe the video is a lot better, but it's just not hitting. So sometimes the Instagram algorithm doesn't like me too well. I don't know, because we're putting hashtag poop.

[B]

Well, also, too, like, you were talking about having dogs barking in the chaos and, like, the birds chirping in the back. I posted a video of me doing a dogway station, and I just let it be natural. I didn't speed it up, I didn't add a sound. And you could hear the birds chirping, and it was. It was super soothing. And. And I even got a comment from. I believe it was Daniel, and he was like, the birds chirping, serene, you know, so there's something to that, too. We're seeing so much content out there that is so overly produced that it's nice to see that content that is, like, rugged, where, like, you set the camera up and it's a weird angle, and then maybe, like, there's a leaf that keeps, like, blowing down, like, blocking the view. It's like, what's happening? And a lot of people would be like, oh, I don't want to post that. But it's different.

[C]

It's real.

[B]

It's real. There you go.

[C]

We're in the AI stage. A lot of businesses are posting AI pictures.

[B]

Hate it.

[C]

Yeah. I'm not a big fan of it, but I just. I want people to know you when you're. When you start a business, especially something like this, people want them to get to know you. Because what people don't understand is, yes, we scoop up dog poop. That's the service. But we go to people's backyards, we get to see their personal belongings back there, we're in their home. We need to make sure that we come off as trustworthy. People need to know who we are. When I go to a new customer's house, they say, hey, Big Steve. They'll acknowledge Big Steve and say, why didn't Big Steve show up? So that just shows me that people know Stinky Tails, they know Caesar, they know Chelsea, they know what we're about. So the branding part has been very important for me, but yes.

[B]

So when you're doing the content, is it just you recording the content, or do you have your other staff do content as well?

[C]

It's always been me, so I. I've been handling that part of the content, trying everything out. So the. There's been a few times where I'll have my guys record me and I'll say, hey, stand in this angle or don't move from here. Make sure your fingers are not there. But I'm not. Whatever comes out that day, it's what comes out. Sometimes I'll film it. I won't even use the video. Sometimes it's the shadow, sometimes the sound. I don't use no special camera, like microphone or anything. It's literally just the iPhone.

[B]

Yeah. It's a process to set all of this stuff up because I think, you know, you want to. If you want to have crisp, crisp audio. If you're far away from the camera, that's a big deal. But if you're close to it, whatever. And then the tripod, that's intimidating. I'm glad that you made mention of just setting it up on something random because here's what I. Something that I've really dropped the ball with because I haven't been in the field as much. Because I've grown the team.

[C]

Correct.

[B]

And because I've been focusing so much on the other business that I have, which is the media business, which is the podcast and the YouTube. I haven't been producing the content that I used to produce for my pooper scooper business.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And so now I'm back in the field on Tuesdays, which just started this past Tuesday, because I had to let somebody go. I got nervous to record content because I was like, am I going to get in trouble? Are they going to care? Should I bust out my tripod? Now I'm like, I'm just going to set my Camera down and just record and hit it.

[C]

They're not even going to care. They allow us in their houses. They know our customers want our business to succeed. To be honest, most of our customers are there to support our hustle. There's customers that don't need our service that just hire us because they think it's a cool idea. To be honest, I love that. So most customers are not going to be care. I'll ask if I could film at their house but there's been customers that once I film in their house about man, I saw you do my, my yard. I love it. I showed it to my friends. So I literally just get give you an example, just get the phone, just put it on, put it down, a little trip against the wall, something just to hold it up and we're just filming the time lapse. I've tried time lapse. I've tried regular videos. So I, when I first started my videos were very long. So now I've cut, cut them down maybe 15, 30 seconds max. Sometimes a 5 second video does pretty well as well.

[B]

What are you using to edit today?

[C]

Just the iPhone clips, nothing special. No special app. I'm pretty much self taught.

[B]

I just discovered Instagram has like Instagram edits now it's free, it's just an additional app, pretty simple. And then I personally have been using inshot since 2019. You have to pay for it but I like it and I just, I can make something so quick so I don't know, it's just something people ask all the time like what do you use to edit? Is it like something professional? I wouldn't know how to use anything professional. I have no idea.

[C]

It's just the phone, you know, I'll film the video and then I'll cut it down and then I'll just add clips. So nothing special. There's been times I had sound. Sometimes I don't add sound. I try everything. I don't really jump into like the social media media trends where like they're doing like funny stuff. I just stick to just poop scooping, letting people what we know. It's sometimes the same videos. That's why I deleted a lot of the older videos because it was like the same house or the same, same view. So but on the long story short, all those videos, even though there were a lot of of the doubles, it was the same, different days but it looked like the same video. But it was, was it? So that's why I ended up going cleaning it back up.

[B]

So when you, you Start your day to go record content. Do you have anything in mind? Are you like, I'm going to record it this, this, this house? Or is it just like I'm going to record here today? That's it.

[C]

It's pretty much freestyled, honestly, you know, however the day goes, show up to a house and an idea hits me. I'm like, oh, someone would want to see this. Or if I show up and I see that there's a big mess on the floor and a lot of urine, a lot of poop. I'm like, this would be a great before and after video or just the process? It just depends how I'm feeling there when it comes to the videos. I believe, like we said, people overthink it. Just freestyle it. It's going to be the best content, you know, like now I told you earlier I was nervous. There's probably been a couple pauses in our, in our interview. But this is the real. This is, this is the real real. There is more editing and cutting it out. People wouldn't see us. So I just like to film what it is. A lot of the videos at the beginning, I would over criticize them. Believe me, I'm my biggest critic. I didn't like how I sound. I don't like how my voice sounds. And I was in public speaking, so they said the biggest fear is public is for people is public speaking. I believe that's not the biggest fear. It's being judged by. It's just being judged because everyone speaks, you know. So with the videos it was, how do I sound? I would overthink it, you know, that was my process at first and would be times where the video was great and I didn't like how said I would just throw music on top. So there's ways of just doing stuff. If you don't like how you sound, throw some music, you know.

[B]

Was there a video that. Look, let me back that up. What was your best performing video? Do you know, off the top of your head? We were like, what?

[C]

I think it's a, it's a horrible video, to be honest.

[B]

It always, it always is.

[C]

It's the worst video ever, but it's been the best video ever. So it's a poop pan. The angle is horrible. It's pointing kind of up the pooh pans here and there's a train passing by in the background. It's like you can't even hear the scooping. What do they call the asmr? Yeah, right. So that video, I posted it not thinking nothing 30 minutes into it, it's got like 50,000 views. By the end of the week, it's got like 300,000 views. People are starting to call me. It got shared like, what was it, like 80 shares? It got like 500 likes. A video that I would have never thought would hit almost half a million views, close to 50 shy the worst video. I've paid people thousands of dollars, when I mean thousand dollars to shoot me videos, professional videos, not one customer. So for those that are out there, just shoot content. You're not. You don't know what's gonna hit. It's like fishing. You might just get that big fish all day. It could be just dry, dry, dry. The time that you give up and don't post could be the time that you get your biggest customer. And I've had a few big sharks and actually whales reach out to me because of my social media. A lot of these deals possibly haven't gone through. But I've been approached or been contacted by big corporations or big names that I've never let the world know. But I'm, I, I'll bring up now, I don't want to say what the names of the companies are, but big corporations have reached out to me and for my services because of those cheesy videos that I've posted or videos that people have shared. So content's very important, I believe, in my market because we're in Los Angeles and the content has got me new customers. So like I said, post, post, post, post, because you don't know what video is actually going to hit. And that's been the biggest success for me because like I said, some of these videos are like that video, this picture. And some of those pictures or videos have gotten me some of my biggest customers. So I would say just post as much as you can. Once you know what your market likes, possibly just start deleting those videos and cleaning up your page because it could be too much for people to follow. You want a clean page. You want people to possibly see in the first 10, 15 columns what you're about and what your company's doing and who your guys are. So now if you look at my page, it's pretty clean, to be honest. A lot of people think that I pay someone to do it, but I don't. People have asked me for help to fix their pages and I'm like, well, I don't know what I'm doing, but this is what I did. And I give people suggestions. I'm always willing to help others. But for me, I would say posting has been very important.

[B]

How do you balance the social media part and then the business part?

[C]

I do pretty well with it because I've had to do both since the get go. So it's something, it's been part of my poop scooping journey. So when I go to a house, it's scooping up the poop, deodorizing, bagging up the poop, shooting the video. That was, that was my lifestyle for two or three years until I had my helper, then I would be able to shoot them. So I felt like people got tired of seeing me for two or three years. So I had a. Once I had my first helper, I started filming him or her.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. It's good to see other people in there. I will say it's good that you're still in the field because that's, I think what I had mentioned before, the struggle of me not being in the field. Right. Because as with you, it's when you're in the field you get the ideas, you see the creativity. You think about it. When I'm in the office here, no create like literally no creativity is happening in this office. And I'm like, I gotta get back out in the field because as much as I need to be doing this stuff and I need to be pushing the business forward, I enjoy creating the content, I enjoy sharing. So even if it's just one day a week and I was dog tired, let me tell you, I did 18 houses by myself. I came home and put my pajamas on and my husband, he came home from work and he was like, oh, are you tired? I was like, I am so tired right now.

[C]

It's exhausting, it's demanding. Especially if you haven't been out there. There's a day I had to go clean 25 houses by myself and I was like, how did I do this before? I know I try to stay out in the field just because I feel like you lose that your shoulders, you know, the. I'm good at scooping. I'm not, I'm probably the. Not saying I'm the best scooper, but I'm pretty fast at what I do. But. But yeah, being on the field I'm able to manage both. Yeah, it's been part of just something I do and at first it was hard to try to like I say, edit the videos and all that stuff, but I figured it out. It's. I'm pretty much self taught. But yes, I manage.

[B]

So when you, okay, you record your videos, do you post real time or do you wait until you get home and then post at night?

[C]

I post, I post on that moment. A lot of my stories are live. So if I took the video now, a minute later, five minutes later, a lot of my stories are for my customers to see the day of. Sometimes when I show up a lot of my videos, if I have time while my guys are cleaning the house and I'm in the truck, I'll be posting. So a lot of my social media is done in my office in the truck. Yeah, that, that's where a lot of the posting gets done. I try not to wait till I get home. They say sometimes after 4, after 9am you could only believe the experts so much because whatever works for them might not work for me. So I post that random hours and that's kind of how I see what's when people are starting to hit or what's working or what's not.

[B]

Well also too, this is what I have found. When you wait until you get home now it's becoming a job. It's becoming like a separate job. If you are posting real time in the moment, you're not worrying about algorithms, you're not worrying about whatever, you're just getting it out. It is, it is coupled with your poop scooping job. Now it's not second, it's not separate and it's not taking away from your family time.

[C]

Correct. So that I, I make sure I do it before I come home. Because to edit a video and your kids are talking, sometimes you're not focusing. We have to take them to girl Scouts basketball practice, BMX practice, just parties. So I try to do everything before I show up to the house. So most of my videos are already posted. If you see a video, it's because we already worked and it's already done. Occasionally I do post at night in case I have extra footage, but most of my footage is live a couple of minutes later,

[B]

which is really good. It sounds like you have some pretty healthy boundaries with your business and then also with your social media, which is huge.

[C]

Correct. Correct.

[B]

Do you, when you post something on social, how many times do you go to check the video to see how we're performed?

[C]

All the time. All the time. I'm like, dude, this video is doing horrible or what? This video is doing great. So I'm new to paid ads on Instagram. That's something that I've been doing. I know a lot of people do Facebook ads or meta ads. I do paid ads on Instagram and that's where I analyze what videos to do paid ads on. The ones that are doing the best, naturally, organically. So those are normally videos that I'll repost a couple weeks later, not at that moment or sometimes when that video's hot, I'll just post it. So I'll do an app, paid ad actually.

[B]

Okay. Yeah, we could spend two hours on paid ads. I'm a couple more questions because we are over time. It was so nice talking with you.

[C]

Thank you. Same. Likewise.

[B]

So I guess my last couple questions are obviously you didn't know what this was all going to look like. You started posting content like right away. What would, what would you say that you wish you knew before starting to kind of build in public.

[C]

Now I thought about this one a lot. There's a couple sands I wish I knew. I think the one that really I thought about the most was knowing the business, not worrying about getting a lot of customers. That's what I wish I knew. Learning the business, the scooping part, that is the easy part. The getting the customers, the being a dad, the being a brother, the being a son, the being a husband, the being a, a boss, a friend, a mentor. That part, you know, that's the part I, I wished, you know, I was focused so much on wanting to grow the business, getting the customers. And like I said, if it wasn't for slow growth and if I would have grown too fast, this business put a body probably would have failed. But because I had to learn it, whether it was social media, going out there, doing the one times, doing the, the initial cleaning, getting stuck with that house that took me two hours. The frustration part, learning the business. You know, there wasn't a game plan that I could follow eight years ago. Now everyone is lucky. They could follow you, they could follow Jim, they could follow William, they could follow Houdini, they can follow me now if they want. Obviously I'm not a big player in, in the game, but we all have something to share that everyone can now put together and say, well, this guy does Instagram, she does YouTube and they could all take advantage of, you know, But I wish I knew what the business was versus me trying to focus on just customers and growing and growing. And the money part, because the money part is fun, but everything that comes with it is the hard part. The sleepless nights, the coming out with logos, the moments that no one sees you cry in your truck. It's the days you cut yourself, the days you almost got bit. That's the part I wish I knew. But I'm glad that I, it's, I've been learning because this is my first business. I ran other people's businesses, I've helped people grow their businesses and I seen where they're failed and I didn't want my business to fail. So I needed to learn everything. What I didn't have the money to pay someone for media. I didn't have no one. So that's the part I really wanted to learn. The business, the ins and outs. That way when someone would, would want to do it, what I did, I could explain to them this is how it works or this is what I need you to do.

[B]

A huge shout out to today's episode sponsor, Jobber, the number one operations management software for home service business owners. Jobber is the software I use to run, grow and manage my small, small pooper scooper business. Jobber helps me handle the admin tasks quicker so I can focus on growing my business and getting more me time back. From creating custom quotes all the way to getting paid my money, Jobber has my back. Yeah, we're pretty much best friends, but if I had to choose my favorite feature, I'd say the mobile app. I can create the quotes, edit the jobs, communicate with customers and keep my eye on the staff right from my phone. If you're a home service entrepreneur looking to level up your business, look more professional and save time, head over to jobber.com croupin to start your 14 day free trial and get 20% off your first six months with my special link. Now let's get back to the scoop that speaks to me so much because like I said, I feel like we were both very parallel and we didn't, we didn't know business. Right? You've, you've seen other people grow business, but you don't know what it's like behind the scenes. And we come in with this almost like this ignorant, what is it like optimism where you're just excited, you don't know. And part of me is happy that I didn't know what I was going to go through and because I might have been like, no, I don't think I want to do that. That sounds awful.

[C]

Yeah, it's, there's been bad moments and

[B]

I don't know if this is true for you, but I had to become not like a completely different person. I had to change thought processes. I had the emotional intelligence, patience, like I had to learn so much. And so I'm right there with you where it's like, I'm glad that I went through that slower growth because I had, I had like, I had to learn who Erica truly is.

[C]

We, we have to wear a lot of hats. Yeah, we really do.

[B]

That's cool. Well, I'm excited. I'm excited for you. I'm excited to see what your business looks like. Where would you like to see your business one year from now?

[C]

I'd like to be a about 250 customers and not be in the field anymore. I've been in the field for eight years. There's been times where I want to get out of the field. And for some reason or another, whether it's employees, car breaking down, car accidents, calling off sick, I haven't had the chance. My dream since day one was to be out of the field. And that's the goal this year for next year is to be out of the field, work my way out and focus on those commercial accounts, work on the dog parks, on the complexes. Because when I first started, I started, I started with the bang. Maybe I didn't have recurring customers, but I had a lot of commercial accounts that reached out to me because of my social media. So right now it's time for me to focus on the big accounts, the big dogs, those names that I didn't mention, those big corporate accounts. So that's the game plan for next year. Not be in the field. But with our luck, most likely I'll be in the field because eight years strong, I'm still trying to get out. But it's a blessing because every day we're learning and it's something that I could teach my guys or it's something that's going to pay dividends in the future.

[B]

Absolutely. Well, I'm excited. Continue to document that journey. That's going to be a shift for you. If I can give you any advice. I don't know if you're looking for any.

[C]

Yes, I am.

[B]

You have to really figure out how you're going to still create that content when you're not in the field and you're. And you're going through things that you're almost uncomfortable sharing because you're like, I don't actually know what I'm doing right now. So do I actually want to share this?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Record it.

[C]

Got it.

[B]

Record it and share it. Maybe you'll share it, maybe you won't, but at least you'll have that documentation through the process and you'll be grateful that you do.

[C]

I appreciate everything that you do for us. I appreciate your podcast. I've learned a lot from it. I hope everyone Else learns from it. It's very valuable information that is taking us years to learn. And everyone that comes to your podcast has been sharing valid information that's taken them years and money. Sometimes we've had to pay people for our knowledge. And this is free knowledge that others are getting for free through your podcast. And I'm very proud of you and everyone in the industry. You got to be kind of crazy to be in the industry and I mean in a good way. But I much success to you. I do wish you the best and it's been a pleasure looking seeing you on YouTube and in that platform and that platform. And like I said, I'm very honored to be on your platform today. And God bless you.

[B]

Oh, God bless you as well. Thank you. So if the listeners, not if, when, when the listeners are like, I need to see this Instagram that they've been speaking of, how do they find you?

[C]

We are Stinky Tales on Instagram. Maybe you just put Stinky Tales. You can find us. Honestly, we're all over social media. You can't miss us. Google, Facebook, Yelp, Instagram, TikTok, stinky tales. You'll find us.

[B]

Perfect. All right, we'll go ahead and I'm going to include his links down in the description so you can definitely follow him and follow the journey. I appreciate you so much for hanging out with us. The reason why we do this podcast is so you have real insights from real business owners who are doing exactly what you're doing. We appreciate you. Thank you so much. And until next time, bye bye.

[C]

Have a good day.

[A]

Thank you for hanging out with Erica Kruipen. She is so grateful and honored you decided to tune in to the Scoop podcast and hopes the information you heard today positively impacts you moving forward in business and life. Follow Erica on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTokenSpoopin Scoopin. And don't forget to follow the show in order to get notified when the next edition of the Scoop drops.

[C]

Sam.