February 25, 2025 • 39 mins
🐾 Ever wondered how to turn your pet’s Instagram account into a profitable platform? This week on Straight Up Dog Talk, Em sits down with Sarah from Zero Highway to talk content creation, strategy, and what it really takes to grow your pet’s online presence.
Whether you're just starting out or ready to level up, Sarah shares:
How she turned her love for dogs into a thriving business
Tips for understanding and working with the algorithm
Ways to build community through authenticity
How to create content that converts—without losing your voice
Her go-to resources and systems for staying consistent
🎧 Tune in for an inspiring and informative episode that blends heart, hustle, and a whole lot of pet love!
Stay Connected: 💛 Follow Straight Up Dog Talk for more insights and updates on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
📲 Follow Sarah and Zero on Instagram: @zerohighway
Learn from Sarah: Viral Hooks Checklist for Pet Creators
Join the learning journey on how to monetize your Pet's Instagram: https://stan.store/affiliates/22a2e7ac-b048-4333-a073-6b975cb9e190
#petinfluencer #contentcreationtips #monetizinginstagram #socialmediamarketing #straightupdogtalk
This episode is proudly sponsored by Zero Highway. This affiliate link supports the podcast and helps fuel the RV dream 💛
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Today's episode is brought to you by our partnership with 0
highway. Want to turn your pets Instagram
into a money maker? There a highway teaches pet
parents exactly how to grow and monetize their pets account.
Her new course, Poffit My Pets to Gram is launching soon and
it's guaranteed to help you makemoney in 30 days or less.
VIPs get 50% off and exclusive bonuses.
(00:21):
So don't wait. Head to at 0 Highway on
Instagram and Sign up today. Welcome to Straight Up Dog Talk,
the podcast for pet parents. Pet guardians and pet
professionals come together to dive into real issues in dog
parenting. From controversial training
methods to sensitive health topics, we're getting raw and
real about what it means to carefor our canine companions.
(00:42):
Join us every Wednesday for unfiltered conversations, expert
insights, and personal stories that will make you laugh, cry,
and grow as a pet parent. No topic is off limits and no
question goes unanswered. You won't get one perspective
here. You'll get them all because
every dog is different and everyhuman is too.
You can follow on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook at Straight
(01:03):
Up Dog Talk or by visiting UWW straight up dogtalk.com, TuneIn
from any of your favorite podcast platforms.
This week we have Sarah from Zero Highway and she's here to
talk to us about all things photography, content creation
and Instagram influencer, plus dog mom life.
(01:23):
How are you doing tonight, Sarah?
So good, thank you so much for having me.
Absolutely. You have such a fun story and I
can't wait to just jump in and tell everybody about it.
So why don't you tell everybody a little bit about yourself,
where you're from, a little bit about zero and just everyday.
Life. Yeah, yeah.
(01:43):
Well, this is something that hasbeen in the back of my mind for
a couple of years to grow a dog's to Graham account.
So I'm really excited to be hereand I'm excited to talk more
about our journey and how we gotto this point and how turning
your hobby into your passion, into money in your pocket.
That's something I have experienced in and I've done it
(02:04):
more than once. And I am excited to share my
journey with other people. So thank you for having me.
In 2010, I got my first camera. I picked up a camera after my
mother had passed away after a battle with leukemia.
I was only 23. It was very besstating and it
changed my life. It changed everything.
So I picked up a camera because I lived in an area that I didn't
(02:27):
have a lot of friends. I didn't grow up here.
I moved here at live in Michigan.
I'm from downstate Michigan, butI now live up near the Traverse
City area, which is northern lower Michigan.
For those who want to look on the back of your left hand, it's
by your pinky thumbnails. That's where where I live.
And so we spend a lot of time outside hiking and biking and
doing all that fun stuff. But I didn't have a lot of
(02:49):
friends when I moved up here. I honestly moved up here to make
friends and to start a life thatI knew I wanted to live.
And so picked up this camera after my mom died and decided
that I wanted to do photo shootsfor people.
I felt a little bit more confident behind a camera trying
to make a friend as an adult. It's hard to do that, by the
way, making friends as it is. And I worked in a newspaper, our
(03:12):
local newspaper. I was in marketing and
advertising sales for 10 years before I went off on my own and
started my own photography business.
So I picked up that camera in 2010 and then started my
business in 2011, all while still working at the newspaper.
And then I started my photography business going full
time with that in 2017. And then at that point I was
(03:35):
able to go full time because I had built reputation around my
town as being a local photographer that loves to take
pictures. And I picked up that camera
because I was working to avoid the spiral of depression.
I needed to make friends. I needed to get myself out of
the house. Otherwise it would just be
really easy to little up into a little ball in the corner and
(03:55):
not do anything. Well, after losing my mom, this
is my inspiration to just keep going.
And I knew that she wouldn't want me to stop my life.
And I needed to get out there and make friends and make
connections with people and findlove.
And I was kind of one of those things where just I didn't know
what I was doing, but I knew what I didn't want to do.
I didn't want to be living a miserable life.
(04:17):
I wanted joy. I wanted beauty.
And so my job became putting myself purposely in the way of
that. And I know that that's kind of a
thing from a Reese Witherspoon movie now, but that was way
before that movie came out. The whole put yourself in the
way of beauty thing. It really, it really makes a
difference when you're grieving.So making connections, finding
(04:39):
love and everybody and looking for the the Silver Linings was
what kept me going. So I started the photography
business to the point where I had a big enough reputation.
I went full time in 2017. My husband came on with me in
2020 right after the pandemic hit.
And the reason we were able to do that was because I panicked
(04:59):
when all of my weddings started leaving in 2020.
It's very scary. And it scared me enough to hire
somebody to help me because I didn't know what I was doing.
And it was very clear that otherpeople were still surviving and
I was not. And I didn't know what to do.
And other people knew other people had the answers.
And I didn't need to reinvent the wheel.
I just needed help giving, getting a system and not
(05:22):
throwing stuff at the wall and trying to see what stopped.
So I was strategically fed an adin May of 2020 that was like,
are you? Are all your weddings leaving
you? Are you refunding all of these
retainers? And now you don't know if you're
going to be able to continue work?
It was like he spoke to my biggest fears and my biggest
(05:44):
pain points and the things that were happening to me at that
time and I was like you. Just.
Those are all the things that are happening to me right now.
Do you have the answer for me? And he really did.
So he helped me in May of 2020. This, this mentor that I hired,
his name is Peter. He changed my world.
He flipped everything upside down.
While everybody else was having their wedding leave left and
(06:06):
right, which I was too. The ones that I had already
booked, they either rescheduled or canceled or rethought what
their plans were going to be. And while everybody else was
kind of panicking, I was bookingout 2021 and 2022 because this
guy helped me deadly with marketing, just helped me learn
the systems of what I needed to do and stop doing things that
don't matter. Stop doing things that don't
(06:28):
move the needle. You're wasting your time doing
this. Like he really helps me hone in
my process and my daily regimen and what I need to do in order
to make a six figure year, whichis honestly what you need as an
independent. You need to be making that in
order to survive because taxes and expenses and running a
business the right way that we use as 10s of thousands of
(06:52):
dollars and things break and we have to replace it.
And the travel, the amount of travel that I have to do.
I know that six figures sounds like a great, great number.
But let me tell you, after everything, you have to be
making that as an independent person to be able to do it
right, to give people the experience that they deserve to
have for their weddings. So my husband and I are wedding
(07:13):
photographers mainly. We've traveled all over the
world. We got married in Jamaica in May
of 20, 22. John was able to come on full
time in June of 2020 because I was able to hire this mentor who
changed my world. And then we realized that we
were never going to have to worry about where our next
paycheck was coming from. We knew exactly what systems we
(07:34):
needed to deploy to get the nextwedding on the books or the next
work on our books. So that was June of 2020.
He came on full time and then byOctober of 2020, we had been
together for seven years and he proposed.
So then a couple of years later,in May of 2022, we got married.
We wanted to wait for all pandemic to be as close, as far
(07:57):
away as possible. We pushed our engagement out for
a while so that we could, numberone, save for our wedding and #2
be able to include our friends and family and not have to have
a smaller version of what we really wanted for our wedding.
We all this time we have two cats and our dog, Clover.
I had had her since 2008 and shehad been through everything with
(08:23):
me, my my mom passing and then acouple of years later my dad
passed. I was young, I was in my 20s.
She just really held me togetherthrough some of the most
tumultuous times of my life. And she traveled everywhere with
us that she could. Anytime we did a road trip for
weddings, for work, anything like that, she was always with
us. It was just so much fun to have
(08:43):
her there. We have camper that we would use
to go across the country that westill use to go to the country.
It's a lot of fun, but it's a lot of work.
And she was an old gal, but she traveled so well and it was
easy. She was not a puppy by any
means. So we got married in May of 2022
and then August of 20/22 she passed and the grief was just
(09:07):
overwhelming. I felt like I had lost a real
family member. So didn't feel like just some
pet, you know, some people don'tsee it that way or don't feel
that way. It affected my my health, it
affected my work, it affected mylife and it was so hard to keep
going. She died on August 10th of 2022
and it was devastating and we didn't see it coming and that we
(09:30):
didn't have hardly any time to say goodbye to her.
It was just very traumatic. It was a very traumatic loss.
And at that time, my husband's parents had put a deposit down
for a Springer spaniel puppy anda litter that was being born in
August. And they had had the deposit
down for a while. In the back of my head, I'm
(09:52):
like, there's no way it's going to break my heart to go over to
their house and see this puppy. And I'm going to be so sad.
And about a week before they went to pick his sister up,
they're like, there's few puppies left if you want any.
I'm like, I don't think I can love again.
I don't think I can ever love another dog the way that I love
Clover. And she just, she lit up my
(10:13):
life. And in the meantime it during
all of this, we've got weddings every weekend and we've got
senior shoots and we've got family photos.
And I'm trying to keep this happy face.
And I'm drowning in grief and sadness and I am doing the thing
that I love. And I'm still drowning in grief
and sadness and I'm having a hard time pulling myself
together. I'm coming through a course for
my clients, but just drowning and sad.
(10:35):
And it's really hard to put on that happy face when you're
feeling that way. So Fast forward to October of
22. It's a week before his parents
are going to pick up their puppy.
And I casually said, well, should we just look and see if
we can connect with one of thesepuppies?
It's two hours away. We're going to go take a drive
down. And by the way, we have shoots
(10:55):
every day. We have to somehow find a time
to go see this puppy. I don't have time for this.
I'm resentful. I'm feeling like this thing is
taking up all my time and energythat I don't even have.
And it's the middle of our busy season and what are we doing?
What are we doing? This is bonkers.
And then we get to go see him and he nibbles on my cheek and
bites my hair a little bit. I'm like, I love it, but I hate
(11:18):
it. I, I was, he's so cute and I'm
so heartbroken. I didn't know how I was going to
love this little thing and he hedeserved it.
And I felt like, what if I can't?
I was worried. I had never had a puppy before.
Clover was my first dog, so I was worried that I wasn't going
to be sufficiently motherly enough for this perfect little
(11:41):
thing that deserves it. But of course, within minutes of
him being in our car and before we I even had him home, I had an
Instagram made for him. Because in the back of my head,
I'm like, I if I don't have somewhere to outlet all these
pictures that I know I'm going to take, I'm just going to flood
my photography page and it's going to end up being a dog page
and I need it to be a business page.
(12:02):
I get that. Due to a technology fail 98% of
my pictures of my first three dogs.
No. And that is why I started an
Instagram and started posting Toby and Fitz because I wanted
to make sure that I had a way toremember the funny little things
they do. Walking or begging for food or
(12:25):
throwing temper tantrums or the amount of time we spend out in
the yard playing fetch, all the things.
Because I lost all of those things from my previous dog.
It is kind of a therapeutic release for me to be able to be
like, oh, let me create this. But now I'm sharing dog training
content along with the podcast content and it's been a lot of
(12:47):
fun. To your point about like the
grief and getting another dog, it's different for everybody,
right? When Cajun died, I had just
adopted Toby 8 months before andI wasn't prepared.
Cajun's death was quick, traumatic, all the things as
well. And I don't think that I would
have gotten another dog for a while because Cajun was it.
(13:07):
He was the dog. And then here's Toby.
Toby is that bridge dog. He took me from Cajun now into
Fitz. And Vince is like Cajun all over
again, which is wild to me because I always was like, I'm
never going to be able to love another dog like this again.
And now I'm like, Oh my gosh. My connection with Fitz is just
as intense as it was with Cajun,so I think it's cool.
(13:29):
Yeah. Z Right.
Yeah. Yeah.
I love that because Zero was actually, and I didn't realize
this. We brought him home in October,
and I didn't realize this till around Thanksgiving.
He was born on the day that Clover died.
Oh, my God. Yeah, they're nothing alike.
I mean, they are in some ways, but they're 22 totally different
(13:49):
dogs. But I have this vision of them
like just slapping paws on the other side and Clover given
given 0 the rundown of like, OK,this is how you make her happy.
This is how you make her sad. Don't do these things.
They're two very different dogs,but I think that she had a talk
with them I'm. Glad that you said that because
I've made this reference before to A Dog's Purpose.
I don't know if you've seen thatmovie or read that book, but the
(14:12):
same dog that comes back, but he's a little bit different
every time. The dog has to fit your needs at
your time of your life. And I truly think that, like, my
first dog as a child, Vince was Cajun with his now Fitz.
And yeah, it's just like, pass the baton somewhere.
They're like, OK, you're going to have to.
Pivot here a little. Bit but this is what she needs
and it'll be all good. So yeah, I think that it's so
(14:34):
crazy how if you're looking likeyou said, put yourself in the
path of beauty, you will find the thing that is right for you.
And when I got Toby, I was goingthrough some pretty serious
stuff. I was still recovering from my
brain and spinal surgery and going through a divorce, moving
to a different state, all those things.
And I just needed a dog that would be comforting and chill
(14:59):
and whatever until we use all those things and I can actually
the listeners can't see, but youcan see he's right here on my
lap. He's hanging out.
He's just like, OK, mom needs meright now.
So here you know, this is outside chewing on his ball and
that's fine. His own thing, independent boy
the most of the time. But if you if you let him stay
(15:21):
outside versus having to be inside that he will choose to be
outside. Much love that.
Much. Love that.
My gosh, Besides the photographybusiness, now you've, you've
delved into the Instagram creator world, which, yeah, it
started out as kind of a this ismy way to memorialize my dog,
but it's grown into so much morethan that.
(15:42):
So I'm guessing you took some ofthose marketing skills and apply
them to your Instagram, which isclearly one trio.
Yeah, we have 32 1/2 thousand followers.
It's 32,400 and something followers right now.
What the goal is and was and will continue to be is I am
(16:05):
working on this Instagram for Zero, originally the Instagram
for him as a grief mechanism. And then in addition to having
that be a creative outlet, I also in the back of my mind,
which I think a lot of animal parents in general, those who
start an Instagram for their animal, I think most of us have
(16:26):
in the back of our mind. My dog is so cute.
He does just the cutest things ever and I can get some pretty
good videos of it and pretty good pictures of it.
I bet you I could get some sponsors.
I feel like a lot of people who started Instagram for their dog
are like, yeah, my dog is so cute.
They could get sponsorships if Ijust knew how to do that, right?
So I already have this marketingmind.
(16:48):
I was doing a lot of business toclient sales.
I still do a lot of business to client sales for my photography
business, but I also do a lot ofbusiness to business sales, a
lot of commercial work, a lot ofbranding.
And I have people contact us whoare selling an item on Amazon
that they need professional photos with a white backdrop or
(17:09):
they need certain specificationsfor an Amazon listing or Etsy
listings, things like that. Definitely do that kind of
stuff, website photos, that kindof thing, headshots, all that
kind of stuff. So that is not something that I
do a ton of advertising about, but it is something that I do
and that people reach out to me for and they know, especially
locally in my area, I know what people pay for commercial work.
(17:34):
And so I kind of came into this knowing raid is not enough.
There is usually some amount of trade that I will do just
because, like doing good things for good people.
And I think that there are certain situations where trade
is OK and where it makes sense. But I came into this with a
little bit of a different perspective because I have been
(17:55):
in the creative industry for so long and I do know that it's
important to stay above water when it comes to their costs of
doing business. And there was a time when I
didn't know what to charge and when I didn't know what my work
was worth and I didn't know how these clients and companies
would using my pictures and videos.
(18:16):
So I would just do whatever theyneeded and then they get to reap
the benefits of my great work. So I wanted to make sure that
anything that I did made sense for the company that would be
working with us for any of 0 sponsorships, but that it also
made sense for the company, but that it also made sense for us.
So everybody needed to be winning in these situations.
(18:38):
With all that said, never reallydid a ton of marketing to get a
lot of business to business work.
I've always been kind of a business client relationship.
I feel like I thrive well in personal environments and
creating connections and relationships with people.
So I wanted to be able to continue doing that.
This all started October of 2022and just kind of posted randomly
(19:01):
and things that made me happy and things that made me laugh.
And I heard audio on Instagram that I thought was funny.
I would make a 32nd video about it and you, whatever I'd make,
I'd make anything that just mademe laugh and made me feel good.
And I started reaching out to companies because I was making
content that was making me laughand making me feel good every
(19:22):
day. I was doing it every day,
multiple times a day sometimes, and I was reaching out to
companies that I could write an e-mail to and just say, hey, I'm
posting regularly. If you want him to be wearing
one of your little coats or hatsor something, you send it to me
and send me an extra 1. We'll do a giveaway.
It was just my energy that was behind it already that really
(19:44):
stuck out. I think to a lot of these
people. I went out of my way to find out
who I needed to actually be talking to and not just DM ING a
random account and copy and paste.
I was actually finding e-mail addresses to marketing people on
websites and reaching out to thepeople that I needed to and
saying, here are my actual numbers.
Here's what I can do for you andmaking it about them and what
(20:08):
the benefit is to them. Because I think too many
influencers or dog fluencers, whoever come at it like, well,
what are what's in it? For me, when really we are the
vehicle for these companies to serve an audience and their goal
is to ultimately make more moneyand sell stuff.
But if they have a product or a service that they're promoting,
(20:29):
they are doing it through influencers that can give them
numbers and not just what it hasto be a tangible thing that they
can see this benefiting them. I was reaching out with hard
numbers to people and telling them this is my engagement rate.
I may only have 800 followers right now, but I'm tracking 50
new followers a day for the lastweek and I anticipate that to be
(20:53):
growing to a bigger numbered every day because I'm being
consistent. I'm a consistent poster.
I was able to at first to do a few giveaways and do a few brand
sponsorships that were acknowledged for me.
And then we went into the summerseason and I slowed down because
weddings, and then it would havebeen summer of 23, slowed down
(21:16):
on my posting back up in the fall of 23 a little bit.
And then in the winter of 24, just nine months ago, I decided
this was going to be the year that I figured out how to really
monetize 0's account. Because I sell thousands of
dollars in wedding photography packages because I know what I'm
(21:37):
worth and I know what kind of a job we do and how thorough we
are and what the client gets outof it.
It's no problem for me to sell an $8000 wedding package.
That just is no big deal. So if I feel that way about
$8000 wedding packages and I have a system for making that
happen, there is going to be a little bit more of a different
(21:58):
system that I can use to create sales that are $100 or less,
$500.00 or less. If I figured out that 6 figure
income comes from selling $174 aday or something like that.
So it's less than $300.00 a day and something that you need to
sell. If you are really truly serving
and giving and providing value and giving deep insight and
(22:22):
giving all the information that somebody would need to know on a
certain topic, then they will pay 100 bucks to find out what
those things are and get going. And as long as you are being
honest and being straightforwardabout what is in your product, I
have learned how to create digital products on a storefront
for dog parents who want to learn how to create digital
(22:46):
products. I know it kind of sounds like a
big loop, right? But a lot of people don't know
how to start an LLC, how to set up a business storefront, how to
create content that actually gets traction, how to reach out
to brands that need to have content created for them, and
how to get paid for that. These are all things that people
don't know how to do. And I do.
(23:07):
I know how to do this stuff. I have cracked some codes, I've
figured some things out, and I have created some guides to help
people learn how to do that. I still don't know how to do all
this stuff and I'm over here running a podcast and a dog
training business and I still have no idea what I'm doing.
Learning all the time, right? And I'm still iterating and
learning and coming up with gameplans and and all of that.
(23:31):
It's a constant learning processfor sure, but there are some key
things that you can take away from this thing that I've
created with Zero having 32,000 followers.
I have figured out that people interact with content that is
relatable and funny or it just makes you feel something in
general. It's not just some fluff.
(23:53):
People interact with and follow content that makes them feel
something strongly. Not just little emotions but
like they connect with the big emotion stuff.
Probably the first real that I ever had go semi viral was a
reel of Clover and 0, highlighting the fact that
Clover passed away on the day that Zero was born and that I
(24:14):
hadn't realized it. I wrote a really long, just
heartfelt caption, and this was before I had figured out that I
really wanted to monetize 0's account.
I poured my heart out. It was a short reel.
It was a trending sound. I didn't realize that that was
something that was necessary to kind of go far.
It just all lined up and I was like, whoa, this is getting
hundreds of thousands of views on it.
(24:35):
Kind of wondered why. Then I started being like why is
this doing so well? Do content all the time, Why did
this blow up and other stuff didn't.
That was like November of 23 andI caught on it for a little
while and I was like why is thishappening?
And I just started observing. I started following other dog
accounts that were doing really,really well.
I think a lot of us do that follow bigger dog accounts to
(24:56):
see what's going on and why are they doing really well and then
you try and recreate what they're doing and you get 4
reviews. That wasn't working for me.
I was feeling pretty discouragedbecause a lot of of other dog
accounts make longer form videosthat do really well and I don't
know why that wasn't working forme.
It wasn't. And so I started paying
attention to things that worked well for others but also seemed
(25:19):
pretty attainable for me to do. Pretty easy B roll.
Personally of right now I still have this full time job that I
love doing that I don't plan on stopping, want to eventually be
a full time dog mom and we couldtake maybe 5 weddings a year in
the Bahamas. I'd love to be at that point I
suppose but it's not really the goal.
(25:41):
The goal is to just have a work in life balance.
So went into this last winter thinking my goal is to learn the
insurance and outs and the structure of the system that
would sell $300.00 a day worth of digital products and services
that I can create. One time that thousands and
thousands of people around the world can benefit from.
(26:03):
And a lot of people have purchased my guides.
I'm really proud to say we have clients all over the world that
have used our guides to create dogstagram accounts for their
dogs and, or cats. We have cats and horses and all
kinds of people who have made Instagrams for their pet and
learned the skills of being ableto reach out to brands and get
(26:24):
brand deals. But then also the systems for
creating digital products and promoting those instead of
promoting physical products. So there's all different kinds
of routes that people can take when it comes to monetizing.
And for your dog, there's sponsorships and commercial work
and videos creating content for companies.
But then there's also generatingyour own income from your own
(26:47):
products. And I have found personally that
digital product is a whole lot easier to move than a physical
product. Obviously a lot more comes with
having a physical product. So having something that is
digital that is also mind blowingly helpful and puts some
perspective into things and thenalso gives you the opportunity
(27:08):
at the end to be able to get on a call with me and clarify what
do you mean by this? Help me get into this mindset.
What do you mean by that? Conversations that I had with my
mentor changed my life. And I know there's a lot of
skepticism when it comes around to influencing and what all is
involved with that. But when it comes down to it, if
you know 10% more than somebody else about a certain topic, you
(27:32):
have information that other people need.
And if you, you can get past theimposter syndrome of I actually
do know what I'm talking about in certain topics.
I don't know everything about everything and you can be clear
about that. But what I do know is there are
systems in Instagram that you can use to be able to promote a
(27:55):
product, grow a following on your Instagram, but also grow an
e-mail list and have a digital store front where you can teach
people how you have grown your Instagram, your e-mail list,
your digital storefront. You can teach all of these
things to other people once you know how to do them, but you
can't teach them until you know how to do them.
I, I took a lot of time over this winter to really study and
(28:18):
observe what other people did. That got a lot of traction, not
just in the dog community, but all around.
And then specifically honed intowhat worked well with the animal
pet community. And it's not just dogs, it is
cats and birds and horses and all of it.
All of this is applicable to your or animal, to your pet.
So I have different guides that teach you how to do different
(28:41):
parts of running an Instagram. There's the growing your
Instagram side. I can teach you how to make
reels with certain attributes that are going to get a lot of
traction. That's going to help you reach a
wider audience of people that are interested in what you're
posting about, which is your dogor your cat or your bird or your
(29:01):
horse. So I have a bunch of free guides
that help people learn those skills and then but once they
know those skills, I have paid guides that teach them how to
monetize those skills so they get to learn how to make the
creative stuff for free and learn what kind of programs I
use for those. How I set up my creative plans
(29:23):
for the week in the making. I have a 30 day dog Instagram
boot camp that's coming and it's.
Exciting. Yeah, it's going to be really
helping you track exactly how well my advice is going to work
for you. It's something I experiment with
with my husband over the spring,really figured out what I was
doing. And I told him I think this will
work for anything. And he's a big fisherman.
(29:44):
So he started an Instagram around fishing and being an
outdoorsman. And within the first month, he
had 65 thousand 6500 followers. Wow.
Yeah. So when I'm right side by side
with him, it was really easy to be like, no, don't say that, do
this, do that. And so I do know what I'm
talking about, right. It was something that became
very apparent that it's not justdogs or whatever have these
(30:07):
theories that are deeper ground into what the Instagram
algorithm does. I think a lot of people dread
the algorithm and it takes the blame away from ourselves of
making content that isn't resonating with other people.
There are changes in the algorithm and it can't.
Kind of a bummer left hand. I have weeks where I've done
pretty well for me and I'm getting between 1000 and 3000
(30:29):
views. I'm happy with this.
And then plummet to 200 views and I'm like, what?
The Internet? Just what have we?
Been and sometimes it can be really, really frustrating.
So I think that's really important that we have people
like you out there who are willing to help teach people
like me and the listeners, because a lot of us are
struggling. We don't know what we're doing
(30:50):
and we're trying our Dang hardest to figure it out, but
it's not always the easiest thing to do.
And I think that gatekeeping is such a huge problem in this
industry. I don't disagree with having to
pay for information, but I also like that on your account, you
do give tips and tricks in your reels that are helpful.
(31:11):
That may not give the full picture, but they start you in
the right direction and I love that.
Your mind in the right mindset? Yes, definitely, totally.
And I feel like that's The thingis people have to go into it
with the mindset of, OK, I am going to be an open book.
I am going to be learning whatever is coming in to me,
absorbing this information because yes, it's one thing to
(31:34):
read what I'm saying, but it's another thing to implement what
I'm doing hard. If you have a certain strategy
where I just want to post what makes me happy.
And that's great. And I think that there's a place
for that. I did it for a really long time.
And then my my mindset shifted and everything changed when I
(31:54):
started making content that served others, that served the
joy for others and it still brought me joy.
I'm not saying that, but I started making content that
others would share. I started noticing what am I
sending to my BFF because we both have dogs and we're both
dog people and we both completely obsessed with our
dogs. She's obsessed with my dog, I'm
obsessed with her dog. So I started recognizing what am
(32:17):
I sending to her. I just kind of went back through
my messages and was like, this is super relatable.
It's short, it's funny, it had apunchline.
There was something about this that stood out that made me send
this. This was relatable.
This was funny content. I even liked it and I commented
on it too because it was just sonatural for me to do it.
I think the best content doesn'teven say like follow, comment,
(32:39):
share. It doesn't even have to say it.
People just do it because it is natural for them to want to
because it's relatable and it issomething that you don't have to
ask people to share it. They just naturally relate.
Gosh, I got to show my friends, I got to send this to my
husband, I got to send this to my best friend.
They're going to get a kick out of this.
So that kind of funny stuff or emotional things, people
(32:59):
relating to loss. With the one that went really
viral with Clover, people were commenting on, oh, my heart, I
wasn't expecting to cry today. Well, I wasn't either.
I just, I had to get that out. I had to get that reel out.
That was an emotional one. Typically, I find that my best
reels are five to seven seconds long.
I use early trending audio, which if you don't know what
(33:20):
that is, have a really good freebie download that people can
go check out and learn more about what early trending audio
is and why I use it and what thepurpose of it is.
But essentially, there are different pages.
If you are adding an audio to a reel that is not your own, you
can go search through original audios and see what's trending
(33:41):
and what's not. And when I say early trending
audio, I'm talking like it's been used less than 1000 times.
It's really hard to get Instagram to feed you that
stuff. So if you don't get fed early
trending audio, I do have trade in the algorithm to do that, to
send it to me. So you can always come to zeros
page to find early trending audio.
I have been on a bit of a hiatusthis summer just for being able
(34:04):
to keep my work life balanced and being able to continue to
serve our wedding and photography clients really,
really well. The goal was zeros, you know,
like learning how to grow and monetize on Instagram.
This winter I achieved that. I figured that out and now this
next winter is going to be whereI really hone it in.
So I am currently in the throes of wedding photography right
(34:27):
now. But once that slows down and I
have all of next year booked outand our quiet little town gets
covered in snow, that's when I will be sinking my teeth into
how I'm going to make this a regular part of our income that
I don't to be so hands on with and that I can automate some of
(34:47):
the work that I am manually doing.
I'm looking to hone in my systems, and I know that there
are people out there that do it,and I know that making $300.00
in a day is not an impossible task, especially if there are
ads involved. If you know how to master paid
advertising and making funnels and building an e-mail list and
(35:08):
then having emails going out to people and then having content
creation come in regularly, nurturing an audience that's
already there. That is kind of the key that I'm
looking to unlock over the next winter is to just really figure
figure out how to get consistent, consistent rapport
with my audience and still be able to connect with them
(35:28):
personally, but hopefully doing a little bit more on the live
side of things. I was doing lives all all winter
this year and that was a lot of fun and I want to figure out how
to keep that going. All of the features of Instagram
really are what make it so unique and Tiktok too, I just
have not solved into. I know that I could and should,
(35:49):
but I feel like once I'm asked one thing, this is something
that my mentor taught me. You can't try and do it all
really, really well or else you're going to be doing it all
like kind of not great. So if you do one thing really,
really well and learn how to master that one thing, then you
can take what you learned from that and translate that to
another platform while being able to give an SOP, which
(36:12):
stands for standard operating procedures, to somebody else to
help you with that. So here's the the big secret
behind a small business. You can't do it all yourself.
There's, it's just impossible. I don't know what I would do
without some of the people who work for me as a small business
to be able to deliver clients, their galleries on time, their
albums on time. I can't do it all.
(36:35):
When I worked at the newspaper, there were reporters, there was
a receptionist, there were salesagents.
There were all different kinds of positions there because one
person can't do it all to make aproduct.
At the end of the day, I learnedto relinquish some of my own
duties. So that's what I'm looking to do
do over this next winter is figuring out where the sweet
spot is when it comes to income versus outsourcing certain tasks
(37:00):
and automating and paying for services for certain tasks.
So that's my goal for this winter.
And then once we find the sweet spot, they're ramping up and
getting eyes on content and helping as many people as
possible. The goal is to help people
figure out the same things that I'm figuring out and how to help
them be able to create an incomestream like what I'm doing from
(37:24):
posting videos of your dog. Which is awesome.
I am so excited to see where yougo and so excited to continue to
learn from you. We are just about to run out of
time here for this episode, but is there anything that you would
like to leave the listeners with?
Yeah, I think the thing that I want to impress the most is just
that if you feel like you are stuck and you want to grow an
(37:47):
Instagram for your dog, first ofall, step back and ask yourself
why. Why do I want to do this?
What are my goals? Am I stressing myself out for no
reason? Or do I have actual goals that
I'm subconsciously really hopingthat I am able to monetize an
Instagram for my dog? And if you come to that
conclusion that the reason you're stressed out about why
(38:08):
these things aren't performing well is because you want to
monetize but it's not working, there are other people out
there. I just want to put this out.
There are other people out therewho are doing it, who are doing
it well and making 10s of thousands of dollars every
month. The reason why I'm so motivated
to do it is because I know that there are other people out there
doing it, making a 10s of thousands of dollars a month
(38:30):
because they have systems in place and things that they do
every single day. And because I am living proof
that this is something that's possible.
No previous experiences that if you just have systems and things
that you do every day and just cut out everything else.
I know that these systems can behoned because I've done this in
my photography business before. I have the experience to know
(38:51):
that there is someone else out there who is crushing it on
Instagram, selling digital products, teaching other people
how to do it. And that's what I want for
myself. I want to be teaching other
people, helping other people andmaking money while I'm doing it.
So that's the goal for over thiswinter.
And the take away is if you don't know what you're doing,
somebody else does. You don't need to reinvent the
(39:13):
wheel. Go get help.
Stop torturing yourself. Yes, exactly.
Thank you so much for being heretoday.
I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with me and we
will see you guys next week on Straight Up Dog Talk.
Straight Up Dog Talk was createdby Emily Breslin.
It is edited and produced under the supervision of Straight Up
(39:33):
Dog Talk, LLC and Emily Breslin.If you're enjoying this podcast,
follow or subscribe and be sure you don't miss an episode and
leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform.
Looking for more honest and relatable dog content?
Check out our sister show, Unpacked with Jerry Sheriff and
Madison Simpson. Thanks for listening to Straight
Up Dog Top. See you next week.
Today's episode is brought to you by our partnership with 0
highway. Want to turn your pets Instagram
into a money maker? There a highway teaches pet
parents exactly how to grow and monetize their pets account.
Her new course, Poffit My Pets to Gram is launching soon and
it's guaranteed to help you makemoney in 30 days or less.
VIPs get 50% off and exclusive bonuses.
(00:21):
So don't wait. Head to at 0 Highway on
Instagram and Sign up today. Welcome to Straight Up Dog Talk,
the podcast for pet parents. Pet guardians and pet
professionals come together to dive into real issues in dog
parenting. From controversial training
methods to sensitive health topics, we're getting raw and
real about what it means to carefor our canine companions.
(00:42):
Join us every Wednesday for unfiltered conversations, expert
insights, and personal stories that will make you laugh, cry,
and grow as a pet parent. No topic is off limits and no
question goes unanswered. You won't get one perspective
here. You'll get them all because
every dog is different and everyhuman is too.
You can follow on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook at Straight
(01:03):
Up Dog Talk or by visiting UWW straight up dogtalk.com, TuneIn
from any of your favorite podcast platforms.
This week we have Sarah from Zero Highway and she's here to
talk to us about all things photography, content creation
and Instagram influencer, plus dog mom life.
(01:23):
How are you doing tonight, Sarah?
So good, thank you so much for having me.
Absolutely. You have such a fun story and I
can't wait to just jump in and tell everybody about it.
So why don't you tell everybody a little bit about yourself,
where you're from, a little bit about zero and just everyday.
Life. Yeah, yeah.
(01:43):
Well, this is something that hasbeen in the back of my mind for
a couple of years to grow a dog's to Graham account.
So I'm really excited to be hereand I'm excited to talk more
about our journey and how we gotto this point and how turning
your hobby into your passion, into money in your pocket.
That's something I have experienced in and I've done it
(02:04):
more than once. And I am excited to share my
journey with other people. So thank you for having me.
In 2010, I got my first camera. I picked up a camera after my
mother had passed away after a battle with leukemia.
I was only 23. It was very besstating and it
changed my life. It changed everything.
So I picked up a camera because I lived in an area that I didn't
(02:27):
have a lot of friends. I didn't grow up here.
I moved here at live in Michigan.
I'm from downstate Michigan, butI now live up near the Traverse
City area, which is northern lower Michigan.
For those who want to look on the back of your left hand, it's
by your pinky thumbnails. That's where where I live.
And so we spend a lot of time outside hiking and biking and
doing all that fun stuff. But I didn't have a lot of
(02:49):
friends when I moved up here. I honestly moved up here to make
friends and to start a life thatI knew I wanted to live.
And so picked up this camera after my mom died and decided
that I wanted to do photo shootsfor people.
I felt a little bit more confident behind a camera trying
to make a friend as an adult. It's hard to do that, by the
way, making friends as it is. And I worked in a newspaper, our
(03:12):
local newspaper. I was in marketing and
advertising sales for 10 years before I went off on my own and
started my own photography business.
So I picked up that camera in 2010 and then started my
business in 2011, all while still working at the newspaper.
And then I started my photography business going full
time with that in 2017. And then at that point I was
(03:35):
able to go full time because I had built reputation around my
town as being a local photographer that loves to take
pictures. And I picked up that camera
because I was working to avoid the spiral of depression.
I needed to make friends. I needed to get myself out of
the house. Otherwise it would just be
really easy to little up into a little ball in the corner and
(03:55):
not do anything. Well, after losing my mom, this
is my inspiration to just keep going.
And I knew that she wouldn't want me to stop my life.
And I needed to get out there and make friends and make
connections with people and findlove.
And I was kind of one of those things where just I didn't know
what I was doing, but I knew what I didn't want to do.
I didn't want to be living a miserable life.
(04:17):
I wanted joy. I wanted beauty.
And so my job became putting myself purposely in the way of
that. And I know that that's kind of a
thing from a Reese Witherspoon movie now, but that was way
before that movie came out. The whole put yourself in the
way of beauty thing. It really, it really makes a
difference when you're grieving.So making connections, finding
(04:39):
love and everybody and looking for the the Silver Linings was
what kept me going. So I started the photography
business to the point where I had a big enough reputation.
I went full time in 2017. My husband came on with me in
2020 right after the pandemic hit.
And the reason we were able to do that was because I panicked
(04:59):
when all of my weddings started leaving in 2020.
It's very scary. And it scared me enough to hire
somebody to help me because I didn't know what I was doing.
And it was very clear that otherpeople were still surviving and
I was not. And I didn't know what to do.
And other people knew other people had the answers.
And I didn't need to reinvent the wheel.
I just needed help giving, getting a system and not
(05:22):
throwing stuff at the wall and trying to see what stopped.
So I was strategically fed an adin May of 2020 that was like,
are you? Are all your weddings leaving
you? Are you refunding all of these
retainers? And now you don't know if you're
going to be able to continue work?
It was like he spoke to my biggest fears and my biggest
(05:44):
pain points and the things that were happening to me at that
time and I was like you. Just.
Those are all the things that are happening to me right now.
Do you have the answer for me? And he really did.
So he helped me in May of 2020. This, this mentor that I hired,
his name is Peter. He changed my world.
He flipped everything upside down.
While everybody else was having their wedding leave left and
(06:06):
right, which I was too. The ones that I had already
booked, they either rescheduled or canceled or rethought what
their plans were going to be. And while everybody else was
kind of panicking, I was bookingout 2021 and 2022 because this
guy helped me deadly with marketing, just helped me learn
the systems of what I needed to do and stop doing things that
don't matter. Stop doing things that don't
(06:28):
move the needle. You're wasting your time doing
this. Like he really helps me hone in
my process and my daily regimen and what I need to do in order
to make a six figure year, whichis honestly what you need as an
independent. You need to be making that in
order to survive because taxes and expenses and running a
business the right way that we use as 10s of thousands of
(06:52):
dollars and things break and we have to replace it.
And the travel, the amount of travel that I have to do.
I know that six figures sounds like a great, great number.
But let me tell you, after everything, you have to be
making that as an independent person to be able to do it
right, to give people the experience that they deserve to
have for their weddings. So my husband and I are wedding
(07:13):
photographers mainly. We've traveled all over the
world. We got married in Jamaica in May
of 20, 22. John was able to come on full
time in June of 2020 because I was able to hire this mentor who
changed my world. And then we realized that we
were never going to have to worry about where our next
paycheck was coming from. We knew exactly what systems we
(07:34):
needed to deploy to get the nextwedding on the books or the next
work on our books. So that was June of 2020.
He came on full time and then byOctober of 2020, we had been
together for seven years and he proposed.
So then a couple of years later,in May of 2022, we got married.
We wanted to wait for all pandemic to be as close, as far
(07:57):
away as possible. We pushed our engagement out for
a while so that we could, numberone, save for our wedding and #2
be able to include our friends and family and not have to have
a smaller version of what we really wanted for our wedding.
We all this time we have two cats and our dog, Clover.
I had had her since 2008 and shehad been through everything with
(08:23):
me, my my mom passing and then acouple of years later my dad
passed. I was young, I was in my 20s.
She just really held me togetherthrough some of the most
tumultuous times of my life. And she traveled everywhere with
us that she could. Anytime we did a road trip for
weddings, for work, anything like that, she was always with
us. It was just so much fun to have
(08:43):
her there. We have camper that we would use
to go across the country that westill use to go to the country.
It's a lot of fun, but it's a lot of work.
And she was an old gal, but she traveled so well and it was
easy. She was not a puppy by any
means. So we got married in May of 2022
and then August of 20/22 she passed and the grief was just
(09:07):
overwhelming. I felt like I had lost a real
family member. So didn't feel like just some
pet, you know, some people don'tsee it that way or don't feel
that way. It affected my my health, it
affected my work, it affected mylife and it was so hard to keep
going. She died on August 10th of 2022
and it was devastating and we didn't see it coming and that we
(09:30):
didn't have hardly any time to say goodbye to her.
It was just very traumatic. It was a very traumatic loss.
And at that time, my husband's parents had put a deposit down
for a Springer spaniel puppy anda litter that was being born in
August. And they had had the deposit
down for a while. In the back of my head, I'm
(09:52):
like, there's no way it's going to break my heart to go over to
their house and see this puppy. And I'm going to be so sad.
And about a week before they went to pick his sister up,
they're like, there's few puppies left if you want any.
I'm like, I don't think I can love again.
I don't think I can ever love another dog the way that I love
Clover. And she just, she lit up my
(10:13):
life. And in the meantime it during
all of this, we've got weddings every weekend and we've got
senior shoots and we've got family photos.
And I'm trying to keep this happy face.
And I'm drowning in grief and sadness and I am doing the thing
that I love. And I'm still drowning in grief
and sadness and I'm having a hard time pulling myself
together. I'm coming through a course for
my clients, but just drowning and sad.
(10:35):
And it's really hard to put on that happy face when you're
feeling that way. So Fast forward to October of
22. It's a week before his parents
are going to pick up their puppy.
And I casually said, well, should we just look and see if
we can connect with one of thesepuppies?
It's two hours away. We're going to go take a drive
down. And by the way, we have shoots
(10:55):
every day. We have to somehow find a time
to go see this puppy. I don't have time for this.
I'm resentful. I'm feeling like this thing is
taking up all my time and energythat I don't even have.
And it's the middle of our busy season and what are we doing?
What are we doing? This is bonkers.
And then we get to go see him and he nibbles on my cheek and
bites my hair a little bit. I'm like, I love it, but I hate
(11:18):
it. I, I was, he's so cute and I'm
so heartbroken. I didn't know how I was going to
love this little thing and he hedeserved it.
And I felt like, what if I can't?
I was worried. I had never had a puppy before.
Clover was my first dog, so I was worried that I wasn't going
to be sufficiently motherly enough for this perfect little
(11:41):
thing that deserves it. But of course, within minutes of
him being in our car and before we I even had him home, I had an
Instagram made for him. Because in the back of my head,
I'm like, I if I don't have somewhere to outlet all these
pictures that I know I'm going to take, I'm just going to flood
my photography page and it's going to end up being a dog page
and I need it to be a business page.
(12:02):
I get that. Due to a technology fail 98% of
my pictures of my first three dogs.
No. And that is why I started an
Instagram and started posting Toby and Fitz because I wanted
to make sure that I had a way toremember the funny little things
they do. Walking or begging for food or
(12:25):
throwing temper tantrums or the amount of time we spend out in
the yard playing fetch, all the things.
Because I lost all of those things from my previous dog.
It is kind of a therapeutic release for me to be able to be
like, oh, let me create this. But now I'm sharing dog training
content along with the podcast content and it's been a lot of
(12:47):
fun. To your point about like the
grief and getting another dog, it's different for everybody,
right? When Cajun died, I had just
adopted Toby 8 months before andI wasn't prepared.
Cajun's death was quick, traumatic, all the things as
well. And I don't think that I would
have gotten another dog for a while because Cajun was it.
(13:07):
He was the dog. And then here's Toby.
Toby is that bridge dog. He took me from Cajun now into
Fitz. And Vince is like Cajun all over
again, which is wild to me because I always was like, I'm
never going to be able to love another dog like this again.
And now I'm like, Oh my gosh. My connection with Fitz is just
as intense as it was with Cajun,so I think it's cool.
(13:29):
Yeah. Z Right.
Yeah. Yeah.
I love that because Zero was actually, and I didn't realize
this. We brought him home in October,
and I didn't realize this till around Thanksgiving.
He was born on the day that Clover died.
Oh, my God. Yeah, they're nothing alike.
I mean, they are in some ways, but they're 22 totally different
(13:49):
dogs. But I have this vision of them
like just slapping paws on the other side and Clover given
given 0 the rundown of like, OK,this is how you make her happy.
This is how you make her sad. Don't do these things.
They're two very different dogs,but I think that she had a talk
with them I'm. Glad that you said that because
I've made this reference before to A Dog's Purpose.
I don't know if you've seen thatmovie or read that book, but the
(14:12):
same dog that comes back, but he's a little bit different
every time. The dog has to fit your needs at
your time of your life. And I truly think that, like, my
first dog as a child, Vince was Cajun with his now Fitz.
And yeah, it's just like, pass the baton somewhere.
They're like, OK, you're going to have to.
Pivot here a little. Bit but this is what she needs
and it'll be all good. So yeah, I think that it's so
(14:34):
crazy how if you're looking likeyou said, put yourself in the
path of beauty, you will find the thing that is right for you.
And when I got Toby, I was goingthrough some pretty serious
stuff. I was still recovering from my
brain and spinal surgery and going through a divorce, moving
to a different state, all those things.
And I just needed a dog that would be comforting and chill
(14:59):
and whatever until we use all those things and I can actually
the listeners can't see, but youcan see he's right here on my
lap. He's hanging out.
He's just like, OK, mom needs meright now.
So here you know, this is outside chewing on his ball and
that's fine. His own thing, independent boy
the most of the time. But if you if you let him stay
(15:21):
outside versus having to be inside that he will choose to be
outside. Much love that.
Much. Love that.
My gosh, Besides the photographybusiness, now you've, you've
delved into the Instagram creator world, which, yeah, it
started out as kind of a this ismy way to memorialize my dog,
but it's grown into so much morethan that.
(15:42):
So I'm guessing you took some ofthose marketing skills and apply
them to your Instagram, which isclearly one trio.
Yeah, we have 32 1/2 thousand followers.
It's 32,400 and something followers right now.
What the goal is and was and will continue to be is I am
(16:05):
working on this Instagram for Zero, originally the Instagram
for him as a grief mechanism. And then in addition to having
that be a creative outlet, I also in the back of my mind,
which I think a lot of animal parents in general, those who
start an Instagram for their animal, I think most of us have
(16:26):
in the back of our mind. My dog is so cute.
He does just the cutest things ever and I can get some pretty
good videos of it and pretty good pictures of it.
I bet you I could get some sponsors.
I feel like a lot of people who started Instagram for their dog
are like, yeah, my dog is so cute.
They could get sponsorships if Ijust knew how to do that, right?
So I already have this marketingmind.
(16:48):
I was doing a lot of business toclient sales.
I still do a lot of business to client sales for my photography
business, but I also do a lot ofbusiness to business sales, a
lot of commercial work, a lot ofbranding.
And I have people contact us whoare selling an item on Amazon
that they need professional photos with a white backdrop or
(17:09):
they need certain specificationsfor an Amazon listing or Etsy
listings, things like that. Definitely do that kind of
stuff, website photos, that kindof thing, headshots, all that
kind of stuff. So that is not something that I
do a ton of advertising about, but it is something that I do
and that people reach out to me for and they know, especially
locally in my area, I know what people pay for commercial work.
(17:34):
And so I kind of came into this knowing raid is not enough.
There is usually some amount of trade that I will do just
because, like doing good things for good people.
And I think that there are certain situations where trade
is OK and where it makes sense. But I came into this with a
little bit of a different perspective because I have been
(17:55):
in the creative industry for so long and I do know that it's
important to stay above water when it comes to their costs of
doing business. And there was a time when I
didn't know what to charge and when I didn't know what my work
was worth and I didn't know how these clients and companies
would using my pictures and videos.
(18:16):
So I would just do whatever theyneeded and then they get to reap
the benefits of my great work. So I wanted to make sure that
anything that I did made sense for the company that would be
working with us for any of 0 sponsorships, but that it also
made sense for the company, but that it also made sense for us.
So everybody needed to be winning in these situations.
(18:38):
With all that said, never reallydid a ton of marketing to get a
lot of business to business work.
I've always been kind of a business client relationship.
I feel like I thrive well in personal environments and
creating connections and relationships with people.
So I wanted to be able to continue doing that.
This all started October of 2022and just kind of posted randomly
(19:01):
and things that made me happy and things that made me laugh.
And I heard audio on Instagram that I thought was funny.
I would make a 32nd video about it and you, whatever I'd make,
I'd make anything that just mademe laugh and made me feel good.
And I started reaching out to companies because I was making
content that was making me laughand making me feel good every
(19:22):
day. I was doing it every day,
multiple times a day sometimes, and I was reaching out to
companies that I could write an e-mail to and just say, hey, I'm
posting regularly. If you want him to be wearing
one of your little coats or hatsor something, you send it to me
and send me an extra 1. We'll do a giveaway.
It was just my energy that was behind it already that really
(19:44):
stuck out. I think to a lot of these
people. I went out of my way to find out
who I needed to actually be talking to and not just DM ING a
random account and copy and paste.
I was actually finding e-mail addresses to marketing people on
websites and reaching out to thepeople that I needed to and
saying, here are my actual numbers.
Here's what I can do for you andmaking it about them and what
(20:08):
the benefit is to them. Because I think too many
influencers or dog fluencers, whoever come at it like, well,
what are what's in it? For me, when really we are the
vehicle for these companies to serve an audience and their goal
is to ultimately make more moneyand sell stuff.
But if they have a product or a service that they're promoting,
(20:29):
they are doing it through influencers that can give them
numbers and not just what it hasto be a tangible thing that they
can see this benefiting them. I was reaching out with hard
numbers to people and telling them this is my engagement rate.
I may only have 800 followers right now, but I'm tracking 50
new followers a day for the lastweek and I anticipate that to be
(20:53):
growing to a bigger numbered every day because I'm being
consistent. I'm a consistent poster.
I was able to at first to do a few giveaways and do a few brand
sponsorships that were acknowledged for me.
And then we went into the summerseason and I slowed down because
weddings, and then it would havebeen summer of 23, slowed down
(21:16):
on my posting back up in the fall of 23 a little bit.
And then in the winter of 24, just nine months ago, I decided
this was going to be the year that I figured out how to really
monetize 0's account. Because I sell thousands of
dollars in wedding photography packages because I know what I'm
(21:37):
worth and I know what kind of a job we do and how thorough we
are and what the client gets outof it.
It's no problem for me to sell an $8000 wedding package.
That just is no big deal. So if I feel that way about
$8000 wedding packages and I have a system for making that
happen, there is going to be a little bit more of a different
(21:58):
system that I can use to create sales that are $100 or less,
$500.00 or less. If I figured out that 6 figure
income comes from selling $174 aday or something like that.
So it's less than $300.00 a day and something that you need to
sell. If you are really truly serving
and giving and providing value and giving deep insight and
(22:22):
giving all the information that somebody would need to know on a
certain topic, then they will pay 100 bucks to find out what
those things are and get going. And as long as you are being
honest and being straightforwardabout what is in your product, I
have learned how to create digital products on a storefront
for dog parents who want to learn how to create digital
(22:46):
products. I know it kind of sounds like a
big loop, right? But a lot of people don't know
how to start an LLC, how to set up a business storefront, how to
create content that actually gets traction, how to reach out
to brands that need to have content created for them, and
how to get paid for that. These are all things that people
don't know how to do. And I do.
(23:07):
I know how to do this stuff. I have cracked some codes, I've
figured some things out, and I have created some guides to help
people learn how to do that. I still don't know how to do all
this stuff and I'm over here running a podcast and a dog
training business and I still have no idea what I'm doing.
Learning all the time, right? And I'm still iterating and
learning and coming up with gameplans and and all of that.
(23:31):
It's a constant learning processfor sure, but there are some key
things that you can take away from this thing that I've
created with Zero having 32,000 followers.
I have figured out that people interact with content that is
relatable and funny or it just makes you feel something in
general. It's not just some fluff.
(23:53):
People interact with and follow content that makes them feel
something strongly. Not just little emotions but
like they connect with the big emotion stuff.
Probably the first real that I ever had go semi viral was a
reel of Clover and 0, highlighting the fact that
Clover passed away on the day that Zero was born and that I
(24:14):
hadn't realized it. I wrote a really long, just
heartfelt caption, and this was before I had figured out that I
really wanted to monetize 0's account.
I poured my heart out. It was a short reel.
It was a trending sound. I didn't realize that that was
something that was necessary to kind of go far.
It just all lined up and I was like, whoa, this is getting
hundreds of thousands of views on it.
(24:35):
Kind of wondered why. Then I started being like why is
this doing so well? Do content all the time, Why did
this blow up and other stuff didn't.
That was like November of 23 andI caught on it for a little
while and I was like why is thishappening?
And I just started observing. I started following other dog
accounts that were doing really,really well.
I think a lot of us do that follow bigger dog accounts to
(24:56):
see what's going on and why are they doing really well and then
you try and recreate what they're doing and you get 4
reviews. That wasn't working for me.
I was feeling pretty discouragedbecause a lot of of other dog
accounts make longer form videosthat do really well and I don't
know why that wasn't working forme.
It wasn't. And so I started paying
attention to things that worked well for others but also seemed
(25:19):
pretty attainable for me to do. Pretty easy B roll.
Personally of right now I still have this full time job that I
love doing that I don't plan on stopping, want to eventually be
a full time dog mom and we couldtake maybe 5 weddings a year in
the Bahamas. I'd love to be at that point I
suppose but it's not really the goal.
(25:41):
The goal is to just have a work in life balance.
So went into this last winter thinking my goal is to learn the
insurance and outs and the structure of the system that
would sell $300.00 a day worth of digital products and services
that I can create. One time that thousands and
thousands of people around the world can benefit from.
(26:03):
And a lot of people have purchased my guides.
I'm really proud to say we have clients all over the world that
have used our guides to create dogstagram accounts for their
dogs and, or cats. We have cats and horses and all
kinds of people who have made Instagrams for their pet and
learned the skills of being ableto reach out to brands and get
(26:24):
brand deals. But then also the systems for
creating digital products and promoting those instead of
promoting physical products. So there's all different kinds
of routes that people can take when it comes to monetizing.
And for your dog, there's sponsorships and commercial work
and videos creating content for companies.
But then there's also generatingyour own income from your own
(26:47):
products. And I have found personally that
digital product is a whole lot easier to move than a physical
product. Obviously a lot more comes with
having a physical product. So having something that is
digital that is also mind blowingly helpful and puts some
perspective into things and thenalso gives you the opportunity
(27:08):
at the end to be able to get on a call with me and clarify what
do you mean by this? Help me get into this mindset.
What do you mean by that? Conversations that I had with my
mentor changed my life. And I know there's a lot of
skepticism when it comes around to influencing and what all is
involved with that. But when it comes down to it, if
you know 10% more than somebody else about a certain topic, you
(27:32):
have information that other people need.
And if you, you can get past theimposter syndrome of I actually
do know what I'm talking about in certain topics.
I don't know everything about everything and you can be clear
about that. But what I do know is there are
systems in Instagram that you can use to be able to promote a
(27:55):
product, grow a following on your Instagram, but also grow an
e-mail list and have a digital store front where you can teach
people how you have grown your Instagram, your e-mail list,
your digital storefront. You can teach all of these
things to other people once you know how to do them, but you
can't teach them until you know how to do them.
I, I took a lot of time over this winter to really study and
(28:18):
observe what other people did. That got a lot of traction, not
just in the dog community, but all around.
And then specifically honed intowhat worked well with the animal
pet community. And it's not just dogs, it is
cats and birds and horses and all of it.
All of this is applicable to your or animal, to your pet.
So I have different guides that teach you how to do different
(28:41):
parts of running an Instagram. There's the growing your
Instagram side. I can teach you how to make
reels with certain attributes that are going to get a lot of
traction. That's going to help you reach a
wider audience of people that are interested in what you're
posting about, which is your dogor your cat or your bird or your
(29:01):
horse. So I have a bunch of free guides
that help people learn those skills and then but once they
know those skills, I have paid guides that teach them how to
monetize those skills so they get to learn how to make the
creative stuff for free and learn what kind of programs I
use for those. How I set up my creative plans
(29:23):
for the week in the making. I have a 30 day dog Instagram
boot camp that's coming and it's.
Exciting. Yeah, it's going to be really
helping you track exactly how well my advice is going to work
for you. It's something I experiment with
with my husband over the spring,really figured out what I was
doing. And I told him I think this will
work for anything. And he's a big fisherman.
(29:44):
So he started an Instagram around fishing and being an
outdoorsman. And within the first month, he
had 65 thousand 6500 followers. Wow.
Yeah. So when I'm right side by side
with him, it was really easy to be like, no, don't say that, do
this, do that. And so I do know what I'm
talking about, right. It was something that became
very apparent that it's not justdogs or whatever have these
(30:07):
theories that are deeper ground into what the Instagram
algorithm does. I think a lot of people dread
the algorithm and it takes the blame away from ourselves of
making content that isn't resonating with other people.
There are changes in the algorithm and it can't.
Kind of a bummer left hand. I have weeks where I've done
pretty well for me and I'm getting between 1000 and 3000
(30:29):
views. I'm happy with this.
And then plummet to 200 views and I'm like, what?
The Internet? Just what have we?
Been and sometimes it can be really, really frustrating.
So I think that's really important that we have people
like you out there who are willing to help teach people
like me and the listeners, because a lot of us are
struggling. We don't know what we're doing
(30:50):
and we're trying our Dang hardest to figure it out, but
it's not always the easiest thing to do.
And I think that gatekeeping is such a huge problem in this
industry. I don't disagree with having to
pay for information, but I also like that on your account, you
do give tips and tricks in your reels that are helpful.
(31:11):
That may not give the full picture, but they start you in
the right direction and I love that.
Your mind in the right mindset? Yes, definitely, totally.
And I feel like that's The thingis people have to go into it
with the mindset of, OK, I am going to be an open book.
I am going to be learning whatever is coming in to me,
absorbing this information because yes, it's one thing to
(31:34):
read what I'm saying, but it's another thing to implement what
I'm doing hard. If you have a certain strategy
where I just want to post what makes me happy.
And that's great. And I think that there's a place
for that. I did it for a really long time.
And then my my mindset shifted and everything changed when I
(31:54):
started making content that served others, that served the
joy for others and it still brought me joy.
I'm not saying that, but I started making content that
others would share. I started noticing what am I
sending to my BFF because we both have dogs and we're both
dog people and we both completely obsessed with our
dogs. She's obsessed with my dog, I'm
obsessed with her dog. So I started recognizing what am
(32:17):
I sending to her. I just kind of went back through
my messages and was like, this is super relatable.
It's short, it's funny, it had apunchline.
There was something about this that stood out that made me send
this. This was relatable.
This was funny content. I even liked it and I commented
on it too because it was just sonatural for me to do it.
I think the best content doesn'teven say like follow, comment,
(32:39):
share. It doesn't even have to say it.
People just do it because it is natural for them to want to
because it's relatable and it issomething that you don't have to
ask people to share it. They just naturally relate.
Gosh, I got to show my friends, I got to send this to my
husband, I got to send this to my best friend.
They're going to get a kick out of this.
So that kind of funny stuff or emotional things, people
(32:59):
relating to loss. With the one that went really
viral with Clover, people were commenting on, oh, my heart, I
wasn't expecting to cry today. Well, I wasn't either.
I just, I had to get that out. I had to get that reel out.
That was an emotional one. Typically, I find that my best
reels are five to seven seconds long.
I use early trending audio, which if you don't know what
(33:20):
that is, have a really good freebie download that people can
go check out and learn more about what early trending audio
is and why I use it and what thepurpose of it is.
But essentially, there are different pages.
If you are adding an audio to a reel that is not your own, you
can go search through original audios and see what's trending
(33:41):
and what's not. And when I say early trending
audio, I'm talking like it's been used less than 1000 times.
It's really hard to get Instagram to feed you that
stuff. So if you don't get fed early
trending audio, I do have trade in the algorithm to do that, to
send it to me. So you can always come to zeros
page to find early trending audio.
I have been on a bit of a hiatusthis summer just for being able
(34:04):
to keep my work life balanced and being able to continue to
serve our wedding and photography clients really,
really well. The goal was zeros, you know,
like learning how to grow and monetize on Instagram.
This winter I achieved that. I figured that out and now this
next winter is going to be whereI really hone it in.
So I am currently in the throes of wedding photography right
(34:27):
now. But once that slows down and I
have all of next year booked outand our quiet little town gets
covered in snow, that's when I will be sinking my teeth into
how I'm going to make this a regular part of our income that
I don't to be so hands on with and that I can automate some of
(34:47):
the work that I am manually doing.
I'm looking to hone in my systems, and I know that there
are people out there that do it,and I know that making $300.00
in a day is not an impossible task, especially if there are
ads involved. If you know how to master paid
advertising and making funnels and building an e-mail list and
(35:08):
then having emails going out to people and then having content
creation come in regularly, nurturing an audience that's
already there. That is kind of the key that I'm
looking to unlock over the next winter is to just really figure
figure out how to get consistent, consistent rapport
with my audience and still be able to connect with them
(35:28):
personally, but hopefully doing a little bit more on the live
side of things. I was doing lives all all winter
this year and that was a lot of fun and I want to figure out how
to keep that going. All of the features of Instagram
really are what make it so unique and Tiktok too, I just
have not solved into. I know that I could and should,
(35:49):
but I feel like once I'm asked one thing, this is something
that my mentor taught me. You can't try and do it all
really, really well or else you're going to be doing it all
like kind of not great. So if you do one thing really,
really well and learn how to master that one thing, then you
can take what you learned from that and translate that to
another platform while being able to give an SOP, which
(36:12):
stands for standard operating procedures, to somebody else to
help you with that. So here's the the big secret
behind a small business. You can't do it all yourself.
There's, it's just impossible. I don't know what I would do
without some of the people who work for me as a small business
to be able to deliver clients, their galleries on time, their
albums on time. I can't do it all.
(36:35):
When I worked at the newspaper, there were reporters, there was
a receptionist, there were salesagents.
There were all different kinds of positions there because one
person can't do it all to make aproduct.
At the end of the day, I learnedto relinquish some of my own
duties. So that's what I'm looking to do
do over this next winter is figuring out where the sweet
spot is when it comes to income versus outsourcing certain tasks
(37:00):
and automating and paying for services for certain tasks.
So that's my goal for this winter.
And then once we find the sweet spot, they're ramping up and
getting eyes on content and helping as many people as
possible. The goal is to help people
figure out the same things that I'm figuring out and how to help
them be able to create an incomestream like what I'm doing from
(37:24):
posting videos of your dog. Which is awesome.
I am so excited to see where yougo and so excited to continue to
learn from you. We are just about to run out of
time here for this episode, but is there anything that you would
like to leave the listeners with?
Yeah, I think the thing that I want to impress the most is just
that if you feel like you are stuck and you want to grow an
(37:47):
Instagram for your dog, first ofall, step back and ask yourself
why. Why do I want to do this?
What are my goals? Am I stressing myself out for no
reason? Or do I have actual goals that
I'm subconsciously really hopingthat I am able to monetize an
Instagram for my dog? And if you come to that
conclusion that the reason you're stressed out about why
(38:08):
these things aren't performing well is because you want to
monetize but it's not working, there are other people out
there. I just want to put this out.
There are other people out therewho are doing it, who are doing
it well and making 10s of thousands of dollars every
month. The reason why I'm so motivated
to do it is because I know that there are other people out there
doing it, making a 10s of thousands of dollars a month
(38:30):
because they have systems in place and things that they do
every single day. And because I am living proof
that this is something that's possible.
No previous experiences that if you just have systems and things
that you do every day and just cut out everything else.
I know that these systems can behoned because I've done this in
my photography business before. I have the experience to know
(38:51):
that there is someone else out there who is crushing it on
Instagram, selling digital products, teaching other people
how to do it. And that's what I want for
myself. I want to be teaching other
people, helping other people andmaking money while I'm doing it.
So that's the goal for over thiswinter.
And the take away is if you don't know what you're doing,
somebody else does. You don't need to reinvent the
(39:13):
wheel. Go get help.
Stop torturing yourself. Yes, exactly.
Thank you so much for being heretoday.
I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with me and we
will see you guys next week on Straight Up Dog Talk.
Straight Up Dog Talk was createdby Emily Breslin.
It is edited and produced under the supervision of Straight Up
(39:33):
Dog Talk, LLC and Emily Breslin.If you're enjoying this podcast,
follow or subscribe and be sure you don't miss an episode and
leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform.
Looking for more honest and relatable dog content?
Check out our sister show, Unpacked with Jerry Sheriff and
Madison Simpson. Thanks for listening to Straight
Up Dog Top. See you next week.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!