December 26, 2024 • 35 mins
Join Isabel and guest Kat Donatello, founder of Austin And Kat, for a discussion about entrepreneurship and how our pets inspire us to think outside the box. In this holiday episode, Isabel asks Kat to share her story and how she became the founder of a pet wellness brand that started in her kitchen. As is the case with many pet industry entrepreneurs, Kat shares that the love of her dog Austin and her desire to keep him healthy changed the course of her career. To this day, Kat continues to develop products for her dogs - and then brings them to pet parents around the US while driving around in a purple school bus. Festive and informative, this episode is for anyone with a profound love of pets and an entrepreneurial spirit.
EPISODE NOTES: Created for My Dogs: The Story of Austin And Kat
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/covered-in-pet-hair-a-fun-late-night-boozy-pet-podcast--6667884/support.
EPISODE NOTES: Created for My Dogs: The Story of Austin And Kat
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/covered-in-pet-hair-a-fun-late-night-boozy-pet-podcast--6667884/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Pet Life Radio Let's Talk Pets.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome to Covered in Pet Hair, a blousy show for
pet lovers on pet Life Radio. I'm your host, isabel Albertazerata,
and today I have the pleasure of having a drink
in a chat with a health, wellness overall just amazing
person who is very unconventional and is celebrating Christmas in
a forty foot school bus that has been converted into
(00:46):
her home. I will tell you all about her and
introduce you as soon as we come back from these
messages from our sponsors. Hi, I'm Isabelle Albertazerata, the host
of Covered Pet Hair. You know the expression cats have
nine lives? Well, what if you could give them one more?
(01:07):
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(01:29):
That's give them tean dot Org.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Let's Talk beets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Welcome back to Covered in Cut Hair. I'm your host
Isabelle al Razerata, and today I have the pleasure of
having a drink of a chat with a pet parents
an entrepreneur. She's a former triathlete, a former.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Event manager, and she's dwifed to Tim, holistic health junkie
on a two year traveling journey, like I said, on
a forty foot yellow school bus that she and her husband.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Have converted and share with four dogs. Austin, who we
will discuss at length, I'm sure, Harper, Blanka, and Kingsley.
She is the founder of Austin and Kat, a holistic
wellness supplement brand that is celebrating its tenth year in business.
She is Cat Welcome, the founder behind Austin and Kat.
(02:36):
How are you. It's so good to finally have you
on the show.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
I'm so excited to be here. I'm reatly looking forward
to our chat today.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Well, I am so excited because I mean, obviously I
invited you on the show to be my Christmas guest,
because we both celebrate Christmas. Happy holidays no matter what
you celebrate. But I just found out that you're going
to be celebrating this first Christmas on this school bus,
and I cannot wait to get into the detail what
you have planned, what you have to forego now that
(03:03):
you're in a smaller space. But before we do all that,
I want to introduce our drinking game today. So anybody
at home participating in our drinking game anytime you hear
this word.
Speaker 6 (03:13):
The secret board is Austin.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Take a drink of whatever you're enjoying, but please be
over twenty one in the US to partake. Never drink
and drive, and always drink responsibly. So are you joining
us with any kind of special festive cocktail today?
Speaker 6 (03:28):
I wish I could say I am, but it's still
two o'clock here in the PNW, and I'm going to
have to go back to work when we're done chatting today.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I know, I know, I hear that so much. So
that's why I'm actually having eggnog sons anything, because I
actually have to go help at a PTA event at
my kids' school, and so I couldn't put any booze
in here, but usually I put like a spiced rum.
So cheers. Thank you for being on the show. I
am so excited to have you as my guest.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
Thank you, And I apologize if I move around a
lot so like I killed you. I live on a bus.
We are stationary right now, but we are in just
outside of San Francisco at this really cool area, and
my dogs have discovered hairs ha r e oh. It's
(04:18):
seen bunnies before, but not the colossal size of a hair.
And so Blanca, one of our babies, it is on
the bed looking out the windows, going back and forth,
back and forth.
Speaker 6 (04:29):
So I bounced around a little bit. So apologies.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Oh my gosh, that's so funny. I mean, this is
just so much of an adventure. I love it. I
can't wait to like dig in. I really want to
learn all that you are experiencing, especially around Christmas time,
because I feel like you're in the Pacific Northwest, right,
so like it must be pretty festive, just like the environment. Right.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
Yeah, well I can take that back. I'm going to
the Pacific Northwest next week. Got it to visit my factory,
if we call it the makery, which is where and
this is Blanca.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I'm glad that she's beautiful.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
Yeah, they're really cute. The makery, which is where we
obviously make all of our products. I'm going back for
our holiday party there. But right now we're just outside
of San Francisco. I still it's the West, I should say,
just drop the PNWA exactly exactly, but it is being Christmas.
I've always like, I grew up in Maine or lived
in Maine for twenty plus years and then moved to Seattle.
(05:23):
So Christmas was cold weather, right, so you know, bundled up,
buffy coat, put a hat on, go buy a tree.
And here it's like, you know, Santa's got a Hawaiian
shirt on, but the lights are still on the palm trees,
and it's just a different way of seeing and appreciating.
We drove that Christmas tree place the other day and
everyone was in short.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
So it just seems though, like, okay, okay, So I
grew up in Miami, and yes, that's basically you just
described like a Miami Christmas. And it's so funny because
I don't know if you remember in Home alone two,
I think they went to Miami and like they're all
stuck in like this like beach motel and it's like
raining and it's hot, and like it's not Christmas at all.
(06:05):
And so I do agree that like seeing Christmas and
like shorts is not my thing. And when my husband
was deployed. I actually spent a year in Miami over
Christmas and I had to tell my mom like, can
we drive north please? Cause like I can't. I can't
do the Christmas with the shorts. I needed sweater weather.
I live in Alplas one now where it's really hot
(06:26):
during the summer, but we get cold winter, like cold
ish winters. So yeah, I need a little bit of,
you know, like the atmosphere for it to feel like Christmas.
So I actually want to get to know all of
your Christmas preferences in your Christmas yay or nay. So
I am going to ask you about certain things, certain traditions,
(06:48):
certain kind of key elements of Christmas, and you tell
me if they're kind of part of your ritual or not.
So are you ready to play?
Speaker 6 (06:56):
I'm ready?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Okay, fust one. Christmas movies, yeah your nay?
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Oh yeah, okay, favorite Christmas movie the Holiday?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Oh you're one of those arom com yeahmm yeah, yes, great,
least favorite Christmas movie or most overrated?
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Oh gosh, elf, but I love it.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Okay, that's your least favorite. That's like my favorite.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
I mean, no, I love it, but I think it I.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Think it's not as good as people think.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
I think it was good when I had a lot
to drink.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Cuche probably right, Okay. Christmas tree yay.
Speaker 6 (07:33):
Your nay yay? Even on the bus no, unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Okay, not even a little one. That would be.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
Hard, right, I think with so with Kingsley, he's the rescue.
Speaker 7 (07:45):
I think he would pay on it because he has
to pee where everybody peas.
Speaker 8 (07:49):
Got it?
Speaker 6 (07:50):
Got it?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Okay, got it?
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Got it?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Okay, all right, yeah, definitely ane Okay. Christmas dinner favor
food like is it a roast? Yay or nay?
Speaker 6 (08:02):
Nay? What do you eat? Usually turkey?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Turkey? You don't get like sick of turkey from Thanksgiving people.
I like turkey a lot, so I I.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
Do too, I do too, Yeah okay, yeah yeah, Congress to.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
Pork is really nice too.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah that's true, Caroline, yeay.
Speaker 6 (08:19):
Your nae nay. Don't want to hear me sing.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Gift giving too, like a million people? Are you the
type that has like a long list of gifts? No,
no gift giving to your significant other dumb times?
Speaker 6 (08:33):
But it might be like a.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Practical thing, got it.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I'm not big on gifts either. I think it's so old,
like so silly to have to go buy something for everybody,
even if they don't need it or want it. It's
kind of hmm. It doesn't set well with me. And
thankfully my parents, like when we were about fourteen fifteen,
they just stopped doing Christmas gifts. Like everybody just like
had a nice Christmas evening, but it wasn't like a
gift centered holiday. So yeah, I agree with you. Okay,
(09:00):
last one Christmas baking? Yeah or nay?
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Well, considering I'd do it three hundred and sixty four
days of the year.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
Nay, nay, And we're.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Gonna talk about why you baked so much. But tell me. Okay,
so you started an event planning. You're a competitive triathlete former.
I guess you don't compete anymore. But how did that
segue into Austin and Kat?
Speaker 5 (09:23):
Great question. It did do one of those you know,
windy trails. But I was at an event my race
series with getting honored. The person who was giving the
award at just happened to be my husband. I had
never met him before. We had similar beliefs and similar
(09:44):
ideas of holistic health and whatnot, and he was leaving
the sports space to go into the cannabis space day
of Washington, and you know, long story short, we got
together as a couple and about a year later, he
was at a convention and called me, like, you know
when someone's so excited and they talked so fast and
(10:04):
you don't know what to do, You're like, and that's
what it was. It was so excited talking to me
about CBD and I had this fourteen year old dog
and we could help them all naturally and get it.
You could bake and I know how to bake because
I already worked with cannabis, and so I was like,
all right, let's give it a whirl. So what intended
to be something that I was going to do to
help my own dogs really just blossomed into what it's now.
(10:26):
Austin and Katz and I think right place, right time.
Speaker 6 (10:30):
You know.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
They was it luck or hard work both, you know,
all of those things. But we're really fortunate to be
getting to do what we love to do every single
day and making an impact on dogs and cats all
over the place, which is crazy. You know, I never
thought in a million years it would be like this.
How many products did you start with versus how many
(10:51):
you have now ten years later. I started with one
and I remember just a couple maybe a month or
two after I had started with that, and I was like, oh,
I need a smaller version because we get little dogs
who need it too. And now we're, you know, getting
ready to the big trade shows. A global this year
in Florida, will launch I think six new products that
will put us up in the thirties of skew of
(11:14):
number of products available.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Amazing, Okay, And which is like your flagship products? Is
there one that people kind of know Austin and cat
for or a couple or a line.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
I think I think it's two really, So we call one.
Speaker 6 (11:29):
Flection the Purple Collection.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
It's always been purple bags, but it's like every day well,
it's the introduction to CBD. It's the perfect intro for
a customer who maybe has never used it before. It's
very eye catching. The braining is really beautiful. But our
number one selling product across the country doesn't matter if
you're in Maine or if you're in Texas or you're
(11:52):
in Oregon. It's a product called Bailey's No More Wiggles.
First all, it's got the best name ever, right, all
of our products have always been created for specific pets
of Namin. So Bailey is one of our dogs who's
not on the journey when that's too old now, or
if he's staying back in Seattle with Harriet. He's our daughter.
And but Bailey's no more wiggles is a common quiet.
(12:14):
So Bailey really struggled with anything that would make him nervous,
mailman ups, truck backing up, thunderstorms, fireworks, trips to the vets,
nail trims, you name it. So we really needed to
develop a product for him specifically. I never never thought
it was going to become the best seller, but it
(12:35):
is absolutely the best seller.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
That is amazing. I love it. And what does it
contain that it calms them?
Speaker 5 (12:41):
Right, So it contains CBD, which we know has relaxation properties,
but it also contains ingredients like lavender and cammeal, passion
flower el, trip to fane, so all things that I
love the tail, all things that really illicit calm. And
when we were first, like you know, when you're writing
the brief fund the product you want to create. It
(13:03):
is like sleepy Time tea, remember Celestial Season and Steepy
Time Tea. That was like my vision. That's what I
want to create. She does not need Eric, you does
not need Bailey.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Similarly, no, my cat is here because, like I said
in the beginning of the show, I'm having eggnog, and
of course the cat's like, what is that? Can I
have some? So that's why you're gonna see a tail
just coming back and forth. And yes, actually you're right.
My cat does not need any of those things. But
I have two dogs that are very worked up. They're
(13:34):
easily worked up, I should say. And the reality is
so many dogs are and we think of dogs as
easy going in cats as like intense, and that's not
always the case. Do you only do products for dogs, don'pe?
Speaker 6 (13:48):
We do cat products also.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Awesome, there you go. All right, Well, I want to
dig in more into you who you are, about your brand,
about your team, but we need to take a break
right now. As my cat rubs his face on my microphone.
He's never really been this active on the show. I
don't know what's going on.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
Well then maybe it's nice. My name is Cat.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
There you go, look at him. That's his face right there.
He's a pretty baby. But you gotta go, honey, So
we're gonna take a break. Right here, we're gonna listen
to our sponsors, and when we come back, we're gonna
dig in to everything that cat had to do to
bring this amazing brand to life. Don't go anywhere, We'll
be right back.
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Speaker 2 (15:59):
Welcome back, Covered in pet Hair. My name is Isabelle Elberzarada.
I'm your post and my guest today is Cat of
Austin and Cat. You may know the brand. They've been
around for ten years. I'm a cat at super Zoo
this year, twenty twenty four, we're celebrating Christmas together. I'm
in my house in Alpaso. She is on a forty
foot school bus, yellow school bus that she and her
(16:20):
husband have turned in to a their beautiful abode for
the next two years, with four dogs in tow, which
is just like a dream for so many people. And
I want to dig into that. But first I want
to dig into just some questions about business ownership and
like what that experience has been for you over the
(16:42):
past ten years. So this is called Austin and Cat
one oh one, Okay, and we're gonna get to know,
like from the ground level, what it took to bring
this idea, this excitement that you described your husband getting
excited about CBD out a conference. It's actually what it
is today. Are you ready to play?
Speaker 6 (17:03):
I'm ready to play.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Okay, First things first, how long between deciding I'm going
to do this for my dog and I'm gonna do
this for the general public? How long was that process?
Oh gosh, it was probably.
Speaker 6 (17:19):
You know, a good solid ear.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
Because I was making the products and then I was
sharing them also, and I think it was that, you know,
pushing me forward. And initially I never really thought about
selling it in stores alone. I was just going to
have like this nice online business.
Speaker 6 (17:39):
And then I walked into a pet store.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
This was a couple of years after I I had
launched and saw another product and I was like, oh
my gosh, the competitive machine and me just blew up
and was like, wait a minute, my branding is better.
I've probably got a better product. I looked at the ingredients,
and my ingredients are better. I'm like, I am to
be in the store. And that was That was twenty seventeen, actually,
(18:02):
so that was three years. So we had been online
for a bit and it was twenty seventeen and it
was a store in Seattle called All the Best Pet
Care it was like a seventeen store chain or sixteen
store chain at the time, and they said yes, and
I said.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Awesome, that's amazing. And they're still one of my best
customers today. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Okay, So from you starting with your husband to getting
your first employee, how long was that that was?
Speaker 5 (18:29):
You know, I was I was solo by myself for
I would say a good couple two three years. I
was making everything, packaging everything, was shipping everything. In some cases,
I was even delivering to thumb stores like the Feattle
Market they got Oh, I drove around with Austin in
the car and we would deliver packages, and which was
great because it really really developed.
Speaker 6 (18:50):
Relationship with those retail partners.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
It was really important and they knew that I was
there to support them because if they were successful, I
was successful and then their their customers were happy, right,
So it was really important to do that those first
few years. And then you know, you slowly start to
realize it, I can't I can't wear every single hat
and need to put the put some hats on other people.
Speaker 6 (19:11):
And that's been a rare way.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
And I've been fortunate to have someone like my husband
involved from the get go. He came on to Austin
and Cat full time in December of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 6 (19:21):
Nice, but prior to that he was my sounding board.
He raised, you know, what do I do in this case?
How do I do this? What does this mean? I
mean there were so many.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
I was coming to UFF a different industry, yeah, and
never having had a consumer product.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
Right, so I didn't do what margin meant?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Like that meant well, yeah, exactly. Okay, So my next
question is how scary was this?
Speaker 5 (19:43):
I think it was very scary, but I was too
naive to realize how scary it was.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Neither day is a good thing sometimes, I agree, like
you kind of don't know what you're getting into. What's
been the hardest part, Well, if there's one example you
can give us about something that almost made you give.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
Up, maybe banking.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
Banking has been very difficult because CBD is still in that.
Speaker 6 (20:08):
Gray area, and when I initially started.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
It wasn't considered even legal, right, So banking has been
a challenge.
Speaker 8 (20:17):
We're very fortunate now to have really really good relationships
with our bank, but our credit card processors based up Creamium,
we don't pay the same thing that like a dog
feed company would pay you pay higher.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Percentage because we're still considered a risky business.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yes, so my mom is actually in compliance for banking
like she and she's like, they just need to do something.
They need to do something because it's so hard. And
she's in Miami, so there are a lot of CBD companies.
There lots of cannabis based businesses there, and she says,
it's such a biker because they can't bare hands are tied.
(20:54):
You know, the federal government's not really moving in any
direction because it's still illegal. They can't really like have
guidance to how to manage these things. So I totally agree,
like we need to like either s or get off
the pot kind of thing when it comes to this
particular product, because it really is like you know, it's
it's there's so much gray and it really affects even
(21:15):
like the consumer's experience, let alone, I can only imagine
the business that's actually supplying this product. So hopefully in
the next few years we'll see some improvement. I don't
know that we will, but here's.
Speaker 6 (21:28):
I do think it's coming.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
There's something called the Safe Banking Act, and once that
gets through Congression Senate, then things will start to change.
It's going to take a while. And I've been here
for ten years and it's you know, moved at a
snails pace backwards.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Yes, exactly. There's just so much fear around it, which
is so silly. What did your family and friends say
when you said you were gonna you know leave, you know,
the event planning and do this, especially enter this industry
that's considered cute and not that serious.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Sometimes yeah, you know again, timing is so important. So
the events that I was producing with in New England
in Maine, and I had committed myself to it for
ten years, we were we donated all of our profits
to local charities, Our school system play to pay pay
(22:18):
to play sports, and my kids were going to be
graduating high school at that point, so I knew it
was time to pass the fort.
Speaker 6 (22:25):
So that the timing were perfect.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
The bigger challenge was telling my dad, who was in
law enforcement, that.
Speaker 6 (22:34):
I was going to be selling a product, right, and
he was actually super super supportive.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
I mean, it's always going to was always my biggest fan,
and and knew that I'm not going to do something
stupid or anything that's going to put myself or my
family at risk, right, right.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Oh my gosh, I'm a conversation must have been so fun.
What does he think?
Speaker 5 (22:54):
Now, Well, my dad passed away a couple of years ago,
but he was no, that's okay.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
It's okay. He lived the really wonderful life. He was super,
super supportive and really proud. And it was funny because
they didn't have a dog or a cat.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
They were you know, elderly, but they always have taught
my product on.
Speaker 6 (23:10):
The kitchen counter, which is really really special.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Oh, I love that so much. Last question, what's your
favorite part and your least favorite part of running Austin
and con.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
My favorite part is meeting retailers and customers and customers
who gets who gets to share their experience about how
their dog has been changed, And that's just like just
warmed your heart all the time.
Speaker 6 (23:33):
I've got to go on the road.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
On this past tuesday in California with one of the
distributor reps who represent our products and got to meet
stores and stuff, and just that interaction is awesome. My
least favorite thing, I still think would be banking, Like
it just is always going to be a Now I'm
like prawl right.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yes, no, I hear you, and I'm putting it out
to the universe that in twenty twenty five you see
some you know progress there. So thank you for, you know,
letting a dig into that kind of process, because a
lot of people have big dreams, but they don't know
the work that goes into making those dreams a reality.
So you mentioned that you're going back to the Pacific
Northwest for your Christmas party. Is this something that you
(24:12):
do every year for your team?
Speaker 6 (24:14):
We do, Yeah, we do. I have such an awesome, awesome,
cool team.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
And you know, I've been on this bus journey since
March and I have to rely very heavily on the
team back there, the production team, the manufacturing team, Bales team,
everybody who's still back in the Seattle area and kind
of funny ancrcdote. And we had our company meeting this
morning and we're prepping for the party, and I said,
(24:41):
do we still have a pickleball court set up in
the warehouse? And they all look at me like, I know,
you guys said a pickleball where board up in our
warehouse when I left, Like, but I want to play
pickleball at the Grossers party.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Well that sounds like a really fun Christmas party. How
many people are on your team right now?
Speaker 1 (25:00):
All of them?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Well, I met a few of them at the at
super Zoo and they are such a great team. You're
your booth had such a great energy. I love your branding.
I love the mural you up. It's kind of like,
you know, like the kitchen and that home, but modern
and vintage all at the same time. You have a
really good look. I really like it. How much do
you kind of get involved in all the steps or
(25:23):
are you kind of really delegating these days?
Speaker 5 (25:26):
Nope, very involved in everything. In fact, we're working on
a marketing project that's due today for a new retailer
in the Florida market, and you know, Tim and I
and the design team, we're all on Zoom and moving
stuff around on our you know, design sheets and everything.
So yeah, I'm really involved in that. And I think
(25:48):
it's a really collaborative effort when you do that, because
everyone sees it differently and everyone has something valuable to add.
And we're talking about like obviously Tin's been with me
for the ten years, right, Emily, who's one of my designers,
has been with me for six years, so they like
we can all we all speak the same way, yes, right, yes,
and what I might have a block here and they
(26:10):
might have something else and you're like, oh, eureka, that's amazing, right.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yes, yes, I love that. I do think that you
guys have like a really nice team. You can kind
of tell from the energy to and it seems like
you're like a kind of an open minded person that
takes feedback and takes suggestions. Do you have to involve
the suggestions from your retailers as well since you are
marketing in their stores?
Speaker 5 (26:34):
Absolutely, and that's critical, right. And we have some key
retailers across the country that have all different types of stores.
It might be a small little boutique store, might be
you know, a multiple thousand square foot store, and they're
all going to have different needs, but making sure that
they all have the same message, but just maybe scaled
differently for each of them.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Exactly exactly how many retailers are you in right now?
More or lez?
Speaker 5 (26:59):
How twelve the thirteen hundred?
Speaker 7 (27:02):
Wow?
Speaker 6 (27:03):
Oh wait wait, I'm gonna I'm gonna adjust that.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
I will say sixteen twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Gosh, congratulations in ten years, that's amazing. That really is
like a labor of love. Have you ever thought like
what did I do? I should I mean, at this point,
I think you probably know you're in the right place,
But was there a moment in the journey that you
were like, I mean this, this is just too much?
Speaker 5 (27:26):
Yeah, there there were, I mean a lot of a
lot of it would revolve around these you know, issues
that we'd have with with credit card processing or you know,
the state of Idaho decided no, we're not gonna allow
CBD sales anymore.
Speaker 6 (27:38):
Like wait, wait, you can't see that.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
It took like nine months for theaf The NAFC got
very involved, the National Animal Supplement Help who got very involved,
and we're able to overturn that. Like you're like, you're
really harming pet parent pets, Yes, and their pet parents
who are having enough struggle with these issues that their
dogs may be having, and they may be forced to
be put on you know, medical stuff that's going to
(28:02):
hurt their liver or have long term effects that isn't holistic,
isn't wellness right, And that's the journey that we want
our pet parents to be on, a safe, healthy wellness journey. Absolutely,
And when you have things like that gets really frustrating.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
You're just like why why why? Why? Why?
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Why?
Speaker 9 (28:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (28:19):
And so I would say those are those are the
moments where you're like, did.
Speaker 6 (28:22):
I should I have just done dog food?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Well, I know one of the things we bonded over
and I interviewed you actually on the spot at super
Zoo was the quality of your ingredients. So was that
a process that you had to learn to kind of
know where to even start looking and what what is
it that you kind of right now know that you're
after when you're looking at maybe new suppliers.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
I love working with small independence. That's okay, I'm small
and independent, right. And if you can have a direct
line to an owner and know what their methodology is
and why what is their why? Why did why did
they set square Z? And that message resonates with you
and then they check all the boxes and our you know,
supplier code of conduct and all those types of things
(29:08):
and meet sustainability goals and then we can have a
great partnership. But I'm not afraid to say, you know what,
I'm moving, I'm going to use this now because this
is better, just improved. So those partnerships are really important,
and we have some really really good ones that I'm
super proud of.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Did you ever stumble like, did you have a hard
time finding because I have a feeling like it's not
that simple to find the highest quality ingredients at you know,
the price point that you can actually use them in
a pet product.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
Yeah, especially those ingredients that need to come from overseas
like New Zealand Greenland Asso for example. That's a big
one that we buy direct from New Zealand. Where's a
lot of companies will buy from, you know, companies here
in the United States that are importing and if they're importing, okay, great,
but they might be importing from one farm this month,
then the farm next. I want to know that I
(30:01):
get the same system ingredient every single time. That's just
so so important because then that means that my customer
is going to get a repeatable experience, right, they don't
want to have something change every single time. Yeah, So
choosing you know, the very very best ingredients and making
(30:23):
sure that they hit all of our requirements, then it's
a win win for everybody.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
That is really smart. Yeah, that makes total sense. I
mean everybody wants to source the best of the best,
and I've never heard anybody say that that's one of
the reasons is to maintain the consistency, because you're right,
If you're constantly changing suppliers, then every month you're going
to potentially get a different product to your pet. At
the end of the day, it's not the same thing.
(30:50):
So what are your plans for this Christmas season? After
your you know, your team's Christmas party, where are you
going to be celebrating? Where are you headed? And what
do you see for Austin and kat in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5 (31:04):
So I'm gonna be inside Seattle all next week see
the team Christmas party. Then I'll come back and I'll
meet up with Tim and the dogs and the bus,
most likely in kat So southern California, my guess. And
then we've we've got a big journey. I've made a
commitment to be at a new retail partner in January
(31:25):
and Debruary in Florida. So we've got a cross country
drive ahead of us. Nice done this already a couple
of times in the bus over to New Hampshire and back.
So yeah, but we're going to see a different part
of the country this time. We're gonna do the southern
drive over instead of the northern driveover.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Well, if you are, if you drive through l passed,
so let me know, I will say, please, let me know.
Tell me about twenty twenty five. Other than of course,
this commitment you've made for the first part of the year,
where's and you're gonna be at Global and you're probably
gonna be at super Zoos. So what plans do you
have an addition to launching those new products?
Speaker 5 (32:02):
Yeah, so this is a year of innovation for sure. Oh,
there's a lot. If we accomplish all that we want
to do, it will be it will be simply simply amazing. Yeah,
and it's really exciting things coming, some very new and
unique things that'll be different than things that we've done before.
So I think it's important to note that we're not
(32:24):
just CBD. We are holistic supplements. And this past year
we launched to skin oils skin coat oils that have
done really, really well. So they'll be the additions to
those types of big products. And I'm stoked because everything
that we make, I've made for my pets first. And
having our own facility like that's you know, critical, not
(32:45):
like I have somebody else making my products. We make
them ourselves. And being able to do that I can decide, oh, yeah,
this works or this doesn't work, or I can tweak
it here or tweak it there. And it's what we
do as a team. And in doing these two new oils,
you know they're both. One of them is really unique.
It's a vegan version so those pet parents who have
issues with fish, and it took great ingredients on it,
(33:07):
like it's just it's mind blowing. And we used it
on Kingsley. Kingsley's a rescue that we've had since April,
and it changed him.
Speaker 6 (33:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Yeah, you were telling me before we recorded that he
just showed up and never left. And I don't blame him.
I mean it sounds like he knows exactly where he's at.
He needs to stay right there. So tell me, how
can my audience learn more about your products and everything
that you are offering pet parents today?
Speaker 5 (33:33):
Yeah, so simple. It's Austin and hat and we spell
out the word and dot com, so austincat dot com.
There's also actually a link on the homepage that you
can follow along on our bus journey. See the places
that we've been, see the bus, see some videos. We
got some cool drone videos of us driving through Amish country.
Speaker 6 (33:55):
And of course some buggy going by.
Speaker 5 (33:57):
And yeah, it's been an amazing, amazing adventure. The bus
is purple, so it's true ofteny cat colors.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Oh my god, I love it so much. Well, I
just want to propose a toast to you for being
my guest, for being so awesome, and for celebrating the
holidays with me a little early. But still are holidays
you too. We're good. We just have to worry about
the turkey. Well. I also want to propose a toast
to my executive producer, Mark Winter. Thank you Mark, and
to our audience for joining us. I hope you have
(34:27):
a wonderful holiday season no matter what you celebrate. If
you celebrate, I hope your pets are well. Give them
a hug for me, say hello to them for me,
and please be sure you keep yourself safe. I will
see you again in twenty twenty five. Here's to a
life Covered in pet hair, because there's no better way
to live.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
Cheers.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
To learn more about Covered in Pet Hair, please visit
Covered in Pedhair dot com or pet life Radio dot com.
Thanks for watching, and please make sure you like, subscribe,
and follow on social media. Please rate us on your
favorite podcasting platforms so we can get these awesome conversations
out to more pet parents. This play to you, Thanks again,
and I'll see you next time.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on petlife
Radio dot com
Pet Life Radio Let's Talk Pets.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome to Covered in Pet Hair, a blousy show for
pet lovers on pet Life Radio. I'm your host, isabel Albertazerata,
and today I have the pleasure of having a drink
in a chat with a health, wellness overall just amazing
person who is very unconventional and is celebrating Christmas in
a forty foot school bus that has been converted into
(00:46):
her home. I will tell you all about her and
introduce you as soon as we come back from these
messages from our sponsors. Hi, I'm Isabelle Albertazerata, the host
of Covered Pet Hair. You know the expression cats have
nine lives? Well, what if you could give them one more?
(01:07):
Give them ten movement is on a mission to help
give cats an extra life. How with spee and newter
spaying and neutering your cat helps them live a longer,
healthier life and it helps control three roaming cat populations too.
Learn more about the benefits of spe and neuter and
meet Scooter the neuter cat at Give Them ten dot Org.
(01:29):
That's give them tean dot Org.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Let's Talk beets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Welcome back to Covered in Cut Hair. I'm your host
Isabelle al Razerata, and today I have the pleasure of
having a drink of a chat with a pet parents
an entrepreneur. She's a former triathlete, a former.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Event manager, and she's dwifed to Tim, holistic health junkie
on a two year traveling journey, like I said, on
a forty foot yellow school bus that she and her husband.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Have converted and share with four dogs. Austin, who we
will discuss at length, I'm sure, Harper, Blanka, and Kingsley.
She is the founder of Austin and Kat, a holistic
wellness supplement brand that is celebrating its tenth year in business.
She is Cat Welcome, the founder behind Austin and Kat.
(02:36):
How are you. It's so good to finally have you
on the show.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
I'm so excited to be here. I'm reatly looking forward
to our chat today.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Well, I am so excited because I mean, obviously I
invited you on the show to be my Christmas guest,
because we both celebrate Christmas. Happy holidays no matter what
you celebrate. But I just found out that you're going
to be celebrating this first Christmas on this school bus,
and I cannot wait to get into the detail what
you have planned, what you have to forego now that
(03:03):
you're in a smaller space. But before we do all that,
I want to introduce our drinking game today. So anybody
at home participating in our drinking game anytime you hear
this word.
Speaker 6 (03:13):
The secret board is Austin.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Take a drink of whatever you're enjoying, but please be
over twenty one in the US to partake. Never drink
and drive, and always drink responsibly. So are you joining
us with any kind of special festive cocktail today?
Speaker 6 (03:28):
I wish I could say I am, but it's still
two o'clock here in the PNW, and I'm going to
have to go back to work when we're done chatting today.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I know, I know, I hear that so much. So
that's why I'm actually having eggnog sons anything, because I
actually have to go help at a PTA event at
my kids' school, and so I couldn't put any booze
in here, but usually I put like a spiced rum.
So cheers. Thank you for being on the show. I
am so excited to have you as my guest.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
Thank you, And I apologize if I move around a
lot so like I killed you. I live on a bus.
We are stationary right now, but we are in just
outside of San Francisco at this really cool area, and
my dogs have discovered hairs ha r e oh. It's
(04:18):
seen bunnies before, but not the colossal size of a hair.
And so Blanca, one of our babies, it is on
the bed looking out the windows, going back and forth,
back and forth.
Speaker 6 (04:29):
So I bounced around a little bit. So apologies.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Oh my gosh, that's so funny. I mean, this is
just so much of an adventure. I love it. I
can't wait to like dig in. I really want to
learn all that you are experiencing, especially around Christmas time,
because I feel like you're in the Pacific Northwest, right,
so like it must be pretty festive, just like the environment. Right.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
Yeah, well I can take that back. I'm going to
the Pacific Northwest next week. Got it to visit my factory,
if we call it the makery, which is where and
this is Blanca.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I'm glad that she's beautiful.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
Yeah, they're really cute. The makery, which is where we
obviously make all of our products. I'm going back for
our holiday party there. But right now we're just outside
of San Francisco. I still it's the West, I should say,
just drop the PNWA exactly exactly, but it is being Christmas.
I've always like, I grew up in Maine or lived
in Maine for twenty plus years and then moved to Seattle.
(05:23):
So Christmas was cold weather, right, so you know, bundled up,
buffy coat, put a hat on, go buy a tree.
And here it's like, you know, Santa's got a Hawaiian
shirt on, but the lights are still on the palm trees,
and it's just a different way of seeing and appreciating.
We drove that Christmas tree place the other day and
everyone was in short.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
So it just seems though, like, okay, okay, So I
grew up in Miami, and yes, that's basically you just
described like a Miami Christmas. And it's so funny because
I don't know if you remember in Home alone two,
I think they went to Miami and like they're all
stuck in like this like beach motel and it's like
raining and it's hot, and like it's not Christmas at all.
(06:05):
And so I do agree that like seeing Christmas and
like shorts is not my thing. And when my husband
was deployed. I actually spent a year in Miami over
Christmas and I had to tell my mom like, can
we drive north please? Cause like I can't. I can't
do the Christmas with the shorts. I needed sweater weather.
I live in Alplas one now where it's really hot
(06:26):
during the summer, but we get cold winter, like cold
ish winters. So yeah, I need a little bit of,
you know, like the atmosphere for it to feel like Christmas.
So I actually want to get to know all of
your Christmas preferences in your Christmas yay or nay. So
I am going to ask you about certain things, certain traditions,
(06:48):
certain kind of key elements of Christmas, and you tell
me if they're kind of part of your ritual or not.
So are you ready to play?
Speaker 6 (06:56):
I'm ready?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Okay, fust one. Christmas movies, yeah your nay?
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Oh yeah, okay, favorite Christmas movie the Holiday?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Oh you're one of those arom com yeahmm yeah, yes, great,
least favorite Christmas movie or most overrated?
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Oh gosh, elf, but I love it.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Okay, that's your least favorite. That's like my favorite.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
I mean, no, I love it, but I think it I.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Think it's not as good as people think.
Speaker 5 (07:26):
I think it was good when I had a lot
to drink.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Cuche probably right, Okay. Christmas tree yay.
Speaker 6 (07:33):
Your nay yay? Even on the bus no, unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Okay, not even a little one. That would be.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
Hard, right, I think with so with Kingsley, he's the rescue.
Speaker 7 (07:45):
I think he would pay on it because he has
to pee where everybody peas.
Speaker 8 (07:49):
Got it?
Speaker 6 (07:50):
Got it?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Okay, got it?
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Got it?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Okay, all right, yeah, definitely ane Okay. Christmas dinner favor
food like is it a roast? Yay or nay?
Speaker 6 (08:02):
Nay? What do you eat? Usually turkey?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Turkey? You don't get like sick of turkey from Thanksgiving people.
I like turkey a lot, so I I.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
Do too, I do too, Yeah okay, yeah yeah, Congress to.
Speaker 6 (08:15):
Pork is really nice too.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah that's true, Caroline, yeay.
Speaker 6 (08:19):
Your nae nay. Don't want to hear me sing.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Gift giving too, like a million people? Are you the
type that has like a long list of gifts? No,
no gift giving to your significant other dumb times?
Speaker 6 (08:33):
But it might be like a.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Practical thing, got it.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I'm not big on gifts either. I think it's so old,
like so silly to have to go buy something for everybody,
even if they don't need it or want it. It's
kind of hmm. It doesn't set well with me. And
thankfully my parents, like when we were about fourteen fifteen,
they just stopped doing Christmas gifts. Like everybody just like
had a nice Christmas evening, but it wasn't like a
gift centered holiday. So yeah, I agree with you. Okay,
(09:00):
last one Christmas baking? Yeah or nay?
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Well, considering I'd do it three hundred and sixty four
days of the year.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
Nay, nay, And we're.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Gonna talk about why you baked so much. But tell me. Okay,
so you started an event planning. You're a competitive triathlete former.
I guess you don't compete anymore. But how did that
segue into Austin and Kat?
Speaker 5 (09:23):
Great question. It did do one of those you know,
windy trails. But I was at an event my race
series with getting honored. The person who was giving the
award at just happened to be my husband. I had
never met him before. We had similar beliefs and similar
(09:44):
ideas of holistic health and whatnot, and he was leaving
the sports space to go into the cannabis space day
of Washington, and you know, long story short, we got
together as a couple and about a year later, he
was at a convention and called me, like, you know
when someone's so excited and they talked so fast and
(10:04):
you don't know what to do, You're like, and that's
what it was. It was so excited talking to me
about CBD and I had this fourteen year old dog
and we could help them all naturally and get it.
You could bake and I know how to bake because
I already worked with cannabis, and so I was like,
all right, let's give it a whirl. So what intended
to be something that I was going to do to
help my own dogs really just blossomed into what it's now.
(10:26):
Austin and Katz and I think right place, right time.
Speaker 6 (10:30):
You know.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
They was it luck or hard work both, you know,
all of those things. But we're really fortunate to be
getting to do what we love to do every single
day and making an impact on dogs and cats all
over the place, which is crazy. You know, I never
thought in a million years it would be like this.
How many products did you start with versus how many
(10:51):
you have now ten years later. I started with one
and I remember just a couple maybe a month or
two after I had started with that, and I was like, oh,
I need a smaller version because we get little dogs
who need it too. And now we're, you know, getting
ready to the big trade shows. A global this year
in Florida, will launch I think six new products that
will put us up in the thirties of skew of
(11:14):
number of products available.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Amazing, Okay, And which is like your flagship products? Is
there one that people kind of know Austin and cat
for or a couple or a line.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
I think I think it's two really, So we call one.
Speaker 6 (11:29):
Flection the Purple Collection.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
It's always been purple bags, but it's like every day well,
it's the introduction to CBD. It's the perfect intro for
a customer who maybe has never used it before. It's
very eye catching. The braining is really beautiful. But our
number one selling product across the country doesn't matter if
you're in Maine or if you're in Texas or you're
(11:52):
in Oregon. It's a product called Bailey's No More Wiggles.
First all, it's got the best name ever, right, all
of our products have always been created for specific pets
of Namin. So Bailey is one of our dogs who's
not on the journey when that's too old now, or
if he's staying back in Seattle with Harriet. He's our daughter.
And but Bailey's no more wiggles is a common quiet.
(12:14):
So Bailey really struggled with anything that would make him nervous,
mailman ups, truck backing up, thunderstorms, fireworks, trips to the vets,
nail trims, you name it. So we really needed to
develop a product for him specifically. I never never thought
it was going to become the best seller, but it
(12:35):
is absolutely the best seller.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
That is amazing. I love it. And what does it
contain that it calms them?
Speaker 5 (12:41):
Right, So it contains CBD, which we know has relaxation properties,
but it also contains ingredients like lavender and cammeal, passion
flower el, trip to fane, so all things that I
love the tail, all things that really illicit calm. And
when we were first, like you know, when you're writing
the brief fund the product you want to create. It
(13:03):
is like sleepy Time tea, remember Celestial Season and Steepy
Time Tea. That was like my vision. That's what I
want to create. She does not need Eric, you does
not need Bailey.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Similarly, no, my cat is here because, like I said
in the beginning of the show, I'm having eggnog, and
of course the cat's like, what is that? Can I
have some? So that's why you're gonna see a tail
just coming back and forth. And yes, actually you're right.
My cat does not need any of those things. But
I have two dogs that are very worked up. They're
(13:34):
easily worked up, I should say. And the reality is
so many dogs are and we think of dogs as
easy going in cats as like intense, and that's not
always the case. Do you only do products for dogs, don'pe?
Speaker 6 (13:48):
We do cat products also.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Awesome, there you go. All right, Well, I want to
dig in more into you who you are, about your brand,
about your team, but we need to take a break
right now. As my cat rubs his face on my microphone.
He's never really been this active on the show. I
don't know what's going on.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
Well then maybe it's nice. My name is Cat.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
There you go, look at him. That's his face right there.
He's a pretty baby. But you gotta go, honey, So
we're gonna take a break. Right here, we're gonna listen
to our sponsors, and when we come back, we're gonna
dig in to everything that cat had to do to
bring this amazing brand to life. Don't go anywhere, We'll
be right back.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Guests for like Pest Smart on the.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
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Speaker 7 (14:38):
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Speaker 2 (15:16):
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Speaker 2 (15:32):
Guess the live guest, joy the mapping dreams withoudcare, Let's
talk past, Let's done, Pets Life Radio, Hedline Radio.
Speaker 9 (15:47):
Pet Light Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Welcome back, Covered in pet Hair. My name is Isabelle Elberzarada.
I'm your post and my guest today is Cat of
Austin and Cat. You may know the brand. They've been
around for ten years. I'm a cat at super Zoo
this year, twenty twenty four, we're celebrating Christmas together. I'm
in my house in Alpaso. She is on a forty
foot school bus, yellow school bus that she and her
(16:20):
husband have turned in to a their beautiful abode for
the next two years, with four dogs in tow, which
is just like a dream for so many people. And
I want to dig into that. But first I want
to dig into just some questions about business ownership and
like what that experience has been for you over the
(16:42):
past ten years. So this is called Austin and Cat
one oh one, Okay, and we're gonna get to know,
like from the ground level, what it took to bring
this idea, this excitement that you described your husband getting
excited about CBD out a conference. It's actually what it
is today. Are you ready to play?
Speaker 6 (17:03):
I'm ready to play.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Okay, First things first, how long between deciding I'm going
to do this for my dog and I'm gonna do
this for the general public? How long was that process?
Oh gosh, it was probably.
Speaker 6 (17:19):
You know, a good solid ear.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
Because I was making the products and then I was
sharing them also, and I think it was that, you know,
pushing me forward. And initially I never really thought about
selling it in stores alone. I was just going to
have like this nice online business.
Speaker 6 (17:39):
And then I walked into a pet store.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
This was a couple of years after I I had
launched and saw another product and I was like, oh
my gosh, the competitive machine and me just blew up
and was like, wait a minute, my branding is better.
I've probably got a better product. I looked at the ingredients,
and my ingredients are better. I'm like, I am to
be in the store. And that was That was twenty seventeen, actually,
(18:02):
so that was three years. So we had been online
for a bit and it was twenty seventeen and it
was a store in Seattle called All the Best Pet
Care it was like a seventeen store chain or sixteen
store chain at the time, and they said yes, and
I said.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Awesome, that's amazing. And they're still one of my best
customers today. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Okay, So from you starting with your husband to getting
your first employee, how long was that that was?
Speaker 5 (18:29):
You know, I was I was solo by myself for
I would say a good couple two three years. I
was making everything, packaging everything, was shipping everything. In some cases,
I was even delivering to thumb stores like the Feattle
Market they got Oh, I drove around with Austin in
the car and we would deliver packages, and which was
great because it really really developed.
Speaker 6 (18:50):
Relationship with those retail partners.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
It was really important and they knew that I was
there to support them because if they were successful, I
was successful and then their their customers were happy, right,
So it was really important to do that those first
few years. And then you know, you slowly start to
realize it, I can't I can't wear every single hat
and need to put the put some hats on other people.
Speaker 6 (19:11):
And that's been a rare way.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
And I've been fortunate to have someone like my husband
involved from the get go. He came on to Austin
and Cat full time in December of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 6 (19:21):
Nice, but prior to that he was my sounding board.
He raised, you know, what do I do in this case?
How do I do this? What does this mean? I
mean there were so many.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
I was coming to UFF a different industry, yeah, and
never having had a consumer product.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
Right, so I didn't do what margin meant?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Like that meant well, yeah, exactly. Okay, So my next
question is how scary was this?
Speaker 5 (19:43):
I think it was very scary, but I was too
naive to realize how scary it was.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Neither day is a good thing sometimes, I agree, like
you kind of don't know what you're getting into. What's
been the hardest part, Well, if there's one example you
can give us about something that almost made you give.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
Up, maybe banking.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
Banking has been very difficult because CBD is still in that.
Speaker 6 (20:08):
Gray area, and when I initially started.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
It wasn't considered even legal, right, So banking has been
a challenge.
Speaker 8 (20:17):
We're very fortunate now to have really really good relationships
with our bank, but our credit card processors based up Creamium,
we don't pay the same thing that like a dog
feed company would pay you pay higher.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Percentage because we're still considered a risky business.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yes, so my mom is actually in compliance for banking
like she and she's like, they just need to do something.
They need to do something because it's so hard. And
she's in Miami, so there are a lot of CBD companies.
There lots of cannabis based businesses there, and she says,
it's such a biker because they can't bare hands are tied.
(20:54):
You know, the federal government's not really moving in any
direction because it's still illegal. They can't really like have
guidance to how to manage these things. So I totally agree,
like we need to like either s or get off
the pot kind of thing when it comes to this
particular product, because it really is like you know, it's
it's there's so much gray and it really affects even
(21:15):
like the consumer's experience, let alone, I can only imagine
the business that's actually supplying this product. So hopefully in
the next few years we'll see some improvement. I don't
know that we will, but here's.
Speaker 6 (21:28):
I do think it's coming.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
There's something called the Safe Banking Act, and once that
gets through Congression Senate, then things will start to change.
It's going to take a while. And I've been here
for ten years and it's you know, moved at a
snails pace backwards.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Yes, exactly. There's just so much fear around it, which
is so silly. What did your family and friends say
when you said you were gonna you know leave, you know,
the event planning and do this, especially enter this industry
that's considered cute and not that serious.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Sometimes yeah, you know again, timing is so important. So
the events that I was producing with in New England
in Maine, and I had committed myself to it for
ten years, we were we donated all of our profits
to local charities, Our school system play to pay pay
(22:18):
to play sports, and my kids were going to be
graduating high school at that point, so I knew it
was time to pass the fort.
Speaker 6 (22:25):
So that the timing were perfect.
Speaker 5 (22:27):
The bigger challenge was telling my dad, who was in
law enforcement, that.
Speaker 6 (22:34):
I was going to be selling a product, right, and
he was actually super super supportive.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
I mean, it's always going to was always my biggest fan,
and and knew that I'm not going to do something
stupid or anything that's going to put myself or my
family at risk, right, right.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Oh my gosh, I'm a conversation must have been so fun.
What does he think?
Speaker 5 (22:54):
Now, Well, my dad passed away a couple of years ago,
but he was no, that's okay.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
It's okay. He lived the really wonderful life. He was super,
super supportive and really proud. And it was funny because
they didn't have a dog or a cat.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
They were you know, elderly, but they always have taught
my product on.
Speaker 6 (23:10):
The kitchen counter, which is really really special.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Oh, I love that so much. Last question, what's your
favorite part and your least favorite part of running Austin
and con.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
My favorite part is meeting retailers and customers and customers
who gets who gets to share their experience about how
their dog has been changed, And that's just like just
warmed your heart all the time.
Speaker 6 (23:33):
I've got to go on the road.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
On this past tuesday in California with one of the
distributor reps who represent our products and got to meet
stores and stuff, and just that interaction is awesome. My
least favorite thing, I still think would be banking, Like
it just is always going to be a Now I'm
like prawl right.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yes, no, I hear you, and I'm putting it out
to the universe that in twenty twenty five you see
some you know progress there. So thank you for, you know,
letting a dig into that kind of process, because a
lot of people have big dreams, but they don't know
the work that goes into making those dreams a reality.
So you mentioned that you're going back to the Pacific
Northwest for your Christmas party. Is this something that you
(24:12):
do every year for your team?
Speaker 6 (24:14):
We do, Yeah, we do. I have such an awesome, awesome,
cool team.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
And you know, I've been on this bus journey since
March and I have to rely very heavily on the
team back there, the production team, the manufacturing team, Bales team,
everybody who's still back in the Seattle area and kind
of funny ancrcdote. And we had our company meeting this
morning and we're prepping for the party, and I said,
(24:41):
do we still have a pickleball court set up in
the warehouse? And they all look at me like, I know,
you guys said a pickleball where board up in our
warehouse when I left, Like, but I want to play
pickleball at the Grossers party.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Well that sounds like a really fun Christmas party. How
many people are on your team right now?
Speaker 1 (25:00):
All of them?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Well, I met a few of them at the at
super Zoo and they are such a great team. You're
your booth had such a great energy. I love your branding.
I love the mural you up. It's kind of like,
you know, like the kitchen and that home, but modern
and vintage all at the same time. You have a
really good look. I really like it. How much do
you kind of get involved in all the steps or
(25:23):
are you kind of really delegating these days?
Speaker 5 (25:26):
Nope, very involved in everything. In fact, we're working on
a marketing project that's due today for a new retailer
in the Florida market, and you know, Tim and I
and the design team, we're all on Zoom and moving
stuff around on our you know, design sheets and everything.
So yeah, I'm really involved in that. And I think
(25:48):
it's a really collaborative effort when you do that, because
everyone sees it differently and everyone has something valuable to add.
And we're talking about like obviously Tin's been with me
for the ten years, right, Emily, who's one of my designers,
has been with me for six years, so they like
we can all we all speak the same way, yes, right, yes,
and what I might have a block here and they
(26:10):
might have something else and you're like, oh, eureka, that's amazing, right.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yes, yes, I love that. I do think that you
guys have like a really nice team. You can kind
of tell from the energy to and it seems like
you're like a kind of an open minded person that
takes feedback and takes suggestions. Do you have to involve
the suggestions from your retailers as well since you are
marketing in their stores?
Speaker 5 (26:34):
Absolutely, and that's critical, right. And we have some key
retailers across the country that have all different types of stores.
It might be a small little boutique store, might be
you know, a multiple thousand square foot store, and they're
all going to have different needs, but making sure that
they all have the same message, but just maybe scaled
differently for each of them.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Exactly exactly how many retailers are you in right now?
More or lez?
Speaker 5 (26:59):
How twelve the thirteen hundred?
Speaker 7 (27:02):
Wow?
Speaker 6 (27:03):
Oh wait wait, I'm gonna I'm gonna adjust that.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
I will say sixteen twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Gosh, congratulations in ten years, that's amazing. That really is
like a labor of love. Have you ever thought like
what did I do? I should I mean, at this point,
I think you probably know you're in the right place,
But was there a moment in the journey that you
were like, I mean this, this is just too much?
Speaker 5 (27:26):
Yeah, there there were, I mean a lot of a
lot of it would revolve around these you know, issues
that we'd have with with credit card processing or you know,
the state of Idaho decided no, we're not gonna allow
CBD sales anymore.
Speaker 6 (27:38):
Like wait, wait, you can't see that.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
It took like nine months for theaf The NAFC got
very involved, the National Animal Supplement Help who got very involved,
and we're able to overturn that. Like you're like, you're
really harming pet parent pets, Yes, and their pet parents
who are having enough struggle with these issues that their
dogs may be having, and they may be forced to
be put on you know, medical stuff that's going to
(28:02):
hurt their liver or have long term effects that isn't holistic,
isn't wellness right, And that's the journey that we want
our pet parents to be on, a safe, healthy wellness journey. Absolutely,
And when you have things like that gets really frustrating.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
You're just like why why why? Why? Why?
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Why?
Speaker 9 (28:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (28:19):
And so I would say those are those are the
moments where you're like, did.
Speaker 6 (28:22):
I should I have just done dog food?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Well, I know one of the things we bonded over
and I interviewed you actually on the spot at super
Zoo was the quality of your ingredients. So was that
a process that you had to learn to kind of
know where to even start looking and what what is
it that you kind of right now know that you're
after when you're looking at maybe new suppliers.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
I love working with small independence. That's okay, I'm small
and independent, right. And if you can have a direct
line to an owner and know what their methodology is
and why what is their why? Why did why did
they set square Z? And that message resonates with you
and then they check all the boxes and our you know,
supplier code of conduct and all those types of things
(29:08):
and meet sustainability goals and then we can have a
great partnership. But I'm not afraid to say, you know what,
I'm moving, I'm going to use this now because this
is better, just improved. So those partnerships are really important,
and we have some really really good ones that I'm
super proud of.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Did you ever stumble like, did you have a hard
time finding because I have a feeling like it's not
that simple to find the highest quality ingredients at you know,
the price point that you can actually use them in
a pet product.
Speaker 5 (29:40):
Yeah, especially those ingredients that need to come from overseas
like New Zealand Greenland Asso for example. That's a big
one that we buy direct from New Zealand. Where's a
lot of companies will buy from, you know, companies here
in the United States that are importing and if they're importing, okay, great,
but they might be importing from one farm this month,
then the farm next. I want to know that I
(30:01):
get the same system ingredient every single time. That's just
so so important because then that means that my customer
is going to get a repeatable experience, right, they don't
want to have something change every single time. Yeah, So
choosing you know, the very very best ingredients and making
(30:23):
sure that they hit all of our requirements, then it's
a win win for everybody.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
That is really smart. Yeah, that makes total sense. I
mean everybody wants to source the best of the best,
and I've never heard anybody say that that's one of
the reasons is to maintain the consistency, because you're right,
If you're constantly changing suppliers, then every month you're going
to potentially get a different product to your pet. At
the end of the day, it's not the same thing.
(30:50):
So what are your plans for this Christmas season? After
your you know, your team's Christmas party, where are you
going to be celebrating? Where are you headed? And what
do you see for Austin and kat in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5 (31:04):
So I'm gonna be inside Seattle all next week see
the team Christmas party. Then I'll come back and I'll
meet up with Tim and the dogs and the bus,
most likely in kat So southern California, my guess. And
then we've we've got a big journey. I've made a
commitment to be at a new retail partner in January
(31:25):
and Debruary in Florida. So we've got a cross country
drive ahead of us. Nice done this already a couple
of times in the bus over to New Hampshire and back.
So yeah, but we're going to see a different part
of the country this time. We're gonna do the southern
drive over instead of the northern driveover.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Well, if you are, if you drive through l passed,
so let me know, I will say, please, let me know.
Tell me about twenty twenty five. Other than of course,
this commitment you've made for the first part of the year,
where's and you're gonna be at Global and you're probably
gonna be at super Zoos. So what plans do you
have an addition to launching those new products?
Speaker 5 (32:02):
Yeah, so this is a year of innovation for sure. Oh,
there's a lot. If we accomplish all that we want
to do, it will be it will be simply simply amazing. Yeah,
and it's really exciting things coming, some very new and
unique things that'll be different than things that we've done before.
So I think it's important to note that we're not
(32:24):
just CBD. We are holistic supplements. And this past year
we launched to skin oils skin coat oils that have
done really, really well. So they'll be the additions to
those types of big products. And I'm stoked because everything
that we make, I've made for my pets first. And
having our own facility like that's you know, critical, not
(32:45):
like I have somebody else making my products. We make
them ourselves. And being able to do that I can decide, oh, yeah,
this works or this doesn't work, or I can tweak
it here or tweak it there. And it's what we
do as a team. And in doing these two new oils,
you know they're both. One of them is really unique.
It's a vegan version so those pet parents who have
issues with fish, and it took great ingredients on it,
(33:07):
like it's just it's mind blowing. And we used it
on Kingsley. Kingsley's a rescue that we've had since April,
and it changed him.
Speaker 6 (33:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Yeah, you were telling me before we recorded that he
just showed up and never left. And I don't blame him.
I mean it sounds like he knows exactly where he's at.
He needs to stay right there. So tell me, how
can my audience learn more about your products and everything
that you are offering pet parents today?
Speaker 5 (33:33):
Yeah, so simple. It's Austin and hat and we spell
out the word and dot com, so austincat dot com.
There's also actually a link on the homepage that you
can follow along on our bus journey. See the places
that we've been, see the bus, see some videos. We
got some cool drone videos of us driving through Amish country.
Speaker 6 (33:55):
And of course some buggy going by.
Speaker 5 (33:57):
And yeah, it's been an amazing, amazing adventure. The bus
is purple, so it's true ofteny cat colors.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Oh my god, I love it so much. Well, I
just want to propose a toast to you for being
my guest, for being so awesome, and for celebrating the
holidays with me a little early. But still are holidays
you too. We're good. We just have to worry about
the turkey. Well. I also want to propose a toast
to my executive producer, Mark Winter. Thank you Mark, and
to our audience for joining us. I hope you have
(34:27):
a wonderful holiday season no matter what you celebrate. If
you celebrate, I hope your pets are well. Give them
a hug for me, say hello to them for me,
and please be sure you keep yourself safe. I will
see you again in twenty twenty five. Here's to a
life Covered in pet hair, because there's no better way
to live.
Speaker 5 (34:46):
Cheers.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
To learn more about Covered in Pet Hair, please visit
Covered in Pedhair dot com or pet life Radio dot com.
Thanks for watching, and please make sure you like, subscribe,
and follow on social media. Please rate us on your
favorite podcasting platforms so we can get these awesome conversations
out to more pet parents. This play to you, Thanks again,
and I'll see you next time.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on petlife
Radio dot com
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