Pet Personalities: Shenanigans & Struggles
A year in review of the Pets with BIG personalities I’ve had the immense gratification to love & work with.
After a long look at our current life needs and goals, my husband and I decided it would be best to wait on adding a fur-baby to our newly-petless family. I had never not had a dog (or several) and other animals in my day-to-day life; and the void was a gaping hole that really unsettled me, despite knowing it was the right decision for us. Additionally, when it comes to exercise, I struggle to hold myself accountable months into pregnancy, I was especially anxious about my lapse in this area. I knew I should be walking daily to support an easier delivery and have balanced activity in my day. With both of these weighing on my mind, the solution seemed so obvious as a “for hire” ad scrolled across my feed. Days after, I was hired by “A Petsitter Plus” as an independent In-home Petsitter, Walker, & Trainer. The Couple who owned the business has since retired, but I continued with my clients along with the word-of-mouth referred new clients I acquired while thoroughly enjoying this unexpected hobby-business.
Mommy & Me Petsitting in Palm Beach has, and to this day,
allows me to do something I’m passionate about while serving
several of my own personal life needs. I get to have amazing
pets in my life nearly everyday to play, cuddle, and love on;
I’m able to include my children in the fun experience, and
give them the pet care responsibility and positive interaction
I feel offers so many social and personal growth benefits; and
I get to directly help the individual owners who are often
anxious about their search for quality and affordable care
and/or training during the times they can’t be present.
These pets are as adored and prioritized as human children
are—and just like finding a daycare, babysitter, or tutor—the
process of finding a caregiver a pet parent can depend on and
trust can be a long and repetitively disappointing journey. I
love that I am able to exceed expectations in filling that
need and become more than a simple pet-care servicer—I’m a
friend that loves owner’s-pets as though they are part of my
own family (with how involved I am with most of these lovable
pet’s on a weekly basis, they practically are!) for the
simplicity of being the true lucky winner in this exchange: my
life would not feel as full and purposeful without these happy
furry, feathered, or scaled faces lighting up my life in ways
only animals, can. This video is a compilation of some of the
happiest moments I’ve experienced in the last year, and they
are collected and cherished in an album, right beside the
albums of “happiest moments with my endlessly entertaining
kids” and “with my Best Friend & Soul-Mate: aka Captain Cowboy
aka Husband.”
Frigate Financial is my primary Business that utilizes my Education, Experience, Expertise, and People-driven Passion to assist in significantly improving clients financial health, so they can Stress-Less and Live More—it is the path I use to help my fellow humans in achieving more happiness in their own individual lives. I find a lot of happiness in this endeavor as well....but it is driven by a desire to GIVE with purpose.
But Mommy and Me Petsitting has been my Therapeutic Side-Hustle: keeping my love for animals, need for fun-disguised exercise, and surrounding myself with unconditionally-excited-to-see-me Beings, engaged and consistently present in my day-to-day life routine—all which serve ME in the balance of my personal dynamics, and are essential to my happy life experience. Allowing me to RECEIVE with purpose.
The most important advice I can possibly gift to anyone seeking both happiness AND success—always consider passion-driven opportunities to serve others....but also find opportunities that serve your soul more than your pocket. Meaning, if you HAD to do it for free, would you still do it? I did it for free for years with my own (at one point 18) pets (and helping family, friends and neighbors when I was able). * Yes, I know, 18 is a lot—it’s also another story for another time
Petsitting will likely never be the business venture that
solely or significantly supports reaching our financial
success goals (not without commercializing it and essentially
destroying the characteristics I personally love most about
this hobby/hustle). HOWEVER, it will always be the business
that prioritizes my happiness before naturally spilling into
creating happiness for others.
In life you need both....so if your main source of working
income (whether it’s sufficient income for your needs & goals,
or not) Keep pushing to either find a main source that does
both (VERY DIFFICULT), or add a secondary part-time path as a
hobby with the perk of additional income you don’t necessarily
need.
“Some of you might be asking “why not just do it for free?”
And that’s a valid question. And maybe if your life is one
that all financial needs are more than met, no matter what,
perhaps that’s something you should consider—and what many
people do include as part of their life routine....it’s called
“Charity”. And there are loads of people and beings and causes
that are in desperate need of volunteers. I consider that a
separate endeavor that I actively participate in during my
weekend FREE-TIME...and I also mix charitable activity within
my businesses as part of the culture. But I’m not talking
about free time, I’m talking about self-work-week-time. I’m
talking about the activated time of purposeful activity you
already need to feed your soul as part of a balanced routine
that can also potentially serve as another source of income
because someone else needs a service that your personal
prioritized need can fill.
If that’s painting....AWESOME!!! If you love to paint and you paint simply for the pleasure of painting, then that is a hobby that can serve your soul AND has potential for some income. You’re painting anyway...and there is someone out there looking for the painting you have done! Make it available! Post it, put it on your social pages, and put a price on it! Because the secondary reason to not simply give your needed hobby service or product away for free is that the payment in itself creates perceived value to the customer or client doing the purchasing, and self-perceived value and worth that creates an exchange of tangible and useful appreciation for something you naturally love doing just for the sake of doing it. This is the Ultimate Exchange and the REAL SECRET of finding HAPPINESS in “WORK”. You are not creating or offering something with the intention or consideration of other's wants. You are doing something you “LIVE, LAUGH, & LOVE” to do, and release it into the universe in the case that someone out there wants/needs it. And with 7.753 BILLION people in the world (as of today, 10/4/2022), there is a very good chance someone out there is seeking exactly what you’re offering, and more than happy to pay to have it.
We all require a balanced exchange of energies—whether a tangible exchange is taking place or not, energy is exchanged along with it. When you have excess of anything, you tend not to appreciate it. This is the basic foundation of Entitlement, and I have not once ever met a happy entitled person—they are always disappointed, and receiving anything is a fleeting mili-moment of shallow-satisfaction. In the case of charity, the exchange is their deeply appreciative energy in exchange for your freely and willingly donated time/money/skill/work/etc.—which makes you FEEL GOOD, because you KNOW you have given something that was desperately needed and wouldn’t have been received if it weren’t for your selflessness—and part of what drives us as humans is the need to feel needed and provide. Those in need, are truly grateful when they receive your assistance, and you can feel that energy exchange in a substantial way—it literally produces an abundance of feel-good chemicals that enhance your life experience—all natural rose-tinted glasses to see your own life and sense of self in a more beautiful way.
Imagine for a moment the energy exchange that would take place if you were to offer a fully-functional-and-capable-adult-man with your volunteered assistance to help him cross an empty street. 1.) He’s going to think you’re impaired in some way (probably crazy) and/or 2.) He’s going to be offended and 3.) You’re going to have a hard time gaining a beneficial self-view or tangible payment to establish value for yourself. That exchange is awkward and unnecessary and creates a devaluing view of your offering of time and assistance. When you offer something for free—typically, no one wants it, they will instantly assume something is wrong with it, or you. “FREE BABYSITTING!” -instant thought “that person is a Pedo or Human Trafficking”, “FREE HAIRCUT!”-instant thought “I’m not going to let someone practice their cutting techniques on my hair.”
“FREE FURNITURE”-instant thought “it must be broken, ugly, or have bugs.” The great thing about Hobby Hustles, is that it requires nothing extra from you other than to make it available for the world to see and put a price on it. You would be doing this activity anyway. If no one wants what you’re offering (you’re probably doing it wrong), but it’s okay anyway because you lose nothing—you’re simply allowing the potential to gain much more gratification in the activity with the perk of additional income that you wouldn’t have had otherwise by keeping it to yourself as just an enjoyable hobby. And because you’d be doing it anyway, you have the freedom to offer it for free to an individual who IS in need. I’ve had a client or two who struggled financially for a time, and I offered to continue to provide my service for free until they were in a better financial position, and I presented accurately: “This is not charity, I would be extremely sad if your pets care was not a part of my routine, and I would HATE to lose it over something as stupid as money. I’m happy to do this, because it sincerely makes me happy.” Guess which clients I received the most referrals from? And guess what happened when they were back in the green?
Which leads me to the next thing—don’t ruin your hobby. Don’t take on more than you can comfortably and pleasantly handle. Don’t sell yourself out, or short. If you have an insane flow of demand that you can’t possibly keep up with in a way that enhances your happiness—that’s a sign you need to consider if it is priced to support your needs and goals to take on full-time. If not, that’s a sign of needing to increase your price. You have under-estimated the value of what you offer along with the demand for it. If offering a low price is a characteristic that makes you happier to be able to offer, find another person like you to partner up with and enhance their life with the opportunity to enjoy a hobby and make some extra income. Or, simply say “Sorry, I’m booked/sold out. If you give me your info, I can let you know when I have an opening/more available.” This also creates a doubly dual-perception of your side-hustles value. People will wait for months, sometimes even years to get a VERY EXPENSIVE tattoo done by the artist they are convinced has to be the one to do their tattoo-and maybe you’ll have the same sort of following. Maybe you offer something that can’t be done by anyone else but unique and wonderful you! But you don’t know, because you’re not allowing your LOVED TALENT shine loud enough for others to know or hear about.
That is the beauty of the Hobby-Hustle....it is immensely flexible, you can pick and choose what you want to do with it as moods and needs change....and maybe, just maybe, it gives you the rare opportunity to do what you TRULY LOVE full-time, support your financial needs and goals without money being the driver of your activities—a real deal dream job, one that is 100% in alignment with your unique needs for happiness, that just so happens to come along with the perk of financial freedom-it’s a win no matter what, because it’s all about you!
Live true to yourself, and happiness is sure to SOAR right along with you. Along your journey, I hope you’ll also consider soaring with Frigate Financial services that are customized to your unique financial needs and goals, and get you there that much faster!
Safe Flight!
