05 NovEpisode 178 | She helps Positive Reinforcement dog trainers grow their businesses using Instagram: Meet Tiffany Chen, aka Pawsistant
Right after getting a pandemic puppy, Tiffany Chen decided to see if she could build some sort of side hustle in order to get her out of the corporate world. She signed up for the Virtual Assistant Internship and learned that it's wise to pick a niche. While she was working on learning about training her own dog (and building his requisite Instagram persona) she started following a lot of positive reinforcement dog trainers. It occurred to her that maybe she could use her virtual assistant powers to help them improve their marketing. She and Annie discuss how fun the R+ dog training movement is on Instagram, talk about ways to help trainers build their followings, and think aloud together about some of the overlap between training dogs and how social media's efforts to train us.
Subscribe: iTunes
Mentioned in this episode:
Follow Pawsistant on Instagram at @pawsistant
Follow Annie on Instagram at @annie.grossman
Follow School For The Dogs on Instagram at @schoolforthedogs
Emily Fitzpatrick: Dog Trainer (@misunderstoodmutt) • Instagram photos and videos
@fromdusktildog
@doginspired
https://virtualassistantinternship.com/
Transcript:
Annie:
In the decades of my life before I became a professional dog trainer, I think I had an avatar in my brain for who a dog trainer would be, what a dog trainer would be like. And I mean, if I try and remember what that avatar is, it's someone female, older, and kind of uncool, kind of schoolmarm-ish. I guess kind of like Barbara Woodhouse, like a martinet. Not that I thought of myself as particularly cool. I didn't. But I think I thought of myself as uncool in a different kind of way than that.
And when I pictured myself becoming a dog trainer, I didn't really have a picture of what that would be like. I had, even when I graduated from Karen Pryor Academy, I hadn't even seen that many people train dogs, period. And I didn't really, I couldn't quite picture what it would be like as a career.
I mean, I literally didn't know, like how would I dress when I went to clients' houses? Like how, how do I as a dog trainer, like what clothing do I wear? It sounds simple and even silly to say that, but we're all playing roles all the time and I wasn't sure what this role was about or like how I could fit myself into it.
And I think I've talked about this on the podcast before, but in 2010, I went to the Association for Professional Dog Trainers Conference in Atlanta. It was shortly after I had graduated Karen Pryor Academy where I had only met a couple of trainers, because there were only two other people in my class, and my instructor.
And my mind was kind of blown, cause I just sort of had this moment of like seeing there's so many cool and fun and interesting things in the world of dog training. There's so much that you could do with dogs. There's so much to learn about dogs. And I think that this is somehow an overlooked hobby, discipline, area of the world when so many people have dogs in their homes.
And like, I somehow want to figure out how to just bring this to more people. And that, plus a lot of other people and a lot of hard work, I guess this is what School for the Dogs is trying to do. Just kind of get more people excited about this incredible application of behavioral science that applies to, that relates to spending time with dogs, who are just amazing creatures.
Anyway, all of that is to say that more than 10 years after that kind of a-ha moment, it's a different world. And a lot of that world is on Instagram right now. There are so many amazing, young, vibrant, positive-reinforcement trainers, and just people who are passionate about reinforcement-based training on Instagram doing just adorable, hilarious reels and posting quotes that I find I learn from and that move me.
I feel like there's a really good moment right now on social media that's happening relating to good dog training. And I am excited about all the new faces I'm seeing and the things people are doing. And that is why today I wanted to talk to someone I started following on Instagram a few months ago. Her name is Tiffany Chen, and on Instagram, she is Pawsistant, and she is doing something that actually a couple people I know are doing now, which I think is amazing.
She's making a career out of helping dog trainers run their businesses and promote their businesses, and helping people who want to train dogs train dogs and reach more people. And she specifically is doing that by helping a small, you know, one and two person dog training businesses perk up their Instagram.
So I was curious how she found this niche and what she is seeing on Instagram and where she sees things going for dog training and dog trainers on Instagram. So I'm happy to share this conversation with you.
And next Friday, November 12th, I'll mention this again at the end of the episode and in the show notes, but on Instagram, she and I will be going live together to discuss how you can use social media to reach more people in order to spread the gospel of positive-reinforcement dog training, whether you're a professional or an aspiring professional, or just a dog owner who is passionate about this stuff. So make sure to join us at School for the Dogs on Instagram next Friday, noon Eastern.
[music and intro]
Tiffany Chen:
Hello everyone. My name is Tiffany. I am the founder of Pawsistant. I'm based in Las Vegas, but I'm currently a virtual assistant specifically for R+ dog trainers and dog businesses.
Annie:
I was gonna say, to some people that’s gonna sound incredibly niche, right?
Tiffany:
Yeah. So, should I say R+ pros? I dunno.
Annie:
[laughs] So you're in Las Vegas. Did you start out as a dog trainer, or?
Tiffany:
Oh, no. Okay. So just to like, to go back in time and tell you how everything got started. Basically when the pandemic hit last year, me and my husband decided that, you know what, maybe this could be a good time to get a puppy since we're gonna be stuck at home anyways.
So, this is my first puppy. I had no idea how to raise it, how dogs even work or anything like that. So, I got my puppy and just like how anybody else would, I started Googling everything. You know, Google's the first step, YouTubing everything. And I just saw that there was so many different advice, training advice out there, and what is the right way to train your dog? Luckily for me, I was able to find a website that talked a lot about positive reinforcement training.
I wanna say it was like one of those like top Google results. Maybe it was, I wanna say it was like AKC or one of those bigger brand websites. So they talk about positive reinforcement training. And specifically, I remember I was looking into potty training. And they’re like, with potty training, positive reinforcement works. You use treats to teach your dog where they should go and not. And I was like, okay, this sounds like a good method to me. I'm teaching my dog how to do something.
Whereas, I've already had friends and family giving me different advice. Like, you should punish your dog every time they go inside the house so they know not to do it. Or, you know, rub the dog's nose into their pee, or, you know? One of those really, like, bad advice to me that just did not sit right with me. And in my gut, I'm like, why would I do that to my new puppy? I want this puppy to be like my best friend, basically.
So, the next step was, let me make my dog an Instagram so I can start posting about him and start tracking his everyday life, basically. And when I signed on into Instagram and made this page for him, I started getting recommended all of these dog training accounts.
Annie:
What is your dog's Instagram?
Tiffany:
@certifiedzoomyboy. Not affiliated with Drake's Certified Lover Boy, if you guys listen to that, Drake's my favorite. But basically, I start seeing like all of these different accounts about how people train their dog. I started following dog trainers accounts. And right away I'm already seeing like so many different, I don't wanna say like discrepancies, or like just different ways of like how people go about training their dog.
And I wanna say that I started following a couple pages that were about raising a reactive dog, and how positive reinforcement has been working a lot for them. So that's when I started looking into different positive reinforcement trainers accounts, started learning from them. And honestly it's really, really changed my life and how I treat the relationship with my dog.
And so that's kind of how I got started. A couple months later, I wanted to start some kind of side hustle in a way. So I'm currently working in a corporate job as a branch administrative assistant. So I wanted to start some kind of side hustle. So I started to sign up for a program that's called Virtual Assistant Internship.
And this program went over all the different aspects that you can help a small business owner with. It went over different types of social media management, different email management, calendar management, blogging. It had a lot of just really, really good information that I learned from it.
And one of the biggest things that they talked about was that you have to find your niche. You have to really figure out what part of the industry or what business aspect you want to be a part of and you want to work in. And then right away, I was just like, I wonder if I could use these skills to help out dog trainers. And I was really like, not a hundred percent sure cause I had no idea what dog trainers needed to do to launch their business.
So I had a friend who I met over certifiedzoomieboy's Instagram, misunderstoodmutt. So she's Emily, certified dog trainer. She had just graduated from VSA.
Annie:
That's the Victoria Stillwell Academy.
Tiffany:
Yeah. Yep. So I reached out to Emily and I said, Hey I just took a virtual assistant internship and I learned a bunch of stuff that I think could really help you with your Instagram and overall business. And, can I help? Can we talk and implement these, and then if it's working well, you can gimme a testimonial.
So that's what we did. We met up. I just kind of started asking her about like, what do you want your brand to be like? What is the messages that you're trying to convey? We talked all about what is her goals for her business, what she would like to achieve. And then I started giving her all of the techniques and tips and tricks that I've learned on my end. We started fully optimizing her Instagram profile with templates that I've designed on Canva.
And then I'm telling her to post consistently, and using all of my tips and tricks, I feel like a month or two later she's telling me that her followers have really have really grew, and she is gaining a lot of new attractions. And then she even was able to book out her online classes that she was running. She said she only had one sign up before we started implementing everything. And then after that, she had over like 20 different people sign up for her classes and it was all booked up.
So she's really encouraging me to launch my business and see how I can help other dog trainers in need. And that's kind of how Pawsistant was born.
Annie:
So it sounds like you, just sort of at the same moment, decided you wanted to do some kind of different career and discovered an interest in dog training, all in one fell swoop. Does that sound correct?
Tiffany:
Yeah. Like the timing of everything, I think it was really, really good.
Annie:
And before you sort of got your dog and started training your dog, had you ever spent much time thinking about dog training? Was it something that had ever crossed your…
Tiffany:
No. I think in all my life, I've just been saying, I want a dog. And after I got my puppy, that's when I was like really into it. I'm like reading books, watching videos, listening to podcasts, just really wanting to be able to, you know, my dream is to be able to have my dog be my best friend and we have the super closest relationship. So that's how I really got into it.
Annie:
Were you surprised that there were like different types of dog trainers out there? Was that something that you expected to find?
Tiffany:
Yeah, that was really what just blew my mind. Because I think about how almost every other household at least has one dog maybe. And it really baffled me how even my friends and family all grew up with dogs that they really didn't understand or know what is the right way to do it.
And then to me, I'm a very logical person. I feel like they're needs to be one way that can, like a method to how you should be doing things. So yeah, it was just really, really baffling to see how there was just so many different sides to it.
Annie:
And you picked your side. So you're basically a social media assistant, or really coach specifically for positive reinforcement dog trainers.
Tiffany:
So yeah, right now my main focus is to teach other dog trainers how they can grow their business organically through Instagram. With my clients, that's what I do mainly is helping them manage their Instagram and helping with the content creation. I am looking to expand my services outside of social media, but I need to take a little bit of time to learn, take new courses and learn new things.
Annie:
How many clients do you have now? And it's been about what, like a year?
Tiffany:
It's gonna be six months soon. And I am currently working with seven clients. Did make the decision to leave the corporate world, and this week is my last week.
Annie:
Oh, congratulations. So you're gonna be a full time assistant. And are you working with people on a monthly basis? Like how does that work?
Tiffany:
Right now, yeah, just a month to month basis, where kind of just strategize like how much, you know — for instance, Instagram management would be like, how many times do you want me to post for you? What type of stuff do you want me to make? Just like that. Forget what the question was.
Annie:
Well, I'm asking you how you're working with people, but it sounds like you have like contracts sort of month to month.
Tiffany:
Yes.
Annie:
I feel excited about how many awesome positive reinforcement based dog trainers there are doing really cool things on Instagram. Are you seeing a trend towards more R plus people on Instagram, would you say?
Tiffany:
So that's kind of hard to answer because I don't like to look into like the non R plus side just for like my mental health. But for me on my end, I'm definitely like really noticing that like a lot of dog trainers are implementing my tips that I give out on Instagram. And I'm asking them, you know, make more reels, cause that's the trend, that's what Instagram wants. And it's just really awesome to be able to see how they're actually really trying to implement their tips and really
Annie:
Are there any tips and tricks that you can recommend to people who are listening and wanna make their Instagram better, as trainers?
Tiffany:
Yeah, yeah. For dog trainers, I want to say that it's really important to really narrow down the topics or content that you want to talk about. Cause if you think about a dog trainer is really, really a broad spectrum. There's so many different things that you can talk about. You know, I work with dog trainers that only focus on puppies. Others only focus on enrichment, cooperative care.
Once you decide who you're speaking to, you have a better way of narrowing down your topics, being able to post consistently, and being able to engage with that specific group of audience.
Annie:
It sounds like you're only really for dog trainers, but if somebody has a dog's dog account and wants to bring it up a level, is that something that interests you?
Tiffany:
Yeah. I actually am noticing more dog accounts following me as well. And a lot of them have actually reached out to me, like, Hey, like what can I do about my page? How, what should I do? And I just tell them, figure out what is the purpose of you posting? Is it to show off your training journey, or are you here to share tips with other people in the community and really make that known?
So for me, for my dog's Instagram, I put in my bio, Follow us to learn about our dogs together. Just putting like a little bit of a call to action can really help and make people realize why they should follow you.
Annie:
Are there any pitfalls, any sort of…
Tiffany:
With the Instagrams? Yeah. Just a lot of, I think a lot of people have a hard time of being consistent. Trying to figure out — either they're posting really random things all the time, or the templates are really different that they're using. That's the biggest issue. And a lot of people tell me too that they just have a really hard time with staying consistent.
Annie:
So what's the trick? [laughs]
Tiffany:
Honestly, you have to plan it out. You have to sit down and figure out what is it that you want to talk about in advance? A lot of people, I feel like, they think of something that day and then they post it. You know, that works good for a dog account. But to me, I feel like for an Instagram business account, you really do need to take a moment to plan out what you wanna say or do. And that really helps a lot.
Annie:
And looking at your account, tell me about, for instance, you say, “Use your insights to learn more about your followers.” I mean, it seems like such a simple thing, but can you explain that a little bit more?
Tiffany:
Yeah. So using your insights, so with an Instagram business page, you already have, an insight to all of your posts that tells you how many likes you got, how many website taps did you get from this post? It's really, really detailed information.
And my goal with this post was if you're ever running out of ideas for content, or on those days where you don't know what to talk about, look into your insights, see what your followers like, which posts had the most saves or had the most likes. And obviously if it had the most likes or most saves it, it must be very, very helpful or very good to somebody.
So that's kind of along the lines of, for my reminder of the day.
Annie:
I saw you had a little trick, which I hadn't thought of, which was to go to your following and look at the least interactive?
Tiffany:
Oh, the engagement? Yeah. So with Instagram, a lot — a part of being really successful, or whatever term you want to use is to have a really large number of engagements. So engaging is anything that you interact with other accounts or anything on Instagram. So I feel like a lot of trainers are like, why am I not getting likes? Why am I not getting a lot of engagement when I have over a thousand followers or something.
And the issue is maybe you're not engaging enough. And you gotta give love to get love. That's what I like to say all the time. So when I made this account, or when I made this post about three ways to engage more with your followers, I was just thinking that there's more ways to like people's posts besides just from your home feed. I feel like a lot of people, you know, they're just scrolling endlessly through the home feed, but there's definitely different ways of reaching new accounts.
Annie:
So you could go to where it says following in Instagram, and then click on — under categories it says least interacted with. And instead of just scrolling through your feed, go back and look at people who, I guess these are people who follow you or you follow them. Is that right?
Tiffany:
Mm-hmm.
Annie:
And you can just go and like some of those posts, look at their stories and that's gonna help you be more visible perhaps on their feed.
Tiffany:
Yeah. Yeah. And the thing about Instagram is that it's an app that studies you, so it takes into account what posts you like, what you scroll over, what you don't save. All of that it takes into account. So when you are taking the time to go and engage with new accounts, you're telling Instagram basically like, Hey, I'm trying to get into these other people's feeds, I'm commenting, I'm liking, I’m saving. And that usually helps with getting their stuff onto your feed so that you can start liking and engaging more. If that makes sense.
Annie:
Interesting.
Tiffany:
Mm-hmm
Annie:
So you do this thing on your Instagram, which I love, which is like you put on a fake mustache.
Tiffany:
Oh, yes. My alter-ego.
Annie:
Yeah, you play like a character, which I think is not something I've seen a whole lot of people in the world of dog training. Can you explain what that is to people who haven't seen it?
Tiffany:
Yes. Yes. So. To the people who don't know, that is my alter ego, Tim. [laughs] And Tim is just one of those Instagram trainers who just gives bad advice. And I use Tim to kind of just make content of trainers that you shouldn't listen to. And this is what they will say, or like red flags to watch out for.
But how Tim was born was one of the dog trainers, I saw a reel that she made where she talks about what goes into a dog training certification. Lke reading books, taking so many exams, all of that good stuff. So I remixed it and I put — and I was Tim. I remixed everything in that reel, but except I put all of the bad advice, like this is Tim. He calls himself a trainer. He grew up with 10 German shepherds or something like that.
Annie:
And then you just kept doing it, which was hilarious.
Tiffany:
Oh my gosh, everyone was loving it. And they're asking for more Tim content, so that's what I'm working on is putting more Tim out there.
Annie:
I mean, because that's the thing, as someone who follows you is like, you're actually, like you have great tips. You're also, you're really funny. And your sense of humor totally comes through, which I love. I mean, I think, just like, people don't think about different kinds of dog training, positive reinforcement or balanced or whatever you wanna label the divide. I think people don't think of it as a place where there could be humor.
Tiffany:
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Annie:
Necessarily, but you seem to me like you're bringing the humor. Where does TikTok fall in all of this? Do you also do TikTok or are you purely on Instagram?
Tiffany:
So I am kind of afraid to go on TikTok. [laughs] I've heard that it's like a really different type of audience on there, and a lot of haters with positive reinforcement training.
Annie:
Well, you know, there's haters on Instagram too. And I mean, I guess there's haters everywhere, but what always surprises me about it is like, if you don't think I'm a good dog trainer or that I'm doing things in a way that makes sense, like, why are you here? Why are you spending time on my Instagram?
Tiffany:
Yeah. Yeah. And to me, it kind of just, like, I've had my share of haters on Tim content or any other content for my reels. But it just seems like on TikTok people are really just brutal on there. Like, I've talked to a bunch of dog trainers who just, they had to delete their TikTok because whatever content they were putting out there was just not…TikTok was not a fan.
Yeah. And then, whereas on Instagram, I find it much easier to avoid those types of people and those types of accounts, because like I said, Instagram tries to get you to stay long on the app as possible. So they're gonna show you a lot of content that you personally like.
Annie:
Right, right. Do you, where do you see things going next? Are you looking to take on more clients? Are you looking to do more things for the clients you have? Are you gonna become a dog trainer?
Tiffany:
Yeah. So right now, since I've left the corporate world, I do have a lot of plans to expand my services, take on new clients. And then hopefully eventually I can start taking a dog trainer course, cause I just, I love that. I wanna know more about it.
Annie:
Cool. Well, you should check out ours when you think about it. Anything that we haven't touched on that you think would be worth discussing?
Tiffany:
I don't think so. Honestly, just keep making really good content and helping educate people.
Annie:
Well, keep doing what you're doing. I think it's a valuable service for trainers who wanna reach more people, which is what I would like trainers to be doing. Because it's hard to…You know, what's nice about social media in my opinion, is that yeah, you can reach more people than you can reach by just trying to go into people's homes one by one.
Tiffany:
Yeah.
Annie:
Which certainly is what I did for many years and what our trainers still do. But I think if we can spread the word that positive reinforcement dog training makes sense and is fun, and, hell we shouldn't be doing terrible things to our dogs for no reason.
Tiffany:
Yeah.
Annie:
Then let's do it! And we can all, you know, work towards that together. Do you have any favorite accounts of dog trainers that are worth mentioning?
Tiffany:
Really, really love @misunderstoodmutt of course.
Annie:
Well of course.
Tiffany:
Yeah. And then, other good ones would be: dog inspired, fromdusktilldog, canine fuel. Well just a lot of good ones out there. Can’t really think too much off the top of my head right now? There's a lot.
Annie:
And how are things going now with your dog? Do you have a well trained pup?
Tiffany:
Yeah. Sihtric’s doing pretty good. We're learning new things every day, and I just started working on trimming his nails with the dremel. So that's still new. And then just working on different tricks and behaviors. Yeah. He is my best friend for sure. We have, using positive reinforcement I feel like we have a really, really strong relationship and way of communicating and understanding each other.
Annie:
My last question for you is do you see overlaps between social media and positive reinforcement based dog training?
Tiffany:
What I say is the more you reinforce the Instagram app by posting on it and engaging on it more, the more Instagram's gonna favor you!
Annie:
The algorithm is training us.
Tiffany:
So many, so many ways doc training can apply to our lives, right?
[music]
If you enjoyed this conversation with Tiffany, make sure to join me with Tiffany when we do an Instagram live next Friday, November 12th at noon Eastern on the topic of jump starting your Instagram for positive reinforcement trainers and devotees. Be there, we’ll see you. Thanks for listening.
[music and outro]
