Episode 400: Celebrating 400 Episodes With The Most Inspiring Guests On the Podcast

  Join me as I celebrate 400 episodes of the Bella In Your Business podcast! I couldn't be more thrilled to reach this milestone with YOU. From humble beginnings recording in my closet with a ten-pound MacBook to now, with a professional setup and a decade of experience, this journey has been nothing short of incredible. In this special episode, I take you through the highs and lows of the past ten years, sharing the raw, unfiltered reality of building a business. Hear about my early struggles, Olivia's time in the NICU, and the challenges of balancing single motherhood with coaching and running a business. I reflect on past episodes, from tackling imposter syndrome to overcoming burnout and isolation. You'll hear inspiring stories from guests who transformed their businesses and lives, like Jennifer Jasmin growing her team from one to seven, and Randa Clark's amazing growth mindset. Whether you're new here or an OG listener, thank you for being a part of this journey. Your support means the world to me, and I hope this episode empowers you to take risks, embrace imperfection, and keep pushing forward. Here's to 400 episodes and many more to come! Timestamps: [00:00] Celebrating 400 episodes [02:14] Impostor syndrome and perfectionism [06:00] Highlighting past guests and clients [12:06] Hiring, leadership, and business processes [20:00] Motivation, action, and mindset Notable Quotes: "The only person that you're in competition with is yourself. Are you better today than you were yesterday, last week, last month, and last year? That's the only thing that matters." "You don't have to stay in the rut if you're in the rut." "I just want to encourage you that done is better than perfect." "Your brain does not know the difference between reality and what you're thinking. If you don't believe me, go look it up. And that's why they say fake it till you make it. Start telling yourself what you see yourself in." Resources & Links: Jennifer Jasmin - Furriendly Critter Sitters Angela Watts - Pawsitive Dawg Walking and Pet Sitting, LLC Randa Clark - Tail Chasers Inc Beau Bibeau - Top Dog Walk Kathy Perez - Golden Tails Dog Walking Tracy  Murray -  Saving Fido Dog Walking Tiffany Lewis - Pet and Home Care Becky Lea - Paws Around Motown LeighAnn Johnson - Wonder Pups Pet Care Did you love this episode? Make sure you never miss an episode! Head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify to subscribe to Bella In Your Business. Transcript: Welcome to another episode of Bella in your business. My name is Bella Vasta, and, oh, my gosh, you guys, this is the 400th episode. 400. Okay. Um. I never thought that I would ever get to 400. I don't know where I thought I would get, but I'll never forget in my first house recording on my MacBook, which back then was, like, ten pounds, and I didn't have a microphone. My whole house was tile except my closet.And so I would go and I would record in my closet because it was the only place that it didn't echo too much. And I first started it off talking about how to get employees. It was, like, literally episode number one, how to get through the hiring slumps. And it's actually our third most popular episode. And I just want to tell you, if you haven't heard that one, I would highly recommend that you go back and look at that. Now. That was ten years ago. Ten years ago. How crazy is that now? My first year or two, I had started it when Olivia was in the NICU, and I didn't become regular, like, every Thursday until probably about the third year. And then we showed up with the consistency of every Thursday. But I know a lot of you out there have imposter syndrome. I was actually just talking to someone yesterday about that, and, you know, you're always looking at what other people are doing, or you always want things done perfect. And I just want to encourage you that done is better than perfect. And when you can do that and you can realize that, you know, nothing's going to be perfect, and you can just correct and continue, as my friend Christina says, then you're going to get that momentum going and go back and listen to that episode one. You know what the episodes sound like now. I have this nice, cool, sure. Microphone. It's makes my voice sound like butter. And I also have a producer. We have different intro music. I think our podcast cover has changed about three times over the years. Truth be told, I'm going to change the jingle soon, coming in and out. However, I've just been so busy this summer. So, again, in a perfect world, we'd have a whole new, you know, jingle for the 400th episode. But you know what? Hi. I'm. I'm human. I just turned 42. I've got a now ten year old daughter as of two weeks ago, and. And I'm a single mom, and I'm a business coach. I've been in this industry for 22 years. I've been coaching since 2007. That's. That's kind of crazy. And so I want to put that perspective out there for you because I don't ever. I don't ever want you comparing yourself to other people. And this is. I wasn't even going to go here because I have a whole, like, thing that I want to talk to you guys about today. But don't ever compare yourself to someone else because, you know, this is my 400th chapter, right? So if someone were to start off a podcast today and be like, oh, Bella, like, it doesn't sound like your podcast today. And of course, I also have much room to grow. But, you know, my first podcast is very humbling. It's all of my ums and my just rattling off stuff and the echo ness and the silly intro and outro and just even how my vernacular, my picture, it used to be like a cartoon of me jumping with holding a parachute. The whole entire thing has come such a long way. Our show notes have developed over time, and so just don't compare yourself to anyone else except for yourself. The only person that you are in competition with is yourself. My daughter being born at 12oz in a NICU for 182 days while I had my pet sitting and coaching company totally showed me that. Do not compare yourself to anyone else except for yourself. Are you better today than you were yesterday, last week, last month, and last year? That's the only thing that matters. So, as I reflect on 400 episodes, um, we are the longest pet sitting podcast because we started ten years ago. That's insane. So if you ever question my dedication and my love for you guys, consider this my labor of love. Because most of the time, except for today, when my daughter is sitting here next to me with her headphones on, on her iPad, learning Spanish on Duolingo, because our housekeepers are here cleaning the house right now. Don't ever underestimate how much I truly adore you guys, because I'm just sitting here in this office by myself, talking into my microphone, hoping that you guys listen and you download it and you pay attention to it. So I wanted to kind of give you a gift, because I also know that as a content creator myself, I know that there's so much information out there, and it's very easy to get overwhelmed or like, oh, my gosh, Bella. Like, I don't remember or, you know, wanting something, but not realizing that we already have it out there. So, first, I kind of wanted to go through and give a nice shout out to a lot of the guests and my clients that have been on. And if you have missed it, I want you to. I want you to know about it. So, most recent, I'm going to go from the recent to all the way back, and I'm going to give you the show episode numbers, too. And we'll include this in our notes as well. So, most recently, like, five episodes ago, we had Jennifer Jasmine in, and she talked about how she's been able to grow with all of her goals that she had set in the mastermind. She went from, like, one to seven employees in a year. And also how her previous life of being a meteorologist combined with being in the pet industry, she was able to help her hurricane area and kind of start a class about hurricane preparedness for pets in her community, and how that's been, like, a really great marketing thing, but also how her business has helped get her out of her shell and her introvertedness become extrovert, and all of her anxiety. So if any of that strikes a chord with you, I'd highly recommend you go check out episode 395. Not to be. Well, to keep going here we got episode 379 with Angela Watts, and it was a secret of getting lots of employees. She is a powerhouse, and she is so exciting to listen to. Um, she was basically talking about how she overcame her burnout. I know a lot of us have experienced that. But then how she found support in the industry to help get her out of it, and that the business goals and marketing strategies, um, for the dog walking and training service, and how she outsourced certain things, like social media marketing, um, to, like, better marketing with Bella, and the crazy results that she had, like, thousands of dollars uptick because she joined I better marketing with Bella. Um, and it was just really inspiring just to hear the ups and downs, because I think oftentimes, again, going back to the whole, do not compare yourself to anyone else. She, you know, went through the hills and valleys, and I'm sure still will. We all will. It's part of life. And coming up on hills and valleys, this next person I met years ago, years and years ago, probably. I don't know, um, at least back in like, 2008, 2009, maybe. Uh, Randa Clark from tail chasers out in Chicago, uh, Illinois. Uh, and that was episode 377. And she talked about overcoming fear and starting and growing a business. They started with just a dog walking company and kind of living, I believe it was kind of in the cities or the burbs. And they ended up moving their entire family to this compound that had, um, where they live on it, but there's also a boarding facility. And then they bought a couple other boarding facilities, and then they got pet wants it,