Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How to Use Social Ecosystems to Build Your Business with Terry James

Transcript

How to Use Social Ecosystems to Build Your Business with Terry James · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  Three, two, one, zero.
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  Ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
• 0:11
  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with the number one small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
• 0:23
  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small biz chat podcast?
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  Well, it's time.
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  Every Wednesday, we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start and grow a successful
• 0:45
  small business.
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  In just twenty minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel
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  your business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the Small Bitch Chat podcast today.
• 0:58
  Hi, everybody.
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  Welcome to another episode of the Small Biz Chat podcast.
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  I'm your host, Melinda Emerson, small biz lady, America's number one small business expert.
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  And today, we're diving into a topic that affects every entrepreneur and every customer
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  we serve, the power of belonging.
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  Now here on the Small Bitch Chat podcast, our mission is to end small business failure.
• 1:24
  We invite authors, experts, and successful entrepreneurs to share with our audience the
• 1:30
  knowledge, tools, and strategies they need to succeed as their own boss.
• 1:35
  Now, if you're a fan of the Small Biz Chat podcast, I invite you to leave us a positive
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  review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
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  And please, no hate mail.
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  And you can also, I also invite you to subscribe to my Small Biz Lady Buzz newsletter.
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  You can find it at smallbizlady.com.
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  Now, my guest is Terry James.
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  He's the founder and CEO of Off Leashed and Nibble and Wag.
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  Terry is on a mission to transform modern pet ownership through technology, wellness and
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  community.
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  Through OffLeash, he's building an AI powered social ecosystem that helps pet parents connect
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  both online and in real life.
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  And through Nibble and Wag, he's tackling another important challenge, making healthier
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  premium pet nutrition affordable and accessible for everyday families.
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  So what makes Terry so fascinating is that he's not just building products, he's building
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  communities.
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  So today we're gonna explore how loneliness is changing consumer behavior and why listening
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  might be one of the most powerful things we can do in business and really use it as a
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  competitive advantage.
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  So I am so excited to invite Terri to the stage with us to talk about business.
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  Hi Terri, welcome to the Small Bitch Head podcast.
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  Melinda, thank you so much for having me here.
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  I'm excited to be on your podcast today.
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  All right.
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  So tell me just a little bit first about your business background.
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  How did you get started?
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  You know, like how did this whole idea to become a petpreneur, really start for you?
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  You know, what's interesting is this isn't how my career started, right?
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  I'm kind of new into the pet space.
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  My career, I've been a serial entrepreneur probably most of my adult life.
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  After college, I worked for on Wall Street as a financial advisor for Morgan Stanley and UBS
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  based in Seattle, Washington.
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  And then I left, I just wanted to try to do some different things.
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  I spent twenty years of my life in the real estate world, owned a mortgage company called
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  Care Lending, sold that, got into real estate.
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  I had a small real estate boutique firm called James Real Estate Group, which I still own, a
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  construction and development company.
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  But my passion has always been about how do we impact people and how do we bring people
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  together.
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  So kind of the pandemic kind of showed us all that we were all locked away and disconnected
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  and pets were just at the center of our lives.
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  And so what happened was seeing people being so disconnected, we saw an opportunity that said,
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  look, could we bring people together through their love of pets and through their passion of
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  pets?
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  Because it enabled people to connect across different socioeconomic lines, across different
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  racial barriers that that pet was kind of that guiding force.
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  So we set out to try to build something where pets were at the center of our lives and we're
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  excited really for what we've built and what we're continuing to try to do to impact the
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  world.
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  So one of the things that's very fascinating to me is that as social media has become more
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  prevalent, loneliness has become a major social issue.
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  Absolutely.
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  And I really think it's driven by the fact that social media is nothing more than people's
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  personal highlight reels, right?
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  Nobody puts their bad day on social unless it's a death.
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  Now people will post about somebody dying, other than that, they don't put their bad hair
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  days or their bad mom days or any of that other stuff online.
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  And so how has that changed the way consumers make purchasing decisions and even engage with
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  brands?
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  Listen, I think there is a epidemic of loneliness and I think that's one of the active
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  things that we're trying to solve for, right?
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  Though people have more access to, as you call it, the highlights of people's lives, the idea
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  of connecting with people in person has changed, right?
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  The way in which we communicate and the way in which brands reach people to be their audiences
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  dramatically change as the rise of social media has changed.
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  So I think it's important that brands kind of understand the meetings in which their
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  customers are using, how they connect, how they're utilizing.
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  I mean, the beauty of technology is it's enabled us to reach more people than we ever
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  thought was possible, but it's also made us somewhat demanding a different kind of
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  relationship focus, right?
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  It's gotta be fast, it's gotta be quick, it's gotta be instantaneous.
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  So, we lose focus, right?
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  Versus when we didn't have necessary social media dominating how we communicated with each
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  other where relationships had to be real and in person and authentic.
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  So, what we tried to build with Off Lease was kind of a mix of both things, right?
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  Where you could connect digitally online through a social app and you got three thirty
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  five million people that are on social apps trying to find someone or find connection or
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  find friendship community, whatever that may be.
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  So, it's a fixture in most people's lives, but the idea of actually getting people outside of
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  their phones or off their computers and actually into real life and connecting with
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  people is critically important.
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  We think pets makes that really easy to do.
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  Awesome.
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  So tell me about your company OffLeashed and tell me what was the problem that you were
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  trying to solve for pet parents?
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  So it's a multitude of problems.
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  I think the biggest one is solving this epidemic of loneliness, right?
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  We saw the average person spends eight months, 4,000 swipes to make one social connection on a
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  different platforms to try to meet people.
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  We said if we could solve that and make it easier for people to find their community, find
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  people they connected with.
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  And
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  we knew there was a couple of things that happened.
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  The pandemic saw a massive increase in pet parenthood, 200% plus increase.
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  Seven out of 10 households now have a pet, right?
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  Pets are now, for most people, essentially part of their families in terms of how they plan
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  their budget, how they plan their vacations, how they plan their lifestyle, their daily
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  habits.
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  So if something that big was impacting so many people and there were so many communities that
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  were locked out of that discussion, right?
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  There was financial security issues.
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  There were food security issues, housing security issues, all these issues that people
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  dealt with having pets.
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  And so we said, listen, if we can solve this problem of trying to make it easier for people
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  to find each other, find each other locally, and get opportunities for them to do events
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  where they're finding people like themselves, they have this instant commonality, right?
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  This commonality surrounding pets, that we could find ways to bring people together and
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  connect them over something so pure and so innocent as the love of a pet.
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  And that's how we started.
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  That's really what Off Leash was focused on solving.
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  So let's switch a little bit to your other business, Nibble and Wag.
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  That's your healthy pet food business, right?
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  I Yes,
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  know that you started that company purely based on customer feedback?
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  And can you walk us through sort of like
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  That origin story.
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  Yes, I can.
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  Well, just really just how listening to customers is so important when you're
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  developing products and services.
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  I oftentimes see people start businesses, particularly product based businesses that they
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  don't do enough market research about.
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  They create things people need versus things people want and willing to pay for.
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  And so I wanted to kind of get some, glean some information from you about how Nibble and Wag
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  came about, but just how you went about just on a listening tour, like to kind of find out what
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  people need.
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  Absolutely.
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  So it really started, like you said, with Off Lease.
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  Originally Off Lease was launched in Seattle.
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  I moved down to LA, so we brought it down to LA in 2024.
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  We expanded down to San Diego and now we're in about 42 different states.
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  We're in about 66 different cities.
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  So every community has their own vibe, has their own flavor, has their own way in which
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  they can communicate and connect.
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  But what we found consistently, our audience is about 60%, 60% of our users are women.
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  They're generally younger in demographic.
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  And so the way in which they connect and communicate with each other was very different.
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  And the number one concern of asking our customers, hey, what do you wanna see out of
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  this social app?
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  Right?
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  Because most of our growth outside of the West Coast has been purely organic.
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  People authentically seeing some of our either videos online or searching us up or or
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  generally just searching in the app store for something they're looking for, some kind of
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  social way for them to do with their pets.
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  And so as that spawned, started asking our members, you know, why are you know, a, why are
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  you here?
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  B, what's the most important thing for you to keep you and to keep you to stay?
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  About 81% of the people that download our app stay because there's something of value they're
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  getting, whether that's a relationship, whether that's connection, whether that's community,
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  they're getting something of value for being there.
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  But listening to them and one of their biggest concerns was about how do I afford food?
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  And that message really resonated really strongly with me.
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  I grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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  We were a true blue collar family.
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  My family is from the Deep South.
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  Mom's from Lake Village, Arkansas.
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  My dad's from East Oakland.
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  So, we were a small business family.
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  The core of mom was school teacher.
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  My dad owned a janitorial company.
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  But as small business family, right?
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  It's what you do, you work.
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  But I was a latchkey kid.
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  So, I used have to come home, getting off the bus and walking in the door.
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  And every day for me as a young kid, five, six years old, right?
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  I'm talking about a young kid.
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  You'd come in and my dog was my safety.
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  My dog, his name was Jumbo, right?
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  Didn't live in the best neighborhood growing up.
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  But when I walked inside that door and Jumbo was there, it was my safety.
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  So we'd watch cartoons and make the food my mom left me.
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  Until they got home, that was my place of safety.
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  And so listening to those concerns.
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  And so, back then, we gave our dog really what we could afford, right?
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  What was affordable for us and back then, it was Alpo.
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  And it was, you know, really not good food, mystery food made with filler meat.
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  And so when my financial circumstances changed, we started getting our dogs the most expensive
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  food because that's what we thought was the right thing to do, right?
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  You get the fresh food or you get some of the different new foods that are coming out that
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  are super expensive.
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  But there was no in between.
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  And the reality is, especially in today's environment, most people live in this in
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  between of they're struggling just to be able to afford regular groceries, put gas in their
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  tank, just everyday life, pay for medical insurance, all those kinds of things that
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  everyday people think about.
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  But their dog is now a part of their family and they don't want to have to make a decision just
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  as you would in your child between giving your child good food and not.
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  So your pet shouldn't have to suffer as well.
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  So another brother that we had met, we were having some tacos and margaritas after a
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  conference.
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  We started having this conversation about could we build an affordable, healthy food that was
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  in reach for everybody?
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  Right?
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  And because Off Leash had this community built of social people, we started asking them, what
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  would be your number one concern?
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  And they were like, listen, I wanna feed my dog something healthy, something I can feel good
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  about that doesn't break the bank.
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  They're tired of giving them the kibble that was packed with fillers and all kinds of
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  carcinogens and arsenic and all of these bad things to them, not everyone, but an
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  overwhelming majority of one, especially the ones we gave our dog growing up.
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  We said, could we do something that was different?
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  So a year plus ago, we stood down this road of saying, could we build this healthy food that
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  was financially in reach to everyone?
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  And so we came up with this idea for Nibble and Wag, which was a dehydrated pet food using
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  upcycled ingredients to create a food opportunity for people that not only had the
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  ability to afford something else, but the ability of people that run a tight budget.
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  And it's $16.99 a bag, which is about a pound of food that when rehydrated, because the
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  dehydration process takes all the moisture and stuff out of it to elongate the shelf life.
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  When you rehydrate it, it equates to about three to four pounds of food.
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  So, when you break it down, it's about $2 a meal and it's real ingredients, right?
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  It's real chicken and beef and brown rice and vegetables like broccoli and sweet potato and
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  all these vitamin D additive, things that make your pet feel good and that's healthy for them.
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  And it stacks up with all the best foods that are in the industry, but at a price point that
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  everybody can afford.
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  So when we talk about off lease, the big thing we were about was building community and
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  improving access.
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  There were so many other communities, especially the black community and other
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  underserved communities of color that were pet parents.
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  But larger brands didn't pay a lot of attention to these underserved communities, particularly
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  the Spanish speaking community, right?
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  They own 64% to 66 of the dogs domestically in The US.
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  But we are the least service group in the community.
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  So we thought it was important that, listen, we have an opportunity here to expand the tent,
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  bring more communities under, get more pets adopted and make a positive impact.
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  That's why we created Nimble and Wag.
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  That's why we're passionate about what we've built.
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  And we just launched a few weeks ago with our food line.
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  Shows like this give us an opportunity to spread our message and get more people on board
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  with what we're trying to do.
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  So tell me something, what do you think is the key difference between building an audience and
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  building a community?
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  And why does that distinction matter?
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  Oh, that's such a great question.
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  When you think about building a community, these are people that are vested in your
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  success and their success, right?
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  A community has to be something that everyone mutually benefits from.
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  We, the platform provider of this ecosystem, we get something from it, right?
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  They're advocates for our brand.
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  They bring their friends and family that are also pet lovers to our community.
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  They tell people about what we're trying to build and they showcase some of those things
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  that we do.
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  Your community is connected and they'll allow you to go through your growing pains and your
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  learning pains.
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  I was new to the pet space.
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  I came from the real estate and financial world.
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  I had never been in the pet world.
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  And so going out and building something like this for the community of pet lovers was like,
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  okay.
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  And they learned with us.
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  Each new version of our app that came out, they were downloading it, they were updating it,
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  they were telling their friends and family, which is how we were able to spread.
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  The difference between that and an audience, not that having an audience is bad, they're
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  watching.
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  Communities are engaging.
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  Right?
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  And I think that's the distinct difference.
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  And not that an audience doesn't sometimes watch, but sometimes they're from the
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  sidelines.
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  And we want to build an audience too.
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  But we want to show them that community, we want to create that FOMO, that fear of missing
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  out from being involved and engaged in this active community of people that are like them,
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  right?
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  Most people have this fear or this hesitation, the social anxiety of meeting people, right?
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  Whatever that group may be, especially going into someplace new and different.
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  If you can have access to a community where you have some instant commonality, it instantly
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  breaks down those barriers that may exist immediately versus an audience, you're still in
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  that independent silo.
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  When you're part of a community, you're connected with other people that have this
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  shared identity and these shared values.
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  And hopefully that's what we've built here.
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  So if you're trying to balance community with innovation, how do you stay focused on
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  customers versus chasing trends?
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  AI, AI, everywhere we turn now, somebody's talking about AI, somebody's talking about the
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  AI bubble, somebody's talking, you know what I mean?
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  But as a founder, how do you really balance this idea of staying innovative with really
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  staying connected to customers?
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  I think listening becomes critically important.
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  I think, you know, you bring up AI.
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  AI, I think, is for some, for many people, it's a scary word.
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  But AI has been around for decades.
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  Right?
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  It's just now become mainstream.
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  Right?
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  So how we look at technology, good technology is supposed to make your life better and
• 20:11
  easier.
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  AI used properly is designed to make your life easier and better.
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  We had to integrate AI into our platform.
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  We had to, right?
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  Because it allowed us to do more things to more people and give them better answers.
• 20:29
  Sure.
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  We built our EBayi, which is our kind of our chat GPT companion within our app.
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  Were brought to the Google Cloud for startup programs.
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  We were able to use that to build our EBayi on Gemini before it was released.
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  And what it does for pet parents is that it gives them confidence, right?
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  Our EBAI is trained only with pet related information.
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  So anything you're dealing with or going through with your pet, it knows you.
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  It knows your pet.
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  It knows all those things once you're in the app and can give you better advice.
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  So, when you think about innovation, you've got to be abreast of what's happening in Main
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  Street, as I like to call it, right?
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  You got to pay attention to what's coming and being able to innovate and stay ahead of that.
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  But listening to your audience and constantly engaging with them because they're there and
• 21:15
  they're engaged in your community, right?
• 21:17
  You have to listen to both and also understand and make these, what I call fear, right?
• 21:24
  These false events appearing real.
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  We've got to solve some of those by addressing those concerns early, how it's what we're doing
• 21:34
  is going to benefit them, right?
• 21:37
  Ultimately, I think customers or members, as we like to call them, ultimately wants to know how
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  is this going to positively impact my life and how is this going to positively impact my pet's
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  life?
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  If you think about innovation through that lens of how is it going to positively impact our
• 21:56
  members and let the business side be secondary, because I've always looked at building
• 22:01
  businesses or brands or generating revenue is result of doing the right things, trying to do
• 22:10
  the right things.
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  That's the outcome.
• 22:12
  Right?
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  But if you go into with a reverse intent, like I'm just going to make money.
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  Yeah, you may do it for a minute, period of time, but that's not a sustainable plan for
• 22:25
  long term growth, right?
• 22:27
  So when you innovate and you innovate through the idea, through the lens of the customer
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  first and their needs and who you're trying to serve, everything else kind of flows behind
• 22:35
  that.
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  So if you could give a small business owner one piece of advice about creating a brand that
• 22:42
  customers love, trust, and advocate for, what would it be?
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  Be consistent.
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  Be consistent in what your core values are.
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  Make sure those are aligned from the very beginning.
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  Think, especially in today's day and age, people want to believe in something.
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  They want to care about something.
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  They want to be involved in something.
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  Your business has to give them a reason to do that.
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  They've seen so many widgets or so many new products come out in the marketplace, and those
• 23:14
  are cool, and they may buy it for a period of time.
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  And I think there's a lot of great innovations from that perspective.
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  But I truly believe people want to believe in something.
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  They want to be a part of something.
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  They want to care about something.
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  They want to know that the decisions they're making with their money and their resources is
• 23:33
  more than just about buying a product.
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  That doing this one thing can have a multitude of impact, right?
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  An impact on a community, an impact on a shelter dog, an impact on a family's life,
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  whatever that may be, right?
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  So I think getting that messaging and being consistent with that and making sure every
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  decision you make from there always stem back to why you did something in the very beginning.
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  And know that, listen, you're going to have, I think this is the hardest space in the world to
• 24:07
  be in, is to be a small business owner or a business owner in general.
• 24:11
  Oh, no question.
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  I mean, I think that there's a lot of people out here who are like, Oh, I could be an
• 24:20
  entrepreneur.
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  And I'm like, No, everybody's not cut out for this at all.
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  And that brings me to my last question for you, Teri.
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  Yes.
• 24:30
  What is the best business advice you have ever been given?
• 24:37
  Oh, that's a great question.
• 24:42
  I think it is believe in yourself more than anything and, you know, it is funny that came
• 24:46
  from my mother.
• 24:48
  I think my mom gave me this irrational confidence, right?
• 24:55
  That you can do anything you set your mind to.
• 24:58
  Didn't say it was going be easy or there's not going to be trials and tribulations that come
• 25:02
  along with that.
• 25:03
  But this irrational belief that you can do anything, I think the advice that I would give
• 25:10
  every business owner, small business owner.
• 25:12
  I've only been employed in a career maybe one year of my life.
• 25:17
  It was after I sold my mortgage company, I worked for the company that acquired my brand.
• 25:23
  So, I only know being self employed.
• 25:25
  I don't know the other world.
• 25:27
  So, what I can say is that this is the hardest thing you'll ever do, but it's also the most
• 25:33
  rewarding.
• 25:34
  You're going to have ups, you're going to have downs, you're going to have I never considered
• 25:41
  a failure, but you're going to have losses.
• 25:42
  You're going to have things where you make mistakes because you're always learning, you're
• 25:45
  always trying, you're always trying to be the best version of yourself.
• 25:51
  Ultimately, that self belief is the most important, right?
• 25:54
  You've got to believe that what you're doing is purposeful.
• 25:57
  You have to be purposeful and intentional in your actions, in who you do business with, in
• 26:03
  why you do business, in the communities you want to serve, you have to go all for And then
• 26:08
  you live with the results, I always say.
• 26:12
  You live with the results because the outcome, if you put your best foot forward, regardless
• 26:17
  of what it is, you can sleep at night to know that I gave my best foot forward.
• 26:21
  But listen, this is a hard thing to do.
• 26:24
  And those that do it and those that do it well are really impacting the lives of the people
• 26:29
  around them.
• 26:31
  I agree, I agree.
• 26:32
  Thank you so much, Terri, for being a guest on the Small Bitch Chef podcast today.
• 26:38
  I think your story is very interesting and hopefully it will be enlightening to many
• 26:43
  people hither and yon.
• 26:45
  If you want more information about Off Leashed and Nibble and Wag, head over to
• 26:50
  nibbleandwag.com.
• 26:54
  And certainly if you are looking for information with your business, especially if
• 27:02
  you are struggling with the sales in your business, I invite you to head over to
• 27:07
  smallbizladyuniversity.com.
• 27:10
  Our Sales Accelerator Boot Camp will help you learn the skills you need to turn contacts into
• 27:16
  contracts.
• 27:17
  And we start a new cohort every month.
• 27:20
  So be sure to head over to smallbizladyuniversity.com for more
• 27:24
  information.
• 27:25
  And if you are passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed, the Small Biz Lady
• 27:30
  Coaches Certification Program is finally being launched and we are seeking experienced,
• 27:37
  purpose driven women who wanna coach, mentor, and empower the next generation of small
• 27:43
  business owners using our proven Small Biz Lady Coaching method.
• 27:47
  I want you to gain training, tools, resources, and become a part of a powerful community of
• 27:53
  women dedicated to business growth and accountability.
• 27:56
  Applications are going to open in July.
• 27:59
  And if you wanna be among the first to learn how you can become a certified small biz lady,
• 28:05
  you're gonna join our waiting list and you can find more details about this on my newsletter,
• 28:11
  the Small Biz Lady Buzz newsletter.
• 28:13
  And you can sign up for that at smallbizlady.com.
• 28:17
  So I wanna thank you once again for being a guest on the Small Biz Chat podcast.
• 28:22
  I am Melinda Emerson, your host, and I will leave you with this.
• 28:26
  You never lose in business, either you win or you learn.
• 28:30
  God bless everybody.
• 28:41
  Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for more fantastic
• 28:46
  information and interviews.
• 28:47
  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
• 28:52
  website, succeedasyourownboss.com.
• 28:55
  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.