DOGS OF LOS ANGELES (THE BACKSTORY) PART TWO

More about potato chips and dogs.

Why hello, Dog Lovers! In Part One, I shared some of how I came to create this website and company, Dogs of Los Angeles®, and to whom I think the site will provide the most benefit for. Today, I want to share how I came up with the Dogs of Los Angeles® idea and the very long and wieldy path to its fruition.

Every Dog Has a Story and So Do I

I actually came up with the idea of telling dog’s stories as if the dog could talk eight years ago. I always admired the Humans of New York website (no commercial affiliation or endorsement implied) and thought what a fantastic idea that was. I look forward to reading the daily posts and stories and love how the creator, Brandon Stanton, shows the depth and breadth of the people of New York City, expanding it to other areas and series.

I thought I could do that for dogs, and tell their stories but do it on a website and eventually a podcast, as if your dog could talk. It may sound crazy, but I believed people loved to talk about their dogs, and every dog has a story. I interview each and every dog owner personally, and get to know about them and what their dog is like and what makes him or her special. I knew people would relate to the dog stories and believe that we can learn life lessons from our dogs: how they live in the moment, live without grudges, and live from a place of love and kindness. Basically, life lessons in love, life and leadership. Plus, I felt our dogs represent the diversity of life in a city like Los Angeles, and wanted to share that with people that were interested in life in Los Angeles, beyond the television and movie industry and Hollywood.

I started that idea back in 2015, hired some coaches to work with me in developing the idea and started a website called dreamplusdog where Dogs of Los Angeles was going to sit, but just as I was working through all this, got diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016, and put it all on hold. On September 30, 2017, I attended Pat Flynn’s first Power Up Podcasting event, and worked more on the idea (full credit goes to Pat for his recommendation that each episode of the podcast be titled by the name of the dog and the episode title be a line describing his or her story) and after that two day event, saw a lot of my classmates launch fast. That being said, due to bandwidth and some other issues I will share in the future, I decided to launch with the website and social media first.

I am not a fast launcher. I like to tweak and frankly, I have a demanding career that gets most of my time, and I tend to pick up and put down way too often my ideas based on what is happening with my work. I continued a bit, but put it aside, and in 2018, hired some more coaches to help bring this to life. In the middle of it, I went from using WordPress (too confusing and unwieldy) to Squarespace (fun and easy) and hired a graphic designer and brand strategist extraordinaire to build out the site in 2019, and in 2020, hired an additional graphic designer and brand strategist to help me finish it. In fact, if it was not for Sam from Awesam Design Co., this podcast or site likely would not be finished. So much gratitude to Sam, talented designer, visionary, supporter of people’s big dreams and loving Dog Mom herself! Finally, I have to thank the amazing Sherise Adkins. Like Sam, if it was not for her, I would have no email set up in FloDesk (the email provider I use), no Squarespace updates, no Pinterest account, no knowledge on how to use Canva for graphics, and truthfully, no business foundations set up in order to go forward. Sherise is the real deal and if you are tired of “business coaches” who teach all fluff around “mindset” and leave you with no actionable knowledge on how to actually launch an online website or blog, Sherise is your woman! She can create a website for you, teach you how to use your email provider, help you hook up your freemium, and basically teach you anything you need to know around social media. I love her and she has been the all time best coach I have worked with. So a million thank you’s to Sherise.

I mentioned in Part One of this blog post that I work a demanding job. I often say I work with actors by day, animals by night. I am on call pretty much 24/7 and over the course of the eight years when I came up with the idea, got responsibility from just running a television department to just running a television and new media department, and then got promoted to my present position of being a Co-head, overseeing with my Co-Head tv, new media, theatrical and three other departments that report into us.

That has always been my priority and focus. I am passionate about the work I do, and love it, but always knew when I started my side business, I needed another income, as truly believe you want multiple sources for an income, and working in Hollywood, truly need the ability to become independent. Like milk, we all have an expiration date, and when mine is upon me, want the ability to jump seamlessly into my other passion.

I have never been a yes woman and have always been extraordinarily independent, and having side businesses and income allows me to continue to be who I am.

I will say I know the path to launching the Dogs of Los Angeles website and future podcast was way too long. Truthfully, it has only been recently that I believed I could do both and that I was willing to give up even more of my limited personal time to do it. I just believed in the idea so much, and knew it could be something that may bring others joy and so finally said enough is enough: get the website and idea out there, and then you can later launch the podcast.

Some Straight Talk

I know many people have snickered and commented privately (it got back to me) about how long I took in launching this site. I will say almost all of them were people who 1) were married and lived off their spouse’s income or 2) lived at home or on family money and did not have to worry about their business supporting themself, or even about supporting themself without a business.

I am a single woman who owned a condo loft in Los Angeles, a city that is super expensive with high taxes based in a state with the highest income tax in the country. I have two dogs Quincy and Oscar, and both have medical needs beyond the average dog. In 2021, I moved to South Florida to help my parents and bought a townhome in Delray Beach. I have to go to Los Angeles because the work I do requires I go there when necessary but it is not an easy city to live in, visit or get around cheaply. As we all know, having a business takes some money, regardless of what the “gurus” claim (they usually fall in one of the two above-referenced categories I have learned, particularly on-line) and my belief has always been strong, just not my time. I am not one to preach toxic positivity, law of attraction or work smarter, not harder bs that people throw out on Instagram and on their Facebook business pages. Truthfully, I never understood that last line and if you want the real truth and straight talk about that work smarter, not harder myth, check out one of my favorite websites here.

The truth is it takes time and money to get this all done, and over the past eight years, one or the other was often in short supply. Being in a pandemic while incredibly difficult, did give me some additional time due to a lack of a commute, so hence, here is a silver lining thanks to COVID-19: the launch of the website and idea.

I am grateful to my friends who never judged me due to the delay, but only supported me, and will continue to share more stories like this, and bust more myths as we go forward.

Thank you again to making it to the end. You are PAWSOME.

XO,

Beth

PS: What is a myth you have busted in your own life like the work smarter, not harder one? Please share and comment below.