Ambition Vs Wellbeing: which is most important for success?
Imagine turning your passion into a thriving business, hitting six figures, and then setting your sights on global expansion.
From local pet sitting to dreams of Dubai, this entrepreneur's journey is a masterclass in building a business you love while staying true to yourself.
Watch the episode below now.
“In a way, I’m trying to sell a lifestyle, which I think is working so far.”
Listen in your podcast feed:
Jason Caffrey, CEO and Founder of podcast and content marketing company Creative Kin, meets Michelle Adams, founder of Chatty Cats Care.
Discover how she transformed her love for cats into a booming business, achieved over £100K in revenue and is now setting her sights on international expansion in Dubai.
Michelle shares her inspiring journey, revealing:
How she built a loyal community through strategic social media content - cat videos included.
The secrets to balancing entrepreneurial ambition with essential self-care.
Her strategies for overcoming challenges and staying resilient in the face of competition.
How she uses platforms like TikTok and LinkedIn to grow her personal and business brands.
Her plans for expansion and the challenges that come with it.
Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a content creator, or a marketing professional, Michelle's story offers valuable insights and motivation.
Learn how Michelle turned her passion into profit and built a business she loves.
The Content Mavericks Club Newsletter
Get bonus content, enjoy early access to live events, and be first to know about featured guests.
Michelle Adams: Cat Whisperer & Entreprenuer
Michelle Adams is the founder of Chatty Cats Care, a professional cat-sitting service established in 2017.
Her deep love for felines stems from a lifelong passion, culminating in a career that truly fulfils her childhood dreams.
Inspired by her beloved cat, Gerry, who lived to the remarkable age of 24, Michelle provides exceptional care based on love, attention, and quality nourishment.
Her extensive experience with diverse cat breeds has earned her a reputation as a true 'cat whisperer,' and her dedication has resulted in a thriving business built on happy clients and glowing recommendations.
Follow Michelle Adams on LinkedIn
Visit Chatty Cats Care
Michelle Adams features on The Content Mavericks Club podcast, hosted by Creative Kin CEO Jason Caffrey
-
Get The Content Mavericks Club Newsletter for bonus content, early access to live events and a heads up on future guests.
TOPICS COVERED
00:00 - Welcome
04:25 - The Value of Local Media Coverage
09:02 - Passions Aligned: Cats & Business
10:02 - TikTok Vs Instagram
15:53 - Reaching An Older Demographic
22:53 - Leveraging LinkedIn
26:06 - Wellbeing For Founders
30:49 - The Chatty Cats Care Story
35:49 - Finding Employees You Trust
39:40 - Being Your Authentic Professional Self
42:13 - Michelle's Advice For Entrepreneurs
43:48 - Three Key Takeaways
-
Get The Content Mavericks Club Newsletter for bonus content, early access to live events and a heads up on future guests.
+++
[00:00:00] Welcome
[00:00:00] Michelle Adams: I realized that it was just taking a toll on me and I felt like it started to become counterproductive.
As much as I was able to answer client emails quickly and work on other things, I was feeling completely burnt out. So I really started to set boundaries for myself. At a certain time in the evening, I'm like, Nope! Not opening the laptop, not answering any emails.
[00:00:37] Jason Caffrey: All founders want to turn their passion into a paycheck, but the path to profitability is rarely smooth and entrepreneurs must find answers to some essential questions if they're going to sustain themselves and their business.
For instance, how do you balance relentless ambition with essential wellbeing? What's the key to mastering multi platform content in today's AI driven world? And how do you channel your passion effectively and constructively? Well, my guest today is Michelle Adams. And since she launched her business during the pandemic, Michelle has found her own answers.
To questions like these, her story is one of focus, determination, and the power of staying true to yourself. I'm your host, Jason Caffrey. Welcome to the content Mavericks club.
Welcome back to the content Mavericks club and. I am delighted for the first of this new series to welcome someone to the show that I met very recently and I was immediately impressed not just because she has built a wonderful business and has been very successful with it, but also because it was somebody that I immediately felt comfortable with, had a nice connection with.
And I'm just very, very, very happy to welcome Michelle Adams to the Creative Kin Studio. Michelle is the CEO founder of Chatty Cat's Care, which I do sometimes trip over when I say that. Michelle, welcome to the show. so much.
[00:02:34] Michelle Adams: Thank you so much. It's wonderful to be here. And yes, the name is a bit of a tongue twister.
Even I sometimes like Chatty Cat's Care. You have to really say it slowly sometimes.
[00:02:43] Jason Caffrey: I think it sometimes comes out as Catty Chat's Share. But Chatty Cat's Care.
[00:02:50] Michelle Adams: Yes. You got it.
[00:02:52] Jason Caffrey: Why chatty?
[00:02:53] Michelle Adams: Well, the chatty actually came from a Bengal cat that I was taking care of. Um, it was one of my first clients actually.
And this cat, well Bengal cats in particular as a breed are very chatty. And Yeah, this cat would literally come to the door, greet me every time I arrive and was just chatting the whole time. So I was trying to think of a name for my company and I thought I want something that I'm not just going to pluck from the air.
I want something that means something to me. So I thought, wow, this could work because this is my first cat client and he's beautiful and he's also very chatty. So, Chatty Cats Care was born.
[00:03:41] Jason Caffrey: My children would ask, what, what, what's a chatty cat? Does it mean a meow a lot? What does it mean?
[00:03:49] Michelle Adams: Yes. For
[00:03:50] Jason Caffrey: a cat to be chatty, what do they say?
[00:03:52] Michelle Adams: Yeah, so they do meow a lot, but, um, they have different tones of the meow, so it sort of sounds like a conversation sometimes. Yeah, I've even heard him say something similar to hello, which was quite scary at one point. Like hello. Wow. Yeah.
[00:04:13] Jason Caffrey: Wow. Yeah.
[00:04:15] Michelle Adams: Yeah, so very chatty and it quite, it can be quite alarming if you don't expect to hear a cat say hello.
[00:04:23] Jason Caffrey: Yeah, I can imagine.
[00:04:25] The Value of Local Media Coverage
[00:04:25] Jason Caffrey: I think I'd like to start with a snippet from a local paper.
[00:04:31] Michelle Adams: Yes. I
[00:04:31] Jason Caffrey: think it was the Rotherhithe.
[00:04:33] Michelle Adams: It was Southwark
[00:04:34] Jason Caffrey: News. Southwark News. Thank you. And the headline was something along the lines of Rotherhithe girl does 100k business.
[00:04:44] Michelle Adams: Yeah.
[00:04:45] Jason Caffrey: And it, you know, it went on to talk about the success that you'd had with your company.
How do you feel, Michelle? What does it mean to you when you see coverage like that, particularly it being actually local coverage? Because I think everyone's like, yeah, I want it. I want national coverage. But actually. You know, it's your patch, right?
[00:05:06] Michelle Adams: Exactly. It means a lot because I always pay homage to my local area and the borough of Southwark in particular, although I do operate in other areas such as Royal Greenwich and different areas all over London.
Southwark is where I started the business so it, it means a lot to me and it was so nice to see that coverage and so many people actually reached out to me on social media with positive praise and it was really nice. It made me feel good and I feel like the journalist really, um, wrote nice things about me which was nice to read.
[00:05:47] Jason Caffrey: And when is that article from?
[00:05:49] Michelle Adams: It is from I want to say springtime last year.
[00:05:54] Jason Caffrey: Right. Yes. Right. So, Chatty Cat's Care is about five years old.
[00:05:59] Michelle Adams: Yes.
[00:06:00] Jason Caffrey: And so this is kind of a firm four years into your journey.
[00:06:04] Michelle Adams: Yes. I have had other coverage before, yeah, but, um, smaller. Coverage from, from different places, um, my university actually have me in their prospectus.
That's Goldsmiths University. They interviewed me and we had a photo shoot and I spoke about Chatty Cat Scare. So it was really nice as well that. They were highlighting me as one of their alumni students.
[00:06:32] Jason Caffrey: Right. And so it sounds like that bit of coverage came at, um, a nice time where the business, it was established, got a solid revenue.
And since then, you have been looking at expanding, actually, and not just you're going to Cambridge, but also you might be going international.
[00:06:54] Michelle Adams: I am very excited about that. At the moment, it's still very early stages, because there's a lot of things to consider, such as licensing visas, how my business would operate, and moving to a different country, which is a really big deal.
Um, but I feel like I'm ready for another challenge.
[00:07:18] Jason Caffrey: Do you want to tell us where?
[00:07:19] Michelle Adams: Yes, so Dubai is where I am planning on expanding to, and I've just got back actually just two days ago. So I was there for a week and I attended some networking events with the British Chamber of Commerce over there in Dubai.
So that was really nice because I got to meet a lot of British expats who have small businesses, who have lived there, most of them have lived there for about five years. So it was nice to get insight from them and also Meet new people and network. Sometimes it doesn't matter what business you're in, we can all find ways of relating and offering support.
So I really love that. For me, network and community is super important. So that was one of the first things I wanted to establish when going to Dubai.
[00:08:12] Jason Caffrey: What's the cat culture in Dubai?
[00:08:16] Michelle Adams: There are so many cat lovers actually, but there are a lot of issues with cats, stray cats in particular, in Dubai.
Unfortunately, there are certain laws that are in place where some cats are not treated very nicely, they see them as a problem. And unfortunately, some cats are taken for extermination, which is really sad. But there are groups of people who capture cats for R& R. So they will take them to the vets, get them spayed and neutered, and then set them free.
And then they feed them on a regular basis, which helps the cats and also the community.
[00:09:02] Passions Aligned: Cats & Business
[00:09:02] Jason Caffrey: I was going to move on to something else, but you talked about. community. And what it's sparking for me is where has the cat thing come for you? I know that sounds like an odd jump, but what's really coming across when you talk about what you've observed in Dubai is that somewhere in there, Michelle Adams just loves cats.
[00:09:28] Michelle Adams: Yes, I definitely do. Yeah, that was a passion for me. I think if you're not passionate about your business or what you do, then it's very difficult to want to continue it. You know, a lot of people have a very short lifespan of some companies and that's what they choose. Sometimes people just want to start something, make lots of money and then have an exit plan.
But for me, this is definitely more of a passion, more of a lifestyle business and I'd love to continue this as long as possible.
[00:10:02] TikTok Vs Instagram
[00:10:02] Jason Caffrey: Yeah, let's circle back to the community because I think this is where I see this. Linking to your content marketing efforts, your social media efforts. Just give us the lay of the land, which channels are you out there on when it comes to your content.
[00:10:20] Michelle Adams: So Instagram is definitely my main channel.
[00:10:24] Jason Caffrey: I love your Instagram page.
[00:10:26] Michelle Adams: Thank you. Thank you so much. And I've been building that for quite a long time, since the beginning, actually. So it's something that I've really focused on and grown from scratch, really. And it was a great time to start that because it was during the pandemic and lots of people are online during that time.
So I was able to get quite a lot of, um, of views on the page, a lot of people interacting with the posts. So it's, it's been going well. And of recent, I have joined TikTok and I also used Facebook. So I started Facebook actually at the same time as Instagram. And then, um, of recent LinkedIn. I've been posting a lot more on that platform as well.
[00:11:09] Jason Caffrey: From recall, I think the Instagram following is about 14, 15, 000. Is that right?
[00:11:15] Michelle Adams: I can't even remember the top of my head. I think it's slightly less actually. But the views are quite significant. Yeah. Yeah. I think at one point, I last month, I believe it was I had 1. 2 million views on the page. which was amazing.
[00:11:34] Jason Caffrey: That's cats on Instagram. They're kind of made for each other, aren't they?
[00:11:38] Michelle Adams: Absolutely. It's the perfect platform to show cats because people really feel good. You get those feel good endorphins when looking at silly cat videos. So I think, even if somebody isn't a huge fan of cats, they still watch cat videos.
[00:11:54] Jason Caffrey: Yeah, I think that's true. I think that's true. What do you want from TikTok that you're not getting from Instagram?
[00:12:04] Michelle Adams: So I have two separate TikTok accounts. One is a personal account where I speak about business. I give tips to people. I talk about the networking events I've attended. I talk about travel.
Because for me, travel is something I'm passionate about as well. I travel a lot. I've probably been to around 50 countries and it's something that is very closely linked with my business because we rely on people traveling and going to wonderful destinations and then they book our services. So if I can give travel inspiration, people then book travel holidays, and they also need a cat sitter.
So it works well. So in a way, I'm kind of trying to sell a lifestyle, which I think is working so far.
[00:12:53] Jason Caffrey: That is fascinating. I love that. It's kind of strategic thinking up the pipeline, really.
[00:13:00] Michelle Adams: Yes, because you have to really think about your ideal customer. Who are they? What do they do? Where do they work?
Are they local? Are they regular travelers? And regular travelers are people that I definitely want as clients. Either they're going for work or business or they're expats themselves so they're going back to visit their families in various countries or they just love travel like I do.
[00:13:28] Jason Caffrey: TikTok is something that you're attacking for personal branding and to offer this extra strand.
[00:13:36] Michelle Adams: Exactly. So that's what the personal TikTok is about. And then I have a chatty cats care TikTok as well, where I'm posting cat content and I'm giving information, educational information about cats, such as hypoallergenic cats or how to deal with an aggressive cat. I try to give more tutorials on TikTok and they seem to be going quite well on both channels on my personal and the Chatty Cats Care channel as well.
[00:14:03] Jason Caffrey: I'm interested to know what the engagement is like across those two channels because I, I don't have an active TikTok. I dabbled in it and what I noticed was that it's almost like a rocket going, you know, that when, when you publish something. it's a vertical climb and then it kind of comes back down as just as quickly and almost zero tail was what that was what i noticed
[00:14:32] Michelle Adams: yes it can be disheartening that's what happened to me and i thought is this a way of tiktok tried to get me to spend on ads but i feel like i've worked out a method that works for me and also gets my posts either viral or gets them viewed a lot on the For You pages, which is important.
Everybody wants to try and get on the For You pages. And a way to do that is by really making everything explicitly clear. So I'm writing text at the beginning of my videos. I'm putting all the hashtags. I'm writing as much information as possible so that the algorithm can decipher what my post is about.
For example, I just made a post yesterday and it was about traveling to Kenya and that has now got around, I want to say, two and a half thousand views, which is great. It's landing on People's For You page and that is travel tips to Africa, so that's what they have as the subject. So it's just. about trying to make it explicitly clear.
And I think that's how you get on the for you pages and then get the views.
[00:15:43] Jason Caffrey: So the the object of the exercise there is to tell the TikTok algorithm who to serve your content to. Absolutely. Yes.
[00:15:53] Reaching An Older Demographic
[00:15:53] Jason Caffrey: When I visited the Chatty Cats Care website, what I noticed was there was quite, I felt it was quite strongly orientated towards seniors.
[00:16:03] Michelle Adams: Okay. Interesting.
[00:16:04] Jason Caffrey: It was just an impression I took.
[00:16:05] Michelle Adams: Yeah.
[00:16:06] Jason Caffrey: There's quite a lot of discussion about the little extra parts of the service, picking a post up, the security aspects. Yes. And I was just interested, actually, is that older demographic? an important part of your client base?
[00:16:25] Michelle Adams: Absolutely. Yeah, they are.
Retired couples, um, tend to go on cruises or tend to now want to travel more or see family abroad. So they definitely are important. And the reason I have that information on the website is because I'm literally listening to customer feedback and making sure I'm making that clear on our website that we do offer those things, because that's what people have asked for.
[00:16:51] Jason Caffrey: When I Went to the website. What really, really impressed me is that there is this combination of actually a very simple offer. I mean, you've got, you've got different tiers of service, but ultimately it's a pretty straightforward offer. We'll come to your home. We'll look after your cat. We won't just shove some food in front of them.
We're going to spend some time and we're going to do these other bits to show that we, you know, to add some service, pick your mail up, change the litter tray, you know, leave the place as you want it to and, and show a bit of care. And I absolutely love that. But what I'm curious about is you've got this senior demographic retirees.
Yes. So they're going to be 60 plus.
[00:17:36] Michelle Adams: Yes.
[00:17:37] Jason Caffrey: Instagram and TikTok. If I, if you said to me, you know, what platform are you going to reach that age demographic with, it wouldn't, that would not be my first choice. And in fact, I've got questions that, you know, it might be a stereotype that seniors don't engage with tech.
or social media. But, you know, I'm really interested to hear your take on that and how those two seemingly disjointed things connect.
[00:18:06] Michelle Adams: Well, everything that I post on Instagram, I also post on Facebook. And I find that more of the older generation seem to still be on Facebook. That's something that they use.
It's something that came before Instagram, and I think it's quite easy for people to use and navigate, and a lot of people use it because they have family members on there. And they join local community groups, which I usually post on Facebook as well. So that's definitely a way that I reach out to that particular demographic.
And then also of recent, I started to facilitate markets. So farmers markets, different fairs and events all over London. We did a couple in Cambridge as well, and that's an amazing way to reach out to the older demographic as well, which is really nice because people come up to us, they remember us, they share stories, they buy gifts for their family and friends from our store.
So it's really nice and it's a nice way to keep in touch with the community.
[00:19:14] Jason Caffrey: So this sounds like something entirely different.
[00:19:18] Michelle Adams: Yes.
[00:19:20] Jason Caffrey: Okay, so you facilitate a farmer's market, so that you're putting together this event. Yes. And you're taking, you've got a side. Cheese and wine business or are you, are you there as Chatty CATT Care?
[00:19:34] Michelle Adams: We are there as Chatty CATT Care, so we don't facilitate the whole market, but we'll just attend. I should have said attend. We attend markets.
[00:19:44] Jason Caffrey: you, I was thinking please, Michelle, you're already doing so much. Don't do that to me. I, I just, I know. You know, that's superhumour, but go on, continue, continue.
[00:19:54] Michelle Adams: Um, so yeah, we attend lots of different events and fairs all over London, and we bring our stall and we sell so many cat themed products.
Anything from greeting cards, to cat themed jewellery, to cat bags, to cat treats and cat toys. So there's something for everybody, and You know, people can buy from us. They don't necessarily have to own a cat, but they might like cats or they might know somebody who loves cats. So a lot of people come to us and tend to buy gifts.
And then we give them a flyer. We also talk about our cat sitting service. So it's a way to also promote the business,
[00:20:37] Jason Caffrey: right? So you mentioned that you done some of this work in Cambridge, which is you've got a plan to expand it, haven't you? Yes. Yeah.
[00:20:44] Michelle Adams: It seems that Cambridge is quite underserved when it comes to cat sitting.
There are a lot of cat hotels in Cambridge and surrounding areas, but a lot of cats like to be in their own environment. So I feel like cat sitting, a cat sitting service would really serve them well. And people can come into their home. and their cat will remain relaxed. They don't have to think about the stresses of bringing them to and from the cat hotel.
So I have a really amazing lady in Cambridge who started working for me and she actually owns five of her own cats. So she's definitely a cat fan and she is very informed about cats. So I knew straight away when I met her at a job fair. that she would be perfect. And then I did, you know, all of the background checks.
We had an interview and we went from there.
[00:21:38] Jason Caffrey: Great. I'm interested to know how you measure the impact of a non digital marketing Effort on growth in chatty cats care, because my business is content marketing. It's very much digital, and there's just an assumption in marketing that if you can't actually put a number and a percentage on it.
You're wasting your money. So how do you approach that? Is that what you're trying to achieve with these?
[00:22:14] Michelle Adams: It is really difficult to measure. I would say the only way I can really measure is if I see a difference in the income and if I see that people are reaching out to us and they tell me we met at This event or I saw you or I've bought something from your store.
And that's how I Measure it. It's really difficult. It's it's not really quantitative But I would say more qualitative because it's people actually telling me that they found us from the market.
[00:22:53] Leveraging LinkedIn
[00:22:53] Jason Caffrey: I'm interested to talk about your LinkedIn profile, because what strikes me about what I see across LinkedIn and Instagram is that one is a B2C channel.
You're talking to clients, customers, and one is a kind of B2B channel, right? You're talking to other. I don't know if you're kind of out out there looking for investment, but you know, that's the sort of communication channel that LinkedIn is. So again, how do you balance those two needs?
[00:23:33] Michelle Adams: Yeah. So I, I definitely have a business mind.
I feel like I was born with it. So I'm always thinking about the next step and the future. And I think to myself, you know, if I've built this successful business and I have so much advice. about things that I've learned along the way, all of the challenges that I faced and I feel like that's something that I could definitely offer.
So in my mind the cogs are turning and I'm thinking potentially in the future I could potentially coach people as a business coach, or niche that even more as somebody who coaches people who want to start a pet sitting company. And that would be something I would be interested in doing in the future.
[00:24:27] Jason Caffrey: Right. So that channel is a kind of personal, professional branding.
[00:24:34] Michelle Adams: Absolutely.
[00:24:35] Jason Caffrey: Channel.
[00:24:36] Michelle Adams: Yeah.
[00:24:36] Jason Caffrey: And even that is a little bit different to the TikTok channel. Yes,
[00:24:40] Michelle Adams: exactly. So I have to work all of them so differently and strategically.
[00:24:46] Jason Caffrey: How do you keep across it? I think my brain would explode. I mean, I find it really hard.
Yeah. It's very challenging because I think I'm very stuck in my business. I'm very, I'm very sort of my attention is on my business. And I'm like, what, you know, how do I differentiate my personal brand from my business brand? I think personally, how I do is I talk, you know, I talk more about, you know, how I go about things, how I manage myself, my wellbeing loosely.
And just kind of share my thinking a little bit, but
[00:25:23] Michelle Adams: Exactly. That is your personal brand. So it sounds like Yeah, you're doing it already. But yeah, personal brand is very important, especially in Dubai, in that particular market. For example, in Dubai, nobody really applies for jobs online. There's not any application forms.
Your brand is what they're buying and LinkedIn is taken extremely seriously in the UAE. So they're looking at your LinkedIn. They want to know who you are. They want to know how much you're posting and that's how people get jobs and get known out there. It's, it's about who you know, and it's about your personal brand.
[00:26:06] Wellbeing For Founders
[00:26:06] Jason Caffrey: This leads me to a conversation about work life balance, that sort of cliched phrase. And I, I saw recently, I'm pretty sure it must have been on your LinkedIn feed, because that's where I spend most of my social life, my social media life, my social life. Both. Um, and it was talking about your routine, how, you know, how you go through your day, and it's very focused on self care, and you talked about actually, Well, I did laugh because at one point it said, you know, I only really spend kind of four to five hours working on my business.
And then it said, and then after that I go and do three hours of cat sitting. I was like, that's
[00:26:47] Michelle Adams: okay. But it doesn't feel like work. That's why. Yeah.
[00:26:50] Jason Caffrey: I mean, I'd like to hear from you more about your thinking around that and your approach to it and your mindset with. looking after yourself and what that means for looking after your business and how the whole picture comes together.
[00:27:08] Michelle Adams: Yeah, absolutely. When I first started the business, well, it was during the lockdown, so there wasn't that much to do anyway. So I had a lot of time to focus on working on the business. But as time went on, I realized that It was taking a toll on me. I felt almost obligated that I had to work on my business continuously for it to be successful.
I felt pressured to answer client email straight away, even in the middle of the night sometimes. And I had a partner at the time, and sometimes we would clash because he would be like, you know, I've come here to spend time with you.
[00:27:48] Jason Caffrey: Personal partner. Yes. And then it.
[00:27:51] Michelle Adams: You know, I'm just working on my laptop and he was like, you know, it's not fair.
I was like, well, you don't understand because you don't have a business. Like, this is what I have to do. Um, but I realized that it was just taking a toll on me and I felt like it started to become counterproductive as much as I was able to answer client emails quickly and work on other things. I was feeling completely burnt out.
So I really started to set boundaries for myself at a certain time in the evening. I'm like, nope, not opening the laptop, not answering any emails unless I have to, unless I haven't had time during the day to do anything. And I'm going to go on for maybe like an hour and do some work. But I started to, you know, like I said, set myself boundaries.
And then also really work on my self care and I feel like the gym really helps me to stay on top of things. It's not just for, you know, aesthetic purposes. I'm not just aiming to get a gym body, although that would be nice. I do it.
[00:29:03] Jason Caffrey: I'm feeling very conscious of my single, what do you call a one pack?
[00:29:09] Michelle Adams: Don't be conscious at all. Don't be conscious. I do it for my mental health and it really helps me because I feel like I can get out. Any stress because sometimes, you know, the gym is tough. It's not easy. So you really have to push yourself. And I feel like by pushing myself in the gym, it motivates me to push myself for my business, but also to have those strong boundaries as well, which is a discipline because it can be easy and very tempting to overwork.
[00:29:43] Jason Caffrey: Yeah, I totally recognize that. Um, I think I'm maybe in a different place in that curve myself where I know it's something that I need to do better with. I recognize that the boundaries aren't clear enough.
[00:29:59] Michelle Adams: Yeah.
[00:30:00] Jason Caffrey: And that, you know, my waistline is expanding and are the bags under my eyes. You know, you kind of, well, you know, it's, it's sort of that, that fall away in self care, I suspect is part of every founder entrepreneur's journey at some point.
[00:30:18] Michelle Adams: Yeah, even Stephen Bartlett, I listened to, you know, his podcast, The Diary of a CEO, and he said something about he doesn't actually open his laptop until 11 a. m. And I thought, well, good for you. Because some people straight away wake up, pick up their phone, looking at emails, trying to work. And I used to do that.
But then I thought, No, I actually want to enjoy my morning routine and I will respond to emails when I feel fit and ready.
[00:30:49] The Chatty Cats Care Story
[00:30:49] Jason Caffrey: I love that. Very, very clear. Michelle, we've, we've kind of dipped in to the Chatty Cats Care journey, but we haven't really kind of, you know, we haven't really got at it. So I, I don't want to go through this conversation without you having the opportunity to just.
Talk about chatty cats care and how it came about and what it means to you and the why's and all of that So I'm gonna slightly flip this and ask you where you want to start in a chat about chatty cats care.
[00:31:23] Michelle Adams: I can start at the beginning.
[00:31:24] Jason Caffrey: Yeah, go on then.
[00:31:25] Michelle Adams: Yeah, I'll try to summarize it so it isn't so long, but I started cat sitting while I was studying for my master's degree actually, probably a little bit before probably when I was studying for my BA and I absolutely loved it.
First of all, I didn't even know that there was such a job as cat sitting and I discovered it online because I was looking for something flexible. I was looking for something part time because I needed to fund myself during university. Unfortunately, I've Not come from a privileged background, so I had to work and I was probably working actually around two jobs and doing placements on top of that.
So, it was a lot, but I enjoyed it and it taught me a lot as well, um, when it comes to discipline. So, I started cat sitting, like I said, when I was studying and I met some amazing clients, amazing cats, I absolutely loved it. And. I started it with, um, well, actually one of my competitors now, and whilst I was working using their platform.
I just kept thinking of ways that I would improve this business. Like, I felt like they were lacking quite a bit. Like, there was no really, real support. Um, I think there's, there was only two people actually managing the whole business, and it's a huge company. So, I thought to myself, this doesn't feel safe, because
[00:33:03] Jason Caffrey: For you, as the For me As someone doing the work.
[00:33:06] Michelle Adams: Absolutely, because there's nobody I could contact. There was only an email address, there was no contact number. So if anything happened to me or if something happened with the client's cat or a key and I wasn't able to get a hold of the client, there was no real support. And I thought if I send an email, it could take them two to three business days to get back to me.
Something major could have happened. So this isn't good at all. So there were a few things that kind of rang alarm bells in my mind. So then, uh, after a year of working for them, I just graduated from my master's degree and I was looking for a job within my field. So I studied applied theatre, which is using theatre as a therapeutic method.
So I could work in hospitals, I could work with adults with disabilities, ex offenders, for example. many different routes. So it's a super competitive industry, actually, and there were a few jobs that I applied for, and it wasn't just an application. They want you to actually audition as well, so memorize three different monologues, perform a song, and it's just like, it was a lot for one job, and there would be like 200 people there, and there's only one position available.
So it was quite disheartening. It was a lot. It was very stiff. And I just thought, I can't keep putting myself through this. And I always I always had like this entrepreneurial spirit about me and I knew that I wanted to start a business, but I wasn't sure in what I actually wanted to start a performing arts school at first, but I then pivoted and I thought.
Actually, cat sitting has been going really well, this model, this business model that the other company has is really good, but I think I can do it better, and yeah, that's where it started. So me and my ex partner at the time. We started cat sitting together and it was just me and him for about a year and it was going really well because he loved cats as well.
He has his own cat called Fifi and, um, we were a really good partnership in terms of work and relationship. So it worked well and as it started to grow because he was a personal trainer and he started his business as well. So he had less and less time. to give to my business which I understand he wanted to pursue his own dream too.
[00:35:49] Finding Employees You Trust
[00:35:49] Michelle Adams: So then I had to really bite the bullet and hire people and that was really difficult for me because I'd grown this business, it was my baby, I nurtured it and I thought if I bring somebody in how can I trust them? How can I trust that they are going to withhold my business the way that I do, or how can I trust that they're not going to let me down and just not go to the bookings and lie to me or try to scam me or, or whatever.
So there was a lot of huge risk for me and I'm quite an anxious person anyway sometimes, but I really had to just bite the bullet. And I started hiring a few people, mostly through recommendations actually, because I wasn't quite ready to put it out to the public on a job site.
[00:36:42] Jason Caffrey: The question that's coming up in my mind is how you overcome that challenge, because an employee is never going to have the same mindset about the business as you as the business owner.
[00:36:55] Michelle Adams: I got a few recommendations from friends. from clients and I took those people on and yeah it went really well. I have to say though like through the five years of course there have been highs and there have been crazy lows as well and I have been let down by some people but as time has gone on I've learned how to deal with that and also separate my own personal emotions.
from work, which is very difficult.
[00:37:26] Jason Caffrey: Oh, now this, I want to get involved with this. I want to get involved with, cause I have to say, this is something that I've been speaking with my counselor about, you know, just, just how do you kind of, because, because running a business, it's. Gosh, if only it was a straight line up, right, it is literally a roller coaster and personally, I really recognize how my emotional state can actually be quite attached to the latest phone call and how I feel about that.
It's quite detached from the bigger picture reality.
[00:38:00] Michelle Adams: Yeah. Yeah, it's so hard. Um, I used to really struggle with it. Um, my part, it does help having a support system because I've really needed it and I, I was leaning on it quite a lot during those periods because yeah, I feel like a lot happened at the beginning of my business in terms of challenges and.
I'm actually grateful for those experiences and I'm grateful that they happened when they did because now, in 2025, I'm able to reflect and deal with things a lot better and you, I recognize it as well, I recognize, I'm like, wow, I handled that really well. And I'm actually really proud of myself or somebody, you know, wrote an unfair review.
And I'm like, before I used to take that so personal and, um, you know, I would even get quite emotional or cry over it. But now I'm just like, well, A lot of companies face these challenges and I feel like the more you grow the more challenges you do face and you just have to learn how to deal with it but in a professional way and also separate yourself.
It's almost like I have to be two different people. I mean, I am myself and I definitely am authentic as the CEO and founder of Chatty Cats Care. I, you know, what you see is what you get. But also my professional persona is a lot different to who I am as a person. And I have to really dial back who I am as a person sometimes to just be professional.
[00:39:40] Being Your Authentic Professional Self
[00:39:40] Jason Caffrey: That's interesting. That sounds like quite challenging as well. I mean, I, it's become apparent. to me in the last year or so that I am neurodivergent. It's not entirely clear quite what that looks like, but there's quite a lot of, um, autistic characteristics. And that's presented a whole bunch of questions for me about how I present myself.
And quite, you know, what's being authentic, what isn't, am I, oh, you know, trying to fit myself into a peg hole that doesn't work.
[00:40:19] Michelle Adams: Yeah.
[00:40:19] Jason Caffrey: I mean, it can be a little bit confusing to be honest with you. And what I really want to do is, I mean, okay, I'm not going to go into, we met at a networking event, you know, I'm not going to kind of behave in the same way as I do.
When I'm sort of in my shorts in front of the TV, right? But I don't want to completely I don't want to present as somebody I'm not ever. Yeah, yeah,
[00:40:46] Michelle Adams: yeah. You don't want to make like a fake persona, like this is me when I'm outside, but when I'm inside I'm myself. Yeah, you want to bring elements of yourself and you don't want to lose yourself completely.
[00:40:57] Jason Caffrey: Where is Chatty Cat's Care going? I mean, you know, you're, you've got this really well established base in London, you've moved to Cambridge is happening now, Dubai is in the offing, it sounds like an empire, it's becoming an empire.
[00:41:14] Michelle Adams: I would love that. I would love that. I think Dream Big, there's actually a lot of people that I've spoken to and they have, you know, I felt Not, maybe they're not trying to be negative, but it's like they make me feel like I shouldn't have big dreams.
And these are quite, you know, big industry leaders that have given advice and tips and maybe that worked for them. But for me, I will always dream big and think about what I can do next. In fact, I've now just recently, this is an exclusive, collaborated with a pottery company, and we are planning to collaborate and create some cat themed pottery events.
[00:41:59] Jason Caffrey: Yeah.
[00:42:01] Michelle Adams: So it can literally take me everywhere. And that's what I love about the business and Chatty Cats Care. I could go anywhere with it. And I love that
[00:42:08] Jason Caffrey: you heard it first on the Content Mavericks Club.
[00:42:12] Michelle Adams: Indeed.
[00:42:13] Michelle's Advice For Entreprenuers
[00:42:13] Jason Caffrey: Lovely. Um, so my final question. We're here in 2025. Chatty Cats Care is five years old. You're expanding.
I mean, it's going brilliantly. And what you've achieved is amazing. It's so impressive. You started, I think, from what I read in 2017 was when you first started cat sitting. What would 2025 Michelle say to 2017 Michelle, who was kind of starting to think maybe this is something I'm going to have a crack at,
[00:42:46] Michelle Adams: I would say, do it and don't give up.
And also, Don't be afraid and don't let people bully you because that can happen in business from competitors actually, which I experienced too, which I was not expecting at all, but I've had to face that and yeah, I can only just thank them really because it's literally made me stronger and it's made me become.
more focused on what I want to do and who I am and what I want to bring into my particular industry and I feel like that makes me stand out and it makes me different from everybody else which is something that I wanted to be.
[00:43:36] Jason Caffrey: Michelle, thanks so much for coming in to the studio. What a pleasure talking to you.
I really, really appreciate it.
[00:43:42] Michelle Adams: Thank you so much, Jason.
[00:43:48] Three Key Takeaways
[00:43:48] Jason Caffrey: Michelle's story has given me so much to think about, and the lessons I take away are, firstly, that Authenticity, it really does drive success. Michelle's genuine enthusiasm, not just for her business, but what it actually does gives her and her enterprise a rock solid purpose, and that's invaluable.
Loving what you do isn't just a nice to have, it's an essential for navigating the challenge that absolutely will come in every business and for that matter, any career. Second, I'm really impressed with Michelle's multi platform content strategy. She tailors her content for different audiences on different platforms, and she has a clear purpose for each channel.
So the way she uses TikTok for quick engaging cat videos and LinkedIn for professional networking, that's a great example of that. Michelle's developed a really detailed understanding of her audience as well. And she delivers content that meets their needs on whichever channels they prefer. And finally, Michelle's experience has reinforced to me the necessity of looking after yourself.
It's so easy to get caught up in the hustle. But as Michelle demonstrates, prioritizing self care, it's not a luxury. It's a fundamental part of building a sustainable. and fulfilling business. So as they say in the safety briefings, put your own oxygen mask on first. I'm Jason Caffrey, CEO of podcast and content company Creative Kin.
Thank you so much for joining me for the Content Mavericks Club. I do hope Michelle's insights have given you as much to think about as they have for me. That's it for this edition. Until next time, goodbye.
Support The Content Mavericks Club
Every contribution helps deliver value-packed episodes for our community
From the Creative Kin blog
