Helping Others Find a Successful Career Path – How We Can Introduce the Profession of Dog Grooming

Joe Zuccarello (00:27):
What’s up everyone? Joe Zuccarello here and welcome to Hey Joe, a podcast brought to you by Paragon School of Pet Grooming. Check out our [email protected] for lots of really cool information on a variety of programs, products, and to connect to educational resources such as webinars, podcasts, current events, special news certifications, and lots of other helpful information to help you grow yourself, your team, and of course your business. Let’s get started with this week’s episode.

Joe Zuccarello (00:58):
Hey everyone, thanks for joining the Hey Joe podcast again. This is Joseph, your host, and I am joined today by a very special guest and somebody that I have been talking with for several years and beginning to really start to put our organizations together in partnering to bring this incredible career of pet grooming to people all around the world. And we can’t do that on our own. So one of the ways that we can do that in a very unique way, in a very special way is to include partners in that same mission. And my guest today is the epitome of that type of partnership. I am joined today by Brian Taylor, who is the self-proclaimed dog father of Harlem. Brian, thanks for hopping on the Hey Joe podcast with me today.

Brian Taylor (01:51):
Hey, Joe, thank you so much for having me as a guest. I really appreciate to be in your space. I’ve gotten to know you over the years and I love what you guys are doing over there, and I just really want to find a way for us to collaborate and connect and talk about all the amazing stuff that’s happened over here at my side of town.

Joe Zuccarello (02:10):
Okay, well, what’s really great about that, Brian, is that we have explored lots of things. We’ve done some work together, which we can talk a little bit about, but this is just one of those examples, right? The Hey Joe Pet Pro podcast is one way that we can bring your world to the world of our listeners, right? To start introducing. One of the missions I have with my podcast is to bring experts to people who deserve to know those experts, to bring resources that are people who work hard and may not get a chance to explore things or maybe just didn’t know what they didn’t know, and what you’re doing is exactly that. So Brian, before we hop into some of the initiatives that you’re working on, tell us a little bit about who Brian Taylor first.

Brian Taylor (03:00):
Well, Brian Taylor is a guy with multiple passion. I own Harlem Doggy Day Spa. I am a professional dog groomer. Most people know me now as the dog father Harlem. I’ve been in business for over 13 years, and we offer such an amazing service to the pet parents in the Harlem community from groom and daycare and boarding services. I have about seven staff member that works with me, and we service about 400 dogs a month. So that’s what Harlem Doggy Days buy is all about. Is that dog Aven for dogs in Harlem

Joe Zuccarello (03:37):
Now? I’ve been there. You invited me to come.

Brian Taylor (03:39):
Yes, of course. Want to focus. I gave you a tour of it. I remember that.

Joe Zuccarello (03:43):
Yeah, it was awesome. It was such a great experience and this word community is going to come up a lot. And this is one thing I really like about you, Brian, and what you stand for is that you are community focused and community is defined in multiple different ways. So we’re going to be sort of the spirit of this podcast episode is talking about community, but I got a chance to go to Harlem and meet your staff stand side by side, greet your customers. What an awesome experience. So thanks again for that invitation. It was pretty incredible.

Brian Taylor (04:15):
Thank you so much for coming by. I appreciate it. You definitely saw the uniqueness of our business and how we’re positioned in the community. You talk about community, I think community is a big part of my business. I really focus on the philosophy of the 80 20 rule. A lot of people know the 80 20 rule where 80% of what you do is what you do, but 20% is what really takes care of your business. That’s what keeps you going. But I have an 80 20 philosophy towards business, and what I have today is very simple. I think you spend 80% of your time building your business, and then you spend 20% of your time giving back to your community that you service. And you can do that in multiple ways. I think one way is that I’ve been able to do it really well is find ways where I can get kids into my community to learn what I do and find a career in pet grooming, dog daycare, dog walk, whatever. And I’ve been able to do that in such a unique way and over the years.

Joe Zuccarello (05:18):
Well, and I’ll tell you one of the things that first, you have a very magnetic personality, which is really great. So it’s very contagious, and people from the very get go from meeting you, we had this really great bond from the beginning and we wanted to get behind you, and I wanted to get behind you. So you have your business, you’re a professional dog groomer, you’ve got a doggy daycare business and a pet walking, pet sitting business. I mean, again, a staple in the community, and I’ve seen it, I’ve seen it in real life. But one of the things that you said was, I want to flex this 20% muscle I want to give back to the community. So you started just in your own community trying to attract youth to your business. Let’s set the landscape. This is a podcast, an audio podcast. So they have to go to the website to see Brian Taylor.

Brian Taylor (06:15):
Of course. Yeah.

Joe Zuccarello (06:17):
Describe your community, Brian.

Brian Taylor (06:19):
Oh my God, my community is so diverse with so many different people. It’s a working class community, and it’s also a transition community where people come in and out. But the one thing that I love so much about the Harlem community is that it’s the new generation of youth are out there. They want to learn, they want to have the opportunity. And since I’m a black man grooming dogs, I’m like, you know what? I need to see more of me in this community doing this kind of work. So over the past seven years, I’ve worked with New York City Summer youth employment. I’ve worked with Henry Settlement, and I work with cases, cases our kids who have been in some form of trouble, and instead of them going to jail, they get to go through this program where they get to learn new skill sets to keep them out of trouble.

Brian Taylor (07:08):
So I go there every year and I handpick some of these kids who love animals. I’m like, listen, you want to be a dog groomer? You want to be a dog walker? You want to work with animals? I have the perfect opportunity for you. New York City gives me a hundred hours where these kids can come into my facility. I usually have about five to 10, and they get to work in a doggy daycare. They’re working under a professional dog handler, or they get to be in the bathing room. They get to learn how to bathe dogs. A lot of them have dogs, so they have a million questions or they get to learn how to be a dog walker. So within a hundred hours, I get to choose one or two of those kids to become staff. So that’s the way I’ve been able to employ and keep staff by working with these kids from anywhere between 17 to 22 and the most enjoying part about it’s that this is how I use the 20% of my time to grow my business by the same time to give back by creating the next generation of animal wellness in terms of animal career.

Joe Zuccarello (08:16):
So this community effort led to, and again, you and I, we’ve talked, right? We’ve become friends, and one of the things that you told me was that you didn’t want to just stop with Harlem’s community, the community of Harlem. So you thought, well, I’m going to go on tour. In fact, you created the Pup Relief tour. So tell the hey Joe audience out there about, okay, I wasn’t going to just stop with the community of Harlem. I’m going to find other communities that are Harlem across the United States. So you hopped in your mobile grooming van and off you went.

Brian Taylor (08:48):
Yeah. So what really happened, I can pinpoint it to March 8th, 2020. And if you know that time everything changed. A lot of business was closed down, and unfortunately, dog business was not a central business in New York. New York were hit really hard with the pandemic. So one thing I wanted to do is continue to offer services to people in need, especially at a time when these dogs had those mad coats since December. So I hopped in my van and I started helping the community by offering my grooming services for free, and I raised enough money through GoFundMe. I raised about $20,000. At that time. I was like, you know what? I feel comfortable working in this new environment where I have to put on a mask and I can still groom dogs. And it’s only been one case of a dog potentially had covid. I was like, you know what?

Brian Taylor (09:42):
I want to get more people like me and I want to travel around the country and offer my grooming services for free. So that’s how the p relief tour came about. I got a bunch of minority groomers around the states and I said, Hey, I’m going to be in dc, I’m going to be in Atlanta. I’m going to be in Texas. I’m going to be in California. I’m going to be in these places. Come out and you feel comfortable in you’re safe. We’ll have masks, we have gloves. Let’s groom some dogs, and let’s help some people who don’t have the finances to groom the dog. And we have this big pandemic happening. So it’s so important that we do our part by giving back to the animal community. So that’s how the Purple Leaf tour came about. And the last three years we’ve been to 16 different cities.

Brian Taylor (10:27):
We groom ’em over 17, 1,800 dogs. We’ve helped so many people, and in this tour, most people act like I want to be just like the dog father, or I want to be just like this other groomer in this city. How can I become a dog groomer? So that’s the question that’s been really, really hitting in all the different cities we went to and now I think popular leaf tour idea is to answer those questions. How can we get more bipoc, black, indigenous people of color? How can we get more people in this space? What does that look like?

Joe Zuccarello (11:03):
So it was sort of like, this is so perfect. I mean, this is how inspiration really starts is that you went out to serve the pet owner, the pet parent community, to go where they were at because, and again, to your point, a lot of folks maybe couldn’t afford it or whatever, or maybe didn’t feel comfortable getting out during the beginning of the pandemic, but a byproduct was you had people in those communities saying, well, how do I become a dog groomer? And then it was like this aha moment popped in your head and you’re like, okay, it’s bigger than just grooming people’s dogs. It’s grooming lives. I, and I hate to sound corny at the risk of sounding corny, but really, how else would they have known about that? So let’s talk a little bit about these aspiring groomers in these communities. You said these communities might’ve had limited financial resources. So to obviously do the people, right, those communities. So how can individuals with limited financial resources get started in the grooming profession? You probably get asked that a lot, right?

Brian Taylor (12:10):
Yeah, absolutely, man, everyone has a path of becoming a dog groomer. Some people, it’s in their generation. Their mothers, their grandmothers were dog groomers. So by nature they become groomers. Some have looked at mentorship as an opportunity where they’re going and volunteer their time in salons. Some has even worked at some of the biggest corporations where they happen to be lucky enough to be in this grooming program, and some people have been able to financially just do it by going to grooming school. But I think that most challenges for most people is that it’s the path and the finance in order to do that, it costs money to become a dog groomer. It’s not a profession that you just learning on. You could do as much as you can on social media on YouTube, but to learn the difference between a number five blade and a number seven, what clip is to use mats, the breed cut.

Brian Taylor (13:05):
I’m telling you all of the technical stuff you need to know, but the most important thing is animal wellness and being able to handle dogs while they’re on your table, creating a safe space for them. Those things take time. And unfortunately, some people haven’t been able to have those resources to do that. So my vision is to help those who want to become groomers don’t have the proper resources, but give them the foundation, make it cool to be a dog groomer. So you asked me how to go about doing it. I think that if I can sprinkle a lot of what I’ve already know, and if I can get partners like Paragon and others to say, you know what? Let’s support the next generation of groomers, especially in areas where people don’t have the finance to do that. I think we’re doing a part to grow the next generation of groomers.

Joe Zuccarello (13:53):
I know you’re right. I know you’re right. And all of us that have been in this industry, the pet care industry has served me very well. I’ve been in it almost 40 years. It’s been my entire career. I raised myself, I raised my family while being in the industry, and my story’s not unique, but to your point, it wasn’t until the Pup Relief tour van pulls into a neighborhood, into a community that maybe even just some of those people didn’t even know grooming could be an opportunity for them. They’re probably thinking of all kinds of maybe different career choices or career paths, especially our young people, right? These young people who are out there that maybe university is not for them for whatever reason. Maybe they don’t want to go to university. Maybe it doesn’t appeal ’em. Maybe there’s some financial constraints and constraints. They didn’t know that this was an option until you came along in some of these communities. So when we talk about this, do you have a story? Do you have that one story that kind of bubbles up to the top about somebody that you were able to not only introduce a career pet grooming to, but who transformed their life in their financial situation because of the career of pet grooming who might not have otherwise even been on that path?

Brian Taylor (15:13):
Absolutely. I definitely do. I got multiple story. I bet you do. One in particular is a gentleman by the name of Ronnie. Ronnie. He’s from West Africa. He was born in the same country as I am, and my grandma, my mother and his grandma say, Hey, you’re doing dogs. I know our nephew loves, our kid loves animals. You should teach him how to be a groomer. I’m like, nah, he’s not ready, whatever. So he came in and he became a dog bather. I worked with him to become a dog bather, to learn the basics around it. He had two french tees and he had a doodle, and he said, Brian, I want to be a groomer. How can I become a groomer? I said, okay, let’s work you through the levels. Let’s understand animal, let’s understand animal behavior. He worked with me for two years until the moment I was like, okay, I think you’re ready to be a groomer.

Brian Taylor (16:11):
So we got him some clippers, we got him some blades, and within the first five weeks, this guy was completely grooming the dog from start to finish. So those basic skill sets, he’s been able to learn that on his own while working for me for two years, just watching everything that we did until he had the opportunity to do that. And now he has his own business. He’s looking to purchase a mobile van. He grooms dogs in Brooklyn, call himself doggy daddy. He has three dogs. So these are the opportunity when someone who didn’t have an opportunity in terms of teeth tried all kind of things, but his true passion that came to him was dog grooming. I have the same story. I was a banker turned dog groomer. People ask me all the time, how the heck did you decide to leave your a hundred thousand dollars job to become a groomer?

Brian Taylor (17:05):
I’m like, you know what? The drive and the passion for animal welfare drove me here. It brought me here. I have stories of some of my staff members who were in cases, they’ve had issues. They’ve been in really difficult situation where they came through my summer youth program and now their supervisor, they’re supervising over 40 dogs as a dog handler. So I think the path to animal welfare, and especially grooming, you don’t know where it comes from, but as long as you have the true passion for animal and you love it, and you can see it as a way to create an opportunity for yourself, I think it’s there. So when you remove the financial from it, and then you put someone with the opportunity with Clippers blades and the patience to do it with a curriculum like Paragon, I think the opportunity is endless. And we can finally to say that in the next few years that we have enough professional groomers to service the over 80 million dogs and cats are in the United States. That needs to be groomed five to seven times a year. So that’s where the opportunities, and it’s going to take all of us to do it

Joe Zuccarello (18:22):
Well. So let’s talk a little bit. We’re going to unpack a little bit of that passion, right? Because you talk about passion. What’s really great, okay, so you are a banker, right? You’re what we call a career reset. Really?

Brian Taylor (18:32):
Really? I never heard of that term.

Joe Zuccarello (18:34):
Paragon has given you a nickname, sir, you don’t know it, but we call you a career reset. What you’re saying is you had a career and you’re like, nah, it doesn’t do it for me. Right? It’s not scratching that itch. It’s not my passion now to all of ’em, our banker friends out there. If that’s your passion, kill it. Right? That’s awesome, right? You do. But for career resets like Brian, but Brian, let’s talk about that passion because passion can exist in any community, in any gender, in any race, in any financial status. And what you’re talking about is let’s unpack that term bipoc, right? Right. Black, indigenous people of color. So let’s talk about, Hey dude, let’s get a little uncomfortable for a minute, alright? And that’s okay because you and I are buddies, right? Yeah. How does diversity and representation benefit the pet grooming industry? Because we just don’t see, we’re seeing a growing number, which is spectacular. But I’ll go back just a handful of years, maybe as many years as I can count on one or both of my hands that didn’t exist, and it still is not represented as it needs to be, and you have firsthand experience. So talk to us about how does diversity representation benefit the pet grooming industry?

Brian Taylor (20:02):
Oh my God, when I say it benefits the pet industry, just think about it this way, right? There was an article that came out several years ago during the pandemic that most of the industry, it’s mostly white. There’s not enough minorities of bipoc in this space. I think it was 0.3%. I don’t remember the exact amount. Don’t quote me on it. But what that says is this, if you ever think of the, I want to be like Mike. The thing about Michael Jordan commercials back in the nineties, it was about anyone could become Michael Jordan. When they have these pair of sneakers or they drink this Gatorade, it doesn’t matter who you are. So I think what has happened over the years, I think the pet industry forgot to include everyone from their marketing, all of the marketing materials that they put out there from the educational videos, all the educational videos that they’re out there, or even just really who are they partner up with in terms of showing how diverse this industry is.

Brian Taylor (21:07):
I’ll go to these road shows, this expos, and I could pinpoint all of the minorities in there. There’ll be five, six of us there. Some of us can’t afford to go to these shows. I completely understand. But at the same time, it’s even the educational teachers or the things that are teaching, it just doesn’t look like everybody. So when you ask that question, imagine how many more groomers you can have in the industry if you include everyone. So guess what? It helps your bottom line. So you can sell more clippers, you can sell more blades, you can sell more shampoo because you have everybody buying your products or signing up for your classes or just being part of it, or even being part of these boards. That’s so important. So instrumental to the career of the industry. The thing about minorities, especially the Bipoc community, we’re very creative.

Brian Taylor (22:03):
We want to do creative grooming. We want to compete in the hair industry, the beauty industry. You see, we’re there. We’re doing all this amazing stuff. So if everyone’s included in the pet grooming industry specifically, I’m speaking to imagine how that helps the line because the buying power of the black dollar, it’s so much and people don’t understand how powerful that is. But that’s not just that one part, but to have everyone included. Now, the most important part is this, and I want to say this because when I got into the industry, some of my own friends who were minorities or blacks saying, no, black people don’t love their dogs like the way other races do, and that was my thesis to continue being in this space. I wanted to show them that I’m in Harlem. It’s not about pit bulls or aggressive dogs. Minorities and blacks can have doodles, can have shihtzu, can have Pomeranian, and they all can be groomed the same.

Brian Taylor (23:02):
And then the level of love and attention is there across border. Doesn’t matter what the race is. So that was part of my thesis. I think the last 13 years I’ve proved that even in my content that I do now, I always want to show the black pet parent, just so people can say that, okay, this is a different vision on it. And I think the pet industry specifically would benefit when everyone’s included in every aspect of the industry, because at the end of the day, those dogs don’t see color. They love whoever they love. So let’s show everyone that everyone love animals the same way. I hope I answered your question. You

Joe Zuccarello (23:42):
Did. And I’m going to ask a part two to that though, because you talk about the opportunities, and here’s what I like about Brian. This is where your head’s at. It’s not just about the opportunities for the pet grooming professional, the aspiring minority, pet grooming, bipoc, pet grooming professional. There’s also opportunities for the brands, the equipment brands, the manufacturers, the vendors that are at these shows and just in the industry in general. But you touched on one thing, and I want to unpack it just a little bit further, and that is sometimes, I mean, there’s stereotypes to your point, there’s not as much love in a black pet owning household as there is other races. So that’s stereotype, right? Or there’s breed profiling, there’s people profiling, right? So I mean, we got to get past that. We all know that. But what are some of the other challenges that you’ve seen for bipoc individuals in the field?

Brian Taylor (24:44):
Man, just think about male groomers. In Germany. You can say male black groomers are white. At the end of the day, most of the time in the past, the visions or the visuals that you see, we’re picking up pit bulls, we’re picking up German Shepherd, we’re throwing it into the tubs, or we’re behind the scenes. We’re usually the husband or the female groomer. So when you start to see individuals like Gabriel Za, who is grooming and kissing and hugging dogs, doing creativity, showing a lot of the sensitive side of things, you start to say, Hey, I’m a male. I love dogs just that way. I kiss my dog. My dog sleeps in my bed. Okay, I see someone that does that. Okay, great. I feel comfortable to want to show that side of me. And I think a lot of women see that’s super attractive just to say that small part.

Brian Taylor (25:37):
But the most important part is that when everyone’s included, especially black and indigenous people of color, when they see those visuals, now those kids in those high schools or those areas like, oh, wow, I see the dog father kissing dogs. He is paint the nails of dogs and they got matching outfits together and look how they’re grooming. Oh, these are all the things I always wanted to do, but I don’t know if society accepted. So now it’s being accepted all over. And guess what happens to the brands now? They have another target audience to market to. So everyone wins.

Joe Zuccarello (26:15):
Everyone wins. Okay, so let’s talk about reaching people when they’re young, right? On several podcasts, and even on Paragon pet school.com, on our website, on the employer resources page, we’ve got a really cool useful tool called Recruiting Future Groomers. And it’s where do we find people that might have a predisposition to being successful in this career? And one of the things we point out is know your high guidance counselors, because these guidance counselors have to get in front of these young people, and I’ve said it before I got a high school. It’s 10 minutes away from my home, 2000 young people in it. Now, they all come from different backgrounds. They come from different influences. They come from, they may not have had somebody to show them work ethic. They might not have had a positive influence. They might not have been in sports and had that coach that taught them that they might not even have a full family unit or a functional family unit that they could learn from. We almost have to assume that they didn’t, and we can be surprised when they might come with some of that, but let’s get the young people introduced to us. So in high schools, all across the country, in all the neighborhoods, as an employer, we are struggling to find people to come to work. But if in the youth programs, in the go to the high schools, and even if just get to know the high school guidance counselors.

Brian Taylor (27:41):
No, absolutely. Just think about us. I’m turning 41. I’m proud of that. But in the nineties when I was in elementary and high school, the guidance counselor was such an instrumental part of our livelihood in terms of understanding what career we should try, what electives we should do. So the important now is that I think we fall away a lot of individuals, a lot of business, a lot of the schools, a lot of policies that fall away from those most important part where the educators help guide youth to what career looked like. Back then, they had auto workshops, they had things in carpentry. They had so many different vocational stuff that I think a lot of high schools are pulling away from that. But I think in the animal space, we have the most opportunity because it got to be gone into the ways that if you want to be in animal space, you have to be a vet or you have to be a dog trainer.

Brian Taylor (28:44):
What about dog groomers? An average dog groomer in New York makes six figures. So there’s a huge opportunity there where yes, if you can’t afford to spend $60,000 to go to school, but you are an animal lover and you can’t do veterinary services, it’s too expensive. And being a vet tech is great, but why not do something where you bring creativity, where the love and animal is there, where you’re so connected, the bond between animals and you’re making them look amazing. That’s how important dog grooming is. And on the health side of things, it’s also great too because we’re the first line of defense when we see things wrong with a dog that we can articulate to the pet parents to watch out for it. So I think the opportunity at the 1716 age group teaching them about animal care, teaching them the of dog grooming, it’s such a big opportunity.

Brian Taylor (29:45):
By the time they’re 22, 23, they’re working in these salons. They’re earning a good income, they’re becoming part of your staff. They’re competing in these shows because a lot of the kids who are competing are younger generation. They love the competition. They can do those dogs and they could be more creative. They could help your brand because they’re the one that’re doing things on TikTok Instagram while some of these old businesses, they don’t even know what tick and talk is. So this is so important to have the youth in your industry, but getting them started small, the old way of doing it, yes, you have a daughter that is yours and you’re bringing into the grooming salon. You leave them in the mobile van, but you can tap into the high school. You can tap into first year college students, and you’re teaching them like, Hey, if things doesn’t work here and you love animals, let’s see. If there’s an opportunity to become a professional bather or a dog groomer or a master groomer, it has changed my life. That’s all I got to say.

Joe Zuccarello (30:51):
So here’s what I would encourage, and maybe you can back me up on this, and we’re going to move on to the next topic, which I’m really excited to talk about, but reach into other communities. If you’re in one community reach, I mean really take a play out of Brian’s playbook here and say, reach into a community you may not be comfortable with. You may not you don’t think is familiar to you. We all live in communities that 20 minutes away, 15 minutes away, there’s a different type of community. We live in our communities. We live sort of in this compartmentalized world in a lot of cases, reach, if you’re an employer, reaching to those communities, show a willingness to work with those people. Find the inspirational people, the influencers in those communities like the Brian Taylors of the world and say, connect me. Connect me because I have a path as an employer. I’ll pay for their education. Absolutely. I need to be introduced to these people.

Brian Taylor (31:54):
Absolutely. So let’s put it this way. I wanted to also make it very clear. You’re not going to always find success, and you are always going to deal with all of the challenges that all of these young individual kids are dealing with. But that’s how important of mentorship. When you are able to pull one or two of these kids from this community and then you create a path for them to be successful, yes, you’re going to mess up a lot of times. A lot of times some kids are going to disappoint you, but the fact that you’re able to change one or two people lives. So let me break it down a little further. Whenever you are walking a dog and then another dog person walks you, what usually happens is that they introduce themselves to the dog by saying, oh my God, this dog is so cute.

Brian Taylor (32:47):
I think having an animal is the best icebreaker between different people with different political views, different religious or different experiences or financial backgrounds where that animal, that love and compassion for animal, you can go to the roughest neighborhood and you decide to groom a dog there or do a presentation around animal care or dog grooming of a overall. All of those kids who love animal don’t matter what type of personality or background or race or whatever it is. They’re going to come and they’re going to be attracted to that dog. That’s how powerful animal care and dog grooming in particular. It’s so strong because it’s a way to start and break that conversation that I call it the icebreaker where people can connect through the love of animals. So it is not going to be perfect, but if you’re in a community that you don’t feel comfortable in, or you want to tap into a community you don’t know nothing else, bring a dog, bring the dog and start talking about that dog. I bet you their wall will come next to you and they want to learn about that dog. They’re going to ask you their name first. So that’s how powerful what we do and how impactful it is,

Joe Zuccarello (34:11):
And what’s so great.

Joe Zuccarello (34:13):
So many people get jobs in their life. So many people get jobs. Grooming is a career. Opportunity is a career, right? It’s a career opportunity. So all of you employers out there, if you think you’re just hiring bathers, gosh, you’re hiring future groomers, absolutely. And you can invest a few dollars in them and you could change the course of their life. So let’s talk a little bit, okay, so Brian Taylor, banker becomes dog groomer, becomes entrepreneur, becomes philanthropists. You take your mission to your community of Harlem. Then they’re like, that’s cool. I’m going to take my to other communities in Manhattan and New York. Then all of a sudden, then I’m going to go to other communities across the United States. But one really cool thing that you’ve done over the course of the last couple years is you said, well, you know what? So there’s a little water involved in between. We’re going to take the career of dog grooming and grooming instruction to West African communities. Now, come on. I mean, right? So now this guy who starts as a banker is now in, because we know this, because Paragon proudly partners with the Puff Relief Tour. In your efforts in Nigeria and Ghana and wherever else in the world, your travels are going to take you introducing the career of dog grooming. But what efforts are being made to introduce grooming as a viable career in these West Africa? There’s grooming opportunities.

Brian Taylor (35:52):
Yes. Wow. So, hey. So while everyone we’re watching the Proper Leap Tour, I kept getting messages after messages after messages, Hey, I groom dogs in Nigeria. Hey, I groom dogs in Ghana. I groom dogs in Kenya, South Africa. I’m like, really? How did you learn YouTube? Oh, I watch you groom on TikTok. I was like, wow. So I was so amazed, and I start to follow some of these groomers and I start to see their work, and I’m like, wow, you learned how to do this with table clippers? I mean, table scissors and human clippers. Yeah, I learned how to do that. So that’s how crazy dog grooming is. Where in Nigeria, there’s 200 million people in the United States. There’s 325 million people, there’s dogs, there’s opportunity in Nigeria, as ever before, I met about 25 dog groomers who have learned the basics through you two to us, and they just don’t have the opportunity for the proper tooling.

Brian Taylor (36:58):
They’ve never received a grooming book before. So I was like, who can I contact to help me with this? I was like, Joe, let me call Joe. Let me reach out to Joe and see how Joe can help us train us the basics. We all know how to train groomers, but I want it all to be all in one accord, and by partnering up with you, and you’ve giving us the theory of five of grooming and then giving us access to your program. And then now I have five people who want to go back to West Africa, Nigeria and offer workshops for two weeks where these kids can get continued education to learn the basics. So we had people who were really good groomers and people who were just starting off, and they got those foundations that they needed to continue, and they all appreciate the book, and they refer back to the book.

Brian Taylor (37:53):
It got to a point that when we went back this year when we did Ghana, and then now we went back to Nigeria, one of those students were able to open up his own shop. Now we’re trying to help him to train other groomers in his own shop. So he made enough money in one year from the level of education that he received to now save enough to open up a shop. Let me tell you the difference. A doodle in Nigeria cost $20. So a 40 pound doodle, they make $20 for that dog. Whoa. In the New York, that’s a $250 grooming. When I say doodle five eighths, three fourth, seven eighths on the body, teddy bear face, no mats. That’s what they get paid for doing that. And he were able to do enough that he are able to save $1,000 to be able to get a shop, which that $1,000 pays his rent for one year.

Brian Taylor (38:57):
Then he needed to get $2,000 to build out the shop. And then we came and gave him tools so that he can have a space less than 400 square feet where he could put two tables there and in a bathroom tub for him to groom. And now we’re helping them create a community so we can bring more people who are interested in the be groomers, giving them the tools that he need to educate and get to more people in this space. So that’s how powerful grooming is in West Africa. And when they saw us do it in Nigeria, Ghana was like, Hey, what about us? Kenya is like, Hey, what about us? I’m like, okay, I’m only one man. We need to finish this mission. So when you talk about dog grooming, that’s how big it is. Even in the Indian community, even in the Chinese community, there’s so many areas where this industry has just begun. That’s it. And people don’t even know how powerful this is. And when we post things on social media, all these Facebook groups, you have a lot of inspiring potential next groomer who want to learn. And here we get to become role models at all levels.

Joe Zuccarello (40:16):
Well, so again, and just to remind the Hey Joe listener audience out there, we’re talking with Brian Taylor with the puppy relief tour and the dog father of Harlem with a pet care services business right there in the community of Harlem, but started in Harlem, took it out to other communities in the local area, took it across the United States, took it to West Africa. Now we’ve got other communities in West Africa asking, Hey, what about me? Which is hilarious. I never heard you say it that way before, but I could see them saying it like, excuse me, right? We’re here too. So I have no doubt that it’s going to grow. Your mission is going to grow exponentially, and I hope that people that are listening to us want to support it as well. But before we tell you how you can support Brian’s efforts, there’s another community. Brian, I don’t know, man. You’re a man on a mission, and I keep saying, Brian, really? You want something else? And you just have this insatiable hunger to bring this to people. And again, this career to these communities. There’s not a lot of details to offer now, but I promise we’re going to bring you back on when you get a little bit more details about this. But there’s another community.

Brian Taylor (41:31):
Yes.

Joe Zuccarello (41:32):
I know the listeners are out there. Where are Antarctica or where’s he going next? Right? Some other continent. You’re just now laying down the very beginning stages, beginning steps of a second chance career opportunity for inmates.

Brian Taylor (41:52):
Yes. So again, now people are saying, what about me? I’m like, what do you mean? What about you? Yes, there’s a huge community of incarcerated individuals who are in a space where they want an opportunity. And I met Zach Snow, he’s part of positivity change program in California at Victorville. Penitentiary is a federal prison, is a nation number two prison where they have over 5,000 inmates. And he went in there and he started teaching them to become dog trainers. His philosophy is different. He said, listen, when you can cohabitate someone through the love of animals and it can care for animals, that the way they do it brings up an opportunity for something way bigger. In the last seven years, he has a rescue in the ranch in the hills where he rescue and take care of dogs. But this thing that he does where he goes to state prisons and he creates an atmosphere where he gets some of the very best prisoners who have been going through a whole form of rehabilitation now introducing dog training.

Brian Taylor (43:13):
And they keep asking, I want to learn how to groom dogs. And then here I come. We know this guy that loves to teach people how to groom. Let’s see if we can get ’em in. Since the beginning stage, Matton is working with us to figure out how we can be grooming in these spaces to educate. I was like, the only other guy that I know that I can reach out to is Joe, let me call Joe, is say, Hey, Joe, do you want to do something else? So I’m excited about that. I think there’s a huge opportunity. It hasn’t been done in a way that we’re looking to do it. And I think if we all come together as a community, those second chance individuals can come out and they can create a job. As long as they love animals, they rehabed have any issues with animal abuse, there’s an opportunity for them to do what they love. Just like how if they came out, unfortunately, most of them don’t have a chance to get a job. Some of them become entrepreneurs. So why they can’t be dog owners, dog trainers, why they can open their own facility as long as they know how to do the work and they love animals and treat animals like the kindest thing in the world, they too deserve a shot.

Joe Zuccarello (44:32):
Yep.

Brian Taylor (44:33):
I feel like that’s all I could say. Just it gives me thrill when I think about it tremble me because I really believe in just including everyone.

Joe Zuccarello (44:43):
Well, and I love that all inclusive approach because again, everybody out there that’s listening to this, you don’t have to be in the pet industry very long to understand how special it is and how the relationships are. And to your point, there’s one guy I got to call and I’m flattered at you think about me all the time. I appreciate that. But Paragon will continue to support you. Paragon will continue to be there as closely side by side with you in your efforts. We believe in what you’re doing and we applaud you. But Brian, there’s probably other people out there that are now listening to the podcast that are like, you know what? I want to do the same. Right? So what kind of support benefits your efforts the best? Is it financial? Is it equipment? I know you accept equipment that people, you’ve told me before, if you’ve upgraded your clipper to a clipper that you now love and the other one’s just sitting as a third or fourth spare, right? You should send it. You’d take it because take it over to these West African communities or wherever else. How can people support you? What are the different ways? And then how do they find out more information about what you’re

Brian Taylor (46:00):
Doing? Absolutely. I think everything you said, we want support all of above. So from an individual perspective, from the groomer to the business owner, yes, we want you to help us spread the word about what we’re doing. We want you to donate your professional skill sets to be part of what we’re doing, and we want you to help us raise money through your clients or even donate right from the brands. We want some donations from you all, but we also want some real good support where we can get the tools either at a discount price or use tools that you don’t need where you can donate. We are a 501(3c), so you will get a tax write off that you can use. So these are ways you can help, but it’s a whole community thing. And I think that if we all can come together to help, we can build the next groomer where we all have benefited from it.

Brian Taylor (46:56):
There’s more income where there will make, they can groom more dogs, they can buy more products. They are part of the community overall in building this space. And I said it to you earlier, the pet grooming industry specifically, no one’s own it. No one has a market share in that is the individuals who are passionate about animal care that create and carve their own nest, their own clients, their own dogs in this space. So no one really owns it. We all do. So then it’s all of our responsibility to come together and build the next generation of groomers how they can help support. They can go to park relief tour.com. We have our donation page where it talks about all our different missions. You can go to GoFundMe, you can donate if you want. You can share those links. You can send me an email, we can get on a Zoom call, we can talk how we can partner up together and let’s focus on one or two things that we think that is best that we can help the most. That’s how it is. Or volunteer your time. All of these ways comes together. It doesn’t have to be just financial support. Sometimes just being able to speak to the next generation is just as important.

Joe Zuccarello (48:10):
So again, to all of the Hey Joe listener audience out there, it’s real simple. We’re going to make it easy for you. You can go to pup Relief Pup relief tour.com. Is that what Yeah,

Brian Taylor (48:19):
PupReliefTour.com.

Joe Zuccarello (48:21):
But again, if you’re driving, I always give you this warning. Don’t try to write it down. Don’t try to enter it into your phone right now, right? Wait until you stop. Make it really easy for you. Just go to paragon pet school.com, the website that you’re very familiar with, and we will have all of this content information, Brian’s story, Brian’s information, all of the missions that he’s doing, and you can then pick which way you can best support. So Brian, listen, I don’t have to tell you to keep it up. Keep up the good work. Regardless of what I say, you’re going to do it anyway. So keep up the good work out there. Communities are better because of what you’re doing. Individuals are better because of what you’re doing, and the community of professional pet grooming is better because of what you’re doing. So I thank you very much. Thank you again for being part of this podcast.

Brian Taylor (49:09):
Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate all the hard work and dedication. I know this is just something you’re doing on the side. You are run two big companies with a bunch of staff, a bunch of students. So for you to even spend time and you also consult too. So for you to be able to take the time out and continue to put the reach out there and teach people and communicate and connect through us through education, I think it’s a big part. And most people need to understand that because a lot of times they don’t know who are the faces behind the brand. Because in the past we focus on building the brand because those faces could change. But sometimes there’s individuals are in these spaces that would never change, and their mission aligns with the brand. And I want to thank you for continuing doing that in so many aspects.

Joe Zuccarello (49:58):
No, thank you for the kind words, and I promise I Hey you of us in our audience, an update on Brian’s escapades. Brian’s travels Brian’s missions when they’re available. Thanks again, Brian. Appreciate you.