We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Geralynn Cada a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Geralynn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you ever had an amazing boss? What did you learn from them? Maybe you can share a story that illustrates the kind of boss they were or maybe you can share your thoughts on what you think made them an awesome person to work for?

Mentors matter. Call them bosses, leaders, any way you view them, they are mentoring you. Luckily, I’ve had multiple over my four decades in business.

One point that was driven home in my head and heart was that there is no such thing as a bad mentor. In fact, some of my best lessons were learned from “not so ideal” mentors. One mentor stated to never put them up on a pedestal, as they were certain that at one point they would let me down. This humbly cleared my vision of how fragile people are. That no boss or mentor or human being is perfect and gets it right every time. Why set yourself up for failure by having expectations for people that simply cannot be met. Become realistic with your life plan, and the world becomes a better place to operate while reaching for your dreams.

Lessons learned, including this bombshell, certainly helped me in many areas including working on my own emotional intelligence so I could one day be an amazing mentor/boss to other humans and have an impact on them and their life plans as well. Doing my best, of course, to keep my mind and heart focused on positive thoughts and feelings to help change the world one day at a time.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

It all started with my parents who are avid animal lovers. My father was raised with lots animals on a farm and became an entrepreneur. Mom was crazy for dogs and cats. She became a teacher and placed me in animal training and animal conformation and obedience (dog showing) certification courses at age nine. So it’s no wonder I became a licensed AKC judge, AKC CGC Evaluator and an award winning professional pet trainer. She also nurtured my creative skills at a young age so my wild designing side was discovered as well. Being an expert problem solver was born out of being raised with 4 siblings.

After attending college and acquiring a BFA in Design and a BS in Biochemistry, training pets was a natural path for me to get to the heart of the human and animal connection to create solutions for calming the pets and people alike so they could live a harmonious life together. My training career led me to train for very famous clients, including Siegfried and Roy, plus many others. Acquiring my MBA was the last tool to ensure creating a successful business model with proper, realistic and  attainable goals.

My training classes and workshops were in high demand and many pet relationships were made solid through training techniques I had created over four decades. Lots of rescue pets were able to find relief and permanent homes. That led to my techniques being featured on FOX, NBC, ABC, CBS, The Doctors TV show, and more both nationally and internationally.

Due to my deep understand of design, biochemistry and pet culture, large product companies began searching out my experience for consulting work to ensure the success of their pet products and services. It feels so rewarding to see my work in design and inventions help pet families solve any issue.

Prior to the covid pandemic, one of my companies launched a pet product I developed that took the nation, and later the world by storm. This particular product utilized nature to calm pets, naturally, and it still pleases me to witness a pet relax after using my products. Needless to say I’m very proud of this product and the way it touched pets lives. Peoples too.

Next up in my collection is a unique tool for assisting pet parents when they walk their dogs. Set to launch in spring of 2024, my new dog products will be released under the name DOG:30. We’ve all heard the funny “it’s 5 o’clock somewhere”. Well, in my training practice, I’ve always encouraged my clients to get on a schedule with their pets so there is consistency in their training regimes. Set your pets up for success with tools from DOG:30.

Until then, watch my video podcast DOG HUGS online @positivelywoof on Facebook and YouTube. Cohosting over 200 shows with Larry Kay, we bring fun and interesting pets topics to life with our humor and experience.

It’s an honor and a privilege to have a career in the pet industry. PetAge magazine awarded me with their PET ICON Award in 2018 and there are no plans to stop my work anytime soon. So, sit and stay tuned for more of my work with two and four legged animals.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Managing a team can be tricky. You spend a great deal of time together working on common business goals that will make or break the company. Varied work styles and personalities definitely have an impact on the speed of the team and how smoothly they operate. Office culture is important in maintaining long term loyal relationships with your teammates so they jump up in the morning motivated and ready to take proper steps every day towards small and large successes.

One of the key factors imperative when it comes to spending time and money successfully for the company is proper communication. Yes, discipline and a strong sense of urgency in task completion is key. Those traits are important. Yet, I’ve found through experience that the best successes, ones with less bumps, are achieved with the help of creative yet effective communication. When clear understanding of what the needs of the company are, how to go about managing expectations and solutions for issues are communicated throughly including the how, and why, teams flourish, thrive actually. This also requires an understanding of your team dynamics.

The first step towards success. Which may sound trivial, is the mission statement and core value statement for your company. It’s vital to communicate these statements with your employees, for this is why the company exists in the first place. Uniting on a platform that demonstrates value and merit has so much meaning. It’s a great bonding tool for teammates.

This mission and cure value platform can be achieved creatively in many ways. There’s no one size fits all answer. After evaluating your team and their learning and performance styles, finding what motivates them to want to succeed together is a key to unlock the high morale and confidence within them.

How you are at home also leads us into a happy workplace environment, and vice versa. Encouraging team members on a happy home journey matters as much as a positive, happy workplace.

Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?

Yes, I’ve bought an existing business. It was not an easy decision or process, yet it was well worth any pain endured. The business I assisted in purchasing held a great opportunity to expand upon, and did come with multiple hiccups along the way. It’s product base was relevant to a large subsegment of the population who would be interested in learning about and utilizing these tools for harmony in the home.

One of the biggest challenges was working with the majority owner of the business, who had no business experience and was just winging it on a daily basis. This owner considered the company “their baby” even though, due to lack of experience and life exposure, well, the baby was drowning quickly. On the final day of signing papers, there was a moment when I had to stop and breathe deeply because I wasn’t confident if this deal would close. The owner almost didn’t sign the papers at the table, even though they knew that they couldn’t go on and be successful without assistance from my team.

It truly took blood, sweat and a few episodes of tear shedding to evolve through the birth of the new parent company. Change is never just a “dog walk through the park” when it comes to the challenges when one acquires and rebirths a company with a fun idea and relevant products. Timing is not the only thing, it’s everything. This idea was underdeveloped at the time and with the new team it grew even further hitting unexpected heights. Plus, great timing or what I like to call “divine timing” that led to exponential success.

If you are considering purchasing an existing company, do your due diligence and dig deep. Uncover everything and then dig again. You will be happy that you did dig as to limit further surprises down the road. This willingness to delve deeper saves you time, money and your piece of mind.

Contact Info:

• Website: Candcpawco.com
• Instagram: @Geralynn Cada
• Facebook: Geralynn Cada
• Linkedin: Geralynn Cada
• Twitter: @geralynncada
• Youtube: GeralynnC

Image Credits
Photo credit @sheaphotography @geralynncada