We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maya Eazell. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maya below.

Hi Maya, thanks for joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

My dad always says Rome was not built in a day and this is something I always remember as I continue building my business. It has been a wild ride of self-doubt, empowerment, and a lot of back and forth between those two emotions. I started my dog training business mainly due to COVID when I was training for a large company. After being furloughed, I realized I could take my knowledge, continue learning and growing, and do it myself, which I did. I had a few friends who knew other friends and were willing to pay for a class. I did it, and it was so fun! I already loved teaching dog training classes but doing it on my own had another level of excitement. After this class, they referred me to a few more people and my web started to slowly grow. What really expanded my business was continued education.

I went to Animal Behavior College, which required an externship and a specific number of volunteer hours to complete. This was the beginning of getting my name out there more and more as I started connecting with rescues for volunteer work. As I volunteered, I was able to have meaningful conversations about my work and how I could help. This helped me build genuine connections with people who had the same mission as me; to help dogs. We have different ways of achieving our goals. Shelters and rescues help by providing food, care, housing, and support to find new homes. I help by advocating for dogs as I teach people to better understand them as well as how to communicate and teach them important skills. I find this understanding helps keep dogs in their home, and/or find new forever homes. This shared passion created a foundational referral trail for me. Connecting with other rescues, veterinarians, and professionals in the pet industry is important, not just to find clients, but to be able to talk to other people on ways to find solutions for issues that affect the animals and pet parents we all love to help. Working with people with similar values and goals to me is the key to expanding my business and being able to find more clients in a genuine way.

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?

My name is Maya Eazell. I am a multi-certified, positive reinforcement dog trainer. I love learning about dog behavior and have a genuine passion for animals in general. It amazes me to be able to build trust and communication with an animal that does not speak the same language. I also value continued education and get excited about learning more. I offer private 1 on 1 sessions, group classes, and day training. Day Training is where I train for the owner and communicate what I did so they can continue practicing while I am gone. I help pet parents understand why their dog is displaying certain behaviors, as this is very important in being able to find long-term and realistic solutions for them both. I am most proud of my advocation for animals as I help spread education. Dogs are not born knowing our societal standards, such as to not jump on us, to not bark too loudly or only when we want them to, or the idea of needing them to be friendly to everyone they meet. Another aspect to this is that we bred dogs for many jobs and now want those same dogs to be comfortable in apartment life and crowded cities. This creates natural conflicts that many pet parents do not know how to handle. That’s where I come in. To help them find a balance in meeting their dog’s needs with their current lifestyle, as well as training helpful skills for them both. I help people in person as well as virtually. I also volunteer with multiple rescues to help their dogs learn, find new homes, and help them stay in their forever homes.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

What I believe helps me build my reputation is being honest in my work and having a genuine passion to help. I feel that sticking to my values and confidence, people can see and feel the love I have for my work. Yes, I do suffer from impostor syndrome occasionally, but it does not stop my love for learning about animal behavior and wanting to have meaningful conversations about it. I also value creating a safe space for my pet parents so they feel that they can be honest with me. This may look like a pet parent being honest about not practicing or not understanding a topic. Making sure my pet parents feel comfortable is important for my work, but it is also an important aspect of how people remember and speak about me to others.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I am still learning how to build my audience, but I have found that connecting with people of similar missions is helpful for this as well. Many people who follow rescues, veterinarians, groomers, and such are people who have pets, like learning about pets, or want to help pets. This audience is the same group of people I want to reach, so I can work with them and/or spread education and resources to. Interacting with these businesses who have the same target audience as me and forming social media connections with them helps us both in a genuine and authentic way. This is because my audience may be interested in learning more about other pet professionals who can help them, such as groomers and vets, and vice versa. There are many dogs at vets that are terrified of being there, which may hinder their ability for health care. I can help pet parents rebuild their relationship with their vet through different training methods to make it a more positive experience helping both the vet, the animal, and their pet parents. Collaborating and connecting with these professionals on social media helps expand my own business and find more potential clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pawsandpeopleOC.com
• Instagram: @pawsandpeopleoc