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

Tony, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later?

I wish I would have started my business sooner. I had the idea for Fido Insido years ago, but I thought it would take too much time and effort to create social media accounts and build a following with a full time job. I told myself I was just too busy, when in reality, I had the time and bandwidth, I already had a ton of photos of my dog Ricky. How hard would it have been to create an Instagram account and share them there? Even when I was laid off from my full time job, I thought I had to do all this work before I could officially launch my idea. Granted, some of it was fear, but a lot of it was thinking everything had to be perfect, when in reality, I just needed to get things going Especially with social media. I think of all the years that passed that I could have grown my following. So much wasted time!

Tony, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I love dogs and always wanted a job doing something with them. I had this passion I couldn’t deny, and spent many hours volunteering at an animal shelter & seeing friend’s pups. I finally got my own dog in 2014, and that changed everything for me.

My job was going through multiple reorganizations at the time, so I knew my days there were numbered. I asked myself what I would do next. I knew it had to be something with dogs. I loved taking pictures, writing and connecting with people. My neighbor at the time was a social media influencer, and I said to myself, “I can do that!” I love my dog, I love going to dog events, I love buying new dog products. I thought I could share my experiences on social media to anyone who had a dog and wanted information for their pooch.

There are a lot of dog social media accounts out there, so I’m so grateful to my followers. I just try to be honest, suggest products I believe in, give tips that work and be authentic. I’m really proud of the kind and engaged audience that follow me. They really love Ricky and enjoy seeing our adventures together. They’re the best.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When I first started Fido Insido, I really thought everyone would be super helpful. I thought all the dog shops, influencers, dog food companies, etc would love to be featured on Fido Insido, It’s free promotion, right? But I learned that everyone is busy and has different priorities and goals. So it made me look harder to find the right people and stories to post on Fido Insido. It’s like the saying, when one door closes, another one opens. I found that to be the case every time.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’ve learned early on that you need to be honest with yourself when it comes to your time, energy and bandwidth. When I first started Fido Insido, I was creating videos for YouTube and posting several times a day, 7 days a week on social media. Talk about burnout! I learned I couldn’t do all that work by myself, so I scaled back. I don’t create YouTube videos anymore, and I only post once a day on social media. Burnout is not fun, that;’s for sure.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fidoinsido/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefidoinsido

Image Credits
Nashville Family Photos