I know it’s just me in my company, but I think I need to develop stronger leadership skills. This morning I asked Brenda and Steven to stop sniffing a piece of roadkill on our morning walk, but they ignored me. I tried my ‘stern’ voice, and they still ignored me. We just stayed there in the middle of the park for twenty minutes, sniffing that one unfortunate deceased animal, and I felt like I didn’t have any control over my charges. 

Not that it’s all about control, of course. I want to become the type of strong leader who leads by respect and admiration, both in life and business! I asked Daddy, who is very well connected when it comes to business, and he said there are a lot of excellent leadership and management courses to recommend. I could go along, not mentioning that it’s partially so that I can exert some authority over my dogs, and be crafted into THE perfect leader. Probably.

I bet it can even help me in my business. Sometimes, I need to be better at leading myself. I take naughty long lunches instead of knuckling down to work. Occasionally, while I’m looking up supplies for a wedding or therapy, I’ll find myself drifting to multiple tabs full of amusing videos and shopping exploits. I need to get tough on myself, you know? Really put my own nose to the grindstone, take myself to task, bring home the bacon, shoot myself in the foot to… get myself going. 

Then there’s sales. I am NOT saleswoman, by any means. My pitches to potential customers always end with “if you want to, I mean, no pressure, I wouldn’t want to be a bother.” I need a sales course to shape me into a business machine, to teach me how to make my will as hard as iron and smash through the barriers of… not getting to do pet weddings, I suppose. Oh, I’ll look up every single sales course I can. I’ll find the best sales course in Australia. And then, my dogs will finally drop the ball when I ask, instead of abiding by the law of ‘no take, only throw’.

-Ashleigh