Cindy Rawlings with Captured Moments by Cindy, Giselle Williams with Staffordshire Home Advisors, and Bethany Nugent with BEATS

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Woodstock, Georgia. Welcome to women in business where we Celebrate influential Women making a difference in our community. Now here’s your host.

Lori Kennedy: [00:00:29] Hello, this is Laurie Kennedy, and I’m your host today for women in business, powered by Business RadioX Stone Payton, our producer is also in the studio with us today and we are grateful to have you tuned in today. We are interviewing Cindy Rollins with captured moments by Cindy. Bethany Nugent from Beats and Giselle Williams from Staffordshire Home Advisors. So welcome everyone. We are so glad you’re here. The first thing I want to know is just to tell us about your business, how long you’ve been in business, how you got started, what you do, that sort of thing. Cindy, I am going to start with you. Why don’t you tell us about your business, what you do, how long you’ve been in business and that sort of thing?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:01:15] So I am a photographer that specializes in maternity, newborn and family photography. I’ve been in business for about four years, and I just love connecting with families and helping them celebrate those special moments.

Lori Kennedy: [00:01:30] That is amazing, Bethany. What about you? Tell us about your business.

Bethany Nugent: [00:01:35] I’m a physical therapist and I founded Beats in 2003. We started taking on clients. We originally were focused on fundraising and educating the public about our services. But then we started taking on clients in 2008. So that’s when we started. And our company provides physical therapy, occupational therapy for children with special needs, using horses and horse movement. And we also provide adaptive writing and we are the host of the Cherokee County Special Olympics team.

Lori Kennedy: [00:02:05] That is amazing stuff. Thank you for sharing that, Giselle, what about you?

Giselle Williams: [00:02:09] Well, we are a home inspection company and I am the marketer of home inspections, and it really blends good with for me because I love meeting people, building relationships, and that’s what has gotten us where we’re at right now and we’ve been in business five years.

Lori Kennedy: [00:02:25] Ok, great. So what made you, Jozo? What made you go into this particular line of business, like what captured your heart in reference to exactly what you guys do?

Giselle Williams: [00:02:39] Well, we we we used to own a nutritional company, and Glenn was a little burnt out for all the things FDA, and he said, I don’t know what I’m going to do next. Every home that we owned. We gutted it out and fix it up ourselves. So he knew about everything, every component of the house. I said, Glen, why don’t you do home inspections? You’re very thorough. You’re very detailed. And he looked at me and he goes, You’re right. So he went ahead and got certified. And then since then we’ve been we’d never looked back. We enjoy it. We love helping people, which is when somebody’s buying a home, that’s one of their biggest purchases and he’s very detail of what he does. And he loves doing, helping, informing people about the status of the home they’re buying. That helps them make a decision. So serving people is what we love.

Lori Kennedy: [00:03:33] Awesome. Thanks to sell. Bethany, what about you? What made you like? This is a very unique space within, you know, physical therapy. What made you move toward horses?

Bethany Nugent: [00:03:47] Well, it’s funny. I actually decided to be a pet when I was six. Believe it or not, I was reading stories about kids with disabilities. Lori Brightman and Louis Braille, Helen Keller and a relative of mine who’s a physical therapist, suggested it. And that was just that. I decided then got through college about three quarters away through college, and I was a little bored in college. You learn a lot about orthopedics and geriatrics and weren’t areas I was thinking I’d go into. And at my last clinical, second to last clinical, I was at a facility that was on 900 acres and had horses, had a pool, had cabins where the clients lived. And my mom happened to see an article about therapists starting to use horses as a treatment strategy. And I wrote all my life. So I thought that sounded cool and I went and I mentored with somebody. And it was the the time where the light bulb went off in my head with all the academic stuff that I had learned and putting it together, and it just made sense to me. I watched the clients the difference between the clients in a clinical situation versus at the pool or on a horse, and how hard they worked, not knowing they were working hard. And it was just that was it. And so when I came up to Georgia, I sought out starting such a company.

Lori Kennedy: [00:04:59] Wow, that’s really. I love that you get to do your heart’s desire in a way that is uniquely specific to the way you’re wired. That’s awesome. Cindy, what about you, babe?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:05:12] So I love nature. So I started with a camera taking pictures of, you know, God’s glory, and friends started asking me, Hey, will you do my pictures? Will you do my family’s pictures? And I was like, No, I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know what to do. And they kept they were persistent, and so I started doing that and I found that I loved capturing who they are as a family, their connection with each other. And I decided this is what I want to do. And then I sprung it on my husband. And he said, OK, and I said, by the way, I want to do maternity and newborns. And he said, Oh, OK. And so that’s that’s how I got started. I love being able to connect with moms and families, you know, during a time where emotions are all over the place, you know, uncertainty, excitement, terrified and just being able to help them focus on the joy of the moment and just the beauty.

Lori Kennedy: [00:06:17] Yeah. Didn’t you open a studio recently?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:06:19] I did. I have a studio in my home, in the basement, in Canton, Georgia, and I just, I love it. It’s exactly how I wanted it. And it’s amazing. Yeah.

Lori Kennedy: [00:06:31] How long did you have to like? How long did that take to put that together exactly the way you wanted it?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:06:37] It took about three months for the builder to come in and get everything taken care of, and there were specs that I wanted and he was like, You want to watch it? And I’m like, I’ll get you a picture.

Lori Kennedy: [00:06:50] Pinterest was your best friend, right?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:06:52] And other photographers, you know, we learn from other people within our industry, you know, on ways that we can streamline things. And so, yeah,

Lori Kennedy: [00:07:02] Giselle, how how is how does who you are as a person reflect in what you do?

Giselle Williams: [00:07:11] Wow, that’s a great question. Basically, I love people, so what I do reflects on what I bring to people, other people in, whatever, helping them out because I’m about helping other people. So what I do, it’s really reflects who I am.

Lori Kennedy: [00:07:33] Well, how do you use your influence in the community by serving? Awesome. Give us some examples of where you serve,

Giselle Williams: [00:07:42] When I serve, like like, let’s say, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of a Dominick’s.

Lori Kennedy: [00:07:48] Oh yes, the yes, he has a food truck.

Giselle Williams: [00:07:50] Yeah. Intermissions. Yeah. Helping them even helping any other business person grow their business with coming up with ideas on how to do better. Now that I’ve been in business for so long, I can be an influence to them as well. Hey, you could do this better. You could do it this way. And I have so many people come to me and ask me for, you know, advice and they run with it, and that makes me really happy. Helping others that way in their community.

Lori Kennedy: [00:08:18] That’s awesome, Bethany. What about you? How do you use your influence in the community?

Bethany Nugent: [00:08:23] Well, we set up these as a nonprofit so that we could scholarship kids who could not afford services. So I think that’s the biggest thing is that and networking with other agencies to just provide services and things that are special needs, community need. So we try and fill in any gaps or support them in any way we can.

Lori Kennedy: [00:08:42] Ok, awesome. What about you? Cindy, how do you use your influence in the community?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:08:48] So I love serving, I love serving moms, but I also love working with local nonprofits to help when moms need a session, but they can’t afford it. I love working with those nonprofits to make it happen. I fully believe that no matter where you are in life, that you should be able to have pictures of your loved ones. I also love helping others. It’s not unusual for people to ask me, so I’m I’m thinking about doing this, and I just don’t know about the whole marketing thing and where to start. And I’m like, Oh, let me help you. So I always love giving nuggets and helping other people be able to realize their dreams.

Lori Kennedy: [00:09:37] Yeah, I met with you when we were working on some marketing stuff, and you have great ideas and you’re really good at it. Thank you. Yeah, it’s really another arm of your business that is specific. Like, not a lot of people just are naturally gifted there, and you definitely are. Thank you. So what makes your life, Bethany? What makes your life significant and how does that affect and feed into your work?

Bethany Nugent: [00:10:08] I mean, the most significant thing is seeing the changes of our kids. I get a lot of first steps, first of things that kids are doing and seeing the parents pride and stuff and just knowing that I was part of it, my team was part of it. What we created was part of it is the biggest thing.

Lori Kennedy: [00:10:22] I would love an example or a story or something that you can give us.

Bethany Nugent: [00:10:27] We have a little boy who came in, Gosh, I think he’s been with us for three years now. But when he first came in, he was walking with a walker. He has a neuro neurologic condition, but it’s not diagnosed yet, and he was able to walk with a walker. But it was a little tipsy and he just such a hard worker, very supportive family, all the right ingredients and the use of the horse. He was a perfect example of why it works, and it was only about two months into that that he was not only walking with his walker, but we started taking that away and giving him crutches and and moving him along. And his family was so happy with his progress, they asked if he could come twice a week if he could change his clinic to us. And at the time I said, No, I didn’t feel like, you know, I like the kids to have a lot of resources and I didn’t want to limit that. But then COVID hit, and most of the clinic therapists went to telehealth, and because we were outdoors, we took all precautions and saw anybody who wanted to be seen. And so he started coming twice a week, and the progress he made just coming in twice a week was just phenomenal. He can walk a little bit here and there with nothing. He can walk very easily with just one crutch holding stuff in his hand, walking along, chatting. The difference in him is is unbelievable and I still see him twice a week. In fact, he’s my first client when we’re done here and I can’t wait to see him every time.

Lori Kennedy: [00:11:50] Oh, that is awesome. I I get it like I get if you have to balance yourself on top of a horse and that definitely will increase your ability to balance yourself when you’re you’re walking to it.

Bethany Nugent: [00:12:02] And the horse is so powerful because the rhythmic movement, the constant rhythmic movement for the time they’re on the horse affects their whole system. So as a physical therapist, I’m looking at their walking, I’m looking at their running and looking for those physical needs. But we get parents reports of all sorts of things they see progress with when they’ve been doing their status quo therapy for a few years. They’re recommended to us. They start and within a couple of weeks they’re doing other things. I had one mom, it was crazy, she goes, he hasn’t eaten chicken nuggets in years and he started eating chicken nuggets. And the only change was you now. Can I prove that the hypnotherapy caused him to eat chicken? But it was the only change. So the parents start reporting us all these things that change in their kids and stuff. So it’s not just my area of physical therapy, but seeing the changes. I’ve had a lot of first words, even though I’m not the speech therapist. They just they want that horse to go. They’re going to say something. So I see that a lot.

Lori Kennedy: [00:12:55] That’s awesome. All right. So I’m going to ask this of all of you. I will start with you, Bethany, who is in your household.

Bethany Nugent: [00:13:03] I have two wonderful children, my daughter, Mikayla, 17, she works for our company and she attends Woodstock High School and my son is 15. He also goes to Woodstock High School as a freshman there. And then my husband, Mike, who’s a graphic designer.

Lori Kennedy: [00:13:17] Ok, awesome. What about you? Miss Cindy?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:13:19] So my husband, Kurt and then my son Jonathan, he is 17. My daughter has moved out, but she’s 20. She’s Jade. And then we have two dogs, three cats and a hamster.

Bethany Nugent: [00:13:31] Ok, I’ve got four dogs and 10 cats.

Cindy Rawlings: [00:13:34] You got me.

Bethany Nugent: [00:13:35] I didn’t mention them. Should I mention that

Cindy Rawlings: [00:13:37] I’m coming to play at your

Lori Kennedy: [00:13:38] Place? You kind of have a whole farm, though, right? Well, we have a farm.

Bethany Nugent: [00:13:41] So no, no, we don’t live at our farm. We live in a three bedroom house. But people tend to drop animals. Fit our farm, so we tend to get attracted to them.

Lori Kennedy: [00:13:51] Got it, Gisella, who’s in your household?

Giselle Williams: [00:13:53] My household is Glen, me and my four four legged babies. Ludovic, Tito and Lola.

Lori Kennedy: [00:14:02] So you have 16 legs between them? Yes. Ok. My mouth was very fast. Awesome. Well, can you tell me, Cindi about a mistake that you’ve made in your business and what you learned from it?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:14:18] So I would say a mistake that I made is in the beginning comparing myself to others and allowing uncertainty to hold me back. So now I just I stay in my lane. I do what I want to do and I execute. And if it’s a flop, then it’s a flop and I learn from it. But it’s not me allowing my perception of other people holding me back.

Lori Kennedy: [00:14:45] Yeah, I love that. Basically, it comes down to fear, you know, walking through that fear. That is awesome. And I love it, and I wrote it down because I want to be reminded of it. What about you, Bethany?

Bethany Nugent: [00:14:58] Oh, there’s so many. I think the biggest mistake I’ve made and continue to make is just taking on too much, trying to do too much of it myself, not delegating. Not I don’t want to say not surrounding myself. I’ve tried to surround myself, but not allowing people to help me when I need help. So, yeah, that’s the biggest thing. I recently was in a session or about to start a session, and I was tending to my three or four different things at the same time. And the dad was just like, You’re you’re doing too much. You just need to focus on what you do best and and treat the kids. And I was like, I would love to, but who else would do the rest? And so he very graciously has put together a new board for us. So I’m learning. I’m hoping that that board will expand and grow and take over some of those responsibilities. So it’s still a work in progress.

Lori Kennedy: [00:15:49] But yeah, wow. Awesome. Ok, what about you, Giselle

Giselle Williams: [00:15:53] Taking on everything? When we first started, like the social media, the networking, everything that you have to learn in the home inspection business, it’s not just going to a home inspection, you have to learn everything. So I was doing the social media, the networking. I was like, Oh my God, I’m getting burned out. So we had to hire somebody else to do our social media for the first six months. That way, everything could balance out, and it was overwhelming. And I just I said I was about to say, I’m quitting. I’m not doing this anymore. I think it’s just more like taking on too much. You just have to learn how to delegate.

Lori Kennedy: [00:16:31] Yeah, yeah, for sure. What are the greatest challenges that you’re facing now as a business or an industry

Giselle Williams: [00:16:37] Right now with the market the way it is, it’s like we get booked and then oil. The deal didn’t go through because somebody else offered more money than my client. So we are booked, but only with new construction. That’s what’s been going on right now. But we have agents or people call us. I need to have today due diligence. Do you think you can do it? Yeah, of course we can do it. But they come and they didn’t get. They don’t get the deal because somebody else offered more. Those are one of the challenges we’re facing right now with real estate.

Lori Kennedy: [00:17:10] Yeah, it is. I think that I think we’re in a unique situation with real estate market overall right now. So I think I hope that’s a temporary challenge for you and not a long term one, for sure. Bethany, what about you?

Bethany Nugent: [00:17:27] I think as a therapy industry has our biggest challenge is insurance, specifically with our special niche of using horses. There’s a lot of primary insurance as we’re still educating on what we do there, using some very outdated material to list us as an exclusion. And then so a lot of our kids are built in Medicaid and Medicaid itself as a pretty hefty process of every six month reporting and stuff, which I’d love to see changed as a nonprofit. The work, we’re starting to come out of it and hopefully this year will be better. But the last couple of years people haven’t wanted to gather. So just doing fundraisers and trying to think of new and unique fundraisers that didn’t involve people being near each other and stuff or whatnot just having that support. So we didn’t lose too much during COVID on clientele, but we have struggled to to get those fundraisers going back.

Lori Kennedy: [00:18:21] So what are some of the fundraisers that you do?

Bethany Nugent: [00:18:24] We’ve had in the past a fundraiser every year at a brewery. Usually that’s just the location, and at the brewing event, we do a silent auction and we do a cash raffle or something like that. We’ve done a haunted house in the past. That was really fun. The community loved. It really felt like it was going to start to take off. But then the founder or the guy who does the haunted house himself went into the. Army so that that ended last year. Oh no, so, yeah, so we were kicking around a couple ideas, I don’t want to mention them yet, but what the board and I have talked about a couple ideas. We will probably still do a 5K. We started a 5K last year was our first one. We did two of them last year and kind of jumped right into it. There wasn’t enough planning and stuff yet they were still moderately successful, so we’re hoping to continue that. So we do have that planned for August.

Lori Kennedy: [00:19:17] Where are you located?

Bethany Nugent: [00:19:19] The barn is located in Canton, right? Yeah, right off of Arbor Hill.

Lori Kennedy: [00:19:25] Ok. Awesome. Cindy, what are the greatest challenges you are facing now as a business or industry?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:19:32] So as a business piggybacking on what Giselle was talking about, about being a one man show? I’m a one woman show at this point, so trying to figure out what I could delegate out. It’s not the, you know, capturing pictures because I love that. I love connecting with the families. It’s not the editing because I love bringing what I see and what I’ve captured into what I wanted to create. It’s not the marketing, because who’s going to present me in my marketing? So just trying to figure out what what I’m willing to let go. And yeah, and then I have all these ideas that I want to execute, and I just have to find the time being a full time mom, full time photographer and then executing all the the set ideas and everything.

Lori Kennedy: [00:20:29] So how do you get clients?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:20:33] I would say ninety five percent of my business is word of mouth. So, for instance, have been doing sneak peeks this week of a gorgeous mom, and I’ve had multiple people reach out to me because she’s like, Oh my gosh, look, look at my pictures. These are so awesome. And so people are like, Oh, I’ve seen Ashley’s pictures. You’ve done such a great job. I want to. I want to connect. And so, yeah, about word of mouth

Lori Kennedy: [00:20:59] And what is a typical week for you as far as how many sessions that you get to do?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:21:07] So it ranges. Usually, I average about two sessions a week, but it can be five or six, which is a bit overwhelming for me. Again, one woman show.

Lori Kennedy: [00:21:18] Right? Yeah. How long does editing take?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:21:21] Typically, so if you if you shoot for an hour, you can usually take that and multiply by three, and that’s what you can expect to be your editing time. However, there are times when it’s longer or shorter, just depending on what the setting was. And you know, if it’s a baby that has, like severe acne, then that’s going to really bog you down in a good way because you’re still focusing on the beautiful baby, but removing the acne and everything is, you know, extra steps.

Lori Kennedy: [00:21:52] Gotcha. Ok? How do you get clients, Bethany?

Bethany Nugent: [00:21:56] Most of the time, through family word of mouth, the families who come to us talk at other therapy sessions and stuff, or at school or whatnot. Sometimes it’s therapists who have had a child and just want something different, either instead of or attitude. Most of the time it’ll be added to and will work side by side with another therapist. Not literally but figuratively, just supporting their plan of care and adding to it.

Lori Kennedy: [00:22:21] And you said something about Special Olympics. Tell us about what that looks like.

Bethany Nugent: [00:22:27] Special Olympics? Well, they just moved it last year. So it’s local. It’s at Will’s Park. It’ll be Memorial Day weekend, the Friday and Saturday, and teams of the last couple of years have been tough. Last year there was only a couple of teams there the year before they canceled, so it’s building back up to what it used to be. Right now, I believe there’s eight teams confirmed to be there. The kids compete in showmanship where they lead the horse through a pattern equity nation, where they’re judged on how they look and how they sit on the horse and control the horse trail where they go through obstacles. And then the our favorite class is called unified partners. And it’s where you have two athletes paired with two partner riders, and they do it to musical a musical number.

Lori Kennedy: [00:23:11] Oh, that sounds like that would be fun to watch.

Bethany Nugent: [00:23:13] We’ve always we’re known for kind of going all out. So I’m not disclosing our theme this year because other teams know how hard we work to make it super spectacular for our kids. But we go for full props and scenery and excite excitement factor for the audience as well. Ok. And the kids really get into it, but they can’t wait to practice their musical numbers every week.

Lori Kennedy: [00:23:37] Oh, that is awesome. That sounds like so much fun. So Giselle, how do you get your clients

Giselle Williams: [00:23:44] By word of mouth building? Relationship networking people that use us in the past refers to our families, and we stay pretty busy all week.

Lori Kennedy: [00:23:54] And you partner with people in the community as well, like real estate agents and that sort of thing. Do you want to tell us about that

Giselle Williams: [00:24:00] Little real estate agents and also closing attorneys and also mortgage lenders? We get a lot of referral from mortgage lenders, but our best referral partner is a realtor. Those are like our direct referral partners and they referrals to other centers, referrals to other realtors as well. So it’s about, you know, trust and they like us would do a great job.

Lori Kennedy: [00:24:29] And so you have some common goals with some people in the community, and I see that you’re on the front of the town later this month. Tell us about your common goals and how that works

Giselle Williams: [00:24:40] Is about doing a great, awesome inspection. That way, the client is satisfied. Those are common goals. When you have a good realtor beside you, make sure that you know you do a great inspection. They’re happy, you bring everything to light that it’s needed to be known and that’s how we serve.

Lori Kennedy: [00:25:04] Awesome. All right. So Cindy, what are some misconceptions about your industry?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:25:11] We’re too expensive. Sometimes people are a little bit shocked by the the price tag and what they need to understand is people in my niche are educated. We spend a lot of time making sure that we understand what the what needs to happen in order for mom and baby to be safe. In fact, this year so far I’ve completed twenty four hours of education just this year, so just making sure that they’re they’re OK and they’re enjoying our time together, but really, it’s more about their safety.

Lori Kennedy: [00:25:54] Yeah. Wow. Ok, Bethany, what are some misconceptions about your industry

Bethany Nugent: [00:26:00] On the therapy end with using a horse? A lot of people don’t understand that there is a science behind it. There’s a lot of research behind it and they think, Oh, we can just put a kid on a horse and route around, and that’s what they’re doing. And that’s the problem we have with insurance is not understanding very specifically that we’re looking at. We analyze the horse’s movements, so we know every horse in our barn, what movement they give. We match their size, their temperament, their movement to the children. And then what we do while the child is on the horse is specific to their needs. Also, there’s not regulation in the sense that there’s no mandatory education, so if any physical therapist can use a horse, but if they haven’t gone to the courses learned, then it’s just buyer beware. You know, it’s kind of you need to know your therapists, know their background, their education, and that they’re doing things not only in a way that’ll be beneficial clinically, but also safety.

Lori Kennedy: [00:26:56] Yeah, it’s a lot to think of because I also you also need people to do things like clean out stalls and feed horses, which would be atypical for, you know, a physical therapist inside of a building doing something more.

Bethany Nugent: [00:27:11] Every time I pick up a pile of poop in the ring, I think how many of my classmates getting their master’s degree are picking up poop right now as they’re working for the main barn? We have other staff that do that. But yes, during a session, yes. If it’s in our way, I’ll go over and pick it up. And yeah, I didn’t. I didn’t need my pet training for that.

Lori Kennedy: [00:27:29] But for sure, what are some misconceptions about your industry?

Giselle Williams: [00:27:35] Just so would be we’re generalists. We know a little bit about everything. That’s what home inspectors do. We will if there’s evidence of mold, we’ll know that. But we’re not mold inspectors. We don’t look behind walls. Some people might think that, look, we don’t. We don’t look behind walls because we can’t tear out a wall and basically just being thorough with the little things that you can visible things that we can test. That’s basically

Lori Kennedy: [00:28:06] Just all. You had mentioned something earlier about how you like to help other business owners and that are just starting out and that sort of thing. So who who are your mentors and or are you being mentored and are you? How are you mentoring others?

Giselle Williams: [00:28:20] Well, when we first started, I got a mentor in our industry, but this person that mentored us knows all about, you know, it’s like more like a whole, a business mentor for our business. But I can mentor other things, other people through what I learned. So if it’s marketing, I learned a lot of marketing how to be a good marketer like social media. So if somebody starting a business, I can help you with that because, you know, and I got great ideas on that.

Lori Kennedy: [00:28:49] Yeah, because you’ve been through it, I’ve been through it. So are you still actively being mentored?

Giselle Williams: [00:28:55] Every time.

Lori Kennedy: [00:28:55] Yeah, OK. And then you take an active role in mentoring others as well.

Giselle Williams: [00:28:59] And I love mentoring others, like empowering other people that are about to give up like, Oh, I don’t know if I can do. Yes, you can. Don’t give up. That’s your head telling you that you can’t, but you can.

Lori Kennedy: [00:29:10] Exactly. Yeah, I think we have a mutual friend who was considering changing industries, and I feel like you were a key element in pushing her into opening that business again and moving back into that other industry.

Giselle Williams: [00:29:26] That’s right.

Lori Kennedy: [00:29:28] Yes. Yes, I see you as that for sure. Bethany, are you being mentored and are you mentoring others and what does that look like?

Bethany Nugent: [00:29:37] I actually have an intern right now, so I have contracts with about six universities throughout the country who send DPT students doctoral students for their last or second to last clinical time. So I have a student right now. I do that throughout the year. I’ve been on the faculty, but it required a lot of traveling, which I wasn’t at a point in my life to do. So I felt like this was a better match for me to be here in my home and teaching others. And I frequently mentor and mentor with other agencies in the area that provide similar services of the same service. I’m usually helping them with a therapy I. Respect, and they’re helping me more with the business and what’s worked for them and stuff.

Lori Kennedy: [00:30:17] Ok, awesome. What about you? Miss Cindy?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:30:19] So I have a couple of mentors. I have one that is specific to photography and then I have one that’s more specific towards business. And then I have a couple of photographers that come to me asking me questions, Well, how did you do this? How do I make this work? And how can I get, you know, my marketing up to par?

Lori Kennedy: [00:30:39] And so I feel like in your industry there would definitely there may be in all industries, but in your industry, there would definitely be like a group of people that are available to connect with to find out about different kinds of, you know, how did you focus this or what lens did you use for that or whatever is, is that something that you’ve found is available?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:31:03] There are so many Facebook groups full of photographers. Hey, I’ve got this family of 15 three littles, a couple of teens, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa. How do I pose these people and what kind of settings would you use? And blah blah blah and people just come in and they’re like, Here, here’s an example of one that I did, and I use these settings and blah blah blah blah blah. And so it’s really cool because you can learn on the fly if you feel stuck.

Lori Kennedy: [00:31:30] Yeah, that’s awesome. So Giselle, this question is for you because I think out of all of us here, you’re well besides me, but you are the only one that’s a husband, wife business. Yes. Yes. Ok. So how do you divide your duties out? And you’ve kind of mentioned this, but do you go crawling around in crawl spaces to girl?

Giselle Williams: [00:31:53] I do not go to crawl spaces. I stay in my lane. When we first started this business, I said, Glenn, you’re not going to be going to doing marketing and doing home inspections. It’s not going to work because we’re not going to be successful. Let us be successful by you focusing on what you know, what to do and what I know and what I know and like doing, which is marketing, building relationships. I do go with him sometimes if I’m going to videotape something, film something that he’s doing to post it on our social media. That’s the only time I’m going to go with him. But other than that, I stay in my lane and he stays in his eye.

Lori Kennedy: [00:32:31] Probably makes for a happy marriage. Your husband was in business about 20 years before I started jumping in and trying to help with marketing. And yeah, it took us a minute to try to figure out how to work together without killing each other. So, Bethany, tell us what Beats is an acronym? Yes. Yes. Tell us what that stands for.

Bethany Nugent: [00:32:53] It’s Bethany’s equine and aquatic therapy services. So we provide physical and occupational therapy, but our specialties are using the horse and using water.

Lori Kennedy: [00:33:02] Ok, so we haven’t talked at all about the water. Tell us about the water.

Bethany Nugent: [00:33:05] The water offers a whole different medium for therapy. Because water provides buoyancy, it provides resistance. So there’s different activities you can do in the water, especially with kids who aren’t walking yet. The water help gives you basically support to help them walk and stuff. And right now we have a contract out of the Cherokee Aquatic Center in Texas. Our therapists, however, is in residency for the year, so we don’t have that service right this second. And we’re probably looking for a therapist to take it over because she wants to focus on the horses when she comes back to.

Lori Kennedy: [00:33:37] Yeah, I guess in my mind, I’m seeing the horses swimming, but that’s not.

Bethany Nugent: [00:33:41] No, no, no, nobody’s swimming. We just use the water as a medium for for our services and and I love it when I first graduate. Well, when I was at that internship, my last clinical, I had the option of a pool. And so and I was a swimmer all my life too. So those two things just went together. And that’s where I saw we put parallel bars in the pool and worked in there, and it was just a great environment. But I learned very quickly up here that I can’t I can’t do them both. I don’t have both on the same site. It’s not really feasible. So Beats is much more known for the use of horses, not just for therapy, but for our recreational program and everything. So.

Lori Kennedy: [00:34:20] All right. Awesome. Understood. So what motivates or inspires you, other kids?

Bethany Nugent: [00:34:25] The kids is every day. The kids, I mean everything to. I mean, I work. I every child takes three volunteers. I meet some fantastic people who are giving their time to be a part of this and and hearing their stories. Why they volunteer varies greatly. And there have been some really inspiring stories out of my own volunteers and why they want to be a part of this. And then the horses, you know, the horses, just the horses that we accept in our program. We vet out very strongly and they they have a quality that, you know, they love what they’re doing. Not all horses do love what we do. So we’ve had to turn away a few. But yeah, the ones that love it, love it. And to see the session come together with a horse that looks happy. And is being well cared for, some of them have been rescued as well, so that’s always, you know, in the back of our minds that look where this horse came from and now they’re doing this for this child and then seeing the team around them and and what they’re giving is just very powerful.

Lori Kennedy: [00:35:27] How do you find your volunteers?

Bethany Nugent: [00:35:30] A lot of social media, again, word of mouth. Our volunteers love coming out. I have volunteers. I had one one woman who was with us for 16 years. Every week I’ve got another guy who’s every other week, but he’s been with me since the day we started.

Lori Kennedy: [00:35:42] So what is a volunteer commitment look like? Typically, most

Bethany Nugent: [00:35:45] Of our volunteers come in for two hours a week. They’ll they’ll help with two sessions back to back, getting the horses ready or getting the equipment ready. Walking alongside the horse or leading the horse if they’re qualified and then switching that all out to another kid. And then that’s it. So that’s what I’d say 90 percent of our volunteers do. And then, of course, we always have volunteers helping with projects and fundraisers and events and stuff.

Lori Kennedy: [00:36:08] Ok, what am I? What motivates or inspires you, Cindy?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:36:13] So I’m a silver lining kind of girl. So no matter the situation, I always try to find the joy. And so when I see moms who are going through their pregnancy and they’re not feeling well, they’re like my ankles are swollen. I’m a big fat whale, blah blah blah blah blah. You know this, this, this this. And I’m like, But what you’re doing is so amazing and it’s a miracle. And so I love bringing joy to them and allowing them to see what we see when we look at them versus what they see when they look at themselves. It’s often the case is when they get their gallery, there’s tears. They’re like, Oh my gosh, you know, because they totally don’t see what we see. I I just I love the connection between people too. I will sit and watch people all the time. I love watching the connection. You know, mom brushes the hair back from baby’s forehead and I’m like, Oh, that’s love. You know, and so I love capturing that connection.

Lori Kennedy: [00:37:26] That’s awesome. Chazelle, what motivates or inspires you?

Giselle Williams: [00:37:29] What motivates me is that I’m able to help my husband grow his business, and we’re working towards a common goal right now, which is growing it, which has been really hard right now because what we spoke about earlier, not a lot, a lot, a lot of inspections are being canceled and we’re trying to grow our company. And our fear is like if we bring somebody on to work with us, is there going to be a lot of work? But what helps me like motivates me is that I’m being able to help him accomplish his goals, just helping my family.

Lori Kennedy: [00:38:04] Yeah, I love that. Any of you can speak out to this. Do you have a message that is for women specifically?

Giselle Williams: [00:38:13] Just don’t give up. If your mind is telling you, I shouldn’t be doing this, why did I get into this? Keep on going. It will flourish. It will flourish, I promise you.

Lori Kennedy: [00:38:26] Anyone else?

Bethany Nugent: [00:38:27] I think in my she’s just that women can do whatever they want to. I mean, there’s really no I mean my my industry is completely female dominated as far as the therapy aspect, but as far as the bar in care goes, a lot of people think, Oh, that’s you know, we’re lugging around, you know, 50 60 pound bales of hay and 50 pound bales of feed and managing horses and all this stuff. But most of the people at my barn are also female and we can handle it.

Lori Kennedy: [00:38:52] It’s awesome.

Cindy Rawlings: [00:38:55] I think if you have a dream, you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. I had a name for my company for two years before I actually executed. So yeah,

Lori Kennedy: [00:39:07] That is great. Ok, we are going to go into the final question here. And Cindy, I’m going to start with you. How can others get in touch with you, with you and your business?

Cindy Rawlings: [00:39:21] You can visit my website. Ww w see moments dot me. It has my contact information. It has all my pricing and all the different styles of photography that I do.

Bethany Nugent: [00:39:37] Our website is probably best as well. It’s W-w-what Beats Inc Dawg, so it’s Beats Hyphen in Seaborg.

Giselle Williams: [00:39:46] You can go to our website WW Dot, Staffy, S.T.A.R. Fly Home.

Lori Kennedy: [00:39:53] Great. Well, thank you ladies for being on here. Is there anything that you want to leave us with today? Ok, then I am going to leave us with this. I want to remind you to keep learning and growing, so thank you for joining us today on women in business powered by Business RadioX until next time.