Connections! in SW Florida - Featuring Joanne & John Olsen with Pawty Express

Good morning, Southwest Florida, and good morning, John. I am— I see you with your cup of coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I understand that that is fuel for the soul every day, to say the least.

Yeah, it's pretty much what carries me through every day.

I love it. Well, thank you for joining us today. My name is Renee Hahn, and I'm coming to you from Naples, Florida, as part of Connections in Southwest Florida. And my whole reason for starting these, um, business showcases was, was during the COVID to be able to connect people, local people, with local businesses. And it's given me the opportunity to meet some incredible leaders in the community, and I've just kept doing them. So So John, I'm so thrilled to have the opportunity to talk to you today. And I've been so careful every day that I've done an intro for your coming soon broadcast to make sure people that my enunciation didn't think people have people thinking we're going to talk about bathroom potties, but rather paw potties. So with that, John, what I'd love to do is, is give you a moment just to tell the audience a little bit about yourself before we jump into the business side of things.

Well, before I do that, I'm gonna reflect on your inflections on potty real quick. We actually had to change our ad with Beasley Broadcast Group because people weren't typing it into the web browser right and finding us. So they actually enunciated the first part of that. Anyway, to tell you a little bit about myself and what we do, my name is John Olson and I was actually raised right here in Cape Coral, Florida. I spent about 21 years here and worked in multiple businesses and then went to Atlanta for about 10 years, came back here. I think my wife said it was 2000 or 2001. I don't know. You'd have to ask her. She's the one that kind of keeps me on track with timeframes. Every day just kind of blurs together for me. And, uh, we have been avid pet lovers and enthusiasts all our lives. We raised Basset Hounds when we lived in Georgia. And we used to breed them for like specific show dog categories, etc. So we wanted to get back into doing stuff with pets, and I'll tell you more about that in a little bit.

Yeah, and I can only tell you, we all joke about it, but it's so true. Pets are so much easier than people. I mean, let's be honest, they— I don't want you to choke on your coffee, but my dog, when I come through the door, he loves me. He has no expectations other than I give him a kiss and a hug, and he's enthusiastic, and he does almost everything I tell him. Same— well, my cat, not so much. So, John, I can imagine the draw for your passion. And Joanne is your wife, if I'm not mistaken, right?

Correct.

So do you guys do the business together then, or has this been your, your, um, thing?

This is— okay, I'm more the presentation, the person that talks to people, etc. But it was both of our ideas. Well, I shouldn't say that. It was neither of our ideas. And pardon me for a second while I grab a quick prop. This young man, if you can see, that's Samson. He's my 4-year-old pit bull. And back in October— no, I'm sorry, September, August of last year, we got invited to a pet party for Friends of Hits. And after we left the party, we were like, you know, that is such a novel idea. And my wife and I spend a lot of time on the road traveling and doing our photography work, etc. We decided we wanted to open another brick and mortar and we were going to set it up as just a photo studio. But when we got the idea and started doing the research of the niches for pet parties, we were like, you know what, we're gone half the time. It would be great if we had a retail side of the business that dealt with pets and we could have some fun with it. So we decided to go into the pet party business. And I'll tell you what, it has been a learning experience since day one. There are so many different products out there and so many different niches. Um, one of our very first events was VegFest here in Cape Coral, which is a vegan event. And when we signed up for it, we're like, okay, we can get Wild Earth vegan dog food. That's the only vegan thing we knew. Not true. About 60% of the dog treats that we already had in stock were vegan. I had no idea. Then you have to start looking for honey to make sure it is vegan, but that's an entirely different ballgame too.

Well, I love it. So you were inspired by going to someone's pet party, and I feel very slighted because I don't think my dog has ever been invited to a pet party. So I need to maybe talk to him about being a better friend to others, but I love it.

So you have— He has an invitation, July 3rd, right here at our shop. We're going to have some vendors next door and we're going to do a whole pet parade.

Oh, that's great. I'll have to mark that down, July 3rd. Well, fantastic. So, John, you had this, you went to this party, you already had a love for animals and had been working in business and other facets of that. Tell us about then Potty Express as well as Potty Depot, because I know you've got a couple of things that you're doing. So, give us an overview of the business and then I'll dive in with some follow-up questions.

Okay, Potty Depot is our brick-and-mortar store here in Cape Coral, and what we have found getting into this business, most vendors will not send to you if you are a home-based business. They want to have a brick-and-mortar store in order for you to get some of the quality products, etc. So our first step was to open the brick-and-mortar. When we did that, we realized there was more of a need in the community for um, the pet party aspect of it at a lot of the different events like the Christmas tree lighting, the, uh, VegFest, and the different things that the city and the county do, as well as some of the farmers markets. So we already had the internet version, which was Pawdy Express, set up for a website for delivery, shipping, etc. And we turned a Nissan large cargo van into a mobile walkthrough boutique. So we could literally pull up to any event. People can go in the back door, walk through, pick out their items, and then check out on the front end. Come here, baby. No, you're coming back for a minute. Just a minute. Okay. Hey. Okay, fine. Go. Be that way.

She's so— I was gonna say, like I said earlier, my dog follows instructions, not so much my cat, right? They are—

they look to me— she looked at me like she wanted to come up here. I guess I misread that one.

We won't, we won't tie that over and ask your wife about your early dating experiences with that either, but I'm teasing.

We won't talk about dating. I never did that.

Well, good, John. So please keep going. You were talking about the walkthrough. Boutique you have, and I imagine that's got a sampling of all of your products just on a smaller scale.

It has about 95% of everything that we have in the store on the truck. If it's not on the truck and I'm going to a specifically geared event, we can put it on there. Uh, we carry novelties that— such as like our pet wines, and when those are— when we're going to a market where people have bought them before, we'll include them. But we don't always carry them on the truck. Once COVID hit, we added some things to the mobile boutique as well. Anybody that needs dog food can call for free delivery. If we don't have it in stock, we'll pick it up for them. So it gives them the opportunity to stay at home, still get everything they need for their pets. And when we make the delivery, they can shop in the truck and get the treats and toys and whatnot that may not always be on our website. With the Potty Express side of life, we're also set up to do frozen dog food, which is a one-of-a-kind thing in this area. As far as I know, we're delivering for Primal Raw and the K9 Kitchen LLC, which is a local fresh-made food company. They actually have their commissary down your way. And they do quite a few of the local markets, uh, including the Cape Coral Farmers Market. And, uh, they have a lot of health-conscious things in mind. My side of it though, when it comes to the Express, I like the fact that we can give people exactly what they need at their homes, at the events, and we can carry stuff that nobody else can. Like, for example, Sorry, I gotta show one of these off. These are our Canine Granola Company donuts. These are completely made from human-grade ingredients. And if you were to keep them in a booth at one of these outdoor events, they would wind up melting. They get a little hot in our 4-hour events, but they don't melt. And having the truck there, we're able to kind of keep them at the right temperatures, et cetera. Whereas most of your vendors that come out to events like that, they don't have air conditioning, they don't have a power unit, etc. So it fills a little bit more of a unique niche in that way too.

No, so I think that's incredible. So you've got— I'm going to try to summarize this for myself— you've got products, and your products can be secured online, they can be secured in the store in Cape Coral, Or you've got a mobile unit. So I can't think, John, of any other possible median other than, you know, being set up in my own home on a full-time basis for— to give flexibility for people to get their products. Did I miss any of them, or are those your 3 outlets?

I was gonna say, we can set up in your home too, and you can start distributing to your neighbors if you want to, because we're working on a pilot program to put people to work from their own homes with our products so that they don't have to have a brick-and-mortar store.

Oh, that's fantastic. Well, tell me a little bit about— you gave some samplings, and I must say that donut— I haven't had breakfast yet— that almost looked tasty enough for me.

It is for you.

And it's probably healthy.

It's all granola. I believe that one, because that is their donut of the month, It does have a little bit of a cinnamon cracker on top of it that may or may not hit your palate, but dogs seem to love them. And they're granola, honey, oats, and a couple of other ingredients that are completely pet safe. If you were to eat the marshmallows on top, it would kind of remind you of a diabetic or a low sugar marshmallow for the most part. But I have, I'll be honest, I have sampled quite a bit of the granola as it comes in because they come in in donut boxes and on the bottom of the box you have all those leftovers. I'm going to taste it and see what it's like because half of what we've had to feed Samson over the years because he's got all sorts of different allergies and afflictions, we've had to make ourselves. So I've already kind of been in the habit of eating dog food, so to speak. As long as it's human grade.

I love it. Well, it goes to say, you know, speak for the quality. So we've got a couple of those samples. You showed the pet wine, you showed the donuts. What other things do you have available in those three forums, whether it's, you know, at show?

Oh my God. We have actually, I'll start with these because these are one of our very, very pampered pet items. These were featured on Marie Claire magazine, and these are the Bonnet Foulou macaroons. They are made by a Frenchman that I actually met myself, and they do a really good job of packaging them for shelf life. As you can see, they've got them plastic wrapped, and then they've got a, a wrapping of tissue paper around them so they can be shipped and not be damaged. When you open the box, hopefully this will work on webcam, and you look really close, they actually look like human-grade macaroons. And they're made from all human-safe ingredients. This is actually one of our Pampered Pup Packs with our featured ice cream. Yes, going in that direction. We have both Hoggin' Dogs ice creams and we have Puppy Scoops. They're both a dry mix. So all you do is add water, put it in your freezer, mix it up, put it in your freezer. And within 3 to 5 hours, you have a couple of servings of ice cream for your dog, depending on what size they are. We carry our largest line of treats comes from the Bubba Rose Bakery, which is one of the more well-known cakeries down here in Florida. They're a New Jersey-based operation, but their bakery is established in Miami. So if I ever have an issue or I ever need something on short notice, I can drive right over there and pick it up, especially if people are doing like larger parties, et cetera.

You've opened my eyes on to a whole new food category for dogs. I love this.

Oh, I'm not done. Believe me. These are the Bubba Rose birthday cakes. And they do a really nice job of decorating them. And they do their best to make sure that all the ingredients in the cake are safe for the majority of dogs. They will also create custom cakes that we can order for you, or we also make custom cakes in shop, but that's another story. And dial the recipes in, like if you have a dog that's allergic to, oh my God, peanuts, we can get around it. Or if you have a dog that's, say, for insanity's sake, allergic to chicken— oh wait, that's Samson— uh, we can get around it by using companies that don't use a chicken broth base. They go to a beef broth base or a vegetable base. So we try to keep it to where we have enough variety and enough holistics to take care of pretty much any dog. I mean, we even have— and these might If you're vegan, ignore this. These are our Monster Femur Bones, and they are probably the largest you can get in the market.

Funny story, I mean, a little Chihuahua with that.

Oh no, I wouldn't give it to a Chihuahua. We've got Moose Knuckles for that. Anyway, these were a challenge. Several of the companies that send me bones Anytime we would get them, they would either come in and the heads would be broken off or the ball and socket would be, um, broken, etc., and it would make it very, very hard to market. Um, and the femur bones are actually a very popular item, so when we finally found a good enough shop, we went with them. Uh, one of my go-tos here in Cape Coral when it comes to where to order from, what to buy, etc., is Discount Pets. And I know I shouldn't be preaching for another company, but the people there have been either my pet suppliers for my stuff or my influencers in the industry as a businessman since we started this. And I can't help but give them a shout out. Anytime I have a question, all I have to do is call up there If I need a supplier, they'll hook me up. They're not afraid of the competition because they've got a totally different market, but they've got all the industry information that I need.

Hey, I think that shows a confidence and a collaboration that is unfortunately not found enough in business, but appreciated and celebrated. So I think that's fantastic. John, we've talked about food and I don't— and pardon me because I don't know enough about the scope of it, but do you have non-food food, pet items as well.

Oh yeah. Let me start with the holistics because the holistics are important to me. A lot of dogs, especially down here in Southwest Florida, and I'm only grabbing one brand because I have a couple of different ones. We get a lot of thunder and lightning storms and a lot of pets have that anxiety that hits when the storms are coming or when the, uh, the barometric pressure goes up. And one of the biggest ways that I see works really well from personal experience is CBD for dogs. You can either get 'em in a treat form or you can get 'em in liquid form. And I don't care if you buy 'em from me, I don't care who you get 'em from as long as you make sure they have a certificate of authenticity for the company. So far I've only found 3 manufacturers that actually have that. And it's the same with the human-grade CBD. If they don't have that COA, you can't trust that the 4 milligrams per piece that's on the bag is correct. You can't trust their ingredient list is correct. CBD Dog, who is one of our biggest CBD retailers, wholesalers, stopped carrying their chicken treats because the company that they were getting their freeze-dried chicken from cut their standards down just a little bit. And once it dropped below their standards, they, they would rather sacrifice the entire line of chicken treats until they find the proper chicken than to continue and sell something that's low grade to them. After covering CBD and treats, we also have our two latest lines. One is the, uh, Soda Pup line. They make these cute little treat dispensers, kind of like the Kongs, And they're semi-indestructible. Nothing is indestructible. If you know, if you've got a dog that's aggressive enough, they can chew through bone.

I was going to say that's a challenge invitation, right? If we say it's totally non-destructible, there will be a dog to prove that wrong.

I will go on the line and say that this line of the SodaPup toys, it is a hardened polymer. And it's semi-digestible. I mean, it breaks off into really, really, really, really, really small pieces, and it's designed for aggressive chewers. It helps to clean the teeth, and the best part is, by being stronger and tougher, it'll discourage your problem chewers, the ones that want to chew on the furniture because they've gone through their nice little squeaky toy or their rope bone. Um, Our party line comes from Play, which is Pet Lifestyles and You. Sorry, I'm going behind the bakery case again.

Yeah, that's okay. The beauty is, John, I'm trying to figure out how you have such good audio that I can hear you all the way over there. So please, we've been able to hear you the whole time.

We've got actually some good acoustics in here, and it's also a very small shop. I've done quite a few podcasts, broadcasts over the years, so I know when I walk away from the camera, I need to kind of raise my voice a little bit so you can hear me. And again, it's really, really small. It's hard to even keep up with the 6-foot social distancing, which is why we relocated the bakery case and a few other things. Anyway, Play is a new line of, well, semi-new line of pet toys, and they focus a lot on the party. They also focus on really cool chew toy concepts like their chicken and waffles or chicken and waffles. I don't remember which one they call. So we have the toys and we have leashes, collars. Um, we have both Donald Trump and Biden t-shirts for dogs. We are fair and balanced here, just saying. And then not to, um, forget about the owners of the pets and their significant others, etc., we also have an entire line of coffee cups and greeting cards. I love it.

I— your store has so much fun things, John, that I think even if I didn't have a pet, I would want to come see all of this.

I haven't even finished yet. This is, this is one of our newest items, and we're doing these for, um, Hang on. For people who can't find masks or who have to wear them at work, et cetera, I'll show you this in a second. These are our puppy line of cloth masks so that you don't have to feel like you're a doctor, lawyer, mortician, et cetera, when you're going to work. These— anyone who is a first responder, we have two different kinds of magnet and some other things from DogSpeak, which is the vendor that makes our coffee cups. Any first responders or essential business people that come in here and let us know that they were essential, or that they come in here and show us either their work ID from a hospital, fire department, etc., they get a bunch of free stuff courtesy of DogSpeak. And they're one of my favorite vendors when it comes to magnets and sayings and a lot of the gifts that we have for people.

This is fantastic. Let me ask this while you're making your way back. You've got, obviously, is this, it sounds like the store is open if people want to come in in person. Because you were talking about moving some things around, is that correct?

Yes, we ask that you limit it to 1 to 2 people at a time. If you're in the same group, obviously that is one customer to us. Just please respect the distancing from our employees and give us the time to either A, get our masks on and get behind the register, or keep the 6-foot in the one room that you can.

Yeah, and then obviously the internet hasn't probably come down at all during this time. So if people needed things, how do people engage on the mobile part you talked about? Is that mostly for outside, outside of an event? If you would bring the mobile if you're doing a delivery locally?

Yes, we bring it with us when we deliver, or well, it depends on the delivery order. If it's a repeat customer and we know what the order is going to be, We just recently acquired a Kia Soul that's going to be zipping around making our smaller deliveries and our points for, uh, not only our store but Wish. I don't know if you're familiar with them, but we are a Wish local vendor as well, so we have Wish stuff in stock and they are now offering delivery to clients too. So if you see the little white Soul zipping around town, that's our Like one shot, stop. You see the big truck, then you can even pull us over. Driving it?

What's that? Are there guinea pigs driving it? Wasn't it— wasn't the Kia Soul that had the guinea pig drivers?

Hamsters.

Hamsters.

I am working on window stickers to, uh, actually put Samson and a hamster on each back window. Oh, I love it.

I love it. Let me ask this, John. My mind is racing, and I live in a community that has a ton of animals, would you ever come on a, like, on a weekend for an hour, 2 hours, and have, um, you know, be able to share it with our community that you're there with the mobile?

Yes, I will actually give another shout out. The Traveling Roadshow Junket has been doing this in many, many, many subdivisions prior to COVID, and we became a part of that back in January. So we were actually doing what you're suggesting on a 4-hour basis on like Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, we would go to different subdivisions all over the place and set up in their clubhouses. If they want just us, I have no problem coming out there and setting up for a couple hours. We did a pet, uh, parade for a mobile commu— uh, an RV community down in Naples off of Immokalee Road right before COVID shut the world down. And that was an awesome event. We got to see, I want to say 50, 55 dogs all come through for a parade and whatnot. And that was the last parade we got to see before everything kind of went boom.

Oh, well, I love it. In all seriousness, John, I do want to connect with you offline and see if we can— I'm in a community called Mill Run, and I'd love to see if we can get you into the community, maybe plan it ahead so we can advertise it because I mean, we have pets galore here, as well as some other nearby communities. So we may even be able to open it up. So, well, fantastic. Let me do this. I want to take a pause and just highlight a couple of the businesses that I have coming up in next week. Next week's going to be a shorter week for me. I only took a couple next week because I happen to have a really busy real estate schedule, but I've got Smoke Detector Medic coming. I've got Seniors First Home Care. We've got Gulf Shore Chiropractic, I cannot say that today. If you are an entrepreneur, have a local business, or you know somebody with a local business, I am happy to feature them. Just have them reach out to me at Renee, Renee@YourNaplesExpert.com. I will do these, as I mentioned, I started these as a part of the COVID as a way to keep the visibility going for businesses that may not be able to be in person like they typically are. But I'll keep doing them as long as there's businesses that want to be featured. I think it's a great opportunity. So with that, John, we've got just 3 minutes left. I wanted to turn it over to you and just allow you anything else you'd like to share with the community. Maybe even talk about if you've got some upcoming events. I want to hit— let's hit the July 3rd one again and anything you'd like to share in parting.

Okay. First thing I'm going to tell you is anybody that knows a senior that has a dog, We are now doing donut days Monday and Wednesday from 9 to 2. If you bring in your— I'm sorry, 9 to noon. If you bring in your pup, you buy them any one of our donuts and they get a cup of coffee and a human-grade donut for free. Um, in order to benefit the community with COVID right now, we have created a site for small businesses called CapeCoralBusinesses.com. Any small business that wants to advertise on there can get their listing on there for free. If you want banner spots, ad spots, etc., it's $10 a month and we're freezing it at that. If I get any stimulus money, it's going all into traffic for that site. As far as Lee Cares Act goes, I don't want a dime off of it. I'm trying to help everybody out. And last but not least, we are back to doing private parties with no more than 10 people. No more than 10 right now. So if you want to book a party, you can even book it a couple of months in advance. And right now, if you book it, I believe we're doing 45% off our normal prices. So you could save half money and book it for when— I see a puppy, or is that a kitty?

He's just newly bathed. He just came out of the shower. This is my Wheaton Max. And I had to, I had to cover Max's ears because while you were talking, because I was worried he'd want to go right this minute to Potty Depot. And I can't right now, but we're coming. Say hi, Max.

Remember, I can deliver.

I want to actually come see it too.

Well, fancy. Oh, and we're at Miramar Market today. We also have a booth at Green 18 in Flea Masters. So if you can't make it all the way here, you can hit us at certain markets during the weekend.

Well, fantastic, John. I am so appreciative of both of your dedication to the area. You obviously are a collaborative businessman. You talked about lots of examples of that. So I commend you for that. And I just love your passion, energy, and creativity to support our furry friends. As, as you know, pets are probably one of the number one markets up there with children. And so people love them endlessly. And I think it's fantastic that you're not only bringing products so conveniently, but the care you take in selecting your vendors and your products, I think is just commendable. So John, I so appreciate you taking time out of your day to come and share. Again, I will reach out to you offline because I really do want to get your mobile unit here. In our area to do something. So we'll, we'll work on that offline. But if anybody has an interest in either having a party hosted, maybe doing something similar to what I'm talking about, where you bring the mobile into a community, you know, that's getting to be very, very popular, popular. And most HOAs love to be able to do something like that as an offering. Or if you make it up to Cape Coral or onto the internet, I think you'll be pleased with all the products and offerings that you'll see that John and Joanne offer. So, John, I wish you continued success in 2020 and beyond, and, and appreciate you.

Thank you. And just so everybody knows, if you call in your order from the internet, don't place the order online, I'll give you 20% off for staying at home.

Awesome. Fantastic. Well, everyone in Southwest Florida and those far— because John, I imagine if you do delivery through internet, Do you do mail delivery if somebody from Michigan happens to be seeing this and they're like, we don't have anything like that?

If they can cover the freight, I'll send it to Istanbul.

I love it. Well, everyone have a wonderful rest of the day and enjoy your weekend. And again, John, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you. And thank you for having us.