🎙️ S2 E11: What A Very Good Dog Taught Us About Business And Life

Tilly was with us for 14 years and eight months, woven into our home, our working days, and the quiet background of so many calls. When she died, we had no interest in pretending everything was “fine” just because we run businesses. Grief doesn’t care about your calendar, and being self-employed doesn’t magically create extra emotional capacity. So we talk honestly about what it feels like to keep moving when your heart has taken a hit, and why it matters to build work that can bend without breaking.

We share the practical side too: how we asked clients to shuffle things, why having a client-free week matters, and how planning ahead plus support from a VA can keep the basics running when life throws a curveball. We unpack the hidden mental load of caring for an ageing dependent, the slow creep of poor sleep and constant checking, and the way it can quietly shrink your energy for networking, exercise, and all the “boring” admin that still needs doing.

Underneath it all is a bigger point about personal brand and client relationships. When you let people see your real values, you tend to attract clients who understand that life happens. That kind of community becomes part of your resilience. We also leave you with the simplest reminder Tilly kept giving us: take the break, look up, breathe, and remember your business exists to serve your life, not consume it.

If this resonates, follow and subscribe, share it with a fellow business owner, and leave us a review so more people can find the podcast. What is one change you could make this month to add real flexibility to your work?

Transcript

Saying Goodbye To Tilly

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is an autumnally off topic where we talk books, brands, business, and everything else we're not supposed to say out loud. Hi Basha and Tad, let's dive in.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Hey everyone, there's no easy way to say this. Tilly died this week. She'd been with us through all of these episodes, through many of them. She'd actually been sitting in the background, sort of sitting on the sofa with us. You've heard us talk about her, our fabulous 14 years, eight months-old labradoodle princess crossed the Rainbow Bridge on the Saturday of the bank holiday, and we felt it would be remiss to record a podcast episode without talking about her, or at least without talking about what a very good dog taught us about business and life.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

It sounds really appropriate, doesn't it? Because you know, we're trying to bring you more into our lives, and that's been part of our life. And Tilia's been part of our life as Tassid for over 14 years. So, of course, we were absolutely devastated on Saturday, and we had to make that final call, which anybody that's got a pet, if you've been in that situation, you know how incredibly hard that is. We're recording this just a week later, so it's still pretty rare for us. But life must go on, and it does go on. We've got from a pet perspective, we have still have two more dogs at home, and we have a cat, and from a business perspective, we need to keep moving, as we all do, particularly when you run your own business, you just need to keep going. So we've done our best to do that, Taz, haven't we? But it's been tough for these last few days.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Yeah, it's been really tough. We've been absolute puddles, and for anyone out there who's a pet lover, you know what it's like. One minute you're okay, the next minute, you know. That's certainly true for me. One minute I've been fine, the next minute I've been a sobbing wreck. Trying to hide up a corner and make myself a small and fetal position as I can.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

I think we said on Monday, on Bank Holiday Monday, we both looked, what's your lovely phrase you used? Well, I went, our eyes look like pistols in the snow. What a wonderful phrase. But our eyelids were so swollen from all the crying that actually it was quite hard to see what we were doing. So yeah, it's but it's been tough, hasn't it? But as we said, life goes on and we must go on. So what we're gonna be talking about today to ask, because what has what lots of people listening to this might say, well, what's you know, we're so terribly sorry to hear your news, but what's that got to do with business?

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Well, it's got quite a lot to do with business, particularly those of us who run our own businesses, because I reckon most of us take that choice because we want more freedom in our lives. Maybe we've got kids, the animals are our fur kids. I know a lot of people in the profession don't like you referring to animals as your fur babies, but we don't have kids, they are our our substitute kids, and that was certainly part of it for us. We wanted to have the freedom to be able to go and take a um for a walk in the middle of the day and to go and play in the park and to just be able to live life and business on our terms. And one thing I'm so so grateful for is that so

Why This Matters For Business

SPEAKER_01 3:02

many of my clients have a similar outlook. So, although Tilly didn't actually cross that rainbow bridge until the bank holiday Saturday, we actually thought she was gonna go a couple of days earlier.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

And so there was one day last week where I contacted every client I had on that day and explained what was going on and said, We think this might be Tilly's last day. I'm really sorry. Do you have anything urgent you need to work on today? Are you okay to move things? Because and every one of them was so good. Every one of them was like, no, go spend the time with Tilly, it's fine, it's all good. And I had so many messages from clients on the day, those who knew what time the appointment was at the emergency vets, those who knew how we were, so many have checked in with us afterwards. And I think this goes way back to one of our earlier episodes when we talked about way back in season one, I think, when we talked about the importance of your business having your back. So it's about creating and building a business so that when life does throw a curveball in your way, you have the ability to shuffle things about. Now, although it seems weird to be connecting the word luck with the death of a beloved pet, as luck would have it, this was the week where I was going to be client-free. At the end of every month, I try to take a week, it doesn't always happen, but I try to take a week client-free to recharge, reset, work on my stuff, just try and get my mind clear and my inspiration up and my joy up. And that was this week. So this week I haven't had to move anyone or stop anything. Awesome source still went out on Wednesday, the business still went out on Saturday. The business is pre-planned to write those a long time in advance. D are fabulous VA, D miss make it happen. Just said no, I'll do awesome sauce.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

You guys just Yeah, which we're so appreciative of. Thank you, D. Amazing as ever. So important to have people around you that can step up and step in for you when needed, and also having the courage to say, can you help? That's the other thing, isn't it? Sometimes reaching out and saying, Do you know what? I'm not in the best space. Can you help with this, please? And we've certainly had that. We've seen that again and again from people. So thank you to all my clients and customers as well that have known what's going on and all the lovely messages we've had on social. We've obviously been writers ourselves, we've written quite a lot about Tilly and what's been happening over the last week, particularly. But we've got to remember, Taz, it wasn't just about this week, was it? Because we've been on high alert with Tilly for quite a few weeks now, and that's where the business element comes in again, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Because whether it's a pet, whether it's a dependent, whether it's your own health or just I don't know, a problem with the house, the car, or anything at all, the practical reality of running a business around something that is going to take time and cash and your attention is something that is worth talking about. And everything that brought to us. But with Tilly, it was a different situation. It wasn't that we were needing to suddenly do round trips to a veterinary hospital or that she had a serious illness.

Clients Who Give You Space

SPEAKER_01 6:08

She did have lots of things wrong with her, but it was declining health. And again, lots of lots of us have this with parents as well. And apologies if anyone takes a fancy me comparing a dog to a parent. Um, but it is remembering that that practical reality. We're all gonna have times where that happens, and it's it's the cost, the mental load, the way that situation, whatever it is, can start to take over your diary and your headspace without fully noticing it and until it's in it. And it's about what it teaches you as priorities. So for instance, we haven't slept in bed in quite a few months now, because when Tilly's health first started declining, she was going through the beginning stages of doggy dementia, which we got a medicating medication for in the end, which helped no end. But if we were out of the way, she would wake up several times in the middle of the night really confused and and upset. Yeah. And then beyond that, we got away after that, and then the decline of everything else was happening. They're needing to toilet several times in the night, they're needing to get up for a drink several times in the night, her back leg's starting to fail, which meant she couldn't always get up on a round, she was okay when she got walking. But and that just became rote, just became the norm. But you don't stop to think, well, hold on, I am now not sleeping properly all the way through. With we continue to stay down here afterwards up until now, because number one, it's been ridiculously hot here in the UK, and the upstairs of our house is stupid, it's mad, isn't it? But also, it's all right saying, Well, we've got two other dogs, but it's not just about having two other dogs, it's about now the pack is incomplete, yeah. And now it's going to take time for Tilly and Bailey to find their place. So Gladys and Bailey. Oh, there I get see, that's what happened.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Glad you did that this morning.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Gladys and Bailey to work out what's what he's in charge, and ultimately to stop looking for Tilly. Yesterday, Ash had to pop out of the garage to take a car for her MOT, and these guys did not stop whistling and whining and howling all the time she was gone. I popped up, popped up for a bath while you were out.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

They did it all the time then, and they didn't come down until I opened the stairgate, let them out into the hall, and they were able to go and sniff around out the front door where Tilly spent most of her time sleeping toward the end.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

And then they calmed right down. And we also had a similar thing with the water bowl, didn't we? Yeah. Because they had a shi they had a shared water bowl, three of them, or a couple of water bowls. And of course, I you know, we cleaned them up since Tilly's gone, but they could obviously sense still that was the area that she went to, and they wouldn't touch the water bowl in the water bowls.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Moving the water bowl to a different part of the room after after giving it a thorough scrubbing, we cut up apples and played apple bobbing in it that helped, and then we were putting some some chicken bone broth for dogs in the water, yeah, and now they're okay again. But all of those little things, it's not just about the one that leaves and how it disrupts, it's about everything else. So, how what this has to do with business is recognising that very often when we have dependence of any kind, we end up functioning perhaps not on a full tank of gas. Yeah. And when we're in it, that's okay. So it teaches us how to flex, how to switch things around. It teaches us the importance of again building a business that is able to flex with you and and have you back.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

And I think it almost down to community though, as well. We're talking about all the customers and people that have been so amazing these last, particularly this last week, with everything going on for us, have been there for us, and you know, with support and help and words of encouragement and love and all the rest of it. But that's so important, building that community around you in business, you know, people that do want to step up and help, which I said earlier, it's so important. So we've we've been lucky with that, but we that's come from working with people over time, hasn't it? People getting to know us, us letting people in to our life as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

But also is part of when we talk personal brand, of of course, you can't, you know, we'll we'll often flippantly talk about building a personal brand, and what we mean is building on your personal brand, because your personal brand is you, you can't create one, but you can let that out more.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

And when you start to live to live and work your business in accordance with your real life and your real values, you start to generate, to attract, to create clients with similar values and similar understandings. So for the past probably year or so of Tilly's life where she didn't want to be away from us too much, she's been a regular on coaching course for both of us. Yeah. Because she'll come and sit around our feet and occasionally whine and want attention, sometimes she couldn't settle, and we've had really patient, really lovely clients.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

We have, we've been on group, haven't we, group meetings where we've had a load of people on that we've just had say, we're just gonna just gonna sort Tilly out, we're just gonna help her get up or do something, or she needs some water, or we need to let her out. And people have been brilliant with that. Yeah. And she had, as you said, she's been yeah, with one of my clients at the moment whose book is about to be published. We were talking about it only a couple of days ago, and it's almost like Tilly stayed around to wait till that book was ready to go, and she was at my feet regularly when we were chatting, and it it's just yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

And what's lovely, and I think because we keep things so real and so human, is not once has anybody said, Oh, for goodness sake, this isn't professional, get your life sorted out. No, they've also said if they've heard her in the background, they've just gone, Oh, is that Tilly? How's she getting on? Bless her.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Did she want to come on camera? Can I say hello to her? All of those things. And I think that's helped in some ways because I'm guessing lots of you listening will will feel this familiar tug as well. That I have this wrestling inside sometimes between wanting to make sure I was providing the best service for my clients and actually feeling guilty that Tilly might be making a noise or a fuss in the background, or that I might need to go and give her some attention

Dependents And The Hidden Load

SPEAKER_01 12:05

part way through. But then also on the flip side, I could feel guilty about needing and wanting to go and do some work for a client when Tilly wanted my attention and we didn't know how much longer we'd have with her.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

I had a moment like that just a couple of weeks before she died, and I changed my language. I was gonna say passed away, but she died. But she did pass away beautifully and gently and with love.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

She did massive thanks to the emergency substitution that you helped. Thank you. And to everyone at Riverside in in Spaulding who've been amazing up until now as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

But we I was out on the patio with her a couple of weeks back, and I just had a moment with her, and I'd got a call coming up, and I think my client was running 10 minutes late or something, and I was like, and I was like, how lucky am I that even though I'm I I knew even at that point we probably haven't got a huge amount of of these moments together again.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

And I just had that moment and I felt really blessed that I'd got that with her. I just sat out on the patio with her and gave her a big cuddle, and she looked at me, and I looked at her, and it was like, I'm so lucky to have this this environment where I can do this and have clients that are oh fantastic and allow me to work in the way that I do. And I think even if I had been five minutes late, they would have understood, you know. So it's so important, isn't it? And it's most of my clients are used to me being five minutes late anyway. I frequently talk to Taz time. Yeah, but you know, I know, but it's the fact that I could, you know, I knew that it wouldn't be the end of the world if I was. I think that's really important. It just shows you how much you you build up, you know, with your clients, with your contacts, and sometimes you don't you underestimate how strong those relationships really are, and that you can you can sometimes when you need to reach out and say, would you would you mind if can I put our appointment back by I had that this week with another client, could I put my appointment back by 30 minutes? In the end, it was about five minutes, I think, because I suddenly realised my aunt urgently needed an MOT.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Yeah, and again, that's another thing in all the melee, in all the the busyness around Tilly, a bit like when we spoke about the Thea story and I had my my massive well when I dropped my massive tax barlock, shall we say? Yeah. Nowhere near on that scale, but you had a similar one this time when you realised your your car was out of MOT. And again, we've been so focused on Tilly and serving our clients and Tilly and serving our clients and making sure the others were okay and serving our clients, yeah, that some of that really kind of the the boring baseline stuff sometimes gets overlooked. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Yeah. And it's but the beauty of that, because you work for yourself, working from home or whatever, there's more chance of you being able to get out and get to, you know, get to the garage, get your car in. You know, as luck would have it, that I rang up, didn't I, a couple of days ago in a complete panic to my local garage, and they had had a cancellation. I'd got a really full fully booked day for yesterday, and they'd had a cancellation five minutes before I rang. And it she said, I can't believe that, but I can slot you in tomorrow as long as you get your car in first thing. And that's what happened. And by half past one, my car had passed its MOT and all was well, and I could get my tax. So yeah, but you see, that's the beauty, isn't it? Of working for yourself, working from home, you you've got that flexibility.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

If you set it up right, but I think anyone running a business from home, wherever you're running your business from, anyone running your own business, you need to be able to build in an element of flex. You need to, because you don't have a team of people or a manager you can go to and say, Hey, I've got this appointment I need to go to for my health, for my kids, for my parents. Can you get somebody to come and stand in for me? There is nobody to stand in. Yeah. It's you, yeah. In a lot of cases, so you need to be able to build in that time in your business for the unexpected, which will always happen.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Always happen. Yeah. And thank goodness, I mean, we were lucky because there's two of us. So for instance, yesterday, even though the dogs freaked out a bit because one of the pat another one of the PAT members had gone out the door and it unsettled them for a while because it's early days, but at least you were here to be able to stay with them while I popped out and went and sorted out my car and stuff as well. Yeah, which again is a huge advantage, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 16:21

So, in terms of the business, Ash, we're talking about how this how we had we had to have created a business that flexed around everything going on. What what I had to give for you in terms of making sure that Tilly was as okay as she possibly could be in those last few weeks, in the last year maybe. And what surprised you about what you managed to keep going with or what held.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

What I had to give was keep going. So, for instance, my hyper focus, when I get into something, I forget to take breaks. I know it sounds really silly, but I'm current I'm constantly saying to Taz, God, I'm really I should have gone for a wee two hours ago and I forgot. That's just me.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

When I get hyperfocus, I'll just tell me how ADHD without telling me to have ADHD.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

And one of the things that had to give because of Tilly, because it was regular checks on her, you know, checks to make sure, you know, not only letting her out for a wee, but sometimes she needed a little bit of help to get up and then she was okay. But then going outside to just check on her, it sounds, you know, but checking on her we making sure that was okay, things like that, is she still going to the loo okay? And we were doing that for weeks and weeks and weeks. So it meant that I had to take those breaks. And that very often would mean, yes, checking on Tilly, making sure she was okay, helping her out or whatever, or just making sure she was still breathing, because very often in a deep sleep, we'd both be looking at, is this it? But also, it was also about then a natural add-on to that would be right, I'm up now, I might as well go for a wee, or go and put the kettle on and make a cup of tea and have a five-minute break, which I'd I hadn't realised how much of that I wasn't doing. So that, and what was the other question?

SPEAKER_01 18:05

What I had to give them, what what surprised you about what held, what stayed, what was what what you were able to maintain, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Focus when I was in my meetings, as much as you know, there was the worry and fear and upset, and you know, I think we were kind of grieving before. We grieved if that you know, I think it was a progressive thing, wasn't it? Obviously, as she kind of went more downhill. But because I was able to hold it together enough when we were in meetings and and talking with my clients on one-to-ones or in group settings, you know, there were times when,

When Life Admin Slips

SPEAKER_00 18:37

yeah, I came off camera a couple of times and I got a bit upset, but I think actually I surprised myself at how I could do that and carry on with that. And actually, the business ticked along okay. It did it ticked on. I wasn't in that space of wanting to go networking everywhere and go look at me and buy my stuff. That I lost a bit there. Yeah. But certainly I was able to maintain, I think, you know, the work that I was doing okay because I love my work. So when I'm in it, I can immerse myself. So there's that hyper focus again. It's the answer to both those questions, in a way, because it it helped sustain me, it helped me through, but it also reminded me, Tilly also reminded me that it's important to take those breaks, and actually, as a result of taking those breaks, suddenly, guess what? I was getting more done in a shorter space of time because I was I wasn't so drained. Yeah. And and I've noticed that even this week, even though I've had a couple of for me early morning starts. By that I mean like half six, which is anybody that knows me knows that's an early morning for me. But I feel still feel quite refreshed at at this stage on a Friday, as opposed to some other weeks, and I think that obviously there's a sense of relief, I guess, as well as you know, that we know sits alongside the grief as well, and that's part of one of the stages I know, but also there's that sense of okay, I can stop worrying about if we're going away, we've got a big event coming up in a few weeks, so we're going to tomic on in Newcastle. And if Tiddy had still been here, I'd be worrying about her.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

From the moment we booked it to and the and the week before, I would be really stressed.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

No, oh, she's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Yes. And yes, it's not in no way is it saying she was wonderful and I, you know, we're lucky to have her. Yeah. But it was that kind of letting go for that one thinking, is she gonna be okay or is she still gonna be here when we get back? So there was that element as well. So I guess that's you know, obviously that's gone now. So in some ways, still worried about the other two, of course, and the cat, but it's yeah, but it takes a little while to settle. So there's lots of things I've done.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Certainly we can't leave them on their own for as long at the moment because again they're still settling.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Yeah, we're still settling.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

We've almost we're almost having to go back to basics and leave for like 20 seconds and come back in again at the minute.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

Literally, we're thinking about we're gonna use the house like we did with the car with with our dog many years ago when he didn't like being in the car, so we used it as a play tunnel. But here, play tunnel, we're gonna I think we're gonna go in the back door, out the back door and in the front door and keep doing that a few times just uh but little things like that that have suddenly reset.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

And I think some of the things that that have we've we've given up for me isn't is number one, I've not done as much networking as in organised networking online or off. Yeah, we've said that, didn't I? Yeah, exactly. Because I've I've either been I'm either in a client in a meeting with a client that I've promised to show up for, or I've been home and keeping an eye on Tilly. We've not been out as much. No, that's true. I've not we've not been to the the gym since you know we just we joined a new gym at Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Yeah, that's something we need to get back on, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 21:42

And we haven't been going because don't want to leave Tilly, and I know that's a great excuse, but also don't want to leave Tilly. We haven't been going on the same level of walks with the other two because oh well we don't we don't want to leave Tilly on our own and we don't want to leave one of the other ones with her in case anything happens and they're on their own and they're traumatised and all of this. Stuff. It's only now that I can look back and see the impact has actually been quite huge. But I still in the moment wouldn't have changed it for the world because that's what you do when you love someone. Yeah. And when someone matters. Yeah. She's been such an integral part of the Taz Thornton Asha Clearwater or somebody off tippic off tippic. Tipic? Or somebody off-topic jigsaw for such a long time now.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Yeah. Yeah, bless her. But it's also left quite a big hole. Cheers. And she did forgive me the fact that I went vegan and I no longer at bacon sarnies because she was the best bacon sarny

Breaks, Focus, And What Held

SPEAKER_00 22:41

steamer.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

She did once nick the bacon out of your sandwich, wasn't she?

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Without even realising. Yeah, I took I'd put the put the bread out, got the bacon, put it on one slice of bread, put the other slice of bread on, turned round to get my cup of tea to go with my bacon sarny. And she'd taken somehow, I don't know how, she'd taken the bacon out of the bread, left the bread, didn't want the bread, just took the bacon out. But it still looked like the sandwich.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Probably Paul Daniel's tablecloth trick, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 23:13

It was, couldn't believe it.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

And there was there was another time, and thank goodness she was okay, because you know, dogs and chocolate.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Do you remember she stole the chocolate out of my aunt's bag and put the wrapper back in the bag?

SPEAKER_00 23:25

Oh, clever dog. She was a clever dog.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

She was canny. And I've never known a dog who was gaze so into your eyes. And it always felt like she was looking into my soul. She was a proper soul dog till it. I had that moment on the patio that day. Yeah. And you know, this is a daft thing, but I think for about two years before she went, as soon as she got kind of past twelve, our little ritual before we went to bed every night was for me to wish it, tell her good night, and tell her that she had to. And I knocked a year off every year. So it by the by the end I was telling her that she'd got to be, I don't know, two this year. We started walking backwards, working backwards. And it was you've got to stay alive forever, and you've got to be, for instance, two this year. And then I'd say, kiss to agree. And I would not leave until she gave me a little kiss on the nose. And somehow, we've made a sole contract now until she's staying alive. And then I realised that I'd stopped doing that because she'd stopped making as much eye contact. Yeah. She'd stopped giving us licks on the nose.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

And it wasn't fair to ask that. And I know it sounds daft, and you know, do dogs understand what you're saying? Who knows? I'm hoping the dog people and listening to this will get it. But I'd stopped doing that. And I realised that I was actually giving myself a bit of grief. I said, was it my fault? Because I'd stop telling her she's got to stay alive forever. No. No, it was, you know, she was a large-ish dog. She was 14 years and eight months old. She was a week away from the full moon, and my god, she was a moon-obsessed dog.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

She should have been called Luna. I mean the most popular names for dogs. If ever anybody should have been called Luna, it was her.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

Never known such a moon-sensitive dog, and she would play up to go outside all through the night, whenever there was a full moon or a new moon, and she would just stand outside and gazing. Gazing up at it.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

So now she's dancing around it.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

She's part of it up there.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

And that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

A couple of nights after she went, I've taken to getting into my cold pod at at night, kind of midnight-ish now, and doing it the other way around where it's so hot in the day. And the first time I went into it after we lost Tilly, I was looking at the reflection in the the water. Yeah. And the moon was kind of in the cold pod with me. And that felt like it was a yeah, she's okay. She's alright. She's okay. I could always almost imagine her skipping round.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

I bet she's got thousands of bank and sarnies now.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

I bet she has. And of course she'll be skipping about with Bailey, which was the first dog with the book. Bailey? Benji. This is Bailey. What am I doing? Renaming all our dogs. Listen, Bailey. Bailey, not you, dude. It's all the bees confusing me. She'll be hopping about with Benji. Thank you. Who was our first dog? He was the last rap so he was beautiful. We adopted from Woodgreen when he was five. Yeah. With Fia. Yeah. Probably a bit with Freya as well. With my mum's dog, Rosie.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

And Dawn, if you're listening,

The Stories That Stay With Us

SPEAKER_01 26:24

she'll be skipping about with Digby Two, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

They were great friends when they were puppies, weren't they?

SPEAKER_01 26:28

They were. So um for anyone listening to this who's been through the same, you know, 14 and a half years. Well, 14 years and eight months, Tilly was there through through the agency we ran, through our Fool Sales Marketing, Digital Media and Trading Agency and PR.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

She went out, she met clients with us quite a few times. She did.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

She did. There was the famous time where we took it to a client. And she had the worst projectile up their stomach. She did, didn't she? She shattered rainbow arch of poo before their eyes. Anyway, she was so proud of it.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

You're not listening to having your breakfast or lunch.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

So proud for that time.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

But she was there through us, through our breakdown. She was there through us splitting the businesses. Yeah. She was there through the launching of this podcast. She's been there while the businesses have started to come back together a little bit. You know, there's something worth saying, I think, about all of those those animals, those pets, those animal companions who witness our whole working lives without us ever quite registering they're doing that.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Yeah. They bear witness to so much. And it's only when they're gone we start to look at it and reflect, don't we? And and think about that. And that for me, I love walking all the dogs, but I don't know, she just always was in step with me when I was walking. And we just felt, you know, that I could feel that link on the lead. And she was, yeah, beautiful dog. She was amazing. Beautiful dog.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

But again, this is about the business. And we were we we went, we said we were going to talk about this because we wanted to, it felt remiss not to, because so many of you know it's happened. But we were so determined to not make this a tribute toward to just to Tilly. This has to be about.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

Sorry, I'm doing it again, I'm taking this off topic. I'm not sorry. I'm proud of her and what we had. Me too. But showing you an amazing result, so I want to talk about her. So there, there.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Me too. But I'm just I'm just smiling at how much we wanted to make this about what the business buttons.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

We knew it would that would come that would come in a bit.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

Is that natural? It's best in the weekend. It is, it is. I suppose to sum up, the the the big thing that we'd mapped out before we started talking is that, as we said earlier, your business, our businesses exist to serve our lives, not to consume them. And when you have a pet, when you have a dependent of any kind, they are part of our lives in such a way that regularly reminds us of that. Just having a dependent, I'm particularly focused on our fur kids here. We're okay, the kids are off, the kids, whatever you have. You know. Tilly was part of our life in in such a way that she regularly, unconsciously reminded us that our business exists to serve our lives and not to consume it. Whether we wanted to remind it or not. And that's not well. Is that a lesson? But it's just a reminder. It's a reminder, I'd say it's a reminder. It's a reminder to look up, you know, look at the flowers, smell the coffee. Notice the leaves in the trees, notice the quality of the air.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

Look up from your laptops, look up from your phones, and take those breaks. Take those breaks. There's nothing else I've learned from this holy experience over the last couple of weeks. Just take a break. Take a break and react and do look at the look at the flowers, look at the trees. Go out. And I always say that sometimes it's easier saying it than actually doing it. She was really good.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

She's reminded me of that. Yeah. She was really good at reminding us to to breathe fully.

Business Exists To Serve Life

SPEAKER_01 29:55

At reminding us to be in the moment. At reminding us to still be silly. At reminding us that the rest of it, the business, the podcast, the plans, the development. It's all still it's it's all still gonna be there. But she won't. And that's that's the thing, isn't it, about the ones who show up every day without any agenda, without any invoice. You know, you don't always know what you had until the space where they used to be all the time as part of the wallpaper, part of the furniture is just silent. So I guess the thing I want to leave you with today is to remember to be in the moment, to remember that your business is not there to consume every element of your life, it's there to serve your life. And don't forget that. Keep it real. Good words, Taz. Good words. So before we both dissolve into a puddle of tears, shall we say, yeah. Until next time, we will see you next Tuesday.

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SPEAKER_01 31:02

You've been listening to Autumn We Off Topic. If you've enjoyed this, hit follow and subscribe. And if you want more, come and find Autumn We Off Topic on social media. That's where all the extra bits will be autumn, stay off topic, and will still be next time on the city.