Jun 26, 2026
Where do your best business ideas actually come from?
Are you looking outside the pet industry often enough… or just recycling the same tired advice as everyone else?
And could one strange book, old advert, or random story spark the next big idea in your business?
In this episode, I’m sharing four business lessons from a secondhand bookstore in Boston. Before the first Dog Daycare Success Academy immersion event, Beth and I stumbled across Brattle Bookshop, and what was supposed to be a bit of sightseeing quickly turned into an hour of rummaging through dusty old books, picture books, advertising collections, money history, and vintage magazines.
I walk you through four very different books I picked up and the lessons each one offers for pet business owners — from stepping outside your comfort zone, to using mascots and characters in your marketing, to the power of storytelling, to why old adverts are still some of the best marketing teachers around.
The bigger lesson is simple: if you only ever consume ideas from inside the pet industry, your business will eventually look, sound, and feel like every other pet business in town.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- Why Curiosity Creates Better Ideas – How stepping outside your industry gives you fresher, stronger business inspiration.
- The Power of Business Exploration – Why getting out of your comfort zone can lead to bigger opportunities and better growth.
- Why Characters Still Work – How mascots, hidden details, and recurring brand icons make your business more memorable.
- Stories Make Lessons Stick – Why the best marketing teaches through stories, not bland AI-generated content.
- Better Inputs, Better Outputs – How books, museums, restaurants, hotels, and old adverts can spark ideas your competitors will never see coming.
If you missed the Boston immersion event and would like to be at our next quarterly mastermind then you need to join the Dog Daycare Success Academy wait list, head to:
petbusinessmarketing.com/successacademy
Thanks to our
amazing show sponsor Pawpal. Click here to find out more