Building Community and Connection in Business with Jason Parker

**SPEAKER_1** (0:04)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection, and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Steven** (0:17)
I should have brought my dog on the show today. He just got groomed and he looks really, really good. He's a 17-year-old Maltese mix of some type who rescued him.

**Jason Parker** (0:27)
But that's awesome.

**Steven** (0:28)
Yeah. And his old age. He's looking, he's still looking really good. Welcome to The Bliss Business Podcast, everyone. Steven joined by my co-host Mike and our special guest today. Our episode today dives into an essential aspect of business success, and that's building community and genuine connection. So whether it's within an organization, with customers or even in the larger industry setting, strong relationships are at the heart of long-term growth, loyalty, and impact. And we often think of community building in terms of social causes or brand movement sometimes, but it really plays a crucial role in every industry, including pet care, which is our focus today. And businesses that can build trust, create belonging, then form meaningful connections will outperform those that only focus on transactions. Mike, introduce our guest today.

**Mike** (1:23)
I'm delighted, Stephen. Pet care and pets play such a vital role in our lives. So, yeah, our guest today is none other than Jason Parker. Many of you probably know him as the co-founder and the CEO of K9 Resorts.
And Jason's journey is quite an interesting one in the pet care industry, because it started with a deep passion for dogs and a vision for creating a luxury pet resort experience that prioritizes the quality care, the professionalism and the customer trust that we know is so needed when it comes to our pets. And what began as a pet sitting business when Jason was just 12 years old has now scaled into a nationally recognized brand. And so K9 Resorts, it sets the gold standard for pet hospitality with its dog boarding and daycare services. And with K9 Resorts locations across the country now, Jason's mastered the art of creating a really strong community, which we know that's an important aspect of our podcast. And we know our listeners are very interested in that. And it's a community not just among pet owners, but it's also within the franchise network and the pet care industry abroad. So Jason, congratulations and welcome to the show. We are delighted to have you with us today.

**Jason Parker** (2:44)
I appreciate that. Thank you for having me on.

**Mike** (2:47)
Yeah, absolutely. So we can maybe just kick off with something easy. Jason, why don't you tell us maybe a little bit about your journey? And then also why you believe really that community is an essential part of the business success today.

**Jason Parker** (3:02)
Absolutely. So growing up in central New Jersey, my brother Steven and I never had dogs. Our parents were just not dog people or pet people, but we always loved dogs. So we started watching our neighbor's dogs when he would travel, and that kind of evolved into a dog walking and pet sitting service that we ran locally as teenagers. And then as the years went on, we said, you know, we really love doing this. We love owning our own business. We love working with animals.
And we came up with the idea to open up a brick-and-mortar resort for dogs. K9 Resorts Luxury Pet Hotel was born on January 30th, 2005 So we just celebrated our 20-year anniversary with K9 Resorts. And we started franchising the concept in 2011 because we really realized that we were onto something unique and special, and we were providing a service in the community that really didn't exist throughout the country.

**Mike** (4:04)
Yeah, that's fantastic. What a success story.

**Jason Parker** (4:08)
Thank you. Thank you.

**Steven** (4:10)
Jason, businesses often talk about community, but it can mean different things in different contexts. From your experience, what defines a true business community?

**Jason Parker** (4:20)
Yeah. I mean, to me, I think that being involved in the community is just a must when running a business. And that's really because you're providing the community, especially with a business like K9 Resorts, you're providing the community with the service that they need. But the customer has to really trust you in order to leave their family member in your care for any period of time, whether it's the day for doggy daycare or an extended period if the family is taking a vacation. And there's really, I mean, you know, I use the word family member intentionally, because if you look at the evolution of dogs within a family, you know, where we are today, their family, and they're right next to their kids. I'm not going to say whether they're, you know, above or below. I'm going to put it right on the floor and even. But it's really true. People love their dogs and people will do anything for their dog. So they have to be able to trust you. And that's why I think our model, you know, really built well, because we have local franchise owners operating their businesses locally to where they usually live. And they can really get involved. They can be involved in the different sporting events, the different community events, street fairs. We encourage that. We started doing that at location one, and it's still being done today.