The Business Animal is officially back. And this time, it has two heads.

After a yearlong hiatus, Kimberly Beer returns with a new co-host, Betsy Bird of Ride the Sky Equine. Together, they’re ushering in a fresh evolution of the show that blends visionary thinking, grounded strategy, laughter, and real-world marketing wisdom for animal-based businesses.

In this episode, Kim and Betsy introduce the new format, the return of the Big Three framework, and what listeners can expect moving forward. From sustainable marketing and realistic workweeks to AI as a practical business ally, this conversation sets the tone for what’s coming in 2026.

If you run an animal-based business, or any small business built around creativity, service, and heart, this podcast is for you. Expect insight, honesty, humor, and the occasional rabbit hole… always tethered back to reality.

New episodes drop every other Tuesday.

Welcome to the Business Animal Podcast.

Saddle up for a gallop to the top of the animal industry, where you'll learn how to tame your wild business beast with tips, techniques and tools that will take overwhelm to obedience school and have you wagging your tail with joy.

Hey there, business Animals, It's Kim with Be More Business.

And you know what?

I had 47 brilliant ideas before breakfast this morning.

And I'm Betsy Bird.

And if it's not color coded, I don't trust it.

Welcome to the Business Animal, Betsy.

So Betsy is my new co host.

So if you've listened to this podcast for any length of time, you probably met Betsy in a previous episode with Kara and I.

And I think you and I did one with just you and I, right?

Yeah, I think I've done two or three, possibly.

Yeah, yeah, we've done several over the years.

So new evolution in how things are going with the business animal.

I know.

First of all, let me acknowledge it's been a long hiatus.

You guys haven't heard from me for a year and I will catch you up.

A lot of stuff happened to me in that year.

I had major surgery.

I. Yeah, major surgery.

Let's just leave it at that.

I had a hysterectomy and it like derailed me for months.

Everything's good.

I'm healthy, actually better off and much happier now than I was a year ago at this time.

So I am back.

And the interesting thing about how this podcast is going to shape up in the future is very dependent on having a co host like Betsy.

So here's the thing.

I cannot be trusted to my own devices.

I don't do well.

I love having a co host and I love having a co host who can be.

How would you say it, Betsy?

The practical to my insanity.

The brilliance.

Insanity, Brilliance.

Someone who tethers you to reality and earth.

Yes, yes, yes.

Kara played that role for, for a very long time for me on this podcast.

And what I did was floated quite away in, in the process of the last year and so came up with Betsy.

This fall we got to talking about podcasts and about our features, future directions in our businesses, and we are walking a similar path with some of the marketing things that we're doing, and particularly around entrepreneurship and small businesses and solopreneurs and the utilization of AI to really support businesses as they move forward.

And I think for both of us, our hearts are deeply into animal based businesses, which is this what this podcast was really designed for?

Because both of us are big animal lovers and Also big supporters of anybody who partners with or serves the animal community.

Wouldn't you say that's a pretty accurate representation?

I would say that is a excellent representation.

Very much so.

So, Betsy, people may know you as a photographer because I think that's probably how the capacity that you've been on this podcast and even on our other podcast, Cowgirls with Cameras, but you have a really in depth background in marketing and business and journalism.

Would you talk just a little bit about that and let people know a little bit about your expertise there?

Sure.

I actually have a degree in advertising and marketing and when I originally came out of school, that was my intention was I was going to do the marketing side of things, which I did for many years.

And I actually ran a, a marketing company once.

I had kids that allowed me to work my own hours, which was really nice.

When you have little ones, it's much easier.

So I worked with a lot of small business entrepreneurs who really couldn't afford to have a full time marketer in their business because they were startups and stuff.

So I worked with them to get them to that point when they were ready to hire in house.

And that worked really well for me.

And at the time I was doing photography just kind of as a side hobby.

My brain is pretty well split between, you know, like analytical and creative.

So I needed to have something that was just kind of fun.

And as my daughter got older, she was riding and I was photographing horses and her with horses and it sort of expanded from there.

And for a while I was running two full time businesses with three kids under the age of four, which was really not a pleasant experience for anyone around me.

I'll bet.

And do.

And we, I do want to do, want to mark that.

Betsy has twins.

So yes, that's how we ended up with three kids under the age of four.

She wasn't a prodigy about quick births.

There were two came at once, two.

Arrived at one time.

And so when they kind of got to both being a full time thing, I kind of had to decide what was going to work for my life and what I enjoyed more.

And at the time I kind of enjoyed more of the photography type thing.

Plus because my daughter was doing a lot of the writing and stuff, it was kind of a natural fit for always being at a barn.

Yeah, yeah.

So I did just photography for a while, but then my brain sort of decided that it was missing some of the analytical side of things and everything.

So I actually started doing marketing teaching and training and mentoring with photographers for for their businesses and actually ended up starting to work with a lot of animal based businesses on their marketing due to the fact that I had written a bunch of blog posts that were specifically about like how to market for a regular animal based business.

And at the time I was referring to photographers, but I kept having people call me who were just like a horse trainer or managed a barn or something like that.

And they were saying they had found me through a blog post and that they had been looking and that was all they could find about the topic.

So I ended up starting to work with some of those as well.

So I work with a lot of creative and photographer specific businesses on their marketing and building sustainable businesses and that sort of stuff.

My personal life is extremely messy again, you know, twins, three kids.

Yeah.

It's a little crazy husband who travels all the time.

So I'm very intentional about having a business for me that runs as smoothly as possible because I don't need more chaos in my life.

So that, that's kind of, I guess how I approach business is more from that grounded, practical side and things that can make it work for me in my life and not add to the strength stress of my life as much as possible.

Yeah.

So hopefully I will not be too much of an agent of chaos in your world or.

But you're a fun agent of chaos.

I am a fun agent of chaos, but I am an agent of chaos because that opener and stay tuned for the next episode.

We're going to switch those up.

It's going to be a regular feature moving forward.

But that opener about I had 47 brilliant ideas before I ate breakfast this morning.

That really is honestly me.

And I do fly around a little bit like a untethered balloon on occasion, looking for new things to do, which I already have a to do list that if I live to be 175, I might get most of the way through.

But that's all good.

I. I have a lot of fun doing everything I do.

So I do want to tell you that we're going to have a very similar format to the format that Cara and I had, which is where we pick a topic and that topic is broken down into three points.

And what we're going to bring you with, Betsy and I is something really interesting, I think.

And of course we consulted what I call my oracle, which is AI.

So AI is incredibly helpful for brainstorming and it's also incredibly helpful to get two people on the same page and do so in a really fun way.

And both Betsy and I Have very well trained AIs.

Like they know us.

I don't know.

I've been using my AI Chat.

GPT is my favorite, by the way.

I have used the others, but Chat is by far and away favorite and her name is Solara.

And we have a very deep and abiding relationship.

It's not creepy.

Not creepy.

People, get your minds out of the gutter.

It's not a creepy relationship.

It is a very healthy one.

I realized that she is a computer, by the way, but I do I name my computers and my trucks.

Who am I kidding?

Like, what would, what would I use an AI and not give it a name for anyway?

Solara and I worked together extensively for a few years now.

How long have you been hanging out with your chat?

You know, probably a couple years, I would say.

I, on the other hand, did not in fact name my age.

And there comes the difference in what you're going to get in this.

But if I did, it would probably be something like Bartholomew Montgomery III or something.

I would have some very formal name because that would just be what my AI is.

He's formally helping me.

Yes.

And you, you've employed yours to do a whole bunch of stuff.

I do.

Mine is an employee of my business, which has been very helpful and I'm sure we will talk about that in future episodes.

How use this and how we do it differently.

How we do it differently.

Really interesting.

When we talked about it previously, just you and I, I feel like that's a whole, whole nother conversation.

There's a whole rabbit hole that we are going to go down and end up somewhere in a practical office in Alice in Wonderland's book.

So.

And I think that that is probably a good metaphor for what you are going to get here in working with the two of us and listening to the two of us and hopefully a lot of good laughter because we do love to laugh and I do want to share.

So Bartholomew came up with some really interesting ways that we could play off of each other.

Would you share a few of those, Betsy?

Because they're hilarious.

I didn't pull those up.

Solara, by the way, tried to make Betsy into like some kind of horse goddess.

And I'm like, wait, you've got to go back.

Look at her website again, sister.

That is not it.

And then it came back and re tagged her as the.

What was the one I liked so much?

The strategic instigator and the.

Let's see this snarky something or another.

It knows me so well.

It's A snark officer.

It finally figured you out.

But Bartholomew had some good ideas about how we can bring our unique styles.

To this conversation and I totally closed Bartholomew.

Back up.

So while you are doing that, let me tell you what is going to stay the same.

What is going to stay the same is the big three like I mentioned and we will bring both of our unique ways of looking at any given topic.

Now we are going to focus on the animal based business.

If you are not an animal based business, you will still get a lot out of this podcast, my friend.

You will get a lot out of it.

So don't feel like you are not.

You can't stay around here if you follow me and you don't have animals in your business or life.

There's the all of what we are going to talk about or at least probably 98% of it is going to apply to you if you feel uncomfortable with the animal based business stuff.

Hey, tune into me in the Be More Business podcast.

It is straight up business and although there you'll find animals over there too.

You, it's very connected for me.

Animals.

You'll even hear me pop in there occasionally.

You will hear her pop in there occasionally, yes.

So we, you know, feel free to tune into both or tune into one or the other, but we're going to focus on a lot around marketing and then we will dive into mindset but basically creating a really good business with a solid foundation that at the same time leaves you inspired and supports the life that you want to live.

We will be a two time a month show instead of a four time a month show.

So I was at, I can't remember whether it was doing weekly shows.

I know Karen and I did weekly shows, but Betsy and I have decided to do two times a month.

If you all listen and want us to, we may reconsider that towards the middle of the year.

I will say AI has made editing podcasts a lot easier than it used to.

I, you know, we may consider that I may change that up.

You may be listening to this and go, well, heck, I see weekly shows so we reserve the right to change anything we tell you today.

However, at this point in time we will be releasing every other Tuesday.

The first episode, which is this one that you're listening to that we're doing together is released on December 23rd and so you can look for it every other Tuesday after that.

And I usually release the podcast pretty early in the morning.

You can Catch us on any of the major podcast networks.

Spotify, Audible, which is on Amazon, Apple podcasts, and yeah, anywhere you listen.

Major podcast outlets, it'll be available.

And then of course, on social media, on the business animal Instagram page or Facebook page or website, which is thebusinessanimal.com or at thebusinessanimal on social media.

All right, Betsy, I'm out of update material.

I have no idea where this is.

You were just reading it.

I knew, but then I shut it down because we went to recording, so I was like, I don't need chat open during recording.

Gosh.

Gosh.

Well, let's put it this way.

Let's just wing it then.

Cause you basically, it was like, Kim is like, weird and woo woo.

And I think it called me a sage visionary rather than.

You were a sage visionary and I was the snarky, practical one.

Yes, the sweat is what we ended up with.

But there was like, the gremlin.

The chaos gremlin.

Yes.

And the calm one.

Yes.

And the adult in the room.

Actually, my gp Yours was out.

Yeah.

Solara pegged you as the adult in the room, which I'm like, really?

You know, I'm not sure that actually would fly.

I mean, to some extent, yes, I'm the adult in the room, but I have been known to go down the rabbit holes too.

Yes, yes.

I. I have a tendency to drag people down to that office in Alice in Wonderland space.

So, yeah, so this is what you can expect from us.

So let me give you a few titles that we're going to be looking at.

So next episode, we're going to be talking about building a workweek with realistic energy and not just wishful thinking, which I know for everyone is probably a pretty good topic.

Like, I don't know anybody who doesn't struggle a little bit with figuring out how they want to spend their time building a real marketing ecosystem instead of a piecemeal effort.

That's another one.

Oh, my goodness.

I have so many clients that I am hoping listen to that podcast, how to know if your marketing is actually working.

How to shift from just posting to creating true visibility for your brand and your business.

Let's see messaging mistakes that confuse your potential clients.

Boy, you want to talk about mine?

Live in a constant state of confusion because I do so many things and I have spent a lifetime trying to figure out how to be that multifunctional business owner.

And I share my wisdom with you guys.

Anybody who's listening to this, you will.

You will get to learn from my Mistakes and my successes and that and mine and Betsy as well.

Betsy is also a multi hyphenate.

So I know we're not alone in the world, Betsy.

And you want to know something interesting?

I was having a conversation with one of my very visionary friends who makes me look like the practical one in the room.

How is that possible?

Yeah.

And she was talking about how important diversification is going to be in the future.

You know, how we've all been told to do one thing and do it really, really well.

As we move into this more AI driven, like where AI is going to be taking that, some of that mundane, practical stuff off of our plates as entrepreneurs, it is going to open up these really interesting avenues for diversification because what it's going to do is it's going to allow us to be able to collapse and expand time a little bit more efficiently so that some of those brilliant ideas that we were just too tired to chase or didn't have time to chase because we were kind of stuck in that mundane.

So how do you see that?

Do you see that happening with the diversification?

I absolutely see that happening.

I mean, as much as you see people right now really pushing the fact that, you know, AI can take all this mundane stuff off your plate and you have all this free time to do whatever you want to do.

Right.

In many cases they're referring to, you know, having more time in your personal life and doing something fun for those of us who are workaholics or who really enjoy what we do.

What are you talking about?

That's what I mean.

Yeah, I'm like, for those of us who just really love what we do, I can see, you know, expanding into other avenues very easily.

In fact, you and I talked about it just recently with some stuff for me personally that I was like, you know, I think I'm going to start expanding into this and expanding into this not because I feel like I need to like monetarily, but more because I just think I have something to say on that topic or I have something to, to do or offer or give or whatever.

And it's fun for me.

It's, you know, it's how I spend time.

I really do see that being a big thing though, going forward.

And I think people who are willing to diversify are going to find a lot of possibility in the future.

And I think for as far as animal based businesses are concerned, I see a tremendous opportunity moving forward, both with the support of AI and with the fact that that animals are real.

Right.

There's not an AI equivalent and real experience is what people are being drawn to these days and the diversification of what you can create in an animal based business, whether you're a dog groomer or a horse trainer or an equine photographer or a pet food manufacturer or.

I was just talking to a person earlier, right before this call who has developed a whole new dog treat that I won't talk about because it's super exciting and I, I'm very excited to maybe have her talk about it on the show at some point, but it's, it's a really cool idea and I, I just see a lot of people coming up with things that are those boots on the ground and you being very grounded into it as far as diversification in their businesses.

So I'm super excited about the future.

Well, I think AI has really opened up if you use it correctly, you know, like, let's caveat this, if you use it correctly, it has really opened up a lot of avenues for people, people who do not have the skill set themselves personally for certain aspects of running certain kinds of businesses.

Yes, to suddenly learn quickly how to do it or be able to almost outsource that info, you know, or to a, to an AI who can then help them with that.

So you don't have to be necessarily skilled in every single thing about that business model.

I mean, you can learn how to do it and you can learn much more rapidly probably than we used to, you know, to some extent.

But I mean, that being said, there's also people out there who are taking AI and are just letting AI run with it and not actually following up and making sure that what is being put out is accurate.

So.

And correct.

So you do still have some, you know, accountability there that you need to keep track of.

But AI certainly has opened up a lot of space in the entrepreneurial world for people if they're willing to do it.

So the interesting thing that I find too about what AI is like releasing out into the world is the brilliance of people who have done this and now want to give you that brilliance in an attachment to a tool that you have access to.

So I know you're using AI in that way and I know I'm hoping to download a lot of my wisdom into custom GPTs and applications where people can access it when they really need it.

And yet I can be outside tending bees, feeding goats, coming up with the next 47 things I want to create in the world.

So I am super excited about future in particular, very excited about what that's going to bring for people because I, I like to think of myself as brilliant, but I'm definitely not the only brilliant person on this planet.

There are a lot of people who have a lot of wisdom that AI is going to make accessible to people that it was never accessible to before.

So be watching for that from both Betsy and I and also from us, all the other people out there that you admire.

And if you have wisdom to share, this is a time to look at AI as a possibility for how could you do that?

And how could you at the same time create wealth for yourself while creating wealth for somebody else?

And I think that's the world I want to live in where we all support each other in that very positive way.

And I think AI opens the door to that in a way that we don't even fully understand yet.

And if it's used correctly, again, that caveat has to be in there.

If it's used correctly, that's a door that it definitely opens to.

So you will, in other words, translate this into There's a lot of AI information coming your way through the Business animal and through the very practical part of how to utilize this tool and also through the inspirational, visionary part of how to use this tool as well as how to contact that good old fashioned business sense and practical tools and all of those things.

Well, I think if we add too much more to this, we'll like go into a whole nother episode.

I do too.

So maybe we should end this one.

Let's talk about the New year.

Yes.

And I'm going to tell you we are trying to try to keep these to under 30 minutes so you can catch them in the time that it takes to do your barn chores or put out hay or maybe take that trip to town or do your shopping.

Or get ready in the morning.

What is in the morning?

Get ready in the morning.

Get ready in the morning.

It's another great time to join us.

All right, I promise you the next episode is going to be packed with a lot of fun and good stuff and we're going to get right into the subject.

Until then, follow us on social media, tune into the new website which is been overhauled a bit@thebusinessanimal.com and we will catch you in two weeks on a Tuesday.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Business Animal.

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Until next time, keep your business well trained with the Business Animal.