Today we’d like to introduce you to Michele Padron.
Hi Michele, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Like many groomers, I started as a dog bather in a big box grooming salon back in 2013. I was going to school for psychology at the same time, but I wanted a part time job and my local corporate salon was hiring bathers so I jumped right on it. Truthfully, I didn’t plan on staying in the grooming industry for long as I really wanted to be a Marriage Family Therapist, but the longer I stayed, the more I loved grooming and psychology less so. A year and a half later, an opportunity arose for me to go to grooming school and I took it. At the same time, I was transferring to SDSU to get my bachelor’s degree in psych, but I knew that dog grooming would be my passion over Marriage Family Therapy. I stayed at the corporate salon for another few years before leaving for another grooming job at a doggy daycare, which was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed taking my dogs to work with me, playing with them outside, and also meeting new clients. It was a really good job for a while, but as many of us experience, the work environment just didn’t suit my needs anymore. My daughter Emmy was born and, after returning from maternity leave, I just felt that my time at the doggy daycare was over and it was time to move on. It was tough to leave so many great friends (both human and doggy), but I needed something new. After working at a couple of different grooming salons in 2020, I decided to work for myself and delve into the realm of house-call grooming, a type of mobile grooming, but instead of going to the client’s home to groom out of a van/trailer, I groomed out of their home. I did some house calls on the side to dip my toes in the water and see how I liked it, and, turned out, I REALLY liked it! My passion for grooming grew and I knew this was what I was meant to do, to be my own boss and go mobile. I did these jobs for a few months while I researched more and more of self-employment and licensing and business insurance and in February of 2021 I began doing business as Emmy’s Paw Spa.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
2020 was a year like no other, and just like everyone else, I had my struggles too. I lost job after job even though I really thought I had found my place at these salons. I was experiencing some challenges with my mental health and lost a lot of love for myself. After having Emmy in 2018, I experienced postpartum depression and anxiety and it never seemed to go away, so these hiccups in my career made me really doubt myself. I took a break from grooming to focus on myself, my mental health, and my family. Fortunately, I have a very supportive circle including an amazing husband, and they helped remind me that one thing was for certain: grooming is my passion. Dogs bring me joy. Relationships with clients bring me joy. Over the years of my grooming career I have gained some fantastic, loving, and supportive clients, and they trust me with their fur kids.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a house-call dog groomer, which means I go to people’s homes to groom their dogs. I provide all of my own equipment and tools, including a table, dryer, vacuum, and even a collapsible tub, and I “set up shop” in the person’s home. I don’t necessarily have a specialty, but I love grooming doodles, yorkies, and senior pets. However, I am trying to learn the style Asian Fusion, a really cute and creative grooming style that makes dogs look like little teddy bears or toys, so in my spare time I try to sign up for as many webinars that focus on this style as I can so I can learn and practice. What I’m most proud of is definitely reaching this point where I am at today. My goal, for some time, was to become a small business owner, but truthfully I just didn’t think it was going to happen, let alone so soon. Grooming is an unnatural process for animals, and I want to create a positive experience for the dogs I work with so they know that they will be okay getting a haircut or getting their nails done. As a house call groomer, many of my clientele are dogs that don’t do well in salon settings or get too stressed traveling in cars because they’re old or they just have high anxiety. Their challenges have really helped me to work on my patience and positive energy so that I can be a human they feel they can trust.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I feel the most important quality or characteristic to be able to succeed is to have passion in what you are doing. When you have true passion for whatever it is you’re doing, people see that and they root for you. When people see passionate groomers, they want THEM to work on their dogs because they know they’re going to care for them like they would. They know they’re going to get not just quality work, but love and compassion for their fur babies. Surround yourself with people and environments that help keep that passion alive.
Contact Info:
- Email: emmyspawspa@gmail.com
- Website: www.emmyspawspa.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmyspawspa/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emmyspawspa
Image Credits
Anna Campbell
