Today we’d like to introduce you to Joey Lusvardi.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
The best starting place of my story is when I adopted my cat, Zoloft, a few years ago. I had always been an animal person, but my parents didn’t let me get any pets besides fish and hamsters growing up. I had always considered myself a bit more of a dog person, but a friend posted a picture on social media that he needed to be rehomed due to these former owners realizing their daughter was severely allergic to him. I was considering getting a pet anyway at the time but had always considered myself more of a dog person. There was something about him that drew me in and I decided that I at least wanted to meet him. I was able to meet set up a meeting and I knew right away that this cat had to come to live with me. I pretty quickly flipped from liking cats but preferring dogs to being full-on cat obsessed.
While things were generally great between Zoloft and I, a year or two after I adopted him we hit our busy time of year at work and I started having a hard time doing much more than coming home, feeding him, eating something, and going to bed. I started noticing that my normally very sweet, very friendly, very fun cat was following me around my apartment at night and attacking. He started making weird vocalizations that I had never heard before and seemed so scared. I was afraid as I didn’t know what was going on with him so I set up a veterinarian appointment. They did an exam and he was completely fine physically, but the veterinarian noted my change in schedule and lessened interaction with my cat were what triggered this. She suggested a lot of great interventions that, within a few weeks, brought him back to being his usual self. I am forever grateful to Dr. O’Brien at the University of Minnesota Veterinary Medical Center for her help. She also sparked a casual interest in cat behavior and I began learning more and more about cats along with working on clicker training. I enjoyed it, but it seemed like it was just a hobby.
Looking back, I was pretty burnt out when Zoloft had his incident. I recovered, but then things changed when COVID-19 hit. As a mental health professional, I was flung into a situation where I not only had to figure out how to work from home, but had to figure out how to help my patients navigate a crisis that we have never dealt with before. I burnt out again and much more severely than before. I began reevaluating my priorities and started realizing that how dissatisfied I was with my career. There wasn’t much room for advancement, despite being sold originally as my career having great work life balance I was working constantly, and it became pretty clear just how disposable I was to my employer. I recognized I wanted a change and realized that I wanted to do something helping cats. I couldn’t think of anything besides becoming a veterinarian, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do ultimately. I asked a friend who is a veterinarian for her suggestions and she suggested becoming a behavior consultant. I looked into what it involves and it sounded perfect for my interests. Plus, it overlapped a surprising amount with what I do anyway.
I signed up to take a course on behavior consulting through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants Foundation and began signing up for all sorts of trainings about cat behavior. I bought textbooks on cats and animal behavior and absorbed as much information as I could. I began practicing some of what I was learning with Zoloft and it worked! It was amazing!
After I completed my course, I continued learning while thinking about what next steps I wanted to take. The idea for Class Act Cats formed and after a few weeks of planning, I decided to take the leap. It has been a wild and wonderful adventure so far. It’s a lot of work and there’s always more to learn, but I’m enjoying every moment of it so much more than I ever had with my day job.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There have definitely been a lot of bumps along the way. Getting any business started is extremely confusing and even when you think you have a good business plan, you realize there are other things you didn’t realize you needed to do. It’s hard to find resources to help as well. I had reached out to a local organization that was supposed to help small businesses get started, but their response was less than helpful. While I was fine with the behavioral science component of my business and felt confident in my understanding of cat behavior, some of the business skills have been more difficult. I’m still figuring out marketing my business and letting people know that if your cat has behavior concerns, there are people like me who can help!
Additionally, I’m not at the point yet where I can do this full time or even close to the balance between the two that I’d like to. It’s hard when you’re burnt out from your day job that is taking up so much of your time and all your energy is zapped at the end of the day. I have a lot of ideas I haven’t been able to implement yet due to time constraints or being a small business that is working on building an income stream.
That said, I have had a lot of great support from people in my life. My family, especially my aunt Greta who designed my amazing logo and my parents, have been supportive of me even when I told them that a had the strange idea to become a cat whisperer. I’ve had numerous friends who have booked sessions and helped spread the word. I’ve also met a lot of great fellow pet business owners who clearly care just as much about cats (and animals in general) as I do. Especially the first few weeks while I was still trying to attract any clients at all it was so helpful to have people to confide in and keep me going when I felt discouraged.
We’ve been impressed with Class Act Cats, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I am a cat behavior consultant! I work with cat parents in essentially three capacities. The bulk of what I do is help folks whose cats are exhibiting unwanted behaviors figure out what to do to live more harmoniously with their cats. I use positive reinforcement methods and environmental modification that takes advantage of cats’ natural behaviors. I can help with a variety of issues, but some of my most common concerns are aggression/biting, litter box concerns, and conflicts between multiple cats. I offer preventative services to reduce the chances of cats having unwanted behaviors. This may be preparing for a life transition or helping introduce a new cat into a household the proper way. The other area I work with folks on is cat training! Many people don’t think cats can be trained and that is absolutely untrue. You have to approach it differently than you would a dog, but you absolutely can train your cat. Not only is cat training a lot of fun, but it can be used to prevent or address behavior problems!
I am currently working to develop a few workshops for cat parents to learn more about cats, but right now I work with clients one on one. I help develop a plan to address what’s going on with your cat in a way that works for each client’s lifestyle and budget that is sustainable long term. I try to make sure we go after the highest yield interventions first and add on more to the plan if those aren’t getting the results we want. I offer individual sessions if desired, but my pricing is designed so that it’s a much better idea to go with a package. This approach is much better for the cats and allows me to offer continued support so we can tweak the plan as we go if something needs to be altered. You really get a LOT for what you pay for!
My background in psychology and human medicine also help me work with clients to make this process work a lot better. I really understand the science about how learning and behavior works. I am able to effectively apply it to cats combined with their species specific behaviors so the plan we come up with is for a cat. Too often I see folks who try to suggest things that would work for a dog, but aren’t going to be effective with a cat. This is a huge advantage to working with a behavior consultant as there is a LOT of bad advice out there. Too often I see people suggesting things are unlikely to work or may make things worse, such as using a squirt bottle or declawing a cat. With the right tools, you will not only have better results but you won’t have to risk new, more problematic behaviors developing!
My background has also taught me how to work with folks who are in distress. As I know from when my cat was having behavior problems, it is awful having an animal you care so much about exhibiting behaviors that are scary. It can disrupt your sleep and cause trouble in all areas of your life. I recognize that this isn’t an easy thing and am there to support folks. I’m never going to tell someone that “it’s just a cat.” I get how much these amazing creatures mean to people and how important figuring out what’s causing the problematic behaviors are.
It may sound like modifying behavior is a bit daunting, and it can be, but it’s also a lot of fun! Training cats is amazing and I can often incorporate some training into whatever clients are working with me for. You’ll be able to impress folks when you bust out the fun tricks you teach your cat or make getting into their carrier a breeze. It also can help prevent boredom and reduce the chances of you needing to get in touch with me later to address a behavior problem!
I really am passionate about cats and want people to live happily with their cats. There is a lot of misinformation about cats out there and honestly, services directed toward cats specifically are lacking. This is a passion project for me and I really hope folks will use a behavior consultant to help with their cats rather than turning to sometimes unreliable information on the internet or taking a more drastic step like rehoming their cat. I’m here to help!
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Being scared of doing something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Starting my own business terrified me and I almost didn’t move forward with it because I wasn’t sure how it would be received. Nothing in life comes without risk and had I not decided to just go for it one day, I would have been so much more miserable. I have gotten to meet so many great people (and cats!) because of this and be a part of keeping cats in loving, safe homes. I get to help cats and humans! This is much better than being burnt out and feeling completely stagnant in my life.
Pricing:
- I offer a brief session to talk about options for $25 which can be applied to the cost of a session or package.
- Individual sessions start at $70.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://classactcats.com/
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/classactcats
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/classactcats
- Other: http://tinyurl.com/classycatsemail | https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/6l2mBzb
Image Credits
Joey Lusvardi
