Jess Rona was working out of her garage and barely getting by, grooming the dogs of friends, when she started ten years ago.
“I was in a really low place,” Rona told the Buzz when we caught up with the dog grooming juggernaut to learn more about her latest venture, a business course.
Now Rona has a thriving dog grooming business with a bricks and mortar location at 656 North Larchmont, as well a huge digital footprint with 237,000 Instagram followers, more than 500,000 TikTok followers, and her 17 videos on Youtube have 243,000 views. She also had a reality show on HBO, and she’s currently pitching a workplace comedy about dog groomers.
“I have learned so many things over the past 10 years that has really catapulted me to the next level, and I really wanted to share that with other business owners,” explained Rona. Inspired by her own journey, she has created a four-lesson business course, which she describes as a mind-set course to help small business owners. She uses dog grooming examples, but said the ideas can apply to any small business.
For example, small business owners often feel trapped by their business, explained Rona.
“It can be isolating and lonely and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed,” she said. “People don’t really talk about the mindset of a leader and an owner. Â I focus on the spiritual side of entrepreneurship. I use guided meditation to help you tap into really knowing the “why” of what you are doing. Running a business is really hard. And for anything that’s really hard, you have to know “your why” for doing it. If you don’t have a reason for doing something, you’re not going to show up.”
As an example, Rona explained that she delves into the Law of Polarity, the concept that everything has two sides, like up and down, night and day, etc., explaining that you can’t have one without the other. As humans, she says, we are driven by this desire to grow and evolve, and yet there is also this shadow inner self that really wants to keep things small, that keeps giving us reasons why we can’t do things, so we struggle with these two opposite ends of the spectrum.
“As a business owner, we carry a different level of weight on our shoulders. It’s a lot of stress so we need to have self-compassion. I think everyone can relate to this,” she said.
Rona said the desire to develop the course came from her passion to help people and her obsession for personal development.
“I love to help people, because I am them,” said Rona. “If there’s someone that’s in a low place, like I was, and this course will help them, that makes me really happy.
Rona is offering the four lesson course for $547 for a limited time on her website. The course is available as a private podcast and is also transcribed for people who prefer to read the material. Rona loves to listen to podcasts, but also wanted to give a written version that comes complete with a workbook, and she does a live Q&A with students. The course offering closes on Friday, but Rona said she might open it up again before the end of  year.
“I used to think that wealth was for other people, now I see that it’s for everyone,” said Rona.
