Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living magazine. Today I have Dalynn Boyer with me. How are you today?
Dalynn Boyer: I’m very well, thank you.
Toni: Good. So, Dalynn, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Dalynn: I’m a born and raised Berks Countian. I’m a wife, mother, and grandmother, and I’m a business owner in West Reading. I own Spoiled ‘Em Rotten Pet Boutique and Grooming Spa at 412 Penn Avenue. I groom everybody’s dogs, cats, trim bunny nails, guinea pig nails, and I also breed and show dogs with the AKC and conformation shows.
Toni: What an interesting job that is.
Dalynn: It is very interesting.
Toni: Interesting, I know; but hard work.
Dalynn: Very hard work, and there’s not a dull moment in a day.
Toni: I can't imagine there would be. Let’s go into the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Dalynn: Inspiration is a feeling that I get, either an emotional, spiritual, or physical feeling, or a combination of all of those feelings that I get when I’ve experienced something. It could be something as simple as a sunset, or the stars in the sky, or can be something that I’ve heard about or seen from people I know or stories I’ve heard. The main thing that inspires me is the courage and strength of people, especially women.
Toni: Especially women?
Dalynn: Yes.
Toni: Why women?
Dalynn: I think women in the new millennium have it harder than they’ve ever had, because they’re expected to do it all. They’re expected to have their children, raise their children, do all the chores around the home, and go out and make a living and contribute financially to the household also. I think that now more than ever, women just have a lot more responsibility than they ever have.
Toni: You find inspiration in there? Where?
Dalynn: I sure do. I find inspiration in women that try to do the best that they can do in every segment of their life. Most of them don’t complain about it. They do it because it needs to be done.
Toni: So you’re inspired by a mindset.
Dalynn: I think I am. I’m also inspired by people that are passionate about something, anything. I’ve found especially with – I don’t want to sound old or that this dates me – but especially with younger people, they’re just not passionate about anything. They’re so complacent about things. I really, really get inspired by somebody that is passionate about something and will just delve into it and soak up everything like a sponge – soak everything up that they possibly can and really get involved in it.
Toni: So how have you taken that sense of inspiration – whether you’ve been inspired by other women or as a woman yourself having that mindset of getting it done – how have you put that inspired feeling into action here in Berks County?
Dalynn: I help a lot of business owners; women that have always thought about owning a business, but have been afraid to take the next step. I give them some talking points, and try to give them a little bit of advice on how I’ve done it.
I’m fourth generation in a self-employed family. It started with my grandfather and his parents before him, my parents, and my husband and I. We’ve never worked for anybody. We have always been self-employed. I think a lot of people get a lot of misconceptions about people that are self-employed or own their own business, that they must have a lot of money, that they have the greatest life ever. I try to help people that are thinking about starting a business of their own. I try to help them understand what actually being self-employed is all about – the good and the bad, and there are both.
Toni: There are both. You’re absolutely right. So you try to mentor other small business owners or people that are looking to step into business.
Dalynn: Yes, I try to.
Toni: Okay; without squashing their passion, because that’s what inspires you.
Dalynn: Absolutely. It has to be a personal decision for everyone. It does take a lot of courage to do it. It truly isn't for everyone. It really isn't.
Toni: So where did the inspiration come for you to start your own business?
Dalynn: As I said, I’ve come from a family of business owners, so it’s not in my DNA maybe to work for someone else. My husband and I owned a tavern, and I’m probably the only tavern owner that doesn’t drink, but after a couple years, we built up the business enough that I didn’t have to go and bartend at our tavern. I stayed at home, and I got bored.
I thought, “I’m going to get a little dog.” I got a little dog, and the breeder that I got my dog from asked me if I would like to help her birth an upcoming litter of puppies. I said, “Yes, I would love that.” So I did, and I was hooked. I went from being just a puppy buyer, puppy owner, to wanting to become a dog breeder.
People would say to me, “Where can I get my dog groomed?” I thought, “Wait a minute. Maybe I should learn how to groom dogs.” I drove to Carlisle every day for a year and trained under a certified master groomer. I would be on the road four hours a day and groom with her for eight. I got my education there, and I’ve been grooming dogs ever since.
Toni: That’s fantastic.
Dalynn: I needed a place other than my home to do it. I’ve had several locations in the 25 years that I’ve been grooming dogs, but it was just an idea. It started with getting a little dog, and it kind of grew and grew and grew, and all of a sudden I had an occupation, and then I had a business out of it. That was how it all started.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Dalynn: So many people inspire me. From a business standpoint, Tina Shenk. She owns Tina’s Salon. She’s my landlord, but she’s also a true advocate for West Reading and for business owners, especially for women in business. She will give a helping hand to anybody that asks her for her input, or if she sees maybe their businesses failing, she’ll make a point of talking to them and seeing how she could possibly help out. I would say from a business standpoint, definitely Tina. I really admire and respect her.
From a personal viewpoint, as I said earlier in this interview, I am so inspired by people’s strength of character and their perseverance. My business partner, Judy, lost her daughter when she was 32 to colon cancer, and it was something that she and I went through together. The strength that she showed … I don’t know if I could have gotten out of bed in the morning. She did. Ten years later, she is a business owner with me at Spoil ‘Em Rotten, and she also has her own business where she is into Reiki and holistic treatments.
She goes and does Reiki on hospice patients. She took what was an absolutely devastating and heartbreaking thing that happened in her life that no parent should ever have to live through, and she’s taken it and made something good and positive out of it that helps other people. I would say she is a tremendous inspiration to me just on a purely human level.
Other people in my life – my dyslexic daughter who loves to read and keep journals. My father, who’s been clean and sober for 22 years. There’s just something about people that overcome adversity and come out on the other side and don’t just roll over and say, “Oh, why me? Why me?” Those are the real inspirations to me.
Toni: Which really ties into what inspires you or what inspiration means to you, because it’s all about a mindset. It’s all about strength. It’s about just getting it done and doing whatever it takes to get it done.
Dalynn: Right.
Toni: You’ve described these people beautifully in alliance with what inspiration means to you.
What would you like your legacy to be?
Dalynn: Goodness gracious. I don’t know. I think that when people think about me, I’d like them to say that I was a kind and caring person, and I don’t aspire to be anything other than what I am. I’m just a woman who loves her family, loves dogs and do a pretty good job of grooming them, and I absolutely, positively love life.
Toni: I love the way you end that. I’m going to let it be right there.
Dalynn: Thank you.
Toni: Thank you so much, Dalynn, for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project.
Daylinn: It was my pleasure. Thank you.
