Meet Michelle Mantor of Houston PetTalk Magazine & PetTalk GoFetch

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Mantor.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
From as far back as I can remember, I’ve had an innate love and empathy for animals but it took many years before my life’s path would find a way to incorporate that love into my career. I pursued an MBA and corporate career in Human Resources and Business Management but after 20 years in the business world, I was unfulfilled and restless. Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your belief in serendipity:), the dot com bust in early 2000’s led to the demise of my IT focused company and I was forced to retool myself. I got a phone call from a friend who was a dog trainer letting me know about a small, local pet publication looking for a new owner. I thought “how hard can it be to publish a magazine about pets?” Well…that shows how little I knew!

I jumped at the chance but quickly found I was severely lacking in knowledge about the many facets of publishing including distribution, journalism, advertising sales, photography, graphic design…and so on. I spent many hours on a fast-paced learning curve and became a self-taught magazine publisher and I loved every minute of it! I was finally “home” in my career.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Totally smooth. Everything clicked, I had no problems, made no mistakes, LOL!! I don’t think a smooth road exists for anyone in life but that’s why life is so interesting and people are so unique. I had many hurdles, ups and downs, wins and losses and definitely lots of lessons learned. For example, I learned to ALWAYS council people that are going to appear in the magazine about attire. I look back at some of my first issues published and cringe! Once, I had a family appearing on the cover for a feature on multi-pet households and the dad was wearing a Hawaiian shirt while the mom was wearing an American flag sweater and their son was wearing a sports jersey. Not a good combo! But mistakes are part of the journey and it’s been not only fulfilling to publish a magazine about pets but I’ve grown in my skills, confidence and I’ve pushed myself way past my comfort zone on many occasions.

There are always going to be struggles – financial obstacles, customers that don’t pay, legal issues with a competitor, slumps in sales and on and on. No one likes to deal with these problems because they are exhausting, daunting and quite frankly scary. But it’s how you handle problems that defines the difference between growing a successful business versus a mediocre business or giving up or flat our failing. For me, I fret for a minute, then I take a deep breath and go into problem solving mode and each time I do, I’m stronger for it and my knowledge of how to handle issues expands.

Please tell us about Houston PetTalk Magazine & PetTalk GoFetch.
Houston PetTalk Magazine, founded in 2000, is a 68 page, glossy, monthly, free publication distributed to over 1100 locations in Greater Houston. And just last year, we launched PetTalk GoFetch, an online business and event directory (which is both an App and Website) to help pet owners find nearby resources and locate fun events in the pet community.

The publication features informative articles about pet care, training, boarding, grooming, nutrition and pet products for a variety of animals (dogs, cats, birds, horses, ferrets, etc.), as well as community news and events, human interest stories about rescue pets, traveling with a pet and other lifestyle topics. In addition to pet information, PetTalk also features a wildlife conservation section each month written by the Houston Zoo or other wildlife organizations.

PetTalk focuses on pets as well as the people that own them. For fun, we highlight famous Houstonians and their pets, which our readers love! We’ve had the privilege of featuring First Lady Barbara Bush, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Houston Rockets Coach Mike D’Antoni, Wildlife expert Jack Hanna, Famed Astros Pitcher Nolan Ryan, Houston Mayor Annise Parker and many others who were all great…but their pets were the superstars LOL!

Our publication is unique and I hope we’ve directly and indirectly helped save many animals through our education efforts. I’m passionate about wildlife conservation and I’m proud that we find ways to apprise people of humane treatment of animals without being too extreme.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
The “start over” question is a tough one because at the time of a decision, we don’t have all of the information we have down the road when we are evaluating the past. But I get that some level of analysis is good and can help others learn. I think taking some classes on anything from grammar usage to publishing metrics and even graphic design would have made my learning curve shorter. Even if you are not the one doing a particular job, such as graphic design, it’s good to know all aspects of your business at a high level. I also think I could have looked for a mentor to help me navigate the journey, simply because I came into it with NO knowledge of publishing. But then again, they would have influenced me in some ways and who knows what those would be…and that might mean the essence of PetTalk would have been different – for better or worse.

On a lighter note, I should have also figured out how to not fall for rescue animals in need that invariably cross my path in this line of work…I’ve adopted a few dogs and most recently a horse! Mind you, I am actually a bit afraid of horses, I live in a townhome and I know NOTHING about horses LOL! But…I also knew nothing about publishing when I embarked on this adventure, so I trust my instinct that this horse is meant to be part of my life and I’m excited to keep writing our “story”.

Contact Info:

• Address: 14781 Memorial Drive Ste 510 Houston TX 77079
• Website: www.houstonpettalk.com and www.pettalkgofetch.com
• Email: mmantor@houstonpettalk.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/houstonpettalk

Image Credit:
Photo with Horse, By Prudence Allwein.
Photo with giraffe By Evin Thayer

Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.