Consultation Feedback Wanted!
Added 2021-07-21 12:00:06 +0000 UTCHey guys!
We are looking for feedback - as usual - from you! Honest, awesome, feedback. This time on our one on one consultations. Many of you have had one or more consults with myself or Dave, or maybe both of us, and we would like to know your FAVORITE and LEAST FAVORITE aspect of your consult.
What do you wish you had done differently to prepare, do you wish you had different materials to prep with? (Family Friendly Parrot videos are included with consult purchases to help prepare you with the most common foundational issues.)
And anything else you can think of that would be valuable feedback for us with regards to our consultations.
Thank you! Feel free to leave feedback in a comment on this post, or if you're more comfortable you send directly message me here on Patreon.
Comments
So I am just speaking about you tube but I think it might be a good idea to change up and spray 100% juice on your pellets you sell like maybe watered down kerns
jonathan k buckland
2021-07-28 20:18:36 +0000 UTCI'm DM-ing you.
BirdTricks
2021-07-28 04:52:30 +0000 UTCReading these comments, I wish I had known that sending in videos before consults was an option. I felt like a lot of time was wasted repeating generic information that wasn’t tailored to my specific situation, and I felt that there wasn’t any follow up to the homework. So right now I’m struggling with doing what Jaimie suggested, but I don’t want to spend the money to buy another consult to fine tune what I can’t seem to get right. I already did 5 consults :( That being said, I don’t want to leave a negative review. BT has helped Tucker tremendously and I’ve learned a lot from being a patron and watching the project bird videos. But I didn’t find the consults to be worth what I paid for them. I thought the 5 package would mean a lot more communication, but I guess you have to be a free flight student to get that kind of attention.
Carmen Griggs
2021-07-27 16:46:22 +0000 UTCAw thank you Chels!
BirdTricks
2021-07-27 04:03:12 +0000 UTCAw yay, so glad to hear this, Caitlin!
BirdTricks
2021-07-27 04:03:03 +0000 UTCMy consult with Jamie was invaluable. I learned so much that was geared specifically for my conure, and feel confident that I will be able to take him through the diet conversion. I was especially relieved when Jamie said, if it takes 6 months, that's ok! I've started to implement the small things, i.e. not covering him at night and breaking up his routine. He helped me make a batch of the summer recipe, and for the first time ever he went for the legumes while I was combining everything together. This morning, he was so hungry that he ate almost everything (no doubt because he loves the scrambled eggs). But nonetheless, he ate the other ingredients too, and I was delighted. Jamie was so kind during our consult and her wealth of knowledge is impressive. She was very professional, yet personable. I feel like I've known her forever and as I progress with the strategies we're implementing to help my bird be more balanced and happy, I know I'll be reaching out to her again as questions and concerns arise. The content that BirdTricks puts out to help us bird owners is outstanding. I've learned such a tremendous amount from them through the years, and I'm grateful for the work they are doing to educate and support bird owners. Thank you!
Caitlin Kelley
2021-07-27 02:53:36 +0000 UTCHey Catrin! You can book your consults back to back if you want - that has always been available to people, especially those with multiple issues with their birds or multiple birds they want to speak about. However, I can count on my hand how many clients I ever felt like needed more than 30 minutes and usually they end in a "where do you live? We need to come see you in person..." lol. We used to offer longer consultation options of 1 hour and we found people were not able to follow through on the information, they were almost always overwhelmed with too much info, and they didn't succeed as much. Whereas with the 30 minute options, most people I work with have everything they need within the 30 mins or less often times. As much as I can continue to educate and give more info, it really isn't recommended until you complete the first set of homework and then come back for more if that makes sense. That's why we give the Family Friendly Parrot Formula with consults so that they hopefully implement the foundational stuff before our consult but usually most don't so we end up spending our first consults helping people properly implement them (sleep, diet, etc.) I am so happy to hear how much long term success you had with implementing Dave's advice and don't be afraid to book future consults back to back if you want to! xo
BirdTricks
2021-07-24 22:49:55 +0000 UTCHi Kristen! Thanks for this. Some people opt to do video-consults where they submit video of the issue they're having and then we submit a video response back. It works great for people who are either shy to being on camera with us or prefer to rewatch the video over and over again to get their homework that way. Also you can request we watch short clips before your consult as long as the videos are sent ahead time enough for our stuff to get them to us with notice before your consult. We don't mind doing that if they're as short as you're speaking to! So feel free to do that in future consults. For reference we do watch videos 2-3 times. Once for our initial interpretation, second to rewatch and confirm what we first saw and check for little changes, and third to take any notes. So just triple the time of the videos for our time when you think about what you're sending. It definitely helps to SEE what is going on vs get the human's interpretation of what is going on. So you're spot on there.
BirdTricks
2021-07-24 22:49:37 +0000 UTCI had a 30-minute consult with Jamie. I had thought of making videos of the issues I was having, but then I decided that these guys are professionals, and if I explained the behavior I saw, they'd know more about what I was dealing with than I did. My parrot seems to be scared of a lot of things and pretty disinterested in people. Both the vet and a local trainer said she could be a bird who would rather just be a bird, and not a companion pet who cares much about socializing with people. Jamie gave me a lot of good advice and I was very hopeful when the consult ended. I felt like I had a plan for my parrot and things would get better. A lot of the "I'm at a loss" thoughts turned into "We can make this better". I was very pleased with the consult. One thing on my end is that I hadn't put my parrot on the training diet. There was a question of whether the bird had been fully weaned when I got her, so I wanted to be sure she always had food and would put on some weight. I had tried at one point to take food out overnight and that didn't go well the next morning. Plus, my parrot will always eat, so formal training at any time of day was successful. Jamie did suggest I put her on the training diet, so we're seeing if that helps in a way that I missed. On the business side of things, Jamie was very professional. She called on time, wasn't distracted, and was very good about explaining things. I didn't feel rushed or that I was being judged for not knowing what's wrong with my bird, and we had a fun, interactive conversation. I received the consult with the full training program, and I had watched the fundamentals and implemented a lot of it beforehand. While this consult came free, I did pay a professional trainer $150 for a one-hour session in home (in Houston), so I would pay full price for Jamie's or Dave's help, as well. For the 30-year life of my parrot with a purchase price of $3,500 USD, a couple hundred dollars for a couple hours of professional help would be well worth it.
Chelsea Randall
2021-07-24 05:29:12 +0000 UTCHi there! I didn't mean a whole training session being watched during the consult, I really meant splices of videos (30-40sec) of body language or aggressive behavior, or maybe parts of a session where I'm getting stuck or something. Also from their advice, training sessions shouldn't be 10min long so even if I did share a video I wouldn't want to be showing them any more than a minute or two. But I'm glad to here that they'll watch!! I had the idea because I know doing a consult would be on a time of their choosing and my CAG likes to train at night so I wouldn't be able to show them in real time what issues I'm having because sometimes she's just not in the mood Lol!
Kristen
2021-07-24 04:14:07 +0000 UTCHey Kristen, so Dave and Jamie do watch videos if you'd like of your training but it does eat into your consult time. For example, say you have 1 30 minute consult, and you send in 1 10 minute training video. Now you have 20 minutes of help, because they spent 10 minutes of their time taking notes on your training video.
Catrin Griffiths
2021-07-24 02:02:25 +0000 UTCHey! I had one 30 minute consultation with Dave in July maybe in 2019? I had watched the Family Friendly Formula 1 & 2 and had taken notes. My critiques would be, (keep in mind I've only had Dave so far and once to boot): 1) Felt overwhelming and rushed (probably because it's so short) so maybe allow clients who purchase 5 or 2 30 minute consults to book them back to back? I felt like Dave was in more of a hurry to get right to the next consult than even my therapist lol. 2) I know you guys get this A LOT cause you joke about it, but it's really soooooo expensive. I 100% understand this is your livelihood and you guys need to get your coin, but my Canadian dollar almost doubles the price. Probably nothing you can do about that though, currency changes will be all over the map surely. That's why I now see someone else for 30$/45minute- 1 hour videochat. I feel less rushed and it's quite a steal compared to other trainers. Still love you guys over here at Birdtricks though of course. 💕 Maybe you guys could come up with 50% off consultation packages for patrons in the 10$ and up tier? Or make it 100$ per 30minute consult for smaller packages other than 5 30 minute consults? 5 is a big commitment, even if it is more budget friendly. Overall, I was fangirling over having met Dave from birdtricks, but I also felt like I knew what we covered just from taking notes from your youtube channel or the courses on your website. I did need to go back to basics, but when you're tight on cash it can be frustrating. I cleaned my whole basement, made Cheeky's cage areas look their best, and threw on a cute bird themed shirt thinking Jamie might be there lol. I think I blew up the judgement level in my head, you guys are chill on videochat lol. Pros: 1) Dave was wayyyy more down to Earth than I was expecting and incredibly supportive and compassionate about my dream to freefly Cheeky despite my brain injury. It means the world to me one of my heroes believes in me. Even though he likely doesn't remember our consult at all lmao!🥰😇 2) We also briefly discussed how toxic the bird community can be, and Cheeky's feather condition which was INCREDIBLY ILLUMINATING. He made me feel so much better about my "hypoallergenic cockatoo" and I felt like he explained her feather issue better than my vet. 😎 We also confirmed my cystic acne is not killing Cheeky, like some psycho internet hater told me lmao. 💀 3) He let me record the session to accommodate my Brain Injury with my livescribe Echo pen, and made sure I knew what steps to take after he signed off. Cheeky has been on the Birdtricks seasonal feeding system and been getting 12 hours of sleep in complete darkness ever since. I must say, almost a whole year and I have NOT had the major aggression and territorialism I came to Dave complaining about. Has it been a pain in the ass having Cheeky sleep in a travel cage in the bathroom for complete darkness? Yes. Yet, here I am in 2021 and I feel like she is more manageable. This hormone season I had 0 major aggression periods where I couldn't handle her for days. That was what I struggled with back in 2019. Thank you Dave and Birdtricks for the help. I get why those are the fundamentals for good parrot care! 🦜
Catrin Griffiths
2021-07-23 04:02:12 +0000 UTCGood morning Jamie and Dave. I have yet to do a consult, however one of the things that was keeping me from doing so was really wanting to be prepared because it looks like the consult only run 30 minutes. I wanted to do a bunch of recordings of me with my bird, to be able to play those interactions for you during the consult so that you could see exactly what the challenges were. My assumption would be that because of what you teach, and how you help people, if they had recordings of each issue for you to watch, you'd be able to help them better. I don’t know if people are already doing this or have considered doing this, but I think it would be a really great idea to tell people to have material recorded so that they can get the best coaching from you during a consult. Since so much of parrot training is body language, and interpreting what the parrot is feeling in order to adjust our behavior accordingly, I'd think that that being able to see the issue in real time would be super helpful to you as coaches. I’m looking forward to a consult Once the online ones open back up and then I can give you better feedback from there. I run a business and train people, and being able to see them in action is a totally different thing than them telling me what they do. That’s why I’m thinking people will get the most value being able to show you exactly what’s happening. Hopefully this was helpful, and like I said I’m super excited to do a consult soon.
Kristen
2021-07-22 15:28:32 +0000 UTC
