Today's millennial and Gen Z workers are mission driven, tech savvy and they expect to be onboarded and given professional development and coaching, says Kris Murray.
Kris is the founder and president and founder of The Child Care Success Company and a leading child care business expert.
In this podcast, she talks about how to help child care staff grow within your organization and the importance of professional development to make that happen.
Her tips for successfully onboarding and retaining employees include:
To learn more about Kris and her company, and the services she offers, check out her company's website. She also offers the a free Empowered Educators training course to help teachers align with their school’s mission and goals.
Today's millennial and Gen Z workers are mission driven, tech savvy and they expect to be onboarded and given professional development and coaching, says Kris Murray.
Kris is the founder and president and founder of The Child Care Success Company and a leading child care business expert.
In this podcast, she talks about how to help child care staff grow within your organization and the importance of professional development to make that happen.
Her tips for successfully onboarding and retaining employees include:
To learn more about Kris and her company, and the services she offers, check out her company's website. She also offers the a free Empowered Educators training course to help teachers align with their school’s mission and goals.
Welcome to the Childcare Business Podcast, brought to you by Pro-Care Solutions. This podcast is all about giving childcare , preschool, daycare , after school , and other early education professionals. A fun and upbeat way to learn about strategies and inspiration you can use to thrive. You'll hear from a variety of childcare thought leaders, including educators, owners, and industry experts on ways to innovate, to meet the needs of the children you serve. From practical tips for managing operations to uplifting stories of transformation and triumph, this podcast will be chock full of insights you can use to fully realize the potential of your childcare business. Let's jump in.
Speaker 2:You know, wanna welcome everybody again to the , uh, childcare Business podcast. I'm Ryan Walt , your host, and I'm excited again to have you guys with us excited about our guest . You know, look, our guest doesn't need much of an introduction. Many of you listening to this episode already know Chris Murray. Um, she's very well known throughout the industry. Uh, I'm gonna give a really short intro, but we're gonna start our conversation. Chris is the , uh, founder and president of the Childcare Success Company. She's one of the leading experts in the field, and she always talks about this, but her mission is to help childcare owners and directors become more successful and more profitable , uh, through all sorts of effective techniques, marketing techniques, techniques, and approaches to running their business. Uh, you know, today we're gonna talk, we always try to have an episode where we have some practical tactical takeaways for our audience. We're gonna talk a little bit about staffing and onboarding and try to spend some time on that. But I was just telling Chris before we started as well, we're , we're also gonna just try to have some fun with this and, and , uh, you know, enjoy the time. So, Chris, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Ryan. I'm just thrilled to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I've heard you talk about this a lot, and I know a little bit of your story just from seeing you over the years at, at your conferences and shows, but talk to me about 2008, because I know that's when, you know, you kind of got started in this current line of work. I know it was your child's childcare center, but I'm curious, tell, like, can you tell our audience, I'm gonna try to find something on this episode that your followers don't know about you, so we're gonna try to uncover something. But 2008, tell me what did Chris Murray's life look like at that point, both professionally and, you know, maybe to the extent that you can share personally that led to that kind of moment where, like, this is the path I'm gonna start on.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I will be happy to share with you something that hardly anyone knows. Um, I may have shared this once , uh, on my podcast. I'm not even sure. I was gonna basically share it in my forthcoming memoir slash book. Um, not a huge secret, but just how the idea came to me to get into the world of childcare as a business expert. I actually was working at my brother's Bolt factory running his quality and marketing teams. We were doing quality assurance, which is all about compliance and policy and stuff. So we'll talk a little bit about policy today with, with onboarding. Um, and I was more and more disenchanted with working at, in the manufacturing field, and I just knew that it wasn't really my jam. And I was working part-time though, and I had two little kids. So my kids were like five and two in 2018. And , um, I would go on Thursdays. I had Thursdays off, so it was my favorite day of the week <laugh>, cause I would be able to be with my kids. And I did this mom yoga class on Thursday mornings. We had a , uh, lady who hosted yoga in her home downstairs. And there was about eight of us moms and our yoga teacher. And then next door there was a lady who had , um, a d a babysitter that could take all of our kids and watch them while we did yoga. So we would drop them all off and then we would go next door and do yoga. And it was awesome . Like the ,
Speaker 2:That's like the dream. That's like the , it was , it
Speaker 3:Was , that was like the best 90 minutes of my week. And then I would pick my kids up and we would typically go to McDonald's, I'm not gonna lie. And they would let , cuz they wanna go to the play place for sure . And get happy meals. And then I would get a salad. So that was my life back then. And , um, they still remember those Thursdays too. So we have good chats about that now that they're older. But in yoga class was when I actually got a feeling, a intuition, a download message from God, whatever you wanna call it, on my yoga mat. As I was like in shavas pose , just this message came to me, which was childcare and it was clear as day I could hear it come in. And, and ,
Speaker 2:Sorry , sorry to interrupt you, but at that point in your career, Uhhuh <affirmative> being involved with childcare on any professional level was not anything that you had ever done before?
Speaker 3:That's correct.
Speaker 2:Okay. Okay . So child , you hear childcare on the yoga map . Yeah .
Speaker 3:Yeah . So then I went home and I started Googling and I bought a business that was basically selling info kits for how to start a daycare, how to start a home daycare mostly. I bought this little web online business as a side gig, my side hustle while I was working in manufacturers. Like , I think I can build , I know enough about internet marketing and online marketing to turn this website into something where I could at least make enough money to quit my day job and stop and leave manufacturing. And then that. And so, and I did that. So I, I also remember the day, basically about 18 months later, fast forward to, I looked down and I was like, I was actually on a run and I was like, Hey, I made $5,000 last month with my little side hustle. That's actually enough for me to quit my day job. And I know I'm gonna build it up more. But , uh, so I got that total insight in aha. And then I ran home and told my husband, and , uh, then I left, I left manufacturing , uh, at the end of May, 2009. And never looked back. Never looked back. So yeah, my life was very simple. I was living in Ohio, my kids were in childcare with Alison and Kent, which is the preschool. I started helping in the recession, my first client. And , um, then I just started going around the country and basically , uh, schlepping , um, booth stuff that, and I was a one woman show. I would set up my booth. I had this cool backdrop. I had a whole story. I had, you know, stuff to , to sell. I had kits and business resources and trainings and webinars and um, and I would just go from, from conference to conference and as much as I could, cause I still needed to focus on my kids and be home for them. So anyway, that's how what I did early days, I schlepped stuff around and met people and shook hands and made sales and built the business from, from nothing, from
Speaker 2:From scratch. So you could relate to all your vendors at your, at your show . Oh yeah. You go on that vendor floor, you're like , I've been there, I've done that.
Speaker 3:I love, I love our exhibit hall. I love to hang out with all of our vendors and sponsor friends. I love to help y'all with , uh, tried and true techniques that will bring traffic to your booth. I love the whole lead gen process, how to follow up with leads, how to sell, like, all that stuff is my total jam. So yeah, I love , I love to hang out in there and see what y'all got going. Yeah ,
Speaker 2:That's cool . And you , that's , and you can come to it from first person perspective too. You've been there, done that . Did you, so are you, you know, the type of person, Chris, when you look back and we are gonna get the onboarding stuff, <laugh> , but when you look back, was it like, Hey, I envisioned and visualized my business the way that it is today, or has this just been a ride where you're like, I never could have imagined that it evolved into this,
Speaker 3:That one, the second that one <laugh>,
Speaker 2:Because it ,
Speaker 3:I , yeah, when I started, I was like, if I can make six figures, you know, my first goal was revenue goal was 10 grand a month. And if I could make six figures, then I would be, you know, like, this would be amazing. And then now I have a team of 24 people and it's headed quickly to 10 million. And it's, you know, 300 coaching clients and a huge show with a huge exhibit hall and all my sponsor friends, never in a million years did I fully vision what I have today and what we've built. Maybe back in my, you know, some kind of a subconscious mind, I maybe knew that it was possible. I think that's probably true. But , um, yeah, I never, I , this what I'm living today, I did not, I did not vision back then. Did
Speaker 2:You? Always did you always have. Because, you know, to do, for any entrepreneur, anybody who's gonna go start something new, you gotta have, you know, a belief in yourself. But I, I do, I've heard a lot of content from you over the years. I was just, you know, getting prepared for this, you know, a little bit too, just looking at some of your recent podcast episodes and you, you do a lot of blending your professional component of life with some of the work that you do personally as well. And I, if I'm, tell me if I'm right or wrong on this, but I've seen, like, hasn't been an ongoing journey for you to blend that self-belief and, and bringing that to your business and or has that always just been there and it comes natural? Like I always believe I've never doubted, and from day one I never look back. Or has there been moments where there's been some adversity where you've had to work through that over the past 12, 15 years?
Speaker 3:I don't think there's ever an entrepreneurial journey without adversity. I think the reason why my childcare clients can relate with me is because I do talk about and share the adversity and , um, the warts behind the beauty . And I'm not ashamed of it. You know, I've endured all sorts of horrible things. I've endured, you know, employees suing me and , um, stealing clients from me and all, all sorts of yucky stuff. That's not pretty. But every entrepreneur, if they're successful, people wanna knock you off your, your mountain, you know, and that's okay. And that comes along. But I, I definitely had periods of self-doubt of darkness for sure. Um, I have had to work hard with my mindset. And so that's why what I teach in the academy, well my , all of my coaches teach is mindset first. Yeah. And get your mind right. And, you know, you gotta look at your stinking thinking and you have to turn around those self , um, limiting thoughts and actions and behaviors and get real with yourself. And that is a huge part of my growth and my journey. And so I love to share it because we're all human and we're all, to some degree going through that every day and being faced with difficult situations, especially in a childcare business. Um, and so it's definitely part of my essence and part of my entrepreneurial , um, journey. Journey.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I like that. You know, I mean, I think it is, it's, it's easy for people who are out front, out in front of people to put on, you know, kind of the message. Like , everything's perfect. Oh, yeah. There's never been any challenges. But I think, you know, the fact that it's obvious when you look at , um, what you do continuing to learn and grow as part of what you do personally as well. Yeah . Which I think translates to your business. I , I ,
Speaker 3:I believe in investing in yourself in mastermind groups. I have done so since the very beginning. I think that's a huge reason. One of the top, if not the top reason for my success is surrounding myself with people that are doing what I'm trying to do and being the not smartest one in the room so that I can learn from others across different industries too, and apply different cool things from different industries is a huge best practice that I bring. And I want my clients to all do everybody in the who's listening to this, like, go out and see what salons, dentists, other service businesses in your local area are doing that are cool, fresh, and that catch your attention and model that, you know. Yeah, that's great. Make it make it your own, but model it. Copy it, but make it your own. But you can, you know, that one technique I've used many, many times and I teach that for sure. But yeah, mindset is everything. So I definitely read and use coaches to keep a positive mindset because , um, if you start thinking negatively about your business, then all is lost.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And having people around you that support you and like having that tribe, I know that's been, you know, a big piece of what you have found to be successful for you and, and you know, your customers, your members as well. Yeah . Um, so upcoming conference this year, it's back in Orlando, is that right? Yeah. Yeah. If , if you, so, all right , so we're gonna get to onboarding, I promise, <laugh> . But if you could go, I think last year was Nashville. You've done Orlando. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , let's just say cost and logistics weren't an issue. If you could pick one destination for your conference anywhere in the world Yeah. That you could bring your participants to. Is there one place that stands out? Like, I'd go there.
Speaker 3:So probably to come to mind because we do also do high-end retreats for our empire clients, which is our highest. So we've taken them now to Hawaii and we've taken them to Cancun and these beautiful, all-inclusives and different, so we kind of have done that . It's a smaller scale, more of an intimate setting. So I love that we're doing that . So those aren't on the list for those reasons . I would have to say for the big event, probably New York City.
Speaker 2:Okay . I
Speaker 3:Would love to do, because we've never taken the show to the Northeast and we've had lots of people, we have lots of clients right now in all the northeast states and the Eastern seaboard, and they've always, they're like, you know, can we do something up in either Boston, New York, Jersey, something , uh, Philly. And so, but New York I love, I love the Big Apple. So that's probably number one. Number two would be London. Um, we have lots of clients over the years. We have one existing client who's got beautiful nurseries in London, and I would love to go and do a , and host an event in London. So
Speaker 2:More to come international version of the childcare success conference maybe in the future. Yeah . Is the, is the challenge with New York City just the cost? I know logistic . Oh yeah . Is it just, it's just so crazy expensive to get It's
Speaker 3:Pretty expensive. It's nuts. Yeah . I mean, we, right now, you know, what we pay for food and beverage and what we pay to put that conference on is, it's a , it's approaching seven figures to do that conference . People are like, oh, that should be easy to do, <laugh> . It ain't easy to do for 1200 people and 50 exhibitors . Um, but to do it in New York might even be double, you know, coffee, like a gallon of coffee is hundred $10 , you know, per, per gallon. So it's like, really? Could I just bring my Mr Coffee and like , do that and save money to, you know, cause it's like , why do we have to inflate, but hotels jack everything up, come in post covid. They were so stressed and almost didn't survive covid that they've, they're basically, you know, trying to recoup all their lost costs by kicking revenue up. So , um, but I would love to do New York. I would absolutely love it. It would be just an amazing, I think, experience and so much energy in that city. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Epic. Maybe Madison Square Garden someday . Maybe we isn't an issue. You just go all out. This is the final Summit Success conference. Maybe it's New York City. All right . So when you, all sorts of topics, even at your conference, you know, you guys have breakout sessions and you have different keynote, in fact, excited . I'll , maybe I'll let you plug keynote speaker at the end of this , um, podcast, because it's exciting conference, I think again, this year. How do you curate the topics that you are going to discuss and focus on at your conferences and in your trainings? I mean, right now we're , I keep saying this, we are gonna get to some of the onboarding and staffing conversation. That's a huge topic that I think everybody's talking about. Yep . Is that how you guys, is it as simple as just listening to your, your constituents and stakeholders and then you content ? Yeah ,
Speaker 3:I mean , there's certain topics that we teach pretty much every time and hiring, onboarding and training and having, you know, great team retention techniques and great leadership. That's something we always teach, whether, but we'll kind of take different cuts at it, different versions, whatever's, you know, in terms of what we do that's new and different. Um, and a lot of the content is fresh and we just, we repackage it with a fresh approach and we put new case studies and new best practices in there. But a lot of it is driven by what our members are doing that's working that's cool and fresh, that's unique and different that no one else is teaching. And so we have eight coaches on the team, and we have, again, with these 300 member organizations, we look and see like, who, so I have one of those today to talk about, actually, with regard to onboarding. It's more of a training tech . You're gonna ask me about technology. So we, we have new technologies that we see our team and our group, our community using, and we wanna bring those to everyone in the industry. And so that's a lot of what frames the content is we're bringing new ideas, what's working now, current strategies, little tips and tricks that will take your effectiveness. I always, one of my quotables is little hinges swing big doors. And if I can bring you three new little hinges that will add six figures to your business, then you've left with value. You know, and that's, that's what we seek to do. So that kind of drives , um, the content.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love it. And then obviously your encouragement and exportation about now do it. You can do , do it believe in yourself. So talk to me about what you're hearing about onboard. I mean, we've talked a lot in recent episodes for us, and we hear this from our clients all the time. You know, identifying and attracting staff is a huge challenge. We're losing really key, you know, talented workers to other industries. Yeah . Covid was a big impact. But in terms of like getting past that, knowing that there's a challenge there, but now you're a provider and you've actually hired new employees. Yes . Like, Hey, I've found good team members that are gonna be a fit for our culture, and I'm bringing 'em in. What are, talk to me about what you're hearing in terms of best practice and what you're , you're best, best clients are doing to make sure that onboarding experiences is successful.
Speaker 3:Sure. So before we get into that, I just wanna frame it with the workforce has changed, and the generational , um, differences of what today's millennial and especially Gen Z workers expect and want in their employment experience in their workplace has completely changed, especially post covid. But even if we had not gone through covid, it would be different because those generations are more savvy. They're mission driven , they expect more, they're tech savvy . They want tech, they want employers who are on the cutting edge of using these tools, and they expect to be onboarded and given professional development and coaching. Hmm . And they want to grow with an organization. They want to be , um, you know, they want people to invest in them, and they wanna be with a top performing organization. It's not good enough anymore. I call it like old school versus new school . Old school was, we just put out our ad and we find people that wanna work for 13 to $15 an hour as a preschool teacher. And what it used to be was even kind of not so great, really, actually not great at all, was the fog, the mirror approach, or the heartbeat approach, which is, I need people to cover ratio, hurry up, hire , can they fog a mirror ? Can they have a heartbeat? Like get 'em in the classroom, boom stat . And that's literally how it used to be for many, many organizations. And some are still doing that, which is a huge no-no. And that's why people, and it turns out to be toxic, because you're not giving them any leadership. You're not giving them any culture development, any core values. You're not sharing your why, you're not sharing your vision. You're , you're just throwing 'em in a classroom, untrained and unsupported. Of course they're gonna leave. Of course, you're gonna have high turnover. You know? So I just think that people , um, in our industry, if you've been in our industry for a long time, you've seen a huge shift. But you, you've gotta change with the times. You , you have to have people and leaders that are willing to do the work to make these shifts in your organization, or you're not gonna , you're not gonna be successful because you have to have happy, trained, onboarded, skilled people in your company to , uh, work with children at the highest level and, and, and then empower them. You know, we can talk all about culture, but you have to, as the owner, let your people rise up and let them make decisions, and they're gonna fail and make bad decisions. And then you just coach them. You know? But you gotta hire people that are coachable and, and then give them all the resources so that they're empowered, they share across the aisle, across the classroom, they're collaborating. Um, and that's today's pre that today's energetic preschool, as you walk in and you feel a buzz of managed chaos, excitement, collaboration, energy, that's positive, happy kids, laughing, you know, that's what you wanna experience when you walk in. So, but there's some schools that don't have that, and that's probably because they , they just, they're not doing these team practices effectively.
Speaker 2:Well, and you bring up a good point. That feeling that you just kind of described, potential employees feel that as well or need to feel that. So I think one of the things I take away from what you just said is if you wanna have successful onboarding, it starts way before you even hire somebody. You have to be prepared with, you know, some of those things that you mentioned, professional development, technology. Is that, is that really, when you look at today's like Gen Z, we , we talk a lot about, because I think Gen Z , you might know the actual ages, but is that the 18 to like 25 year olds? Is that right? No, it's,
Speaker 3:They're a little younger. They're like , um, 15 to, and it's so 15 years. 13 to 28.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Ish. Yeah . Got
Speaker 2:It. So a lot of the, the, the younger employees that our centers are hiring fall into this demographic. And what you're saying is, if, if you haven't invested in tech, if you haven't invested in onboarding tools, and if you're not showing them their ability to grow, you're not gonna be able to attract talented people for your school . Right . Got it. W talk to me about what some of those things are like from your experience. I, I know you're talking about, all right , you gotta have professional development, you gotta do X, Y, and Z for your schools that you see doing this really well and implementing it. What does that look like? Is it actual courses like Chris Murray courses and teaching? Yeah . Is it that type of stuff? Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we're getting more into the training piece. So the onboarding is really the first 90 days and usually ends with a gate , go no-go. So we recommend that you have a trial period for your employee, your new employees get onboarded with a whole process, and they get checked in on a lot and they get given goals for 30, 60, 90. But then after that, you have a training program that in is encompassing of all the different types of things you want them to be trained on. And some of this will happen during onboarding, and then some of it's ongoing professional development, right? So you just have a map of what's like the first year of a new employee's journey. And so having a journey map is actually one of my onboarding , um, strategies I want to share. So we can talk more about that. But the professional development, it needs to be in all aspects. The first part is just the basics of what do we do in the classroom on a daily to ensure , um, that we meet licensing compliance and standards and we have a checklist and here's how you clean and here's how you clean a toilet and here's how you change a diaper. And like, that's like the 1 0 1 stuff, right? And you can do that through an online training portal. There's several in our industry that are offered, they offer training at all different levels of certification, c d A , et cetera , et cetera , et cetera . Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and so that's 1 0 1. Then you would encompass your training with how we, how's our culture, how do we as an organization do things around here? What are our methods and Pacific Pacific policies and you know, our handbook, and we're gonna walk you through the why around why we have these policies and procedures, and this is how we work together as a team. This, you know, so that's more like company culture training. Yep . Um, we at aren't , my company just off just released empowered educator training, which is more mindset and business and parent communication, excellent customer service. It's kind of like business and professional training for teachers. And we just released that so you can get free training from us with that whole piece, which not that many people even have. Um, and so those are like the, the main things, but you need to have this, you know, onboarding is the 30, 60 90. So what do we expect from you in your training checklist in your professional development journey? And then after 90 days, if you're, if you cut the mustard, you're a higher welcome. And if not, it's not a fit. And we're gonna say goodbye and separate, you know, which is Yeah.
Speaker 2:Which is a scary thing. I mean, as people are competing for staff, I mean, I , maybe you can elaborate on this with some of your, your clients, but the idea that it's hard enough to find people, and now I found somebody with a pulse, like you said, or they can fog a mirror <laugh> , it's hard as an owner to say, even though I might see the writing on the wall, like, you're 30 days in and you've called out sick four times already. Right . You're not connecting with my team. And everything in me tells me this isn't a fit. Yep . But I'm scared to cut bait because of how hard it is to find talent. What would you say to somebody who, who is in that 90 day window and their gut, everything is telling 'em this isn't gonna be a fit to make that hard decision?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So would you rather have a separation with this underperforming employee now? Or would you rather hang on to them and have parent complaints, parents leave, or potentially a child get hurt or injured or get a licensing violation? Which would you choose? Drop the mic . I'll choose a <laugh> . Yeah ,
Speaker 2:A absolutely. It's gonna have a bigger impact . The longer you, the bigger impact on your business, the longer you wait to make that decision.
Speaker 3:And here's the real truth of the matter is that people who retain C and D and F players, there's nothing that will make your a and b players , um, unmotivated and unin disengaged and perform lower than they would otherwise by is by keeping those Cs and Ds and E's. So the, the Cs and D's are pulling your As and B's down with them. And so you wanna release those CDN fs as fast as you can, and then keep developing your, keep your As and reward the heck out of them and give them, you know, all the kudos and bonuses and love and hugs and support, and then develop your BS into A's and give them the tools and believe in them and give them the tools to lead them in. Um, and sometimes C'S can step up, but the more toxics and people that you have that are under performers in your school, the , you , you , it's harder and harder and harder to turn your culture around. But, you know, we teach like all the things you need to put in place to get your culture where you want it. And then you'll find hiring is just a lot easier because people are attracted to the energy of great culture. Hmm . So this whole, like, I'm not gonna be able to find this whole scarcity mindset. I can't find any employees that if you continue to tell yourself that every day , guess what? That's what you're gonna want . Yeah . You're just, you're writing your own journey. You have to believe and start having behaviors and practices that you're going to attract employees. You gotta turn that ship around, you know, and you can, and people do it in our, in our academy, very few people have open spots. And the open spots they have are because they're, they're still letting go of those C minus players
Speaker 2:And willing to make those hard decisions to get the right people, build the right culture. Because ultimately the long-term model of building your business into a successful sustainable business is you gotta do those things right? And you might lose a little battle here and there to make sure that the long-term result is, is what you want it to be. You , you mentioned a journey map, and I'm curious about that terminology. I think you referenced it as year one. Yes. Can you describe what you mean by a journey map and how you guys talk about that in your world ? Yeah,
Speaker 3:So I actually got this idea from my great friend Donna Roberts. Donna Thornton Roberts, who's also a veteran ECE trainer. And she was on my podcast, and I forget where we talked about this. She's ,
Speaker 2:She's epic.
Speaker 3:She's amazing love . She's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Love her , love her. Shout out to Donna. And she has developed and showed me an 18 month timeline, professional development timeline that she shares with every single new hire on day one. And, and actually I think you should hire, you should share it should talk about it in your indeed ad that you have, that you should talk about it in the interview as a , because we have to market ourselves. We're selling our business to hires. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know , we have to get out of this , oh , I'm the high and mighty leader and you're lucky if you get to work here. No, we need to be selling our organization to these amazing young people. And , um, the journey is that timeline, this is how I'm gonna invest in you and I'm going to give you $5,000 of training in your first 90 days, and this is what that looks like and how many hours, and this is like the roadmap and or the blueprint. And then after you go through your trial period and we hire you, you're gonna get a bonus , uh, $750 bonus, a thousand dollars bonus, whatever. And then we're going to continue to invest in you because all of our associate teachers get this level of training. And then we would love for you to eventually become a lead teacher mm-hmm . <affirmative> . And then you'll get this level of training. And so the 18 months, it depends on your role in the organization, but this is, this is our roadmap or our blueprint for training and professional development. And you just, and you mark off on the , so they actually get to see a , an actual timeline of the ramp of it and the investment of it. So you're investing in them . Um, and it's not like, well, when you leave, you have to pay me back all the money that I invested in you. You know, that's just, that's setting them up. I , I don't like that mindset is , uh, this is just how we roll. We believe in investing in our people because we wanna be a world-class school of excellence. And then, and then you just set 'em up for success and they go, wow, you know, you want those new fresh people that have those wow moments. Like this place is amazing. Like, I've never had a job like this before. I've had people tell me that, you know, that work come to work for me. Like, ah , I've never had a job like this. This is so amazing. Everybody's so loving and great to work with and there's a great co So that's, those are the kinds of things you wanna develop those things and that , and then your retention's gonna sky skyrocket, you know, and then they'll be luck . You're lucky to work here. You get to make a difference for kids. You get to work in an empowered environment. You get to share, you get professional development, you get great , great benefits. You get your birthday off little extra p t o from , from time to time. Um, so that , that's the picture you wanna paint way early though, to your point is like when you're actually interviewing.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And like you said, maybe even in your job posting, like be as explicit as you possibly can about, we are a company that has thought about our employees, we've thought about professional development, we've thought about your career path and here's how we think about it and here's what you can expect. And I would imagine then it's really important, Chris, during that 18 months or year, whatever that journey map looks like, that you're constantly referencing back to that so that you and your employee have the proper expectations. I think that's one of the things, even in my, in our world, like within the four walls of Pro Cares , we talk about, you know, leading the sales organization expectations are so critical that if they're , even if you think that both parties have the exact same expectation, but it's not clearly defined, you can run into problems that it's like, how did we get off track? And you find this individual that I hired had a different expectation of what could happen than what was possible. Yes . Am I right on that? Like yes . Revisiting it .
Speaker 3:Absolutely. You have to continually manage to it, communicate it, recommunicate it, make sure that the checklist is being utilized. For sure. And that's an accountability piece. Everybody's like, you know, how do we do better accountability? It's just, and, and technology can support you, you know, by it's how l it's a lot to remember. And so having, and we can talk about tech, but having the automation in place that you get a task reminder mm-hmm. <affirmative> that you get a little ping on or you get a text or you get an email reminder is, oh, you're two days late on this step of onboarding. So you can use Asana , you can use train . There's lots of systems out there you can use to manage this stuff with you and for you. But that way you can set it up and not feel like you have to remember everything. Cause it's impossible.
Speaker 2:<laugh> . Yeah, it is . Do you ha do you have any clients? I'll be curious on this answer. I, I think it's gonna be, no, but do you have any clients in your organization that don't use technology? Like I , I mean, we still run into providers and, and you know, business owners that are, you know, doing things on pen and paper. I , I would imagine the majority or maybe all of your clients, is it like a requirement on regardless of what technology it is, you're using some type of system to run your business?
Speaker 3:I mean, it's not a requirement to join academy. We've had people, we've had people join being a home-based childcare and they know they're gonna open their center in six months and they join coaching cuz they want to get all the best practices before they open their doors . Very smart. Um, and so it's not a requirement, but it's now that they're with us, if you've been with us for a year in coaching, I think I can't, I can't think of one member that doesn't have at least the basic, best in class technology, you know, which would be a, you know, pro care software or an operating system that's best in class to collect billing and tuition and do parent check-ins and all that good stuff. Um, and attendance tracking and then a parent communication piece. The app that allows you to reach out to parents automated with all sorts of videos and photos. That's huge. Retention. Yeah. Today's parents expect it . And then a C R M. So having a, all of your enrollment stats in A C R M is a huge, huge game changer. Those are probably the three I would start with. But then there's a bunch more like that . We're talking about a training and onboarding system, different technologies that you can use , um, yeah . To manage that. And I, I'm a huge fan of, of of those as well. I'm a fan of all the tech that you can use that make it easier for you to run your business. But if you get over tech , you know, too much technology is also a problem. Cuz then you're spending all of your time inside of your systems and you forget to focus and look out at your people <laugh> . And so it's definitely a balance. Yeah,
Speaker 2:I agree with that a hundred percent. I mean that same thing equates to like, I I your kids are older, my kids are in their twenties now, but the same thing with kids. There's like a balance. Technology's awesome, but if you overuse it, there's some real drawbacks. And it's the same thing in business. You gotta go get your head up and interact with your people. Okay . And I , and I think you hit on this earlier too, like this group of, of you know, professionals that our industry is hiring now, probably all industries, but they expect their employers to have a certain comfort level and acceptance of technology, right? Like that's like these, these gen Zers. Like if you don't have some of those basics in place, you're probably not, to your point from earlier marketing yourself well to the current, you know , um, workforce.
Speaker 3:Yeah. But if it's a gap for you use those resources, your , your Gen Z employees are going to be able to dive in and help you set up these technologies and applications really, really fast. They usually are extremely smart and speedy when it comes to tech. My daughter included, she's almost 18. And so utilizing them as, you know, give them projects, give them things to do outside the classroom, give them leadership type things to do, give them more and watch them shine. You know? And so that is a huge best practice that I don't know if enough people are really doing is cuz they probably can set these things up in a third of the time that I could. Yeah . Um , so, and then social media, like getting a gen zer to manage your Instagram account and capture really fun video and photos of what's going on in your school and get 'em three times a week to come out of there at nap time . Come out of the classroom and update your Instagram, you know, and maybe they can use Canva to do some templating and some like put some logos on, do some branding on there, make it fun, make it, you know, and like your Instagram will explode and then you'll be like, and that's a great way to also be hiring all the time, is to talk about your branding. One of my coaches is Jamari Tabor , uh, Georgia's best Childcare and that's her brand and she's amazing. She's also refers to herself as the childcare brander. And she's on my team as a coach and she runs her three preschools. So amazingly she's got , uh, a selfie wall. She's got these amazing staff break rooms where people can go in and just like get refreshed and it's all beautiful colors and totally glammed out. And she like, they just, her employees love it. And she uses that stuff on Instagram all the time to attract more employees because you know, they see the employees see like all of these cool things going on, like teacher appreciation week and they all get to go out for a party. And then she brings in all of, she has like these swag bags with all of these glamor products and it's all branded and it's, you know, and that attracts today's female employees like in a hot minute.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's amazing actually. Do you think, does that come like for individuals? I think of all those little things, some of that comes natural to some people and for other people they really have to work at it. But I, I like what you said earlier about hire people and then let them be them. Like yes , hire talented people. It's like if you're not great at social media, if you're not great at building, like grab bags and glam bags, like have somebody on your team that kind of has that inclination and just let them run with it. Yes.
Speaker 3:And they would love it. They would love if you gave 'em a little budget and they get to go off and do that. Are you kidding me? So yeah, I don't do everything. I do very little now on my team. Yeah , yeah. Like I'm running the ship and being the CEO and I'm here if you get stuck and I'm gonna help you develop you as a leader. But the rest of it, like my people are just handling everything, you know, and that's higher talented people and then let them do, let them do, that's a huge Richard Branson thing. Like he's got like 70 different companies, I don't even know how he does it. And he's like, I just look for people that are more talented than me. Like it's not an ego thing, just let 'em do it. Give them the roadmap , give them some training so they know what they're doing. Um, but then let 'em , let 'em go, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 2:I love that. It , that's hard for leaders. Was that hard for you, like getting to a spot? Did you realize that it was happening when you were saying, Hey, I have to let this individual run this if they're better than I am at that? Was that, was that a challenge for you? I know it would be a challenge for a lot of childcare owners. Yeah .
Speaker 3:But how did you challenge ,
Speaker 2:What was yourself taught ? What was your self-talk when you
Speaker 3:Yeah, well it's like when you, especially if you start from nothing like, you know, ground zero, you don't buy an existing business so it's your full tru on baby. Like you literally, you know, you did everything from the very, very beginning. It's harder to let go cuz it's your baby, which is the case for me. So I get it and you worry that people are gonna make mistakes and they're not gonna do it as good as you do it. And that's what most of my , most of my clients, they get into perfectionist syndrome and I, what my mantra is, is that good is good enough and if it's 80% good roll with it. 80, 85% good. That last 15% isn't gonna get you much. You're gonna spend a ton of time in revisions and pain and trying to get it to perfect, perfect, perfect. And that's a big exercise in fee . Just let it go. 85% is good. Get it out there, launch the thing and go to the next thing. You know. Um, so much time is wasted in that last 15% that you could be making money, hiring better people going on vacation, you know, whatever it is . But it , so I would say that would be my advice. But yeah, it took me, I mean it took me a minute. I had to train people and trust people, trust the process, trust that it's gonna be okay and not worry. And it did in 2017, I went from myself and one other coach on the team to a , a team of then three. And then I knew I wanted, in order to change the business and grow and scale, I had to hire more coaches and I had to be comfortable with trusting more coaches to come in even though they, you know, potentially could do me wrong or you know, whatever I had , I had to. So that summer of 2017 is when everything changed for me. I went from being the ceiling of the business, the bottleneck, right. And hired a bunch of coaches and then taught my coaches how to do what I do and then hired more coaches. And now we're at eight coaches. So actually we just hired two more team coaches. We're so, we're technically at 10 coaches now. So , um, it is a shift. You have to shift the way you think and you have to trust and it's hard, you know? Yeah . It's hard if it's your baby, but you gotta do it if you're gonna grow your business, if you just wanna stay where you're at and you're making 400 grand a year and you have a capacity of 45 and you're happy and you don't want anything to change , that's okay . But you're limiting yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's not most people , most people are, even if it's like, hey, I'm not looking to expand or open more schools, but I'm looking to be more strategic or I'm looking to be a little more hands off . Like there is a a point or a process of having to let go and empower the people that you're bringing into your culture, into your organization. Um, I I , you know, we don't wanna cover all the topics cause I know you're also doing a webinar for us here in a couple of days, Chris, but anything else, you know, from your perspective, like if you were talking to the audience around onboarding and the significance in the moment that we're in right now, middle of 2023 and , and knowing the challenges that everybody has , um, anything else you would add to this conversation at this point?
Speaker 3:Hmm . I think my biggest kind of takeaway for what I do in coaching is I help people as owners especially, or executive regional directors, identify the three things that you do in your daily, week or month that drain you . If you can protect your energy, you can drive more energy into the things that are gonna really make a difference for your team and for you. And do the things that as the visionary owner of your business will make a huge difference and be more intentional with what you wanna build. And not letting your business jack you around. You are in control. You gotta read , take the reins again and drive your business to where you can see it in your vision and be intentional about building something beautiful. You can do it, but if you're drained, exhausted, overworked, overwhelmed, as many of the people in our industry are. Yeah . So just start with the, start with the one thing that you're doing that drained you the most. Maybe two, like for me it was managing my email and like booking my travel and uh, doing one-on-ones with my team was a lot of time and a lot of draining. So I basically delegated the one-on-ones to my leadership and got those off my calendar. I hired ave uh , an executive assistant to help me do all these other tasks that, and she's been a life changer . So you can hire part-time help you can afford it because what happens is, is when you stop doing the stuff that drains you, you elevate to start doing more work that lights you up and then the business will naturally grow. Yeah.
Speaker 2:The more ,
Speaker 3:The more work you do that lights you up, the more the business is going to grow . Cause you're gonna attract the energy of people that wanna work with you and that want to enroll their kids with you and then you're just gonna be unstoppable. So that would be my biggest advice. Big picture is, you know, especially if you're drained, exhausted and resenting your business, is we gotta figure out how to get you to fall in love with your business again. And that's what we do in the academy. And , and it's not a one-stop shop , but it is a journey. But um, start with letting go of two or three things that you hate, that drain you and you'll be even amazed at just that one small shift.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that. I think that resonates with me in any line of work for sure. Yeah . And then I think that trickles down. I mean it , that really does, you know, coincide with everything we're talking about. When you onboard and bring people into your organization, that's gonna trickle down and people are then gonna get to spend their time on the things that bring them energy. Cuz you're gonna coach that way and, and then you build this amazing brand. Yeah . And people are gonna wanna be part of it. I love that. Do you , um, alright , so Chris, you're like a podcast extraordinaire. You like being on this side of the podcast better <laugh> or interviewing your guests better.
Speaker 3:You know, I've had a great time on this episode. You have done an excellent job, Ryan , at asking me questions that not that many people have asked me, so kudos to you. It's been really fun to be on the other side of the microphone today. I've loved it. I do love interviewing people. Yeah. Um, so I love both. I am an ex radio dj, so that's why I love podcasting because it takes me back to my DJ days. Let's
Speaker 2:Go what kind , wait, what kind of radio station was that?
Speaker 3:<laugh>. So at a public radio station in Cresta Butte , Colorado. Um, and then prior to that I was a communications major, so I worked at the college radio station , uh, as a board operator. And so my DJing was, I had a, I had a show that was more of a folksy , um, like Indigo Girls style show, and then I had a funk r and b show later. So those are two kinds of music that I love. Um, but yeah, so I love podcasting and thank you so much for letting me be here today. It's been a total blast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been, I i I was looking forward to this episode. You know, obviously people, I mentioned this in the Niro , but people familiar with the industry are gonna recognize your name. Many of our audience have been to your conference or interacted with you. But for those who maybe haven't Chris or wanna find out more about childcare success and your organization and the resources you offer, talk to our audience about how people can find you and then maybe give a plug for your conference. I don't know if it's sold out yet, but I did see who one of the celebrity speakers is. And for people who watch Shark Tank, they might recognize the name . So talk a little bit about how they find you in your conference.
Speaker 3:Yeah , so I'll just say that , um, the conference this year is going to be, I'm a , I mean, we keep saying it's gonna be the best yet, but I, this one, there's a hero theme in this conference. So it's , um, discovering your inner hero and powering up your inner e c e hero. So we have a whole hero theme for this show. It's October 12th to the 14th , uh, in Orlando and you can learn more about it@childcaresuccesssummit.com, childcare success summit.com. Tickets are still available. We're on Early Bird now. We've finished Super Early Bird, which was the lowest price, but now we're an early bird. And so this is our final bogo. So buy one get once, so you get a free guest ticket still , still with the , with the Early Bird. And then that's gonna go away at the end of Early Bird, which is I think July 8th or something. So you have basically, you know, a good two months to buy, to buy your ticket, but it will sell out. So don't wait until the fall because we usually sell out around August 15th or September 1st. Um, our big celebrity keynote is Damon John from Shark Tank. I cannot wait to meet Damon. I'm a huge Shark Tank fan. Yeah. And Damon is a super cool guy. He's run and created a lot of businesses including , um, his FUBU brand and he just wrote a children's book, which was, is called Damon Learns to Earn. So it's whole, it's a children's book all about his early journey as learning about how to be an entrepreneur business person . And I'm so and so all of our academy members will get to do a meet and greet photo with him and get a free copy of his book. Um, I'm gonna hang out with him in the green room, so I'm really excited to meet Damon. So that's that. And, and I've heard he does an incredible 75 minute keynote. So that's what he's gonna do. And then if you're interested in, you can get two free tickets to the conference as well as coaching, as well as all of our resources when you join us in the academy. And you can learn more about that@childcaresuccess.com.
Speaker 2:Love it. So all sorts of ways to find you. I would say all the conferences you can go to, you know, in the industry, you know, been to the, the summit numerous times. It's a great conference, lot of great content and certainly the topics of onboarding and staffing and learning about best practices will be on display there. So , um, I'm sure we'll see a lot of our audience , uh, in Orlando later this year. And Chris, I know you're busy. We really appreciate your time. It was a great conversation. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. I've had a great time and I really appreciate you. I'm a huge ProCare fan and so thanks so much guys for , uh, allowing me to be here today.
Speaker 4:Thank
Speaker 1:You for listening to this episode of the Childcare Business Podcast. To get more insights on ways to succeed in your childcare business, make sure to hit subscribe in your podcast app so you never miss an episode. And if you want even more childcare , business tips, tricks, and strategies, head over to our resource center@procaresoftware.com. Until next time.