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Welcome to the childcare business podcast

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brought to you by ProCare solutions.

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This podcast is all about giving childcare

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, preschool daycare after

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school and other early education professionals,

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a fun and upbeat way to learn about strategies

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and inspiration you can use to thrive.

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You'll hear from a variety of childcare

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thought leaders, including educators,

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owners, and industry experts on

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ways to innovate, to meet the needs of the children you

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serve from practical tips for

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managing operations, to uplifting

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stories of transformation and triumph.

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This podcast will be chalk full

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of insights. You can use to fully realize

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the potential of your childcare business.

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Let's jump in

0:53

Today . I'm really excited to have our guest , um,

0:55

and I'm gonna have her you'll know why

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in a second, when I try to pronounce her name, gonna

1:00

have her talk a little bit about the origins of her name,

1:02

and maybe give us a little lesson on how to pronounce

1:05

it. But honey Wilky

1:08

of schools of excellence, and she'll tell

1:10

me how close I was to getting that right. Um

1:12

, is with us today, she's gonna be giving us some tips on

1:14

how to create culture and community

1:16

, uh , in your child , early childhood

1:19

education centers, and specifically how

1:21

to make your employees happy in their careers.

1:23

I think this is a super relevant topic

1:25

based on what we all know is happening in the

1:28

industry right now with staffing and , um

1:30

, retention and, and even recruiting challenges

1:32

for a lot of , uh , childcare professionals.

1:34

So excited to have her here. Um, just by

1:37

way of introduction, Shawn Todd toddlers at the

1:39

acclaimed preschool of the arts in New York city

1:41

for eight years, she went on to earn

1:43

her master's degree. She can

1:45

tell that story, but I read a little bit about it on her

1:47

bio that , uh , I think she did that while pregnant

1:49

with her third child. So , um, adding

1:52

a little degree of difficulty. Uh

1:54

, and then she went on , uh , after that, after

1:57

getting her master's , uh , in 2015,

1:59

she began working with teachers and school leaders on

2:01

how to create excellence in their schools. And

2:04

, uh , I mentioned she , uh , was

2:06

pregnant with her third job. I believe she's a mom of four

2:08

. And , uh, you know , like I said today, she's

2:11

gonna be talking about , uh , how to build culture

2:14

and how to promote a career Latice

2:16

in your school and how to create

2:18

opportunities for everyone on the team so

2:21

that everybody on your team can bring their best foot forward.

2:23

So , um , with that being said, welcome

2:25

to the show, Shawn ,

2:27

Thanks for having me, Ryan. All right

2:29

. I'm gonna take you with me wherever I go

2:31

to have intros <laugh> um,

2:33

so thank you. I'm excited to be here.

2:36

Yeah, yeah. I was, you know, we were talking a little bit before

2:38

we started recording and , um, you

2:40

know, I know this is something that you do. And so

2:42

we'll talk a little bit throughout the show and at the end

2:44

to make sure our audience can find you and

2:46

, um , tap into some of the things

2:48

that you're doing. Uh , you are a podcaster,

2:51

you are a media, you know, expert.

2:54

So I was telling you before we start recording that , uh

2:56

, this will be a lot of fun for me. I

2:58

did wanna ask you if you could give

3:00

a little bit of like instruction on

3:04

your name, pronunciation, and you

3:06

even mentioned that maybe giving a little background

3:09

at the origins of your name might be kind

3:11

of fun. So can I ask like a, how

3:13

do you pronounce it correctly and then talk a little bit

3:15

about, you know, the , um, the

3:17

origins.

3:18

Yeah . So you gotta kind of clear your throat when you're about

3:21

to say my name. So I always

3:23

, uh , tell people that that's kind of the way to do it.

3:25

So it's ha um, it's

3:28

actually , uh , H is actually the nickname

3:31

of my original , like the, the origin

3:34

of my name is actually HANA . Um

3:36

, and I was named after. Um,

3:39

great, great, great, great grandma. Um,

3:41

I come from a very long lineage of

3:44

Hasidic rabbis and leaders, and so

3:46

it's actually the first one in my family to graduate , um,

3:49

from college first one to start a business.

3:52

Um, so this is just a very kind of

3:54

new trajectory in my family. Um,

3:57

faith and family are my top values. And

3:59

so , um, even

4:01

though I'm kind of like on a little bit of a different

4:03

course , um, my faith in my family

4:05

still are very much anchored in every decision that

4:08

I make, both in the business per personally,

4:10

professionally. Um , faith is a company

4:12

value. We make sure to honor any

4:14

person's faith. We have a huge collective

4:16

group of people and clients that we work with from

4:19

all different faith, all different backgrounds , um,

4:22

every race it's just, it's been a

4:24

wild ride to be able to serve

4:26

such a diverse , uh , group

4:28

of leaders who are really binded

4:31

together by their pursuit of excellence,

4:33

more than anything else.

4:35

Yeah, that's amazing. So when you, when

4:38

you were growing up then just, I , you obviously

4:40

wanna spend most of our time talking about the work

4:42

that you're doing now, but growing up when

4:44

you're saying first one from your family to

4:46

graduate from college and to maybe take

4:49

a , a non-traditional route, like

4:51

what, like, as an expectation growing up in

4:54

it with faith being such a big part of your

4:56

upbringing and your family, like what

4:58

would generally be the expectations for

5:01

a female growing up in your home to

5:03

continue in , in the , um,

5:06

yeah, maybe that's just a , a question. Like

5:08

what would , when growing up, what was the expectation

5:10

of what your adult life would look like?

5:13

So I think a lot of the expectation was around

5:15

, um, the, I

5:17

guess, stereotypical mom role

5:19

where she's home she's with the family.

5:21

Maybe she has a part-time gig as a teacher

5:23

, um, you know, community

5:26

service work working alongside

5:28

the rabbi in the community , um, which is

5:30

so beautiful. Like I'm so grateful for all the people

5:33

that do this important work , um, of

5:35

service, of taking care of their community, of their

5:37

tribe. Um, and so

5:39

I , I've done so many different episodes on so many

5:41

different podcasts where people have interviewed , um

5:44

, me on just what

5:47

role reversal looks like. Um,

5:49

when you're looking at a traditional, you

5:51

know, faith-based family where there's

5:54

role reversal, right on the breadwinner in the family, and

5:56

just how, how just all the dynamics

5:59

are associated with that. So if you're interested in that side

6:01

of my story, there's a lot of different episodes that I've

6:03

done. Um , and other people shows, and maybe I

6:05

should do one on my show , um, on just

6:07

on everything that comes along with that, because

6:10

it's, it's , it's a big part of my story.

6:12

Interesting. And so growing up was this, did

6:15

you know, like when you were younger

6:17

that getting into education and

6:19

having a , a love for teaching

6:22

and education was something that definitely

6:25

you were passionate about. So what was your path

6:27

then out of like maybe school to

6:29

start pursuing what you're doing now?

6:32

Yeah, so I always knew that education was gonna be

6:34

a big part of my upbringing , um, because it's so

6:36

much part of the legacy. You know, I

6:38

, I often talk about legacy is understanding

6:40

our history so we could create our future, right?

6:42

It's understanding where do you come from? What's

6:44

your origin then understanding what is, you

6:47

know, your own legacy that you wanna create. And so

6:49

much of my history and our

6:51

family story is about the pursuit

6:54

of religious freedom and education of, of

6:56

having the opportunity to be able to choose

6:59

what makes sense for you. What are your values? Where do

7:01

you wanna show up? Right. So we work exclusively with

7:03

private schools , um, all types

7:05

of private schools, but exclusively with private schools

7:07

, um, who just have a little bit

7:09

more freedom and Liberty around what

7:11

they get to do and how they structure their, their

7:14

education, their curriculum. So I also

7:16

grew up in a large family. I'm one of eight children. Um,

7:18

I have hundreds of first cousins and that's

7:20

not an exaggeration actually hundreds of first

7:23

cousins. Um, and it's, it's

7:25

when you grow up in such a large family, family,

7:28

and education, and children become a huge

7:30

part of just so

7:32

much of your filter of the world, right? And

7:34

so, you know, so many times I have a lot of employees

7:36

in my own company and , um, friends of

7:38

mine, they've had so many different career

7:41

tracks in their life. I've always been in

7:43

the field of education. And sometimes I look

7:45

at it as like, oh, you know, I've never explored other other

7:48

areas, but this is my story. Like

7:50

I've always been in the field of education. I've

7:52

never stepped out of it. Um, from

7:55

when I got out of high school, I've always had

7:57

jobs in the field of early childhood. So

7:59

this is, this has really been my path,

8:01

Always your one colleague . So going

8:04

back to like early days for you, what were

8:06

there, people in your life that like identified

8:08

that in you and , and called that out

8:10

of you? Like, oh , oh , wow. You know , honey , you

8:13

really have this gift. And you remember

8:15

people like speaking that into your life, or was

8:17

this just you recognizing

8:19

in yourself , this is what makes me feel alive . This

8:22

is what I'm passionate about . This is where I'm heading . <affirmative>

8:27

There wasn't anyone like specifically that

8:29

was like, oh, you should go for this. Or, or anything

8:31

like that. There was, I feel like so

8:33

much of what I've created,

8:35

what I've been blessed to create has really come

8:37

from a combination of like, you

8:40

know, pushing myself for what I want. And, and

8:42

, you know, I'm, again, I'm a person of faith. And

8:44

so God's blessings coming inside of me and just helping

8:46

me, you know, take that step forward. Um,

8:51

I worked alongside teachers, always. So

8:53

even as I, you know, worked through

8:55

my career from a teacher to,

8:57

you know, lead teacher, executive director manager

9:00

and operating the center , um, I

9:02

was always looking for, how do I make this better?

9:04

How do I make this more seamless? How do I

9:07

help this person feel happier with herself?

9:09

How do I help this parent understand that I really

9:11

care about their child? Um, and I

9:13

documented so much of those experiences. Um

9:16

, and that's so much of what we teach now, right. Is so much of

9:18

the trial and error that I did in my early career. Um,

9:21

but we're constantly evolving and creating new

9:23

ideas and new content and new strategy, but

9:26

I'm always looking for the root of it, right? I am, I

9:28

always say, I'm not a tactics person. Um

9:30

, my husband and I just finished a parenting course that we

9:32

took together and it's the

9:34

first actual parenting course that we've ever taken. And

9:36

the reason for that is, is because I have never seen

9:39

a course where it was never

9:41

about tactics, right? This course that we just finished

9:43

was all about understanding the

9:45

why, understanding what's really going on, understanding

9:48

the root, understanding your motives. Why

9:50

are you showing up how to be an intentional parent? Like,

9:53

that's what I want. Um, I

9:55

believe every person is smart enough to figure out

9:57

all the tactics on their own. Um,

10:00

we need to understand our own internal motivations

10:02

and why we're doing what we're doing and

10:04

then everything else falls into place.

10:06

Yeah . I saw , I saw on , you know , some

10:09

of the, the information I was, you know,

10:11

studying up, researching a little bit about this conversation

10:14

and, and, you know , I think one of the things

10:16

that I saw that stood out to me that

10:18

you talk about is like, you know, going into a

10:20

school for the first time, you know, you go in and,

10:23

and , and schools talk about like, Hey, we have a good

10:25

sense of what we think our problems are

10:27

or where our challenges are. I

10:29

know you talk about, oftentimes that's not, doesn't

10:32

turn out to be what people think, but you, you

10:34

talk about, which is a really bold

10:36

statement. Hey, within 10 minutes of meeting

10:38

with you, I can identify your

10:40

school's underlying issue. Ha I'm

10:42

curious, how do you do that? Like, what is that first 10

10:45

minute conversation or intro or analysis

10:47

look like when you're working with the new school?

10:51

Yeah. So I , it , it , it's interesting. I'm

10:53

gonna course correct that, that

10:55

statement cuz it's twofold. Right? So when

10:57

I come into a center within the first 10

10:59

minutes, I can tell you which teachers came on time

11:01

and which ones didn't. Um, so that's what I

11:04

could do in a couple of seconds, right? Like this one came

11:06

in late, this one's still figuring themselves out this one's

11:08

on their phone. This one's distracted. This one forgot

11:10

to eat breakfast. This one really needs a bathroom break. Um,

11:13

because we don't realize our bodies

11:15

are constantly communicating what

11:18

is actually going on inside of us. Right. You

11:20

know, like with the little kid they're dancing and they're like, okay,

11:22

go to the bathroom. Right. So teachers

11:25

communicate through their body language. Like

11:27

I need a break. I'm overwhelmed. This is too much.

11:29

This is right. Their faces. Tell the story,

11:31

their bodies tell their story. Um,

11:33

so that's what I mean when like I come in and I can kind

11:36

of really quickly see what's going on. When

11:38

I get on the phone with a client , um, what

11:40

I'm looking for is their level of self

11:43

leadership. First, I'm looking to understand

11:45

their level of self-awareness their level

11:47

of self leadership. So I'm

11:50

, I'm determining the quality of their question. So

11:52

if they're asking me constantly, how do I get

11:54

this person to do this? How do I get them to do this? How

11:56

do I do this? How , and everything's about

11:58

the other person, this

12:00

person is struggling with identifying

12:03

that they stand at the

12:05

root of what goes on in their center, right? Their

12:07

self leadership is what matters. Um,

12:10

whereas when I have someone who's like, Hey, you

12:12

know, I wanna know how I could be a better leader. How can

12:14

I show up better? What can I do better? Now

12:16

we're talking right now. I can have a conversation

12:18

with you. Um, because I have

12:21

zero control over you. And especially

12:23

I have zero control over your staff. Um, you

12:26

are the only person who's in charge of yourself. So

12:29

if you believe that all the problems

12:31

live outside of you, you can't make progress.

12:35

That's amazing. So, so let , let

12:37

me unpack that a little bit and

12:39

maybe walk through in terms of

12:42

your role and your work with school. So I , you

12:44

know, I , I think for our audience, what would be really helpful

12:46

is to, is to take the model that

12:48

you follow and , and how you work with

12:50

schools to improve operations

12:53

and , and to support them. So as a

12:55

coach and for your, your

12:57

, you know , schools of excellence, walk me through,

12:59

like, if I'm a childcare owner or I'm

13:01

an administrator, it sounds like you work with a lot of private

13:04

schools as well. So does that go into

13:06

like K through 12 ? Is it strictly,

13:08

We do have some clients who are owners of

13:11

K12. OK . Um , it's, it's less

13:13

like our , the , the vast majority of our

13:15

clients are childcare or

13:17

have like a kindergarten, first grade, maybe.

13:20

Okay . Mm-hmm <affirmative> . And so, so talk about like, if I'm,

13:22

if I'm the owner of , you know,

13:24

a preschool and so somehow

13:27

I hear about you I've been referred to you, or

13:29

I find some content, but like walk me

13:31

through what that first conversation is and how you

13:33

would talk with me as a potential

13:36

customer about the value that you provide

13:38

or the services you provide.

13:39

So the first thing I always look at is your calendar,

13:41

because your calendar tells the story of

13:44

all the priorities that you have in your life, right?

13:47

Always tell people, you know, you wanna know what your values

13:49

are, look at your bank account and your calendar , um,

13:52

because where you spend your time and

13:54

money, which are two time

13:56

is your only non-renewable resource, but

13:59

then also money because, you know, just the way the

14:01

world operates is, is , does revolve around

14:03

money. When I understand how

14:05

you spend your money and how you spend your

14:07

time. Now, I understand what your values are

14:10

and what your priorities are. Hmm

14:12

. So I don't look at people's

14:14

bank accounts. When they work with me first, I look at their calendars.

14:17

So the first thing we look at is we need to understand

14:20

where are you committed right now? What

14:22

did you say yes to already? Because

14:25

for 99.9% of the clients who

14:27

come to me, they are over committed . They

14:29

are committed to too many projects,

14:32

too many things , uh , too many responsibilities,

14:35

there's just too much going on. And they have this

14:38

belief that they're

14:41

using their time really well. There just isn't enough time

14:43

in the day, which when you have that belief,

14:45

what that tells me is you don't know how to prioritize,

14:48

right? You're not because you don't have infinite

14:50

time. Right. Um, so that's

14:52

the first thing we do is we understand, okay, where

14:55

are you spending your time? And then we look at,

14:57

well, what are your goals? Right? So if your goals

14:59

are to, you know, acquire this next location,

15:01

or your goals are to go through an

15:03

acquisition or your goals are to exit, or your goals

15:06

is to expand and build new

15:08

property, or your goals is to maintain the

15:10

number of students. You have, whatever your goal is, no

15:13

judgment on your goal. Your goal is your goal. Some my goal

15:15

I'm the coach. My job is to help provide

15:17

a container and an , uh , a , um, a

15:20

space for you to recognize what

15:22

is your next step? What do you actually need to do?

15:25

And help you remove the mindset blocks that

15:27

are stopping you from getting there. So once

15:29

you've identified the goal, now we look at, okay, does your

15:31

calendar align with your goal? 100%

15:34

of the time? It doesn't right. So

15:36

these are your goals, but your calendar, isn't

15:39

going to get you to where you want to go. So

15:41

now we need to go ahead.

15:43

I'm sorry . I didn't mean to interrupt you, but it , is there anything that

15:45

comes to mind, like as an example of that, when

15:47

you , when you have a customer that says, Hey, look,

15:49

this is my goal. And you reviewing the

15:51

calendar with them. Can you give an example of like sure

15:54

, something on your calendar that doesn't align with

15:56

your goal?

15:56

Yeah. So I , I had a client in 2018

15:58

who joined us and , uh , she,

16:01

you know, told me that her goal was to build, she

16:03

had one location at the time and she wanted to have three locations.

16:07

So I said, great, great goal. Right? So

16:09

we look at her calendar and her calendar is

16:11

50% of her time. She was still teaching in

16:13

the classroom mm-hmm <affirmative> . So she was the

16:15

owner and she was also in the classroom. And I said,

16:17

my love, if you wanna build three

16:20

locations, you gotta get yourself out of the classroom.

16:22

Within the next 60 days, you have to

16:24

replace yourself . You have to hire a teacher and

16:26

you have to get out of that classroom. So

16:28

that's one example, right? Another example is,

16:30

you know, and she owns four locations by the way. Now

16:33

, um, another example is,

16:35

you know, someone said that they want to , um,

16:37

they wanted to enroll 30 more children. So

16:40

they had, I don't know , 90 kids or whatever it is . They

16:42

wanted like 120 kids. Um,

16:44

but what she was doing in her

16:47

activity every day was she

16:49

was going into the classrooms and she was

16:51

spending time with teachers and schmoozing and talking,

16:53

and then, you know, spending two hours at

16:55

the carpool line in the morning or whatever it is . And I'm

16:57

like, Hey, if this is your goal,

17:00

guess what you have to do. Your ear has to

17:02

be glued to a phone. And you've got to be doing calls with

17:04

parents and tours. Um, and

17:07

within 30 days she enroll 30 kids. Literally

17:09

it was 30 days. Right? So,

17:12

so many times when you look at our goal and we're

17:14

like, oh , I can never achieve that. And it's like, no, no, no. You

17:16

need to understand where you're spending your time. And

17:20

then you can hit your goals.

17:22

Yeah. That's amazing. And so then you go through,

17:25

you're looking at calendars, you're talking about

17:27

what their goals, it sounds like that's one of the mm-hmm

17:29

, <affirmative> the starting points for all of the customers

17:31

you work. Yeah . Cause am , am I right to like,

17:33

this is a generalization, but if I'm a childcare

17:36

owner, I'm coming to you. Cuz I say, I

17:38

, I just wanna keep pronouncing your name too, by the

17:40

way, honey . Yeah . Um , I , I hope I'm

17:42

getting a little closer.

17:43

You are , you are , you're getting better. You're getting better, Ryan. You're

17:45

Good guys . I'm gonna keep practicing. Um , so

17:47

I would come to you and I would say, you know, I , I , I

17:49

, I've got your name from a colleague or

17:52

a peer who, you know, said that you did amazing

17:54

things for their school. And, and here's what

17:56

I'm struggling with. I'm trying to do these

17:58

things and I keep hitting , uh , uh

18:00

, a wall or there's too many hurdles.

18:03

And so they come to you just saying, Hey, can you support

18:05

me and assist me with, with trying to resolve

18:07

this? Is that, is that a fair, like analysis

18:10

of how that starts?

18:11

We have two types of people that come to us. We have some

18:14

people that are coming. Cause they're really struggling with retention

18:16

with staff, with, with

18:18

, um , culture, with just, there's

18:20

just so much going on. Right? And then we have

18:23

another group of people who they've

18:25

achieved a certain level of success. They're

18:27

doing well. They know, you know how to

18:29

market , they know how to enroll. They know how to get people in the

18:32

door . They're good. Um, but they're

18:34

looking for a higher level conversation. They're

18:36

looking for a better peer group. They're looking for

18:38

how to make things a little bit easier,

18:40

more streamlined , um, have

18:42

more systems and operations. And they're looking for

18:45

a network, right? They feel lonely. They feel like

18:47

they're isolated. And so they're looking for a

18:49

network. So those are really the two types of people

18:51

that will come to us.

18:53

Okay .

18:53

I always tell people, I don't help people with marketing. So,

18:55

you know, if you're struggling with , uh , filling

18:58

your spots, I'm not that person.

19:00

Right. Um, cuz I don't teach marketing.

19:02

I will teach you how to organize your calendar , um

19:04

, which will help with your marketing. Um , but

19:06

we don't teach marketing strategy.

19:08

Got it. Yeah. Not the specific tactical

19:11

piece of SEO and

19:13

you know , all the market . Got it. And

19:15

then , so let's talk specifically about, and

19:17

, and I , I say this on so many of our episodes, I

19:20

, it feels like around staffing

19:22

and , and challenges that schools and

19:25

providers are having in the current, you

19:27

know , environment we're in , uh , how,

19:30

talk to me a little bit about your

19:32

role, your focus on career pathing

19:35

and how you've seen that influence staff

19:37

retention, those types of things. I think that's a , a topic

19:40

you spend a lot of time, you know, discussing.

19:42

Yeah. Before I go into a career path, I wanna

19:44

talk about something else . Um , about

19:47

staffing , there are two , there

19:49

there's a lot, but I would say there's two

19:52

mindset shifts that leaders

19:54

need to make that dramatically

19:57

impact your staffing crisis. One

20:00

is a reset of expectation. The

20:02

expectation that we have of

20:05

staff coming in, or staff performing

20:07

or staff doing, what they're supposed to do

20:09

is not only ridiculously high. It's

20:12

not, it's not humanly

20:14

normal. It's just not your ex

20:16

. Like I talk to directors and , and

20:18

she's like, this teacher's struggling. I'm like how many

20:20

days has she been on the job? So she's

20:22

like, she's been here for a month. I'm like, okay. So, but

20:25

there was also Thanksgiving and this, so she's

20:27

worked for like seven days total in the last month.

20:29

Okay, great. The last time I checked

20:31

when I did something for seven days, I wasn't an

20:33

expert yet. <laugh> um, I was

20:36

barely mediocre. Right? So

20:38

there's, there's a lack of an awareness

20:41

of the learning curve of the

20:44

journey. Right? Um

20:46

, Malcolm GA um , Gladwell has a great quote.

20:48

He says, mastery is 10,000

20:50

hours. Mm-hmm <affirmative> develop

20:52

mastery in something takes 10,000

20:55

hours. If you take an average, teacher's Workday.

20:57

If she's working 40 hours a week or 35

20:59

hours a week, that is six years,

21:03

six years of working

21:05

to develop mastery. So yeah, the person

21:07

who's listening to this episode has more

21:10

than six years after about multiple decades.

21:13

Right? And then you have a new teacher who's coming in. Who's

21:15

21 years old. She has

21:18

no experience, no exposure to

21:20

children, no understanding of developmentally

21:22

appropriate practice. She has

21:24

a passion. She has a love, she wants to be with kids.

21:27

Do you understand her learning curve? Like

21:30

sh her nervous system, like she

21:32

hears three kids crying and she's like, oh my God, what

21:34

do I do next? Like she doesn't , she's not even familiar

21:36

with the sound of children crying or the

21:39

fact that it's normal for kids to cry when they

21:41

separate from their parents or it's normal for

21:44

kids to not walk in a straight line all

21:46

the time. You know? And it's normal for kids

21:48

to miss the garbage can or miss the toilet

21:50

bowl. Like they, there's

21:53

all of these little things that

21:55

teachers are completely unaware of. And

21:57

they get super frustrated themselves

21:59

where they're like, oh my God, there's toilet paper on

22:02

the floor. Yeah. You teach two year olds. There's gonna be

22:04

toilet paper on the floor. You know? And

22:06

then the owner gets upset. She's like the

22:08

classrooms are rep . I'm like, yeah, there's

22:10

18 two year olds in that classroom. It

22:12

is not a museum it's lived in.

22:15

Like we have to redo

22:17

our expectations because when

22:20

I hear leaders tell me things like, well, I just high the

22:22

expectation. I'm like, no, you don't, you're a perfectionist. You

22:24

don't have high expectations. You're a perfectionist.

22:26

And you are putting your perfectionism on

22:28

the people. So stop don't

22:31

do that.

22:32

Don't do that. That's number one.

22:34

Yeah. Check yourself and ask yourself

22:36

is what I'm asking appropriate

22:40

for this person. Cuz

22:42

here's the other thing that owners and directors get stuck on?

22:45

Well, everything has to be fair. Everything has to be equal.

22:47

Every needs to be treated the same. No they don't. The

22:49

veteran teacher knows how to do this. So

22:52

then you don't give her as much grace when

22:54

she makes a mistake. Right? Because

22:56

no, no, no. You , you know this versus

22:59

the new teacher. Right? I don't treat all

23:01

my kids the same. My 10 year old knows

23:03

it's not okay to do certain things. My

23:05

four year old is still learning. Right. Could

23:08

you imagine if I responded the same way

23:10

to each of them , that's not parenting.

23:14

So do you start, you know , um

23:16

, when you meet with a new owner all

23:18

the time, those two things that you just mentioned, like you've

23:21

gotta lower your expectations and you

23:23

have

23:23

To , and they're not lower. You need to make your expectations

23:25

developmentally appropriate. I

23:28

don't wanna , I don't wanna say lower because I

23:30

want you to have high standards. I want you to have

23:32

high values. I want you to believe

23:34

in the pursuit of excellence and I want

23:36

you to do it without chaos and

23:38

crisis and stress. And the way to

23:41

do that is just constantly manage

23:43

expectation. Right? So

23:45

that's the first thing

23:47

I like that clarification. Yeah. We're not lowering

23:49

expectations. We're setting a really high

23:52

standard, but we're using the right progression

23:54

to get there and then measuring our

23:56

staff based on where they are in that journey. And,

23:59

and to your point, the second thing .

24:00

Yeah. Yeah . Sorry, sorry. Sorry. Go ahead.

24:02

No, that's what I was gonna say. And the second thing is,

24:04

is what,

24:05

The second thing is the hardest, because

24:08

no one wants to do this. And , and,

24:10

and what no one wants to do is take

24:12

care of themselves. They

24:15

want to constantly take care of other

24:17

people, right? Let me give you what you need.

24:19

Let me take care of you. Let me jump in and you

24:21

know, run that shift for you. Let me give by

24:23

you lunch. Let me give you the day off.

24:26

And what they don't understand is when

24:28

you learn how to take care of yourself and

24:30

understand that the only person you're in control

24:32

of is you. The only

24:35

person you're in control of is you, you

24:37

cannot manipulate exploit, control,

24:40

exploit any of your staff . I

24:42

mean you could, but they they'll leave. Um,

24:45

you can only control yourself. And

24:48

so you need to understand what

24:50

are the activities that center you, that

24:53

ground you, that take care of

24:55

you. So when you come into the building, you

24:58

are centered, you have confidence,

25:01

you have precision of decision making . You're

25:04

clear on what you need to focus on today.

25:06

You know, when to tell a teacher, I'm gonna

25:09

get back to you. I wanna think about that

25:11

for 24 hours versus another teacher. You

25:13

know what? Come into my office right now, let's work

25:15

through that. You have what

25:17

it takes to practice discernment. And

25:20

the way to do that is you have to be

25:22

aware of what grounds you and

25:24

so many leaders don't do the little things

25:26

that ground them every day , cuz they're like I'm in survival

25:29

mode. I can't do it. No, no, no. The way you

25:31

get into survival mode is by forgetting what grounds

25:33

you, you have to do that

25:36

In your experience as you talk, cuz I

25:38

listened to you kind of share that

25:40

second point and it you're obviously passionate

25:42

about it . So am I right to assume? Is that a pretty

25:45

common yes. Issue.

25:47

If that's the right term that you see when you first

25:50

talk with owners is that's always

25:52

something that's on the table. You're not

25:55

prioritizing taking care of yourself.

25:58

It's always on the table because the owner starts,

26:00

you know, with hustle and grit and all those things

26:02

and actually build a center. But if you

26:04

wanna sustain the center, you have to be able

26:07

to ground yourself. Because when you hit a

26:09

higher level, you , the quality of

26:11

your decision making is going to determine the

26:13

quality of success in your center. The

26:15

qu the , your , your center's success

26:17

is not determined if you plunge that toilet that

26:20

day, or if you gave little Sammy a kiss, it

26:22

doesn't, the quality of your center

26:24

is determined by your decision making

26:26

. And you cannot make clear

26:28

discerning decisions. If you did not take

26:31

care of yourself. Um, and we don't

26:33

take care of ourselves, cuz we feel guilty and , and , and all

26:35

the stuff that I coach on, right? But

26:38

I had a conversation this morning with a client and

26:40

she's like, well, I didn't do all these things. And

26:42

then I said, but why she's like, cuz there are

26:44

enhancements. Like I don't, I don't feel like I have

26:47

to do them. I'm like, no, no, no. There's

26:49

enhancements like getting a monthly massage

26:51

as part of your wellness routine, having

26:53

someone cook your dinner, getting a

26:55

cleaning lady, you know, a few times a week, those

26:58

are enhancements. And then there's

27:00

grounded. Centerness meditation,

27:04

yoga, prayer. If you know, if

27:06

, if , if that's part of it, exercise,

27:08

eating, healthy, drinking, water, sleeping.

27:11

If you are not doing those things, those

27:14

are not enhancements. Those are

27:16

regular centered activities. You

27:18

must do every day . If you're

27:20

gonna play at this level

27:22

As a BA as a baseline.

27:23

But if you wanna play at this level, you

27:26

gotta operate at this level.

27:28

And this level, just for those who don't see

27:30

this, that's a high level. She's , it's

27:32

A high level ,

27:33

A high level. So thanks . Here's a question

27:35

for you when you're talking with , with somebody and

27:37

you say, Hey, look, you've gotta find the things

27:39

in your life. That ground you, that center you,

27:42

that bring life out of you. Yeah . You

27:44

know , when I hear somebody say that, I

27:46

, I think like how does somebody find that?

27:48

Like, is, are there some techniques

27:50

that you found, like if somebody were to say like, Hey,

27:52

that sounds awesome. I would love to

27:54

find the things that really are my,

27:57

my center, my grounding. How

27:59

did somebody identify that? Like what should they look for?

28:02

Is there an exercise that they could do to

28:04

identify those things?

28:06

So I'm gonna tell you a story.

28:07

Love it. I love stories.

28:10

I just put on my big event in , um , March,

28:12

so about, you know, almost three months ago . And

28:15

um, so our annual event for owners and directors

28:18

and one of the ways that I prepare when I take

28:21

the stage for big events is I

28:23

work a lot on my breathing technique. Why?

28:26

Because when you're standing on stage for those who are

28:28

listening, that have been on stages , the

28:30

sensory stimuli of the lights of

28:33

the cameras, of the AV of

28:35

just all of the sensory stimuli that's coming

28:37

on to you really impairs

28:39

your functioning in your brain, cuz

28:41

it's a constant stimuli. And then if

28:44

you also have to entertain, your

28:46

brain is constantly fighting against what's going

28:48

on. Like you have to member , remember what you wanna say, but

28:50

you have these bright lights coming at you, you have people looking

28:52

at you. And so the way to constantly

28:54

keep your brain at peak performance is to

28:57

make sure you're pausing and taking a breath, literally

29:01

taking a breath and it brings oxygen back

29:03

to your brain. Okay. So

29:05

I was talking to a client of mine who was at the event and

29:07

she said, I noticed that every once

29:10

in a while you would take this big breath and

29:13

then you would like continue speaking.

29:15

But there was always like, you always make sure to take

29:17

this breath. And she's like, I , I really love that. And

29:19

I started incorporating that into my day and

29:22

whenever I feel overwhelmed, I would take this breath.

29:25

And then after the pause, I

29:27

would have this clarity of like, okay, now I

29:29

need to do this and I don't

29:31

need to do this. And

29:34

she was talking about just how it impacted her life.

29:36

Like she started working from home now twice a week,

29:39

instead of coming into the center, she works from

29:41

home now twice a week from the breath, the

29:43

pause. Okay. So

29:45

for those of you that are listening and I'm like, how do

29:47

I find out what grounds me? You find

29:50

it in the space, in

29:52

the quiet, you need

29:54

to turn off notifications. You

29:57

need to sit quietly with yourself.

29:59

You need space. And

30:01

that is where it comes to you.

30:03

It's inside of you. We

30:05

are so busy running around chasing

30:08

our own tails. We don't

30:10

even have space to listen when our body says,

30:13

sit, drink, rest,

30:16

go outside. Right. Our body is

30:18

telling us, but we don't hear it.

30:20

Yeah. I , I like that. And, and what,

30:22

what you're saying from a coaching standpoint, find

30:26

that it starts with you. You

30:29

have to be, you know, however you define

30:31

that the best version of yourself and

30:33

find what brings life out

30:35

of you so that you can then lead

30:38

your team. Transition

30:40

that for me. So once you've kind of laid that

30:42

foundation with an owner or all

30:45

right , it starts with you only

30:47

, you can only control the things that you

30:49

can control and you get that baseline.

30:53

Then as you transition into like, all right , let's

30:55

tackle this challenge of staffing.

30:58

Mm-hmm , <affirmative> like talk about some practical things

31:00

that you're doing with your customers right now around

31:03

that topic, if you could.

31:04

Yeah, absolutely. So again, it depends

31:07

on where you are in the journey, but let's, let's say you're

31:09

in the beginning of the journey. Um, the first

31:11

things that we're working on when it comes to staffing is

31:13

something that I call the gratitude beat tricks . So

31:16

I have a whole episode on this, on our podcast as well.

31:18

It's episode three on the schools of excellence podcast. And

31:21

gratitude is the foundation of building

31:23

great cultures because fundamentally

31:26

we have human needs, right? We want to be, feel

31:28

seen, heard Des um, um,

31:31

noticed we wanna be missed. We

31:33

like when I wasn't here, did anyone notice that I wasn't here

31:35

even, you know? Um , and

31:38

so how do we build that into

31:40

our teams? The first step is

31:42

teachers need to know that you

31:44

care about them, that you see their hard work.

31:47

And so the gratitude matrix is about understanding

31:49

that every teacher needs one

31:52

touchpoint of gratitude per month

31:54

and that's at the bare minimum. Um,

31:56

and by gratitude, I do not mean buying them book

31:59

classes and gift cards. I mean actually

32:01

telling them whether that's a handwritten

32:04

card or a voice message, and

32:06

we have a whole system of how to do this. We have someone

32:08

who has 50 teachers that does this. So

32:10

anyone who's listening to us like, oh, that that would be

32:12

great if you have, you know, a small school . No, no, no , no. She

32:15

has 50 teachers and she does this every month

32:17

with all her staff. Why? Because

32:20

it's a priority of how she uses

32:22

her time. She understands

32:25

that when I do this, all

32:27

of these other things fall into place. Right.

32:30

Um, so that's the first thing when it

32:32

comes to staffing is , is gratitude. Because

32:34

when staff feel seen and heard, they

32:36

will step, they will step up

32:39

in a way that you never thought possible.

32:41

Right? So that's the first thing,

32:44

but let's say you're doing gratitude, right? Cause we have

32:46

a lot of clients who've been with us for four or five years at

32:48

this point. Right. And they're doing it consistently.

32:51

The next thing that we're looking at is one-on-one

32:53

meetings consistently

32:55

running one-on-ones and one-on-s

32:58

are not performance reviews. They're not curriculum

33:00

meetings. They are not check-ins.

33:02

One on ones are connecting with

33:05

your teacher and asking her, what

33:07

did you do for self-care in the last 24 hours? Where

33:11

are you going for the holiday break? Tell

33:14

me how your mom is doing. I know the last time we spoke,

33:16

she wasn't, well, your

33:18

brother's wedding's coming up. What are you wearing?

33:21

Can you tell me about that? Right? How's

33:23

your son doing? Right. I

33:25

know you moved recently. How is that settling

33:28

in? Right. You're talking to them now

33:30

people are listening. I'm like, oh, I do this all the time. I'm

33:33

like, no , no , no , no. This

33:35

is not a hallway conversation of

33:37

like, Hey, so you're wearing that black gown. Great,

33:40

gorgeous . No, no, no. This is not a fly by conversation.

33:42

This is not a conversation that we do in the ladies' room. When

33:45

we're washing our hands after the bathroom, this is

33:47

not a conversation that we do at the coffee. You

33:49

know, at the coffee bar, in , in the teacher's lounge, this

33:51

is a conversation that's eye to eye , toes

33:54

to toes in the office, just

33:56

you and her, all browsers closed

33:59

door is closed. Notifications are

34:01

off, you get 20 minutes of me that

34:05

builds intimacy connection.

34:08

And that is where you build the emotional bank

34:10

account where when you need

34:12

to hold people accountable and you need to

34:14

tell 'em things like, Hey, I need you to work on

34:16

your circle time, right? Or the way that

34:18

you spoke to that parent was not aligned with our

34:20

values. I'd love to role play with you. Another way to

34:23

approach that conversation. Right now

34:25

you've built emotional currency where

34:27

she's like, yeah, Ryan

34:30

really does like me. He really does care

34:32

about me. I really do wanna do this for

34:34

him.

34:35

And then you can hold to that level of

34:38

standard that you're talking about earlier . Exactly . But

34:40

it starts with, if I replay

34:42

what you said, it can't go in reverse.

34:45

You , you can't set everything

34:47

up around , uh , this is what you gotta

34:49

do. And this is what , how you need to perform. And

34:51

then as a byproduct, I'm gonna try to get to

34:53

know you because that people

34:55

see through that, you gotta carry well,

34:57

It's manipulation, that's manipulation. That's,

34:59

that's the definition of manipulation. And, and here's the thing

35:01

also is that people are listening to this saying

35:03

they're like, but I don't have time to do all of that cuz I still need them

35:05

to perform. And when, when people say

35:07

that to me, I'm always like, I understand it

35:10

means you're overcommitted. If you

35:12

don't have the time to pause

35:15

and slow down and have these

35:17

conversations, you're doing too

35:19

much, you have to stop. You

35:21

need to slow down. Um, and

35:24

people are terrified about I'm gonna lose money.

35:26

I'm gonna lose a run the numbers.

35:29

You're not gonna lose money. You're not gonna

35:31

make as much profit or as much

35:34

whatever. Okay . At what cost , right.

35:37

You're gonna continue to run this thing until when.

35:40

Right? Like we have to understand, you have

35:42

to pause. You have to say no

35:44

to the temptation of whatever else is out

35:46

there for six months, 12 months,

35:50

and then go out there. You'll come back

35:52

for it. But you have to have the discipline

35:54

to say, not now, now

35:56

I need to do this.

35:58

Yeah. And , and then from your experience, that

36:00

component that you're talking about in terms

36:02

of, you know, building culture

36:05

and recruiting other team members

36:08

and retaining your talent , uh

36:10

, all of those things become a byproduct like

36:12

that. That success story happens

36:15

from prioritizing

36:17

connection with your staff. Like, I mean, I , I know

36:19

I'm oversimplifying it, but no,

36:21

You're, it's not, it's not an oversimplification.

36:23

It's more about most

36:25

people don't have the patience to see it all the way through. And

36:28

so they do it for three months and that they're not getting

36:30

results. So they stop. And

36:33

if you think about generational

36:36

wealth, financial freedom, real

36:38

fitness wellness, any

36:41

like really hard goal

36:43

to achieve it, doesn't get achieved

36:45

in three months, six months, 12 months, a

36:47

person who really lost a significant

36:49

amount of weight and kept it off . That

36:52

was years of work of

36:54

mindset, work of deep work of, of

36:57

discipline, of changing, who

36:59

they are as a person, right?

37:01

Someone who builds generational wealth that no longer

37:04

is in debt ever again is

37:06

fundamentally a different human being. And

37:09

so we don't have the patience.

37:11

We don't have the discipline to stick with it.

37:14

We want the result faster. And,

37:17

and this is one of my things. When I tell people on the phone before

37:19

they work with me, I'm like, I will not give you instant

37:22

results. You're gonna see

37:24

quick wins when you work with me in the beginning, because I'm

37:26

gonna help you organize your calendar. And you're , you're gonna automatically

37:29

see a ripple effect. But the

37:32

real work takes

37:34

months. This is, this is a

37:36

process because the

37:38

person who enters my program is not the person

37:40

who leaves the program. It's a completely different human

37:42

being. They make decisions differently. They

37:45

think about different things. They have different

37:47

values. They show up to conversations

37:49

differently . They make different decisions. Their marriages

37:52

are different at the end. Their relationship with

37:54

their children are different. They are a different person. If

37:57

you wanna be a different person, a better version

38:00

of yourself, then this is amazing. But if you're

38:02

looking for tactics, they're free, you

38:04

don't have to pay for it. Tactics

38:06

are free becoming a new

38:08

person. You have to do the work

38:11

And the tactics will follow in . In , in

38:13

your relationship with your clients, it starts

38:16

there. How , how do you set that up with your

38:18

clients outta curiosity? We we've talked with different

38:20

coaches and consultants and experts

38:22

around, you know, their business model and

38:24

their approach. But I'm curious for you. Yeah

38:26

. When you start working with a client, do

38:29

you actually lay out like, Hey, a , a

38:31

timeline and what benchmarks we're looking for? How

38:34

do we measure sure . The success

38:36

of this relationship. And then you mentioned

38:38

when they finish your course, it

38:40

, but it also sounds like you have ongoing relationship

38:43

as well .

38:43

Yeah . People since 2017 , who's, who've

38:45

been working with us.

38:47

Got it. And so it's both. So it's both like, Hey,

38:49

I , I, you know , you really help me out. And I feel like

38:51

there was a lot of value and I'm gonna now take

38:53

that and go kind of , you know, carry

38:55

on. And then there's what does that

38:57

look like? How do you know when the

39:00

work is done? Or is that just something you work

39:02

on with your clients together?

39:04

Yeah, that's such a great question. So we have benchmarks,

39:07

meaning we say the first 60 days, your goal is to get

39:09

your calendar in order and to understand how to start prioritizing

39:12

within your first 90 days, your goal is

39:14

to start creating your gratitude matrix and get consistent

39:16

about it. So that you've laid the foundation

39:18

for gratitude. Within the first four months,

39:20

we want you to build a better communication system

39:23

with your administrative team. So we have multiple different

39:25

frameworks that we help them work through how

39:28

to actually build better communication between

39:30

the administrative team to just loose

39:32

ends, follow through task completion. All

39:34

of those little things we teach you how to follow

39:37

through with that by the six month mark, we

39:39

want you to understand how to do performance reviews, one

39:41

on ones, classroom observations, just the infrastructure

39:44

to raise the quality of care. Um,

39:47

then we start working on parent relationships. So

39:49

we have like a whole , um, roadmap

39:52

, if you will, of what we take clients through through

39:54

the first 12 months. Um, but

39:56

the way that we really determine like, you know, who is

39:58

ready to move on, who's not, it's a really

40:00

very much client base . So the client decides,

40:03

you know, I have decided I've gone

40:05

as far as I wanna go with you. And then,

40:07

you know, we part ways, whereas other

40:09

people are like, I wanna go deeper. I wanna go a lever,

40:12

you know, a layer deeper. I wanna go further. The

40:14

other reason why people stay in just the

40:17

way that we've built our infrastructure is we're built

40:19

around community. So

40:21

people we're training, coaching, and community.

40:23

So we have training, we do coaching

40:26

and then we have communities . So we partner people

40:28

together with people in similar seasons

40:30

of life, similar stages of business , um,

40:32

similar goals. And we do multiple

40:35

different exercises and challenges to

40:37

help people find community.

40:40

Um, we know that it's lone only at the top. You

40:42

know, we understand the worst punishment

40:45

is solitary confinement. And yet every

40:47

school leader voluntarily says, I'm

40:50

gonna sign up for some solitary confinement for the rest of

40:52

my life, right? Like I'm gonna do this all alone.

40:55

And the antithesis to being lonely

40:57

is being in community is finding belonging.

41:00

And so that's a big part of what we've created in

41:02

our, in schools of excellence. If you ask

41:04

anyone, like, they'll tell you the people, the

41:06

community, like I've made friends

41:08

there, lifelong friends.

41:10

Yeah. That's amazing. I actually was

41:13

listening to, I don't know how recent it was,

41:15

but it was some content that you put out

41:17

talking about loneliness and, and how you were saying

41:19

like the medical community has

41:22

actually identified that loneliness

41:24

as is as detrimental

41:27

to your health as like smoking

41:29

15 cigarettes a day, I think was the

41:32

statistic you said , so it's , it's not just like,

41:34

Hey, it doesn't feel good. It , it

41:37

actually has a physical, emotional,

41:39

psychological toll on an individual.

41:42

Yeah. We, I mean, I see it in a membership. I

41:44

see the people who stay isolated,

41:46

right. Even though they come in, they choose to stay

41:48

isolated. They, we , we encourage it

41:50

so much to get connected, but some people just

41:52

don't do it. They do not get

41:55

results. Hmm .

41:57

Interesting. They ,

41:58

They make some incremental progress,

42:00

but the quantum leaps, like the, the

42:03

people that just like completely

42:06

transform are the people who make relationships

42:09

and it's not by accident. Right. Because

42:11

when you're in community and you

42:13

don't feel alone, your confidence

42:16

in yourself skyrockets, so

42:18

you tackle risks in a totally different

42:21

way. You believe in yourself in a different

42:23

way. So when opportunity comes that you're like,

42:26

I got this as opposed to when you're

42:28

all alone, you're like, I don't know . Can I do it? Can

42:30

I not ? Can I do it? Can I not?

42:31

Yeah. And I

42:32

Do realize the impact of that realize

42:35

how that impacts us.

42:36

Yeah. That's really that resonates with me

42:39

because I also, you know, I know you're a

42:41

big advocate of like doing hard things. Like,

42:43

you know, something that feels hard to

42:45

you or difficult. I talk with my team about

42:47

this all the time as well. I think the difference between

42:49

being good and great in a role

42:52

oftentimes is individuals who identify what

42:54

those hard things are and learn how to lean into

42:56

it . I think human nature is you shy

42:59

away and you try to find reasons not to do them

43:01

or ways around them. But when you

43:03

find somebody who's like, Hey, that's actually a really difficult

43:05

part of the job or a really difficult thing

43:08

for me to do for my personality. But

43:11

I also know that that's what I have to do

43:13

to get to the next level or to grow

43:15

like when , so for those individuals that struggle

43:18

with connection and community, it

43:20

might be like, Hey, that's hard for you. But if

43:22

you lean into it, the fruit of that is

43:24

gonna be, you know, so huge and

43:27

profound. So that's a really good segue .

43:29

I'll just add one more thing there. It's not, you

43:31

know, the person who's listening , like, okay , so I'll lean

43:33

into it. Here's, here's what it is. If

43:39

you can expand your capacity to

43:42

tolerate discomfort at

43:45

the root of that, right? Like at

43:47

the root of all, the reasons why we don't do hard things,

43:49

right? Why don't I call the friend? Why don't

43:52

I reach out to the person? Why don't I go to the

43:54

gym? Why don't I not eat the cheesecake

43:56

or whatever? I don't wanna tolerate the discomfort. The

43:58

pain is too great. Right? I'm very , I'm

44:00

gonna be ashamed. I'm gonna be whatever it is. Right.

44:02

All the emotions. If

44:04

you can learn to train yourself,

44:07

to tolerate discomfort for

44:09

longer periods of time, this

44:13

is like this golden key that unlocks

44:15

where it's like, okay, I'm gonna be a little bit uncomfortable,

44:17

but I'm gonna have made the call. Right. I'm

44:20

gonna be a little bit uncomfortable, but I

44:23

may , I , you know, I did the outreach I did . And

44:25

, and we, we don't

44:27

know how to tolerate that discomfort. We immediately

44:29

numb it. Take cigarette, take the wine,

44:32

take the phone, take whatever . Right . All the vices,

44:34

right? No, no, numb it right away. I don't wanna

44:36

feel discomfort. I don't wanna feel pain if

44:38

you can tolerate it for

44:40

longer. Gosh, like

44:42

you just opened up the gates of freedom for

44:45

yourself because you are

44:47

going to pursue things that people will

44:49

never touch.

44:52

Yeah. Don't just go up to

44:54

the line and retrieve when it's uncomfortable.

44:56

Yeah . But yeah. And , and I think that's actually what you

44:58

said is really interesting. It's not like you have to go

45:01

run a marathon the day you start running.

45:03

It's like little by little, just go a little further

45:06

and tolerate a little bit more. And

45:08

if I heard you right . That mindset

45:11

and that willingness to endure just

45:14

a little bit more unlocks, so

45:16

much potential that people have. So that that's a

45:18

really good segue. Cause I also wanna be really

45:21

respectful of your time. You've given us, you

45:23

know, 50 minutes of your time. And I know you mentioned

45:25

you had a hard stop, but I would like

45:27

to give our audience , um, you

45:29

know, an opportunity to , to , to find

45:31

you, if people wanted to reach out or tap

45:34

into what you guys do , uh , at

45:36

, at your organization at your company. So can you share

45:38

a little bit about if somebody

45:40

listening to this episode wanted

45:42

to reach out or learn more about the

45:44

work you do? How , how can our audience find

45:46

you?

45:47

Sure. Thanks so much, Ryan. Yeah. So there's

45:49

a number of different ways, depending on what

45:52

you know, you're , you're considering. So if you're

45:55

look , if you listen to that episode and you're like, I want more content

45:57

like this, I wanna hear more of what

45:59

Connie has to say on , on these topics. We have our

46:01

podcast, the schools of excellence podcasts

46:03

, um, where I do basically

46:06

all of the episodes. We've had very few guests. I do

46:08

mostly the content on my own. Um,

46:11

right now we are doing , um,

46:14

an entire series on you're not the only one. And

46:16

so we have a special series where we've interviewed , um

46:19

, multiple owners and leaders sharing

46:21

their personal stories so that

46:23

when you listen, you understand, you're

46:25

not the only one. Um, so that's a super exciting

46:27

series that we are excited to launch. We

46:29

have some other series there on ordinary moments.

46:33

Um, so just really great content where you

46:35

can learn and understand you're

46:37

not the only one and you will figure this

46:39

out and you're gonna be okay. So that's the

46:41

first thing from a content perspective. If you're looking

46:43

for you wanna get connected with schools

46:45

of excellence, you wanna work with our organization. Um,

46:48

you could go to h.me/join

46:50

the DIC. We'll give that , that link inside

46:52

the show notes. And that gives you all the information

46:55

on our schools of excellence coaching program, our

46:57

directors in our circle, our owner HQ program, where

47:00

we work with directors and owners. Um,

47:03

and this is for the person who's like, yes,

47:05

I need training. I want coaching. I want community.

47:08

I really, really want to be

47:10

connected. Um, and I want

47:12

someone to help guide me to shorten my learning

47:14

curve so that I can enjoy the process. So

47:17

I can be part of this and not feel like every

47:19

day is like, oh my gosh, like,

47:22

can I make it through today? Yes, you, can

47:24

you have that inside of you? So I would say

47:26

those are the two places that I would send , uh , your

47:28

listeners.

47:29

Excellent. And, and look, this has been for

47:32

me a lot of fun because the

47:34

first time we've met was like 30 seconds before

47:36

we started recording and really

47:38

enjoyed learning more about you. And

47:41

, um, so honey was , was Ky

47:44

was Chansky

47:45

Ky .

47:45

Yeah . And she'll , um, you know, I

47:48

would encourage the audience, like people who heard

47:50

anything on the show, even if it's giving feedback

47:52

or, or relaying something that was helpful. Like

47:55

it's always nice when we

47:57

have a guest that can receive, you know, commentary

48:00

or feedback about how their content was helpful,

48:02

but reach out to, to , uh,

48:05

you know, honey as well, if you are interested

48:07

in what they do. And then maybe at

48:09

some point in the future, we'll get a , a round two with

48:11

you, cuz it's been a lot of fun.

48:13

I would absolutely love to do that. I've been on a lot

48:15

of podcast, Ron , you're a brilliant interviewer. I

48:17

really enjoyed this conversation. Um , so I

48:19

would absolutely love to do a part two at some point and

48:22

we could dig more into some other , um , topics

48:24

and we spent a lot of time on the history and things like

48:26

that, but um , happy to come back to chat

48:28

about anything. So thank you. Thanks for having me.

48:31

Absolutely. I will look forward to it and

48:33

everybody have a wonderful day.

48:35

Thank you for listening to this episode

48:37

of the childcare business podcast, to

48:40

get more insights on ways to succeed in

48:42

your childcare business, make sure to

48:44

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48:46

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48:48

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48:51

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48:55

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