Daycare Overhaul: Doing Childcare Better!

This pandemic has allowed child care owners, directors, teachers and staff to shine. Child care is often chaotic, busy, always changing and sometimes full of germs..which is exactly how the past 8 months have been. Child care centers have to not only provide some normalcy for the children when it is so important, but also have adapted to the ongoing changes thrown their way. Our friends at Smartcare, are exactly the same. We have partnered with Smartcare for some time and are always impressed by their passion for the industry and their amazing customer service, not to mention their extensive cloud-based program that helps centers all over run smoothly. And like their child care clients, they have also been forced to adapt and change as the months have progressed. They have created even more digital solutions to adapt to the changing pandemic best practices. Listen in as Lora and Whitney share some solutions Smartcare has implemented to make their platform even more flexible and learn how Smartcare and the industry has tried to be proactive instead of reactive.

Setting expectations and ensuring those expectations are being followed through with is crucial to running a successful child care center. Our guest, Mandy Doy, COO at Daycare Team, joined us today about how she sets expectations for her 12 schools and 200+ teachers. Mandy talks about setting goals, communicating consistent reminders in order to help her staff achieve those goals and letting them know ‘what is in it for them.’ Not only is it important to set clear expectations and encourage follow through, but it is also important to give grace and allow them to understand why sometimes goals are not met. Listen to all that and more in today’s podcast!

ODCAST: 20: Childcare Trailblazer - Meet Sholom Strick We are excited to introduce the next owner in our Childcare Trailblazer series! Meet Sholom Strick. Owner of 12 child care centers under 5 different brands. Sholom is not only a dear friend of ours, but also a visionary and idea generator with endless ideas to transform the child care industry. He shares his favorite low cost, high impact marketing ideas with us...some of which have been very successful through the global pandemic. He also shares how he lives his core values each and every day. Last, but certainly not least...he shares with us, the now infamous story about the time he was shot on Halloween. Hear all that and more on today’s episode.

Advocating for your child care center is very critical, even more so now since the pandemic. Our guest today is one of the biggest advocates we have met and today, she talks about the importance of being an advocate for your center when it comes to make sure those in our legislature can fight for the money that it takes to be able to successfully run your center. Cindy Lehnhoff, Director at NCCA talks about the importance of being an advocate for child care as well as why and how you can make a difference! She talks about the importance of being informed of what is happening, before it happens on a federal level as it pertains to increasing regulations without budgeting enough funds to be able to act on them. 

As they say, “there is no “I” in team, but our guest today would argue…but should there be? Ruth Graczkowski a self-proclaimed professional encourager joins Daycare Overhaul today to talk about that exact thing - Should there be an ‘I’ in team, because there certainly is a ‘m’ & ‘e’. When you are a leader of any organization, it must start with you. Strong team players come from living authentically as individuals. The I and the team are interconnected and one cannot exceed without the other. We walked away with so many great nuggets of information and hope you do too! Be sure to grab a pen and paper for this one!  Ruth dives into all that and more on today’s episode!

Being an owner and/or director at a child care center can be very rewarding; but it can also be incredibly stressful.  Making sure you have good stress resilience and maintain a healthy lifestyle can directly impact your daily life. In today’s episode we are joined by personal trainer, Jennifer Schmit. She talks not only about your physical health, but your overall wellness and things you can do while you are at work to maintain a healthy lifestyle!  Listen now for her best tips and tricks!

We are excited to introduce our Childcare Trailblazer Series! We could think of no better way to kick it off then to have Maria Fitz-Gibbon, owner of Leap Academy Childcare in Wisconsin! Maria is the owner of 2 schools, in the south-central Wisconsin area. Maria believes in developing the whole child and has built and fostered that philosophy at both schools. Her belief in play-based curriculum and her background as a Mental Health Professional, working with children with disabilities put her in a unique and perfect position to create a child care center to help children in a new and different way. Those ideas, coupled with her whole-food nutrition program...where everything that can be made from scratch is, and the ability to get children to eat foods like lentils, kale, quinoa, and her own creation she likes to call Carrot Butter, has opened the doors for children to experience healthy, but very delicious food. Listen in as Maria talks about all that, and more in today’s episode.

Richard Huffman, President & CEO of Celebree Schools joins Caroline & Justina on Daycare Overhaul this week! Richard joins the podcast to talk about the history of Celebree schools and what lead him to open a childcare center. He also goes on to talk about how Celebree and it’s 26 schools have adjusted, innovated and thrived through the pandemic. He also talks about Celebree’s plans going forward and how they plan to continue to navigate the coming months.

Caroline and Justina are so excited to be back for Season 2 of Daycare Overhaul! Listen as they discuss what they have been up to the past few months along with exciting plans for this season of Daycare Overhaul. See if you can hear when a train, alarm, email and thunder also made an appearance (talk about having to pivot)! Take notes as they share ways they have seen the industry and clients pivot through this adversity. In this episode you will hear 7 different ways centers can be innovative through this global pandemic.

Season 1 of Daycare Overhaul is in the books! We had such an amazing first season talking about how to Do Childcare Better. We talked about mental wellness, hiring, branding, marketing basics and more.  We have been working tirelessly to line up amazing guests for Season 2 and we cannot wait to share that with you all soon. In the meantime, listen (and watch) some of the great bloopers from this season!

What comes to mind when you think of the word ‘brand?’ Most people might think...logo, right? Well, we are here to change your mind. Justina, our local branding expert, is going to sit down with you and go step by step through the branding process!

Have you ever felt like you were being held hostage by your teachers or parents and you just wanted to be able to tell them ‘No’?    Having the courage to say ‘No’ can be hard mostly because we can be limited by our own fear of resolving conflict in a negative fashion. There are times as an owner of a child care center, where you can’t compromise. Knowing you have the ability to say no, and should do it, can be a freeing experience.    The goal is to encourage you to feel the power in saying no and not allowing teachers OR parents to walk all over you. Child Care owners are faced with some very hard choices almost daily. It might be something minor like a teacher asking for a day off, to something more major like not allowing a sick child to return until they are well.   Let this week’s episode empower you to say ‘No’ in those situations that often make you feel like you are being held hostage by your staff or parents.

Hiring child care teachers is becoming increasingly hard. It is now more important than ever to not only attract the best, qualified candidates, but to also make sure you are sharing your vision for your child care center and how this potential new employee will fit into that vision. Paint the picture of your vision for them, and make sure you follow through with that vision. Listen today as our guest Heidi Gaugert, Curriculum Director - Leap Academy Childcare, talks about sharing that vision with potential teachers. Not only does she talk about sharing a vision and making sure the new employee is comfortable with that, but she also talks about how she sets them up for success.

You should never stop marketing. It really is that simple. Whether you are full with 500 children on your waitlist, or in desperate need of enrollment...your fundamental marketing strategies should never change. In today’s podcast, listen to 4 areas you should always be focusing on marketing at your child care center - Foundation, Image, People, Community. Each area is discussed further, by talking about what that area entails and how to market to the areas and why. Listen now!

"We are all living through a time of uncertainty. A public health crisis is sweeping the world. Some centers are mandated to close. Others have been deemed essential to the city and asked to stay open. No matter which side you are on, we know the next few weeks and months will be hard, but we will get through this. The current state we are all in is one none of us have been through before, and one we will remember for a long time. As hard as it is to think about, this will not be the only time your child care center will face uncertainty. Are you prepared for a fire or other natural disaster? What happens when the next recession hits? Do you have a plan in place if you are forced to close or are hit with a drastic drop in enrollment because of something out of your control? Listen in as we talk about how to use this time of uncertainty, to plan for times in the future!"

We all know, every person experiences life differently. Their perspectives are unique to the experiences they have. Those working in the child care industry are no different. Whether they are owners, directors, teachers, or support staff, they all have a unique perspective on the industry.  Listen in as Caroline and Justina are joined by Maddie and Nick, both from Child Care Biz Help. Each person has a very distinct and very different perspective when it comes to child care and working at a child care center. Together they answer 10 very different, but very important questions which include: Does pay matter? You tour a center, what is something you see that is a deal breaker? Does online presence matter? Get the answer to those questions, and more in today’s episode! Want our panel of experts to answer your question? Email it to info@daycareoverhaul.com

In the growing age of social media, internet culture and short attention spans, it can be integral to your marketing and family relationships to explore different mediums of communication. Our favorite? Video!  With the help of our local video expert, Maddie, Caroline and Justina take you through the process of integrating video into the marketing of your child care center.  Caroline, Justina and Maddie go into great detail about how to tell your child care story and take you through a step-by-step process of getting your child care center ready for this type of media. Video editing software, to the tools that are needed is also covered. Be sure to take some notes!

Is it possible to have a productive work environment, be at the top of your field AND have fun at the same time? Of course, it is! Recognize the power of cultivating a fun and happy culture at your child care center. Encouraging and embracing fun can turn a bad day around, quickly.  Having fun, laughing and enjoying each day will create and maintain a positive working environment. Learn how to build new relationships with your co-workers, and boost morale among your leadership and staff. Caroline and Justina really just want to have fun, while teaching you to have fun, so enjoy their funny stories and remember to laugh!

When is the last time you took an objective look at your online presence, the outside of your building and how your childcare center looks when you first enter? If you haven’t done this recently, now might be the time.  How your center looks, feels and even smells when potential families or even staff walk in the door, could be the determining factor on whether or not a family or teacher enrolls or accepts a job. Make the most of that first impression in person and online. Listen as Caroline and Justina talk about how to make the most of that first few minutes!

Are you short staffed at your child care center and are your employees feeling the stress because of it? Are your employees feeling a lack of support or resources but aren’t telling you? Are your employees stuck in a rut and stewing in negativity and you don’t know how to change it? Taking the time to reflect on the culture of your child care center can often be overwhelming, but is completely necessary if you want to impact change. How positive or negative your culture is, directly impacts your retention. Listen today as Caroline and Justina tackle these hard topics with an air of calmness and understanding. Sit down as two childcare experts lead you through these deep waters and help form a clear plan towards a solution.

We see it consistently: Being able to find employees to hire is a huge problem in the child care industry…the million-dollar question…how do we overcome the hiring crisis? Our solution: Attract superstars, so you can hire superstars. It sounds like a simple solution, but there is a bit more to it than that. Listen to Caroline and Justina talk about how changes you can make in your center, your hiring and your job postings can impact this problem

Stress in the workplace often affects more than just productivity. The stress often boils over into other aspects of life. In the child care industry, Caroline & Justina believe that that stress is very different from other industries. Being an owner/administrator in child care can often be very lonely, and the stress overwhelming. Listen in as they share their personal and vulnerable stories of stress & their mental health as it relates to child care. Although, not medical professionals, they are child care experts and are able to offer some tips and tricks they used and believe they help to try and combat that stress and strain on the mental wellbeing of those in the industry.

Welcome to Daycare Overhaul - Doing Childcare Better! Sit down with Caroline and Justina as they introduce themselves, their business, and how they want this podcast to impact -you- the listener. Hear the backstory of how Caroline & Justina came to work with each other and how that relationship has brought them where they are today at Child Care Biz Help. Keep listening as they discuss the company, it's core values and how they believe you can set your company up for success.