Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Entrepreneurship in Early Childhood Education: Ashley Du's Inspiring Journey | Childcare Series

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Entrepreneurship in Early Childhood Education: Ashley Du's Inspiring Journey | Childcare Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories, where leaders
• 0:07
  share their experiences so we can learn from their successes,
• 0:10
  how they've overcome adversity, and explore current challenges
• 0:13
  they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
• 0:18
  the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their
• 0:21
  experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
• 0:25
  by how they've overcome adversity.
• 0:27
  My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and today's guest is Ashley Du,
• 0:31
  founder and CEO of Meaningful Beginnings Daycare.
• 0:34
  In 2013, she opened a daycare in her home and has since grown it
• 0:39
  into two large centers in San Francisco, Meaningful Beginnings
• 0:42
  was recognized as SF Gates Best daycare and early childhood
• 0:46
  Education Center. Ashley is a first generation
• 0:49
  American and serial entrepreneur who has used her commercial real
• 0:53
  estate experience to identify prime locations for her daycare
• 0:56
  centers. She also consults aspiring
• 0:59
  daycare owners and opening and growing their businesses and
• 1:02
  they are now looking at the possibility of franchising their
• 1:05
  operations. But before we get into all that
• 1:08
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  To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at
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  Add Back benefitsagency.com. Now back to our guest today, the
• 1:39
  CEO and founder of Meaningful Beginnings Daycare.
• 1:41
  Ashley, I appreciate you making the time to Share your story
• 1:44
  today. Thanks, Anthony.
• 1:47
  Thank you so much for having me here today and I am super
• 1:50
  excited for our conversation. All right, let's hop in.
• 1:53
  So, Ashley, tell me about the inspiration for first starting
• 1:56
  your daycare, in your home no less.
• 2:00
  This goes back to 2013 when I was pregnant with my first
• 2:05
  daughter and I was looking for child care options for her.
• 2:09
  At that time, there were no real good high quality daycares.
• 2:13
  There was either on the one end where you had the older grandmas
• 2:19
  in their homes taking care of children and it was more like a
• 2:22
  babysitting type of thing versus daycare.
• 2:25
  On the other hand, you had something that was big, like the
• 2:27
  big bar Horizon then, you know, the publicly traded daycares.
• 2:31
  And so that was where I make a decision like, OK, do I pay a
• 2:35
  lot of money to go to daycare or do I go to a lower quality
• 2:38
  daycare and pay a little less? So there wasn't really no middle
• 2:42
  ground. So I decided to drop out of
• 2:44
  college and take care of my daughter.
• 2:47
  So luckily at that time, our tenant moved out of the our
• 2:51
  house, the downstairs area. So I went on Craigslist and
• 2:55
  bought a list of toys and things for a daycare, painted the rooms
• 2:59
  different colors, and then I went off and opened my own home
• 3:03
  daycare. And so how did you get your
• 3:05
  first client, your first student, your first child?
• 3:09
  So for the first six months, it was that I had nobody.
• 3:12
  It was just super quiet. I posted on Craigslist.
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  And at that time, Craigslist was a big thing.
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  And so I have families coming for tours, but nobody signed up.
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  And I think it was because I was young.
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  I was only 20 years old and I didn't really know too much
• 3:27
  about business. And here I am like asking
• 3:29
  someone to give me their their prize possession.
• 3:31
  Like, OK, I'll take care of your child for you.
• 3:33
  Even though I have my own. At the time, I think it was just
• 3:36
  a confidence issue. And so for six months I had
• 3:40
  nobody, but I just kept going and kept going.
• 3:42
  And then finally a family, they decided to give me a shot.
• 3:45
  And from that point on, once I got my first, my first family
• 3:49
  signed up, everybody signed up afterwards and then we got busy
• 3:51
  and we had a weight loss and it just kept going.
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  So it was definitely a mentality, confidence type of
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  thing. It was going to be my question,
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  do you think it was a confidence issue on your side or do you
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  think that once you had that first one, that proof of concept
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  that everybody else who came in was like, oh, it must be all
• 4:08
  right if somebody else has already vetted her?
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  Yeah, I think it starts off with the confidence, right, All it
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  starts with you first and then the fact that the proof of
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  concept was proven, then everybody else came.
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  And so six months, Nobody. You're given lots of tours in
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  between. That's that's frustrating.
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  Like, how did you kind of push through that?
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  What told you to keep going rather than throw in the towel?
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  Like this is never going to work.
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  Well, I think it's because I already put in so much of my
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  time again, I painted each room a different color.
• 4:41
  I went on Craigslist, found used toys and old toys and, you know,
• 4:46
  things that just work for sale. And I, I drove like far like
• 4:50
  hours just to pick up like a Playhouse.
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  And every day I was working on it little by little and I was
• 4:55
  just working on the back and, and the front end and the
• 4:57
  advertising, the logo. And because I put in so much
• 4:59
  time, I just knew like, OK, this half this has to work, you know?
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  And then I knew that there was a market for it at that time,
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  because again, myself, I was looking for a good childcare
• 5:11
  center, right? So what, where else would I go
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  besides my own since I've trusted myself.
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  So a lot of it was because I've already put in so much time with
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  so much effort. I was already like deep into it.
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  And, and the fact that I knew that there's definitely a
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  market. And also I believe in myself
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  ultimately. Hi, and so how long had you been
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  running it in your own home before you decided to open up a
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  standalone center? How long?
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  I will say it was about 3-4 years and was when I decided I
• 5:40
  want to open a commercial center.
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  At that time, my kids were so young.
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  So it was that it was kind of like a bit out of the ballpark.
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  But at the same time, I'm like, OK, you know what?
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  If I want to grow, I have to do it now, despite the fact that my
• 5:53
  children were so young. And so I got into real estate at
• 5:57
  that time just to make some extra income because the math
• 5:59
  that we're bringing at that time was good.
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  But it was not enough for me to open a commercial center.
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  It was a lot of capital required.
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  So I got into real estate and all the money that I made into
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  real estate, I poured into my first commercial center.
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  And that was in 2019 when it was officially opened.
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  But when I first started looking at 20/17/2018, So that was 3-4
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  years after I've opened my downstairs home, downstairs
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  daycare and I had to go through two rounds of construction.
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  I knew nothing about commercial real estate.
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  I didn't know anything about lease negotiations.
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  I signed the lease and I started paying rent pretty much like two
• 6:34
  months into it. Whereas now I've learned like,
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  OK, I could negotiate free rent while I'm going through the
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  build up process while I'm building, I could ask for 10
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  improvements. I don't have to pay for
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  everything myself. And I didn't know these things.
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  So I I made a lot of mistakes and in the beginning when
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  opening my first commercial center.
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  And who was it that sort of taught you about those things
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  after on afterwards? Myself, I think actually going
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  through it myself, I learned a lot.
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  And then after going into being in residential real estate for a
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  little bit, I jumped into commercial real estate and I
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  learned a lot just transacting my own deals and from that
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  point. And also I negotiated a lot for
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  our clients, right? And so after all that had
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  happened, then I realized like what I had done wrong and why
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  I'm in this position now. Well, during that time, why I
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  was in that position and why because, OK, let me go back a
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  little bit. Like, you know, it cost, it was
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  so expensive, much more than I expected it to be.
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  I was expecting it to only be low 6 figures and it being high
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  six figures because of the fact that we could go through two
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  rounds of construction and wasn't just that it was a time
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  there was so many things that went wrong.
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  And I think it's it's a mix such as things that happen slowly
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  throughout my life like going into commercial real estate,
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  then meeting all these clients and helping people negotiate.
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  Then that really taught me like, OK, this is now I know what to
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  do for myself moving forward and how to negotiate and how to get
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  the best bills. So it's just timing and luck.
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  And you were able to fund all of this development from your real
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  estate business? Yes.
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  That's impressive. And what you mentioned that you
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  had two different rounds of construction, why two?
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  What is that? What happened there?
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  Again, it's because I'm a start up right at that time and I
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  really didn't know much and I was trying to save monies
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  because I was bootstrapping. It wasn't like I raised money
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  and you know, I had unlimited amount of capital.
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  And so instead of hiring, hiring an architect to go to the
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  building department to help me with getting our permits and
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  things like that, I try to do it myself.
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  So I went down to the city and talked to the fire to building.
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  And then one person will tell me one thing, another person tell
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  me another. And every time they told me to
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  do something, I would do it. And every time when I went back,
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  there was a different person, they'll tell me something else.
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  And so from that experience, I've learned that, OK, I can't
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  cut corners. I think it's better to just
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  leave the experts, let the experts do things that they know
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  because then it'll save you a lot more time and money in the
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  long run. And so how long did it take you
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  to fill up that first center when it finally opened?
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  About 2 1/2 years and it was right during, it was during
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  COVID when all this happened. So I opened the center in 2019
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  and in 2020 happened and we had to close for three months.
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  And I'm like, OK, what are we going to do?
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  We just started wrapping up. We started with five kids.
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  We're licensed for 50 kids over there.
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  And so at that point, I think we're only at like 20.
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  We're barely even at 50% capacity.
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  So we're just working even if even and COVID happens and we're
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  like, OK, what are we going to do now?
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  You know, thank God they have the PvP.
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  So that did help a little bit. We didn't get a lot though,
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  because again, we just opened 2019 so we'd have a long track
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  record. But because we were in the sweet
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  spot, we were not super big and we were not super small.
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  We were in the middle where we were.
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  The 11% of daycares actually survived.
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  Most daycares closed because if they were too small, they didn't
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  have enough children to support their overhead.
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  And if they were too big, they lost too many, many children
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  where they also were not able to support their overhead.
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  So because we're in this middle ground, we were we're at the
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  sweet spot and we were able to keep running.
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  And then everybody that closed, their parents and their families
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  and those children and then coming to us.
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  So we ended up getting super busy during COVID.
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  Wait, did you just say 11% of the daycares survived, 89%
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  closed permanently? Is that what you're saying?
• 10:34
  Yeah, that's an almost impossible number to believe.
• 10:38
  Wow. Yeah, I mean that's.
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  A decimation if ever I've heard of one, to for an an entire
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  industry. And and was that in your area?
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  Was that the state of California?
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  Where? Where does that stat come from?
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  Yeah, that was in the Bay Area. Yeah, I have to double check,
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  but I remember it was 11% that survived.
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  That was it. I mean, and then I did.
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  Go ahead and. We're talking about not just
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  commercial centers, like even the small in home family
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  daycares, a lot of these small family daycares closed and a
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  decent amount of commercial centers also closed.
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  So the silver lining to the the tragedy that was COVID is that a
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  lot of these centers closed. And because you were able to
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  weather the storm, there were a lot of parents who were looking
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  for a place to take their kids. Your doors were open.
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  And so at what point during COVID did you see sort of this
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  big influx? Was it later in 2020?
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  Was it the next year? Yeah, It was later in 2020 and
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  ongoing. The good thing about us is that
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  we also provide a lot of our clients there.
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  They were essential workers. So there were doctors, nurses in
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  the medical industry and the health industry.
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  And so because we served primarily those type of
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  demographics, then we got to stay open, whereas a lot of the
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  other daycares, because they weren't serving that
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  demographic, they weren't allowed to stay open.
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  That was another thing, OK. Interesting.
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  And so then at what point did you have the confidence to say
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  this is going well, let's open a second center?
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  After 2021 when we saw our numbers, we had a huge profit
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  margin and because of that we were able to open our second
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  location and we saw the demand there.
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  And my first location was primarily infinite taller, so we
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  didn't have preschoolers. So a lot of the families that
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  came and stayed with us, they asked us like, if we could open
• 12:33
  preschool so that, you know, they can stay with the company.
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  And so the opportunity was there.
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  And also the other thing was that because of COVID, a lot of
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  the landlords were willing to work with us.
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  So I was able to get good negotiation deals, and it was
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  just a good time. Even right now, it's still a
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  good time. I mean, as you know, commercial
• 12:50
  real estate is not doing well right now.
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  So it's the perfect time to negotiate deals.
• 12:54
  Yeah. And so you open the second
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  center and the second center has preschool in it, Is that right?
• 13:01
  Infant taller and preschool now and how?
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  Is the preschool kind of playing out for you now that state of
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  California has introduced state sponsored preschool, for lack of
• 13:11
  a better phrase? So this is where I've learned
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  that I can't always just create something for what my clients
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  want. I actually have to do my own
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  research and understand the market well enough.
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  So when we open the preschool, we thought, OK, all of the
• 13:26
  families that are currently in our care that have been taller,
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  they will definitely go into preschool.
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  That's what we were expecting. Now that's open.
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  We're like, OK, that's not the case.
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  We see that they're going for other options, right, like the
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  state funded options. And you know, there's like the
• 13:39
  universal pre-K for all now and and then there's also other
• 13:44
  options like language immersions and all these other different
• 13:47
  things. And now we can't compete with
• 13:49
  that. So the preschool side is a site
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  that is not doing the best, I would say.
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  And so moving forward, I don't know if I'm going to continue
• 13:57
  growing the preschool side because going back a little bit,
• 14:00
  the second location we have more preschool capacity than we do
• 14:03
  infant and taller. OK.
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  So moving forward what I will do is have a smaller preschool and
• 14:09
  have a larger infant taller side.
• 14:11
  And looking at your website, I see that there's what, 3 low new
• 14:15
  locations that are in process. Is that right?
• 14:18
  Yes, that's correct. And where will the locations be
• 14:21
  for each of these? And what's the age focus?
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  Is it that preschool toddler age range?
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  Now we're looking into South San Francisco, Burlingame and the
• 14:32
  East Bay. So San Ramon and Walnut Creek,
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  those are the areas that we've been looking into and they will,
• 14:37
  they will encompass infant, taller and preschool.
• 14:40
  You're still going to introduce preschool into each of those new
• 14:43
  locations We. Have to, yeah, yeah, it's that
• 14:45
  that, yeah. That's one of those things where
• 14:47
  we just have to have it. Otherwise, if we don't have it,
• 14:49
  they would just go to another's place.
• 14:51
  Now I want to rewind a little bit to actually hang on, address
• 14:55
  something you just said there. People would go to a different
• 14:57
  place and that's because maybe they've got two kids, right?
• 15:01
  They've got somebody who needs to be in the the infant space
• 15:04
  and they've got somebody who needs to be in a preschool and
• 15:06
  they they want sort of a one stop shop.
• 15:07
  Is that why you feel like you you still need to offer both?
• 15:10
  Exactly. Yeah, we have a lot of families
• 15:13
  in our care currently where they have an infant and they have a
• 15:15
  preschooler and they stay within the and the family.
• 15:19
  Got it. OK, so now I want, I want to
• 15:21
  rewind again back to COVID, you know, because there were several
• 15:26
  months there where there's this uncertainty.
• 15:28
  You're not sure when can we reopen?
• 15:31
  Like, what is this going to look like?
• 15:32
  Was there ever a thought in your mind to just throw in the towel?
• 15:36
  You just been through like this brutal construction process.
• 15:40
  It cost you so much more money than you thought.
• 15:43
  You know, now COVID hits like was there ever a thought that
• 15:46
  like, man, the universe is just conspiring against me?
• 15:48
  I'm just going to. I'm just going to give up.
• 15:53
  No, actually, during that time, we did not think about that at
• 15:55
  all the entire time. Because I think I was still in
• 15:58
  that heat of the moment. I just opened this, my pride and
• 16:00
  joy, my everything, and that did not even cross my mind.
• 16:04
  I just knew that we will get through it, we'll figure it out
• 16:06
  and somehow, some way, we'll make it out.
• 16:09
  Yeah. You know, and I think what's
• 16:11
  what's great about some of the stories that you shared so far,
• 16:13
  Ashley, is it it shows like, I don't want to call it The Dirty
• 16:18
  side, but like the nitty gritty of what happens behind the
• 16:21
  scenes, right? You've got, you've opened these
• 16:24
  beautiful daycare centers, you know, people drive by them on
• 16:27
  all the time. You've got parents who bring
• 16:29
  their kids in. They're like, what a gorgeous
• 16:31
  facility that she's probably making lots of money like, and
• 16:35
  they, they have no idea of all the great determination that it
• 16:40
  took for you to get from zero to where you are now.
• 16:45
  And so we're, you know, I think it's really great that we're
• 16:47
  kind of highlighting some of those struggles.
• 16:49
  Like, man, I, you know, for six months, like nobody would even
• 16:52
  give me a shot, you know, when I first opened my doors in my home
• 16:55
  and then, you know, that picked up and, you know, now I open my
• 16:58
  doors and in my first center and but it cost so much more money.
• 17:03
  And then COVID hits and it's there's all these things that
• 17:06
  happened behind the scenes that, you know, people don't don't
• 17:09
  normally get to hear about. Right, exactly.
• 17:13
  So tell me a little bit about the curriculum that you have in
• 17:17
  place and sort of your overall approach to to early childcare
• 17:21
  and and education. Yeah, I guess I should share a
• 17:26
  little bit more about my background and why I actually
• 17:28
  got into this. Besides the fact I have to drop
• 17:30
  out of school to take care of my daughter.
• 17:33
  When I was growing up, I grew up with limited resources in San
• 17:36
  Francisco. We were again, first generation
• 17:39
  American. My mom, she had to take care of
• 17:41
  myself and my four older brothers by herself, and she has
• 17:44
  four, three jobs. When I was growing up, I was
• 17:47
  super independent from her early age, and I think preschool was
• 17:51
  one of the biggest factors as to why I succeeded in life.
• 17:53
  There's actually studies that show that if you go to
• 17:56
  preschool, you have a higher chance of succeeding in life
• 17:58
  versus those who don't go to preschool.
• 18:00
  And when I look at just like me and everybody else in the family
• 18:04
  right now, I, I will have to say that I've probably gone a bit
• 18:07
  further compared to some of my siblings.
• 18:11
  And because of that, like I, I just know how important the
• 18:15
  first five years of a child's life is.
• 18:17
  I think the fact that I had preschool and I had the good
• 18:20
  teachers that I could caregivers and that was the only sense of
• 18:23
  stability that I had that, you know, that brings it into now in
• 18:28
  the future where I want to create the same environment for
• 18:30
  our children. Again, the first five years are
• 18:33
  the most important. It's your caregivers either make
• 18:36
  you or break you like they can either traumatize you or they
• 18:39
  will help you grow and thrive through life.
• 18:42
  And so with that, my philosophy is the curriculum that we go
• 18:48
  that we use right now as Reggio Amelia, where we encompass the
• 18:53
  entire community. We believe in the child as
• 18:57
  individual and collaborative work and the environment is 1/3
• 19:02
  teacher. So what that means is that in
• 19:06
  the Reggio Amelia inspired school system, the the way that
• 19:12
  the classrooms are set up, it's very natural, it's very Zen and
• 19:17
  it's more calming type of environment.
• 19:19
  Like you will not see plastic things everywhere.
• 19:22
  All of our furniture is what it's and it's a light color.
• 19:28
  There's lots of trees, there's plants, there's nature, all the
• 19:32
  curriculum that like are themes. It's a week long project.
• 19:36
  It's not like a day type of activity.
• 19:38
  Like for example, oh, we're just going to color today.
• 19:40
  That's like we're going to talk about oh, what colors are there?
• 19:43
  How do you create these colors? And it starts from Monday all
• 19:46
  the way up until Friday and even longer if the child is
• 19:49
  interested. So it all goes down to interest
• 19:51
  of the child. And when we teach the child in
• 19:54
  this way, it helps not only build their confidence, but also
• 19:58
  helps them build their social emotional skills because again,
• 20:03
  we're with the community, right? So meaning that it's not just a
• 20:06
  project based on just a child alone, it's going to be with
• 20:09
  everybody in the classroom along with the teachers.
• 20:12
  So very similar to Montessori, except Montessori, they're more
• 20:16
  focused on individual childhoods, individual projects,
• 20:19
  whereas Regimelia, it's a community project.
• 20:22
  And with this approach, I feel like it it goes back down.
• 20:25
  Into my deep core again, like 1 the stability to the
• 20:28
  environment, 3 the caregivers and four like that community
• 20:32
  feel like, you know, even if we don't, we're feeling alone.
• 20:35
  As long as you have the community now, you're all one.
• 20:39
  So where did you pick up these philosophies?
• 20:42
  Because when you first started the daycare, you're very young,
• 20:45
  right? You think you said you were 20,
• 20:46
  you dropped out of college because you were having your own
• 20:49
  child. So I'm correct me if I'm wrong,
• 20:52
  but I'm going to guess that you hadn't had the opportunity to
• 20:55
  absorb these philosophies through a work experience or
• 20:58
  through your college education up to that point.
• 21:02
  So I did drop out of college because I was originally my
• 21:05
  nursing program and so I dropped out of my nursing program.
• 21:08
  However, I did go back to school when I opened my daycare just to
• 21:11
  study early childhood education because I wanted to know what I
• 21:15
  was talking about. So school.
• 21:17
  So I did go back to school and that did play a big difference
• 21:19
  in terms of where our philosophies are and how our
• 21:23
  approach to early childhood education is.
• 21:26
  So you, you touched on this a little bit, but I want you to go
• 21:29
  into a little bit more detail. I'm I'm curious to understand
• 21:32
  better what a typical day looks like for one of your students.
• 21:37
  OK, well it depends on the age group, right?
• 21:40
  But let's just say it's a preschool.
• 21:42
  But like the child is a preschooler, they will come in
• 21:45
  the good dropped off and during drop off the wash their hands or
• 21:49
  clean and they'll go potty. They'll go into their classroom
• 21:54
  and depending on the time that their drop off because there's a
• 21:57
  time period, if it is earlier than they'll have AM snack.
• 22:01
  So they'll eat along with their peers on at a table.
• 22:05
  And then after that they'll clean up.
• 22:07
  And then then it's circle time. And circle time is where they'll
• 22:11
  introduce the theme, the songs to talk about their day, what
• 22:14
  they are interested in doing, what we plan to do.
• 22:17
  And then that's also where we read out like the theme, like
• 22:20
  the theme songs and whatever it is that the curriculum is that
• 22:24
  day. And then after that, they'll go
• 22:27
  outside. They have outdoor time for
• 22:29
  anywhere from one to two hours, assuming that the perp, the
• 22:32
  weather allows it. Then they'll come in to have
• 22:35
  lunch and then it's nap time. And after nap time they have to
• 22:39
  get. So usually nap is about two
• 22:40
  hours or so. And after that, then we'll do an
• 22:43
  activity depending again on the interests of the child.
• 22:46
  It could be, you know, art, it could be blocks, it could be
• 22:49
  anything that they're doing at that point.
• 22:51
  And then after that, they'll be PM, snack or outdoor time.
• 22:55
  And then then it's pretty much pick up.
• 22:58
  So every day it's pretty structured, but it could adjust
• 23:03
  depending on the interest of the children.
• 23:05
  And so you're providing a food for the students there.
• 23:10
  Yeah, we're providing food. We're also providing potty
• 23:12
  training as well. Yeah.
• 23:14
  Wow. I wish that would have been
• 23:17
  accessible to me when my kids were that age.
• 23:19
  That was, yeah. That was a challenging period
• 23:23
  and the interesting about the potty training piece is for me
• 23:25
  to retain good talent like my teachers because they're the
• 23:29
  assets in the company. We get all the potty training
• 23:32
  fees actually goes to the teacher that potty trains a
• 23:35
  child. So we don't take any piece of
• 23:36
  that. So what does that look like when
• 23:39
  somebody says yes, please potty train my kid?
• 23:42
  How does that work in your facility?
• 23:45
  So we'll, we'll have to have a plan with the parents.
• 23:47
  We have to ask them like, okay, do you feel like your child's
• 23:49
  ready? Do we feel like the child's
• 23:51
  ready? Are they mentally prepared?
• 23:52
  Because it's a teamwork. Even if we're potty training the
• 23:56
  child, if they're not doing at home, it's going to defeat its
• 23:58
  purpose. So once we decide that it's a
• 24:01
  good idea and we're all on the same page, then we'll go ahead
• 24:04
  and start the potty training process and we'll talk to their
• 24:07
  lead teacher. The lead teacher will also say
• 24:09
  OK, and then they pay the fee. Then they potty train the child
• 24:13
  for a month. Usually it's no more than a
• 24:14
  month and by that time they'll be completely potty trained and
• 24:18
  then whatever the fee is will go to the teacher.
• 24:20
  Yeah, I want to touch on something, Derek.
• 24:22
  I love what you said. I think you said employees are
• 24:25
  your greatest asset, right? And in this challenging
• 24:30
  employment environment, right, there's a big labor shortage.
• 24:33
  It's hard to find and hold on to good people.
• 24:36
  What are some things that you've done and found success with to
• 24:40
  do that? OK, that's exactly, that's like
• 24:44
  one of those things that it's an ongoing challenge for me, like
• 24:47
  identifying the right people in the right seats and the wrong
• 24:51
  people in the wrong seats. It goes back to that book
• 24:53
  Traction. The good thing about my daycares
• 24:58
  right now is that I still have two employees that's been with
• 25:01
  me since day one, like in the downstairs of my home.
• 25:04
  So they've worked with for me for over 10 years now and
• 25:08
  they're still with us. And I think what I found from
• 25:11
  those two employees is that they, when they came to work for
• 25:14
  me, they did not have a vision of the future and they didn't
• 25:18
  know what they were going to do. It was just like a job for them
• 25:20
  at that time and because I was able to train them and they
• 25:24
  worked hand in hand with me or side by side.
• 25:27
  Because at that time the downstairs in my home, I was
• 25:29
  doing everything. I was the cook, I was the
• 25:31
  cleaner, the diaper changer, the business, you know, the business
• 25:34
  owner, everything. And I think because I was able
• 25:38
  to train them and give them a future in terms of like where
• 25:42
  they want to go, because the moment that opened my large
• 25:44
  daycare, they came with me, right, the commercial daycare
• 25:47
  and then I put them through schooling.
• 25:48
  So we give them, we give teacher stipends and we give them
• 25:50
  bonuses the moment that they complete courses.
• 25:54
  And we just have to encourage them, encouraging them to go to
• 25:57
  school, get more units and etcetera, because that's the
• 25:59
  only way they're going to get a pay raise, right?
• 26:01
  They, they have to have these things and I think that was so
• 26:05
  my whole point of that is that basically growing from within
• 26:08
  and being able to provide someone a future that they've
• 26:12
  never seen before, I think, or that they can then envision.
• 26:16
  I think that's a big thing. So kind of being like a role
• 26:18
  model mentor to these teachers has been very helpful.
• 26:22
  And I've and I have a philosophy within our own company where I
• 26:25
  like to grow from within. So every time we get a
• 26:28
  leadership person that leaves, let's just save as assistant
• 26:31
  director or whatever the case is, I always look inside 1st.
• 26:34
  I'll talk to my executive director like, hey, do we have
• 26:36
  anyone in the organization right now that we can level up, that
• 26:40
  we could grow, that we could bring up?
• 26:42
  And we always have a second in command type of type of thing,
• 26:45
  you know, where there's always assistant director below
• 26:48
  whoever, whatever that position is just so that we're always
• 26:52
  going to have incoming leaders. So with that said, growing from
• 26:56
  within is one major thing. Also, being a good support
• 27:00
  person and role model for them is really important, especially
• 27:02
  in today's day and age is not the money is not it's that's not
• 27:07
  the only thing now. Now they want to know like who
• 27:10
  are they following? Who is their leader and are
• 27:13
  their leader going to do they feel inspired from this leader
• 27:16
  and will they continue to be there for them as they continue
• 27:19
  to grow in their journey? So I think going for within
• 27:23
  being a good role model and also of course like identifying what
• 27:27
  your team needs is a big thing and also creating a culture,
• 27:31
  like the culture is so important, the culture of your
• 27:33
  team. So we do go through lots of
• 27:36
  challenges with finding people, but one thing that I've found
• 27:39
  very helpful is this one company called Work Stream.
• 27:44
  And so how that works is the moment that we post and add, it
• 27:49
  will go on to all the job boards and anyone who's ever applied
• 27:53
  for any position, it gets archived into our company
• 27:56
  database. So the moment that we're looking
• 27:58
  for somebody, if we go back into that archive and we're able to
• 28:02
  mass message everyone and then then we're able to fill those
• 28:06
  positions much easier. So that's like more of a
• 28:10
  logistical type of thing that we're able to do.
• 28:12
  But when it comes to the staff, it all comes down to leadership
• 28:15
  growth and continuous improvement and professional
• 28:17
  development. And with this work stream tool,
• 28:20
  are you finding then that there are folks that applied for a
• 28:23
  position maybe months ago that are still available or still
• 28:26
  interested? Yes and no, because they could
• 28:32
  be at a position where they're not happy with or they could be
• 28:35
  a position that they are happy with.
• 28:37
  And or sometimes it doesn't matter whether they're happy or
• 28:39
  not happy, there's always going to be changes, right?
• 28:41
  So sometimes if there is a change, they might just reach
• 28:44
  back out and say like, oh, hey, you know, like something's
• 28:46
  change. Are you still looking?
• 28:49
  So, Ashley, tell me a little bit about the consulting business
• 28:52
  and how you've helped other aspiring daycare owners.
• 28:58
  Yeah, So they're my own journey. As I mentioned, I went through
• 29:00
  so many issues with construction and just learning about the
• 29:03
  building department and learning how where to get the money from.
• 29:06
  Like aside from the real estate business, I also like I had to
• 29:09
  dig into my own like like personal loans and credit cards
• 29:13
  and things like that to try to get it going right.
• 29:15
  But that time had that had I know what I know now, I would
• 29:18
  have probably won an SBA route. So because I've been there so
• 29:22
  many things I just realized one day, like, OK, I wish there was
• 29:27
  a consultant out there that could help daycare owners,
• 29:29
  right? Or even people who have in home
• 29:32
  daycares right now that may want to consider opening a commercial
• 29:35
  center. Because I know it wasn't easy
• 29:37
  for me. And I talked to a lot of daycare
• 29:39
  owners that only has in home centers and they tell me like,
• 29:42
  yeah, they would love to, but they just don't know where to
• 29:44
  start. So then I'm like, OK, I feel I
• 29:47
  have enough experience. I've grown from zero to nothing,
• 29:50
  I mean, from nothing to here. And we're going to continue to
• 29:53
  grow. So I feel like I could probably
• 29:54
  help people. So yeah, I mean, I did something
• 29:57
  very simple. I put a additional tab and
• 30:01
  service on our website and said, OK, now we're going to offer
• 30:05
  consulting services. And that surprisingly, it was a
• 30:09
  big hit because people start fighting me.
• 30:12
  If you look at like daycare consulting services, we actually
• 30:15
  pop up organically. I'm not even advertising that.
• 30:19
  And so my first client came from word of mouth.
• 30:22
  One of my friends who wanted to open a daycare reached out to me
• 30:25
  and they, they, they wanted to work together.
• 30:28
  So I helped them. And so the first one, she was a
• 30:33
  daycare owner that had an in home daycare that was open for
• 30:36
  six months with no, no type of touch.
• 30:40
  There was no tours, nobody reaching out, no.
• 30:43
  Even worse than your situation. At least you were giving tours.
• 30:46
  He wasn't even talking to anybody.
• 30:49
  Yeah. And so I came in, I evaluated
• 30:51
  her space, I looked at what she's doing currently and I and
• 30:53
  I saw the problem. I'm like, OK, it's because
• 30:55
  you're not doing any type of branding or marketing like
• 30:58
  there, there's nothing right now, you're not on any platform,
• 31:00
  there's no Google business listing.
• 31:01
  You don't have a Facebook page, you don't have an Instagram
• 31:04
  page. Like, you know, all these things
• 31:06
  are important. You don't have a website yet.
• 31:08
  And so I came and helped her with all the branding, all the
• 31:11
  marketing, I put it on to all these different social media
• 31:14
  platforms and like daycare platforms.
• 31:17
  And then so we start working together in January.
• 31:20
  And by March, she already had two students enrolled and she
• 31:23
  had ongoing tours. And now her business is
• 31:26
  continuing to grow and she gets tours all the time.
• 31:29
  So that was definitely proven. I had another client where the
• 31:34
  wife, she was a preschool teacher for over 20 years.
• 31:37
  They wanted to open their first in home daycare.
• 31:39
  They also did not know how to how to go about it.
• 31:41
  It was all just licensing stuff. They needed help with paperwork.
• 31:45
  So and I told them like, you could do this yourself.
• 31:47
  I don't want to charge you for paperwork, you know, but they're
• 31:50
  like, well, you know, like we do, we would rather just do it
• 31:53
  one time without any mistakes. And I'm like, that's a great
• 31:55
  idea. You know, like, and so yeah, I
• 31:57
  helped them put together their paperwork and I got them
• 32:00
  licensed and like fairly quickly, less than a month.
• 32:04
  And then after that, now we're into phase two where we're
• 32:06
  helping with their branding, their marketing and getting the
• 32:08
  clients through the door. And I have another one where
• 32:11
  they're commercial daycare owner operator and their revenue was
• 32:15
  in the negative and they needed to turn it around.
• 32:17
  And so I came in like, OK, well, how are you getting clients
• 32:20
  right now? What are you doing?
• 32:21
  Where are you advertising? So that's ongoing.
• 32:24
  And then another client that work with right now, she is
• 32:27
  looking to open a daycare center.
• 32:29
  And so I am giving her all these different advice with like, OK,
• 32:33
  as paid loans, which ones to look for, how you should
• 32:36
  negotiate your lease deal, what you should be looking for in the
• 32:39
  building where there's a new building or old building.
• 32:42
  Because if it's a older building, there's a lot of
• 32:44
  maintenance that would come in that you won't even think about
• 32:47
  where as a newer building, there's not as much maintenance.
• 32:50
  So that's been going well. And I think I find a lot of joy
• 32:54
  in that because I'm able to it goes back to like the teacher
• 32:57
  thing when I was saying I'm able to help throw their mindset and
• 33:00
  help throw their mentality and help them be see a future that
• 33:03
  they never thought was possible. So when it comes to consulting
• 33:06
  site, that's exactly what it is. I'm able to help grow
• 33:09
  physicists, individuals to see a bigger picture and, you know,
• 33:13
  get to a different point in their life that they've never
• 33:15
  been expected. So somebody's listening and
• 33:18
  they're interested. Ashley's website
• 33:20
  ismeaningfulbeginnings.org and you can find the consulting
• 33:26
  services under the about tab. And you mentioned, Ashley, that
• 33:31
  one of your clients, daycare who was operating but operating in
• 33:35
  the red, they were running at A at a loss.
• 33:38
  What you kind of briefly touched on like OK, how are you
• 33:41
  advertising? What are some of those levers
• 33:44
  that you're looking to pull to boost sales, lower expenses?
• 33:47
  How are you helping them out? I think So what I found is that
• 33:52
  it depends on that where they located and where are their
• 33:55
  target audiences. Like sometimes you got to look
• 33:58
  at it like, OK, is it the product?
• 34:00
  Is it the people? Is it the the demographic that
• 34:02
  you're targeting? Like which one is that?
• 34:04
  I think specifically for this location, they were in an area
• 34:08
  that's not, I would say it's not the best location, right?
• 34:11
  It's it's, and I found that being in the government program
• 34:15
  would be a better way for them because then you get subsidized
• 34:19
  care and you're serving a different type of demographic.
• 34:22
  That's one. So identifying where your
• 34:24
  channels are coming from. So the revenue channels, right?
• 34:27
  Like for this one, they were only private pay individuals,
• 34:30
  Whereas now I'm OK, maybe you should consider this going with
• 34:33
  the government program as well. I'm not saying only fully
• 34:35
  government subsidized. I'm saying a mix of both, right?
• 34:38
  So you could fill in some gaps. Some other thing that we
• 34:41
  introduced were drop in care, which is what we do as well
• 34:44
  because you know, like nowadays we're looking for flexible
• 34:48
  childcare options. They only have full time and
• 34:51
  part time. There were no flexible options,
• 34:53
  but we have the flexible options.
• 34:55
  You're able to open it up to a different market now.
• 34:57
  So that was another thing. So strategizing that and then
• 35:00
  three, also finding the people because then with this owner
• 35:04
  operator, I think sometimes like as an owner, you always think
• 35:08
  like big or how will I say it, like your confidence is out the
• 35:12
  roof or you know, you're a little big headed sometimes and
• 35:14
  you don't want to like go back into the basics.
• 35:17
  I think that was something that came with training too.
• 35:19
  I feel like like, hey, look, I know your ego is here, but you
• 35:23
  have to think what do you really need for the business?
• 35:25
  So that was like a mentality type of thing.
• 35:29
  So yeah, going back to that, is it the people?
• 35:32
  Is it the product? Is it the the demographic that
• 35:35
  you're targeting? What, what are those?
• 35:37
  And in this situation, it was a mix of the three.
• 35:40
  You mentioned drop in daycare service.
• 35:42
  Talk to me about how that works. From somebody on the outside
• 35:46
  looking in, it would seem like that's kind of a scheduling
• 35:50
  nightmare, like you're trying to plan your staffing because
• 35:53
  you've got to keep certain student to teacher ratios.
• 35:59
  Yeah. Talk to me how that works.
• 36:01
  Yeah. So with us, so with the ratios,
• 36:06
  it gets really complicated. So with infants, it's one to
• 36:09
  four ratio by state licensing requirements, toddlers one to
• 36:14
  six and preschools 1:00 to 12:00.
• 36:16
  So let's just say if you only have let's talk about preschool,
• 36:20
  it's 1:00 to 12:00. If you only have eight children,
• 36:23
  you're still going to have that one staff member no matter what,
• 36:25
  right? So that leaves four spaces
• 36:27
  available, right and and see what toler and infants.
• 36:32
  So no matter what you're going to have the staff anyway.
• 36:33
  So you might as well fill up this basis.
• 36:36
  And is there a big demand for this somebody who's only like
• 36:39
  they, you know, they wake up one day and they're like, hey, I, I
• 36:41
  just need daycare today. But, you know, not on a regular
• 36:44
  basis. I want to say it's a big demand,
• 36:48
  but it's about 20% of our business right now.
• 36:52
  Yeah, well, I guess it is decent, Yeah.
• 36:54
  So yes, because one, there's a lot of schools where they close
• 36:58
  like so there's like the Jewish Community Center school that is
• 37:01
  in San Francisco and they close a lot like on many different
• 37:05
  days. So we have a partnership with
• 37:06
  them where their director sends, they're suited to us when
• 37:09
  they're closed. And so for example, right now
• 37:12
  during summer, we have a lot of drop insurance because they're
• 37:14
  closed so much during summer. We also have like a situations
• 37:18
  where like they should say their their date, their nanny or
• 37:23
  babysitter is sick or whatever the case is and then they need
• 37:25
  to drop in. We also have situations where
• 37:28
  like sometimes, so I lost my train of thought, but basically
• 37:34
  whatever the case is like if they want to just drop off to go
• 37:37
  to a massage appointment or they have work or last minute things
• 37:41
  that they need to drop off and that also comes into play.
• 37:44
  The other thing too is we're working with Bright Horizons and
• 37:46
  we also have we help them with their backup services.
• 37:50
  So for example, they have families are traveling from LA
• 37:54
  to San Francisco to work. They will, we will be like one
• 37:57
  of their go to backup services drop in daycare.
• 38:00
  So they will drop into our center as well.
• 38:03
  So it's all over the place. But it could be from traveling
• 38:06
  parents to just running errand parents to just the fact that
• 38:10
  the schools are closed. That's all.
• 38:13
  See, and this was great. I'm glad that I asked that, you
• 38:15
  know, outsider question because initially I'm thinking this
• 38:19
  isn't an opportunity, this is a scheduling nightmare.
• 38:22
  And you reframed it. You said, well, you know, if
• 38:25
  we've got the space right, if we've got one teacher to 8
• 38:28
  students, we've got four spaces there to fill.
• 38:30
  So if somebody raises their hand and says they want to come in,
• 38:33
  great. You know, we've got some unused
• 38:35
  capacity. So rather than the the
• 38:37
  challenge, it's the opportunity that that you spotted.
• 38:41
  Yeah. And also like because we are a
• 38:43
  larger rate, we have a lot of students, children always coming
• 38:47
  out sick, they're going on vacation and spaces are going to
• 38:50
  open up. We're never 100% full capacity.
• 38:54
  That's rare because there's always somebody else.
• 38:56
  That makes sense. So you're thinking about
• 39:00
  franchising now Talk to me about that thought process.
• 39:03
  Yeah. So I'm currently in an
• 39:05
  accelerator program. Do you know, I don't know if you
• 39:09
  guys want to celebrate your programs are, but basically they
• 39:11
  help fast track companies and I'm just thinking about how
• 39:14
  we're going to grow our revenue. The only way that we could grow
• 39:17
  revenue is obviously through more locations, but each
• 39:20
  location to do it on our own, it's very capital intensive and
• 39:24
  it's a lot of work and a lot of manpower.
• 39:27
  So we're exploring the idea of having a franchise model and
• 39:30
  actually find one of my clients I consult for.
• 39:34
  She's interested and she's like, you know, I would love to be the
• 39:36
  first franchise already having the model built in, all the
• 39:40
  operations, the curriculum and the team.
• 39:44
  So that's how we're exploring it right now.
• 39:45
  It's not set in stone, but I do feel like there's a bigger
• 39:48
  opportunity there because of the fact that we're able to grow the
• 39:50
  brand without us having to do it ourselves.
• 39:52
  We plan to have our own chain still no matter what, but we
• 39:56
  want to have that franchising opportunity.
• 39:59
  I'm curious, Ashley, what are some of the most common concerns
• 40:02
  that parents have when starting their kids in a new school like
• 40:05
  yours, and what can you tell them to put their mind at ease?
• 40:11
  So many things one will be will their child be OK during drop
• 40:16
  off? You know, like when they have to
• 40:18
  leave their child when they've been with them 24/7 once the
• 40:21
  child's been born, I think knowing that it does take time
• 40:25
  is very important. And some parents, they say they
• 40:28
  want to ease their child in with two days a week, have a drop in
• 40:30
  that is actually worse for the child sometimes because now
• 40:33
  you're throwing off their schedule, especially when the
• 40:35
  child's young, for example, they only come in like Tuesdays and
• 40:38
  Thursdays, but then there's Monday, Wednesdays, Friday that
• 40:41
  you're not in. That's not it's not consistent.
• 40:44
  Young children need consistency. So sometimes I will say full
• 40:48
  time care is better than part time care because it's just it's
• 40:51
  more consistency there. And then to the sick policy and
• 40:56
  illness procedures, because children are going to get sick
• 40:59
  in daycares, especially because there's so many children,
• 41:02
  there's adults, there's germs coming from all areas.
• 41:06
  The first two weeks with the starting daycare, your child
• 41:08
  will definitely get sick and it is normal.
• 41:12
  And I know it is scary, but at the same time, it does build
• 41:15
  your child's immune system. So if you're not able to cope
• 41:19
  with those things, child daycare is probably not for you.
• 41:23
  And that's something that we always say to like in our tour,
• 41:25
  we're always like, OK, what are you looking for in your daycare?
• 41:28
  What are you expecting? So we can manage each other's
• 41:31
  expectations because, again, we're not going to be able to
• 41:34
  satisfy everyone's needs. And so, yeah, the main two
• 41:39
  things are the sickness and also the separation anxiety.
• 41:44
  Separation anxiety not just from the child, but also the parents.
• 41:47
  And Speaking of that, what I've learned too is that as a parent,
• 41:52
  you really have to trust your caregivers.
• 41:55
  If you do not trust your caregivers, the child's going to
• 41:58
  feel that energy and they're going to feel the same way.
• 42:01
  So one other thing that I've trained my staff to tell
• 42:04
  everyone, like all the incoming families are interested.
• 42:07
  I always tell them if they're not 100% confident in our
• 42:10
  services, do not sign up. Because then it's going to be
• 42:14
  this ongoing battle where we have to prove ourselves to the
• 42:16
  parent when it's like all we're trying to do is provide a really
• 42:19
  safe, clean, comfortable, caring, loving environment for
• 42:23
  your child. And I mean, we are here to
• 42:25
  provide the space for children. It has nothing to do with, you
• 42:29
  know, anything else. That's it.
• 42:32
  Like that's our main priority. And even with our teachers, like
• 42:35
  we tell them to like whatever's going on in your personal life,
• 42:38
  you have to leave that at the door and be present for the
• 42:40
  children. That's what it comes down to.
• 42:42
  Because if you cannot do that, then you're not meant to be
• 42:44
  caregiver. So with that said, the the
• 42:50
  relationship with the caregivers and the family is really
• 42:54
  important. Yeah, Yeah.
• 42:56
  I'm curious, Ashley, if you can share maybe one or two stories,
• 42:59
  like success stories of like a child who came in that maybe was
• 43:03
  having a little bit of a hard time and you guys were, you
• 43:05
  know, able to connect and help them.
• 43:10
  Let me think, I'm not in the day-to-day operations anymore.
• 43:14
  However, I do know that we had one family where during the drop
• 43:22
  off was always very challenging. Like the child would, would
• 43:25
  always cry and then the family would think, is it because they
• 43:28
  don't like the daycare? They're like, oh, you know,
• 43:31
  like, I don't know why they're this child.
• 43:32
  Why my child's acting like this? Is it because of you guys?
• 43:35
  You know, and, and it all went down this like kind of like
• 43:38
  rabbit hole. And then we had to tell them
• 43:40
  like, hey, like this is normal. This is, this is how children
• 43:42
  are. And children, they, they go
• 43:45
  through different phases too. Like for example, one day they
• 43:47
  might love the daycare. One day they want to stay a hole
• 43:49
  in Mama. You know, it's just, it's always
• 43:51
  different. So what we did was we had a
• 43:54
  teacher just stay with that child specifically during the
• 43:57
  first like two months. It was hard though, because
• 44:00
  again, we have ratios in place, right?
• 44:01
  But we wanted to support the family because we also knew that
• 44:04
  the family needed the care and they actually looked at other
• 44:06
  daycares and they told us, OK, we may consider leaving or
• 44:09
  whatever the case is. They looked and then later on
• 44:11
  they came and I said, you know what, actually, we found that
• 44:14
  you guys are actually the best and you guys when we prefer to
• 44:16
  stay with you guys. And that's not the first time
• 44:19
  thing that's happened multiple times before already.
• 44:22
  And so we had a, a, a dedicated teacher stay with a child and
• 44:25
  just, you know, make sure that they're OK and whenever and just
• 44:28
  get them comfortable. And I think that was really
• 44:30
  helpful. And also building that
• 44:31
  relationship. Again, the teacher kept talking
• 44:33
  to the family about, you know, like what she's doing today, how
• 44:36
  she's feeling. And we have an app, right?
• 44:37
  We use this app called Brightwheel, where we update the
• 44:40
  parents on how the child is doing.
• 44:42
  So there's pictures, there's photos, there's, you know,
• 44:44
  whether the child ate or not there, whether they, what type
• 44:48
  of like potty they had, whether it was wet or dry, whatever, you
• 44:51
  know, so it's just consistent updates.
• 44:54
  And I think that was really helpful to letting them know
• 44:56
  that, hey, you know, like your child is OK in the beginning and
• 44:59
  like it was bad because she kept crying, but then now she was
• 45:02
  able to calm down. So I mean, that's not just that
• 45:05
  that family specifically, that's a recurring thing all the time
• 45:09
  with new students. It's just it's ongoing.
• 45:12
  But there was another time where I don't remember exactly what
• 45:16
  the issue was. I think pricing was the thing.
• 45:18
  They said that we're too expensive.
• 45:20
  And so they left. And then three months later they
• 45:23
  came back and said can we come back to the daycare?
• 45:26
  And that that has happened before a decent amount of times
• 45:30
  actually. Well, I think that one specific
• 45:32
  story that you shared there, you know, is a great highlight of
• 45:36
  how you really go above and beyond.
• 45:37
  I mean, you, you've got these, you know, state mandate ratios
• 45:40
  that you have to worry about. But you were so concerned that
• 45:44
  you, you know, wanted to make this parent happy, wanted to
• 45:47
  make the child comfortable that you're like, you know what,
• 45:49
  we're going to put this one adult, one adult, the same adult
• 45:52
  with this student, you know, the entire time.
• 45:54
  And, and it worked. And you know, they, they went
• 45:57
  and they looked around and said, you know what, you guys are
• 46:00
  awesome. We, we compared you to what else
• 46:01
  was out there. We're we're going to stick with
• 46:03
  you. Yeah.
• 46:05
  We haven't had children that would have like behavioral
• 46:08
  issues, like they will bite a lot or they might hit right.
• 46:11
  Then. We have to put teachers on that
• 46:13
  child too, and then work with the family to say like, OK, hey,
• 46:15
  let's continue with positive reinforcement.
• 46:18
  Let's tell them that this is not OK.
• 46:19
  And you know, things like that to help get the child out of
• 46:21
  that phase because a lot of times it's phases that they go
• 46:24
  through. Ashley, what's a serious
• 46:27
  challenge that you had to overcome either professionally
• 46:31
  or personally? I'd like to hear kind of what
• 46:34
  that struggle was like and some of the lessons that you learned
• 46:37
  coming through the other side. Yeah, I think there's two on the
• 46:44
  personal side. It was definitely a mental
• 46:48
  challenge, like when things start going bad, which it has
• 46:52
  when things are not doing as great as they they were.
• 46:57
  It's it's a drain on you. Like you, you're not how I, how
• 47:01
  you asked me to ever think about giving up before during COVID,
• 47:03
  right? But now I've been doing this for
• 47:05
  over 10 years, 11 years. And I, and I am definitely a
• 47:10
  little bit burnt out. And there are times where I'm
• 47:13
  like, OK, is this really what you want to do or are you going
• 47:15
  to continue doing this? Especially because of the fact
• 47:17
  that like I'm building this thing where I feel like it's to
• 47:21
  help support the economy with like the workforce, with people,
• 47:24
  with for children. And it all goes into like
• 47:26
  people, but I don't, I don't feel that reward like meaning
• 47:33
  like with my staff or with my team.
• 47:36
  Like I don't feel like they get what I'm trying to build for.
• 47:38
  Like I always tell them like, OK, I'm building because I want
• 47:40
  to make sure that when we exit, you guys exit too.
• 47:43
  Like I want to make sure that my teachers are able to exit with a
• 47:46
  decent amount of money so they could survive and they could
• 47:49
  continue doing what they want to do, whether it's school or
• 47:52
  whatever, like their passion. Because as we all know, teachers
• 47:55
  are underpaid significantly in America.
• 47:58
  And so that is my goal and I and I think like the fact that I try
• 48:02
  so hard. I'm always like building and I
• 48:04
  keep building, I keep building, but I get, I get like kicked
• 48:08
  down a lot. And it could be from families
• 48:11
  too, because they don't understand, they think that here
• 48:12
  I am this like business tycoon that's making so much money.
• 48:16
  And when reality is like, Oh no, we are still a small business.
• 48:19
  We're still trying to get by. And I have, and now I'm actually
• 48:22
  considering what OK, do we raise money, you know, because there's
• 48:26
  always so much we continue doing on our own.
• 48:27
  And if we want to grow, we have to go that route.
• 48:30
  So going back to that, I think it was, it's a personal thing.
• 48:32
  Like we're like, OK, so I want to continue doing this.
• 48:35
  And then and then of course, I go through these like ups and
• 48:39
  downs, right? And whatever is that you have,
• 48:41
  you don't stay in the lows for too long.
• 48:43
  You don't stay in the highs for too long because the reality
• 48:46
  will just be right there. So, and like even during a time
• 48:52
  when we like last year Q4, we were significantly down.
• 48:57
  Like we were like running out of money.
• 48:59
  And I was like, OK, how long is this?
• 49:01
  Is this, is this runway going to be?
• 49:04
  Should I consider closing down like one of the locations?
• 49:07
  Because it's just one, like the other ones doing fine.
• 49:09
  One location is not doing as great.
• 49:10
  And I was just thinking I could do it.
• 49:12
  Like do I want to keep doing this?
• 49:17
  But then again, I have to look at my teachers, my team, the
• 49:20
  children, and the type of importance that we play in the
• 49:25
  overall economy. And I was just like, you know
• 49:27
  what, you've been building this for so long, You have to, you
• 49:29
  will get through this and we will do it.
• 49:31
  We'll just figure it out. It's one of those things.
• 49:33
  So the mentality thing is a big thing for me, like overcoming my
• 49:37
  own mental mind. And that's 1-2 leadership.
• 49:44
  I always thought that I was a great leader until I I realized
• 49:49
  that maybe I'm not. And it's because of the fact
• 49:51
  that we're always going, we're always learning and that we're
• 49:53
  not perfect. I went through a huge leadership
• 49:56
  change as well not that long ago, where one of my leaders
• 50:02
  left and she took five. Well, she didn't take, but five
• 50:05
  teachers resigned in one classroom.
• 50:10
  And here I am thinking that we were doing everything great and
• 50:13
  thought that like, you know, we were perfect.
• 50:16
  And when that happened, it was it was reality like hit me.
• 50:19
  And I was like, OK, actually something's wrong.
• 50:21
  Like I think I'm not doing as great of a job as I thought I
• 50:25
  was. And so that was something that
• 50:29
  was big because now I've learned why leadership is important, why
• 50:33
  I have to be there. And I think the reason was
• 50:36
  because I was hands off. I was busy thinking about the
• 50:39
  big picture that I was not in the day-to-day.
• 50:41
  And and I didn't think about what I just basically I
• 50:45
  delegated too much. I think that was an issue.
• 50:47
  I delegated and I thought everybody else will handle
• 50:49
  everything else when in reality is like, no, it doesn't work
• 50:52
  that way. Like you still have to be in the
• 50:53
  day-to-day somewhat. You know, I'm not talking about
• 50:56
  like actually taking diapers and things like that, but you have
• 50:58
  to be involved with your team and you have to build
• 51:00
  relationship. You have to build for and, and
• 51:03
  then I remember when the whole leadership team left at that
• 51:06
  time, that was when the parents were all upset and everybody was
• 51:08
  so mad at me. And I think coming from that
• 51:12
  was, was different because I'm usually the type where I feel
• 51:15
  like I'm easily liked and people love me and you know, they, they
• 51:19
  could see that I'm genuine. I'm a good person.
• 51:23
  And when everybody was so upset, I, I was like, OK, the only
• 51:26
  person that could be blamed here is me.
• 51:28
  And I think accountability was a baby that I had to learn because
• 51:31
  the whole time I was like telling myself like, oh, because
• 51:34
  the director did this or because they did this, that leadership
• 51:36
  did this. And, you know, that's what I was
• 51:37
  thinking. But then what it really comes
• 51:39
  down to is look, no matter what, it was still under my watch.
• 51:43
  And so overcoming that was was pretty hard because it was a
• 51:47
  mental drain on me. Like every day I would go home
• 51:50
  not even knowing like which hat to wear now because I'm just so
• 51:53
  stressed out and felt like the world was coming down because
• 51:56
  business was not good at leadership was all crazy.
• 51:59
  The parents hated me. And I was worried about what if
• 52:01
  reviews came and then now like, how is that going to impact
• 52:03
  business? And it was just ongoing, but
• 52:07
  luckily good thing is that I still had good talent.
• 52:10
  And I think what was important was being able to remember
• 52:14
  gratitude and being grateful for what I do have now and knowing
• 52:18
  that like where I came from, you know, like that came from
• 52:22
  nothing, like literally nothing. We built from nothing.
• 52:24
  And where we are today, It's quite impressive.
• 52:27
  And I think I failed to remember the fact of like, OK, you were
• 52:31
  here before and now here you are.
• 52:33
  So giving yourself some credit was something that I like, did
• 52:36
  not know because I was just too like laser focus, always looking
• 52:38
  at the big picture, big picture, big picture.
• 52:42
  Yeah. So basically the two main things
• 52:44
  was my own mental state and also leadership and not letting
• 52:48
  things get too out of control where you you can't over
• 52:50
  delegate too much. This was a fantastic share,
• 52:53
  Ashley. I, I loved so many things that
• 52:55
  you touched on here because it, it, I'm trying to think where to
• 53:00
  start first, because one of the things that you highlight is,
• 53:04
  you know, it's like if one sort of bad thing happens to you, you
• 53:08
  know, sometimes you can weather that right?
• 53:10
  But the way you describe it was sort of like coming at you from
• 53:13
  all directions. And you've been doing this for
• 53:16
  10 years. You're tired, you know, things
• 53:20
  aren't going well. One of the centers is
• 53:21
  struggling. Your leadership team, they, they
• 53:23
  leave. Now you're questioning yourself.
• 53:26
  You like, like it just the, the walls that, the way I'm hearing
• 53:29
  it, it felt like the walls were kind of coming in on you.
• 53:33
  Excuse me. And one of the things that I
• 53:36
  think you really need to give yourself credit for is the
• 53:41
  ability to sort of step outside of yourself and witness what you
• 53:45
  were doing and saying, you know what?
• 53:47
  Maybe the problem was me, maybe part of the because that's not
• 53:51
  easy to do, especially when the world is sort of dumping on you,
• 53:56
  right? It's very normal.
• 53:57
  It's very natural human reaction to put up a shield and say,
• 54:00
  well, you know, it's that person.
• 54:02
  It's this outside force. You know, I, this isn't me.
• 54:04
  Like it's just that, you know, everything happening to me,
• 54:07
  you're like, you know, what, what, what can I do?
• 54:09
  What can I control? You're like, what there's,
• 54:12
  there's probably some things that I could do a little bit
• 54:14
  differently with my leadership style here.
• 54:16
  I was delegating a lot that felt like the right thing to do
• 54:18
  because I was growing and I was putting, you know, this vision
• 54:21
  in place. Now I'm seeing that I stepped
• 54:23
  out as I stepped out a little bit too much.
• 54:26
  This is an opportunity for me to correct that.
• 54:28
  Now you were talking about, you know, Q4 last year.
• 54:31
  It was a, a pretty tough time financially.
• 54:33
  And here we are, you know, we're recording this and late July in,
• 54:37
  in, in 24. What do things look like now as,
• 54:42
  as you've kind of come through some of that darkness, How, how
• 54:44
  do you see the future of this? Well.
• 54:49
  So Q4 of last year were not doing well.
• 54:51
  Then Q1 of this year was when the whole leadership transition
• 54:55
  thing happened. We are, I mean we're still going
• 54:59
  through a little bit like coming out of that because right now
• 55:02
  we're only in Q2, wait, we're going to Q3, we're Q3 now
• 55:06
  beginning of Q3, right. And so we're still going through
• 55:09
  it a little bit. We're still figuring things out,
• 55:11
  but it definitely looks a lot brighter now because I feel like
• 55:14
  my new leadership team, well, not new.
• 55:16
  I still have have my current, my solid, but the leadership team
• 55:20
  specifically at this location, I have more confidence in them and
• 55:23
  I feel like my leadership style has changed a lot more.
• 55:26
  I feel like I'm more in tune with them.
• 55:28
  I'm like, you know, doing happy hours with them.
• 55:30
  I'm going out with them. We're trying to like just be
• 55:33
  around a little bit more so they know who their leader is too and
• 55:37
  involving them in the growth of the company and telling them
• 55:39
  like what we're doing and different things that we're
• 55:41
  doing. And so I think that that has
• 55:42
  really shifted and that I feel like we're more of a family now
• 55:45
  when it comes to our leadership team, whereas before it was so
• 55:49
  now before it was more like vertical, right?
• 55:52
  Whereas now like I feel like it's more like together.
• 55:56
  And so right now, like the future is definitely a lot
• 56:01
  brighter. I will have to say we're in
• 56:04
  terms of our team, I feel a lot more solid.
• 56:06
  I definitely feel very close to them.
• 56:08
  And I feel like they're going to be able to help us grow like all
• 56:12
  of us together, we'll grow each other to get our company to the
• 56:14
  next level. Yeah.
• 56:17
  And so we are still feeling it, though we're not completely out
• 56:20
  of it. But I just like my own mental
• 56:22
  state though is definitely better where I feel like, you
• 56:24
  know what, again, like you mentioned, after some things are
• 56:26
  out of my control, I can only control what I can control and
• 56:30
  that's it. And I say the same thing to my
• 56:31
  leadership team there. There's always things going on
• 56:34
  in childcare, There's always something going wrong.
• 56:37
  And I say the same thing to them.
• 56:38
  You can only control what you can't control.
• 56:40
  And you can't hold on to the things that go wrong for too
• 56:42
  long because if you do that, that's going to kill you.
• 56:45
  You're not going to be able to get out of it.
• 56:47
  And again, don't stay in the dark for too long and don't stay
• 56:49
  on your high for too long because the reality is always
• 56:52
  just around the corner. So I think that's like being
• 56:55
  flexible and being able to pivot is very important.
• 56:58
  Yeah. I liked another word that you
• 57:01
  used in there, gratitude, right? Because it like, like you said
• 57:04
  multiple times, a lot of it is really about a mindset.
• 57:07
  Like there, there's always good things happening, there's always
• 57:10
  bad things happening. Where are you going to put your
• 57:12
  focus? Where are you going to put your
• 57:13
  energy? Because whether we realize it or
• 57:16
  not, whatever it is we're focusing on, that's what we're
• 57:18
  going to get more of, right? I mean, so you're going through
• 57:22
  some tough times. You got some, you know, real
• 57:23
  challenges to work through, but you were able to take a step
• 57:27
  back and say, you know what, I'm really grateful how far we've
• 57:31
  come and how much great things we had, how many great things we
• 57:35
  have in place. You know, at this time, yes,
• 57:38
  there are these challenges, there are these bad things over
• 57:40
  here. But I'm not going to dwell on
• 57:42
  this. I am going to be grateful for
• 57:44
  what I've got over here and then I'm going to work to try to fix
• 57:46
  these things. Yeah, no, exactly.
• 57:50
  I mean, as an entrepreneur, you have to do that like other
• 57:53
  because there's always going to be things going on and you know,
• 57:56
  if you dwell on all the dark times and how are you going to
• 57:59
  get out of them? Who were you able to lean on
• 58:03
  during some of these challenging times?
• 58:05
  Who was helpful to you? I think my network was extremely
• 58:10
  important. I have two business coaches as
• 58:12
  well. So being able to just talk it
• 58:14
  through with them, but also talking to my network like, you
• 58:18
  know, my friends and family, it was, it was helpful, but
• 58:22
  ultimately it was me that had to get out of it.
• 58:24
  Like there, it wasn't like I, you know, I, I threw out like a,
• 58:28
  like a, what do you call that? Like we were skydiving, you
• 58:34
  know, kind of like one of those a parachute, kind of like I
• 58:36
  wanted like someone throw me a parachute.
• 58:38
  That would be great if someone would throw me a parachute and
• 58:40
  save me, you know, But ultimately, like it was all
• 58:44
  again, I'm going to keep talking about it.
• 58:46
  It's your, your mental game, like how mentally strong you
• 58:49
  are. So I'm talking to people and
• 58:51
  letting them hear me out kind of like a psychiatrist type, like a
• 58:55
  therapist. That was great.
• 58:57
  But ultimately it was me that had to get it, get out of it on
• 59:01
  my own. Yeah.
• 59:03
  Any particular mentors or books that have been helpful to you
• 59:07
  either through that challenging time or just overall in your
• 59:10
  your personal and professional development?
• 59:13
  Yeah, one book that changed my life is actually the book from
• 59:17
  Anthony Robbins called Awaken the Giant from Within.
• 59:23
  That was my first time reading a self help self development book.
• 59:28
  And this was over 10 years ago. It was like 12 years ago.
• 59:32
  And it's a it's a really thick book.
• 59:34
  And in the first chapter says, if you haven't got through
• 59:37
  chapter one, you're only 10% of the people who who are willing
• 59:40
  to dedicate the time. And so when I saw that, I'm
• 59:43
  like, OK, I'm someone that likes to challenge, right?
• 59:45
  So I'm like, OK, let me go and finish this book.
• 59:48
  And that book talked a lot about just mentality, mental strength
• 59:52
  and believing in yourself and all of that.
• 59:55
  And that was a book that taught me like, OK, I could do anything
• 59:58
  in life as long as I put my mind to it.
• 1:00:01
  That was life changing. I like that.
• 1:00:03
  I haven't read that particular book, but big fan of Tony
• 1:00:07
  Robbins teaching so I'm putting that one on my list.
• 1:00:11
  Actually. What's a fun fact most people
• 1:00:13
  wouldn't know about you? Fun fact that most people
• 1:00:18
  wouldn't know about me. Well, I already talked about.
• 1:00:23
  Well, I mean, I guess I want to say fun.
• 1:00:25
  Does that have to be fun, or does it just have to be a fact?
• 1:00:27
  Something interesting. We'll call it an interesting
• 1:00:30
  fact. It's an interesting fact.
• 1:00:34
  I will say that most people, given my background now that I
• 1:00:39
  am in child care and that, you know, I have a child care
• 1:00:43
  centers, I'm education, most people would not know that I
• 1:00:47
  grew up in a household where my dad had deep substance abuse.
• 1:00:56
  Yeah, I mean, it's yeah. And that was life changing for
• 1:01:00
  us, obviously, but most people don't know that.
• 1:01:02
  Most people who seemingly assume like, oh, you probably came from
• 1:01:05
  a good family background, You probably had this, you probably
• 1:01:07
  had that. That's probably how you got
• 1:01:08
  started. But like, actually it was quite
• 1:01:11
  the opposite do. You want to say more about that?
• 1:01:14
  You want to give a little bit more behind the curtain.
• 1:01:17
  Yeah, like my dad, ever since, I don't even know, like 3-4, five
• 1:01:23
  years old, like he was on drugs, on meth, and he was always
• 1:01:27
  coming in and out of prisons. He'll come home sometimes with
• 1:01:31
  like bruised eyes when he was like being up.
• 1:01:34
  He would like just, and he always asked for money.
• 1:01:38
  He stole everything that we had in the house.
• 1:01:41
  He used to like he'll go into my room and dig through everything
• 1:01:43
  to look for money. When I was in elementary school,
• 1:01:47
  I remember like getting called out of the school because he was
• 1:01:50
  looking for me. And I was outside my classroom
• 1:01:52
  and my dad comes up to me and he's like, do you have any
• 1:01:54
  money? I'm like, and I'm like nine
• 1:01:56
  years old and I was like, no, where am I going to have money?
• 1:02:01
  Like where am I going to find money?
• 1:02:02
  And he was just like, no, I know you have that.
• 1:02:04
  I know you have it somewhere, blah, blah, blah.
• 1:02:06
  And after that, I remember my teacher like they saw that and
• 1:02:09
  then they were super concerned and they called my mom and of
• 1:02:13
  course, like all these things happen.
• 1:02:14
  But aside from that, he also abused my mom a lot.
• 1:02:17
  Like, you know, he will hit her. There's lots of violence, lots
• 1:02:21
  of violence. And, and I never had stability
• 1:02:23
  growing up. Like, I want to know if I was
• 1:02:25
  going to go to school not the next day, depending on what
• 1:02:28
  happened the night prior. Like there was always cops that
• 1:02:31
  are at our house. It was Yeah, it was it was a
• 1:02:34
  mess. Is.
• 1:02:35
  He still in your life? He came back into our lives
• 1:02:40
  about seven years ago. We tried to give him a chance
• 1:02:43
  again, but he just went down that whole thing again.
• 1:02:48
  Like, he came to my house, took money from me when I was on
• 1:02:51
  vacation. This is me being older now,
• 1:02:54
  right? And so now it's just a point
• 1:02:56
  where I have kids on my own and I don't want to bring that into
• 1:02:59
  our family. So no, I mean, I know where he
• 1:03:02
  is. I know he's doing but I I'm not
• 1:03:04
  in contact with him. How has that shaped you as a
• 1:03:08
  person, as a mother, as a professional that that whole
• 1:03:11
  life experience growing up? I think just being very open and
• 1:03:17
  understanding that everybody has their own issues and they're
• 1:03:20
  going through their own battles. And also the fact that like, I
• 1:03:25
  think I'm really understanding, like, you know, because because
• 1:03:30
  even now I'm not mad at my dad. I could see why things have
• 1:03:33
  happened. I could see, I can understand
• 1:03:35
  why things that work out to him and my mom.
• 1:03:37
  I can understand why he could have went down this way.
• 1:03:39
  Like there's a lot that goes into it.
• 1:03:40
  And it comes out with his childhood too.
• 1:03:42
  Like he was part of the Vietnam War.
• 1:03:44
  I'm sure there was a lot of like trauma there and things that he
• 1:03:46
  had to like deal with, but he didn't have the right resources.
• 1:03:51
  So because I'm able to see that, I forgive him.
• 1:03:53
  Like I totally forgive him. I don't, I'm not holding any
• 1:03:55
  grudges or anything. I just don't want to bring his
• 1:03:57
  bad habits into my life now. But I think me being like that
• 1:04:02
  now, I'm just again flexible, open and very forgiving.
• 1:04:08
  That's terrific. I appreciate you sharing all
• 1:04:09
  that, Ashley. I Ashley, I just have one more
• 1:04:12
  question for you today. But before I do it, I want to do
• 1:04:15
  2 things. It folks are listening today and
• 1:04:17
  they like today's content. Please hit the like, share or
• 1:04:20
  subscribe button on your favorite podcast app.
• 1:04:23
  The second thing I want to do is let people know the best way to
• 1:04:26
  get in touch with you. Maybe they're interested in
• 1:04:28
  upcoming franchise opportunities, maybe the
• 1:04:30
  consulting, maybe you know they've got children in the area
• 1:04:33
  that they're looking for a nice daycare.
• 1:04:35
  What's the best way for folks to connect with you?
• 1:04:39
  The best way will be to send me an e-mail or just visit us at
• 1:04:43
  our on our website at meaningfulbeginnings.org.
• 1:04:47
  You can send it to the general e-mail inbox and they'll forward
• 1:04:51
  it to me. That's probably easiest.
• 1:04:53
  Or you can also find me on LinkedIn.
• 1:04:55
  Ashley do Instagram is also fine in Ashley's world.
• 1:05:00
  Yeah. And do is spelled DU everybody
• 1:05:03
  Ashley do DU. OK.
• 1:05:06
  Last question for you, Ashley, I'm curious, how do you see your
• 1:05:10
  industry evolving in the next five years?
• 1:05:12
  What do you think the big changes are that are coming?
• 1:05:18
  I definitely see that there has to be more flexible needs in
• 1:05:21
  childcare so like the drop in things that I was mentioning
• 1:05:24
  already is important especially after COVID.
• 1:05:28
  Also see that there will be a need for special needs services
• 1:05:34
  when it comes to childcare as well as language immersion,
• 1:05:39
  which is where the franchising for us is important because I
• 1:05:42
  plan to franchise it to operators that has these
• 1:05:46
  backgrounds. So either language immersion or
• 1:05:48
  special needs, those are really important.
• 1:05:52
  And also I, I think that there's going to be a big need for early
• 1:05:56
  childhood educators with AI right now it's taking over a lot
• 1:06:00
  of different jobs. And I think one of the jobs that
• 1:06:03
  will not go away will be teaching when it comes to young
• 1:06:06
  children. I know China's creating all
• 1:06:10
  these robots and things that says that, you know, you can,
• 1:06:13
  you know, have the robot watch your child.
• 1:06:15
  But I just. I don't think that's likely.
• 1:06:18
  So, yeah, definitely like a need for flexible care, you know,
• 1:06:22
  special needs, language immersion.
• 1:06:25
  Yeah. Perfect, Ashley, I want to be
• 1:06:27
  the first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your
• 1:06:30
  story with us today. I appreciate it.
• 1:06:33
  Of course. Thank you so much for having me,
• 1:06:34
  Anthony. This was fun.
• 1:06:37
  Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
• 1:06:39
  podcast. Thanks for learning with us
• 1:06:41
  today.