263: How Can Collaboration Transform Your Childcare Business? With Noelle D'Intino

In this episode, you’ll join a warm, insightful chat about the real challenges and creative solutions in early childhood education.  Noelle D’Intino shares her journey running a thriving center, renovating a church into a new facility, and building supportive networks for directors and teachers. 

The group dives into smart staffing (think hiring from outside childcare!), the power of collaboration over competition, and practical tips like mystery shopping and shared training. If you’re looking for fresh ideas and a sense of community, this episode is a goldmine of wisdom and encouragement! 

Explore the Director’s Club and Teacher’s Lounge, two communities Noelle co-founded to empower directors and teachers.

Check out our summer sponsor: ECE Mastery/Childcare Business Growth.

Thanks for Listening 🎧

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Transcript

Marie 00:00:03  Welcome to Child Care Conversations, the podcast where early childhood leaders like you get real world strategies, honest talk and a whole lot of support. Whether you're running one center or many, we're here to help you lead with confidence and clarity. This episode is brought to you by our summer partner Child Care Business Growth, your go to solution for filling spots, increasing revenue, and scaling your child care business without the burnout. We're proud to partner with a team that's as committed to your success as we are. Learn more at Child Care Business Growth. Now let's get into today's conversation. When we think you're really going to love.

Carrie 00:00:48  Okay guys. So we have on this week one of those people who is been making big moves. And you might not even know about it because we live in a very large world. Okay. There are a lot of people out there, and Noel is one of those people that you need to know. She, along with Erica Saccoccia, put on an amazing event. Considering it was a first time event.

Carrie 00:01:13  Nobody would have known it was first time if they hadn't kept saying, this is our first time to do this event. The Education Empowerments conference was amazing, and without Erica and Noel, we wouldn't have had that. They met at another conference and were like, I've always wanted to do one of these. And then they went and did it because they'd already had so many other things they had done successfully. They knew that they had the bandwidth to do it. So, Noel, what's going on out in your part of the world? Where are you? What's happening today?

Noelle 00:01:49  I'm in New England. I actually live in Massachusetts. I live in Rhode Island and work in Massachusetts. I'm inside my child care center. I have over 134 students in their right now. We're doing performance reviews and raises. That's what we do in May. So it's an exciting day. So there's a lot of happiness today, which I love.

Carrie 00:02:07  And people are leaving you alone in the office because they know you're making that math.

Noelle 00:02:12  Exactly, exactly, exactly. and then we're also, our center is actually in the process of buying a 19,000 square foot church, an old shut down church in the center of town. So while I'm not dealing with my child care center, I'm working on renovating. I'm becoming a, project manager of a large, construction job, so I'm excited about that.

Carrie 00:02:35  Oh, there's a flashback.

Marie 00:02:37  Right.

Carrie 00:02:38  Okay. And I've had that, yeah. I turned a ranch into a neighborhood. and Cate helped a Girl Scout council build out new structures, new buildings.

Kate 00:02:50  Tear down old structures. Which was the bigger mess? Yes, because it was an old building with asbestos.

Noelle 00:02:57  Yeah.

Kate 00:02:57  And, Yeah. Anyway.

Carrie 00:03:01  Many people in education also do stuff in real estate because we need similar skill sets. Right.

Kate 00:03:09  Well, and sometimes we need, I don't know, a building to put that childcare centre in. And, you know, if we brought.

Carrie 00:03:17  B, right.

Kate 00:03:17  And if we brought Curtis on, Curtis would tell us why we need we all need real estate.

Kate 00:03:22  And we've got other people who'd all be like, you need real estate. So. Okay, I just thought of some other episodes.

Noelle 00:03:28  Yeah, it's another one because I can't tell you how many people reach out to me through the Directors Club that they're in the middle right now of, like, their landlord came to him and the lease just, like, jumped, and they can't afford it anymore. So I've been talking to them about I'm like, think outside the box. What kind of place could you go that people don't typically think of? And then a month later the church fell into our lap and I'm like, I think we're putting a church in a daycare.

Kate 00:03:56  Well, you know, what's funny is we just had literally a client that I talked to last week and turned over to Carrie because she was a better Carrie fit. who literally is doing the same thing. She's like. She couldn't find a facility, couldn't find a facility, and then found this church that's now been empty for like a year and a half.

Kate 00:04:13  So, like, the landlord's, like, willing to negotiate. And I'm like, okay, but here's the thing. Because at least in in where we are, we run into a lot of people that jump the gun before having a conversation with us. And so like they think, oh, changing the zoning won't be a big deal, or, oh, I can just do this and tell the people at the city. And so, like I said, that's a whole other episode. So we're going to try really hard because Carrie is like really trying hard to, like, hold her lips. And Noel's already, I can tell. But, we'll come back to those episodes. We'll do it. We'll do a real estate horror story series and success series. We gotta. We gotta do both. So with that, Noel, one of the things that I think what made it so impactful that you were able to pull this conference together, is that your team, you and Erica both have such solid teams, but your teams also had networks.

Kate 00:05:07  And so I'm going to ask you to tell us about the director's Club and teacher's Lounge, because I think you have two. Right? We do. Okay. So tell us about them and how they got started and and their future.

Noelle 00:05:19  So when I started my daycare, we're going to celebrate 20 years. we celebrated 20 years in June, of opening. But before that, I was an investment banking. And before that I had speech and language pathology degree, and it was too slow pace for me. So I went into investment banking, which was crazy fast and loved it. And then I got laid off. when Bank of America bought us. And so I started in the childcare in 2005. I own it with my sister. And so the two of us were doing it and the recession hit in zero eight. And all of a sudden, all the childcare centers in the area. I'm booming at this time, and all the childcare centers in the area are like, they've lost a ton of customers.

Noelle 00:06:00  So they reached out and they were like, do you want to buy us? Do you want to do that? And I was like, why would you want to sell? Like, I'm full and not thinking that, you know, the quality really matters. And that's why, I mean, I've, I've never had not had a waitlist in 20 years. And so I was like, well, what if I just came and met with you? And when I did, I just saw why people didn't sign up and, you know, cleaning checklists, staff morale, like professional development, all the things. And so I was like, I wonder if I should start. So I started consulting in person. And then, my friend Diane in 2014, we met on Facebook and she's from Dallas. And, she started, the National Association of Christian Women entrepreneurs. So I joined that and I was like, oh my gosh, I should do this for childcare center directors. And so we so Zoom's been cool since 2014 for me.

Noelle 00:06:59  And I have people come on board. And so now we meet twice a week. And you can just come with your problems to collaborate. Love collaborating with, childcare centers. And, on the back end in the portal, I put all my documents from Scribble Time. So if you need a parent handbook or you don't know how to write somebody up, or you don't know how to create a professional development plan, I have all that for you. And then you come to office hours and I'll show you how to execute it. Or you can hear ideas from all the other directors that come. and then, you know, when Covid hit, we lost, you know, mass exodus out of childcare. And so the biggest need that I saw in my own center, because we ended up going after, CNAs. We were like, come here, you don't have to work weekends and holidays. And so them in restaurant workers. And so we brought them in and, they're now teacher certified leading classrooms in our center.

Noelle 00:07:57  They've been here for a few years now. which has been amazing. But the learning curve. So, we took all their professional development goals, and we created workshops for them. Me and my team. And that's how the teachers lounge kind of came about. And so that's like a, a, an add on bonus as a member of the director's club. If I'm talking to somebody and they're like, oh, you know, I'm trying to get my lead to be okay with directing her staff. Oh, well, we have a podcast, we have a checklist, we have a something, just to support them, or a new teacher that was in restaurant, super friendly, but doesn't know how to get engaged in the classroom. And so we just have resources for everybody that you can imagine that would be in childcare.

Kate 00:08:40  Oh well how exciting. So how does somebody get involved in the director's chair? I know that before we came on camera, you talked a little bit about, kind of what's going to be coming up.

Kate 00:08:51  And so I know you don't necessarily have an exact date, but what are the what's the what's the new goals?

Noelle 00:08:59  So our new goals, like, so you can go to the director's club net and that has all of our stuff on it. But we're kind of refreshing because we've been doing it for 11 years. And so we're just refreshing our offerings. We have a whole brand new business framework. So if you are going to start a child care center, if you, like your documents, just haven't been updated in a long time. We have an entire framework, we that comes with all the documents, all the SOPs, all the checklists, like all the training. we also have, our team, our customers love collaborating. And so we've increased we're increasing our time on zoom. And then directors love workshops. So as a member of the director's club, you get to come to any of our workshops at no cost and we just offer a lot online and in person.

Kate 00:09:49  Well how exciting. So you said the Directors Club.

Kate 00:09:53  Net yes. And I presume this is membership driven or they pay for what they want. How does.

Noelle 00:10:01  So it's $47 a month and you get access to it all.

Kate 00:10:05  So that seems like a no brainer.

Noelle 00:10:07  It does to me.

Marie 00:10:08  Absolutely.

Carrie 00:10:10  Everybody listening should be going okay, I'm writing that down. I get director support for $47 a month, and I get a resource library with all of this stuff. It's $47 a month. Is less than you are paying for goldfish.

Kate 00:10:28  Yes. I think well, and what's great is if you go to this episode show notes, we will have links to all of Noel's information and to the, the new membership program and all of the new stuff that is coming out. and you guys might be the first ones to see the new stuff. Yes. we're going to we're going to try to make that happen. We'll see. So, Noel, I know that you talked about that. You are in business with your sister and that you came from not a child care background.

Kate 00:11:04  Kerry and I have been business partners for 25 years, and we're cousins. So it resonated a little bit. And so share with the folks who are listening that are like maybe owners by themselves, maybe they're owners with a spouse, or maybe they're thinking about getting a business partner. What might be something that you might go. Oh this is absolutely the reason why. And this is what you need to look for.

Noelle 00:11:28  I just wrote a business plan for my SBA loan for my church. And in it I wrote I had no idea 20 years ago that this was the best partnership ever. Besides it being my sister. because you, we we learn nothing about business going to college or very minimum about learning the business skills in college. And so, I felt like that was my strength that I brought to the table. And she was so well versed in preschool director, all the all the different things of operating a center that the two of us would sit down and we would just solve problems together. And they worked.

Noelle 00:12:08  And I feel like when you when you always like as a manager, I always tell people, bring on people that have better strengths than yourself because that is the best way to collaborate. It's so amazing when you're surrounded by people that know way more than you about a lot of different things. And I think that really benefited us. And then also when we did set it up, we were like, business is my lane. The classrooms are your lane. And we like have stayed to that to that philosophy. Not saying that hasn't been a few conversations in the background, but, you know, we just we collaborate really well together when, you know, when we each bring our strengths. And so now, 20 years later, she knows all the business stuff that I've taught her. And I know, you know, all the early Ed stuff. So it's been a great relationship.

Carrie 00:12:57  Well, and coming from the background of the speech pathology, there's at least one element of, okay, there's a kid with a challenge that you can go, oh, man.

Carrie 00:13:09  Hey, put me in, coach. Put me.

Kate 00:13:11  Yeah, exactly.

Noelle 00:13:13  Exactly. And I ended up going back to college to get my early ed degree because I was like, I want to be a better director. And I thought that was, like, so amazing. But then this is why I started the director's club, because I didn't learn any of the stuff I thought I was going to learn.

Carrie 00:13:26  And so what did they teach you in your degree that you were like, I didn't need to go to college for that.

Noelle 00:13:33  I think there was like a lot of, it was a lot of theory. And I'm not against theory at all, but I would love to see and I'm a huge proponent of, heading to the state House and making my voice heard frequently. I have this Friday morning email that I send out to elected officials, for 20 years now, and I'm like, enough with the philosophy. Like, we get it. But if we were implementing more or collaborating more, I think that you would learn so much more.

Noelle 00:14:03  And if we had a little trip into the business department, while we were, in early ed, I think that would be beneficial.

Kate 00:14:11  So I loved your statement, and I know that it's how you feel. So talk to me more about collaboration and maybe even how people collaborate, because I don't think everybody understands that phrase I know I have run into. So I've been working. I have a similar ish connection background kind of thing where I went from athletic training to nursing into being a business analyst to starting a registered family home. And my path just continues to to do some funky zigzag like, I don't know, I was definitely not on a singular focus.

Kate 00:14:47  Anyway.

Kate 00:14:49  and so I struggle with running into female entrepreneurs. And yes, I am absolutely going to call a spade a spade, where female entrepreneurs often see each other as competition instead of how to collaborate. And we are entrepreneurs who are serving a similar market. But there's 900,000 childcare centers in just the United States. So 990, I don't know, there's a bunch.

Kate 00:15:18  I did the math and now I've forgotten. I might have added one too many zeros.

Kate 00:15:22  But I think.

Carrie 00:15:22  There's too many zeros.

Kate 00:15:23  But that's like, wait, there's 9000 in Texas. I think there's that was too many zeros. So probably 90,000 childcare centres without the registered family homes in the United States. And so there's more than enough for us to all support each other and collaborate. And, you know, I think it's a great thing. But you mentioned something about helping directors find their, their, their people. And so what does that mean to you?

Noelle 00:15:50  So I'll, I started a child care center in North Attleboro after I started our own. And my father was like, why are you making competition? And I'm like, you have to understand, there's so many kids in our community. There's not enough childcare centers for everybody. And so I don't look at people as competition, but more like I'm offering a service that you and your family might like. But Carey might be like, well, it didn't feel right.

Noelle 00:16:17  I like this one better. And that's amazing that we have those opportunities for our families and for the students.

Carrie 00:16:23  What I think is funny is that nobody says, why does PepsiCo own both KFC and Taco Bell? Aren't those direct competitors because they both serve food?

Kate 00:16:36  And Pizza Hut?

Kate 00:16:37  Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Carrie 00:16:38  Like, nobody tells PepsiCo that they're doing it wrong, but a child care center or a child care business that owns three centers within 25 miles. People like you're making competition for yourself. No I'm not.

Kate 00:16:52  Oh.

Kate 00:16:52  Let me carry that for centers. And they were very different. Very, very different.

Noelle 00:16:56  I think they are two and I think different businesses are, you know, harder to get consistent like because if the culture is different, the people are different. But I think it's so important when we collaborate together. And I didn't realize what a big thing it was until a couple of years ago. I read a book called Changeable by James Albon, and he's a doctor at Mass General, and he talks about the importance of collaborating with one another to solve problems, behavior problems, problems with your family at home, at work.

Noelle 00:17:28  And so I love bringing people together. And we can all say, okay, like like the other day on the director's club. Shocking. We all were talking about people calling out and the volume of it. And just to go around the room and hear like tactics people were using and strategies and just like, oh, someone hears me, right is so good. But also like to get maybe an idea on a policy that you never. Oh, if I, if I had that, it would solve this. You know, so, I think that we're better together when we come together and collaborate with one another.

Kate 00:18:03  I love that. So if somebody's listening to this and they're still they're struggling. They're like, I don't know the other directors on my street.

Kate 00:18:12  Yep.

Kate 00:18:12  What would you suggest is a good place for them to start without, especially if it's out of their comfort zone or out of their thought process. They're like, I live on a street that's got literally 12 childcare centers in a three mile radius.

Kate 00:18:26  And or not just a three mile strip, not even a radius. Like it's just the just the road. And they're so different. So, so different. but I know that I'm probably the only one that knows all the directors, right? Just from a business standpoint. And they do all view each other as competition. And I'm like, no, because if I want that kind of program, I'm not going to you, you know, if I want Montessori, I'm not going to KinderCare. Yeah. And yeah, they're across the street from each other. But if I want a tiny Montessori, I'm not going to go to the Montessori. That's right across from KinderCare. I'm going to go to the one that's four doors down.

Kate 00:19:03  Yeah, it's a montessori.

Kate 00:19:05  Yeah, very different than the big Montessori that is trying to outcompete size wise and look wise and even feel wise, that of a KinderCare. And I'm like, stop trying to be your neighbor. Yeah.

Noelle 00:19:18  I always tell people to reach out to them, Email phone call if you're afraid.

Noelle 00:19:24  Try an email and just say, look, I would love to get together and collaborate and talk about things we're struggling on and what's working in the community. So in Massachusetts, we're doing that right now. We have a private Facebook group that not me, but like the state has one for everybody. And, we just the last week I was in, Taunton, mass. With five centers from Cape Cod all the way to North Attleboro, and we all talked about biggest struggles and licensing requirements that are coming up. I love doing that. I just hosted with two other centers in my town. We all shut down for a half a day, and we brought in all of 60 of our teachers together with an occupational therapist, came in and taught on sensory and behavior. And so what we did was taught the workshop, and then we completely mixed the tables up. So no one was sitting next to anybody that they knew. and that felt good. at the end. And we all sat around and collaborated on behavior issues that we're having.

Noelle 00:20:26  And we put leaders at every table. So not only do the directors get to collaborate, but if you can find ways for your teams to collaborate in things like that, and it could be basic, what's your biggest struggle right now? And everyone at the table just shares it. Or what's one big success you had and everyone can celebrate you. So when you come together and do that, the team, my team, like, loves doing like I'm the crazy one. I'm like, we're going here next week. but it like they say it all the time, they're like, this has been amazing to talk to other teachers and get ideas.

Carrie 00:21:02  Because it also gives you that feeling that you thought you were the weirdo and that maybe, maybe you weren't a good teacher. Because if you were a good teacher, then you wouldn't have kids wrestling in the block center. And so it must be something you're doing wrong. But if you're in a room and there's three other people whose kids are also wrestling in the block center, then you know, oh, it's not just me.

Carrie 00:21:27  And then you can get to that conversation of, oh, these kids are stimulating their gross motor, their large muscles. And so they want to do more with large muscles. So maybe we bring in some other large things right next to the block center for the kids to do, like balance beams or those weighted yoga balls or whatever. Yeah, but you're not going to get there if you're feeling bad about yourself because you obviously are running your block center. Wrong.

Kate 00:21:56  Yeah, exactly.

Carrie 00:21:58  It's not happening at other classrooms in your center.

Kate 00:22:01  Yep.

Noelle 00:22:02  And I always tell people when you show up, don't be afraid because everyone in the room has either had or has the same problem. You have everybody.

Kate 00:22:10  No. Where were they? Will. Yeah. Exactly right.

Noelle 00:22:14  They will. And I always tell everybody bring a notebook. And just like. Don't go in with an idea of like, oh, I'm not going to learn anything, or I always do it this way. Go in with an open mind.

Noelle 00:22:23  You have no idea what information you're going to get today. And I love watching the fast writing, and they come out with all these ideas and feel supported. I love that.

Kate 00:22:34  Well, I love you talking about your. You have three programs in your community that come together, because that was something that Kerry and I were helping programs do. Like 15 years ago before it was cool. but it was entirely out of a necessity. It was a rural town. They had five programs that were all very different. Most of them were small, and they couldn't really afford to bring a trainer in to any one of those small schools, and it almost didn't make sense. Right. You got like 11 teachers total, right? So paying somebody didn't always make sense. And so, we had a program that really wanted to bring us in to do a large half day staff training. And I'm like, great. Well, why don't you pull everybody else in? and they were the church. And I said, you guys have this huge, you know, mess hall kind of thing.

Kate 00:23:20  Let's do the training there. And it started what became a monthly training, which one of the directors said it was a great for them because they were having some high staff turnover. And what happened is everybody kept hiring each other, you know, like each other's staff.

Kate 00:23:37  Good.

Kate 00:23:37  Well, this now meant that they now knew some of those staff. They also knew what training those staff did or didn't have. And so it actually stopped people from leaving and going to other programs.

Kate 00:23:48  Just.

Carrie 00:23:48  The poaching. Because now everybody knew who actually paid attention in workshops and was invested and involved and who was in there filing their nails.

Kate 00:24:00  Yes.

Carrie 00:24:00  And then you're not going to hire the person who files their nails through the workshop.

Noelle 00:24:04  Exactly, exactly.

Carrie 00:24:06  You're like, okay, I'm going to go steal some people from retail or food service or the CNAs or, there. You know, people who are tired of doing medical coding or, you know, whatever and bring them into the industry because I think we all get so tied up in, oh, everybody I hire has to have five years experience.

Kate 00:24:24  Exactly.

Carrie 00:24:25  They gotta get it somewhere. And they may have got it at a cruddy program. Yeah, I'd rather hire new people and keep them for five years.

Kate 00:24:35  Yep.

Noelle 00:24:36  Totally agree.

Kate 00:24:37  Yeah, I think we're definitely all on board with that philosophy, because I think we've all learned it the hard way, and we've watched folks, and we probably all have seen the, and people use the term, they call it a want ad. And I'm like, that is not a want add. A want ad is, can you do it in an inch? Right. Can you can you get them excited enough to call you off of a one inch square. And that is a one ad. And so they they put up the job descriptions, which is their wish list. But I know you've had this experience and I'm sure it's been on your directors club probably way more times than they want to. Is that hiring of a lead teacher? That their viewpoint needs to have a degree and needs to have, you know, all these things, but yet we're going to pay them, you know, the equivalent of 725.

Kate 00:25:20  Like, I know Massachusetts doesn't pay that. So but whatever the, the barely what they're going to make in fast food, we're trying to to get people with a degree in for and I loved your approach and it's, you know, Kerry and I always talk about, you know, if you're at a, if you're out at a restaurant and you see the, the server who's really good with the kids and is making googly faces or, or really is relating to the parents, maybe it's not even that the kid, but they got that parent thing down.

Kate 00:25:53  Yeah.

Kate 00:25:54  Give them your business card and say if you ever don't want to work evenings and weekends.

Kate 00:25:58  Right.

Kate 00:25:58  Right.

Kate 00:25:59  So give us a call.

Carrie 00:26:00  We're happy to help.

Kate 00:26:02  Exactly. Can't say I haven't.

Noelle 00:26:05  Poached somebody from a Dunkin Donuts.

Kate 00:26:07  Yes. It doesn't I mean.

Carrie 00:26:09  There.

Kate 00:26:09  Are.

Carrie 00:26:09  Plenty of people who are good at customer service, which is a big part of our job, and we don't like to think about that. People are like, no, no, no, it's all about the education.

Carrie 00:26:20  No no, no. Even at the university level, it's not just about education. It's also about the customer service. Because, right, my professor exists.

Kate 00:26:29  And.

Carrie 00:26:31  You know, you have to have people who are good at customer service. And then we can teach them about early childhood.

Kate 00:26:37  Exactly.

Kate 00:26:38  And don't forget, customer service does include sales.

Kate 00:26:41  Everything.

Kate 00:26:42  I mean, to me, the best. If I was going to go right now and start a program from scratch, everybody in my administrative team would probably come from car sales slots.

Kate 00:26:52  Because.

Kate 00:26:53  I want them to be able to sell. Yeah. And to get people, you know, I can teach you about the kiddos if you need it. Like, in reality, those enrollment specialists, they just need to know how to sell the product and they need to know enough about your product versus the product of everybody else in the neighborhood. Right?

Carrie 00:27:11  Like, and you can find that out by pulling everybody together four times a year and having those half day trainings like Noelle was talking about.

Kate 00:27:20  So or mystery shopping, you know, like, if he doesn't like a good mystery shop. You know, there's there's not enough people doing that.

Carrie 00:27:27  And yeah, and we've we've actually partnered with some people who are doing child care mystery shopping.

Kate 00:27:34  I love that.

Carrie 00:27:35  Because that is something that we are a $60 billion industry. And there's like four people in the entire country who mystery shop professionally. That doesn't make any sense. There are hundreds of mystery shoppers in the convenience store business.

Kate 00:27:54  Right.

Carrie 00:27:55  Outside of gasoline and cigarettes. We have about the same amount of revenue as convenience stores, So why are we not secret shopping? Why are we not doing this?

Noelle 00:28:08  Yeah, that's a great idea. That is a good idea, I love that.

Kate 00:28:11  Well, I mean, that's the same with the temp services, right? Like there's not enough temp services. Carrie and I predated our. So we were substitutes on schedule, so SOS.

Kate 00:28:21  Yes.

Kate 00:28:22  And it was great. We we learned a lot. We did a great job.

Kate 00:28:25  We hired people. We hired people for Carrie's program constantly. this was pre smartphones. So landlines and pagers, and we weren't yet 30. So there's, there's a component.

Kate 00:28:38  It was that.

Carrie 00:28:39  Short lived business. But we learned a lot. And we have a lot of respect for the companies that are continuing to do it now. And we think everybody should have a contract with at least one substitute service.

Kate 00:28:51  Or.

Kate 00:28:51  Start their own in their community so that they're.

Kate 00:28:54  Providing.

Kate 00:28:54  For everybody else on the street.

Carrie 00:28:56  We talked to somebody about that recently, and they have basically a nanny agency And they provide substitutes for childcare centers and they provide babysitting and nannying services.

Kate 00:29:10  So all.

Noelle 00:29:11  Great business.

Carrie 00:29:12  And and I was like, this is a perfect partnership. People who want to have it, you know, they've run their center for ten years and they're kind of like, okay, what what? I want to do something new. I need a little bit of excitement. This is like the perfect extension, which is what we did.

Carrie 00:29:27  Substitutes on schedule is because I needed it. I had three schools, I needed substitutes, and our the substitute service in town was constantly telling me they didn't have anybody. And I was like, we're a college town. There are college kids who would be happy to pick up an extra, you know, $50 on a day or $100 on a day. I bet we can fix this. And we did. We just didn't have all of the things in that we would put in now if we were doing it. Okay, guys, I hate to tell you this, but we're almost at 30 minutes because we've been in the industry for 80 bazillion years and we've been supporting directors for 80 bazillion years. We have so many things in common and so many things to talk about.

Kate 00:30:12  I think Carrie's saying that we were talking too much. Noel.

Kate 00:30:15  Oh. I'm sorry. Yeah. Now, what.

Carrie 00:30:18  I was saying is, I think we have. If we go any longer, we're going to be more wide ranging, and we're not going to be able to have good show notes.

Carrie 00:30:26  So I'm going to say let's stop here and we'll remind everybody you need to spend the $47 award. According to me, Carrie Casey. I say stop if you need to not buy as many goldfish put, you know, get some Cheez-Its instead.

Kate 00:30:44  And I know I was like, so.

Kate 00:30:45  Should I tell everybody you're talking about the snack food?

Kate 00:30:48  Because I felt like I'm like.

Carrie 00:30:50  Yes, get the Cheez-Its instead of the goldfish and sign up for the Directors Club. And, we will talk to people again with Noel. I have no doubt about it. I was a member of the director club, in the last couple of years of having my school and, I it's a great resource, guys, and it has changed and evolved over the years. We used to get little boxes. Now it's, you know, there's more online stuff. But, guys, Noel is a resource that you need to be accessing. We will help you with the long form training. Noel will help you with the ongoing monthly maintenance of keeping your sanity in place.

Kate 00:31:37  Thank you.

Kate 00:31:38  And if you learn something from today's show, please share the show with someone who needs to know. And if you would like to be on an episode, go to Kate and Kerry at Childcare conversations.com and email us, or fill out an application at Childcare care conversations. And don't forget those three W's at the front. Otherwise, it doesn't like you. And we would love to have you on. And hopefully you have parked your car and it is time to get out. And we can't wait to see you next week.

Marie 00:32:14  Thanks for tuning in. We love bringing you real talk and fresh insight from the world of early childhood education. Be sure to follow us on social media to stay connected and catch all of the latest episodes. And if you're planning a conference, training, or special event, Kate and Kerry would love to speak to your audience. You can learn more about their keynote sessions and workshops at Kate and Caricom. If you learned something today. Share the show and leave us a review below.

Marie 00:32:45  We'll see you next time on Child Care Conversations.