311: Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women Leading the Way in Early Education With Jaime Rechkemmer

In this episode of Childcare Conversations, Kate and Carrie sit down with leadership consultant Jaime Rechkemmer for a warm, insightful chat about women’s leadership in early childhood education. Jamie shares her journey, the power of informal mentoring, and how real growth often comes from everyday connections—not just formal titles. 

They discuss the challenges women face in balancing career and family, and why supporting each other is key. If you’re looking for practical tips and a little inspiration to boost your confidence as a childcare leader, this episode is like a coffee date with friends who truly get it!

Check out this month's sponsor at ECENAC.com

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Transcript

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Kate Young (00:49)
All right, it's more of January's awesomeness and we are so excited to have Jamie Rechenheimer as a guest today. And we are gonna talk about all things leadership, but from a very unique perspective. And I just love what Jamie has to say. And so Jamie, do us just a start, like a little tidbit of how you ended up in the industry and then we will go from there.

Jamie Rechinheimer (01:15)
Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for having me. ⁓ So grateful to be here. ⁓ How did I end up in the industry? You know, I think I ended up in the industry like so many of us do. I just had a tremendous affection for children and I needed to pay for college. ⁓ But also, you know, I grew up in a time when I was really trying to balance this sense of

being incredibly independent, being incredibly bright, being incredibly motivated with still what I would describe as a ⁓ business community that kind of kept women in a certain place in the business community. And I saw an opportunity in early ed, my earliest experiences, I was being mentored by women and led by women, businesses were being owned and operated by women like,

I just immediately thought this was gonna be a safe space for me to go and grow. And on top of that, I got to do something good for children and families and other women. And so it just, it was a great fit for me. And that's where I landed.

Carrie Casey (02:32)
So that just brings up for me one of my mom's motivating quotes, which was, but Ginny, you're making good money for a woman. And that motivated her to have multiple multimillion dollar companies. Who was being told that when she was working in the legal industry. know.

Jamie Rechinheimer (02:53)
Yeah, well nobody told me that, Carrie. Nobody said

Kate Young (02:55)
EHA!

Jamie Rechinheimer (02:56)
in early education, Jamie, you're making good money for-

Carrie Casey (02:58)
You

Well, but it's that concept of as a business woman, you shouldn't expect very much because of that second part, the business woman. If you are a businessman, we would expect you to be making more, but because you're a business woman, don't expect to make much and don't expect to get much leadership, much support, many opportunities.

Jamie Rechinheimer (03:03)
Yeah!

Right. Right. Yep.

Yeah.

Kate Young (03:25)
part of the conversation.

Carrie Casey (03:28)
Okay, go drive.

Kate Young (03:32)
So Jamie, when we were talking just a minute ago before we jumped on to record, I loved what you said about the mentors and the role models that you had in this industry. Because right now, if I was somebody coming into this industry, depending on what conference I came into, I'd probably look at the people on stage and go, okay, they're all dudes.

Jamie Rechinheimer (03:58)
Yep.

Kate Young (03:58)
And you grew up, and so did Carrie and I, when that was not the case. Like you didn't see them and you sure didn't even see them in leadership roles, right? So tell me a little bit about, maybe they're specific people, maybe there's just a scenario, but something that made you go, this is, I'm gonna be able to be a leader here. And I loved your first part of your story, which is you did the traditional track in what, two years or something, right?

Jamie Rechinheimer (04:23)
Yeah.

Well, so I want to take a step outside of childcare for just a moment. And that when I was a student, right, in high school and in college, I was led to a more professional track. I was led into medicine. ⁓ But even in medicine, I was committed to pediatrics. And so some of the early courses I was taking,

were still centered around kids and families. And then I had a professor that said, quite frankly, dear, you're never gonna make it through medical school. So let's move on to something else. And as an educator looking back on that, I'm like, holy heck, that wasn't very kind. where I, seriously, but where I landed that afternoon,

Carrie Casey (05:03)
Woo-hoo!

or professional.

Jamie Rechinheimer (05:15)
was in front of a woman named Marie Burkhauser who was a child life student. She carried around a fairy wand and she just kind of glittered life. And she's the first woman that I really remember identifying as a mentor or an inspiration because everything about her said, I love what I'm doing in life. And whether it's work,

or play or study, it didn't matter. I love what I'm doing in life. And she was in child life and I thought, okay, maybe this is a place that I could land. And so I started studying child life, which then led me into childcare and working in childcare to pay my bills. And so, but very quickly, I think when you inherently have...

leadership capacity and when you are inherently motivated to be your best every day, you can move through some career paths pretty quickly. And in early ed in particular, right, I showed up in the classroom and I was halfway decent at it. And so they gave me some leadership responsibilities. And when they found out I could talk to teachers and parents, they made me a director like that. That was kind of how it goes. And I bet a lot of people that are listening can see that in their own career path.

The problem was that I was very young and although I might have presented myself with some leadership skills, I didn't really have any. And so when it was time for me to actually run a business and manage people and deal with stress and crisis and change and conflict and connections, I wasn't particularly prepared for that. And so my career ⁓ in a childcare center, directly serving kids and families,

was kind of short and sweet. But what it also gave me was a lifelong respect and admiration for those two roles in early education. And everything that I have done since then has been in support of teachers and directors, hands down, like always, because they're kind of the lifeblood of what we do in early ed. It's also where most of the women are, right? So you said, Kate,

Kate Young (07:31)
Absolutely.

Jamie Rechinheimer (07:37)
In my earliest career, ⁓ not only did I work for women, ⁓ not only were the roles maybe two, three, four above me women, the agencies that were supporting early education, childcare resource and referral, or training and technical assistance, advocacy, all led by women, associations led by women.

Right? And those women had careers that were just phenomenal, but they were like so ready to talk to young folks and they were so ready to bring folks under their wings. Like, I, know, in particular, a woman named Doc Counts Scoggins was really important to me in my life. A director, Michelle Sullivan, really important in my life. ⁓ Dana Ramsey, a really important woman in my life. Like these women were all willing to tell me what they did to

to be really good at who they are. And I'm not sure that we do that as much as we used to. And I kind of think we are missing out on raising up a generation of women who know how to lead.

Kate Young (08:50)
think that's really valid. I feel that every single day. Carrie and I have had this conversation when we start talking to other women of our generation and we all start talking about, yeah, in about five or six years I'm gonna retire. And I keep thinking, but what are we doing to prep the next group to come in ⁓ and who are they seen as role models? And yes, social media has a place, but...

⁓ As an industry, we need more than just influencers, right? And so we need the women with the power to... So I actually went to one of my very first women's leadership conferences probably 30 years ago and the president of the Borden Foundation, so Borden Dairy. Yep, all those things. ⁓ So she was the president of the corporation at that point in time.

Jamie Rechinheimer (09:39)
Gordon, Korean dairy, yes.

Kate Young (09:46)
She started out as the administrative assistant to some VP and worked her way up the food chain. And she said it was her job to not climb the corporate ladder, but to climb the corporate ladder and then reach behind her and grab the people behind her and help those women up and so that they could, you know, all move up together. And I don't think we do that as much as, because I think that the path you talked about, that educator to director,

is where most of us get stuck and we're like, okay, well, I'm the director, so what do I do now? And even when we talk entrepreneurship and ownership of businesses, that's not led often from a discussion of woman to woman, ⁓ or it's only talked about on such a large scale that sometimes we don't think that that's in our scope. Go ahead, Carrie.

Carrie Casey (10:32)
Well...

I mean, also, we hear about these chains of, you 10 or, you know, multiple centers and we, we hear the people talk about how it's so great that this woman started this chain. But if you look at who's in the leadership of those chains now, it is not a woman. It is the woman's son or it is some venture capital dude bro.

who has come in and taken over that organization. And that is very disappointing to me, is that these businesses became multimillion, sometimes even billion dollar organizations because of a woman's leadership. And she didn't find a way to support someone else, another woman into that leadership position. And I hadn't even thought about it.

until relatively recently when we were having this realization that there's a lot of women who had that support, who had that leg up, leg out, you know, hand up, who were in their fifties and sixties.

And I'm not seeing a whole bunch in their thirties and forties who are standing on stages, who are being the keynotes, who are being on the boards of the associations. I'm seeing still people my age. And I'm like, I was 24 when I got on my first board. What is wrong with these people? Like, how do we get more people in their twenties and thirties onto those boards?

How do we get more of them to be trainers, to be public speakers? I hadn't noticed it. And then once I noticed it, it's just staring me in the face every day. I had noticed the shift from the keynotes. All the keynotes at NAEYC in the 80s and 90s were women. That is not who's on the NAEYC stage today. That's not who's on most of the stages today.

People who listen religiously to this podcast. Yes, I know we've said this before, but, but it's more than just.

Kate Young (12:49)
anybody's

ear, unfortunately, Jamie. So I know we've bent yours. You're not the first. You are not the last. We had a conversation.

Carrie Casey (12:54)
But it's broader,

it's broader than the keynote.

Jamie Rechinheimer (13:00)
Yeah, so I was taking some notes because there are a few things that you said, Carrie, I didn't want to forget. And I knew you were going to say a lot of good things. Right. So a couple of things. One, you're exactly right in that we see the big organizations, right. And the big organizations today are very often led in some capacity, maybe not entirely, but in some capacity.

Carrie Casey (13:08)
⁓

Jamie Rechinheimer (13:29)
by men. And what I like to remind myself on the regular is that those large organizations still only represent about 15 % of the early education space. And so there are so many leaders of small businesses

whether it's family childcare, whether it's small center-based childcare, whether it's franchise organization, right? There are so many leaders of small businesses that are women, but women in small businesses, particularly in early education, haven't necessarily organized themselves because they've been so freaking busy running their business because they don't necessarily have someone

behind the scenes who is doing all the other parts, right? So I think that like the household and all of those things. And I am generalizing and I know that there are a lot of men that play those roles in their households and in their lives. And I am not diminishing that at all. But I think that overall we have to look at it that way. ⁓ And so, one thing that always stands out to me are the

Kate Young (14:30)
and all their day jobs,

Jamie Rechinheimer (14:52)
the groups of four or five women that have really gathered themselves and connected themselves and lift each other up in the operations of their small or large businesses. And I have been really grateful and so privileged to have kind of been welcomed into one of those groups in the last four or five years of my life. You know, these are four women that have built big and small businesses together.

Carrie Casey (15:15)
Mm-hmm.

Jamie Rechinheimer (15:21)
each of them independently, but always having each other's backs, always, you know, being a champion in the room for the others when they aren't there. And they're in the same state, in the same industry, in the same city, right? And they still lift each other up because they know they're better together than independently and at odds with one another. And I watched them and I learned how to be

a better woman and a better friend and a better business person because of that. And so I think we all need those people, right?

Carrie Casey (15:54)
Yeah.

And, and I'm not saying I don't like the guys that are my friends or the guys in the industry. I just think it's a little bit like, why are there not second and third generation women running those businesses? ⁓ because we've got some great friends who are guys in the industry and I'm not saying we shouldn't have guys in the industry. I'm always preaching more guys in the industry, but it's that leadership and who is on the stage.

Jamie Rechinheimer (16:01)
Right.

Carrie Casey (16:27)
and who is who is who is inspiring others.

Kate Young (16:27)
So, but it kind of reminds me of even public school.

Jamie Rechinheimer (16:27)
Thank you.

Kate Young (16:32)
But even in public school, that same thing has kind of happened. I mean, I don't know if you guys remember that in your elementary school years, right? All of your elementary school teachers were all women and you might have had, might have had a female principal. But a lot of times the only place you saw the guy in the building was he was the principal and the gym teacher, right? And...

Jamie Rechinheimer (16:37)
Yes.

Kate Young (16:54)
I feel like that has just continued to cascade. And I have conversations with ⁓ men who are in elementary education and they're like, yeah, I was here for two weeks and somebody wanted to make me an assistant principal. And he's like, and I just wanted to work with the kids. so, but we don't, and if you look, don't know if the last time you sat on a nonprofit board and I don't care what industry it is, it's been interesting because I'll sit on those boards and all of a sudden.

there'll be like 10 females and there'll be two guys and all of a sudden the president and president elect are the two dudes. And I'm like, why? Like I raised my hand. I'm like, why did you just nominate them? Like the one guy's been here two weeks. So I think part of it is as women in leadership, we need to A, call a spade a spade, right? I do think there's a component of those of us in our fifties. We do need to stand up and say, Hey, you know,

you might be a 30 or 40 year old female, but you can do this job just as well, if not better than he can, you know, and we need to celebrate those who are taking those leadership roles and giving them the leadership and the visibility when it's appropriate. And we need to encourage the guys to be there beside us, but not to necessarily take the reins. And I think there's a lot of guys who would do that if we asked them. In other words, like,

Jamie Rechinheimer (18:14)
if we ask them.

Kate Young (18:16)
You know, it's like, hey, instead of being president, will you be my vice president and help me? Because again, when we start talking about advocacy, which is a totally different squirrel than where we thought we were going to go in this conversation. But from an advocacy standpoint, we have a lot of men in the industry who are advocating and they're advocating on all kinds of levels. But and yes, a lot of those politicians are men, right? So a dude to do got it.

But the voice of the parent who needs them, the voice of the educator that needs them, the voice of the majority of the owners that need them are female. as females, generally, we don't seem to have the confidence to be in those advocacy roles. And we just kind of step aside and let the guy do it, where it'd be great if he kind of put his arm around and said, okay, come on, you're coming with me.

Jamie Rechinheimer (19:06)
Yeah.

Yep.

Yep.

Kate Young (19:11)
And

like Carrie and I were talking and I realized that it's been 20 years since I was really, really, like, I mean, I was hugely involved in afterschool advocacy and getting afterschool funding 22 years ago. And I haven't really done a whole lot of that since then, but 22 years ago put me in my mid thirties, had to do the math, my mid to early thirties. And so that's when I was,

Jamie Rechinheimer (19:32)
Yeah.

Kate Young (19:40)
serving on all of the, by then I'd already served on boards. I'd been president of boards. And I think that our generation, so if you were over the age of 50, go find yourself a mentee instead of waiting for them to find you, go find them and get them on that board with you. Get them on that committee with you, bring them to DC with you, whether it's NCCC, I don't know, regardless of whatever the initials of the organization, I'm just going to go like,

Jamie Rechinheimer (19:55)
Yes.

Carrie Casey (20:09)
Thank

Kate Young (20:09)
You know,

there is an organization out there that needs your voice and they need to hear you. And if you need to get some roommates, because maybe you're in your mid twenties and you can't afford that plane ride and that hotel and that and that, well, tell somebody, because you know what, these organizations, they will figure out how to get you there if you want to share your voice. I am so off my soapbox. But Jamie, you have had a very interesting career. And I'm just going to, I'm like, I'm going to totally write.

Jamie Rechinheimer (20:31)
That's

Right, the ship? No, the ship is heading in a good direction.

Kate Young (20:38)
I'm gonna try anyway. ⁓

It is, but you had such a great story. So you have done some really unique things in childcare in the last X number of years. And why don't you share a couple of those and how that led you to what you do now, because now you are coming in in a whole different leadership consultant role that.

I isn't always dominated by women and I'm loving the fact that I keep seeing your face show up. So.

Jamie Rechinheimer (21:11)
thank you for that. And you're right. I had a very non-traditional career. And I think there's still ⁓ a place to connect it to what we were just talking about. You both said a couple of things. Carrie, you said you were active on boards when you were 24, right? And Kate, you said it was you were in your mid-30s when you were beginning to find this advocacy voice. know, when I was 24,

⁓ I was a single human. had no responsibilities for anyone else. I was still being supported to a large degree by the adults in my life, either through kindness or grocery gift cards or health insurance, you whatever it might be. I had a lot of flexibility to work for less and do more and maybe take some risks because there were no consequences for other people.

Carrie Casey (21:56)
Yeah.

Jamie Rechinheimer (22:08)
Today, a lot of young women don't have that opportunity, right? A lot of young women have taken on big responsibilities much earlier in their lives, but also a lot of young women have accrued a lot of debt earlier in their lives, right? Like there's a lot of real practical reasons why sometimes our young early educators can't do some of the things that maybe we were able to do. Kate, you said in your thirties, women are waiting so much longer to have children.

Right? And so in that 30 bracket where you were finding some time to add an additional responsibility, a lot of women are just figuring out at 30 how to be a mom and a career person. And then it's like another responsibility.

Kate Young (22:53)
Well, but okay, so let me let me back you up to that because I'm gonna argue I did that I was 35 when I had child number four and So I had you know

Jamie Rechinheimer (23:01)
All right. Yeah.

Carrie Casey (23:02)
So she was walking

the halls of Congress with a baby in a, with a baby in a sling. Yeah.

Jamie Rechinheimer (23:06)
With a baby. Yeah.

And kudos to you. And what a great story that is because I think there are still a lot of women who feel like they can't, right? It's like you could have had it all, but you don't have to have it all. so there's just like so much about the life of a woman has changed. And yet our access to leadership opportunities hasn't, you know? So it's like, wait a minute. But.

Carrie Casey (23:27)
Absolutely.

Ha ha ha!

Kate Young (23:34)
But I think there's a

component. think that's what this dialogue is really helpful about is like we hear the leadership, we read the leadership books, see, we attend the workshops of inspirational leadership, somebody on a stage, right? But we're not actually saying, here's what this means in your day job. And that's why I'm like going, you talking about mentoring now has me like, I'm like, okay, so there have been people who have approached me in the last few years. And I just kind of thought, I do not have time for that.

Jamie Rechinheimer (23:37)
Yeah.

Right. Yeah.

Kate Young (24:03)
And now I'm like thinking to myself, I have to take a step back and I have to go find those girls because they were, they were in their early twenties at the time. And I'm like, I need to go find them and go, you know what, you said you wanted to do this. I don't know where you are on that journey. Let's make it happen. Because I think that that informal mentoring, ⁓ again, we don't talk about it. We talk about leadership, but we don't talk about the practical strategies of that. Like we go mindset.

Jamie Rechinheimer (24:08)
Yep. Yep.

Yeah.

And that's it.

Yeah. No, you hit the nail on the head.

Kate Young (24:32)
I mean, it's in our book too, right? It's in our

leadership book, right? Our leadership book has mindset. I'm throwing that shade even at ourselves, right? But one of the things in our books for over 20 years has been find your mentor, find your person, network, network, network. And we tell people how to do that, but it's also chapter 26 and 27 of the book. It isn't chapter one, two, and three.

Jamie Rechinheimer (24:58)
Well, and I think that you've hit two really important points. One is informal mentoring. We talk about leadership very theoretical and this philosophy of leadership, but when it comes down to the rubber hitting the road and what are the actions that you take.

to demonstrate that mindset, those things start to get really obscure and really abstract and they fall into the gray and we forget about them. Informal mentoring to me is making sure, like you said, that there's always somebody in front of me and behind me that I'm talking to about my work and not just my successes, but lots of my mistakes. And also having women that I can sound

things out with, right? That I can, and because in the process of talking about what I'm doing, how I'm doing it, why I'm doing it, where I'm doing it, what's going right, what's going wrong in the process of talking about all of that, not only am I teaching somebody else how to do it, but I'm learning from their feedback and I'm able to be very agile and make quick changes. And so as we talk,

about my career, that has been the key. In every phase of my career, I have had a woman who has one, been willing to listen to me and let me talk through my successes and my challenges, but also has been willing to do the same. Like to be my mentor, not by telling me all the things they did right, but by really letting me live their experience through them, right?

⁓ I worked in a curriculum company, Sandra Duncan, who's still in the space today. Sandra Duncan, I mean, she's talked to me every single day about what was going on in the business. I had no part of it. was just talk to me about what's going on in the business. And if this were you, what would you do? And how do you react to that? And no, you don't have a role that has any influence or responsibility, but I still value what you have to say. And I want you to hear.

what's going on behind the scenes, because one day it might matter. And it did matter. Years down the road, when I worked for a large childcare company and we bought the curriculum, right? Like talk about full circle, you know, I built it, I trained on it, I sold it as a salesperson. And then 10 years later, got to go back and say, that was so good and we still use it. And now we want to buy it so that we can keep making it better.

Carrie Casey (27:25)
Ha

Jamie Rechinheimer (27:43)
but I understood all the mechanics of the business to be able to inform that decision. I went into nonprofit and worked with Doc Count Scoggins and I was a coach and she modeled for me how to be a curious, inquisitive and forthright coach. Don't throw any BS out in early education. There's enough of that in the rest of the world. We're gonna be straightforward. We're gonna do what's right for kids and families. We're gonna treat people respectfully.

⁓ and she modeled that as a leader so that I felt it and I could give it back and give it out and give it away, you know? ⁓ as a childcare executive, I started in a very small, simple role and I was continually handed new responsibilities, not just because I asked for them or did them well, but, but when I screwed up, I owned my mistake and fixed it.

Carrie Casey (28:23)
Yep.

Jamie Rechinheimer (28:43)
I didn't get scared, I didn't leave, I didn't pass the buck, I didn't make excuses. And there were some big mistakes. Sometimes it costs money, sometimes it costs workforce, sometimes it costs families. There were mistakes that I made and everybody will, but I always felt like Dana gave me this place where I can learn and grow. And because she did that, that's the way that I treat the people that I work with in all capacities now.

⁓ And so I think that the key of it is none of those women said, I'm going to be your mentor, Jamie, right? None of them called me up and said, hey, I'm pretty cool. I need to, you know, I think I've got a lot to teach someone and I'd like that to be you. Right.

Carrie Casey (29:21)
You ⁓

Ha ha ha!

Kate Young (29:34)
love that. I don't know why, but that just cracks me up.

Carrie Casey (29:34)
Well, I think that's well, because

Jamie Rechinheimer (29:37)
Yeah.

Carrie Casey (29:37)
that whole we tell people to go get a mentor and they think that this is going to be a conversation they have at a coffee shop and they're going to say, I want you to be a mentor and nine times out of 10, somebody asks someone else to be their mentor. That person's going to go running for the Hills. But if you say, you know, I really appreciate the work you're doing in this place.

Jamie Rechinheimer (29:54)
Yeah.

Carrie Casey (30:02)
Can I ask you some questions about it? Or can I offer you some of my man hours to help make that happen? That's how you get a mentor is by asking intelligent questions or by volunteering to assist them.

Jamie Rechinheimer (30:18)
Well, and know, since I became a recovering childcare executive, that's what I like to call myself these days, you know, about two years ago, I left corporate childcare and moved into an independent space, consulting, right? That's a big, big bad word that nobody really understands what it means. ⁓ But, you know, the first six months every day,

Carrie Casey (30:22)
Yeah.

Jamie Rechinheimer (30:47)
I called someone I didn't know, someone that I followed on LinkedIn or a business owner or a person who had worked for a competing childcare company all those years that I never felt like I could actually talk to because we kept our secrets, right? Like every day I called someone new and pretty well started the conversation with, hey, I've kind of done something a little stupid. I left my job and now I...

Carrie Casey (31:04)
Mm-hmm.

Jamie Rechinheimer (31:16)
I need to know what's next. I've got some ideas. What do you think about that idea? ⁓ You've known me for a long time. What do you think I have to offer this space? you're out there in the world. What are problems that need to be solved and gaps that need to be filled? And when I heard of something, I would call and say, hey, can I help with that? And we didn't talk about.

Carrie Casey (31:17)
You

Jamie Rechinheimer (31:43)
a salary and we didn't talk about a calendar and we didn't talk about a tax form. It was just, hey, I'd really like to help with that because in helping with that, I'm gonna learn something and maybe that's gonna move me towards a job with wages. ⁓ I wanted to understand franchises and so I found a franchise owner that was willing to very

Carrie Casey (31:59)
Yeah.

Jamie Rechinheimer (32:09)
very openly share with me. How did their business form? What are their successes? What are their challenges? How is it different? Because I was operating a small business as a consultant. I'd never done that before. The closest thing that I could think of as a small business was a franchise. mean, you know, and so I just, look for people who are willing to share their stories. And again, like you said, just,

Carrie Casey (32:22)
Mm-hmm.

Jamie Rechinheimer (32:38)
answer my questions. ⁓ And so far, no one has hung up on me. And I think that's the maybe most important thing to share is it was terrifying to take risks and it is still terrifying to call people I don't know. And it is still terrifying to show up at a conference that I've never attended and be a speaker in front of an audience full of people that I have no idea what they're gonna expect of me. But I...

I have survived every one of those first worst days and no one has hung up on me. Even the seat in those. Like, you know that? Yeah. So.

Carrie Casey (33:10)
You

Kate Young (33:12)
Well, I love that. I love that.

Well, I think that is just a great testimony to being willing to put yourself out there. And I know I've got like five other things. I loved it. Like we didn't get to go down because we found some rabbit holes and some soap boxes. ⁓ However, we're going to have to make those on another episode because right now we are already in my long winded versions of episode coverage today. So I'm going to let Carrie

⁓ remind everybody what their next steps are.

Carrie Casey (33:43)
Your next steps are to check the doobly-doo, also known as the show notes, to get Jamie's contact information so that she can someday call you up after she's made a contact with you on LinkedIn and share the show with someone else who needs to know what we talked about today. Someone who maybe you want to reach out to as a mentor or someone you want to reach out to as a mentee. Either way, have a cup of coffee.

Kate Young (34:09)
Or have a cup of coffee!

Carrie Casey (34:12)
and ask them an intelligent question. And of course, go in, write a review of this podcast, because this was another really good one, I have to say. I keep saying, this is one of my favorites. We've got to stop saying that because it's going to lose all meaning. But I think this was a really good conversation about an issue we need to talk about in childcare. What are we doing to build up new leaders in an industry that is 94 %?

Jamie Rechinheimer (34:24)
Right.

Carrie Casey (34:41)
to 97 depending on the survey, female dominated. How are we building more female leaders in this female dominated industry? If you've got answers, text us, we wanna hear them. Or come on the show and we'll have another conversation with you and we will talk to you in a few more days.