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All It's Quacked Up to Be
All It's Quacked Up to Be
Building a Preschool Empire: The Success Story of Julie Roy
Ever wondered how a small Montessori preschool in a church basement could grow into a thriving chain of seven centres? Our guest for today, Julie Roy, a serial entrepreneur and childcare scaling expert, has done just that. She shares her thrilling journey navigating the challenges of expansion, acquiring culturally diverse schools, and maintaining excellence across all locations.
Julie doesn't shy away from the gritty details of her journey. She recalls the hair-raising experience of turning around a school in disarray in just nine months, eventually hailing it as one of her favourite locations. She also shines a light on the critical role of a dedicated enrollment specialist in ensuring consistency and meeting expectations. Julie's story is one of determination, grit and an unfailing commitment to quality.
However, growing a business isn't just about strategies and operations. Julie underscores the importance of effective leadership communication, valuing feedback, and maintaining transparency. She gives a nod to personality tests as a tool for understanding and managing team dynamics. And as a cherry on top, Julie also shares her insights on exit strategy and the importance of leaving a legacy of quality that endures after you. This episode is packed with wisdom you wouldn't want to miss if you're a childcare business owner or entrepreneur seeking inspiration and practical tips for scaling your own venture.
Thanks for tuning in to All. It's Quacked Up to Be a podcast by Line Leader. I'm your host, sierra Rossing, and today I'm joined by Julie Roy, a serial entrepreneur and childcare scaling expert. Julie has been an owner operator for 29 years probably longer at this point. She began her small Montessori preschool in the basement of a church and quickly grew her business to over seven locations. She later sold those schools and then moved her family to Omaha, nebraska, to take over a small set of schools, which she grew to over 10 locations in three years. In this episode, we talk about exactly how she managed to do that, the tools she used to get there and the lessons that she learned along the way. Let's dive in. So where are you in Japan today? Are you back home? I'm home.
Speaker 2:I'm home. Yeah, we got home a couple well the end of July, so just been busy with kiddos and doing all the things for back to school and getting a move to college and getting the little started and, yeah, we're full swing now. Wow, yeah, wow.
Speaker 1:So you've had. I was looking at your bio online and the way you've done your children's names with all the X's yeah crazy, it was so cool. Oh my gosh. So you've got four total. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Xavier, xander, zane and Zoe.
Speaker 1:That is so cool. The Zoe one really stuck out to me. I've never seen a spelling like that before. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we have two dots on the E, so we really destroyed her, her name.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, oh my gosh, which one is the one that's in college now?
Speaker 2:The both the total to start both in college now. So, Xavier is in second year college and Xander is starting. He just started a month ago. So yeah, so two out of four have moved on. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1:Is that exciting, or are you kind of like no, come back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what? I'm super excited for them. I mean, I think, as parents, we just really prepare them for this day, and so I feel like we've done all the things we could do to create that background and balance for them. So now it's time for them to fly and figure out life. I think they're ready by the time they go to college. They want to be out and they're ready to have freedom and try some responsibility, and I think that, yeah, both of them have done super well. They've adjusted really great, yeah. So I'm just super proud of them for sure.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Well, I always like to start off the podcast with a question, but you know, given your, you have four children to pull an answer from as well, so I'll change the question a little bit. Are there any educators, either from your childhood or your children's, that you remember, really stuck out to you for some reason?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a few of them. Actually one for me particularly, but for my kiddos I would say my son's fifth grade teacher really stood out, my daughter's third grade teacher there was just some really great, really great educators we've been, you know, super lucky with. We had incredible preschool teachers, obviously in the Montessori schools we owned. All of those teachers were amazing. You know they had our kiddos from six weeks, you know, actually probably a little earlier. I think I snuck them in a little earlier with me, but you know just the dedication and just all the things that they were able to give them early on, just super, super grateful for all of them helping us raise these kiddos. It's definitely a village effort. I feel like some of those connections were really important to my kiddos for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean, were any of those educators from? I know you've got an interesting start in the industry, so were any of those educators from your first center you opened up or was just new back?
Speaker 2:then Almost most of my educators were from the Canadian schools. Obviously, the kids did most of their early years in Canada with us. So most of the educators, the preschool educators, were over in Canada.
Speaker 2:Not necessarily my first school, because Xavier would have just been born in my first school, so it was 20 years ago now so it's a bit of a while back, but definitely in my Canadian schools my Grand Marist School, my LaSalle School, my Lakeshore School like all the kids went to all of those schools as we moved around the city and grew the platform of schools as well as just great impact of the directors that we had there, exchanges with our kiddos, their kiddos right, we grew up with each other pretty much. And then when we came over here, I would say, like Zoe's third grade teacher was here in Omaha, you know, Xander's fifth grade teacher was in Canada, but yeah, I mean just kind of everywhere. So, yeah, as our journey progressed, we just had some really, really amazing folks, you know, alongside us. So that was, yeah, just super grateful for all of them in their own way, you know, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:And I know I mean I did get to hear you speak here recently, I think less than a month ago now and the story of your, you know, opening your first school like it could be its own movie, yeah, so it's pretty crazy.
Speaker 2:I'm writing a book right now. I'm actually I was just editing the final version this morning and then it goes to like professional editing and you know copyright and all that stuff. So but yeah, I mean, that story is really, you know, impactful about, like in terms of who we are. It really it really signifies kind of where we started, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean it had the entry had a little bit of a fear factor that in the back alley deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's quite the story. Can you share a little bit of? You know what was like going through your head opening your first school, the barriers you had to go through For sure.
Speaker 2:So you know, the very, very first time I did anything on my own was in the basement of my mom's house. That was our very, very first kind of early adventure into providing, you know, montessori, preschool services. So it was just a summer camp. I did it in the basement of my mom's home and you know she was like, hey, like you're not going to do this in here forever, right? So so I quickly kind of thought, hey, if I want to do this, I have to find a location that we'll be able to do this in and it needs to be decently priced, because I don't have a performer, I don't have enrolled students for the year yet. You know all the things that you need when you're starting out. I had no money. That was a huge part of it, so yeah, so we had to look for a location. I had to secure some kind of funds in order for us to be able to to start to buy materials, right, all the things. I actually started looking around town to see like what the availability would be for a spot and we did find that sure, actually, that let us come in and rent their space. So, but before that we had to go through zoning and approvals for the state and the city to allow us, you know, to be in the church and provide childcare services. And we had to get licensing, approvals and all the things. But in the meantime, or a kind of beforehand, I was like, well, I need to secure money first, because I can't sign a lease if I don't have cash. And so didn't want to ask our family. I was always like you know, I can just do this on my own. Let me figure this out. I was a bit of a black sheep in terms of you know what the sort of, what the regular sort of W2 lifestyle would normally be for someone, and I was like I just want to work for myself, you know. So, anyways, I found this ad in the paper and it said you know, if you need money for your business or credit or something like that, you know, call Malcolm or come see Malcolm at this address. And I was like, perfect, exactly what I'm going to do. Like this was a newspaper ad. So you know how old I am.
Speaker 2:We used to look for, like, money from the newspaper, and so I took my husband it's my boyfriend, but my husband now but I was like you have to come with me. Like I don't know, it's downtown, it's in this back alley. Like you know, I only have an address. I, you know, I don't want to go there by myself. So he came and I figured like I'm going to need someone to sign and I didn't have a job. So I'm like okay, but what do you think? And he's like well, let's go see what it's about.
Speaker 2:So we went in this little like burgundy door in the back alley behind McDonald's and this guy was sitting at the you know, it was just like a table and chairs in there and it was like really weird and dark. And he's like so what do you need the money for? You know, what are you going to do? Blah, blah, blah. And he just said to go like hey, um, yeah, we'll, we'll try this 25 grand. You know it's going to be 19% and if you don't pay it back, like you're not going to live through this kind of thing. And so he said I hope you love this girl. And then I was like, oh, my God, what are we doing? So we signed the paperwork and we left and I was and I, you know, in my mind, was like there is no option for failure here, like we need to make this work. However, this is going to work. It's going to work and I'm just going to figure it out.
Speaker 2:And so then I started quickly creating enrollment forms, doing all the pre-work, um, knocking on people's doors in Lacell and being like you know, hey, do you? You're looking for childcare putting flyers and everything, putting advertisements on polls, like offering childcare services starting September in the basement of St Paul's church you know, st Paul's, julie, if you think you want to space. So started with like seven kids on the roster and then we had like 13 bikes by the time we opened in September. And then it just um words started getting out about the program and about me and the kids and what we were doing in the community. And my cousin Dana was helping me. I pulled her in. I was like you got to help me. Well, like I can't do this alone, because I was like cooking and doing tours and teaching, and you know so, and she worked with me in a Montessori preschool. So both of us had worked for the same woman who we kind of got started with the Montessori's, and it was in a high school, and so we did before and after school. That's how it all started. And then I'm so I was like you had helped me, like I now I'm getting toddlers and I need help.
Speaker 2:And so we ended up the first year expanding the one classroom because we just had too many kids. And then we added another classroom and then we tried to get another classroom from the church and then, yeah, brownies and karate would come in. So we'd have to quickly put all this stuff in a closet and then reopen it every morning, so Bo would come after work and mop the floor because we had to make sure it was clean, you know, for the next people. So it was a lot of work, but those years really created who I was as a business owner. You know. It taught us a lot. You know. We'd run home and put Bo's paycheck in the bank so we could pay the teachers eventually. You know what I mean, all the things that you go through.
Speaker 2:In the beginning we were not, you know, self made. We didn't have funding from parents or friends or family, you know. So we just, yeah, it was sort of a situation when we were like we have this money owed and we need to pay it. So, however this is, you know, however, we can do this. We've got to get it done, and so we did. We paid off, malcolm, the first year. We had about 75 kids enrolled by the end of the year and we were literally busting out of the church basement. So in the second year of business I had to find another location and so that was also, you know, another journey, so more expenses. We went to a retail plaza space at that time and so, just yeah, continual risk and continual hard work to try to keep filling up the classrooms and offering quality care and making sure the name and quality was super intact and that people were coming to us because we provided excellence.
Speaker 2:And that was what I always wanted from day one was like a school where kids could come and moms and families could be super, you know, relaxed about leaving their kiddos with us and providing a really great environment. So that was always our. I guess our push right, or our, the force behind us, was being able to offer kiddos a great program.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and I've heard you say you know, like that you are, why is to be able to serve or and you know, maybe it's changed now, of course, as you've grown so much, but this is a few years ago. I was watching an interview you did and you said your why was to serve 1000 children each day. Yeah, can you share a little bit about what that means to you or the importance of having a why as a business leader.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so at that time it was impact. Right, I wanted to have as many kiddos and at that time I thought 1000 was way out of reach. Right, I always made these big, hairy, adacious goals like I'm going to, you know, have 1000 children impacted by this incredible program. I secretly wish I would have been impacted by it as a child. So I feel like that's what pushed me like, just like knowing what the kiddos could have, and I wanted to create you know enough locations or enough whatever you know spaces to impact a great number of folks, not just a little impact right in our community. And so we did that. We created you know 1000 spaces. We did it not once but more than you know, more than once. We did it twice.
Speaker 2:But the big thing about the spaces and the 1000 as a number for me was that it was out of reach for you know a little girl with you know a single mom who grew up in you know very medium to lower sort of income environments. It was a big, big goal for me and a really big dream to kind of put my heart on. And so I guess for in terms of why it's important to have a why, I think for me. It was a continual fuel right behind me of okay, you haven't impacted enough people yet. You have to keep going like. I know it's tough, but you've got this.
Speaker 2:Like you know and then impacting not only other kiddos and families but teams, right like our teams, all of our, you know our employees, right, all of the people that kind of came through this journey with us have such a huge part in our heart and and we wanted to make sure that we could level them up too, so giving them opportunities for growth, having ways to better their life, whether that was through, you know, rewarding them with awesome travel experiences or out of the box, you know, adventures they wouldn't take for themselves. I mean, we've sent our team members to Disney with their families. We've sent our team members to Hawaii for a week. We've sent our team members, you know, to Universal. Whatever, you know, whatever we thought would be an amazing opportunity and an impact for their own family.
Speaker 2:I think it's really important, as you grow and find your way through the journey, that you uplift others. Right, that was always our, I guess our, our I don't even know what to call it, it's not a push, but kind of an underlining why was also to uplift others, and so I feel like we've been able to do that in a lot of instances and in a lot of families and a lot of folks. You know, when we sold the schools to private equity. You know, both times there's a similar theme. That has been you know, hey, like you took care of us in a way that no one else has ever, you know, taken care of us again. And that's a hard part about selling. But it does fill my heart to know that while we were in it with them, we did everything we could to level them up as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely what I mean. You've got an interesting story in the, like you said just now you've. You grew one business and then kind of moved on to the next did it again. So what were some of the biggest challenges you faced when you would acquire a new location or acquire a new group of locations?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think the challenges were different based on whether we organically grew or we acquired schools. So I think there's like two tracks of challenges. So in acquiring schools, that were other folks schools as we grew, a big challenge was always culture, expectation and my imprint, because we sort of had a really strict branding profile. But the branding didn't just include colors and a logo right, our branding was really integral to who we were in the community and what we did for kiddos and what we offered and our commitment sorry to excellence.
Speaker 2:So I feel like the branding when you're acquiring another center, you're acquiring what that owner's branding possibly was or that team that's leading that location's branding possibly was, and we had such a level of excellence that we expected in our branding, in our results. You know for our children in the schools, for our families, that that always created a challenge for us coming in with new schools. Like one school I remember buying and it was it was in Omaha, but it was a disaster we acquired one location that the children were out of control, the staffing was terrible, the vibe and the feel was really challenging. That was probably my most challenging acquisition but my most satisfying when we were able to flip it. You know it took about nine months. So it was definitely a work in progress and a huge dedication on our part to be there every day and figure it out. But yeah, we just had. We had, basically we had to turn over the entire staff. We had to turn over almost the entire family pool of families that were there with us. But we ended up turning over the environment and it ended up being one of our favorite schools, you know, in the end.
Speaker 2:But it is really challenging when you're acquiring other people's hopes, dreams and culture, I would say. On the other hand, organic growth is challenging because you're starting with nothing, right. So you're grinding for enrollment, you're grinding for the right team. You're grinding every day to just, you know, hold it together and there's funding grinds right. Like you're grinding for finances. You're just grinding all the time and so that becomes exhausting as well and you really have to have a different mindset for the zero organic growth model. And so I feel like it just takes different spaces in your brain. So, like on the one hand, you know it was more constantly being challenged with people issues, on the other hand, it was constantly being challenged with more you know enrollment issues and financing. You know cause. Usually when we buy schools, we buy them cash flowing, right. So you already have cash coming in. You can finance the dream by, you know, by having enrollment intuition. So I feel like there's challenges in both.
Speaker 2:I feel like you can definitely grow quicker non-organically by acquisition, but I feel like acquisitions, if you don't do them properly, can really get you in a lot of trouble by buying the wrong material, the wrong locations, the wrong culture, right? So I never did mass scale buys in terms of, like you know different owners. I bought sections and dealt with it and then moved on right. Each school that you buy.
Speaker 2:You should dedicate minimum 90 days to upfront, to find out all the processes. You know all of your systems, your operating procedures, your people, you know. I think you need to really get in there and be super dedicated and then you know. Once you have 90 days, you can start to evaluate where do I what's, you know what are my gaps and what are my gains here and you know, starting to figure out, you know who is the right person for the right seat. You know where maybe some people don't fit, maybe where changes need to be made, where improvements need to be made in the classroom, whatever, so I feel like, though, when you're acquiring it can be quick, but it can also be dangerous if you're not careful.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's a great tip. The 90 days is a really good nugget for everyone listening in our audience. Who's looking to grow. One thing that comes to mind is, you know, as you talked about going in and kind of revamping standard operating procedures and bringing in your own brand, which is so cool and I'd love to dive into that but how do you manage to, you know, say, you get it perfect at one location. How do you kind of scale that to the next location?
Speaker 2:So creating consistency is key in scaling. So I am an exit strategist. I don't know if you know sort of what I'm doing now, but I'm an exit strategist for folks wanting to exit childcare. I also help them during and before exit when they need to increase their Ibada, when they want to get the best multiple. You know, for all the hard work basically that they've done, one of the biggest things I encounter is they want to scale to sale. Right, they want to scale to sell. So the issue often is that they don't have it right yet from a base level and so, foundationally, in terms of scaling, the first piece that you need to do is create consistency across the brand and, like I told you, the brand is everything and the brand, like every decision you make, should be reflective of the brand and of the mission, vision, value that you have for your school. A lot of people are like, well, but I'm acquiring, and so that's where the danger comes in. Right Is in the quick acquisition. You have to make sure, when you're acquiring, that you're flipping to that brand as quickly and as seamlessly as you can by putting in all the standard operating procedures. You know, lynn Wenger, from one place I think you guys worked with her as well was a huge and instrumental part in a lot of those schools that I've been working with. A lot of clients that work with me getting things like on paper because, at the end of the day, when you want to sell right or when you want to scale, you are taken out of the equation in terms of the operational piece. So if you are in the equation, your schools are really not worth anything. Number one and two you cannot be managing and overseeing all the pieces and parts when you are the pieces and parts right. So, really important to create consistency, a huge part of our scaling was the CRM that we used, which is you guys. We were. It was childcare CRM, but same I guess the same company now. But we went, you know, from 300 kids in Omaha to over a thousand and a huge part of that and this is not a plug for you, it's 110% truth. I'm just very honest. I'll tell you the systems we used to scale A CRM. We thought we knew everything. We were like we don't need a CRM. We're so good at calling back people, we don't need reminders or drips or what's this? All this stuff.
Speaker 2:I went home from CCSA, which was the Child Care Success Academy. It was in Chicago. I want to say it was almost, let's see. It had to be at least five years ago, let's see, 2018. I think it was 2017, maybe. Anyhow.
Speaker 2:We went home and she had all like, she inundated us with all these ideas. I was new to the US, right, so I wanted to go there because I was like I need to know, like, what's happening in the US, cause we had just bought the schools in Omaha. And I came home. Actually, before I came home, I signed up for Empire Level, which was like the highest level. I didn't even like you know, stop, look, press, go, nothing. I was like I'm signing up, I'm all in, I'm going to level up this business, and my idea was to scale to sell eventually in 10 years. So I had a 10 year goal which was, I thought, very like reasonable. I moved my family here, right. I was like we can do this. It's 10 years, we'll do slow and grow, it'll be great.
Speaker 2:And then I started using CRM and at the time we had an enrollment specialist. We were the first schools to have an enrollment specialist, and so I said to my enrollment specialist at the time I'm like listening to me like we need the CRM, I think. I think in the first month we realized like we were not tracking anything. We weren't tracking KPIs for enrollment, we weren't tracking how many people were coming in, papers were getting lost, we had all these directors taking calls. There was no consistency, no phone script, which Chris gave us. You know a lot of things that we did not put in place.
Speaker 2:I think that the two most integral things for us to scale and grow in the velocity that we did the second time, which was the time in Omaha, the first time we made a lot of mistakes it made me 10 years, right. So we compressed time Hugely and we increased enrollment and our revenue through using this. I think those two pieces were integral. So, joining CCSA, getting all the tools, starting with an enrollment script, you know, creating all the systems and processes through using, like you know, lin stuff, your stuff and Chris's stuff I would recommend that to anyone coming in, especially new in the industry. Just adding that leveled us up and increase the amount and the velocity in which we scaled, for sure, 100%. So, and having said that, I know you kind of asked for like what was the? You know what was the bottom line.
Speaker 2:But I do think the consistency in all those three things right Having an enrollment specialist that literally knew how to get the enrollments in, how, to, you know, speak to the parents, create a reciprocal enrollment situation where you know, we had them in the schools, they were, they were given the same script, they were shown the same quality, they were called back, followed up with, made sure you know all the pieces.
Speaker 2:And so I do think those things were definitely a part of the consistency we created and the brand we created, because all those things had a part in parcel. Like they call you back, right, because now it was on our KPI, like we didn't want any reds so we had to go everyone back on our list, you know, because it used to drive us we're OCDs, so it used to drive us crazy to have people that were, you know, not responded to or not called back. That also, I think, created some sense of urgency on our end to contact people back within, say, 24 hours. Then we started making it okay, here's the rule. Now we have to, you know, call them back within 24 hours and at least create contact like hey, how did you like the tour? Is there anything we could answer? Is there any questions you have?
Speaker 2:You know, just all the things that we put in place in terms of consistency created our brand right, and part of our brand was that we were very responsive, and I think that helped in the industry that we were in. We were creating trust right, and so when you answer and you respond and you have the right systems and processes in place, it creates trust because you are being responsive. So long answer to a short question, but I feel like all those pieces really had a lot to do with, you know, compressing the timeline the second time, because the second time we sold in three years you know, we scaled from zero to 10 schools in one third of the time and we did not have any of those things implemented in the other, you know, in the other side of school.
Speaker 2:So we still did. Well, it just took us a little longer. Right when, when we put these things in place, it really, it really scaled the timeline for us and compressed you know, compressed the timeline and scaled our processes and our business much more, much quickly, much more quickly. Yeah, much quicker.
Speaker 1:And we will always take, you know, any, any credit.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't say it didn't help us, you know, because I feel like these podcasts are for people to know what to do and where to put their money and what makes sense, right, and so I tell everybody that's a client of ours when we're scaling them. Same thing, like these are the three things you need right. Number one you need a CRM, like and they're like, we don't. We have great people. They call us back and they said great, I've called your school 10 times. Have you, you know, received any of those enrollments? You know, half the time they don't call you back.
Speaker 2:So a lot of things that we as owners also think that are happening in our schools. Like they say you know, measure all the things that you expect. Well, I expected a lot of things were happening and you know they just weren't and it wasn't because they didn't want to. It was just you get busy, you get on a second test. Then I forgot to call back Amber. Now it's too late. I'll try to call back again tomorrow and then more tests come on your plate, right? So yeah, so the dedication of the consistency of the process I think is super important in scaling, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you mentioned having an enrollment specialist. Was that someone who was kind of like a centralized enrollment for all locations?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so she did all of the locations in Omaha all 10 actually and she was phenomenal. She is phenomenal. She's still doing it now. Lots of folks, after we implemented this enrollment specialist role, started adopting the enrollment specialist and I think now numerous people for sure that we know in the groups that we've been in and almost all of you know anyone that I've coached at that platinum or like higher level. You know coaching. When I'm talking about coaching too, I'm more consulting. You know folks at one million plus revenue space, folks that are scaling for sale. So they want to scale a certain number of schools, create a decent IBITDA for that multiple, for legacy wealth. So that's sort of what I do help them with exit strategy, get them to that place and then after sale, tell them like, help them with okay, let's create income now that you don't have income from the schools and how we can do that. But why I'm saying that is, I think, what was your question. Again, sorry, I remember what we were going to do.
Speaker 1:I was asking about your centralized enrollment. Specialist.
Speaker 2:So because what happened was, as the schools, you know, as we started adding schools, I noticed that some directors were really strong in the sales arena and then some that is not their jam right. And so Amy was awesome. Her closing rate was over 90%, like she was just the bomb, yeah, so good. And so in order to create consistency in closing and in enrollments and the expected enrollments coming in, we ended up just sort of moving everything to her. She created the script, she, you know, anytime someone called, she answered the phones, she responded to them. So it did get to be quite a bit.
Speaker 2:When we're getting to like 10 schools, it's a lot for one enrollment specialist. Luckily, in Omaha all of our schools were within 20 minutes from each other. So you know she would create her schedule based on you know, okay, I'll do like Midtown and Child's World today, I'll do West Maple and Gretna, like you know. So she would do tours. You know more on that basis. And then in COVID, obviously she did all the tours, virtually so, but again, having that enrollment specialist, that was consistent and that the messaging was consistent all the time. We started to be able to create a consistent expectation of enrollments and the return on enrollment per, in terms of KPI per person that walked in right or person that called, and so the consistency was really important and I felt like it definitely leveled us up much quicker again because we had the consistency of the script, the consistency of the visit. You know the gift they would get, like she would do all those things right, and then the response time and the you know the response in general that she would provide for them was very dedicated and intentional. Right, it wasn't just like I have 400 things on my plate today and I got to get to Sierra and I got to do this quick. And you know, this was an intentional, purposeful conversation. It was an intentional tour all the attention on you, nothing fire behind you. That's not my problem, that's the director, I am with you, right, and I felt like that definitely. You know, created an environment that was exceptional for the visit as well.
Speaker 2:We always had the teachers involved in the visits. We always made sure there was like a space for the child at the table when they came to visit so they could engage. You know, it was very intentional because we were able to do that, because we had dedicated, you know, a dedicated enrollment specialist. We actually had two at one point, but she didn't quite work out as well. She was great, but it was a lot of challenge between the two of them with logistics and everything, and ended up going back to one.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I would say I haven't found, honestly, an enrollment specialist that has been as good as our Amy was. I'm a little bit biased, but I feel like she was a diamond. Like you know, to find someone that has passion for early childhood, that knows the Montessori programming, that is really great at selling the program and giving parents a really exceptional tour, I mean, that's a really hard find, so it's not an easy. Oh, I'm just going to hire an enrollment specialist. Right, it has to be the perfect person, and so, yeah, yeah, and that's I mean.
Speaker 1:It is so staffing, everyone knows it's a challenge.
Speaker 2:I mean, we didn't even have as bad of. You know, we're talking a couple years back now, so it wasn't even as bad for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah it's, and it's hard to find the right. Not only just get the people in the door, but it's hard to find the right people, like you said, especially an enrollment specialist position. I mean, that is a first impression, you know I think I am going for this person yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's, you know, within that kind of a function. But there's so many other areas in the center that are so important, whether it's behind the scenes or it's actually servicing, you know, families front and center. How do you handle knowing when it's time to delegate versus when it's time to outsource like functions or roles?
Speaker 2:It's really hard. I mean, I think that you have to look at it as an owner, like we did do EOS and traction as well. We implemented that which really helped us delineate positions, roles. You know, do they get it? Can they do it? Do they want it? You know all those pieces, getting the right people is always going to be a challenge and because they're not always the right people for all the time, either they could be the right person for the moment or for the year, and then maybe they they don't, you know, maybe they're done or don't fall in love with the position like you wanted them to, or maybe they fall out of love with the position that they're in. That happens right. And as you grow and develop people, hopefully that does happen right that you're getting them into newer, better, different environments and positions that help them grow as people as well. But yeah, I would say, how do you know when you know if your expectations aren't being met of the role? I think that's first and foremost so. Like you know, if your goal is to enroll 10 kids a month and you're enrolling one or two or five, right, whatever, or even eight, I mean, if your goal is 10, you have to look at. Okay, let's look at the process and where. Where is the deficit? Is it in the person? Is it in the conversation? Is it in the script? Is it in the visit? Do things go to hell when they get here? Like what happens? Like what part are we losing them in? And asking for feedback, like honest feedback from your team and from the families or whoever, whatever the role is servicing.
Speaker 2:I feel like you really need to be vulnerable with your team, and that's hard for an owner, right, like sometimes I was, like I don't really want to know, but I need to know. You know, because sometimes it's you, right, like I found in a few different instances. I'm like you know, maybe the problem here is me or my expectation, right, so sometimes you think, okay, well, I think we need to enroll 10 students a month, and then you know they're like well, you know we're doing all the things and our average is six, and so sometimes it's you adjusting to what, what reality is in the field, or if you're expecting I don't know whatever in the classroom to happen, right, then you're continually disappointed because it's not reaching the KPI. Then you have to look. Okay, is the KPI reasonable? I sit down with your team and be like so here's my issue. I want A to happen and we're getting C. There's a gap here. So help me understand, help me clarify, help me to understand where we are missing here or what we're missing. Where's the gap? So transparency, communication, so total key to all things.
Speaker 2:The other thing is it's really hard as an owner, so trusting other folks with your business is really challenging. I'm super anal and OCD and I'm controlling, and so the first person to say that in my brand. I have no wavering on what my brand needs to be. So it's challenging and it was always, still is challenging for me in any role I play, with any, even with my coaching or my clients or anything. Even just going through this real estate journey I'm in I want done to the max, excellent degree. If it's not that way, I get frustrated with people. So that is an entrepreneurial, it's a gift, but it can also be a detriment. So being open to other folks' ideas and asking for feedback and being vulnerable is the biggest lesson I think I've learned through my entrepreneurial journey that if you just really sit and listen to what's happening, sometimes your input, your idea, your strength is sometimes what's creating the issues. So it's just really important, I think, to have clear and transparent communication, feedback sessions, ask what's working, what's not working and then really take an analytical approach to all situations, which you have to grow as a business owner to get there.
Speaker 2:I definitely was not doing that the first five, 10 years. I sometimes I still slip into boss mode instead of leader mode. So it is important to check yourself, get professional development for yourself to be a better leader and a better human. It's a constant learning process. I don't think we ever get to where things are 100 percent or easy, and we're human too. So we're dealing with home, emotions, kids, family life, all the invisible load as moms, especially as a business woman owner. My book talks a lot about that but the invisible load that we carry in. I'm a perfectionist in all things, which means my house, my kids, my all things, so that puts a lot of pressure on us. So sometimes your judgment is clouded by all the things going on in your life on a daily.
Speaker 2:So it's important to check yourself, I guess, and try to trust other people with things. Yes, I've been burned by trusting other people. Everyone says well, julie, how do you trust people Like this person did this to me? This person left me. Why am I putting all this in?
Speaker 2:I always say you can't worry about what will or could happen, you just need to worry about the moment you're in, because I think we get caught up as business owners, like people leave you and then you're like but I did all this for her, I did all this stuff and no appreciation, no loyalty.
Speaker 2:I did get caught up in that, I'm sure more than once. But what I've just told myself in the last few years is look like you're here to also help people grow. So grow people, pour into your people, do what you can to create the best environment for when they are with you and if they ever do leave you, it may be for growth, it might be for opportunity. It doesn't have to be because they didn't have loyalty to you or whatever it is. So I think we also have to recreate our mindset of what that looks like and that pouring into people is pouring into people. It's not about what you get out of it and so just reframing and recreating your purpose in that time. So my purpose in that time might have been to grow this person to achieve their next level Right, like, sometimes you're just a conduit, you're not somewhere where they're going to stay, and that's okay, and I think we just have to look at staffing, especially in these times, and building teams like that now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's. It brings up an interesting kind of topic that we've been talking about here at Line Leader a little bit with our customers, which is getting staff buy-in. So I mean obviously lots of new procedures going into place and whether you end up having to turn over staff or hire new staff or keep the existing staff and kind of get them bought in on what's what your new procedures are, how do you be an effective leader but guide them to making the right choice for themselves?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think like one thing I always talk about is you need to. If you want to lead people and you want them to have buy-in, then you need to ask them for their opinion and you cannot force your own opinions on them. So, getting feedback. There was something I was on a podcast this week and I was talking about leadership and buy-in and it said something like I can't remember the exact words, I think I helped them somewhere but it was something about you creating like opportunities for people and kind of saying this is what they need to do, instead of like thinking about asking what they'd like to do or what they think of things to get their buy-in.
Speaker 2:So I think a lot of times as leaders, as owners, we're like, oh, we just got this new awesome playground equipment. You guys are going to love it. And then they're like there's all these spaces we can't see the kids Like I don't like this setup at all, it doesn't work for our age group. Or, you know, we don't like the material. It's scratching the kit like whatever it is right. So, instead of like going out and buying a $50,000 bear equipment or whatever you know playground which I'm not saying that's bad, I'm just, you know, using a name, putting it out there and then them saying, hey, like we, this is not, we can't even supervise this right Properly, or we need more people out here if this is the type of playground.
Speaker 2:So oftentimes I think we assume a lot about what our ideals are, but we're not necessarily frontline. So, for example, you know putting a policy in about, I don't know, kids have to have every. All the kids have to go to the bathroom at once and wash your hands and be back at the table by 12 noon, you know. And then we create the schedule around that, right? Well, as you know, that's not going to happen all the time right, and so asking the teacher, like, hey, maybe, like what do you know? How do you think this would work best? Or should we change your lunchtime, like what would be best for your class? How would nap time rituals, you know, be best?
Speaker 2:If we're implementing this SOP, you know, I want advice on, like, how does it work for you in the classroom? Like I don't want to create something that's frustrating, but we do that all the time. We create standard operating procedures without talking to the people that it affects. So, like, line leader, if you guys are making changes and you're like, oh, we're making all these changes, this is what's going to work, blah, blah, blah. But the people that are selling the product or the people that are managing the product online or the KPIs, they're like this doesn't even translate, like it doesn't work behind the scenes. So I feel like, again, just having input from them, if people have and an ability to make decisions, they will stay with you. If you're constantly putting your mission, vision, values and ideas down their throat, I don't know that that's gonna be the best way. I think that, yes, you need to have a mission, vision, value and a brand but the way that you get to, the brand can be malleable, right, you can ask for input.
Speaker 2:You can ask for maybe some procedural changes that make more sense to the person providing the service, right, I think we forget the end user, you know.
Speaker 2:So, like, if the child is the end user or what you know what, who's getting it at the end of the line, this procedure we forget about. Well, it doesn't just go from me to the child, like, it has to go from me to Miss Amy, to Miss Amy, to Miss Sierra, from Miss Sierra to the assistant, sometimes, like, so the people involved have to be like, hey, I think we can do that and I think that'll work, or hey, how about we try this? This seems like it would be a better fit for my classroom or our school, and so, yeah, just being malleable about honest feedback, again, transparent communication, I think there's a real like thread that is behind everything. Right, respect too. I mean, I feel like it's respectful to ask people for their opinion. You know, I'm a really bad employee because I don't like people telling me what to do, right, so you have to think about your employees or your team members, Like, will they wanna stay with you if they never have any input or any decision making and anything they do, right, you know.
Speaker 2:so I think it's important for leaders to understand that the decisions affect mostly everyone but you as a leader. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that you. You know the approach of kind of looking at each individual employee and deciding what's gonna work for this person probably won't work for the next. And I mean, actually at Line Leader, we I don't know who to give credit to on our team who implemented this, but someone maybe our CEO or our head of people they implemented this personality test. So every new hire gets the insights test and it tells you your color and how you like to receive feedback and give feedback and all that good stuff. And as managers, then we can go and actually look at that and see like, okay, I have to give a bad performance review. What's the best way for me to deliver this information? Or, oh, this person did a great job. How did they like to receive praise? So I think that's a great call out you made.
Speaker 2:And one of the yeah, I love the personality test. We did those as well, I think at the time we used disc, but we've used a few different breaks, minor breaks, all kinds of different ones. But I think that, yes, you need a baseline and you need a standard right, and so I don't think you give up your standard, but I think there's ways to get to the standard. So not everybody is going to be okay with rah, rah, rah, right, maybe they're okay with, like background, quiet conversation about what's happening. So I think how you get there is what you need to figure out works best for your team, but you get there right. So that baseline, the mission, vision, values are never compromised for people, but people make up how we get there. They help put some decision making and some ideas and some.
Speaker 2:We had an innovation challenge, which I think is so cool too, and that's something that I don't know if you guys do in your company, but you challenge your team to be innovative and bring you a new idea at least once a month, and then you evaluate the idea and so, like we would get ideas and be like why didn't we? What are we doing? We should have did this 10 years ago, but because when you're in it, you're just on autopilot, right, not knowing that there's a better way or not trying to find a better way, because you're like just trying to get done, right. So innovation challenges were great because team could come to you and be like, hey, I have an innovation to let to offer. We're like, awesome, let's put it in the box. And then we would have a meeting or a team gathering over food and be like okay, here's all the innovations that came in this month. Let's like, let's have a conversation about it.
Speaker 2:And so we did that really early on too. We didn't call it an innovation challenge at the beginning, but inevitably that's what it became. And then we rewarded the best ideas and whether that was through travel or like we use blue board experiences, reward platforms and profiles, we used employee recognition programs right, all the things, and so giving them a lot of opportunity also to make out of the box I don't want to say money, but compensation that was different than what they were used to. And so if you had, if you won the innovation challenge, you picked an experience from blue board.
Speaker 2:An experience from blue board might be skydiving or riding a hot air balloon or going to Disney or doing something that would you wouldn't be able to either A do right now or B, you know you would maybe pay for for yourself whatever right, something cool. So it creates also a culture of appreciation, respect, innovation. So it's a lot of leadership, tweaks and turns that you have to do to get there, but I think it is very much worth it. Again, policies, procedures, standard operational procedures need to be had and made and people need to follow to create consistency, brand. However, there are sometimes better ways to do things, and so that's where those innovation pieces will come in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that, and I love the idea of rewarding them, too for giving them your ideas and things like that.
Speaker 2:Instead of like being like oh, we can't do that. No, sorry, that doesn't work. Like you know, that's what they hear all the time, right?
Speaker 2:No, like the way we do it here, yeah, and so and I get it that there are things that you can't change, like, there are certain things that you know, unfortunately, just are what they are. But if there's an ability to do things better, I think we need to be open to that and we need to recognize that and we need to be appreciative of the fact that, hey, we want to work. You know better, not harder, so you know.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, wow, very cool. Well, I mean, we touched a little bit on what you're doing now, as far as you know, exit strategy consulting. Can you share a little bit about what that looks like and how people can find out more about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I have scaled to sale in numerous schools now Both times, you know, bought out a platform of our schools. Private equity has bought us twice now, which is pretty insane. Usually you get bought out maybe once by private equity, but twice is definitely, I think, a consistent. You know like we were talking about when you do things a certain way, how you do one thing's how you do everything, and that's pretty much what I would conquer, or say that you know our sale was contributed to Obviously hard work, dedication, all the things, but so, yeah, it was bought out by private equity in 2011 in Canada and then again in 2021, that was supposed to be a 10 year deal here in Omaha moved my whole family over and it ended up being three and we really compressed timelines by doing all the things I told you about today.
Speaker 2:I have a million other things I work with with our clients. On scaling the sale, there really isn't an exit strategist in our space. There are brokers that help with sales, but I feel like with my experience, it has been challenging to get all this type of information from a broker. They're interested in what your EBITDA is at the time of sale, but they're not there to help you increase that EBITDA or scale or add more locations or you know, that's not really what their job is. So I was thinking about the gaps that I had from scale to sale and I was, like you know, had I had all that, I would have compressed my time. You know, like I did because I already had the experience of the first set of sales right, or the first set of sale. So I just wanted to compress time for people. I want them to.
Speaker 2:We all work really hard in this space and so being able to offer folks the ability to get there quicker and have a quality product like that's the first and foremost, like having a scalable quality product, because people have products that are not scalable, and they have not. Some of them have. The quality isn't there to be able to scale yet right. And so creating a scalable product is first, and we have a various way, numerous ways, that we get to the scalable product. Then, once the product is scalable, then we start adding on organically and through acquisitions to a number that we feel is you know where we would like to be, either in terms of impact or revenue or whatever. Everybody has a different motivation and a different why. So you work with the owners on what it is that they need, and then we work backwards. We always work with the end in mind. Where do you want to be at the end? What does this look like to you? How much do you need to live? What do you need to do to replace what you're currently doing, and what would make you happy at the end of the day, after all this work and all of the dedication you've put in in this field, what would that look like to you? What is your utopia? And let's work backwards to get there. And so that's basically what I do. So we create a strategy for scaling.
Speaker 2:Usually, most people come to me for scaling strategies and so we work through, you know, scalable products, scaling the strategy over, and you know usually it's 10, but sometimes 15 locations, sometimes it's five, right, sometimes people are good with three, sometimes you know it's a one and done, but they want to get a really, really high quality product in that one location and then they feel like you know they're happy at that location. So, but most folks come to me for scaling advice. And then, of course, you know, increasing the revenue stream. So we work on a scalable product that is also adding, you know, revenue to their product, Because as you scale, you also want to make sure you know that imprint is adding value and revenue to the community and to yourselves and to your team. And then, once we get that platform settled, I usually help them actually go to buyers. We don't really use a lot of brokerages. With my clients we've been going sort of direct to buyers and some of them have been bought or helped through brokers as well. But most often what we do is prepare ourselves so that we know what the value is of the locations in the school and then we basically tender out. You know a bunch of different places that are buying schools and we say, okay, here's what we have. You know what is. What are you thinking that we are worth? Sometimes it is brokers, but I would say right now I'd say about half the time, maybe even less, are with the broker. So, yeah, using a lot of the tactics that we do to scale gets us in a better position too, right To offer.
Speaker 2:The end game is you have to have a quality product that is scalable and that, if you are selling, they can take it over from you and it's on autopilot, pretty much, right. Yes, there's gonna be holes when you leave because you're the owner, but in general, they wanna know they can come in with a regional team and manage the schools. That is your best bet as an owner for an exit plan. If you have one school, it's definitely harder. Like, you can't sell to those larger companies, right? You're gonna sell to a mom and pop and that's okay. It just you have to be reasonable and understand where you're going with your product, right?
Speaker 2:Some people, they just want one school and that's awesome, and they have a great, one, big, great school, right, which is also sellable in the area that they're in.
Speaker 2:But it's usually someone in the community that would acquire it and add it to their portfolio like we did right. So there's a lot of ways to kind of get to the end game, but that's what we've been doing and I only take a very limited number of clients a year. I feel like in this half of our life we're really about generosity, breathing abundance. So we've had a lot of help in our 20 years of childcare and I love childcare. I'm passionate about it. But I'm more passionate about owners that work really hard and then just leave their schools or are done and just hand it over or whatever. I think that we need to put the right processes in place, create an amazing quality product that can continue well past the time that you are no longer interested and or done or old or whatever right, I mean, the school can be a legacy even without you, and that's, I think, what's important.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh well, if you are accepting clients, where can someone reach out to you to kind of get started in that process?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, so my, I guess, email is the easiest Most people reach us at Roy Holdings, with an S LLC at gmailcom. We do do a lot of real estate as well, so that helps with the legacy project of the sort of of the triad of services that we offer. But there's some really interesting and exciting stuff coming up soon in the next, you know, three to six months that we're going to be offering. So if folks are interested in working with us, we do have a sort of a pre-check kind of list to make sure that we are valuable enough for you, because we want to make sure that we can add value to you. And if it's not the right client, sometimes we're unable to get you where you need to get to.
Speaker 2:So it's important for us to check the boxes of sort of a qualification and to see if this is sort of what would be in your best interest, because we are not going to, you know, take people's money or try to help folks that we know it is either not in our wheelhouse or is, you know, really challenging for us to get them to where they need to be, or that we won't be able to offer them value.
Speaker 2:And so they pre-qualify, basically through a short, you know survey, I guess, and then we set up a time to chat and then we kind of go through. The first initial call is free and we just talk about mission, vision, values, goals and whether or not we can help you. And if we can't, then we let you know and we're like, okay, we're not the right person for you or it's not the right seat for us, and we'll find you. You know who you need to work with. Oftentimes, the other thing they get is all our Rolodex right, so they get all of our contacts financing, all of the things. So it's more of a long-term relationship that we're trying to create. So, yeah, yeah absolutely Amazing.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much. This was, I mean, unbelievably extensive and had just a ton of great nuggets that I can't wait to pull and put into a little bit of a blog roundup that I'll link down below for everyone if they want to go get an overview of everything that they learned today, and I'll put your email address in the description notes also for people. But thanks, I really appreciate you spending the afternoon with me and that's all folks. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you made it this far, I encourage you to schedule a demo of Line Leader so you can see the enroll, engage and manage products in action and discover how the first ever unified child care experience platform can make an impact on your business, your time and your sanity. Schedule a demo by visiting golineleadercom or click the link in the show notes below, and don't forget to rate, follow and subscribe to all it's cracked up to be, so you never miss another episode.