Status Quo

We're Back!

We know it's been a while since our last episode, and we apologize for the hiatus. Life and business just got a little crazy for us!

But we're thrilled to announce that we're officially back!

In this episode, we'll be chatting about:

• Introducing the newest member of the crew. Welcome, Corey!
• What we've all been up to during our break from the podcast
• Why we decided to take a step back from regular episodes
• What exciting things we have planned for the future 

We're so grateful for your patience and support, and we can't wait to jump back in and create some awesome content with all of you. Get ready for a new era of Small Business goodness! 

Jen Books 
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

Megan Books
Employee Experience by Will Whitter

Corey Books
All Marketers Lie by Seth Godin

Podcast Audio is also available on:
+ Spotify
+ Apple Podcasts
+ Google Podcasts

For more information about the Small Business Boot Camp, go to www.MetzgerBootCamp.com

Transcript

0:08

Well, welcome to the small business boot camp the show that gives Lifetime Solutions for your Business and Business Solutions for your lifetime.

0:15

I'm Corey Tucker, your host.

0:16

And today we are here with Megan and Jen, we're talking about status quo, but before we get into that, what have you guys been up to?

0:25

Oh, that's, yeah, this is Megan and welcome back.

0:28

We're excited to be back on the podcast.

0:31

We're gonna kind of fill you in on where we've been for the last couple of years because it's been two years, two years since we've been doing this thing.

0:38

But yeah, we're just excited to be back and, and talking,, business and life and, you know, things that we hope can help at least one person out there.

0:49

But yeah, just been busy with business and,, you know, we'll talk a little bit about maybe the hiatus and what pulled us away individually from being able to do this consistently.

1:00

But we're excited to be back and I think just,, yeah, business has been crazy, you know, business has been busy for a couple of years and things just this this kind of fell off the wayside for a little bit and,, timing, you know, lined itself back up and we're ready to get going again.

1:20

So, what do you think, Jen?

1:21

Absolutely.

1:22

I think that 2022 and 2023 just got a little bit away from us.

1:28

I think,, you know, we all were digging ourselves out of a COVID hole and then we kids first, at least we started to explode in 2022.

1:36

And we're a little bit behind the eight ball in some areas.

1:39

So we've been trying to play a little catch up, keep up with the enrollment, keep up with staffing, made a lot of internal changes, and just a lot of growth and movement and it just seemed really difficult to squeeze a podcast in.

1:50

But I think we've got some really great things, set good foundation lined up and thank goodness, we've got Corey over here who's Corey, Corey, go ahead, Megan and Corey for sure.

2:00

So Corey Tucker here, he's our, he's our podcast host.

2:04

Corey is somebody that I had the pleasure of doing, kind of consult contract work with marketing.

2:12

As we talked about previously when I was on the podcast, I was the marketing manager starting in September of 2019 and leading us into COVID.

2:21

And then I still was over the marketing for really up until the last few months, but certainly when I stepped into the role at kids first two in 2021 that definitely took my time away from the kids first strategic piece of marketing.

2:36

And as Jen mentioned, we exploded, numbers were great.

2:39

It wasn't our, we didn't, you know, it wasn't a focus we were talking about or needing to talk about.

2:44

And then as I'm sure we'll talk about in future podcasts, enrollment has softened some for us and it became a focus again for us to need a full time person pushing strategies forward building and, and making new systems within the marketing department.

3:01

And so we actually sat down with Corey and as somebody that I had worked with previously in the marketing world to help fill the gaps and he had a recruiting background and maybe help us find our next marketing person.

3:15

And through those conversations, Corey kind of threw his name in the ring and was like, I think I want to do this for you guys.

3:21

And I think, again, to just continuing the conversation, it was a good fit.

3:26

I think he felt like it was a, I don't want to speak to Corey.

3:29

And I think in a few podcasts, we're going to talk about the changes that we've made in marketing and maybe we can delve into Corey's background and kind of how he felt that this was an alignment that he wanted to be a part of.

3:38

But Corey joined our team.

3:41

Gosh, a month and a half ago.

3:43

Is that about right?

3:44

Yeah.

3:44

And so we're really excited to have Corey on board.

3:47

He's our marketing director and he's, he's carrying our marketing department forward.

3:52

Now, I passed that on to him and with that change,, the timing was right for the podcast again.

3:58

So he was actually who I worked with on editing the podcast, producing it, getting it up and going.

4:03

And so with him on board, it made sense to just jump back in here and get this going again.

4:08

So we're excited to have Corey on board.

4:09

He's gonna be our host and kind of help moderate as we move through these podcasts.

4:13

Well, thank you for having me.

4:14

I am excited to be on board here.

4:16

So let's jump into the next segment of this podcast.

4:19

I got some questions for you and then we're gonna jump into our topic after that.

4:23

All right, here's the first question I have for you.

4:26

What's an app or tool that's changed your life or business?

4:32

Well, I'm in the process of learning slack.

4:35

So I'm hoping that that changes for me.

4:38

Megan's really the, the app queen.

4:40

I am really comfortable in my, in my comfort zone.

4:45

She's a pen and paper typing.

4:46

I never, not for every note that I take.

4:50

So that one that you've adapted to Evernote, I really love Evernote and I'll let you take it.

4:59

Yeah, I mean, we have, I think, you know, I've always been big on business technology and how if it can move the business forward.

5:09

I've used Trello in the past as a project management tool.

5:12

and that worked really well for me when I was running summer camps.

5:15

it didn't translate right as well over into executive function, but we are using Slack at both gym locations and that's I think been really transformative to help keep that work life balance and able to organize our conversations and really organize and help systematize some things that we're doing and keep us organized.

5:35

So Slack has been really great.

5:38

And Trello is an app that I've used in the past.

5:40

So we'll start with those, I guess.

5:42

So as we've integrated Slack into the business here, what advice would you give someone that's contemplating, changing their communication channels?

5:51

Yeah, I, I think, you know, we, we have, we've talked about it for a long, you know, I think you can talk about it a lot and then there's just a sense of jumping in and doing it.

6:03

It's really easy to hold up kind of some reasons why we shouldn't do it now or, you know, I think sometimes it's just jumping in and, and figuring out as you go, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work and you can kind of just roll it back.

6:15

But I think jumping into something like Slack I it's, it's been the easiest we have a, a fairly large executive, you know, leadership team.

6:24

And so it's hard with anything to get everybody on board of doing.

6:28

do you know, changing their systems, changing their forms of communication.

6:31

And so we just kind of did it one by one and that's been really, you know, helpful for us, Corey from the marketing standpoint was getting emails and he wanted to translate them into a Slack channel.

6:40

And so one by one, just having those conversations of, hey, we're gonna have this conversation in Slack.

6:44

This is where you can communicate moving forward and kind of just doing it one by one little by little and then everybody's on it and now you can, this is how we're gonna use it moving forward.

6:52

So I think just kind of jumping in and figuring out as you go.

6:55

It's definitely one of those ready fire aim and, and figure it out as you go.

7:02

But, you know, I think not to be scared of it.

7:04

I think there's so many apps and tools out there that can help you as a business.

7:08

and just figuring out what's the right one for you and your size of business and what are you using it for?

7:12

And, and I, I would add on there.

7:15

Megan loves apps and I think she always has some really great intention and we are definitely creatures of habit.

7:24

Here and we span generations.

7:27

, I'm on the older side and we've got young 20 something and they often don't check their email, they text, they snap, they do all of the, the cool things to find something that everybody can do.

7:41

That's simple and easy to inte integrate for everybody.

7:45

And I think what I said to Megan a few weeks ago is just, if this is what we're doing, then we're just doing it.

7:51

Let's just announce that we're doing it and let's set everybody up and that becomes our method of communication.

7:57

And if they are, if they're not, if they're uninformed that then is on them.

8:02

And I think having you here, Cory has really probably, you know, pushed that a little faster than it would have otherwise because you're new.

8:09

And so it seems like, oh, he's new.

8:10

He's got this new thing, an outside voice versus Megan and I, you know, trying to push another, another app that maybe would fall by the wayside.

8:17

But I like it.

8:18

I think what advice I would give everyone was Slack is turn on your notifications, there it is turn on your notifications.

8:24

So that's a great point, right?

8:26

The problem that it was solving is that it seemed like emails were getting lost and things are getting lost in translation and Slack just gives us the ability to really keep track of those conversations and have conversations over multiple days over multiple topics and that's why I love Slack.

8:42

So, check out Slack.

8:44

If you don't know, we're not paid to advertise or sponsor, but we can have an affiliate link if you want at some point.

8:51

All right, one more question, then we're gonna dive into the topic of today.

8:55

What podcast or book that you're excited about reading, that you want to share with us.

9:01

, well, last year I did this program and it forced me to read a lot of nonfiction, which was not necessarily what I was.

9:12

I, I didn't read a lot.

9:13

So now I like to say I'm a reader.

9:15

So a year ago I read the book by James Clear Atomic Habits, which was just really good at a mindset kind of a reboot.

9:21

I, I equate him to leadership as similar as Dave Ramsey is to financial, financial advice, which is, it's just common sense.

9:34

You just need somebody to explain it to you.

9:35

But he talks about goal setting and then breaking down, you know, the systems of your goals that you get, you get two wrestlers that go out on the map, both of them want to win.

9:44

One of them has a system in place that comes out the, the victor and one of them comes out the loser.

9:48

And that's just the way that I have shifted my mindset on all of my, my daily goals, my monthly goals, all my personal and my professional goals.

9:56

I'm also reading unreasonable Hospitality, which is I think anyone who's in a service industry owes it to themselves and to their client base to read unreasonable Hospitality.

10:08

It is just about giving this most unexpected experience to your clients that keep them talking about you in a way that no one else is talking about service, especially post COVID.

10:21

We know that customer service is lacking.

10:24

And so here at kids first, we've always really, we, we've been very proud of the way that we serve our clients.

10:29

But in this book, you just, you get this idea that there's always something more and different and the, the the it's the details that matter.

10:37

So those would be two of my, my top suggested reading material.

10:44

I am, I'm a big podcast person and I love all sorts of business leadership topics.

10:50

I listen to Simon Sinek and so, but I am reading a book.

10:55

I was telling Corey before we started this.

10:57

I'm terrible at starting books and not finishing them.

10:59

I'm in the middle of probably 31 being Atomic Habits.

11:03

One is a book by Berne Brown.

11:05

One is a book by Simon Sinic, but one that I've most recently started, it's and side note that it's, it's not a great quality.

11:12

I I am working, I am working on starting to finish, you know, finish all the books.

11:17

But I started one called The Employee Experience.

11:21

And it's, it's very interesting as you listen to Jen and talking about the reasonable hospitality because I've heard you and Reese talk about it.

11:29

I know there's multiple people here reading it right now and what the employee experience talks about is kind of flipping that and how so many people are focusing on the client experience, but where, you know, the client experience is formed by those employees being served first and having building up the employee experience, which will then take care of the client experience.

11:50

And so we'll have to collaborate and talk afterwards.

11:53

But it, it has been, it's been I'm about a third of the way through and it's been really great.

11:57

So that is called the Employee experience.

11:59

I don't have the author on it, but we'll have it in the notes, we'll put it in the podcast notes.

12:04

And my book is All Marketers Lie by Seth Godin.

12:07

And what this book talks about, it explores the power of storytelling and marketing and it's more focused on telling authentic stories as you're creating your quality product or services.

12:19

So people are more willing to buy a story than a prop.

12:23

So that's what that book is, is talking about.

12:25

And it's teaching us how to craft those stories that connect with people marketing and storytelling.

12:32

I mean, yeah, who can tell it the best and who can?

12:35

Yeah, that's great.

12:36

Alright, so the topic at hand is our two year hiatus.

12:40

There's an elephant in the room, obviously.

12:42

So let's talk about that.

12:44

Who wants to start?

12:47

I can?

12:48

Yeah, I mean, we've, I think as I mentioned, we've wanted to hop on and get back to regularly scheduled content.

12:54

I think we started this with the best of intentions of just sharing what we do and, and you know, we have this, we do this twice annual event called boot camp.

13:05

If you're listening to the podcast, aren't familiar with that.

13:07

We do a conference twice a year where we focus on business, leadership and marketing and, and all the things that run a successful business.

13:16

We specifically in the children's instructional services industry and that's where we, we tend to have most of our clients come from.

13:22

And so we, we started the podcast with the intention of just doing the best that we could for the greatest number and, and sharing information, doing interviews and, and we started with all these big intentions and then time just was hard.

13:37

And I think, for me, as I, as I mentioned, stepping into a couple of different roles and really kind of being the driver of the podcast, it just was hard for us to keep going.

13:48

And then when we both started, I mean, the gym started having these booms in 2022 and that's when we stopped doing the podcast was April of 2022 and the gyms were just riding high and we needed to focus there.

13:59

And so we've talked about jumping back in several times and again, it was just like, we don't have the time.

14:07

It's hard, it's hard to do it.

14:09

, do you know, set it all up and then there's the editing and all the, all the producing.

14:13

And so again, as Corey came back on board, it was like, this is the time is right.

14:16

Let's get back in and, and do this and it's been a focus that Jen and I, we had a lot of topics we want to talk about and, and just now being able to get back to regularly consistent content to you guys.

14:28

that's what we're wanting to do.

14:29

And so, we're officially back.

14:33

Yeah.

14:33

And I think alongside that, you know, 2022 enrollment did, really pick up for us and for a good part of 2023 and then we started to see a decline.

14:40

So it's been a little bit of a roller coaster.

14:43

But in that time, you know, we, we started in 2020 with a brand new executive team that's four of us.

14:51

So all four of our executive members were replaced during COVID, including Jeff.

14:57

many of our department leaders who had been decades with us had moved on during COVID or right before COVID.

15:03

And so when I go back and I look at, you know, how we're currently operating, we've got, you know, two brand new programs.

15:09

We've got four brand new, no, we've got six brand new department leaders and we've got some who were new just leading into COVID.

15:18

So as that enrollment, he there was a lot of scrambling, like maybe they didn't know the historical systems that had been in place because they were riding on a a COVID dip.

15:28

And then as the slow growth became rapid growth and it kind of caught them by surprise.

15:34

So there was a lot of educating many of our department leaders and then we started to feel a softening.

15:39

So there's this constant cycle of, you know, the, these, these spurts and these dips and trying to not just only, you know, infuse our, our culture into these new department leaders and all of our, our leadership team, but also help them to prepare the best that they can for the up and down cycles of their, their programming.

15:57

So, again, the best of intentions for the podcast.

16:01

And I think now we're, we're, we're in a place where we've got a driver of it that can just ask us to be ready to talk and that makes it a lot easier than trying to do it from start to finish.

16:11

Well, I'm excited to be that for you.

16:12

So the last two years, a lot has happened in both locations and just so we can set the table, let's talk about those two locations and some of the updates and changes that have happened at kids first and then at kids first two.

16:27

Well, I mean, there to be blunt, the reason you're here is because, you know, Megan moved primarily to kids first two to take on a leadership role.

16:38

She's the president of Kids first two.

16:39

And I don't know if you're going to get into the numbers or anything.

16:42

But, I mean, the, the growth over there has been astronomical since, since she took that, that position on which did leave a, you know, a gap here, for marketing.

16:55

So, you know, we've been trying to fill that you're here.

16:59

And so, you know, you can speak on, on kids first too, but just as on the, from the outside looking in watching, not just the enrollment and the revenue and the profit, all of that explode, but the, the culture shift over there where it was very much aligned with kids first.

17:16

It wasn't, it, it, it just felt like it was a different, it was a different product and now you look at at what you've got over there, the hiring that you've done with these department leaders, you know, hire the character, train the skill.

17:29

You've hired a ton of really great people who've had different backgrounds, some in the gymnastics world, some not.

17:35

And you've just really nurtured their development and they've become a really integral part of that, that business as well.

17:41

Yeah, I thank you for saying a lot of that.

17:44

That was very nice.

17:44

I think stepping in over there, what's happened in the last couple of years, Similar to kids first, we've had a large change in our leadership staff over there, from myself stepping in to a change of almost every department in their leadership role and adding programming.

18:02

And I think as Jen alluded to from the culture side, one of the biggest shifts we had to make over there, the culture wasn't bad, certainly grounded in our belief system.

18:12

They were a great small business.

18:16

But I think the biggest thing was just their own limiting beliefs of themselves and where they felt like we're, this is as big as we can be and this is we can't do that here, that, that I was hearing a lot of, we can't do that here.

18:31

And that didn't come from any one specific person.

18:34

It just was the culture that had kind of derived from theirs.

18:36

We're just the smaller extension of kids first and this is always what we're going to be and me coming in there with just a different vision, different kind of growth mindset.

18:45

I was like, no, like we, we can maximize the space, we can add programming, we can and they just continuing to drive that.

18:51

And then as soon as they saw summer camp growth, as soon as they saw Ninja taking off, it was like, wow, we can we can do more, we can be more and now they're looking at their spaces differently and so it's just created a whole different culture, new people.

19:05

That's been a lot of work over the last I have a question for you just to follow up to that.

19:09

I mean, you talked about limiting beliefs.

19:12

What how did you overcome those?

19:14

Did you, was it just in your production or what, what was the, what was the mechanism that allowed you to start to overcome some of those limiting beliefs?

19:22

Because you gotta, you have to root them out first, right?

19:26

I think that's a great question.

19:29

I think when I stepped over in there, I mean, my background from kids first and prior to kids first was summer camps, daycare.

19:35

you know, childcare, preschool, the, you know, that sort of sector and I had been pre COVID help starting to help them get a summer camp started.

19:46

And I was even still hearing, I just don't know if it's gonna work.

19:49

I don't know if we're, I, I just don't know how many kids we can serve.

19:52

, and I've talked a lot about it with boot campers.

19:55

I think they see our space at kids first.

19:57

They see this huge backyard, they see this huge gym and they're like, well, this is great.

20:01

You guys can do that, but we don't have the space, we don't have a backyard.

20:05

We don't have all these extra rooms.

20:08

And I just knew, I knew there was a need, I knew there was demand in the area and I knew that it could go.

20:14

I didn't know, you know, I'm like, if we can serve 40 kids a week, we'd serve 40 kids a week.

20:17

And that's, that's all, you know, that'll be great.

20:19

And so we started that first summer.

20:21

I said we're just gonna do three weeks.

20:23

You don't have to do anything like I'm in.

20:26

And that was the other piece of it I think was there was never a driver and so anything extra, what went on, who went on the, the, the people that worked the hardest and the people that will just continue to take on extra and extra and extra and feel burn out.

20:39

And so they're thinking, gosh, summer camp is gonna come in and I'm just gonna have all this extra work and it was like, you don't have to do anything.

20:46

I'm gonna drive this, I'm gonna take it on.

20:47

This is, this is what I've done.

20:49

This is what I do.

20:50

And I think maybe just that confidence and also just the belief that this is what we can do, change their perspective of themselves.

20:59

And the business they saw how summer camp was successful.

21:02

They saw the financial impact, which certainly helps, help say, yeah, we can keep doing that.

21:08

But they also saw the, the, the hustle and the bustle.

21:11

They saw the energy that it brought, they saw the impact on their enrollment.

21:15

And so then we've done two full summers of summer camp.

21:17

We've added Ninja programming and it's just kind of changed.

21:20

It's little by little.

21:22

I think having somebody in the driver's seat that has the confidence and the vision to say we're going to take this on and if it doesn't work it doesn't work, but we're gonna take it on and we'll figure it out as we go.

21:34

And if it was a mistake, it was a mistake.

21:35

I mean, that's what kids first was built on.

21:38

And so I think it was just, just that whole shift from the top in our mentality of how we were going to approach things.

21:44

And now I see them trying new things where I feel like when I started, it was a lot of, yeah, we just can't do that.

21:50

We can't do that here.

21:51

And so, yeah, it's been, it's been pretty transformative for sure.

21:55

And, and powerful to summarize that.

21:59

So you set small goals and then led the charge.

22:02

Yeah.

22:03

And I would say from the outside looking in and watching Megan, it was like she knew the answers, but she would talk them through and walk them through and listen to those that she was working with because there were, there was a lot of fear that they were going to be overworked or it just wasn't going to work and they would be left to clean it up.

22:23

But just watching her, the process of her making decisions and then owning those decisions, whether they worked or not, I think was, I wish you could see yourself from the outside.

22:37

It was, it was, it was just really inspirational to watch because you just gave me til you just, I mean, you, you built it, you know, you, you done what everybody tries to do and it's been great to watch.

22:50

It's I love it.

22:51

I have a follow question with you, Jim.

22:54

You talked about leadership change and executive leadership change as you walk through that process.

23:01

Was there something that caught you by surprise as you're trying to bring up this new executive team and these new leaders, was there something that really caught you by surprise?

23:11

And or is there advice you would give an owner or a business owner that's walking through those same things.

23:20

There's lots of advice.

23:22

I think, you know, me and I often joke about the list of things that we don't know and we don't know until it comes up and then you realize, oh, I didn't, I should know that, but I don't know that.

23:32

And I think, I mean, the greatest advice is just not being afraid to, to accept and to recognize that you don't have all the answers and you're not supposed to have all the answers.

23:44

but you surround yourself by smart people who can help you find those answers and what the answer is today might be different than tomorrow.

23:50

And I think being able to pivot is really important.

23:53

, I think I was most in awe of anyone that's listening to this, that is a boot camper or a former boot camper understands where Jeff stands on delegation.

24:04

And I think,, the ability to,, fully delegate responsibilities where you're not only just delegating the responsibility but the authority and the accountability of, of the action and having faith in those people to, to do those things.

24:20

And I think Megan and I lead differently than Jeff did because of all the, that, that list of things that we don't know.

24:28

So we wanted to, we want to be sure that we know what's going on in each department and we know that the strengths and the weaknesses of each department leader and that we're constantly supportive and available, which Jeff was all of those things, but he was really good about hands off you.

24:42

If you have a problem, you can talk to me about it, but I trust you and have faith in you to solve it.

24:47

And I think at the early onset, we probably immersed ourselves more into each department because we had so much turnover as we were coming into this role, we had these new department leaders who we were trying to ensure that they were aligned with our culture.

25:02

They knew it was ok to make mistakes, but they also knew what an affordable mistake was versus, you know, irresponsible decision making.

25:09

So all of those things would be my advice, make sure that you, you know what your goals are, you know, who you are as a company, you surround yourself with smart people and you're not afraid to accept that.

25:18

You don't know at all.

25:19

That's great.

25:20

I don't even remember the first, but I, I think, I think the, I think something we both have talked about, but you have definitely been a driver of is with all of the new leaders, not losing the culture, not losing what Jeff built.

25:34

And, and for so long, like I remember when I started, we had deals here of 1520 years.

25:39

You know, I was one of the few new people and when COVID happened, I was one of the more veteran staff having been here 10 years.

25:47

And then after COVID, there was maybe only two or three that had been in AD L role for longer than 10 years.

25:55

And so we had all these new DLS and as on top of just trying to dig yourself out of that hole, it was doing it in a way that is in alignment with our who we are.

26:06

And then once you get out of that, making sure that the culture perpetuates and grows in the, you know, it's going to change.

26:14

But also are we still who we, who we were pre COVID.

26:18

Are we still the, the, the, who are we still kids first when you have all these new people who didn't come up through the system, who didn't, weren't here when Jeff was here?

26:29

You know, they didn't hear Jeff speak and if you've heard Jeff speak, you know how that, like lives and breathes in you, right.

26:35

, they didn't have that.

26:37

They had us, we're not Jeff and so we were just trying not to sink the ship.

26:42

Yeah.

26:43

And I think, you know, you could, we could spend obviously a whole podcast talking about culture and I'm sure that would be a great, a great topic.

26:50

But I think it's just that constant ingraining in so many different ways.

26:55

It's not one training, it's not sitting through one thing, but Jen's really great at every opportunity where there's a large group of people to kind of step back and talk about where we've been, who we are and either talking specifically about a principle or talking about who we are as a company and what the, the history is and, and why we're here today and how that's gonna perpetuate now in the, in the road.

27:17

And I think it's always eye opening to people because they have, they weren't here when Jeff was here and we, we forget how many of those staff now weren't here when Jeff was here.

27:25

Right?

27:26

So that's always a, a that culture piece and making sure that you are doing everything you can to preserve that and cultivate it, empower everybody aligned in the same system.

27:38

I think that's, it's been a big challenge and also, I think it's now a straight, awesome.

27:46

Well, speaking of down the road, what's next?

27:49

What's coming up next for kids first?

27:52

Oh, we've got big plans.

27:54

Both, both locations have big plans.

27:56

So the campus which is our early learning center, which rented space at kids first just moved.

28:02

Yesterday was their first day in their new location that it's on the property adjacent to kids first.

28:07

They moved from 5000 square feet to about 21,000 square feet.

28:11

And also yesterday kids first started assuming the rent of that 5000 square feet.

28:18

So, you know, on our, on our list of of things to do and how to use that space is, is to figure out the best use of that space for the short term.

28:27

And then for the long term and short term, we started tearing out bathrooms yesterday to take it from preschool age to school age.

28:34

And we're will be using that 5000 square feet additional space for our summer camp.

28:38

And we currently run about 325 students a week in summer camp.

28:43

Were hoping that that goes up to that, that we have the capacity to increase.

28:47

We're not sure what that magic number is, but upwards of 400 students.

28:52

I'm not sure that there's the demand yet for that, but we're, we're steadily increasing enrollment daily.

28:58

So our goal is to increase our summer camp for the 12 weeks of summer.

29:02

And not use that solely as summer camp space.

29:04

Obviously, they would still utilize every single nook and cranny of this building.

29:09

But then when school starts, we're looking at before care and aftercare or the school, the school districts that are our main, our main zip code and it looks like, I mean, when you Megan will speak in a second on, on her, her plans over its first too.

29:26

But there's just such a need for that before or after care opportunity for students.

29:33

Parents are, are, you know, they're struggling to pick their kids up at 330 or four o'clock, they're still trying to get to finish work.

29:40

Even though there's flexibility, more flexibility, I think post COVID and work schedules than there was.

29:44

People want a great place for their kids to do more than just sit in a cafeteria or run around on a playground and kids first will certainly be able to handle that.

29:54

We, we hope to have the different types of learning opportunities that are similar to what you would see in a learning lab or elective things that maybe the schools no longer offer.

30:03

But also we have, you know, 100 and 8000 square feet of physical activity space.

30:07

So get them moving kids, kids function better when they are able to exert energy.

30:12

, and you know that while the profit margins are very different for an after school or before school or childcare than they are for, for programming and there still is really great opportunity financially too for, yeah, I love the curriculum of the after school program.

30:29

And I think that's the thing that's really gonna be the, the, the, yeah, I think when that, that's been a talk, I think since I started because my background was in childcare.

30:42

Jeff always talked about after school programming.

30:45

, if you're in the state of Ohio, childcare licensing is a little different than some other states, it's pretty difficult.

30:52

And so it wasn't something that it wasn't something that we could just start,, you know, tomorrow or, you know, there's, there's a, there's a process and so now that the campus has left the space that they're in here, we have a space that's been licensed, we know that it will meet licensing standards.

31:10

, kids first two is also embarking on taking on some before and after school space that is not currently renovated, for, for licensing to code.

31:20

So we are working through,, with a contractor on getting some space that has been offered to us up and going for before and after school and potentially adding a preschool.

31:29

, and so I think for us right now at both locations, we're working together on a lot of those, those plans.

31:37

some things will be a little different, some things will be the same.

31:40

And then I would say the other big thing right now is this marketing change, you know, I think for us that has taken a back burner for, for a year or two.

31:53

And as Jen mentioned, numbers were great and then when they weren't, it's like, hey, maybe we should pay a little attention to this again.

32:00

Maybe we should, should have somebody driving this.

32:02

And so we'll let, as I said, Corey talk about that in a future podcast, but we're definitely, there's a lot of changing, changing and moving parts right now to marketing, entering the digital age where we were, we were print media for a long time.

32:18

And also as both gyms, you know, really where we weren't focusing on special events, we're looking back at special events.

32:24

and always staff education.

32:27

I think we're always looking at how to develop and grow our staff.

32:29

So those have been some of our key focuses at both locations.

32:32

And the reason why we had to take a hiatus before there it is.

32:37

So what's coming up for boot camp, boot camp?

32:42

So, boot camp, we have our 72nd boot camp number, 72 is coming up in just a few short weeks.

32:47

May 2nd through the sixth.

32:49

We do have some spots remaining boot camp is a 3.5 day immersive immersive business education seminar with all the leaders from kids for Sports Center and then some outside guests that we bring in as well.

33:04

And it's just an amazing opportunity to be kind of on ground zero of how this business has been built, learning from Jeff.

33:12

And Jen Kim Kim is our controller who's amazing at teaching accounting concepts to anybody that doesn't speak numbers the way that she does.

33:25

And so it is an amazing opportunity for businesses to jump on board.

33:31

We again, we are in the children's instructional services industry.

33:34

So we've had gym schools, swim schools, karate music, child care.

33:42

Anybody that serves kids for the most part can, can benefit from from boot camp.

33:47

So we have that coming up in just a few short weeks, we typically do a may boot camp and a November boot camp.

33:52

We have relaunched our biz tips from Jeff.

33:55

So we do an email newsletter every few weeks for the children's instructional services industry.

34:01

They're short and to the point and they give business tips and advice straight from the man himself.

34:06

I find them very easy to read.

34:07

I find them very educational every time I read them, they're always poignant to the point and I feel like I leave with something to think about.

34:16

And then we're back with the small business boot camp podcast.

34:20

So we're gonna be pumping back out some regularly scheduled content.

34:25

We might do interviews, we do some deep dives into the business relevant topics to the industry and you can help us by spreading the word and helping us spread the positivity to the industry.

34:34

You can share a podcast, you can share it with an industry friend or you can subscribe if you have a topic idea.

34:40

Send it to info at Metzger bootcamp.com.

34:44

And and what should we leave him with?

34:49

We should leave them with three takeaways.

34:50

What do you think of the three takeaways we should leave them with?

34:53

I think number one is that we're back.

34:56

We're excited to be back doing the podcast.

34:59

We've been busy but we are so ready to share with you where we've been and talk through that where we're going and how we can help each other enter this new era of business together.

35:10

That's our goal, lifetime solutions for your business that can give you business solutions for your lifetime.

35:15

So subscribe to the podcast.

35:17

Come to the next boot camp.

35:19

We still have a few spots open.

35:21

I'd love to see you there.

35:22

I'd love to meet, you could talk about any marketing needs that you might have.

35:26

You can visit us at mere bootcamp.com.