Child Care Rockstar Radio

This week, Jason Russell, former police officer, Secret Service agent and current founder of Secure Education Consultants, talks to us about the important subject of school security. Jason merged his experience in security and crisis communication with his wife’s knowledge of child care centers and early education to bring a unique service to the market.

Marcia St. Hilaire Finn, Managing Owner and Director of Bright Star Early Care and Preschool, lights up wherever she is with her enthusiasm, energy, and positive attitude. She joins the show to talk about her start in Dominica and how she ended up in Washington D.C., her advice on setting smart goals, and shares her logistics on her teacher engagement and culture of fun and dedication.

This week, Kris gives a bunch of updates on the newly rebranded Child Care Success Company, and how it can provide a specific road map that will perform for you, over and over again, in the lifetime of your business. She reflects on the last decade of running the company and celebrates all the new prosperity, success, and fun ahead. She talks about how you can model the Kris Murray Method on your own brand, the different levels and assets of the method, and the importance of using automation when you can.

Lety and Raoul of Springview Academy in Florida join the show today to talk about working as a married couple, the cute story of how they met and became a partnership, and spotting teacher burnout. They are both highly focused on professional development, active leadership and creating a culture that serves children and their families yet also provides the staff with a healthy amount of freedom and autonomy.

Bobby Franzo, Co-Founder and team lead of pb&j TV, joins the show this week. One of the best practices that we would like to see utilized as a tool to help reduce risk and have full enrollment is to have cameras in the classroom. Bobby and the pb&j team is leading the charge of this industry, using state of the art technology and cutting edge services.

One of the busiest character actors in Hollywood today, Glenn Morshower, joins the show to talk with Kris. Glenn has appeared in over 200 film and television projects in a career spanning four decades including the FOX hit series 24. Glenn talks about discovering his love for theatre at a young age, and some career highlights that catapulted him forward.

Mike Garatoni of Growing Kids Learning Centers in Indiana joins the show to talk about scaling up, growing, and advice for schools of any size to grow and expand even more. He and his wife Beth found high-quality care quite limited as parents themselves and knew they wanted to help be part of the solution. Mike and Kris talk about the importance of starting from the end goal and working back, delegation, how he empowers his directors, and challenges they faced in the early scale-up phases.

Many of you saw Les Brown speak live at the Child Care Success Summit in Dallas, and saw first-hand how his words can be life-changing and bring you to both laughter and tears. Today he joins the show to talk with Kris about the influences on his own life and path, his tenets for quality and joy in our lives, and why embracing and sharing our story is critical to really shape the lives of children and their families.

In this inspirational episode, we hear from Kris’s very first client Alison Pfeister and her daughter Alexandra Kroon. Their school, the TLC Academy for Young Children in Hudson, Ohio is a family owned business, founded by Alison and her husband in 1989 after the birth of Alexandra, who now serves as the director. Alison shares the story of how TLC continues to be successful after many years and provides resources and inspiration for building a culture of play, respect, and transparency.

This episode we are joined by Leann and Jake Chamberlain, husband and wife team that run Brighton Montessori in Brighton, Michigan. Leann was the recent winner of the Child Care Rockstar contest, and her vulnerable and authentic approach won the hearts of everyone there.

Eric Lofholm is President and CEO of Eric Lofholm International, an organization he founded to professionally train people on the art and science of selling. Eric has used his own successful sales background to help anyone dramatically improve in all areas, including income and happiness. He joins the show today to talk about enrollment building and how his system can apply to a classroom setting. He also discusses the influence of silence, selling equaling service, and pre-framing the sale.

Jennifer Vazquez, Owner of A Sunny Start Preschool,  joins the show today. She talks about the culture of caring, how she sets herself apart from the competition in her three full locations in the Miami area, attracting great employees, and marketing techniques that have made the biggest changes in her enrollment growth.

Troy Howard, with the customer reviews and referrals system SoTellUs, joins the show to talk about his passion for combining technology and marketing and how it led him to become an entrepreneur and industry disruptor in the online review space. He and Kris talk about creating social proof, why reviews are so important to us in marketing, reviews and referrals, how to handle negative reviews, and the most powerful elements inside a review.

Knowing what insurance policies to have and making sure your coverage is the highest quality is of the utmost importance for a child care business owner. Today, Kris talks with Samantha Phillips of Aleaf Insurance about the three top biggest insurance mistakes she sees in the child care field that are common or very concerning in insurance policies and how we can best address them.

Michelle Smith-Lank has been in the Child Care Success Academy for several years and a true definition of a Child Care Rockstar. She talks about how she got into the field and came to open Kids World Learning Center and the lessons in growth, marketing, and expansion she has learned throughout her career.