The Child Care Business Podcast

Allyx Schiavone had intended to start a new elementary school in New Haven, Connecticut, until she listened to her community and saw the need for an early childhood education center. 

In this episode, she talks about partnering with local Quakers to form the Friends Center for Children. Allyx is the executive director of the center, which is supported by a comprehensive emotional wellbeing program and made accessible with ...

Think about going to a restaurant. That's an experience you have. It's true in other businesses too, from a coffee shop to a doctor's office to a hardware store. So why shouldn't that apply to a child care center?

That's the message of Better Beans Branding in Duluth, Georgia. This company does branding, design, signs and construction and  their clients include child care centers, which Better Bean...

Today's millennial and Gen Z workers are mission driven, tech savvy and they expect to be onboarded and given professional development and coaching, says Kris Murray.

Kris is the founder and president and founder of The Child Care Success Company and a leading child care business expert. 

In this podcast, she talks about how to help child care staff grow within your organization and the importance of professi...

AJ Crabill has strong opinions about early childhood education and he's quick to dispel any notion that it should start around preschool.

He is a champion of ECE, and his education experience includes chairing the Kansas City School Board and serving as the deputy commissioner of the Texas Education Agency where he helped spearhead statewide incentives for school districts to expand their pre-K offerings outcomes sta...

Dr. Rosemarie Allen has served as an educational leader for over 30 years and her life’s work is centered on ensuring all children have access to high-quality early childhood programs that are developmentally and culturally appropriate. 

She’s an associate professor in the school of education at Metropolitan State University in Denver, and other career highlights include serving as Colorado’s director of the division of ea...

The child care industry is at a crossroads. Many programs are resisting technology to help educate the children in their care and simplify running their businesses. 

That's why Procare Solutions surveyed over 100,000 stakeholders to gain a deeper understanding of their child care management software usage, as well as other technologies in place for their business operations. 

The results of the survey compr...

Child care centers are seeing five generations of employees working together: traditionalists, boomers, generation X, millennials and now generation Z, who are ages 10 to 24 years old. 

As this group becomes a larger part of the workforce, it’s important to understand how they’re different from other age groups, says Kathe Petchel. She has been in early childhood education for more than 30 years, both as a teacher and a center owner...

The story of Procare Solutions begins with a dad who saw a child care center needed help. 

That dad was Jeff Blum, and he remembers dropping off his 2-year-old son and watching the center’s owners struggle with their accounting system. 

So he wrote them a computer program to help. That program — limited, yes, but incredibly innovative for its time  — can lay claim to being the very first version of what eventually would become Procar...

Ty’Heim Clark, perhaps better known as Mr. Ty, is the founder of The Childcare Whisperer, a consulting business that works with child care center directors to help them meet their goals and take their centers to the next level.

His experience in early childhood education started when he was a child and he helped his mother at her child care center. Since then, he has worked as a pre-kindergarten teacher, an assistant center director...

As child care centers struggle to find and keep good teachers and other staff, building resilience is key. 

In this podcast, Donna Skea joins us from Quebec to share some tips on doing just that! 

Donna is the founder of The Infinite Educator, which provides workshops on all aspects of early childhood education, including on building resiliency in the childcare workforce, which is what she’ll be discussing with us...

Aliya Johnson-Roberts, an education and business consultant who leads Consulting with AJR, is the executive director of the Bustleton Learning Center and Pratt Street Learning Center in Philadelphia, serving more than 250 children.

Her mother was an in-home child care provider, and Aliya went into the fashion industry before realizing her passion is early childhood education.

Aliya has a master’s degree in early c...

In this podcast, Nicole Riehl, president and CEO of Colorado Executives Partnering to Invest in Children (better known as EPIC), discusses a new Colorado law that will pay for 10 hours a week of preschool for all 4-year-olds, and what that means for child care providers and families.

 Nicole was an early childhood teacher for five years and her background includes extensive work with Denver’s preschool programs as well as coordinati...

In this podcast, Jacob Stewart, director of state government relations at the Early Care and Education Consortium, describes what individual states are doing to combat staffing shortages in child care.

Massachusetts, for example, launched a general, statewide workforce bonus for which child care providers are eligible to receive $4,000 per new employee hired and retained for 60 days. 

Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, O...

Chanie Wilschanski is known as the "school culture doctor" because she can diagnose the root cause of the struggle in a child care center in less that 10 minutes. 

She's an early childhood leadership coach and the CEO of Schools of Excellence, and in this podcast she discusses what she sees in those 10 minutes and much more.

" You need to understand where you're spending your time," Chanie...

Laura Delgado is the vice president of curriculum and professional development at Learning Beyond Paper, a leader in providing 100% digital curriculum. Laura is a former early learning teacher, center director and owner. She has a master’s degree in leadership in education and more than 25 years of experience in early childhood learning.

 In this podcast, she discusses why curriculum is so important for young learners, particularly ...

We are live from the 2022 National Shared Services Technical Conference presented by Opportunities Exchange in Austin, Texas!

In this podcast, we talk with Lisa Polk about leadership. She has 20 years’ experience as an early education teacher, director and owner. She works with Georgia Alliance for Quality Child Care and is an instructor for CDA credential and director training in addition to being an adjunct professor at ...

We are live from the 2022 National Shared Services Technical Conference presented by Opportunities Exchange in Austin, Texas!

In this podcast, we talk with Gary Romano. Gary is the president and CEO of Civitas Strategies, LLC, where he works with nonprofit leaders and entrepreneurs. He’s also an author and has published two books. One is “Small But Mighty,” which helps entrepreneurs launch and grow nonprofit consultancies,...

Karla Houghtalin is the program manager in early childhood business management at Southwest Human Development in Phoenix. She holds a master’s degree in early childhood education, curriculum and instruction from Arizona State University. 

In this podcast, she shares what’s happening with shared services, a topic that is incredibly relevant in the child care industry today.

Karla describes the genesis of the busine...

Monique Reynolds is the vice president of business support services with Quality Care for Children in Atlanta. She has worked in leadership roles in the child care industry for more than 25 years and has an extensive knowledge of child care business management and early education.

Monique previously owned and operated successful multi-site programs and her passion is helping child care business owners become successful and sustainab...