Don’t Wait for a Crisis: How Childcare Owners Accidentally Lose Their License

Speaker A: Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of CBG Live. So I'm super excited to be joined by the awesome, the wonderful, amazing Renee Williams. Renee, thank you so much for jumping on. You have an awesome surname just like mine. Um, super grateful to have you come on today. What I'd love to do, if you don't mind, first tell everyone a little bit about you and a bit about your background, if you don't mind.

Speaker B: So my name is Ronnie Williams. Um, I guess I should say the state lady officially registered and trademarked. And I am a former licensing consultant for, from the state of Georgia. I have a background in child and family development. I have a bachelor's in child and family development and a master's in business. I have worked in the classroom. I have worked in leadership within a center. I have worked as a state licensing consultant. I have worked as a regional director for a child care franchise. I have worked as a marketing project tech manager for a child care franchise. And I have worked in strategic partnerships and crisis management with a, uh, child care organization. I have touched all of the realms of child care professionally, educationally.

Speaker A: I absolutely love that. So lots of experience. And one of the things we were talking about before you jumped on was this whole thing around compliance. We talked about people often tend to bring you in when something's gone wrong, which we know isn't the right part.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: But tell us a little bit about if you don't mind. At, uh, what point do people. You know, we talked a lot about it being potentially like an afterthought, but tell me your back. Let's just open up this conversation. Let's be real and direct. Tell people what often happens if you don't mind.

Speaker B: A lot of times people wait for the event that we dread to happen and they want me to come in and fix it. And the thing is of, uh, all buildings can be rebuilt, right? But at the end of the day, why. Why put yourself through building an all new building when you can fix your building before all the chaos starts? You know, calling me in when licensing has already come, your fine is already being drafted. The possibility of you losing your license has already begun its legal battle. You've hired the lawyer, you've done all these things. Why wait until that point when you can get me? When you've noticed, you know, they're not really cleaning up that well, or you've noticed that they're coming in late, or you've noticed they're sneaking to use their phone, or you're noticing these things, why not let me come in train your staff. Because for whatever reason, hearing it from somebody else makes it resonate with staff. Let me come in and have those conversations with your staff, with your leadership, and honestly with the owner. Because one thing I am learning is a lot of the owners don't know the rules either. And it's hard to teach someone something that you don't know. So just having somebody come in and really push those standards on them. Health and safety is universal. There is a national standard. If we are all operating from that standard, it doesn't matter what state you're in, it doesn't matter that I was a licensing person in Georgia. There's some minute things that happen from state to state, but overall health and safety standards are universal, the main ones, and those are the ones that people are being cited for. So just being able to come in and have those conversations is so necessary on the front end so that we don't have to worry about the legality of, uh, an incident happening because a teacher wasn't paying attention, didn't know the proper hand washing procedures, didn't know what to do when a child fell. Making sure that we're training them on their proper things.

Speaker A: I love that. One of the things we, we've often talked about, you and I, is that, you know, when we had our centers, uh, you know, the long time we had all that, we would always bring people in to do mock inspections and I'd often bring people in from, you know, different organizations to get different perspectives.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: What, what's your thought around how often should someone do this? Obviously if they're not doing it all, they need to start. But what's your kind of recommendation around how often should you be bringing someone in to do that kind of mock inspection inside your organization? Hey, I'm sorry to interrupt your content right now, but I wanted to give you this quick message. If you're enjoying this amazing content from all these amazing coaches and speakers around the world, I want to encourage you to go and check out ecemastery.com I promise you it's going to be a big game changer for you and all your team. There are over 60 different coaches from all around the world to help you to grow your early childhood education business. Now if you haven't checked it out, go and check it out right now. I promise you it'll be a big game changer. Now let's get right back into the content.

Speaker B: It really depends on what all is going on in your building. If you have no clue, you should probably have someone come in at least once a quarter until your inspections are beginning to show zero evidence of anything. Right. I think we do need to walk away from the stigma of a perfect visit every time, because I will say you're dealing with 10 to 20 different humans, all who you've hired at different rates. In time, it is possible for someone to make a mistake. Okay. It is possible for a new parent to not have noted the allergy and your admin didn't see it that first day. It is possible to get a mistake. But I will say if you notice that you're constantly being cited for paperwork, you're constantly being cited for ratios, you're, you're constantly being cited for health and hygiene, then that is a practice that is amongst your building. That's part of your culture. There is a cut corners type culture that is in your building. And those types of things should be reviewed on a quarterly basis. Especially if you're giving someone outside the opportunity to come in. Because in between those visits, you got to give your team the chance to, uh, get used to the new way of doing things. It's a bad example, but it's relative. It's almost like working out right when we first started working out. Or I should say maybe eating good, because eating good is more controlled. But with eating good, the one time you go to like a birthday party or a bridal shower or something, and nothing that was part of your new diet is now on this table, this spread. But you've come to this baby shower hungry, you're going to break your diet and you're going to eat what's at that baby shower spread, right? And then that evening you're going to eat bad again. And that one, uh, thing threw you off from eating right. Same thing happens with staff. The one time someone calls out, the one time, you know, their day is thrown off a little bit, sometimes it's harder to do that new routine that they're trying to learn. So you want to give people the opportunity to learn the new routine, you got to teach it to them, um, and you got to give them the opportunity to implement it. Does that make sense? I always feel like food helps make everyone relate, but, uh, you got to give them the opportunity to learn the new procedure. You can't just say in the staff meeting, we told them how to change a diaper. We told them you have to give them a chance to change that diaper. With little Johnny over there crying, little Maria over there about to bite somebody. You got somebody else over there fighting over a toy. You got to let them feel that diaper change, to make sure they are wiping all the times they're supposed to wipe. Washing hands all the times they're supposed to wash. Letting the disinfectant sit. The amount of time is. You got to give them the chance to really implement it so that the process can begin to work.

Speaker A: Love that. I love that. Um, so tell me a little bit from obviously at, uh, CBG Live. Super excited to have you come in and do a session. Um, what are some of the key things that you're going to cover off at CBG Live all around your area of expertise because you have such a wealth of knowledge? What are you going to be able to show people at CBG Live that they can take away? Maybe refreshes, but also what can they take away and what can they actually implement directly from that particular session?

Speaker B: We're going to implement just advocating doing the right thing even when times are hard. We're in a childcare crisis. Everyone's feeling it. It's hard to find staff, it's hard to find parents that aren't crazy. We're all over the place, right? But at the end of the day, we still have to do what we have to do, and that's follow the rules and just making sure that we have the confidence, because I think a lot of them have the tool. We just don't know how to use it. But if we could just build that confidence to know the rulebook is our friend. In the same way that we can search something on Facebook or TikTok to find the answer, we're going to learn how to look in that rule book so that we can find the answer. Confidence. We're definitely going to build confidence at CBG Live to make sure that we know how to move forward with these state inspections. Learning how to talk to your consultant, learning how to talk through differences with your consultant, learning how to talk about uncertainties. Because sometimes what they think they saw and what you thought you were doing are not coming out, uh, as, uh, the same thing. And just making sure we're able to address their consultant. I've had so many people say, well, I didn't want to make her mad. It's not a matter of making someone mad. It's how you deliver your question or your information regarding what you saw and being able to hear what they saw and being able to look at the scenario and think, is that really what happened but what you weren't intending to happen, or did they not see it the right way? I've had so Many times where even as a consultant, someone would point something out to me and that's not what I saw. And once we explained the two different things and they got the opportunity to speak with their staff, what I saw wasn't wrong. It's just not what the owner or director was intending or thought was going on in the room. But I've also been wrong before. I have thought I saw something and it wasn't what I thought I saw. And so even with that, uh, here's a good example. These tablets, you know, everyone's tablets, to record everything. Some have, like, little kind of mini pads and some have the big iPads. Well, you know, some of these iPhones look like mini pads. Like, the phones are big. And even the new Galaxy, it, like opens up like a book.

Speaker A: Yeah, totally.

Speaker B: I thought I saw a teacher on her phone. Instead, I saw a teacher that was documenting something for the reporting system. Now, at the end of the day, the teacher was distracted because she did not even see me enter the room. There was other things going on on the playground, but it was a teachable moment for both of them because at least she wasn't on her phone. Like, if we got to compare apples and oranges, yes, she was distracted, but at least she wasn't scrolling. She was trying to do something for the child and the family. But at the end of the day, supervision supersedes everything else that's going on in a classroom. You update the report when you're able to, not just when you're able to still supervise, not just whenever there's a moment. So the playground isn't necessarily the time to update your log, especially if you're the only teacher in the room. Either way, before I go on that rant, but just, we're going to talk about confidence, we're going to talk about tools, we're going to talk about just ways to really master the inspection. Because at the end of the day especially, uh, with everything going on with funding, insurance, we can no longer make your licensing review at the bottom of the list. You can market, you can hire if you don't have the license. Neither of the two matters.

Speaker A: Yeah, totally. Couldn't agree more with you. And, um, and, um, one of the things, like, like we said right at the start here, I want to keep beating the drum about this. This cannot be an afterthought. It cannot be something. We wait until an event happens because we think there's other priorities. I, you know, I don't know. You know, I don't underestimate that because I think it's sometimes, particularly if someone's new to the industry, as a new owner, hasn't worked in the sector before they come in, and it's about, okay, yeah, we've got to get the numbers up. We've got to fill this in. I get that. But equal. And that's my background, that's what we love to do at cbg. However, I truly advocate that, yeah, it's all well and good filling your numbers up, but if you get an inspection and then, excuse my language with the shit hits the fan because you've done well, you've missed something, all that hard work you've put in has gone anyway, you know, potentially based on whatever happens or the consequences of that. So I can't underestimate, so I can't stress enough. Sorry. The importance of making sure you guys are on top of this from the start. Because as much as you might not think it's equal to marketing enrollment and staffing, it is 100% just as equal. Yeah, it's gotta be. It has to be. So, uh, one of the things we're going to do at the session, CBG Live, we truly believe this is so fundamental to every business, but we don't feel people give this enough thought. So what we're going to do is we're doing a session. It's going to be from 7:45 till 8:30. Um, and we're going to go through all the key things. Breakfast will be included for you guys as an extra incentive because that's how much we truly believe that, how important this thing is. So for any of you coming to CBG Live, make sure you jump on that session. Um, it is not something to skip. You need to be there. Just like you shouldn't skip your breakfast, you should make sure you don't skip this session, too.

Speaker B: Do not skip it.

Speaker A: Yeah. She is phenomenal at delivering great content because let's face it, there are some people out there that probably don't deliver the most exciting sessions. But I can assure you this one is going to be fun. Okay? It really is.

Speaker B: Um, yeah.

Speaker A: Is there any last tips you want to leave anyone with any other thoughts or, you know, points that they can or anything you think that they should be prepped for or questions they should get themselves ready for when they come

Speaker B: along to your session, but bring your questions. I love having sessions where it's not just me talking. I want to make sure that you walk away with the knowledge of how to use your tool. You know what I mean? I feel like I can give you a toolbox with a hammer, a screwdriver and everything else, but if you don't know how to use them, what's the point? Come with your questions, come ready to talk about some concerns that you have. And we're going to get into them because at the end of the day, licensing is so important. It is playing into such an integral part of the business, being able to get insurance, being able to get these funding dollars from the government. You have to be compliant and for some, some categories, quality. But if you're not meeting the minimum standard, there's no way you can be quality. And so we have to get past the fear, the annoyance, the burden or whatever it is you feel when licensing or state comes, whatever emotion that over consumes you. We have to get past it because we have to finally master licensing. It's not going anywhere. Licensing, honestly is never going to get any easier. It's not. The rules are not going to be any less. At the end of the day, the health and safety of children is a priority for all of us and we have to make sure that we are making it a priority all the time.

Speaker A: Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast. We'll get right back to it in a second. Now, if you want to find out about the different ways you can work with us here at Childcare Business Growth, including our coaching programs and our Done for you marketing and staff recruitment program. All you need to do is go over to www.childcarebusinessgrowth.com and you'll find all the links that you need there, not

Speaker B: just when that visit occurs.

Speaker A: Yeah, no. And, um, you know, I couldn't agree with more because, because the, the whole concept of this new book we've just written is all around trust. We, we don't live in. It's not marketing. We're in, we're not in the business of childcare. We're in the business of trust. Someone is trusting you with the most precious gift in the world. And, uh, nothing is more important than the compliance side right at the top. It has to be. Has to be. You know, we've talked about examples and we won't go into details about these, but we've talked about examples where you've had people potentially try and sue owners, the business, the directors, the staff, teachers, everybody. It's just absolutely insane to what the implications are. Rightfully so in some respect, but equally unjust in others. But, but if you don't know, you know, you shared a great example earlier where, uh, obviously we won't go into the logistics of it because obviously there's certain criteria and things we can't talk about. But what I loved what you discussed earlier. When you've got someone like you in their corner and potentially there is absolutely no blame whatsoever on the owner. The owner's done everything they can possibly do, but maybe a teacher hasn't done something. Should the owner be responsible in that case? Should the owner be held accountable even if they've done every single thing they can? And what I loved about what we spoke about earlier is when you have that subject matter, you have that subject expert in your corner. You know, you, you. If you don't have that knowledge, where are you going to turn? Because in theory you could end up with a huge lawsuit on your hands because you didn't have the right advice in the first place. Is there anything you could add to that?

Speaker B: No. I think that having knowledgeable resources at your access, which is me. At the end of the day, we are in a sue happy society. And as we shared earlier, um, I know I was working with a case where the family sued the owner, the director, the teacher and the co teacher. You know what I mean? And at uh, the end of the day, the owner wasn't even there. But it's her business. And being able to provide everyone with the tools that they need so that they can protect themselves and their business. Just imagine as an owner losing your business for a teacher from an incident that occurred with a teacher and just knowing you could have just mandated a training, you could have had them sign off that they understood this policy. There are so many things that you can do as an owner or director, even teacher, because uh, at the end of the day everyone needs to protect themselves. Um, against opportunities to be sued or sent to jail or both.

Speaker A: Yeah, I couldn't agree with more. Every time we used to have our centers, no matter what you do, you would always be concerned around what if something goes wrong, what if. But when you have someone on your side that is supporting and guiding you, I think sometimes people see it as the state persons coming into to look something wrong. Yeah, M. Yeah, that's very much that approach. But what I love about what you do, you're there to support those people to make sure they don't find something wrong.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: Um, so super excited. Look, makes what I'd love you guys to do, if you don't mind, drop any questions comments down below. And Rene talked about earlier, the most important thing to you is come with questions because I know some people will be in the room that have those questions that won't ask them. So. And, um, um, there's going to be questions people ask that are going to be so relevant for everyone else. Just some people.

Speaker B: Every time. Every time.

Speaker A: Yeah, I see it all the time. It's one of those things someone asked. They go, oh, that was a great question. But I was scared to ask that question, so bring your questions. Um, super excited to have the awesome State lady come and speak for us at CBG Live. Going to be a great session first thing in the morning and your breakfast included. Um, what more can you ask for? So, as always, what we always do, we shout out two winners. Um, so anyone, we give away two free tickets. Um, just as a thank you for you guys commenting and engaging with our posts. If there's anything particularly you guys want to comment on, make sure it's a good comment. You can't just say, I want a free ticket. Um, put some feedback in the post down below and we will pick a winner off the back of that. Ronnie, I'm super grateful for you jumping on. I am very excited for your session because I just think you add so much value and that reassurance that, you know, as an owner and a provider, you do everything you can and to have someone like you in their corner is just a game changer.

Speaker B: I'm excited to be there and meet everyone and talk about this, because we got to talk about it. It's more room out here than it is inside your head. So let's. Let's get it out there.

Speaker A: I love that. Thank you so much for joining me. And make sure everyone you show you love in the comments already down below.