283: How Can Intentional Communication Transform Your Child Care Center? With Julie Martinez

In this episode of Child Care Conversations, you’ll join Kate, Carrie, and their guest Julie Martinez, a passionate childcare center owner from Texas. Julie shares her inspiring journey from teen mom to thriving entrepreneur, opening centers in unique spaces like a church. The trio chats about building strong relationships, the ups and downs of shared spaces, and the magic of intentional communication. 

If you’re curious about leadership, community, and creative solutions in child care, this episode is packed with wisdom, warmth, and a few laughs! Listen now!

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Transcript

Marie 00:00:03  Welcome to Child Care Conversations, the podcast where early childhood leaders like you get real world strategies, honest talk and a whole lot of support. Whether you're running one center or many. We're here to help you lead with confidence and clarity. This episode is brought to you by this quarter's sponsor, playground. The all in one child care management software. We're all about managing monkeys and saving you time at your center. With this platform, you can. We're proud to partner with a team that's as committed to your success as we are. Learn more at Tri Playground Comm. Now let's get into today's conversation. One we think you're really going to love.

Kate 00:00:49  Welcome back to this week's episode of Child Care Conversations with Kate and Cary. And we are so excited to have Julie Martinez with us. And although Julie comes from Texas. We did happen to get to know Jolene much better, actually in Orlando, Florida, at the Association for Early Learning Leaders conference this year. And we were talking casually after one of the workshops, and I absolutely fell in love with her story about opening her most recent school.

Kate 00:01:21  And so that's what we've asked Julie to come on and kind of share with us today. But I'm going to start by letting Julie introduce herself. Tell us a little bit about her background, maybe even how she found herself in childcare, or even how she found herself as an owner. You don't have to make this a 20 minute bio, just letting you know completely understand.

Julie 00:01:43  Yes, ma'am. well, I'll make it short and sweet to the point. I was actually a teen mom, and I had my daughter when I was a senior in high school, and she had to go somewhere so I could finish high school, and I struggled with that a little bit. So I asked the director for a job and she's amazing and I love her to death to this day. She's still one of my closest friends, and she gave me a job and it turned into a passion. I always say the industry found me, I didn't find it, and I tried to leave one time and I was just drawn back to it.

Julie 00:02:16  I just it just seemed like it was what I was meant to do. So I decided to just dig in all, you know, all in, and went back to school for everything and opened my first center in Carrollton 17 years ago. on a dream and a hope and no money. And it worked out. It worked out really well. and now my new venture is in Plano, and that one has been open for about two and a half months.

Kate 00:02:43  Awesome. All right, so, Carrie, you know a little bit about what the topic is, but I'm going to let you ask questions because I know that there's a question about this topic that's just it's back there or maybe right here, I don't know. We'll have to see. but Korea had four centers, and I know that this particular topic is one that is near and dear to both of us. So, Kerry, I'm going to let you.

Carrie 00:03:08  Yeah. So I got my school number for because the landlord asked me to come and take over.

Carrie 00:03:15  And in that situation, we could not end up making it work long term, because the reason that the child care center that had been there was failing is because the large employer had left. And so for me, you know, there's a lot of, you know, what could I have done differently to keep that school up and running? It's now, a restaurant and, I think an ice cream shop. And there's something in between. There's three businesses in where that childcare center used to be, one of which is a really good restaurant that I like to eat at. But it's really weird when they don't seat me in my old office. Sometimes they put me back in the preschool classroom and I'm like, no, no, no, I need to be up there. That was my office.

Julie 00:04:08  That's my stomping ground over there, don't you know?

Kate 00:04:10  Yeah, I have a similar story, but it's related to a dentist, so it's okay. We're all good. We don't need to talk about my dentist.

Kate 00:04:17  well, really, it's my kid's dentist, but that's even more of a don't need to go there. So with that. So why don't you ask Julie the actual question?

Carrie 00:04:26  So what did you do to make sure that there would be enough people who would bring their kids to you to make whatever rent you have? Well, the market research.

Julie 00:04:38  That's still a work in progress. it's obviously this time right now, a lot of centers are struggling. so it's still a work in progress, but we have, some really wonderful young ladies who work with me that are social media gurus, and they have had just the best time making videos, and I have honestly laughed many times at their videos. But as of right now, that's our biggest go to to get people into the building was just, you know, letting people know we're here. we're open. the previous school that was there, I don't I don't know for sure, but it doesn't seem to have had a lasting impression with the community that this was a place to be.

Julie 00:05:19  So we're trying to also get that reputation of this is the place you can be in place that safe for your kids and come meet us and come in and, you know, that kind of thing. So I think it's going to take a little time. but we're going to get there eventually.

Kate 00:05:33  Well, I feel like maybe we've jumped in, missed a skip hop in a skip here. So for those of you who are listening, Julie's most recent center actually is in a church. Yes. And it is not run by the church. And they asked Julie to come in. so basically there was an owner who needed somebody to come and operate a child care center in their space. So, I think Kerry wanted to get there, but she she distracted herself. So, I'm just going to never. I'm never distracted, so I, I thought I would set us back together. So, so with that, Julie, what was your initial thought? That the church comes to you? They they want you to do this.

Kate 00:06:21  What immediately popped into your head?

Julie 00:06:24  the first thing that came in my head, to be honest, was my program is not faith based. We use Frog Street curriculum. It's more of an educational. I don't have, like, a basis for the faith based part. It's not. I'm not for it. I'm not against it. I think that something families need to work on at home. so that was a big concern of mine. So I did meet with the church and to my surprise, they were open and willing to, you know, try this new venture with it not being an educationally based program.

Carrie 00:06:55  So how did they find you? What made them reach out to you and not to someone else?

Julie 00:07:02  Well, one of the employees who works for the church in their office, was one of my grandparents. Her granddaughter came to my school in Carrollton for many years. Wait, wait wait wait.

Kate 00:07:14  So you had a raving fan from another location that was actually the grandparent who made the referral for your next location?

Julie 00:07:24  That is correct.

Kate 00:07:25  All right, I just I like to to kind of pull I like. I feel like people should have heard that. But I just want to make sure that we spell that out. Because sometimes people don't always understand the importance of building those lasting relationships, those raving fans. And I just think it's awesome. So you also said used to be so this child is now outgrown your program and Carrollton.

Julie 00:07:47  Yes. Oh 16 and driving now. Oh.

Kate 00:07:50  So not even just a little. So we're not just talking like some eight year old. We're talking okay. All right. Well, we have a great.

Carrie 00:07:57  And I also think, you know, that whole.

Carrie 00:08:00  It's the grandma. So whether that was a grandma who was the caretaking parent or guardian 1 or 2 or whether that was the grandma who was emergency contact number one, it was that it was a grandma. And we even if people do think about we want to be have a good relationship with the parents, a lot of times for narrowed to the parent or guardian one, the one who shows up day after day and not the other people on the sign out list.

Julie 00:08:30  Yes. And I think sometimes, just as you said, sometimes you overlook the other people that come in the door. And so I really do pride myself on trying to make sure I know every person who comes in the door, whether they're grandma, grandpa or anything. I try to keep up with everybody's names, and I think that builds relationships that might open doors later that you just don't know are there?

Kate 00:08:51  Well, and you're a perfect example that Carrie, you need to make a note. We need to do a grandma episode.

Julie 00:08:58  Yes.

Kate 00:08:58  All kinds of grandma stories. But I'm not sure if this grandma's story. So we need to ask grandma grandparents.

Julie 00:09:05  Yes, we love our grandparents. At our school, we have grandparents gardening with Grandparents Day at the end of spring break, and they come in and they garden things. And then when we get some flowers that grow, the school age, kids measure them and send parent pictures to their grandparents that maybe don't live here, so they get to stay and be involved with it.

Kate 00:09:23  Oh, I just love all those stories. Okay. Are you writing all of us down? Because otherwise we're gonna have to rely on AI to remember March.

Carrie 00:09:31  Right?

Carrie 00:09:32  Grandparent episode include Julie Martinez show up.

Kate 00:09:36  Awesome. Well, I love that, I love that. So Julie was the community where your new school is located? Was there some need for childcare? And that that is also part of the reason that the church reached out to you? Or was this the church trying to figure out how to keep their books afloat. I mean, I'm just. Or maybe you don't know the answer to that, but.

Julie 00:10:00  No, I, I think it's a little bit of both. I really, really do. there's not a whole lot of centers that are by us and definitely not ones that are, involved with the Texas Rising Star program. And so I did really want to bring a quality program to that area. so that's my goal right now. But I also do think it was a financial stability for the church as well.

Kate 00:10:23  Awesome. So, so by talking about being part of the TRS, because we do have listeners all over the country, TRS is Texas quality.

Carrie 00:10:32  For the people in.

Carrie 00:10:33  Other countries.

Carrie 00:10:34  We've got the other.

Kate 00:10:35  That's okay. So it's it's the Texas Quality Improvement Program money. And so because you mentioned that, I am presuming that that means that you have or the goal is to have a certain percentage of your, families that are part of that, grant funded tuition, is that correct?

Julie 00:10:57  That would be correct, yes. I, I want to benefit the entire community and not just the ones that can necessarily afford it right now. So, we will be accepting that as well for the grant program.

Carrie 00:11:10  Is that part of. Is that because that was part of how you got quality care for your kid when you were a teen mom?

Julie 00:11:18  I did actually, for the first year, I believe, as I was finishing high school, my oldest was covered under the child care grant program so I could finish high school.

Carrie 00:11:30  I figured that might have had something to do with it.

Julie 00:11:33  It really did. I don't think. I think teen pregnancy right now is pretty low compared to what it was in the 90s at my era. So I think that's good for now for young people.

Kate 00:11:46  Unless you're in, unless you live in. Well, I'm not going to mention that city. We do have a Texas city that is, like number one in the country for that.

Julie 00:11:55  So we.

Kate 00:11:55  Oh, we won't go there anyway. So but that's my whole that's a whole school age care soapbox about you know, what do we think these kids are going to be doing with their time between the ages of 12 and 14? Yes. So that city's figured it out kind of the hard way. So with that, I'm like, oh, I'm gonna take us back.

Carrie 00:12:20  To take a squirrel.

Kate 00:12:21  Break. I did, I did. so if you were going to talk to a director who is struggling with finding a really good location, that meet, that makes sense financially to expand, what might you say to them if they think that maybe they might want to have a conversation with a faith based organization, even if they know their program isn't a philosophical match, but maybe they are a match based on schedule.

Kate 00:12:58  As far as the building's empty Monday through Friday.

Julie 00:13:01  Right. And I think oftentimes because people are afraid of that conversation, they just don't have those conversations and they go directly to a commercial building. And then, you know, as you have seen in the industry, you know, rent goes up, buildings go up, real estate goes up, and then the cost of childcare goes up. One way to combat that would be to go into a program that has the space and the availability to have you there Monday through Friday. And I just I really think it begins with like what we're doing now, having a conversation. I mean, I don't think anybody that you approach at any faith based organization is going to bite your head off because you asked a question. I think it's very easy to just have a conversation like, hey, would you guys be open to that? Could we sit down with maybe your board or your organization and just talk about what that could look like, not just for me, but also for your end.

Julie 00:13:53  What financial stability that might give you.

Kate 00:13:56  All right. So I'm going to tell a story.

Carrie 00:13:59  Okay I'm just going to add a thing.

Kate 00:14:01  I'm going to tell a story first. All right.

Carrie 00:14:03  So once upon a time that's.

Kate 00:14:07  How I figure out how old my kids are. All right. The two in the middle.

Carrie 00:14:12  They were nine and 27.

Kate 00:14:15  Okay, well, maybe I won't say how many years ago this was. However, the reason I'm bringing it up is that a lot of times when I have conversations with folks that are moving into a faith based partnership, they only think of the Sunday school rooms and my kids. when they were three and four, the preschool that they were in. yes. The infant room and the toddler room. So those two rooms were absolutely also infant and toddler rooms for the church on Sunday or whenever they had other functions. But at the time, and I don't know if every licensing rep will allow this. Some will, some won't, or if the church would even be.

Kate 00:15:01  But one of the things that this preschool did is the way the sanctuary was set up, is that the chairs were all moving chairs. They weren't set up in pews that were bolted to the floor. And so in the back of the sanctuary, they had movable walls. And literally every Monday at 5 a.m., the staff would come and build the school. They would build the back three classrooms, bringing all their front, you know, bring all the furniture, all of the walls, bring everything in. and for lack of a better term, set up shop for Monday through Friday and then every Friday at 530. You could not be late on Fridays. They were quite, quite on top of you if you tried to be late on a Friday. but it they put it in a way that it was right next to the exterior door. so one of those three rooms had a direct outside door. it worked out beautifully in that setting. And as a result, they didn't have to worry about. So at the same time, I served on the board for my local church's preschool, and there was always the Sunday school kids did this to my stuff.

Kate 00:16:22  And I'm like, The Sunday school kids are in your room for an hour. Like, like what did you like? How did you have your stuff that the Sunday school kids did that in an hour anyway? So, so I knew what kind of quandary and emotion that can have on not only the teachers, but on the Sunday school volunteers as well. So, just something I wanted to plant as a seed that not every arrangement has to look identical. It doesn't have to be. Oh, you have an elementary school set of classrooms that you're not using. And yes, we'll use your nursery space, but you've also got these other ten rooms, that you're not using. And we'd like to rent them. So how did you have. I mean, I know they came to you, but they're still. You said you had conversations with the board. What were some of the questions or how did you go there?

Julie 00:17:14  some of it was, you know, you know, what are your expectations for the pre-K program would be something that I asked them.

Julie 00:17:22  And when they were talking about just being a resource for the community, I'm like, oh, I've got that. We can we can do that. I love communities. That's my that's my jam all day. but I know some things, like you said, were more. There are other people using this space on the weekends. What are our expectations for like Wednesday nights when they have church service or on Sundays? And so we've had a couple of issues here and there with just a water bottle being left out or something like that. But to the most part, I think it's just everybody has to go into it with the understanding that you're having a shared space and you have to have grace for other people when they have a mistake, when they accidentally don't put the toy where the label says to put the toy, they have to breathe through those processes and really just make sure we're we all understand we're in this together for a common goal.

Kate 00:18:11  Well, you know, but go ahead, Carrie.

Carrie 00:18:13  I was going to say, but even if you didn't have a shared space, there are staff sometimes who, you know, they're working in their classroom and they have their kids.

Carrie 00:18:23  And so they're they're like, oh, just go down to your classroom. And so in spaces where there aren't shared spaces, the teacher can come in and the classroom looks like a tornado has come through. And the tornado's name was, you know, Susie. And Susie told her, mama, yes. I cleaned the room back up and Susie was telling stories.

Julie 00:18:45  Yeah, and that's so true, too. Like, if you have a teacher who's out and you have another teacher in there for the day, they can come back and that happens. I know sometimes my teachers, if I fill in for them, we definitely have a conversation afterwards. Typically. and they're always like, well, I didn't mean to leave a mess there. I was like, I'm not saying you left a mess. I'm just saying, let's do a little better sweeping in the afternoons, you know, like, you know, try to guide everybody where they're going. But I think it depending on which person goes into the room, everybody's going to find a fault in somewhere.

Kate 00:19:18  So as long we may not all have the same definition of clean. Yes, yes.

Julie 00:19:24  Yes, everybody is lovely.

Kate 00:19:26  Where it goes.

Julie 00:19:28  Yes. Even if the label is there. Well I thought it was over there.

Carrie 00:19:33  And and there's that hole. Yes. It is a pain in the neck to have to lock some stuff up so that the Wednesday night or the, the weekend or whatever other shared use, people don't mess with your stuff. What if it means you get paid $0.50 more an hour because the rent is $3,000 less a year, or, sorry, less a month? I mean, I think that's part of the framing that the owners and the directors need to do. Yeah, I get that this is annoying, but because we're in shared space instead of at the strip center down the road, I'm able to pay you what I pay you and give you the benefits that I give you.

Julie 00:20:15  Absolutely. I think that's definitely, again, another conversation because people only know what they know.

Julie 00:20:21  And if you don't inform them of what's going on and how this is actually unfolding, they may not know. So when we bring it to their attention, that's another way to point out, you know, how it's benefiting both programs.

Kate 00:20:33  Absolutely. So as an owner, do you find yourself realizing that it is beneficial for you to have that financial? I don't want to say transparency, because sometimes I say that and owners get a little like they don't need to know all my numbers, but when we don't share those numbers, we get staff that do the well. You're making $6,000 in this room because I can do the math, and because they only know the addition part, they don't know the subtraction part. And so they're not really counting an apple to an apple. They're counting an apple to a hot dog because it may both be food, but they definitely are nowhere close. Right. So how is an owner? Do you decide what you're going to share or have you? Has this been something that you've had to because people are like, I want a raise or I want this or I want that.

Julie 00:21:29  well, typically whenever I have a conversation or someone is asking me for something one, I want to schedule an appointment because we are so busy and you're wearing so many hats, you might be thinking about that email that you're responding to somebody and you're inadvertently saying no, and you haven't even had the opportunity to look and see, is this something we could actually do for this teacher? Is this something that this is coming up on their annual meeting, and I do want to do something nice for her. What could I do that would be not just for now, but a longevity of my appreciation to her. You know, and I think you have to make time for that. And when you do it on a whim, you haven't taken the time to actually sit down and talk to them and find out their why. And so I do think it's an opportunity again for another conversation, because without the conversations and keeping those going, your relationships are going to, you know, fizzle out. You have to keep those conversations going with people in the industry, with your parents, with your employees.

Julie 00:22:27  You have to keep those relationships. They have to be one of the most important things to you as an owner. They are for me because I want to know, you know, did they have a birthday party for so-and-so's child this weekend, and how did it go? And is she going to be exhausted on Monday? Of course she is. You know, but knowing that just goes back to why is this teacher here? And if you know their why and why they're getting into it and what their goals are. You can help meet them where they are.

Carrie 00:22:52  I really.

Kate 00:22:53  I feel like that could have been a monkey episode and we didn't even like going. I have one of those. I feel like that was like a, you know, that was like monkey three five and, you know, two, you know.

Julie 00:23:05  All wrapped up.

Kate 00:23:07  I was like, look at you face to face. I'm going to schedule it for later anyway. Go ahead. Carrie, I'm sorry, I, I was just.

Carrie 00:23:15  I was just going to say I love the fact that for you, a lot of this comes back to real, honest conversation and the respect for the other person in the relationship, that it is disrespectful to just give it a knee jerk yes or no answer, as opposed to saying, let's sit down and talk about that. And you talked about that when looking at for space, when communicating with a shared use partner, you talked about it with parents and now you've talked about it with staff, so I'm going to guess you're what my ENT doctor called a heavy vocal user.

Julie 00:23:55  I would agree with that. Yes.

Kate 00:23:59  I don't know why, Carrie, but that's I just feel like that's a whole episode in itself. Being a heavy vocal user. I'm just saying, like.

Julie 00:24:07  Yeah, I just I really just value the conversation with just everybody, really, honestly, because I love getting to know people, and that doesn't mean that I'm always open to a conversation, which goes back to let's schedule one maybe for later.

Julie 00:24:22  because also, I think that gives the other person time to understand that you are busy and that you are going to make sure that you get to them and you can give their undivided attention to them. Because I do think oftentimes, employees, parents, grandparents, anybody can kind of feel brushed off. And I don't want to leave the impression for anybody that I would brush them off. And, because that goes back to being there for the community, being there for my kids. Being there for my families.

Kate 00:24:51  Well, I think somewhere in here there's a book on communication. Just easier to come out of. Julie and,

Carrie 00:24:59  Kate's trying to wrap up and I want to say one more thing, which is. Were you looking? Was it in your plan to have a second center, or was this just something through serendipity, had you spoken it out into the universe and then it came, or was it just serendipity?

Julie 00:25:19  to be honest, originally I just wanted to have one school that I could focus on and just get all my efforts into it.

Julie 00:25:25  And then a little time went on and a little time went on, and I was like, okay, well, maybe I should look at a second school because we have something so amazing here. I would love to offer this to another community. And then we looked and it just didn't fit it. It didn't fall into place. And so my husband and I had discussed that we were going to wait. And when it found us, it it would and it did. I was actually in Oklahoma at a lead for l Association of Early Learning Leaders. and I got a text message. Hey, have you ever thought about opening a second? And I was like, well, I guess I have. Yeah. And it was that parent that her mom works for the church.

Kate 00:26:05  Well, I just love that story. Everything, everything part about all the parts. All the parts, especially that grandma part. So with that, Carrie, what would you like to say to everybody?

Carrie 00:26:17  Okay, so if you got something from this show, definitely share it with someone else who needs to know.

Carrie 00:26:23  If you'd like to hear more of these, make sure you are subscribed or following whatever it's called on your podcast player of choice. And please go in and write a review and tell Julie how she did, because she would like to know. at the top of the notes of this episode, there's a thing that says text the show. So text us. We'll pass it on to Julie so that she knows. And, we will talk to you in a few days.

Kate 00:26:48  Oh, wait wait, wait. Don't forget, if you don't already know, we do have two episodes a week. We've been doing that since July. So, if you're only catching us on Thursdays, don't forget, we also come out on Tuesdays.

Kate 00:27:01  All right.

Julie 00:27:02  Bye bye.

Marie 00:27:05  Thanks for tuning in. We love bringing you real talk and fresh insight from the world of early childhood education. Be sure to follow us on social media to stay connected and catch all of the latest episodes. And if you're planning a conference, training, or special event.

Marie 00:27:21  Kate and Kerry would love to speak to your audience. You can learn more about their keynotes, sessions, and workshops at Kate and Carrie. If you learned something today. Share the show and leave us a review below. We'll see you next time on Child Care Conversations.