261: The Dynamic Duo of ChildMYnder: Lessons in Love, Business, and Adaptability!

In this episode, Kate and Carrie sit down with Sara and Greg Schreiner, the dynamic duo behind ChildMYnder in Montana. They chat about how Sara’s childhood passion for childcare turned into a thriving family business—despite Greg’s initial reluctance (he was an engineer!). The couple shares honest stories about juggling marriage and business, expanding during the pandemic, and raising entrepreneurial kids. Their secret? Open communication, knowing each other’s strengths, and plenty of laughter. 

If you’re curious about building a business with your partner or just love a good success story, this one’s for you! 

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Transcript

Marie 00:00:01  Welcome to child care conversations with Kate and Carrie.

Kate 00:00:06  Welcome back everybody. We are so excited to introduce Sarah and Greg from Montana. And Sarah actually runs childminder and has multiple locations of a child care center. And Greg, I think is a little bit more than just a spouse in this setting. And so I'm excited to get Greg to share and to talk with us. I had the experience of getting to get to know better Sarah and Greg, in January of 2025. When I did, I.

Carrie 00:00:39  Noticed you didn't say what kind of experience. There was no adjective there a little bit.

Kate 00:00:49  on monkey management, with the two of them. And there was a lot of conversation about chasing monkeys and shiny monkeys and shiny objects. And so I thought they would just be a lot of fun to have on today's episode. So with that, Sarah and Greg, will you guys introduce us? Tell us a little bit about your programs. You can tell us about childminder.

Carrie 00:01:08  I don't think they should introduce us.

Carrie 00:01:10  The people listening. The person listening already knows us. I think they should introduce each other. Sure.

Kate 00:01:15  Or they can introduce themselves.

Carrie 00:01:17  There you go. That'll work too.

Sara 00:01:20  All right, Greg, you go first. This is always. This is the the tricky part of working. Okay?

Kate 00:01:25  So, Sarah, you introduced Greg.

Carrie 00:01:28  Hey.

Sara 00:01:28  This is my amazing husband, Greg, who is also my business partner. And everything I do, he is the one that is behind the scenes, constantly pushing me to do the next thing, to take the next risk. And also the one who sees all the details that I don't see. Okay. Your turn.

Greg 00:01:49  This is my amazing wife, Sarah. And she dragged me kicking and screaming into childcare and and, yeah. It's been quite the journey for the past 20 years, I guess now. So.

Carrie 00:02:03  So what did you want to do instead? Were you wanting a pontoon boat? And she wanted a business. Like what? What was the the disconnect there?

Greg 00:02:11  Okay.

Greg 00:02:12  I mean, I was actually finishing my engineering degree, and, had plans on going forward with that. And at the time, I had my own, audio company that we were doing home audio and whatnot. And, so, yeah, we kind of just leaned into the childcare end of it.

Sara 00:02:30  I have to say, I think that I don't know that I drug him kicking and screaming. I think I was really cute when I was younger, and that made it a lot easier for him to decide that he needed to join me in this venture. But we we met when, we actually went to school together, and then we met in, when Greg was in the military. I had just started sunshine. And so we were young and in love. And I would drive, you know, six hours to go see him on the military base, on the weekends and then work 80 hour weeks to be able to continue with, you know, I, I didn't know any different. You just when you own a childcare program, don't you work 6 to 6 Monday through Friday, plus do the grocery shopping and all the other, you know, custodial work and.

Sara 00:03:18  Yeah, so when Greg got out of the military and he moved back to Montana, he's not the kind of person that just sits around and doesn't like if something needs to be done, he just takes care of it. And so I think he can say he was kicking and screaming, but I think it was more it was going to drive him more crazy to see things that needed to be done. That or to be able to see new ways to do things. And so he just started jumping in and helping out. And before we knew it, he was pretty irreplaceable.

Kate 00:03:51  Oh well, I just love that. I think that's a t shirt right there. He's pretty irreplaceable. So there you go. So I've just I've got your Father's Day gift. All done for you, Sarah. so I have a question, because as we're talking, that sounds to me like, how long did you have a child care center before you guys got married?

Sara 00:04:09  So I owned sunshine for, I think, about three years before we got married.

Sara 00:04:14  We started dating at the very, very beginning. We just had finalized contracts, started up the child care program.

Greg 00:04:22  And you still had business partners?

Sara 00:04:24  I still had, yep. I still had business partners. And so Greg came in and it was about three years into it that we got married. But he can't say that he didn't know exactly what he was getting into. for one.

Carrie 00:04:38  Of the key roles in a relationship is you don't get to complain about anything you knew about ahead of time. So I get to complain about my husband's acting career because he had never done any of that the whole time I knew him before we got married, or even the first 20 years of our marriage. but everything else I did know. So that's the only thing I could complain about.

Greg 00:05:02  The crazy thing is, I grew up in childcare, so my mom ran an in-home program, and so. And I always said, there's no way in hell I'm ever getting into this nest.

Sara 00:05:12  My wife is never going to have a child care program.

Greg 00:05:16  Got.

Greg 00:05:16  Out of the house. So.

Kate 00:05:19  Okay, so it sounds like there's a story here, though, because I heard, kind of in passing that. Sarah, you started the program with some other business owners or some other business partners. Are are you comfortable talking about that?

Sara 00:05:32  Oh, yeah. No, I was, I was young and dumb and 20 years old when I decided that I could start my own childcare program. I had worked in childcare all through high school. Loved it. was going to go spread my wings and go to college in a different town. And I kept getting letters from the families and that child care program saying, Miss Sarah, we miss you. We wish you would come back. if you come back to town, let us know so we can see you. And so, you know, when you're 20 and you think you can do like. The world is your oyster.

Carrie 00:06:07  You solutely.

Sara 00:06:09  You call up your your parents and you say, you know, I could do that.

Sara 00:06:14  I could run that business, I know I could handle it. And my dad, who was I mean, my biggest advocate, said, why don't you call the owner and tell her you'd be interested in buying if she ever wants to sell? And so, you know, I hung up the phone with my dad. I called the owner and said, if if you're ever interested in selling, let me know. I, you know, I might be interested. And her words were, Sarah, I just listed it on the market today and.

Carrie 00:06:42  That sounds like some serendipity. That's some pretty serious serendipity.

Sara 00:06:46  There was divine intervention, no doubt about it. And so I said, okay, hold that thought for a minute. And I hung up the phone and I called my dad and I said, okay, she's selling now what? And he.

Greg 00:07:00  Said.

Sara 00:07:00  Okay, let's sit down and figure this out. And so they believed enough in me to be willing to invest and mentor me through how to start a business, how to own and operate it, how to grow and expand it.

Sara 00:07:15  And, so they were partners with us, or my parents were both partners with me from 2004 to 2, for ten years, 2004 to 2014, when our son was born. And then at that point they were ready to retire. And it was. So Greg and I, then he bought out their shares of the business, and then it was just the two of us, and the buck stopped with us. Now there was no no handholding after that.

Carrie 00:07:43  Okay. So what are your parents business owners beforehand?

Greg 00:07:48  No.

Carrie 00:07:49  So they worked. They worked normal, traditional jobs.

Sara 00:07:53  Yep. My dad worked at an oil refinery and my mom was a stay at home mom. She raised us. I say she taught me what a childhood was supposed to be like. It was fun and magical. And you had a safe, you know, you had your safe place. And my dad was just incredibly wise with money and very fiscally responsible. I would say he he didn't like to take very many risks.

Sara 00:08:21  So when he came home and, you know, he my he and I told my mom, we're going to buy a child care center. she kind of she was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. We're going to do what? but they both jumped in headfirst, and there, there wasn't the option to fail like that. And mind you, we bought the center in 2004, and right around the corner was 2008. And it was I mean, it was hairy and it was interesting.

Greg 00:08:49  Well, the previous owner had ran the ground prior to so enrollment was like 50%, you know.

Carrie 00:08:55  Okay, so let me get this straight. You came into this business kicking and screaming, but you had a parent who was a business owner and you had an engineering brain. Am I getting that correct?

Greg 00:09:07  Okay.

Carrie 00:09:08  Is that.

Greg 00:09:09  Right?

Kate 00:09:09  Like how he's like, he's really trying hard to go, you know?

Greg 00:09:14  That's a good point. Yeah.

Kate 00:09:17  Well, I love that. I mean, I think that's a great story.

Kate 00:09:20  So I would suspect that. Sarah. You don't have an engineering brain. No.

Sara 00:09:27  I, I am very much the Greg will tell me his vision and I say, can you draw it on paper for me because I cannot see it in my head.

Greg 00:09:36  Or she'll give me like, I want to do this, and then I'll tell her the 500 reasons why that isn't going to work.

Kate 00:09:42  But that's a great balance. I mean, I think that that's something that we all need on some levels, and I think so. Kerry and I are cousins. We've been business partners for 25 years. and I have to now stress business partners in there because it has a different connotation. If I don't, I think my grandmother and grandfather would not be amused with the other connotation.

Carrie 00:10:02  I'm married to somebody with an engineering brain, and I created a child with an engineering brain. and they're constantly like, but how would that work? And I'm like, I don't know, it just will.

Greg 00:10:17  And I go, wow, right?

Carrie 00:10:20  Yeah.

Carrie 00:10:20  You just if you believe it and you push forward hard enough through enough walls, it will happen. And they're like, but how? And I'm like, it just.

Greg 00:10:32  Will.

Kate 00:10:32  They they want all the systems in place and all of that. You know, where, Carrie and I definitely operate on the we're just going to go kind of like Sarah's story, like we're going to open up something or start a something, and we'll figure it out along the lines. And we'd probably give poor Greg a heart attack because Greg would be like, wait, wait.

Greg 00:10:52  I don't know, though.

Greg 00:10:53  I gotta say, it's like, you know, I do it.

Sara 00:10:56  We've we've had to rein ourselves in because we both are visionaries and we both like shiny new ideas. And so when both of you like that, then it can get really complicated because he'll get excited about something. And I'm like, yeah, let's go. Let's do it right, or vice versa. And so we have had to learn the skill of being able to stop and pause or say, is, is this an alignment with what we're trying to accomplish this year? Okay.

Sara 00:11:25  It isn't. We need to put it on pause. I would say we're 80% better.

Greg 00:11:31  At that, but.

Kate 00:11:34  I'm so excited that you're 80% better because Cory and I are both sitting here going.

Greg 00:11:38  No, no, no, we just.

Carrie 00:11:39  Do it in two.

Greg 00:11:43  I'll give you an idea. I think we're I think.

Kate 00:11:45  We're like, maybe 2% better. Maybe.

Greg 00:11:48  Our house has been under construction since. What year did we buy it? 2010, 2010. So I mean, yeah, I mean.

Greg 00:11:56  It's like.

Sara 00:11:57  Any other.

Greg 00:11:57  Business.

Greg 00:11:58  If we can make this work and then everything goes to the business.

Sara 00:12:01  It's like, well, it's like any other business owner, right, though? You like, you see, that's what's bringing you. That's what's making you money. That's where you know, the future is. And so the other stuff, it just it just waits.

Kate 00:12:12  Yeah. I mean, as soon you're going to, your kids are going to be old enough to help you, Greg.

Kate 00:12:15  So you can just put them to work. You can just start giving them the YouTube videos on how to make it, how to fix something and get whatever you need built. You just put them in charge of problems.

Greg 00:12:25  They both have the engineer brain too. So yeah.

Greg 00:12:28  Well.

Kate 00:12:28  At least you know that it'll be square and they probably will measure more than once before they cut anything.

Carrie 00:12:35  And they will either have the stud finder, or they will disassemble a computer to get the strong magnet and then run the strong magnet across the wall. Not that I've known anybody who's done that.

Greg 00:12:49  Yeah.

Kate 00:12:50  Yeah.

Greg 00:12:52  So.

Kate 00:12:52  Greg, it sounds like you came from somewhat of a entrepreneurial background. Or is it was it just your mom? Was your father also in the self-employed?

Greg 00:13:01  I mean, my dad, he wasn't involved with the daycare as much as I know of. I mean, he was a diesel mechanic for 40 years. and they farmed. So I think it was more of a them just to make ends meet.

Greg 00:13:14  I don't, you know, they really didn't run it as a business, I don't think. You know, in my opinion, anyways.

Kate 00:13:19  I mean, farming is a business. So, you know, they got to have some component of figuring out.

Greg 00:13:26  So I mean, until until I was like in the military, it was more of just a hobby farm, you know, 20, 30 acres, you know.

Kate 00:13:33  So I feel that I feel that. But, you know, any farm, I mean, just to be able to figure out how to, you know, I don't know.

Greg 00:13:41  What to.

Carrie 00:13:42  Fill out the forms for the USDA requires.

Greg 00:13:46  And even then, it's like you still don't make a profit at the end of the year. You know, it all goes back into the farm. So.

Kate 00:13:51  Well, I mean, welcome to the world of entrepreneurship, right? Like so. So, Sarah, how many locations do you currently have and is did you have other ones along the lot along the way? What does that story kind of look like?

Sara 00:14:05  So we have we currently have three locations.

Sara 00:14:08  We started our first 1 in 2004. Our next was in 2019. That was Greg.

Greg 00:14:14  Gregory.

Sara 00:14:15  In Swinging. Oh, it was awesome timing. yes, I he dragged me kicking and screaming to buy another one. I was content with one. We didn't need more than that. And then, I mean, every everything aligned, the stars aligned. And I like to say God just kind of takes me to doorways and then kicks me through them, right? Like, he doesn't necessarily. Clearly I'm not a a willing I don't tend to take a lot of risks. And so we took our.

Greg 00:14:46  Not if it involves.

Sara 00:14:47  Money, not if it involves money. No, I like my little nest egg. and so we we purchased our second location to house our after school program and then a part day preschool in the same community that we were already in. the pandemic hit and our after school program rapidly turned into.

Greg 00:15:08  A program.

Sara 00:15:09  Day program for school age kids. so the timing was, well, we ran a private school out of there for the year, a couple years following Covid because we had families that did not want to.

Sara 00:15:21  They're like, we have to have reliable schooling. so we did that and then went back to it being just an after school program after a few years. And then here exactly a year ago, we purchased our third location and again, it was Greg dragging me kicking and screaming. I was like, I don't know that I think there's too many issues with this building. I've heard too many things. And he's like, let's go look at it. Let's just go see. And he knows if I get in there and I can see it, my visionary brain, I'm like, oh, this, it could be this, and we could do this. And oh, look at all the things.

Greg 00:16:00  And well, in both in buildings, both needed gut jobs. So I mean literally the building we're sitting in now was originally built in 1920 and was originally a creamery, and then it was a church for until we bought it.

Carrie 00:16:15  But at least a creamery probably has a pretty good exterior.

Greg 00:16:20  Pretty well, the.

Greg 00:16:20  Building, the building's built like a rock. I mean, it's a bomb shelter. Yeah, but it was built, you know, in 1920, you know. So the walls are two feet, three feet thick, right?

Carrie 00:16:30  We don't need insulation. We just need rocks.

Greg 00:16:33  Yeah.

Greg 00:16:34  Tearing down the walls, you know, to open up spaces for classrooms, you know? It's real fun.

Carrie 00:16:38  No, we're not doing that. That's made out of rocks.

Kate 00:16:43  Okay, so you guys built you guys expanded by. Not by buying new buildings. Not necessarily by buying new programs or, you know, programs that were selling or was it a combination?

Greg 00:16:54  Combo one was a program prior, which I think she was just ready to be done. And, you know, she wanted to go back to teaching at the public school. I think she just she didn't want to deal with the the business end of it, I think.

Sara 00:17:06  And you guys know as well as we do. It's it's different. I mean, and especially post-pandemic, it is different.

Sara 00:17:13  It's different children. It's different parents, it's different staff. And I look at what worked five years ago does not work now. And so you have to be willing to change. And and I get it at some point. It's just nice to have to be able to go to work and let somebody else make the hard decisions. And I think that's so we didn't necessarily buy her program. We were able to purchase the property with all of the assets. She had closed down the program. So it was a dark school, but that allowed us the freedom to be able to go in, make the remodel, do the things that we wanted to do before we open the doors.

Greg 00:17:54  And then we we probably put another 200,000 in that building at least. And then she'd already got all new furniture through the pandemic. So that was kind of nice. You know, we didn't have to buy any of that. So, but yeah, basically that was a complete gut job. I mean, down to studs, I mean, and rearranging.

Sara 00:18:11  Which is where Greg's engineering brain comes in real handy because a lot of times I can say this would work really well, or I wish we didn't have one of the rooms had this random, it looked like a little stage. It was actually a, what was it? The base of an old fire.

Greg 00:18:29  So the background of the building, it was three buildings that were added, or one building that was added on three times. And so we we had all different kinds of years of construction. the original house was probably something like this building. It was in the 20s or 30, something like that. You know, wood fireplace, no electricity, type thing. And, yeah. Then they just kept adding on to it. So then trying to mesh all them buildings together and make it all work.

Greg 00:18:53  And it's.

Sara 00:18:54  Beautiful, ladies.

Greg 00:18:55  It is.

Sara 00:18:55  Beautiful.

Greg 00:18:56  I love.

Sara 00:18:57  That school.

Kate 00:18:58  I love the I love the stories. I think the stories are great. I was expecting more, literally of Greg being pulled along.

Kate 00:19:06  So I love the fact that both expansions were, more Greg pulling Sara. so.

Greg 00:19:13  I got to.

Kate 00:19:13  See that coming, but I think it's a great, great way to kind of view the fact that in your unique partnership that you guys really do work together. It is not Sara's business that Greg helps with. This is you guys really do work this as a business, which is so exciting to hear, because I think that Greg probably has some advice that hopefully he'll share that, you know, our directors can accidentally have going on in the car when their spouses get in. So, Greg, this is I'm going to put you on the spot and I want you to if you were talking to other spouses who their spouse has is an owner of a child care center and they're thinking about expansion, what would you say is the role of the spouse? as far as you know, supporting their spouses vision, dream of expanding their multi-million dollar business.

Greg 00:20:13  That's kind of tough. so in our experience, we both have our own lanes.

Greg 00:20:18  So I take care of all the maintenance of the buildings. any kind of expansion with the buildings, any kind of changing of the rooms, all that kind of stuff. Sarah takes more of the, staff end of it. and running the people. people wouldn't like it if I ran the people. So I'm a little more militaristic in that end. where she can calm down and say, okay, yeah, we need to. But, I mean, we still I still give her plenty of input on. Yeah, they need to go. They need to say, you know, or they need to be in a different position type stuff. but, Yeah. That's tough. I mean, working with your wife is not easy, that's for sure. because at the end of the day, you still got to go home and live with them, but,

Sara 00:21:06  Well, and I think.

Greg 00:21:07  He.

Sara 00:21:07  He's spot on. We we learned the hard way that we needed to identify our lanes, and we needed to be able to figure out how to stay in our lane and then call each other out.

Sara 00:21:17  If, you know, if I'm crossing over into his lane, he needs to be able to say, you know what, Sarah, I got this and I, I have to trust that that he's got this. The other thing that I would say Greg always has my back. I mean, always, and that that shows up in in different ways. It it could be he calls me out on my BS, and that's one of the best ways, I think, that he has my back because I know he will be honest with me. He's not a yes man. He's not just going to tell me what you know, what he thinks I want to hear. but he also he. How would I say this? I would say he will call me out when I am being too accommodating or trying to, you know, he he'll say enough's enough. And he will see the toll that different things are taking on me. And he's willing to look at that and say, okay, something needs to change here.

Sara 00:22:15  And so having somebody that that can do that, I it's a game changer in this business because you know, the the compassion fatigue, the emotional fatigue that you feel is is real. And so going home and having somebody that you know, is going to speak in truth to you and is also going to protect you. It's it's a pretty special thing to have.

Carrie 00:22:37  Absolutely. And it's the combination. It's the I support you and I want you to be the best version of you, but this person needs to go or this person needs to step up their game, as opposed to him coming in and trying to rescue you and go, I'm going to go fire them for you on Tuesday. Instead, it's helping you build that skill up, but telling you when you need to stop being flexible. I mean.

Greg 00:23:11  I think.

Carrie 00:23:12  Mine.

Sara 00:23:12  Carry as as women, you know, it's a female dominated industry. And so then as women, we think because we're dealing with other women, we just instantly know how to deal with them and how it should happen.

Sara 00:23:29  And I think a lot of times we we miss out on the benefit of having males in this industry and having their perspective because they bring, you know, we're all begging for professionalism. They they bring help us bring that to the table. And I mean, it's it's been an interesting journey. You know, being partnered with a man in this industry because there still are a lot of stigmas that, you know, having men work in childcare. There are people that that still don't like that.

Kate 00:24:00  Oh, yes. Carrie and I are both familiar with that. So my second husband actually worked in Carrie's infant room for a while. Carrie's husband definitely did his stints in Carrie's four programs, and so definitely can relate to that whole. Why is there a man in this classroom? But how does it work? Or do you run into. And maybe it's an ever or how often? Because one of the things that we hear directors talk about is their spouse tries to fix them or fix it by telling them to leave.

Kate 00:24:31  Oh, if this is bothering you too much, why don't you just get out? Kind of like that person who has maybe sold the program. They may have had a spouse who was kind of maybe whispering that in their ear. And that's why I think it's great that Greg is just the opposite. Greg is like, we've got this. We're going to do this together, you know? Did that ever pop in? Has that ever popped into your head, Greg? Or.

Greg 00:24:54  Our end goal has always been the same. I mean, we want to have we want to be able to pass on to our children either the business or some generational wealth or something. And we want to be able to be comfortable in the end of our life. And that's always kind of been the goal for both of us. And this is the route that we're on to take it there. So that's where we're going.

Kate 00:25:16  Oh, I love that. I mean that that brings up a great I mean that's like a whole separate episode.

Carrie 00:25:23  But no, because the whole I was never going to be in that industry because I grew up in that industry.

Greg 00:25:29  Oh, but once we I mean, the turning point is when we actually went to a conference in Orlando, she did drag me in kicking and screaming to them because I'd been to so many different trainings and things.

Sara 00:25:42  Painting 101. Right.

Greg 00:25:44  It's like we're doing this.

Greg 00:25:45  It's like she dragged me all the way to Orlando for this. And I mean, at the time, we're broke. I mean, we're living on 20 grand. I mean, for everything. We're eating the leftovers from the daycare. I mean, we have nothing. And because everything we have is going back into the business because it was so ran down and it needed so much maintenance and everything. And, at that point, we both kind of sat down and figured out the numbers of what my business was making, what I could make. You know, as an engineer, you know, all that kind of things.

Greg 00:26:14  And if we wanted to grow and we kind of looked at the education program and said, you know, this is the best route, you know.

Sara 00:26:21  Well, and if we knew. I mean, the truth of it is, there's nothing that if we didn't both go all in. There wasn't anything we couldn't accomplish together. And so when we went, and I think part of it was Greg had to be able to see there could be a future in this. There could be this. This can be a, you know, you can make a decent living. You can have successful programs. You know, we'd always heard you're never going to get rich in childcare. And it's not that we want to be rich, we want to be rich in life. And we wanted a business that was going to work for us. And, and we got to see other people who had made it work. Well, if they can do it there, like we can do it.

Greg 00:27:05  Well, it's funny because the first what was the first day at the conference? We had actually sat next to, some people that, we were good friends with now and they had, what, like 15 centers at the time or something.

Greg 00:27:16  Yeah, they had a whole bunch. And it was It was just kind of like, Okay. Well, you know, like. And then you start figuring out, okay, well, what one can make, you know, and then figuring, oh, well, okay, there's actually you could do this, you.

Greg 00:27:29  Know.

Sara 00:27:30  And don't don't get me wrong, there are days when we both look at each other and we go, why are we still doing this? We just should we sell it all and go into rentals or real estate or, you know, the.

Greg 00:27:41  Key.

Greg 00:27:42  Was.

Sara 00:27:42  Like, should we just. Yeah. What, like at some point what? but we both are very passionate about kids need to have a safe place. They need to have a fun childhood and parents, they need to be supported. And it used to be the family unit was supporting them. Then it was, you know, you had your churches that were supporting them. This is not the case anymore.

Sara 00:28:04  Our society has changed and you cannot get all of your support off of social media. And so you have to be able to create a community for these families. And we're we're seeing the impact and the difference that that makes.

Kate 00:28:18  Well, so I just want to point something out for anybody who's listening. In case you didn't catch this in my intro. Sarah and Greg are not in some major metro where they opened and own three childcare programs. They are in Montana. So if you don't know where that is geographically, go pull up a map.

Carrie 00:28:39  There are metros in Montana. They could be in Bozeman.

Greg 00:28:44  Well, yeah.

Greg 00:28:46  I don't know if I'd call it Metro. I mean, we just toured a bunch of centers in Denver for a couple of our friends and, basically it going through them centers, you can tell that the people just run through just constantly. It's just, I mean, they probably have 3 or 4 tours a day. Literally, if we get one a week, you better get them in here and you better keep them.

Greg 00:29:06  You know, it's like, you know, you may be able to do a 50% turnover or turnaround with a a family coming in in a big city, in a small rural town. I mean, you got to get everyone you can get. I mean, our biggest program is only not even 100 kids. What is it, 90?

Greg 00:29:20  92?

Greg 00:29:20  So.

Sara 00:29:22  But it's still doable. And that's that's the piece is is it is doable. And, yeah, I think I think we're doing pretty good. I mean, like I said, there's still days where we we want to bang our heads against the wall, especially with our kids. We've had to set some really good boundaries around. we only talk so much. Shop at home, you know, when we get home at the end of the day. But our kids are active and our in our business. If we're doing classroom, you know, cleanings and rearranging, they're in there. They're helping us. They they were part of us buying this last center.

Sara 00:29:55  They had to go out. We we made our children go and tour the center. Tell us what they thought. Bring up any concerns that they had. And they, you know, they had to be part of the decision to move forward. But it goes back to that. We really do want to create the generational wealth, not just not just financial wealth, but I want that. That knowledge too. And that hustle and drive. I don't want my kids to be part of this. You know, the lazy generation.

Carrie 00:30:24  Well, I think I mean, having raised two kids in early childhood that are now 29 and 30, both of them have had periods of time where they've worked in childcare. neither one do currently, but they have such an ability to connect with kids and to be engaged appropriately with the children in the family and the one who wants to have kids. I have no doubt that she's going to do a great job raising her kids, even if she didn't do anything else in child care ever again.

Carrie 00:30:59  She does want to continue to work in the industry, and she works with our business a little bit. but even if they get nothing else out of whatever business, I think raising kids in a business is a great thing, in part because I was raised in a business and my husband was raised in a business, and my cousin was raised in a business like that whole there is always work to be done. Mentality that you have when you are raised in a business, you there are things that can be improved every day. If you're raised to just think, I'm going to go get a job, you don't have that perspective that there's always something I can be doing to improve this business, because why would you bother trying to improve stuff in a business that's not going to benefit you?

Sara 00:31:49  Well, and I think also for our kids, we we have pretty candid conversations with them about the difficult decisions we have to make. They know when we're going to fire someone. They understand that they, you know, we we talk about these are the behaviors that that we saw or they, they know, you know, when we've had a rough day or when we celebrate.

Sara 00:32:10  Right. This, in August, we're going out. We're spending a month on the Oregon coast with our kids, and they understand this is because we've hustled hard all year long. So so that we can have these benefits. It's not just handed to them. It's not just handed to us. We we have to put in the work. We have to put in the hustle, and then we get to reap the rewards.

Kate 00:32:33  I love that. So Carrie and I are Carrie mentioned. We're third generation entrepreneurs. literally raising the fourth generation. So, both of us, our youngest raised them.

Carrie 00:32:43  They adults.

Kate 00:32:44  They these adults now. Yes. So, but our youngest, are both, very entrepreneurial minded. Not that the others don't have it here or there. but they're the two that are currently, moving their entrepreneurial dreams, forward. And I just love the fact that you're raising your kids that way, even if you weren't probably necessarily thinking when you were 16, Sarah, that when you grow up and have kids, you're going to teach them how to run a business because you didn't grow up there.

Kate 00:33:15  I mean, I grew up thinking I wasn't having kids or getting married. And so, you know, obviously I didn't do so failed. I failed.

Greg 00:33:22  So.

Kate 00:33:25  anything Greg or Sarah that you would love to, to share with other directors who might be listening to this episode, who might be going, oh, I wish my spouse would get on board on either. Maybe how to get their spouse on board, how to celebrate that their spouse is even by their side, even if they're just the cheerleader, even if they aren't the maintenance guy. Because neither one of my spouses. I've been married twice, neither one of them could have ever been a Greg. Nope. Yeah, they were hiring it. Done like.

Greg 00:33:55  They.

Carrie 00:33:55  Both had some military in us. So yeah.

Kate 00:33:57  That was definitely they. They definitely had that part. And they did have engineering brains. It just the, the the hammer and nail component didn't match that. So.

Greg 00:34:09  Oh boy.

Sara 00:34:10  I have one, you think? so one thing that that we have to do sometimes is at the end of the day, when, one of us might be venting or sharing information, we have to ask, are you are you are you talking to me about this as your business partner? Are you talking to me about this as your spouse? Because I'll tell you my response is going to be different based on what that is.

Sara 00:34:39  As your spouse I can you know, I can come in. I hate that for you. Man knows no good blah blah blah. You know, like I'm here to, as your business partner, I might say suck it up. You know. No, you got something to, you know, you need to own part of this and vice versa. But I think being able to really clearly define. What role are you looking at so that because he doesn't need me all the time to sit in spouse role or to sit in business partner role, and so when I have clarity on that, then. I think that that helps a lot, because sometimes and sometimes I want to go to him and I'm like, I just want you to listen to me whine for, you know, like, I just need three minutes to whine about this and then I'll be done. I don't need the fixit strategies right now. Like, I'll come to you, you know, we'll talk about that during business hours.

Sara 00:35:27  Right now, you're just. You're just my husband.

Greg 00:35:29  Yeah. I think you the having your own roles, I think is going to be the biggest, and they're going to have to enjoy it. I mean, they're going to have to have the like, okay. You know, it's like if we spend an extra $1,000 here, that's a thousand less we're going to make, you know, it's that thing, you know, it's like, but it's going to improve the quality. And down the road it will, you know, bring it back. You know, it's just one of them things that's I don't think you could just drag in any spouse, you know, it's going to have to be in them. They're going to have to be fairly easy going and adaptable.

Sara 00:36:00  And honestly, it's it's okay if your spouse isn't in that role. It's okay to find another tribe that allow you the space to be able to vent those frustrations, to get new ideas. I think sometimes we put our spouse in the role of business partner, even when they don't have anything to do with our business.

Sara 00:36:22  And then we we want them to give us all of the suggestions and ideas, and then we're like, you don't know anything about this, so why are you. That would never work, right? And so we set them up for failure. I think we have to be be intentional about are we setting our our spouses up for success?

Carrie 00:36:36  Yeah. I mean, my husband had no interest in I mean, he owned 50% of the business or 49, but he didn't want to help run the schools. He that was not his bailiwick and he would be a sounding board. But he doesn't even like being a boss. He likes going to a job, doing the job, doing the job really, really well. And then it's over.

Greg 00:37:04  Like going home and forgetting about it.

Greg 00:37:06  Yeah.

Carrie 00:37:06  Yeah. I mean and and he continues, you know, he'll work outside of hours and stuff like that. But he likes the fact that he can just be like, it is time and I am done. The fact that I have to take my laptop everywhere I go because I'm a, you know, there could be an issue.

Carrie 00:37:25  I trust the people who I've put in power, but if they have an issue where they need me to do some research or what have we done when we did this before, I don't keep that in my head. I keep it in a computer like a normal person, like. And yeah, I used to keep it in filing cabinet, so that was not nearly as helpful. but so I think what Sarah said about if your spouse is not interested in that role, do not try to force them into that role and go get you another business partner. Maybe you have a cousin, maybe you have, a sister Because, you know, we're parents. A brother, a parent. Yeah. You guys had the parents. You know, maybe there's someone else in your network, and it could just be this person who runs a similar type of program. One town over, and you guys are now going to be business partners, and they're going to run theirs, and you're going to run yours. But you've got some synergy, some ability to hire substitutes together, some ability to buy bigger bulk orders and get the pricing down because there's two centers instead of one.

Kate 00:38:36  Or maybe it's just like Sarah said, your tribe, that you get to call and go, can I whine at you? Because I had the stupidest parent just now try to do yada yada yada, or you won't believe these kids these days. They don't understand what it means to work.

Greg 00:38:55  Well, we actually have.

Greg 00:38:56  A few friends that own programs together, and a lot of times the husband is either in the background like you don't ever see him or, you know, he's just there for advice.

Greg 00:39:07  You know?

Kate 00:39:08  Yeah, yeah, that's why I was. I was so excited to bring you guys on, because it really sounds like what I would consider a true partnership. And you brought up a great point, Greg. A lot of times if the spouse is involved, you know, it's the the financial piece or maybe they bring that financial background, maybe they were bankers or they were investors or, you know, or they look the real estate side. So they're all about the building from a real estate perspective, not even from a, you know, maintenance overhaul, re-engineer, you know, and it really sounds like you guys have figured out, a really great you found each other, and that this is something that worked for you.

Kate 00:39:45  And I'm so glad that, you know, Sarah, you took him kicking and screaming to Orlando, and it wasn't just to go see the mouse. because when I took.

Greg 00:39:54  My second house.

Greg 00:39:55  I was like, oh, son, in the middle of winter. Okay.

Kate 00:39:58  Yeah. I mean, I took I took my second spouse to to Orlando, but entirely to go see a mouse. and, you know, we had a whole different, you know, infestation of mice. And so like, very much made it made a Disney fan, but, did not drag him there for a business conference. And, you know, who knows, maybe things would have been different.

Sara 00:40:19  Well, and one thing you know, Kate, that Greg and I have found out or figured out is that if we're going to be business partners, we're going to stay spouses. We have to make sure that we invest in each other. So we intentionally go to conferences, or we go and we meet up with other childcare providers in different parts of the country to get our buckets filled, because we can only fill each other's buckets so much.

Sara 00:40:47  And so we do that, I would say quarterly where we're we're constantly trying to about every 12 to 16 weeks we're going and we're we just got back from Denver. We were secret shopping for some friends of ours, so anyone needs their program. Secret shop. Give us a call. Because we. We're pros at it now. but I'll tell you just that. Alone. Going and seeing other ideas, other programs, it fills our bucket. And then we come back and we were on fire again, and we're not drained. And so I think you have to find your cadence and you have to figure out what really, you know, what's going to fuel the both of you and make sure that you invest in that as well.

Greg 00:41:28  Well, I love that.

Greg 00:41:29  Because like here, I mean, we're so behind the country when it comes to I mean, everything when it comes to like childcare. I mean, all the centers we've been touring lately, they've just there's purpose built centers, whereas most of ours have never.

Greg 00:41:43  I mean, you don't find centers that were purpose built in Montana. I mean, there may be a couple out there, but you don't find them?

Sara 00:41:49  No. They're church buildings that have been reinvented.

Greg 00:41:51  Yeah. I mean, the one that I know of that was here in Billings that was built as one failed after only three years because.

Greg 00:41:58  I mean.

Carrie 00:41:58  How much of Montana was purpose built, though?

Greg 00:42:01  Well, all of it. Okay, well, it was built.

Kate 00:42:05  It was.

Greg 00:42:06  Built.

Kate 00:42:06  For a purpose in the 20s.

Greg 00:42:08  Yeah, exactly.

Kate 00:42:08  You know, I mean, or the 1800s. Right. Like there was a purpose when things were built. That's why they were built out of the rocks that were there. So.

Greg 00:42:16  Yeah.

Kate 00:42:16  Well, Sarah and Greg, thank you so much for for sharing your story and your wisdom. I love that, like, all kinds of little, nuggets came out of this conversation. And I really do appreciate you taking the time to join us.

Kate 00:42:29  So with that, Carrie, what do you have to say?

Carrie 00:42:32  If you learned something from this show, definitely share it with someone who needs to know, and we'll talk to you next week.

Marie 00:42:40  Thank you for listening to Child Care Conversations with Kate and Carrie. Want to learn more? Check out our website at Texas Director. And if you've learned anything today. Leave us a comment below and share the show.