302: Advocacy, Family Dynamics, and Business Strategies for Success! With Tim Kaminski

In this episode of Child Care Conversations, you’ll join Kate, Carrie, and guest Tim Kaminski for a warm, insightful chat about what it really takes to lead in early childhood education. Tim shares his journey from healthcare to child care, the ups and downs of family business, and how he became a passionate advocate for the industry. 

You’ll pick up practical tips on building relationships with policymakers, collaborating with local resources, and supporting children’s needs—plus a few laughs and “aha!” moments along the way. It’s real talk for leaders who want to make a difference! 

Learn more about Tim at https://www.tlcca.org/ and

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-kaminski-74aa289/

Thanks for Listening 🎧

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Transcript

Kate Young (00:47)
Welcome back folks. I know December is getting crazy and the holidays are busy, but hopefully you'll go grab a piece of paper and a pen because I think today's episode with Tim Kaminsky will have some great little tips for you to take. ⁓ And we are just really excited to share Tim's journey into early childcare, as well as some of the things he's learned along the way. And with that, Tim, will you share with everybody kind of your two minute

how I got here version of your story.

Tim Kaminski (01:21)
Definitely, definitely. Well, ⁓ my name is Tim Kaminsky. I am from Texas, ⁓ just outside of the Houston area. ⁓ County is Fort Bend. My family has been in the childcare industry for over 42 years, ⁓ but it started as I was leaving to go off to college. So I was never really involved with the business back then. And around 2008 is when I kind of got pulled over into childcare, but I had spent 25 years in healthcare.

prior to coming into it. And so I'm a licensed speech pathologist. That's what I was doing initially. But then I started running therapy clinics all over the US. And so I dealt with a lot of regulatory stuff in different states back then for that getting clinics built and staffed and then operational. And so coming over into childcare, I learned very quickly that it was very similar to what I had done with that, just a whole bunch of different new regulations. as I said, I've been doing that for the last 17 years.

⁓ advocacy work I got pulled into probably about 14 years ago. ⁓ I had built a brand new facility from the ground up and things were taken off and doing pretty well. But then there was a lot of policies and things coming in and didn't really understand the substitute program very well. And so had to start kind of digging into that. And as I did, I started meeting people with some of the different associations and stuff, started getting asked to go get public testimony.

⁓ both at the federal level and at the state level. And so that's what got me here today with you guys, because there's been a lot of big stuff happening for me personally and for our state association just within the last four year period. And the last two years were beyond anything we imagine. hopefully today I'll have some good things to share with everybody and we'll see how it goes.

Carrie Casey (03:19)
Okay. So, ⁓ something we didn't really talk much about in our like chat before we turned the magic button on was something you're dealing with in your personal life. And so dealing with family members who were having health issues while you're trying to run a school or multiple schools in your case. Let's just take just a second to talk about that before we get into the other things we were talking about, because that is

super hard and I think it's a real, it's something that's gonna happen to all of us at some point. We're gonna have a family member or somebody who's dear and close to us who's having a health struggle and it makes it hard to do your job because part of your executive function is on vacation.

Kate Young (04:07)
on vacation it's got other duties as assigned. I'm like yeah that is so not a vacation. ⁓

Carrie Casey (04:14)
That's

true.

Tim Kaminski (04:16)
Yeah, definitely not a vacation.

Carrie Casey (04:19)
So what are you doing to make sure that you've got the bandwidth to do what you need to do?

Tim Kaminski (04:26)
Yeah, so you one of the things that I learned a long time ago from a mentor was to set some really clear boundaries with people. And so ⁓ there's set times during the day during the week for my staff to meet with me and they know outside of that time, unless the place is burning down, you gotta hold on to it. I do the same thing with families. I have a set time ⁓ during the week and during the day that's available for families to set up meetings ⁓ so that I don't get

overwhelmed with all of that stuff. And then I'm pretty open and honest with our families and everybody that I work with. If I have some family stuff going on, say, you know, I've got a parent right now, they're in the hospital, so it may not be as available as normal because once people get used to you being available, then they expect it to be there all the time. that is a challenge. Yeah, we have nine locations.

that I oversee between two full sites and then seven after school programs. So I was sharing earlier that today I'm actually working at one of our after school programs because one of our staff is out. So I was in Austin talking with the governor's office on Friday and now I'm sweeping floors at the after school program.

Kate Young (05:42)
That's what you talk, I mean, that's when people say, other duties as assigned. I think it's really important for.

us as owners and managers and directors to remember that sometimes when we say the buck stops with us, it really literally does. And that means that we might be the ones sweeping the floor or we are the substitute and we are doing all of those things. So thank you for sharing that experience because I was hoping that Carrie was going to take us down the other story you told us, which I also love, which is you talking about the fact that when you entered, you couldn't just be the director because you had a master's degree.

Tim Kaminski (06:22)
Oh exactly, exactly. So like I said around 2008 when I came to it I was like I said in the healthcare industry and Obamacare or however you want to phrase the the new medical benefits that were going to be available came in and there were lot of big changes. So there are a lot of cuts to Medicare and Medicaid which impacted the healthcare industry and there were massive layoffs and so I was a senior probably

500 staff underneath me and some regional people and then it just stopped. And so at the time my mom was thinking about retiring but we didn't have anybody in the family to take over the business and I had a really good service package. So he gave me a little buffer. ⁓ And so when I started looking into what it was gonna take, I thought, I'll just fill out the paperwork and then to become a director. And they're like, no, no, no, you've got a working child here for at least a year first. I'm like,

I think I've got some really good experience here and they're like, yeah, but it's not really in childcare. So I had worked with kids in schools, I had worked with adults and neurological programs and things like that. that was really strong, but the day-to-day stuff is what was missing. And so I spent that first year from 2008 to 2009,

just kind of being in the building. My mom was still the director at the time and she had somebody that had been with her for 20, probably 20 plus years at that point. He was the pre-K teacher and the assistant director. So they were a well-worn machine in terms of knowing their stuff. But then I realized that the underpinnings for the business were not there.

And so at the same time, I'm learning how to be a director. I'm also having to learn how to be an owner and what were all the pieces that went with that. ⁓ So it was kind of a dual role that first year. ⁓ And then that continued on for at least five years before I felt comfortable enough for us to expand. And that was kind of looking around going, okay,

I'm used to multiple projects, know, this one daycare and two after school programs ⁓ really isn't going to be enough for me. And so, but by then I felt like I had my legs in spending some time doing that.

Kate Young (08:50)
Sounds good. Okay, Carrie's got say so. The wheels are turning.

Carrie Casey (08:52)
Well, I was just going to.

Well, the transition from being a high level manager where you may have as many people under you as you know, in that organization as you now do in your nine locations to owner because when you're a manager, somebody can tell you no. Right. And somebody can tell you that you have to do something that was not on your to do list, but it is the owner.

you have to tell you no. It's much harder to tell yourself no when you get the, ⁓ what if we did this? ⁓ Exactly. I think that's one of those things that when people start a program, they're not prepared for that element. You saying, I had to figure out how to be an owner, I think, is really key because

You can have, I had great ideas of what I wanted my school to be before I opened my school. And then I started running my school and there were all these things that I had not known about that I now had to do.

Tim Kaminski (10:05)
Yeah, coming out of corporate America where you can call HR, can call IT, or you can call the marketing department ⁓ to staff it or to promote what you're doing and fix the computer and fix the connections. And yeah, I had none of that. And it was like, I kid you not, when I came in there, they didn't even have a fax machine in the office. And I'm like, mom, how do you communicate back and forth? we drive down the street to the doctor's office. I'm like, well, how long does that take?

And then she was still doing everything by paper and pen. And so she was manually processing 500 checks a week and taking them to the bank and not knowing if they're going to clear till the next week. And I'm like, my God, this is just craziness. I had not even thought about doing credit card payments or any of that kind of business function behind it. And so for anybody out there who's ever been in a family business, it doesn't matter childcare or not.

that transition from what the original person who started it to somebody else coming in and saying, hey, we need to do things differently. That power struggle that goes on between that ⁓ is real. It's a real dynamic and it ruins a lot of families. can take people down. And so I think that's the other thing too, is learning how do you create a working relationship that's not a familiar relationship, but that's always underneath there kind of. ⁓

either working against you, working for you, but it takes some time to kind of balance those things out. And it just so happens that I'm the oldest in my family, my mom's the oldest in her family. So we're both used to being in charge. And ⁓ to this day, you will still have those moments. She's well into her eighties, but still wants to come to work every day. And so, ⁓ you know, we recognize that we make sure there's things for her to do. ⁓ But yeah, good.

going from that, going from that corporate mentality, that corporate structure and learning to be a little bit softer. ⁓ I was used to a different level of professionalism and so forth, having ⁓ clinic directors and things underneath me. But again, these are people that have master's degrees and bachelor's degrees and just a different thought pattern about doing stuff. And so I'm just used to let's go, go, go, go, go. And that wasn't how the teachers worked. And that wasn't how the families and the

kids and everything worked in that setting. So ⁓ the fear factor that people had of coming to my office to talk to me, I'm like, why are you all afraid of me? They were like, you always had that look on your face. I'm like, what look? And so ⁓ that, again, it was like, do I go from working in a multi-dynamic, both men and women, all around, versus it's one male and all female, and

how do you navigate all kind of stuff? And so I learned a lot from that and I gave them permission to come and tell me, hey, you're being a jerk, Mr. Tim. We didn't like what you said. Okay, well, let's talk about it. ⁓ Because I needed to have that feedback so that they felt safe enough to come and say, this is not working. And let's try to figure something else out.

Kate Young (13:17)
That's a great story. mean, right there, that's your book, right? It's the, hey, Mr. Tim, you're being a jerk. I love that story. I don't know if your family members love that story or your staff do, but I do. And it probably resonates because Carrie and I are third generation business owners raising the fourth and the fourth generation does work with us.

Carrie Casey (13:40)
We're not raising them anymore, Kate. They all adult.

Kate Young (13:43)
That's true. They all adults. We raised them and there we go. Yeah. So yeah, so we definitely both we both worked for our moms. ⁓ I am the daughter of the oldest daughter and Carrie is we're cousins. I may not have shared that part. So

Carrie Casey (14:01)
I've worked with every member of my immediate family all three sis all three siblings my husband both of my parents both of my

Kate Young (14:11)
Kids and both daughters.

Carrie Casey (14:13)
That's why I my kids. Yeah. I've done that. And some of those t-shirts are really gross. ⁓

Sometimes you can make it work and sometimes you can't.

Kate Young (14:25)
Well, and I the fact that you guys stuck it out on both ends, right? And I love the fact that she's still involved. I think that's great. And I love that story because I'm sure she probably has her own stories to tell about what it was like, you know, during that transition.

Tim Kaminski (14:43)
Yeah, and one of the things, one of the highlights for me in the last 17 years was she had always wanted to run for the school board, but never felt like she had enough support or resources behind her to be able to leave the business. And so once she did get comfortable and saw that I was able to handle it, manage it, and so forth, well, the first thing she did before school board, she took her first ever in life two week vacation. And her and my dad went to Alaska and she had never been a

gone from the business for that long ever. She had barely ever taken a week away from it in those 20 plus years. And so when she came back and everything was fine, we didn't burn the building down, ⁓ she kind of started taking some time. And then when the opportunity came up for her to run for the school board, ⁓ because of our connections in our community and stuff like that, she was a well-known entity. ⁓ Just by the fact of her name being out there, everybody's like, this is going be great.

Her passion was special ed. She wanted to get in. Special ed. So she actually ended up ⁓ running and winning. She served for eight years. She served both as vice president, president, and ⁓ through her eight year tenure, they opened up multiple new elementary schools and high schools and stuff. And so she got to have that experience ⁓ up until about maybe three and a half, four years ago. And we couldn't convince her to run for third term.

So she came back and now she's back with us. So, but again, getting everybody comfortable enough with her making that transition, because again, that took a lot of her time away. But we have enough things in place that she was able to do that and the business continued to grow and continues to grow today in terms of adding on more locations.

Kate Young (16:30)
I love that story, Tim. Thank you for sharing the mom connection. We always love mom connection stories. They're fun. Tim, you mentioned you brought up advocacy a couple of different times and during our kind of pre-conversation, and ⁓ I got kind of excited because we definitely are on the same page when it comes to the way childcare business owners need to think about their business.

What are some of the things that you're doing from an advocacy standpoint that really is not just a state specific? this, what you were telling us literally is something that every state, every municipality, everybody needs to be sharing with their legislators.

Tim Kaminski (17:17)
⁓ So, like I said, I probably. ⁓ yeah, definitely now. So, basically, the underpinning of all of it is, you know, we don't know what we don't know. And that's how it was for me coming into it. I didn't know what I didn't know that I needed to know about having a successful child care business. And so ⁓ through that.

Carrie Casey (17:17)
Yes.

Tim Kaminski (17:45)
⁓ It's what led me to getting involved with NACI and TACI in Texas ⁓ and Children at Risk and Texans Care for Children and all these other groups that were out there advocating for the ⁓ early education and early childhood arena, but not necessarily advocating for the child care business. And so my frustration with a lot of those groups

was that I would go to DC. I used to go to the NAC policy forum. I sat and listened and kind of bit my tongue and everything. There was a group of 10 of us from Texas that had gone to do that. In the second year we were there and by then I kind of had some chutzpah behind me and I was like, you know, I just, can't take it anymore. So when it got to open questions, I walk up to the mic and I said, you know what? I see where you're going with things. Everything sounds really, really good.

very much an academic slant to all of this, but how the hell am I supposed to pay for anything that you're wanting me to do? And the room erupted. mean, people were just clapping and stuff and was like, oh my God, I'll do something if I have a way to pay for it, but if I can't pay for it and you're gonna make me do it, then that's gonna maybe not be the best situation. And so from there, one by one, people started coming up to the mic saying the same thing. And I'm like, why were you all sitting there? We were all thinking the same thing, but nobody was brave enough.

to stick their neck out there. And I think I've been that person ⁓ in the childcare arena, at least within Texas, now ⁓ more at the national level to say, wait a minute, what we do at our core as childcare businesses, we exist so that people can go to work. We also can do the early education piece, but that's not the be all end all of what we do.

But the only conversation has been around early education for so many years. And that wasn't getting anywhere policy-wise at the federal level or the state level. There wasn't a lot of more money going into it. There wasn't a lot of changes. And when I started looking back at, where is the disconnect here? Is that nobody was talking about costs. Nobody was talking about ⁓ the business structure around child care. Nobody was talking about all the things that make child care expensive.

I used to get so frustrated when people would say, childcare is too expensive. And I would say, it's not expensive enough. You have no idea if you think it's expensive right now. And so I started saying, you know, this is not a early childhood education issue. This is a workforce issue that we're dealing with. And that has totally swung in the different direction now for the last at least four years here in Texas, five years.

You know, I think within the last year or two, even at the national level, making childcare part of the infrastructure of the economy and having people look at it that way and talk about it in that way. So now you have the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and you have all these other organizations now saying, yes, without childcare, people can't go to work. That's going to affect business growth and the overall economy. But how do we fix it? And that's where we are now. We know that there needs to be a fix. We have people in the conversation, but

you know, is that going to be through money? Is it going to be through tax breaks? Is it going to be through some other type of assistance from the business community? We have to work through those things. But again, we don't know what we don't know. The politicians don't know what they don't know. And I had once tell me, you know, probably about three years ago now, how come is this the first time I'm hearing about this business thing? Y'all are having a business problem. And I said, because I'm the first one to come talk to you about it.

Everybody else has talked to you about early ed. I just want to talk to you about business. And depending upon the dynamics of your state, whether it's Republican led or Democrat led, you have have a different conversation. You have to know how to talk to the Republicans about stuff, and you have to know how to talk about Democrats and stuff. It's the same underpinning, but the presentation might be a little bit different for them to get the buy in. ⁓

That's been part of the journey you were talking about earlier is really learning how to navigate that. I didn't know what I didn't know about advocating and policy and all that kind of stuff. And I'm still learning.

Kate Young (22:12)
Well, I mean, I think as early educators, but as educators, we're also lifelong learners. And I think that anybody who's listening, hopefully they will reach out, ⁓ whether it's reaching out through the show notes or it's reaching out through the contact us button to get more. Because if you're not comfortable with having these conversations,

the best place to start is at your local chamber. And a lot of local municipalities also have community development corporations or PC, know, some sort of, you know, it's, they're usually 501 C3s or a 501 C6 that's sponsored.

by the city about bringing ⁓ business development into their communities. And so if you're not sure about those and you're listening, feel free to reach out, let us know you'd like help in finding the one in your community. Sometimes they're by county, sometimes they're by city, sometimes they're regions. So if you're in a rural community, it might take three or four counties to get enough ⁓ people who are businesses together for some of those coalitions.

Some of that stuff just does happen on a national level, international or ⁓ national state level, ⁓ even tri-states, like you'll find areas where, you know, ⁓ several states will come together. And then we've just got, it's not necessarily a red or a blue kind of an issue. This is a definite purple issue where, and we have to learn how to have that conversation. I think you brought up a great point. ⁓ Having grown up in a Republican,

⁓ state that when I entered early childcare, I entered really from the perspective of helping registered family homes run their business like a business. And that was 32 years ago. Ooh, okay. And see, I do that thing. Sometimes I'll figure out math and I don't really want to. ⁓ And so, know, we've always, Kari and I have always, we probably, I'd say probably 50 % of the episodes in the last six years have been about

running your business or business aspects or things that you definitely didn't learn when you were getting your program accredited, such as now that it's accredited, what do you do with it, right? How do you monetize that?

Carrie Casey (24:37)
Why did you spend that $5,000? need an ROI on that.

Kate Young (24:43)
Yes, we need an ROI on that. So, but with that, mean, I think what's great is that the more these conversations come up, what might be something else that somebody who is listening might like, what should they get together if they want to have that first conversation from a dollars and cents standpoint versus the latest and greatest and. ⁓

research for early ed. So how could they, what do they need to do to help their own personal shift?

Tim Kaminski (25:13)
So ⁓ I was lucky enough to be a part of a state project a couple of years ago through the prenatal three policy impact center. So they came ⁓ into Texas, well, they were based out of UT at the time and now they're at Vanderbilt, but they came in to help our Texas workforce commission develop a plan to stabilize the childcare workforce. So we spent about a year working with them. had probably 15 to 20 providers.

in the room, had ⁓ other child care advocacy groups, we had people from Head Start and so forth to look at all of the business financial dynamics behind child care and what people were being able to be paid versus what kind of income was coming into it. And so the prenatal to three policy impact center has that information on almost all of the states to where you can go and find out what is the true cost of care. If you were to pay

people what they need to get paid to have a living wage and have benefits and all the things that come with that. ⁓ How much would you have to charge for childcare? And again, it's going to be different from state to state and even within states, it's going to be different from region to region. And so having that information that you can then take to your local representative, your local state representative's office. One of the things that I, again, what I didn't that I know now is that

My relationship that I have with our federal representatives ⁓ started at some dinners that my wife made me go to, some fundraising galas that I didn't want to go to because I don't like getting dressed up. And I'm meeting these people that I never thought I would be in the same room with. I'm just a daycare person. I'm just running. And to be with somebody who's a House of Representatives person, no less, I was just in awe. ⁓

But then he's like, well, hey, can I come out to your center? you know, our original location, it's an old house that was converted into a childcare center and added onto through the years. And it looks like your typical original 1980s daycare. And I was like, okay, I don't know. You're used to some really nice stuff. This isn't really gonna be kind of what you're used to. And the guy came down and he couldn't have been nicer. And I mean, he came in and slacks and everything. He got down on the floor with the kids and read a book to him. And I was like,

Oh, wow, this is not what I expected at all. And so, you know, five, 10 years down the road, you he was still in office when I went to D.C. And so then I got to go and, you know, have a tour of the Capitol and just these different things I never thought I would get to do. And it was only because that relationship started years earlier. And so I think that's the other thing is that if you want to have an impact in your state,

or even at the national level, you've got to get to know the people that represent you from your community. And it's not as scary as we make it out to be. I think we doubt ourselves. We doubt because we're childcare people that we're not gonna be taken seriously or we're not smart enough to be in the room sometimes. And that's easy to let that stop you from doing something. ⁓ But again, if you start out just getting to know their staff and develop a relationship with their staff,

they can be the ones then to get you that introduction with them. Or are there other people in the community that you know that know them? And it's all about who you know and making those connections. And so I've spent the last 17 years growing that network of people that I can say, now, okay, who's got a connection to Governor Abbott? Who can get me a meeting with the Lieutenant Governor? Who do I need to go through for that? Now, it may take a couple of months.

know, because it's a lot back and forth. But I never thought I would be, you know, getting to be in a room with the governor and getting a picture with him, whether I agree with him or not, it's irrelevant. ⁓ But to get my name out there enough so that if something comes up about child care, hopefully they're going to call me and or, you know, call TLCA or something that's we're trying to push that recognition, but it starts so much earlier than you think it needs to.

Kate Young (29:32)
And I just love the fact that you're giving your wife the kudos. you know, no offense, but I'm really glad that your wife drug you to some of those fundraising events, even if you didn't want to go. Absolutely. And I think you brought up a good point and you haven't looped it back, which is that your mom's ran for school board. And I think that more owners that are involved in the public school, public school communities as well. Again, you can remind people that

Public school does what they do well. doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to do early education well and why they need to collaborate. We've got some school districts that are really good in that.

public-private collaboration. ⁓ Others are not, and they want all the money, mine, mine, mine, and they don't understand what goes into that. And that's probably like three episodes in itself. ⁓ But yeah, digging your well before you're thirsty is absolutely a huge thing, right? Building those networks, and you never know who you're gonna need to know. So, Kerry, I know that we are running towards the end of our 20 minutes. Do you have a last question for Tim?

Carrie Casey (30:43)
Well, I mean, I have about five more, but I don't think we have time for five more. And this one is a ⁓ I'm taking a hard left turn here, which is when you've got kids at your program who are needing services from a pullout provider, like a speech pathologist or ⁓ an occupational therapist or something like that, what do you think is the best thing for the director or the owner to

You know, how should they set that up for those pullout programs?

Tim Kaminski (31:17)
Well, again, you've got to develop those relationships before you have a need for the service. So getting to know who's in your community that offers a therapy who what are the speech pathologists? Is there an ECI program in the community? We have all those things in Fortman County. And so basically I just reached out to the directors of those programs and said, hey, I know that there's going to be some kids possibly coming through that are going need services. I'm going to need to refer out the families. And how are we going to work together? Because if they're going to

get the services, want those services to be done at our childcare center, not at their home necessarily because we spend more time with them. And so the more our teachers know what to do, the better they're gonna be able to work with that child. having all of that kind of foundational stuff there before you have the need, but I have a conversation with every parent that comes in saying, part of what we do here is we do assessments on the kids as they move through the building.

And as they move along, if we see that something maybe is not going along as we think it should, we're going to have a conversation. And I don't want you to be scared if you get a call from me saying we need to have a conversation. Because the earlier we find out that something needs to be worked on, the better outcomes we're going to have. And we've got the resources and place to do that. Now, I can say that with confidence, because again, I've got my background in speech and language development and motor skills and all those kind of things. But anybody

can get to that point without having that background, but knowing you've got the resources in your community. If you don't have the resources, it becomes a little bit more difficult. And that's what we're seeing right now in most of our rural communities, is they don't have the physical resources. The need is there, the resources are not, including childcare. And so that's that bigger question, maybe for another podcast that we have to talk about is, in these areas where services are not available, do we create mobile clinics? Do we create

mobile systems that go around because there's not been a lot of talk about that. We have that in healthcare. Why don't we have it for early education and early care? And it's only because nobody's brought it up before. hopefully that's something we might see in the future.

Carrie Casey (33:26)
Yeah, there's a lot of commonalities between why healthcare is expensive and why childcare is expensive. It's so human being dependent. We made shipping cheaper by letting robots do stuff. We can't really do that in healthcare very much or in childcare.

Kate Young (33:44)
No, we really can't. Well, hopefully if you've been listening to today's episode and you got something out of the show, you'll share it with people who need to know. If you are listening to today's episode for the first time and you're like, hey, I kind of like these folks, go hit the subscribe or follow button depending on your platform of choice. And we look forward to having another conversation with you in a few days.