ECE CEO Biography Podcast

Sage Wisdom for Childcare Leaders

EPISODE #17: FEATURING John Bork

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John Bork

Chief Executive Officer of Learning Care

 

Step into the world of leadership with us as we sit down for an insightful conversation with John Bork of Learning Care alongside Tony D’Agostino, Founder & CEO of Inspire Care 360. In this episode, we explore John’s leadership journey, from early influences and defining career moments to the principles that shape how he leads today in the early childhood education space.

Key Takeaways

  • Leadership is about removing barriers for your team
    The best leaders focus on supporting teachers and staff so they can succeed, not just driving results.

  • Authenticity builds culture and trust
    Showing up real, acknowledging challenges, being present, and recognizing wins creates stronger, more connected teams.

  • Retention improves when teachers feel prepared and supported
    Reducing turnover starts with helping educators gain confidence quickly and feel valued in their role.

Transcript

2 seconds
Welcome to ECE biography siege wisdom for child care leaders. My name is Tony D. Austinino. I’m the founder and CEO of
9 seconds
Inspire Care 360. In this series of exclusive podcasts, we will meet with tenur and growing leaders in the child
17 seconds
care field. Typically operating medium to very large childcare operations from tens of schools to thousands of schools.
26 seconds
Our incentive is to learn what has been the path and traits that make outstanding leaders. Join us to glean
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the sage wisdom from these experienced individuals. Now, let’s get started with ECE biography, Sage Wisdom for Child Care Leaders.
46 seconds
Welcome to ECE CEO biography, Sage Wisdom for Childare Leaders. I’m joined today by John Bourke, president and CEO
55 seconds
of Learning Care, one of the largest early childhood education providers in the country. John stepped into the role
1 minute, 2 seconds
in 2024, but has spent over 25 years building and leading organizations where people are at the center of everything.
1 minute, 10 seconds
What’s interesting about his background,
1 minute, 12 seconds
it’s always been in spaces where professionals are taking care of others.
1 minute, 16 seconds
That’s been a consistent thread. Before learning care, he founded PetSmart Veterinarian Services, Wellhaven Pet
1 minute, 25 seconds
Health, and spent years helping grow Banfield Pet Hospital into the largest veterary group in the world. And across
1 minute, 33 seconds
all of that, his focus has been pretty simple. Build strong culture, support the people doing the work, and make sure
1 minute, 41 seconds
care is actually accessible. He’s now bringing the same mindset into the early childhood education field with a real
1 minute, 49 seconds
belief that if you invest in educators and support families the right way, you can change outcomes long term. He also
1 minute, 57 seconds
serves on the board of Early Care and Education Consortium, helping push forward policy and investment across the
2 minutes, 4 seconds
industry. Originally from Minnesota, he now lives in Michigan with his wife,
2 minutes, 9 seconds
Jenna, who’s written over 300 child care books, which pretty well fits with the world he’s in today. Welcome, John, and
2 minutes, 17 seconds
let’s get started. So, it’s really a pleasure to meet you, John. Uh, welcome today to ECE CEO biography. I have John Bourke here with the learning group.
2 minutes, 26 seconds
And, uh, John, how are you doing today?
2 minutes, 28 seconds
I am fantastic. It’s, you know, I’m in Michigan and I just recently moved.
2 minutes, 33 seconds
Well, it can’t be recent anymore. About a year and a half ago from Phoenix and uh but born and raised in Minnesota.
2 minutes, 40 seconds
Didn’t think I’d move back to a snowy state, but uh I moved back and we’re loving Michigan. I don’t know if I love it today, but in general, I love Michigan. Yeah, we’re loving it.
2 minutes, 50 seconds
Well, I’m originally from Western New York, the Roster, New York area. I live now in southern Florida. So, I sort of did the opposite of you. So, uh good
2 minutes, 59 seconds
luck with Michigan, though. I hear they have good ice fishing up there.
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I do. I do. I I tried it a few times this year.
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Oh, fantastic. Good. Anything? Did you catch anything?
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Uh, like a perch about the size of my my finger. Yeah. But it’s still a fish, right? I can say I caught one.
3 minutes, 15 seconds
Well, good. Well, good. Yeah, I’m a bit of a fisherman outdoorsman myself. But let’s go ahead and uh get on into it.
3 minutes, 22 seconds
Uh, so we’re going to spend a little time today talking to John, learning a little bit about yourself here. And John, you know, how I like to kick this off is sometimes is ask you a question
3 minutes, 30 seconds
such as, you know, when you were young and sort of your more just your younger formative years, even before like high school or anything like that, you know,
3 minutes, 40 seconds
was there anything that you ran into that you started to see that you had some kind of passion for
3 minutes, 49 seconds
leadership? Is there anything that you saw where you’re like, you know what,
3 minutes, 53 seconds
that might be a track that I’m into, or is that something in later life? You know, it’s it came a little later,
4 minutes
but I will say, and there’s some examples there, but I I will say um I was always surrounded by um just great
4 minutes, 7 seconds
family and friends. And um and so I felt really fortunate to be around a really great sense of community. And that
4 minutes, 15 seconds
community I always I still think about that community growing up as I think through my work life and and I would say while I didn’t necessarily understand
4 minutes, 23 seconds
there was leadership back um you know grade school wise um I just knew that being surrounded by people you care for
4 minutes, 31 seconds
and being authentic um was was important and just being yourself and that was uh something that really played and
4 minutes, 38 seconds
continues to to play um a role for me later in life. Oh, great. Were your uh family members, parents, things of that,
4 minutes, 47 seconds
were they in different type of leadership roles in their type of opportunities and careers they did or was it something that sort of was a more of a breakout for you in later life?
4 minutes, 56 seconds
Yeah. Well, my grandfather was um a really big influence for me. He was someone who um started his own company
5 minutes, 3 seconds
and um and really him and I had a really special relationship. I miss him still today. And so, and he would just pull me aside at times and even when I was
5 minutes, 12 seconds
younger, he he’d like stop maybe um a conversation we’re having if it was just more casual and actually point out like what that little moment means today. So,
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and um and you could see that in the businesses he he ran, but it was it was really a special authentic relationship that he had with me. And he would always
5 minutes, 32 seconds
do these little pauses with me. And I didn’t see him, if my cousins watch this, they’ll they’ll be mad, but I didn’t see him do that with anyone else.
5 minutes, 39 seconds
Uh, but uh, but I felt like we had this really great relationship and I learned so much from him early on.
5 minutes, 46 seconds
So, when you think about that with your grandfather and what he was doing, you know, a lot of times I don’t do these always chronological in nature.
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Did you find yourself um emulating what your grandfather had done with you with other people that have been working with
6 minutes, 2 seconds
you in you know your you know your business life or what have you.
6 minutes, 6 seconds
Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yes. 100%. It’s you know I did it today. We were we were in a meeting with a um um a large group in
6 minutes, 14 seconds
the boardroom and um we were talking about um some wins we were having and you know there’s been a lot of headwinds in the business and um and we were
6 minutes, 23 seconds
seeing some wins and and we we were kind of passing over some of the winds that we were seeing and I remember it just happened. I said let’s just take a quick time out. Let’s just take a deep breath,
6 minutes, 34 seconds
right? Because let’s let’s think about what just happened here and how we got there and how special that is and how great it feels, right? How great it
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feels to have those little wins. And if we don’t take the time to look at those little wins and recognize a moment we’re in, we’ll forget about it and it won’t be important. And it is important. And
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so it goes back to those uh early conversations with my grandfather, but time out. Like just give a timeout. And we did that today. and and it’s it’s
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it’s great just to reflect and just recognize the moment you’re in and and especially those wins, right? And and take that time.
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No. And I think that’s I think that’s amazing, too, because I think when we get in the business world, we have a tendency, John, to always be moving and
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everybody having the pressure to get to the next level and sometimes you you miss those steps, those small steps in between. It’s great that you’re pointing
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them out. So, what would you say that does in identifying the kind of culture that you’ve been building there?
7 minutes, 31 seconds
Yeah. Um, I’m going to tell you, um,
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culture is everything. And a culture isn’t a logo. It isn’t a, um, a sign on the wall. It isn’t a PowerPoint present.
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I mean, it is something you live and breathe. and and um the culture here,
7 minutes, 50 seconds
you know, I’ve been here now 18 months and I I’m going to tell you, I have some of the most amazing people that I work with, the heart and the care. And I came
7 minutes, 57 seconds
out of a veterary industry where I just felt like, oh my god, how would I ever find more caring people, right? And I
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found that here. Um but to to actually generate the culture that you want about
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making sure um families feel trusted and teachers feel respected and children feel inspired. It takes like it takes
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every moment of your day to think about it. I I tell a lot of people if we aren’t leaving as leaders emotionally
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exhausted, right? Not physically exhausted. We our teachers are leaving both physically and emotionally exhausted. So, we need to give them that
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respect. But if we’re not cuz we’re not we’re not doing that work that they’re doing, but we should be leaving emotionally exhausted thinking every
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single day about that teacher or that child. When we start to do that, the culture just starts to come together.
8 minutes, 51 seconds
It’s more than just, as I say, words on a wall, right? But culture is everything today. And and I would I would go back
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to the the space we’re in, the industry we’re in has been going through so many changes, right? And so many tough times and great we’re doing great work, right?
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But the landscape continues to shift and we’ve got to bring back culture because we’ll win when those I’ll go back. We’ll win when teachers feel respected and
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families feel trusted and children feel inspired. It doesn’t matter how many locations I have or how many students we’re enrolling. It’s about that and
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that’s the the the breath we have to live every single day which takes takes a lot out of you but it’s the good work. It’s good work.
9 minutes, 34 seconds
And and I love I love the fact that you say that basically you almost need to be emotionally exhausted by the end of the
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day because I you know I have my own schools too and much smaller than what your little bit of environment is. But
9 minutes, 50 seconds
with that said, you know, those teachers and especially those directors, they’re they’re giving their all every single
9 minutes, 58 seconds
day. And you know, a lot of times when you’re in management, you do a lot of thinking, a lot of strategizing and a lot of trying to how do I take that
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strategy and get to tactical implementation, blah blah blah. But sometimes, you know, you start to get away from the day-to-day activity of
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seeing how drained people can actually be.
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So, how is it? What is your philosophy in a bit you know when it comes to your culture maybe the underpinning and those
10 minutes, 25 seconds
values underneath that of you know with such a big enterprise and if I saw that correctly and correct me if I’m wrong
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you guys between your multiple brands you have you about 1150 locations altogether is that about right yeah we we enroll just about 7200 new
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families a week and so it’s a pretty big enterprise yeah that is huge that is wonderful for you guys congratulations how How is it
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possible for leadership over such a big organization to tactically get to
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impacting those exact teachers and those families and and to me I’m a big believer in teachers. Teachers are the secret sauce of our business.
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Yeah. Yeah. Um boy that’s a that’s a great question and I maybe if I take it back to like a story that that kind of changed me,
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right? that actually shows up and how and the people that I hire around me and and how that is so important and it you
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know I I back in my um uh late 20s I had already had some success in business not related in that I was I was living all
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over the country and had a lot of success and my ego was was big right I felt like hey man I could figure a lot of things out and I I uh I was 29 years
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old and I took this job for a little company called Vets Smart and they had like 20 locations across the country and
11 minutes, 49 seconds
um they were struggling and trying to figure some things out and I remember um and people will know Vetsmart as Banfield. They changed their name later,
11 minutes, 56 seconds
but I remember I’m like I reluctantly took the job, right? I’m like, “All right, I can help them out. I’ll go in there.” I was used to starting businesses and getting going and moving
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and and I’m like, “I can go figure this thing out.” I kind of went in with this little swagger and um but one of the things I I I did say as I started I said
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before I can even work and consult and and and help this business I need to put some scrubs on. I want to put scrubs on for a few weeks and learn the business,
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right? And understand the in-n-out, which you know, I still do that today,
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right? But that there’s my first day changed me 100% changed me. And I was it
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was a I was in Minnesota and uh it was a lot it was in the middle of January. Um it was cold. Um I had just started I’m
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in scrubs. Um and um and I’m in the front and um the veterinary community much like um the teacher community is
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85% female and I am um standing out in front and um we’re all talking about our end of the day. What do we got plans?
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It’s a Friday night. When are we going to go? And we’re about ready to walk out and in walks a dad with his two daughters and a German shepherd that’s been hit by a car.
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Oh god.
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And like I have no idea. like I and and the um the the father immediately assumes I’m the doctor and gives me the
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pet right and I’m like well at at that time inwoks Dr. Andrews inwoks her lead
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tech inwokses and they take the pet in the back uh the one um technician takes the two young girls and puts them in a room and gives them a coloring book. the
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other nurse goes in and starts talking to dad, tries to calm him down and and um and I’m just standing there and I’m
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just trying to get out of the way and um and now the outcome of the story was the
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pet survived and the pet was able to go home and thank goodness, right? That wasn’t what changed me. That was impactful, don’t get me wrong. Like we just saved a life, right?
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But it was on my way out the door cuz what had happened is now this all transpired. The girl, the little girls
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are doing fine. The dad is still holding himself together. Dr. Andrew comes out and says, “My gosh, you guys, you did an amazing job.” She complimented all of
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us, even me, saying, “Hey, John, thanks for staying out of the way.” Right. But like, and she did like we just did something really special here.
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And um and thank you, thank you, thank you. Now, it’s 10:00 at night. All of our plans had changed, but we were all feeling good about what just happened. We didn’t care about our plans. Now,
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we’re walking out to the parking lot and I’m ready to get in my car and I see Dr.
14 minutes, 32 seconds
Andrews walk towards her car and I see she’s not getting in and so it’s cold out and so I’m assuming back in Minnesota the locks are frozen or
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something. She couldn’t get in and I walk over towards her and um and I’m behind her and I said, “Dr. Andrews and I could see her stand up.” Now remember,
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she just said like gave us all these compliments. She turned around and she was crying.
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And I had no idea like why why is she crying? And she said to me, she goes,
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“John, it’s 10:00 at night. This is the fourth night in a row. I haven’t been able to leave until after 10:00 and I
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got a three-month old baby at home and I can’t put her to bed tonight, right?”
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And like here is someone so giving, so caring, right? That she’s giving up like a lot of her other parts of her life.
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And and what you knew is many people were jumping into the profession like teachers and were jumping out of the they they spent their whole lives at 5
15 minutes, 30 seconds
years old to become a a veterinarian or become a teacher and they get into the role and it’s it’s they’re unprepared.
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It’s it’s more chaotic. There’s a lot of emotion there and they don’t understand and they leave, right? And I remember driving home that night and checked all my ego. I just had a little baby myself.
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So, I had a little daughter at home that was her same age and I get emotional thinking about it. I get goosebumps and when I still think about it today and I
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remember going, “My gosh, I could never be that veterinarian.” I wasn’t smart enough to take that path, right? I never had that. I wouldn’t have been able to
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do that. But what I did know is I could help her, right? I may not get her out at at 10 o’clock every single night, but I can help her with communication. I can
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help her with building a team. I can help her with building labor models. I can help her with communication. I can help her with so many things so that those things I why she joined that
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profession, why it was so important for her and all the noise that comes you don’t even realize it when you take that profession. I can clear that deck for
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her a lot more. So she the thing that she made a decision at 5 years old to become she can want to be that and she can tell her little daughter when she
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gets older like be a vet. It’s the same thing with teachers, right? It’s the same thing with directors. What can I do? How do I think about Dr. Andrews?
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How do I think about teacher Sheila every single time I get into a boardroom and realize what they’re going through,
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what they need? How do I take stuff off their back? How do I make them feel inspired? How do I make them tell their daughter to go be a teacher? How do I
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get to that? And that is like I don’t know if I’m necessarily answering your question, but that is the part of like who I am. and the people that have surround me are in that same nature.
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That level of connected to the profession and feeling honored and privileged to be in it gives us the first opportunity to actually make a
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bigger impact on the world. So uh and that’s that’s amazing John you know what you talk about I would summarize as a servant ladder you know
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leader and the servant leaders you know obviously your role is to remove barriers to really let people find their
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way in the career that they chose and a lot of people especially like in the child care field probably not as much as
17 minutes, 37 seconds
like the veterinarian field because I got a feeling like my son was really passionate about pets he just couldn’t see any blood with pets and stuff like that so he decided No, but as we know,
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we have a lot of people who come into our industry who sort of weren’t expecting to come into the industry. Yeah.
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But once they get here, they they really grab a passion for it. And having that servant leadership model, I think, is
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probably what serves your culture, your underlying pinnings of that culture. So,
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yeah, it does answer my question. you know what I’m I’m trying to get to when you started and I saw you like your
18 minutes, 12 seconds
path was really sort of that almost in the veterinarian hospital all the way up through PetSmart I believe
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and then eventually you made the move over to childare which in a way it’s probably congruent in a lot of reasons because you know we’re
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tech we’re taking care of you know little ones to a certain degree that really don’t have a lot safe for themselves.
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Yeah. They don’t have a voice. Yeah.
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They have a voice through their parents and their their parents are bringing their most valuable asset, their most precious thing they own and have and
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care for into your facility and and ask you to care and educate them. That is a that is that is a responsibility on both
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sides of everything that I’ve done. Like how do you how do you recognize that?
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Right. And um and yeah, it’s there’s a lot of similarities and the same similarities exist with affordability,
19 minutes, 7 seconds
access to care, right? Connecting and developing, you know, um our teachers and our directors and and always be educating and always be learning, right?
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And so there’s so many levels of similarities that exist there. when you,
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you know, were growing up in your more formidable years outside of your grandfather, you know, how important uh did you find or did you leverage any type of mentorship along the way?
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Yeah, I I mean I had um I had a lot of mentors in my ear in my career. Um, and
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you know, I think um, and when I say mentors too, I also I look at all these people that who help form and shape me
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in a really positive way, but I also go back to those ones that I say, “Oh my god, I don’t never want to be like that,
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right? I know how it feels, right? And I know what it looks like.” And so, um, I think that those mentors along the way have really helped shape. Like I I I
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like I’m a positive individual. I’m optimistic. I like to feel good, right?
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And I like it when um that’s important part of it, right? And so those mentors I you know there’s a lot of things I can take frack from many mentors but I
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always look at different behaviors and skill sets that they gave me that you know I’ve I’ve either try to latch on to or try to escape from.
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Well and you know I sort of look back at that you know there’s different people who just sort of lucked out and finding some people in their lives that were
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great for that. There’s other people who sort of seek them out. You know, one of the reasons for this podcast is is really for those who are aspiring, you
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know, leaders to ascend and glean from people like yourself. You know, what are some of the things that you did that helped you become successful in what
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you’re doing? When you, you know, when you looked at whether it be mentorship or becoming knowledgeable in an area,
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what was typically your path? Did you sort of luck out a little bit and fall into it or did you have a very focused
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approach? And you know, I’ll tell you with myself, I’m probably not as focused as I probably should be. So, I I we can all say that.
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I lay that down a little bit ahead of time. Yeah.
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Yeah. I I mean, I I’ll go back. I I’ve had um early in my career, um I’ve been able to work with a lot of executive
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coaches, one in particular, for quite a few years. and and um I think the thing that um that those individual having
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someone who will give you honest direct feedback that’s in a safe environment that you can really embrace, right? And I went in I remember when I first
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started doing I didn’t know how much I wanted to share and you kind of just separate you’re just like all right is this just a kind of just thing I need to do until I got a really good
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relationship and and started to understand. And one of the things that uh I probably overshare, but she says,
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“There’s going to be times that Johnny needs to go to his room.” Right? And I I I said, “What does that mean?” She goes,
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“Well, she learned so much about me in my early childhood and and later in life about how do I decompress from stressful situations? How do I make sure I show up?” and she was able to point at like,
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“Hey, when you’re having a fight with your brother, little brother, you know what? The like I would just go to my room and take 10, 15 minutes and relax,
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whatever, and come out just being happy,
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right?” And I remember my parents and I were like, “What? What the heck?” Right? Well, she related that to like, “John,
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when you’re in a point where you want to make a quick decision or you feel like you’re agitated or whatever, Johnny needs to go to his room. Like, take a deep breath and reflect, right? be a
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better think about the steps that are going to be taken when you make that type of decision. Is that how you want to show up? Right? And a five minute,
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you know, 10-minute deal for you to decompress in the right environment is healthy for you. You show up differently that way. And I I find those moments
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where I can’t may not always just be able to get out of a room and go to my my office or go to my car, go wherever,
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but I find areas in within my day to actually take a deep breath. I journal a lot. I journal every single week and um
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and now I’m sharing my journals with my head of corporate communications. I’ve journaled my whole life, right? And I think those are pieces that I think have
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played a role and I think the the amazing thing is to go back and and um read those journals, right? I think the
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most I mean there’s so many memorable parts of like I always write at one certain period of the year. Every November I’m back with my family in in
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Minnesota and I have a journal of like where how was my year and what is next year going to look like? Where do I think I’m going to be and all the and what do I think I’m going to do? So,
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it’s always interesting to go back to to read those and and um and realize, oh my god, I wasn’t even close right in some
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of those spots. But um but the special ones are reading, you know, my my son was born on Thanksgiving Day and my daughter was born on Christmas Day and
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reading and I always do November reading the November notes of oh like I’m going to have a daughter and like what am I what is it going to be like and what is
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it going to be like next year and how what do I think I’m going to write and oh my gosh was it was precious but man was I wrong like the perspective what
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that was and what that and I love my children are wonderful. I’ve I I you know I always look at I want to make my ch like the the jobs I take and the
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mission center stuff that I do. Part of it is I want my my kids to be proud of me, right? And I know they are, but that’s a big part of that reflection
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point and reading those journals and understanding that helps you kind of realize my path and where I’m on and what’s important.
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So that’s just amazing. You know, I I have a couple questions that brings up then. you know, when you started
24 minutes, 35 seconds
journaling, um, was it someone who helped you get there or did you just naturally start to do it and what did you see that the benefit was going to be for yourself in doing it?
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Um, yeah, my mom journaled and so that’s where that came from and and um, and I just and I like writing. Um, and so I
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just it just started um it started probably right after high school and I would do it every once in a while and then I just started to do it and um and
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it was it was the the ones when I was cuz I just started by only doing it on that November, right? And just journaling that and then coming back to it the next year and then I was like,
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“Oh my god, like why am I doing it once a year?” And I started to just do it more often. I would do it during like a stressful week in my life or something
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that was pretty special. I would do those almost like a diary more than anything. But then it just starts and um
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I’m in the practice now of I journal my week every week. What did I see where and I’m going to tell you, you know what’s super helpful is AI in that I can
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just talk right into it and just go and it it takes so much time off and it just it speaks my voice. It’s wonderful. So I
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would encourage if you’re not if it’s the time you take to write and do it.
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No, this is it takes 10 minutes a week and it’s powerful. Yeah.
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You know, and that is a powerful way to think out of it because of, you know,
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obviously as the tools advance, of course, you know, you think about where’s that going to go and how’s it used, right?
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For the most part though, it’s got everybody at this point. So, you know, best of luck. Yeah.
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But what do you tend to get the most out of your journaling? What does it do for you in your reflections? Yeah, it it melts
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it it helps me not make fast unthought through decisions, right? Okay.
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If it was important for me personally and professionally or for the business a week ago or two months ago or 6 months
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ago and it still stays same, it keeps me on the path. I I always say that um my role in the hardest job, one of the
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hardest jobs I need to do is I can create the the vision and where we want to go, but if I go six degrees off center every single week, right, and I
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just keep going a little off of where I really wanted this to go, I can wake up 6 months down the road or 3 months down the road and that six degrees off center
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has taken me way off path, right? And so it helps me stay centered on that lane.
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Doesn’t mean I don’t make adjustments. I learn and maybe what I thought was wrong and I make adjustments. But it it helps me stay centered and go back to like I
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can remember why I wrote that. I can remember what I was thinking at that time and all the data and the insights I had to come to that level of thought.
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Now I have new thoughts that come through, but it helps me stay super centered.
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Yeah. And you know, one of the other things you mentioned, which I think you know, relates to your journaling, but you’ve mentioned it several times, is
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how you show up. And you know, you you’ve explained a lot with yourself and your sort of inner management of how
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you’re looking to manage yourself and how to get yourself to the next level.
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when you look at being a coach and being a coach to your team or even people outside of the industry, what have you,
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you know, that you work with,
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how do you help them think about showing up when they show up for what they’re trying to do?
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Yeah, it’s um you know, I I it’s I think it goes back to the authenticity, giving them the
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space to say, “How are you really feeling?” Like, not don’t tell me what I want to hear, right? and and say what are you really thinking right it’s okay
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I want a diversity of thought right and giving but it takes time to build trust it takes time to make them feel comfortable just like it did when I talked about my earlier coach I’m like I
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don’t know if this was an exercise or not right but I realized later that it was super impactful um and so having
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that that relationship with my my colleagues my direct reports or just overall in general when I do town halls
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I when I do town halls I talk about authenticity I talk about, you know, how I’m feeling like um you know, I recently
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went out to um Washington DC. I spent um it was 3 weeks ago um and spent uh two days on the hill talking to um several
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uh Congress people and and I was in a town hall right prior to that. And I shared with my um my team here at
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Learning Care like, “Hey, I’m going in there and I I’m actually nervous, right?
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I’m usually not that nervous, but I’m nervous and I I’m trying to think through like what do I say and what do I don’t say and how do I make sure I show up in the right way and and and represent all of you in a good way.
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There’s so much and I share that like it like but when I can show my vulnerability, I can share that, hey,
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I’m I’m trying to figure it out. I think it it adds more of a personal connection to that. And um and when I came back, I
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and I shared again like, well, you know what? I was overthinking it. I just showed up in bed myself. I was just being authentic. I thought I had to be in this lane of say this and don’t say
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that and what side of the aisle you on and all. No, I just showed up as me. And when I showed up as me and talked about why, you know, early childhood
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education, when we invest with when we make the rest investment in young children, we we we help our communities,
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our families are stronger, our communities are stronger, and ultimately we have a stronger world. I can talk about that stuff and it it resonated. I
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got both sides of the aisle really very much interested in what we’re doing,
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right? But I don’t know if I would have gotten there if I was overengineering my non-self. If I was actually just being authentic of who I am and being
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okay with that. Um, that’s the example I think I share with my teams and with my my colleagues and and just in general.
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Well, you know, you bring up something I think that is super important for a number of different reasons. Um you know it’s often times been said that you know
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leadership is a lonely role and quite often times you know when you look at these leaders who might have one to 10
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child care schools or maybe even doing multiple businesses.
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Yeah. when you’re sort of at the, you know, the leader of that organization.
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Quite often times a lot of people don’t want to bring to their team the issues
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that you’re going through that that anxiety that might be driving you crazy or keeping you up at night because, you
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know, they don’t want a leader who whines and complains. They don’t want a leader who’s saying all the problems out there that the world has. And you know,
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you really well articulated the fact of being authentic is very important. And I I have to imagine it’s just a a great
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foundation for trust, which is really a key word, I think, in any type of leadership role. You know, how do you
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think you’ve started to become, you know, authentic? Was this something that you sort of have a an evolution to or
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was this something that you always were just that I I wear myself out of the sleeve kind of person?
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Yeah, I um you know I know I made adjustments over my time and tenure and my maturity. I think I shared the story
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where I had probably a bigger ego than I needed in my early 20s and I realized that hey, you know what? I when I I think that going back to the Dr.
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Andrew’s story was the the pinnacle of me shifting who I am and how I lead um
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and how I can be more vulnerable because there’s so many more people that have a much harder job than I have and that I
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need to be a good listener. And so I think I just I I got better over time.
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Um and then I just I I also just like if I wasn’t being authentic to myself, I wasn’t able to show up well for my family right when I left, right? I
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didn’t want to I wanted to just like I think it was just more natural to me and maybe it was my my parents and my grandfather and my mentors and all that
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stuff, but it just I I feel like I win better and I have better relationships and better people around me and better retention. Engagement and retention has
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always been a really important score for me. Um it’s a a KPI that I I stare at.
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Um because you know people don’t leave organizations per se because of money.
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they leave because they’re not connected and they don’t feel like they’re part of something bigger. And so that is like a flag in a that I have out there saying
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that engagement score and retention score is a direct reflection of me as a leader, right? And so it’s and for me to
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do that, I have to show up in in the way I feel most authentic.
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Yeah. No, it makes it makes a ton of sense. What what kind of guidance would you give to those budding leaders?
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Because you know a lot of them again you they’re they may not be part of a peer group. They may not have a mentor. They
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might not have someone to you know vent to for lack of a better term. Yeah.
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And you know they quite often times feel like you know uh and I’ I’ve heard this often you know I don’t want to speak to my head of my operation people. I don’t
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want to do this. I don’t want them to see weakness in me. Um, however, you’ve turned that not that it’s weakness, but
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it’s sort of a transparency that has allowed them to see that you’re very authentic and that builds the foundation for trust. What kind of guidance would you give them?
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Yeah, I mean, hey, starting and running a business is it’s it’s it’s a lot, right? And it is lonely. I went from,
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you know, from being part of a great group of founders to then starting one myself with my own money and my own back and that’s a different world, right?
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Um, and it is lonely, right? Uh, I will say like take partners along and I’ll use an example like I think some of the
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best coaching I’ve received um and the best feedback I’ve received is through with my vendors and my partners that are I mean I I’ll go in and say, “Hey, what
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does it mean for me to be a good customer?” Right? Instead of going in and say,
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“Give me the greatest deal and give me the best.” No. Like, tell me what like if you were to me, what would you do different? What how would this be different for for you? How would this be
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better for our relationship? Because I found when I find the right service partners, right? Oh my gosh, they lift
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me up and I and they jump over so many other clients to come and work for me and and help me because they know I’m trying to do the right thing. And and it’s a safe place to get feedback,
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right? you can, you know, and you don’t always have to agree with them, right?
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Feedback’s a gift. Doesn’t mean you have to open it, right? But it’s um but like my vendors and my partners are I some of
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the the the reason why I had some of the most success is through that. Whether that’s through like chamber leaders um a shout out to the Vancouver Chamber of Commerce out in Vancouver, Washington.
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They totally like positioned and challenged me and and held me up and told me what I should do in the community and what I shouldn’t do in the
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community. there like people like that were just remarkable for me and I would say that would I would um if I were starting something up or new or you’re
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in those types of circumstance take them along with you because they can really help you. The right ones can help you.
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Right. Well, fantastic. And I I can tell you I think that’s some sage wisdom there for sure. So, you know, coming to today,
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what is it about your job today that you like most about what you do?
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Uh it’s easy. I love getting in the schools. Love it. Love it. I love going in and seeing the teachers and the
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directors and the families. Um asking questions, being a good listener. Uh that is that is wonderful. From all over
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the country, that is my favorite part of the job.
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And what do you find is the thing you like the least about your job? H it’s um boy you know I’ll say that this industry
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is I feel incredibly fortunate um to be here and be invited into this industry.
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Um I the the least part I just think that there are things that we as an industry have to think differently. Like
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I one of the things I shared when I was on on Capitol Hill and um and I’ll just share like is me being transparent. I
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told them I said when I came over here and I was super excited and I started to jump into the industry um I actually felt like I went 30 years back in the
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past right whether that was through technology and and um procurement and scalability and all this stuff and so I
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feel like I’m you know I had to kind of rewind myself and in all circumstances when I brought that up um uh many of the government my partners said well welcome
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to education and I said well it doesn’t have to be it doesn’t have to be. I said we all there’s enough space for all of us. We’ll be better when we link arms
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together and try to help create the solve and the problems and and help the turnover of our teachers, help them get more ready, get ourselves more prepared.
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And so it’s um yeah, it’s it’s it’s there’s a remarkable opportunity. When I say it’s the things that are hard, it’s
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like these are some hard decisions we need to do, but we’re better when we’re linking arms with my our partners inside the industry. don’t try to do it ourselves.
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Well, you know, and that sort of leads into something you said before. Um, you know, from my experience in this industry, I got in the industry back in 2011.
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Yeah.
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So, I’ve been in it for a little bit and I’ve had my schools and I started this company back in 2016, Inspire Care 360.
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But one of the things that I noticed is things did change after 2020.
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Yeah. And it really jostled the industry from a number of different factors. And it wasn’t just the remnants of a
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pandemic. It really came out of legislation. It came out of how people think about their work life balance. Again,
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when you talk about headwinds, you were talking about headwinds earlier. What do you see as the top few headwinds that
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our industry is facing both at you know you’re you know the you’re at the larger entity level but also that affects right
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down to where I have three schools you know and you know we deal with a lot of those headwinds today that
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I didn’t see in the same way before the 2020s came about.
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Yeah. I would just say access to care and affordability for our families.
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Yeah. That’s our biggest headwinds and and uh and you know um that’s the stuff we have to solve and it isn’t by just having you can’t just do it because of
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the margins and just doing a price decrease, right? I wish it was that easy.
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It’s not. It’s about looking at the entire part of the the business bringing in partners whether that’s our nonprofits and forprofits and government
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agencies and coming together and figure out whether that’s helping shift on legislation or helping to be more efficient in our schools. How do we, you
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know, I will say, you know, leveraging technology is important, but when I make when I say that though, I want to make sure I reinforce that the relationship
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between a teacher and a child one-on-one will never go away. That is the most important part of that. But how do I take it so that the directors and the
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teachers aren’t trying to chase so many other things so that they’re not face to face with those children every day? And that’s the part I want to talk about.
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How do you leverage that at scale? And so there are ways in which we can do that. You know, I um I I’ll go back to
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one of the comments I had like I uh some of the best experience going back into schools. I’ve met teachers who are been
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teaching in our schools at learning care for 35 years. They’re teaching the children of the children they’re teaching right and they light up right
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now. Think of the quality outcome of that classroom, right? Of that school,
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of that community because of that one teacher. the impact she’s making is incredible. Now go to the industry and say and look and say there are also so
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many teachers who start who are so excited to start that 30 or 40% of them turn over in the first 90 days of
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joining and being a teacher. Think about the quality outcome there number one,
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right? And how the families feel and how that and the transition that happens.
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But also think about the costs that happen in that, right? If we can help get our get our teachers more prepared and getting them more ready and feeling
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more confident, being able that that I can slow down, I can bring that turnover down, that drastically reduces the um
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the turnover, which drastically reduces the cost of turnover, which then can actually be shared with the teachers and our our families. That’s the type of
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work that we can do together. And it’s not shouldn’t be a secret. We should all be coming together and talking about it.
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What do we do? What are you doing? how do I do it? Like we should all be bringing that together because that is what changes the you know our trajectory inside this this industry.
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Yeah. No, I you know I really noticed it from when I first came in to you know now one of the things is a lot of teachers were sort of on their own sort
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of doing their own thing and then eventually people brought in curriculum and everybody was sort of speaking off the same page. But then, you know, even
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in at the teacher level, you know, you have a lot of people like 35 years. I have a teacher who’s been with me for 27. She’s just amazing. Some great
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people. But then you have the revolving door. The people come in every six months and then they’re leaving because this wasn’t right for them.
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And so oftentimes I speak about speed to competency.
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And speed to competency is really important. I think that people in this industry tend to overlook a little bit because they think that well, you know,
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we need to have the right person with the right education, but it’s really up to us as leaders to find a way to get them where they feel and I’m talking about that teacher.
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They feel empowered to educate a child to to talk to parents to engage with the the premise in the classroom. So when
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you think about competency across the board, especially for developing that with your teacher base, what is your sort of overall philosophy when it comes to that?
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Yeah. Um I mean it’s it starts at the selection process and making sure you’re communicating and understanding that.
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But it’s um well I’ll go back to some of the things you just said. You know,
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getting them the competencies and getting them to that that point of feeling comfortable. In some cases, it’s yes, there’s companies who should be
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really asking and leaning in to make sure there’s patience and there’s caring and there’s communication and all those pieces, but sometimes it’s as simple as saying, “I see you.” As a director,
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saying, “I see you, teacher. I see it. Go take 10 minutes. I got it.” Right?
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Recognizing the signs in which that teacher is feeling flustered. Remember, I go back to Johnny, go to his room.
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It’s that same point of like how do I build the competencies and and understand that it’s okay for a director
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to say stop what you’re doing, right? I got to remove some things off of her plate cuz she is way too busy. She’s got way too much on her plate today 100%.
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Cuz I want her to be able to say I can recognize when this teacher’s having a tough hour and I want to give her 10 minutes. Right? I want to let her know
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that I’m here for her. Right? That’s the stuff that I think we can lean in in a much better way because I think we’ve hired some great teachers with great
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competencies that are super caring that want to do this but have left feeling alone and not knowing what to do, maybe
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a little embarrassed, whatever that case is, because we never gave her the space to be okay. Right. I would say that is where we we need to lean in differently.
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No, and I agree with you. When you look at like things as simple as Masle’s hierarchy and needs, when people really feel like they’re partisan, they feel like they belong.
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Yes.
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Feel like they belong. And it sounds like that’s exactly what you’re talking about.
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To you, it’s not only about their own mental development, their cognitive ability. It’s the ability that they feel they’re part of something bigger.
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Agree.
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And like the learning group is obviously hopefully demonstrating that. It sounds like they’re demonstrating that how you’re part of something is, you know,
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being bigger overall. And so if you were able to snap your fingers and outside of teacher wages, which just we know is impossible,
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um, but if you’re able to snap your fingers and say, I want to make this happen tomorrow in our industry,
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what do you think would be that thing that you’d want to spearhead and say, I I we just need to solve that?
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Wow, that is a um that is a wonderful question. Um, and I I’m going to always go back to as an industry is getting our teachers and directors well prepared,
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right? And and first connecting to the mission and always remember we have a mission here. If we don’t share and
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understand and tell the good stories and connect and let them know that the work they’re doing is actually changing the world, it actually is making an impact
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on the society and stay in that space and live in that space versus opening up a flash report or P&L is the first thing
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we do. We got that can’t be that’s that that is if you have great outcomes and great quality and great safety and great
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communication all that stuff will be great in your industry right in in your school. So it starts there. So I I
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really go back to shifting the culture of of of kindness, shift shifting the culture of getting our teams out in the
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schools to see and listen. We are too far away from many of the things that we need to do on a day-to-day basis. We
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can’t be making decisions like that at our corporate office here. We have to get into our schools. We got to listen to our directors. We got to listen to
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our teachers. And we got to create that level of energy that their voice is as loud as it can be. And I think that is and it doesn’t happen overnight. But that’s the shift that I want us to do,
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right? And I want us to connect because they know it better than we do, right?
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They know what’s important better than we do. They know their communities. They know their teachers. They know their parents. They know their children. Let’s
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get their voices louder and let’s go now action against those pieces. I think as an industry, we we need to do that differently. Well, and it’s very
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thoughtful. You know, a few of the things I’ve captured from there, but I think we’re just really, you know, and I’ll have to honestly say, John, I think they’re very well thought out, is, you
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know, getting our teachers well prepared. The work they’re they’re doing is changing the world. It is.
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And that’s a fantastic quote. It really is. um when we look at it, you know,
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I’ve done a lot of keynote speaks at events and conferences and you know, one of the things I did, you know, past six months was about AI and yeah, Japan has
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robots in the classroom and no, I don’t think we’re going there anytime soon. Yeah. No, no, no one’s going to be accepting that.
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However, when you do look and you mentioned about leveraging AI yourself a little bit too, where do you see the
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possibilities of the positive effects of what AI can do for this industry?
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Um I I would say from that standpoint is um is communication and you know I actually just uh came back from Germany
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last week. I went to a early childhood education seminar in Cologne, Germany.
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And I did that because I wanted to understand what is other parts of the country, how are they looking at um education and are there some things I
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can learn differently and are they doing other things that I I don’t not well aware and I think broaden our perspective um is really important and
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and there are some things that I saw on from an AI standpoint where um it goes back to some of my journaling comments where a teacher can talk about um that
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child or classroom, what I did, what I read, what the the outcome was and she can speak into that and now that just sinks right into a communication on
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Friday back to the parent and she can see everything that happened and the emotion and the feeling whatever.
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Imagine how much time that would have taken her to actually take the time to do it, right? So I think from a communication standpoint of being able to really connect with our parents and
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really see the heart of the teacher and what the inner making of what that school and why the decision they made to bring um their their most beautiful
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asset of their life into our school and make it so they see why they did it and make them make that parent feel so darn
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proud that they made that investment for their little one. we can do a much better job because when when when dollars get tight and the economy gets
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harder, right, they have to make decisions. We don’t want them to make a decision that their child doesn’t get the the unbelievable care and education.
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We know that children’s brain developed by age 80% by the age of five. Oh my gosh, we have a real opportunity to actually help this. And then we also
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know when parents don’t make the decision to actually have to stay home.
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Now you now you’ve lost from a a working community that parents aren’t actually contributing as much as they’d like to into our economy. So there are so many
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parts of this that we can play a much different role. And I think AI it’s it’s never going to take place take the robots. No, that’ll never happen, right?
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Not on my watch, right? But the communication and taking that back and forth to the parent I think can only get enhanced.
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Yeah. And it’s a it’s a very good point because you know oftentimes I think where things fumble within the schools themselves is really that connection sometimes to parents that they get into,
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you know, automatic you know pilot and they’re just moving along and then slowly but surely you you build up this inertia of
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uh either negativity or what have you because parents don’t feel engaged. they feel disconnected from what’s going on with their kids. We had that happen in
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one of our classrooms and luckily we found it early enough to realize for instance one of the parents wasn’t getting back artwork and then we found out all the parents weren’t getting back
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artwork and then we found out the teacher felt well I’m going to hold it till the end of the year and we’re like well wait a minute parents want to put stuff on the refrigerator you know and
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so it was really a a communication thing that needed that you know that uh symbiotic flow you know around it
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overall when yeah Tony we’ve seen um you know there’s a lot of data in in in this world,
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right? What there hasn’t been a lot of is insights. What does the data tell us, right? And what do we learn from that?
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And I think I’ve hired a couple data scientists to help me understand and get some more correlation, right? And one of the things we found is that those parents are those parents who leave us
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in the first 120 days. They leave us for two reasons. We probably knew this already, but it’s been reinforced. They leave because
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a the teacher’s no longer there. She turned over and that’s why they came here. They may come to you for the first day because of the sign on the outside of the window, but they stay because of the the people inside it, right? So,
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they leave because there is turnover in the school. And the second time that this the second reason why they leave is because they don’t feel connected. They
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didn’t feel like they’re part of that community and they didn’t have the right communication and they just felt like they weren’t connected. And those are
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two big things. Now, we can solve both those, right? Um it’s not easy, but we can solve both those things. Um, and when we solve those things, right, that
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goes back to the cost savings and the more engagement and the better parts of the culture and all those pieces are things that we can actually contribute to. And I’m happy to share this to
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everyone like here’s what we’re finding on insights. Go solve for that, right? Because it’ll help us all get better. No, absolutely. Um,
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it’s going in a slightly different direction. We’re coming really near the end, too. We’ve already gone through an hour.
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Yeah. Yeah. So that um you know on your journey you know uh and if I remember looking at your biography
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it was a little bit going with Vet Smart that became more of like a hospital and eventually like with Pets Smart different one you know obviously the
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large national train uh uh is it Pets Mart or Pet Smart?
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It’s it’s well it was Pets Mart and it shifted to Pets Smart but yeah so it shifted like just wondering. Yeah. But yeah, it was
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Banfield was inside the PetSmarts and then Oh, there you go.
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That’s where I had that relationship and then Pets Smart has her own group of veterary hospitals on top of PetSmart. Yeah. On top of Yeah.
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Okay. Well, good. Um and then you made the journey over here into this neck of the woods. If you were to say that you
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there’s any mistakes that you made along your journey that you learned a lot from, what might one or two of them be?
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Yeah. Um yeah, the um I would boy mistakes that
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I’ve made over my journey. Um I think I will always go back to hiring the right
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people, right? Um asking maybe more questions than just looking early on
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just looking at the resume. um diving a little bit deeper on how they show up, how do they how do they communicate,
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what’s their style, and then asking more specific, you know, giving examples,
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giving an example of a situation and see how they respond. Uh because when you make a decision of a people leader, I mean, we’re we’re our we serve people,
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right? And when you get make get that that make the wrong decision there, man,
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it impacts so many things and so many people. then you got to shift again,
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right? So, I would say just making sure I’m sizing up my my talent on my team in the right way to make sure I’m making good short and long-term decisions. Um,
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we’re always going to get some of that some of that wrong sometimes. I get it.
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But, you know, I don’t think I would go back to I was probably more speed to hire than speed to fit. And I think that
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is the a big thing that I would I wouldn’t do.
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Well, and that sort of ties in your whole conversation about really focusing on culture, right? Yeah,
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because you your culture is your people no matter what. You can’t buy culture. You have to earn it, you know.
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And so, well, with that said, let me just ask you one more question. If you were to give any advice or guidance to any of those, you know, budding leaders,
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people who want to develop their leader skills, you know, what might that be?
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What are some of the things that you’d say is, hey, listen, you know, focus on this or have, you know, have a focus here or there?
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Yeah. Um, I’ll go back to get involved with other people inside the industry,
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right? Go to conferences and get your voice heard. Talk to your colleagues,
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your your counterparts. Um, understand the pain that people are going through and the winds that they’re going through. I’ll go back that we are going
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to be stronger when we’re linking arms and we’re we check the ego at the side and we and we start to learn from each other. So, um, and there’s a so many, I
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mean, this industry is just filled with so many unbelievable people. It’s like just big-hearted individuals that are
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here that they they want to make an impact and want to make a difference.
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And um, you you mentioned it earlier as you start your own business or it it can get lonely, right? But you surround
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yourself with counterparts inside the industry and other individuals, you’ll feel more connected. You’ll feel more inspired. They’ll help you pull you out
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of a bad day. I would say don’t try to do it yourself. It’s it’s not there’s not needed. There’s enough caring people in this this industry that want to help
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each other and go find those and and surround yourself with those people. Well, I really appreciate it.
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Don’t try it. Just don’t do it all yourself. That’s awesome. Well, John, I want to thank you so much. We’ve already come to the end of our time and it went
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by very quick and it’s been a wonderful conversation, at least from my side of it.
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I really enjoyed it. We just said we were going to have some fun and we had some fun, right? Yeah,
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exactly. For sure we have. Um, so uh if you don’t mind hanging on a second, I’m going to do my little outro right now and we’ll leave it for uh post-prouction
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for people to see it. But um for folks out there, we want to really thank you for joining John and me today. Uh it’s been a great conversation and hopefully
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there’s been some things you’ve had an opportunity to glean from. We’re always very interested in whatever you want to bring to the table because what we bring
56 minutes, 25 seconds
here is based on what you’re interested in. But my name is Tony D. Augusty. I’m the founder and CEO of Inspire Care 360
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and this is ECE CEO biography sage wisdom for child care leaders. I want to thank my guest again John Bourc and want
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to say to everybody have just an absolutely wonderful day and we will talk to you very soon. Take care. You have been listening to ECE biography,
56 minutes, 50 seconds
Sage Wisdom for Child Care Leaders.
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Thank you very much for listening. We are greatly appreciative of your time.
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We will continue to produce these programs on an ongoing basis and please hit the download button and subscribe to
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our podcast so you do not miss an episode. Thank you very much and hope you have a wonderful day.
 

 

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