ECE CEO Biography Podcast

Welcome to ECE biography Sage wisdom for child care leaders my name is Tony D’Agostino. I’m the founder and CEO of Inspire Care 360 in this series of exclusive podcasts we will meet with tenured and growing leaders in the child care field typically operating medium to very large Child Care operations from tens of schools to thousands of schools. Our incentive is to learn what has been the path and traits that make outstanding leaders. Join us to glean the sage wisdom from these experienced individuals. Now, let’s get started with ECE biography: Sage wisdom for child care leaders. Welcome to ECE CEO Biography: Sage Wisdom for Child Care Leaders. My name is Tony D’Agostino, the founder and CEO of Inspire Care 360 and your host today. On to today’s episode we have Mr Joe Evans, the CEO of Ivy League Kids, a leading provider of before and after school programs. Joe joined Ivy League Kids at its inception; a family founded initiative to support school age children and enriching and engaging programs. Over the years Joe worked his way through every position within the company, gaining a comprehensive understanding of its operations and the needs for Children and Families it serves. In 2015, Joe took over the CEO bringing his vision and Leadership to the Forefront. Under Joe’s leadership, Ivy League Kids has experienced remarkable growth expanding from around 20 locations to over 60 with plans for future expansion in new markets. Joe is passionate about the mission of Ivy League Kids which emphasizes the importance of treating each child as a unique individual and fostering their self-esteem through trust love and respect. Joe is a committed father to his 12-year-old daughter Ava. Their Lakehouse serves as a cherished retreat where they enjoy quality time from Outdoor Adventures to light-hearted dad jokes. In addition to his work with Ivy League Kids, Joe is an avid golfer pickle ball player and outdoor Enthusiast. He is also a part-time restaurant owner where he indulges in his culinary interests. Joe’s multifaceted background and unwavering commitment to helping children and families makes him a dynamic and impactful leader in the field of education and recreational programs. His vision continues to drive Ivy League schools towards a future of growth and success ensuring that each child in their care is given the opportunity to thrive. I’ve known Joe for a good while and he’s a wonderful guy to get to know. If you see him, please tap him on the shoulder and say hi. Welcome to the ECE CEO podcast. Joe I’m really happy to have you today how are you doing oh I am great Tony I really appreciate you having me on today oh no we’re really appreciative to have you on where do I find you today where are your offices for everybody who doesn’t know so we are our main office is in uh mochin Illinois uh we are Chicago based company about 30 miles south of Chicago oh fantastic my son is going for his PhD in Champagne, Illinois so he is exactly where that’s at uhhuh I was just wearing the colors the other day so been a good dad very cool very cool well good well why we just jump right on into it for those who are listening we’re going to interview Joe today a little bit about understanding about his uh rise and Ascension in leadership and if there’s things whether it be good bad or sometimes even the ugly about how you get to where you are and so I wanted to start off today Joe with asking you if there’s anything you could you know share with us you know maybe a favorite or a funny childhood memory that may have sparked your interest in leadership when you were young wow um deep question to start off but hey uh I would say what inspired me the most in leadership is uh from a young age I grew up at a very faith-based family um growing up through church uh early on I found myself in the Children’s Ministries in the toddlers room in the The Early Education rooms in um being a part of youth leadership at a very young age um I think a big part of it was my parents um and how they raised us uh I’ve got two brothers an older brother a younger brother to uh influence people and everything you say and everything you do influences people and at an early age I continued to find myself in those early classrooms just wanting to help wanting to lead wanting to teach and I think that’s really uh what helped me understand and learn that I wanted to be a leader growing up that’s fantastic you know when you think about that and I sort of have a hint from what you said um but who were one or couple of your biggest influences I I like I said I think my parents were very influential in my life um I think I had some youth leaders growing up also
that help mold me into uh being a person that wanted more for everybody around which helped me create uh the person I am into being somebody that wanted more for my life um uh I’m a dad as well and so I think uh being molded through these youth leaders and such has helped me to inspire my child into being a leader for the future as well that’s awesome when you look back at like for instance with your mom what do you think is the kind of quality that your mom brought to the table that you really sort of idolized or wanted to emulate um I think caring caring is the biggest word that uh comes to my mind immediately uh she’s always been somebody that is there for everyone uh Good Times bad times she’s always been the person for people to look to uh for understanding uh for direction for guidance um and so I think my mom really has helped me uh in the position I’m at now to be that person to be that open
door to be for the staff to you know my door is never closed uh like even before
we started this I had to walk out there like hey my door’s closed they’re like what I’m like I’m just podcast quick
just you know make sure nobody comes in uh but I have an open door there’s not a
single person that’s not allowed to come in my office there’s no such thing as
hey did you climb the ladder first before you came in here yeah sometimes people do jump a level and come in here
and I will help solve the situation then I’m like hey make sure you know you can
go to Veronica you can go to Christina you can go to so and so and uh help solve your issue but I’m always here I’m
always open it’s always an open door policy well you got you know I just know from my own experiences Joe that it is
um very authentic when it’s truly meant there’s some people who say those words
but they’re just too busy for the other person when they come knocking and for you to have an open door policy for
really sort of that caring that really becomes based on you know part of your culture do you think that
influences your culture at the company overall uh it’s funny that you mentioned
the word culture I think culture is one of my go-to words and what I continue to
help create is the culture the ability for people to be people
to be who you are to continue to grow um I am huge on the part of listen let’s
get the right person in the right seat of the bus we have a big bus we have a big bus just because you’re in row two
seat B and you’re not working there doesn’t mean you can’t be in row a seat one every person has a opportunity and
ability to grow um I’m a huge proponent wanted into uh training like helping
people reach their Max potential that’s everybody has a potential to be
something and to do something we just have to figure out how we’re going to get them to that spot when when you
mentioned that about trying to get people connected so they can develop to see their full potential you also talked
about having some youth leaders in your youth do you look back fondly upon if you think of one who comes to mind
who that was a little bit of their motto or their ability was to try to see the most of where Joe could go in his life
and it’s tough for me to like name one person looking back um but I do feel
that I had a lot of youth leaders uh throughout growing up that help mold me
um help give me good direction help uh for me to understand who I can be uh
what my potential is uh but to say a single person I don’t think that I could
uh definitely name somebody uh to say who that was um looking back I had a a
youth leader named Raj that was he was a younger guy and in the beginning I didn’t like him I did not like this guy
at all and by the end he was a sound engineer and all of that all of a sudden
I wanted to be a sound engineer whatever he did worked whether I didn’t like it
at the time all of a sudden I found myself wanting to Shadow him and being a part of what he was into and things like
that well let me ask you that’s interesting that’s really interesting for Raj where was it that you think that you
sort of got your either aha moment or you turned the corner and was like it’s
this is no longer someone I don’t like I now sort of respect them but I respect them for totally something I didn’t
expect the aha moment um I think for me the aha moment
was more of a not being just like
a jerk anymore and understanding you know like like my parents were Pastors
in the church so I had a leadership role always growing up I was always looked
upon as the pastor’s kid okay and so growing up you were put on this pedestal
yeah um and so I had a youth leader who was under my parents and so I never
wanted to listen or take Direction but then I always found myself
striving to be like these people uh so I don’t know if I have an exact aha moment
at all but I do know that there was a point like looking back where it’s like
why is it that you now want to be a sound engineer why is it now you want to
be a youth leader why is it now that you are in the infants room singing these
songs and serving these snacks why is it that you are trying to get to where this
person is that you think is a jerk or whatever it may be why are you
continuing to go towards that well you know that’s interesting you know being
that you the son of two pastors who was put on a little bit of a
pedestal it probably was an interesting juxtaposition in a way that you sort of
had this youth um bravado that was not really
earned as much as perceived upon you and then you had to deal with that while you
still wanted what I’m hearing from you please correct me if I’m wrong on Joe you really saw yourself as a
potential eer but you also saw that you didn’t have all the answers and you
started identifying that these other people who may not have been getting the
same kind of recognition as you really had something that you could glean from and learn from yeah I would uh like I
said I don’t think there was like this all of a sudden aha moment it was just I
just became growing through these people and they were teaching me and never and
I can’t look back and be like oh you’re just the pastor’s kid you’re given the spot you and I don’t remember any of my
leaders uh thinking that or feeling that they directed that towards me whatsoever
it was just you know like growing and learning and taking the next step and taking the next
step when you see yourself as you developed out of being you know an you
know a child to you know ad Ence and eventually into young adulthood was there a point in time
where you really were established as you like your first leadership role where you were like assigned or given or you
chose to do something in a leadership capacity so uh I would say growing up in
a pastorial household you know uh trying to find the
next grilled cheese was always something yeah uh the excitement in our life was
going to church and doing Church things whether it’s a picnic or a uh going to this person’s house or swimming at
somebody else’s house because we didn’t have any of those things growing up yeah
I think when uh growing up my parents were very
entrepreneur uh we had multiple different companies whether it was an
entertainment agency that we put on company picnics uh or it was uh an advertisement agency
so as pastors they always had some other type of businesses going on to bring in
the income while the entire Focus was on the church uh there was always something
else going on um and I do remember growing up uh in our entertainment
agency when we were putting on company picnics back when that was a thing uh
sitting on the grill flipping Burgers flipping 300 burgers for uh this amount
of people to realize I don’t just want to flip Burgers my whole life right I
want to be the guy that has the company pigment I don’t want to be the one here
catering this I want to be the one that calls the caterer W so I think early on
was like one of my ahas as to watching these CEOs of these companies just come
up and be served by us I’m like I want to be served at some point I want to uh
figure out what it’s going to be that I can bring 300 people to a company picnic
while I hire a caterer to do this well and I and I I love that inflection
point now I know I’m sometime asking you to go back in your memory you’re like tell me this is just too much I can’t
remember all this stuff because I can’t but when you think about that I think a
lot of people like who listen to this are people who are aspiring to get to different levels of leadership yeah and
you sort of get that moment so I call an aha moment when you’re like you know what this is where I’d really like to
be do you remember what changed your mindset in the sense of you’re like okay
nobody’s going to probably get me there I sort of have to do this myself do you
remember sort of what my some of the first steps that you decided to take to drive yourself into a direction of
becoming that eventual CE who serve the burger as to the one flipping him
um I think part of it was growing up in a
household where things weren’t just given to me um I had to earn yes I had every need I ever
needed was given to me I don’t want to take that at all away um but my wants
weren’t always there I had to work hard for my wants um I started working
full-time when I was 15 years old uh my parents would drive me to work
pick me up I would stay at my boss’s house for the night I uh started working
full-time and I understood that nothing is given ultimately we have to work for
every every day all day long and I’m not
talking that you have to put 70 hours in a week but it has to be a mindset it has
to be a shift in mentality to say hey this world is not given to me I need
to go earn every bit of what I want um my first
vehicle I went to my neighbor and he was sing it was a a Toyota Celica
1984 Toyota Celica and he wanted a, or $1,200 for it and I went to him I go I
can give you 50 bucks a month until this thing’s paid off he goes done and I got my first loan
my first credit and I paid my neighbor $50 a month until pulled up in it I had
so much pride in that vehicle I think I had more pride in that vehicle than the vehicles I drive today because it was my
first thing that I really ped it wasn’t a pack of gum anymore it wasn’t the cheeseburger at McDonald’s it was the
first thing that I owed and I had earned and I was paying for every month I clean
that car three times a week it was I mean my parents are like you keep this thing cleaner than your bedroom I go
yeah I really work for this they’re like well we work for your bedroom you’re not keeping that
clean but that’s absolutely amazing that’s a great story and and you know let me relate that a little bit to today
I think that the recent Generations get a bad rap you know whether it be Millennial or jenzy they get a bad rap
because you know there’s a few people who tend not to want to earn and it it
sort of permeates across the generation but I’ve seen a lot of people especially the ones who work for my child care schools work so hard they really do
they’re underpaid and they’re under they are underpaid too it’s crazy if you were
to give yourself Joe advice before you bought that first car before you were
the guy flipping the burgers not wanting to be the guy flipping the burgers what
advice would you give your younger self right now who was up and wanting to
become something more I think uh nothing is given you
have to earn every part of everything you do there is no
education that’s given you have to earn your education there is no dollar that
is given you have to earn your dollar there’s no uh personal trait as to who
you are going to be in the future who you’re going to grow to learn to be it’s never given you have to earn that and so
I think if I was myself now looking back I would have taught myself even younger
to say nothing’s given nothing you have to earn every aspect of
everything in your entire life nothing is free yeah absolutely and you know you
bring a a good solid understanding with the car example of how much pride you
have that not only is about earning but it’s about rewarding yourself from that
hard work yeah actually able to get there and but let me ask you too in your
growth up to this point before we get into you becoming a CEO of this organization and uh running this
business where may have you had any mistakes or trip
UPS where you thought you right like I’m left out on the cold I I
screwed this one up that’s a uh self-reflection is a
tough tough thing it is interview be perfectly
easy like a therapy session sometimes yeah self reflection is really tough
yeah looking back uh I think I would have
um I don’t want to say tried harder
um maybe more dedication more dedication more more
giving into the things that I really believe in and not fighting it not
resisting um I think yeah I would say it would
be fully diving in you know an example of that for people so a little more
tangible on not giving in fighting for what you want that kind of thing I would
so uh early on so when I League started uh we’re going into our 25th year
um my mom had this crazy idea to do before and after school
programs uh I was working full-time I was working for a pool company um cleaning pools and she’s like well could
you just come and help out with the Kids after school they they could really use your uh energy they could use your
influence and no I’m not no M this is another one of your crazy entrepreneu
idea no no no and so then I started right so I started um just playing
basketball with the Kids and I remember
um almost feeling like I was one of the Kids there right and not understanding
the influence I was really giving and if I could go back to 22 years ago when I
started here I would have given everything to those Kids because that’s
what they need yeah they need every bit of who we are um they need every bit of
nobody knows what’s going on with these Kids right nobody knows what’s going on at home with us right right Kids come
and look for leaders uh to influence them to help
them grow and so looking back I wish at 16 17 18 years old I could have fully
Doven in and giv them everything that they were going to be in five years from
them 10 years from them and giving them a full spectrum of being the individual
they could be wow wow that’s that is really you know it is really profound
when you think about that because we do always would we still do it even if
given that advice by our older self possibly not but we still I think know
that that’s where our lives have changed a bit is when we did decide to get
myopically focused on something and say this is worth it this is whether it
plays out for you because you get a warmer heart from it or a bigger pocketbook you know whatever you know
the thing that you chase well I think that’s I think that’s a a statement a
profound statement as to the things that we love the things that we Chase are pocket book’s going to
be okay yeah if it’s what you love it’s what you want to do it’s your desires
it’s your aspirations your pocketbook is going to follow that yeah and it’s and
thank you for saying that too it is very true it’s tough because a lot of times people say you know oh just follow your
dreams do what you like and you’ll always like working I know so many people who are working in jobs that they
do not like and they they’re trying to like it you know so but I it’s not so
much the work you’re doing but it’s sort of like how you are applying yourself I think more or less in any kind of role
that you’re in when when you were young when you were a teen or whatever before
your mom made that call or even when your mom made that call what did you see
yourself you know did you see yourself being in a different industry or did you see that you were going to be in the
child care World um don’t I never saw myself in the
CM City in I never I never envisioned this
bus I always envisioned uh doing something great yeah
at a young age I thought it was going to be more of a you know at a young I’ve
had these vision boards I’m a big vision board person I’m a very big proponent as
to put it into the future and the future gives it back to you yeah I am a very uh
open openminded person when it comes to that and I think for me I didn’t know
that it was going to be in the child care World whatsoever I knew that I was going to do something I always knew that
I would do well for myself because I put that out there
um I didn’t realize there’s going to be so many struggles along the way just be easy and a bed of roses
every single day I didn’t realize uh uh no matter what industry it is and in the
Early Education World there is more struggles than most even oh yeah CPS CPS
would never visit ever right yes exactly um so I didn’t
necessarily know what direction I was going to go um I knew it’ be something in business yeah but never in my wildest
dreams what I thought I would be sitting in the seat of the bus that I’m on so
was it an acute process or a chronic with working with your mom where
eventually you were like wait a minute now this is starting to make sense for
where I want to go well uh it started as a acute process
as to when I started working I was an aid at one of ours so what we do is
before and after school programs sure we have a monasa a couple monasa schools as well but what we really focus on is
before school after school and providing the best programming within schools so
um we’re in over 60 schools in the south suburbs we just opened Indianapolis last year but our focus is we are not
teachers we are there for the Kids before school and after school we try to provide um what they could be getting at
home yeah if the parents didn’t have to work that’s awesome that’s our our daily
goal so as growing up I was an aid at one of our sites to start um then
shortly after that became a site director shortly after that became
purchasing shortly after that became a uh Regional director shortly after that
all of a sudden uh I remember at one point I was like Mom I want a new car she goes well go get some more schools
for us you can get a new car like boom done there you go got some
more schools growing it uh and there was a
little hairy Point as to um me I don’t want to say feeling
entitled but the one that I felt at some point I had grown the company to a spot
I was the one with our contracts with our contacts with uh had most of the
staff working under me and I and it was probably a feeling of under
appreciation it didn’t it wasn’t a thing about what was in my pocketbook
or in my bank account it was I think it was more of a feeling of under appreciation and I don’t know that it
was me wanting some title or whatever it may be but there was a time about uh 8
to 10 years ago where we had a full family sit down um I uh called my entire
family together for a breakfast uh I didn’t even have have a credit card at that point I had a debit
card okay the waitress came to the table and uh she took our drink orders and you
know it’s breakfast orange juice apple juice coffee coffee whatever and uh she comes to me I go I’ll take an orange
juice I go but can you hold on to this we might not be eating and I uh I handed her my debit
card and I go before we order food you guys the reason I asked everybody to come here is Mom Dad I love you guys I
you’ve been my heroes since day one
um I said but at this point it is time for me to step up as a
leader in our company and it’s time for you to recognize where I am where I’ve
been and what I’ve done and uh everybody was quiet for a little bit I go
Mom I love you I don’t want to take anything from you in this I go but it is
time for me to be given the leadership role
and and it was a moment of silence it was a moment of uh we just
came back over I signed the tab for our drinks and I left um my dad called me directly after
that he goes I can’t pleas you do that and I said dad I was not out of line I was very
respectful he goes I know you are but your mom’s so upset right now and uh
within the next six months um I was given the role of CEO wow and wow yeah
it was uh it was a very I don’t want to say trying time
time for our family but it was a time of growing and learning and so yeah it
was unrest yeah yeah it was unrest yeah it was about yeah four months of unrest
and then it was two months of figuring out what it really meant and and really it was only the title that I was giving
I was already doing all of it I was already the one leading our team I was the one doing all the hiring I was the
one uh putting our ladders in place I was the one with our growth mindset I was the one that took it from x amount
of schools to where we were at that point and so I think it was it was tough
very tough for them to uh not relieve leadership to me but
to allow somebody to take their baby right and now watch it grow into what it
is and not have the entire end all be all decision making and all
of that yeah well couple questions out of that alone first is before you went
into that conversation what did you had to do to psych yourself up or were you already
there you’re like listen I’m already here this is a must or I’m gonna tell
you I was so psyched up until I walked in the door of that restaurant I had myself I I was all the way here I was
ready I was like you got this Joe you got this let’s go let’s go I opened the door of the
restaurant I was like oh what are you doing what are you doing are you sure you’re doing this are you ready for this are you ready to he this you’re the
pastor’s kid all over again oh I had never called a full family meeting like this it wasn’t and I had everybody there
and so I’m like you set this up you can’t back down now you have you have
built yourself you know what you’re doing you you have rehearsed it I had
literally sat in front of a mirror talking to myself going through what I was going to say what I was going to do
the Motions the actions when I walked in there all out the
window all out the window yeah I think that reminds me of a
recent quote by Mike Tyson he goes everybody’s doing find in a fight until
they get punched in the face yes absolutely punched in the nose and then
things all go out the window at that point yeah it was I mean I was so psyched of even driving there like you
know like adrenaline starts pumping like a adrenaline going I’m like you got this you’re fine you’re fine you’re fine like
convincing myself right parked walked in uh oh oh wow it’s real now it’s real now
it’s real has the Bell has rung and and uh a statement that I also still live by
you know you can’t unring a bell right once the Bell has rung you cannot unring
it so your intentions your actions and the things you say all you cannot take back once you
ring that Bell there is no taking it back yeah and so that leads me to if you
people are listening here and they’re like you know they want to elevate themselves into more leadership roles
they might be in one today they might be aspiring to be a leader one day it took you that you know a little
bit of hubris you know to get yourself to a place where you’re just psyched up and you’re ready to go people have you
know situations that they’re in that they’re trying to get to the next level and you had sort of that breakthrough moment where you you forced it you forc
for that to happen and which ended up being for a great thing for your whole family
actually what would you recommend about that for others who are
striving but also using what you just ended with too is it’s hard to unring a
bell so be thoughtful about what you do be
intentional be thoughtful and be full mindset I try to
Inspire my staff on a daily basis and I here’s what I tell them I go if there is
nobody that can take your position then you’re replaceable you should always be inspiring somebody to
move into your role it’s not somebody that’s taking you taking you away it is
somebody that’s moving into your role so you grow to the next position so as
somebody trying to grow into a leadership make sure you have inspired the people beneath you and have trained
them and have grown them to a spot where they can promote you because there’s an
next person to come out of your spot absolutely and that’s it’s fantastic advice it’s almost seems for
those who haven’t had a lot of leadership experience in the past it almost seems counterintuitive right
absolutely that you’re putting yourself at risk if you teach everybody below you
who who’s working for you I shouldn’t really say below you or who’s your team under your team yes
whatever it may be part of your team if they’re if you get them executing at the
level that you are you know it seems like well that could be a threat that could be where I’m going to put myself
out of a job but what you’re saying is the exact opposite and I’m a wholehearted believer of that because
what you’re doing is you are really backfilling yourself so you can go on to the next level yourself yeah absolutely
I think it’s it’s a very tough concept for people to grasp as to I’m going to
train somebody to do my job so they can take it from me absolutely yeah and you can grow to the next position and I and
I think most people don’t understand in life in business nothing stays even
you’re either going down or you’re going up nothing ever just runs in an even
kill so even in every position either you’re going up or you’re going down
you’re not training the people to help you go up then you’re going down and you’re meeting the next person beneath
you yeah that’s fantastic it’s really solid guidance Joe I think because I you
know I think we see it often times in our industry a lot because for a number
of teammates who move from a teacher or a caretaker Aker or whatever you may
even call them over at IV League Kids um you know they move into an
administrative role and sometimes it’s their very first management role they’ve ever been in and the natural thing to do
is to sort of insulate and protect themselves so someone else doesn’t take their job you know and it’s to be where
no you have to come to me I’m the boss you know as to empowerment you’re
looking to use the stick you know approach not the carrot right absolutely
yeah there’s the carrot and there’s the stick yeah it wins every time the carrot wins every single time single time every
single time and if you want to find yourself recruiting people over and over again use a stick per yeah it’s who is
on your bench yeah’s behind you who is ready to uh follow you as a leader who
is ready inspired because hey I could have your role someday MH who are you
training who are you developing who if you’re not training and developing then you’re in the wrong sit yourself yeah so
as you continue that one of the things I want to jump back first before I go forward the reason is I know what it is
but I want to make sure that everybody out there understands what it is you mentioned a vision board earlier could
you tell everybody a little bit about what a vision board is to you and how you use it um so I am a very visual
person I literally go to Michael’s craft and buy a big board I go to my printer I
print out images and documents and uh words of inspiration for me at the time
and I tried to do it every January um and I started doing with my daughter three years ago
and the first year I guided her too much
in her vision board trying to make her put things on her board that I wanted
for her right uh instead of just letting her what is it that you want to do and
then since then understanding and learning that even for staff as well
like it’s not what I want for you right I can help you get to uh your goals your
Visions your missions your passions through the things that you desire in your
life and so for me I every January uh
hopefully by the end of January I do it every year uh this year it was beginning of February uh I sit down and I go
through um a self-reflection I pull my old vision
board out which my vision board stays in my bedroom on my uh dresser and it’s I
see it every single morning every single night before I go to bed um do I pay
attention to it as much as I should no but it is a constant reminder for me
uh just things that I want for myself I want for my family uh I want for I
there’s uh four sections of it for me it’s personal I have a personal section
um it is a have a health section I have a uh business section and then I
have a work section so there’s four different and uh last year I decided to
combine them all together so I instead of having four different spots I started putting the pictures all together with
uh quotes in it and uh uh things that inspire me
um so it is a constant reminder for me it is a thing that I look toward forward
towards every single day to how are you achieving you can’t just put this sticker on a board and things happen
what are you doing to get there right how are you gonna achieve these goals or
does it come off the board I’ve had things on my boards for five years wow I’ve had things on my
board for five years as do it’s something I still want it’s not just I this your board right things that I want
for your life you know it’s even like in the health side of it for me like it’s constant like I want to be a healthier
person mentally socially emotionally and physically so on that side of it is
constant for me that that is constant thing on my board to continue to strive to be healthy physically emotionally
mentally and social wow from visualizing where you want to go from having Open
Door communication to everybody to having a strong focus on your culture or about earning
it every day is there anything else in your leadership style and that you would
characterize for us you know because you mentioned a few things that are really
sort core strong foundational leadership elements through our conversation so far
I am a wind beneath your wings kind of believe
I try to put the right people in the right seat and I am not your boss we’re teammates yeah help you I’m here for you
to succeed we sit they come in my office we sit we talk about your struggles I
try to give you guidance I try to give you help but I’m not telling you what to do you are the one that’s making these
decisions every single day and you’re going to have to do the repercussions of your decisions that you’ve made but I’m
here to help you every single day yeah so I think that’s fantastic because it’s
a very much of an empowerment type of leadership style right empowerment
probably with some accountability you know I mean ultimately it comes down to me
but being that it’s it is what it is so
so I’m gonna ask you you know now that you’ve been CEO of this company for a while and you know I know you work very
close for instance with your brother uh and your other you know teammates and
what have you with a for a great school like you guys have put together um if you have given that win under
someone else’s wings and they’re going in the wrong direction that you believe
fundamentally this is not where the company should be going but they’re they’re taking a detour yeah how is your
leadership style to wrap around that how do you want to serve your purpose of
what your beliefs are but at the same time be a good Steward of the
organization I think um at a young age
younger age um I had a father-in-law who
was a large manager of Home Depot okay and
uh what he he had instilled in me he goes I don’t fire
anybody they fire themselves I set the guy out I set the path out here’s our
core values if you are not falling into our core values that I’m sorry it’s not
working out yeah it is not a I don’t like you I
don’t we’re not friends and it’s not about that it’s not about a friend it’s about here’s our core values here’s the
path that I have set in front of you it is easy and laid out you are not not
following these values you’re not following this this pathway have set out
and I’m sorry things aren’t working out for us and as we know it’s probably the most difficult challenge that we have in
our industry is when you have to release somebody but I think like you said if you do it correctly by the time you come
to that point whether they have to make the decision or you have to make the final decision it should be very clear
to everybody it always and I think that’s where um a lot of people have a
tough time letting people go it’s because they didn’t lay the path properly yeah so lines are mistre
because there was no direct path for this person to follow you’ve given all
these different direction and now they’re trying to pick which direction and they went to this side and you never
laid that path of Direction directly to them and saying hey this is what I
expect from you this is what you should be doing this is our core values as a company and
hey I’m sorry you didn’t follow this you didn’t do this you didn’t do this and we
have to part ways yeah so do you as part of your leadership philosophy set up
either scorecards or rubrics to any degree with your team I we need to do
better with that you know how many times is it where I sit there and I’m like we
need to have a grading chart a we need to system and then at the same time I’m like no absolutely not like I go through
it where I’m like we should have this grading system we should have a point system you get 12 points and then you fight it’s like no either you’re working
with us or you’re working against us either we’re together or we’re not it’s not oh now you got two points now you
got three points four more you don’t have a job anymore no like either it’s
working or it’s not and and it’s mutual right I if the staff is unhappy and not
succeeding in their goals then they need to move on they need to go find what
makes them happy we’re doing them a disservice by continuing to all right come on no you can wake up on time I
know you can no you could you don’t need to take that long of a break you’re gonna be F
no you don’t you don’t really want to talk to those Kids that way do you they’re not in the right position of
they’re house Let’s help them get to the right bus and I and I tell I have staff come in and
they’re like hey I’ve got this opportunity this is what it’s going to pay and I look at them and I say listen
I am not here to hold you back from any opportunity I am here to help you grow
as an individual I love that you’re going with our company but if you have a better opportunity then go get that
opportunity yeah we don’t want to hold you back you want you know I’ll help you get to your full potential absolutely
you know that’s awesome when you look at our child care field today what do you think leaders are the
most taxed with in our industry and do you see those things
yourself as issues that are taxing you I think the biggest thing that uh my
leadership is taxed with is accountability by the AES and the site
directors as to not under not fully understanding
that you’re just calling off this morning for yourself you’re calling off to all of these Kids that look forward
to seeing you every single morning you’re not just calling off because you’re feeling bad every child looks
forward to seeing you every single day and so it’s a constant battle for us to deliver that mission to our staff for
them to understand hey you had a sniffle today yeah these
Kids don’t have a dad yeah see you these Kids don’t have a mom these Kids are in Foster these Kids are whatever it may be
these Kids are parents are working 16 hours a day and you are the bright shining star every single morning for
them you are the bright shining star every single afternoon and so get over your little snipple so I think that it’s very tough
for some of the leadership role to now pass that down to their staff for them
to really understand that culture that is why they’ve grown to where they are
and so now passing that culture down to them to say hey I don’t feel good as well no listen
Hey listen there’s a lot of times I think when you and I wake up in the morning we’re like scratching our head
going I just want to turn over today you know but we do get up and we look at the calendar it’s like oh do I really have
this the superintendent meeting today do I really can somebody else do it no you
it’s my role what I do you have to go do it yeah exactly you know and I think
that I think it’s really good and I think it’s important you know because we do have a lot of things pushing against us you know we have state federal
government who you know Department of Labor all these things that you know
some of the things are very helpful for staff and for teammates to have the right kind of guidelines so they don’t
you know uh get stuck or you know leadership and management don’t treat them poorly but sometimes those backfire
too that they give the feeling that you should be really apathetic about work and work is not any kind of a priority
it’s tough because Us in leadership roles like you said earlier in this meeting Joe this podcast here is it’s
about really digging in and really going at it and owning it yourself you know to
make it happen that’s something you it’s difficult to teach someone else it’s difficult to
give an aha moment for somebody yeah difficult to train an aha moment you can
guide them and direct them and help them realize you’ve had so many aha moments in yeah parent reviews and the parents
talking about how grateful they are to have us and all that but it’s very you can never give them that aha moment
right and that’s the truth it’s you you can’t really hand it over but what you can do is you can bring them as they say
sort of the horse to water you can bring them to those experiences and if you have the right person in the right seat like you
mentioned you are looking at reducing the risk so they can have their own aha
moments so they can become that person that they really want to be because it’s not up to us to make them who they want
to be it’s up to us to give them opportunity yeah to them be able to get
there and when I talk about the the right seat it doesn’t mean if you move
from row two to row four that’s not a demotion right it’s just a different seat that you’re more fitted for just
because you are a site Aid at this location with this demographic of
children doesn’t mean because you’re not working here doesn’t mean you can’t go
to this site over in seat 3B in Dynamite person there is it’s just you were at
the wrong location at the wrong time with the wrong families whatever it may be you weren’t influenced properly let’s
just move you to a different seat let’s find the right seat on the bus for you let’s let’s grow let’s
Inspire so you can move to the right seat I like that word inspire
But but so let me ask you I only have a couple questions left for you and you
know what is your philosophy on attracting and then retaining top 10
Talent a tough tough thing um I think it’s the biggest thing that I strive for
is the culture is creating an environment where you’re excited to be at work
nobody young Talent these days don’t really care about the money it’s not
about the whole benefit package that they can have and they’ve got health insurance to their families they’ve got
don’t care about their 401K right now what they want to do is feel deserved
needed and wanted right position that they’re at so for us it’s um we have
which conference room is right off my office here and all of our trainings are done in there and I hear almost every
training session and I would say five out of 10 of them after our training
leader comes out I’m like hey let’s not harp on what the bad part
it’s going to happen let’s harp on the good how good yes there’s going to be bad yes we have to go through EpiPen
training we have to go through CP we have to go through our background tracks we have to go through our DCF mandated
reporter we have to do all of that but let’s make that the small part of our training let’s talk about how we Inspire
these Kids how we can train these Kids to be Future Leaders in this world how you can be a a uh influence to what our
future generation can be and get them excited about working for with these Kids and with these families and helping
them grow as people instead of harping on there’s so much negative in our world
of work there is so much of well if you see a bruise on a kid maybe you should question maybe if you see this you
should question it’s like hold on yes we have to do all of that but let’s focus over here our majority part of hey we
are here to help these Kids be the next generation of leaders and you can be
that person to inspire these Kids that’s wonderful that’s really strong and when
you think about that you know I I really have one more question for you is if you
were to give advice and guidance to anybody who is aspiring into leadership
whether they’re a teacher who wants to get into admin an administrator who eventually make want to own their own
schools or someone who may own a school or an after school program and want to
eventually grow it to a bigger Enterprise what would be your guidance
and advice to them as to how you think from your learnings and
experiences that would be valuable to them in their Journey say surround yourself with the
leaders you want to be um you’re going to the cream Rises to
the top constantly you surround yourself with people that are in areas that you
don’t want to be in or in areas of um demise then that’s where you’re going to
be surround yourself with people you want to be people you aspire to be
people you want to learn from and people you want to grow from either you grow or you fail and you got to surround
yourself with the people that you want be with that’s awesome well do me one
last favor and that is tell us a little bit more about Ivy League Kids about what you guys bring to the market and if
there’s any way that anybody out there in our land of listening you know uh could you know learn about you more or
if there’s anything where they’d want to join that program overall yeah uh so IV
Kids we like I said earlier um our focus is before and after school programs um
we do have basor preschool as well uh but our focus is out of school times um
we’ve got great schools in our areas we’ve got great teachers we’ve got great staff in the schools um there is a big
group of children that don’t have opportunity to great after school programs um yes there is a lot of
babysitting for school and after school uh but what we focus on is the program
aspect of it um providing what uh they
could be having at home with great leadership at home and not just uh
educational we’ve got uh stem programs I’ve got 40 foot stem trailers I take to the schools I’ve got cooking classes
that I bring to the school I’ve got a uh awesome learning I’ve got all the all the things that the Kids want to do that
uh the parents need for their Kids that they could be providing yeah the opportunity because they have to work oh
and I and I love it I also saw a lot of stuff on your website of doing like additional parties and events and things
of that nature and really sort of reaching to the families of what they need to you know shoulder all the
responsibilities they have with Kids today yeah that I mean that’s our big mission is what can we do for you and uh
and I’ll throw this piece in there and I like our billing department and all of that and they’ll be like hey we want to
change our policy because it’ll be easier for I go is it easier for us or
the families we are here to serve the families I go if it’s mutual beneficial
and it’s easier for us and the families I in for this I go but we’re not just doing something because it’s easier for
us right that’s fantastic well Joe Evans I want to thank you greatly for joining
us today on our podcast ECE CEO biography Sage wisdom for child care
leader um this has been a great conversation it actually flew by I uh you know you we’ve
been on here for an hour already and uh could keep on going and I love that and
uh hopefully sometime in the future you don’t mind joining us again absolutely absolutely I’d love to I appreciate you
uh having me on I appreciate what you guys are doing yeah well thanks I think you know I’m a big believer cut from the
same thing uh as a lot of leaders hopefully in this industry but I believe in high tides raise All Ships In Our
industry we’re a small enough industry we get to know a lot of each others we’ll see you I’ll see you at Kathy’s
event I’m sure coming up in the fall as we always do and we break a little bread together right and um you know but it is
an opportunity really to try to learn from these wonderful people we see walking by and not only can we learn
from other leaders we can obviously learn from anybody but people who’ve just taken on the chin a lot to try to
get to where they are and doing what they’re doing I think there’s a lot to get out of it so thank you so much Joe
for your time today you have been listening to ECE biography Sage wisdom for child care
leaders thank you very much for listening we are greatly appreciative of your time we will continue to produce
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