ECE CEO Biography Podcast

Sage Wisdom for Childcare Leaders

EPISODE #8: FEATURING Richie Huffman

Richie Huffman

President & CEO of Celebree School

In this episode, Richie Huffman, President & CEO of Celebree School, shares the personal experiences and early inspirations that shaped his journey as a leader in the childcare industry with host Tony D’Agostino, founder and CEO of Inspire Care 360. From family influences to pivotal career moments, Richie provides valuable insights for childcare business owners looking to grow and lead with purpose.

Key Takeaways

• How early life experiences can inspire and shape leadership styles.
• Key lessons Richie learned while building Celebree School into a leading childcare franchise.
• Strategies for balancing business growth with maintaining a culture of care.
• Advice for navigating challenges as a childcare leader.

Transcript

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 the ECE CEO biography Sage wisdom for child care leaders on today’s podcast we are pleased to have Richie Huffman the president and CEO of Celebree School, a leading brand in early childhood education. Richie has a wealth of experience and leadership in early childhood education sector where he has guided Celebree Schools to set the industry standard. Since 1994 he has grown Celebree from one single location to Maryland’s largest privately held chain of child care centers, that’s over 30 years as of this year. Richie has played a key role in shaping Celebree’s corporate culture, which has positively impacted the performance of the company at both the corporate and also at the franchisee levels. His focus continues to be on excellence and quality and has continued to extend that into the franchising That Celebree brands has had nationwide. Richie extends his wealth and his knowledge and entrepreneurial expertise to Celebree franchise Partners helping them to achieve their financial goals and their community dreams. You know, it’s a amazing his story for how long he has been in this and what a contribution he has been offering. Richie’s vision of Celebree schools embraces change innovation in the pursuit of self-improvement making his approach to leadership both dynamic and very forward thinking. Under Richie’s leadership Celebree schools continues to set the industry standards uh and the overall industry and really starts to develop for Maryland and probably States Beyond this a well established high quality program that can only be seen when you enter the schools. So we’re very excited to have Richie with us today and thank you very much for joining us. Richie welcome today. How are you? Thank you brother, I’m well how are you? I am doing great. We are just coming off of a holiday weekend here and uh hopefully and it sounded like in our little pre-conversation here you had a nice weekend did you guys do anything special or just just get some downtime? You know it was a little bit of downtime but her uh my wife and I have five children and the oldest one is a marine so he just spent two months over in California and uh so just returned um for for for the weekend which was EXC we haven’t seen him in a little over two months so that was super exciting I’m sure it was and thank him for his service that’s awesome good for him well hey we want to go ahead and uh jump right on in here again this is ECE CEO biography Sage wisdom for child care leaders and in these uh podcasts what we’re looking to do is we’re looking to talk to people who’ve gotten a couple years behind them not a ton but a couple years behind them and we’d like to just talk with them and learn a little bit about how they ascended to where they are as well as some of the things they’ve learned along the way sometimes they’re good sometimes they’re bad and I know in my case sometimes they’re ugly so with that said they’re all learning opportunities exactly if you’re not learning from it you’re making mistakes with that said just sort of starting you know something I like to ask up front of everyone is when you’re very young or relatively young yeah did you ever find anything that was a childhood memory whether it be funny or maybe something interesting that sort of sparked your interest in leadership well yeah I have to I have to go back to my mom and my dad I mean my mom I saw my mom and my dad work extremely hard probably six days a week if not seven days a week and uh and my mom worked for uh she was a controller for a construction company so um remember when I was probably 17 years old or somewhere around there parents said uh um you know my mom was going to open up her own preschool and I was like what so uh I kind of watched that whole thing on fold with her you know um the interesting part was the fact that uh her preschool that that they built was actually on their on their uh property they we live I grew up on five acres so they built the preschool right in literally in their backyard on five acres U and I watched my mom and dad you know walk across the park a lot every day to work and walk back and you know she’d come home in the evening and you know she’d still tell stories of frustrating stories and I saw her get back up the next morning and go do it again so I thought you know that’s interesting I think you know I think it was one of my first um insights of owning your own business and being an entrepreneur and I wanted all of it well it’s interesting that you say that because quite often times especially when people are young they see other people in leadership roles as like control commanding powerful in charge of their world yet it looked like like you saw something a little bit different you saw things that were about tenacity you know being able to get up every day after sort of getting beaten down a little bit it sounds like and sort of commitment you know so talk about that a little bit because it does seem a little bit like that was an observation that usually when you’re young you don’t oftentimes see that side of it but in a way I don’t know maybe it was attractive to you to see how that worked you know it’s funny you said that because when I remember my dad coming home one day and and and telling me I was probably 14 my brother was probably 12 and he said I just signed uh you and your brother and myself up for um for martial arts in Taekwondo and we start next week together and so you know my dad and my brother and I began our our Tai taiwo um you know I think I learned at that point another another great leadership lesson that you know if you work no matter what age you I was 14 at the time no matter what age you are if you put the time and the effort and and dedicate yourself to something you can achieve it so you know at the age of 17 years old I I got my black belt and became a instructor and and I’m telling the story because of how I’m just reflecting how powerful that was so you know if you were an instructor and if you if you were an instructor uh at this at this place you had your own private dressing room so you didn’t get you didn’t dress with the rest of the of the students so I remember you know six 17 years old going into my dressing room you know put my put my uniform on and tightening that black belt and stepping out onto the out on the floor and when you stepped out on that floor when any black belt stepped out onto that floor everybody stopped and faced you and and about and I remember that I was like I freaking earned this at the age of 17 and there was I mean there was a there was people in their 20s and 30s and 40s and 50s it didn’t matter what your age was it was it was a sign of respect for what you had accomplished and I think I really man I I I I grabbed on to that like with everything I had well that’s that is you know it’s actually very interesting because at a young age there often unless you are in a unique situation where you actually brought yourself there like any other kind of high performance athlete that’s what I think of or like a concerto type of pianist or someone at a young age where you’re like the whole age goes away it’s the respect because you’re like this person has a different attitude they just and he or she earned it yeah they earned themselves weren’t handed no nobody gave it to them no there there’s no way you get your black belt because somebody gave it to you you absolutely 100% like a lot of things in life you earned it so there’s so many people you know and I know we go a little chronologically here but I i’ like to jump off and deviate on the path here a bit Richie there’s so many people who work really hard towards something and sometimes these things don’t fall in line for them they feel like I’ve been trying to earn it but it’s not working for me the way I want if you were to look back at times like that where you’re working in a direction and it’s just not coming together maybe you didn’t have those experiences maybe you did yeah you know what sort of ran through your mind when you’re running hard towards something and maybe even though they believe that they’re earning it they’re not getting to where they hope to be I I I I mean I’m not sure right I I I would say there’s probably one thing I think most entrepreneurs and I don’t know if this is just in in certain people’s nature or not but most entrepreneurs don’t even see the fact that they may have so-called failed I just I just don’t think they see it and I think they don’t even see the risk oh my God I can’t can’t believe what like like this is what we do like so and so they see all this risk and they see all this and which turns into fear and I just don’t see it I just you know we just we see we we have a vision and and a mission and we’re out to accomplish it and we just mod you know if we need to modify change the strategy slightly then then we then we do that but it’s it’s no drastic changes it’s no drastic um won’t work if I mean it it will work if we have the right strategy more importantly the vision that we want to us to to accomplish whether that’s as an individual or or as an organization and I and we do a lot of research we do a lot of homework and we you know I’m a I’m a huge fan of advisory boards and surrounding ourselves with people that have already accomplished what we are out to accomplish I mean everybody in our space right now when when I first got started you know I I went around to all of our competitors and toured all their schools and like I love this I don’t like this I love this I don’t like that and then you put your own path together and then and then you march and you just start you just start going and on that path you’re either getting closer or you’re getting further away from from that vision and and you just modify along the way yeah and and I appreciate you saying that because it does clarify sort of the idea idea that people get stuck and feel self- defeated I do think there’s times where you know even myself I look at okay I’ve come up against a roadblock now how do I get around this one you know and I’m always trying to solve a problem and I think that’s really what an entrepreneur you know elevates themselves as is how do you solve problems what is your means to getting through to the other side when you look at trying to solve issues and trying to solve problems obviously everything is different each one of them is different but when you come back to that sort of fortitude you have a level of confidence because of your experience what to you though is the difference between what I would say which you’ve probably seen in other people too is Cockiness as to confidence someone who is like hey I’m just gonna blast through it I’m that person as to someone who’s like this is the way I think we need to move forward and you do use things like advisory boards you do use things like mentors things of that nature again I would go back to what pulls you is the vision that you have set forth right right what what what what does this what are we out to achieve here at celeb what do we want this thing to look like in in in in five years I I used to for the longest time I was very um shortsighted we would we’d only strategize out you know next year and man it was so it when we started looking out five years and then backing into that five years it was a game Cher for us right right it was a real GameChanger and and again listen if you don’t have the answers today it’s okay you you as you move March forward you will start finding the answers because you’re forced to find the answers because you’re out to achieve this Vision that that you’ve set forth so you know whatever it takes is what it takes whether that’s you know I’m a I’m a huge uh reader I love to read um so constantly reading uh and and getting better as a leader or business or whatever it may be um surrounding myself with the right people that have already been there done it um the advi you know one of the advisory boards here at at celbrate on the franchise side I mean it it’s it’s it’s people that have already done it got Emma Emma Dickinson who’s you know the CEO of Home Helpers 350 locations Rob wed you know Authority brand 1,700 locations um Chris gothier he’s been with primrose for 15 years and has retired since then so I just surround myself with the people that have done it I I’m I’m not you know I’m not here to try to you know have all the answers I I just want to get to to the vision that we’ve set forth here for celebrating and you you know you mentioned a few of the people who are influential that you see and glean from too when you you know and we’re talking to an audience here quite often times who are owners or operators maybe of smaller ECE outfits you know schools looking to grow looking to diversify looking to expand you know one of the things I think you mentioned is really critical Richie and that is about mentorship and not just being a mentor for others but identifying possibly mentors for yourself when you were young in your career do you look back you know obviously your mother and your father were very important to you in your very formative years but after that as you started to get into the business world you know did you have any mentors that really made an impact on you that you look back on and like you know what this G this guy they were just absolutely pivotal in sort of the way that I started to think about things well I tell you as I as I’ve often said before and laughed I I was I was a straight D student straight stent I I I I hated school I I hated High School um I I I found it I found there nothing nothing valuable for me in what I wanted to accomplish in life and I think my parents kind of recognized that too so there was no conversation around uh where are you going to college um and just went right into working worked with my dad had in in a bakery business uh as a owner operator and I think again I think that was one of my first um you know um experiences with you know again whatever how how how hard you work you will be rewarded so you know in when that Bakery uh business you know I was an independent contractor so whatever I took out the door to sell I got 21% of wow one and so you know and then when I got out of high so that was right out of high school and then you know as I started like really reading things that I was interested in I became a huge fan of of Tony Robbins huge fan of his I think I went to every one of his seminars webinars I remember I think I was 23 or 24 and I my mom’s like where where are you going and I’m like I’m gonna go see Tony Robbins he’s he’s right here in Tyson’s Maryland or Tyson’s Virg I think it is and she’s like what like oh that’s a cult and blah blah blah and I tell you man it was wealth Mastery and I was just all in I I was a huge fan and read Tony’s books and and listen went to all his uh seminars webinars and uh and then just started from there just continuing to read and then uh started getting into really business groups like uh vistage uh I was in I was in vistage for 27 years years um that really helped me a lot and then you know when I started uh really focusing on creating generational wealth for our family you know then now I’m a I’m a tiger 21 member which is a which is a big organization so on how to bring up children and families of of means and how to protect and grow you know family wealth through generations so I’m a I’m you know even though I wasn’t a good student in high school I’m a real good student in in life well listen that is fantastic you opened a lot of doors on there and by the way funny enough I was just dropping my son off at the airport yesterday and what were we talking about the fact that I asked him to read awaken the giant oh really so he’s he’s 25 just turned 25 perfect and I was saying so what do you think about it and he was getting into it and in the conversation on the way to the airport he was like it’s all about reward as to the pain and the failure you know and you know and I was you know it it was a very interesting conversation only reason I bring it up it’s because you bring up Tony Robbins well well you know the funny part what you said you know I well thank God you’re your son was willing to listen to you and actually read right that’s not normal I tell my children all the time I how to be honest with you to to back up a second like I was I got out of high school hated High School School uh started to work with my dad in the bakery business as a independent contractor um I’m making I don’t know back this is probably 90 early 90s and I’m making $700 a week cash um live living home and banking a ton of money and my mom I I’m backing into this story of children should listen to their parents I I’m in my bedroom my mom comes in my room and she’s like do you know you got $14,000 in your bank account I go yeah and she’s like you know what you should do you should go buy a piece of real estate I think you should go buy a townhouse and and rent it and I go okay so we drove down to uh where I used to live and I bought this townhouse 4351 Shamrock remember was like it was yesterday verted it into two apartments I got 450 for the bottom three 325 for the top my mortgage was $556 and I was in the real estate business so every morning when I was on that Bakery truck when I got on that Bakery truck every morning this goes back to my comment of having a a a vision every morning I got on that Bakery truck at 3:30 in the morning to go deliver Bakery products the only thing that was on my mind was was saving another $114,000 so I could go and buy my next rental property so in seven years I had bought um you know close to 12 properties 24 apartments at the end of seven years and I was in the uh I was in the apartment business look at that you uh could have written uh Rich Dad Poor Dad so maybe right or or or or or you know rich rich mom poor mom there you go exactly but you know what the difference is is you had both successful parents at least in the way that they controlled themselves and they conducted themselves very much and and then right after that my mom comes back in my bedroom again I’ve left I’ll tell my kids this story all the time so hopefully they’ll pay attention to what dad’s saying my mom came in my room again it’s like you know it’s pot right now I’m like what Mom she’s like tanning salons I’m like what you tanon salons are really hot right now I’m like you should open up a Tannon Salon I’m like I’m like okay mom so next thing you know I’m opening up a tanning salon so you know i’ get up in the morning 3:30 in the morning go run my Bakery Route you know I’d get off around 10:30 11:00 I’d go hunt for real estate and uh you know collect collect rent you know paint railings you know make sure the next apartment’s ready to to be rented out and then I’d go to my tanning Sal salon at five o’clock and and stay there until 10 o’clock and and get up and do the same thing over and over and over six days a week so um wow and then in 19 in 1994 my mom came to me and said uh you know asked me if I was ready to open up my own preschool and I said okay I’ll I’ll do it so I went back I sold the bakery route sold um the tanning salons and sold all my uh real estate holdings and have been in this since uh for 30 years now all in yeah and I was just going to mention to the audience it’s 30 years plus from the time you started your own preschool and tell us a little bit about what you know you’re telling how your your mom was talking to you about it the inspiration there what had you think that the preschool world was going to be a good fit for you personally you know I I didn’t I I I didn’t know it um I I just saw my mom and how much joy my mom received from it and I knew I knew it was lucrative because you know shortly after my mom and dad opened their first PR School my mom quit her her job as a controller and I came home one day my mom and dad’s like oh we’re we’re building a new house I’m like what she’s like yeah we’re building a new house and it it has a fireplace in the bedroom and a jacuzzi tub I’m like what the hell just happened so I I connected you know owning your own business with creating wealth and opportunity sure and so um you know I was as you mentioned I was extremely blessed and fortunate to have two amazing uh parents my mom is 74 years old or 76 years old uh she’s still she still grinds it every day she still goes to work and walks across the parking lot and goes to her preschool and uh and goes at it every day my dad just turned 80 and uh he doesn’t go to work anymore but he’s uh he’s still very active also wow bless our hearts for what they’re still doing today that’s amazing I know I I tell my mom every day please stop please stop you know Go Go please and but listen it’s what she loves and what she enjoys and so you know who am who am I exactly yeah exactly who are we to change her different I I know this no so I don’t want anybody to be doing that to me what I mean so why why am I trying to do it to her and I think it’s just because I want her to enjoy life you know but exactly she’s but who’s to say she’s not enjoying life I think she is yeah she’s probably becoming vibrant still every day being with those kids so you know it and it’s interesting that you started talk about you getting into the preschool world you know it was something you really weren’t I I would assume you weren’t completely involved with before you sort of stepped in yourself but when once you got in in your sort of early years of preschool uh World obviously in 30 years we all know I own and operate six schools myself in addition to having inspired care 360 so I understand a little bit about the business um but when you first got in if you can look back at it you know it’s a trying industry we all know it’s a trying industry because you’re dealing with parents who their most important thing in the entire world they’re handing over to you and your team and you know you have this continuity of care for this child and their development it started off probably over 30 years ago because I know when I got into about 15 years ago it was barely babysitting you know and now it’s all about education when you got into about 30 years ago you know and you’ve watched sort of the elevation of this what did you really see um when you first got in what what kept you up at night when you first started in this industry and you really try to make sure that you were getting to your vision your goals and your objectives well to be honest with you I was too young to know any different I I was too young I was too young to know first of all there was no goals there was no vision it was just an opportunity and and and I took the opportunity and you know as we started scaling and you know as I mentioned 1994 we opened our first school in 1996 I opened my second school and I knew at that point this is what I wanted to dedicate my life to and that’s when I went back and sold the other businesses that I had mentioned and uh you know and back then talks about you know you move forward based on two things either pain or pleasure right and you and you gota and you got to learn how to to to use those two forces to either pull you to pull you forward the the the the the pool of pain like if I don’t do this it’s going to be painful or the pool of of pleasure if I do this I’m I’m going to be it’s going to be pleasurable so either one you got to learn how to use it um and what I decided was you know worst case scenario to answer your question worst case scenario like if I go for it and I mess it up I’ll just go back to my bedroom with my parents okay no problem you know no fail no harm you know no wife no no children bye thank you but um I I don’t say that as a cop out but I used that as a motivator right to go to go for it yeah in other words you know I might be flying without a net here realistically however I will figure things out you had the self-confidence like no matter what I’ll figure my if this doesn’t work right I will find the next PATH and and remember I I I had met I had my mom and my dad had phenomenal mentors and and you know and I had all that previous background of that that really buil built this confidence uh in me so between the confidence that was built um and and my and my mom and my dad is as my mentors okay let’s go as you started developing your own style and especially as we started talking a little bit more about leadership what would you consider are your leadership traits Richie what are the things that you feel are the thing a leadership that you exude that is sort of a constant for you or you’ve been h in on over the years I’m constantly honing that I am and oh man gonna be nice to myself here um yes you should be I’m I I’m demanding um I’m demanding and what I mean by that is that we got big goals here and big Visions here at at celb and the Huffman family Brands and and we’re going to give it everything we have to accomplish that um and I expect everybody else to give everything they have to accomplish that I mean if we’re out to accomplish big things then we have to do big things and we have to think differently than others we have to put the work in and it’s it is not a laxing daal um atmosphere it is it is a let’s get things done atmosphere um I love to surround myself as I mentioned before with with really smart people that are experts in their field we’ve done that um you know in 2019 uh we were we were the largest preschool provider in the state of Maryland and Delaware um and also in the before and after school business we have 26 corporate locations thousand and some children, 1300 employees and we also have a company called caled which is a nonprofit before and after school uh entity uh here in Maryland where we have 45 before and after schools in the elementary school so um I say that just to to frame this up you know and so in 2019 to be honest with you I was I was I was bored right we had right we had built this amazing executive team I really wasn’t sure what my role was anymore because we had you know CMOS and Coos and and and everything was running very well and I was bored and so um we decided that we were going to franchise the concept and and offer offer this to to other uh families and you know here we are you know five years later and we have over 85 um franchise partners and and operating in 17 States so um that has definitely been more than I expected I feel like I’m not let me just put it this way I’m not bored anymore um I am it’s franchising and having franchise Partners which we call them um it’s a it it is a different business and I’m thoroughly enjoying it I’m enjoying helping others become entrepreneurs in a space that we’re experts in and then that that we love um and helping them a lot of our franchise partners are are getting out of the corporate world uh want to become entrepreneurs in the space and it’s been an absolute pleasure to um to help these families do that and you know when you when you mention that of sort of how you know you look in your as you started you’re saying like I’m demanding but you’re being very truthful very much on the table and there’s two different elements of that obviously when you’re sort of Ro you know running a corporate environment as to a franchise organization too which you sort of have the duality that still when you look at getting the most out of your people especially the corporate side you know obviously hiring is critical but what do you see is one of the tricks of the trade and I shouldn’t be a trick it’s obviously probably very genuine with you to get the most out of your people especially those who may not have the complete confidence level that you have because of your experiences because your ability that you’ve earned it you know those elements how do you help that other person Ascend themselves I would say whether it’s at the executive level or it’s even at the school level or in the classroom level everybody here celebrate off my family Brands is on a individual growth plan and every single person here understands their core competencies of the position and we just hold people accountable to those uh those competencies and everyone knows what their competencies are and so our goal is each and every day and it should be your own personal goal is to you know is to get better in those competencies absolutely when you look at the fact then that you have to take this and especially in an environment where you have other owner operators who are families themselves who are looking that have their own Vision they have their own goals and they are part of the celbrate family you know but they are also a little bit more at Arms Reach because they have Destiny for themselves as an owner operator of a brand within that has done very well in the industry how do you work with them to help Inspire them or help them get the most out of their world and what they’re trying to achieve I think it’s through the competencies also well well I would I would back up so you know on as they’re on this journey with us you know from first inquiry all the way through you know meet the team day where they’re here meeting with our key executive team um you know prior to prior to coming here it halfway through that Journey they’re gonna get on a call with our uh coo and our um Chief Talent officer and our chief Talent officer and coo are going to take them through which we believe are the required competenc to become a very successful celbrate franchise partner and if if those two ladies say no then the answer is no then we don’t move forward if they do move forward because they do believe that this family especially this this person that’s going to operate uh one of our schools own one of our schools um meets those competents then they move forward then then they get on a call with me uh and we talk you know just it’s a meet and greet and what are your goals and you know I’m I’m looking at them they’re looking at me and I’m saying you know do I want to be partners with this person you know do I do I like them you know and if that answer is yes then they come here for meet the team day which they have an opportunity to come here to Baltimore and uh visit a couple of our franchise locations here talk to those franchise partners and then that night we go to dinner we have a great dinner and we again we break more bread together get to know each other a little bit more uh still looking through the lens of do I want to be partners with this family yeah and so when you look at that you obviously have your vision your desire they have theirs and obviously there needs to be a little bit of a symbiontic relationship right it can’t be you know asymmetrical with that said what do you think if there is any common traits for franchise owners or even your corporate run entities that have a leader over them what are the common traits that you see that drive success for the ECE world for our world it comes to want down to a couple things the most important one is can they build a team yeah can they build a team can they and we give them all the tools we give them the competency tools that they for in in every position whether that’s a director of a school an assistant director a teacher of a classroom or an assistant teacher of a classroom and we give them the interview questions to the competencies so if you’re interviewing one of your teachers you know a teacher uh you’re sitting there with you and your director your you and your assistant director and you’re you’re evaluating them so it’s not one of those you know hey what you think of her oh I’d liked her okay let’s hire her no it’s not you know it it’s what did you give her under the competency of team building and Inspire or excellence in education just to give you a couple of our of our competencies um parent child teacher experience what did you give her on those scores and if they can’t score sevens or above on at least seven of the nine competencies our recommendation would be do not hire the person it’s too much work yeah it’s too much work and the beauty of that is that you’ve set the expectations so now at the end when I when I now that you’ve that we’ve got a a a grasp here on on your compasses and I make you an offer I want to tell you why why we’re hiring you yeah right so so you know I I I literally I love to offer you the position thank you and I’ll tell you why we offering you the position I really love the answers you gave us around the parent child teacher experience I really love the answer you gave us under excellence in education I love the answer you gave me under team build Inspire and then you’re like okay they’re important they’re important they’re important but these other three competencies I gave you a six and they’re the three competencies that we’re really going to work on over the next three months in your igp and your individual growth plan and you’re like got it yeah so everybody knows exactly where they stand all the time and everybody is moving towards elevating in their positions in those in those competencies and it makes it Crystal Clear yeah super clear expectations right yeah super clear set the expectations up front then it’s up to you whether whether you want to uphold them or not but I’m my job is to is to demand them yeah no and obviously I would assume that you have a strong measurement model because obviously you know as they say that cannot be measured can’t be managed really so how do you you reinforce them every and you reinforce them every day right I mean I’m walking down the hallway or celebrate we do morning announcements and you know I’ll get on the morning announcements and be like you know hey guys good morning you know after we say the Pledge stuff like that you know just want to give tony a shout out Tony I just wanted to you know say great job this morning on giving Mr Huffman that parent child teacher experience congratulations great job Tony and Susie down the hallway she’s going damn I didn’t get a shout out this morning well okay well do what Tony did and we’re reinforcing the competencies that we want you can do it that way but you know we also do those through uh through classroom observation ultimately which rolls up to your individual growth plan and as as we know too though sometimes things don’t go is planned you know I don’t know how many times I’ve either brought in you know leaders or individuals into my circle where man they have a great conversation up front wonderful conversation they give great interview as I like to say but then once the rubber meets the road you find out that this is someone who is used to talking their way into things when you run into someone that you’re like okay this isn’t going to be a fit for us and some times in your situation you have contracts behind that so it’s not like you can take immediate action and say well you know we have to separate ways um but how do you tend to approach those difficult situations whether it be an internal employee whether it be someone external but when you’re dealing with someone where you start to realize that your Visions your values maybe your ethics don’t even align and it starts to come to light over time so you’re already in invested they’re already invested what is your leadership approach to trying to deal with that is it always cut is it always let me work on it how do you tend to take it I’m sure they’re all different but do you have a general philosophy when you run into situations of that nature making sure that we have open communication making sure that that person knows exactly how I’m feeling and where I think they stand with me okay and they understand that I’m not go ahead I’m sorry Richie we had a little bit of a glitch there you could say it again no go go ahead no go ahead what I was goingon to say is with the open communication with you just clarifying things but you find that you know their objectives still aren’t changing how do you tend to deal with it you know is again this podcast is a little bit about leadership and dealing with difficult situations as to the situations where sometimes we’re setting ourselves up for success but sometimes we run into these challenges like other leaders do and figure out how do I really deal with this because I either have a partner I have an individual I might even have a spouse who I’m working with who isn’t upholding their end of the bargain in my opinion God now you got me thinking about my wife now thanks Tony I appreciate that I did not I did not and she I’m sure she’s a wonderful woman what through 24 years yes I I finally I finally you know we’re we’re we’re we’re right where we want to be as a as a couple so um but it’s so funny you said that because it doesn’t matter right what matters is having those having the communication continuously having those Communications and reminding the other person on what the expectations and standards are and eventually they’re either going to get it or they’re not going to get it and and at the end of the at the end of that Journey or or on that Journey shouldn’t say the end of the journey on that Journey you know what I’m doing I’m really expressing my my unhappiness with something right right and and you’re you now that I’m unhappy I know you’re not happy right right because you you’re not upholding those expectations either so I’m not happy you’re not happy and so either two things are going to happen you’re gonna either make me happy or you’re gonna leave right okay yeah okay next yeah but at the end of the day I’m gonna be happy yeah yeah and my ultimate goal is for us to be happy exactly together because we’re out again I got my I got my head I got my vision set where this is where we’re going man this is where we’re going I think it’s a can can you keep up can you can you hit the goals can you keep up can you uphold the values can you can you uphold those competencies let’s go right and as you reflect on those situations obviously over time time in over years you found it sounds like that the open communication the clear expectations really doesn’t leave a lot of room for ambiguity it doesn’t allow things to be vague or to be oh I misook what you were saying or I didn’t think you were really serious about that you know those kind of things so it sounds that that sort of straight forward Clarity is what has served you well in your leadership style AB absolutely yeah absolutely and and and and real true players and real true winners they love that they love that true players true winners want that type of clarity they they they they don’t want this you know we I tell you here at celbrity um we have a um it’s called Uh CPI see um celebr training institute so once we take you through the interview process and hire you you’ll come here just our corporate employees teachers will come to come here for five days and we’ll get into setting those reminding them of what these expectations are and some people quit they quit during the during the training because they’re like I I I I’m not willing to do this where I don’t I don’t feel like doing this so they’ll go work for somebody else that they came from because it’s easier right good good yeah but that might be what their path in life is right that serves them that’s a path a lot of people right A lot of people just don’t want to give give what put in the time and the effort and the discipline of of of of doing what it takes to get the result that they’re after okay no problem yeah well Hey listen again there’s no problem it’s like let’s just be clear about it let’s be up front and let’s get there together so yeah when when you look at where our industry is going this drives us into a slightly different path where do you envision the overall Child Care industry going on this journey right now it seems like you know there’s been a lot of talk about you know Government funding a lot of upk programs getting start up with the public school district some of them I know is from Pure experience in New York state is they’re competing with us they not exactly being our best friends and we have a lot of things that are you know regulations always getting tighter that phone book is always getting bigger for regs when you envision and see where this industry is going I know often times this has been a thing that’s always been in the back of my mind you know because people would always bring it up oh I got to get out because things are getting too tough I got to get out I’m like listen then get out if you feel it is but there will always be a hurdle no matter what industry you’re in what is your opinion of how our industry is going today and what do you see as opportunistic as well as what do you see as threats that we have to be aware of I think as you mentioned i’ I’ve been I’ve been doing this for 30 years now I think we have come such a long way uh what you know when I started you know our teachers were called were called daycare workers and we were called they our our our schools were called daycares and you know then we went from daycare to um you know daycare child care then we went to Learning Centers and only a few of us are fortunate enough and have earned the right to be called schools because the elevation of quality of care and and um yeah accreditation and everything else so I think especially coming out of Co Tony I think that fam’s parents expectations have have risen uh in a positive way um it’s not about you know where can I place my child because I got to go to work and dad’s got to go to work it is regardless and we know a lot of families a lot of moms and a lot of dads that still have the ability to work from home or still work from home but still choose to put their children in a high quality preschool because they understand how important Early Education is and making sure that their little ones are prepared to enter into kindergarten um properly so um it’s come a long way it’s come I think it’s come a long way and I’ve really enjoyed as the states have risen raised a bar I really have enjoyed meeting those bars or not not only accelerating um exceeding those bars and I think it goes back to what we’re talking some are willing to do that and some aren’t willing to do that and those that aren’t willing to raise the bar and and upgrade their facilities then then get out because the bar has been risen and it’s been it’s rising because of two things one parents are demanding it and I think the states are also demanding it so Step Up um so I’m enjoying it I think it’s come a long way and I’m proud I’m proud of where and how far our industry has come I’m proud of everybody that’s still still operating for for our children um the other things you’re talking about you know it’s it’s all it’s all about the dollar I mean the everything you mentioned is driven by the teacher unions they they’re just looking they’re just looking for the student they can’t even really do a good job on the students they have so how can they also educate three and four year olds they can’t even Ed properly educate uh the kindergarten through 12 years old so that’s a complete disaster everybody knows it’s disaster but it’s teacher unions and politicians that are taking the teacher Union votes that’s that’s simple yeah Hey listen it’s that simple they have to bolster the size of their unions when the school sizes are getting smaller in their state unfortunately and and and and I think you know I think every single year the teacher unions are knocking on their door and saying you promised you promised you promised and the states are saying we’re broke we’re broke we’re broke so and I think that’s where it stands yeah think that’s where it stands and what do you feel as owner operators across the country in addition to obviously what you do as a great corporate citizen but when you look at advocating for you know cbos or community- based organizations what do you think is important for other leaders to be involved with and what they’re doing to advocate in the rights for what our business is what you do what I do every day with our schools and what we’re doing for those families and those kids directly yeah there’s seever there’s several things out there I’m I’m a part of a group uh I don’t know if you’ve heard of this e ecec oh yes with yeah yeah so I’m a board member of EC also so we got some of the biggest National Brands there Cel Kitty Academy G Primrose Kinder Care I mean the the big boys are are on this board of directors and we’re and that’s exactly what we’re doing we are fighting for the to make sure that the right policies remain uh in place for our for our owners and for our operators yeah no and it’s it’s great work what that group is doing and obviously having a Consortium of different leaders of some of the you know biggest brand names in our industry which continues to drive it when you look at you know the industry and where technology is going in the industry what do you think is upand coming going to be really affecting because obviously care is Ono one between a teacher and a child but when you look at technology what is your vision of where you see technology affecting this industry in the near future um I guess my first head go my first thought goes to I mean we just um fully invested in teaching strategies where you know it’s better communication with us and our parents through TCH polls it’s um it’s more resources for our teachers there’s our teachers can go on teaching strategies and and take you know their ceu courses for free um they can download um they can download uh lesson plans from from teachers from all over the world um so you know just I I would say that that’s something we heavily invested in last year um again just giv us the ability to better communicate with our our families our children that we care for and and giving more resources to our teachers yeah and you know and I and I know that there’s a lot of things coming down the pike obviously it really doesn’t change the relationship with the child and or really the parents but it other than trying to open up greater Communications which some of the work that you’re doing there too when you know we’re coming close here to just a couple question Believe It or Not we’ve already blown through an hour you know but who who knew but good stuff yeah you know but one question I do like to ask sort of near the end and it is something that it sort of drops back to some of the other things you’ve done you know and obviously there’s uh a little bit of humbleness as to huus and some of the questions that I ask with intention but when you look at missteps that you may have made you know in your career not you know celebrate but just in your career you know were there any real learning moments for you out of some missteps that you feel you may have made and you know sometimes people want to be General sometimes people want to be very specific about that but do you see any kind of missteps that you made that really were a learning we talked a little bit about this early on but how about with yourself anything that you really learned from yeah you know I I’m learning and I don’t entrepreneurs just they don’t even see it they don’t even consider them missteps I mean it’s just did did did what I learned so much yesterday I learned so much the day before and I take those lessons and we just and we and we apply them to make whatever we whatever whatever it is better right um and that could be a better father that could be a better husband that could be a better leader uh it could be something that we drill down on because we weren’t happy or not getting the result from and so we really drilled down on the journey or the process and made tweaks and Improvement so are are they are they missteps I don’t know I guess you could call them missteps I I don’t know I don’t think so but we’re constantly looking for ways to improve I and I think that’s our job right like I always say to myself Tony like my ultimate goal is to be the best version of Richie that I can be yeah that’s my that’s that’s my ultimate goal that’s awesome right it’s like be the best version of Richie that you can be be the best husband the best father the best leader the best entrepreneur the best philanthropist the you know the list goes on and on and on and I have all those mean he preaches this I mean there’s category which he calls there’s categories of Focus right for me it’s like my faith my family my friends my finance my fitness right and then there listen if I don’t have all five of them I’m in trouble so right and and so they’re the five that I really focus on and so each under each one of those categories is my vision my vision for my fitness my vision for my fan finance my vision for for my faith and then I have a game plan behind each one of those categories and I think that’s what makes life so simple I think so many people are walking around and they have no clue what they’re even focused on right they’re focused on nothing yeah it’s just they’re taking things where they’re they’re taking life the way life happens and I just think that’s that’s sad yeah because it’s just trying to manage every day by day having no objective yes if if you if you if you ask somebody if you see somebody that’s struggleing and say what are you focused like what’s most what are you focused on what’s most important to you they don’t they can’t get there’s no answer yeah because if there was an answer they would they would be making improvements in that direction yeah I don’t disagree you see it quite oftentimes and those are the people who oftentimes get stuck because yes they don’t have a vision of where they’re really going it’s sort of like driving in a road not having a destination in mind yes and you know what scares the hell out of me in with today’s generation is is the the is social media and and that is their focus their focus is the phone their focus is social media and behind that is nothing right there’s nothing behind that right there’s no Direction behind that it’s just noise and how do you think because we are sort of stewards for the next generation is there anything we can do to support them from elevating them out of that because we’ve heard this over and over again listen I have kids that age you know we have different you know teachers that fit right into that age group you know so what is your thought about how to help those people Ascend I’m not sure now listen I’m a big social guy too but I I use it to my advantage I use it to in my categories of Focus right I I I I I watch you know Tony Robbins videos I watch you know Jim I listen to Jim ran I you know I use the social to support me in in my in my Endeavors and in my categories of focus so I think it’s positive if it’s used in the right way right you know you mention you if you if you use it instead of allowing for it to use you it’s a good point it is really a good right yeah no if you’re taking advant of it its values instead of you just becoming a lump and just being you know one of its victims I hate to say letting it Mo letting it mold you yeah exactly you know one of the thing you mentioned all along here since we’re we’re wrapping up right now you mentioned that you’re a veracious reader you mentioned you know a couple authors along the way what would you Rec commend for some people who are wanting to ascend as Leaders themselves and you just really took away some great elements out of some books what are some of your top books that you would recommend I’d love to put this into the liner notes of the podcast and you could always send them to me after too but I I I will there there’s so many I I’m um oh God the one I’m reading right now is oh God it’s it’s in my car um G give and take I believe it’s called give and take it that’s a great book uh there’s just there’s so many um yeah again it depends on what do you want to focus on I jump between wealth creation to leadership to for you know to to spiritual and faith I I jump all over the place but you know I think again one one of the keys would be Tony to to figure out what categories of focus are important to you and then just put a plan behind it and do the work that’s fantastic I appreciate that you know one last thing you know if you obviously talked about celbrate in a few different areas within the conversation as you should over 30 years of running an excellent topnotch outfit within our EC world you know um there might be people out there are listening to this who might want to get involved and want to be part of that family what would you say is sort of the differentiators and the things that you’re really proud of with Cel I would say we we mentioned this earlier it’s our Mantra of we grow people big and small it’s like we grow people big that’s our teachers that’s everybody inside the organization it’s everybody that’s me that’s our executive team that’s our franchise Partners our whole job here as a team as an organization is to elevate each other so I think I’m most proud about that is how we go about in the tools and the processes that we have in place to grow people big so then our teachers can grow our children small awesome and making sure that they’re hitting all their developmental Milestones making sure they’re having an amazing classroom experience which ultimately you know helps them be prepared to enter into kindergarten you know and so Richie I I have to thank you you know this has been a great hour I’ve learned a lot I took notes you know I have to say I’m probably one of the more selfish people out here because I get the honor and the privilege to talk to folks like you get to ask you guys questions and I hope that the audience gleans the kind of things that I like to glean out of here but you gave me a lot of material myself but I I really believe that with your vision the way you look at sort of that far out Vision the way you you know your demanding people to rise to the occasion yes sir and I think that there’s such significant value in looking at that as being a positive as to sometimes people being like oh they have expectations for me well above and being where I want to be no no Hey listen we’re going on the same Journey all right so let’s go let’s do it together so I I want to thank you for that so as we wrap up here I want to say thank you very much Richie thank you so much for your time uh you’ve been a wonderful guest and hopefully someday we could have you back again we would love to appreciate that and I want to thank the audience for coming out and listening to ECE CEO biography Sage wisdom for child care leaders this is Tony De austino I’m the founder and CEO of inspirare 360 we thank you so much for joining us look forward to our next podcast that will be coming up in the next few weeks and if there’s any suggestions you have for different leaders out there we’re always willing to listen cuz we’re there to serve you and I want to thank you again Richie and you have a wonderful day Richie and I’ll take care and be good thank you Tony 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 these programs on an ongoing basis and please hit the download button and subscribe to our podcast so you do not miss an episode thank you very much and hope you have a wonderful day
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