Welcome to She Means Millions! In this powerful episode, Briana Dai sits down with the inspiring Jameela Allen, a transformational entrepreneur who took her vision from zero to a multi-million dollar childcare business, Themba Creative Learning Center.

Are you struggling to grow a business, lead a thriving team, or shift your money mindset? You’re in the right place! In this episode, we unlock the real secrets to leadership, abundance, and creating a legacy business, straight from a woman who’s walked the talk.

Briana dives deep with Jameela Allen into her journey as a female entrepreneur, exploring how she overcame fear to leave a secure government job and build a thriving, seven-figure childcare business. She shares candidly about the challenges, mindset shifts, and game-changing strategies she used to scale her business, empower her team, and become a sought-after coach for childcare owners.

You’ll learn about the importance of powerful onboarding systems, why hiring slow and firing fast is crucial, and how adopting an abundance mindset fuels sustainable growth. We also talk about leadership accountability—how everything rises and falls on leadership—and how real business resilience is built.

Key Topics & Takeaways

• Overcoming Fear and Limiting Beliefs: Jameela Allen reveals her personal struggles with leaving a “safe” job and how a powerful testimony pushed her to finally pursue her dream 01:07 02:35.
• Mindset Shifts for Business Growth: The necessity of shifting from scarcity to abundance, and knowing that “if they can do it, so can I” 05:41 35:15.
• Leadership and Accountability: Why everything rises and falls on leadership and how we, as business owners, set the tone for our companies 06:02 39:31.
• World-Class Onboarding and Team Building: The 90-day onboarding system that ensures only the best make it onto your dream team—and how to celebrate and support them into excellence 10:29 20:28.
• Hiring Strategies: Interview tactics, behavior questions, in-person observation, and performance reviews that weed out the wrong hires and elevate your business 14:34 19:39.
• Resilience through Hard Times: Candid stories of mistakes, loss, and business-threatening crises—and the strategies that brought Jameela Allen and her company through 28:08 29:42.
• Transforming Company Culture: How supporting your team’s personal and professional dreams pays dividends for your business 22:01 22:44.
• Growing Beyond the Business: Jameela Allen’s journey to becoming a business coach and building a lasting legacy.

Top Takeaways

• Success starts with mindset: Believe success is possible for you.
• Invest in yourself and your team: Professional development is a necessity, not an option.
• Hire with intention: Slow, deliberate onboarding and hiring is better than panicked, desperate decisions.
• Systems set you free: The right policies and procedures create lasting business growth.
• Leadership sets the tone: Show up as the leader you aspire to be.
• Resilience is required: Every tough moment is fuel for future growth.
• Celebrate and support your team: Know their dreams and help achieve them for mutual success.

Ready to stop playing small and start building your million-dollar business? Subscribe to She Means Millions for more interviews with powerhouse women leaders, actionable business strategies, and mindset shifts to help you grow.

If this episode resonated with you, share it with a fellow entrepreneur and leave us a review! Join our network of driven women by visiting ewomennetwork.com, and if you’re looking to level up your hiring or onboarding processes, reach out to Jameela Allen at jameelaallen.com and check out her coaching programs at thembaclc.org. Together, we mean business. Together, She Means Millions.

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To have a business where your team loves you, loves your brand, loves what they're doing so much that not only do they keep the boat afloat, but they get speed.

And she said in order to be successful, you have to do only the things that make the cash register ring.

Congratulations. You've had such a successful journey. I have one more question that I want to ask you before we wrap this up. Welcome to she means millions. You're sitting down with me today, Brianna Day. And I am sitting down with the incredible Jamila Allen. Jamila has an incredible story going from zero to millions and built a multi million dollar child care learning center called Themba Childcare. Creativity and learning.

But Creative Learning Center.

Creative Learning Center. And is the CEO and founder of Jamila Allen Incorporated. And so you have an incredible story. Take me back to the beginning.

Yes. Thank you, Brianna, for that introduction. Yes. I am the owner of Thimpa Creative Learning center and it's been 18 years and as I sit here and think about my journey, it actually started as a 17 year old freshman in college. I worked at the childcare center on campus and that's when my vision started. Because of that experience, I always wanted to own my center. And it happened literally 18 years later.

Wow.

Yes.

So you had the vision but you didn't have the courage to make it happen yet. What was holding you back? What beliefs were you dealing with that prevented you from acting on your dream back then?

Fear. For 18 years. Fear. I, I could not see myself leaving my good government job. One because of the benefit package.

Yeah.

That they kind of dangled in front of me. And I'm like, oh my goodness, how will I pay myself? How would I support while I am going through that process? But I did hear a story. I think it was in 2005. I heard a lady tell a testimony about how God literally pushed her into her purpose. And I just sat there in tears and I remember going back to school telling I was a school teacher during that process and I told my principal that I was done. I was going to step on out on faith and literally start my business. And that's what I decided to do.

Wow. So that was the breaking point for you?

The breaking point was the testimony.

Testimony, yes. Sometimes it's just somebody else just giving you those little words of encouragement. You never know how you're impacting people.

You never know. And actually she said that she had quit her Goodwin government job just in case this inspires someone else. She quit her good. She was fired from her good government job. She had Always set me behind her desk and just doodled and thought about what she wanted to do. But by her losing her job, it pushed her into her purpose. And her testimony just resonated with me. And I said, enough is enough.

It's been 18 years. And I decided to just jump out there and do it.

So you decided to jump out and start a business. Did you know anything about entrepreneurship when you got into this?

Nothing. I knew nothing. I literally learned everything on the fly, and it was not easy. I always tell people that I have the hardest job because we're taking care of God's most precious jewels, and I'm responsible for hiring those people to take care of our most precious jewels. And, you know, Brianna, you have two babies, so you know how important it is.

Oh, yeah. No, the level of trust. And I have so much empathy for the women that are at that center because the parents that they have to deal with is probably harder than some of the children.

Absolutely. Absolutely. But it's serious business.

Yeah.

And I can remember those infancy stages just being so stressed out, overwhelmed, because I didn't know what I was doing. But I joined the E. Women Network. It had to have been in 2014, 15. And I tell this story all the time to a lot of people. I remember Sandra speaking out into the audience. It was about 2,000 women, and I felt like she was talking to me, and she said, in order to be successful, you have to do only the things that make the cash register ring. And I have it still in my journal, and I have the exact date.

And I just sat there and I said, how? How do I do this when I am the nurse, the doctor, the director, the tour guide, the cook, the person who's going to pick the children up from school? I just could not wrap my hands around my head around, how do I do only the things that make the cash register ring?

Yeah.

But guess what I decided to do? I thought about it and I said, my onboarding process, how I hired people made the difference. Because prior to hearing that, I will hire people out of desperation and panic. And that was the worst thing in the world I could do. But when I realized that I was going to put all of my time and energy and how I onboarded, that's what made me 3 million. Took me from 200,000. I pulled out the equity of my home to a 3 million enterprise with 1 location because of the people I have serving my community. That's. That's what changed everything for me.

Wow. So that one little nugget took you and Made you say, okay, I can't be doing all of this myself. Who are the first people that you went to get on your team to help relieve you?

Well, it's a story. I had to look at the man in the mirror because it was me. I realized that I set the tone from day one and everything rises and falls on leadership. And once I realized that, my whole mindset changed. Everything changed. The first thing I changed was how I showed up. Most people, when they would walk into my school, they didn't know who the owner was because I blended in with them. My team at the time wore scrubs, and I was operating my business as it was a mom and pop business.

So we wore scrubs. And the first thing I did was change how I showed up. So every time I go to work now and I wear a suit, so I wanted, I wanted to look and feel like I was operating a million dollar business before I started, before we hit the million dollar mark. And I remember my CPA who actually introduced me to Sandra. I remember she called me and said when we hit the first million, she asked me, what did I do? She was like, what? How? Because I think we're like 600,000. And we jumped really fast. And I asked her, I said, well, do you see how much money I spent on professional development? It was at six figures at that time and most of it was with the women network. Yeah.

And she said, yeah. I said I would do it again. I said, because that's, that six. Six figure got me to a million because of what I didn't know. Investing in myself and in my team. I said I would do it again. And shortly after, we hit 2 million and it was because of my mindset had changed. I was tired of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

I was tired of operating out of lack versus abundance.

Yeah.

And once I decided in my mind that I wanted more for my team, I decided to, to continue to invest in myself, to put myself in rooms. And I remember going on retreat with Sandra. We, we had a million. I don't even think I was at a million dollars that in Mexico. And Laura Herring, Yes, Laura Herring pulled me to the side and she whispered some things to me in my ear. And I would never forget that. And what she whispered in my ear was, you need to start coaching and, and, and to make money, you'll sleep so you could teach other people what you've done. And I didn't even hit a million.

But she hurt my story and she felt my heart. And that stuck with me. And that's how I. I'm a coach right now because she said to me, you need to tell your story and put it on auto. Like set it up so people. You don't have to always talk to people. It doesn't have to be one on one. Yeah.

And I actually, I listened to her.

Yeah. And that was the start of the personal brand.

That's crazy.

I didn't know that. Good old Laura Herring dropping gems. Look at you. Wow. So if you could maybe go back and do one thing differently, is there

anything you would change in the beginning? I think everything that I've gone through has made me the person I am. I think I needed to go through every experience, every pain so I can share my story to other childcare owners and I can understand where they are because I've been there. So I don't necessarily think I would. Only thing I would say to someone is new into the industry is to hire a coach.

Yeah.

Because they can see your blind spots. And I didn't have a coach the first eight years. I remember one day standing in my office and it was so much coming at me at once and I literally had tears in my eyes. And this is before I wanted to be a coach. And I heard God say, how are you going to have help other people if you don't know what it feels like to be stressed out or overwhelmed or at your wits end? And I just dried off my tears and I stood up straight and I was like, I got it. I understand. I gotta take it. And so I just took notes, I wrote down all the mistakes, all of my mistakes.

And I vowed to my team and to God that I would never make the same mistake twice. Yeah. And so I changed those mistakes into policies and procedures. And if you follow me on social media, you will see that we are getting. Every time I turn around, we get an award for something and I'm not even there. I'm absentee owner. Wow. So I have instilled in my team my vision.

First of all, they need to know where I want to go, where we've been. I tell the story. And my goal is to be the best. And in order to be the best, you have to hire the best. So we have a whole onboarding process. It's called my 90 day onboarding systems, where people have to literally be vetted. To be a teacher at my school, we don't hire out of desperation and panic. And every single person, we've been doing this for about maybe 10 years now.

Okay.

Every. Every single person have to go through this process. 90 days before they can get our logo shirts, they wear all black while they're going through the process. And everybody know their training. And when they get to that 90 day, we celebrate them. Because most people don't make it.

Wow.

They don't make it.

Wow.

That's interesting. And I'm okay with that. Yeah.

You don't want the wrong people.

You don't want the wrong people because guess what? I want to continue to have my lifestyle where I can travel the world and do what I want to do.

Yeah.

Do you feel like you're drowning in your business? Like you're doing everything and something has to give, but you're afraid it might be you? What if I told you there's a network of over 500,000 women entrepreneurs all dedicated to supporting each other? A network of women helping women. I'm Sandra Yancey, founder of eWomenNetwork, and I'm inviting you to join us and become a member ewomennetwork.com and we can't wait to meet you.

And I can't do that if I have the wrong people on my team because I'm constantly talking to my director, putting out fires. I don't know. Half the time I don't. I don't know half the things that's going on in the business because the right people are in those seats and they take care of it.

Yeah. So you're like the epitome of working on the business and not in the business.

Yes, absolutely.

That's the dream right there.

Absolutely.

It's like so many people aspect to get there, but they just don't know how. And you talked a little bit about having navigated some tough times and making processes and procedures. Is there any one tough time that jumps out at you that comes to mind where you were like, man, this is really hard and I don't know how I'm going to push through this.

Childcare is hard. We are responsible for everything. I tell my team all the time. Anybody who walks in the building, we are responsible for. We watch the news all the time. Just hiring the wrong person. I mean, I hired a director over the phone. Oh, wow.

So, yes. And it ended horribly. So just making sure we have the right people. Because operating a childcare business is the. Is, as I said earlier, it's the hardest job I've ever had. Hiring the wrong people has made me say many times that I'm done because of the energy, because of the incidents that could happen, because of the reputation. When you hire the wrong person. It can just be a ripple effect.

People want to talk about it in the community and it just makes you feel like you don't want that liability. So it is very hard. So it's not easy. You just have to know that you are maintaining the. The what? Excellence to be your brand. Always tell people, make excellence your brand. When you make excellence your brand, everything that you do is going to shine.

Yeah, that's so true. You know, hiring people is probably one of the hardest things for business owners. I run into it all the time. I have made some bad hires and it's really. It's challenging. What would you say are like the best? What's your top number one tip for. For the interview process? What's your number one? Maybe red flag or automatic no. Or this is the number one thing that will get you disqualified from a job.

What sticks out to you.

One is turning a blind eye when you see it. And a lot of times as business owners, we're so busy and I'm talking to myself because this is how I used to be, that I didn't want to have to deal with what I saw. I just keep going as if I didn't see it. Yeah, I didn't know what I was looking for. Now we have a list. It's called my dream team. I know exactly what we're looking for. Not only me, my admin team, because they're the ones doing the interviewing.

Now we have a list of what we looking for. Because if you don't know what you're looking for, you're just going to hire anyone. We pay close attention to how the person shows up. We now have behavior questions. We now have them because of Sandra. I heard her say years ago that she have heard people do a writing sample. We now do a writing sample. And we allow them to come in twice prior to us hiring them to do work.

In observations, that has been a game changer because a lot of times people can interview very well. Their resume is polished. But when they come into those classrooms, we pay close attention to their energy. We listen to what they're talking about. We want to see how the children receive them. And we meet with the teachers and the person before on. On a second day to just get some feedback.

Yeah.

If it's not positive feedback from our team, we do not allow them to come back for. For the third interview.

That's so impressive. You know, they say, you know, hire slow and fire fast, and it's so much easier said than done. It's easy to get people in Particularly when you're coming out of that place that you were talking about earlier about hiring out of desperation. Oh, my gosh, I need somebody. I need somebody. So you make that fast decision, and then they're not a fit, and then you end up hanging onto them way too long. Way too long, way too long. And it costs you so much more in the long run.

It does. And in child care, because we have to operate off of ratios, it's even worse because most businesses can figure it out. We can't figure it out if we are missing a teacher in a classroom. We can't allow the parents to. Allow the parents to drop their children off. So we have to make sure we have the amount of people. Does licensing regulation state that we should have in those classrooms? It makes it ten times harder.

Oh, yeah.

Ten times harder. Wow.

So you really take your time to make sure you're getting the right people in.

Absolutely.

I love that we do.

And I can interview probably 15 people, and only one or two people may fit. And we're okay with that because that's the process that we go through. And we celebrate them when they. When they come in for interview. We tell them, girl, you are number 10 or you're number 13. They laugh. We're like, yeah, it took us a lot to find you, so bring it on. Yeah, let's see.

Let's see what you got.

And I get excited to know that we took the time out to handpick them.

Yeah, that's really good, too, that you kind of get them feeling.

Yeah. So in 2015, I lost a very close friend who worked closely with me. We. We were together since 2000, and he died suddenly. I had to take. I was away from my business for six months. I didn't talk to my director. I didn't step foot in my business for six months.

And we had the best year ever. That's when we hit 3 million. And I celebrated my team when I decided to come back, because is them. Yeah, it's my vision, but it's the people who are in those classrooms every single day. It's my director who's selling my business, and we have to maintain that excellent status.

That's incredible. I. To have a business where your team loves you, loves your brand, loves what they're doing so much that not only do they keep the boat afloat, but they get speed.

They succeeded. My goal. I was like. When I saw my tax returns, I couldn't believe it. I was like, oh, y' all been rolling?

Oh, yeah, that's.

And My director had raised the tuition while I was out. And she was like, just keep making sure we have the right people. She said, we want to hit 4 million. I was like, with one location. She was like, I'm a try.

Yeah. No, that's incredible. So, yeah, no, you. You have a rockstar team. So what is your process for onboarding people? Walk me through that a little bit. You said it's 90 days.

Yep.

You know, so I want to know like a little bit more about how you get new employees onboarded and how you approach, like the performance reviews that you were talking about.

Tell me what black back. Yes. So the first thing we do is pre qualify them over zoom. Okay. We have a. Once we receive the resumes, we do a quick hello, how are you? Just to get a feel.

Vibe check.

Yes. So once they pass the pre qualifications to see if we want to allow them to come in, I would. They would go in and meet with the admin team, have an interview. It's always a team. It's not one person. That was one of the mistakes we made early on. One person would make all the decisions with hiring. So we have a team, an admin team.

It consists of two teachers and maybe three. Three, Two to three admin.

Oh, so you got like four to five people in there interviewing a candidate.

Absolutely.

Wow.

Absolutely.

I love this. Okay.

And so if they like the person, we invite them to come back for a work observation is for two days. During that observation period, they go into two different classrooms. It's from 10 to 2, and we tell them they were all black. They get to meet the teacher. They're not counted in a ratio. We let them know. We just want you to observe and get a feel for if it's something that you want to do. After the first and second day, we kind of ask them, how was the day? How do you feel? The second day we talk with both the teachers and the candidate and if everything pans out, they say, oh, we like her.

Sometimes they say, no, she was in here gossiping, asking crazy questions about you or wanting to know about salary. They're not good fit.

Yeah.

And so if we like them, we will offer them the job. We give them an offer letter. We also give them orientation that maps out our expectations. It includes who we are in the business. Go with the benefit package. And they have to train in every classroom for a week.

Okay.

So we have enough people on our team when we hire. It's not necessarily out of desperation. They don't have to go straight into the classroom. Before, that's how we used to operate. So they take a test. They don't know any of the answers on the Test. It's about 60 questions and it's intentional because we want them to be able to talk to their peers and get the answers from them and read through our policies and procedures book. They take a test, they have to do a scavenger hunt.

For so many years. We will hire people, put them in those classrooms. They didn't know where the bathrooms were. They didn't know where the exit exits were. They didn't know the director's name or the director's phone number. So they have a scavenger hut. And then we have a series of things that they have to do through 30, 60 and 90 day process. Every 30 days they are evaluated.

And this is just to let you know, see how they're doing, ask questions. And it's an informal piece of paper that's documented. 30 days, 60 days, 90 days evaluated. And during that evaluation period, they have goals and objectives, personal and professional. And let me say this, we don't play around when it comes to goals. We want to make sure if you want to go to school, if you want to buy a house, if you want to buy a car, it's our responsibility to track you and to support everything that you want to, want to do in life. Because my, my philosophy is if you have everything you need, you're going to give my business everything we need. And I have, I have a very special person to me who's about to graduate in May with her bachelor's degree because on her paper, when I hired her, she said she wanted to get her bachelor's degree and we about to celebrate her.

Oh my God, I love that. Yes. That makes culture.

Yes.

Yeah.

My director says she wanted a house. Her house is bigger than mine. Wow. So it's important to know and track what your people want. I tell you, it's nothing they won't do from my business because I make sure they have everything they want. Everything in my power, I want to make sure. If you want your cda. Okay, what you doing? How you getting it done? One of my employees said that she wanted to save, she wanted me to help her with her budget.

We saved $100 a pay period. So. And then another important thing that we do during that process is that for the first 20 days, they have to email their admin. They used to have to email me, but I'm out to, I'm out of that, out of that process. Two things they learned and three questions they had. Three, three things they learned and two questions they have for first 20 days. And when I see their emails, sometimes I get teary eyed because I know those young ladies in those classrooms are teaching them three things they learn. Like, wow.

Yeah.

And they can appreciate this process. They always say that they've never experienced anything like our 90 day onboarding process. And whenever we talk to any new person, they must come with a notebook and a pen, write down everything we say. We're not going to keep repeating ourselves over and over. So they have their little portfolio walking around with all of their policies and procedures and they also have to recite our vision statement by 90 days. They need to be able to know what the vision of the business is and why. Why are we doing what we're doing, what is the goal? And it just, it's just something that. It took me a long time to get to this point place, but I'm literally free from the day to day operations.

And I wasn't always like that. My business sent me to the hospital twice to the emergency room because I was so overwhelmed and stressed out because of the people hired.

Wow.

That's, that's. So that's the 90 day onboarding process that I teach. Literally, I teach that in my course.

Powerful. I mean, I can't imagine a single woman in your field who wouldn't be all over this because even I'm taking notes. I'm not even in the child care industry. And I'm like, okay, 90 day onboarding, I mean it's a, it's applicable to every single business.

My pediatrician, she pulled me to the side and she was like, please teach me. And I taught her. I told her what to do. Yeah. Because I can see when I would come go to her office, I'm like, why is she having this? All these new people. Yeah, you're not, you're not doing something right. And she was like, please help me, please. And I shared with her how I value my team one and how we find them and where we find them.

And once we find them, how do we get them into that fold? How do they believe in, in my vision?

Yeah. You talked about during this onboarding process that you have a good percentage of people that don't make it through that 90 days. So what does that performance review look like? How do you handle those conversations?

So every 30, 60, 90. Remember I was telling you to get that informal.

Yeah.

And sometimes it's been times they get past that 90 days. My. We have admin team who are who's constantly moving around the building. They have their own checklist to make sure the team is doing what they're supposed to do. We don't have a problem with counseling them. We don't have a problem with writing them up. But we have policies and procedures in place after the third time. This isn't the place for you.

So we track it during our counseling sessions. I don't want them to be so harsh. I'm counseling. Sometimes it just takes a conversation. But during that counseling session, they have to write what are they going to do different? So it kind of sticks with them. It could be anything. The children have to be counted before we go outside and come back. And if the admin team is clocking and watching and say, oh, they didn't count the children.

So it's a counseling session and explain to them the why behind it. What are you going to do next time? And if they tend to forget, you can't keep forgetting too many silence because it's your liability. Yeah, right.

Oh no. Mine would go missing. She'd go wandering off. Yeah,

right. So it's important for us to set the tone from day one and let them know that this is serious business. Because one thing can happen in my business in seconds that can destroy everything. Oh yeah, everything. And that's always in my mind. I'm always doing risk management. Although I'm not working in my business. I'm thinking about what could happen and how we can make sure it don't happen.

Yeah.

All the time.

What keeps you up at night?

What used to keep me up at night? I'm pretty cool now. Staffing, you know, in the middle of the night, people may call out because we have ratios we have to manage and you have to jump out your bed and you have the wrong person opening up your school. I've done it many, many times. My six weeks to open from 6:30. 6:30. My 6:30 person may call me at 6:10. So that means I have to get to the school and open it up. So as an owner, everybody knows how that feels.

You get a call. You get that call at 2 or 3 o' clock in the morning. Oh, I'm not coming in. And that really, really can turn your day upside down. Because you think you're going to work to do one thing, work on whatever. Getting ready for licensing visit. And you might be in the classroom.

Yeah.

Sitting on the floor with infants. Because you have the wrong people.

Wow.

Who are not following proper procedures will call out.

Yeah, that's hard. Yeah. That's really hard. Is there ever a moment where you were like, I don't know if I want to run this business anymore?

Many, many times. Yes, I have. I had an incident at my school where a teacher tapped a child. We saw it on camera. Oh.

Like put their hand on a child.

Wow. And that liability. I was done. I couldn't. I was like, I can't do this.

Yeah.

Like we've done everything in our power and this person had been with me for many years. And the crazy part is the, the child's parent, they were from a different background. Middle Eastern.

Okay.

And they were both from Middle, Middle Eastern. The mother, she came in the office and was just hollering and screaming. Couldn't understand what. What did the teacher do wrong? She didn't do anything. She ended up pulling her child out. We had to call. I had to call the police and licensing. I had to tell them myself, literally.

Because that's the right thing to do. But the liability. I was, I had enough. I was like, I can't do this anymore. This is too stressful because I can't really control what people do as much as I try to. And to watch the camera and see her do that and the chat. She didn't. The child didn't cry.

The child went start playing with. With his friends. But the whole point is that you tap top the child. Somebody else's child.

Yeah.

And I had to tell it.

Yeah.

And I, I was done.

Yeah.

I was done. I was like, I can't. This.

That's hard. This is.

This is scary.

Yeah. So how do you. What, how did you decide to keep going?

Resilient. Most business owners are resilient. I pray I thought about where we have already been. Like, okay, it's okay. This too shall pass. We did. We. We were on probation after never ever being in trouble in so many years.

Licensing didn't care. They didn't care that I self reported it. So I just. We just got through it. Yeah, we just got through it. And we're still the best. We actually licensing. When they wrote up the report, it was, it was a different person from my licensed specialist.

When she came in, she gave us a kudos. She was like, these girls got it going on. She was talking to myself and my director because I had to be there with her. And she said, I'm so amazed at how clean, clean the school is. Although this happened, it's unfortunate, but I can tell that they have it together.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's a compliment. Yeah. And we went to licensing and we sat with the supervisor and we were like, this is what happened. And this is the video. This is my business. This is the integrity. We thought we were gonna get some kudos by doing it, but she was like, oh, Ms.

Allen, you know, you're responsible for everybody who walks through your building. And I had tears in my eyes. I said, I know I am, but this is what happened and I can't take it back. And I'm not going to shield it because you need to know. And it would get worse if I covered it up.

Yeah.

But, yeah, at that point I was like, done.

Yeah.

Like, I don't want this anymore. But then, you know, it's part of my story. I tell, tell that story to other child care owners who I coach. And they looking at me like, I can't believe you go through that. And I'm like, I'm just like you.

Yeah.

Yes. Yeah. So that, that sticks out. Yeah.

No, that's hard.

Yeah.

But you just kept going.

I just kept going.

Yeah.

And I thought about all that we've gone through. Like, it's okay. It's part of process. I have insurance for a reason. And you know what? And when I think about that teacher who did it, the teacher was, we probably should have kept our eyes on her because she was very rigid with preschoolers. Like, if you go into her room, everything was so structured. She was like the grandma of the school. And when, when I reflect on her, I told my director, I said, we probably shouldn't, we probably shouldn't have had her in that room because she was so rigid with those babies.

And it was not. The little boy didn't do anything. I mean, it was something. She was like a grandma to him. Like, boy, anybody tell you that? Papa. But you can't do that. But we saw some of the signs and I take full responsibility as the owner.

Yeah, no, that's powerful. So powerful. So now you take all that wisdom and you've started a personal brand. Now you're coaching other childcare owners on how to build a multi million dollar child care center like you have. And you're able to travel with your husband and go to all these amazing places and doing, doing your coaching. So talk to me a little bit about. I. You told the story of kind of getting the whisper to start your own personal brand.

Did you immediately march forward with that or did you sit on that for a little while?

I didn't start coaching until 2019. It was around Covid time. 2019. So that was some time prior. It was a few Years. Okay. And not only did she put that bird in my ear, a little whisper in my ear, my licensing specialist saw some changes as well. When she would come, she would see my staff, with staff stabilized before it was a revolving door.

And she was like, oh, your staff is. I love your staff. You're different. And she said, you need to start documenting what you're doing. And I had already started thinking about it because of what Laura told me, but I didn't start documenting everything.

Yeah.

And she was like, other childcare owners need to see, you know, because this is not normal to have people working for you for five years, six years in child care.

Yeah.

They normally leave in six months to a year. No, I mean, yeah, you know. I know.

Yes.

So I have staff actually in May with. With celebrating four staff that's been with me for 10 and then two of them been with me for 18 years. So.

Wow.

Yeah. And so I just started documenting everything and I just share what I've done through that process with my own. My coaching program.

So you started the child care business after documenting and now you've helped how many childcare owners scale their child centers?

I've helped hundreds. I made a lot, a lot of money through my coaching program and my. My heart is sharing my story with other child care owners. So I'm in a process now of, of a succession plan. Hopefully within the next two years, I'm able to transition to fully coaching other clients and just pass the torch to someone else.

That's incredible.

Yeah.

Congratulations. You've had such a successful journey. I have one more question that I want to ask you before we wrap this up. Who did you need to become to get to this level? How did you fundamentally change as a person to go from government job to childcare center owner, to multi million dollar child care center owner, to co coach? I mean, that's a huge evolution not only in your trajectory of your business and your, but your identity as a woman. So what has changed in you?

I had to believe it was possible to run a successful childcare center because I was always told that there was not any money in childcare or teaching. I was a school teacher for 10 years, remember? And because that was my mindset, I operated my business as it was a mom and pop. I literally did not know that I can pay myself whatever I want to pay myself because I'm the owner. When I first started, I was paying my team 525 an hour and I didn't pay myself anything because my business wasn't valuable enough to Raise the tuition. Listening to people like Les Brown, listening to Oprah Winfrey, Sandra Yancey, motivational speakers, and other people who have been successful is what made me know that if they can do it, so can I. It was just my. I had to do a shift in my mindset. I had to know that my goal was to first to change the trajectory of child care.

Because everybody. Back when I started, you know, the child care was like a babysitting service. The teachers were young, popping and gum, wanting to be on their cell phones. They will wear anything. And I was like, no, this is a business. And I learned that this business at that time was bringing in $60 billion. I didn't know that.

Wow.

My. My mentor told me to go read the Abyss report and the E. Myth by Michael Gerber.

Oh, yeah, those are good.

Yes. And when I read the IBIS report, because I was so stressed out when I went to see him, and he was like, girl, just go read the obvious report. And I didn't even know what that was. And I said, 60 billion. And I'm sitting here paying myself 525 an hour. So I remember one day, this. I'm gonna wrap it up. When I found out this business, more than $60 billion, I went back to my school.

We sat on the floor during nap time, and I went around in a circle, and I explained to everyone what I had learned. I said, we have the foundation. I asked him, I said, have you ever watched an infra commercial in the middle of the night? And you said, I can do that? And they were like, yeah. I said, we have the foundation. We have the foundation. What do you all think we need to do to make more money? And I remember Aisha. She had been with me at the time for a few years. And she said, it's you, miss.

I was bald then. She was like, it's you, Ms. Bald. And I was like, oh, my God, it is me. And so that's when I decided to change my mind. And I went around and I asked everybody what did they want? Because I wanted to. I wanted to put it in mind. We can make more money.

I'm y' all making 525 an hour. Yeah, that's nothing. And so that's what my director said. She wanted to buy a house. Robin says she wanted to put her children in private school. I wanted a Range Rover and a convertible. Yeah. And we just went around and everybody shared their story.

And I said, okay, we all. We put in the work. We have to become valuable. I explained to them that you might have to go back to school and get your CDA and maybe some degrees. And everything just started to change.

Wow. Literally just have it. The vision.

Me walking in with a suit on literally changed my mindset.

Yeah.

On how I operate in my business. And I wish I could show you a picture of me sitting on the floor with scrubs on playing with a toddler. You would say, is she the owner?

Yeah.

Literally, I said, nope. I want to operate my business as if it's a million. And to hit 3 million in 2025 is unheard of. I've not met not one childcare owner with one location. Maybe two or three, but one location. And it's because of the value that we provide to the community based off of those people. People in the classrooms and then the services, and then making sure we're constantly revolving, doing things, you know, trying to make sure we have the best, best practices and staying accredited and being a Level 5 school, all of that stuff

plays a part so powerful. It really does start with you.

It starts with decision.

Right?

Yes. Everything rises and falls on leadership. And I set the tone from day one. When people walk into my business, it can be a parent, it can be a teacher. Is the admin team. Myself, we set the tone for how we people receive us.

Yeah. So good. Wow. This has been such a powerful conversation. So many nuggets that I'm taking away. I know every single business owner, regardless of if you're in childcare or not.

Business, business.

Business is business. And she does not just mean business. She means millions.

Yes. Thank you, Brianna.