Nov 19, 2019
This week, Kris is thrilled to chat with Judy Bradby, winner of the 2019 Child Care Rockstar Award. As a Pediatric Nurse with over 30 years of experience, Judy saw a need for a place for children who had no other place to go to learn and grow. She opened up LeaRN Lily Child Development Center and through much trial and error and overcoming adversity, now has tripled her enrollment in just 8 months. Judy talks about her nursing background, her mission behind LeaRN Lily, the mistakes she learned along the way, and her vision for the future to provide medical daycare to children all across the country.
Key Takeaways:
Judy has a background in Pediatric Nursing and is an RN with 30-plus years of experience. She saw a need for the children to have a place to go, and also for a place that parents could drop their kids off at with trust and comfort so they could work and earn a living as well. She opened LeaRN Lily and currently has a capacity of 60 with 44 children enrolled.
Fun fact: Judy met her husband in an online chat room, and they have a teenage son together. But don’t worry, she did a background check on him first before meeting IRL (in real life)!
When there is a will, there is away. Judy sold her jewelry to become part of the Child Care Success Academy and came back from her first event with a notebook and a half filled with things to start implementing.
Judy has gone through Enrollment Boot Camp four times, each time learning something new and valuable. She has changed her mindset and attitude to become more approachable, a true leader, and transparent about what she is looking for in terms of her staff. She now hires her staff with more intention towards the mission and based on their value, instead of coming from a place of desperation and fear.
At LeaRN Lily, the program is inclusive for every child. Everyone in the same class is integrated with one another in both learning and play.
Judy and her staff had great success in marketing when they became more active on Facebook and getting out more in the community, including working with the local children’s hospital. They also made crafts that parents couldn’t help but love, making them happy to leave the school a great review.
One of Judy’s big goals in the future is to expand LeaRN Lily, and possibly franchise it so children all across the country can get the same opportunity.
It doesn’t matter if it’s one center or 17, if you are doing the work and taking inspired action, you should be proud of yourself and go for the big dreams. Judy did, and that is what landed her the Rockstar award of 2019.
Mentioned in This Episode:
The Child Care Success Company
Contact Judy: jcbradby@gmail.com