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• 0:00:08 Kris Murray: Welcome to Child Care Rockstar Radio. I am your host, Kris Murray. Child care leaders around the globe are breaking through challenges, leading the way in innovation, testing new best practices, and impacting children and families in a much more powerful and positive way than ever before. Each week, join me for interviews with early childhood leaders and experts that will leave you inspired to become the next Childcare rockstar.

• 0:00:34 Kris Murray: Now, let’s go. This is Childcare Rockstar Radio, episode 195 featuring Jacob Jensen. Man, oh, man, oh, man. I am excited to share this episode with you. I feel like I’m channeling Matthew McConaughey and I’m like, all right, all right, all right, people. This is one for the record books. It’s called stack your wins for massive momentum. And I am just incredibly impressed with this young man. He is the latest addition to our coaching team.

• 0:01:17 Kris Murray: He’s the only Gen Z coach in the childcare success world, and he’s the son of the amazing Donna Jensen at the Learning Station in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I can’t say enough about this episode. And diving in deep with Jacob Jensen. What a powerhouse at a very young 26 years old. This leader has grown up in the world of childcare since he was born. He was born into it and born for it. He went from college to explore and learn more about the world of business in both the mortgage and the ministry industries. And a leader in his church and talks a lot about how those industries really primed him for the world of early childhood. What he learned from working and selling, learning how to sell in the world of mortgage brokers, and then also engaging people and sharing the call of the ministry of the church that he belongs to, to grow their flock, which is also an influence. It’s an influencer role. So this guy is a super influencer, and I can’t wait for you to meet him.

• 0:02:35 Kris Murray: And I mean, what didn’t we Talk about? The 45 minutes that we spoke through the meat of the episode just flew by. And I literally looked at my watch while I was recording and I was like, oh, my God, we’re actually already out of time. There’s so much more that I want to ask him. So I’ll definitely be bringing him back for a second. Second conversation. But I really just want to dive in and without any further ado, let you just absorb, learn from, and be inspired by the young, amazing Jacob Jensen.

• 0:03:10 Kris Murray: Stack your wins. And following his lead, guys, you can’t help but win. Take some of that energy and use it to inspire and influence your team and you will be on a new trajectory for success. So let’s go here on the podcast with Jacob Jensen. Welcome back, everybody. I am so excited to introduce you today to my guest, Jacob Jensen. Jacob, how are you?

• 0:03:42 Jacob Jensen: I’m doing so well. Back in the. Almost. Almost back in the 70s here in Myrtle beach after our or snowstorm that shut the. Shut the whole county down.

• 0:03:51 Kris Murray: Yeah. Well, last. Last week in the United States of America, we had almost a deep freeze for the entire country and record lows and record snowfall. So you’re just digging out from that? Finally coming back. It’s all melted now. Yes.

• 0:04:08 Jacob Jensen: Amen. We had a whole six inches.

• 0:04:11 Kris Murray: Wow. That’s pretty substantial for Myrtle Beach.

• 0:04:15 Jacob Jensen: I think it was the most we’ve had, and I want to say, like, 19 years. That could be totally off base, but I think. I think it was, like, one of the most ever. The last snow we had was over three years ago, so it was definitely a shock for sure.

• 0:04:29 Kris Murray: Yeah. Did your kids love it?

• 0:04:32 Jacob Jensen: Oh, my goodness. They had a blast. We built a snowman. They did snow angels. We tried to make snowballs, but it was a little icy. Like, it wasn’t very. What do they call it? Like, powdery. Like it wasn’t very compactable.

• 0:04:44 Kris Murray: Yes.

• 0:04:45 Jacob Jensen: They hurt really bad, so we strayed away from the snowballs. But snowmen, snow angels, all the things. It was a blast.

• 0:04:54 Kris Murray: Cool. Love that. So you are in Myrtle beach right now, as we mentioned, and are you at home or at the school or where are you at?

• 0:05:05 Jacob Jensen: I am at my house, if you can see my beautiful virtual office I have here currently off site. I just mentioned to Chris, my car broke down. So I don’t know if it was the snowstorm or what or if it was a lack of me thinking I probably should get my alternator checked and not going to get my alternator checked, but my car broke down. And so I’ve been waiting for the Chevy dealership to call me to tell me, hey, Mr. Jensen, come get your Tahoe. Which they have not done yet, so patiently awaiting that call.

• 0:05:38 Kris Murray: All right, well, we’re utilizing your time at home well here on the podcast today. Thanks again for being here. Tell us a little bit about your story in terms of why are you in the world of childcare and how did you come to find yourself here and how long have you been doing this work?

• 0:05:58 Jacob Jensen: Absolutely. Some would say since I came out of the womb. I know Donna tells a story. The day she brought me home from the hospital, she was working on the learning station, so. But no, I was Born and raised the field. I feel like I’ve been around it my entire life. I am a product of the program that I now am the executive director of, which is super cool. But officially, I’ve been in. In the field for almost three years.

• 0:06:22 Jacob Jensen: Did some things before that, some, some things in the mortgage field. Was in ministry for four years and so kind of, kind of went around the block and then eventually ended right back up where I started over, over here in childcare. But we have three locations in the Myrtle beach area and surrounding areas. We’re licensed for just around 500 kids. We have over 100 staff. So have ourselves a bit of a mom and pop situation down here in Myrtle beach. Or I should say mom and son now at this point.

• 0:06:52 Kris Murray: Yes.

• 0:06:53 Jacob Jensen: But it’s been a blast. I’ve done everything from changing the air filters once a month to cleaning the floors every week all throughout high school and all the different things. So it’s been. Been really cool to kind of have a full circle moment and to come back and, and help Donna lead, lead the way.

• 0:07:09 Kris Murray: I love it. And of course, your mom, Donna Jensen, the founder of Learning Station, has also been featured on this podcast and she’s one of our original coaches. And you are now the latest and greatest, our newest addition to the coaching team here in the Child Care Success Academy. So congratulations for that.

• 0:07:31 Jacob Jensen: Thank you. Thank you.

• 0:07:32 Kris Murray: Yeah, you’re welcome. So we’ll dive into that later. Let’s see, what is something that you’re really proud of with regard to the Learning Station?

• 0:07:43 Jacob Jensen: Oh, man. I think the, the proudest pro, the proudest thing probably for me is taking the baton from Donna in a way that allows her and my dad to kind of. They’re not, they’re not retired by any means, but taking the pressure of the day to day off of them. It brings me a ton of joy knowing that they can go and they can do their cruise or they can go see their friends, or they can just kind of enjoy life and not have to worry about the different phone calls or the 9pm text or the. All the different random things, especially having my wife on board. She’s one of the directors of our schools.

• 0:08:24 Jacob Jensen: That’s probably my favorite thing about it. I think as far as growth, I think putting us in a position to scale and to continue growing as a company. I think that was probably one of the most glaring things I saw not just with the Learning Station, but with the childcare field when I transitioned into it officially was the lack of systems and technologies. And I think that this is probably one of the main reasons you started CCSE is seeing all of these other industries and these powerhouse systems they have and different programs and different communities that exist. And in childcare, it’s almost, it feels like a new field that has been around forever. And so I think being able to bring in a lot of my past experience in ministry in the mortgage field, some things that are relevant there to this field has been really good.

• 0:09:22 Jacob Jensen: Um, especially as we kind of look to the horizon and try to plan our fourth and fifth. And I always joke with Donna, I was like, I need 10 centers before 2030. So. But we’re, we’re excited and it’s, it’s been an honor to help her just kind of bring to fruition the dream that she’s always had.

• 0:09:40 Kris Murray: Very cool. I love that. I want to dig into what you’ve seen in terms of best practices from the other fields that you’ve been in, because that’s one of the strategies that I love that I hold near and dear to my heart is to look at other industries and look at what’s working and what’s cool and then asking myself, how can I apply that to the world of childcare? But before I go there, you mentioned that you’re married and your wife is working in the business as well. Tell us more about your home life, kids, ages, anything you want to share about what’s going on.

• 0:10:18 Jacob Jensen: So my wife and Alicia, My wife Alicia and I, we’ve been married for six years. We just celebrated our anniversary on New Year’s Eve of last year. We got married on New Year’s Eve, which is amazing. I think it’s, it’s a funny little footnote of our story. The only reason we chose New Year’s Eve is because in 2018 it was on a Monday and the venue was cheaper. So we decided, let’s roll with that. We’ll have a New Year’s Eve party.

• 0:10:45 Jacob Jensen: And it was a blast. We have two boys, Banks and Jax. Banks is four years old and Jax is two. So our house is busy all of the time, non stop. We have a husky, we have a one eyed black cat. And it is just all boys up in this house. So if you’re, if you’re listening to this, pray for my wife. There’s a lot of just movement and energy always happening in the Jensen household in general. I think our entire family have our first girl in the Jensen family expected here in the next few months.

• 0:11:18 Jacob Jensen: It’s been. My parents have four sons out of the three oldest. We all have two sons. And so we’re getting our. I’m getting my first. My first niece on my side of the family, which is super exciting.

• 0:11:29 Kris Murray: Yeah. So grandbaby number seven, if I’m doing the math right, is going to be a girl. I mean, we hope it’s going to be a girl.

• 0:11:36 Jacob Jensen: Yeah, that’s what they’re saying.

• 0:11:39 Kris Murray: That’s awesome. She’s not going to be spoiled at all.

• 0:11:42 Jacob Jensen: No, no, no.

• 0:11:44 Kris Murray: Heavens no.

• 0:11:45 Jacob Jensen: Couldn’t imagine it. No.

• 0:11:47 Kris Murray: Awesome.

• 0:11:50 Jacob Jensen: So I can’t imagine being her boyfriend when she gets into high school.

• 0:11:54 Kris Murray: Oh, yeah, no.

• 0:11:55 Jacob Jensen: These are my cousins and uncles. That’s not a good place to be, you know?

• 0:11:59 Kris Murray: Yeah, exactly.

• 0:12:00 Jacob Jensen: And we’re all six foot taller.

• 0:12:02 Kris Murray: Yeah, you guys are all tall. You’re big guys. Uh, yeah. Don’t mess with the Jensens. So good luck, baby girl. Jensen, um, what is something that not that many people know about you that you want to share as your fun fact?

• 0:12:17 Jacob Jensen: This is a fun one. Um. My two front teeth are fake.

• 0:12:21 Kris Murray: Wow.

• 0:12:22 Jacob Jensen: Do a big smile for you. I knocked them out playing basketball. The day that I was supposed to take my wife on our first date was playing pickup basketball with some friends. Buddy did a spin move, forehead to the mouth. Lost both my two front teeth. Had to cancel our date. She almost didn’t give me a second chance, but I sent her a smiling selfie of no teeth, and I think she reconsidered. So. But yeah, knocked him right out.

• 0:12:51 Jacob Jensen: It was a wild, wild, wild event. Crazy enough. When we were in Denver at one of the masterminds, I ran into him in a sneaker store. We were walking around. I hadn’t seen him since probably that day when we were just out of high school and he was just in Denver at a sneaker store that I happened to be at in Denver as well, which is hilarious. We had a good laugh about it. And. Yeah. No, no front teeth over here.

• 0:13:16 Kris Murray: Yeah, that’s right. That’s supposed to be. Yeah. When you’re six years old, not when you’re. Whatever.

• 0:13:24 Jacob Jensen: Yeah, absolutely.

• 0:13:26 Kris Murray: Cool. Well, thank you for sharing that. That’s a wild story. And I’m glad that your partner, your wife, gave you another chance on that one.

• 0:13:36 Jacob Jensen: I am, too.

• 0:13:36 Kris Murray: Grandfather. Yep. So let’s dive in. I want to learn about. Yeah. When you were in the mortgage and ministry industries, or fields, and then you were looking back at childcare, at the business of childcare that your mother was so adeptly growing, what did you bring along with you that you felt like you could apply? Or maybe it’s in terms of systems and technologies, anything that you saw as a best practice over there that you wanted to implement over here in childcare?

• 0:14:10 Jacob Jensen: Absolutely. I think some of the most stark contrasts were the technology that’s available, which I think is a felt need that I think it’s actively being addressed in the childcare field. There’s a lot of companies that are, they’re taking their shots at the target, but the ability to have everything all in one place just doesn’t exist here. There is not a actual full fleshed out, all in one software which is such a commonality in other industries where you just have your CRM and it’s also your client management, it’s also your processing for payment, I guess, all in one place.

• 0:14:49 Jacob Jensen: And so I think the other side of that is the resourcing that’s available in this field. And I think with just the industry of being a service based industry, obviously it is a passion based industry. And so there’s a lot of different heart tied elements to that. The margins are not as big as they are in other industries and so you’re operating with less resource. It is not common for a company to have a corporate office or a HQ or support team.

• 0:15:20 Jacob Jensen: And the resources that are provided at a state or federal level are not necessarily always helpful resources. A lot of times they can feel constraining. And so I think the biggest thing that I noticed is you have to create your own. Like you have to kind of take the bull by the horns and say, okay, if not me, then who’s going to do it? I kind of have to be the one to systemize this, to put the process in place, to make the sop, to actually lead it to the finish line.

• 0:15:50 Jacob Jensen: And I think especially when you go from one center to two centers to three centers and beyond that need intensifies. I think a lot of people obvious, obviously they get into this field related to a passion, right. Like Donna. Donna started her own childcare facility back in the, in the 80s because she wanted a place that she felt comfortable bringing her children. Like that was her reason for starting.

• 0:16:15 Jacob Jensen: It wasn’t because she thought I’m going to build this empire and run childcare in all of Horry County. Right. Like that wasn’t her initial goal. Might be one of them now thanks to CCSC and the growth and all those different things. But a lot of times people are having to pivot from their passion and learn the business side. And there’s not necessarily that wealth of resource available. So you kind of have to, to go get it or be part of things like the academy to get the resource to figure out what other people are doing that’s working.

• 0:16:48 Jacob Jensen: And it really, it takes a lot of grit and effort to really just dive in and say, okay, what do we need? And I think again, like the scalability from 1 to 2 to 3, the multiplication factor, you can, you can strong arm a lot of stuff at one school. Like when you’re just rocking one program, there’s a lot of things you can just, I can just will my way through this, right? I’ll work 6pm I’ll do whatever it takes. I’ll make it happen.

• 0:17:14 Jacob Jensen: When you go to two, maybe like you got a good right arm, like you can, all right, we got this together. We’re going to strong arm this. When you go to three, the game changes and you have to have systems, you have to have processes, otherwise you’re going to be running three different ships in different directions. And that’s no way to run a company. You have to have a streamline of different things. And so that was one of my biggest goals when I came in was I actually started the week that we acquired our third center, was saying, hey, let’s get all this into one one area, right? Let’s, let’s not get tunnel vision, but let’s get focused in on what our goals are, who we want to be, what we want our schools to feel like, and let’s take a unified approach to this expansion.

• 0:18:01 Jacob Jensen: And so I think those were the biggest things I noticed coming to this field is there, there isn’t a lot of external yet. And so a lot of it, you have to take and, and figure out what other people in the industry are doing or do it yourself, you know.

• 0:18:15 Kris Murray: So, yeah, that’s cool. I completely agree. And what you’re speaking to on the, you know, going from two to three and then trying to shortcut your pain on running around basically playing whack a mole if you don’t get these things in place. Is that consistency of operations. So consistency, consistency, consistency. And that will save leaders so many headaches and also give your people a roadmap for how this place runs, how, how we do, how we do things around here.

• 0:18:53 Jacob Jensen: You know that there’s an analogy that I love. It’s one of my good friends and mentors. He’s actually our operations director. His name, Scooter Buyers. He gave this analogy to me, oh my goodness, probably seven, eight years ago. But it’s the analogy of when you’re in leadership, you are the captain of the Ship, you belong behind the wheel, calling the shots, figuring out what needs to go. And I think one of the most glaring issues in this is you have a director, an admin team, or even owners at times, and they’re the captain of the ship, but they’re running around, putting. Putting corks in holes in the hole, right? Like they’re trying to.

• 0:19:30 Jacob Jensen: They’re just bouncing around like, plug, plug, plug, plug, plug, plug, plug. They plug this one in, the one on the other side just pops out. There’s water leaking through everywhere. And it takes a lot of discipline, I would say, to pull back and just give the delegation and the empowerment to your team to say, hey, strip those boards. They need to be completely sealed and replaced. These ones need to be recoded, like, and be the one that’s actually coming up with the solutions to problems and empowering your people and your team to go solve them.

• 0:20:04 Jacob Jensen: And that is something that I see a lot, and I think it’s such a true illustration. Like, I know I felt like there’s days where I’m just plugging corks and holes, right? And that’s not what we want to be doing. We want to be able to pull back and stand up on the top of the ship and be behind the wheel and have a good. A good overview of where we’re going, where we’re heading, how the wind’s blowing all those different things and not be under the deck trying to plug all the problems. So I thought that was a really good analogy he gave me. It stuck with me for, for all these years, but I think I feel like it personifies life and child care very, very well.

• 0:20:42 Kris Murray: Yeah, I love that. I love the analogy of, you know, if you’re down in the deck plugging the holes and so many people are spending all day fighting the fires in their business, then who, who’s actually. Well, who’s actually at the, at the helm, at the wheel? It’s going to go off course, right? Like, if you’re, if you leave your post and go down and fight all those fires or plug all those holes. Yeah, you’re. You’re going to definitely go off course. And that. That’s a beautiful analogy. I love that.

• 0:21:12 Kris Murray: You know, our industry also tends to be technology laggards. We are definitely not early adopters. We’re late adopters of technology. Typically. I think the schools that have excelled and been been able to scale are usually have CEOs or other team members who are technologically savvy and want to be early adopters or just Implementers of the best technology out there. So. And I think to some degree, the church industry is similar in a way to the culture of churches and how they grow and the culture of childcare centers and how they grow. To me, I’ve seen a lot of similarities. And then of course, sometimes there’s daycares in the basements of churches. Right. So there’s both.

• 0:21:57 Kris Murray: So in the ministry field, talk a little bit about what you learned around that. Anything, any lessons that you learned that you could carry into child care?

• 0:22:05 Jacob Jensen: Yeah, there’s a ton. There’s so many. I was a part of the staff over at New Spring Church. It’s one of the largest churches in America. I think they run around 25,000 members. Pretty consistently, there’s 13 different campuses across the state of South Carolina. And so me as a young 18, 19 year old, getting an internship, going part time, going full time with them, it was a journey. It was something that I cherished deeply.

• 0:22:33 Jacob Jensen: I owe a lot of who I am to a lot of the men and women that mentored me and kind of coached me through those years. Met my wife there. All those things. I think the biggest thing. And to touch on your point, I’m super grateful for the experience here because they were very much technology progressive. They had a lot of the techs and they actually developed their own CRM that was our own all in one that we use, that other churches could actually acquire. All these different things.

• 0:23:01 Jacob Jensen: Nice. So super, super cutting edge kind of stuff within that industry that I was super grateful to be a part of. But I think the biggest leadership lessons that I learned were kind of forced, honestly. So my role in ministry, I was the connections pastor at our church. And So I led 10 teams. I had about 150 volunteers on my roster and I was in charge of all Sunday experiences. So everything from the parking lot to the coffee stand, to the ushers, to the volunteers in the atrium, all those things, we had classes that we did on Sundays kind of in tandem with service.

• 0:23:37 Jacob Jensen: I was kind of managing those, all of those different things. And it was all volunteers. Right. So I think we had a staff of seven or eight people and we had about 11, 1200 people in our congregation. Again, probably four to 500 volunteers total in, in the church. And the number one thing was I, I am leading people to a place where they are willing to give their time in exchange for no monetary value to a purpose.

• 0:24:05 Jacob Jensen: And so it really makes you hunker down and figure out, okay, what is the vision that I’m casting? What is the purpose that I’m giving? What is the exchange that I can have with this person? To really actually genuinely connect with them and assure them that this is time well spent. And I think when you take that and you bring it into a leadership based employment kind of structure where you kind of have some built in equity, like I’m your employer, so, like, I should have a couple ounces of equity, I would assume, just by writing your checks and things like that.

• 0:24:38 Jacob Jensen: Right. But it really makes you reframe the kind of, the kind of way that you’re approaching things when you’re used to leading teams. And the only way that they’re going to show up is if they’re excited about showing up. It makes it a lot easier to lead teams that you’re paying to show up. And so I think kind of having that mindset of building in passion, building in vision. There’s a scripture that says where there is no vision, the people will perish. And so that was something that we talked about a lot. Like you have to have a vision for where you want to go.

• 0:25:10 Jacob Jensen: And I think this kind of ties into the ship analogy some. Even as I’m thinking about it, nothing drifts towards excellence. Nothing will accidentally just get excellent. Right. Like, excellence takes intent. Um, and without intent, you are going to be deteriorating. Like, it’s. I hate, I don’t know that I love the Grow or die verbatim. Cause I feel like it’s a little aggressive. But honestly, like it’s, it’s a little bit of like, hey, like if you want to run an excellent program, if you want to lead your staff with excellence, there has to be a vision and an intent behind your actions that is strategic. Like, it has to be mapped out and it has to be something that you think about. And it’s something I talk with my directors all the time is, hey, just get brain space.

• 0:25:58 Jacob Jensen: Like you said, to be at the helm, like to look at your ship, look at your crew, look at your horizon, what’s coming up, what’s to your left, what’s to your right, and really feel out what you want this to be. Because without it, you’re just hoping that you drift towards your destination and it’s just not going to happen. And so I think from the time spent in ministry, really learning that you have to have all of those things, you have to have genuine connection with people.

• 0:26:27 Jacob Jensen: It has to be an element of influence, honestly, that you have with people to lead well. And so I’m super grateful for those years. They were definitely Shaping and would not change it for the world.

  0:26:41 Kris Murray: Yeah. So I love this. This is one of the things, the core struggles of our academy members is that they find it very challenging to make the shift from being the doer of all the things and making the sandwiches and driving the bus to actually being the one at the helm of the ship and resisting the temptation to dive back in to the doing of the things. Or they’re so overwhelmed that they feel like they can’t.

• 0:27:16 Kris Murray: They can’t figure out how to get past the overwhelm of all the tasks to get into a place where they can just focus on the vision and the leadership. So since you’re one of our. You’re our newest coach, I’m going to ask you the tough question is how will you coach somebody who’s in that situation if they come to you and they’re like, jacob, I just can’t get out of my own way. I don’t have enough team members to try to. I don’t have anybody to delegate to. I can’t afford it yet.

• 0:27:45 Kris Murray: Like, how can I baby step into working in the business to working on the business?

• 0:27:51 Jacob Jensen: Yeah, absolutely. There’s two things that come to mind. The very first one is I am a firm believer that life is a seasonal thing. It’s not just the four seasons of the year, right. We’re in Myrtle beach, we have two sunny and 75 or snowstorms. Right. But I am a firm believer that there are seasons for sowing, there are seasons for reaping, there’s seasons for work, there’s seasons for rest. And so to someone that feels like they are in overwhelm, you just might be.

• 0:28:23 Jacob Jensen: You might need to be in a hunker down, wake up early, stay up late. And if you truly, truly, truly do not have the margin to add someone into your roster, there might be extra things you have to do, but it’s for a season. And so understanding that it’s for a season makes it feel a little bit more attainable because there’s an end in mind. It’s not a. This is going to be an endless hamster wheel for the next 60 years of my life.

• 0:28:50 Jacob Jensen: Um, the other thing is momentum. Um, and it’s something I talk to my team about often, is having wins that you can stack. So things that you can just accomplish and knock out to build your momentum. There’s nothing worse than feeling stuck, like you don’t know where to start. And so my encouragement would be to just start, like, to just hit, hit, go and stack up. Some small wins, even if they’re insufficient things. If it’s honestly, like, you hear the advice to make your bed every morning, right?

• 0:29:23 Jacob Jensen: To take a shower in the morning, like, just do the things that need to be done and stack small wins and let that momentum carry you into your bigger challenges. But then also, again, like the seasonal approach, like having seasons for, hey, this, this is a grind season, right? Like, my wife and I have conversations, like, we were just texting this morning. February, for us, it’s a sprint month. Like, it is go, go, go, go, go.

• 0:29:49 Jacob Jensen: Right? March, it’s going to be a little calmer. Like, we don’t have, we don’t really have much going on, but, like, understanding that February is going to be chaotic. I’m going to be out of town for a week. She’s got different events she’s got to go to while I’m gone. All these different things. We’re doing events at the school. Like, understanding all of that beforehand makes it way easier to live it than to just get beat around by life and talked in every different direction.

• 0:30:14 Jacob Jensen: And so I know something for, for my wife and I, obviously, our teams and, and stuff as well. But something that I would encourage people to do is just have regular, like, meetings about life, about your life. And even if it’s by yourself, like, if you don’t have a spouse, if you don’t have a partner, if you don’t have a number one leader in your roster or even a friend to sit down with, sit down with yourself.

• 0:30:37 Jacob Jensen: Look at your calendar, look at your task list and figure out what season you’re in. Figure out where you are, how long the season needs to last, and set attainable goals and keep stacking wins to build that momentum. And that would be my number one advice. I think sometimes when you’re under the water, you have to hold your breath and you have to just paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle until you get to shore. But, like, shore is there. And just understanding that it’s a season, I think is a really good mindset because it’s way easier to run hard when you see the finish line.

• 0:31:10 Jacob Jensen: And so shortening the finish line, right? Like, don’t make the finish line. Retirement. Make the finish line the end of February, right? Make the finish line the end of quarter two. Makes it way, way, way easier to, to not feel so overwhelmed. Yeah. Best way to eat elephant, one bite at a time, you know, that’s it.

• 0:31:31 Kris Murray: I love that. That’s very, very good. Those are great, great tips. And I love the season thing. You Know, and even looking back and reflecting on maybe something that didn’t go well in 2024, maybe you made a hire that was. And ended up being a not. Not a fit hire is just. It’s not a fit. It was just not a fit. It was a fit for. Or it was a fit for a season, or it was a relationship for a season. And I loved that season, but now I’m going to be okay with and accepting that it’s moved on and the season has ended and now we’re in a new season and just giving ourselves the grace.

• 0:32:09 Jacob Jensen: Exactly like you said. Like, I’ve talked to our leadership and stuff before. It’s like, man, I hate that we’re losing this person. Or I can’t believe this and that. It’s like the season’s over and it was a great season. Like, it was something that we will love and cherish forever, and they will have. Like, the bridge is not burned. Like, but the season’s over and that’s okay. Right?

• 0:32:29 Kris Murray: Right.

• 0:32:29 Jacob Jensen: Um, and so I think having more of a seasonal approach to things, it. It just makes it more palatable. Like, it makes it easier to. To chug when you need to chug, and it. It allows you to rest when you need to rest, too. Cause you’re. Hey, I’m in a season of rest. Right. I’m gonna. I’m gonna take this week and I’m gonna. Or this month or whatever it is. Yeah, I’m going to go to Hawaii or I’m going to go on a cruise, or I’m going to do this or that. Like, and it makes it feel okay because I know next month is a. Is a sprint month. Right.

• 0:32:56 Jacob Jensen: And it just. It makes everything feel a little bit more condensed and attainable, in my opinion.

• 0:33:03 Kris Murray: Cool. Talk a little bit about the marketing that’s going on at the Learning Station. And I know you guys are big fans of Grow youw Center, which I love that. And we love working with Donna and you and the team to try to grow your enrollment. What are some things that maybe you’re working on now or something you did last year that worked really well, just in terms of any kind of enrollment building advice, because people are also in a season right now of having some enrollment challenges.

• 0:33:35 Kris Murray: So talk a little bit about that.

• 0:33:37 Jacob Jensen: Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, we’re feeling the same thing that. That programs are feeling across the country. I know in our own, like, historically, I think if you talk to Donna, we couldn’t tell you the last time we were under 100% enrolled like it’s been probably since she joined the academy that we were, we were under 100% enrolled and we are sitting at around 93 to 95% enrolled right now. For us that’s like red alert, right? Like what is going on? Right. Like we need to get this thing back into the triple digits.

• 0:34:08 Jacob Jensen: And so we are honestly, we’ve kind of shifted into a whatever it takes kind of mentality and so different promotions we’re doing. I think the best one, the most, the most well received one we’ve been doing lately is a four weeks free tuition which has been super, super awesome and essentially it kind of offsets. So it’s, hey, it’s four weeks free tuition upon sign up and it’s the fourth week of each month is free. So it kind of stretches that out over four months.

• 0:34:37 Kris Murray: Yep.

• 0:34:38 Jacob Jensen: Guarantees you 12 weeks of tuition and kind of, kind of softens it a little bit, but it fills the space and then hopefully you’ve earned their trust. They don’t want to move their child after four months and it kind of locks that, locks that, that family in. That’s been a really good one. And another thing we’ve been, we’ve been talking to our admin and our leadership team about is honestly like it’s having more of a sales mind and I have a lot of this from the mortgage world.

• 0:35:03 Jacob Jensen: Newsflash. If you didn’t know your loan officer is a sales agent, right? Like our job was sales. It was to close the deal. If you think you, they actually can’t get you a lower interest rate, they’re lying to you. They can, they’re just taking from their margin. And so I, I had a lot of experience to kind of whatever it takes mentality in the mortgage world. Started in like 2020, which was refi City. It was amazing. Interest rates were low, was just awesome. And then 2021 came around.

• 0:35:33 Jacob Jensen: Oh no, I got that backwards. 2022 came around and just slapped everybody in the face, right. Feds raised rates, it was like, oh no, this is bad, this is not going to end well. And there was a scrappiness that you had to have. And so we’ve instructed our admin, our leadership team, it’s like, hey, if waiving the registration fee closes the deal, waive it. If telling them there’s no waitlist fee raises or closes the deal, close it. If they need a $25 discount every single week for the next two years, close it. Right? Like close the deal. Close the deal. Close the deal has been awesome and so kind of just shifting mentality into a, hey, like, let’s get this done. Like, let’s, whatever it takes, fill the spot.

• 0:36:14 Jacob Jensen: Instead of like just waiting and hoping that our phones ring. Right. Like kind of being proactive and attacking it. Some other things that we’re doing that we’re super excited about. We just finished our expansion on our, on our second location, we added 100 spots and so we’ve actually filled quite a bit of them, but we still have about 40 that we need to fill of the hundred new spots. So we’re having a grand reopening.

• 0:36:40 Jacob Jensen: We’re having the chamber of commerce come out. We’re doing a ribbon cutting. We’re going to have it in the newspaper, all the different things. Just kind of put it out there. Hey, the learning station. The learning station. The learning station. So very excited about that. And then a couple weeks following that, we’re going to be doing an art show at that same location on a Saturday where we’re inviting the community. It’s a free, free entry to come, have your kids enter in their art, make the art, have it displayed, all those kind of things. Really just an open house kind of with an experience tied to it.

• 0:37:10 Jacob Jensen: And so super, super excited about that. But yeah, we’re kind of shifted gears because honestly, we were, we were fat and happy for a while over here. Phones were ringing. We’re telling people we don’t have space. Our wait list is long.

  0:37:24 Kris Murray: Yep.

• 0:37:25 Jacob Jensen: We’re collecting fees. This is amazing. And then same thing for as everybody, like, oh, we got some space now. And so our whole team has kind of shifted into this. All right, whatever it takes. Whatever it takes to get it done. And I think that’s the mindset you have to have. And I think especially in this industry, that’s not natural. Right. Like, you have caregivers, people with amazing hearts, amazing personalities. Like, they, they care deeply about children. They’re not necessarily like sales killers. Right. Like, they’re not.

• 0:37:56 Kris Murray: Yep.

• 0:37:57 Jacob Jensen: They’re not the cold, hard closers, you know, and so, nope, having some of those conversations with our leaders and not that we need to be cold, hard killers or closers or whatever. Yeah. But kind of having that scrappiness. Right. That, that whatever it takes. Here, here are the things that are at your disposal. Just clear conversations financially of like, hey, you’re allowed to do ABC XYZ to get the deal done.

• 0:38:22 Kris Murray: Right.

• 0:38:22 Jacob Jensen: That’s been really, really good for our team because it empowers them. It keeps the questions out of the conversation. Donna and I aren’t up with can I give them this discount or can I do this? It’s like they have a very clear and wide menu of discounts and waivers and things that they can do to get the deals closed. And obviously it doesn’t mean we’re always going to do those things, but that has been. It’s been a game changer for us. And we’re.

• 0:38:45 Jacob Jensen: We’re ticking up, so we’re getting back close to the triple digits where we need to be.

• 0:38:49 Kris Murray: Yeah. I love the leadership. I know that everybody in a director role or administrator role there is focused on it because Donna’s been focused on it for so long and is co. Has been coaching it for so long.

• 0:39:01 Jacob Jensen: I love the.

• 0:39:02 Kris Murray: Whatever it takes. You are commended to be at 93 to 95%. Many, many people listening to this podcast would kill for those numbers. And the fact that that’s your low and you’re like, you know, driving into. Oh, my God, you know, we’re. We’re below 100. Let’s go, team. Is amazing. So I commend you guys for that. And my two takeaways for that is you gotta be everywhere the eyeballs are. You gotta market more, you gotta do more, you gotta get the chamber out. You gotta be all over the community. So those young parents eyeballs are eyes and ears. Whether they’re online or offline, you got to be there so that you’re hitting them with the learning station brand everywhere that they are. And the more they see it, the more they’re likely to call or come in. And then the second thing is, every lead is important.

• 0:39:48 Kris Murray: Like in these, in this climate we’re in this season, we’re in right now. You can’t take advantage. You can’t take for granted any lead. Not, not. Not a single one.

• 0:39:58 Jacob Jensen: So, yeah, we. We even went as far. We hired our very first ever enrollment and marketing specialist a few months ago.

• 0:40:04 Kris Murray: Okay.

• 0:40:06 Jacob Jensen: To. To kind of add some firepower to this. Yes, they’ve been a game changer. It’s. They’ve. They’ve kind of systemized our process in a. In a much better way. Going from just kind of a. A lumped together Google sheet with names on it to, like, an actual system of enrollment. They tore apart enrollment boot camp in a way that I have never seen before. I think Donna’s presenting on it in Phoenix on, like, how this staff member went and took enrollment boot camp and, like, tore it to shreds and actually implemented it.

• 0:40:36 Jacob Jensen: But it’s been. It’s been awesome to have them on board and and to really kind of put some fire in our team for enrollment.

• 0:40:42 Kris Murray: I love this. Oh, I cannot wait to watch that session. How did you guys find that person?

• 0:40:48 Jacob Jensen: They were on our team. They were on our two year old.

• 0:40:50 Kris Murray: Okay.

• 0:40:51 Jacob Jensen: Yeah. So anytime we do leadership hire or like an administrative role hire, we always offer it internal. Because you just never, ever, ever know.

• 0:41:01 Kris Murray: Yep.

• 0:41:02 Jacob Jensen: Who’s sitting on your team. You don’t remember the resume. Right. Like, especially we have 100 staff, so it’s like, I don’t know the work experience of all of my staff. Like, I can’t possibly call back on that. And so we always, like, we basically put a slack message out that says, hey, we’re opening or creating this role 24 hours. It’ll be open for internal hires, and then it’ll go live on external sites. And we always field applications internally.

• 0:41:28 Jacob Jensen: We feel passionately about providing opportunities for people to move up and all that kind of stuff. And so we actually prefer to make internal hires. But we interviewed this candidate. Her name is Brianna. I think you probably got to meet her before. Yeah. And she had like 15 years of marketing experience into the field. We’re like, what on earth?

• 0:41:49 Kris Murray: Like, that’s amazing.

• 0:41:51 Jacob Jensen: Like, she was running, like, different marketing campaigns for places in Tennessee and all over. And we’re like, you were in pre 2. Like, what? Like, yeah, this. And so, yeah, you just. You never know the history and the skills that the people that are already on your team have. And so I’ll circle back even further. If you feel stuck, if you feel overwhelmed, call your team up. Call them higher. That’s one of my favorite acronyms actually, is coach. It’s call out and call higher.

• 0:42:23 Jacob Jensen: Having people rise to their ceiling is something that a good leader has to do. So, yeah. Ask people what their skills are, what gets them going, what drives them, what their work history is. You might be drowning in accounting and have someone with a financial degree on your staff already. And they’re just. They got tired of the firm they were working at and wanted to go hang out with three year olds. You know, you just never know kind of what. What people have done in their history.

• 0:42:47 Jacob Jensen: So cool.

• 0:42:49 Kris Murray: I love that coach acronym. Ooh, this is amazing. I can’t believe that we actually are already out of time on this episode, which is crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, because there’s so many more things I want to ask you. Jacob.

• 0:43:02 Jacob Jensen: To be continued. Mastermind near you.

• 0:43:04 Kris Murray: That’s right. That’s right. And we do have an invitation out there. I think that this episode is going to air after we’re in Phoenix. But I’m excited for we’re also intentionally reaching back to all of our Academy alumni and offering them a special deal to come and join us at our mastermind group meeting. So I love that strategy. Can’t wait to welcome people back in to the tribe. As our newest coach on the Academy team, what are you most excited about for the year ahead?

• 0:43:33 Jacob Jensen: Oh, man, so many things. I think the number one thing I’m excited for, it’s something I talked to Jen Connor about a good bit in the entire process of becoming a coach is just providing value in multiple different ways. I’m going to be focused a lot on the team room, the team track of the Academy, as well as helping spearhead the men’s group that we’re doing. But I just want to provide value. And so whether that’s to the team members and ultimately to the owners that are bringing the team members that are making the investment in their people, I want to kind of just give the perspective, the experience I’ve had.

• 0:44:11 Jacob Jensen: I think as someone, I am super young. We didn’t mention it earlier. I’m 26 years old, so I feel like I’m a baby in the coaching world. I have all of these amazing childcare giants around me and so being part of Generation Z like I have, I feel like a lot of perspective to bring. I am a part of the generation of the workforce that most owners are hiring and the people that are, that are coming into leadership.

• 0:44:38 Jacob Jensen: And so those are my people. I went to school with them, I grew up with them, I understand them, I get how they tick. So I think getting to bring that to the team room, bring a different dynamic and also getting to have the perspective of being a second generation leader in a child care program. That legacy aspect that we strive to build at the Academy level is something that I’m, I’m super, super excited.

• 0:45:03 Jacob Jensen: All the things to personal growth, financial freedom, build your empire and grow your legacy. So super, super excited across the board. Excited to see everybody at the quarterlies. Excited to see you. It’s gonna be fun.

• 0:45:18 Kris Murray: Yeah, we’re gonna have a great time.

• 0:45:19 Jacob Jensen: Excited to, to hopefully add some value to the, to the team track, to the men’s group and to all the tracks. You know, I’m not gonna, not gonna pigeonhole myself.

• 0:45:28 Kris Murray: Yeah, no. And all the tracks get the, you know, the fact that you’re our first Gen Z coach and the really thing that keeps Gen Z, that sets it apart is that, you know, these human beings by and large have never had they’ve grown up with the Internet since the day they were born.

• 0:45:50 Jacob Jensen: Absolutely.

• 0:45:50 Kris Murray: And so it makes a difference in how you view the world and giving us that perspective and helping us understand and want to, you know, create a world that the Gen Z parents are excited to trust us with their child and the Gen Z employees are excited to be a part of our team and are engaged. Like, that’s so hugely important, Jacob. So I’m just so glad and grateful that you’re on the team. And also to Jennifer Connor for being the one that stepped up and hired your butt almost as quickly as we could say, yes, let’s do this. So I’m really grateful for everything that I see happening in this amazing company.

• 0:46:35 Kris Murray: So thank you so much for being here on the podcast. Can’t wait to see you in Phoenix. And everyone, any other final words before we say goodbye?

• 0:46:45 Jacob Jensen: Only final words would just be to keep pushing. I feel like 2025, I don’t know if it’s just here in Myrtle beach has been like a weird year already. Like it’s been like kind of bumpy already. Yeah, Only a couple of weeks in.

• 0:46:59 Kris Murray: Agree.

• 0:47:00 Jacob Jensen: Stack your small wins. Keep rolling, keep going. I do have some recommendations, if that’s okay.

• 0:47:06 Kris Murray: Oh, yes, please do. Go for it.

• 0:47:10 Jacob Jensen: I absolutely love the book, especially if there are any team members listening to this, Honestly, even. Even owners too. You can grab some nuggets from this, but it’s a book called how to Lead when youn’re not in Charge. It’s by Clay Scroggins. It is absolutely phenomenal. A timeless classic. Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink. I’m sure everyone’s probably read it, read it again and again and again.

• 0:47:34 Jacob Jensen: It is absolutely a game changer. And then one of my favorites, honestly. It is an old book, but it is so, so, so good. It is timeless. But how to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It is so good. Listen to the audiobook. It sounds like it was recorded in the 1800s. It is so fun. And it is. That’s one of the things that as a, As a clueless 18, 19 year old, my direct supervisor handed me that book and said, read this and do everything in it.

• 0:48:06 Jacob Jensen: And it changed the game for me. It truly did. It’s so good. But again, Chris, thank you so much for having us. This was an absolute pleasure and an honor. Always great to talk to you, but excited to see you in Phoenix.

• 0:48:18 Kris Murray: Absolutely. Thank you, Jacob. Thanks everybody for tuning in. This was a great one. And we’ll talk to you next time here on Childcare Rockstar Radio. Take care and God Bless. I hope you liked this episode of Child Care Rockstar Radio. If you did, please leave a review and share it with someone you know to help spread the word to friends in our industry and on social media. Child care business success is my passion and I’m honored to be on this journey with you.

• 0:48:47 Kris Murray: As a thank you for listening, I’ve got a new video training that shows you how to add six figures or more of new revenue to your program in the next 60 days by improving your hiring and your enrollment systems. To watch my new video, just Click go to www.fixmyschool. com. That’s FixMySchool. Com. Thanks. Take care and God bless.