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• 0:00:06 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 Child Care rock star.
• 0:00:32 Kris Murray: Now, let’s go. This is Child Care Rockstar Radio Episode 220 featuring Cynthia Marr. Hey folks, welcome back. I am thrilled to be here in the podcast hosting seat. I am Chris Murray, your host and this episode of Child Care Rockstar Radio is going to completely rock. And also I have some big news for the podcast. Cynthia Marr is my guest today and she is the owner and founder of Bedford Child Development center in Michigan, just over the Ohio border in the Toledo area.
• 0:01:12 Kris Murray: And Cynthia was a finalist for our Childcare Rockstar contest at the 2025 October Childcare Success Summit. And so thrilled to bring her in to talk about her experience competing for Rockstar. What she learned, insight gained about her self confidence, she gained about herself through that process, and all about her journey in early learning education over the last 20 years. We talk about what sets her apart, promotions that she’s running, mindset culture.
• 0:01:49 Kris Murray: Her website is incredible. If you guys want to check out a very clean and gorgeous example, a state of the art website, you can go check her out@bedfordchildcare.com and give her some love. So if you want some cool ideas for community marketing and boots on the ground marketing in your community to try to build your brand in a bigger way, this is a great episode and you’re going to learn about all of that and a lot more.
• 0:02:20 Kris Murray: We are into early February and as we release this episode, it has been, oh geez, nine and a half years. Let’s see. I, I launched this podcast in 2017, in the fall of 2017. So yeah, I think it’s either close to nine years or nine and a half years that I have been hosting this podcast and I have some big news today. This is my second to last episode of being the host of Child Care Rockstar Radio. It has been a huge labor of love and as we shift into March here in 2026, I’m going to be stepping out of the podcast host seat and our amazing CEO at Child Care Success, Jennifer Connor.
• 0:03:13 Kris Murray: And occasionally friends and occasionally myself will come in and help her and spend time with her here on the podcast. But she’s going to run the show starting with episode 222, which is a pretty cool handoff. And I just want to thank you for being with me for this past almost decade. It’s been an incredible ride. I have loved it so much. I remember the very first moment I got inspired to do a podcast. Kind of just landed in my heart because the podcast stage was still pretty early. It’s much, much more crowded now than it was back then.
• 0:03:49 Kris Murray: And I remember some folks on my team being like, really, like, do people even really listen to podcasts? And I was like, I think that there’s something there. And we have actually touched the hearts of and the ears and eyeballs of, I don’t know, hundreds of thousands of people through this podcast. It’s been amazing. We, you know, team members, teachers, child family, child care owners, home daycare folks, and then of course, multi site owners and single site owners across the board, as well as influencers in the space, coaches and consultants of all kinds in the early learning field and education field have come into this podcast. And so it’s been such a huge impact and just a fun, fun experience for me to be the host.
• 0:04:37 Kris Murray: My early roots were as a radio DJ and I worked for four or five years in public radio being a volunteer DJ at KBUT in tiny Crested Butte, Colorado. And you can read more about Crested Butte and how it’s impacted my life in my book the Antidote to Fear. And just being able to come to you via the podcast airwaves also on YouTube and make an impact, share best practices, share really cool stuff and amazing stories that are little known fun facts and little known strategies for success in the business of childcare and early learning. So it’s been an incredible ride and I want to thank you for being here alongside me.
• 0:05:26 Kris Murray: Jennifer Connor is going to come in two episodes from now, so I have one more episode after this with an amazing guest who you’re going to love. It’s a full circle moment. I’ll just sneak peek it like that. And then we’re going to go in, you know, beautiful new direction with Jen hosting. And then as I mentioned from time to time some coaches will come in, Coach Tabina will come in, I might come in and co host with Jen and we’re going to meet a whole new amazing group of people in this field and experts as well as practitioners and educators doing the work, doing the work that you guys do every day. So thank you for your devotion to the children of this world and for being with me.
• 0:06:12 Kris Murray: So without any further ado, before I get emotional, let’s dive in to episode 220. It’s called becoming stronger and Getting Better each Day with Cynthia Marr. Let’s go. Welcome back to the podcast, everybody. I am Chris Murray, your host, and I am thrilled to be with my friend Cynthia Marr today and introduce you to her and her world. Cynthia, how are you?
• 0:06:46 Cynthia Maher: I’m great. How are you, Chris?
• 0:06:48 Kris Murray: I’m doing fantastic. So where are you right now?
• 0:06:52 Cynthia Maher: I am in Michigan, close to the Ohio border. And it’s warm today, a little bit warmer than usual, so it’s nice. The sun’s out.
• 0:07:03 Kris Murray: That’s good. I think it’s been pretty chilly in your parts over the last few weeks, right. During the holiday season. Yeah, I’ve been watching. I’ve been watching football games in the Midwest and thinking about formerly living in Ohio and being from Ohio, kind of being glad that I am back out here in Colorado because it looked very cold.
• 0:07:24 Cynthia Maher: Yes. And I live in Ohio, so I live in Ohio. My center is in Michigan.
• 0:07:28 Kris Murray: Okay, cool. What town is your center in?
• 0:07:32 Cynthia Maher: It is in Temperance, Michigan.
• 0:07:34 Kris Murray: Okay, awesome. And tell us a little bit about your school, your center where in terms of like the capacity, enrollment, and anything else that you want to share about your brand. Okay.
• 0:07:49 Cynthia Maher: I have two buildings. They’re two licensed, so I always consider myself a multi site because I have two buildings, but they are actually just right across the parking lot from one another. We have the infant and toddler building that they can have 78 children over there. And then our preschool and pre K building can hold 60 children. So our full capacity is 132. We have been teetering a little bit lately. As everyone knows, enrollment’s been a little low around the country.
• 0:08:20 Cynthia Maher: So that’s one of the things we’ve been working on is, you know, doing our work, pushing our enrollment and focusing on doing a few different discounts and all that thing just to try and get some new enrollments this, this year. So that’s. Yeah. Cool.
• 0:08:42 Kris Murray: So, yeah, I’m always a fan of doing promotions, especially in January. So we could talk more about that when we talk about marketing. I love that you’re doing that. How long have you been in this amazing world of ECE?
• 0:08:56 Cynthia Maher: Well, I’ve owned my center for 20 years, but when I was in college, I was actually working in childcare as well. So pretty much my entire adult life has been in child care.
• 0:09:09 Kris Murray: Wow. And what made you as a, as a young adult, what made you be inspired to get into the field?
• 0:09:17 Cynthia Maher: I always have just enjoyed working with children. I really have always. My focus has always Been really the development of children. My bachelor’s is in psychology and I focused in child psychology during my studies at the University of Toledo. And so just childhood in general, just the development and watching children grow and flourish and get those aha moments with the light bulb have always been like something that just drives me.
• 0:09:46 Kris Murray: So when you bought your first center or just tell us a little bit about how that came about, how did you find the space? Or did you start in your home and then move to a center? Or just tell us about the origin story.
• 0:09:58 Cynthia Maher: So I originally was not the original owner of my center. It was originally in a church. And the gentleman and his sister in law opened it thinking that they were going to be the owners and, you know, flourish and stuff. And his, his sister in law got pregnant and she bailed it on him. And then his wife got transferred to North Carolina and so he had to bail. And he asked people in the church, who do you think would be good to run a child care center in the church? And my girlfriend said my name and he approached me and I took it over.
• 0:10:38 Cynthia Maher: So it just, you know, it kind of just fell into my lap. I wasn’t even looking, looking for it at the, at that time.
• 0:10:45 Kris Murray: Right. So sometimes the church based schools or centers can be really lucrative or just really successful because your rent is oftentimes subsidized and so you’re paying a low cost of, you know, the space in terms of like a lease or, or what have you. And so is that the situation that you found yourself in? You were able to fill it and kind of do pretty well with it early out, like early on?
• 0:11:12 Cynthia Maher: Early on? Yes. Like when we first started, we weren’t even open full time. We were only open like three days a week and we only had six children in it and three of them were my infant teacher’s kids. So we really didn’t have a whole lot of enrollment going on. And I had no idea what I was doing. I just had experience working in child care. I didn’t have experience running a center. And so I started just like putting out flyers at the libraries and at the schools around town.
• 0:11:46 Cynthia Maher: And by March of that year, the following year, because we opened in October, by March we were full time. We were able to be open full every day of the week and we had doubled in enrollment. So we had 12 kids. So I think that was good for, you know, for a six months, six month turnaround.
• 0:12:05 Kris Murray: Right.
• 0:12:06 Cynthia Maher: But we did move out of the church. We outgrew the church and ended up where we’re currently at. And that took. That took a while because I knew that my heart was still like, it’s my ministry like that. This always has been my ministry to be with children and to work with the children. And so when we found this building, we were able to, you know, leave the church. And I thank God every day that he was able to provide the church building for us for so long, but we outgrew it.
• 0:12:41 Cynthia Maher: And so we got in our current building and we only had the one building and had five classrooms in there. And it’s on a main road in the town that we’re in. And so we have a lot of foot traffic because of that.
• 0:12:57 Kris Murray: So.
• 0:12:57 Cynthia Maher: Which is nice.
• 0:13:00 Kris Murray: So with 132 capacity, I mean, that’s quite the growth of the person that you became as a leader and as an owner from 12 to 132. Right. So over the years, how have you, I guess what are some things that you can share about how you’ve grown in your journey as an owner slash leader? Who’s the person that you’ve become over, you know, from 2005 when you were just starting to the person you are today? What are some things that you can share about your.
• 0:13:35 Kris Murray: The version that you’ve become?
• 0:13:37 Cynthia Maher: Well, I definitely believe I’ve definitely stronger and I’m not a pushover because I think when I first started I wanted to be everybody’s friend and you know, it just wasn’t. It really wasn’t a business for me. It was just a job. And I treated it like a job for a long time. And so I have changed that mindset and now I’m, you know, not friends with my staff. I mean, I’m friendly with them, but they do know that, you know, they can.
• 0:14:11 Cynthia Maher: That they work for me. And so it’s, it’s a different role that I’ve, you know, made because I didn’t want to just be friendly friends with everybody. I had goals that I had in mind and, you know, expectations. And now I tell people what my expectations are through our trainings and everything. It’s just not a oh, come on, have fun and, you know, play with kids all day long type thing.
• 0:14:40 Kris Murray: Well, tell us a little bit about your home life, what’s going on at home, what are your interests and family life. Just share more about that.
• 0:14:48 Cynthia Maher: So I coach, travel, volleyball, and I’ve been doing that for about 12 years and I absolutely love coaching volleyball. So I do that. I have a husband, I’ve been married to him for 30 years and I could not do what I’m doing every single day without him and his support because, you know, in childcare there’s a lot of ups and downs and, you know, whether I’m having a good day or a bad day, he always lets me vent and, you know, be there. He’s. He’s there for me 100%.
• 0:15:19 Cynthia Maher: I have two boys and one’s 25 and the other one’s 21. They both still live at home. My youngest is in school for business and he even in mid mid middle school, he was starting his own business and doing things, graphic design for people, for gamers and stuff. So he’s always been really driven. He’s very much like I am, type A personality. And then my oldest, he. He works in the trades and he absolutely loves his job and they’re just really good kids.
• 0:16:00 Cynthia Maher: So Love it.
• 0:16:02 Kris Murray: My 23 year old is in the trades, as you may know. So we have that in common. Yeah, that’s kind of fun. And we. We love our boys in the trades. We need more guys.
• 0:16:12 Cynthia Maher: Yes, we do.
• 0:16:12 Kris Murray: To be doing that. And it can be a very lucrative career as well. At least it is for mine because he just moved to Alaska and he’s making sick. He’s making six figures. Yeah, yeah. Anyway.
• 0:16:26 Cynthia Maher: Well, that’s good.
• 0:16:27 Kris Murray: I know, I know, I know. He’s 23 and pulling down over a Hyundai and I’m like, man, you’re doing great. So very proud.
• 0:16:34 Cynthia Maher: That is awesome.
• 0:16:35 Kris Murray: Love it. What is a fun fact about you that not that many people know that.
• 0:16:45 Cynthia Maher: That I coached high school volleyball for three years on top of running a business. And that my husband thinks that I’m crazy because I am never at home because I am always on the go. I cannot sit still. I’m always trying to find something more to do with my life. Yeah.
• 0:17:06 Kris Murray: Awesome. Let’s talk a little bit about your marketing and what sets you apart. I don’t know how much competition there is in a relatively small town of Temperance, Michigan. Right. Right on the border. Those are smaller towns and I guess outside of Toledo. Is that like a suburb of Toledo? Kind of. So talk about your competition. Talk about the experiences you’ve had in your community, trying to make a name for your brand, trying to be known. And what sets you apart? What do you feel are like your.
• 0:17:46 Kris Murray: Your unique benefits that you offer.
• 0:17:49 Cynthia Maher: All right, so I know that what one of the things that we did early on was we did like a backpack giveaway at the church when we were still at the church, and we did like a fun fest that had like bounce houses and stuff and it was able to promote not just the church but also the child care center. And we did do something just recently when we had our 20 year old anniversary this past summer. We had opened it to the community and had bounce houses and other things and had marketing materials there as well.
• 0:18:27 Cynthia Maher: And we’ve been really trying to push, just working more with the community. We had our trunk or treat this past October and invited the community and we had a really good turnout for that. And one of the things that we really have been implementing heavily has been our CRM through Playground. We’ve been with Bright Wheel, we’ve been with Intellakids and we just switched to Playground back right before Summit.
• 0:18:57 Cynthia Maher: And I love their CRM program. It’s really beneficial like for us because my enrollment specialist has been able to really keep on top of things that way and it’s just like really user friendly. So we’ve been doing that. Yeah. So like our tour experience I think has improved quite a bit because of the CRM because we’ve been able to really branch out a little bit further in what we previously were doing through Intellakids.
• 0:19:34 Kris Murray: Right.
• 0:19:34 Cynthia Maher: Because you can like actually make an enrollment like it, you can actually make something right through Playground that you can then post to your Facebook page and it takes you right to the playground to be able to enroll or to book a tour right from there. And yeah, and I have my enrollment director or my enrollment specialist right now, she’s reading your book to go back to the grassroots, you know, to try and boost that enrollment as well.
• 0:20:05 Cynthia Maher: So yeah, we asked parents through for Google reviews. We’ve done their Google review contests. We had the Sotellas before. We’ve done that. So just really working with, because it is a smaller town working with our families for that word of mouth because there’s a preschool like diagonal from where I’m at and there’s also like two other ones down the street. So like there’s a lot of childcare centers and preschools that in our vicinity like within probably a 25, not even 25 mile, 10 mile radius than where we’re at.
• 0:20:47 Cynthia Maher: So it’s very heavily populated with childcare centers. So it’s hard to, you know, compete. But we do have the biggest playground in the area and we’ve been around a lot longer than a lot of these other places. And so, you know, it helps that we have been around as long as we have.
• 0:21:05 Kris Murray: Right.
• 0:21:05 Cynthia Maher: Because families know us.
• 0:21:07 Kris Murray: Yeah. So I love that. I love the community relationships with the community events I’m always a big fan of the Fun Fest, family appreciation fest with the bounce houses. And I love that you’re going back to basics, reading the 77 Strategies book, I’m guessing, and kind of implementing a lot of those grassroots and back to basics ideas. So. Because they work. So I love that. And yeah, the Playground software and those my friends that created it. So my, my buddies over at Playground, they’ve been on the podcast and I love them. They’re really sharp and definitely best in class, I think. So I love that you’re using their CRM. I didn’t know that their CRM was also providing, you know, a really good user experience for you. Being user friendly and helping you track those leads is huge and get leads.
• 0:22:04 Kris Murray: So I love that.
• 0:22:05 Cynthia Maher: Yeah. And they, they did just inform me that they are rolling out like, because I have it in Google sheets right now of like keeping track of our tours and the tour conversion and all of that. And now they’re going to be doing that. So it should be coming pretty soon that I’ll be able to just have those reports right from Playground to know what our tour conversion is. And that will be nice as well.
• 0:22:29 Kris Murray: Love it. Let’s talk about your leadership and culture. So talk a little bit about maybe 10 years ago. What were things like in terms of leadership and culture in your school and how did you become the leader that you are today? What are you doing in terms of your culture? Building to try to make your team be an engaged, collaborative set of teachers and educators.
• 0:23:00 Cynthia Maher: Well, I definitely, our motto has always been to treat others as you would want to be treated. And I do treat all my staff as if they are family. I do want them to know that I care for them and that they want, I want them to feel valued and supported while they’re working, but I also want to make sure that they’re completely trained properly before we, you know, put them into a classroom. And I think that’s where it initially needs to start.
• 0:23:31 Cynthia Maher: And so our leadership team, like all of my leadership team, has always been really good about making sure that, you know, they have those two weeks of onboarding when they first start at the center and that we build on that to know that, hey, you are valued. We want you to know what you’re doing before you go in with the children. And, you know, just building that sense of teamwork and a culture that inspires excellence has always been, you know, what we have been focusing on. I can tell you, you know, 10 years ago, I didn’t have core values I didn’t even know like what I was doing still 10 years ago. I feel like, and honestly I, that’s because of you and your company.
• 0:24:21 Cynthia Maher: You know, when I, I didn’t know what I was doing before I joined the Academy. And since joining the Academy, I’ve learned so much more about running a business and about leadership and about myself and how strong I am more than I. And I, I thank you because I couldn’t be, I couldn’t do what I’m doing without all of your books and you know, the academy and everybody that has helped me along the way.
• 0:24:50 Kris Murray: Well, you’re welcome and thank you for saying that.
• 0:24:53 Cynthia Maher: No problem.
• 0:24:54 Kris Murray: That’s always so fulfilling for me to hear and to know that we’re making a difference in helping give you guys that structure and that support and that training so that you know how to become the leader that you always wanted to be and have that culture, that amazing culture in your school. You mentioned enrollment specialist and I love that you have one because a lot of schools that of your size, you know, may feel like they don’t need one.
• 0:25:25 Kris Murray: But talk a little bit about your admin team. What, how, how do you have it structured and what are the key roles that help you stay in the visionary seat?
• 0:25:38 Cynthia Maher: So I have an executive director and she is literally my right hand girl. She actually was my preschool teacher when we first moved into this building and then she left for a while and went to go work at Head Start. And when my program director resigned back in 2012. No, wait, when was it? 20? I want to say it’s like 20, 19. 20, 2020. She resigned. And at the same time, my friend who now, well, my executive director, she, she had posted on Snapchat that she was done working where she was working and that she needed to find something new.
• 0:26:22 Cynthia Maher: And I reached out to her and it was the best thing I’ve ever done because she has helped me be a better leader by just coming and working aside along alongside me and you know, helping me have a backbone a little bit and making sure like she kind of pushed me out and said, hey, you put me in charge, let me be in charge, you know, and I’ll come back to you if I have issues. So I have her and then I have my program director underneath her and she does most of the infant, she does the infant and toddler building.
• 0:27:01 Cynthia Maher: She’s a program director for that. I have an assistant director who’s also my GSRP lead teacher because we have the state, the state funded pre K classroom. We do have One of those in our building. So that’s my assistant director, and she’s been with me for a while, and I love her to death. And then I have my enrollment specialist and she. She left before and went and worked at another GSRP Head Start class and came back and came back as my enrollment specialist because her degree is in communication and she’s. She’s excellent.
• 0:27:39 Cynthia Maher: I just feel like I have the best team that’s surrounding me because they are all strong women and they know what their roles are and they know, you know, what my expectations are, and we just work really well together.
• 0:27:53 Kris Murray: Nice. Have you had the opportunity to bring any of these amazing ladies to any Academy events or summit events?
• 0:28:02 Cynthia Maher: Yes. So my executive director has been with me now, I think, to three summits because she was in Nashville and then Atlanta and then when we were in Florida. And then this past year, I had all. I had seven girls with me. So I brought even some of my head teachers with me this past year to Atlanta and they just couldn’t. They were wowed. Like, I remember my first summit and how, like, overwhelming it was, and just like just the atmosphere and the energy that’s in the room.
• 0:28:35 Cynthia Maher: And then they felt that. And so, like, we drove down to Atlanta from Michigan and drove home and. And it was a very fun ride home because it was just, let’s do this and let’s do that. And, you know, it was just all this, all the talk, and it was just. It was amazing to see other people, you know, have that energy that I get every time I’m at, you know, one of the Academy functions.
• 0:29:00 Kris Murray: So it sounds like, I mean, it’s definitely an investment to bring seven people to a summit with the tickets and the lodging and all of that.
• 0:29:09 Cynthia Maher: And.
• 0:29:09 Kris Murray: But I. I’m assuming that it was worth the investment because especially on the way home, you guys were all collaborating and there was so much energy and you were excited and planning and all of that. Like, it sounds like it was definitely worth it.
• 0:29:24 Cynthia Maher: It definitely was. It was definitely life changing for a lot of the girls.
• 0:29:27 Kris Murray: Nice.
• 0:29:28 Cynthia Maher: I wouldn’t change it for anything.
• 0:29:29 Kris Murray: That makes me feel so happy. I love that. Let’s talk a little bit about your experience. Of course, since you were a rock star finalist and they were there in the audience to see you on the big stage, present your story. How was that experience for you and how did you feel about, like, what, what inspired you to join the contest and to go for it? What did you. And also just like, what did you learn about yourself through the. Through the process.
• 0:29:59 Cynthia Maher: So I think the reason why I went into the contest was because last year or two years ago in 2023, I was or 24, I was sitting in the audience and I was like, I’m going to do this next year. Like, I just sat there and just said, I’m going to do this. And my, my directors and my. Because my, both my directors were there that year and my assistant director and they said, we’re going to hold you to it. And so like, by the time we got home that year, we were already discussing how we were going to do it. Like, my, my director wanted me to have a drone that went over like the church and was like, this is how we got started. And then like drone into the new building. Like she had this all, like this video all planned out.
• 0:30:44 Cynthia Maher: Like from from the get go in November, we were already discussing how we were going to do it. And so it was just waiting until the actual application like came out that I was able to sit down and really go back and think about my story and dive into all the pluses and the minuses. And I know I went over on my time during the on stage and didn’t get to show everybody my video, which my son was upset about because he helped me edit the video. He was like, you didn’t even get to see it.
• 0:31:19 Cynthia Maher: But it was just a really fun experience just to be able to get up there and stand in front of people. I would have never been able to do that, you know, not even five years ago. I think, like, I was just. I’ve always been a really shy person and to be able to stand on that stage and feel as comfortable as I felt, it was amazing. Like, I, I mean, I know I didn’t win, but like, I still felt like I won because I got to experience the, you know, that, that time being on the stage and it was just awesome.
• 0:31:51 Kris Murray: Yeah. And being in the green room with the whole gang back there, it’s just like a really cool behind the scenes experience.
• 0:31:59 Cynthia Maher: Yes, yes. And I, you know, and coach Ben and I, you know, we had a little moment before I went on stage and that was fun because, you know, I’ve had coach Ben, I think three years out of the time I’ve been in the academy, he’s been my coach.
• 0:32:14 Kris Murray: Yeah.
• 0:32:14 Cynthia Maher: And so that was fun being able to have him back there as well. But I actually learned a lot about myself and how strong I really am and what I can accomplish if I put my mind to it by just that experience.
• 0:32:28 Kris Murray: Right. That’s Amazing. I love that for you. What is something that you. Looking back at your journey, anything that you would have done differently if you had a magic time machine and you could go back and change something or do something differently, what would it be?
• 0:32:46 Cynthia Maher: I think I have two of them. One would be to shut my mouth. So then people would have been able to see my video on the. And then I think the. The biggest one, though, would be to. To join the academy earlier in my journey because of the fact that if I would have known all the things that I know now or that when I started the academy, if I would have been able to learn that when I was first starting the center, I think I would be stronger than what I am even, you know, earlier in my. In my business venture.
• 0:33:25 Cynthia Maher: So definitely that if you put the.
• 0:33:30 Kris Murray: If you have a Vimeo link to. Or a YouTube link to your video, I’ll put it in the show notes with this podcast, and then people can go watch it. Would you like to do that? Yeah, let’s do that. Okay. Okay, cool. What’s next for you? What’s on the horizon? Are you thinking about expanding or where. Where’s your head at with that?
• 0:33:50 Cynthia Maher: So my husband thinks I’m crazy, but, yes, I am thinking about expanding.
• 0:33:54 Kris Murray: Okay.
• 0:33:55 Cynthia Maher: I’ve already been in touch with a few business leaders and owners in the area in Toledo, and within the next five years, I hope to have three more centers.
• 0:34:09 Kris Murray: Ooh.
• 0:34:10 Cynthia Maher: One. Possibly even in spring of 2026, because I’m already in the talks with someone about that.
• 0:34:16 Kris Murray: Okay.
• 0:34:17 Cynthia Maher: So. Yeah.
• 0:34:18 Kris Murray: Good. I love this for you.
• 0:34:22 Cynthia Maher: Thank you.
• 0:34:22 Kris Murray: And you. And you seem to have no trepidation or fear about it, so I love your big, bold heart.
• 0:34:28 Cynthia Maher: I mean, I just want to be there for the community.
• 0:34:31 Kris Murray: Yeah.
• 0:34:32 Cynthia Maher: Like, I just. I know what my brand is. I know what my. My, you know, my philosophy is in child care, and I think that if I can give that to other kids, then that’s my goal.
• 0:34:45 Kris Murray: What is your feeling about what’s going on in the landscape today? Right now at this moment, we’re having an interesting political season with childcare. Some feel it’s an attack on childcare, and you could definitely see it as that, especially in certain states where funding’s being pulled and enrollment’s down. So there’s just, like, this interesting season. So what are your. How is it going in your neck of the woods, and how are you feeling about the whole thing?
• 0:35:10 Cynthia Maher: Well, I. I definitely know that we’re feeling it a little bit here, especially with enrollment numbers being down a little Bit more than they were last year at this time. I believe, though, as of right now, that Michigan is not being affected by the subsidies. But it’s scary. It’s a scary thing, you know, that there are states that are being targeted because of their political backgrounds. And, you know, it shouldn’t be about politics. It’s about the kids.
• 0:35:43 Cynthia Maher: And I, you know, I’m hopeful that it gets resolved quickly because I wouldn’t want any center to have to close because they can’t get, you know, their funding back because of one. One or two bad apples.
• 0:35:58 Kris Murray: Right.
• 0:36:00 Cynthia Maher: Right.
• 0:36:02 Kris Murray: Totally agree with you. And we have a little bit of a movement going inside of ccsa, which is hashtag we are child care strong. So.
• 0:36:10 Cynthia Maher: Yep. Had to mention that with Coach Tamina yesterday on Facebook, and I was like, oh, I need to make shirts for my teachers that say that, because, yes, we all need to stick together.
• 0:36:19 Kris Murray: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I put it on my page as well, so.
• 0:36:25 Cynthia Maher: Great.
• 0:36:26 Kris Murray: Well, is there any final thoughts? Let’s share with folks how people can find you if they want to check out your website or any of your socials, if you want to share any URLs or handles. How can we find you?
• 0:36:39 Cynthia Maher: So our. Our website is bedfordchildcare.com and you can find us on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok under Bedford Child Care.
• 0:36:50 Kris Murray: Okay, cool. Because I’m not sure we said the name of your program in this podcast.
• 0:36:55 Cynthia Maher: Yeah. Child Development Center. Okay. And then the preschool buildings. Bedford Child Development Center 2t o. Oh, cute.
• 0:37:05 Kris Murray: Love it. All right, Anything else that we want to share before we say goodbye?
• 0:37:12 Cynthia Maher: No, I just appreciate you taking the time and allowing me to come on to the podcast and talk to you about my center and about my. My journey in child care. And I can’t wait to see what the future brings.
• 0:37:25 Kris Murray: Me too. I think you’re doing amazing things in your community, for your community, for your people. I love the leadership team that you’ve developed and the families and kids that you’re impacting, I think are really lucky.
• 0:37:40 Cynthia Maher: Thank you.
• 0:37:41 Kris Murray: So thank you. You’re welcome. Thank you, Cynthia, for being here on the podcast today. It’s been a pleasure. Thanks, everybody, for tuning in, and we’ll talk to you all next time. Take care and God bless. Bye. Bye. 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.
• 0:38:08 Kris Murray: Child care business success is my passion, and I’m honored to be on this journey with you. 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 go to www.fixmyschool.com. that’s fixmyschool.com thanks. Take care and God bless.