Childcare Rockstar Radio
Host: Jennifer Connor
Guest: Toni Bedford, Owner of Bedford Learning Programs
Introduction
Welcome to Childcare Rockstar Radio. I’m your host, Jennifer Connor, CEO of the Childcare Success Company. Childcare leaders around the globe are breaking through challenges, raising the standard of excellence, and building businesses that impact children, families, and communities in powerful new ways.
On this show, we spotlight bold leadership, real strategies, and the innovators shaping the future of early childhood education—all so you can grow stronger, lead with confidence, and step fully into your role as a childcare rockstar.
The VIP Day Experience
Before we jump into today’s episode, I want to share a recent highlight: we hosted a VIP day at our new corporate office in New Orleans. We spent the day with four owners, slowing down to work intentionally—something owners don’t do often enough. We stepped away from the “fires,” emails, and staffing questions to focus on:
Business structures
Decision flows
Next-level leadership shifts
Success is seldom about working harder; it’s about thinking differently.
Featured Guest: Toni Bedford
Our guest today is Toni Bedford, owner of Bedford Learning Programs. Toni has built an impressive organization featuring a network of six family childcare homes.
Despite having a strong team, Toni found that many decisions still flowed back to her. During our VIP day, we focused on the reality that there is no shortcut to building leaders. Real leadership requires development, mentoring, and modeling rather than just handing off tasks.
Interview Transcript
Jennifer Connor: Welcome back to Childcare Rockstar Radio; I’m so excited to have Toni Bedford with us. How are you doing, Toni?
Toni Bedford: I’m doing good.
Jennifer Connor: You recently came to our office for a VIP day because you were looking at how to make your team stronger and how you could step more into the CEO role. Take us back to before that day; what did your day-to-day look like?
Toni Bedford: I started Bedford Learning Programs in 2013. My model is a bit different because we have six in-home locations, with a goal to have ten one day. Each location has a director who is also a teacher, and I have an admin team of four people. Even though I’ve been in the academy for five or six years, I still struggled to let go. I was doing the day-to-day, often finishing people’s projects for them, or they felt they couldn’t finish until they got the “okay” from me.
Jennifer Connor: Any owner can relate to that; it’s your baby. But with multiple locations, you have to shift and create systems so the team can have ownership.
Toni Bedford: Yes. In the beginning, my reason for having more locations was actually so I could pay my staff better and provide a higher profit to put back into the company.
Jennifer Connor: Before the VIP day, was your team pushing you to let them handle more?
Toni Bedford: Always. As an entrepreneur, you struggle to balance personal life. Before the VIP day, my husband and I became foster parents to our three grandkids (aged 9 months to 4 years). With them and our three teenagers, I realized I didn’t have a choice; I had to let go of duties like billing, scheduling, and call-outs. My goal was to empower my team to run the company while I focused on CEO duties, vision, philosophy, and advocacy.
Jennifer Connor: Where was the most pressure coming from for you?
Toni Bedford: It weighed on me to see my staff struggle if I wasn’t giving them the right leadership or training. I wanted to find out what their roles needed to be to help them achieve their goals.
Jennifer Connor: What was your “one thing” you hoped to leave the VIP day with?
Toni Bedford: I was hyper-focused on taking the advice and actually implementing it. Sometimes you go to masterminds and write goals down but forget them once the day-to-day starts again. I was ready to do whatever was needed.
Jennifer Connor: Was there a specific “aha” moment for you?
Toni Bedford: The questions you asked were very insightful. You told us not to put names on admin positions yet, but to look at what the company needed first. Those reflective questions made me realize what I really had to do.
The “Reset” Results
Jennifer Connor: What did you immediately do when you got back?
Toni Bedford: I had an admin retreat the next weekend and did a “reset” with the team.
Visual Aids: I used a whiteboard and an org chart to show them the new positions.
Handbooks: I prepared admin handbooks for their new roles.
Time-Blocking: I now time-block one hour each week to train each person individually.
Jennifer Connor: What has been the most surprising or proud moment in this transition?
Toni Bedford: In five weeks, we haven’t gone backwards. They still come to me with questions, but I’m learning how to respond as a leader. I do a mindset training with my admin team every week to help them handle the chaotic rhythms of childcare.
Jennifer Connor: How are you feeling now compared to five weeks ago?
Toni Bedford: I’m more confident. I’ve realized I love coaching—I was in the cheerleading industry for 25 years—but I hadn’t implemented it enough because I was too bogged down in operations. Now that I can take a step back and coach, it empowers me.
Final Thoughts & Advice
“That it’s okay to let things go and trust your team. Don’t let the day-to-day bog you down; have a plan and intention so you can actually do what you love.”
— Toni Bedford’s advice to her former self.
Jennifer Connor: That is a wrap! Strong childcare businesses don’t happen by accident; they are built by owners who choose to grow stronger every day.
Ready for freedom? Visit www.fixmyschool.com for a free business breakthrough call.
Keep leading boldly, and I’ll see you next time!
Real leadership takes time, clarity, and the willingness to slow down and lead with intention. In this episode, Jennifer reflects on a recent VIP Day at the Child Care Success Company’s new corporate office in New Orleans, and the perspective owners can gain when they step out of the daily rush long enough to think differently about how they lead. That sets up her conversation with Toni Bedford, owner of Bedford Learning Programs, a network of six family child care homes, about what it takes to stop being the person everything keeps coming back to.
Toni shares how a strong team and multiple locations still left her carrying too much, especially during a major family season when she and her husband became foster parents to their three young grandchildren. Together, she and Jennifer unpack the difference between delegating tasks and truly developing leaders, and what it looks like to create more clarity, intention, and ownership across the organization.
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Below you can read the key takeaways from this episode:
[1:20] Jennifer opens by sharing how a recent VIP Day reminded her why she loves helping child care owners slow down, think differently, and step into stronger leadership.
[2:35] Jennifer introduces Toni Bedford and explains the core challenge behind their VIP Day work: building a stronger leadership structure so the business can grow without everything flowing back through the owner.
[5:53] Toni shares the story behind Bedford Learning Programs, her six in-home child care locations, and the struggle of still being pulled into daily decisions even with a solid admin team in place.
[9:39] Toni opens up about a major family transition, becoming a foster parent to her three young grandchildren, and how that season forced her to face what had to change inside the business.
[12:44] Jennifer asks where Toni was feeling the most pressure, and Toni names the tension many owners know well: trying to support the team while quietly carrying parts of everyone’s job.
[15:29] Toni explains why she said yes to the VIP Day and how she came in determined not to let the insights become just another set of notes that never got implemented.
[18:37] Toni describes her biggest realization from the day: no one could simply tell her what to do. She had to think clearly about what her business actually needed and build from there.
[21:40] Back at home, Toni uses her already scheduled admin retreat as a reset meeting, rolling out a new org chart, updated roles, and a more intentional leadership structure.
[22:50] Toni shares one of the most important shifts: weekly one-on-one training with each admin team member, focused not just on tasks, but on confidence, expectations, and leadership development.
[26:21] Toni and Jennifer talk about the truth many owners miss: there is no shortcut to building leaders. Real delegation takes time, mentoring, modeling, and consistency.
[30:25] Toni reflects on her team’s response to the reset and how trust, support, and a phased rollout helped the changes feel energizing instead of overwhelming.
[32:12] Five weeks in, Toni shares what she is most proud of: the team has not slipped backward, the momentum is still there, and she is learning how to respond as a stronger leader, too.
[34:37] Toni talks about what has changed for her personally: she feels more confident, more energized, and more connected to the coaching and mentoring side of leadership that she genuinely loves.
[37:20] Asked what she would tell the version of herself before the VIP Day, Toni offered a powerful takeaway for other owners: it is okay to let things go and trust your team.
[40:08] Toni closes by reminding listeners that this work is hard, and that the best place to start is by getting honest about what you love and where you want your leadership to go next.
