Entrepreneurship in Early Childhood Education: Ashley Du’s Inspiring Journey | Daycare & Early Childhood Education Series

Intro  

Welcome to another edition of inspired stories where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes, how they’ve overcome adversity, and explore current challenges they’re facing.

Anthony Codispoti: welcome to another edition of the inspired stories, podcast where leaders share their experiences. So we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity.

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Anthony Codispoti: My name is Anthony Kodisbodi, and today’s guest is Ashley Dew.

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Anthony Codispoti: founder and CEO of meaningful beginnings. Daycare

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Anthony Codispoti: in 2,013. She opened a daycare in her home, and has since grown it into 2 large centers in San Francisco.

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Anthony Codispoti: Meaningful beginnings was recognized as Sf. Gate’s best Daycare and Early Childhood Education Center.

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Anthony Codispoti: Ashley is a 1st generation American and serial entrepreneur who has used her commercial real estate experience to identify prime locations for her daycare centers. She also consults aspiring daycare owners and opening and growing their businesses, and they are now looking at the possibility of franchising their operations.

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Anthony Codispoti: But before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, add back benefits agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line.

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Anthony Codispoti: One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in net profits by implementing one of our proprietary programs. Results vary for each company, and some organizations may not be eligible to find out if your company qualifies contact us today at add backbenfetsagency.com.

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Anthony Codispoti: Now back to our guest today the CEO and founder of meaningful beginning stakeare Ashley, I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

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Ashley Du: Thanks, Anthony, thank you so much for having me here today, and I am super excited for our conversation.

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Anthony Codispoti: All right, let’s hop in. So, Ashley. Tell me about the inspiration for 1st starting your daycare in your home, no less.

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Ashley Du: This goes back to 2013, when I was pregnant with my 1st daughter, and I was looking for childcare options for her. At that time

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Ashley Du: there were no real good high quality daycares there was, either on the one end where you had the older grandmas in their homes, taking care of children, and it was more like a babysitting type of thing versus daycare. On the other hand, you had something now big, like the big bright horizons, and you know the proper way, traded Daycares. And so

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Ashley Du: that was where I made the decision like, Okay, do I pay a lot of money to go to daycare? Or do I go to a lower quality daycare and pay a little less? So there was really no middle ground.

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Ashley Du: so I decided to drop out of college and take care of my daughter. So, luckily at that time our tenant moved out of our house, the downstairs area. So I went on Craigslist, and bought a list of toys and things for a daycare, painted the rooms different colors, and then I went off and opened my own home daycare.

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Anthony Codispoti: And so how did you get your 1st

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Anthony Codispoti: client, your 1st student, your 1st child.

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Ashley Du: So for the 1st 6 months it was I had nobody. It was just super quiet. I posted on Craigslist, and at that time Craigslist was a big thing, and so I had families coming for tours. But nobody signed up, and I think it was because I was young. I was only 20 years old, and I didn’t really know too much about business. And here I am like asking someone to give me their prize possession, like, Okay, I’ll take care of your child for you, even though I have my own. At the time I think it was just a confidence issue.

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Ashley Du: And so for 6 months I had nobody, but I just kept going and kept going, and then finally a family. They decided to give me a shot, and from that point on. Once I got my 1st file. My 1st family signed up. Everybody signed up afterwards, and then we got busy and we had a wait list, and it just kept going. So it was definitely a mentality, confidence type of thing.

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Anthony Codispoti: Was gonna be. My question is, do you think it was a confidence issue on your side? Or do you think that once you had that 1st one, that proof of concept that everybody else who came in was like oh, it must be alright if somebody else is already vetted her.

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Ashley Du: Yeah, I think it starts off with the confidence right? All starts with you first, st and then the fact that the proof of concept was proven. Then everybody else, game.

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Anthony Codispoti: And so 6 months.

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Anthony Codispoti: nobody. You’re given lots of tours in between.

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Anthony Codispoti: That’s that’s frustrating like, how did you kind of push through that. What told you to keep going rather than throw in the towel like this is never gonna work.

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Ashley Du: I think it’s because I already put in so much of my time a. Again I painted each room a different color, I went on Craigslist found used toys and old toys, and you know things that just work for sale, and I dro. I drove like far, like hours, just to pick up like a playhouse every day. I was working on it little by little, and I’ll just work on the back end and the front end and the advertising the logo. And because I put in so much time.

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Ashley Du: I just knew, like, okay, this half this has to work, you know. And then I knew that there was a market for it at that time, because again, myself

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Ashley Du: I was looking for a good childcare center. Right? So where else would I go besides my own, since I’ve trusted myself so a lot of it was because I already put in so much time and so much effort. I was ready to deep into it, and the fact that I knew that there’s definitely a market, and also, I believe in myself ultimately.

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Anthony Codispoti: Nice. And so how long had you been running it in your own home before you decided to open up a standalone center.

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Ashley Du: How long I will say it was about 3, 4 years in was when I decided, I want to open a commercial center. At that time my kids were so young. So it was kind of like a bit out of the ballpark. But at the same time, I’m like, Okay, you know what if I want to grow? I have to do it now.

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Ashley Du: Despite the fact that my children were so young, and so I got into real estate at that time, just to make some extra income, because the math that we’re bringing at that time was good. But it was not enough for me to open a commercial center. It was a lot of capital required, so I got into real estate, and all the money that I made into real estate I poured into my 1st commercial center, and that was in 2,019 when it was officially open.

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Ashley Du: But when I 1st started looking it was 2,017, 2,018. So that was 3, 4 years after I’ve opened my downstairs home downstairs daycare

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Ashley Du: and I had to go through 2 rounds of construction. I knew nothing about commercial real estate. I didn’t know anything about lease negotiations. I signed the lease, and I started paying rent pretty much like 2 months into it, whereas now I’ve learned like, okay, I could negotiate free rent while I’m going through the build up process while I’m building. I could ask for 10 improvements. I don’t have to pay for everything myself, and I didn’t know these things, so I made a lot of mistakes in the beginning, when opening my 1st commercial center.

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Anthony Codispoti: And who was it that sort of taught you about those things after on afterwards.

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Ashley Du: Myself, I think, actually going through it myself. I learned a lot, and then, after going to being in residential real estate for a little bit. I jumped into commercial real estate, and I learned a lot just transacting my own deals. And from that point, and also I negotiated a lot for our clients right? And so, after all that had happened, then I realized, like what I had done wrong and why I’m in this position now. Well, during that time. Why I was in that position. And why? Because.

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Ashley Du: okay, let me go back a little bit like, you know, it costs it was so expensive much more than I expected it to be.

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Ashley Du: I was expecting it to only be low. 6 figures end of being high. 6 figures because of the fact, we have to go through 2 rounds of construction. It wasn’t just that. It was a time

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Ashley Du: there was so many things that went wrong, and I think it’s it’s a mix of just things that happen slowly throughout my life, like going into commercial real estate. Then meeting all these clients and helping people negotiate, then that really taught me like, okay, this is now I know what to do for myself moving forward and how to negotiate and how to get the best bills. So it’s just timing and luck.

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Anthony Codispoti: And you were able to fund all of this development from your real estate business.

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Ashley Du: Yes.

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Anthony Codispoti: That’s impressive.

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Anthony Codispoti: and what you mentioned that you had 2 different rounds of construction. Why, 2, what is that? What happened there.

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Ashley Du: Again. It’s because I’m a startup right at that time, and I really didn’t know much. And

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Ashley Du: I was trying to save monies because I was bootstrapping. It wasn’t like I raise money, and you know I had unlimited amount of capital, and so, instead of hiring hiring an architect to go to the building department to help me with getting our permits and things like that. I tried to do it myself, so I went down to the city, and talked to

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Ashley Du: the fire to building, and one person will tell me one thing. Another person will tell me another, and every time they told me to do something I would do it, and every time when I was back it was a different person. They’ll tell me something else.

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Ashley Du: And so from that experience I’ve learned that. Okay, I can’t cut corners. I think it’s better to just leave the experts let the experts do things that they know, because then it’ll save you a lot more time and money in the long run.

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Anthony Codispoti: And so how long did it take you to fill up that 1st center when it finally opened.

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Ashley Du: About 2 and a half years, and it was right during it was during Covid when all this happened. So I opened the center in 2019. And then 2020 happened and we had to close for 3 months. And I’m like, okay, what are we going to do? We just started ramping up. We started with 5 kids. We’re licensed for 50 kids over there. And so at that point, I think we’re only at like 20, we’re barely even at 50 capacity. So we’re just breaking, even if even

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Ashley Du: and

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Ashley Du: Covid happens. And we’re like, Okay, what are we gonna do now? You know. Thank God, they have the Pvp, so that did help a little bit. We didn’t get a lot, though, because again, we just opened 2,019, so we didn’t have a long track record, but because we were in this sweet spot we were not super big and we were not super small. We were in the middle where we were, the 11% of daycare’s actually survived

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Ashley Du: most daycares closed, because if they were too small they didn’t have enough children to support their overhead, and if they were too big they lost too many children, where they also were not able to support their overhead. So because we’re in this middle ground we were at the sweet spot, and we were able to keep running, and then everybody that closed their parents and their families, and those children ended up coming to us. So we ended up getting super busy during Covid.

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Anthony Codispoti: Wait. Did you just say 11% of the daycare survived 89% closed permanently. Is that what you’re saying?

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Ashley Du: Yeah.

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Anthony Codispoti: That’s an almost impossible number to believe. Wow!

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Ashley Du: Yeah.

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Anthony Codispoti: I mean, that’s a decimation, if ever I’ve heard of one through it for an entire industry. And and was that in your area is that the State of California? Where? Where does that stack come from?

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Ashley Du: Yeah, that was in the Bay area.

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Ashley Du: Yeah, I have to double check. But I remember it was 11% that survived.

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Ashley Du: That was it? Yeah? And then I did.

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Ashley Du: And we’re talking about not just commercial centers like even the small, in-home family daycares. A lot of these small family daycares closed, and a decent amount of commercial centers also closed.

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Anthony Codispoti: So the silver lining to the the tragedy that was Covid is that a lot of these centers closed? And because you were able to weather the storm.

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Anthony Codispoti: There were a lot of parents who were looking for a place to take their kids. Your doors were open, and so at what point during Covid. Did you see sort of this big influx? Was it later in 2020? Was it the next year.

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Ashley Du: Yeah, it was later in 2020 and ongoing. The good thing about us is that we also provide a lot of our clients there. They were essential workers. So there were doctors, nurses in the medical industry and the health industry. And so because we served primarily those type of demographics. Then we got to stay open, whereas a lot of the other daycares because they weren’t serving that demographic, they weren’t allowed to stay open. That was another thing.

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Anthony Codispoti: Okay.

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Anthony Codispoti: interesting. And so then, at what point did you have the confidence to say, this is going? Well, let’s open a second center.

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Ashley Du: Hmm after 2021, when we saw our numbers, we had a huge profit margin. And because of that we were able to open a second location, and we saw the demand there, and my 1st location was primarily infinite dollars. So we didn’t have preschoolers. So a lot of the families that came and stayed with us. They asked us like if we could open preschool, so that you know they could stay with the company and so

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Ashley Du: the opportunity was there. And also the other thing was that because of Covid, a lot of the landlords that were willing to work with us. So I was able to get good negotiation deals, and it was just a good time even right now. It’s still a good time, I mean, as you know, commercial real estate is not doing well right now, so it’s a perfect time to negotiate deals.

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Anthony Codispoti: Yeah. And so you open the second center and the second center has preschool in it. Is that right?

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Ashley Du: Infant, taller, and preschool. Now? Yes.

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Anthony Codispoti: And how is the preschool kind of playing out for you now? That State of California has introduced State sponsored preschool for lack of a better phrase.

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Ashley Du: So this is where I’ve learned that I can’t always just create something for what my clients want. I actually have to do my own research and understand the market well enough. So when we open the preschool, we thought, Okay, all of the families that are currently in our care, that event tollers, they will definitely go into preschool. That’s what we were expecting.

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Ashley Du: Now, that’s open. We’re like, okay, that’s not the case. We see that they’re going for other options, right? Like the state funded options. And you know there’s like the universal pre-k for all now and and then. There’s also other options like language, immersions, and all these other different things. And now we can’t compete with that. So the preschool site is a site that is not

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Ashley Du: doing the best. I would say and so, moving forward. I don’t know if I’m gonna continue growing the preschool side, because, going back a little bit, the second location we have more preschool capacity than we do infiner.

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Ashley Du: So, moving forward, what I will do is have a smaller preschool and have a larger infant dollar size.

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Anthony Codispoti: And looking at your website, I see that there’s what 3 lo! New locations that are in process. Is that right?

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Ashley Du: Yes, that’s correct.

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Anthony Codispoti: And where will the locations be for each of these? And what’s the age focus? Is it that preschool, toddler, age, range.

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Ashley Du: Now, we’re looking into South San Francisco, Berlin, game and the east bay, so San ramon or Walmart, Creek, those are the areas that we’ve been looking into, and they will, they will encompass infant, taller, and preschool.

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Anthony Codispoti: You’re still gonna introduce preschool into each of those new locations.

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Ashley Du: We have to. Yeah, yeah, is that that? Yeah, that’s 1 of those things where we just have to have it. Otherwise, if we don’t have it. They would just go to another place.

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Anthony Codispoti: Now I wanna rewind a little bit to hang, actually hang on what? Address? Something you just said there, people would go to a different place. And that’s because maybe they’ve got 2 kids

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Anthony Codispoti: right. They’ve got somebody who needs to be in the the infant space, and they’ve got somebody who needs to be in a preschool, and they they want sort of a 1-stop shop. Is that why you feel like you? You still need to offer both.

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Ashley Du: Exactly. Yeah. We have a lot of families in our care currently, where they have an infant, and they have a preschooler, and they stay within the Nd family.

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Anthony Codispoti: Got it. Okay. So now I wanna I wanna rewind again back to Covid, you know, cause there were several months there where there’s this uncertainty you’re not sure. When can we reopen like? What is this gonna look like? Was there ever a thought in your mind to just throw in the towel. You’ve just been through like this brutal construction process.

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Anthony Codispoti: It cost you so much more money than you thought, you know. Now, Covid hits like, was there ever a thought that, like man, the universe is just conspiring against me? I’m just gonna

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Anthony Codispoti: I’m just gonna give up.

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Ashley Du: No, actually, during that time I did not think about that at all the entire time, because I think I was still in that heat of the moment. I just opened this, my pride and joy, my everything, and that did not even cross my mind. I just knew that we will get through it, we’ll figure it out, and somehow, some way we’ll make it out.

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Anthony Codispoti: Yeah.

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Anthony Codispoti: And I think what’s great about some of the stories that you shared so far, Ashley is, it shows like I don’t want to call it the dirty side, but like the nitty gritty of what happens behind the scenes. Right? You’ve got. You’ve opened these beautiful day care centers. People drive by them on all the time. You’ve got parents who bring their kids in. They’re like what a gorgeous facility she’s probably making lots of money like.

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Anthony Codispoti: and they have no idea of all the grit and determination that it took for you to get from 0 to where you are now. And so I think it’s really great that we’re kind of highlighting some of those struggles like man. For 6 months. Nobody would even give me a shot when I 1st opened my doors in my home, and then that picked up. And now I open my doors in my 1st center, and

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Anthony Codispoti: but it costs so much more money and then Covid hits. And it’s there’s all these things that happen behind the scenes that you know people don’t don’t normally get to hear about.

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Ashley Du: Right, exactly.

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Anthony Codispoti: So tell me a little bit about the curriculum that you have in place and sort of your overall approach to to early childcare and education.

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Ashley Du: Yeah, I guess I should share a little bit more about my background. And why I actually got into this. Besides, the fact I have to drop out of school to take care of my daughter. When I was growing up I grew up with limited resources. In San Francisco we were again. 1st generation American.

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Ashley Du: my mom. She had to take care of myself and my 4 older brothers by herself, and she had to work 3 jobs. When I was growing up I was super independent from a early age, and I think preschool was one of the biggest factors as to why I succeeded in life. There’s actually studies that show that if you go to a preschool you have a higher chance of succeeding in life versus those who don’t go to preschool and when I look at just like me and everybody else in the family right now, I

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Ashley Du: will have to say that I’ve probably gone a bit further compared to some of my siblings.

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Ashley Du: And because of that, like I I just know how important the 1st 5 years of a child’s life is I think the fact that I had preschool and I had the good teachers that I good caregivers, and that was the only sense of stability that I had that you know, that

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Ashley Du: brings it into now in the future, where I want to create the same environment for children again. The 1st 5 years are the most important. It’s your caregivers either make you or break you. They either traumatize you, or they will help you grow and thrive through life. And so

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Ashley Du: with that, my philosophy is

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Ashley Du: the curriculum that we go that we

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Ashley Du: use right now as Reggio Amelia, where we encompass the entire community. We believe in the child as individual and collaborative work, and the environment is a 3rd teacher. So what that means is that in the Reggio Amelia inspired

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Ashley Du: school system, the the way that

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Ashley Du: the classrooms are set up. It’s very natural. It’s very Zen, and it’s more calming type. Environment like you will not see plastic things everywhere. All of our furniture is wood, it’s oak, and it’s a light color. There’s lots of trees, there’s plants. There’s nature, all the curriculum that like

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Ashley Du: our themes. It’s a week-long project. It’s not like a day type activity, like, for example. Oh, we’re just gonna color today. That’s it. Like we’re gonna talk about? Oh, what colors are there? How do you create these colors? And it starts from Monday all the way up until Friday, and even longer, if the child is interested, so it all goes down to interest of the child, and when we teach the child in this way it

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Ashley Du: helps not only build their confidence, but also helps them build their social emotional skills. Because again, we’re with the community, right? So meaning that it’s not just a project based on just a child alone. It’s going to be with everybody in the classroom along with the teachers so very similar to Montessori, a set, Montessori. They’re more focused on the individual child’s individual projects.

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Ashley Du: whereas regimelia, it’s a community project. And with this approach I feel like it goes back down into my deep core again like one, the stability 2, the environment, 3, the caregivers and 4 like the community, feeling like, you know, even if we don’t, we’re feeling alone as long as we have the community. Now, you’re all one.

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Anthony Codispoti: So where did you pick up these philosophies? Because when you 1st started the daycare, you’re very young, right? You think you said you were 20. You dropped out of college because you were having your own child, so I’m correct me if I’m wrong. But I’m going to guess that you hadn’t had the opportunity to absorb these philosophies through a work experience or through your college education. Up to that point.

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Ashley Du: So I did drop out of college because I was originally my nursing program, and so I dropped out of my nursing program. However, I did go back to school when I opened my daycare just to study early childhood education. Because I wanted to know what I was talking about. So school. So I did go back to school, and that did play a big difference in terms of where our philosophies are and how our approach to early childhood. Education is.

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Anthony Codispoti: So you you touched on this a little bit. But I want you to go into a little bit more detail. I’m I’m curious to understand better what a typical day looks like for one of your students.

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Ashley Du: Hmm, okay. Well, it depends on the age group, right? But let’s just say it’s a preschool like the child is a preschooler. They will come in. The pit dropped off and during drop off they’ll wash their hands or clean and they’ll go potty. They’ll go into their classroom and

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Ashley Du: depending on the time that they drop off, because there’s a time period. If it is earlier, then they’ll have am snack, so they’ll eat along with their pairs on at a table. And then after that they’ll clean up and then then it’s circle time and circle time is where they’ll introduce the theme, the song to talk about their day, what they are interested in doing, what we plan to do. And then that’s also where we read all like that

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Ashley Du: themes like the theme songs, and whatever it is that the curriculum is that day, and then after that they’ll go outside they have outdoor time for anywhere for one to 2 h assuming that the per the weather allows it.

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Ashley Du: then they’ll come in to have lunch, and then it’s nap time, and after nap time they have to get. So usually nap is about 2 h or so, and after that then they’ll do an activity depending again on the interest of the child. It could be, you know, art, it could be blocks. It could be anything that they’re doing at that point, and then after that they’ll be Pm. Snack, or outdoor time, and then

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Ashley Du: then it’s pretty much pick up. So every day it’s pretty structured, but it could adjust, depending on the interest of the children.

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Anthony Codispoti: And so you’re providing a food for the students. There.

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Ashley Du: Yeah, we provide food. We also provide potty training as well, yeah.

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Anthony Codispoti: Wow! I wish that would have been accessible to me when my kids were that age. That was

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Ashley Du: Yeah.

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Anthony Codispoti: Period.

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Ashley Du: And the interesting about the potty training piece is for me to retain good talent like my teachers, because they’re the asset in the company. We get all the potty training fees actually goes to the teacher that potty trains the child. So we don’t take any piece of that.

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Anthony Codispoti: So what does that look like when somebody says, Yes, please, Potty, train my kid.

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Anthony Codispoti: how how does that work in your facility.

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Ashley Du: So we’ll we’ll have to have a plan with the parents. We have to ask them like, Okay, do you feel like your child’s ready. Do we feel like the child’s ready? Are they mentally prepared? Because it’s a team work? Even if we’re potty training the child. If they’re not doing at home. It’s gonna defeat this purpose. So once we decide that it’s a good idea, and we’re all on the same page, then we’ll go ahead and start the potty training process, and we’ll talk to their lead teacher. The lead teacher will also say, Okay.

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Ashley Du: and then they pay the fee. Then they potty train the child for a month, usually no more than a month and by that time they’ll be completely potty trained, and then, whatever the fee is, will go to the teacher.

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Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, I wanna touch on something, Derek. I I love what you said. I I think you said employees are your greatest asset. Right?

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Anthony Codispoti: And in this challenging employment environment, right? There’s a big labor shortage. It’s hard to find and hold on to good people. What are some things that you’ve done and found success with. To do that.

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Ashley Du: Okay, that’s exactly that’s like one of those things that it’s a ongoing challenge for me, like identifying

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Ashley Du: the right people and the right seats and the wrong people the wrong seats. It goes back to that book. Traction.

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Ashley Du: The good thing about my day cares right now is that I still have 2 employees that’s been with me since day one like in the downstairs of my home. So they’ve worked with for me for over 10 years now. And they’re still with us. And I think what I found from those 2 employees is that they, when they came to work for me, they did not have a vision of the future, and they didn’t know what they were. Gonna do. It was just like a job for them at that time.

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Ashley Du: And because I was able to train them, and they worked hand in hand with me side by side, because at that time the downstairs in my home. I was doing everything. I was the cook. I was the cleaner, the diaper changer, the business, you know, the business owner everything. And

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Ashley Du: I think because I was able to train them and give them a future in terms of where they want to go, because the moment that opened my large daycare they came with me right the commercial daycare, and then I put them through schooling. So we give teacher stipends, and we give them bonuses the moment that they complete courses?

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Ashley Du: And we just kept encouraging, encouraging them to go to school, get more units and etc, because that’s the only way they’re gonna get a pay raise right? They they have to have these things. And I think that was so. My whole point of that is that basically growing from within, and

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Ashley Du: being able to provide someone a future that they’ve never seen before, I think, or that they can envision. I think that’s a big thing, so kind of being like a role model and mentor to these teachers has been very helpful, and I have a philosophy within our own company where I like to grow from within. So every time we get a leadership person that leaves, let’s just say as assistant director, or whatever the case is.

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Ashley Du: I always look insight. First, st I’ll talk to my executive director like, Hey, do we have anyone in the organization right now that we could level up that we could grow that could bring up.

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Ashley Du: And we always have a second in command type of her

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Ashley Du: type of thing. You know, where there’s always assistant director below. Whoever whatever that position is.

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Ashley Du: just so that we’re always gonna have on incoming leaders. So with that said growing from within is one major thing. Also, being a good support, person and role model for them is really important, especially in today’s day and age. Is not the money is not.

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Ashley Du: It’s that’s not the only thing now. Now, they wanna know, like, who are they following? Who is their leader? And are their leader going to do? They feel inspired from this leader, and will they continue to be there for them as they continue to grow in their journey. So I think group within being good role model

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Ashley Du: and also, of course, like identifying what your team needs is a big thing and also creating a culture like the culture is so important the culture of your team. So we do go through lots of challenges with finding people. But one thing that I found very helpful is this one company called Workstream. And so how that works is the moment that we post an ad, it will go on to all the job boards.

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Ashley Du: and anyone who’s ever applied for any position. It gets archived into our company database. So the moment that we’re looking for somebody, we go back into that archive and we’re able to mass message everyone. And then we’re able to fill those positions much easier. So that’s like more of the logistical type of thing that we’re able to do, but when it comes to the staff it all comes down to leadership, growth, and continuous improvement and professional development.

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Anthony Codispoti: And with this work, stream tool. Are you finding, then, that there are folks that applied for a position maybe months ago, that are still available or still interested.

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Ashley Du: Yes and no because they could be at a position where they’re not happy with, or they could be at a position that they are happy with, and or sometimes it doesn’t matter whether they’re happy or not happy. There’s always gonna be changes right? So sometimes, if there is a change, they might just reach back out and say like, Oh, hey, you know, like some things change. Are you still looking.

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Anthony Codispoti: So.

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Anthony Codispoti: Ashley, tell me a little bit about the consulting business, and how you’ve helped other aspiring daycare owners.

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Ashley Du: Hmm, yeah. So through my own journey, as I mentioned, I went through so many issues with construction and just learning about the building department and learning how where to get the money from. Like, aside from the real estate business. I also like I to dig into my own like like personal loans and credit cards and things like that to try to get it going right. But that time had had I know what I know now, I would have probably wanna Sb route.

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Ashley Du: So because I’ve been through so many things. I just realized one day, like, Okay, I wish there was a consultant out there that could help daycare owners right? Or even people who have in home daycares right now, that may wanna consider opening a commercial center because I know it wasn’t easy for me, and I talked to a lot of daycare owners that only has in home centers. And they tell me, like, yeah, they would love to. But they just don’t know where to start.

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Ashley Du: So then I’m okay. I feel I have enough experience. I’ve grown from 0 to nothing. I mean from nothing to here. And we’re gonna continue to grow. So I feel like I could probably help people.

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Ashley Du: So yeah, I mean, I did something very simple. I put a additional tab and service on our website and said, Okay, now, we’re gonna offer consulting services. And that, surprisingly, was a big hit, because people start finding me. If you look up like daycare consulting services, we actually pop up organically. I’m not been advertising that

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Ashley Du: and so my 1st client came from word of mouth. One of my friends who wanted to open a daycare reach out to me, and they they? They wanted to work together, so I help them and so the 1st one

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Ashley Du: she was a daycare owner that had an in home daycare that was open for 6 months, with no, no type of touch. There was no tours, nobody reaching out, no increase.

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Anthony Codispoti: Oh, even worse than your situation, at least you were giving.

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Ashley Du: Sure.

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Anthony Codispoti: He wasn’t even talking.

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Ashley Du: Right.

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Anthony Codispoti: Buddy.

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Ashley Du: Yeah. And so I came in. I evaluated her space. I looked at what she’s doing, currently. And I and I saw the problem. I’m like, Okay, it’s because you’re not doing any type of branding or marketing like there, there’s nothing right now. You’re not on any platform. There’s no Google business listing. You don’t have a Facebook page. You don’t have an Instagram page like, you know, all these things are important. You don’t have a website yet. And so I came and helped her with all the branding, all the marketing I put on to all these different

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Ashley Du: social media platforms, and like daycare platforms, and then. So we start working together in January, and by March she already had 2 students enrolled, and she had ongoing tours.

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Ashley Du: And now her businesses continue to grow, and she gets tours all the time. So that was definitely proven.

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Ashley Du: I had another client where the wife. She was a preschool teacher for over 20 years. They wanted to open their 1st in home daycare. They also did not know how to how to go about it. It was all just licensing stuff. They needed help with paperwork, so, and I told them like you could do this yourself. I don’t want to charge you for paperwork, you know, but they’re like, well, you know, like we do. We would rather just do it one time without any mistakes. I’m like. That’s a great idea, you know, like.

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Ashley Du: And so yeah, I helped them put together their paperwork, and I got them licensed and like fairly quickly, less than a month. And then after that, now we’re into Phase 2 where we’re helping with their branding their marketing and getting the clients through the door, and I’m another one where their commercial daycare owner, operator, and their revenue was in the negative, and they needed to turn it around. And so I came in. Okay, well, how are you getting clients right now? What are you doing? Where are you advertising?

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Ashley Du: So that’s ongoing. And then another client that work with right now she is looking to open a daycare center. And so I am giving her all these different advice with like, Okay, Spa loans, which ones to look for, how you should negotiate your lease deal what you should be looking for in the buildings, whether it’s a new building or old building, because if there’s an older building. There’s a lot of maintenance that will come in

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Ashley Du: that you won’t even think about, whereas in your building there’s not as much maintenance. So that’s been going well, and I think I find a lot of joy in that, because I’ve been able to.

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Ashley Du: It goes back to like the teacher thing where I was saying, I’m able to help grow their mindset and help grow their mentality and help them be, see a future that they never thought was possible. So when it comes to the consulting side, that’s exactly what it is. I’m able to help grow businesses and individuals to see a bigger picture, and, you know, get to a different point in their life that they’ve never been expected.

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Anthony Codispoti: So somebody’s listening. And they’re interested. Ashley’s website is meaningful beginnings.org. And you can find the consulting services under the about Tab

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Anthony Codispoti: And you mentioned, Ashley, that one of your clients is Daycare, who was operating but operating in the red. They were running at a at a loss what you you kind of briefly touched on like, okay, how are you advertising? What are some of those levers that you’re looking to pull to boost sales lower expenses. How? How are you helping them out.

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Ashley Du: I think so. What I found is that it depends on that where they’re located and where their target audiences like, sometimes you gotta look at it like, okay, is it? Is it the product? Is it the people? Is it the the demographic that you’re targeting like? Which one is it, I think, specifically for this location. They were in an area. That’s not, I’ll say it’s not the best location, right? It’s and

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Ashley Du: I found that being in a government program would be a better way for them. Because then you get subsidized care. And you’re serving a different type of demographic. That’s 1 so identifying where your channels are coming from. So the revenue channels right like for this one, they were only private pay individuals, whereas now I’m okay, maybe you should consider this going with the government program as well. I’m not saying only fully government subsidized. I’m saying a mix of both.

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Ashley Du: right? So you could fill in some gaps some other thing that we introduced were drop-in care, which is what we do as well, because, you know, like nowadays, people are looking for flexible childcare options. They only had full time and part time. There were no flexible options, but we have the flexible options. You’re able to open it up to a different market now. So that was another thing. So strategizing that.

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Ashley Du: and then 3 also finding the people. Because then, with this owner operator, I think sometimes, like as an owner, you always think like big, or how will I say it? Like your confidence is out the roof, or you know you’re a little big headed sometimes, and you don’t want to like go back into the basics. I think that was something that came with training, too. I had to like tell like, Hey, look! I know that your ego is here, but you have to think, what do you really need for the business. So that was like a mentality type of thing.

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Ashley Du: So yeah, going back to that, is it the people? Is it a product? Is it the the demographic that you’re targeting. What? What are those? And in this situation it was a mix of the 3.

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Anthony Codispoti: You mentioned a drop in daycare service. Talk to me about how that works from somebody on the outside looking in. It would seem like that’s

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Anthony Codispoti: kind of a scheduling nightmare like you’re trying to plan your staffing because you’ve got to keep certain student to teacher ratios. Yeah, talk to me how that works.

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Ashley Du: Yeah. So with us.

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Ashley Du: so with the ratios, it gets really complicated. So with infants is one to 4 ratio by state licensing requirements, toddlers, one to 6, and preschools one to 12. So let’s just say, if you only have, let’s talk about preschool, it’s 1 to 12. If you only have 8 children. You’re still gonna have that one staff member, no matter what right? So that leaves 4 spaces available.

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Ashley Du: right? And and same with taller, and infants so no matter what you’re gonna have the staff, anyway, so you might as well fill up the spaces.

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Anthony Codispoti: And is there a big demand for this? Somebody who’s only like, you know, they wake up one day and they’re like, Hey, I I just need daycare today, but you know, not on a regular basis.

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Ashley Du: I wanna say, it’s a big demand. But it’s about 20% of our business right now.

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Ashley Du: yeah. Well, I’m I guess it is decent. Yeah. So yes, because

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Ashley Du: one, there’s a lot of schools where they close like. So there’s like the Jewish Community Center school that is in San Francisco, and they close a lot on many different days. Then we have a partnership with them where their director sends their students to us when they’re closed. And so, for example, right now, during summer, we have a lot of drop-ins because they’re closed so much during summer. We also have like a situations where like, let’s just say their date.

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Ashley Du: Their Nanny, or Babysitter is sick, or whatever the cases, and then they need to drop in. We also have situations where, like, sometimes,

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Ashley Du: sorry lost my train thought. But basically, whatever the cases like, if they wanna just drop off to go to a massage appointment, or they have work or last minute things, and they need to drop off. And that also comes into play. The other thing, too, is, we’re working with bright horizons, and we also have we help them with their backup services. So, for example, if they have families are traveling from La to San Francisco to work. They will. We will be like

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Ashley Du: one of their go to backup services, drop in daycare, so they will drop into our center as well. So it’s all over the place. But it could be from traveling parents to just running Erin parents to just the fact that the schools are closed.

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Ashley Du: that’s all.

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Anthony Codispoti: See, and this was great. I’m glad that I asked that. You know outsider question, because initially, I’m thinking, this isn’t an opportunity. This is a scheduling nightmare, and you reframed it. You said, well, you know, if we’ve got the space right, if we’ve got one teacher to 8 students, we’ve got 4 spaces there to fill. So if somebody raises their hand and says they want to come in great, you know, we’ve got some unused capacity. So, rather than the challenge. It’s the opportunity that you spotted.

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Ashley Du: Yeah, and also like, because we are larger. Right? We have a lot of students.

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Ashley Du: children always calling out sick. They’re going on vacation and spaces are gonna open up. We’re never 100 full capacity. That’s rare, because there’s always somebody out.

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Anthony Codispoti: That makes sense. So

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Anthony Codispoti: you’re thinking about franchising. Now talk to me about that thought process.

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Ashley Du: Yeah, so I’m currently in accelerator program.

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Ashley Du: do you know, I I don’t know if you guys know what celebrator programs are. But basically, they help fast track companies. And I’m just thinking about how we’re gonna grow. Our revenue. The only way that we could grow revenue is obviously through more locations, but each location to do it on our own. It’s very capital, intensive, and it’s a lot of work and a lot of manpower. So we’re exploring the idea of having a franchise model and actually like one of my

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Ashley Du: clients I consult, for she’s interested, and she’s like, you know, I would love to be the 1st franchise already having the model built in all the operations, the curriculum and the team.

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Ashley Du: So that’s that we’re exploring it right now is not set in stone, but I do feel like there’s a bigger opportunity there because of the fact that we’re able to grow the brand without us having to do it ourselves. We plan to have our own chain still, no matter what. But we want to have that franchising opportunity.

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Anthony Codispoti: I’m curious, Ashley, what are some of the most common concerns that parents have when starting their kids in a new school like yours? And what can you tell them to put their mind at ease.

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Ashley Du: so many things one will be will their child be okay during drop off, you know. Like when they have to leave their child when they’ve been with them. 24, 7. Once the child’s been born. I think, knowing that a dustic time is very important, and some parents. They say they wanna ease their child in with 2 days a week have a drop in that is actually worse for the child sometimes, because now you’re throwing off their schedule, especially when the child’s young

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Ashley Du: for example. They only come in like Tuesdays and Thursdays. But then there’s Monday, Wednesdays Friday that you’re not in. That’s not. It’s not consistent. Young children need consistency. So sometimes I will say full time. Care is better than part time care, because it’s just it’s more consistency there. And then to the sick

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Ashley Du: policy and illness procedures. Because children gonna get sick in daycares, especially because there’s so many children. There’s adults. There’s germs coming from all areas. The 1st 2 weeks within starting daycare your child will definitely get sick, and it is normal, and I know it is scary, but at the same time it does build your child’s immune system. So if you’re not able to cope with those

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Ashley Du: daycares, probably not for you, and that’s something that we always say to like in our tours. We’re always like, Okay, what are you looking for in your daycare? What are you expecting. So we can manage each other’s expectations. Because again, we’re not gonna be able to satisfy everyone’s needs.

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Ashley Du: And so yeah, the main 2 things are the sickness, and also the separation, anxiety, separation, anxiety, not just from the child, but also the parents.

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Ashley Du: And speaking of that what I’ve learned, too, is that

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Ashley Du: as a parent you really have to trust your caregivers. If you do not trust your caregivers, the child’s going to feel that energy, and they’re going to feel the same way.

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Ashley Du: So one other thing that I’ve trained my staff to tell. Everyone, like all the incoming families are interested. Always tell them if they’re not a hundred percent confident in our services, do not sign up, because then it’s gonna be this ongoing battle where we have to prove ourselves to the parent when it’s like, all we’re trying to do is provide a really safe, clean, comfortable, caring, loving environment for your child. And

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Ashley Du: I mean we are here to provide the space

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Ashley Du: for children. It has nothing to do with, you know. Anything else that’s it like. That’s our main priority, and even with our teachers like we tell them to like whatever’s going on in your personal life. You have to leave that at the door and be present for the children. That’s what it comes down to, because if you cannot do that, then you’re not meant to be caregiver. So with that, said the the relationship with the caregivers and the family is really important.

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Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, yeah, I’m curious, Ashley. If you can share maybe one or 2 stories like success stories of like a child who came in that maybe was having a little bit of a hard time. And you guys were, you know, able to connect and help them.

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Ashley Du: Let me think, I’m not in the day to day operations. Anymore. However, I do know that we had one family where.

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Ashley Du: during drop off, was always very challenging, like the child was, would always cry. And then the family would think, Is it because they don’t like the daycare. They’re like, Oh, you know, like, I don’t know why they’re this chat. Why, my child’s acting like this, is it because of you guys, you know, and and they all went down this like kind of like rabbit hole. And then we had to tell them like, Hey, like this is normal. This is this is how children are, and children they

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Ashley Du: they go through different phases, too, like, for example, one day they might love the daycare. One day they want to stay a fuller, mama, you know, it’s just it’s always different. So what we did was, we had a teacher just stay with that child specifically during the first, st like 2 months. It was hard, though, because again we have ratios in place, right? But we wanted to support the family, because we also knew that the family needed the care, and they actually looked at other daycares. And they told us, Okay, we may consider leaving.

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Ashley Du: or whatever the case is. They looked. And then later on, they came. And I said, You know what? Actually, we found that you guys are actually the best. And you guys, when we prefer to stay with you guys. And that’s not the a 1st time thing that’s happened multiple times before already. And so we had a a dedicated teacher. Stay with the child, and just, you know, make sure that they’re okay. And whenever and just get them comfortable. And I think that was really helpful and also building that relationship. Again, the teacher kept talking to the family.

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Ashley Du: you know, like what she’s doing today, how she’s feeling. And we have the app right? We use this app called right wheel where we update the parents on how the child is doing. So there’s pictures. There’s photos. There’s you know whether the child ate or not. There. Whether they what type of like potty they had, whether it was wet or dry, whatever you know. So it’s just consistent updates. I think that was really helpful to letting them know that. Hey, you know, like your child is okay.

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Ashley Du: In the beginning. It looked like it was bad because she kept crying. But then now she was able to calm down. So I mean, that’s not just that that family specifically. That’s a recurrent thing all the time with new students. It’s just it’s ongoing. But there was another time where

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Ashley Du: I don’t remember exactly what the issue was, I think, pricing was the thing they said that we’re too expensive. And so they left. And then, 3 months later, they came back and said, can we come back to the daycare, and that that has happened before? A decent amount of times actually.

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Anthony Codispoti: Well, I think that one specific story that you shared there, you know, is a great highlight of how you really go above and beyond. I mean you. You’ve got these, you know, state mandated ratios that you have to worry about. But you were so concerned that you, you know, wanted to make this parent happy wanted to make the child comfortable that you’re like, you know what? We’re gonna put

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Anthony Codispoti: this one dot, one adult, the same adult with this student, you know, the entire time. And and it worked. And you know, they they went and they looked around and said, You know what you guys are awesome. We we compared you to what else was out there. We’re we’re gonna stick with you.

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Ashley Du: Yeah, we haven’t had children that would have like behavioral issues like they’ll bite a lot, or they might hit right then we have to put teachers on that child, too, and then work with the family to say like, Okay, Hey, let’s continue with positive reinforcements. Let’s tell them that this is not okay. And you know things like that to help get the child out of that phase because a lot of times it’s phases that they go through.

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Anthony Codispoti: actually, what’s a serious challenge that you had to overcome, either professionally or personally, and like to hear kind of what that struggle was like, and some of the lessons that you learned coming through the other side.

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Ashley Du: Yeah, I think.

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Ashley Du: there’s 2 on the personal side.

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Ashley Du: it was definitely a mental challenge, like, when things start going bad which it has when things are not doing as great as they they were.

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Ashley Du: It’s it’s a drain on you like you. You know how you asked me to ever think about giving up a fort during Covid, right? But now I’ve been doing this for over 10 years, 11 years, and I am definitely a little bit burnt out. And there are times where I’m like, okay, is this really what you want to do? Are you going to continue doing this especially because of the fact that, like.

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Ashley Du: I’m building this thing where I feel like it’s to help support the economy with, like the workforce with people for children. And it all goes into like people. But I don’t.

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Ashley Du: I don’t feel that reward like meaning like with my staff or with my team, like I don’t feel like they get what I’m trying to build for. Like, I always tell them, like, okay, I’m building because I wanna make sure that when we exit. You guys exit to like, I wanna make sure that my teachers are able to exit with a decent amount of money so they could survive. And they could continue doing what they wanna do, whether it’s school or whatever like their passion, because, as we all know, teachers are underpaid significantly in America, and so that is my goal.

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Ashley Du: And I and I think like the fact that I try so hard. I’m always like building, and I keep building. I keep building, but I get

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Ashley Du: I get like kicked down a lot, and it could be from families, too, because they don’t understand. They think that here I am this like business, Tycoon, that’s making so much money. And when reality it’s like, no, we are still a small business. We’re still trying to get by. And I have. And now I’m actually considering. Okay, do we raise money? Because there’s always so much we continue doing on our own? And if we want to grow. We have to go that route.

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Ashley Du: So going back to that, I think it was, it’s a personal thing like, we’re like, okay, do I? Wanna continue doing this and then and then, of course, I go through these like ups and downs, right? And what I learned is that you have. You don’t stay in the lows for too long. You don’t stay in the highs for too long, because the reality will just be right there. So

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Ashley Du: And like, even during a time when we like last year, Q. 4, we were significantly down, like

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Ashley Du: we were like running out of money. And I was, okay, how long is this? Is this? Is this runway going to be? Should I reserve closing down like one of the locations because it was just one like the other one’s doing fine. One location is not doing as great. And I was just thinking, Okay, do I want to keep doing this?

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Ashley Du: But then I again. I had to look at my teachers, my team, the children, and what the the type of

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Ashley Du: importance that we play in the overall economy. And I was just like, you know what you’ve been feeling this for so long. You have to. You will get through this and we will do it. We’ll just figure it out. It’s 1 of those things. So the mentality thing is a big thing for me, like overcoming my own mental mind. And

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Ashley Du: that’s 1, 2 leadership. I always thought that I was a great leader until I I realized that maybe I’m not. And it’s because of the fact that we’re always born. We’re always learning, and that we’re not perfect. I went through a huge leadership change as well. Not that long ago where one of my leaders left, and she took 5. Well, she didn’t take but 5 teachers resigned

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Ashley Du: in one classroom, and here I am thinking that we were doing everything great, and thought that like, you know, we were perfect and when that happened it was it was reality like, Hit me. And I was like, Okay, actually, something’s wrong like I think

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Ashley Du: I’m not doing as great of a job as I thought I was

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Ashley Du: firm.

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Ashley Du: And so that was something that was big, because now I’ve learned

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Ashley Du: why leadership is important, why I have to be there. And I think the reason was because I was hands off. I was busy thinking about the big picture that I was not in the day to day. And and I didn’t think about what I just basically. I delegated too much. I think that was issue. I delegated, and I thought, everybody else will handle everything else when in reality it’s like, no, it doesn’t work that way like you still have to be in the day to day somewhat.

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Ashley Du: You know I’m not talking about like actually changing diapers and things like that. But you have to be involved with your team, and you have to build relationship. You have to build rapport and and then I remember when the whole leadership team left at that time. That was when the parents are all upset and everybody was so mad at me. And I think

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Ashley Du: coming from that was was different, because I’m usually the type where I feel like I’m easily liked, and people love me. And you know they they could see that I’m genuine. I’m a good person. And when everybody was so upset, I I was like, Okay, the only person that could be blamed here is me. And I think accountability was a big thing that I had to learn

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Ashley Du: cause the whole time. I was like telling myself like, Oh, because the director did this, or because they did this, that leadership did this, and you know that’s what I was thinking. But then what it really comes down to is look, no matter what it was still under my watch.

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Ashley Du: And so overcoming. That was pretty hard, because it was a mental drain on me like every day I would go home, not even knowing like which hat to wear. Now, because I’m just so stressed out. And I felt like the world was coming down because business was not good. Leadership was all crazy. The parents hated me, and I was worried about what if reviews came and then now like, how is that gonna impact business? And it was just ongoing.

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Ashley Du: But luckily good thing is that I still had good talent, and I think what was important was being able to remember gratitude and being grateful for what I do have now, and knowing that like

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Ashley Du: where I came from, you know, like that came from nothing like literally nothing. We built from nothing, and where we are today it’s quite impressive. And I think I fail to remember the fact of like, okay, you were here before. And now, here you are. So giving yourself some credit was something that I like did not know, because that was just too like laser focus, always looking at the big picture, big picture, big picture.

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Ashley Du: Yeah. So basically, the 2 main things was my own mental state. And then also leadership and not letting things get to out of control where you you can’t over delegate too much.

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Anthony Codispoti: This was a fantastic share. Ashley. I I loved so many things that you touched on here. Cause it it. I’m trying to think where to start first, st because one of the things that you highlight is, you know, it’s like, if one sort of bad thing happens to you, you know sometimes you can weather that right. But the way you described it was sort of like coming at you from all directions, and you’ve been doing this for 10 years. You’re tired.

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Anthony Codispoti: Things aren’t going well. One of the centers is struggling your leadership team. They leave now you’re questioning yourself. The walls the way I’m hearing it. It felt like the walls were kind of coming in on you.

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Anthony Codispoti: And one of the things that I think you really need to give yourself credit for is the ability to sort of step outside of yourself and witness

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Anthony Codispoti: what you were doing and saying. You know what? Maybe the problem was me.

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Anthony Codispoti: because that’s not easy to do, especially when the world is sort of dumping on you. It’s very normal. It’s a very natural human reaction to put up a shield and say, Well, it’s that person. It’s this outside force. This isn’t me. It’s just everything happening to me. You’re like, you know. What?

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Anthony Codispoti: What what can I do? What can I control? You’re like what there’s. There’s probably some things that I could do a little bit differently with my leadership style. Here I was delegating a lot that felt like the right thing to do because I was growing. And I was putting, you know, this vision in place.

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Anthony Codispoti: Now I’m seeing that I stepped out as I stepped out, a little bit too much. This is an opportunity for me to correct that. Now you were talking about, you know. Q. 4 last year. It was a pretty tough time, financially. Here we are, you know, we’re recording this in late July and 24.

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Anthony Codispoti: What do things look like now as as you’ve kind of come through some of that darkness? How? How do you see the future of this.

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Ashley Du: Well, so. Q. 4. Last year we’re not doing well then. Q. 1 of this year was when the whole leadership transition thing happened. We are. I mean, we are still going through a little bit like coming out of that, because right now we’re only in Q 2. Wait, we’re going to. Q. We’re in Q. 3 now, beginning of Q, 3, right? And so we’re still going through it a little bit. We’re still figuring things out. But

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Ashley Du: it definitely looks a lot brighter now, because I feel like my new leadership team. Well, not new. I still have have my current, my solid. But the leadership team. Specifically, at this location. I I have more confidence in them, and I feel like my leadership style has changed a lot more. I feel like I’m more in tune with them, I’m like, you know, doing happy hours with them. I’m going out with them, or trying to like. Just be around a little bit more so. They know who their leader is, too

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Ashley Du: and involving them in the growth of the company and telling them like what we’re doing and different things that we’re doing. And so I think that has really shifted, and that I feel like we’re more of a family now when it comes to our leadership team, whereas before it was so now, before, it was more like vertical right? Whereas now, like, I feel like it’s more like together.

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Ashley Du: And so right now, like

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Ashley Du: the features definitely a lot brighter. I will have to say we in terms of our team. I feel a lot more solid. I definitely feel very close to them, and I feel like they’re gonna be able to help us grow like all of us together, will grow each other to get our company to the next level.

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Ashley Du: yeah. And so we are still feeling it, though we’re not completely out of it. But I just like my own mental state, though, is definitely better where I feel like you know what? Again, like you mentioned@firstst Some things are out of my control. I can only control what I can’t control, and that’s it. And I say the same thing to my leadership team. There’s always things going on in childcare there’s always something going wrong.

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Ashley Du: and I say the same thing to them. You can only control what you can control, and you can’t hold on to the things that go wrong for too long, because if you do that that’s going to kill you, you’re not going to be able to get out of it, and again, don’t stay in the dark for too long, and don’t stay on your high for too long, because the reality is always just around the corner. So I think, being flexible, and being able to pivot is very important.

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Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, I I liked another word that you used in there. Gratitude, right? Cause it. Like like you said multiple times, a lot of it is really about a mindset like what

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Anthony Codispoti: there’s always good things happening. There’s always bad things happening. Where are you going to put your focus? Where are you going to put your energy? Because whether we realize it or not, whatever it is we’re focusing on. That’s what we’re going to get more of right? I mean. So you’re going through some tough times. You’ve got some real challenges to work through.

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Anthony Codispoti: But you were able to take a step back and say, you know what I’m really grateful.

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Anthony Codispoti: how far we’ve come and how much we great things we have, how many great things we have in place, you know, at at this time. Yes, there are these challenges. There are these bad things over here, but I’m not going to dwell on this. I am going to be grateful for what I’ve got over here, and then I’m gonna work to try to fix these things.

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Ashley Du: Yeah, no, exactly. I mean as entrepreneur. You have to do that because there’s always gonna be things going on and

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Ashley Du: you know, if you dwell on all the dark times, and how are you going to get out of them?

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Anthony Codispoti: Who were you able to lean on during some of these challenging times, who was helpful to you?

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Ashley Du: I think my network is extremely important. I have 2 business coaches as well, so being able to just talk it through with them. But also talking to my network, like, you know, my friends and family. It was.

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Ashley Du: It was helpful, but ultimately it was me that had to get out of it like there was. It wasn’t like I,

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Ashley Du: you know. I I throughout like us like a what do you call that like?

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Ashley Du: We are skydiving, you know. Kind of like, where are those a parachute kind of like? I want it like someone. Throw me a parachute that’d be great if someone wants to throw me a parachute and save me, you know, but ultimately, like it was all again. I’m gonna keep talking about it. Your mental game, like how mentally strong you are, so talking to people and letting them hear me out kind of like a psychiatrist type, like a therapist. That was great. But ultimately it was me that had to get out of them on my own.

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Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, any particular mentors or books that have been helpful to you, either through that challenging time or just overall in your your personal and professional development.

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Anthony Codispoti: Okay.

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Ashley Du: Yeah. One book that changed my life is actually the book from Anthony Robbins called Awaken the Giant from within.

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Ashley Du: That was my 1st time reading a self-help self-development book. And this was over 10 years ago. It’s like 12 years ago. It’s a it’s a really thick book. And the 1st chapter says, if you haven’t got through Chapter one, you’re only 10% of the people who who are willing to dedicate the time.

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Ashley Du: And so when I saw that, I’m like, Okay, I’m someone that likes to challenge right? So I’m like, Okay, let me go and finish this book. And that book talked a lot about just mentality, mental strength, and believing in yourself and all of that. And that was a book that taught me like, Okay, I could do anything in life as long as I put my mind to it.

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Ashley Du: That was life-changing.

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Anthony Codispoti: I like that. I haven’t read that particular book, but big fan of Tony Robbins teaching. So I’m I’m putting that one on my.

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Ashley Du: And guest.

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Anthony Codispoti: Actually, what’s a fun fact most people wouldn’t know about you.

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Ashley Du: Hmm fun! Fact that most people wouldn’t know about me.

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Ashley Du: Well, I’ve already talked about

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Ashley Du: ma, I mean, I guess I want to say, fun? Does that have to be fun, or does it just have to be a fact.

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Anthony Codispoti: Something interesting. We’ll call it an interesting fact.

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Ashley Du: The interesting fact.

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Ashley Du: I will say that most people

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Ashley Du: given my background now that I am in childcare, and that you know I have childcare centers. I’m education. Most people would not know that I grew up in a household where my dad had deep substance abuse.

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Ashley Du: yeah.

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Ashley Du: I mean? It’s yeah. And that was life changing for us, obviously. But most people don’t know that most people who seem to assume like, Oh, you probably came from a good family background. You probably had this. You probably had that. That’s how you got started. But it’s like, actually, it was quite the opposite.

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Anthony Codispoti: Do you wanna say more about that? You wanna give a little bit more behind the curtain.

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Ashley Du: Yeah, like my dad ever since. I don’t even know. Like 3, 4, 5 years old, like he was on drugs on meth, and he was always coming in and out of prisons.

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Ashley Du: He’ll come home sometimes with like Bruce eyes. When he was like being up. He looked like

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Ashley Du: he always asked for money. He stole everything that we had in the house. He’ll go into my room and dig through everything to look for money. When I was in elementary school. I remember getting called out of the school because he was looking for me, and outside my classroom, and my dad comes up to me, and it’s like, Do you have any money? And I’m like 9 years old, and I was like, no. Where am I going to have money? Where am I going to find money?

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Ashley Du: And he was just like, no, I know you have. I know you have it somewhere. Blah blah blah! And after that I remember my teacher like they saw that, and then they were super concerned. And they call my mom. And of course, like all these things happen. But aside from that, he also abused my mom a lot like, you know, you will hit her. There’s lots of violence, lots of violence, and I and I never had stability growing up like I wouldn’t know if I was gonna go to school, not the next day, depending on

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Ashley Du: what happened the night prior, like there was always cops at our at our house. It was yeah, it was.

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Ashley Du: It was a mess.

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Anthony Codispoti: Is he still in your life?

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Ashley Du: He came back into our lives about 7 years ago. We tried to give him a chance again, but he just went down that

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Ashley Du: whole thing again.

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Ashley Du: like he came to my house, took money from me when I was on vacation. This is me being older now, right? And so now, it’s just a point where I have kids of my own, and I don’t want to bring that into our family. So no, I mean, I know where he is. I know what he’s doing, but I’m not in contact with him.

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Anthony Codispoti: How has that shaped you as a person, as a mother, as a professional, that that whole life experience growing up.

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Ashley Du: I think, just being very open and understanding that everybody has their own issues. And they’re going through their own battles.

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Ashley Du: and also the fact that, like I think I’m

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Ashley Du: really

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Ashley Du: understanding like you know, I could, because even now I’m not mad at my dad. I could see why things have happened. I could see I could understand why things that work out with him and my mom like, understand why he could have went down this way, like there’s a lot that goes into, and it comes out with his childhood, too, like he was part of the Vietnam war. I’m sure there was a lot of like trauma there, and things that he had to like deal with. But he didn’t have the right resources.

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Ashley Du: So because I’m able to see that I forgive him like I totally forgive him. I don’t. I’m I’m not holding any grudges or anything. I just don’t want to bring his bad habits into my life now. But I think me being like that now I’m just again flexible, open, and very forgiving.

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Anthony Codispoti: That’s terrific. I appreciate you sharing all that, Ashley. I, Ashley. I just have one more question for you. Today. But before I do it. I want to do 2 things. If folks are listening today and they like today’s content, please hit the like, share or subscribe button on your favorite podcast app. The second thing I want to do is let people know the best way to get in touch with you. Maybe they’re interested in upcoming franchise opportunities. Maybe the consulting. Maybe, you know, they’ve got children in the area that they’re looking for a nice daycare. What’s the best way for folks to connect with you.

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Ashley Du: The best way will be to send me an email or just visit us at our on our website at meaningful beginnings.org you could send it to the general email box and they’ll forward it to me. That’s probably easiest, or to also find me on Linkedin Ashley. Do. Instagram is also fine in Ash’s world. Yeah.

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Anthony Codispoti: And do is spell du everybody. Ashley, do. Du. Okay. Last question for you, Ashley. I’m curious. How do you see your industry evolving in the next 5 years. What do you think the big changes are that are coming.

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Ashley Du: I definitely see that there has to be more flexible needs in childcare. So like the drop in thing that I was mentioning already. Is important, especially after covid. Also see that there will be a need

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Ashley Du: or special needs services when it comes to child care as well as language immersion, which is where the franchising for us is important, because I plan to franchise it to operators that has these backgrounds. So either language immersion or special needs.

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Ashley Du: Those are really important. And also, I I think that there’s gonna be a big need for early childhood educators. With AI right now, it’s taking over a lot of different jobs. And I think one of the jobs that will not go away will be teaching when it comes to young children.

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Ashley Du: I know China is creating all these robots and things that says that you know you can. You know. Have the robot watch your child. But I just I don’t think that’s likely. So yeah, definitely like a need for flexible care. Special needs language, immersion.

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Ashley Du: Here.

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Anthony Codispoti: Perfect, Ashley. I want to be the 1st one to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I appreciate it.

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Ashley Du: Of course. Thank you so much for having me, Anthony. This was fun.

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Anthony Codispoti: Folks. That’s a wrap on another episode of the inspired stories. Podcast thanks for learning. With us today.