Libsyn Directory

Episode 202 with Adrianne Agulla — A Great Story of Scaling Up and Growth

Release Date: 06/05/2025

Episode 210 with Dominique Gill — When You Love Kids This Much, Success Comes Naturally

Child Care Rockstar Radio

Kris welcomes Dominique Gill, heart-centered leader and owner of Unique Kids Childcare in Nashville and Smyrna, Tennessee, to share her journey to multi-site child care leader. Dominique opens up about starting as a young mother seeking affordable child care, working in exchange for tuition, and eventually moving from home-based care to two thriving centers. Dominique built her program around love, family, and celebrating every child’s uniqueness. She discusses the challenges of opening during the pandemic, shifting into leadership, raising tuition for the first time, and creating a...

Episode 209 with Tea Shong and Trina Romanowski - A Family Affair! Tales of a Multi-Generational ECE Company

Child Care Rockstar Radio

Kris sits down with Tea Shong and Trina Romanowski, the powerhouse mother-daughter duo behind a thriving, multi-site early childhood business in Michigan. Winners of the Partnership of the Year Award at the Child Care Success Summit, Tea and Trina share how they scaled from an in-home daycare to three high-quality centers, all rooted in purpose and shared vision. They discuss navigating family dynamics, leading with clarity, embedding nature-based learning, and using creative systems like coaching calls and color-coded lanyards, to keep their team culture strong across every location. Key...

Episode 208 with Rachel Supalla — Creating Leadership Magic In Her Ruby Slippers

Child Care Rockstar Radio

Kris is joined by longtime friend, business visionary, and rockstar early childhood leader Rachel Supalla. Rachel is the founder of Vision Tree, a TEDx speaker, and the author of The Playful Leader’s Toolkit, a book packed with wisdom on leading with joy, grounding, and energy. With 10 schools across Montana and Utah, Rachel shares how she’s scaled her business while embracing what she calls “ruby slipper leadership.” They talk about managing energy instead of time, why remote teams need tight leadership structures, and how playfulness is more than just dress-up — it’s a strategy...

Episode 207 with Gigi Schweikert — You Can’t Save Your Way to Success

Child Care Rockstar Radio

Kris welcomes Gigi Schweikert, CEO of Lightbridge Academy, to explore what it takes to lead at scale and stay grounded in the human side of early childhood education. With 85 centers across the U.S., Gigi shares how she thinks about quality, culture, and decision-making at the organizational level, and why trust is still the best metric. They discuss industry trends, mentorship, and the habits that help leaders grow. Gigi also reflects on what she’s learned after publishing 18 books, raising four children, embracing grandmotherhood, and showing up consistently for her team and community....

Episode 206 with Regina Miller - Leadership Lessons in Child Care

Child Care Rockstar Radio

Kris welcomes the joy-inducing and magnetic Regina Miller, a nationally recognized trainer, author, and owner of Trailblazers Academy in Wichita, Kansas. With nearly five decades in early childhood education and 35 years in leadership, Regina shares fantastic insight into what it really takes to lead a team, stay connected as an owner, and build lasting impact in your center. Regina shares some great takeaways from her new book Leadership Lessons, including how to hire smarter, mentor without ego, and avoid becoming an absentee owner. Kris and Regina also talk about how to stay...

Episode 204 with Whitney Burkman - From Home to Center: Young Leadership in Action

Child Care Rockstar Radio

Kris welcomes young inspiration and rising leader Whitney Burkman, owner of Magnolia Academy in Payson, Utah. Whitney shares more about her journey from in-home childcare to a full 125-spot center before age 30. She talks about building confidence as a young business owner, gives some great advice for hiring, marketing strategies, leadership challenges, and the critical role of mindset in growing her successful childcare business. Key Takeaways: [4:55] Whitney opened Magnolia in 2022, and they are currently at 122 enrollments. [7:43] Opening a center at age 27 and what inspired...

Episode 203 with Brett Neller — What’s Your Customer Journey? (And Why You Should Care)

Child Care Rockstar Radio

Kris welcomes Brett Neller, CEO of LineLeader by ChildcareCRM, to explore the real meaning of the customer journey in child care, and why it’s critical for sustainable growth. Brett shares insights from his professional evolution, including how dropping his kids off at care centers helped him deeply understand the needs of operators. He and Kris talk about enrollment challenges, operational bottlenecks, mapping a full customer journey, and how automation can power human connection, not replace it. They also discuss fear-based leadership, what small businesses often get wrong in...

Episode 202 with Adrianne Agulla — A Great Story of Scaling Up and Growth

Child Care Rockstar Radio

In this episode, Adrianne Agulla, CEO of Hamilton Heights Child Development Centers in Nebraska and the true definition of an education entrepreneur, joins Kris. Adrianne shares how she went from working in the corporate world to owning six successful daycares and a catering business called Milton’s Amazing Kitchen. Together, she and Kris talk about growing from three to six locations, empowering a leadership team, using VAs to streamline operations, creating a strong scorecard, and what it really takes to scale with excellence. Adrianne goes through the very real ups and downs of growing...

Episode 201 with Zac Alcampo — Gamification in Parenting AND Business

Child Care Rockstar Radio

Zac Alcampo, Creative Director at Grow Your Center, brings a fresh perspective to leadership, culture, and creativity in early education. With two decades of experience in the gaming industry, Zac is a dynamic entrepreneur and inventive strategist who has helped build immersive digital experiences that merge gamification, artificial intelligence, and user engagement. Now, he’s applying those same ideas to the world of child care — reimagining everything from team collaboration to marketing to parenting itself. In this episode, Zac joins Kris to talk about gamification in...

Episode 200 with Vernon Mason — Every Day Is A Gift

Child Care Rockstar Radio

He’s back! The great Vernon Mason returns as one of the podcast’s most popular guests to help celebrate this milestone 200th episode. He and Kris reflect on leadership, legacy, and what it really means to be present. In this episode, Vernon shares his beautiful wisdom and journey from growing up in an in-home child care program to building and selling a five-site child care business, and now helping grow The Nest into a 52-location powerhouse. Together, he and Kris chat about the realities of leadership today including accountability, toxic positivity, turnover trends, universal...

More Episodes

Key Takeaways:

[6:19] Adrianne owns and operates Hamilton Heights Child Development Centers, with six centers across Nebraska. She originally purchased three as a package in 2017 and has grown from there. She also owns Milton’s Amazing Kitchen, a catering company focused on child nutrition.
[8:27] Hamilton Heights believes that it’s their professional responsibility to protect childhood from all of the external threats in today’s world, and they have a focus on play.
[9:31] Adrianne’s earlier career included leadership roles at Coca-Cola and ConAgra, before pivoting into child care.

[11:30] She juggles the business while raising three busy teenagers.

[13:46] Adrianne shares reflections plus a funny story about upgrading her wardrobe from a trip to Vietnam.
[15:19] What benefits Adrianne has found being part of the highest-level membership of the Child Care Success Academy: the Empire level.
[22:15] She explains her leadership structure, including a director of ops, finance lead, and a high-tenure team.

[24:15] The leadership team meets weekly to review scorecards and KPIs. Accountability plus support equals success.

[28:55] Adrianne shares how she works with three virtual assistants (VAs), including one for marketing, one for data and reports, and one for administrative support.

[31:05] She talks about the industry-wide challenge of attracting and retaining staff and how her company stays focused on its leadership vision.

[38:37] Her 2025 goals: simplify, streamline, and build an even stronger team.

[40:55] Why she acquired a catering business and how it’s improved their food program and opened new business channels.

Quotes:

“We say that we’re very serious about play. And we believe that it’s our professional responsibility to protect childhood from all of the external threats in today’s world.” — Adrianne [8:27]
“That combination of loyalty and commitment and tenure and then new energy and new ideas and fresh faces, has created a really, I think, a unique and just a sustainable culture.” — Adrianne [9:12]
“We are working to create an Early Learning Company that inspires because of the opportunity it creates for staff, families, and children, and so we are just trying to be single-mindedly focused on what it means to create abundant opportunities for our staff from a professional development standpoint, from a wage standpoint, and from a benefit standpoint.” — Adrianne [34:40]

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