Speed or Strategy? Knowing When to Move Fast vs. Slow

In this episode, Katy and Jessica talks about the importance of knowing when to make decisions quickly and when to slow down and take your time. ⏱️🤔 In the fast-paced world of childcare and leadership, some situations require immediate action, while others benefit from thoughtful planning and careful consideration.

Jessica shares insight on how to recognize the difference, avoid rushed decisions that can cause bigger problems later, and feel confident when it’s time to act fast. She also discusses strategies for balancing urgency with wisdom so you can lead your team and your center more effectively.

If you’re a childcare owner, director, or leader looking to strengthen your decision-making skills, this episode is packed with practical advice you can start using right away. 💡✨

🎧 Tune in now and join the conversation!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Hey everybody, welcome back to Childcare Confidential. We are so glad you are here joining us today. Um, we have not been together in a few weeks, so we have something to share with you. But let's get started with first. My name is Jessica Hampton, and I am one of your wonderful hosts here on Childcare Confidential. And then we have my amazing co-host, Katie Dick. We've heard a lot from her these last couple weeks.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Listen, I feel like we're rocking my tag a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

I know we haven't.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

But I feel like this podcast is 100% us being real and true to ourselves and some of the things that we, you know, go through as leaders and educators, but also as people. Um, so thankfully, Jess kind of swooped in and saved the day here recently. But unfortunately, I had a personal loss in the family super close to my heart. Um, so I've been taking some time to heal and grieve and figure out how to best move forward in a positive way. So that's why we've been on a bit of a hiatus and kind of tag teaming briefly here and there. But I'm happy that I've got my pulsed back because it's just not as fun to do it singular.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

It's not. We had a hard time connecting schedules with everything going on. Um, we're thankful Katie is with us and we get to do this together finally after a few weeks. We had that, and then I lost my voice, and um, we've just been through it, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

It's not funny, but it's a little funny. And had you just heard Jess when she lost her voice, you would have a new appreciation, I feel like, for what they call like the radio voice because it was something okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

It's so deep, I sounded like a man for weeks. Like I could not swing it.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

I used we could make it work, and she she, of course, did not agree to that, but it's fine. Oh goodness, okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Well, but we go through this stuff. I mean, life happens whether you want it to or not, sometimes, and it's how you get through it, and you know, we're very big of this being a hobby and a passion of ours, and something that we really enjoy doing because we like want people to know about early childhood and its importance. However, we have real lives that go on without us sometimes when we're doing other things, yeah. And so it's important to take that time and draw yourself back, get back in the right place where you need to be before you can really function. And we needed that for a few weeks.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Yes, we did. Uh, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

And I don't know, I don't know about you, Jess, but the way that I truly feel about like situations like losing someone special or you getting the icky and sickies, because nothing compared to poor Jaren slapped her wings and got all the way here to Indiana to help celebrate my, you know, my signif my family member. I'm trying to be discreet. Um, but came all the way out here to do that and then ended up getting sick because she was here for like less than a few days, and that's why she ended up losing her voice, which I almost feel worse about.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

No, no, no. It's one of those things with the health stuff that I had, you know, going into the schools, going into the cold, things like that, that we had to make some changes for to get better. Um, sometimes that's not always possible because it's more important to care about people than it is to care about yourself sometimes. So, but that just I mean, that's that's how we function. We, you know, we work really well together because we truly, truly do care about each other. And when I'm not functioning well, Katie jumps in and helps me out. And when Katie's not functioning well, I am there to jump in and help her out. Like we are we are a tag team, and that's I feel like that's just how it has to be if you want to be successful. Um, you have to have a good leadership team, good people in the right places, and all the things.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

I couldn't agree more. I do think that today's specific episode that we're going over kind of touch a base on that too, just because there really is going to be a decision-making process in just about anything you do. And sometimes it's really hard to decide when you should make those speed decisions or the strategic ones, and when to slow down when you determine what that looks like.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

We have no idea what that's like.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Whoa! Have you been around Indiana lately?

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Oh gosh, okay, yeah, uh, it's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

So for this one, um, we call it speed verge strategy, and that's just because Jess is the queen of all names, but I loved it because it's accurate. So we're gonna jump in. So Jessica, have you ever waited too long, missed your window of opportunity to make a very important decision, and or made a decision too fast and paid for it yearly?

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Oof, who hasn't?

SPEAKER_02 5:15

I mean, you're not inaccurate, however, people think in leadership you don't have those, remember?

SPEAKER_01 5:21

No, I mean, there is such big decisions. I remember the day that I even signed the lease for our first school that was going to be a licensed center. And y'all, it was only$4,500 a month, which in today's day and age, like that's a steal, right? But this girl didn't have$4,500 a month extra to make it go if I couldn't do it. So I was a nervous wreck. And I remember leaving after signing and I wanted to throw up in the parking lot because it was like such a big decision. But I knew I was prepared for it. And I think that's the biggest thing. If you're not prepared to make the decision, then it's time to slow down and take a step back and really look at it. But if you're prepared for it, you can still be nervous, you can still feel like you're gonna throw up in the parking lot and go, okay, we can do this, we can do it. But if you're, you know, you have to be prepared for it. We had the business plan, we had everything in place. Um, it was scary for sure, but what isn't in life? You have to take chances, right? You have to you have to count on yourself, you have to give yourself a shot. So, so we did. And at the time, y'all, my husband and I, I'm gonna share a little little tea right now. At the time, spill it. My husband and I made together in the 50s of thousands of dollars. I think it was like 58, 56, 58, total. That was our family of four, two teenage children, total around 56,000 together, both working, both working in Indiana, both working. Okay, this was back in 2014-ish. Um, so yeah, both working, not that far back, but that's what we made the year that we started the school. So when I tell you I did not have 4,500 extra dollars, I did not have 4,500 extra dollars. Like I had a passion and a dream, and that's what we were gonna do. Um, but again, important to be prepared to make those decisions.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

I couldn't agree more. I I feel like we run into that more often than not. And I feel like people don't take a moment to actually reflect on the differences of what those need decisions are gonna have as far as the effect, and then maybe the ones that take a little bit more time. I like to tell um people that work for us just because you and I are very similar, but we're also very different in a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

It's so funny because sometimes we don't think we are, and I'm like, oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

If you saw my graphic designing skills, you would know that there are some things that are just not my strong suit, and that's fine.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

We balance, we balance each other.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

However, in leadership, timing isn't just important, it's everything. And that's why Jess and I 100% agreed that this topic is relevant, not only in early childhood, but just in leadership as a whole. If you're leading a group of people towards a common goal and you don't all agree that sometimes it's okay to take a moment, it's okay to maybe make those quick decisions if you know that they need to be done. But you gotta know when that's supposed to happen.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Yeah, you do. You do, and you have to be educated about your decisions, you know. Sometimes I feel like in leadership, we just want to give somebody an answer. And I think it is okay to say, let me get back to you. Um, and so yeah, we just had some pressing decisions that we had to make because of Indiana's subsidy cuts, and we had to figure out what we were gonna be able to do and things like that. And it was the hardest thing to sit on some of those decisions for weeks. Um, we typically wouldn't have, but we needed to see the whole picture. And we just felt with the revolving um, oh, what do I want to say? The revolving scenery culture, yeah, the changes that were happening. Sorry, I can't think of the word, but the changes that are happening um in our state were going so quickly. Everything was so rapid fire and not enough information and lots of miscommunication um from the state. And so it was like, let's just sit and wait. Um, but in that we also gave ourselves goals. So, like every month we re-evaluated at the end of the month. It's like, okay, let's see how December goes, you know, and let's see how January goes. All doing this while we were, you know, financially okay and everything. You don't want to give yourself too many chances if you're not. But we were preparing in the background to make those decisions. We just weren't ready to pull that trigger yet because everything was changing so rapidly. So it may have looked like we were just sitting back, not really giving information or not really making those decisions. But in actuality, we were watching like hawks. We were reevaluating. I did eight different budgets in like a week just to be like, okay, am I missing something? You know, things like that to really prepare ourselves to have to make those decisions because they were big decisions on what we we could do for families and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

But I also think that it's important to notate too, in situations such as those, those weren't the the big decisions that were coming down on us that we inevitably inevitably had to make, we didn't choose any of that. We didn't ask for it, we didn't want it, we have always been by the book. Those things shouldn't have to have they shouldn't have had to been on our shoulders. I do not feel like those are things that we should have had to tackle. However, you do sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

You know, I feel like most decisions are decisions that you just go, why am I dealing with that? Do you feel that way? You know, unless unless it's like you're starting your business and you're geared up and you're excited and the energy's flowing, you know, then you get in this stage of like, hmm, really, this is what we're doing right now, huh?

SPEAKER_02 11:18

Well, out of the grand scheme of things, too, it's like, oh yeah, let's just add one more dumpster fire to our already really fun week. We had that conversation last week.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Yes, I listened. This field is it's a it's a dumpster fire right now, but not everywhere is, and there's a lot to focus on the good things, and that's one thing that like I try to do in making decisions as well is make sure that we're looking at the positive things. And if I do have to have a hard conversation, I do try to sandwich things, so I try to make sure that I find things and I'll make notes on my little notebook. I make notes when we talk and do the podcasts and everything else, so that's why I'm not looking at the camera very often because I'm doing other things. It's the ADHD. Um I gotta multitask. Um, but yeah, so you just want to make sure you're really thinking about those decisions and you know, make in your notes if you have to make the positives about somebody before you go into a meeting. That way you have something to sandwich it with. So that's what I was talking about, like making the notes in my notebook. I try to think of like um, just when I see like a teacher post something, or like on our staff, we have a staff Facebook group that's private. You can't find it, don't worry. Um don't look for it. Don't look for it. And if you're not with us, you get kicked off pretty quick. People will tell you. They will, they will say that they will tell you. Um, but you know, it's important to think of like, okay, this person's posting about being with their kiddos a lot. So I can see through their post that they're a really great mom, you know, or I can see the nurture that they give to their children through pictures and things like that. Um, or I look at the pictures in their classrooms and I'll just jot jot down a couple of things. And then I also jot down the deep issue when I'm going into something like that where I have to have a hard conversation because I would love to just not talk about it sometimes, but that's not true leadership, right? That's not what we do. No, you have to tackle it. You have to just yep. Um, so I just make sure to jot that down so I don't forget, hey, you did all this positive stuff. Now make sure you talk about the real issue. And then you want to end on a good note too. And and I try to follow that up when I'm in the buildings or with Katie, I try to follow it up like a week later with like, hey, I noticed this, you know, because you want to point out, like, okay, now they're doing this and they've got it or whatever. You want to point out, hey, just following back up and I noticed you were doing this. And if they're not, it's a good time to follow back up because you put it on your calendar for the next week. You're gonna follow up with, you know, Kiki, KK, I don't know, anybody, um, and see what happened. Try not to give out any names and see what happened, you know. Yeah. Um, to make sure things are following up because that's a big part, especially in early childhood. We forget the follow-up with the decisions that we make.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Okay. Well, I'm super glad that you mentioned something along the lines of following up because I have a question for you. Okay. This is just gonna give you like food for thought. So just think about it and then you just answer because you're super great at that anyway. So when you think about moving fast versus slow, like those decision-making processes, whatever the case may be, what is your default setting as a leader? Now I know the answer because I know you, but what would you say in your own words is your default as a leader?

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Which would you need you more? Good. That's a good question. So, my let's put it this way, in my younger years, in my younger years, I'm learning to be a childcare owner, um, and having staff that was, you know, working for you at the time. Um, well, we're really a big team there, but to have people that you're paying to do things and it's a big thing. So in my younger years, you know, you think you have to have everything together. So I was I was just decision after decision after decision, just ready to go. I had your answer before you asked it, ready to go.

unknown 15:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

In my older years, my more wise years, y'all. Hear me out. It's not about age, it's about how long you've been doing what you're doing. Yeah, it's not about age. Oh, that we don't go there, it's about how long you have experience in that field. I could be 50 and just start now. It's not about your age, or you could be in your 20s, but my maturity in this field, 25 or your 40s, um, 25 years later in this field, uh-huh, is that it is best to move slow so you don't make rash decisions. Surprise, surprise, unless you have to move quickly. Okay. There are situations that if something has happened with a child or at the school, you don't have time to make a slow decision. You've got to act on those skills that you've learned, that parent you need to call, that note you need to put it. Like you've got to act on those everyday skills if you, you know, that you've developed along the way. But if you're making decisions about budget or curriculum or cameras or all of those things, most of the time after a sales meeting, I'll tell people I'll get back to you.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Yeah, you do. You do that quite often.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Because I don't like to make a decision on the spot because I feel like it didn't give me the time to get the research and everything that I needed.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

So you're more methodical in your decision-making processes.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

I am.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

On that note, yeah. I'm going to just make a note right now that my screen is backwards. So it's been a while since we've recorded together. So if you you chime in on the YouTube, you're gonna see my screen has literally written backwards. So just side note.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Okay, super great. Thank you so much. Okay, that that is dumpster fire. Great.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Dumpster fire right now, y'all. It's okay. We're here, we're real, we're live, we have this.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. You this is just part of the fun. Okay, so you say that it's all about moving slow for you personally, and now not everybody functions that way, which is fine. I'm all obviously more of the slow natured. I like to be very careful about my decisions that I make. But it's also not the worst thing in the world to sometimes have the knee-jerky like reactions to decisions, especially if you have a jest that is so methodical and takes time. I get to be like, okay, well, I've got you A, B, C, and D, and I need you to pick right now. It that's that's fine too. Just make sure you have a balance, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Yeah. I mean, if you're making decisions that you pretty much make every day, somebody's calling in, somebody, you know, is doing this or that, then you just have to follow those SOPs that your company sets out. Right. Um, but sometimes things come up, and we had some tough decisions to make a couple of years ago when we had a situation come up, and um it was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make, but I did it with our core values in place. Like I integrity is huge to me, and so we we moved swiftly with integrity, yes, you do, and it was not easy um because people jump on the train and they got a lot to say about everything that they don't know about, as we all know.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

You know, they say that if someone has to continuously talk about you long after they've parted ways, it's actually a form of flattery. So therefore, I feel like we should both be quite flattered.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

Yes, we have not always had the smoothest staff and the smoothest transitions, and um, and you know what? I have loved almost all of our staff, really. Yeah, everybody has put a good, you know, they poured in their time and their investment. Um, of course, everybody has those feel that you're like, hmm, I think maybe you would like to go down the road. Um, but most of them we had a good staff and we, you know, but um it's hard. It's hard to keep that balance. I as we know.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

Yeah, yeah, I don't disagree. Okay, so um, what are some signs, would you say, Jess, that it's time to move immediately? Like without a doubt, you're not thinking twice. It's happening. You've already decided in the 2.5 seconds that it came to your attention. What are what are signs like that, would you say?

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Um, I think signs like that are mostly safety first, right? So anything that would deal with an emergency, a medical emergency, a child emergency, a behavior emergency, um, those things that I think you just have to have your in your brain. This is this is my procedure and this is what I need to do. Um, those decisions as calling a parent, calling an ambulance, calling, you know, CPR, all of the medical playground injuries, all of those things, that's just rapid, rapid fire. You just do it, and that's just instinct, hopefully, for you at this point in your career if you are in leadership. Um, but the longer decisions, the budgeting, the um the staffing, there's been several times with hiring staff. We've had a couple good candidates, and I've said, hey, I'll get back to you. You know, and and I'm not gonna lie, there's been a couple good times where we've had not great candidates that have come in in pajamas, and I said, Hey, there's the door. Um, and didn't even bother, you know. Uh, so that would be a rapid decision where I was like, it's not gonna change for me. There's no point. Like you didn't even care to get here.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Have a day.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Um, so yeah, I mean, but we're big on professionalism and things like that. Like our, you know, so so that wouldn't be a good fit for our culture, and I knew it right away. Yeah. So on those instances, rapid decision. Like, I don't need to waste my time, I've got things to do.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

I do think that it's important to notate specifically for our school, and I know all schools function and operate differently. However, culture, culture, culture for us. We're big on culture. Like our pride and like tried and true. We know what we want, we know who's gonna fit and who might not be that perfect match. And both of our schools have amazing staff, amazing management, they do all jobs, they're fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

They're amazing. We have a great team. We really do.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

If you know that we have a culture shift or someone coming in that's just not gonna match, like I bet you, Jeff. I don't even think they'd have to talk.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

I think you would just be able to feel it and you'd be like, no, you too. I mean, and and our amazing directors, like they are on it. It's just like yeah, we hire for culture at our schools.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 21:57

I would rather have a Less experienced teacher than a teacher with a master's degree that thinks they know everything. I'm just gonna say it. Now, if you have a master's degree and you don't think you know everything, we'd love to have you.

SPEAKER_03 22:13

Come on down.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

But a lot of our experience has been the teacher that is moldable is better for us and our culture. In another culture, it may be no matter what the degrees that that's important. That's gotta stick, you know? Yeah. Um, it just depends on your school, really.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

Yeah. We did talk about that in one of our other episodes, is a big difference between private childcare and corporate. I really think that is a true definitive difference. Because in private, we get to, I don't want to say it like that, but we get to be a little bit more picky. We get to be more um, I like to know what I like and I want what I want. And that is, I'm happy that I get to do that in this position because it really wasn't that option.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

So if someone that's listening right now tends to hesitate a little too long, maybe they're slower on making those decisions, or maybe they don't want to make the wrong one, so they're just hesitant. What mindset shift would you give them?

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Oh, um, they move a little slower typically.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Yeah, yeah, they they hesitate too long. And what I mean by that is like they really like this candidate, but they're just yeah, I don't know, I don't want to make that decision because what if it's gonna be wrong?

SPEAKER_01 23:32

And then maybe they're gonna be like yes, we've had that with some directors and things before. Yeah, I would say that um the biggest thing is, especially if you're looking at hiring, you can't wait that long in this field, you're gonna lose them. Yeah, yeah, you are so really again, you have to be prepared to make that decision going in typically. Now, if I have one or two good candidates, I'll slow down. But sometimes you just have to make a decision. There could not be a right or wrong in some of them. Um, I mean, it's like with our everyday lives. Do I buy this house? Do I sit here? Do I park this car here? Do I everything has a decision, right?

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

So, which parking spot am I gonna take? Well, that's a rapid decision. That's easy. I'm gonna take whatever one's available. And for me, it's whatever one's by a cart corral because that's where I want to return it.

SPEAKER_02 24:22

That would make me so nervous. I would not want you next to the car.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Oh, bro. I'm not worried about my 2014 teeth. Don't you worry. I see these voters pulling up and they're nice, fancy cars, and I'm like, oh yeah, well.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

You're not parking next to the corral, are you? That leaves me.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

This is cheap hair, baby.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

Okay, fair enough. Okay, great. All right, so within all of this, basically there's a decision framework that ends up coming to play throughout the end of all decision-making opportunities. So I've got four questions for you, Jess, and then you're gonna answer them to however you see true, and then we'll go through some examples of like principles that maybe our listeners could like relate to.

SPEAKER_03 25:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

Okay. Do you have a mental checklist before you decide on whether you are slower or faster when it comes to making the decision?

SPEAKER_01 25:15

Yeah, I think so. I think um it's not something I think about all the time.

SPEAKER_03 25:19

Right, yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Um, but I I think you just have to sit there. My first reaction when a decision is brought to me um is anybody hurt? Is it a safety thing? Is it something I have to respond immediately to?

SPEAKER_00 25:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

If it's a no, then I'm like, okay, I got a minute.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

I'm gonna sit on it.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

I tend to reread the email or the question and I sit with it for a minute. Um, so I'll typically do that a second time after I realize, okay, this isn't a rapid decision, then I'll reread it and go, okay, which which lane does this need to go in? Does this need to go in immediate, like pretty immediate? I got a week.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Or should it stay in my inbox for like a hot minute? So I kind of like just kind of the degree of what kind of decision I'm making here. Okay. Um, and that's kind of how I sit with it. If it's something that I can say, okay, this is curriculum we've been talking a lot about lately. Yeah. Well, that's next year's problem. I got enough problems this week. That can be next year's problem. You know, not necessarily next year, we'll need it by then, but um but it can be put off to my next week or the next week if my week is really busy. So, you know, it's just kind of the same thing we do with work, your priorities. What decisions, you know, you know do you have to make and when? Yeah. I mean, obviously, if it's a maintenance thing, call three companies. Which one's the cheapest? There's your decision. Yes, cheapest and good.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

Yeah, I was no, we read reviews, it's fine. I know what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

I'm good. Yeah. Probably clarify.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

You already answered the next question because it was what questions do you ask yourself? So good job. So you're already asking questions, so you're part of your mental checklist. Nice. Perfect. Okay, how do you separate urgency from importance?

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Hmm, I don't know that I really do, to be honest. I mean, here you are kind of like to go and if it's important, it's urgent, you know. But but in some cases, like Indiana and the financial stuff that they had going on with subsidies, it was obviously very, very, very important. However, if I made a decision urgently, it was going to be the wrong decision.

SPEAKER_02 27:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Because there was so much misinformation. And so at that point, it's like the best thing to do right here, even though the decision is important, I have to wait. And so sometimes your kind of level of importance means waiting to make that decision, not necessarily just firing off a decision. Um that's just important to recognize, too.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

No, this is perfect. You you kind of aligned yourself just perfect for kind of how we categorize the mental checklist and how we kind of go through all the decision-making processes. But your last question, that you just dove right into. Good job. Yep. Okay, how does risk level change your speed?

SPEAKER_01 28:16

I think the risk level changes your speed in different ways. So, kind of like what we talked about before with being prepared to make that decision. So, like when we were looking at leasing the schools and starting up and all of that, we had done all of our math. We've done everything we could do to prepare to make that decision. That was a huge decision to make.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

And quite a bit of a risk.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

Yeah. Yeah. And I took a I waited at least a year before I was like, no, I'm doing it. You know?

SPEAKER_03 28:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Um, so it it did take me a long time to make that decision, and I sat with it a long time. Uh, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't a really important decision.

SPEAKER_02 28:54

Right. No, I agree. I agree with you. Yeah, that makes sense. I feel like to when it comes to the risk level, if you're truly like, okay, so Jess is sorry for the listeners who maybe have ears that don't want to hear it, but she's balls to the wall. That's how I refer to her. I mean, I'm sorry, but that's just the way that's well, if if we're doing it, we're not doing it halfway. We're doing it one way. Like that is that is your mindset, and that is how we have been this entire time. We didn't like one of these accreditation situations, which will be on a later episode.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Oh, yeah, we got some tea to spill y'all.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

Um, but you didn't like that. And so you said, you know what, we're gonna go and do something completely different that nobody else in our state has done. And like, boom, here we are.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

Yeah, did we tell y'all we're dual accredited now? Turns out we just had to, you know, refocus and be like, you know what? No, that's not good enough. We're gonna keep going. Yeah, but I I do believe in doing things to the best of our ability.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

So you are, in fact, what did I call you?

SPEAKER_01 30:01

Balls to the wall. I am, I am. Once I once I get in my head what decision needs to be made, yeah. The decision's made, like, that's it, let's go.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

And then we just go.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

Yeah. No, there is no there's no e then to either.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

Yeah, I think that's why I wait a little bit, is because I want to make sure that we're prepared.

SPEAKER_02 30:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

And then it's like, okay, no, we said we're doing it, so we're doing it. Like, it wasn't always easy, y'all.

SPEAKER_02 30:33

Yeah, we're we're going head first, we're diving in, we're not sticking a toe in the water. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

There's no time for that anymore.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

Oh, goodness. Okay, so within all of these decision frameworks, going through kind of our mental checklist and where that all plays out, there are a few key principles that Jess and I discussed prior to us starting up the podcast for today's episode that we thought was important to share with our listeners. And some of those examples are the impact level. How much is it gonna impact us at a school level? How much is it gonna impact me on a personal level? Is it gonna be a business impact level? So those are things to kind of keep in mind. The second one is emotional charge. Unfortunately, sometimes I'm an emotionally charged human. Jess has been teaching me that's not always the best way, and that I can hold it down most of the time. But don't make big decisions when you're emotionally charged. Don't do that. That's bad. She says yes. Okay, thanks for talking about it.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

Very bad. Sorry, I forgot. Visuals.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

Visuals. If you have all the faces, though, you would know.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Okay, I have a lot of great faces. I'm sorry, I just put it all right here.

SPEAKER_02 31:51

Oof, okay. Jez likes to tell everybody and their their brother because she is just that person that she's not a true empath. I've heard this since like the moment that we met. She is. She doesn't let you see it. She's a caterbury egg, but she is an empath. And the last one's people consequences. How is this going to affect the people that I nurtured, the people that I lead, their families? I will promise you that Jess could be like, oh, she's not right for our team. But do you think maybe they'd be a better fit over at the other school? Do you think that we could do this? Do you think that we've like explored all of the options? We go through the whole list before we make that decision because she truly doesn't want someone to have a terrible consequence.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

I think that's really important to put out there. And I missed saying that earlier, but you know, you're making decisions in this field, and it typically involves real people. And you need to think about that. You need to think about how does this help them? How does this help their family? Is that I didn't just start a child care center to start a child care center.

SPEAKER_03 32:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

I worked in the field and was a teacher and worked my way up. And so I have a heart for my team. And no matter what they're doing in our school, I want them to be successful in their own lives as well. And so I think that's really important. So when you get done with that whole decision, you know, you have to sit there and go, okay, this is going to affect them and their family. You know, it's going to affect their feelings, especially when you have to talk about consequences and things that happen. But consequences are all part of like growing, right? So we just have to keep that on the forefront. And a lot of times we'll start a conversation with like, hey, this conversation is just to get you thinking and growing so that we can work together as a team, right? Things like that, and just help people to understand your goals as well. But but yeah, it all affects people. And so remember those decisions are not just gonna affect you. Listen, girl, and don't make them when your life is crazy.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Don't do it if you can't hinting at me because I was convincing myself this weekend to chop my hair off. I did not. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

I am very thankful. No, honey, not right now. Not right now.

SPEAKER_02 34:10

Try again a couple months. Let's look at it later. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

Well, you gotta have your friend that you can go to and say, Hey, I'm about to chop my hair off. And they're like, Oh, no, no, no. Yeah, Facebook is out.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

All right. Well, what I'm taking away from this conversation is that strong leadership isn't about always being decisive. It's about being intentional with our pace.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

Sometimes speed creates opportunity, but sometimes patience protects your people. And you gotta know when when it makes the most sense to do so. Um, I did have a a question to leave our listeners hanging with because something that Jess and I have been doing often is at least recently, is listening to some other podcasts in our downtime and hearing how people kind of reflect on the information that they processed during the episode and just kind of what they've been hearing. So we're gonna leave you with a question for today. And this is just for your own personal reflection and all that good stuff. Where in your life are you moving too fast? And where might you need to pick up the pace? Those are things that you should just take a minute, sit with, as just like that is a good one because I think like in all of our lives, personal and work, sometimes we could um, you know, we all move a little fast sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

Sometimes it's good to go back and like think about what we just said, you know, on social media or different things.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

You would love if people actually could think about what they think before they post it on the social of medias because it's just getting ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

You think would love it, would love it. We also learn that Katie and I need to be back and doing this together more and more often now that we are getting back to the hang of things. We enjoy talking about stuff like this just with each other, and so I think it's important to share that those teaching moments with everybody, and yeah, we love what we do most of the time.

SPEAKER_02 36:14

No, I do 99%.

SPEAKER_01 36:16

I would 99 point, y'all know. Y'all know, but I love it. Well, thank you, everybody. You are rock stars, Katie. This was great. I uh hope my answers were okay. So you're sufficient. I appreciate the sufficient. I appreciate that. Kind of like that haircut you didn't get.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

Okay, it's fine.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

But we love you all. We will see you next week. We love doing this. Uh, make sure to watch, subscribe, all the good things, and we will see you soon. All right. Bye for now.