February 17, 2023

Meet This Year's Child Care Rockstar Winner: Tassia Araujo-Roper

44 minutes

Kris welcomes the current reigning 2022 Child Care Rockstar Winner, Tassia Araujo-Roper. Tassia takes us through her journey of growing a center from scratch and everything that she has learned over the last three years in the Child Care Success Academy. She talks to Kris about what helped her to get fully staffed, how she went from a home center to a thriving business during a pandemic, and mindset tips that help this young leader stay ahead of the game and give her best every day. Our community fell in love with Tassia, and we think you will too.

Key Takeaways:

[6:30] What are a few of the many prizes when you win Rockstar?

[12:09] Why did Tassia open a home-based preschool in the first place?

[15:04] Tassia shares a little about her personal life, her three children, and a bull mastiff, with center pets including snails and guinea pigs! She has many hobbies and used to do medieval sword fighting, belly dancing, and photography. She's also a techie at heart and enjoys computer programming.

[16:54] Tassia talks about the mindset shifts in accountability over her three years in the Academy.

[19:50] Kris discusses being a confident, transparent, and empathetic leader and that comes with celebrating wins and setting structures in place from the very beginning.

[22:23] Tassia discusses having hard conversations and the importance of child care providers filling their own cups in order to help others.

[24:24] Tassia shares what she has done to improve on culture and how she handled growing and staying positive during the pandemic.

[26:08] Parents are your number one marketer.

[28:54] Tips for getting out of overwhelm.

[35:27] To Tassia, a rockstar is service-driven and open to learning and growing in every area. They are able to master conflict resolution and all the "scary" challenges that come up as you grow and scale.

[40:24] The Academy gives a lot professionally, but it also is very fun! In fact, Kris got voted "Biggest Partier" in her dorm in college, and nothing has changed.

Quotes:

"I was a child starting in early childhood because my mom did it. She had a passion for working in early childhood and also traveling, and she did it all over the world." — Tassia [12:39]
"I knew children everywhere needed more individualized care and needed more accommodations here and there because none of us are perfectly normal. It doesn't exist." — Tassia [14:14]
"I felt that it was important as a leader also to make sure accountability was something that was as important as connecting and loving on. Because otherwise, the bar for everyone just goes lower and lower." — Tassia [18:50]
"if you don't put a lot into your cup, you're not ready to do childcare if you're not in a good mental place." — Tassia [22:02]
"What I've learned to do is to be unapologetic about closing down to work on our professional development, or our teachers, our mindsets, etc." — Tassia [24:02]
"When you really learn to have mastered all of those things that you were scared of, you are truly a rockstar." — Tassia [36:02]