237: Thriving Through Chaos: Gabrielle Wheeler's Journey

In this episode, Kate and Carrie chat with Gabrielle Weller, a dedicated advocate for quality child care from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Gabrielle shares her incredible journey of transforming a struggling child care center into a thriving, culturally inclusive program. She talks about the importance of high-quality early education, the challenges of funding, and the power of a positive mindset.

Gabrielle's story is a testament to resilience and community support, offering valuable insights for anyone in the child care sector. Tune in for an inspiring conversation!

Learn more about Gabrielle:
https://eastgatekids.com/

www.nmdirector.org

Thanks for Listening 🎧

• Want to learn more? Check out our book; "From Overwhelmed to I Got This: Guaranteed Success Route to Directing Your Childcare Center" 📖
• Join our Facebook Group for Childcare professionals!
• Join our Podcast Newsletter!
• Want to be a guest on our podcast? Go to our website to learn more.
• Are you looking for director training in Texas? Check out our Texas Director Website for our training and additional resources!

Transcript

Marie 00:00:01  Welcome to Child care conversations with Kate and Carrie.

Kate 00:00:06  Welcome to child care Conversations. And today we're going to talk about abandoning ships or something like that. No, no. Yeah. Leading through adversity. Leading through adversity. Don't let the ship sink. Don't let the ship say. We are so excited about having, Gabrielle Willer from New Mexico joining us today. And let me just tell you, she's got some stories to tell. And we're not going to tell all of them, because we want you to come back and listen, and we want you to stay in the field. But, I'm going to just kick it off to Carrie and let Carrie kind of start, and then Gabrielle can kind of give us a little. I'm going to go with your 32nd version of how you ended up here. Yeah. So.

Carrie 00:00:51  this topic is one that is near and dear to my heart as well, because I took over three different schools that were being abandoned for various reasons. two the owner was like, no, I'm just I'm done.

Carrie 00:01:09  I'm ready to move on to another thing. And I was like, I don't want your schools to close. Like there was nothing that I knew that was wrong with the schools. They were doing great. and then another one where it was the exact opposite. the landlord had told the center director, no, you you can't keep doing this because you're not paying me rent. You need to go and brought me in as an operator, in that program. So leading through adversity is, definitely something I've dealt with too. So I feel like we're kindred spirits here a little bit.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:01:45  Yes, yes, I agree with that 100%.

Kate 00:01:49  Well, and I know too much about both of y'all. And so I'm gonna say yes. But again, this is only supposed to be a 20 minute podcast. So if two of you start, I may come in going, hey. So with that, Gabrielle, tell us a little bit about you. How you got here. Your your introduction into child care. which was a non-traditional route.

Kate 00:02:12  And, we'll just go from there.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:02:16  Well, this is a great story because my husband and I are actually pastors. So we came out here to Albuquerque, New Mexico. we they had gone through quite a few pastors. We were kind of their last hope, which is like a little that in itself was scary. so it's a it's a 40,000 square foot property and it has a child care connected to it. And we were told that the child care ran itself. Don't worry about it. It brings in tons of money. It's it's fine. So, you know, we thought. Okay, fine. You know, and so we come in and we find out it's 2 to 3 months from closing. there was, a lot happening with the staff. there was drug deals being done on the parking lot. it is Albuquerque, New Mexico. We were one of the. We're one of the highest crime areas in the nation. and it had been trying to get it to a three star, and it had failed multiple times.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:03:15  And then lastly, the they were $30,000 in debt. The director had ran up a credit card at Sam's Club for on 30% interest, and it was going negative. And we also had, families that were 4 to 6 months behind in their payments.

Carrie 00:03:34  But it runs itself.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:03:36  It ran itself right into the ground.

Kate 00:03:39  I don't know where it's going. I mean, I was prepared to use the hole that you guys are literally the location of Breaking Bad. But then like, you told that story and I'm like, I can't even go there now because, like, that's just like. And that's where you started.

Carrie 00:03:54  Yeah.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:03:54  Yeah.

Kate 00:03:55  So I don't care. Yeah.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:03:57  We literally had had parents arrested in our hallway. I mean, and that was where we were. but then, you know, with this great, risk area came, an amazing opportunities. And that was to reach the most vulnerable and to reach children that do not have access to high quality care. And so as pastors, I was just like, couldn't think of any better mission in calling than to help these children and to have a question.

Kate 00:04:26  Did you had you ever done this before you came to Albuquerque? No. So? So it's not like you did some child care and then came over. Well, I.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:04:35  I love this because I think some of your audience is going to get this. I mean, I thought I was going to be I'm a speaker, so I thought I was going to be Beth Moore or Christine Caine. I was going to get on the circuit. I was going to write a book. And, you know, this was my husband and I were we were becoming senior pastors. And I knew, I knew I had a speaking gift so that I thought I was going to pray for people. Miracles were going to happen. That's what I thought was going to happen. But that didn't happen.

Kate 00:04:59  I bet you performed some serious miracles in that neighborhood though. So yes, you started. Before we get into how you like the adversity through that. Tell us where you are now, because I think people need to know that although what you walked into was not a pretty picture.

Kate 00:05:16  And what, 14 years? How many years have you been there?

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:05:18  We're almost 14 years into it. And, you know, so we were a two star center. And so we had a goal because with every star you reach in New Mexico, you also, you got more income. And so let me tell you one little thing about the income. My husband was told by the bookkeeper if if the childcare ever couldn't make the rent, he was the first one not to get paid. And we had four kids and we were in the lower income area making the lower income. So that was scary. Like, like to think if you actually cannot make this work, you may not be able to pay your own rent. So that was that was interesting. I mean, I don't think money is a great motivator for early child care, and I just I don't like that. I think the mission of of reaching children, providing quality education, working with at risk families, I mean, because there's a lot of things you could do that are a lot less stress to make money.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:06:16  And I just love that early child care is an opportunity because we're in the in the mankind business. We're in the human business. We're raising up future leaders so that that is like the the mission in itself is so exciting. But yeah, not being able to pay your rent is a great motivator to get things going, I bet.

Kate 00:06:34  So. So where are you now? Tell us the the we came out of this and this is where we are. And then we'll talk about how we.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:06:41  Got, you know, we got to five stars. we got to work with legislation on helping create the early child care department. New Mexico is one of only four states that has its own early child care department. We've got to advocate for more funding in early child care. We were a part of programs that are for better pay and child care. A career path in child care. Health care for the people that work in child care, and recognizing child care as a career field. This is not babysitting.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:07:15  This is education. It starts, you know, when they're six weeks old and they come into your program. The curriculum starts, the program starts. And then we are about creating success for for the children that attend our program.

Carrie 00:07:29  And so how many kids are enrolled at your program now and what is your program like now?

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:07:34  So in this time we've quadrupled in income. We have we've quadrupled in staff. We used to have 17 staff. We're about maybe not exactly quadruple. It's. We have about 53 staff now, so that's great. we actually work with, behavioral specialists that works at our program, training our teachers, helping us with children. And we also have badges that works with us. She. She worked directly under Laura malagasy for the Regio. And she trains our teacher one on one and bringing the regio to the classroom.

Kate 00:08:10  All right, so your five star, you've got 53 staff. How many kiddos do you have?

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:08:15  So we have 200 kids.

Kate 00:08:17  So 200 kids. And what what does the community think of you? I mean, I can only imagine, but I'm going to let you tell us.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:08:26  Well, we just got voted the best in Albuquerque. We're one of the top five best in Albuquerque. And our preschool was also nominated for one of the top five in Albuquerque. So that that's a great honor because our heart is for our city. And so it means a lot to us that that, you know, we're being nominated by the community.

Kate 00:08:47  Awesome. Well, what a wonderful, you know, story to get. Well, at least you're 80 or Z. And so let's talk about some of those adversities. Carrie. Do you want to? Is there one that stands out to you that you like? I want to touch this one.

Carrie 00:09:04  well, I think since she's already brought it up, the. How did you get the drug deals to happen across the street instead of in your parking lot?

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:09:12  You know, I you know, I remember hearing someone said, when you're hiring, don't let crazy in the building. So we started, really, you know, going, doing a thorough check on who we were hiring.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:09:25  You don't want just a person that can fog a mirror. You don't just want a a warm body in the classroom. You need high quality staff. You need people that are looking to get a career in early childcare. And so us filtering out those applicants and not just taking anybody that walks in was, was a major accomplishment for us. Of course, thorough background checks.

Carrie 00:09:49  That was that was a side hustle for some of the employees that was there.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:09:53  Yeah. Yeah. We you know, we had to order drug tests. you know, and that was, you know, 13 years ago. Let me remind people of that. But, you know, it was something of, really finding people that had early child care as a career path and creating a different culture. And they say it takes 2 to 3 years to create a a different culture at your school. And I can I absolutely agree with that. We had we had to create buy in with our staff because we had a lot of staff that wasn't participating in the culture that we wanted to create at Eastgate.

Carrie 00:10:30  Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Taking it one bite at a time. That's how we eat the elephant. We got.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:10:36  Oh, I used to say that to me. All. I used to say that to myself all the time. The other thing I used to say to myself is that Rome wasn't built in a day.

Kate 00:10:45  So how long do you think it actually took you to make your first major transition? And what was your first major transition? Was it. The the change in hiring staff or was there something before that?

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:10:56  You know, one of the things that I read a book, it was about leading change. And, you know, one of the things I just remember was saying, like, celebrate the small wins and then get those few people, like, on your side that are going to be the driving committee and make sure that you're putting people that are in the admin seats, in the driver's seats, you know, those that they are the voices of the influence.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:11:21  They are the ones that are creating the culture. Because we used to have a culture where no one even greeted anyone in the morning, no one said, you know, good morning. How are you that that, you know, there was not that that wasn't in our culture. And so just simple things like that of professionalism, how how you dress, how you show up, you know, you don't dress to work like you go to Walmart on Saturday morning, you know, in your pajamas, you come to work, you know, you're prepared. We we we had to really raise the standards. And I have to say, people got angry. There was people that weren't happy. But I used to say, you know, not everybody's going with you on the next stop. You know, this is the bus and you may be getting off at at this stop, but we're not stopping. We're going to keep going forward because we believe that our children are too important, and our mission is too important to settle for less than second, less than the best.

Kate 00:12:17  Absolutely. Oh, I love that. So, yeah. You're moving this this, this train, this bus, this, this trolley, and you're going down the road. What were some of the other what what was the next hurdle that you had to jump through that you're able to share and maybe even give a tip?

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:12:36  You know, I think, you know, we saw with Covid, you know, they called it the is it the silent resignation or the silent quitting? You saw a lot of people leave the field of of course, when you could make more money on unemployment, why wouldn't you? You know, but I'm going to tell you that the people that weren't there for the money stayed. And then I felt it was my job to help them get better pay benefits. And so I work. We work tirelessly behind the scenes to recognise our staff, to reward our staff and to, you know, create benefits to create them that they want to be there for five years, that they want to be there for ten years.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:13:19  So we, we started increasing our pay. Our hourly pay, we looked for grants to do that. We, we had a grant for a while with the state of New Mexico. And when they took away that grant, it was difficult for us. But we decided to stay with the higher pay. And just because we felt like we didn't want people working at McDonald's to make more than our staff. So.

Kate 00:13:46  Okay, so I have a quick question. When you talk about grants, because I know that we hear a lot of people talk about grants. Now, I'm presuming that Eastgate is probably a non-profit 501 three. Because you are you guys a separate 501 C3 from the church?

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:14:01  No, but we are creating our own 501. We already have it applied. It's called Big Bridge Development Center. But yeah. No, we are we are looking to separate and be our own entity. But yeah, there are complexities with applying for grants. But you know, we've reached out to the community and we've gotten people to give us, you know, $3,000 can make a difference for us.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:14:23  We do a toy drive for Christmas every year, and parents donate to that or just people from the community donate, donate to our program for those type of things. I'm always on the lookout for grants. Thankfully, the state of New Mexico actually has a website where they post the grants, and so you get to apply for them. One is the pre-K grant. We're a part of that program. That's that's a great grant for our state. also just say really advocating with your legislators for more funding for early child care programs. It's often just forgotten. It's often seen as not important that the children don't need these high quality, trained people in the program. So we just that's why I'm a big fan of advocacy.

Kate 00:15:09  I think we're going to have to have you on for a whole series of episodes, or maybe some trainings. I would love to be on that topic, because Harry and I can only say this so many times, and it's always great to have a kindred spirit who goes, yes, you have to actually ask for it and remind the legislators, educate the legislators.

Carrie 00:15:29  And when we educate the legislators that 80% of the workforce relies on child care in some way. And so if there is no childcare available, that's 80% of the workforce that can't go to work.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:15:44  Yes. And then it can't be any kind of child care. And that's where I'm like, we have to create these this child care that is high quality because we know that the first five years are the foundation for success for that child. And, you know, for us, our children. I'm going to brag a little bit. They're speaking in multiple languages. They've been exposed to sign language. one of our teachers speaks Korean in our state. Native, Navajo is a is a big deal to have spoken. I don't know if you know, but it was not permitted by some school districts to be spoken. So for children to be honored in their own culture, 10% of our, East gate is Native American. So to have Navajo or Native American teachers is is a really a great accomplishment for us.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:16:31  But to also to celebrate their language, their culture is it's really I'm really proud of of our program. we have a Spanish spoken. So we have children speaking in multiple languages by the time they graduate our program.

Kate 00:16:45  What a celebration. When you talked about celebrate those tiny things. That's pretty dang big. Yeah. And so that's a big celebration.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:16:52  Yeah. And, you know, we're doing something called healthy preschool right now. That's, you know, where we're working with eating habits. We're doing, you know, we're building a farm. We've done some small gardens, but just, you know, and there's grants for the gardens, there's grants. But, you know, I feel like we shouldn't have to beg. We we should not have to beg. It should be the priority. One of my favorite quotes is Nelson Mandela saying, you know, you can tell a lot about about a society by the way it treats its children. And I think that we have to show the people in government, the people in leadership, the city council, that our early childcare programs are often minority women owned businesses, and they need to be recognized as that.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:17:34  This is the future of that city or that state or the nation 100%.

Carrie 00:17:40  100%, if not more. Yeah.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:17:43  Right. Yeah. And so more. Yeah, yeah. No. Get to more. And you know, I know that some states I'm hearing that you know they're struggling with that funding since the Covid funding went away. And I believe we we have to go to Washington. We have to say, you know, keep the funding in early child care. I know that New Mexico is leading the way in funding because of of natural gas. And I know that they actually actually set up a fund in New Mexico for early child care. So, you know, and, you know, I believe money is what pays the rent. Money is what gives us higher salary for our teachers and benefits for our teachers. And a teacher shouldn't have to worry that morning if their electric bill can't be paid in, their lights are going to be turned off and then come and teach without any stress. You know, so my thoughts are how can we recognize our, our our early child care people train them up.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:18:40  That's why I've partnered with you and what your what you're offering to our state and what you've offered to the state of Texas.

Kate 00:18:47  Oh, aren't you sweet. We're happy to have.

Carrie 00:18:49  You on board because yes, there needs to be quality training for directors. There needs to be quality training for the frontline staff. Yes, there needs to be quality training for parents. Yes, that is necessary. All of that is necessary. So if somebody who is listening right now is slogging through some version of adversity, their enrollment is down. There's drug deals in the parking lot or other crime happening around, or they can't seem to keep staff who actually want to be there. What is like a mindset element that you're like, keep this in the front of your mind as you're going through that adversity? Well, I.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:19:33  You know, there are so many ways to tackle that one. I believe you have to have a vision. You have to have a vision, and you have to have alignment, and you have to know your purpose.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:19:41  And for me, you know, I would question it all the time because I'm like, I'm experiencing so much adversity that surely I'm not the right person or I'm doing something wrong. And one of one of the game changers for me was hiring coaches. You know, Summer pika is our coach currently. We work with Terry DeLuca. I've signed up with multiple programs because I want to help our staff. We'd. Like I said, we have the behavioral specialist for our teaching staff, but I think it's the mindset for number one. You know, and we don't we don't understand the importance of mindset, how you show up to work every day. Is it a positive mindset or. I used to get mad when they were like it was Monday and they couldn't wait till Friday? I'm like, nah, you got to show up every day saying, I'm here to have fun with the kids, to teach the kids to overcome problems where wherever there's a problem, there's going to be a solution. and so pressing through adversity is is something I know we press through Covid.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:20:41  That was amazing to get through, but we actually accomplished some of our biggest goals during Covid as well.

Kate 00:20:48  Oh, so you want to celebrate that you accomplished anything during Covid is awesome because right, so many people came out of Covid like they might have been doing okay because they had some subsidized options, but then they just like, you know, crashed. And so, you know, just what a what a lovely light and an example that you and your program are. Carrie. Looks like she had a question I did.

Carrie 00:21:14  Which was, you know, I loved that you were saying, you know, go out and get yourself some support. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:21:22  That's been the game changer for us.

Carrie 00:21:24  And find yourself a mentor. Find yourself a coach. It may be hard to fund it right now, so if you can't fund it today, start with score. Yeah. We'll take you a little ways and then maybe you've got the revenue to go find a coach that you can pay that.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:21:41  Yeah. There was some free things you know online there. You know there are some free free trainings. There is so start with that. It's there if you search the internet, even this podcast. I mean, for me, I got to the place the worst podcast I. Every Tuesday I was ready for that podcast. I had to listen to it because I wanted to have a different mindset. And they would talk about your mindset. And, you know, if you think you're defeated, you are. If you think you're going to win, you will. You'll find a way. I always say, you know where there's a will, there's a way. And, you know, I just I just knew that we had to succeed. You know, failure wasn't an option. That doesn't mean you don't have setbacks, though. But I feel like I've been amazed at how the early child care community has so much to offer when it comes to training and leadership. I mean, really like I have been exposed to some of the best speakers, the best entrepreneurs, the best people that have a cutting edge in leadership because they're in the field of early childcare, which is not an easy field.

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:22:46  And they, you know, so I've been surrounded or I think I've surrounded myself with voices that, you know, have overcome themselves but also can teach us or. Connect us to other people to help us succeed.

Kate 00:23:01  Absolutely. So, Gabrielle, if somebody wanted to connect with you because you have inspired them, what is the best way for them to find you at the on LinkedIn, on your Facebook, on your website? For the program. What works best for you?

Gabrielle Wheeler 00:23:16  I actually I do Facebook quite a bit and I post things on Facebook. you know, that's I know old school, but, I am working on, developing more of my social media outlets and working with other people on webinars. And, but for right now, it really is Gabrielle Wheeler at Eastgate Kids.

Kate 00:23:36  Awesome. Well, okay. Thank you so much, Gabrielle, for for taking the time and and sharing with us. And, Carrie, what do you want to tell people?

Carrie 00:23:46  If you liked today's show, then please share it with somebody else who needs to know what we had to say today, and go in and write a review in your favorite podcasting app.

Carrie 00:23:56  And hey, if you think you might want to be on this podcast too. We've got a way to make that happen. Go to Childcare conversations.com and there's an application there. And you might be the next Gabriel Wheeler coming on to inspire people with how far you have come in 14 years, from a two star program to a five star program with a waiting list and multiple languages and international experts coming in and training your staff. I mean, what a journey, what a journey. So talk to you next week.

Marie 00:24:34  Thank you for listening to Child Care Conversations with Kate and Carrie. Want to learn more? Check out our website at Texas Director. And if you've learned anything today. Leave us a comment below and share the show.