257 - Transforming Babysitting into a Thriving App-Based Service with Southern Sitters' Savannah Maddison

Welcome to Listening with Leaders. I'm Doug Noll, lawyer turned peacemaker. I teach executive leaders how to listen to emotions rather than words so that they can become the leaders everyone wants to follow. And I teach those same leaders how to be authentically present, available, and connected to their families despite being insanely busy. I have learned that we are 98% emotional and only 2% rational. Learning how to listen to emotions is, in my experience, the foundational skill of life. Stick around to the end of the show and I'll reveal how you can be on our next guest in 15 to 20 minutes. So let's get started. Savannah Madison, welcome to Listening with Leaders. You are the founder and CEO and president of a company called Southern Sitters, which can be found at southernsitters.com, and you hail from Nashville, Tennessee. Welcome to the show.

Thank you, Doug. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate you.

You bet. So let's start off with a little bit of a backstory. Who are you and where did you come from?

I'm originally from South Florida. I grew up in Florida and I lived there till I was 16. I love the beach. I love the food in Florida, but I actually was led to Nashville, Tennessee. I was pursuing a career in entertainment and I was accepted into one of my dream colleges. I went to Belmont here in Nashville and just loved it. I've always loved visiting Tennessee growing up, so I feel like ending up here has been such a perfect ending to my story that started in Florida, and I live here now. I absolutely love it.

And so you went to Belmont studying music, the business of music, that sort of thing?

Yes, I started in the music business program. I moved here for the country music industry. I did a lot of hosting and television entertainment. It just was a first passion of mine. But when I moved here, I founded this company so unexpectedly. It was just started so small, and I can't wait to tell you more about it, but it really changed my life.

So this is called, uh, Southern Sitters. And describe for me a little bit about the company and how it got started.

Sure. So we are an app-based babysitter booking service. We also help families find nannies, all different types of child care, and have one physical location currently. It's a DHS-licensed drop-in care facility in Franklin, Tennessee. We serve 5 states now, all in the southeastern region. And it definitely did not start, um, to be what it is today. When I was 17, I lived neighborhood when I first moved to Tennessee called West Haven, and it was a beautiful neighborhood that had many different young families in it. And I've always had a passion for childcare. I've loved babysitting. As soon as and early as I could in Florida, I would always watch our kids in the neighborhood and just had a huge passion for that. So I started babysitting in West Haven and was really overbooking myself for all these different families, working with the kids. I just fell in love with it. And one day I was asked by a parent if I could babysit. I was already booked that night, so I told her I Oh, I'm so sorry. But I sent her the number of one of my friends from church, and she Venmo'd me. That mom sent me $10 for the connection, just connecting her with another reputable babysitter. And I was in the music business program at Belmont, and I told myself, wow, this could be a really great business opportunity for me. So I decided to start a small Facebook page at age 17 that had all these neighborhood moms joining it, and they would basically send me a message when they needed a babysitter, and I would connect them with someone that I felt was reputable and just a, a wonderful person that I knew, uh, from the community to babysit for them on that given night. And so it started very small. It's grown so exponentially over time, and I'm so grateful for that. But it had really humble beginnings and it was just an amazing small start.

How, how many years ago was that?

So I'm 23 now. Mm-hmm. So we're going on 7 years. Mm-hmm.

Uh-huh. And how did you get the idea for doing an app?

So this is, um, a big part of our growth. We started as, um, just the Facebook page. I really enjoyed web design. So I made us our first website. I was able to strap kind of everything that we did in the beginning, and I over time decided that it would be really important that we needed to distribute on a bit easier platform for parents to be able to book than a website. And so we launched the app about 2 years after our inception, which was, um, an incredible big booster for us. We built the initial families throughout the Nashville area on the website and on Facebook in the beginning, and then once we had the app, we had families downloading us, um, in surrounding cities, families in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Knoxville. And so it really helped us scale. But it was a big— oh my goodness, just such a big— it really poured gasoline on the little fire that we had.

So how does it work? A family needs a babysitter, so they go on the app, and let's say they live in Chattanooga, and they— okay, I live in Chattanooga, who's available here? And you have babysitters who you obviously vetted.

Yes, yes, they're all available. You'll be able to see their profiles before booking them, which is really amazing, and really get to explore are all the different options. So you put in the date and time you need. It's like Uber for babysitters.

Oh, I got it. And then their credit card is charged?

Yes. So we charge a booking fee. There's a couple things I'm really proud of that over time as a child care provider but also, um, a business owner— and just, I really love your podcast about listening, because listening to clients and sitters is so incredibly important. And I'm excited. Oh my gosh, it's just amazing. But we've heard so much feedback over the years, and one reason that parents really don't trust a majority of the— our competitors competitors is that there's no vetting process in place for the sitters. Anyone can sign up to these other services and become a babysitter, and it really can be very scary, a big safety issue for families. And so our vetting process really differentiates us. Our sitters are background checked, they're CPR certified, they're SIDS certified, and they go through extensive training with us. And so we're really proud of the women on our app, and parents are able to see them and get to know them and meet them. And then we charge our families a booking fee, or they can become a member but we actually take no percentage of what our sitters make, which is another big reason that we have the amazing team of caregivers that we have.

How do the sitters— do they get paid by you, or do the— does—

so they actually get paid by the parents directly at the end of the job. Yes, yes.

And so the cost to the parent is to either become a member on the app or pay a booking fee. They hope they, they hire the babysitter, does the job, and then at the end, the baby and the babysitter and Parents negotiate what the price is going to be, and then she gets paid that at the end of the job.

That's exactly right. And what is amazing too is when the parent goes to book, they can put in the rate that they want to pay. And so it's great that they're only matched with sitters that are within their budget. And so it really filters them and allows them to connect with sitters that are really 100% available, fully vetted, and are within their price range.

How do you recruit, recruit babysitters?

So we have a variety of avenues. We have an amazing hiring team. We work with a lot of colleges, so that's really wonderful to be able to connect with nursing programs, elementary education programs. But we also have sitters that are all the way up to being the age of a grandmother, and they use the app as well. Yes. And so it's, it's wonderful. We recruit through Facebook, through Indeed, and a variety of other platforms, and then we vet the caregivers to ensure that they meet our standards in terms of experience.

So how many babysitters do you have in your tribe right now? Yes.

Oh my goodness. Over 1,000 now. Yes, it has.

Get outta here. Yes.

It's crazy that it started with a team of just 5, 10 sitters and in one neighborhood and it's just, it's grown so much. Wow.

And so how many people do you have working in the company?

So we have 8 full-time administrative employees that are currently managing all the administrative day-to-day tasks. They do our customer service, our hiring, our vetting, and of course helping the sitters accept the jobs on the platform.

And, and what is it that— you've been doing this now for a while, so what is it that gets you excited and gets you up to go to work in the morning?

This is the most fulfilling job to ever have. It doesn't even feel like a job. Uh, first of all, I love entrepreneurship, and leading this team has been the greatest honor of my life. But the work we're doing in helping parents find safe, reliable child care is so heartwarming. These sitters tell us stories about, um, growing up with the kids that they're matched with through the platform, um, that they nanny for through the app. And so it really means a lot, and it makes me so excited. It's also so nice to hear stories from families that struggled for so long to find a good, reliable nanny or a good, reliable babysitter. We're in a child care crisis as a country right now, so we have moms call us every day that are heartbroken, sad, discouraged, and we're able to give them hope that it's out there, it exists, and we can help them with that.

Wow. And so I'm curious, what is that's unique about you that you bring to the table that has made all of this so successful? You were starting off in entertainment and boom, all of a sudden entrepreneur from a Facebook page.

I know it's just the craziest thing. I come from a family. My family's always had an entrepreneurial background. My father is an entrepreneur. My mother also owns her own companies. And I think the biggest thing that they taught me that was so helpful is that you don't need capital to start a company, right? It's just time and talent. And I think that I was able to differentiate and find my talent I could create a website, right? Maybe I, I wasn't an app developer, but I could at least start with a Facebook page, right? So I think that I, I feel like I'm really strong in my problem solving, and I think so many entrepreneurs share that. And so that has been really helpful for me to use the time and the talent and not be so worried about initial or really ever. We've never taken capital investments.

So a little while ago you talked about listening, and of course this, this show is called Listening with Leaders cuz I teach deep listening skills. Tell me how, first of all, how do you become a good listener?

Sure. I— this job specifically, honestly, has helped me become a better listener because we cannot express empathy for our clients, help our caregivers be successful without listening to the problems they're experiencing. And childcare is so personal and every child is so different. Every family's different and all of their needs are different that we cannot have a single conversation or successfully match a client with care without first listening to their struggles. And so it's helpful because I think that when I initially went into this at a young age, being 17, I was like, oh, I just need to sell our caregivers because they're so good. I need to describe how awesome these people are. But I learned very quickly that it doesn't matter how good the product is that you're talking about if you don't understand what the customer needs and what they care about. And so it really made me a good listener from the beginning. And I hope that our team underneath me hears that too. I think all day we're on the phone with clients and without listening, we really would not have had the success the success that we had.

I presume there are other people on the phone besides you that are listening to clients. How do you teach them how to listen?

Sure. The biggest thing is being open to feedback, really, and also not taking feedback that is negative in a hurtful or harmful way to yourself. I think let it— listen to it, be open to people expressing the goods and the bads of their experiences. And without hearing negative feedback or criticism, we would have never improved. So I think I really tried to be an example to our team and listening with an open mind and an open heart. Don't be so quick to defend yourself, but try instead to understand the problem that the other person is experiencing or their position, why they're expressing what they're expressing. And so that's a huge value of our team, and we look for talent administratively that has that same value, that isn't going to jump ahead but leads with listening.

How do you deal with parents that— parents can— young parents especially can get upset really fast around their kids. For good reason. How do you manage all of that?

Sure. I think the first thing is that our entire team, down to our babysitters that are just starting with us, we want to foster an understanding of the weight and the importance, uh, that there, there is when you're caring for somebody else's child. It's never something that you can take lightly in any capacity. And so if you approach every babysitting job with incredibly high standards for yourself, and if our administrative team approaches our hiring with the highest standards, we really prevent a lot of that upset and that anger, but it took time to get there and really learn what makes a great babysitter great. And I feel like we did discover that through listening to our clients, because there's things that I thought maybe a parent would value that wasn't as important to most parents, not at the top of their list, versus other things. Like, we recently had every single babysitter become Sudden Infant Death Syndrome certified. This is a very important certification to have, and we would not know that was so important to our families had we not heard that this is something that's so desirable to them.

I didn't even know there was such a certification. What do they— they go through a training?

Yes, we actually use Texas A&M, the college, their program. They have a great online certificate that you can get, and all of our sitters go through that. And then we do refreshers and training. We bring in industry professionals to talk to them about safety.

Wow. And how do they all get trained in CPR and first aid?

Sure. So we help them get that in every service area. So we service Florida, Alabama, Kentucky. In each area, we plant and work with CPR instructors and help our sitters connect with them. So for example, in Franklin, we have a great instructor. If a new sitter signs on in Franklin and she doesn't yet have CPR, she has to have that before she can take jobs. So we put our class schedules up on the website to help connect them to those resources.

So the babysitters are, they've gotta be self-motivated to take the classes, get the certifications, and then show, demonstrate that they've got this stuff. And then, and that's how it works.

Exactly. You're exactly right.

So it, I would, I think that for babysitting, a lot of, for a lot of these women, it's just part-time work. They're just doing it as a side hustle.

Yeah. So the majority of our sitters do have other full-time jobs and it honestly, it just blows my mind how successful so many of them are. We have physician assistants, so we have firefighters, people that have this incredible full-time careers, but also the passion and experience in childcare. So it's really cool to see what— so many of them are teachers and they're with us all summer or at night after teaching school. So it's really amazing. Huh.

So where's the company— where do you think the company is going to be in 10 years?

Oh gosh, I hope we're national. We're— our growth has been so steady over time, and so I really hope that we're national and are able to serve California where you're from and in so many different, different areas across the United states.

So how do— when you roll into a new area, how do you— what's the process you use for opening up in a new city?

Yeah, so 100 days in advance, we're starting vetting caregivers. So we put out first that we're looking for qualified sitters in the area. We advertise that we're coming soon, and we— if you're looking for jobs, babysitting jobs over the summer, in the fall, apply with our company. So we build a really strong team of babysitters. We found through listening that the initial launch in an area, we have to 100% of the time absolutely nail the quality of the caregivers that we're recruiting and providing to parents, because that first experience with our company is so important. And if it's not flawless, why would someone ever book again? Right. And so being able to really focus on recruiting the best talent in a new city is our first step. And then when it's ready to, to go, we have a team of enough caregivers to support that given initial demand depending on the city. We'll go ahead and launch the app and open it and make it available in that area.

Yeah, and I take it a lot of your business is repeat business.

Yes, the majority of our families rebook, which is so— makes us so happy to know that, because really that connection with one sitter is so important, can help a child grow and thrive. So it's really important that they're able to rebook.

Huh. So you obviously have a lot of passion for this. Where's all that come from?

Oh gosh, I never saw myself doing something like this. I always knew that I would do something entrepreneurial, but I really feel like God has just put this in in my lap, which is so amazing. I had no idea that it was going to grow from something so small and such a humble beginning to what it is now. And it's just like taken over my life in the best way. And I really feel— I don't know, I'm just so passionate about helping the families in particular, um, because I know how hard it is to find someone good and safe and reputable. And it's so moving that literally every day we're hearing from the clients that this has been really life-changing for them. And that means a lot to us. And I don't know, that's work that we would ever want to stop because they're all just such incredible families that we work with. So I'm really grateful.

Ah, so what else do you do for fun?

Oh my goodness. Well, I'm actually a volunteer firefighter. I got into that also very unexpectedly 2 and a half years ago, but it's actually only enhanced the company for me. I feel like I have such a deeper and broader understanding of safety, of medicine. I'm also an advanced EMT through the fire service, being able to get that medical licensure and just the reaffirmation of how important CPR is kids and the SIDS certifications that we have now and just the background checking process. It means a lot to me. So that's my kind of fun hobby that I get to do and my other dream thing that's so fun.

You do not look like a firefighter.

I know, I hear that all the time.

You're a very lovely young woman. You don't look like the firefighter type.

I know, I agree with you. You're 100% right. You're right.

That's great. You're breaking stereotypes. And do you get that? Do you get called that much?

Yes, absolutely. So I respond to calls all the time. We actually— our entire team is remote, and so we all work from home. A couple of our administrative team members are in different states, and so yeah, which they run like our Florida division, our Texas division. So it's really cool that we're able to kind of balance that. But yeah, I get to respond to calls all day. They come through on my phone and I get to pop out and respond. So I I love it.

I gotta put your hair up and get into your suit and go, huh?

You're exactly right. That's exactly right.

Wow, that sounds pretty exciting. So other than fire, you got an award. Didn't you get an award this year?

Yes, I was really honored. I actually went on a call. It was a couple minutes away from my house, and it was a CPR in progress call, and I was able to respond to that. It was a gentleman in his yard. He was in cardiac arrest, and I arrived on scene. I was actually wearing a dress. I was on my way home from church, which is so crazy, and I was able to respond on and help him out, and we actually were able to save his life. So fortunately, he survived with no deficits, and I was awarded the Star of Life for that call, which is an incredible honor. So very unexpected, another just huge blessing for you.

You're— you, you obviously have a really happy and blessed life.

Thank you. Thank you, Doug. I appreciate it.

You're welcome. Savannah, what's one thing about your— yourself that we would never know about unless you revealed it to us?

Oh gosh, I love being— I feel like I— one thing that you've mentioned that is so true is like being a volunteer firefighter. I did not know that was going to be a part of my life. I think that's always a big surprise for people. I love being outdoors. My family is very into like horseback riding. They have a ranch a couple, a couple minutes away from me in Columbia, Tennessee. That's a huge, uh, passion of mine, spending time there. Oh gosh, I don't know what else you wouldn't know looking at me. I feel like I'm very true to, to how I outwardly appear. I I love— I have a background in entertainment. I love pageantry. I recently competed at Miss Tennessee. That was really cool. So yeah, good for you.

This has been a really enjoyable conversation. I think it's amazing to talk to a 23-year-old woman in Tennessee who has done so much in such a short period of time and obviously will be— I— you're right, this is going to spread across the country and maybe even around the world.

Thank you, Doug. Thank you. It's such an honor to, to be able to sit with you too. You are so influential, and this podcast is so important. I love that you're educating other leaders on the importance of listening. So I just really am so grateful.

You're welcome, and thank you again for taking the time out of your busy day to be with me.

No problem. I'll talk to you soon.

Doug Noll here. Thank you so much for listening to Listening with Leaders. If you are a successful executive leader who would like to be on this program, please visit podcast Doug Noll, D-O-U-G-N-O-L-L.com/podcast. If you got something out of this interview, would you please share this episode on social media? Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend or post it on the socials. If you know someone that would be a great guest, tag them on the social media to let them know about the show and include the hashtag #ListeningWithLeaders. I love seeing your posts and guests suggestions. We are regularly putting out new episodes and content. To make sure you don't miss any episodes, go ahead and subscribe. Your thumbs up, ratings, and reviews go a long way to help promote the show and mean a lot to me and my team. Want to know more? Go to my website, DougNoll.com, or follow me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. That's @DouglasEnoll. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on the next Show.