How She Got on PBS and How it Exploded her Business with WeeCare's Co-Founder Jessica Chang

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weidell, and before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and again, go to weidellonwinning.com/webinar now to watch something I've put together for you. Now let's get going into this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm here with Jessica Chan. And Jessica has a world of insight into winning, not only at this, you know, not only in the daycare business, which is what she's been involved recently, but before she started that, she got a world of experience by studying and working inside the financial world at all kinds of different levels. And from analyzing all the way to running companies. And, uh, now she's, she's taking that knowledge to the streets and proving that her time was well spent. That's kind of like your education, uh, wasn't it? It was like that was your real graduate degrees and all of that stuff, Jessica.

Yes, definitely.

And so now as you're Out there. And so it's Jessica Chang and number one company in childcare. And I'm really curious about how you got that PBS special. What— I don't think I know of anybody that's in a new company that's as young and as yours or new as yours that's already had their own PBS special. I know a lot of people have been on Shark Tank, but I don't know a lot of people who've had their own PBS special. So talk about that. How did that happen? And what did it, you know, what were they interested in? And what surprised you about the process? And what was the result, uh, for you from that experience?

Um, so You know, I think we, when we asked like what types of media we wanted coverage from, it was always, the answer was always like, what do people watch the most of? And what do people have access to? Like, what does middle-income America have access to? And that was always NPR and PBS, 'cause it's free, right?

Right.

And so, you know, we were outreaching to PBS for quite a while and pitching different things. And finally someone actually came back and was like, You know what, we're doing a special on childcare. And what we want to understand is how can we fix childcare? And we're like, perfect, here's a solution on how you can fix childcare. And that's actually how it— like, we— that's how it happened. Like, they— we were like, I don't know how many countless emails we sent and different ways that we sent it and different pitches that we made to them until they finally said yes. And I think that was like a 6 to 7 month process. And when they did, you know, what was surprising to me was how meticulous they were. Like, by the way, like, the special was like, I would say, like, at most 30 minutes, but I think we filmed for like a day or two. And it was not just me, it was also our parents. And it was also our providers. So Probably all in all, it was like a whole week of filming for 30 minutes. Um, and I think what was really great about it was that they were presenting it on an unbiased view too. It wasn't like, this is the We Care special and this is the solution. It was really like asking the questions and letting people understand all the options available to them, but also asking really tough questions about like Well, well, who ends up paying for WeCare, right? And how do you actually really— how does it become cost-effective, right? And I think overall, because our mission was so aligned with like affordable childcare, it did line up with their vision. And so we were painted in a good light, but it could have gone very differently if we answered the questions. Differently too. So—

So you found out that they wanted to do a thing on childcare, how?

Because we emailed them literally almost every week.

Because you wanted to be on there one way or the other, right?

Correct, correct. Like, you, you— this isn't like, oh, I happened to email them once and someone said no, and then I never emailed them again. Like, you have to work on it if you really want it and they are the perfect audience for you. And that's what PBS represented to us, a perfect way to let families know that there are other options when it comes to childcare. And so we emailed them every single week, and every email that went to them was thoughtfully crafted, and it was specific to them. It wasn't like a generic email that I sent to every single publication. Um, so it does take time to kind of get to that point.

And so thoughtfully crafted, what does that mean?

Um, it meant that we were watching a lot of PBS.

Okay, so you, you, you made it your job to learn their language. It's kind of like students, like, uh, my cousin told me I never followed his advice, but, uh, about how to get good grades when I went to college. But one of the things he said, sit in the front row and write down everything the prof says because that's what's important to him, you know, or her. And so you were, you were mirroring them in your communications, it sounds like.

Correct. You, you mirrored what they thought was important. And you specifically honed whatever pitch you wanted them based on their interest level, right? So it's like—

Why was this important to you at the time? Now, your, your thought process— you carried out of, uh, business, you carried the knowledge of marketing, you carried marketing knowledge. And so where would you say most companies fall down And that, and you knew you had to get your— just having an app and running Google Ads was not going to get you where you wanted to go. You wanted to make a big splash. You had to get out into the big media some one way or the other. So talk about your thought process on that. And what can people learn from that about their business and getting big, basically?

Yeah. So, you know, we had an uphill battle. Because when it came to childcare, most people—

Jessica, can I ask you a question? Do you know of any, any battles, big battles that are not going to be uphill in the beginning? It kind of is a sign you're on the right battle. If it's uphill, it's like, this has got to be the right one.

Yeah. Well, there was, there was always a lot. Yeah. I think this one was particularly hit home is just that Most people had no idea what home daycares were, and they didn't even know that it was available to them. I was one too. Like, my children went to a home daycare, and the only way that I found out was I was walking around my neighborhood. And, and I remember this because it was during Halloween and saw that there were 10 different pumpkins with 10 different names. I was like, there is no way this person that lives in this home has 10 kids. And That, that was insane. It's like, even I had no idea home daycares existed, and there's 150,000 already in the US. And so we had that— that was our uphill battle in letting families know that this option was available to them when it came to childcare. So we had to actually create that brand messaging of what is a home daycare and why is it good for your family. So we thought like, well, how do we get that message out larger, right? And that was like, we could leverage PR to help build that brand message or educate the audience that these were options available to them. And what better way than utilizing PBS that can reach millions of families? Almost every single family has access to PBS.

And you said, you said you learned how precise. And, uh, did you learn also, uh, did it help you inform you the direction or things you need to do with your business, uh, because of the questions that they asked and things they were interested in?

Yeah, I think, um, there was— I think the, the question that always came up during that interview was focused on like, well, what happens to parents that can't afford it? Yeah. And that was always a question that kept on popping up. It's like, well, it seems like your model doesn't work if people don't pay, right? And so, you know, what we did, which was a really big focus before, but even bigger focus later on, was actually working in tandem with government to basically help families qualify for subsidy, government-subsidized care, and for providers to also be knowledgeable and educated on how to accept government-subsidized families.

Well, the government has all kinds of programs, but you've got to look if you want to find if they've got anything that you can— you know, it's like a scholarship or a grant to go to college or something. You've got to dig for those things if you want to find them. What kind of digging did you do to make sure you could take advantage of anything the government had to subsidize? You know, be the one that provided the daycare that they would subsidize?

Oh, man, that, that was like It— I would say there's a lot of digging because it's very convoluted on how childcare is subsidized. And to be honest, a lot of families have no clue that they can get government-subsidized care, or does the government site make it easy for them to figure out how to apply? And I can give a good example. Like, you could literally be sitting where I live in my location And there could be 3 government entities that overlap and, and providing government subsidized care for you. But unfortunately, if you call each one of them, they're going to tell you that, oh, that doesn't fall into my purview, you should go to the other agency. Literally, you have to go in and then be like, well, this is my actual address. Does this fall into your purview? And get someone to basically say, yes, it does, so we'll take care of it. And that is just one of those, like, issues that actually occurs is that, you know, because of how our system works, the subsidized care is actually done by resources and referrals. And I know what I can talk like hours on this, but as a result, It's not one entity that's overlooking it. It's 70 different entities. And because you have entities that work on their own schedule and do their own thing, there's a lot of overlap and no one knows some of that time who falls into their purview and who doesn't.

Hey, listen, there's a lot of information online, but there aren't a lot of people who've actually done something. In my case, I've actually built a successful business that's accrued over $5 billion in assets under management and has done well even during trying times. Now, if you want to know exactly how I've done this, go to whiteellenwinning.com/webinar now. I've compressed a decade of learning into 5 short weeks just for those of you who want to give yourself an incredible advantage and are tired of waiting and watching others move up. Yeah, that's why there's just a lot of waste and fraud that occurs in the government. And folks, keep this in mind whenever you hear the government's going to take over this, the government's going to take over that. Hey, we'll do it for you. Yeah, they're going to do it. First of all, they're going to create 70, uh, different agencies that all do the same thing. I'm not running for president, so let's be clear on that. I'm just saying, be careful anytime the government offers to take over something else in your life, because it's just tough to get the government work— to work. It's a big project. And, but you can figure this out. What was the biggest help to you in figuring that out? Did you have to take the lead in unraveling that and keep making those calls?

Yeah. Luckily, I have a team that, like, we actually hired people that were part of Resource and Referrals So that we can understand how they work. Yeah. And it took a long time because every single agency was different. And to be honest, same thing with licensing. Like, once you've actually done it and learned from it, a lot of that knowledge is lost. But we took that knowledge and said, okay, well, now that we understand, how do we compartmentalize this content and then give it back to people so that they can understand it easier?

Yeah, save time for them. And Also, it puts you ahead of anybody who wants to come behind you and knock you out. You know, because the thing is, when you come up with an idea, you come up with an app or a website, if it's successful, there's millions of people who want to copy you. But, you know, this intellectual knowledge that you get by digging is priceless. You can't just Copy that off the internet, you know. Did you get the pick? Did you get the boost from the PBS special that you thought you would get? Was it less, bigger?

Yeah.

Surprising. What, what kind of response did you get from that?

Oh, it was a significant boost. Like, our traffic, like, went up, like, tenfold after the, the the interview came out. Now, what we should have done beforehand is probably have been in more locations before the interview came out, because, you know, PBS is nationwide. And at that time, we weren't nationwide. So some of that was lost. We could have done a better job in making sure that we actually had more locations before the— before it came out.

Actually, when was the PBS special?

It was in 2018, end of 2018.

But the great thing now is you've got a whole nother story to tell about the development of childcare coming out of COVID and everything. And, you know, it's time for round number 2.

Definitely. PBS, if you're hearing me.

Yeah. Yeah, it's, uh, And they already have a lot of the groundwork already laid. They know that you're going to do a great job. Talk to me about how you grew. Uh, you got the app, you know, people, you get an app and then do, does the world beat a path to your door because you've got an app and you put it out there?

No. Um, I think there's, there's always a chicken and egg question here, right? So We created a marketplace, and the marketplace is always going to ask you, well, are you going to have more providers? And those providers are going to attract families. But if you don't have enough families, how are you going to attract those providers? And if you go the family route, like, well, we can get more families, but if we don't have enough providers, then they don't want to use the app, right?

Right.

So that was actually a hard thing for us. And what we did was say, like, well, look, this industry has a lot of families that are looking for care, but what it doesn't have is a lot of supply. So we actually chose the chicken or the egg in this situation, depending on how you look at it. And we built out supply first. And we said, like, hey, we'll wait for the families to come.

But what does that mean when you say you build supply? Does that mean that you signed up existing daycare centers with your network?

Correct. So we went to childcare providers to ask them to join our network, and what we had to give back was actually the operating piece. So instead, we didn't say we're going to bring you kids. We said, let us help make your operations smoother, or let us save you time, right?

Uh-huh.

So we built that supply based on helping them operate their business. And as we built the supply, we then could actually go after families. But also at the same time, like, we didn't have to do that too. We didn't have to build like parent by parent up. We leveraged partnerships with companies that actually had built up family networks, right?

Right. Yeah, they already have them.

Correct.

Already have these chains, groups of 10 or 25 or 50 or 5, and pretty soon it adds up to a big number.

Exactly. So, so instead, like, we built trusted networks with partners to build up our demand. And as we focused on supply and continue to build that supply, and I think that is a core part of our business still to this day is We understood what our purpose was, and that was building up a network of childcare providers. And we continue to do that to this day.

Have you done forward projections on where you think this thing's going to go?

Yeah, every day. Every day we look at our, our forecast and be like, hmm, is that correct now? Or is that not?

How many years away from an IPO?

5, 5 years.

5 years.

Okay. You heard it here, 5 years. Just wait for it.

So, and the thing is though, uh, what you've got going for you is that, you know, everybody who's got like 10 of these childcare, uh, uh, organizations knows other people that have Correct. Their own network. And so now that you've made the breakthrough, it's just a matter of daisy chaining throughout across the country. So you're, uh, if you stay on the attack, it sounds like, Jessica, you've got unlimited potential because I, I don't think people are going to stop making kids anytime soon.

No, definitely not. And there was definitely a lot more COVID babies that came out, um, people staying at home, right? So I think the, the interesting part for us is that we're still at the tip of really making a dent in this space. Yeah, if the facts are true, it, it says that we are so undersupplied that for every 3 kids looking for care, there's only 1 spot available.

Yeah, unbelievable.

So we've got a lot more, a lot more to grow.

Well, keep me on your email list, your notification when you get ready to do that IPO, because I just feel like you're going to skyrocket. It seems like a sure thing. So way to go. And appreciate all you taking the time to do this. And I'm going to give you a chance to give a last word to people who are on the track of building their own business or want to get on the track and something from You, uh, last word from you to them.

I think that the smartest thing that I've ever learned while building a company is to always listen to your customers. You have no clue what your customers want unless you listen to them, talk to them, get their gauge, figure out what they want. Don't assume what they need. Literally listen to your customer.

Unbelievable. Perfect advice. Thanks so much. It's been a lot of fun talking to you and, uh, I'll look forward to watching your growth mushroom so you can come back and we can update everybody on where you are and all the new progress that you have made. So congratulations and looking forward to meeting you in person one day.

Sounds good, Larry. Have a great day.

If you enjoyed what you've heard and are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works, in the real world. I've taken the most valuable business lessons I've learned over 40 years and put them into something for you to watch. Go to wydellandwinning.com/webinar now in order to move up as fast as possible. I'm Larry Wydell and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go, go.