What does it take to build a trusted, high-end staffing agency serving celebrities, professional athletes, and high-profile families?
In this episode of The Personal Side of Business, host Jet Bunditwong sits down with Rebecca Stewart, Founder and CEO of VIP Nannies & Household Staffing, to explore her incredible journey from working as a nanny to building one of the nation's premier luxury household staffing agencies. Rebecca shares how a chance opportunity, a small business loan, and unwavering determination transformed into a thriving, award-winning business celebrating nearly two decades of success.
Rebecca opens up about scaling a people-centered business, hiring for elite households, matching personalities over résumés, navigating the challenges of COVID, and why service mentality matters more than anything else. They also dive into leadership, coaching youth sports, entrepreneurship, and the lessons learned from working with some of the world's most successful families.
Whether you're an entrepreneur, business leader, parent, or simply fascinated by the world behind luxury household staffing, this conversation offers valuable insights on leadership, growth, and building a business rooted in trust.
In this episode, you'll learn:
• How Rebecca turned a nanny job into a nationally recognized business
• The qualities that separate exceptional candidates from everyone else
• Why personality fit matters just as much as experience
• How COVID permanently changed the household staffing industry
• The importance of systems, boundaries, and hiring the right team
• Lessons on leadership from both business and coaching youth sports
• Why surrounding yourself with successful people can elevate your own journey
Connect with Rebecca Stewart and VIP Nannies & Household Staffing:
Website: vipnannyagency.com
Instagram: @vipnanniesla
Subscribe to The Personal Side of Business for more authentic conversations with entrepreneurs, business leaders, and changemakers who share the stories behind their success.
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Welcome to The Personal Side of Business, where you hear real stories from real entrepreneurs.
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Hi, and welcome to The Personal Side of Business, where every business has a story. I'm your host,
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Jeff Bundewald. Today, my guest is the owner and CEO of a very successful and award-winning business,
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VIP Nannies and Household Staffing, which is setting the standard for excellence in child
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care and staffing for celebrities, athletes, and high-profile clients. Welcome to the podcast,
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Rebecca Stewart. Thank you. I'm excited. So there's so much I want to know about your business,
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how you have scaled it to this level, but let's start. How did we get here? Let's talk about you.
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We got here by default, like I feel like so many business owners do. I went to college
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to be a school counselor and to be a basketball coach. That was the dream.
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One of my colleagues in school went to school to be a teacher. After getting her teaching
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credential, she became a nanny. After college, I went to the Peace Corps. I was stationed in Paraguay
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and came home from the Peace Corps. I needed a job. I was like, hey, you got that nanny job. How
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did you do that? I was thinking, I'll go get my master's. I'll be a nanny. So I interviewed with
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a family. Before I can even get home, they've called me and said they want to hire you.
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But during my interview, they said, we don't want you getting your master's or your graduate
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doctorate, anything. We want you for us. But it was a weekend job where I was there Friday,
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Saturday, Sunday, Monday, lived there in Bel Air. I actually did not get into grad school.
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So I'm like, I'm a nanny. I got this. I did that for a year, took care of small twins.
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Then I was hired with another family to travel with them. Every time they traveled,
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I took care of their child. Then I thought to myself, I think I could do this. I had met a
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couple agency owners. I'd walked into a couple agencies, good or bad experiences,
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and did my due diligence, my research. How does this work?
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Called a hometown bank. I'm from San Luis Obispo, California. I called a small town bank and said,
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hey, I have this idea, but I need money. I need a business loan. They said, well, it sounds like
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you know what you're talking about. I said, yeah, I just don't know how this works. I don't know how
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to pay a business loan back. They're like, okay. A couple days later, they're like, yeah,
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you got approved for funding and start advertising. Was your only income at that time from nanny?
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Yes. 100%. They were like, you're good. You're good. Yeah. I mean, I was taking side gigs of
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babysitting while I'm developing, but yeah, that literally was like a credit card. I think I might
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had one and some money in the bank. And after a year of business, I thought I was paying my
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business loan off like slowly, but surely. And I realized after a year, I was only paying the
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interest. I was hoping you were going to say that. That's like the worst nightmare for people to be
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like, wow, it's all done. Yes. Yes. Hard lesson. My grandma found out and she was so mad because
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she taught me, you don't ever pay the bank. The bank can hold your money, but they, you don't
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give the bank money. So she paid my business loan off for my grandpa. They were like, not happy,
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happy, supportive. And they were like, and you will pay us back. And I was like, okay, okay.
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But like, I don't know if I can pay you a hundred dollars. Like, I don't even know if I could pay
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you some months, like, but I will pay you off. And I did fully paid them off the loan eventually.
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Um, and grandpa would always ask every time I came home, how's business,
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you know, and I generally thought he just wanted his money back, you know, but he,
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after it was even paid off years later, it was still like, how's business, you know,
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and here we are 20 years later and they're both in heaven, but they paid, helped me pay my business
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loan back. It's amazing. I, it's always interesting because I think a lot of times when you hear
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stories about how people become successful, I always believe there's, there's that extra
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something that needs to go your way. And it's sometimes family members. It's sometimes,
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you know, uh, someone at the bank that just decides we're going to take a chance on you
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or something fell into your lap. You're like, I don't know what this is, but I'm going to take
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advantage of it. And that's when people start to become that, that little luck, right. To get
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successful. And I think it compliments the hard work that you do. And then all of a sudden
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everything starts to work together. Um, I have a question for you when you were telling about that
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story, were you thinking you were going to expand into an agency or you were just like, this is for
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me and then I'm going to use this money to figure out as I go. But, or did you have sort of like a
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internal business plan that you were going to expand it to hire staffing and, and, you know,
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have employees underneath you? Oh, no, it was just me. I was like, this is my business idea.
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You know, um, it was VIP nanny agency. My mom helped me come up with the name. I remember
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pushing a stroller, not my own child at the time, but pushing a stroller on a walk and like, mom,
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what would I call it? And she was like VIP because the nannies are VIP and your clients are VIP.
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And I said, Oh, love it. You were targeting more of a high profile client at that time. No. Okay.
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I thought everyone could afford childcare. I was 23 years old, had just come out of the
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peace corps. So if you know anything about it, the peace corps is like, you're there to save the
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world and heal the world and come back and fluent in Spanish at the time and thought everyone could
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afford childcare because I'm 23 years old. And, uh, it took a couple of years and I actually read
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a book and I don't even recall the name of it, but it was about targeting a different market
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because, um, you know, in the first few years of business, it's hard, you know? And, and so
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going back to your original question, no, I didn't think it was going to be as grandiose as it was.
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Um, however, at some point along my journey, someone did say, do you have goals? And I was
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like, I mean, yeah, yeah. In my head, like goal. And I was, they're like, no, no, you need to write
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them down, you know, in 2010, where do you want to be in 2015? Where do you see yourself? And then
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just tuck them away. And I was like, Oh, okay. And they're like dreams, dreams, goals, whatever
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you want to call it. And I did tucked it away when COVID hit and we left and moved out of our
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office and all went virtual. I found that. And I was like, Oh my gosh, we did that. Like we did
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the dreams. We did the goals. We hired the staff we've expanded into other markets. And, um, that
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was kind of a fun aha moment. What was it? What was a long stretch goal that you reached?
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You remember hiring employees? Oh, really? That's crazy. I never thought about that.
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You know, internal, like in office employees, you know, um, I kind of just thought it was going
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to be like a one man show, which is like highly impossible. Yeah, well, like, I was thinking,
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how did you think you were gonna expand to be in multiple places at the same time? Exactly.
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You know, how we wanted to like place in New York, because a lot of our clients
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have homes in LA and New York, you know, entertainment industry and filming and whatnot.
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Um, yeah, it's kind of fun to just even think about that right now, just seeing that piece of
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paper going like we did that, you know, and I say we, because it's not just me, I like credit,
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like people have worked for me, help me put systems in place, you know, I was gonna ask you,
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did you have any mentors along the way? Or was it just pulling information from
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moments you had conversations with people? Yeah, like, I'm gonna put this together.
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I wish I had mentors. I really wish I had mentors. Um, I think I read some business books.
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I became part of there's a agency association, like the nanny agency association. And in this
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will be our 20th year of business. And I think I've been to 18 years of their conferences.
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And I've always told myself, I will keep coming to conference if I can learn one thing
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that I would have never learned anywhere else. Like it's fully worth it. If you could learn one
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thing that you would have never learned. And in 18 years, there's always been one at least one or
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so takeaways on how to do business, but there's been agencies before I existed. And so I do have
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colleagues in other markets that I can call upon DC, Colorado, you know, and just kind of bounce
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ideas off of. Yeah. Now, I guess this is where it's a little different for you, right? You're
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dealing with a certain level of clientele. What, what is the difference for your industry and then
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into your business that you have to always be accountable for it, right? So I'm guessing
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you're gonna scheduling is probably on the fly. Sometimes you have a lot of people traveling,
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you have to be a little more white glove in the situation. So can you tell about how you run that
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business to that level? You're definitely white glove always, always early on. I was always
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available. And it's crazy to think like 20 years in business, but early on, I was always available.
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I was single, no kids, you know, no spouse. Like I did at some point have to start to create
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boundaries, you know, maybe nine to five, maybe sometimes on the weekends, certain clients just
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need extra help. Certain clients aren't available during the week. So you need to be available
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later or weekends. But one of the things that makes it all successful is that we are available.
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Yeah. You know, problems arise. Hey, we're gonna, we're gonna travel to Thailand.
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How do we pay our nanny? We're putting her up in a five star hotel. We're feeding her. Well,
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that's lovely. Treating her like a human is a great thing. But she doesn't get to go to the
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beach and drink Mai Tais with her friends ever. She's there to work, you know, as luxurious and
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private jets and all the things there, this is their job, you know, they're there to work.
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And so, you know, this is how they need to be paid accordingly. And just answering questions
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and being available for things that arise when, when they do. But yeah, at the end of the day,
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it's crazy. Just everyone's human. Yeah. A billionaire and a housekeeper. They are human
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beings. One needs staff. One can support in staff in the position, you know, but they're humans.
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Yeah. And I was, when I was learning about your agency, I was only thinking about it from one
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aspect, which was the client side. Now, as you're talking, I'm thinking about it also from your
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staffing side, because you probably have to figure out the match. No, hey, this, this client
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has more of an attitude towards this way or a demeanor. This might not be a good fit for this
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staff, you know, that we have. Is there a certain, I want to say limit that you go where you're like,
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you know what, this client can't fit with any of our staff. It's not a good fit for us overall,
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or vice versa to the staff as well. Like they're just not a good fit. We've, they're good on paper.
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They, they have so much experience, but I don't see them being able to handle, handle this certain
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pressure situation. Does that ever happen to you? Yes. Both ways, both scenarios. So on the client
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aspect, we'll get a great job. We'll work on it. We think we can help it, but we're getting feedback
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from the people that are going into the home about how they're being spoken to,
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how they're being treated, what's being discussed, that's not being discussed with us.
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One client interviewed a nanny and didn't tell us she was pregnant. That's kind of a big deal,
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especially when you're expecting in like three months, you know, like you might want to share
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it's going to be a two kid job, you know, pretty soon. But so sometimes, and that wouldn't be
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a reason why to let a client go. But sometimes clients are showing face to us and treating
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people a different way. And then eventually it's just, we're, we might not be the right fit for
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you. And that's okay. There might be another way to find a nanny. I mean, there's plenty of ways
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to find a nanny might be another source. And then on the candidate side, not everyone's a VIP nanny,
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a VIP housekeeper, a VIP chef, you know, and we'll share that in the notes, like who's ever
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interviewing in the office and they're just not VIP. And that's okay. And I think it's been hard
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for some of the staff to, because everyone's so loving and accepting. And I mean, we're just,
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we're human, we're kind, we want to get people and help people get a job, but some people just
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aren't so that we want to represent and that's okay. You know, there's, again, they might be
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able to find a job in another capacity. And sometimes for us, that's references don't check
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out, or it's the way they carry themselves or walk into the office or speak or, and I don't say
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speak. What I mean by that is, um, I think I'd be, I think I'd be a great nanny for a celebrity.
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Um, cause I'm just really good at X, Y, no, done. No, done. That would not be.
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Now, my question to you next is what are some of those qualities you're looking for
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that are, that are, that don't ever show up on paper?
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Yeah. That don't show up on paper as a service mentality.
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Um, I know within five minutes of speaking to someone, what kind of home and what kind of
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lifestyle that they're, um, accustomed to working in, um, what kind of home fully staffed or not
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that they could work in because some people don't work well with others. Some people don't want to
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be in a fully staffed home. That's okay. You know, uh, some people have gone into a fully staffed
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home and really messed up things, you know? Um, and so we hear that, we hear that from staff
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members that they've previously worked for or whatnot. So, um, a service mentality is huge.
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How you speak about your former employers, um, what sort of jobs you've had in the past,
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you know, do you know what it's like to travel internationally? Have you ever been on a yacht?
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Have you flown privately? Uh, what's it like to pack and unpack for multiple children?
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Have you been with a baby 24 seven in the middle of nowhere
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while parents are shooting a movie and you're on the whole entire time? Or do we need to get
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in multiple staff members to take care of a child? Because that's just how it goes. So, um,
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knowing it's like a, I don't know if my LinkedIn profile still says this,
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but I used to say matchmaker. And so people got really confused. Like, is she matchmaking me?
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You know what I mean? Like, you're a matchmaker. Yeah. You think dating service, right? And,
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um, but no, we're legit making a match every day or attempting to.
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Is there, have you had staffing that you were close to getting to hire, but they were missing
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a certain quality and you're like, you know what, if I can get someone to train you, you're going
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to get to that level, right? Is there ever that gap that you end up wanting to fulfill or do you
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always go, go get more experience and come back to us at this? Yeah. Get more experience and come
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back. There's some people that, for example, nannies who want to transition into newborn care
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specialists or baby nurses, and you want, you want to go get certified. You want to get every new mom,
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every pregnant mom knows 10 other pregnant moms. Every new mom knows a couple of new moms. Um,
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so get some experience even in, in any capacity, because before we'll represent you,
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you have to have at least five years of experience in whatever you're doing.
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Private chef, private housekeeper, nanny, baby nurse, five years of experience minimum,
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and then come back to us. And I remember a baby nurse many years ago, about 10 years ago,
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came to me and said, I remember you told me that. I haven't had to call her since that girl has
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booked, been booked like back to back to back to, I mean, I have called her a few times for a job,
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always booked, but I told her that and she built her career. Wow. That's amazing. I mean,
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you can probably, I wonder if you ever look back on your, like the connections you've made
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or people who you've turned down and they use you as a catalyst to be like, I'm going to do this.
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This is where I want to get into this industry. She told me I need to do this. And now they're
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like this example, right? Um, kind of shifting gears a little bit from a business owner standpoint,
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how have you managed along the way to keep scaling? What tools have you used to help you
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as there? Have you gone into like hiring certain people, let's say a CPA that just take care of
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this or someone who's going to take care of this side of like, you know, marketing or whatever it
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is, just get away from it. Cause I'm assuming at the beginning you were running a lot of it
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yourself. Yeah. A hundred percent. Um, someone told me early on, give it, so it was just me,
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give it three to five years. And you'll have like an aha moment. And it's just a colleague
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in my industry. And, uh, I remember in that first, it was like between the first and second year,
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I was like, Oh my gosh, can that third year get here? Because what is she talking? You know,
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like I was, you know, stressing. And I remember there was a time between that three and that five
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year mark, I were sitting in the office and I remember going, this is what she's talking about,
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you know? Um, yes. And there was a time, I think it was when I was pregnant and a lot of people
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offered to come help me come work in the office, come answer the phone, come help me with whatever.
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And, uh, it would help let some people kind of come in, not some, I should say like one or two.
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Um, and it might've been a fit or it might not have, you know, um, and then I, and I needed to
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hire, but I needed to hire staff. We were growing and, uh, hired my first staff member, hired a
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second, hired a third. I think at the most we had four people working in the office.
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What was the time period from when you first hired to?
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Oh, that's a great question.
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A couple of years.
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Yeah. I think about 20, between 2010, my son was born in 2012. Um, I think between 2010 and 2018.
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So a long, a long period. Um, we were, we were scaling, figuring it out. I mean, we went from,
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and everyone like people will laugh. We went from like binders, three ring binders of the people,
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like files and binders.
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Clients or staff or both?
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Both people like the internal stuff. I know they're laughing if they're going to watch this
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next Sunday to this day, but like we had binders of people like to, I should probably create a
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system, you know? So obviously like we, you know, have a great CRM, but like, I'm older. So like
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when you talked to me about like creating a system, I'm like, oh my gosh, what are we doing?
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And then we customized it and it's beautiful. I'm so grateful for the staff at the time who
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implemented that, you know, cause then COVID hit and then no one could come to the office.
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And if they came to the office, they had to wear a mask and, um, and it allowed us to go virtual.
00:19:10
So then everyone could work, you know, not have to come in and mask up and all the things.
00:19:13
So was that when you started developing systems during right around COVID?
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It was pre COVID. And that's what I'm telling you. It's such a blessing the way timing worked out
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because it was pre COVID. The systems were in place, they were in motion and COVID hit and it
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hit every business hard, hit us hard and had to scale back. And everyone unfortunately knew that.
00:19:34
And, um, but we had that in place and in motion. I remember looking out my window right before we
00:19:39
left the office and I was like, their businesses were empty looking out my window. And I thought,
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I feel so blessed that we can leave this office space and still conduct business accordingly.
00:19:53
What was something that you learned from COVID that period
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that might've changed your business for the better?
00:20:02
That's a great question.
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Cause everyone did. It felt like it didn't matter what industry you were in COVID.
00:20:07
I think open some sort of like, you know, curtain that was like,
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this is a weakness or the strength of your business and you can either
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run with it or you would now have to fix this. And I always feel like for you, it's,
00:20:19
it's interesting because what you're describing now, you were in a,
00:20:24
in an industry where people had to interact with each other still. Right. But now you're like,
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how do we, people must've been terrified at that point. Like we're now the rules have to have
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changed. We like this person probably can't leave our house. They have to stay with us. Now they
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can't go. And for the weekend, if you know, we're paying them from Monday to Friday, what were some,
00:20:45
was there anything that you can think of that would, what you were like, this is,
00:20:49
we had to really make a rule for this. And that changed the way we did business.
00:20:54
It wasn't a rule per se, but the industry overall shifted into what we call rotational positions.
00:21:04
So a lot of high profile families have a Monday through Friday nanny, and then they'd have a
00:21:09
weekend nanny. That is no longer as of COVID because what they wanted is that nanny to never
00:21:15
leave. And when she left, they anticipated her going back to her house and staying at her house.
00:21:21
And then when you come back, you stay at our house. Like during your shift, you would sleep
00:21:25
over. So you're not getting exposed to other things. Right. What that transitioned into,
00:21:29
which ended up being, I think a beautiful thing is what they call a rotational nanny.
00:21:33
So now you have a nanny who comes in for a week and she stays with you and she, or she might work
00:21:38
seven days a week and come and go. But if you travel a lot, she's usually staying there during
00:21:44
her time. And then the following week, a new nanny comes in. So they rotate. And that has become so
00:21:51
trendy because families who travel a ton that work abroad, that film movies that are on world tours
00:21:59
works beautifully when you have, because no nanny ever burns out. It's like work hard, play hard,
00:22:03
and everyone wins. The kids win, the nanny wins, the family wins. And so those positions and their
00:22:10
high paying jobs, because that's a lot of hours you're working in a week. But that became very
00:22:15
popular and it's really stuck. Like some nannies that fantastic nannies were like, I can't believe
00:22:20
I never did this. And I was like, no one really did. Pre-COVID, no one did that. You know what
00:22:24
I mean? And they're like, I never want to go back. Like I only want these kinds of positions.
00:22:28
And then there's a lot of nannies who want those kinds of positions and have never done it. And
00:22:32
people are like, oh, we really want someone who's done that. And it's like, it's only been around
00:22:35
for like five years, you know, so, but it's kind of transitioning into that. And I've always been
00:22:42
curious about this because eventually there's going to be a percentage of your staff that wants
00:22:49
to now have their own life. Right. So, and they probably have been doing this for years and
00:22:55
they're great at it. And you're like, I don't want to lose you, but I can't hold you to this.
00:22:59
You have to go, they want to have family and kids and want to go do their own thing. And
00:23:03
maybe they want to give it up and go into another industry. What's, what is the, in your industry,
00:23:10
the turnover to the ability to hire? Is that, is that like, is it kind of a one for one thing?
00:23:17
Every time someone comes in, there's always someone waiting or is it harder to find that
00:23:22
good staff that you need? Yeah. Finding good help is hard. That's why I have a job.
00:23:29
Like I had a client like just within the past couple of weeks was like, we were out with friends
00:23:32
and we're talking about how hard it is to find a nanny. And like, we've been looking and I said,
00:23:37
I know, that's why I have a job. That's right. And he was like, I know, that's why we called you,
00:23:42
you know, and they hired a great nanny. But we are constantly interviewing, constantly,
00:23:49
but more so than interviewing, we're constantly getting applicants who want
00:23:53
us to represent them. So incoming emails, incoming resumes, incoming phone calls.
00:23:59
When it was just me, that was all me. And praise God, that's not all me anymore. So I don't do the
00:24:04
incoming anything. I want to see once they've been vetted, once we've been kind of given the like
00:24:09
green light, Hey, Rebecca, you should interview this person. Or, Hey, this person's worthy. If
00:24:13
I'm not doing the interview, this person, we should interview them, you know, and then after
00:24:17
that we'll continue on with our process. But, you know, if I'm meeting someone like, well,
00:24:23
why did I meet her? Like she hasn't been at a job for, you know, and sometimes it's teaching
00:24:27
even internal staff, Hey, these people need to be at a job. Like our clients want to see longevity
00:24:32
at a job. They don't want to see one year here, one year here, one year here. No one cares about
00:24:35
COVID either. Like COVID used to be an excuse. Well, they moved to Texas or, Oh, my job ended
00:24:39
because of COVID. It's not an excuse anymore. People were keeping their staff and holding
00:24:43
tight to them, you know? So clients are paying a high, like a high ticket. They want you to stay
00:24:49
with them for a long time. They're looking for that, you know? And that's an interesting
00:24:55
quality right now. And, you know, people kind of grass is greener type thing.
00:25:01
You mean from the client side?
00:25:03
Yeah. Okay.
00:25:05
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:25:06
Because I was, I was thinking, it's not just about finding good staff to be in your home,
00:25:14
but that trust over time, because you don't know what information, you know, they're,
00:25:19
they're sort of a part of the household and family at this point. They know stuff about you.
00:25:23
Oh, they know everything.
00:25:24
Yeah. You don't want to, you don't want to start.
00:25:27
They just signed NDAs. People are signing NDAs, confidentiality agreements.
00:25:31
I feel like even if you signed NDAs, there's still this one percent chance in the back of
00:25:35
your mind to go, this, this person can, has information about me. So we want them to stay
00:25:39
with us for eight, ten years.
00:25:40
Yeah, they don't think like that. They think about that when it ends.
00:25:42
Oh, yeah.
00:25:44
You're living your life.
00:25:45
Yeah.
00:25:45
You want to walk around in your boxer shorts all day. It's your home.
00:25:48
Yeah.
00:25:48
You know, you, you do you in your home, right? You do have staff, you know,
00:25:54
how you decide to treat and live and be as, you know.
00:25:58
Are there conversations with staff from the client side to go, hey, this is the way I live
00:26:03
my life? Are you okay with it? Or does the staff usually find out?
00:26:07
Yeah, kind of find out on the fly. Yeah.
00:26:10
Yeah.
00:26:10
Whoa, I did not know.
00:26:11
I think when you interview anyone, you're putting your best foot forward or you should be.
00:26:14
Yeah, yeah.
00:26:14
Right? I mean, if your interview is not good, it's not good. You know, and then nannies will
00:26:17
walk away and be like, no, thank you. And I tell them this all the time. Look, if you don't,
00:26:21
this is my example. If you interview and you feel like, you know, mom's a little weird,
00:26:25
dad's a little weird. You don't, it's not for you. It's okay. You just let me know.
00:26:29
You know, clients are saying the same thing. Oh, you know, she just too much personality,
00:26:33
not enough personality. Oh my gosh. Our dog sat on her lap. She's hired. You know,
00:26:37
I've heard all the things like we knew once the dog sat next to her, like she was the one,
00:26:41
you know, we're interviewing for a nanny job with a kid, but the dog loves you enough. Like,
00:26:45
yeah, you know, so, um, yeah, it goes kind of both ways, you know, um, but yeah, they get to
00:26:50
there. They're there. They're there to support you. They're there to, whether they're the chef,
00:26:55
right. Whether they're to cook meals, whether special diets for whatever you need to be on,
00:26:59
um, raise your kids, take care of your house, house cleaning. Um, you, you get to live your
00:27:05
life. And then if it's not a fit for the applicant or the person in your home, your staff,
00:27:10
they'll move on. You know, I always say this. There's someone for everyone. Right. Your level
00:27:16
of crazy might not be my level of crazy because some people are crazy. Yeah. And some people can
00:27:20
handle it. Yeah. You need someone that's going to go in there and be able to absorb that for
00:27:25
seven days a week and walk away from it. Yeah. Okay. Now, did you have, uh, a good connection
00:27:33
into that world when you were younger? No. Okay. How can you explain a little bit how,
00:27:41
how this all became about door knocking like a real estate agent? No, I came from like the most
00:27:48
humble, humble. My mom was a career waitress, retired as a waitress. My dad was a firefighter.
00:27:56
My dad, uh, was in a mountain biking accident when I was young, when I was 16,
00:28:00
he was paralyzed, uh, from the neck down. He's been a quadriplegic for 25 years, almost 30 years.
00:28:09
Um, yeah. And that was life-changing that brought staff into the home caregivers,
00:28:17
good caregivers, wild caregivers, fun caregivers, you know? Um, but I think that was a
00:28:24
glimpse into like people working in your home. Right. Um, I think the blessing came when I got
00:28:31
my first nanny job and my parents were like, but you're still going to get your master's degree.
00:28:36
I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm making just as much money as I would if I had a master's degree
00:28:41
caring for these two children. And the family I worked for was great. Uh, I had a very strict
00:28:48
structured how to conduct myself, where to be at what time. I mean, it was, it was like
00:28:54
military style in hindsight. That's how every high net worth family runs. That's how every house
00:29:01
should be run. And I was, you know, at the time it was like, well, this is crazy, but I'm, I'm
00:29:06
so naive and young and a sponge. I've got this, you know? Um, and so I feel like I feel blessed
00:29:12
to have been kind of let into that lifestyle early on so that, and there's been other families I've
00:29:17
worked for after that, but, uh, to experience that and be exposed to that, um, really set me
00:29:24
up for success. Wow. That's so interesting. Like if you didn't tell me that, do you know that now
00:29:31
for your brain to start to figure out, like, this is, this could be a business, right? To
00:29:35
understand that people come to home and have someone get paid to do it and someone's running
00:29:40
this. Um, and it's interesting that, you know, I've been thinking about this the whole time you've
00:29:45
been talking about that you were trying to be a basketball coach because, um, there's an energy.
00:29:52
I think you have to do that to be able to manage people. And I feel like a part of you was probably
00:29:57
always able or this need to manage people. And it came out in this way instead of having, you know,
00:30:05
15 people on a, on a squad and try to rotate them. If you think of it, there's a lot of
00:30:11
similarities. That's so funny. Like, I think I was two years old when you just said that. However,
00:30:16
I did just coach my son's basketball team this year. Right. We made it to the championships.
00:30:20
That's awesome. Yeah. That's awesome. And I hadn't coached for like
00:30:23
seven years. Are you using some of your, your abilities from, from your, your company? You're
00:30:29
like, we're going to sit down and talk to you. I want to know, I want to know how you're going
00:30:33
to manage this position. If you get into fourth quarter, 30 seconds. No, but I can say I made the
00:30:38
team because I was the assistant coach and he was like, Hey, can you, can you go to recruiting day?
00:30:43
You know, and can you, you know, I'm like, I'm making my notes. This is who I want on the team.
00:30:47
I made the team. I knew what I was doing. We went to the championships, like, come on.
00:30:52
What were you looking for in your son's team? Well, you got to have someone in every position.
00:30:58
You have to have a point guard. My son's super tall. So we knew he'd be like a tall big man,
00:31:02
you know, but we need shooters. You need ball handlers. And then you watch kids, you know just
00:31:07
cause he's, you know, the shortest kid out there. If he has handles point guard. So I put, you know,
00:31:13
there's one guy I put on the team. I knew no one was going to pick him, you know, not new, not no
00:31:17
one, but, and coach was like, man, he's pretty good. What was it? What was it you, you saw him
00:31:22
in him? He could handle the ball, small, teeny, tiny kid handles. When he shot, he could shoot,
00:31:29
but he was small and he was amazing aggressive. And he had, he had the full package. He just was
00:31:37
physically smaller. I mean, there was kids we were playing against. I kid you not. There was a kid.
00:31:40
It was like six, five, a kid and a big kid, you know, and this kid may have came up to his waist,
00:31:47
you know, but can't have handles, you know, he could probably beat him down the court.
00:31:51
You know, I always, now I wonder if you would have had the reverse, if you would have been
00:31:56
the coach first and then gone, started this business later, if you would still look for,
00:32:01
I think one of the things I'm starting to learn about you is that you can, are probably really
00:32:07
good at figuring out people and finding the good qualities in them. Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. I think
00:32:12
I'm super optimistic and I think that's like an innate, or maybe how I was raised, I'm not really
00:32:17
sure, both, you know, always looking for the good in people. There's always something good about
00:32:23
people, you know, everyone's so different. I love learning about people. I love asking the question,
00:32:32
if money wasn't an issue, what would you be doing? What's the dream? You know, what's the
00:32:38
dream that you would do if money wasn't an issue, if you could make money this and that. People are
00:32:43
so fascinating, you know, I mean, I just driving around town and businesses, I'm like, oh, that's
00:32:48
such a cool business. You do what? Or like a store closes and one opens and I'm like, wow, they got
00:32:52
a jewelry store? Like, I'm just so fascinated by like how people, I don't say make money because
00:32:58
that sounds so cliche, but like, how do they do life? I mean, this is why I got into this, was to
00:33:07
that curiosity of what drives people to get, because it's not, it's not always about money.
00:33:13
You hear, you hear, everyone talks about it, that you want to make money and then somewhere along
00:33:18
the way, money starts to go out the window, whether you're making it or not. You make money,
00:33:22
then there's this other issue. You got to deal with these personal things in life and how you're
00:33:27
going to get through the business. And then someone isn't making money. There's like, well, what drives
00:33:31
you to keep going through this business, right? Because you're not doing it for money anymore.
00:33:35
So it's always, there's always this back and forth and, and I've learned that.
00:33:40
And all money isn't good money.
00:33:42
Right, right.
00:33:43
Some people are the most stressful people to stress you out, not worth a dollar.
00:33:47
I'm like, why are you doing this? You're unhappy in so many parts of your life, but they're like,
00:33:52
oh, I got to pay for this. You can give all this up and go move somewhere else and,
00:33:57
no, not deal with this. But I think there's this innate genetic makeup in entrepreneurs
00:34:04
and business owners that you start to find out after a while talking to so many that they
00:34:10
need to fulfill something. And that's always the thing that I keep trying to figure out,
00:34:15
right? Everyone, I've heard people that it was like, oh, you know, my, I got cancer and now I'm
00:34:21
trying to do it because I want to help people. My family lost their house. I want to do this
00:34:26
because I never want to ever not be housed again. You know, I'm going to have a roof over my head.
00:34:31
It's always these little things that, something happened when someone was younger.
00:34:35
Like, you know, you, I feel like the more, the more you probably, on a car ride back to LA,
00:34:40
you start to sit back and go, wow, this is why I'm doing this. It's because there's something
00:34:44
sparked this fire in me. I just didn't know it and then turned into this. So it's always
00:34:48
fascinating to me. And I, I feel like we look at business as money so much now because it's easy
00:34:57
to sell on Instagram and TikTok, you know, these stories of people, how to get rich,
00:35:02
but it's those people I don't think are truly about whatever it is that's inside of them.
00:35:10
They just went after money, but those people that are doing it for this other reason are the
00:35:15
people that are going to, when they change lives, be happier, do whatever it is. Right. And I have
00:35:20
a feeling that you, you telling me that you were wanting to be a coach is like, you wanted to.
00:35:25
That are like the most underpaid position in America.
00:35:28
Yeah. Right.
00:35:28
Maybe not at the highest level, but you know what I mean, at the low level.
00:35:30
I get it because there's something in you that wanted to, to, to help younger people achieve
00:35:38
something. And then you're going to get fulfillment out of it too. And then also you were like,
00:35:43
I'm doing this because I, I, there's this competitive side and I want to get out there.
00:35:47
Right. And I'm sure you get to fulfill it with your son's team. You know, you're like,
00:35:52
this has been itching at me for.
00:35:53
Oh, it's totally been, it's totally. He, you know, he was playing basketball pre-COVID,
00:35:57
then COVID hit. So we're going to keep going back to COVID. But, and then he started,
00:36:01
he picked up football cause that's an outdoor sport and he could do that. You know, so he
00:36:04
found a love in football. Um, and then his friends from football were like, Hey, we're
00:36:08
going to play on this basketball team. And, uh, one of the dads was coaching and then knew I was
00:36:14
have some coaching under my belt. And he was like, do you want to like be my assistant?
00:36:18
Like, sure. Well, the reality is I had to be the assistant to get my son off the waitlist.
00:36:22
So I was like, if I volunteer to coach, can we get off the waitlist? They were like, absolutely.
00:36:26
And I was like, but will you let me coach? That's really where it was at. You know? Cause if he was
00:36:31
like, no, no, then I wouldn't at all. I mean, he's 13 years old at the time. Like in my head,
00:36:37
I'm like, no, you don't want your mom coaching your boys. No, no. But I learned one of the,
00:36:43
one of the most winning basketball, high school basketball teams in the past couple of years had
00:36:48
like a head female coach. This is told to me by like a retired NBA player. And I was like, what?
00:36:52
We were talking about this. Cause I was kind of like, I don't know if I should coach. And
00:36:55
he was like, yes, it's doable. And I was like, oh, okay. So, but again, if my son wanted me to
00:37:00
cool, one of my former players found out I was coaching and she goes, yeah, it's because, you
00:37:04
know, his mom's got skills. And I was like, maybe not at 44 anymore, but do you think as a mother
00:37:11
and in the female coach that there is this compassion that you have towards players that
00:37:17
may be a male coach that yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I'm like, I've read Phil
00:37:22
Jackson's book, John Wooden. Like I, um, I know I'm a great coach. Um, if we're not talking
00:37:32
rec ball and you only get to hang out once a week and, you know, put a couple of plays together,
00:37:36
um, coaching is so much more than just X's and O's. You get to know your players. You get to
00:37:43
know their personality, what their strengths, their weaknesses are. You know, some kids thrive
00:37:47
on you screaming at them, you know, and some kids need to be just slightly told what to do
00:37:52
in a different way. And some kids, you know, coaches make or break your, your future, the
00:37:57
way they speak to you, the way they treat you, the way they treat the whole team. I had a volleyball
00:38:01
coach who just screamed the whole entire time. Stopped playing volleyball my sophomore year of
00:38:06
high school. It's interesting that you say that because there is said documentary on Netflix,
00:38:11
it's a university or something. They would follow the different basketball and, and, uh,
00:38:17
like junior college teams and the way that some of those kids were handled.
00:38:25
I mean, they, some of them, they would just get yelled at and they were like, I quit. Right. And
00:38:29
you probably needed as a coach to look at those kids and be like, that's not how this kid's
00:38:33
probably been through a lot. Everything in his life has led up to him just letting down, letting
00:38:38
down. He, he misses this fourth quarter, whatever it is. And then now the coach is like, you suck.
00:38:44
That's not really where it needs to be. But then there's kids in there that thrive off of that.
00:38:49
Like the coach is yelling at them. They're like, I'm going to be better. Right. So, but I think,
00:38:53
I think there's this, you know, watching sports and being sports from when I was younger, you look
00:38:58
at, you think, I think it gets passed on to generation after generation of male coaches.
00:39:04
Like, this is what we got to do. Just yell at them. Like, why are you yelling at me? Like,
00:39:08
I know him. Like I played with this guy for like four years. He's not, this is not going to help
00:39:12
him. Right. But, but they're like, I'm going to try to get 80% of you guys to move forward.
00:39:17
I coached an all girls school for a couple of years and we had a great, she was very athletic.
00:39:23
But the pressure from her parents to perform at every athletic event, she did track, she did
00:39:30
basketball. She was missing practice to go to tutoring so she could get into a certain high
00:39:36
school. It was too much for her. Yeah. It was too much over time. And I understood that.
00:39:45
Then there's other kids who have, these are my faves that have the attitude that they think
00:39:50
they're like Kobe Bryant, the female version, you know, with attitude, treat their teammates.
00:39:56
Oh no, you know, no, you're going to sit the bench. You know, this has turned into a sports
00:40:00
talk. It's just all, and I know, and it goes into business, but it's managing, you know,
00:40:04
it's pick up and go and go on the fly. And how are you going to move and pivot? And
00:40:09
life happens. People call, people throw curve balls, people quit, people get fired.
00:40:14
Yeah, for sure. I mean, kicking the head on the swivel. Yeah. I mean, a lot of what you're doing
00:40:18
in both areas are so important to be able to, I think for you to keep calm. Right. Because
00:40:24
everyone's looking at you like, Hey, when this happens, what are we doing? Right. And then you're
00:40:27
like, I got to make split decisions in literally 30 seconds, whether or not we're going to go
00:40:32
in this direction. What has been something that you've had to adjust in your mentality as this
00:40:40
business has scaled? Like, is there something that you've like, I have to change this about
00:40:44
me in order for this business to keep functioning? Or are you like, I have to do this in order for
00:40:49
this business to keep functioning? Yeah, a couple of things. Therapy helps.
00:40:54
I think therapy, I'm such a component of therapy. I also went to school to be a therapist, but
00:40:59
therapy really helps. Two, putting yourself in the environment.
00:41:06
You know, like I said, I worked in Bel Air. I know it was a long time ago, but
00:41:09
childcare doesn't change too much. Putting yourself in the environment, being around
00:41:15
successful people, however you can get around successful people. You know, we've been doing
00:41:23
childcare for the Los Angeles Rams for nine years, being around a ton of athletes. How do
00:41:29
you conduct yourself? What are they looking for? It's a lot different than what a married couple
00:41:34
in tech is looking for, you know? And not everyone can afford childcare, you know? And the kind of
00:41:44
candidate we're looking for is high value. They're in high demand. If they don't get hired, like
00:41:51
right after the interview, they're probably getting hired by someone else that same week.
00:41:54
We're kind of on a time crunch, both parties. Like this isn't like, oh, there's plenty of
00:41:59
fabulous jobs. There's not a lot of jobs in the world. We know this right now, right? There's not
00:42:02
a lot of people, you know, when they talk about the 1%, right? Oh, the 1%, this and that. I'll
00:42:08
give us a little bit 5% that we work with, right? Top 5%. There's only like 5% of people that can do
00:42:14
that job too. You know, there isn't like tons of people that can do this job. And so finding the
00:42:20
best of the best, like we have great clients and we have great candidates, and then making that
00:42:26
match. It's great to hear. I mean, it's got to be, when you were talking about how athletes or
00:42:33
anyone, celebrities, right? I've said this before, that it must be so hard to be in that position in
00:42:43
terms of dealing with life because you don't get to just go out and do regular things. And you don't,
00:42:49
and if someone from the Rams goes out and wants to go to Vons, which I doubt that ever happens,
00:42:55
but you're like, right, right. And you're like, it's like, I can't, 10 people coming up to me,
00:43:00
I just want to look at some cheese or something, you know? To start to wrap up, you can go back
00:43:07
to your 24-year-old, 25-year-old self before this started to just expand. What advice would you give
00:43:17
to your younger self?
00:43:23
I would say you've got this. It's all going to be okay. It's not rocket science. I don't mean that
00:43:32
by what I do. I think I was just, I mean, in hindsight, when I look back, I was just doing it.
00:43:40
I don't know. I don't know what I was doing, to be honest. I was just thinking I was doing the
00:43:43
right thing. And I think just being my own cheerleader, like you've got this, it's going to
00:43:48
be okay. Nothing real, you know, cliche, but yeah. I mean, I love what I do. Someone asked me
00:43:56
recently, what would you do if you weren't doing this? And I was like, I have no idea. Because
00:44:00
it's fun. I love my job. That's awesome. Now, how can everyone get in touch with you?
00:44:07
Oh, yeah, yeah. So on any socials, we're on Instagram, VIP Nanny's LA.
00:44:13
And then our website, vipnannyagency.com. And yeah.
00:44:19
All right. Well, thank you so much, Rebecca, for coming on the podcast.
00:44:22
Loved it. I think this is going to be a fantastic listen for anyone out there.
00:44:26
Thank you for having me.
00:44:28
Yeah, thank you. This is Personal Side of Business.