Matching with Integrity featuring Felicia Sutherland, Owner of Honest Care Nanny Agency

Danny: You’re listening to engine hires, how to build a nanny agency podcast. I’m Danny Rosenthal, and I’m using my 20 years of professional childcare experience to ask the must know questions to the leaders shaping the nanny industry. So you can start, run, and build your nanny agency into the business of the future.

Of your dreams, welcome to today’s episode. I am thrilled to introduce Felicia Sutherland of honest care. Felicia shares her insights on the importance of following intuition and instincts when running your agency and building confidence in trusting your professional judgment. And we also dive deep into the value of seeking mentorship and creating a supportive community within the industry to gain clarity and expert guidance.

Through her thoughtful approach, Felicia empowers caregivers and families alike to make authentic balanced connections and offers invaluable advice on how to continue learning and growing within the field. Enjoy my conversation with Felicia Sutherland, owner of Honest Care Nanny. Hey, Felicia, thanks so much for joining us on the how to build a nanny agency podcast.

How are you doing today? Fabulous. Thank you for having me. You’ve been in the industry for a long time. And before we get into all of that, what made you even enter this industry? 

Felicia: That is a great question. So I’ve been in the nanny industry for approximately 15 years and had my agency since 2016. And I decided to join because I love kids.

I love families. I realized that I’m only one person. So I wanted to be able to help more families achieve high quality childcare for their kids at home. I love the creativity and the freedom that we have. So I decided to open an agency and help more families. That I can’t reach as a independent nanny.

Danny: What motivated you to like jump from doing all of the nanny stuff to then being I’m starting the agency? 

Felicia: There were several things actually, realizing that I want to have a family of my own one day So I want to create a legacy also realizing that At the time when I started my agency I was nannying full time and part time.

I was nannying for one family full time and then about three families part time. And I also was in the job search process working with other agencies and I felt there was a little disconnect in how some of the agencies interacted with me as a nanny. And so I was like, you know what? I’ve had this idea for a while.

Let’s see if I could just do it. And I also had helped my family find jobs and negotiated on their behalf and done all the back end work. And they just went to the interviews. So I realized, I can, I have the capability. I’m just going to do it. There wasn’t really much that had to motivate me.

I just said, you know what? We’re going to do it and we’re going to see how it works. And we’re now here eight years later and it’s working. 

Danny: Congratulations on being here eight years later. That really is a huge achievement. With how you said the other agencies that you were working with at the time, there was like, that were like their obstacles to overcome and you actually getting this to be the agency that you want it to be?

Felicia: I would say yes, there are definitely obstacles that I’ve had to overcome and things that I’ve had to learn. I didn’t have a blueprint. I didn’t have a guide. I didn’t have a plan. mentors that I could rely on about three years after that’s when I started to meet people that were in the agency sector, learning about things like INA and APNA.

But starting out, it definitely was a challenge. Just learning how to run a business period. We all have dreams. We all have dreams. To be more connected to our nannies, make higher quality placements making sure that nannies get exactly what they need. Also making sure that parents feel valued when they’re doing a search with us.

I try to stick to my values and my foundation of why I started the agency and also learning what do actual agency owners do. So it’s hard to know that if you’ve never talked to anybody that has owned an agency, you learn as you go and then hope that you do it right. I love 

Danny: you just like your optimistic disposition in all of this.

It takes a lot of like optimism and like you said like we all have the dreams. You know you mentioned not having a mentor and knowing people really in the industry to help you like navigate just the starting process. When you did discover INA and ACNA, Association of Premier Nannies, the International Nanny Association, was that a game changer?

Or did that just help a little bit? Or like, where did that bring you? So 

Felicia: in the beginning, it was an eye opener that, wow, There are other agencies out there. There are so many other agencies. It helped me to not feel alone in the journey. And then it also opened up the avenues of going to conferences and learning different techniques and strategies, knowing that you can join these organizations so that they can provide you with education and guidance, and you can apply it.

How you need for how you want to run your agency. And it’s just made it easier to make confident decisions as an agency owner. Because sometimes when you start a company, it’s very easy to feel like you’re not doing it right or not. To trust your own judgment when it comes to interacting with your clients, when it comes to interacting with your nannies, or even just interacting with networking people, trying to educate them about what agencies do and the value of a nanny placement agency.

It has definitely helped to build my confidence and my competence in what I do. 

Danny: What are those peer interactions? What does that look like? It sounds like you’re like in groups with them. 

Felicia: Yeah. A lot of times they’ll have like mastermind groups with APNA and with INA, I’ve been in APNA mastermind groups where you get to meet different agency owners and you meet once a month, which is a great opportunity to just learn from other business owners and share your knowledge.

I’ve been in different accountability groups. There is a group on social media where, you know, a lot of agency owners are. And we’ve chosen to just voluntarily be in accountability groups together sometimes over the years where we set goals and we hold each other accountable towards our goals. So it’s just, it’s building a community within the community of nanny placement agencies so that you know what is happening, not just in your town or in your state, but across the world.

And it helps. To know those different aspects of how other people are running their agencies because. When a family comes to you and they’re like, Oh I heard this, that, and the third about, what fees are, what, how placements are made. And because you’ve talked to somebody in California and you’ve talked to somebody in Pennsylvania, and that you interacted people with in the UK and, across the board that these are the industry standards for hiring a nanny, no matter what state or what country you’re in, it helps you to more confidently.

Interact and execute to make sure that you have high quality placements. 

Danny: I would imagine that knowing the best practices from your peers directly is gonna make all of that much stronger when you’re talking to a client, all of that confidence because you know that if they talk to a competitor, that competitor is hopefully most likely going to say the same information so everybody knows they’re on the same page.

With mastermind groups, it seems like you would be in a group with like your competition. Is everybody open in 

Felicia: it? Yes. What 

Danny: I’ve 

Felicia: learned being an agency owner, and I hope that, future agency owners will understand this, is there is enough business for everybody. There are enough families, enough babies born every single year.

So there should be no need for competition. A lot of times in these mastermind groups, we’re here to uplift. We’re here to support each other. We’re here to encourage each other to be the best agency owner that we can be. And to just help families with integrity and also to help nanny get the best opportunities that they can get.

And also know that they are valued in this position that. They’re taking on with this family, whatever family that may be. So I would encourage, future agency owners to look for your community. Don’t shy away from it. Don’t say, Oh, I can’t talk to that agency owner because they’re my competition.

You never know. Maybe they have a placement that they are struggling to fill and they can partner with you. I’ve done it many times in my career. They can partner with you. You can get a commission and they can get a commission. You built a bond. You built a connection that you never know how it can help you in the future.

I definitely think community is something that we should strive more towards and less worry about competition. This world is huge. 

Danny: And it also makes me think yeah, everybody’s dreams are different. So not everybody’s dream is to conquer the entire industry and become the Amazon. There’s a, like you’re saying, there’s a lot of room for everybody with you doing everything with your values.

Behind you, that must give you a lot of guidance. 

Felicia: Definitely. My agency is called Honest Care Nanny Agency for a reason. Because I believe in honesty, I believe in transparency. I believe in integrity, and I think all those. things are integral when it comes to having genuine interactions with the people that I serve, both on the nanny side and on the family side.

And I find that sticking to that, I make better quality placements. My goal, like you said, everybody has a different dream. My dream is to be a better person. Is to make quality placements to really know that the connections that I make are going to be long lasting and are going to be mutually beneficial rather than looking at the dollar sign.

Granted, everybody wants to make money because we need money to live. But I find that. When I make a high quality placement match, I gain more reward spiritually and financially, families will come back when they know that they’re heard. They know that their family is valued. They know that their needs have been met.

They will come back and they will ask for more help if they need more help. Also nannies come back. And I think that’s the biggest thing without our nannies, we don’t have agencies, we can’t operate agencies. So making sure that a nanny feels valued when it comes to what they’re looking for in their next employment opportunity is so important to how my company runs.

And I think that’s something that we shouldn’t lose sight of as agency owners that, it’s not about just milling through, it’s about, Okay. Building that connection with those individuals so that they know, okay, this is a place that I want to come back to. I want to work with again, year after year.

Nannies will be like, Felicia, you did great. Can I get another job? Maybe their contract has ended. They only were there for a year or two years, but they always come back. They always communicate throughout the timeframe. And over the eight years, I’ve made some pretty great connections with some awesome nannies and awesome families.

And I love it. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything. 

Danny: What are some of the values that guide you then? Obviously honesty, transparency. 

Felicia: I will say, like I said, integrity, just making sure that we’re upholding the best interactions. Always thinking in the back of my mind when I’m talking to a family or when I’m reading an application, does this align with who we are as an agency?

And if it doesn’t, I’m okay with saying, maybe we’re not the best agency for you, okay? Like I said, there’s plenty of families in this world. Also being an educator, a lot of parents come to us, their first time parents, they don’t know what to expect. I have a big emphasis on grace. And education when it comes to working with families walking them through the process because they may not understand.

And I am not the individual or I don’t believe for our agency to say, Oh you wrote this down. We’re not working with you because let me talk to you. Let me understand who you are. And a lot of times they’re just like, Oh, we didn’t know, we didn’t know that this was industry standard to offer guaranteed hours.

We didn’t know that, a nanny has rights to sick leave and things like that. So we’re going to educate, and have grace. 

Danny: I was thinking while you said that, what is it that makes a family, like what is it that makes you the best agency for a family? 

Felicia: So I find that I am the best agency for the everyday family.

I don’t specifically target like high net worth families. I target families that are looking for somebody who’s really going to nurture their kids and nurture their family as a whole unit. And vice versa, families that are going to remember their nanny’s birthday and also nannies that are going to remember that oh, the kids, the mom and dad have an anniversary coming up let’s make a special gift for mom and dad with the children, things like that, just really thinking of the everyday life and the everyday family that needs support while they try to juggle along.

All of the different aspects of life, being a parent, working activities that the kids need. Those are my kind of people. I hope that answers the question, but I definitely, those are my kind of people. 

Danny: Also, everyone needs to know that as I ask that question, You’re smiling like really big.

I’m seeing how much you enjoy working with those families and I wanted to go back to something you said earlier about accountability groups. Where is it that you need accountability? 

Felicia: That’s a great question. Honestly the back end work. I am not the greatest with the day to day, Updating the processes and, services that we have when I like plan an event or when I create a new job, making sure that we update everything, taking down the old job, stuff like that.

So I need accountability when it comes to that. Or when I have a new idea, sometimes I get lost. Because my focus is so much on the families and the nannies that I work with. I tend to focus a lot on that. Expanding my business when it comes to, the ideas that I have to move bigger and farther in the future.

I need accountability when I say, okay, I’m going to set this goal to now offer a new service this year. We decided we’re going to offer a new service of more on call babysitting services, but there’s a lot of steps launching that out and making sure that the proper communication is out there and parents understand fully how this service works.

Also onboarding new caregivers in that sense. So sometimes I just need accountability like Felicia. Did you make sure that you wrote out the description of this new service or Felicia? Have you listed out the pricing? Have you worked out the pricing? Things like that, which it’s really nice to have mentors because like I mentioned in the beginning, when I started this agency, I didn’t know anything about running a business.

I didn’t know anything about having an agency. And sometimes that will intimidate you when you’re starting new Aspects of your business, not knowing everything about this new service that you want to offer and not really knowing where to begin. And I found just referring back to the accountability group in the mastermind group that I’m in.

I have found people that. Offer these services at their agency. And I’ve been able to, sit down and have one on ones with them so that they can just give me pointers on how you start, what are things that you need to really consider? Because this is something new. So they’re able to turning the wheel Oh, wait, I didn’t think about that.

I didn’t think about How much time we’re putting into searching. Is it something that we can, create a process for families to just be immediately connected? Or am I going to have to do a lot of hands on work when I want to offer this service and also making sure that it’s worth it for the clients that are interested in that type of service?

So I find that, especially when I’m starting something new or I’m In a sector of the agency world that I don’t quite understand. It’s really nice to have those accountability groups and have somebody that I can say, Hey, I know that you’ve experienced this before. Can I talk to you about my concerns, about my worries?

I’ve had accountability groups where I’ve never been to a conference before as an agency owner, and they’ve helped me understand how to work the room, how to talk to people, what questions are important to ask. 

Danny: I also had to tell you that we’ve talked often in the past, and you’ve really helped me with my business mind.

You’ve really You are a really great mentor yourself and it’s really heartwarming almost to hear you say that you started the business and you had no experience doing that because you are very like naturally that business minded. You really understand things and it’s amazing that works so well with your integrity and your core beliefs and all of that.

I just had to tell you that because you’ve really helped me a lot. And I really appreciate your mentorship. 

Felicia: I’m glad that we’re able to connect and we’re able to talk so much. I love talking to you. It’s been easy and you’ve helped me too. There’s ideas that you have given me and we’ve worked through so many different things over the years.

I remember when, we were doing the training and stuff like that. So I love it. 

Danny: Yeah, I appreciate that too, but I wanted to ask you before we wrap up what does accountability look like in those groups? Is it an email, is it a phone call, is it meetings, is it every week every other day?

What just what does that look like? 

Felicia: So typically it’s every month or, sometimes you could check in weekly, some of us have each other’s numbers. So we might just give each other a quick call and say, Hey, how are things going? I remember that we talked about this last week or a couple of weeks ago.

How did it go? Did you meet the goal? Things like that. And if, we mentioned that we’re struggling in an area then just saying, okay, I’m going to check back in with you in a couple of days, see how this is going or working through the problem to say, maybe this is how you can approach it this time.

There’s various ways, but for the most part, it’s once a month. My current accountability mastermind group is once a month where, we just check in once a month and we have, an hour long meeting. We just go through everybody’s wins and stuff like that. And just also if we’re struggling in an area.

Brainstorming on how we can improve or how you could improve as an individual agency owner in that area. 

Danny: Yeah. I’m also thinking how much I need in accountability right now. So I appreciate that. Yeah. Thanks for that. There 

Felicia: are plenty groups, not just with INA and APNA, but also, there are different groups on Facebook and Instagram for agency owners or people who are in the nanny sector.

And if you want to start one, we can start one too. That’s awesome. Felicia, where should people learn more about you? So they can either follow us on Instagram, which is Honest Care Nanny. Also able to go to our website, which is www. honestcarenanny. com. Sign up for our email list so that you can learn more about what’s going on with our agency.

We like to do community events if you’re in New Jersey. And yeah, reach out to us directly, learn more about what we do as an agency, and just, receive some education. And if you need any mentorship or any guidance as a new agency owner, I know this is all about building a nanny placement agency.

Definitely feel free to reach out to me, email me at honest care, nanny at Gmail or Felicia at honest care, nanny. com. And I’m happy to answer any questions that any new agency owner has. 

Danny: Wow. I would be surprised if people don’t take you up on that. Felicia. Thank you so much for sharing your time, your wealth of information, I really appreciate it a lot.

Felicia: I hope you have a great day. 

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