The Founder and CEO of Dream Big Children’s Center, Cristina Cordeiro, transformed her mission-driven behavioral therapy company to survive the pandemic. Exactly when her clients needed their services most. She speaks with Elian and Juleyka about restructuring programs to address staff shortages. And she shares how relentless efforts to serve her clients and secure COVID-19 relief funds to buffer the business led to a visit from Vice President Kamala Harris.
Our listener story features a Latina entrepreneur who found alignment in her coaching business Divine Journey after overcoming impostor syndrome and connecting to her purpose.
This episode was supported by our LBAN Alumni Founding Sponsors Windrose Vision, VND, Fig Factor Media, Allegiant Electric and Global 4PL.
Elian Savodivker:
Hello, and welcome to Scaled: The Latino business story. I'm Elian Savodivker, Director of Engagement at LBAN, the Latino Business Action Network.
Juleyka Lantigua: And I'm Juleyka Lantigua, and LBAN alum and founder and CEO of LWC Studios.
Savodivker: On Scaled, we talked to alumni from LBAN's business scaling program at Stanford. These Latino business leaders share their stories and insights with us and help us unpack the world class research coming out of LBAN on the state of Latino entrepreneurship.
Lantigua: Our guest today is Cristina Cordeiro. She's the founder and CEO of Dream Big Children's Center. Cristina and her team have been up to really big things in the field of behavioral therapy over the past few years.
Vice President ...: So I'm here to highlight the importance of our small businesses because they do this out of love, out of concern, and being a member of the community.
Speaker 4: This center is where children diagnosed with autism can receive behavioral therapy. It has more than 150 employees, but it's suffered economic hardship during the pandemic.
Vice President ...: These families are really relying on us as providers to be here for their children and to give them the therapy that they really need. So when the pandemic first hit, it was really important for us to keep our doors open…
Savodivker: That was a news clip of Vice President Harris visiting one of Cristina's centers last summer. The visit highlighted how the Small Business Administration has supported small businesses during the pandemic. But I got to say Juleyka, to me, it was a much deserved recognition of Cristina's work. And especially her determination and ability to not just navigate the challenges of the pandemic, which we know are so many, but also to reinvent and expand her business throughout it.
Lantigua: You're absolutely right. I felt such pride listening to her as a fellow Latina founder, not only because of how she handled her business, but how she handled her business. She is a boss through and through. But more importantly, I really appreciated the fact that she founded a company that remains mission driven. She and her team use their core values to inform the services they provide to their clients, how they treat their employees, and to design and implement really successful growth strategies. It's all really so impressive.
Savodivker: And I got to say Juleyka, when Cristina talks business, I listen. She is an absolute expert and I loved everything that she had to say on the topic.
With that, here's our conversation with Cristina Cordeiro.
Cristina Cordeiro:
Hi, everybody. I'm so excited to be here. I'm Cristina Cordeiro and I'm the founder and CEO of Dream Big Children's Center. And I started out as a child really in this field. I kind of shadowed my mom as I was growing up, and she was a special education teacher, and I fell in love with helping children and being able to see their growth. And so I went to college as a psychology major and started working in the field for many years and moved up in management and in the corporate world. And then six years ago I decided to open up my own shop and I opened my first location in 2016. And since then we've grown. We now have over five locations and we help 200 children. We have 200 employees, which is a lot and a lot to manage. But yeah, it's been a really fun journey.
Lantigua: Wow All that in six years?
Cordeiro: Yes.
Lantigua: Absolutely incredible growth.
Cordeiro: Yeah. I credit a lot of it to going through the LBAN program. I think they really lit up a fire underneath me and a real passion for helping the communities that we serve, because we serve a lot of underserved communities and provide employment for a lot of Latinos. A lot of our workforce is Latinos and people of color. And so I'm really proud of that work that we do.
Lantigua: That's seriously impressive to have achieved that much growth in six years. And half your existence is basically the pandemic, which is even more incredible to think about. But I want to go back to how you build a company base on very important values to you. So tell us about those values, but then tell us about the practical aspect of keeping those values and actively making them part of your growth.
Cordeiro: Yeah. Well, our values are really important to us. We constantly talk about our values and we model everything that we do off of our values. Everything goes back to them and everything comes from them. And so first, our inclusiveness. We really value our clients having inclusion, meaning that our kids with autism can be in a place where other kids are. So they're not secluded, they're not put into a hospital setting. We believe that they should be in a fun setting and a setting that we would feel comfortable having any of our kids in.
And then for our staff that were inclusive of race and of gender and all of the things. Inclusion is really important to us. And then being growth oriented. We really believe in mentoring all of our staff. And I think that's a real big part of our culture and why we've grown is because we've grown within our staff. So a lot of our clinicians started off as therapist right out of their bachelor's degrees, and they've grown with us. They've gotten training and they've moved up in the company, and some are even directors now. And so it's been really great to see the growth within our staff.
Lantigua: That is such an important value because that leads to loyalty, it decreases your turn over, and then it makes people basically a champion of your organization because they are the embodiment of the value based growth that you're experiencing. That's just beautiful.
Cordeiro: Yeah, it definitely has helped. Retention has certainly been a challenge for us, especially since 2021 I think it really started to hit us hard where we were losing staff and really diving into our core values and really emphasizing how this isn't just a job that you do, but you're fulfilling a mission. You're making a difference in the lives of these children.
Savodivker: I think it's phenomenal work that you do mentoring and making sure that your employees have everything they need to grow. When we look at the pandemic and you having to shut down operations, you opened up rather quickly. And that position definitely helped kind of this expansion. But what were some of the challenges that you faced as you had to go through the pandemic?
Cordeiro: It's interesting because when the pandemic initially hit, it was one of those moments of panic of what it's going to happen, how are you going to continue? Because the kids that we work with, they need us. They rely on the therapist, they need consistency. Having their therapist not having a place to go to every day is really challenging for these kids.
And so we really wanted to try to reduce that and open as soon as possible, so we reopened within a month of being shut down. We shut down from April through May. By May, we were back open again in 2020. And so schools were shut down and the families really needed us, so it was easy to get started again. But the challenge we had came in 2021, I think, even more than 2020. Because at that point it was a whole different market in terms of staffing.
And our business relies a hundred percent, we are a service. So if we don't have staff, we don't have service to provide. So despite wanting to grow, we can't do that if we don't have staff. And so really trying to dive deep into how do we keep our staff who we have and how do we bring on new staff? And that's been the biggest challenge that we've had over the last year and a half. Still dealing with it today.
Savodivker: And you've had even more growth during the last couple years. So what were you doing to take on that challenge and to overcome those things? I know you kind of mentioned them earlier, but what were those things that you were doing?
Cordeiro: So we really listened to our staff and what they were needing. And that was going from part-time to full-time, and that was really important to them. So we really changed our whole program around in the last year and a half. We used to send out our staff out into the homes, so they would work a few hours in the homes and then work a few hours in our centers. That was challenging because they had to drive back and forth. So we changed our model and we made set hours that the kids had to come in, and that allowed our staff to get full-time hours. And I think that our employees really valued that, and it's made a difference for them as far as what their take home pay is and how they're supporting their families. And so it also helps with retention and with us being able to attract new employees.
Lantigua: Okay. But every business owner listening is going, wait a minute. That is a huge expense. How did you bring that many people on full-time in such a short amount of time? How did that hit your bottom line? How did that hit your projections?
Cordeiro: Yeah. Well, what we did is all of our hours are billable hours. So any hours that they bring on are billable out, but we changed it so that the kids were staying for longer and set periods of time. So we ended up having the same amount of kids as we had two years ago. We still have the same amount now, but each client is doing more hours, and therefore our therapists are also doing more hours. So we've scaled our hours that we're completing in our revenue, but we've kept the same amount of staff over the last year and a half.
Lantigua: So you raised the minimum buy from your client side, basically.
Cordeiro: Yeah.
Lantigua: Okay.
Cordeiro: Exactly.
Lantigua: That makes sense. That makes sense.
Savodivker: I want to talk a little bit more about that because I think a lot of your growth comes from the way that you're working with your employees. And our research shows that Latino business owners report offering equal or higher rate of employee benefits and opportunities for growth relative to their white counterparts.
Lantigua: Go us! Whoop, whoop! Come on. A little whoop and a holler for us.
Savodivker: No, and Juleyka, I agree! Because I think, Cristina, to your earlier point, so much of the growth of Dream Big came from how you treat your employees and Latinos and Latinas everywhere. When we're business owners, we tend to work heavily with our employees to make sure that they're in a good place. And that's where a lot of growth comes from. What kind of staff development, what kind of other listening did you do with your employees to make sure that they were in the best place?
Cordeiro: Yeah, that's such a good point. And something that a lot of my employees have said is that we still have the mom and pop kind of feel. Even though we are a pretty big company now, we have, like I said, five locations, 200 employees. It means a lot to me that I know my employees, that I take time to talk with them and develop relationships with them, and that they still have a way to come to me. They can reach me, they have my email address, they all have my phone number, they can reach out to me. And keeping that relationship and them knowing who I am and as a face of the company that I regularly am in touch with their needs and what's important to them, and that I spend time in our locations, I spend time talking to the employees, hearing from them and making changes based off of what they're saying. And I think that means a lot to them, that they're not just another number and the CEO cares. And not just me, but also my managers who work with me. They also do a lot of that face to face time with all of our employees.
Lantigua: So smart. So I want to ask you about the other side, which is your client base. Because the type of change that you underwent I imagine required a lot of reeducating your client. And also there had to be a serious selling of this new structure, and there had to be a serious buy-in from them. Because obviously they're the bread and butter. So how did you approach that and how did you manage that education to the client side?
Cordeiro: And also I will say that we didn't keep all of our clients.
Lantigua: Oh, okay.
Cordeiro: So we did lose some. And it's been something that we've been willing to do because we really wanted to focus in on what is our core and how can we really serve those who are our target audience, our target customer. So we did lose some, but as far as what we did to sell it is just letting the families know what the research is behind having the consistency and why the results are better for kids who have more hours and things like that. For us, with families, it's in some ways it's easy because they really want to help their kids however they can. In other ways, it's challenging because we're also dealing with they have to go to school, they have other therapies, things like that. But I think that, again, going back to the relationship that we have also with the families, that they really trust us and that they know that we are doing what is best for the kids that we are serving. And that relationship that we have with our family is really goes a long way.
Savodivker: So Cristina, it sounds from everything over the last couple years, especially after the pandemic, you've made some difficult, tough decisions that I'm sure made you kind of lose sleep. What kind of went through your mind as you're making these decisions that potentially could be a big tipping point for your business, and what were the helpful tools, communities, resources that helped you feel confident in making those choices and that they were going to be successful choices?
Cordeiro: It definitely was a hard choice to really pivot like this and change the company and worrying about who we would lose and which families would not be happy with the changes that we're making. And so that was something that I really did have to work through. But I think that staying true to what our focus and what our mission is and who we are really trying to serve, that really helped us to stay strong in that. Financially, that was also a big concern. And we were able to use the EIDL loan, and that helped us to really have a backbone and have a bank, some funds that we had so we can rely on. And even though we did have some dips, and we've had some struggles along the way as far as whenever COVID spikes, our revenue goes down. And that's really hard for us. We don't provide service, we don't have revenue coming in. And so having that loan on the side and being able to dip into that as our savings has helped a lot.
Savodivker: So Cristina, over the pandemic, you've done some great work. You've leveraged some of the government programs that have been put out to help small business owners and you've received some recognition. Can you talk a little bit more about that visit and how impactful that's been?
Cordeiro: Yeah, I always joke that I've been kind of the poster child for the SBA. When the pandemic hit, I really dedicated myself to figuring out every single program that was available and how I can go about getting it and set all things aside and just really spent time on figuring them out, learning everything that needed to be done to get the programs and the loans from the PPP, the first round, and then from the EIDL loan. And I've really used both of those. We've had a rough go just like everybody else has over the last two years. And so back earlier in 2022, in the beginning of the year, I was part of a panel with Isabel Guzman, director of the SBA. And so that was just a tremendous opportunity. I was able to speak with her about how the SBA has helped our company along with some other my fellow LBAN alumni.
And she and I had a really great discussion about how we've used the EIDL funds and the PPP. And a month later I hear from the office of the Vice President, from Vice President Harris. It was one of those really pinch me moments. I didn't even believe it was actually from the Vice President. I got an email and a phone call and they said that we're calling from the office of the Vice President. And I Googled the person's name to see if it was real.
And so next thing I know, there's like 20 secret service in my center and they're checking out our place to see if Vice President could come and visit us. And so a week later, I met Vice President Harris. She came to our center and she walked around and saw what we were doing. It was just such an amazing opportunity and visit. Can't believe it happened still.
Lantigua: That is so, so cool. But I want to go back to underscore and highlight and emphasize the fact that you very cognizantly and very intentionally set time aside to figure out how to take advantage of these programs that were being offered by the government.
Because I think often there is a huge gap between being aware that these things exist and maybe not being aware, but then actually getting to the application and implementation program. Can you just give us a sense of the time commitment and the effort that you put into securing these forms of financial support?
Cordeiro: I really made it my number one project. It was my priority. Especially when the PPP first came out and we were closed, it was my number one job task each day. So I spent time looking into everything about it, researching it everywhere I could, attending all of the webinars. LBAN had quite a few of those webinars, and I attended all of them. And then when the EIDL loan came around, it wasn't as easy as getting the PPP. There was a lot of barriers. I was making calls every week to the SBA. I had gotten initially a rejection and I had to keep calling every week and following up and waiting and emailing, and I would call everybody and I wouldn't take no for an answer. And so finally weeks later, I got a response and I was able to get it corrected. And I'm so glad because those funds have really kept us from taking on either higher interest debt or just really being in the red and using savings and things like that. So it's been a real life saver for us.
Lantigua: I love that. Because that's what it's about, right? You have to be the person who wants it so bad that at some point people are like, oh, please just give it to her. Just give it to her, she's talked to all of us in the department.
Cordeiro: Yeah. Right. Exactly.
Lantigua: So my final question to you is about this notion of you guys being very growth oriented, having a growth mindset. How do you see your business growing in your industry or even beyond your industry? Because you are doing it. I mean, you are really doing it.
Cordeiro: Oh, thank you. Yeah. I definitely have a goal for us to continue to open centers. And it's really important to us that we're serving a community that is underserved. All of our locations are in historically underserved brown communities, communities that are just not getting the services. And so it is really important to us that we continue to find places that they need us and bringing our center there. And it's also really important to me that we're very committed and, gosh, I'm saying this for myself and tooting my own horn, but just that we're a really great company and we provide an excellent service. And I think that for our Latino communities, sometimes they don't get the best. And that's a sad truth about it. These kids deserve the best. Our kids deserve the best. And so I'm going to continue to grow and to bring our services to more communities and also to staff and employ more people and give them opportunities and give them a great place to work.
Savodivker: I'm going to say this, Cristina, you should absolutely stand on a hill and tout more about the amazing work that you and your company does.
Cordeiro: Thank you.
Savodivker: I want to talk a little bit about your experience through LBAN, and you came into the program during that start of the pandemic. What was that experience like? What did you take away from it? Somebody that's listening and saying, what is LBAN? Should I join LBAN? Why should they be a part of that process?
Cordeiro: Oh gosh. LBAN was a game changer for me. That's the best way to put it. It was the match that lit my fire. When I first started, I had two locations and I really got to know the why behind why grow. It's not just about us, it's about the contribution that we're making to the Latino community as a whole and really building that generational wealth. And that means a lot to me. And I go back to that a lot on the days where I feel like, oh, I can't continue and I can't go on and this is really hard. Because there are so many days like that. And just remembering that and going back to that. I even sometimes wish I could go back and do the class, do the whole LBAN program again, because it was so meaningful for me.
Savodivker: Well, we really enjoyed you at LBAN and continue to have you as part of our community and the great work that you do. Cristina, thank you so much for sharing what Dream Big is doing, why it's such an influential and phenomenal company in the community, and the great work that you do.
Lantigua: Congrats, Cristina.
Cordeiro: Thank you so much.
Savodivker: Wasn't Cristina great?
Lantigua: She's good, man. That growth in six years? I mean, to manage the growth, to be strategic, both about how you grow your team and how you grow your customer base at the same time. Those two things require a thousand percent of your focus. And for her and her team to be able to do them at such high levels at the same time, I mean, that's a feat. But I can get over the fact that she just decided, well, we're just going to transition everybody to full-time.
That is, first of all, very risky financially and for your bottom line. It requires a tremendous amount of preparation and planning. I was just absolutely astonished by that. And then I also really respect the fact that she was like, yeah, we lost clients. And you know what? We're okay with that.
That is something that more entrepreneurs should be okay with. Because when you are growing, you absolutely will lose clients, you will lose employees, you will lose opportunities that don't fit where you are headed. And we are so sort of service oriented and cordial and amenable. We have all of these positive stereotypes that we're supposed to live up to. But you know what? Sometimes you have to be like, “good luck and God bless.”
Savodivker: Right. These are some risky, difficult decisions that you have to go through. And it's caused this growth that I think showcases just the level of confidence that she has, the way that she thinks at the core, at the foundation. It's all about mission driven work. Not just with her customers. It's also with her employees. And I think that's a key part of her growth. How does she treat her employees? How does she pivot her business to make sure that her employees are a pivotal part of her growth? And I think her growth is tied to how her employees continue to grow within the organization. If you're listening and you're a business owner, your employees are key. If you treat them well, if you give them the avenues of growth, they're going to make your company bigger and better. It's that straightforward.
Lantigua: Yep, it is. So to me, she really embodies that a dash of chaos is a ladder. Because COVID is chaos. Especially for business owner and especially for women owners. And she found a ladder through it by being extremely focused on what her mission was, what the core services were, and also by prioritizing the health and wellbeing, safety, and just security of her team.
That to me is such a lesson in push everything aside that's not relevant. It can all wait. Focus on what is absolutely the most important and most necessary for you. What is it that defines you? What is it that you go out into the world to represent? And do that.
Savodivker: Absolutely. Absolutely. I think Cristina is an example of great entrepreneurship and great leadership, and I have no doubt that she's going to continue to grow.
Lantigua: I mean, she said it. She's a poster girl for the SBA, but I feel like she's a better poster girl for LBAN.
Savodivker: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. A hundred percent.
Lantigua: So after we put a call out asking listeners like you to share their business stories, we received so many thoughtful responses. Thank you so, so much. Here's one of our favorites.
Mio: Hello. My name is Mio Santana. I'm the owner and CEO of Divine Journey. Divine Journey is all about no matter what you've been through, the good, the bad, the ups, the downs, the circumstances. Everything that happened to you led you here to where you are right now in this present moment. It is my hope that I could steward and support people in guiding them to see the divinity within their own journeys.
My parents divorced when I was four years old. When my dad left, I thought it was my fault. I loathed myself or I thought I was completely unworthy of achieving and doing anything worth it in this life. It wasn't until I went inward and when I learned how to start loving myself, it was a complete game changer. Relationships started to shift, career started to shift. I was already in the process of becoming certified as a transformational trainer, but I had a flash of inspiration. I started building the company and I started doing workshops and circles for men and women.
One of my biggest challenges was overcoming myself and overcoming my imposter syndrome. My biggest triumphs have been creating these programs and retreats and having successful outcomes. The testimonials that I've received and realizing that this work is powerful, this work is needed. After almost 37 years of searching, I had finally found full alignment, peace in my heart, knowing that this is what I was meant to do.
To get your business story on the air, record a detailed voice memo in a quiet place and email it to our producer Virginia. She's at Virginia@LWCstudios.com
Lantigua: This episode was supported by our LBAN Alumni Founding Sponsors Windrose Vision, VND, Fig Factor Media, Allegiant Electric and Global 4PL.
Scaled: The Latino Business Story is produced by LWC Studios for LBAN. Virginia Lora is our producer. Kojin Tashiro and Elizabeth Nakano are our mixers. Kojin Tashiro did our sound design. Paulina Velasco is managing producer. To learn more about the work and research LBAN is doing and our Business Scaling Program at Stanford, please visit LBAN.us, that’s l-b-a-n [dot] us. Thanks for listening. I’m Juleyka Lantigua.
CITATION:
Lantigua, Juleyka and Elian Savodivker, hosts. “For Growth, Put the Team First.”
Scaled: The Latino Business Story,
LWC Studios., January 2, 2023. LBAN.us/scaled.