What we talked about
Erin McDonald is the CEO of Spilt Milk Nannies, a nanny referral service in the Seattle area built on trust, rigorous vetting, and a genuine love for connecting families with the right care. In 2012, while studying at the University of Washington, she took over a small babysitting referral business and saw its potential to become something much more. Today she leads a community of nannies and a roster of families who count on her to get the match right.
Show notes
Today we’re joined by Erin McDonald, the CEO of Spilt Milk Nannies in the Seattle area. Erin’s story is about taking an unexpected turn:moving away from a traditional business path, leaning into childcare, and then building a thriving nanny referral service where she personally vets sitters and helps families match, schedule, and build trust. She also helped create software to make life easier for nannies and parents, and has built a real community around high standards of care. 
Full transcript
Federico Ramallo (00:00) Welcome back to the pre-vetted podcast where we spotlight extraordinary people and remarkable talent reshaping our world. Today, we’re joined by Erin McDonald. She’s the CEO of Spilled Milk Nannies in the Seattle area. Erin’s story is about taking an unexpected turn, moving away from traditional business path, leaning into childcare.
and then building a thriving nanny referral business where she personally vets sitters and helps families match, schedule and build trust. She also helped create software to make life easier for nannies, parents and has built a real community around high standards of care. Edwin, welcome to the show.
So in one sentence, tell us a little bit, what do you do?
Erin McDonald (00:49) I think you put it pretty well. It’s a referral service, so I am onboarding and screening the babysitters so that parents just get to log in and schedule someone, somebody that’s already vetted. So it’s really great for saving time for the parents just for a date night or anything occasional too.
Federico Ramallo (01:05) Right, right. So what problem do you solve for families?
Erin McDonald (01:11) Yeah, I always think about just how busy parents are and this idea that they don’t have to interview a sitter just for a date night or the parents that don’t need part-time care or full-time care. They just need like one shift a week to go get something done. I think that when I interview nannies, I kind of tell them that a four-hour shift nannies get to show up. We just have our undivided attention to the children. We don’t have to worry about like the house.
household
and all the competing priorities that parents have while they’re home. And so the idea that we get to put their kids first for four hours, I think every parent needs that to be able to leave and know that their kids are taken care of. And so I tell the sitters, I’m like, we’re allowing these parents to have a life, you know, like whether it’s a gym or a meeting or something really important, like visiting somebody without kids so they can actually have a conversation. Like I think all of those things are so important.
Federico Ramallo (01:58) Yeah
Erin McDonald (02:07) important for parents. So I think the problem is giving parents kind of an out and just knowing that their kids are going to be well taken care of. think everybody needs that.
Federico Ramallo (02:17) I mean, before being a parent, thought I was, know, invincible, like do it all, adventurer, right? Then I still remember the first time we took our son out of the hospital and into the parking lot and we had to cross, you know, get across an avenue that we crossed so many times. But then suddenly the whole world was so dangerous, right? And…
Erin McDonald (02:41) Right.
Federico Ramallo (02:42) You know, we were so afraid just to, you know, walk a few meters to the car, right? ⁓ So, you know, and then the same thing happens when I had to, we had to leave our son with somebody, right? Because it’s nerve wracking, right? It’s, you know, it’s safe. We mostly leave it with family, but still it’s, you know, there is a, there is some tension there, right? And
Erin McDonald (02:49) Yeah.
Right.
Federico Ramallo (03:09) It’s
not about the nanny, it’s not about who takes care of the baby. It’s about us, right? Because it’s something so personal, right?
Erin McDonald (03:20) Yeah, I think that that’s something I really had to overcome is this idea. I mean, it’s been, you know, 14, 15 years and I still get a little nervous of like, these parents are leaving me with their prized possession, you know, like the most important thing in their lives. And here I am, you know what I mean? So it is a big deal. And I have an addition to, the problem that I solve. think for the nannies, this is a really wonderful business because the nannies that are in college, most of them are
they might not have part-time or full-time availability, but they want to make some sort of income, but their course load is heavy, right? So, Spilt Milk is also a really good solution for the nannies and the sitters because they get to just input their schedule and work when they want to. So, that goes a really long way here in Seattle because we have like six colleges in the area, right? So, it’s really great to be able to provide that work for the nannies too.
Federico Ramallo (04:11) Right, right, because finding the matches is about the, you know, the cultural alignment, the personality, but also the schedule. ⁓ yeah. And as a theater, as a college student, just finding a potential parent is such such amount of work, right? That, you know, it’s hard. Yeah. ⁓
Erin McDonald (04:20) Great.
yeah.
Yeah, Seattle is
the transplant city to like all these tech families move here for work and all the college students I mentioned like Spill Milk is their network. Like once you’re on my platform, you have access to all the sitters that I’ve already met and you have access to all the families that I’ve screened too. So I think it’s really great that you can not know anybody and I can like set them up with like their favorite families.
Federico Ramallo (04:57) Right,
right, yeah. And vetting becomes so important. mean, we kind of joke with my wife about that the world is more dangerous now, which kind of is, but there’s also the component that we’re more informed about everything that happens. So we feel that it’s more dangerous, right? There were serial killers killing people in the 80s, but we didn’t know about it, right?
Erin McDonald (05:01) Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (05:21) So, you know, I feel that it’s, you know, it’s still dangerous. My wife used to go to school alone, walk on the streets alone at the age of five, right? And I’m thinking I wouldn’t do that with my son, right? So I think that the wedding becomes much more, you know, important in today’s world.
Erin McDonald (05:35) I know.
Yeah, I mean, if anybody’s interested in like the danger of parenting today, you should read this book. It’s called Anxious Generation.
Federico Ramallo (05:46) Yeah
Erin McDonald (05:49) And how it’s like, you’re right, like when we were younger, we’d walk to the store, we’d get a candy bar. Whereas now, like kids don’t really have that opportunity to be independent because parents are so nervous about it now, you know? So, and that book was amazing and he did a lot of like workshops at schools too, to help people encourage the kids to be independent, but also like safe, safely. So that was just really eye opening as a parent too, of just like, it’s so, it is, it has changed. Yeah.
It’s definitely changed.
Federico Ramallo (06:20) Right, right. I I saw a documentary where in Japan they let small kids just go to school alone, right? And it’s a big part of their culture, right? And we kind of, I I grew up in a similar way, you know, not going at school alone at five, but, know, kind of go, here’s the world, go figure it out, right? And we kind of need a little bit of that, right? But on the other hand, we see all the risks and…
then we say, well, maybe not. So why did you choose this line of work?
Erin McDonald (06:50) Yeah.
Yeah, I think it comes down to, well, so I started in the business when it launched and I was a nanny. And so I ultimately just fell in love with my usual families. I was seeing these four families like regularly. I was the most booked nanny I met, like every single family in the business at the time, there was like 40. The kids that I started with when Spelt Milk launched are in college now.
But basically what had happened was the founder was graduating and she had kind of said like, I think the business is going to close. And I was like, don’t do it. I will take over. ⁓ I just saw the potential of like, this is the perfect business for me because it is professional because I’m
Federico Ramallo (07:30) Ha
Erin McDonald (07:40) know, communicating with lot of parents and nannies, but it’s also fun because it’s childcare. Like I get to put all my childcare experience and just share it with nannies and they get to report back. Like I did that chalk obstacle course for like two hours and it was amazing. Thanks for the idea, you know? So I just love that I, I manage this business, but it’s what I like truly care about. So I think.
Going back to like my upbringing even, when I came to college, I really didn’t know what I wanted to study, but I knew that it would be helping people in something that I like cared about doing. And this is just exactly what.
I envisioned. I might not have known that when I started, but then looking back, I’m like, those were the two things in my essays, you know? And now I’m doing it. I’m helping people, and I love it. So I don’t know if I would have done this if the founder hadn’t created it, but I really do think that this is my life career now. I’m not going anywhere.
Federico Ramallo (08:35) Right, right. And it’s interesting because you not only started as a nanny, so you understand how to execute. And now you can manage the nannies, manage the platform. And I think that you’re in a unique position where you’re better to vet other nannies because you’ve been there, done that, right?
Erin McDonald (08:53) Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah, I I took over my sophomore year in my undergrad. And I think one of the biggest things I had to overcome was that confidence of like, I’m 21 years old. Like, why are these parents going to trust me? But remember, I had 40 families in my back pocket, like rooting for me. Like, you know what it takes to be a nanny. Like, that’s what you’re vetting for. Like, I had one mom that was always, which she just called me. That’s why I was putting on my phone. But she was always like, find people like you. Like, that’s all you have to do. Like, meet them. Are they like you?
Federico Ramallo (09:19) the
Erin McDonald (09:25) in this role, right? So I think that because I’m a nanny, it made my vetting even better because I was like, they’re gonna work really well, or I don’t know if they’re like have enough energy for the kids that I work a lot with, right? So knowing the families really helped me vet because I was able to like picture them working with them, but also just, yeah, knowing what it takes. I think I’m a big believer of that cliche saying, like, if you’re gonna be a leader, like do what you expect others to do.
Federico Ramallo (09:31) Right.
Right, right. And whatever you ask, you’ve done it already. So you’re not asking something that, you you’re not using your fingers and saying, do this without your, you you have first-hand experience.
Erin McDonald (09:56) Yeah.
Right, yeah.
Federico Ramallo (10:06) So what was the hardest part early on?
Erin McDonald (10:10) Yeah, it was probably gaining that confidence, like I mentioned, but also just gaining the trust of all the families and the nannies.
reminding the nannies that I understand if there’s a hard shift, tell me about it, I’ll help you. It is an interesting role because there are no coworkers. You can’t share stories about other families with other people. So nannies don’t really have that sounding board like most jobs. So I try to really like have that community for the nannies as well, which is I think rare. And then also, I think one of the hardest things is just the reliability. Like when a nanny cancels,
it’s really hard as the owner not to like feel sick. You know, like, my gosh, they’re canceling on this family. They’re left in the lurch. This is horrible. And so finding replacements is really hard on busy nights like Fridays and Saturdays, you know, like the popular date nights. So, so many years in, it still isn’t easy to find replacements last minute on busy days. I don’t think in any job it is. But I think that’s one of the challenges is there will never be enough childcare for all the families.
in the world, So reliability and just really having like dedicated nannies and sitters is a challenge.
Federico Ramallo (11:17) Right, right, because after college they also move on to other activities, so they, yeah.
Erin McDonald (11:22) Yes, yes, it’s a very
much transitional job, which some families get a little mad about, but when a sitter graduates college and goes to her like dream career, that’s great. It’s exciting, you know, it does suck when I lose the good ones. But yeah, and then sometimes they come back like, hey, I don’t work on Fridays anymore, I’ll input availability. So a lot of nannies actually do come back after time off too.
Federico Ramallo (11:37) Right.
that’s interesting. I haven’t thought it that way, but it makes sense.
Erin McDonald (11:51) Yeah, or between jobs. I have a lot of nannies that will come back like, just left one job, I’m looking for my other, can I work in the meantime? So that’s been really helpful for them too.
Federico Ramallo (12:01) And the challenge is, even though it’s a transitional job, for them to take it seriously. ⁓ And that’s a challenge.
Erin McDonald (12:07) Right, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, so when people are joining between jobs, I’m always like, don’t input availability past the start date you want to input, right? That has happened before when someone gets a job and they’re like, we have to cancel the next two weeks. I’m like, why did you put the schedule in? So I just communicate a lot of don’t input times that you cannot or might not work.
Federico Ramallo (12:25) You
Right, right. Yeah. that’s, I mean, I kind of go back to the vetting, right? The importance of the vetting is not only the credentials, the attitude, you know, there’s so many little details to take care, to screen on the vetting. So what makes a nanny great in your eyes?
Erin McDonald (12:45) They really are.
Yeah, I mean, we just touched on really fine tuning that they’re reliable and trustworthy. I get a lot out of references with that. I check the child care references. So I ask, are they on time? Do they communicate when there is any scheduling issues? But personality wise, I think that the
You know, obvious, like the bubbly outgoing personalities work really well because you’re expected to like go into the home of a stranger and connect with them and gain respect and trust from the family, from the parents, but then also like be fun and inviting for the children. So I always summarize all that just into being adaptable and being intuitive of like what needs to get done. Like what routine am I following? How am I going to make this fun? You know, and things like that, but flexibility.
is one of my biggest spiels as well because we do see a lot of different families. so being able to step into each house with an open mind and follow the rules that they set is kind of my biggest thing I’m looking for. And so I sum that up and adaptability, patience, and really being compassionate too and just genuinely caring for the kids. Maybe they have a rule you’re not used to following, but you have to follow it, you know?
Like that
Federico Ramallo (14:04) Yeah, I I kind of love Mary Poppins, the movie, right? Where she kind of gets in and kind of breaks all the rules, right? And it grays for the movie, but that’s not a real nanny, right? Yeah, yeah. So what is one red flag you look for when you’re screening?
Erin McDonald (14:09) You
Yeah.
Probably references. think that anybody that’s had a good babysitter or nanny, they’re going to recommend them. So when I’m checking references, if they’re kind of, you know, questioning or like one-wording me, I’m going to say that something wasn’t ideal with this candidate. So I get a lot out of the references, making sure that, you know, one, they have the previous experience they mentioned and that they were liked.
Federico Ramallo (14:50) Yeah.
Erin McDonald (14:50) So I think, yeah, I think that comes down to it. If I meet with them and I just don’t feel in my gut that they would mesh well with a lot of the families I know, I won’t move forward with them too. So references, kind of my own get check. If their communication is not clear just while scheduling an interview, I’m not gonna trust they’re not clear while scheduling work, right? So even just the pre-interview process is really important to my onboarding, because if you miss the interview,
Federico Ramallo (15:11) Right.
Erin McDonald (15:16) You’re, not gonna hire you if you’re gonna miss Chefs. Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (15:19) Right,
right. This reminds me of a story where I had an employee that she disappeared for two weeks, right?
Erin McDonald (15:29) Oof.
Federico Ramallo (15:29) And then she came back saying, well, with a whole story about her son that was thrown to jail, so she had to take care of that. And I told her, and we would pay her weekly. So we pay on Friday, she disappeared. So my answer was, I can understand that, and I’m sorry for having to go through that. But you had, you know.
Monday to communicate, Tuesday to communicate. You have many opportunities. We had phones, we had text messages. There’s so many ways that you can reach out. It’s not that she was in jail. So I felt that it was an excuse, and then she wanted to come
Erin McDonald (15:54) Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Federico Ramallo (16:11) But at that time, my answer was, now I cannot trust you. If you let me down this time, I don’t know if you’re going to let me down in the future. So there is this concept component of trust in it.
Erin McDonald (16:19) Yeah.
Yeah, and that makes me think of something too, is just the professionalism these days. I read an article recently about how…
why it’s challenging to hire Gen Z right now. social media is one thing, like addicted to phones is one thing, like I don’t want sitters on their phones while they’re working unless it’s like nanny related, which even that is a stretch. Like you should be paying attention to the child, right? But it is a challenge as some of us owners, like we’re getting text messages at like 1 a.m. from a sitter, like I’m not feeling well, I’m calling out, which.
you know, rightfully so. The sooner the better, we can find a replacement, but not at 1 a.m. So that’s a hard line to draw of like, communicate in ways that’s also acceptable. Like, I don’t know. That’s been kind of tricky.
Federico Ramallo (17:01) Yeah
Right, right, where do you draw the line? And it’s hard, yeah. But at the end of the day, if somebody says, you know, I don’t feel well, I’ll do my best, but you know, I’m giving you, you know, a notice as early as possible, then at least if she reads out again at 1 a.m., then, you know, she did her best, you know, you can kind of understand that, Yeah, yeah, yeah. So for me, it’s about that.
Erin McDonald (17:14) Yes, yeah. Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right, I do appreciate that.
Federico Ramallo (17:41) transparency of what’s going on or what could happen, right? I do the same thing with my clients and we do staff augmentations and we have engineers and we had similar situations where recently we had a situation where a developer could not live. So he went out for the weekend and then he could not travel because of all the issues that happened in Mexico.
Erin McDonald (17:43) Yes. Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (18:03) So, you know, Monday morning we were communicating, you know, we have one developer that it’s out, is trying to get to his house, you know, it’s, it’s, you know, it’s going to happen during the day, maybe when we don’t know, but we were going to prioritize security over, you know, over getting to work as soon as possible. And, you know, we just let the customer know. And it’s, it’s a little bit frustrating because, you know, he was expecting things to be done that day, but
Erin McDonald (18:03) ⁓
Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (18:33) But providing the transparency and at the end of the day, that was out of our control, right? But I think it’s better to do that than to keep it quiet until everything blows up.
Erin McDonald (18:38) Yeah.
100%. And that’s another like challenge in terms of reliability. Sick cancellations, right? Like I want, and parents want nannies to cancel when they’re sick because we don’t want to get the kids sick. And especially when we’re going house to house to house to house, we don’t want to be like the germ spreader. So parents and nannies are expected to cancel if anybody in the household is sick because we don’t want to spread that. And sometimes it is really hard to, I’m sick,
to cancel and you want to you have to accept it but it is hard.
Federico Ramallo (19:17) Right, right, because it’s, you know, do you prioritize the service or the safety of everybody, right? It’s hard, And understandably, right, right. And understandably, the parents will be, you know, could be upset of, I was waiting for a nanny and, know, now we have to make changes on our plans, right? But ⁓ with a priority on the safety and the safety of their kid, then, you know, I think they would understand it, right?
Erin McDonald (19:24) Right. Yeah, that’s what the transparency.
Yeah. Right.
Mm-hmm.
Federico Ramallo (19:48) Yeah. So what do nannies wish parents understood better?
Erin McDonald (19:53) Hmm, yeah.
My first thought is…
how the respect is mutual. we as nannies, see I wear many hats, I’m going to put on my nanny hat, like we are expected to show up on time and be there the time of the shift, right? And families should also be on time. So it is challenging when we have like a date night shift, 6pm to 10pm. If parents are late, yes, we may not have a shift after 10pm, but like we’re expected to get off
10, right? So that is a really hard boundary that some parents push by being late. Or if it is a daytime shift, like we might have an afternoon shift that we have to get back to, so that first family must be on time for us to get to the next shift on time, right? So I think respecting time, but also like the bigger part of that, I feel like
Everybody has the horror story of like my sitter didn’t show up. This is horrible. But nobody really talks about the challenge as a nanny. You have all these bookings with families and they’re like our event canceled, our plans changed, our mom came in town and they cancel those bookings and then that sitter just straight up loses the work. Right? So a lot of times there’s, I mean, parents can cancel, that’s okay.
Federico Ramallo (21:06) Right.
Erin McDonald (21:11) hopefully nannies can get rescheduled, but I hear a lot that families will coordinate a bunch of shifts and then be like, my work schedule changed and then they cancel it all. Which from the nanny perspective, it’s sometimes it’s really hard to like make up those hours and everybody has a living to pay for, you know, so I think respecting time and just like sticking to the schedule can be really, really big things from the nanny perspective.
Federico Ramallo (21:36) Right. Right. Do you track those type of behaviors on both sides?
Erin McDonald (21:41) Yeah.
I mean, yes and no. Like I have a cancellation stats page on every parent and nanny. However, this is just a really flexible rule. So there are families that cancel when their kids are sick two hours before a shift. again, I can’t do anything about that, you know, but sometimes if it’s busy enough, I can be like, this family canceled and this nanny got canceled on, you guys should be together. So sometimes I can connect the cancellations and that’s like,
a pretty good day. But I don’t, I guess I don’t really notice much of like cancellation trends because it is ultimately out of my control. I care more about like do they need a replacement? Did I find someone? Does the nanny still want ours? And try to solve those problems.
Federico Ramallo (22:25) Right, right. Yes, that makes sense. Because it’s hard to track all of those behaviors, then it might not be reliable, right? ⁓ But if you have a parent that always cancel at the last minute, then you can detect that, and then you can make decisions with that information, right?
Erin McDonald (22:34) Right. Yeah, it’s very situational.
Yeah, for sure.
Federico Ramallo (22:49) Yeah, and I’m assuming you’re doing something similar with the nannies, right? You can see the patterns of when nannies are behaving as expected reliably and then when they’re not, and then you can make decisions on that.
Erin McDonald (22:55) Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, just recently I had to tell a nanny I’m like, I need you to stop inputting Saturday nights. You can pick shifts up day of, but because three things happened on a Saturday night, I don’t want you working again until you know you can. And so I’m usually pretty nice about it, but I’m like, hey, it’s been three Saturdays in a row. You’re done with Saturdays unless you pick something up day of. Just to try to hopefully get ahead of that.
Federico Ramallo (23:16) You
Right, right. Yeah, and the other challenge, which is kind of related to this, that you don’t know, not only need to vet the nannies, but you also need to supervise ongoing the dynamic, because otherwise the quality can go down, right?
Erin McDonald (23:44) Yeah.
Exactly. And even though I am growing, like I have this number in my head, like I don’t want to get above a hundred nannies because I still know them personally. Whereas I don’t want to get to a number where I’m like, which one was this? You know, I can still tell you where Jessica went to school, you know, or like what Whitney’s doing right now because she was between jobs when she started. So I really like being able to know them individually. So I want to grow, but I also need to grow where I can still know.
Federico Ramallo (23:58) Right.
Erin McDonald (24:18) Hi everybody.
Federico Ramallo (24:19) Right, right, which is kind of what I was thinking about. also, with this business model, you should not grow nationally or internationally because you get into these issues of quality very quickly, right?
Erin McDonald (24:32) Yeah.
Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (24:35) Yeah, and I think that the level of care and varying that you put into it, it would make the difference of any other service.
Erin McDonald (24:44) Yep, yeah, my other cheesy saying that I love is quality over quantity. Like, I’d rather have five really good new families than 50 questionable families, right? Or like two really good nannies, but I didn’t hire the other eight ones. You know, like I’d rather do the two good ones than the rest of the interviews.
Federico Ramallo (24:58) Right.
I mean we we do back channel reputation verification on the people that we bring in because you know we had bad experiences and I don’t want that you know I don’t want to bring a bad hire into in you know with our clients so you know because we stand behind every candidate we present so you know it’s it is it is tricky and time-consuming right
Yeah. So what is one story that made you proud of your work?
Erin McDonald (25:36) you know, I really couldn’t narrow this down. I think I would summarize it of any review that says the word lifesaver. I feel like that is just like makes me so happy when a parent is like, spilt milk is a lifesaver. Erin is a lifesaver. Like I really do want to make it easy for parents to just log in, book a sitter and have a wonderful experience. And so when they talk about like, my kids loved every sitter that came, that makes me so happy because
because it means obviously I’m doing it right. I also love when I have first time parents. What I typically do is I try to be their first nanny a couple times if my schedule allows, and I kind of show them the ropes. Like sometimes it’s coaching the parents, like you have to leave, it’s going to be okay. know, like I like to really talk down the stressed out, or not stressed, but like nervous parents in the beginning. And then I love like the next year I may see them again
Federico Ramallo (26:22) You
Erin McDonald (26:30) and they’re a toddler and they’re like, we’ve loved every sitter. And so getting them comfortable with booking a lot of sitters, think it can be like.
Let’s see, a lot of people prefer one sitter. Like, yes, know my family, grow up with us. That’s wonderful. That’s not always an option, especially with fluctuating schedules. So this idea that they get to join Spilt Milk and have a bunch of sitters to pick from. But if they have a flexible schedule, they can pick and choose their favorites. So they get like the pool of usual sitters. And I think that’s really great to hear that, like, they love having the options, right? Like they may like this one sitter for bedtimes because she’s very calm and loving.
but then they want the super upbeat sitter for the full awake daytime and that’s a possible you know so I like giving them the options of sitters and knowing that they like everybody on the roster and are okay with booking different sitters.
Federico Ramallo (27:24) Right, right. You talk about coaching parents. Do you also coach the nannies?
Erin McDonald (27:30) Yeah, yeah. mean, I do. So I do the interview with them. I check references. I check their background. I make sure they have active CPR certification. And then I send a welcome packet, which is just very like the expectations of SpeltMalc, like the standards that they have to meet. They have to respond that they’ve read the welcome packet. I kind of have like hidden questions in there that I want them to read. When they say I’ve read it, I’m like, no, you didn’t.
I love doing that because I can tell who took the time to really read it, right? And then I have a couple other supportive resource documents that help them, how to be prepared for your first shift, support with ADHD and neurotypical children. I just had a recent webinar made for…
courageous conversations. like sharing hard feedback with parents because it can be really intimidating talking about a behavior that was not ideal to a parent. You know, like no one wants to be like your kid was really hard. But I hope that nannies can be more comfortable and confident to do that. So I definitely do help the sitters for a lot of a lot of situations. I have like tips and tricks on the websites for them to read through when they have like a hard behavior or a challenge.
Federico Ramallo (28:45) Right. Right. And do you think that a good nanny is born or made? I mean, do you think that…
Erin McDonald (28:52) Yeah,
I feel like you can’t really pinpoint what it is that makes people good with childcare or with children, right? And I think that you can grow into it and a lot of it comes down to just communication. Like you have to communicate to a toddler who has no logic. That is so hard. Or like an eight year old that does not want to do what you’re asking to do. Like a lot of it comes down to how you communicate and how you represent yourself because they’ve
Federico Ramallo (29:13) Hahaha
Erin McDonald (29:22) off of that, right? So I think that anybody can learn those skills of like how to talk to kids, how to connect with them, how to get them to listen, how to get them to respect you, and I think all of that comes down to you have to be fun. I think the only time that kids will listen to you is if you are fun and if you’re able to like get on their level. So I think there are type of people that are born that way and it’s just easy. I think there’s
where they
Federico Ramallo (29:52) Right.
Erin McDonald (29:53) have to try really hard, you know? So yes and no. You can become good with children, but I think certain people just have it.
Federico Ramallo (30:03) Right, right. can coach them on some techniques, on some tips and tricks, on some giving feedback to a parent. That’s something that it’s a learned skill. But yeah, they need to come with that spark, right?
Erin McDonald (30:17) Yeah, and the courageous conversations is a really wonderful webinar. I haven’t actually shared it yet, but a good example of this is like for the nannies that
you know, have previous nanny experience, but they haven’t seen a lot of different families. I’m always like, ask the questions. Like I think some people are like, oh, I don’t want to ask. They’re going to think I don’t know what I’m doing. And it’s like, no, if you ask a parent, do you want me to lock the door if we go to the park? They’re like, oh, thank you for asking that. I didn’t, I forgot, but yes, please lock the door. You know, so again, just parents are so busy. think asking a question so that you feel confident when they leave, they love you for it. They know that you’re like thinking ahead and,
and have the experience and want to follow the rules. Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (31:02) Right, right. One of the things that I kind of learned in that process is that it’s kind of the responsibility of the parents to set the rules for the kids, whatever that might be.
Erin McDonald (31:13) Yes.
Federico Ramallo (31:15) that usually becomes an issue, and particularly in Latin American families where the great parents get involved and they kind of walk over those rules, ⁓ Because they have the experience and the parents are not, they don’t.
Erin McDonald (31:27) Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (31:32) have that experience yet. But being able to set that boundary, it’s a process. It’s something that we learn how to do. My mother-in-law is amazing. we had a great relationship. So I didn’t have that issue, but I’ve seen that happen many, many times in Latin American families.
Erin McDonald (31:47) Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (31:49) And at the end of the day, it could be arbitrary. We could not be in agreement. But at the end of the day, their kid is their root, right?
Yeah. And you also mentioned about coaching the parents, right? What tips would you give a parent that might be listening to have a great experience with a nanny?
Erin McDonald (32:10) Yeah, I think it’s just having that, the respect of trusting, knowing this.
person coming in has the experience and you’re right, like it is up to me to tell them my expectations. That’s the only way they’re going to meet it. You know, like again, with so many different households, some families have like the three page printout of rules. The other family is just like, thanks for coming by. And so as a sitter, we really have to figure that out. So I’m always just really clear expectations, like laying out the routine. When do they eat? What do they typically eat?
Federico Ramallo (32:34) Yeah
Erin McDonald (32:44) What’s the bedtime routine? Will there be any like challenging behavior that I should be ready for? You know, and then they can be like, we’re really working on this. So that’s something I’m asking before the parents join. I’m screening them as well. I’m not doing like a full interview, but part of it is just what are your expectations for sitters? Because I want to make sure they’re in line with mine and fair and reasonable, you know. Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (32:51) Right.
Right.
Yeah, because
also your responsibility is to protect your nannies. ⁓ The nannies that you’ve added from not so good families, right? To have a great experience on both sides, basically, right?
Erin McDonald (33:11) Yes.
Yeah.
Right. Yeah, it’s my saying is that I’m managing a community, not a business. Like, I will…
bend over backwards to defend and support my nannies because I need them to do what I do, right? And that’s I’m saying. I think a lot of agencies don’t treat their nannies right or they don’t defend the nannies in certain situations because they’re like, the family is the paying customer. But in my situation, like I need the nannies. I will do whatever I can to help you to have you stick around, keep working, all of those things. So yeah, it is really important to me that the nannies are in good working environments.
Federico Ramallo (33:32) Right.
Erin McDonald (33:55) to.
Federico Ramallo (33:56) Right, right. The other thing that we did with our kid is we teach him sign language. ⁓ So before he was one year old, he was able to do sign language with us. So that kind of delayed a little bit. He started talking a little bit later. But it was amazing because we were able to communicate. ⁓
Erin McDonald (34:04) yeah.
Wonderful.
Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (34:20) Very basic things, but good enough, right? More milk, I want to go to bathroom, things like that.
Erin McDonald (34:23) Yeah.
Right. My daughter can’t say
please without signing please. So I studied speech and hearing and thank you, yeah. And I minored in sign language. So I’m actually fluent as well. So my kids know a lot of sign as well. It’s really powerful because when they’re in that frustrated can’t talk phase, they have an outlet, right? Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (34:29) Right, and thank you.
nice.
Right, right.
Yes, yes. And we love it, but now he’s 10 years old. So now he grew up and he forgot all about it. So we’re frustrated because you could sign, now you cannot. ⁓ But it was an interesting experience. ⁓ so I’m wondering, are there any…
Erin McDonald (34:53) yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (35:07) special skills like that that you work with your nannies to develop, because this is something unusual, right?
Erin McDonald (35:16) Yeah, yeah, I have a lot of dual language sitters, a lot of Eastern Washington is Spanish speaking and English speaking.
I have, at one point I had three like French speaking families and one nanny that spoke French and so I was able to like connect them. But I personally, I used to actually work with deaf children. I led camps for deaf kids and children of deaf adults. And it was my friend and I, led these summer camps and it was amazing. So I actually tried to launch a spilt milk that was specific to sign language sitters.
It didn’t work out though. But I do love solving those problems. Sign language, I don’t have a ton of families that need that, but I think I do have like an info sheet actually in my onboarding with like a here’s common baby signs so that nannies might know. Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (35:48) Right.
Right.
Yeah, mean, eventually, you know, the…
Now I’m seeing videos when my son was a year old and he would communicate with, yeah, he’s so cute, he used to be so cute, now he’s a big boy, he’s almost a teenager. ⁓
Erin McDonald (36:13) Aww.
Yeah, 10
wants nothing to do with you, right? Yeah, yeah.
Federico Ramallo (36:26) What did you do with my cute boy, right?
But the interesting thing is that
I mean, we kind of get used to how he talked with sign and sound. And now we see it and it’s confusing, You kind of forget how he used to speak, right? So I can see how having a sign language could help, right?
Erin McDonald (36:44) Yeah.
Right. Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (36:51) So we kind of talk a little bit about this, how keeping quality high as you grow, right? Do you have any, you mentioned a little bit about that you want to grow a little bit more, but not so much, right? ⁓ Do you have any other concerns about keeping quality high?
Erin McDonald (37:02) Yeah.
No, I’m not concerned by it. I think it just requires a little bit more work obviously from my side So I have been doing this 14 years, but I am constantly like upgrading my processes or If I have an interview question, that’s just not really landing anymore. I’ll tweak it. You know, I think that
Finding the questions that are more applicable to like what I’m seeing right now So like my last new families are all infants and so right now I’m asking more infant specific questions and the onboarding
And yeah, I think it’s just kind of keeping up to date in the childcare world, like asking things like, how do you manage screen time limits? There are families that are no TV, no screens whatsoever. And then other ones are like, take it away after one show, which is always a big meltdown. How do you handle that? So just kind of keeping up with the times and asking the right questions, depending on that.
Federico Ramallo (37:59) Right, right. I used to have my son, he would get angry, not angry, but you know, stubborn when we, you know, shut off TV immediately. The longer he would watch TV, the harder, you know, the harder it would get to get him out of it. Yeah, we, I don’t remember where we read this idea of notices, you know, in five minutes we’re going to shut it down, in one minute we’re going to shut it down. And…
Erin McDonald (38:13) Yeah, absolutely.
Right.
Federico Ramallo (38:24) It still work. mean, he’s 11 now and can I watch TV or can I do this activity or can I play with a friend? You know, and we’re kind of living, we’re doing something else. So I say yes for one minute. I see the clock one minute. Great. One minute. He’s super happy. He plays for one minute and then I give him two. Right. But it doesn’t kind of affect the whole dynamic of your day. Right.
Erin McDonald (38:47) Yeah.
Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (38:54) Two minutes
is nothing, right? So he’s happy, we’re happy. And then when we leave, it’s okay, time’s out, right? Rather than, no, you cannot, right? So we’ve been able to kind of negotiate that. And that had worked really well with us, So screen time has been a recent challenge, right? That has been raising up with new babies, right? New kids.
Erin McDonald (39:01) Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah,
I mean kids these days have their own iPads and so it’s hard as a nanny to step in and be like, get off your iPad, let’s do something, you know?
Federico Ramallo (39:23) Right, right. Because you’re doing this service as a nanny if you… I mean, it’s easy for a nanny to say, yeah, play.
Erin McDonald (39:29) Like, you’re not being engaging, like, and
genuinely, it’s not fun to sit there and, like, watch someone else play a game, you know? So I’m always like, as a nanny, like, I’d rather be playing, not just because I should be, but because I don’t want to be sitting here doing nothing, you know? Yeah, I had a…
Federico Ramallo (39:36) Right.
Right, right. mean, it used to be with…
Erin McDonald (39:49) One of the boys who’s, I don’t know, like 12 now, I met him when he was three months old. He is very into Minecraft. And there was a couple months where I was like picking him up every Wednesday because Seattle, have like early release. The kids are out at like one and parents aren’t done with work till five, right? So I was picking him up every Wednesday. And their rule was they had an hour. He had an hour of Minecraft, right? When he got home, that was like his like veg out time. And so like one weekend I was like,
I gotta get Minecraft. I’m not gonna sit here and not do anything. And so I got it. I’m like trying to figure it out. But then it became him like teaching me about it. I was like, I don’t, I don’t really care. I’m just trying to do something. And so it, and it became like a big thing of him teaching me Minecraft every Wednesday. So yeah.
Federico Ramallo (40:34) Right, right. Well,
I mean, at the end of the day, you’re able to engage him in something different with you. So, you know.
Erin McDonald (40:38) Exactly. Yeah, I didn’t
enjoy that one specific case, but yes, I was engaging.
Federico Ramallo (40:46) Right, right. Yeah, my son is going through the same thing. He wants to play Minecraft with me and I’m like, I don’t get it. Right. Let’s do something else. Right. ⁓ Yeah. But he always asks because he, know, we don’t have the device connected to Internet, so we don’t allow him to play online. So is he alone on his word? So he, you know, he needs a buddy to play with.
Erin McDonald (40:52) Yeah.
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (41:13) So ⁓ I can understand. So every once in a while, me and my wife kind of join his game and we play together for a little bit until we kind of get… Minecraft is too much.
Erin McDonald (41:13) Right.
Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (41:27) how do you think AI is affecting Nani service if it’s affecting it at all?
Erin McDonald (41:31) Okay.
Yeah, I mean, there’s definitely some new businesses out there that are trying to make a, like, AI matching service of nannies. I haven’t seen the…
the parent side of it, I guess I don’t know exactly how it works, but I don’t do that and I probably won’t do that. So it’s not really gonna change my business. I’m a little bit intrigued if they can make a trends graph for me, but like I said, childcare trends just aren’t really applicable to me.
So I’m not affected yet. I think I did actually have AI make me a banner for one of the marketing materials I did. I put in my logo and I said, make me a banner for book your summer needs here. And that was great. But yeah.
Federico Ramallo (42:17) Yeah,
I have the same issue with pre-release AI. mean, the quality of our process is overbuilt. And we use AI to assist us in some things, like reviewing CVs and getting some information. But at one point, I’ve been thinking about putting an AI interviewer to run the initial interviews. But then again, the really good people.
are not going to want to do that, right? So, you know, the same thing if you put something like that for the nannies, the really good nannies are not going to want to be, you know, there’s dehumanizing on that process, right? So, dehumanization on that process. So, I think that your competitive advantage is you caring.
Erin McDonald (43:00) Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (43:08) and your experience and you know that’s there is no AI that can change that.
Erin McDonald (43:15) Exactly.
Federico Ramallo (43:17) Yeah, so you can vibe code with AI a little bit. You can add a feature here and there. can, well, I think, you can use it to find patterns or things like that or get a little bit more information. But that’s about it. I mean, you don’t want to put a chat bot on your website because, it has to be personal.
Erin McDonald (43:36) Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (43:37) Yeah, I think that your strategy is sound.
Erin McDonald (43:42) Yeah, definitely.
Federico Ramallo (43:45) So let me ask you one last question. What advice would you give someone that wants to start a business today?
Erin McDonald (43:52) think it’s gotta just be stay involved. Like figure out what’s needed as a leader. Make the changes so that everybody has a good experience, right?
And I think the only way to really know what’s needed is to be doing it or be in it. So I think that the reason Spilt Milk works so well is because I was a nanny. I helped develop the software of like, this feature is a must have. I don’t really use that one, right? So I have like the development part of it, the nanny side of it. Now I’m a parent. So I have like, when somebody messages me, like, okay, am I responding as a nanny?
mom or a business owner. And that can make it hard sometimes, but I think it’s also really helpful of being able to see it from all angles of like, this is what parents need. This is what nannies need, and I’m going to provide what’s needed, right? So I think that staying involved is the best way to have a successful business really.
Federico Ramallo (44:52) Right, right. I think that your service is super important because couples, when the baby is born, couples focus so much on the baby that they forget how to be a Or they prioritize their baby or the kids over the couple. And that could become a problem further down the road.
I think that couples should spend one hour a week together doing something fun to keep the relationship strong for them and for the child. It’s also service for the child. ⁓ So having a happy, united parents, it’s so important in today’s world for the kids.
Erin McDonald (45:19) Yeah.
Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (45:33) I think it’s much more important. I think that with your service, you are helping families to achieve that. So I think it’s very important. So Erin, I truly appreciate you being here today. Any final remarks before we wrap it up?
Erin McDonald (45:40) Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I guess if anybody has childcare questions, I love answering them. My email is in the bio, right? Yeah.
Federico Ramallo (45:52) You
We’ll put it on the description of the episode as well as your website so people can reach out.
Erin McDonald (46:01) Awesome. Sounds good.
Federico Ramallo (46:02) Awesome.
Eddie, thank you very much for being here today.
Erin McDonald (46:06) Thank you.