Cierra Noreen DeLonais

My family - my husband and my daughters - are the reason I've been as successful as I have. They thought I was crazy at first, I won't lie to you, but they were a huge part of this. They saw that I was serious, and they just kind of dove in with me and helped me. They actually even took some of the training classes that they could take - they were willing to take those classes with me. My husband went out and bought a bunch of stuff that I was gonna need and surprised me, and made sure to help me get everything set up. He was very, at first, kind of like, okay, I'm not real sure about this, but he was honestly my biggest push to do it. He was like, okay, well, if you're gonna do this, like, let's do it. My daughters have been great - she enjoys it and she's constantly asking, like, is there any new classes I can take now that I'm a little bit older? And then, of course, my families that trust me to take care of their kiddos have been phenomenal. They're always recommending me, even though they know I'm full and can't take kids, and they're always posting about me.

The best career advice I’ve received is to embrace change and follow what brings joy and purpose, as my shift from engineering to childcare taught me that fulfillment often comes from pursuing what truly matters.

I would say if you're scared, just take the leap of faith. Change is the absolute best thing you can do. There's no way to grow unless you're willing to make the change. Even if you take that leap and make the change and you fail, it's okay. You've learned. You can take that away from that experience, and now you can build from there and figure out how you're going to better yourself. Maybe you just realized, okay, that wasn't for me, so I'm gonna try something else, but always be willing to make change. Always be willing to take a leap of faith.

The biggest challenge is finding people who are willing to put in the work and work as hard as you do, and have the same goals and mindset as you. That's the hardest part because this isn't just my business - I build a relationship with these families and these kids, and they become more family than anything. So I'm also trusting that you're gonna take the same outlook as me and the same care as these kids that I would offer. Finding that in people is honestly very difficult. On the opportunity side, one of the best opportunities I've had is building amazing friendships out of this whole experience. I get to know not just these kids, but I spend all day, 5 days a week with some of them. I've even kept some of my kids when their families - like when mom and dad got married and went on a honeymoon - instead of grandparents watching the babies, I got to watch brother and sister because I'm the one who's with them all day, every day, and I'm the one they're most comfortable with. I build relationships with the families as well. Grandparents have my numbers and I go to dinner with a lot of my families even after work. We go to the zoo together on the weekends. There's an opportunity in that aspect of having and building new friendships and creating different connections.

Honesty, integrity, and open communication are the most important values to me. You just have to be able to - hey, if something's bothering you, or you just need to tell somebody and let them know, or just to be open, just be honest, there's no reason to have to hide anything. I try to instill that in my daughters as well, which is always a learning curve as a mom. I think I learn more than they do, because I constantly have to remind myself, hey, you know, this is my first time, I've never done this either, so we're learning how to do this thing together. I feel like as adults, we forget that we also make mistakes, and it's okay to admit we make mistakes and have our kids see that we are not perfect.