Toddler Tunez offers artistic and creative child care sessions in the safe environment of your own home. Each session will be conducted by a Creative Sitter (Tuner) who is a professional in their artistic field.
1.Who are you outside of being co-founder of Toddler Tunez?
Outside of being the co-founder of Toddler Tunez, I am a musician and I sing. I can safely say that music is and has always been my passion. Music is always the place I go back to no matter the circumstances. Also, I work at a sustainable fashion company.
2. How and why did Toddler Tunez come about?
My core passions are music and young children; and I wanted to find a way to combine the two. As I had already been babysitting alongside my studies, Toddler Tunez not a far-fetched idea. Whilst babysitting, I would often play my ukuele, sing and dance for the kids which they absolutely loved.
Then I would ask parents: “Would you pay a premium for babysitting with a musical element?”
And they would respond: “Absolutely.”
Now, as we expand, we envision Toddler Tunez eventually offering services including a wider range of the Arts such as dance and theatre. At the moment, this does not exist in the market and we would like to be pioneers in making this happen.
3. Why did you decide to pivot?
In the very beginning, I was running Toddler Tune on my own, according to my skills. Now, I realise that having a team and working with others is incredibly important and necessary. It’s hard to move forward by yourself, support is necessary.
When I met my co-founder, Corinna, who also studied at King’s College London, she brought a new, exciting energy to Toddler Tunez. In fact, we did the same course, MA Arts and Cultural Management and we were good friends throughout our studies. She suggested the idea of including a wider range of Arts, which was more attractive for both the babysitters, parents and young children.
4. Tell us about one of the most challenging moments.
Initially, as I had the idea to focus on babysitting services with a music element, I was able to move from idea to execution fairly quickly, there was no huge thought process. I started with clients primarily in my own neighbourhood, which grew quickly.
However, when I decided to start growing, I began to feel entrepreneurial loneliness. I felt lonely as I was trying to expand and not getting anywhere. With Corina onboard, that loneliness has diminished; there is no doubt it will be challenging, however, it is way less scary with someone else is on board. We can share the challenges and the highlights.
5. Tell us one of the most memorable highlights of the journey.
There are two that come to mind, firstly bringing on Corinna and secondly a moment with a three year old girl that I was babysitting. We used to make up songs together and she wanted me to create a song about a dinosaur and then a tree and the list kept growing. In the end, we stuck with the line “The moon is mine”, which ended up turning into the chorus. From that I wrote a song, which became her favourite!
6. What is one thing you have learnt?
I had friend who once told me:
“You’re nothing without your team.”
She is so right and it became even more obvious when Corinna came onboard. You may be great on your own but having somebody else on your team who values what you’re doing and supporting you is invaluable.
7. How do you live in the moment and remember why you started it?
When things get challenging, I return to music. Many artists go back to their art when difficulties arise. Just seeing children enjoy what we’re sharing with them is encouraging, I look at their smiles and remember the why.
8. What’s the vision for Toddler Tunez?
In the next two years we would like to expand and have babysitters across London. Beyond that, in the next five to ten years, we would like to expand internationally. In addition, we want to provide education and awareness about the incredible health and development benefits of early exposure to the Arts.
"I would teach children music, physics and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning." - Plato
Keep up with Lea and Toddler Tunez!T
