We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Hassanatou Barry. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Hassanatou below.

Hassanatou, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us a story about a time you failed?

The Babysitter Guru was founded in April 2019. It was such a proud accomplishment of mine. I officially registered the company in March of 2020.

Prior to Covid-19 ravaging 2020, I was slowly but proactively growing The Babysitter Guru through content creation while maintaining a full time job at a non-profit. I was intentional on leaving the job after my contract was over and pursuing the business full time. So I thought. I began creating informational videos for babysitters on my Youtube channel, drafting eye catching posts targeting childcare brands I knew I wanted to partner with via LinkedIn and tagging their marketing department team members, sending cold emails to baby expos seeking guest speakers within the realm of finding quality childcare when expecting, launching a website from scratch and overall creating an imprint for my brand.

It was going well. Really well and I could not have been more prouder of myself. Luckily, my contract at the nonprofit ended in the summer of 2019 before Covid-19. I had roughly 6 months completely dedicated to The Babysitter Guru uninterrupted. But of course, reality sunk in. In March of 2020, right after registering my company, the lockdown began and it started affecting my work. Companies began to make cut backs in their budgeting for marketing content, in-person guest speaking events were being cancelled, my contacts went silent as they didn’t know what was happening in their company therefore couldn’t give me any updates and so forth. In addition to my business being in a standstill, my personal life was not that great. My mother was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. My whole world stopped. I lost the motivation to do literally everything, except to help in caring for my mother the way she has always for me.

The Babysitter Guru was never the same after that. I went silent for 2.5 years. I failed.

To be honest, I am still failing. I haven’t been able to regain the momentum I had before. In October of 2022, I promised myself I’ll revamp The Babysitter Guru and go back to how it originally started – making video content. I thought that was going to make a difference but just two months later, the momentum was gone. I found myself back at square one wondering what will be my next step and if this was truly a project I wanted to revisit again.

My mom became cancer free in the summer of 2022. My family and I were ecstatic. At least some good news came from the hiatus I was on and still continue to be to this day.

Not all entrepreneurial journey’s have a happy ending, but I’m still searching for mines.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

MY NAME IS HASSANATOU (HASSA-NA-TOO) AND HERE’S A TIDBIT ABOUT ME…

After several years of babysitting and becoming a trusted child care resource throughout the state of New York, I decided to launch The Babysitter Guru. I discovered my passion stemmed from the very position I was pursuing as an alternative to earning extra income, which was BABYSITTING.

The Babysitter Guru empowers babysitters through informational content and resources to better their journey and experience in caring for children while also being an expert for parents to ease their transition into seeking quality childcare.

I offer the following services:
•Parents – Helping expectant, new or growing families understand the ins-and-outs of selecting trusted sitters or child care resources.
•Sitters – Empowering and guiding sitter entrepreneurs on the best ways to build their brands and provide the best services for their clients.
•Brands – Providing child care brands with marketing and business insights to best reach their target-audiences and achieve high-growth.
•Speaking – Delivering engaging talks to educate and empower sitter entrepreneurs, mommy-groups, child-focused brands, college students and companies.
•Courses – Educating parents and sitters through actionable tactics that would assist them through their childcare journey.

Whether it’s making a difference for one babysitter or several, my dream is to create an impact within the childcare industry.

The Babysitter Guru was birthed from a passion I had instilled within my upbringing! Coming from a large West African family, I was always surrounded my family which included cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and so on. I found myself always asking to watch my younger relatives because I love being around children. I officially started babysitting at the age of 16 years old while in high school for my mother’s co-workers and around the neighborhood. I continued babysitting while attending college full time and during my first full time job post graduation. The passion was there and I couldn’t just let it go. Plus, I formed a very tight knit relationship with the families and replacing a babysitter is quite difficult once your children are attached.

I am proud of myself and the ability to produce quality! The Babysitter Guru was truly a passion I turned into a profitable business that caught the eyes of well recognizable brands and childcare professionals seeking my expertise.

In my eyes, The Babysitter Guru is a necessity within the childcare space. One day, I’ll be able to reprise its glory.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

The Babysitter Guru started off on YouTube! I love giving advice even if it is unsolicited 😂.

Growing up as the youngest of the twin duo, I was quite the chatterbox. My twin sister, older by just a few minutes (yes, I still take that into consideration) was always the shy and the reserved twin. It was apparent who was twin A and B. I, however, was very vocal and had a spunk to myself. It wasn’t a surprise when I announced to my family that I wanted to launch a YouTube channel discussing all things babysitting related.

I was recording anywhere between 2-4 videos a day for 2 consecutive days so that I will be able to create a library of content to be stored on my computer. With each video, required a wardrobe change, hairstyle adjustment, lighting angle switch, different script to follow, editing and topic. The behind-the-scenes work that goes into filming a 4 minute video is quite the hassle but worth it.

I gained 1,000 subscribers in just 3 months, would average out 5-6 comments per video and always reposted on my Instagram and Facebook page. People began noticing. People began engaging. I knew I had hit the right spot in reaching my target audience of current or soon-to-be babysitters curious about the job.

As a content creator, you have to be relatable! You want viewers to be enticed to comment below your video, want to send you a direct message, look forward to your upcoming video and more. That is the key.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

After my contract ended at the nonprofit organization I was working for, I decided to pursue The Babysitter Guru self-funded. I had money saved from work, including my savings and I thought I would easily be able to become profitable shortly after the launch. However, it didn’t work out that way.

Trying to secure brand partnerships was a tough one. I had to establish creditability first. They weren’t willing to pay if their target audience wasn’t watching my content. It takes long to grow an audience but I was determined to get brands attention even if my stats were not up to their standard yet.

The more active I was, the more I forced myself to put The Babysitter Guru in front of every childcare brand that would listen. This led to meetings being scheduled with marketing departments, features on podcasts surrounding entrepreneurship and video creation brand collaborations. And yes, they were paid! It wasn’t consistent but it was something.

Had I not taken the hiatus from The Babysitter Guru, it certainly would be profitable today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thebabysitterguru.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebabysitterguru/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBabysitterGuru/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-babysitter-guru-l-l-c/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/thebabysitterguru