#21 – Baby Proofing w/ Moriel Levy

They don't say because ground up is not useful or profitable or valuable or fulfilling. It's just really hard. So I decided to pick that path. And I also will say like the reality is the path of ETA is never closed. So, you know, that's something that one could always revisit. But I was just so excited about this and so motivated by the business idea, but also the like, connection with families and my parental peers who needed this service, that I felt like it was the right thing for me to do in terms of like, the fulfillingness of my career. Totally, totally, totally.

And you had mentioned that you had a background in in customer, customer experience, customer service. So like did that. Do you feel like that was super applicable to starting a company? Like what about that has has kind of given you an edge do you think when it comes to starting a company from scratch? I think the the tech world and the concept of customer experience in especially like a SAS type business is something that could apply to almost every business because basically every business has clients and a lot of service home services type businesses haven't fully adopted this mindset yet.

They understand customer service to some extent, but they haven't thought about like what is the tech stack that the client is experiencing and what does the modern day person in Austin expect when they go on a website of how easy is it to book? How do they understand what the process is going to look like? How do they bill online really transparently and easily. All of these things are something that add into what I call the customer experience. It's a lot more than just like being nice, which that's important and very like key. And not even then not every home service professional, I'm sure you can think of examples in your own life meets that standard.

But in this case where you're speaking to parents about safety, you're trying to educate them, you're trying to help them, you're also trying to make the full experience of them working with your company, something that they feel like, wow, this was really great. It was so seamless. Every part of it flowed. I did everything from my phone. There was no complexities or like snags in that process. And so that's what like in a tech SAS business they're thinking about when they think about customer experience, it's both the personal and the technology side of that coming together to make it as seamless for the customer to get the actual product delivery as possible.

And so bringing that mindset into a service based business I think just is more than anything like meeting customer expectations where they are in the modern day in like a Tech City that like thinks in that mindset already. Right. It's so interesting. I, I love what you said for so many reasons, but one of the coolest parts to me is that we haven't said anything about actually baby proofing. Like this is super applicable to any business. Like you said, all businesses have clients. So this same thought process can be applied across any business that you're in, which is, I think super inspiring.

I think that's so true. And I think that's one of the interesting and sometimes valuable things about being someone who's worked in or on some different businesses. Like I never worked personally in consulting, but I know a lot of people who have. And I think some of the value to you as a professional, as you've seen, how do people do this over here and how can I take this like really productive mindset and bring it over here? And so I think that's just something that's just super applicable across many different types of business. Totally, totally, totally.

So OK, so you and I should say your website is very smooth. It is super seamless. It's like very easy to book an appointment and initial install or initial what's it called? Evaluation. Evaluation like that whole process is super smooth. So you know, for those of you who have listened for quite a while, you probably know that we also have a four month old. And so this is all of a sudden become a very like before I was like baby proofing like whatever, that's cool, but it doesn't really apply until you're in it. You're like, oh, shoot. And like you start looking around and you're like, you just see corners and outlets everywhere and you're like, oh God, this is so scary.

So can you walk me through? Like you get to a house, you show up for the evaluation, go like, what does that look like? Yeah, I, I feel like that is what you're talking about. That feeling is exactly where I meet parents. That moment of like, OK, I have a kid. They're they're either moving around or I feel the imminence of that and there's a sense of overwhelm. And you've just gone through. Most people I work with are first time parents. Not always, but you've just gone through this huge life transition of having a kid. You've learned 100,000 things in the past few months.

Does your brain have space to also learn how to baby proof your home and figure it all out like it can? But what I do when I come to the evaluation is I try to take away that overwhelm from people and point out the hazards that are the most prominent in their house and immediately give them a straightforward solution of how to mitigate all of those different things. So I'll walk around with the family, whichever parent decides to do it, sometimes both, and I'll discuss with them what I see in their house. And a lot of times they'll already come to me with concerns.

Hey, we know we need to do something about the stairs. Hey, we know we need to do something about the outlets. But other times I'm pointing things out to them that they've not thought of. So one that happened recently was I was at a house and I said, hey, we just need your help with baby gates on the stairs. And I said, that sounds great. Let me pull out my measuring tape. I measured the space between the railings next to the stairs, and it was so wide that a child could actually fit through the railing. So even if you put up a baby gate, it really didn't matter because they could fall down the stairs through the railing.

So part of the evaluation is just getting that professional eye on it to say, OK, there's this gap now you didn't realize this, but now that, you know, I'm sure you're concerned, OK, here's a solution. Let's put mesh up to block the gap. So it's like that really quick, like, you know, I solve your problem that you brought to me. I brought to you another safety thing that I noticed. And I also have a solution for that. Now your home is even safer for your kid and you have less to worry about. So that's kind of what an evaluation will often look like.

A combination of what concerns a parent has and the recommendations I have from my own baby proofing checklist. Got it. OK. And so each time, and I'm sure every house is different, every place is different. So like you're just constantly kind of on the lookout of like, oh, OK, cool. I'm looking at like, do you have a mental checklist of what things you want to look for or how do you think about that? Well, I the first thing I'll say is that one of the most fun things about this job is that every house is different. It would get really dull if houses weren't different and there weren't some variability where you're, you know, having to use your brain all the time to think about how do I do what this house needs and what this family needs.

Because, you know, a family with one kid who's six months old needs something different than a family with three kids because toddler proofing is also a thing. And I do door locks for families with kids who are like 5 or 6 years old where they don't want their kids to just open the door and leave the house when they're not watching. So there's kind of a spectrum here of, of work. So that's what keeps it fun is that each house is unique. And then what I actually have is a physical checklist that I developed. So I walked through the house with the family and I'm writing the whole time.

I'm like, y'all don't take any notes. I'm going to write everything we talked about. And I have a checklist that I'm always reviewing and it's super helpful because even though I've done a ton of these evaluations, somehow at the end I look at the physical checklist and there's like often something that I'm like wait, we didn't talk about toilet locks and that's important. Not sure how that didn't come up in my brain when we walked and talked about other things in the bathroom, but it didn't. And so it really helps me make sure I'm not missing anything and that I'm delivering like as full of an experience for that parent as possible.

Totally. Yeah, that's that's super cool. And I'm sure like it's such a helpful service, right? Because like you're saying, parents are like, we don't know what we're doing as parents, especially first time parents. So like add this to the list of things that we don't know what to do. And so it's super helpful to have a professional come in and be like, here you go. Like this is what you should be doing and these are the things you need to do to keep your house safe. Yeah. And I always try to explain to people that you don't always have to do everything on the list and definitely not right up front.

So I try to give everybody an understanding of like what are the most important things to do right away, what could wait, What's something that you could do but is really discretionary. So to give you an idea, like the way I think about safety in general, and this applies really well to baby proofing, but other things too is something that's called the Swiss cheese model. So if you think about a piece of Swiss cheese and you think about all the holes that are in a piece of Swiss cheese and some have more and some have less, and you think, OK, I'm coming at this piece of Swiss cheese.

And to get to get to the other side of the Swiss cheese, I have to go through one of the holes. So if you're trying to go through the piece of Swiss cheese and there's only one piece, it's pretty easy to find a hole to go through. And on the one side, you're safe. And if you get through the Swiss cheese, you've encountered some sort of hazard. So think of the Swiss cheese as like a barrier between you and the hazard. So an example of this would be like in your car, you get in your car and you put your seat belt on. So that is a piece. Your seat belt is a piece of Swiss cheese between you and the hazard of getting hurt in a car crash.

OK. However, you also have like antique crash like technology in your car, so that's actually another piece of Swiss cheese that's helping keep you safe. You also have airbags, so that's like another piece of Swiss cheese. So as you start to add these pieces of Swiss cheese and you look at them and you're like, wait a second. Now if I try to go through at least one of these, I'm probably going to hit the cheese and not go through the hole. So depending on how bad The thing is on one side, you want to put more pieces of Swiss cheese in place. So because a car crash is so bad, you want to have a ton of pieces of Swiss cheese to mitigate as much as possible something really bad happening to you.

Right. Riding a bike is less dangerous, so you don't need an airbag on a bike, but you still wear a helmet. So you put one piece of Swiss cheese, which is the helmet. But that's enough for most people, I would say, to feel safe enough riding a bike. How does this apply to baby proofing? You think about the same way. Your kid falling down the stairs is really dangerous. So you really want to make sure that you're blocking their ability to do that. However, your kid like falling and hitting their head on the corner of a table, like that's not great.

Like it's not a good thing to happen, but it's not something that's as terrible and scary as falling down the stairs. And so you have to put in less effort. And sometimes I tell people I don't wouldn't even recommend corner cushions because the corner is mostly rounded. So if your kid falls on it, like, yeah, they're going to get a bruise, but like, you most likely don't need to go to the ER. So that mindset I think really helps parents because they're not like, oh, everything is terrible, Everything's a hazard. Yes, everything's a hazard, but let's really focus our time and effort on the things that are the most hazardous and make sure we have our stack of Swiss cheese for those things.

Right. Yeah, it's super interesting. Do you find that most people, does it just vary across couples and families of like how many pieces, like for the same hazard, how many pieces of Swiss cheese, so to speak, people want to put on? Totally. It varies a lot by people's personalities and their past experiences. I had one client who personally remembers having a dresser fall on them as a child. So furniture anchor is one of those common things I do. Dressers falling on children, like sadly, is a really common way for children to be seriously injured.

So it's something that isn't just about babies. Toddlers need it too. And this parent remembered climbing up a dresser as a kid. I mean, they must have been like 3 or 4 since they can remember it and they remember the dresser falling on them. And luckily their mom was close by was able to quickly take it off and like the parent was OK or the kid at the time. So this parent, of course, having had this personal experience, wanted me to anchor everything in this house. And, you know, there's some things that I say, well, this is lighter, it's not as dangerous or this is, you know, something that I don't expect a kid to climb on because of the way it's configured and it's in a space they're not going to be in.

And this parent said, anchor everything. And I'm like, first of all, I'm not going to debate your personal experience. And second of all, like, it's just an illustration of how different people are going to have different experiences and mindsets going into it. And it's my goal never to like push anything on a parent. It's more about educating and then allowing people to make their own decisions about how they want their house to be and what's the right thing for their family. Yeah, yeah, That makes sense. That makes sense. Do you have any, like, crazy stories of going into people's houses of like, I don't know, weird things that have happened or funny things that have happened?

Well, the craziest thing that happened to me was I actually by mistake found that someone's roof was leaking. So I was trying to anchor a big dresser in their house and it was like a dresser. And it had all of these paintings that were like they weren't hanging on the dress on top behind the dresser. They were resting on the dresser behind. That was like how the IT was decorated. So I moved all the paintings, I moved the dresser out, and I use my stud Finder. I'm trying to find a stud to anchor this piece of furniture into the wall. And I just like, can't find a stud, can't find a stud, can't find a stud.

I'm like, this is a big dresser, this is a big wall. Like what is going on? So I start like drilling based on where the stud should be. And I'm not getting the studs anywhere. And it didn't actually occur to me what was going on because I was just like, what is wrong with the IT was an older house like what is wrong with the construction of this house like that? Something crazy is happening here. So I moved on and started baby proofing some other parts of the house thinking, OK, I'm just going to leave this like this and come back to it and see if I was missing something.

So in the meantime, the mom is working it from that same room. It's her office. And as she's like on a phone call, she's looking at the wall and what does she notice? She looks up and she starts seeing the paint buckling from the water. And So what I found out from talking to her about what she looked into later was there was a roof leak right there, but the paintings that have been up against it were blocking where you could see like the paint starting to peel from the water coming down. So the water had actually like, rotted some of the studs.

And that's why I wasn't getting any wood when I tried to get into that spot. So they literally disintegrated. They at least partially disintegrated so that when like they were, they were soft enough so that when I was drilling in, it wasn't like sticking the way a hard piece of wood would be. Like they weren't like gone gone, but they were soft. And so anyway, the unfortunately for them, like they obviously got the roof repair, but they had to like tear a bunch of stuff down, do a bunch of repairs. And I was like, this is crazy. Like what a bizarre situation that you're like can't find a stud.

But really the problem is like there was a big leak and we hadn't noticed yet, so yeah. I'm sure they were partially like thank you so much and also Dang it. Exactly, Like I don't, I don't, I didn't feel like there was a ton of like gratitude, you know, like, and I do not fault that at all. It was more like a, you know, oh wow, this is a huge problem, you know? Right, right. Holy smokes. So now, now that you've been kind of on the other side of of owning a business, what are like looking back to the advice that you were getting before you had started the journey versus now being like in it?

What are like what advice would you give to yourself prior to to starting a business that you would now find applicable? What advice would I give myself now? I think a big part of the advice is understand and focus on marketing and finding leads. And I think that's something that is this is very like applicable to many types of business. I mean, you can even think about it from real estate like you can't. It doesn't matter if you have your you know your loan officer ready, you know how to renovate your your flip or your rental like you good at finding tenants.

None of it matters if you don't have the house. Right. That to buy and to find a house, you have to look at a lot of different options. That's why, you know, if you look at like how to get started in real estate, sometimes people say, well, just commit to underwriting 5 deals a day or something. That's frameworks like that. And it's the same that I found in this business and I'm sure the same for many others that you can't optimize your customer experience and do good, you know, have a great supply chain if you don't have customers. So it if I were to go back and advise myself, I would say focus way more on the marketing and understand your marketing plan and what works as much as you can.

And even like market before you launch. Like you don't have to wait until you've launched everything and you have all your ducks in a row. You can talk about, you can have, you know, pre launch deals that are like you're getting the word out. You can build your Instagram with like industry advice and information that comes from reputable sources even before you've started. And so I think and like you start building your following, you make connections through that. And so those are the things that I would think about because to start, you have to have leads and without marketing, you don't have leads.

And that's one of just the realities of any type of business really. Totally. So what, what are your main marketing channels now that you've been finding success in like, because again, like your, your SEO is really solid. Like if I search Juniper on on Google, you're the first one that comes up, which I feel like in 2025 is really hard to do and is a layman in the SEO space. Like, yeah, how do you do that? Yeah, I think Google has been great. And I think one thing that I learned actually from somebody when I was starting at my business is they told me that you should think of Instagram as like a second website that people in our generation specifically, which is really my client base right now, right?

Parents of little, little kids, they look at social media to say, are you real? Do I trust you? So even if they don't find you on social media, I can't tell you how many clients I've walked into their house. I'm doing an evaluation and I say, oh, and I would recommend a door lock. And they're like, Oh yes, I really liked your Instagram post about that door lock. Can I get that one? And I'll say, Oh yes, it'll work on your door. Oh, that one won't work. But here I recommend a different 1. And I'm thinking to myself, but they said they found me on Google or through a friend or whatever, like, but they looked at my Instagram, right?

And so that has been a really interesting thing to find is that people go to the Instagram to validate the realness, the trustworthiness of the business before you even come to the house. Right, Yeah, that's super interesting. And I guess not not surprising. But also like as someone I don't know, I think you know this about me. Like I don't have Instagram, so I feel like I'm I'm out of that world, but I feel like I'm everyone says that. Everyone says Instagram is an amazing tool. Well, I guess I'm here being like saying something super obvious because I'm right there with you.

Before I started my business, I had been off Instagram for many years. And so this is not how I worked. And someone told me this and I was like, really? And I found it to be 100% true. So clear. I think you and I are just like putting out into the world something that people listening are going to be like, duh, like what are you all talking about? Have is there a way to track like, again, like you have to you, you're putting out leads, you're spending marketing dollars, you have to know what is working, what's not working. So like, is there a way to track that or how do you track that?

Really, the easiest way is to ask people. My, my business is low enough volume that I try to build a relationship with every customer, even if it's just knowing how old their kid is and how long they've lived in Austin and, you know, basic stuff like that. And so there's really an opportunity there to ask the customer and then from that have the information to know what's working and where they actually found you to begin with. And honestly, like, especially when people come through word of mouth, they're obsessed with telling you who referred them.

Like they, they want you. They're like, Oh, my friend, so and so said that you did great gates for them or you really helped them out with this. Like it's like sometimes I don't even have to ask. Like people just want to tell you I heard of you from and I feel like that's kind of like a just a human thing, right? Like we all want to be that person who recommends the restaurant that all our friends love or whatever. So people just feel really validated when they can tell the business owner like, oh, my friend, like really liked you guys and that's how I found you.

So honestly, that's been kind of one of the easier questions or things to discuss with somebody because they always are happy to share in my experience. Yeah, and I feel like there's also, well, I mean, correct? Tell me if you think this is true, but like the idea that people love to help you if they know what you want. Like this idea that like everyone wants to help you, you just like you need to be very clear with what you want. And then like people's brains start working like, oh, OK, like who do I know that that would be a good connection or, or whatever it is.

Have you, have you found out to be the case? Totally. I think one of the things that I really have enjoyed is as I'm meeting my customers, a lot of them are not exclusively, but often like dual income households. A lot of I'm meeting actually a lot of mom business owners who are calling me in to do this. And so when they find out I'm also a mom business owner, they'll give me advice on whether it's my website or something from my onboarding process or they'll say like, wow, this was great. Like I can't wait to tell my friends about it or, you know, obviously leaving a review online is is really great as well.

And so I think there has been definitely that feeling of connection. And it doesn't have to be because someone's a business owner, but there is something about them finding out that I'm the owner of the company that they feel specifically like, oh, wow, this really is a small local business. And I love supporting small local businesses. So there's something like really validating to people about that, which is cool. Well, and also the fact that you're a mom, I think does add a lot of rapport too, because it's like, OK, you, you would do this and you have done this for your own kid.

And like I, I don't know, I'm always really hesitant to trust people if they're like, are you, are you like legit? Like, would you do this for your kid? Like, what would you do for your family? You know what I mean? Yep, Yep. No, I think that's so true. Like I've encountered many of these questions and problems myself and like I often use that as a way to tell people like I did this in my home or this is the decision that I made. This is how I thought about it. At the same time, I love being in a position where I don't need to like scaremonger or tell people, Oh my gosh, your house is like, you know, all booby traps.

Like, no, I want to just like, educate and then help them make the decision that works for them, which I think like, you know, one of the funny things about social media is social media thrives on scaremongering. And so it does the work for me, not that I want to do that, but I will have people tell me I saw an Instagram reel about a mirror falling on a baby. Please anchor my mirror. I'm like, OK, I guess I didn't even have to tell you that that was a risk and educate you on that because like someone else on Instagram posted a scary video. I do not post anything like that because that's not how I like to communicate with people.

I think people should understand the hazards and with a cool mind, make an informed decision, not be like afraid of things and be like forced into it by that fear. However, there's so much out there that has that perspective that that often is informing why people are calling me and what they're asking me. And sometimes I have to walk parents back. I'm like, actually like the corner cushions is the most common. I'm like, actually, I don't think you really need corner cushions for that. Or actually, you know, you say you want to put a gate up in this space, you know, to go from this door to this door.

But the real hazard here is just a couple cabinets. What if we just locked a couple cabinets, you know, in this space? Like trying to make sure that you're not like making your life too hard because you had to baby proof. Right, right. So aggressively. So that's not every family, but it's just happened enough Times Now, especially people talking about, oh, I saw a reel that showed this terrible or talked about this terrible thing that happened and I am like, OK, I guess I didn't even have to bring it up. Totally. Yeah. I guess in a weird way it does your job or it helps to do your job for you.

Right, right. Well, in light of what we were just talking about, what are like, what are you looking for? What would be helpful for you at this stage of of your business? Like what, what are you looking for? What can people reach out to you with? Is it questions? Is it connections? I would love to keep connecting to people locally in Austin. Obviously parents with little kids. If you need baby proofing, I would love to be your go to resource. If people have friends who need baby proofing, I would love to have my name out there with That's all about marketing and getting more clients.

And the other thing that I've really found helpful has been connecting with other business owners in Austin and finding different ways to collaborate. So I've done pop ups at swim schools and coffee shops and all sorts of things like that and connected with doulas and lactation professionals and all these different people who are serving the community of parents. And mostly the reaction that I get is I didn't even know this type of business existed. So I would just love to keep connecting with those people because then I can be a resource where a doula can say to the family that they've been working with, hey, when you're ready for baby proofing, there's a really awesome mom owned business in Austin that can help you.

And so any of those types of people or businesses, it'd be really great to connect and find out how we can collaborate, go to events, do pop ups, anything like that. Very cool, very cool, very cool Well, Moriel, thank you so much for coming on. I so appreciate you. We, we will be using you once we, we're moving in a couple weeks and then. Heck, we'll be. Using you for for baby proofing services so I'm. So excited. We're so excited cuz yeah, like I said, I feel like I look around. I'm just like, there's knives everywhere. It feels like that at this stage.

It really does, yeah. Yeah, but seriously, thank you so much for coming on and thank you for doing what you do. It's it's a super great service and it's really cool to to see it grow. Thanks so much Jeff. This was really fun. Thanks for having me. Totally. All right. Bye everybody.