Category: Work-Life

Generations Christian Church Religiously Discriminated Against Daycare Teachers who were not Employed by a Religious Organization

This is my experience with a very popular church here in Trinity, FL that has taken over a very popular and successful daycare and wreaked absolute havoc.

These opinions are mine, and mine alone. I have no affiliation with Amazing Explorers, Generations Christian Church, or Generations Christian Academy. All statements I make herein can be proven with tax records, written statements, and verbal confirmation by more than 20 staff members.

Let’s get into it.
My boys both attended Amazing Explorers Academy in Trinity, FL (herein known as AEA). AEA is in fact on a church’s property (Generations Church), and unbeknownst to us, the franchise OWNER wasn’t a person at all, but a 501c3 religious charity set up by the church explicitly for the purchase of that school. We only discovered this when we decided to look up the EIN (Federal Tax Number) that was shown on our school invoices we had been paying, we figured we had been paying AEA but instead had been paying a Religious Charity this WHOLE time. Why does a religious charity want to own a profitable daycare? Funny though, we can’t find their financials and tax records anywhere. Nor can we find the tax records of Generations Church, also established as a religious 501c3. (But they’re basically a mini mega-church so, use your own deductive reasoning why they don’t make their tax records public).

The church also has its own preschool, Generations Christian Academy (herein known as GCA).

Fast forward to last week. GCA and Generations Church announced that they were dissolving the AEA franchise and moving GCA’s preschool into the AEA building. Fun fact, GCA does not hold a religious affiliation with the Department of Children and families in Florida, yet they have a religious curriculum. A DCF representative was contacted and did not contact me, nor another parent back.

Now, them moving and taking over wouldn’t be the worst if it wasn’t for what they then said to the staff (which I have a paper copy of what the meeting said, and can be backed up by 23 staff/teachers), the staff was told they could “reapply” to work there, but had to not only be a born again christian (no other religion), but also had to either attend Generations church, or have it on their employee record what their “home church” is. Again, these staff members were hired at a STEAM based facility teaching STEAM curriculum, not at all a religious curriculum. They are now being religiously discriminated against and forced to find new jobs unless they are a specific type of christian and of course, only straight (as the director of GCA told a parent on Wednesday that “we don’t want those people teaching pre school kids about gender reassignment and going against the Bibles standards” when speaking on the fact they won’t employ members of the LGBTQ community).  I never even KNEW there were lesbian teachers on staff, but GCA is stereotyping them as being someone who would teach gender reassignment to BABIES? Give me a break.

GCA also verbally told the staff that they were removing the cameras used for security (why?), taking away hot lunches for the kids, and removing the awesome science lab and replacing it with a chapel. Effectively, GCA saw a successful preschool and decided they could steamroll their way in and hope parents wouldn’t care. Unfortunately for them, we care. We did not sign up for a biblical curriculum and unless we are ok with religious teachings, we have to go. So what about the Muslim children? What about the Jewish children? What about the children of non-denominational parents? Are they seen as less than by GCA because they aren’t following the “born again” Christian ideology? Seemingly, if you don’t want your kids learning the bible instead of things that can actually prepare them for school, you were told you weren’t welcome.

Us parents are now having to find new care for our kids, as we signed up for a STEAM curriculum, not a biblical one, and 23 teachers and 3 office staff members are left to find new jobs. The amazing director and assistant director have been told they can take demotions (again, having to reapply and fit the “standards” and taking lower pay and less benefits) or effectively get on out.

The fact that my community is shoving this under the rug because this is a major church is such a disappointment. If this were a minority group of people, or a non-white religion doing this to another company, there would be outrage. I’m sad that my kids will no longer be with the teachers who have helped take such good care of them and I’m sad that these teachers are now scrambling for new employment and childcare with a month’s notice.

Now, this week. The director of GCA has been sitting at a table in the lobby of AEA to “thwart misinformation” and basically to intimidate parents and staff of AEA. They are not in control yet, but have found a way to bully the administration of AEA to hover over them to control the narrative. Why does she want to be there if not to try and shut people up and not allow them to speak freely about what is happening?

I even had a parent of GCA reach out to me and said “well if they’re teaching the Bible I can see why they want them to know what they’re teaching” ARE YOU KIDDING ME? These teachers were not hired to teach the Bible, they should not be forced out of their jobs due to their religion or lack thereof. Also, because the 501c3 that owns the building is religious, they are exempt from following the civil rights act and not religiously discriminating against their employees. This church and its preschool have effectively damaged so many lives, but because they put on a cool rock show with their sermons and they have a big flashy building it’s ok right? Would you be as ok with it if it were a Hindu charity, or a Muslim charity doing this to an established business? My guess would be no. 

Margorie Haimes and Better Call Benhken with WFLA news, were both contacted for comment but has not responded at the time of this posting. Generations Christian Church as well as Generations Christian Academy both have not released a statement.

#GenerationsChristianChurch Generations Christian Academy Trinity, FL New Port Richey, FL

4 Elements of a Strong Landing Page

You’ve spent hours creating a campaign, thinking of your audience, creating awesome ads, and shoveling thousands of dollars into marketing the campaign, but you didn’t take the time to create a truly remarkable landing page. Why?

When I asked some colleagues of mine they stated that they really didn’t see the importance of a landing page. “We have a CTA on the homepage of the website,” was an actual quote. Now, I can’t control my facial expressions so he must’ve known that I was utterly baffled because he then asked, “why does it even matter?” Why does it matter?! Let me tell you sir why it matters! Then I went on a 20 minute tangent about strong landing pages, and totally annoyed him, but I think I got my point across. This conversation led me to wonder, just how many people don’t realize the impact a strong landing page makes. So, let’s break it down.

What is a landing page?

Unbounce defines a landing page as: In digital marketing, a landing page is a standalone web page, created specifically for the purposes of a marketing or advertising campaign. It’s where a visitor “lands” when they have clicked on an ad. So, in layman’s terms, this isn’t your homepage, it isn’t your resources page, this is a page designed to generate you leads for a specific campaign.

So, why are they important?

A landing page has the ability to bring you countless leads, while giving you a method in which to track how those specific leads come in. Say for instance, you want to promote an eBook. You would create ads tailored towards your audience you think would benefit from reading your eBook that would lead them to your landing page. This landing page will contain a few form submission fields, and ultimately the download for your eBook. Had you just put this eBook on your site with no landing page and form submission, you wouldn’t know who downloaded it, nor where that person found your website/eBook from. Hence, the importance of landing pages.

1. Copy will make or break you

Now, a landing page won’t be effective if it isn’t engaging and appealing. Having a strong landing page is imperative if you want to generate leads and the major way to engage and appeal to your audience is with strong copy.

Over 90% of visitors who reported reading headlines also read CTA copy

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Creating a strong headline is only the beginning. You need to create that headline that will draw them in and make them want to read more. But, what if your headline is great but your copy is lacking? Then my friend, you need to step it up. If you can grab their attention with appealing headline copy, you need to lock them in with some even better CTA and body copy. Also, be sure to include keywords to optimize your SEO (but don’t overdo it, that’ll look messy and amateur). Be sure your copy is pertinent to the ads you linked to that landing page. If someone sees an ad for a free eBook download, but arrives on a landing page for a webinar, you’ve done a couple things; 1. You’ve paid for a click that now is obsolete, and 2. You’ve lost the trust of that potential customer, they trusted the ad you showed them was what they were looking for and then didn’t deliver.

2. Don’t forget about your mobile visitors

Everyone nowadays seems to constantly be looking down at their phone. How many of you are viewing this from a smartphone or tablet? I would dare to say a good percentage of you. So, why are companies still not making their landing pages mobile friendly? Many think their page will automatically convert to mobile viewing, some don’t even think about it. But, you need to. It’s absolutely essential to have mobile optimized landing pages, if your customer can’t view it, or can’t view it efficiently, they’re going to close that tab and move on. Don’t lose a customer because you don’t take the extra time to generate mobile viewing.

In 2018, 58% of site visits were from mobile devices

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3. Form submission fields – less is more

Have you ever been to a website, went to fill out the form for the product or service and your eyes bulged at the amount of form submission fields? There’s some that include the normal (name, email, phone) but some contain an excessive amount of fields. Always remember, people want instant gratification, they want what they want now. Filling out unnecessary field submissions just gives them more time to second guess if they really want what you’re offering. So don’t give them that chance. Cut the field submissions down to 4 (first name, last name, email, phone) and get the rest of the information when you call or email them. By then you’ve converted them from a prospect to a lead and you have the basic contact information to extract the extra  you need.

Reducing the number of form fields from 11 to 4 can result in a 120% increase in conversions

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4. Don’t give them a reason to leave

The whole goal of a landing page is to gain conversions, so don’t add extra links or hyperlinked images that navigate away from the landing page. If you do include graphics or videos (which I highly recommend you do), don’t hyperlink the images, and make the video an instant-play or play on the page. If they navigate away from your page, chances are you lost them, so don’t give the means to leave without filling out that form and clicking your CTA.

Using videos on landing pages can increase conversions by 86%

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Always remember, the more quality landing pages – the better.

Companies with 10 to 15 landing pages increase leads by 55%


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