Zac Alcampo, Creative Director at Grow Your Center, brings a fresh perspective to leadership, culture, and creativity in early education. With two decades of experience in the gaming industry, Zac is a dynamic entrepreneur and inventive strategist who has helped build immersive digital experiences that merge gamification, artificial intelligence, and user engagement. Now, he’s applying those same ideas to the world of child care — reimagining everything from team collaboration to marketing to parenting itself.

In this episode, Zac joins Kris to talk about gamification in parenting, business, and leadership. They cover how AI can boost productivity and creativity, how to use jam-style collaboration in your team culture, and how behavioral design can be a powerful tool in both the classroom and the breakroom.

Key Takeaways:

[6:15] Kris shares her summer travel adventures and spiritual coaching work.
[7:48] Zac joins from Minsk, Belarus, where he splits his days between parenting and leading creative tech projects.

[9:12] Zac explains how his video game industry background led him to gamify tools at Grow Your Center.
[13:24] From Microsoft to Bangkok startups, Zac’s global career shaped how he solves problems creatively and at scale.
[18:23] He shares how he co-parents a bilingual preschooler and how every moment becomes a playful game.
[25:51] Fun fact: Zac is a seasoned street dancer and battle organizer who once crowdfunded a street culture festival in Thailand!
[33:07] Kris and Zac talk about the tools that the GYC team uses to build next-level content.

[37:48] Zac explains how “art directing” AI is the key to using it effectively. It’s not about replacing creativity but amplifying it.
[45:31] Zac outlines the structure of a “session” — collaborative cycles that build energy, creativity, and connection.

[48:26] Gamification isn’t just games; it’s strategic behavior design. Done well, it increases engagement without being overwhelming.

[53:45] Ideas for using gamification in parent events, leadership retreats, classroom behavior, and team training.
[55:08] Tip: Split leaderboards into categories so everyone has a lane where they can win and feel valued.
[56:28] S3 clients will soon see new gamified systems for onboarding, tracking progress, and celebrating wins.

[58:59] Zac spills some beans on what’s coming to S3, including visual progress tools, Slack AI, and more rewards.

[1:01:35] Zac shares what he’s most excited about: launching the M3 platform (Marketing Made Easy) for 2026.

Quotes:

• “I always tell people, GYC is childcare center marketing on the outside, but inside it’s this crazy, cool tech, innovative kind of machine going on inside.” — Zac [9:40]

• “I have to say, I have a huge sense of purpose with everything that I’ve learned in my career beforehand and applying it to child care centers.” — Zac [12:10]

• “Everything turns into a game, and it’s quickly become like having a little best friend.” — Zac [18:50]

• “That’s the biggest thing, the mentality shift in the team, instead of like a doer, or just like, you know, a run-of-the-mill worker, really put into their heads to just act like the art director of what you’re doing, and use the AI as a pencil, a really, really fast pencil. And you still have to know what looks good. You still have to have your design principles and your theory in there, but you can just produce so much more content with that.” — Zac [40:11]

Sponsored By:

ChildCare Education Institute (CCEI)

Use code CCSC5 to claim a free course!

Mentioned in This Episode:

Kris Murray

@iamkrismurray

The Child Care Success Company

The Child Care Success Academy

The Child Care Success Summit

Grow Your Center

Childcare Education Institute: use code CDARenewal22 to get $100 off your renewal

Zac Alcampo LinkedIn