MyManny launches in city: Founder says nationwide all-male nanny agency is a first

John Brandon, left, plays catch with Nicholas Saarinen at Heritage Park. Brandon, a McCallie graduate, started the company MyManny, which focuses on providing male caregivers for children.
John Brandon, left, plays catch with Nicholas Saarinen at Heritage Park. Brandon, a McCallie graduate, started the company MyManny, which focuses on providing male caregivers for children.

Look up "manny" in a hardbound dictionary, and you'll find nothing. Look it up on dictionary.com, and you'll find a proper noun, one that says it's short for the male-given name Emanuel.

For John Brandon and MyManny, the company Brandon launched in Chattanooga a week ago, manny means mentor, tutor, baby sitter, coach, guide. It also means male nanny ... you know: manny. It's a word -- and a vocation -- he thought he coined years ago but quickly discovered celebrities such as Britney Spears and Madonna already were onto, employing their own mannies.

Brandon, 29, didn't set out to be a manny. While attending Westminster Choir College, the McCallie School graduate became friends with a patron of a Princeton, N.J., restaurant at which he worked.

One Friday, the restaurant regular asked Brandon if he could baby-sit his 4- and 6-year-old sons that night, while he and his wife went on a date. "I had never baby-sat in my life," Brandon recalled. "I was 21 years old." Nervous, he brought a female friend along to help. Turns out he didn't need her help, and the night was great. Soon after, Brandon was living rent-free with the family during his junior year of college, picking up the boys from school, helping them with homework, playing sports with them.

It wasn't until many years later, in early 2013, that he got back to manny-ing. Burned out on a professional opera career that took him around the nation, he told his agent he needed a break.

But living in New York City also meant he needed money. So he thought back to his college days and set up a profile on a care-giving site.

"I got so much response from families that were saying, 'You've got a degree, you play sports, you have experience doing this.' I was able to be kind of selective." A few months later he was working for a high-profile family and met a lot of celebrities -- who wanted or had mannies. That's when he and his roommate launched NYC Mannies, the city's first all-male nanny agency. It didn't take long before Brandon was talking about his new company on CNN and "Good Morning America."

NYC Mannies became MyManny, a nationwide all-male nanny agency. Brandon wanted it based in his hometown of Chattanooga. He turned to local companies in every sense to get up and running.

Blank Slate Ventures invested in the startup, Tiny Giant did the branding, and Spartan Systems designed the website. MyManny uses Brock Insurance Agency and Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel. Application Researchers does background checks on all the potential mannies. In addition to Brandon, the company has four other partners: Trey Meyer (Chattanooga), Ismael Mercado (New York), Keith Jones (Columbus, Ohio) and Dorsea Palmer (Los Angeles).

Brandon, who lost his own father at age 14, isn't a father himself -- yet. He and his girlfriend, a missionary, plan to marry this year. Below, Brandon talks about the manny economy, figuring out 2-year-olds and how boys who never met his father are being affected by his death.

photo John Brandon, left, plays catch with Nicholas Saarinen at Heritage Park. Brandon, a McCallie graduate, started the company MyManny, which focuses on providing male caregivers for children.

Times Free Press: So how many families have you mannied for?

Brandon: I have officially mannied for four families. One in Princeton, one in Germany and two in New York. However, for some of our higher profile clients at NYC Mannies, I would go to their house and hang out with their kids, so I could better understand which of my mannies would be the best fit. I also mentor a few kids here in Chattanooga.

Times Free Press: What was your most challenging experience as a manny?

Brandon: In 2013 I started working with a 2-year-old on the Upper East Side and the Hamptons. At that point, I had only worked with kids who were older. I didn't feel like I was ready. Two is a tough age. They are old enough to be mobile but too young to be left alone for any amount of time. Those first couple of weeks, I felt like I was just running after him making sure he didn't destroy the house or get hurt. But as time went on, I came up with activities that we both could enjoy. We went hiking, canoeing, bike riding, went to the museum, read books at night. It turned out to be an incredibly rewarding experience.

Times Free Press: Are there minimum or maximum ages for your company's mannies?

Brandon: Our minimum is 18. We don't have a maximum age, but most of our guys are under 30.

Times Free Press: What do male nannies bring to the table that female nannies don't?

Brandon: This is always a tough question because we don't suggest that male caregivers are better than female caregivers or that we can do things that females can't. For me, I have trouble sitting still. I'd rather be outdoors than indoors. I find that our guys suffer from the same affliction of always wanting to be on the move. When it comes to child care, some families prefer a more rough-and-tumble approach. At the end of the day, some families are simply looking for another male presence around the house. Often it's single moms who have lost their husbands or a kid who is really into sports and wants to play football with his sitter. Whatever the case may be, we are broadening the spectrum of what's possible in child care and giving families more options.

Times Free Press: Hmm, then do the mannies work mostly with boys?

Brandon: We have provided mannies for both boys and girls, but the majority have been boys.

Times Free Press: Let's talk about numbers: How much do these guys get paid, how does MyManny make money, and how many mannies and families have you connected?

Brandon: We had 300 mannies apply to NYC Mannies, but only placed 100 of them. We don't guarantee guys a job when they sign up. We go through our list and try to figure out who would be the best fit for each position. They don't work for us. We're just a placement agency. It doesn't cost anything to set up the profile or to talk to us. When a family creates a profile, they say what the minimum and maximum is that they'd pay. The guys do that too. Our fee is 10 percent of however much they'd make in a year. Basically, the families pay us a finder's fee for doing an extensive background check and making a good match. In New York City guys asked for $15-$25 an hour. In Chattanooga, it's more like $10-$15. We reward guys for having a certain level of education, so it still varies.

Times Free Press: What should a man considering becoming a manny know or ask himself?

Brandon: I am simply looking for guys who are great with kids and have a heart for service. Our mannies have very diverse backgrounds and experiences. Some of them are teachers looking for extra income, some are camp counselors and are certified in CPR and First Aid, others are recent college graduates who are looking for work while sorting out the next phase of their life. We don't require that they have had specific experience as a manny, but that they have had experience in child care in some capacity.

Times Free Press: The loss of your dad invariably had a huge impact on you. Do you mind sharing it?

Brandon: My dad owned a chain of toy stores called Chad's Rainbow in the '70s and '80s. It was named after my brother Chad, who is now 39 years old and works in the dining hall at McCallie. He is known and loved by all the staff and students. He actually led McCallie's football team out on the field during the Baylor/McCallie game last fall. Chad was born with autism, and the doctors didn't give him much of a chance to live a so-called normal life. But my dad worked with him and found that he connected with toys that were getting his brain moving and thinking. So my dad started a toy store for kids like Chad. He franchised the store in the early '80s. The individual owners of the store filed an unfair lawsuit against my dad and won. This was right after I was born in the mid- '80s. My dad never quite recovered, and in 2000, he killed himself. You could do a different story about my dad and his toy store and my brother and how 13 years after he died, I started a company for kids myself. And I want it to be successful, for him, for my family and for all those kids who need mentors in their lives, and who, perhaps like me, lost a father at an early age, and they need a good male in their lives who will help guide them and support them as they navigate through life's challenges.

Contact staff writer Mitra Malek at mmalek@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6406. Follow her on Twitter @mitramalek.

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