Senior Care Academy
Senior Care Academy is a podcast dedicated to providing valuable information and expert advice on navigating the world of senior care for both senior care providers, and families with aging parents. Hosted by industry professionals, each episode covers a wide range of topics including healthcare options, legal considerations, financial planning, and emotional support for caregivers. If you are a healthcare provider, have aging parents, or are a senior adult, this podcast is for you! Tune in to gain valuable insights and resources to help you make informed decisions and provide the best care for your loved ones.
Senior Care Academy
Unlocking Growth in Senior Care: Gabrielle Pumpian’s Insights on Home Health and Relationship-Building
Unlock the secrets to enhancing senior care with insights from Gabrielle Pumpian, Chief Growth Officer at Cheer Home Care, in our latest podcast episode. Gabrielle shares her personal journey from Healdsburg, California, to becoming a leading figure in healthcare business development. With a background rooted in a strong work ethic and firsthand experiences at a rehab center in San Diego, Gabrielle’s passion for home health sales and marketing was sparked by her grandmother's stroke, fueling her dedication to senior care. Gabrielle reveals the essential skills needed in healthcare sales, emphasizing the importance of strategic relationship-building and delivering targeted efforts for meaningful results.
Explore how Cheer Home Care is changing the narrative around aging through a positive, joy-focused approach. Gabrielle discusses the company’s commitment to hiring caregivers who share their values and the immense satisfaction derived from being part of a close-knit, empathetic team. Through strong leadership and a dedication to community engagement, Cheer Home Care is creating a supportive environment for seniors, ensuring they continue to enjoy life and maintain quality of life. Gabrielle also highlights the significance of education and community involvement as key elements of their mission to be a trusted presence in the community.
Get valuable insights into the vital role caregivers play in improving seniors' lives, especially those facing isolation. Gabrielle emphasizes the importance of understanding seniors' current states and future goals to tailor recommendations and ensure comprehensive support. Learn about the indispensable qualities of case managers and aging managers, and the necessity of balancing professional and personal responsibilities to maintain effectiveness as leaders and caregivers. Gabrielle also underscores the importance of early conversations about home care costs and planning, advocating for a proactive approach to create a legacy of comfort and preparedness for the aging process. Join us for a compelling conversation filled with practical advice and inspiring stories that will leave you thinking differently about senior care.
Hey everybody, welcome to the Senior Care Academy podcast, a podcast focused on innovation, individuals and change in the healthcare space and the aging space. Today we are thrilled to welcome Gabrielle Pumbian, the Chief Growth Counselor or Officer sorry at Cheer Home Care. Gabrielle brings over 15 years of experience in the healthcare business development, with a deep commitment to providing exceptional care for seniors and supporting caregivers. Her innovative approach and dedication to creating systematic change in the home care industry has made her a respected leader in the San Diego community. Gabriella, thank you so much for being on the show today. We're so lucky to have you.
Speaker 2:Thanks, alex, happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Well, tell us a little bit about your background, where you grew up, kind of your history with caregivers, your history with the aging space.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I am a California girl. I grew up in a small wine country town in Sonoma County called Healdsburg. I'm an only child, so I was raised by two loving parents who fortunately are still together almost 50 years later and had a really, you know, wonderful childhood, but not around a lot of grandparents my mom's from England, so I had a lot of family overseas. My dad's from England, so I had a lot of family overseas. My dad's from Chicago, so I wasn't really around family. But every time I had the time to be around my family it was extra special and always really meaningful and I developed a very strong relationship with my Chicago grandparents, grew up going to see them and spend summers with them alone and it was just. It was really a great relationship I had, especially with my grandmother Um. She passed away, uh, when she was 80 from a stroke and my grandfather is still alive he's a hundred and a half and um yeah, and you know he's still going, he's happy, he's living an independent living, um, he's got support and it's just.
Speaker 2:I think he wakes up every day just like what am I doing? I'm still here, but it's. It's really a pleasure, especially being in this industry, to to have a centenarian in your family, cause I know a lot of us have a goal to live, you know well, as long as possible, right? So I? I then graduated from high school and decided to go to the University of Oregon and had a great time in Eugene, oregon, and learned just a lot about being independent, self-sufficient, always worked through school as well as did school. So I developed a very strong work ethic from an early age and propelled me to really say yes to opportunities and feel confident.
Speaker 2:I was in customer service doing restaurant work for my high school college and then moved to San Diego with my then boyfriend, now husband, who wanted to come to San Diego and do nursing school after college. So I ended up getting a job at the front desk of a rehab center, which was an inpatient rehab in a hospital, and had my first exposure to the healthcare system and inpatients and outpatients in a neurological rehab setting. So you know devastating injuries and and and diseases, and then people you know getting better and walking out um supported by a lot of community resources in order to get them home. And while I was working there, my grandmother had a stroke. So now I had my own personal experience within the healthcare system and I really leaned on the physical therapist and the OTs and the speech therapist and the rehab docs to help me understand, because I was at a distance kind of what my grandmother was going through in Chicago Um it was just really impactful.
Speaker 2:So, uh, there were things that I did then that I, you know, kind of were caregiver ask, like creating memory books and photos and things to try to, you know, develop her brain, post stroke and help things, but, um, in the end, you know, she ended up passing away. So while I was working there, one of the home health companies came in to meet with case manager and I developed a relationship with that rep and learned that there was this whole sales, outside sales and healthcare where you don't have to sit at a desk, and that became really appealing to me. And I was able to get a first opportunity as an outside sales and marketing person for a company called Accent Care, which is a pretty large provider in the United States and big in California, and I had my first exposure to private personal caregiving as a company, as a service, which was kind of the jumping point to my career.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. How far into your sales experience did you feel really comfortable like marketing to those who are ready for care, ready for a change in their life? Like how far into that were you when you felt you were good at it?
Speaker 2:So I think in the sales piece it's mostly relationship building. So what I had to get really comfortable with was walking into a building or walking into an account and trying to build a relationship from nothing. But I was young and again with my background in customer service, where you have to walk up to a table that you're serving at a restaurant and smile and make a little small talk, try to upsell them the better wine or where you but you have an intention with these conversations that's not just friendly, but it's also, you know, to reach a goal, which is eventually to have them be your customer and be happy and tell their friends.
Speaker 2:And so I think that, um, I had a great sales manager at the beginning. Um, that helped me get good at being uncomfortable in those situations. And then the second piece of that is making sure that you're not spending time in places that really aren't going to be a good fit customer for you.
Speaker 2:And I think in healthcare, especially in sales, it's a lot of numbers, focus, it's a lot of activity that we need to be showing that we're doing to drive business, but that activity is should be very intentional in the right place, and so it took me a good couple of years to really get comfortable with myself and what we're providing as a service. And so then I'm still learning how to make sure these relationships are smart and fruitful for both parties. But I think at the same time it also came very naturally to me, so it felt like, ok, this could be something that I do now. I got a degree in international relations. I didn't want to go into politics, so here I am now in this sales marketing role that I didn't quite study for, but it came naturally to me. So I think that's the other thing learning about yourself and knowing that you're confident to walk into a place and see how you're received and then being good with rejection.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Which takes time to learn.
Speaker 1:It does, it really does. I saw a quote the other day on LinkedIn and it said the sales. I guess salespeople are professional losers. They are people who constantly face rejection, constantly face loss, but come out on top with their victories.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is true. And and then learning that rejection is a form of feedback too, so it could be, you know, learning how your approach was. Maybe that was the right approach, or yeah, so that's, that's a good quote. At first I was like we're not losers, but we do always try to come back up on top, you know, despite the hardships.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. We're not the walk away losers, we're the get. Get back up and do it again. It's true.
Speaker 2:And this, this business, and we can go into as much of that as you'd like, but um it's a roller coaster and I'll tell you. I've been in it for, as you said, over 15 years and I still cannot explain the ups and downs, with the lulls and the crazy waves that are coming with leads and people needing help, and then it quiets down and, yeah, it's a very it's a very interesting concept of how this business works.
Speaker 1:When I was caregiving you something. I think a lot of people say this and it's pretty common, but there was always something new. Every day. There was a new challenge to face, there was a new victory to celebrate. There was always something new. Can you talk about, like what? What led to you coming to cheer at a cheer home care? What was that kind of? Was it up and down before you got there? Was it a lot of change? Was it a pretty great natural transition? Let's talk about cheer home care now.
Speaker 2:OK, well, thank you. I'm very proud to say I've been with cheer for one year. We're celebrating our one year this, this week.
Speaker 1:That's so exciting. Yesterday Congratulations.
Speaker 2:Thank you, and it's a long story. So I have multiple years of experience with corporate entities, some more regional, some statewide, and then the last business, the last company I was at was a large national and international provider, so I learned a lot. I was with that company for seven years. I had a phenomenal sales leader who taught me more than I could ever expect and how to really sharpen my saw with, like I said, that kind of natural ability that I feel like I have but, to really accelerate that into becoming a top you know, a top account manager for this company across the country.
Speaker 2:Um, and then the root of that is building the relationships right, the long-term relationships with the right people that are going to trust you, to send them clients for you guys, for you to work with. So, um, coming from that, that company and then starting cheer as a brand new company a year ago was quite the shift, one that I didn't know I could do. I felt the pangs of imposter syndrome for the first time ever. I had to Google the term because I was feeling these things. And then I heard this term, and then I looked it up and I was like, wow, this is exactly what I'm experiencing, but this is something that I can get through. And here we are, a year later an extremely successful, fast growth year.
Speaker 2:We're on the map. You and I are talking, which is very exciting, and yet we are small and we're very hands-on and we're very nuanced in our market here in San Diego County. So it's been a journey, but I think having this larger corporate experience to kind of set the foundation for our startup, along with my CEO, brooke, who had a very successful small home care business in Boston for over a decade, grew it and sold it to a larger entity and moved out here her business acumen with my human kind of capital in the marketplace in San Diego has just been a perfect combination to grow a business quickly and really well.
Speaker 2:So that's where we are.
Speaker 1:What type of challenges have you guys overcome, you know, when transitioning from larger companies to hyper local operation like cheer?
Speaker 2:I mean we've. It's hard because we've been happy, we've had so much control. So we, we can control a lot of what is happening here where I think, as a larger entity, you lose some of that control because there's different people pulling strings at different levels above you when you're an office represented by a bigger entity. So we it's just us we set the rate based on what we want to pay the caregivers, based around the margin we want to have, based around the operating costs. We have a beautiful office in La Jolla, california, right in a neighborhood that is our target demographic to work with and support. So we have. We have chosen the pieces of what we've learned and put them together to create cheer.
Speaker 2:What I thought was going to be the challenge was was really kind of imprinting in the community and branding. But we have, we have hired a wonderful social media marketing assistant and she takes the content that we send her and she really brands us into showing our presence and really what we're about, which is joy and quality of life and fun, and shifting the narrative from aging being this doom and gloom senior care, support for you because you're old now into you're old now but let's help you keep doing what you love to do and we're going to take the time to find out what that is and we're going to find someone that can really mirror what your goals are and what you're looking for in the rest of your life and it could be a person who's sitting bedside with someone who's actively passing on hospice care.
Speaker 2:That person- is still a person and needs to have the right person at their bedside. If it can't, you know, if it's not their family, so, or if their family's?
Speaker 1:not the right person, you know, so what?
Speaker 2:are? Yeah, so we are very you know, the challenge, I think, that resounds across the board in the home care industry is caregivers and the lack thereof, the lack of quality. What I'm seeing, what we're doing here, is we are again shifting the narrative and handpicking caregivers who apply with us and we are only hiring a very small percentage of the people who apply, because we're not trying to be everything to everyone. We're trying to really be a nuanced service. I know that not everybody's philosophy aligns with that, but what I love about Brooke and I and our team is that we would rather not hire someone that we wouldn't feel comfortable putting in our own loved one's home and maybe take a hit on not hiring as many people that week to find a person who's a right fit.
Speaker 2:And our entire internal team meets every single person that we hire. We look them in the eyes, we want to shake their hand, we learn something about them when they come into our office for their interview. So, yeah, it's a much more hands-on business than I've ever experienced in the home, because usually in sales you're like get out, be out in the field, stay in your lane, worry about sales, drive leads, and I do that. I'm mostly not in the office, but I'm here to make the effort, with the internal team, to know them so that I can speak to who these folks are when I'm telling a client. This is what we can provide to you.
Speaker 1:Here's a few people that I know that we've hired, that have worked with us, that you know may be a good fit. Yeah, I really resonate with what you said about control. I find that very intriguing because a lot of executive directors, a lot of owners, a lot of people in your similar shoes have struggled to find caregivers, like you said, and it's a big industry problem. You look up if you were to look up what tends to be the five biggest things that are tough with the aging space, very few of them have to do with the senior and it's more with the operation. And I think you highlighted an important point. I think you you emphasize that the more that you, the more inputs that you are in control of, the less variables you you tend to have. If you vet all of your, if you take the time to vet all of your caregivers, you won't be short any because you'll have the right amount for their. You won't be short any because you'll have the right amount for your people.
Speaker 1:I think that's a valuable lesson to be had is to know that what you're in control of directly leads to good outcomes. I really, really like that, what you said about control, and what you said too about things slipping through the cracks. In a larger scale business you don't necessarily have that much control. You're just a cog in the machine. The bigger things go. Have you, did it take you a while to adjust? I know you mentioned it that it was a big change for you. Do you feel in this past year that you've adjusted to the small scale, the hands-on, really well?
Speaker 2:I do One. I feel happy waking up every day, going to work genuinely. I think many people can relate to just getting to that point of the company you're in or the role you're in and it just feels frustrating.
Speaker 2:And you've tried to make things're in and it just feels frustrating and you've tried to make things better and it's not working, and so you know why force it, and I was lucky to have an opportunity to join brook with cheer at the right time. So I've come into this feeling very positive and I think the biggest adjustment is really learning the ins and outs of running a successful company and learning how important leadership is in that Right. It's hiring the right internal team that aligns on the greater, you know, the greater vision of the company, how you support them to make sure they still have that vision and alignment and they're not getting burnt out.
Speaker 2:because people have been in home care and really senior health care in general, the burnout rate is very high because, it's a 24-7 world that we live in, with helping people, so leadership is, and that's why I've been really excited to connect with a lot of home care leaders across the country. Because I'm in this role now, that takes me outside of just just focusing on leads and closing and sales and closing it's like no, this is growth. This is making a greater impact in our community. We're really big on providing education. We're really big on providing education. So we have just this afternoon, a hospice company coming in to provide free education to people in the community, as well as the internal team.
Speaker 2:So we're just we're really trying to expand and bring home care up as a piece of the greater like care ecosystem health care, health care ecosystem that people experience in a positive way, in a way that's meaningful and valuable, especially when they need the support and now they have to pay for it. And a lot of people don't have the help because they can't afford it or they don't want to pay for it. So we need to be a more of a value add on a greater scale than just, you know, like a bandaid solution.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I w. I would say that touching, touching on that point, like becoming, like getting to the root of most problems. Most people don't the, but I think the last, one of the last things people think about would be like hospice care, palliative care in home care. Seniors want to age at home. That's a given. Everybody kind of understands that. I enjoy being at home, so I'm sure that's not going to change when I'm 80. And so what have you seen? Transitioning from big business to local business in terms of home care, taking like a bigger seat in the health care ecosystem?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question. I think it comes with really how you show up, first and foremost. So for for any business, it's how you answer the phone, it's being responsive, it's offering support, you know, in a time of need and time of crisis oftentimes, but then it's also helping people prepare to avoid that. So I think that home care has a really important piece in the, like I said, that greater healthcare ecosystem, and our goal is to get a seat at the table with the bigger entities to show how we all have to work together to help people achieve their goal of wanting to age in place at home, and what can we do ahead of time to help these families and people prepare to allow that to happen. So there's so many different facets from the caregiving space, but then also making sure people are prepared with legal documents.
Speaker 2:You know the basics, the advanced directives and the powers of attorney that you don't have to worry about. If you go to the hospital, you know who's going to make decisions for you if you're incapacitated, or you've at least shared what you'd like done if that point comes. Are people in their 40s and 50s now thinking about their 80s and 90s and how they're going to be able to live the life they want then? Whether that's thinking about a long term care insurance, you know, life insurance policy to help sustain some of those costs, and, down the line, whether it's, you know, buying property so that you have income there's so many things, but working with a financial planner, a strategist, to help you build out that plan.
Speaker 2:So again, when the time comes, you need to spend money on your care. You have it. That's one of the biggest issues we're seeing is, people need it, but only a few people can afford it. We have a large population aging right now, in the next 10 years. Most of them are not prepared and there's certainly not enough beds and places for them to go. So how are we going to help people stay in their home, and home care is a very key part of that.
Speaker 1:How would you describe when you guys take care of individuals and they first come in to your offices, or when you first meet with them and they have no understanding of the type of care that they may be in need of, or, like the situation that they're in or their families in, like what are some of the first things that you tend to tell these people or guide them on?
Speaker 2:that's great question. Um, I love that. Most people you know it's so high level, conceptual, but it's like what about the actual person who needs care? And a lot of times you're right, people don't really know what they need. But there's usually they do know they need something.
Speaker 2:So my approach and in my role, I get to do a lot of intakes and assessments with our clients or potential clients I come in with just tell me a little bit about your current situation and I want them to tell me. If they want to tell me how happy and healthy they are, but they live they're living in a wheelchair most of the time. That's still important for them to tell me how they're doing and what their current state is. So I really try to let people explain who they are, what they are challenged with, and then I would be there to say here's some ideas that I think could work for someone who may not know what they want.
Speaker 2:So for us, we know that a caregiver can make an impact on someone If they're there for four hours a couple of times a week. They can ensure that they have meals made, they can ensure that their sheets and clothes are clean, that they've made it to their appointments. It's not a lot of time 12 hours in a week but can make a huge impact on someone. Just to keep, just to keep up with what they're looking for. They've stopped driving.
Speaker 2:That's usually one of the biggest indicators that having someone come over and make sure that they're able to get out and about or go run errands for them. Um, because we don't want people to isolate and then now their health is compromised because they're eating moldy food or they're not taking their medication or they've run out of medication. Um, so asking people kind of what's your current state? And then I asked them what are your goals? What does the future look like for you? And again, I want people to tell me kind of what they're looking for, and then, based on that information, we'll make recommendations, and oftentimes it's recommending something that's outside of the scope of what CHEER provides. So we are very big, and I'm very big on partnering with other providers to provide a more wraparound service for, and support for, our seniors. A lot of times our seniors don't have family, and so they need an advocate, they need a navigator, and there are certain roles and professions that can help with that, like a geriatric care manager, aging life care professional.
Speaker 1:What would you define as a navigator and what would you define as an advocate?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so sometimes it's the same person who does both. Oftentimes it does. It's really just ensuring that a senior loved one, someone with a disability, has appointed someone that will help them with navigating the complexities of their needs and their disease with doctors and you know, appointments and medications, and then an advocate to ensure that that person is getting the highest quality and all the things that they deserve in order to navigate, you know, to manage through their situation and to live well, to manage through their situation and to live well. I met with a family yesterday and a really young client in her early 60s and her younger than me daughter is her primary caregiver and she has advanced Parkinson's and requires full care, full hands-on care, and her speech is impacted by the disease and she's in her late stage. So the daughter was explaining to me that her mom is impacted by the disease and she's, it's just she's in her late stage. So the daughter was explaining to me that her mom, um, is in pain and she's brought up that fact to the neurologist multiple times and nothing has happened. And it created this like fire in me.
Speaker 2:Right, because that should be addressed by the doctor Um, but she's probably exhausted, she's caring for her mom. She's doing all the so many things that that one extra thing of saying you know, I need this, I think I need more. Is palliative care appropriate? Is this appropriate? Someone who can help advocate for that person and not that's not the role of a family member all the time. Completely fair, you know, there are families that aren't that close, that aren't equipped, that the spouse isn't equipped. So there are professionals and I was mentioning geriatric care managers, or now, as they're called, aging life care professionals that are credentialed professionals that do the navigating, the advocating and then ensuring a holistic plan is in place for that person through the end of their life.
Speaker 1:There are. I really I've never heard those two words used to describe the team, the support system that it takes to really help, the support system that it takes to really help an individual out. I don't, and I don't think very many people realize, like the, the amount of work that goes into aging aging in place or even aging in a home at cheer. Was it tough at the beginning for you guys to provide a full team for everybody, or were you guys prepped for that from the get go? What was it like supporting those first few seniors at CHEER?
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks. So we I have relationships here with some of the most amazing quarterbacks, these care managers, geriatric care managers who work with families and clients that do what I just described, and so some of the first clients that we ever started caring for here were referrals from geriatric care managers.
Speaker 2:Because the cool you know, one of the cool things that they do is they identify the need for more support. They don't provide the hands-on care. They may drive to a doctor's appointment or pick up meds or pick up groceries every once in a while, but they're not caregivers. It's not their role.
Speaker 1:So their job is to identify when there's a need identified to bring in a caregiving agency.
Speaker 2:They need to have really strong partners and trusted people to lean on and gratefully I am one of those with quite a few of the wonderful geriatric care managers here in San Diego and those were our first clients and we still have on service some of those clients from last summer that we just started. That were the first ones because they often are clients that are aging well at home. Because they have this support, they don't have to rush and move to a facility or they don't have to, you know, be in a hospital for too long. The care managers get them out and get them supported at home, utilizing their insurance, utilizing benefits, maybe through the VA, and then partnering with folks like us to provide that safety and that companionship in the home.
Speaker 1:I've always heard really positive things about case managers, um and uh. Aging managers. What type of qualities do you look for in these individuals to build relationships with them? What, what? What is it about them that makes them so, so reliable? Is it their industry knowledge, their experience, the way they work with their clientele? Like what do you guys look for in a case manager?
Speaker 2:They, they are very special people. I mean they pretty much act as a son or daughter would for people that they, you know, meet through, you know, referrals. So most of the care managers you know, just like in the industry, there's probably a bad apple here and there, but everyone that I know in that field are just some of the most dedicated and hardworking and caring, compassionate people who really have, you know, not only a fiduciary duty, you know, with their license or credentials, but they really have the heart to care, to help make an impact on people's lives. But that comes at them also, you know, being reliable, answering their phone, communicating.
Speaker 2:So I think communication is the number one factor when it comes to partnering with care managers is ensuring that we are communicating on our end any expectations that they have. If they want to know the calendar of the month of the caregivers who are providing service, we send that to them before the month starts. If they need to be updated on changes of condition, we are communicating that in real time. So there's a very high level of communication that's expected when working with these folks and when you're a very large home care company or the staff you know there's, we're able to do that very well because we are more of a tight knit, smaller, controlled group and at cheer, and we also know that that's where a lot of our business comes from. So we prioritize and spend time communicating with those folks because we want to ensure that they're happy so that they continue to work with us in the long term. I would say communication is number one I would.
Speaker 1:I would agree. I know here at Helperly we I often hear in the office our HR team and Caleb, our CEO. I often hear them communicating very, very frequently about the state of the current state of our clients and then the current state of their care managers and even our infield, our infield representative. She is amazing at cultivating these relationships. She'll put on two or three activities a week. She'll be out at lunch. I didn't realize the world of building relationships. I know you mentioned it was tough in the sales world for you to build a relationship from ground zero. Do you, with your experience now, like is it easy to maintain and build these relationships? Do you enjoy it? What's what's that like?
Speaker 2:in the same market for 15 years. People know me and they know that I'm not going anywhere and they know that I love what I do and I love representing the company that I work for. And so I think I also think that moving to cheer and starting this business with our vision and our mission and our goals aligns very well with the relationships that it already built, because some of them were not receiving kind of that high touch. You know, they weren't able to get what they were looking for when I was at a different place because I couldn't get what I was needing right, I didn't have that control.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Well, here, if someone's asking for something specific, we're able to get that for them. We will make it happen because we have the ability to create and to cater. So what I found was that some of the referral sources that I have known for a long time were not referring to me when I was with the large corporate company and when, as soon as I started here, they were like we're so happy you're here, now we get to work with you, and I had no idea that that that was so important to them. And most of those folks were the geriatric, are the geriatric care managers that really need a very trusted resource and hands-on resource for their clients.
Speaker 2:So it's been pretty cool and I'm all about feedback. So when I was, when I was making the transition to cheer and the first few months I was just like would you, would you give us a chance or would you follow? You know, would you work with me if I left? And you know cause? I thought people worked with me because they worked with my company. But I found out that in relationship building which you know is pretty, pretty basic, but it took the experience to realize that people do business with you first, and then they do, you know, and then they're there for the company. It's given me a lot of confidence and joy to know that my relationships are based on trust and authentic interactions and you know admitting when things go wrong and fixing it and communicating versus just. You know what my name badge says.
Speaker 1:You mentioned a lot of great leadership qualities, or, I guess, a lot of qualities that I look for in individuals that I work with. You mentioned effective communication. You've mentioned controlling your inputs, maximizing your inputs. You've mentioned like empathy. You've touched on caring passion. It's great to hear these things and I'm kind of curious what personal habits or routines contribute to your effectiveness as a leader.
Speaker 2:No one's ever asked me that. So you know I try to create some space. I'm the type of person that goes really hard but then needs to recharge. So in what I do, my phone is always on.
Speaker 2:It's always on me Most of the time. I get calls on the weekends, friday nights, you know so I've gotten used to over the years, really. Just there's no full turnoff button unless I'm like international. So in that it's important for me to find space to recharge. Um exercise is very important to my mental and physical wellbeing, so I carve out not a lot but 20 to 30 minutes three to four times a week to go on a jog or I try to go on a hike. I love hiking. I've started playing pickleball.
Speaker 1:That's a popular sport now.
Speaker 2:It is, and I was playing with a 98 year old the other weekend, which was so fun, so it's totally my jam. I love the scene of pickleball and I've been making some relationships there and it's just fun. So some physical outdoor time is important to me to integrate that. I have an eight-year-old daughter, so I'm mom and parent and juggling all of that. So spending quality time with my family, my husband, my daughter, is really important too. Um, and really on the weekends I just kind of decompress, I'm not busy on the weekends, I try to just reduce my load so that I can recharge. So for me that works. Um, I also love this career that I've built in this role of being a relationship builder, because those relationships can be built at different times of the day, different times of the week, and I get to dictate that.
Speaker 2:I've learned that I'm not a person that enjoys sitting at a desk you know nine to five and so building this career for myself to allow me to have the flexibility and to be out and about and intentional with my time, so that I have time to drive and to listen to podcasts and to learn and to do something for myself, has been, it's been, great.
Speaker 2:This is. This is where I have to be. I, you know, I met when Brooke and I met. She had never had a sales person before, so she and I are learning, you know, how to navigate this, me being in the field and drumming up the business and the relationships, and not here all the time, but then still part of the team, and I'm learning how. You know she needs answers and information, sometimes in a certain time, and if I'm not available, how do we work together? So it's constantly, you know, working on communication and and then building a strong leadership team so that we can expand and grow over time too and have this model, like you said, of empathy and and just really showing that, um, we can make an impact, but we have to take care of ourselves in order to show up well every day.
Speaker 1:I think that's something that's not spoken of very often is that you have to like what you just said you're taking care of yourself allows you to take care of others or other things. For like a long time this past year, I was super worried about myself and I faced a challenge or an issue and I realized that the more consumed I became by my own problem, the less I was capable of being there for others. So it made it really difficult to work. It made it really difficult to maintain a healthy relationship with, like my friends, you know, my partner, and so it was interesting when the dynamic shifted, when I realized, okay, if I can take time for myself and carve out time to exercise, to eat better, to sleep more, to be aware of my needs, the greater capacity I had as an individual to provide or be there for others and it's interesting opportunities opened up, the better I took care of myself. And I don't think that's spoken of enough.
Speaker 1:I'm a strong believer yeah, thank you. I'm a strong believer in the idea that what you learn in your life prepares you to teach it to someone else. So you know, you learn math at an early age. Maybe someone doesn't know math and you're, when you're an adult and you're able to help them out, and it could be anything. You know you could learn a valuable lesson in one week, and the next week you realize I needed that lesson, I needed that, that, I that challenge, or I needed that growth moment, and in the senior care space it's it's super relevant because what we said earlier, every day is a roller coaster. What you learned the previous day prepares you better for the next day, and taking care of yourself kind of folds into that really perfectly.
Speaker 2:I really love your answer there, thanks, and I would love just to relate it to what we do and what you've experienced as a caregiver yourself and for our staff is we have to encourage them to do the same, and for our staff is we have to encourage them to do the same. You know, in a way, we have to make sure that everybody is taking some time for themselves so that they can show up better for others, especially when that's your job, right?
Speaker 2:And unfortunately in the caregiving professional world, our caregivers are working crazy amounts, very difficult hours, not getting adequate rest, often driving far distances, often caring for their own family members at home simultaneously and working multiple jobs at once. And so they are. I mean, people are like oh, there's so much caregiver burnout, so much caregiver turnover almost like it's the caregiver's fault turnover almost like it's the caregiver's fault. So I'm very we're. We are very passionate about creating a company that caregivers feel supported and engaged with and held up by and able to achieve their goals. I wanted to share a quick story.
Speaker 2:One of the first caregivers that we hired last year. She had a full-time client right away and worked at least six months straight over I'm not sure probably 40 to 60 hours a week, and come December she started that client. In August. Come December she was able to buy herself a brand new car and she sent us the nicest message to say thanks to Cheer, thanks for giving me work with a client that I love. I'm able to buy myself a new car and it's like that's why we do what we do, right.
Speaker 2:So not only is she dedicated, to her client and she's she's improving her own life through and I just I think that, um, we have to stop looking at caregivers as like the burden or the problem, as, um, home care owners and just a challenge. It is challenging, but we have to say what can we do to make a bigger impact on their life, so they can make a better impact on our client's life? And if we're not asking that question, then we're missing the mark on how we're going to support lifting up this care economy so that we have enough people to care for all the people who are going to need it, you know, now and in the future.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a beautiful story. That's kind of hype that she got a car, that I really that's really awesome, yeah, yeah, I love what you said about the future. I, on the one of the podcasts that you did, one of the shows that you did the DeVries show he mentioned that he saw a statistic that every day, around 10,000 people turn 65. Yeah, and the future of the healthcare industry is going to be booming. What is CHEER doing to prepare for that?
Speaker 1:Do you guys have like a five-year plan, a 10-year plan, kind of what is the vision for the future?
Speaker 2:The vision of the future is like I said we need more people to care for our growing aging population. But we have to shift how we are offering jobs to people and that's on the company, the employer Right. So one of the things that Brooke has created here at Cheer and that we are seeing through is offering different, what we call tiers of caregivers. So one there's a demand from our customers that they want to have a little bit more choice in the person that's coming and spending time with them as they should. It's a very expensive service, it's a very intimate thing that they're allowing to happen and we know people are very resistant with the finances and the emotional. They're like oh I can do everything myself. Well, maybe you're not safe doing that. So sometimes customers are looking for a type of person, maybe with a certain credentials and even though we're in the non-medical space, there's still credentials that people can get and work as professional caregivers. So what we've done is we've created a few different options for our clients, one being a traditional caregiver, so someone who has at least five years of hands-on experience, you know has different, diverse background in the types of folks that they care for and maybe the diseases that they're comfortable working with. They have the training, they have the skills, so that's a traditional caregiver offering. Then we offer a college companion. So we're recruiting folks who are either in college or have just graduated, that maybe don't want to do the hands-on personal care, but they would love to spend some time with a senior and go out to lunch or go to the beach or get them out of their assisted living for a few hours and enjoy a movie or, you know, just hang out. And someone who is more of like maybe what the client's grandchild is is someone who's younger and in college and studying a certain field and is able to engage at a different level and then so that's a college companion. And then we have the third level, which is called an executive care professional, and nobody's nobody is really doing this in our market here in San Diego.
Speaker 2:But what we're doing is we are attracting and hiring college graduates who have a background in anything from biochemistry to history, but also have a background in caring for someone. It could be a loved one, it could be that they've cared for their loved one with dementia for five years and they have a lot of amazing experience with that. They may not have worked in an agency, but they have tangible and good experience with caring for someone. And then they have this higher degree and so, again, they're able to engage and show up for certain clients who have certain expectations and we can meet that need. And then, on the caregiver side, the caregiver has an opportunity to earn different wages at these different levels, and we're starting our pay well above industry standard to attract the right people and offer them ongoing work and hoping and work more.
Speaker 2:Working on this. More is how can we ensure that, where the money that they're earning working for cheer is enough to sustain their livelihood, so that they have gas in their car, they have food in their table, they are able to show up for their job? Well, we don't want people just struggling. We don't. You know, we, we want to help lift up and show that a career in caring is important and worthy and you're worthy doing it. And so our messaging when, when our recruiting is very different than I think, what kind of the industry has been? So that's one of the ways that we are trying to shift into, you know, helping this large population age.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think your guys' business strategies and your practices are very inspirational. I seldom hear specifics such as the ones that you're describing, and it's fascinating to me that more companies don't focus on these things, and I would agree that these things are super important and I guess kind of you know. In closing here, I would love to know, with all of your experience and the leadership qualities that you've possessed, what we've talked about today has been really enlightening, so to speak, and so I'm just wondering what kind of legacy do you hope to leave through your work in the home care industry?
Speaker 2:Wow, that is a powerful question. I honestly don't think I've had the space to think about what that looks like. I'm naturally starting to see that I enjoy having these types of conversations, that I am not afraid to talk about the ins and outs of this, of the home care industry, because, going back to the original kind of message is, home care deserves and needs to have a seat at the greater table of how we care for people and with the healthcare entities, we are a part of that. So I hope that by the time I leave this job if ever that we have started to shift. You know the power that home care has to make a greater impact and help people not be so afraid to talk about it early and to help health care providers who are making the referrals, who are seeing a lot more sick and disabled people, help them feel more comfortable talking about it.
Speaker 2:I feel like sometimes the social workers not just social workers, but a lot of people are uncomfortable when it comes to talking about the cost of care, and it's because people don't often have the means and so why offer something to someone who can't afford it?
Speaker 2:It's almost like dangling a carrot right, but things can change if we plan ahead, if this generation, if the millennial generation, starts to plan ahead from their experience that they're having with the baby boomers and the 89-year-olds that are aging right now, that they're dealing with, if we don't have those conversations with the trusted advisors, like I said, the attorneys and the financial planners that you know we work with, if we only focus on our career and retirement being like cruises and traveling, you're going to miss out on this whole other section of reality that will happen to you and to your loved ones, and it's not fun to talk about but it's important.
Speaker 2:And so I would love to leave a legacy of like getting comfortable with with these conversations, because I've had the experience myself as an only child talking to my mom and dad early and right before both of them were hit with a chronic illness each, and now we are now in the throes, but because of these earlier conversations I feel a lot better about where they are than I would have if I had never had these conversations. It would have been 10 million times more stressful with the unknown. Now that I know, because we've had some talks and they put some things in place that weren't in place, and now that takes that weight off my shoulder. So I just want to help more people feel less weight on their shoulders.