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
Helperly Connect: A New Era of Senior Care
What if you could significantly improve the lives of seniors through technology and meaningful connections? Join us for an insightful conversation with Caleb Richardson, the innovative CEO and founder of Helperly. Caleb shares his deeply personal motivation behind creating Helperly, a personal care agency that places a strong emphasis on companionship and personal connection, inspired by his own family experiences. You'll learn how this vision evolved into Helperly Connect, a groundbreaking free platform designed to combat senior loneliness and promote lifelong learning through interactive classes.
In our discussion, Caleb highlights the transformative role of technology in senior care. Traditional advertisements often fall short, depicting seniors in ways that don't empower them. Instead, we explore how simplified tech interfaces, engaging activities, and real-time communication features can revolutionize senior care. Discover how early intervention and strategic partnerships with care providers contribute to both physical and emotional well-being, supporting seniors to lead healthier, more fulfilling lives.
We also delve into the importance of empowering seniors by providing them with opportunities to mentor and share their life experiences. Caleb explains the various life stages, from youthful passions to giving back in later years, and how seniors can feel undervalued without avenues to contribute. Learn practical steps for senior care providers to connect with Helperly and engage seniors meaningfully. Plus, get a sneak peek into the upcoming season of Senior Care Academy and find out how you can be a part of building a vibrant, supportive community dedicated to enhancing senior care. Don't miss this inspiring episode filled with actionable insights and heartwarming stories.
Hey everybody, welcome to the Senior Care Academy podcast, Excited to introduce today's guest. He's actually the CEO and founder of Helperly and the creator and mind behind Helperly Connect, Caleb Richardson. We're excited to have you on. I guess we like the hosts of the show excited to talk a little bit about Helperly and Helperly Connect today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm excited to chat as well. It's been fun over like 30 episodes back and forth.
Speaker 1:We've learned a lot, I think so it's exciting had some big names on, so learned a lot for sure. Talk to us about Helperly its inception and then the birth of Helperly Connect.
Speaker 2:So Helperly came about. It's been a few years now but the Helperly the service side of the company is, in essence it's a personal care agency with a focus on the companionship and kind of that personal connection and that has been growing. Started that because I have a huge family and it was really normal for me to see 30 grandkids at my grandma's house and then I realized that wasn't normal and so our goal is kind of to make that possible and, like I said, we have an emphasis on the personal connection because they're realizing that over the years, like I helped out at my grandparents' house a lot but what they really enjoyed was being able to actually sit down, like my grandma used to do science days every Thursday or Friday and we'd go to like the Jordan River Parkway and she'd show us trees and stuff and that's what she cared about was teaching. So that's what we focus on. And then Helperly Connect is a really simple app or platform for seniors to connect and learn new things.
Speaker 2:So anything from like music classes, piano, guitar exercise, like yoga, dancing, things like that Basically anything that you can think of held virtually in live interactive classes, think like a Zoom call. And the reason why we started. That is, we wanted to be able to give back to seniors in a way, and we learned that it's over 70% of seniors want to make friends with their peers, and then over like 90 or something percent of people want to be lifelong learners. So we were able to make that for seniors and it's totally free of charge to them, and it was just a cool way to get in front of more seniors as well to try to help help them get the care that they need earlier.
Speaker 1:So it kind of sounds like I would say like help really would be for in-home care service oriented and then help really connect. Does that like tackle, like loneliness, like what are some of the main, I guess, late stage of life events that help really connect tries to solve?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so one of the big ones that help really connect is solving is that more often than not um, because most seniors see themselves as younger than they actually are they're not engaging with the providers that are actually able to help them live healthier lives.
Speaker 2:So, like home health or assisted living, all these things that a lot of seniors need but they're not doing because they see an ad with or like they're driving past the local assisted living, it's like come and tour.
Speaker 2:Today they're not going to go in and tour, but they will click that they want to learn piano and they'll join an app and then we're able to put an assisted living that same assisted living that they drove past on the street can put on the class.
Speaker 2:They're able to actually have a conversation about how it's changed from the sixties, and so that's one big one is just really getting them the care that they need earlier because they're willing to interact with the provider. And then, like I said, the loneliness aspect is huge because even if they do have a really supportive family or a company that's coming in to help multiple times a week, they're still going to be alone more often than having somebody there. So being able to connect with people just all throughout the week and then on interests as well. So rather than just going to your local senior center for lunch and meeting random people, it's like they can show up to the yoga class knowing that everybody else that's there also is interested in yoga and getting healthier and everything that yoga represents. So it kind of solves a few problems.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Helpbird Connect's been out for a while now, like a year in development. What was its incubation period? Look, I guess not incubation, but like the beta, like the first versions of the website. What were you doing?
Speaker 2:Great question. So it's almost been a year since the idea and then just launching it. So it's almost been a year since the idea and then just launching it. And originally the idea came a little bit out of frustration because in 2023, I did so many ice cream socials, so many bingos at assisted livings and senior centers and handed out hundreds of brochures, and then I'd leave and just hope and pray that they would need my care because odds are, in that moment they didn't need what help release services were doing and it was really frustrating. So I was like how do I get in front of more seniors? And then I had spent thousands and thousands on like really well, put together ads and things like that and just nothing was working. So just about a year ago I was like I bet I also stumbled on the stat that seniors want to make friends with other seniors, and so I like pulled out my phone through a Facebook ad up just saying hey, if you're over 60 and you want to learn new things and make friends, click the link below. And then version one was that Facebook ad.
Speaker 2:And then I used Zapier, which is just an automation software, costs like nothing and Zapped as soon as they filled out the Facebook form, it sent him an email with like a zoom link and people are showing up and having really cool experiences.
Speaker 2:One of the things is just called daily connect, so they would show up to daily connect and we had one that was really cool where a younger senior she was like 67, 68. And then there was an older, like 75, 78 person and the younger one was still working but she got injured and wasn't able to work anymore and she was feeling really like directionless, really depressed and down. And in that call or in that daily connect that was just a zoom meeting that I sent out through an automated tool those two were able to connect and that older lady had actually had that same injury and she's like oh my gosh, you need to try this, this and this. And the younger lady at the end of it was like this was really helpful, like I loved being here today, and so that's when I realized that we should probably turn it into more than just like a meet and greet. We started developing the app into what it is today.
Speaker 1:So dang, actually I had no idea about that, yeah that's so sweet. That's like one a classic how this business started story. Yeah. Yeah, that's super cool With Zapier and like automation and marketing. I think a lot of people would assume, probably, that like seniors aren't familiar with like technology. But I guess, like what assumptions were you making about like just sending out a zoom link? And what assumptions were you making about like just sending out a zoom link? And then what have you learned since like marketing to seniors?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the assumption was that they'd have a really hard time and it's not true A lot of the time like they have some sort of exposure to it. So before they actually got the zoom link, I sent out an email with like a bunch of videos me like showing them how to make a Zoom account, how to anyway, so tried to make it really basic, but a lot of them ended up not actually needing it and the marketing to seniors. That's also an interesting thing is. It started out because of the statistic that over 70% want to connect to new people. I was like make new friends and the click through rate on that was way lower than like come and learn new things. So it was interesting.
Speaker 2:So what you learned is that seniors don't want to admit that they're lonely, even though the vast, like a lot of them are, or a lot of them are looking for that connection, but they don't want to admit it. So we had to pivot to learn guitar, learn piano, come and exercise interest-based stuff. And then the connection and the community was a secondary benefit, which is a greater benefit, but it was. We couldn't put that up front because they didn't want to feel helpless. That's kind of a trend in a lot of marketing to seniors is that they are the ones receiving the help rather than them being the heroes of the story, and so that was a huge shift is like how do we, in all of our marketing efforts, make it that helperly connect or helperly our services are just a resource to help the senior get to the total outcome that they want and be the hero of their own story?
Speaker 1:Yeah, hero is an interesting term. When I think of hero, I guess like for myself, like when I purchase a product, I envision myself using it and then all of like the benefits or the value ads that you see on like the website or wherever it is that I purchased from, I'm like that's cool that it also does this on top of me using it. I think a lot of senior ads are like hey, here's an old person in a wheelchair, here's a doctor, we can get you a wheelchair, we can get you a doctor, we can get you a bed, and it's super generalized.
Speaker 2:It is interesting because the nature of a lot of senior care it is supporting where they maybe have a deficiency, like if they need a wheelchair, if they need help with personal care.
Speaker 2:Like obviously it is supportive, supporting something that they lack, but the visualized, like you mentioned, like a lot of the basic stock or not even stock, but like most people assisted living, home health, people that are marketing to seniors you nailed it where it's like a generic elderly person that's like seventies, eighties, with somebody in scrubs or somebody in a doctor's lab coat behind them assisting them, which, even if, like the words of the ad is saying like you know, you deserve this, like get the independence that you need, or whatever.
Speaker 2:Visually and subconsciously, seeing the different levels somebody sitting in a chair versus somebody standing up it makes the person in the chair inferior to that other person and so seniors aren't relating to it because they don't want to be inferior, they don't want help, because they don't think that they need it. And then even like their adult children, they see that and they're like my mom was my hero. My whole life I looked up to her. She's on this pedestal. That's not my mom, because she's not weak and frail like that Even if the person smiling in the wheelchair. So it's really interesting that a lot of marketing to seniors hasn't changed in a long time in the sense that like visually and a lot of times even in the words, it paints the senior as almost like a damsel in distress that needs somebody to come and help.
Speaker 2:Rather, than the hero and the provider is just helping them get there. What?
Speaker 1:has your team been doing that? Like seniors, respond super well to like your dev team on the platform itself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the whole point is to make it really simple. So there's a few things that have been really helpful that we're developing right now, but basically, number one is to be able to join any activity. You want it to be three clicks or less activity. You want it to be three clicks or less, something where, even if they are kind of on that higher end of the age group and they're not as like tech savvy, that they can join and participate. And then we're also adding like a discussion thing so they can have the live classes where they're interacting with their peers. We go and find the host, the teacher that's putting on the class, and then throughout the week they're able to text and chat on the app with other seniors, with the teacher. So that's one big one that we're trying to help out with.
Speaker 2:We're also building like a library with back end stuff, and then one that I'm really excited about for the senior care providers or for ourselves is trying to get the senior well, just learn more about their physical and emotional wellbeing. So when they click register for a yoga class, we're asking questions about like do you feel confident getting in and out of the shower? Are you worried about falling ever? Just questions that naturally will come up with that. So like a guitar class or piano class, it's like do you suffer with arthritis? Trying to understand where they're at physically.
Speaker 2:And then we're making also a chat feature. It's not like a chat bot, but it's a real human that's going to be asking the senior like how's it going today? What's going on? You know how are you doing Sue To try to figure out trending over time, if Sue's like cat passes away or she's like. You know it's been really hard my knee pain has really been acting up to really understand where the senior's at. So we know, you know they come for yoga class and then we can learn about them and say this point, they really could use home health. It's way earlier than Sue would have ever actually clicked on a home health ad because nothing catastrophic has happened. But it's early enough and they can step in so that way sue never falls, she never gets injured and just lives longer. So that's something we're really excited about to try to help the senior physically and emotionally as well would providers like have access to that information at all?
Speaker 1:if sue needed, I don't know, like palliative care, how would sue get it? Or how would like someone know sue situation, because a lot of companies only look for a specific type of candidate. You know, maybe someone that has cancer, someone that's like handicapped to a degree where they can't move or they can't walk yeah, like that's a great question.
Speaker 2:So I think a lot of the time providers get to the scene too late, I call it too little, too late dilemma. Where had they started even three or six months earlier? That senior would never get to the point where they're disabled to a certain point to just help them be better. And so more often than not, most providers currently are getting to seniors way too little, way too late. Because I mean helperly. Last year we had a client he was doing really, really well and then he fell and got injured and then he fell and he fell and he fell and he passed away within like 90 days, even though he probably could have lived for a few more years. And it was because he didn't get the home health and the physical therapy and all these things that he should have gotten way earlier. But he was being resistant because he thought home health was for like quote unquote old people.
Speaker 2:But as far as the providers connecting with them, we actually partner with the different care providers. So the first like nine months we used it just for helperly and then we realized that the in-home personal care and companionship and things that we do is just a small piece of the whole spectrum of services that seniors need to live longer lives and so we've started to partner with like Medicare, insurance brokers, financial advisors, pharmacists, assisted living, home health, palliative care, like you said, and they are putting on these classes to kind of create a normal and natural way for them to talk and educate the seniors about the different services so that way they can engage. The other side of that to be HIPAA compliant is, if a senior you know, we know that they fit the exact parameters like they would be an excellent client or patient for a home health company, we have to de-identify them. So, basically, what we're building out is, within the app, the care provider. We can say like user one, two, three, four would be an excellent client because she's having XYZ pains, or just saying like this person could be an excellent client because on the back end we don't actually share too many of the medical things, but on the backside we know this is like the ideal criteria for this home health company.
Speaker 2:And then the home health company through the app messages hey, user one, two, three, four, this is ABC home health. We'd love to schedule a free consultation. We think that we could help with this. And then, once the user engages, the senior engages with the company, then it re-identifies them and they're able to get services started. So that's kind of how the companies can participate and then putting on the class for the company so that ABC Home Health can put on a painting class totally for free, because it's helpful for the seniors to just get in front of and learn more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, where do you see it growing in like the next few years in terms of the care that it can provide and like the technology developed?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what I would love to have happen. Our mission is to honor seniors' unique individual purpose and values, and I would love to have so many different activities, so many different discussion groups where there's something all day, every day, for seniors to do. That's not Fox, cnn or Facebook, yeah when they can actually mingle and interact with others. Ideally, one day they're making their own little groups within the app. And then, on the care provider side, I think over the coming years, what we'll be doing is, as we get all this data of where the point of physical needs and emotional needs equals this client's really needs home health, it'd be awesome to maybe like incorporate some sort of AI where it like just triggers those points and we're getting seniors care months and years before they would have to give them years and years on their life. So that's kind of where we're heading is trying to get seniors care earlier so they can benefit the younger generations longer.
Speaker 1:Interesting. You mentioned like the younger generations because, like when I was a caregiver, I remember like some of the best times with those that I cared for were when they were teaching me something about like their life. Do you think eventually, like seniors will host like their own classes, their own discussion groups? Maybe, like you, can bridge the generational gap between, like someone who maybe has crossed the threshold into 70 and someone who's coming into like 30, 40, 50.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's an awesome opportunity. The professor of psychology at BYU actually talked about I can't remember what it's called basically the purpose of everybody's life in different stages of their life. In a teenage year, your purpose or what you're striving for is to find some sort of unique identity, but in the later years, what gives you purpose is being able to share what you've learned over your lifetime with other people. It's legacy building is what gives them purpose, and so creating an opportunity for that, I think, is awesome, where they can share what they've learned over their 40-year career and having kids and just over their lifespan ewell and dannon is like the.
Speaker 1:The explorer stage is like 18 and 36 where you explore areas of passion. The builder stage is 36 to 54, where you use your talents to create something. The mentor stage is 54 to 72, where you share your experience with others.
Speaker 2:The giver stage 72 to 90, where you use your knowledge, passion and finances to advance a cause yep, and so a lot of seniors are in that mentor and giver phase and yet companies are treating them like they are the ones that need to be given things. So something that our client relations managers like their goal. Obviously we want more clients, but when they're going out they're doing like luau's and all these fun things. And it's to try to help the seniors like themselves again, because a lot of the times if they get to the mentor and the giver stage and they don't have a mentee or somebody to give to, they feel like they're valueless. They had their builder stage.
Speaker 2:They worked for 40 years, they had kids, they had grandkids, but now the kids and grandkids are grown up and they maybe come around not as much as they'd like to and so they don't have anybody to mentor or give to. So they feel valueless and so they start to not like themselves, they start to doubt what their life even meant. And so, as we're going out like, we're trying to help them like themselves again and be like you lived through crazy stuff. You live through the advent of the internet and now AI, and also tons of social movements like the end of segregation and wars, and they've learned all these things, and so our goal is to give them a mentee to be able to mentor, so that way they can feel their value again. I love.
Speaker 1:When you say, like, help them like themselves again, it makes me think of like giving the senior the wheel back in their life versus them, just kind of like putting on cruise control and sitting in the back seat. Cruise control can't drive for you, but that's the image that I create in my mind is like giving the wheel back to the seniors and letting them kind of drive their life, be the hero, be able to give back big time. I don't know like. I feel that a message like this is unique to what senior care providers are saying. Now I guess there's a little bias from working at the company, but I don't see this message promoted very often.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you guys have plans other than to keep reaching out to the one individual to get them liking themselves again, to give them a mentee, to give them control their life? Or, you know, you hope, to like build a brand, build a platform? Where do you want to like spread the message about this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Like I said, the mission is to honor seniors individual purpose and value.
Speaker 2:And so a lot of companies, like I said, home health, assisted living like a lot of their mottos is like caring for you, like family or just things like that, and so that's their mission, which is fine, and we ultimately want to become kind of the extension for a lot of these other companies to be able to help the senior feel their value without needing to change their mission.
Speaker 2:A lot of companies are very like, myopically focused on the level of care and like we give the very best care, which is exceptional, but like we know they care about care, but they also, more importantly on like a emotional and psychological state for seniors. They want somebody that's the best mentee and the best person that they can give to. So we are trying to partner with a lot of different companies to be able to give that opportunity to their clients or their residents. So, long-term, partnering with a lot of companies and being like the come to us if you want your seniors to emotionally thrive and you just take care of physically thriving by getting the best caregivers, the best CNAs, the best nurses, things like that.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I think that's a pretty good place to kind of wrap up. I'm thinking, maybe, if you want to share a little bit about like how to get in touch, what to look for things like to do, if helperly connect was like an opportunity for senior care provider.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you work with seniors, there's a few things that you can do. Making an account is really simple. Like I said, we're trying to make it for the lowest common denominators like a senior that barely got their first computer a week ago, like they can use it. So if you want to help the seniors that you serve, to make an account it's really easy. You just go to apphelperlycom. It takes like less than a minute to set up the account and then if you're a care provider or you work as like an executive director or marketing director, community liaison just send an email to info at helperlycom, cause we're looking for more partners and, like I said, it's totally free of charge for you to put on a fun activity. So we have an assisted living doing like a painting class and then just different fun things, and it's a great branding and lead gen tool for you as well. So those are kind of the two ways that you can participate the best as a care provider.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Any last words that you can participate the best as a care provider that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Any last words. No, I'm excited for this new season of Senior Care Academy. We had some really awesome people last season and we're just kind of dialing into getting the most value. So if anybody's interested in being on the podcast, reach out. We're just trying to get influential people in the senior care space to make it a great community.
Speaker 1:So yeah, awesome. Thanks so much yeah.