Home Care U - How to Become A Community Pillar So That Referral Sources Come to You (Lance A. Slatton)

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

Rated the top local business in the state of Michigan, Enriched Life Home Care enjoys every agency's dream: their referral partners come to them. How did they do it? We're here to find out.��Enjoying the show? Send me a text and let me know!Learn more about Careswitch at: careswitch.comConnect with the host on LinkedIn: Miriam Allred This episode was produced by parkerkane.co

Hey, welcome to Home Care U, a podcast made by the team at Care Switch. Nobody went to school to learn how to run a home care agency, so we're bringing the education to you. Join our live audience by going to careswitch.com slash homecareu or listen on your own time wherever you get your podcasts. Home Care U is hosted by myself, Miriam Allred, and Connor Koons of Care Switch. Enjoy the session. Welcome to Home Care U is hosted by myself, Miriam Allred, and Connor Koons of CareSwitch. Enjoy the session. Welcome to Home Care U. I'm really excited for today's episode.

We have Lance A. Slatton joining us from Enriched Life Home Care in Michigan. I'm super excited for our discussion. This is one I've been looking forward to for a little bit. It's a little bit different than some of our other topics. And we're going to get into a lot of good stuff. Before I do so, just a few housekeeping things. First, if you're new to Home Care U, know that this is both a live Zoom class and a podcast.

You can join the Zoom class and ask questions through the chat and Zoom by registering free at careswitch.com slash homecareu. That's U as in university. And if you prefer to listen on your own time, you can get the replays wherever you listen to your podcasts as homecareu. Again, that's you as in university. This podcast is brought to you by CareSwitch. We'll talk to you a little bit more about CareSwitch at the end.

And then one more, I guess, thing about me is just, you know, if you have listened to more of our episodes or seen any events I've done or anything like that, you'll be familiar with this. But I do have a stutter. Sometimes it shows up. Sometimes it doesn't. But if you are listening and you hear a random pause, that's not Zoom buffering. That's not your internet buffering.

That's me buffering. It's fine. So just know that. With all that being said, Lance, thanks for joining. Thank you, Connor. Go ahead and give a brief introduction to you, what you do, how you got into home care, and then also whatever is relevant to share at this point regarding the agency you work for. Yeah, absolutely.

Again, thank you for the invitation. Well, as you said, I am Lance A. Slatton, and I am a senior case manager for Enriched Life Home Care. This is a family-owned business. We are not a franchise. We've been in business for just over 11 years now. And one of the things we're most proud of is we have been voted the number one home care provider in the state of Michigan for the last five years.

And I'm also the host of All Home Care Matters, a podcast and YouTube show. How can people find the podcast? Well, they can visit our website, which is allhomecarematters.com, or they can go to YouTube or any of your social media platforms or Apple, iTunes, iHeart and type in all home care matters and we should come up.

Sounds great. And yeah, for those listening, this is actually how I found them. I've been listening to the podcast for a little bit. They have lots of really great guests, kind of some of those people who are like, how did you get this person on? And they go through lots of really important topics. And so I've been listening to this for a while and realized that lance would make a fantastic podcast guest both to talk about why and how they started the podcast and what's come from it but also the larger topic of how they have become this pillar in their community and both the good that does and how that has benefited them on the business side of things. And so that's what we're going to talk about today. When me and Lance spoke before offline, one thing that you had mentioned,

Lance, was that essentially your agency is in a position where your referral sources come to you. I mean, they have heard of you, your reputation precedes you, they often will approach you and want to partner. So in as much detail as you want to share, taking as much time as you want, can you talk about the community networking and education efforts that you and your team have put in through the years to bring you to that position? How did you do that? Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think to really give a sense of who and why we do this, I was actually pursuing a medical degree for medical school and my father became very ill unbeknownst to us. And I was a newlywed and my wife had gotten a call from a home healthcare

nurse one evening saying, you know, he wasn't able to live independently on his own any longer. And first we're trying to figure out, well, what are you talking about? What's going on? And he had developed a really severe infection from an abscess that he had sustained or rather developed. And he came to live with us for a very difficult two, two and a half years. And I don't mean difficult relationship wise, but difficult in the sense of what it meant to us as now all of a sudden his primary caregivers. And during that whole time, I do also want to say I never considered or identified as a caregiver.

I identified as a son trying to help a parent, just like I think most people typically do. And during that two, two and a half years, you know, we were having therapy, wound care nurses, you know, home health care nurses, everything you can think of coming to try to get him, you know, rehabilitated back on his feet to go back to living independently. Mind you, you know, I'm a newlywed. My wife has already developed and, you know, started her professional career. She graduated. As I said, I was pursuing a medical degree through medical school. And that two, two and a half years, not once did anybody ever pull us aside or give us a brochure or a pamphlet. And I'm not just speaking to home care. I'm speaking to any resources, any sort of aid to

get his supplies that he needs, all of these different things. And, you know, that really left an impression on me because I'm thinking, you know, why aren't we getting more support, you know? And so it really, for me, it transitioned when a friend of mine who was already in the healthcare profession, graduated, had his career, had his own practice. He and I, we were going to go have lunch one day and in his building where his offices were, there was a company there that said now hiring, and it was a home healthcare company. So it piqued my curiosity because, you know, I'm doing the minimum wage jobs at the university. I was working in the laboratories and also doing, you know, student teaching, you know,

mentoring, that sort of thing. And anybody that has had that career job or college job, rather, they know what I'm talking about when I say it doesn't pay much. It's really meant for just some pocket change. And I'm a newlywed and wanting to start earning a little bit more money. I stopped in there and I asked him, I said, well, what are you hiring for? Because I did have clinical experience in preparation for my route to medical school. You know, I had went through an EMT course, a paramedic course, and I had actually worked in the hospitals in cardiac critical care, but that schedule and the requirements of that job wasn't conducive with a college schedule. And that is one of the benefits of having a college job. And so I'm talking to this gentleman thinking, you know, maybe they got part

time or, you know, pick your own hours or contingent, that sort of thing. And the person knew nothing. They didn't know what jobs they were hiring for, what positions, knew nothing about the positions. And I just kind of left there scratching my head. And I actually left there, Connor, and called my wife in the car. And I said, you know, I have an idea. We should start a company where we send people into the home to help families going through similar circumstances and situations that we are. And I really, you know, naively at the time, I thought I reinvented the wheel. I'm like, this is a genius idea. Not knowing all those years ago that there's a whole industry for home care. That really was the motivating factor and the driving force behind our family starting our

company was we have healthcare backgrounds, we have business backgrounds, you know, everybody kind of brought something very uniquely needed to starting a business in this field. And, you know, everybody kind of brought something very uniquely needed to starting a business in this field. And, you know, we started it. And, you know, like I said, you know, we've been in business just over 11 years or so. And for the last five, we've been voted the number one company in Michigan. Wow. The last five years straight. Wow. The last five years straight.

Yes. I really love that origin story, I guess, if we can call it that. I think it's interesting. So I guess one question is how many people were involved in the founding of it? You know, how big was the founding team that we're talking about here? You can count them on your hand, on one hand, actually. And have you basically stayed in the same, I guess, on paper, you know, role and position during that time, even though I'm sure it's evolved as you've grown? Really, it's evolved just because as you get larger and you expand and,

you know, your business continues to evolve, just like with any business, you do get more responsibilities. But my title has always been senior case manager. So I help meet with the families, but, you know, help with the staff. But my true passion has always been going out to our communities and interacting with people. And, you know, and that's something I get, you know, a great deep satisfaction from is, you know, just being able to help. And if I'm able to, I want to do it. That's certainly something that shows through both in this conversation, in how you run the podcast, and also just in how your agency operates. I think we'll talk more about that at the end, because after we've kind of gone through the, like the nitty gritty of things, I want to revisit that question

about mindset. So I love that you say that. So let's continue. Yeah. I mean, you know, what, what's the next part of the story that's relevant here to how you've built up this position in your community? Yeah, well, I think for us, you know, we're very strong in our faith and there's a lot of prayers involved in it. You know, we always did this as kind of a motivation of we don't want other families to kind of go through what we had gone through with my father. You know, we, you know, we were right there every time a nurse came, physical You know, we, you know, we were right there every time a nurse came, physical therapist, wound nurse, you know, whatever the case had been and never said to us, you know, is there something we can do for you? Is there something you need? How can we help you? And it doesn't even have to be from, you know, obviously a medical standpoint, but just from a,

you know, support standpoint, because, you know, we were, you know, his primary support and primary care, you know, these visits, sometimes it was five days a week, might have been a different profession coming on those days, or it might have been, you know, the wound was going through different stages. And so they wanted to see it daily. But at the end of the day, they weren't supporting the family in any sense of here's a resource that, you know, can help you guys, you know, again, imagine being a newlywed, still pursuing, you know, higher education, wife who just started a career shortly thereafter. And all of a sudden now you're a primary 24 hour caregiver for a family member. I mean, it's a lot, you know, for anybody in any situation, not that our situation was unique. What I think the similarities are is just, you know, over the last 11 years or so, you know, coming into contact with hundreds of families who have a very similar story. The circumstances may be different, but the story is very similar in the sense, you know, we just had somebody on recently who I, you know, just admire tremendously,

who's dedicated his life to dementia awareness and finding a cure. And he, he didn't coin the term, but he uses it. And I told him any chance I get, I'm going to use it as well. And that's, you know, it's diagnose and adios. You know, once you get that diagnosis in that office, in that hospital, wherever it may be, then it's like, goodbye, adios, you know, instead of saying, okay, this is what's out there. This is what's available. And I don't want to pretend that all of them are, you know, experiencing the same,

you know, situation or having the same experience that majority of families do, because I do know of really wonderful providers who do hand you a folder or an envelope or a pamphlet and says, you know, here's some resources in the community or nationally that can help assist you guys. Or, you know, here's your local here's your local area agency on aging. Reach out to them. They have tremendous resources. Or here's the website for elder care locator. There are some that do that.

And I give them kudos for that and just really admire and respect that they do do that because they're in the minority where the majority is. And I do appreciate the fact maybe they're just staying in their own lane. They're not wanting to branch in, kind of take that next exit ramp and go a step further. But I just wish more would because so many families were in situations like ours. And for me, that's really one of the driving factors of why, at least for me personally, I do what I do. It's because there are so many families out there who went through something just like I did and my wife did and my family, and they're left wondering, you know, where can I get help?

What is what is trusted help? What's reliable help? You know, as I'm sure you're aware here in Michigan, we're one of the states that are non-licensed for home care. So that adds a whole another component where, you know, these families in a situation of crisis, under pressure, under tremendous stress, they're going and hiring a home care company. But in reality, it's not truly a company, you know, and if we can get into that, if you'd like. But we're just trying to find ways to get resources and information out to these families. And it's really because of my experience and changed the entire trajectory of my life. So I guess to recap this first part of it,

it sounds like the first and probably most critical part of the success that you've seen, which, you know, I would say there's the business success, but more than that, there is the helping people success is that you have viewed it that way. And you have seen it as your job is first to help and educate. And if it so happens that the way to do that is through the services offered by your agency, then great. But it sounds like you see your role as being a guide to them in this, you know, potentially unexpected and always very challenging part of their life. Absolutely, Connor. I agree with that a hundred percent. You know, we have been fortunate and we have been blessed. I should say our business and us have

been blessed with, you know, being able to, you know, survive through COVID unscathed, you know, never having, you know, an issue with not being able to service a client because we don't have staff. It always, at least for us, has worked out and we don't take that for granted for a moment. But I also think, you know, it's the motivation for why we do what we do. I think everything else kind of takes care of itself. I'm not saying we don't, you know, everybody has ups and downs for sure, but I feel like whatever your purpose is for doing, especially in this industry, I think does make a difference in a lot of areas. You know, if you're an equity firm and you're just wanting to buy up, you know, a string of independently owned home care companies,

because it's a bottom line factor. I think in this industry, I think the heart factor and the help factor, I call it, it really makes a difference. I really think it helps separate you from others who, you know, you're seeing a different caregiver every other day because, you know, for whatever reasons are, you know, these families don't get that continuity of care, you know, and I think it all goes back to what is your purpose and what is your motivating factor for doing what you do. So what I'm hearing is that I shouldn't be expecting to see you sell to a PE firm anytime soon. No, never. And I will say never. We, you know, and I'm sure anybody listening who is independently owned, you know, for the last couple of years, there has been some very hard pushes.

And we, you know, politely and respectfully, we just tell them, you know, this is nothing of interest to us. There's, you know, there's no purpose for us to want to sell. And I can say, you know, we have no financial means to or motivation to want to sell either. A company about a year ago was pursuing us very, very, very hard, calling, you know, every week or so. And then they tried different people calling. And one day we actually, we got a very, very generous gift card in the mail. And, you know, we respectfully wrote them a nice letter

and returned the gift card and just said, you know, it wouldn't be right of us to accept this, you know, because we have no interest in selling. And even if you're saying keep it anyways, we don't feel like we should take something for nothing. And so, yeah, no, we're very proud of, you know, what we're doing and we have some great plans here coming in the future. So, yeah, there's no that's not on the agenda or the radar. And for those listening, you know, there is this growing question of what does it look like as more private equity firms enter the space? How does that affect home care agencies the care being delivered things like that and we actually have several episodes planned for the future that will go into that more

um so look forward to that we'll I will kind of different angles of it um I think it's a really important topic with a lot of nuances to it so going on I like, I guess one question that is coming to mind for me, and that I think a lot of people listening will have is that I've watched a lot of agencies start operations with a similar mindset to you of they're in it to help people not, you know, to get rich or something. And in my experience, a lot of those agencies don't make it because they have the caring side of it down, but not necessarily the business side of it. How do you explain the success you've had when there are lots of agencies with potentially a similar mindset that don't achieve all the things that you guys have?

Well, first I will say, I don't pretend that it's all sunshine and rainbows. That's for sure. We did massive boots on the ground all the, you know, from our inception all the way up through the start of COVID. But these were relationships that we had grown and cultivated over, you know, seven, eight years. So it's not something that happens overnight by any stretch of the imagination. I am on the, I like to, you know, interact with people and, you know, do the education, the helping, you know, connecting them, the resources. I'm not so much the business mind of the company. So I don't want to take credit for that. But I feel like I had mentioned previously, we had a great mixture of people like

myself and some others who had healthcare background with people who had strong business backgrounds. And you blend the two together, you can have a pretty remarkable recipe to at least give you a good fighting chance of success. But again, I really think it takes, I'm just one branch on the tree, if you will, for that success to happen. And like I said, it doesn't happen overnight. It takes time. You have to really be genuine.

And I mean that in the sense that here in Michigan, again, being non-licensed, countless families that maybe did not find us first or met with us and had met with another company and went with that other company only to find out that that other company was, you know, two people and they were calling themselves a company and granted, maybe they were, but like we explained to people that two people, that two person, you know, team that you had, you know, if one of them is just working the phones in the office and the other person is the caregiver, what is their plan? What is their support? If that person gets sick or if that person is scheduled to go on a vacation or a honeymoon. You know, those are there's a lot of things to be said for hiring an established, reputable company versus somebody who, you know, and again, we were in that boat, you know, 11 plus years ago where we were the new kid on the block and we're wanting people to give

us that opportunity to prove ourselves. But you have to have everything in place, you know, just because they say they're a company, at least in the non-licensed states, it doesn't mean they're an actual company in the sense that, like I said, they have backups, they have replacements, you know, their phones are answered like ours are answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week by people that work for the company, not a call center. And that may not be realistic for everyone. But for us, that was important, Connor, because if you're calling

about your grandma, who you love dearly, and nothing is more important than grandma and her well-being and safety, and you have a concern, you don't want to have to talk to a call center who's just going to say, well, I'll take a message and make sure the office gets it first thing in the morning. Otherwise, why not just wait and call in the morning? There's really no purpose or point to having that 24-hour call service, in my opinion, at least. So when somebody does call our offices, regardless of time, day or night, they're getting somebody who works for the company who will have either an awareness and familiarity with your loved one, or they will have access to that information and they can address your issue right then and there during that phone call, rather than you having to wait till the next day.

Have there been times where there was conflict or disagreement internally within the team that the business priorities and kind of the serving frontline clients priorities were in conflict? And if so, how did you navigate that? None that come to mind, to be honest with you. Because it is family owned and operated, we're typical family stuff maybe, but nothing I would label or identify as a conflict or a serious disagreement. I'll jokingly say the last conflict, and it wasn't a conflict at all, but it's when we started All Home Care Matters. And I kind of had generated this idea.

And the questions I were getting is, what do you know about a podcast or a YouTube show? And I said, absolutely nothing, you know. And so, you know, we took several months, and we would have done this regardless of researching and understanding the whole, you know, podcast industry. Is there space? Is there a need for another podcast like the one we wanted to do? And, you know, after a month or two, we discovered, yeah, absolutely there is. But then instead of just jumping into it with no experience, no background, you know, we did do some private lessons with actually with a Hall of Fame broadcaster. And, you know, it just but again, just like with our show, kind of like with the business, it wasn't immediate overnight success, you know, after, you know, the first couple of episodes, you know, that again was planting that seed and you got to keep watering that seed and taking care of it in order for it to produce fruit. But I think that's, that could

be said about just about anything we do, right? We're, you know, rarely do you just on day one have immediate success. It's, you know, anything worth doing is worth doing right. And anything that's going to be worthwhile will take a while. There's something I'm hearing that you haven't said specifically that I think is important to highlight for people listening is this attention to detail. I mean, you talk about how you were going to start a podcast and you didn't just kind of jump into it. I mean, frankly, like I did. You actually went and learned from someone who was a Hall of Fame broadcaster, like you said,

to learn how to do this right. And it shows. And I guess is that that similar level of care and attention to detail would manifest itself in different ways throughout the business. And so I think when people hear about giving the best care possible and like always erring on the side of helping people, it's not only about what we most strictly think of as compassion. It is also leaving no stone unturned, the detail and the preparation in the other things you can do to bring a level of quality to everything you do. That's kind of

the message that I'm picking up here. Is that accurate to say? Yeah, I would full heartedly agree with that. You know, providing the best care is crucial, is important. Having good caregivers, I feel like is probably one of the top, if not the top priority because they are the face of your company. They are the ones doing 99% of the day-to-day interaction with your families. And it's a reflection on your company when you think about it. If you have someone show up and they look unkept and, you know, their scrubs are dirty and, you know, they just look like they, you know, rolled out of bed or, you know, whatever, however you want to, you know, picture it. I think that's all a reflection on your company, you know? And so

like with us, we, we don't hire bodies just to hire bodies. We're painstakingly diligent on interview process. Typically it's a, you know, a two, two interviews before a job offer. You know, we were fortunate enough a few years ago, we had bought a couple of buildings in our area and we turned the back building into a beautiful state-of-the-art community and employee training education center where, you know, COVID kind of derailed that for a while. But we constantly want our staff to be at the top of their game. So that way the care that they provide our families is at the top of the game. And so yes, detail is so important, so crucial, and it can't be understated enough. So this is a perfect segue into where I wanted to go.

So I do want to ask more about the podcast, but first I want to zero in on what other, I guess like formal initiatives have you guys launched over the years to educate the community and or caregivers? So it sounds like one of them is this community center, which I'd love to hear more about. So tell us more about that.

But also, are there more like formal education initiatives you've done that have helped you to serve the community and become, you know, kind of hold the position that you do within it? Well, it's a two part answer. One is education. One is resources. I'll start with education. One is resources. I'll start with education. We facilitate five to six caregiver support groups throughout southeastern Michigan. Now, granted, COVID shut all of that down, which kind of segue into us launching All Home Care Matters. But since then, just this year, we relaunched support groups and we relaunched our dementia education.

And the dementia education, a very, very dear friend of ours is one of the leading foremost dementia educators in the state of Michigan. And she had authored and copyrighted multiple books. I think there's like over 55 or 60 in total. And we have worked with her for the last eight, nine years. And we were actually the first outside company that she ever brought into her quote unquote inner circle to be a part of these education events that she facilitated. So we started helping her with those. And since COVID, she has not gone back to doing the in-person seminars. But we kind of took over the mantle of that. And right now we're in the middle of this year's dementia seminar series.

And what it is, Connor, it's, you know, people say, well, I want to learn about dementia. Well, that's a really loaded question, right? You know, learning about dementia, we take it from the approach from like step one all the way to the end. First, what is dementia, right? People say, well, I have Alzheimer's, but I don't have dementia. Well, it just goes to the awareness. That's impossible because if you have Alzheimer's, you have dementia, but you can have dementia and not have Alzheimer's because there, as we know, there's so many different variations and forms that you can get in types of dementia. So we go through and really do a deep dive education on what is dementia and all of the

different types there are. And then the other, another one could be, you know, understanding the me and dementia, how dementia is going to affect you as that family member of the loved one with dementia to the caregiver's toolbox. And then, you know, we have a couple full tables of, you know, items, resources, gadgets, and, you know, different things that, you know, from, you know, fidgeters to, you know, red toilet seats to, you know, safety locks for your door, childproofing your door. So it's the full gambit, everything from every angle and aspect of dementia and how it will affect your loved one to how it will affect you and the family

we cover. So every book is a different topic and subject for these series. So those are things we're very passionate about for educating the public. And then, of course, our caregiver support groups and then different locations and facilities will ask us to do a different topic. And those topics are generally like an hour to a two hour long talk where we have handouts and different things about different issues. You know, it might be, you know, helping my loved one eat or, you know, proper transferring, you know, things like that. Love this. So those were the seminars, right?

Not specifically the community center or are those taking place in the community center too? Both. So right before the week that at least Michigan got shut down with COVID, we had just launched that year's seminar. And we were actually doing it in our community building. But these talks take place either in our community building or at different, you know, facilities and buildings around southeastern Michigan. What else are you using your community center for? Yeah. Staff training, you know, educational events for staff, you know, really anything that's going to

help promote and support our staff so that they can provide the best care for our families. Couple more follow-up questions here. This is really great, by the way. Thank you for sharing all this. Oh, you're welcome. I guess, first question, some of these things obviously take a decent amount of resources that aren't going to be viable for some of the agencies in earlier stages of growth. What did you guys do when you were in those kind of early stages and didn't have the resources to buy a building to do this kind of thing? And also like, what would you suggest for agencies listening who are in that position? You know, what would you tell them to do

yet to get started? They, they can do it. It, you know, surprisingly, it does not take a lot of financial resource. It takes a lot of time, you know, if, and, you know, we all value our time, but so we were doing pretty much, we haven't changed the recipe, I guess, Connor, since, you know, since our, you know, since we have grown and, you know, evolved over the last, you know, 11 plus years, anybody, you know, make a word document, make it, you make it professional, put your letterhead on it, make it very presentable, and you can make your own handouts. Let's say you want to do home safety tips for seniors. Go make appointments at your local senior center and say, we'd love to come in and do a presentation for you and your seniors on home safety tips. If you have a computer and a printer and a

Word document or Microsoft Office or whatever word processor software you use, you can type that up yourself. I mean, if you're in this business, you probably know these things already. Put it on paper and print however many copies you think they will have attending your talk and ask if you can come and do a safety awareness for seniors event. Maybe it's during lunch or things like that. A lot of these things don't take a lot of financial resource or investment to do. It's the time. It's the time is the biggest thing. When I would add the expertise, especially when you first started, were there particular topics that you zeroed in on as being like we either have special expertise in this or we have access to people with special expertise in this? Dementia, for sure.

That's probably my strongest background. Safe transferring, you know, medication reminders, you know, helping, you know, give, let, you know, it is, but it isn't surprising how many families aren't aware that there's all these different options available now so that their loved one who may have rheumatoid arthritis or, you know, may have forgetfulness being able to properly know when and what medication to take. Pharmacies now, a lot of your pharmacies, if they take four pills in the morning, four in the afternoon, and four at night, and all of a sudden, you have this multitude of prescription bottles in your cabinet, that can be overwhelming for a senior, and especially one

dealing with any sort of cognitive issue. They can prepackage their medications as long as it's not, I believe, an opioid or, you know, a controlled substance like a narcotic. They can prepackage those. So they'll roll off and they'll say morning pills and they're all in this little nice baggie and you just tear it, take the pills. And it may be they the senior doesn't do that, but maybe their caregiver or their family member who comes by to help them, it just reduces and minimizes the risk for making a mistake, either, you know, taking your evening meds when you're supposed to be taking your morning meds or putting too many of one pill in, you know, the morning slot or, you know,

all these different things where a pill falls or you don't even know it falls. So you didn't take it, you know, just things like that. There's things, you know, I like to think anybody who is in home care has some sort of level of understanding or degree of expertise because they're in the field, you know, pick something that you're passionate about or better yet that you're most comfortable with and start doing that. Go around to your local, you know, community center, senior centers and, you know, asking, hey, you know, this is something that we're really trying to promote awareness on. We'd love to come in. And one thing I cannot stress enough, because I am the farthest thing from a salesperson. That's something I don't do. I don't like doing it. I'm not comfortable doing it. Make sure they know you're not coming in to sell something.

You just say, I'd like to come in and this is a free service. We're not selling anything. We're not even promoting our company, but could you just list us as the sponsor of the event? That way, you're not wanting this facility or wherever the location is to feel like you're just coming in to, you know, hawk your goods and services to the seniors, because that's the last place these places want. And they want to build up that trust and level of comfort. And most importantly, the familiarity with you and who you are as a person, so that they will give you more opportunities and more chances to take part in more events. Love that. Are there any more formal education initiatives, especially serving family caregivers that we should talk about before we transition to talking about the podcast?

The list is endless, Connor. I know it's not a direct answer. There's all sorts of things. One, we're very big supporters of five wishes. And this is something that is too common for my liking is families don't know what their loved one's wishes are in the event they can't advocate for themselves. Five wishes is a very inexpensive document, more like a little brochure booklet where go through, sit down, even if you don't use five wishes, find out what your loved one's wishes are, you know, in the event that something happens and they can't express them to you. I will say five wishes is recognized as a legal document. I believe in 48 of the 50 states or something very high. So chances are your state, it would be recognized, but it also helps to

minimize the sibling rivalry or conflict. Even if we've seen siblings who have the closest, best relationships, when something happens with a parent and all of a sudden now the siblings are being asked to make some tough decisions and choices, instead of them, you know, having that friction and that conflict, if somebody is designated and already appointed, that helps minimize a lot of it. But even more so is knowing what mom or dad wanted so that the person making those choices can just easily say, you guys, I'm not making this decision. Mom made it. She's just asking me to make it for her because she can't. So that way, you know, it doesn't cause, you know, grief and conflict between the family

because during times like that, that's the last thing family should have to experience or go through. That's really great to have that mentioned. You said that the list is endless. I mean, let's maybe just like run through the bullet point list of five or 10 of the things that you've seen be most impactful. I'll give you the few that come off the top of my head. So one, I believe is, you know, finding out the right care choices for your loved one, you know, is assisted living the right choice? A lot of families, Connor, and you may have experienced this yourself. A lot of them move their loved one into assisted living, thinking it is going to be care. Assisted living is very minimal care. Granted, some of them have in-house care providers that then you will pay hourly to take care of your loved one to meet

the needs of what the facility is requiring. But there are still quite a few that don't have that in-house option. So they'll call a company like us or the family will receive a letter from the facility saying, Mrs. Jones is no longer meeting the viable candidate criteria for living here. You need to hire an outside company to come in and take full responsibility for her care or she will have to move out. And moving out usually is not an option or very realistic option for families because a lot of them, once they move their loved one in, they probably have sold the house or maybe they're renting it to renters or whatever the case may be. Now they're in a bad situation where now you're having to pay the facility their monthly fee.

And then now you're having to hire and pay a company. And typically when you get those letters, they're requiring 24 hour care because they want to be released of liability and responsibility. We just had this happen to one of our families where they were weighing the option between either hiring us 24 seven or putting mom into assisted living. And, you know, assisted living is great if you're meeting that criteria and it's the right fit for what your loved one's needs are. My personal opinion is if you need care, assisted living is probably not the right option. If you just want a lifestyle and, you know, activities and engagement, assisted living is a great option. But if that requires

a person assisting your loved one and transferring your loved one and all these other things, it may not be the best choice at that time for your loved one. So ask those tough questions. Ask, how do you determine if my loved one's a right fit? If she's meeting or he's meeting the right criteria, what happens in the event you feel like they no longer meet that criteria? Another one of our families just did, I think it was a 90-day probation period where she moved into the assisted living wing and they kept the condo and they were evaluating her over 90 days to see if she'd be a fit for assisted living or she was going to have to, they called it a level up, I believe, where she was going to have to go to a memory care wing.

And our caregiver was going with her two, three days a week, or not going with her, but being with her two, three days of the week during this probationary period. And they were already, basically after a couple of weeks, they already determined she was going to be assessed to be in memory care. Well, the son got really upset and he said, you know, I don't want my mom to be in a locked memory care unit. I want her to have more activities, more freedoms, you know, that sort of thing. So he moved her back home to her condo and now we just help her 24 seven. And the bottom line on that, as far as financially, it was more economically

viable for him to hire us 24-7 at her condo that she already owns versus paying the memory care fees and then all the a la carte that came with that as well. So finding the right care, choosing the right care, I think is crucially important. But another one is deciding and understanding when care is needed. You know, sometimes families, you know, there's a little bit, I think, of denial involved where, you know, and I can appreciate this. They don't want to think mom or dad is needing help, that they can still do it. And you want to respect that person's independence and their integrity, because, you know, most of our seniors, they've probably been on their own since they were 18 years old. And now

you're having to make decisions for them or confront them about things that may be very uncomfortable for you and for them. So you want to handle it very respectfully, still acknowledging, you know, and respecting their independence. But also, sometimes there's a tough love conversation. If that person is clearly in need of having some extra assistance. One of my favorite sayings is, you know, make the choice when you still have the ability to make the choice rather than having the choice made for you. And what I mean by that is, you know, a lady we were helping a few years ago, she since has passed.

She became very dear friends of ours. We kept recommending to the family because we were just helping her a couple of days a week, Connor. And we were seeing some significant memory and cognitive decline and physical decline. The daughter lived a couple hours away. And so rarely did she get in as regularly as she would have liked. But we were kind of, you know, her eyes and ears and communicating and giving her report. And the

sister or the daughter rather finally said, yeah, I think mom does need more care now. She talked to a brother who lived out of state, very busy businessman. So he never was able to come and see mom firsthand, but he would call and have a phone call. And I say this in a respectful manner. It was very superficial. Hi, mom, how are you? She would say, how's the grand insurance and she met all the requirements and criteria for the ADLs and things. And so the brother said, I want to wait. I want to hold off. I think maybe two, three weeks later, there's a knock on her door and our caregiver went to the door to answer it. And the lady was being informed the house was about to be repossessed by the treasurer's office because she hadn't paid her property taxes in over two or three years.

Family had no idea. Her banking was such a mess. And of course, they probably didn't even think to look into her banking because, like I said, long-term care insurance was paying for the care two days a week. So that's a check right from the insurance provider. And thankfully, they were able to save her home. There's just a lot of things that they discovered, but that was the flag that finally made the family say, okay, mom does need more help. We can't hold off any longer, even though we're trying to give them reports and give them our feedback and things.

And it was very difficult. It was very difficult. So, you know, sometimes you have to make that tough love decision and it's not easy. It's very hard, but you can do it in a loving, kind way. But again, you're doing it for the benefit and the best interest of your loved one, not for selfish reasons. Just hearing you, it definitely shows how much you care about these people, how much you view this as a real responsibility and the ownership you take in it. So it's great to hear this. Thank you. why you started it, how you operate it, what results have come from it, both in terms of just knowing how it helps people and also on the business side. Yes. Or tell me about the process of starting it and then also how you operate it and what the resources involved are.

Yeah, sure. So as I kind of alluded to earlier, it was, you know, all of these community events when they started dwindling because, you know, people were getting COVID, states hadn't shut down yet. Our state hadn't shut down yet. We started seeing the writing on the wall and, you know, something, and I appreciate the kind words, Connor, because I am very passionate about doing what I can to help. And so I had heard that podcast one evening. I went home, told my wife, we should start a podcast because all of our extracurricular stuff had stopped. Granted, I knew nothing about it, spent the time researching it, and then took some classes and things. And when we started it, though, we really did it with the intention of this will be

something to do for maybe, you know, the two weeks we're being shut down. Well, that two weeks turned into four weeks, the four weeks turned into four months. And, you know, then you're into, you know, two years from day one, though, it was just something, you know, I never would have imagined doing. Cause I really kind of like to be more in the background and in the forefront. But it just, it's, it's so quickly resonated with people, you know, and we just started getting emails and feedback from people. And earlier this year, we, we received our silver creator award from YouTube for surpassing the a hundred thousand subscribers. I never even knew that was a thing until our video editor started getting

very, very excited. He said, you know, I grew up on YouTube and you don't know about this. And we said, no. And he's like, oh, wait till you hit a hundred thousand. And we made an incredible unboxing video, which I just love because our kids and their friends were in it. And it's a, it's an homage to senior care. So it's incredible. It's such a fun video. But the impact and the benefits that we've been able to really give the families, some of the emails are just incredible. One interview, it's not going to be a name anybody knows. It's a woman. She's from Australia and originally from the UK, but she had heard it once and

she actually reached out to us and said, you know, I would love to share my son's story. And we said, okay, great. She said, but it's going to be very hard for me. And I can appreciate that being a parent. She says, but I've never shared my story with anyone. And her son is now, I believe in in his early 20s, if I remember correctly. And she had never talked about it openly ever with anyone. And I just felt like that was such an honor that, you know, she would, you know, put that

trust in us to allow her to share that story for the first time. But I got so many emails from other families who said, you know, my son, my daughter, or I had this growing up. And, you know, it was just incredible, you know, my son, my daughter, or I had this growing up and, you know, it was just incredible, you know, and so what we try to do is just, you know, get people on either a to, you know, share their stories that other families might be able to relate with or to get, you know, some of the industries, you know, really brightest and best, you know, thought leaders to talk to families who like, you know, going back to that diagnosed adios, who feel like, you know, really brightest and best, you know, thought leaders to talk to families who like, you know, going back to that diagnosed adios, who feel like, you know what, nobody really

knows what I'm going through. I'm not getting any of the support that I would love to have, but here's, you know, this doctor or this person who is who they are. And, you know, they're saying, hey, we're here for you, you know, and that just, I think gives people so much comfort and, you know, satisfaction and knowing, okay, I'm not alone. There are other people going through what I'm going through. And so it's just, it's been a real joy, you know, the Academy of Interactive Visual Arts. Also this year, we had won the distinguished award for film and health and wellness, you know, I mean, so we just, we're going to keep doing what we're doing and, you know, just hope it keeps growing. And

we've partnered with Lori LeBay earlier this year, who, you know, if your listeners know who she is, if they don't, I consider her one of the founding pillars of dementia education and awareness right up there with Teepa Snow. You know, her and I do a show now once a month called Conscious Caregiving. And our little tagline is we're tackling the tough conversations. So like yesterday, we had a panel just got uploaded yesterday rather, and the whole panel was on, you know, seniors and traveling, you know, whether you're a healthy senior or a senior dealing with dementia or some sort of disability. We had people from all different professions and industries who all focus on traveling

for seniors, talking about tips and different ways that you can safely do it. And we had a lady on who's actually living with dementia and she's an international advocate for dementia awareness. And, you know, she's giving these tips firsthand from a person living with dementia on the best practices if you're living with dementia to prepare and plan and take your trip. So I just, it's just, it's incredible. I've listened to, I don't know if it was last month or a few months before that, but there was one that you did that was a round table with a group

of family, well, people who unexpectedly became family caregivers, which I guess is a lot of caregivers. And it was about financial toll of caregiving. And that one was, even though I've heard many such stories, I've seen them, you know, I've, I've been there for some of these, it's still so eyeopening. I would definitely recommend that to everyone. I mean, I've, I've been there for some of these, it's still so eyeopening. I would definitely recommend that to everyone. I mean, it was, it's so important. What practical advice would you give to an agency who is hearing this? They're inspired. They're like, yeah, this can help my business, but also like, this can just help me do the kind of good I wanted to do when I got into home care.

What advice would you give if they want to do, you know, maybe a podcast, maybe something along those lines, but something with the same kind of mission in mind to educate at scale? And how can they do it, especially if they don't have a ton of resources. My first piece of advice is do it. Because if you would have asked me three and a half years ago when we started All Home Care Matters, I would have said, yeah, no, no way. Connor, I didn't even know, and this is being completely truthful, three and a half years ago, I did not even understand the concept of what a podcast truly was. If you would have asked me, I would have said, oh, it's CNN or ESPN or you name it. It's basically the audio of their TV programming and you can listen to it instead of watch it. That's truly what I thought a podcast was. I'm not afraid to admit that.

But you can do it very, very economically. We started with the mindset, we're just going to do the audio, just the podcast. But then I kind of said, if we're going to sit there and speak it, why don't we also record it? And so you get double bang for your buck, if you will. Now, on a budget, you can do it very, very economically, though. Buy a decent $100, $200, even less USB microphone for your laptop or computer, then you have to have it hosted, as you know, $10, $5, $15 a month to host your audio. And then it automatically disseminates it and distributes it everywhere you want it to be, even to your Facebook page, your LinkedIn page, Twitter, or X, whatever they're calling it today. But the editing might be the

most time consuming, you know? But again, it's very practical. It's very economical, but I will offer to Connor, if it's okay, if anybody wants to, you know, talk to me or set up a time to meet, you know, and get more like nuts and bolts on the process or has any questions, I'd be happy to speak with them. I've, I've had several people, you know, reach out and just said, hey, I just want to talk to you. I'm thinking about starting a podcast. And I think more the merrier, because I think, you know, the more information and resources that we can all help and work together to get out to these families, I think we're all better for it and we should do it. I love to hear that. First of all, I mean, be careful what you wish for. but how can people

get in touch with you? Well, they can reach out to me on LinkedIn, Lance A. Slatton, S as in Sam, L-A-T-T-O-N, or they're welcome to send me an email at the show. We do have people monitoring the email box pretty much around the clock for the most part, and that's contact at allhomecarematters.com. Or if it's easier, they can just go right to our website, allhomecarematters.com. And there is a form there on the homepage they could fill out as well and just put in, you know, home care you question or home care you or something like that. And we'll be happy to help. Okay. Well, thanks again. That's really generous of you. And I think there will definitely be people who take you up on that. I would recommend that they do. One thing that I want to kind of

add to this is just that, you know, starting a podcast or something like it, I'm not necessarily telling everyone to go start a podcast, but it doesn't necessarily take as much work as you would think. There are lots of tools out there to make it very easy. There are lots of very cheap tools that allow you to do every step of the podcast from one platform. So you can record it and then do like really simple video editing. Like I mean, like really simple because I know very little. But there are some, you know, that they make it super easy for me. At CareSwitch, we do hire someone to do the editing for us. We decided to spend the big bucks and

it's like five or six hundred a month to hire someone that we went to a college with who is just a really good sound engineer but frankly like there's a lot of different options and so And so I do think that the future of home care revolves around being not just the ones delivering this very specific type of care, but taking ownership of the responsibility to help and educate people in the community and be a resource and help raise awareness and everything like that and everything that you guys are doing. So thanks again for joining on the podcast today, sharing your expertise, your experiences, and your advice. We really appreciate it. My pleasure, Connor. And I think you guys are, we're going to be talking and setting up a time

for you guys to be on our show. That would be fantastic. We'd love to. Be great. We'll be in touch. I'll have my people talk to your people. Okay, sounds good. Well, thanks again, Lance.

I'll talk to you later. It was a pleasure. Thank you, Connor. That's a wrap. This podcast was made by the team at CareSwitch, the first AI-powered management software for home care agencies. If you want to automate away the menial of your

day-to-day with AI so that you and your team can focus on giving great care, check us out at careswitch.com.