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Servant Leadership in Senior Care: Andy Buiciuc's Vision | Nursing Home Series | Senior Care · The Inspired Stories Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories, where leaders
• 0:07
  share their experiences so we can learn from their successes,
• 0:10
  how they've overcome adversity, and explore current challenges
• 0:13
  they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
• 0:18
  the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their
• 0:21
  experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
• 0:24
  by how they've overcome adversity.
• 0:26
  My name is Anthony Cotespotti and today's guest is Andy
• 0:30
  Buichuk, CEO and Co founder of Avila Care Senior Living.
• 0:34
  They were founded on the belief that kindness enriches lies.
• 0:38
  As a second generation family owned and operated company,
• 0:41
  they've come to deeply understand the importance of
• 0:43
  staying connected. They've created a culture in
• 0:47
  which both team members and residents feel like they are
• 0:49
  part of the family. The Founders came to America to
• 0:52
  escape communist persecution in Romania.
• 0:56
  Excited by the possibilities of what an American education
• 0:59
  provided, they brought the Romanian mindset of multiple
• 1:02
  generations living together into the company culture now.
• 1:06
  Before Andy first began working in senior care in 2007, he
• 1:10
  founded and directed a successful digital marketing
• 1:13
  company, and his skills position him to lead the mutual
• 1:16
  enrichment of both staff and residents alike.
• 1:20
  Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
• 1:23
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• 1:26
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• 1:49
  All right now back to our guest today, the CEO of Avila Care.
• 1:52
  Andy, I appreciate you making the time to Share your story
• 1:55
  today. Pleasure, Solemni.
• 1:58
  OK, so how badly did I butcher your last name?
• 2:00
  Can you give us the correct pronunciation?
• 2:03
  You know, just it depends. It depends on how it wants to
• 2:08
  be. You just kind of roll whatever
• 2:11
  comes out, huh? Yeah, I've I've learned to be
• 2:16
  and EB for for for a while now. And but traditionally Buichuk is
• 2:24
  the way I pronounce it. Some of the family likes to
• 2:28
  Americanize it a little bit. It's busic in English, but I I
• 2:32
  stick with Buichu makes it makes it for an interesting
• 2:36
  conversation starter. And, and we had used it right
• 2:39
  here today. OK.
• 2:41
  So, so Andy B, tell us the story about the escape from communist
• 2:46
  Romania. How and when did that occur?
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  Well. My my father left Romania in
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  1987. When he left, you don't just
• 3:01
  book a flight and not out of communism anyhow, he took a
• 3:07
  quite the journey. There's the Dunabri River that
• 3:11
  borders Romania. And so he swam across that, not,
• 3:15
  not the easiest river, but he took that trek out to, to the
• 3:19
  States in 1987 and was brought in through the American Red
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  Cross. And then they flew us out in
• 3:28
  1989 as well, Refugees in a sense, so.
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  Your dad left in 87, yes. And so for two years there,
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  between 87 and 89, you're separated from your father.
• 3:45
  Correct. My mom with six kids just had to
• 3:48
  manage. And it was one of those things
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  where when dad was no longer there, everybody knew what
• 3:55
  happened. And so you aren't you aren't
• 3:59
  treated really well. Once once daddy disappeared or
• 4:03
  older brother disappeared. And and so mom, mom endured for
• 4:09
  a little while. I was a little bit over a a year
• 4:12
  and a half total. And then in May of 89, we we got
• 4:20
  to fly out and join Join Dad at Chicago International.
• 4:26
  And how did that come about? How was it that the Red Cross
• 4:29
  was able to get you out a year and a half later?
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  You know, that part, I'm not too sure, but there were a lot of
• 4:37
  cases. It really hit the political news
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  that Romania was was kind of not as friendly towards Christians
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  as they put out to be. And I believe the Bill Graham
• 4:52
  organization had quite a bit to do with that as well.
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  And some of the other visiting missionaries that kind of talked
• 4:59
  about, hey, this is what's really going on.
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  And a huge player was Richard Bobrunt, which died in
• 5:06
  California not too long ago. Years ago.
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  He he testified before Congress out here.
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  And so that's where a lot of that realization happened and
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  how bad it truly is for Christians in Romania.
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  And so the, the Red Cross and the US government worked with
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  refugees from Romania a lot closer.
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  And as long as you went through the right channels and and did
• 5:34
  the right things, they they filled out the process and, and
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  help bring your family over. So how old were you when you
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  came over? I was 5.
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  So probably not a whole lot of memories of communist Romania,
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  probably more stories that were told by your parents over the
• 5:53
  years. That is correct that is correct.
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  A lot of stories parents I'm a second youngest of six.
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  So my older siblings did, did also experience a lot of
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  Romania. And so hearing from them as well
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  as parents definitely got all around in all around knowledge
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  of of how, how, how it was under communism.
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  Do you think that struggle of coming from such a difficult
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  environment to the land of opportunity shaped you in some
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  way that drove you to the level of success that you found today?
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  So I would say yes, although I think some can answer no.
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  I say yes because it was instilled in my parents that
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  really, really hard work ethic. You work hard and you do the
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  best you can to make sure that you're able to accomplish and
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  achieve what you need because you have no idea when what you
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  currently have may be taken away or when you may be taken away
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  for your beliefs. And so it, it really makes when
• 7:15
  you have opportunities versus under communism, you're, you're
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  really set with, hey, this is, this is all you're allocated.
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  This is the most you can do, unless you want to, you know,
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  scheme and, and, and all those other things to get up into the
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  political area. But as, as the majority of
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  people, you don't have options. And so you come to a country
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  where you do have those options and you say, man, I, I want to
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  do the best I can for my family. I want to do the best I can for,
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  you know, for the area I'm in to make sure that this type of
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  freedom is maintained and doesn't go back to, you know,
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  what, what, where we came from. And so it, it has helped shape
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  what I do. At the same time for others,
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  that freedom can take them into a different direction.
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  And so you have to kind of make the choice that you want to use
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  that freedom to to do hard work versus to maybe take advantage
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  of a system or some other things that maybe some people would
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  gear towards. So tell us about the path that
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  led you to starting your first company, the digital marketing
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  company. Well, it's actually the second
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  company, the digital marketing. I, I did have a flooring company
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  in, in Florida that I, that I did for a short while and sold
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  prior to moving to Washington. And so I, my father, I'll just
• 8:56
  briefly brush on it. It's somewhat of a funny story,
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  I guess. My, my father did floors for a
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  long time, that that's what he did in the States.
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  That's what he knew. And today, my father's almost
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  80, and he still works for for gentlemen out in Washington.
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  And every so often he'll call him in when he has specialized
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  jobs. And he just can't understand how
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  my father outdoes some of his younger workers.
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  So that's the ethic I was brought into.
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  You just work hard. And so I started this flooring
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  company, never working a a day in flooring of my life.
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  But I said, you know, my dad did it and I've got a phone and I'm
• 9:37
  willing to bet if I get a job, I can get my dad on the phone and
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  know how to do it. This was pre YouTube, YouTube
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  and do whatever you want today on YouTube.
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  But we either didn't have YouTube then or I just didn't
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  know how to use it. That's too long ago.
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  So first job comes along, I managed to, you know, persevere
• 10:00
  in getting it. Back in the day, they were
• 10:03
  called Lumber Liquidators. I think today they're LL
• 10:05
  flooring man. I I was in that showroom every
• 10:07
  day asking Mr. Anthony, give me a job.
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  Let me show you what I could do. Young guy, 20, he's 21.
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  I was, he just, he finally got a client that was the pickiest and
• 10:19
  hardest to deal with. And he goes, OK, I'll give you a
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  chance, Andy. Here you go, literally into the
• 10:26
  fiery furnace, triple heat. And so I got on the phone.
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  I just did everything I can to be as nice to Mr. Washington as
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  I could and had my dad on the phone the whole time.
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  All right, this is what you do. This is how you get it started.
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  This is how you prep the floor. And you know, I just.
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  I did not quit. I wouldn't quit.
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  I knew I had the get a start. I knew I had to do a good job
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  and I did whatever I could to make sure it turned out as as as
• 10:56
  great as it could. And so Mr. Washington,
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  surprisingly, I do say surprisingly, was was very
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  pleased and in fact called the manager at at Lumber Liquidators
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  and and gave a standing ovation. From then we were packed so
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  much. So my father ended up moving out
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  to Florida about a year into it. Well, he visited regularly and
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  stayed for prolonged periods until my mom's like, hey,
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  listen, if he's out there that long, we're moving there.
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  Yes, come on, free laundry. I love it.
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  And so there's still certain things I'm going to take
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  advantage of. My mom's there.
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  I got food and laundry. And so that was the start there.
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  But then I went into marketing out in, out, out in Washington,
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  started kez of marketing and we, we did well.
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  We did really, really, really well.
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  Again, I, I wouldn't quit by then.
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  We had Google by then we had a lot of the Internet.
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  We had a lot of, you know, learning how to do things on
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  your own. And so I said this digital
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  marketing thing, this is, this is pretty new.
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  It's going into a new direction. And I think if I could be ahead
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  of the curve, started the company with the with the
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  partner and if we could stay ahead of the curve, we can do a
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  great job. We can market ourselves, local
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  businesses, accountability's going to be at all time high and
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  it's the easiest way to get new clients in this realm.
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  I thought to myself. And so that's the idea that
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  brought me moving forward and I did well.
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  So I'm hearing a similar theme between these these two
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  ventures, which is I wouldn't quit.
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  I just wouldn't quit. So you started in flooring.
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  You didn't know what you were doing right?
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  But your dad did. And somehow he was able to talk
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  you through a very picky customer job over the phone
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  without video. But you wouldn't give up.
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  You just kept at it. So now the digital marketing
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  idea comes around, you wouldn't give up.
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  But this time, who was your mentor?
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  Like where did you learn from? The Internet.
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  So this time there, there wasn't anyone that I could learn from.
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  So it was how do you learn when there's no one to learn from?
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  That's something that's really important that took a very big
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  role here in my current business environment.
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  Now I'll get into that in a minute with with Kaizo.
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  One of the one of the downfalls with the digital marketing it it
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  really it, it was really very successful and for a young man
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  just married with one kid, it took a pretty big toll because I
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  loved doing what I did. When you take a company and you
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  help them bring in so many new leads, maybe struggling
• 13:53
  companies or companies that are doing OK and now they're doing
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  so well that they have multiple offices with chiropractors,
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  dentist, a lot of I dollar per client type businesses that are
• 14:12
  willing to throw a lot of money at at at new leads.
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  And so when that happens, they love to try to buy your favor,
• 14:23
  whatever it is, whether it's taking you out, whether it's,
• 14:26
  you know, free services for you, for your staff, whatever it is.
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  If, if they can try to by your services, by your favor, they,
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  they will. And so it ended up being maybe
• 14:41
  80 to 100 hours easily per week. Not, not that I had to work, but
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  I wanted to work because it fed into my ego.
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  It fed into just that, I guess that, that, that craving that
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  men tend to have of, of over, over appreciation.
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  And so because so much appreciation happened, everyone
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  was just so seemingly so happy to have me around all the time.
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  I said, man, I just want to be around this more.
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  And so I came to a point where I had to choose between that or
• 15:16
  being a father and a husband. And so I, I didn't have the
• 15:24
  mentorship to know how to be able to do both at that time.
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  I wasn't a very good leader either.
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  You know, turnover rate at the marketing company was, was not
• 15:35
  great at all. Most things relied on me
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  because, I mean, I wasn't very good at teaching others to do
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  what I did because I felt if, if I were to give that up, then I'd
• 15:47
  be replaced or then I wouldn't be as appreciated, I wouldn't be
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  as recognized. And I needed it to be all about
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  me because that's really where I felt and found myself worth.
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  And so it was a spiral, but fortunately it had enough common
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  sense, or at least my my upbringing was, was good enough
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  to where it allowed me to say, Hey, I'm going to choose my my
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  wife and and son at that time. We had two more boys after that
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  and a little little girl here finally as our 4th.
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  But it was at that point where I said, hey, I'm going to pull
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  away and find something different my sister happened to
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  be in, sorry. I just, I want to make sure that
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  I, I get this, Andy. So the business was going
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  incredibly well, feeding into your ego and good on you for
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  recognizing that and kind of calling yourself out on it.
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  But you had to make a choice, right?
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  It's like I'm spending too much time here.
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  It's it's, it's hurting things at home.
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  I'm not being a good leader in this environment.
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  But why the decision to get away from it completely?
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  Was there a thought process of maybe just scaling back or
• 17:06
  becoming a better delegator, hiring people to take some of
• 17:09
  that? What Like why the decision to
• 17:10
  get away from it all together? Good, good question, good point.
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  I did try I I brought in a partner and.
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  That, that, that fear of not being as important just kept
• 17:34
  getting in the way for me truly being able to teach somebody
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  else to do what I was doing. You know, I was very, very, you
• 17:42
  know, seemingly helpful on on the cover, but you know, beneath
• 17:47
  the surface I wasn't rather than than helping through a problem
• 17:54
  or through something they didn't understand.
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  Well, I just say, Hey, you, you suck.
• 17:58
  You did not do this good. Don't you know how to do this?
• 18:01
  Don't you know how to use Google?
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  I I learned all of this myself. Can't you learn it yourself?
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  And so it, it, it was AII think it, it just it, it's the way
• 18:14
  that things I think maybe needed to turn out with that, because
• 18:23
  there was just something a lot bigger, a lot better that was in
• 18:27
  store, which is where, you know, we headed towards.
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  But I did try a little bit to, to make things meet.
• 18:35
  But by the point it got to where my wife said, Hey, you know, our
• 18:41
  son has no idea who you are. I I'd leave home before he woke
• 18:46
  up and get home after he'd be in bed.
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  And so six days a week, Sundays was church.
• 18:53
  And so there, there wasn't really a lot of time and it was
• 19:00
  make a big change if you, you know, want to keep keep what you
• 19:09
  have in your in your family life.
• 19:11
  So. You.
• 19:14
  Yeah, You just, you needed to get away from that entire space,
• 19:17
  that entire world. You needed to sort of blow it up
• 19:20
  and start anew. Yeah, it's very addictive.
• 19:24
  Your events at night, you have to be always be staying in touch
• 19:28
  with those that are providing good leads, providing a good,
• 19:32
  you know, your services that are well, I guess in my mindset, you
• 19:39
  had to right so many, many nights where I just would be at
• 19:42
  different events for different fundraiser versus or different
• 19:45
  business opportunity meetings, you know, B to B events.
• 19:50
  So it was too addictive to say, OK, well, I'll continue a little
• 19:55
  bit and start something else. It was a man, I, I just had to
• 19:59
  separate and so there were still clients.
• 20:03
  I actually put somebody else in charge and said, hey, just deal
• 20:06
  with it. It actually still continuously
• 20:09
  runs today. I do more consulting there.
• 20:11
  I don't have desires to, to get back into it too much.
• 20:15
  But maybe in the future there will be somebody in the company
• 20:19
  that will say, hey, actually I want to kind of do that.
• 20:21
  Let me, let me take over it and and maybe, but not, not for me
• 20:25
  right now. But you still keep your your
• 20:28
  marketing sword kind of sharp, and I'm going to guess those
• 20:30
  skills have probably come in handy for what you're doing now.
• 20:34
  They really have. It gives me a, It gives me a
• 20:36
  pretty good advantage. So so how did this transition?
• 20:40
  Like how did you get into senior care in particular?
• 20:43
  I understand now why you had to leave.
• 20:46
  You just you needed a fresh start, had to pull the plug and
• 20:48
  and start something new. But but why senior care?
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  So it I, I've always been and for those that I, that I meant
• 20:59
  for, I, I always start with look around you, look around you.
• 21:04
  You may know that you want to get somewhere.
• 21:07
  This is where I want to get to. But be wise and look around you
• 21:12
  and see if you can identify the road that can help get you
• 21:16
  there. Identify a road that can be a
• 21:20
  good tool that's easier to get into, that will help you get to
• 21:25
  where you want to get to. And so as we, as my wife and I
• 21:30
  just sat and looked and looked around because I'm ultimately
• 21:33
  leaving my position as a founder and CEO of, of our marketing
• 21:38
  agency and stepping into something different.
• 21:40
  We're looking at very different, very different income.
• 21:45
  And so my sister had a senior care home in Washington state.
• 21:50
  They, they were able to have a six resident count and you know,
• 21:55
  residential environment, the home you can convert to kind of
• 21:59
  a small scale assisted living type type of a home.
• 22:04
  And so my sister had one and she so happened to be needing a
• 22:07
  caregiver. I think most people know what a
• 22:13
  caregiver is, but essentially I I left my roll and my suit and
• 22:18
  tie and I put on scrubs and gloves.
• 22:23
  I thought you were going to tell us.
• 22:23
  You set up a marketing campaign to help her find a caregiver.
• 22:27
  You decided you were going to be the caregiver.
• 22:30
  Yeah, I exchanged the suit and tie for the scrubs and gloves,
• 22:32
  my friend. And for many, many months I was
• 22:37
  what's called a live in caregiver.
• 22:39
  My wife and I moved in a separate residence.
• 22:42
  Upstairs was just us family. That's full kitchen, bathroom,
• 22:47
  you know, downstairs was 6 bedrooms for six elderly
• 22:51
  residents that needed help 24/7. And so for for many months
• 22:57
  again, while I tried to make incomes meet properly or income
• 23:03
  meet expenses properly, I should say, we had to eliminate much,
• 23:08
  much of our expenses. And so we did that and a couple
• 23:12
  of things happened. One, clearly my wife and I and
• 23:17
  my kids, my, my son at the time, we, we got a lot closer and, and
• 23:22
  that's, that's huge. I'm home all the time now live
• 23:26
  in. They can simply come downstairs
• 23:29
  and hang out with dad. That's wonderful.
• 23:34
  But it was also, I guess, for those that don't know what a
• 23:39
  caregiver does or is, you help the residents get up in the
• 23:44
  morning. We make them breakfast, we give
• 23:47
  them their medications. You, you know, do a activity and
• 23:54
  then you do lunch, you do more medications, you change them
• 23:57
  again, you. It's a demanding schedule and
• 24:00
  it's all day, every day. Yes, absolutely.
• 24:03
  And so we did all of that for many, many, many months.
• 24:09
  After maybe 6-7, eight months, we brought in additional staff
• 24:13
  to, you know, take weekends off and then we took on more
• 24:19
  responsibility with those decisions and started running
• 24:23
  the operations for the business as well.
• 24:26
  My sister had a couple of homes like this, so she managed 1 and
• 24:33
  I managed the other At that way she can have a little more free
• 24:36
  time and we can get a little more experience.
• 24:38
  And so I did that, learned the insurance and outs.
• 24:44
  I realized quickly that this industry is at least in our
• 24:48
  culture, in our community, it's behind by a good decade in terms
• 24:54
  of technology and my marketing background is just spinning
• 24:57
  wheels at this time. How do I, how do I, how do I
• 25:00
  make this more efficient? Because, you know, for example,
• 25:03
  admitting a residence or bringing a new resident in
• 25:06
  that's never been there before. It's, it's oh so many hours, so
• 25:11
  at least a full day's worth of hours of work.
• 25:14
  And so I said, man, if I can digitize this, wow, I could do
• 25:20
  great things here. So I ended up creating
• 25:25
  procedures and processes for everything and then attaching at
• 25:31
  that time smart technology to, to everything.
• 25:35
  You know, instead of putting your name in 15 places on a
• 25:39
  application as the new resident comes in, you just fill out one
• 25:44
  page and everything gets automatically inputted
• 25:46
  everywhere. And so did a lot of these things
• 25:50
  that saved just incredible amounts of time.
• 25:54
  And so I, I, I wasn't paid extra for that.
• 25:59
  That's just how your mind works. You're an entrepreneur, You're,
• 26:02
  you're tech oriented. You're yeah, you you don't quit.
• 26:06
  You're, you're always looking for a more efficient way to do
• 26:08
  things. So that of course that's part of
• 26:10
  your brain is working to look for those opportunities.
• 26:13
  Absolutely. And so I, I got to find really
• 26:18
  good ways to make this process a lot easier, a lot better for
• 26:20
  people, for my sister, for myself, I should say.
• 26:24
  Word went out and I was then asked by others to say, hey,
• 26:34
  what did you do and how could we do it?
• 26:35
  How could we save time? How can we make our systems and
• 26:40
  not just save time? Saving time, that's a good
• 26:42
  thing. That's one of the best things, I
• 26:43
  think. But for families, they don't
• 26:45
  really care about that. What families cared about was
• 26:48
  some of these processes really created accountability and it
• 26:52
  allowed for a lot more transparency.
• 26:56
  It'll it gave the owners of these homes the ability to
• 27:00
  really see what's happening at a much, much more specific level.
• 27:07
  And so consulting happened helped a lot of people get their
• 27:14
  things in order. And, you know, my mind's always
• 27:17
  gone towards business and how to be more efficient.
• 27:20
  I'm big, big on efficiency. The more efficient you could be,
• 27:23
  the better you could pay people, the better you could pay people,
• 27:26
  the better quality people you can get.
• 27:29
  And so whenever I'm asked how, how can you do the things that
• 27:32
  you do, I say, well, I hire the best I can.
• 27:36
  I'm not afraid of hiring people smarter than me.
• 27:38
  That's the single best thing you can do as a person in a position
• 27:44
  of hiring. Hire people as smart as you can,
• 27:46
  smarter, better in every possible way and doing so you
• 27:52
  you'll get a good company. But that that the start and why
• 27:59
  I spent some time on that is the start for my senior living
• 28:07
  foundation or the foundation for my senior living company now is
• 28:13
  premised and founded on the fact that I did everything by hand.
• 28:18
  I know what it's like to be a caregiver.
• 28:20
  I know what it's like to be a Med aid.
• 28:22
  I know what it's like to be a housekeeper.
• 28:24
  I know what it's like to be every part of my business.
• 28:28
  And John, my founding partner, who happens to be my
• 28:32
  brother-in-law, my wife and his wife are sisters.
• 28:38
  But John did the same thing. He owned his home, so a little
• 28:44
  more advanced than I am. I get, I was, I should say, but
• 28:48
  he's done that since man, Literally, I think he helped his
• 28:52
  parents start their first home late 90s.
• 28:56
  And so that's where the second generation comes from.
• 29:01
  We, my wife and I've been, she started first time in 2007.
• 29:08
  So we've been doing this for a very long time, but John had the
• 29:13
  same exact experience as I did. He just had a lot more money
• 29:17
  than I did at the time because, well, he's been doing that for a
• 29:20
  while. I had to leave my company and
• 29:22
  start his caregiver. So we said, man, let's try to do
• 29:30
  something different. Let's try to scale, let's try to
• 29:32
  do assisted living, not these smaller, they're called adult
• 29:37
  family homes, some places called residential care homes, boarding
• 29:41
  homes, different names for them, but these smaller 6 to 8
• 29:47
  resident homes. So we, we did and that's the
• 29:50
  next, next phase of of our conversation moving into what we
• 29:58
  are now. And how would you describe what
• 30:01
  you are now somebody who's coming to an Avila Center?
• 30:03
  What, what does it look like? What's the service that they can
• 30:07
  get? So the the foundation was those,
• 30:11
  the smaller, smaller six person homes of memory care, very, very
• 30:15
  high, high, high levels of care and that's what the specialty
• 30:19
  was. Now our homes are a bit bigger.
• 30:23
  The biggest 1 is 3232 beds and there's a variety of services.
• 30:34
  They could be a lot more independent.
• 30:36
  And you know, one of our homes out in Flower Mound, it's, it's
• 30:44
  less care. You can find good conversation,
• 30:47
  you can find people to play cards with.
• 30:49
  And so it's not just residents coming in that are high levels
• 30:53
  of care or dementia, memory care.
• 30:56
  It's just adults, older adults that say ahead.
• 30:59
  I I just need help with medication.
• 31:01
  I can't manage my medication or diabetes or I just want round
• 31:04
  the clock help. But I don't want to be somewhat
• 31:06
  independent. And so depending on where they
• 31:11
  are at in life, we now have room throughout our communities for
• 31:17
  every level of care. And so John and I came together
• 31:24
  to form a villa care. And the Villa care is everything
• 31:31
  needed for the seniors that no long or just need that extra
• 31:39
  help or no longer can be at home or independent or have just
• 31:45
  really lost a lot of ability to do anything due to cancer or
• 31:53
  Alzheimer's or different different types of diseases.
• 31:59
  And and we're now growing into parts even beyond that.
• 32:05
  But as a Villa Care Senior living, we've been able to grow
• 32:11
  and help many, many, many, many seniors of all, all different
• 32:16
  levels of need so. Andy, how many facilities do you
• 32:19
  have and in what locations are they?
• 32:23
  We're in Washington and in Texas.
• 32:26
  State of Washington, State of Texas.
• 32:28
  Correct, correct. And all together we have 5
• 32:33
  senior living facilities. We're looking at 6th facility
• 32:38
  that combines assisted living and mental health in Seattle.
• 32:50
  So that would be 1/6 facility under still under the banner of
• 32:53
  assisted living, but it combines mental health.
• 32:56
  And so in Texas we also have neuropsychology testing and,
• 33:03
  and, and Wellness clinic. So this clinic essentially for
• 33:11
  the most part tests for everything mental health related
• 33:19
  from depression, ADHD, schizophrenia, dementia, name it
• 33:24
  any kind of mental cognitive impairment test possible.
• 33:28
  We also test specifically for our school district where the
• 33:34
  clinic's at, teachers are allowed to open carry, they have
• 33:38
  to go through rigorous testing. And so our clinic is one of the
• 33:41
  few that does the testing for that.
• 33:43
  It's it's a very, very extensive, both background and
• 33:47
  psychological testing. So it's not just testing for the
• 33:52
  senior community, it's you've opened this up to any age
• 33:57
  groups. Correct, Yes.
• 33:59
  And the growth plan for next year for that is bringing in our
• 34:06
  psychiatrists for prescribing. We have therapists for all types
• 34:12
  of counseling currently. We're also going to bring in
• 34:15
  practitioners for pain management.
• 34:17
  And so we'll have a full scale clinic that just helps
• 34:22
  everything that has to do with the head and helping people get
• 34:26
  better. And our focus is to use as much
• 34:33
  of what's around us to help and you know, improving situations,
• 34:40
  improving things around you and then supplementing medication to
• 34:45
  help get you through. Some people just need
• 34:47
  medications forever. Some people don't.
• 34:49
  And so we want to make a distinction between that and
• 34:52
  say, hey, if you can get through life without by making changes
• 34:57
  on both diet and your awareness, what you're doing fantastic.
• 35:02
  And if you can't and you need prescription, that works as
• 35:06
  well. But we want to be as holistic as
• 35:07
  we can. And so that's kind of the
• 35:09
  mindset behind that clinic. And so I'm kind of curious from
• 35:13
  a practical standpoint how you approach that.
• 35:17
  And I'm over generalizing here, so forgive me, but you know,
• 35:20
  traditionally a psychiatrist, they're equipped and their
• 35:24
  expertise is to prescribe medications.
• 35:28
  They know how these different compounds work.
• 35:31
  They know what to look for and, you know, certain behavior
• 35:34
  patterns to know, you know, let's try this one for you.
• 35:38
  But it's sort of a, a different skill set, a different level of
• 35:41
  training that's saying, hey, let's, you know, work on your
• 35:45
  diet and, you know, physical activity.
• 35:49
  And so do you have sort of a team of folks that's kind of,
• 35:53
  you know, helping each individual patient?
• 35:57
  Good question. So again, it goes back to the
• 36:00
  foundation. When I started senior care, I
• 36:03
  started from the ground up and built, built everything from
• 36:08
  that perspective or from that point of view stemming
• 36:11
  everything up. When it comes to the clinic, we
• 36:15
  started with strictly testing with psychologists and
• 36:19
  therapists and employed those that had skill sets in, in, in
• 36:27
  multiple areas. And specifically in naturopath
• 36:32
  or naturopathic medicine or had a lot of experience with that or
• 36:38
  had maybe a undergrad or additional certifications for
• 36:47
  areas that we felt worked really well or worked in line with our
• 36:51
  vision. And So what we wanted to focus
• 36:53
  on 1st is our vision. This is the direction that we're
• 36:57
  going in. And then we brought in people
• 37:00
  and filled in some of those spots based on here's what the
• 37:03
  vision is. And then as we grow up to the
• 37:08
  next level, which is the psychiatrists and the pain
• 37:12
  management side of things with those practitioners, we're
• 37:17
  filling them in and plugging them into our vision.
• 37:21
  And so when we have a client that's diagnosed by our
• 37:24
  psychologists or are doing therapy with our therapist,
• 37:30
  we're using the psychiatrist now to help bring them on the path
• 37:35
  that they're currently on or that have has been already
• 37:39
  created or subscribed. And here's what we're going to
• 37:41
  try to do. And they have that awareness of,
• 37:46
  hey, my goal isn't to keep somebody on medications for the
• 37:52
  rest of their lives unless they need it.
• 37:54
  They need it. That's what they want.
• 37:56
  That's what's best for them. That's fine.
• 37:57
  That's not a problem. But that's not always the case.
• 38:01
  And sometimes I'm sure it doesn't ever happen, but I think
• 38:04
  sometimes it could that, you know, some, some doctors are
• 38:11
  more interested in just keeping the patient coming every every
• 38:14
  month for a prescription or every three months to build up
• 38:17
  that clientele that becomes very easy to manage.
• 38:19
  I'm sure there aren't many, but there, there could be some.
• 38:22
  We, we don't want to be those people and we want to steer away
• 38:25
  from that as much as we can and be more of helping people get
• 38:29
  better. And if our client list runs low,
• 38:32
  we're going to be very efficient with our money and make sure
• 38:35
  that we don't run into issues. I don't need a several
• 38:38
  $1,000,000 a year salary. I can invest a lot of that into
• 38:42
  the company to make sure it continues to do well.
• 38:44
  And in the times it doesn't do well, well, we have a good, good
• 38:47
  blanket. So that's that's kind of the the
• 38:51
  structure and that's how we are going to be getting to that
• 38:55
  point with our psychiatrists and the the rest of the doctor
• 38:58
  doctoral team we want to bring on.
• 39:01
  Andy, tell me about the new facility in Washington.
• 39:04
  What's going on there? That's that's a big.
• 39:10
  Size. That's a size in two directions,
• 39:15
  right. So we have our base, I said
• 39:18
  senior living prior to that I did marketing well.
• 39:22
  So I know how to market myself well and the company, but more
• 39:28
  so I think the care we provide is, is the biggest influencer.
• 39:33
  But we we've established a good, good base for our senior side,
• 39:37
  our assisted living. And I want to emphasize that
• 39:39
  word assisted living, which is simply people that need
• 39:43
  assistance in living. And of course, when you think of
• 39:46
  assisted living, anyone has any experience, 9899% of people
• 39:51
  mindset goes to geriatric care. Geriatric care means elderly.
• 39:54
  So the older population, unless you're a woman and pregnant,
• 39:58
  then you're geriatric at 30, I think 30 or 31.
• 40:01
  I was shocked to hear my wife is a geriatric pregnancy because
• 40:05
  she was over 30 with our fourth child.
• 40:08
  Yes, I was. That's.
• 40:09
  Quite a definition. I look at the doctor and I'm
• 40:13
  just thinking to myself. Unfortunately, didn't say it
• 40:16
  aloud. Ma'am, I think you're geriatric.
• 40:18
  Not my wife. What are you talking about?
• 40:22
  Oh. Words matter and those ones
• 40:25
  confuse me. But go ahead with your story,
• 40:27
  Andy. We'll let that one go.
• 40:30
  But so when I say assisted living, I don't want it to stick
• 40:39
  to or to to be defined only as elderly.
• 40:44
  Our facility which is in Washington is assisted living,
• 40:47
  but we do have some residents there, the one that we currently
• 40:50
  have that are in their 20s. Assisted living by definition
• 40:55
  just means people that need assistance in living regardless
• 40:58
  of age, regardless of what that assistance is.
• 41:03
  And so the more general term is long term care.
• 41:09
  And so we're under long term care assisted living.
• 41:13
  And then to create a small parallel there with our mental
• 41:18
  health office, there we are, we have a lot of skill set in
• 41:24
  mental health awareness and, and how to treat and how to diagnose
• 41:29
  and, and the staff that's knowledgeable in how to really
• 41:37
  be able to treat people the best.
• 41:39
  So. That was going to be my question
• 41:41
  for Andy. Is this new facility, is it
• 41:44
  helping people that have physical challenges or mental
• 41:48
  health challenges or a combination of the two?
• 41:52
  Oh, combination. And so this is where this is now
• 41:56
  it's, it's similar, but it's also different.
• 42:00
  So this new facility will house over over 60 / 60 residents and
• 42:07
  it is gonna have that base of assisted living and then it's
• 42:17
  going to use the mental health services.
• 42:21
  Now, what's really important here that I like to draw because
• 42:25
  it wasn't in any way by my ingenuity.
• 42:27
  It wasn't me being a genius or, or smart or forward thinking at
• 42:31
  all. I just did what I saw as the
• 42:35
  best avenues as things were coming up.
• 42:36
  I'm just looking around to see what the best way to grow my
• 42:40
  company is. We did the mental health in
• 42:44
  Texas and we have the assisted living.
• 42:46
  We have assisted living in Washington, state of Washington
• 42:50
  and now this new facility it it actually to be really good.
• 42:55
  You have to have both that assisted living side and then
• 42:59
  that mental health side. You could do it with just one,
• 43:02
  the assisted living, open it and hire services and then you're
• 43:06
  dependent on whether or not those services are good, those
• 43:08
  providers are good or not, or you can have your own base and
• 43:13
  be able to help your own residents and others.
• 43:17
  And so it, we're in a very unique situation where we have
• 43:20
  this experience from the mental health side, from our clinic
• 43:24
  here and now opening up this assisted living, which is a very
• 43:30
  special contract through the state of Washington.
• 43:33
  And it's very specific to Medicaid.
• 43:35
  And so a lot of those that are under underserved and
• 43:39
  underprivileged. And so we're helping a a niche
• 43:45
  of people in the actual city of Seattle that have nowhere else
• 43:52
  to go. They have no other help.
• 43:55
  The contract that we have with the state is a very specific
• 43:59
  contract and it doesn't exist in King County, at least not north
• 44:03
  of a city called Auburn, which is all the way to the South.
• 44:08
  So anything Seattle area N all the way up to the border of
• 44:12
  Canada there there's just nothing, nothing for anyone
• 44:15
  that's under underserved and underprivileged.
• 44:19
  And Medicaid is the only insurance they have.
• 44:21
  There's there's really nothing for them.
• 44:23
  Nothing, nothing like what we're what we're opening up.
• 44:27
  And of course it's difficult. Real estate in in Seattle is not
• 44:31
  easy. The business environment in
• 44:36
  Seattle is not always the easiest legislation, is not
• 44:40
  always for small businesses, especially if you're getting
• 44:42
  started. And so we've been very fortunate
• 44:46
  and blessed to be able to take meetings and have meetings
• 44:52
  accepted by City Council to be able to kind of talk about what
• 44:57
  we're wanting to do and the road map to get there and kind of
• 45:02
  what our plan is. And they've been gracious enough
• 45:04
  to meet with us and kind of help walk us along the best path to
• 45:10
  get what we want started, because what we're doing is
• 45:14
  converting a very ugly and troubled hotel to the assisted
• 45:20
  living that we need it to be. And it's a very arduous process.
• 45:24
  And we will need to work with both the local city governing
• 45:29
  authorities and the state governing authorities.
• 45:32
  Our licenses are regulated by the state of Washington.
• 45:35
  So the state authorities, but the building itself is also
• 45:39
  under city code. And so we we've got to work
• 45:41
  along with a lot of business, a lot of government agency.
• 45:45
  And so I know sometimes that can get lost in translation.
• 45:48
  So the City Councilman for that district, Mr. Strauss has been
• 45:54
  very gracious to help guide us along this process to make sure
• 46:01
  that things don't get just stuck somewhere, stuck in nowhere.
• 46:07
  Yeah, it sounds like a lot to manage a lot of different
• 46:10
  conversations with different government entities that you
• 46:12
  have to juggle and try to get everybody aligned.
• 46:16
  It's a lot of work. But we're going to be able to
• 46:19
  combine our services and help people that quite literally
• 46:25
  maybe 85 plus percent of our residents that we will house
• 46:29
  there, they will be, they would otherwise be in a state
• 46:37
  institute. That is for those that are
• 46:43
  diagnosed insane, right? So they have significant mental
• 46:49
  diagnosis and they have to be in a place where they're restrained
• 46:53
  or in prison or in hospitals because of harm or they've
• 46:59
  caused harm or maybe they've overdosed or on the streets.
• 47:03
  Many, many, many, I would say at our other Washington facility,
• 47:11
  maybe I think we're told about 6570% would be homeless if they
• 47:18
  were not in our facility. And so we're quite literally
• 47:20
  taking people off that would be off the streets and a danger to
• 47:24
  themselves or others. And so we're, we're providing a
• 47:28
  very unique service because one, we get to help people, which is
• 47:33
  awesome, but two, we also get to clean up the streets
• 47:36
  efficiently, effectively, right? And so that, that helps
• 47:41
  everyone, the residents of that city, the City Council, because
• 47:47
  now they have less people to worry about.
• 47:50
  And so we're, we're, we're filling in a gap that not many
• 47:55
  people are doing or willing to do.
• 47:57
  That was going to be my question.
• 47:59
  Are there other people that are kind of following a similar
• 48:01
  model? Nothing in Seattle, nothing in a
• 48:05
  in a, nothing. Nothing in any of the bordering
• 48:08
  cities. So Seattle metro, or I shouldn't
• 48:10
  say Seattle metro, but Seattle is in King County and in King
• 48:13
  County all the way in the South, all the way in the South.
• 48:15
  The furthest S you can get there is one or maybe 2 facilities
• 48:22
  like this. And on the entire West Coast of
• 48:25
  Washington, there's two. Why do you think this is so
• 48:30
  neglected? Is it because of all the
• 48:33
  regulatory hoops you have to jump through or other people not
• 48:36
  sort of observe the same opportunity that you have?
• 48:41
  I think there's a a combination of of reasons that kind of bring
• 48:47
  you to this. One, nobody really wants to deal
• 48:50
  with Medicaid. You have to deal with Medicaid
• 48:52
  insurance. Couple reasons for that one,
• 48:56
  it's really hard to get paid. You've got to know billing and
• 49:01
  you got to have someone doing billing and it's unfortunate
• 49:04
  because they don't pay a lot and that's the second reason they
• 49:07
  don't pay anywhere near what the private sector does.
• 49:10
  And so with the private sector very lucrative, very booming
• 49:13
  lots of these businesses every single where everywhere because
• 49:17
  they're highly profitable. And so if somebody's going to do
• 49:21
  it, why, why are they going to go Medicaid when they're
• 49:23
  underpaid? And even when you're underpaid,
• 49:25
  you're having troubles collecting, but they'll be easy
• 49:28
  to take money if they think it's overpaid very quickly.
• 49:33
  But I won't get into that one. I digress.
• 49:36
  Sticking to the subject, we, you have to have a heart for people.
• 49:42
  If you don't care for people, it's really, really hard to, to
• 49:47
  do this type of service because you, you can't have money as
• 49:51
  your number one authority. That can't be the reason you
• 49:55
  find self worth and self valued. You have to have a different
• 49:58
  reason. For me, my, my reasons are my
• 50:01
  personal beliefs, my, my religious beliefs.
• 50:06
  I follow a Carpenter that happened to walk the earth about
• 50:09
  2000 years ago. And so that's where I, I, I draw
• 50:12
  what, what, what, what I believe in and, and, and what steers my
• 50:17
  mind and motivation. And so we're able to help
• 50:21
  people. I have a heart for people and we
• 50:26
  happen to have the experience. And that's the second part, you,
• 50:30
  you have to really know how to navigate this cohort of, of
• 50:35
  people because it's not simple. You have to have a specific
• 50:40
  task, excuse me, specific staff. And staffing's not easy
• 50:45
  profession in Washington. We have difficulties.
• 50:47
  There's a lot of difficulty in finding good staff in
• 50:49
  Washington. I'd like to say as a company,
• 50:54
  assisted living in general has an insane, just a ridiculous
• 51:00
  turnover rate. Really, really hard to keep good
• 51:03
  people. Good people find good people.
• 51:07
  There's just a lot that happens because it's a really hard
• 51:10
  industry to be in. People are dying all the time.
• 51:14
  And so you as a caregiver have to kind of go through that
• 51:18
  roller coaster so often. It's really hard.
• 51:21
  I'd like to say our turnover is almost non existent.
• 51:25
  It it's so low. We don't lose a lot of staff.
• 51:30
  My, my goal is out of, you know, 2020 staff and facilities.
• 51:36
  So a facility that has 20 employees to maybe replace one
• 51:40
  every three to six months. And and many times, for example,
• 51:45
  we have 1 gal that was looking to leave at one of our footage
• 51:49
  in Texas because she's getting married and we're trying to
• 51:51
  convince her that Dallas is better than Houston.
• 51:54
  Don't go girl. We we create a family
• 51:57
  environment because we care again, from the top.
• 52:00
  John and I are are are family oriented.
• 52:03
  We're all about, you know, making sure that our family is
• 52:08
  well nurtured and taken care of and that heart and that mindset
• 52:11
  goes down towards the rest of how we do everything.
• 52:14
  And so we bring that mindset to our leadership team and then we
• 52:20
  have them bring that mindset and culture to all of the staff and
• 52:25
  all the facilities. And so they feel appreciated,
• 52:28
  they feel loved, they feel welcomed.
• 52:30
  And we we know that they're going to be taken care of.
• 52:33
  They know they're going to be taken care of.
• 52:34
  So it works well. So because this is.
• 52:37
  Actually a question I, I always like to ask on the interview,
• 52:40
  because I hear from a lot of folks, you know, regardless of
• 52:43
  industry, the labor market is tight, hard to find good people,
• 52:46
  lots of turnovers, hard, hard to hold on to them.
• 52:49
  And so like, you know, what are the things that you've tried
• 52:51
  that have worked? And what I'm hearing you say,
• 52:53
  and maybe there's something else to this, but you know, it's,
• 52:57
  it's a lot about culture and sort of the building this family
• 53:00
  environment. And you instill this and your
• 53:02
  leaders and encourage them to, you know, have that mindset and
• 53:06
  that same treatment of taking care of your employees and a
• 53:10
  cascade down, you know, from the top on on down is, is there
• 53:15
  anything else outside of kind of this, you know, family
• 53:18
  environment, this, hey, we're going to take care of you.
• 53:21
  You're you're cared for and you're heard anything besides
• 53:25
  that that you guys are doing that you think has been
• 53:27
  particularly effective and finding and retaining good
• 53:29
  folks? Absolutely.
• 53:31
  Two more things. One, take less profits, pay
• 53:34
  better. So Delta does that really well,
• 53:39
  really well. I think the story of the CEO of
• 53:44
  Delta is a a great comeback to read any, anytime somebody has
• 53:49
  some free time. And secondly is just down to
• 53:54
  earth procedures. I'm able to create processes and
• 54:00
  procedures from a place of intimate knowledge.
• 54:04
  I know and my staff knows in every single facility that
• 54:08
  everything I asked them to do is something that I have done
• 54:12
  personally. I know how to walk that walk and
• 54:14
  I know how to talk the talk. And it is not uncommon to see me
• 54:19
  coming into facility and be there in scrubs.
• 54:24
  You know, it's just one of those places where I lead from a place
• 54:30
  of what's called servant leadership.
• 54:33
  And that's the type of leadership that we instill in
• 54:35
  every single one of our leaders. We, we lead from coming
• 54:38
  alongside of we're serving those that we lead.
• 54:41
  And that's the heart of everything servant leadership.
• 54:45
  So that's a, that's a big part of, I think what makes us as
• 54:49
  successful as we are when it comes to staff.
• 54:53
  And of course, when you have a successful relationship with
• 54:55
  your staff, your residents are exceptionally taken care of.
• 54:59
  Not without error, but you know they're always minimized and
• 55:04
  everything taken care of when in the end.
• 55:09
  That's great. I'm curious, what's something
• 55:12
  maybe innovative or different that you've introduced to
• 55:15
  enhance the patient experience? There is quite a bit, a lot of
• 55:30
  depending on which facility and and which cohort of people,
• 55:36
  we're either dealing a lot more with families or we're dealing a
• 55:38
  lot more with the the patients. And so when it comes to
• 55:41
  families, transparency and an app that we're developing to
• 55:46
  help create more of that transparency is, is one of the
• 55:50
  keys and answers to, to that question.
• 55:54
  What we're doing is giving them a inside look into the entire
• 56:00
  life of their loved one that's in our facility.
• 56:03
  And so it's unique. I, I've not heard of it, but
• 56:06
  what we're doing is giving them instant access to life.
• 56:12
  That means through the SAP, they have regular pictures of what
• 56:16
  their loved ones doing throughout the day, instant
• 56:19
  access to whoever's part of their care team throughout the
• 56:22
  entire day, instant access in that same portal app, I should
• 56:28
  say, to anything regarding the doctor's orders, the meds, you
• 56:34
  know, whether it's taken, whether it's not taken,
• 56:36
  something was refused, Hey, question the doctors in that app
• 56:42
  and they'll get a response from the secretary immediately or
• 56:45
  their assistant immediately. And so it brings everything
• 56:48
  together into one app, and all of our staff and extended staff
• 56:55
  have access to it, and they're updating it all the time.
• 56:58
  And so gives us an opportunity to employ another person to make
• 57:01
  sure all of that is happening in every single facility.
• 57:05
  But it just gives peace of heart.
• 57:07
  And that transparency is irreplaceable for some families.
• 57:14
  Yeah. I mean, you're wondering how is
• 57:15
  mom? How is Dad doing today?
• 57:18
  I can't get there. I got a busy day with the kids
• 57:20
  with work, etcetera. And wow, yeah, what a, what a
• 57:24
  great feeling to be able to pick up your phone and say, oh, look
• 57:28
  there there's daddy's, you know, playing checkers in the in the
• 57:31
  break room. Like that's, that's cool to see.
• 57:33
  It gives get, like you said, peace of heart, Peace of Mind.
• 57:37
  And I'm curious to hear a particular challenge, either
• 57:42
  personal or professional that you overcome and some lessons
• 57:45
  coming through the other side of that.
• 57:51
  Let me turn over for this. Which one to pick?
• 58:00
  Huh. There's a a thing.
• 58:07
  I think it comes out of the the Spider Man movie.
• 58:12
  With great power comes great responsibility.
• 58:18
  You know, everybody has a different giftings in life.
• 58:22
  Everybody has different things that they're really good at.
• 58:27
  I don't watch sports, really don't know anything about
• 58:30
  sports. Sometimes I pretend to.
• 58:32
  I'll Google who's good and say something.
• 58:36
  My kids play soccer, encourage sports.
• 58:39
  I have no problem with sports. We'll we'll watch World Cup.
• 58:44
  I am more soccer. I'm European, but I do watch
• 58:47
  Super Bowl as well, just nothing prior to that.
• 58:52
  So but I I do enjoy business and efficiency.
• 58:58
  I love efficiency. I love processes.
• 59:00
  Those are my two my two things. I mentioned a little bit about
• 59:13
  my life with the marketing agency and where I had to make a
• 59:18
  pretty good distinction and breakaway start something new.
• 59:25
  Part of that part of that part of life or part of that the
• 59:31
  season of life with with all of those events and with everything
• 59:35
  came just a tremendous amount of drinking.
• 59:40
  And so amongst many reasons why I was not a very good leader at
• 59:46
  that time, and I mentioned a little bit and I'll, I'll finish
• 59:50
  off what I mentioned. I said I'll, I'll speak a little
• 59:53
  more on this later. I didn't have a lot of people to
• 1:00:00
  draw from the experience with the marketing industry.
• 1:00:02
  So I had to learn myself well when it comes to being a better
• 1:00:05
  leader. I, I didn't have too much role
• 1:00:07
  model, especially not in my community, being Romanian in the
• 1:00:12
  Seattle area. I mentioned adult family homes,
• 1:00:14
  those small assisted livings with there's over 4500.
• 1:00:18
  Homes just from members of the church I went to out there,
• 1:00:23
  we're we're very big in that community, very, very big in
• 1:00:25
  that industry. But nobody ever went beyond
• 1:00:29
  that. And so I never really had any
• 1:00:31
  good mentorship and business. I didn't really know how to
• 1:00:35
  grow. I didn't know how to be a good
• 1:00:36
  leader. I didn't have very good examples
• 1:00:38
  and role models on how you could be a good leader in today's
• 1:00:42
  culture and today's people. And so I had to learn.
• 1:00:47
  I, I, I learned from John Maxwell.
• 1:00:49
  I learned from many, many of the greatest leaders by reading
• 1:00:54
  books and became an avid book reader.
• 1:00:56
  I love to read. I'm reading everything I can
• 1:01:00
  from 7 Habits to how to win friends, right?
• 1:01:04
  Del Carnegie Great, great. I just, I got the best
• 1:01:08
  leadership team that I learned from and I'm constantly
• 1:01:11
  inaudible and just reading and taking notes.
• 1:01:14
  And so that's, that's where I learned and that's who I am
• 1:01:17
  today. And that's how I became who I am
• 1:01:19
  today by by learning from others.
• 1:01:23
  You know, a lot of people say, you know, self-made, self-made,
• 1:01:28
  although I did build everything, I'm not self-made because I got
• 1:01:32
  where I got to by the helps of all of these incredible people
• 1:01:35
  that I've gotten to read. They've assisted me in my
• 1:01:38
  journey. Though they don't know, they
• 1:01:40
  don't know who I am. I know very well who they are.
• 1:01:43
  And so I, I got to learn, but back then I, I wasn't, I was a
• 1:01:49
  very good leader at all. And my decisions were very, very
• 1:01:54
  egotistical, very arrogant, very me centered.
• 1:01:57
  And so drinking was a big part of that.
• 1:02:01
  And it really took a very big toll in life.
• 1:02:05
  A lot of bad decisions, a lot of just wasted time, energy, and
• 1:02:13
  not only did it cause problems in my personal life, which
• 1:02:16
  again, the the ultimatum one or the other, it also caused legal
• 1:02:23
  trouble. And so I had to do a lot of
• 1:02:31
  overcoming other than just leaving the lifestyle and the
• 1:02:38
  drinking and all of that behind there were the legal
• 1:02:43
  ratifications of everything. Now, unfortunately, I've never
• 1:02:46
  done harm to anyone, so I'm very thankful and protected from
• 1:02:50
  that. But there was a lot of things
• 1:02:56
  that I've had to walk through and today those things are still
• 1:03:02
  there. And the fact whatever is
• 1:03:08
  whatever I need to do moving forward, as you're getting
• 1:03:11
  loans, as you're doing all these things, background checks are
• 1:03:14
  always part of everything. And so it's always something
• 1:03:17
  that I have to go through and explain and say, hey, here's
• 1:03:20
  here's here's what happened here, here's who I am today.
• 1:03:25
  But I, I had to go through quite a bit of a season of, of
• 1:03:31
  troublesome being troubled. And what, what's really good?
• 1:03:39
  What, what, what good comes from all of that is that I'm very
• 1:03:43
  easily able to speak to to anyone that's going through a
• 1:03:50
  tough season in life and be able to say that you can overcome it.
• 1:03:54
  You can do better. You can always, always do
• 1:03:56
  better, regardless of what you've done.
• 1:03:58
  And no matter what hardships you've endured or no matter how
• 1:04:03
  bad things have gotten, there's always a light and you can do
• 1:04:07
  it. You have the ability within you.
• 1:04:10
  You just have to choose what your priorities are and who you
• 1:04:14
  allow to lead your life, whether it's, you know, MTV and
• 1:04:21
  celebrities telling you what, what, what you should be doing
• 1:04:24
  and how you should be doing it, or have a better moral compass
• 1:04:27
  and something that's really good to, to lead you in the right
• 1:04:33
  direction and, and help you make better decisions.
• 1:04:35
  Because as bad as it gets, I'm living proof that you can
• 1:04:41
  overcome that and really use your gifts and talents to make a
• 1:04:48
  really good, strong and positive impact in your community and in
• 1:04:53
  other communities as far as your reach can go.
• 1:04:57
  Andy, what was your light? What was your leader out of
• 1:05:00
  those dark times? Truly, number one would be a
• 1:05:08
  Jewish Carpenter that lived about 2000 years ago.
• 1:05:12
  He goes by the name Jesus and and then my wife and kids, of
• 1:05:20
  which one this is Miss Anna. She's my youngest and the first
• 1:05:30
  beautiful of four kids and they, they, they help make sure that I
• 1:05:39
  stay on the right path and give them enough time.
• 1:05:42
  They they're first to let me know when enough time has not
• 1:05:45
  been given. But that's, that's where I
• 1:05:48
  really was able to say, Hey, I, I know where perfection is and I
• 1:05:56
  know I'm never going to get there, but at least I have a
• 1:06:00
  compass of, you know, this is a great leader to look up to and
• 1:06:10
  to say, Hey, this is, this is where I'm going to try to get
• 1:06:14
  and, and Jesus and, and, and his examples and, and, and all that
• 1:06:18
  he's taught. It's a lot to learn from, you
• 1:06:24
  know, a lot of what we do and how we do it comes strictly from
• 1:06:29
  his teachings. And so my light out was saying,
• 1:06:33
  hey, this is this. I'm I'm convinced that this is
• 1:06:37
  the best way. I'm convinced that I've tried it
• 1:06:40
  my way and I'm going to 100% try it his way and see if it works.
• 1:06:46
  And being very stubborn and very atheistic in my thoughts for a
• 1:06:52
  very very long long time, I I went the route and have never
• 1:06:58
  turned back because truly, although it's not easy, it's
• 1:07:04
  definitely worth it and has brought me where I am today.
• 1:07:09
  Can you? Pinpoint.
• 1:07:11
  Obviously it was a multitude of things, but maybe can you
• 1:07:13
  pinpoint the biggest thing about this new direction that has
• 1:07:17
  really worked so well for you? If I I can choose and if it's
• 1:07:27
  I'm understanding the question right, I'd I'd say servant
• 1:07:30
  leadership. I've learned.
• 1:07:32
  What that means? I've learned that the best way
• 1:07:39
  to lead those around me is by serving them.
• 1:07:42
  I don't lead from on top, I lead side by side.
• 1:07:45
  I don't talk down to people, I ask them what's going on.
• 1:07:52
  We don't do write ups. We do coaching corrective
• 1:07:55
  actions. You know, this is the mistakes.
• 1:07:58
  This is what's going on. This is what's wrong.
• 1:08:01
  You come alongside of and you coach.
• 1:08:04
  Here's here's how we can do this the best.
• 1:08:08
  How can I help you become better?
• 1:08:11
  What do I need to do to help you be as successful as possible in
• 1:08:18
  what you're doing now? I can't do that with everyone.
• 1:08:20
  I have to be selective on who I do that with, but over the years
• 1:08:23
  I've got to do that with so, so many people in my company.
• 1:08:27
  And, and so servant leadership is just a lifestyle.
• 1:08:33
  I serve my family, I serve at my church, I serve at my place of
• 1:08:37
  business, but I serve by coming alongside of people and
• 1:08:44
  collaboratively finding out what the best direction.
• 1:08:48
  Because No2 facilities are the same, I'm gonna have to have
• 1:08:52
  different policies and procedures for each one
• 1:08:54
  individually. And so I come down to the level
• 1:08:59
  of everyone else when I stay there.
• 1:09:02
  And that's where everything else happens, from policies and
• 1:09:06
  procedures to the practical ways things work out.
• 1:09:09
  And I, I, I learned that from Jesus because he came down onto
• 1:09:15
  this earth and lived a life with everyone else like everyone else
• 1:09:22
  and went through everything with everyone else, not, not from
• 1:09:25
  above. And so that idea, that mindset
• 1:09:30
  is to me the key of knowing how to deal with people and how to
• 1:09:34
  deal with them in the best way so that you can have the best
• 1:09:38
  team behind you because you can grow a huge company and not
• 1:09:43
  provide the best service, not have the happiest people.
• 1:09:48
  But to me, if I'm going to grow, I want to grow with purpose, not
• 1:09:51
  just to make more money. I want to be able to make more
• 1:09:55
  employees lives better. I want to make more residents
• 1:10:01
  and clients lives better unless we're doing something better
• 1:10:06
  than everyone else. What's the reason I'm doing it?
• 1:10:08
  Because I'm essentially taking more time away from my family
• 1:10:11
  and I love spending time with my family.
• 1:10:15
  And so if I'm going to I, I want to know I'm doing it for a good
• 1:10:18
  purpose. And so that's where I say
• 1:10:22
  learning servant leadership, that that was the biggest thing.
• 1:10:31
  Everything comes out of that for me now.
• 1:10:35
  Andy, I've just got one more question for you.
• 1:10:36
  But before I ask it, I want to do 2 things.
• 1:10:39
  Everyone listening today, if you enjoyed today's content, please
• 1:10:42
  hit the like share or subscribe button on your favorite podcast
• 1:10:45
  app. I also want to let people know
• 1:10:47
  the best way to get in touch with you.
• 1:10:49
  Andy, what is that? I'm, I'm not very good with
• 1:10:53
  social media. I, I've been told and I'm trying
• 1:10:56
  now to, to be a lot more involved and engaged, whether
• 1:11:00
  it's on X or Facebook. I don't even it's so funny.
• 1:11:04
  I, when I was in digital marketing everywhere I was
• 1:11:08
  across Everything Everywhere I had to be and then I just went
• 1:11:12
  completely opposite and then just and not involved anywhere.
• 1:11:15
  So you know, I am going to be restoring my my oh, except for
• 1:11:22
  LinkedIn. I, I definitely have my LinkedIn
• 1:11:24
  continuously going, but the X profile on Facebook is something
• 1:11:34
  that I, I will be getting a little bit more acquainted with
• 1:11:38
  here shortly. But I, I, I'd say LinkedIn is
• 1:11:41
  probably the, the biggest. And then as the others come
• 1:11:45
  along as my, my aid is trying to push me towards that.
• 1:11:49
  I said, OK, I'll, I, I give in, I'll, I'll be more accessible.
• 1:11:53
  I'll I'll work towards that. Well, we'll include links to at
• 1:11:57
  least your LinkedIn profile in the show notes for everybody.
• 1:12:01
  So last question I have for you, Andy.
• 1:12:03
  What do you think are the biggest changes coming to your
• 1:12:06
  industry in the next couple of years?
• 1:12:11
  Well, well, we know that assisted living is going to hit
• 1:12:19
  a big bubble here in the mid 30's.
• 1:12:23
  The baby boomers are going to hit peak somewhere 341920342035
• 1:12:30
  and so that industry is going to really start changing there.
• 1:12:34
  Right now it's growing at a unprecedented rate.
• 1:12:38
  The mental health industry has hit a a major crisis, especially
• 1:12:45
  in specific areas of the states. There is just not enough
• 1:12:52
  providers that are wanting to help people.
• 1:12:56
  More and more providers are coming out, but you know, just
• 1:12:59
  to continue things the way they have been.
• 1:13:01
  And so I think I think there's going to be a very big push
• 1:13:05
  towards getting individualized care mental health wise for, for
• 1:13:16
  people versus using cookie cutters all across the board.
• 1:13:19
  I, I think that that's going to really start getting forced
• 1:13:23
  because we just can't continue to go the way we are.
• 1:13:27
  Things aren't getting better and they're not getting better
• 1:13:29
  because there's a, you know, a, a, a virus that's spreading.
• 1:13:34
  It's people's lifestyle and choices that are producing some
• 1:13:39
  of the mental health issues. Not all, not all, but many
• 1:13:43
  enough to where if we're able to create a better culture and
• 1:13:47
  community as a whole, as cities, as states, we would be able to
• 1:13:53
  help people in in such a significant way.
• 1:13:56
  And I think that that's going to be one of the really big changes
• 1:13:58
  that are going to really start happening as as more people are
• 1:14:02
  getting dialed in and as more of us providers are stepping up and
• 1:14:06
  saying, hey, I'm going to pull out of the status quo and I'm
• 1:14:09
  just going to allow my heart to lead more so than my pocketbook.
• 1:14:14
  And I think that that's going to be one of the big, I hope that
• 1:14:18
  that will continue to be one of the big changes.
• 1:14:22
  All right. Well, Andy BI want to be the
• 1:14:24
  first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story
• 1:14:27
  with us today. I'm grateful for it.
• 1:14:30
  It's been my pleasure. Thank you very much for having.
• 1:14:32
  Me folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired
• 1:14:35
  Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us
• 1:14:37
  today.