Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Mission-Driven Franchising: Todd Treml's Approach to Building Touching Hearts at Home | Nursing Home Series | Senior Care

Transcript

Mission-Driven Franchising: Todd Treml's Approach to Building Touching Hearts at Home | Nursing Home Series | Senior Care · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:17
today's guest is Todd Tremmel, Chief Executive Officer at
0:20
Touching Hearts at Home. Founded in 2006 and
0:23
headquartered in Edina, MN, Touching Hearts at Home is a
0:27
senior care provider that offers in home services, emphasizing
0:31
dignity and integrity in every interaction.
0:34
Under Todd's leadership, they focus on companionship, light
0:37
housekeeping, meal preparation, and Alzheimer's and dementia
0:42
care to help seniors and others remain comfortable in their own
0:45
homes. Todd has over 30 years of
0:48
experience in franchising, specializing in sales,
0:51
development, operations and marketing.
0:54
He has built effective teams across multiple brands and holds
0:57
ABA in Political Science and Economics from the University of
1:00
Minnesota. He has also been recognized for
1:03
building high performing teams and elevating franchise sales
1:07
across the country. He is known for driving
1:09
franchise sales performance and has guided Touching Hearts at
1:12
Home to expand its heartfelt services nationwide.
1:17
Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
1:19
brought to you by my company, Add Back Benefits Agency, where
1:23
we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that
1:26
are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your
1:29
bottom line. One recent client was able to
1:31
add over $900 per employee per year in extra cash flow by
1:35
implementing one of our innovative programs.
1:38
Results vary for each company, and some organizations may not
1:40
be eligible. To find out if your company
1:42
qualifies, contact us today at Add Back benefits.com.
1:46
All right, back to our guest today, the CEO of Touching
1:49
Hearts at Home. Todd, I appreciate you making
1:51
the time to Share your story today.
1:54
Anthony, thank you so much for having me.
1:56
I appreciate it. So Todd, you've had a long
1:59
career in helping franchise brands drive towards success.
2:04
What is it specifically about this business model that you
2:07
love so much? Well, franchising is a very
2:11
unique business model in of itself.
2:14
It's not really an industry as much as it is a model of
2:17
distributing A proven operating system and a brand.
2:21
What I love so much about it is the opportunity to help
2:27
potential and future business owners really make their dream
2:31
come true. We're part of every aspect of
2:36
helping them get into business, supporting them, training them
2:41
and helping them nurture and grow their business from the day
2:44
they come in until as long as they want to be in this
2:46
business. It's a very rewarding type of
2:50
business that we're in. Franchising dominates every
2:53
industry in America today and it's it's just been wonderful to
2:58
be a part of it and build teams to support these business
3:01
owners. You know, ultimately America is
3:03
built on small business and we're a massive part of it in
3:07
franchising. So it it's been a wonderful
3:09
experience. And so maybe let's talk about
3:14
one or two stops along the way where you kind of regaining some
3:18
experience and building up your track record of success in
3:23
franchise development before you got to a place at all.
3:27
I'm sorry. Touching.
3:28
Yeah. So a long, long history of
3:30
franchising experience. So I'll quickly summarize some
3:34
of those stops along the way, getting to Touching Hearts at
3:36
home. And it's been all really a
3:38
culmination of experiences that I've had, which I've been very
3:44
fortunate to get. But really started my career
3:45
very young with a small little retailer called Played Again
3:49
Sports when at the time there were only two retail stores.
3:54
And I was one of the early management team that helped to
3:57
expand that retail business and then ultimately turn on
4:00
franchising and build that organization to upwards to 400
4:05
locations. And that was the start of my
4:07
career. But it didn't end there with
4:09
that organization. Today that organization is
4:11
called Winmark Corporation. But we ended up becoming the the
4:15
scale player in resale retail and built Once Upon a child,
4:20
Plato's closet style Encore music go round along with Played
4:23
Again Sports. So we had five brands that we
4:25
built and I had the benefit to really be a part of that the
4:30
entire way, growing that organization, building teams and
4:35
being able to oversee different parts of the operation, whether
4:38
it was merchandising, operations, training, marketing
4:41
and so forth. That was an incredibly
4:44
informative and and rewarding experience for me to learn what
4:48
I truly believe carried my career forward, which is
4:51
operational excellence and it's something that Winmark
4:55
Corporation today does very well.
4:56
When I left the organization, I started with two locations, two
5:00
stores, 1 brand. I left, we had five brands, 1200
5:04
locations and we're doing a billion at retail.
5:06
Just something that a lot of people don't get a chance to
5:08
experience. That start up to that level of
5:11
success also took the company public from there.
5:16
Really what I wanted to do with my career is fill in all the
5:20
pieces that I that I didn't have experience in.
5:23
I had 20 years of experience with this organization, but I
5:26
wanted to also learn the sales side of it.
5:28
I wanted to learn more about the marketing side of the business,
5:32
all in franchising. And so I took on important roles
5:38
with organizations to do just that was a director of franchise
5:42
development for a company called Snap Fitness, one of the largest
5:45
franchise brands in in health and Wellness.
5:47
I was AVP at a company called United Franchise Group, where I
5:51
oversaw operations and development for eight different
5:54
brands. And then was part of another
5:57
organization where I eventually LED multiple brands in a
6:01
portfolio, experiential concepts.
6:04
All of those things were stops along the way to lead up to
6:09
touching hearts at home, which has been one of the most
6:13
rewarding things I've ever done. So talk about how that
6:17
opportunity first became available to you and why you
6:21
decided to go for it. It's a little bit of a it's,
6:24
it's still in the franchise world, but a little bit of a
6:26
different industry than what you had played in before.
6:31
Yeah, it's, it's different and it's a different brand.
6:34
I've been involved, Anthony, in, in multiple industries, 20 plus
6:39
brands, consumer brands to B&B to B to C, you name it.
6:44
But when I had the opportunity and was asked to come in to
6:50
consider being the CEO of the company, I didn't realize how
6:54
great of an opportunity it was until I started talking to the
6:59
franchisees and really starting to explore the industry.
7:04
Home care is absolutely booming right now.
7:07
Aging population, the opportunity to provide
7:11
compassionate care to seniors, elderly and disabled at home.
7:15
It's not hard to get behind this mission.
7:17
And, and so when I spoke with every franchise and we have 70
7:21
locations today and it's, and it's a very hands on business.
7:25
It's not an absentee business. It's not a executive model
7:29
business. This is a business where every
7:32
franchise that got into it has a story.
7:35
They have a story, whether it's personal or not about why they
7:39
want to be in this business, hands on, providing this service
7:42
in their communities. And so it's very mission driven,
7:46
it's very purpose driven work and more than anything I've ever
7:50
seen in my lifetime. And each of these franchisees
7:53
are passionate, they're selfless, they're hardworking,
7:56
they have a growth mindset and it matches my my core values.
8:01
And so when I saw that I've just simply not seen this level of
8:05
passion in franchise owners in any other brand that I've been
8:08
involved in. And so coming on board was
8:14
something that really meant a lot to me because again, it
8:17
aligned very well with my personal mission in life, which
8:20
is to impact as many people as possible in a positive manner.
8:25
So as you touched on, you know, some of the the changing
8:28
demographics have made this industry in particular really
8:34
necessary, like it's come to the forefront in a big way.
8:37
There are other companies out there that are doing similar
8:40
things. What is it that sets touching
8:42
hearts at home apart from those? I get that question all the time
8:47
and, and quite frankly, some of the you could look at it from an
8:51
outside point of view and say that the home care industry has
8:53
been commoditized. We all sort of do the same
8:57
thing. We provide companion care,
8:59
personal care, skilled nursing, we provide Alzheimer's and
9:05
dementia care, and a variety of other service lines that that
9:09
numerous competitors and many of them already do.
9:13
But what we do and how we win isn't about what we're doing.
9:20
It's how we do it and why clients choose us over the
9:25
competition. So we excel in two areas.
9:29
We deliver personalized service at scale.
9:32
So personalization at scale is really important and we become
9:35
the employer of choice, which is really important here because
9:40
you don't have a client without a caregiver and you want to talk
9:44
about recruiting and retention in in the labor market
9:46
critically important. So we provide ongoing training,
9:48
we provided recognition and career growth.
9:51
But at the end of the day, what I'm really talking about is
9:53
standards and our standards are the difference maker here.
9:57
We can do the same thing that everybody else does, but I
10:00
believe that we excel it in in what we do and how we do it in
10:04
the marketplace. Say more about the recruiting
10:08
and the retention piece, because it, it occurs to me that in, in
10:14
your business model, I was going to say 2, but I actually, I
10:17
think you've got sort of three different clients that you're
10:20
serving. If correct me if I'm wrong, as
10:23
the franchise or you're serving the franchise, you're also
10:26
serving the the patient, the client and you're serving the
10:32
employee because like you said, there's no, there's no care to
10:36
give if you don't have the caregiver.
10:39
And so as I think about sort of those three different pillars
10:42
there, maybe talk first about like the the caregiver side of
10:46
things, what is it that you guys are doing that's different to
10:49
find good folks and hold on to them?
10:51
Yeah. I think ultimately, if you look
10:54
at our network of franchisees in all of our locations, what we do
11:00
really well is, is align with mission.
11:04
And so a caregiver can go and work wherever they choose.
11:08
There's not enough to, there's not enough caregivers in the
11:12
marketplace today to satisfy the entire need.
11:14
So there's plenty of options in front of them.
11:17
So I think it comes down to how do you do it?
11:20
How do you do it best in class? You need to be competitive with
11:23
your wages. You need to be able to provide
11:27
them with things like career path.
11:30
We've had many caregivers that have become part of our
11:33
administrative staff. Caregivers ultimately become
11:37
owners of businesses, and so we want to lay out that career path
11:40
for them. We have recognition programs
11:43
where we recognize caregivers regularly and acknowledge the
11:48
work that they do. Often times one of the most
11:50
important things we can do in any business, but really
11:54
specifically in this type of business is acknowledgement and
11:59
making sure that we're checking in regularly with our caregivers
12:01
to make sure we're meeting their needs, making sure that we're
12:05
flexible with their schedules. They, they really need
12:08
flexibility in their life. When you think about a caregiver
12:13
and, and the, the market wages, it's not always about the wage.
12:18
It's really, you know, they can make the same money in a lot of
12:21
places, but what they really want is the things I'm talking
12:26
about, which is purpose driven, work aligned with the company
12:29
they're working with, flexibility and hours.
12:32
Those are the kind of things that are important to us.
12:35
We're continuing to add as we go along and we may talk about
12:38
technology, but technology also plays a key role as we get
12:42
downstream in discussions about how do we become more effective
12:48
in our day-to-day business. So those are a few things,
12:51
Anthony, about the caregiver side of the business, but
12:53
recruitment and retention specifically is so important.
12:56
Yeah. Talk a little bit more about the
12:57
technology that you guys are using to enhance this.
13:00
Yeah. So the marketplace is is really
13:03
trying to sort of from a technology standpoint figure out
13:07
how to work within a very human to human business.
13:11
We have caregivers, we have clients, we have franchisees, we
13:13
have admin staff, as you said, franchisor, but really it's it's
13:17
a people business. And So what we're beginning to
13:19
see right now in the marketplace is smart home devices are coming
13:24
on right now. Your AI is starting to play a
13:26
bigger role in making us more efficient.
13:29
Remote monitoring is coming in. All of these things help us to
13:34
maybe fill gaps when a caregiver is not there, when they can't be
13:38
in the house at all times. These are things that help
13:41
families stay connected with us and their loved 1.
13:45
So anything that technology can do to enhance the care are
13:49
things that we look at and there's a variety of things that
13:51
that we're looking at. And, and so the key to this
13:54
whole thing really is to embrace the technology and improve the
13:58
care, but not replace the human touch.
14:02
And that's so, so important on the caregiver side.
14:06
Really it's same type of thing. It's, it's how we recruit, it's
14:10
how we attract and train and and value caregivers.
14:14
And again, tying it all to our culture, all to our mission.
14:17
Yeah. So let's talk about another one
14:20
of the clients that you serve, but the franchisees, is that
14:24
sort of the right way to think about it?
14:28
It's like they're they're a client that you're serving.
14:30
Yeah, yeah. I'm, I'm grateful for all the
14:34
mentors that I've had in my life.
14:36
And I'm going to use one of the tag lines from one of my very
14:41
close mentors. And it's really about the
14:43
franchise is the customer. And ultimately when when they
14:47
succeed, we succeed. There is no scenario where a
14:51
franchise fails or doesn't do well, but yet the Home Office
14:58
does great. We are in an interdependent
15:01
relationship with our franchisees in, in the, in the,
15:05
the basic outline of how the relationship works is that we
15:12
bring people into our franchise. They have the rights to license
15:16
our brand, they follow and get trained on a proven operating
15:19
model and system and we provide them ongoing support.
15:22
They have the brand, they have all of those assets available to
15:27
them to run that business and it is our responsibility and
15:31
obligation to make sure that they get the support they need
15:33
to succeed. Ultimately, unlike a very
15:38
traditional corporation where you have an organizational chart
15:42
where the CE OS at the top and everybody comes down until you
15:46
get to the bottom, we actually flip the organizational chart.
15:50
The franchise is at the top. We are at the bottom supporting
15:54
and serving that franchise in their success.
15:58
So ultimately that's the most important thing.
16:00
So it's not a command and control environment that we
16:04
have. It's more of an influencer
16:06
strategy that we have to support.
16:08
That franchise is our business and they are our client because
16:14
they serve the community. So how do we help them succeed?
16:18
How do we help them be profitable?
16:19
How do we help them with their marketing?
16:21
All of these things they need to succeed, and then ultimately, if
16:25
they're successful, we succeed as well in our sight.
16:29
You know, you were talking about the operational excellence that
16:33
you really got to be a part of when you were at play it against
16:38
sports and how you grew from just a handful of locations in a
16:41
single brand of five brands. And I forget how many hundreds
16:45
of locations. What lessons were you able to
16:48
take from because you you don't grow that fast that many
16:53
different brands without having your stuff together, you know,
16:56
without having great systems and processes in place.
16:59
How have you been able to take some of that operational
17:03
excellence that you were a part of there and introduce it to
17:07
touching hearts at home in a way that you know not only is
17:11
helping the overall corporate strategy, but each of these
17:15
individual franchisees that signs on?
17:18
Yeah, great question. So I always talk about, you
17:21
know, my take away from that experience as well as other
17:24
meaningful experiences along the way.
17:26
But that particular one taught me that if you focus your energy
17:33
and put your energy into supporting franchisees, that
17:37
means every day when you walk into the building and you're
17:40
focused on one thing, how do I make my franchisees better
17:43
today? If that is your focus and you
17:47
don't have other things that are going to distract you, corporate
17:50
locations, other things that take your focus away, then, then
17:55
you can focus on the franchise and support.
17:57
And what I learned there and that I apply to our companies,
18:01
the companies I've been with and this company today is if we put
18:05
our resources in support, we're talking about training,
18:08
operations, marketing, technology.
18:11
I haven't mentioned sales. And if you put your support
18:14
there and you grow your franchise successfully, you are
18:17
ultimately rewarded with good franchise sales development.
18:21
And what I mean by that, Anthony, is, is great companies
18:25
that have great franchise performance get lots of organic
18:30
leads and they get a lot of interest in their brand to
18:33
continue to sell more franchises.
18:36
And that's the biggest thing that I learned at Limer
18:39
Corporation was if you focus on that, the rest will follow and
18:44
it does. And so that alone along with now
18:48
what do you do when you get into the company is a couple things.
18:52
You listen, you learn, you collaborate with your
18:56
franchisees. Those things are the most
19:00
important is that you have to have a working relationship and
19:03
trust between franchise and franchisor and that's absolutely
19:08
critical. Those relationships mean
19:09
everything. And if the franchise believes
19:13
that you are giving them everything you've got and you
19:16
are supporting them, you have a really great relationship that
19:19
you can grow on. I'd like to explore for a
19:23
moment, Todd, your own personal journey too.
19:28
And now where you are is the CEO of a successful and growing
19:34
company. You know, obviously along the
19:37
way you've had, you know, you've worked your way up kind of
19:40
director and VP and you know, kind of different roles and you
19:44
know, now you're at sort of the top of the heap.
19:47
So to say like what, what is that growth in that transition
19:50
been like for you? Yeah, it's really been.
19:56
First of all, I think I would tell you that there are no
19:59
shortcuts. It has been a lot of hard work.
20:04
It's a lot of persistence. It isn't spend time for a couple
20:08
years and do this and then all of a sudden you're leading
20:11
companies. You have to, especially in this
20:15
business, you have to, you have to walk on a lot of glass.
20:19
You have to have lots of experiences.
20:21
And so all along the way, what I have done is really add to my
20:26
skill sets, but also continue to learn from experiences along the
20:32
way. And in franchising, sometimes it
20:36
can get messy and there can be bumps in the road because you're
20:40
dealing with lots of franchise owners and everybody has needs.
20:44
But you have to be able to navigate that.
20:47
And what I have learned in every one of these steps to get to
20:49
where I'm at today is how do you deal with adversity?
20:52
How do you deal with chaos that goes on around you?
20:56
How do you deal with relationships?
20:59
And ultimately, how do you, how do you build the right teams
21:03
that can also do that 'cause this is, this is not a one man
21:06
show. I mean, people like to point to
21:08
the CEO as being kind of the status symbol of the company.
21:11
But the reality is it's it's really about, it's really about
21:14
the team that does the really important work with the
21:18
franchisees who do really important work.
21:21
It is a culmination of experiences that you can't get
21:26
unless you go through it. Like I said before, there's
21:30
there's no shortcuts here and it just takes persistence.
21:34
So all along the way, that is what I've done to get to this
21:36
point. Yeah, as I think about what it
21:39
must be like to be the CEO of a franchise with multiple
21:43
franchisees, it does seem like there would be a lot of
21:47
challenging moments because each one of these franchisees,
21:50
they're a business owner, right? And it takes a certain type of
21:53
personality to be a business owner.
21:55
You've got to be take charge, you know, somebody with your own
21:58
ideas. You know, you go out there and
22:00
you problem solve and you get things done, and that's great,
22:03
that's what you want. But then it can be challenging
22:06
sometimes to work with those personalities to still fit under
22:10
the umbrella and the identity of the master brand itself.
22:16
It's really true. You have a wide variety and an
22:21
array of personalities and experiences that come into
22:25
franchising. In most cases, somebody that
22:29
comes into a franchise has no business background in terms of
22:32
ownership, so they're owning usually their first business
22:35
ever. Some come from professional
22:37
backgrounds, very successful in in management or some other
22:42
professional background or or maybe they had a different
22:47
background, maybe they were in other lines of work.
22:49
Whatever the case may be, you have individuals that are true
22:53
entrepreneurs that come in and they just want to go.
22:56
And what we say is and, and what is so important in the
23:00
franchising model is with a proven operating system.
23:04
We ask our franchisees to follow that model, stay on course,
23:09
don't deviate off of it. It's been proven successful.
23:12
This is what you've invested in. And if you just follow the model
23:16
and again, we're not asking them to be robots, but follow the
23:19
model at least for the first couple years.
23:22
Figure out this business and as you see other opportunities to
23:25
grow your business, share those with us and let's talk the best
23:28
ideas always come from our franchisees.
23:31
But in terms of the business model itself is something that
23:35
that I will not yield on in terms of making sure that they
23:38
really follow that because too often in franchising franchisees
23:43
can go off track and it leads to problems.
23:47
And so we we have to pull them back in.
23:50
So that's something that's very important when you're dealing
23:52
with lots of different personalities and skill sets and
23:54
backgrounds and franchising. And again, that gets back to
23:57
trust and everybody being aligned on the mission of what
24:00
we're trying to accomplish. Yeah, because it's a franchise,
24:03
you want to make sure that the service is consistent across all
24:08
locations. I mean, for folks who maybe need
24:11
something a little more tangible, think about a
24:13
McDonald's, right? You want the hamburger and the
24:16
French fries and the milkshakes to all taste and smell the same
24:19
wherever you go. It's a similar kind of thing,
24:22
you know, with the the brand that you're building touching
24:25
hearts at home. You want the service to be
24:27
consistent. You want the the way that
24:29
employees are being treated to be the same.
24:32
You want the way that patients and clients are being treated to
24:35
be the same. But you also made an interesting
24:38
point that, you know, if a franchisee has an idea for
24:42
something new to try, you know, an idea for growth, a different
24:45
way to do things, share it with the the larger team.
24:49
Let's talk about it. And maybe there's a way to
24:51
introduce this to everybody. Can can you think of a specific
24:54
example of an idea that came from a franchise where you're
24:59
like, this is great, let's roll this out to everybody.
25:03
There are literally hundreds. I'll just start by saying, you
25:08
know, as a franchisor, as the Home Office, we're not a bunch
25:13
of geniuses that sit around all day thinking about ideas on how
25:16
to enhance and improve our systems and our networks.
25:20
That's why we throw so much behind support.
25:23
And what that means is we're in constant communication with our
25:26
franchisees. And I've been doing this for 35
25:29
years with over 5000 franchisees and different brands and
25:32
industries. And, and when you're connected,
25:34
you're hearing about best practices and you're hearing
25:37
about these ideas. And ultimately our job is to
25:41
look at it, listen, learn. And if it's a really great idea
25:45
and it's working in a location or more than one, we bring it
25:49
back in, we package it and we push it out to the network.
25:52
Now, instead of one or two franchisees benefiting from this
25:55
incredible idea, the entire network can that's franchising
25:59
in a nutshell right there. It's this network of people that
26:02
are working together. So I mean, there's, there's
26:06
tremendous opportunity. I'll, I'll give you one that
26:08
just recently came up in our company.
26:10
We have an Advisory Board that's very important to us in Touching
26:14
Hearts at Home, a group of seven highly passionate and committed
26:19
franchisees that represent our network.
26:22
And they've literally came up with tons of ideas already that
26:26
we're implementing. One of them was something called
26:28
an owner form. They wanted an opportunity to
26:33
have franchisees speak on topics every single month to our
26:36
network. Great idea.
26:39
We implemented it. We put it in place.
26:41
Now every single month a franchise picks a topic and
26:46
leads the discussion peer-to-peer from an overall
26:50
networking meeting standpoint. I have implemented software,
26:54
technology, marketing ideas, tons of marketing ideas that
26:59
come from franchisees. So it it honestly never ends,
27:05
and that's the beauty of what we do.
27:08
Talk to me about growth strategies.
27:10
What do you have? What have you found as maybe the
27:13
most successful growth strategy for you guys?
27:16
Well, there's a couple of them to think about.
27:18
So when I think about growth strategies, we have, we have
27:23
company growth strategies, the franchisor, we have individual
27:27
unit growth strategies as well. Let me begin with the franchise
27:32
first. And I think that's most
27:33
important. And I think the biggest growth
27:36
strategy we have today is in how we how we market the business.
27:41
And, and for viewers, they may not understand what that means
27:43
exactly, but we implement something called referral
27:48
marketing, whereas we build these community relationships
27:51
with hospitals and skilled nursing facilities and rehab
27:55
centers, Hospice discharge planners and we provide a home
28:00
solution for the client. And that is in a community based
28:06
but very highly effective growth strategy for us because it
28:10
builds on trust and it also shortens that sales cycle so
28:14
that we're not just waiting for a lead to come in.
28:17
We're actually getting that referred to us and it's
28:19
extremely cost effective versus maybe digital marketing to try
28:23
to get leads or trying to get clients.
28:26
So really important growth strategy for us is referral
28:30
marketing. It's not uncommon in home care,
28:32
but it's how you do it and the relationships that you build in
28:36
that business. So that's one area, I think in
28:41
terms of growth strategy, when we look at how does a franchise
28:45
organization grow the amount of units they have, OK, So at one
28:50
point everybody started at zero or one and they grew to whatever
28:53
they are today. And the fact is it's not easy.
28:56
In fact, over 80% of all franchise companies never get
28:59
over 100 locations. It's really a staggering
29:02
statistic. So you have about 4000 franchise
29:07
business models that are in the marketplace today and the vast
29:11
majority of them never get over 100.
29:13
Frankly, the vast majority never get over 50.
29:15
So first of all, it's it's hard, it's hard work.
29:18
But as I said before, we're looking to expand our business
29:22
into being more underserved communities.
29:25
We have a lot of white space in front of us right now as a
29:27
brand. And so how do we get from 70
29:29
locations to 100? Well, it starts with really good
29:32
sales process, really good people.
29:36
We've got an incredible development department here with
29:39
a Vice president that's our leader in that area.
29:42
And we do all kinds of things to generate leads that come into us
29:47
to grow our brand. Some of that is invested actual
29:50
lead generation spend, but the best of it is organic leads that
29:54
come in because they see the success of our franchise owners
29:57
in the marketplace and they want to be a part of the brand.
30:01
That's the inflection point that happens in franchising which is
30:04
it could be a customer or client or somebody in the community
30:06
sees that and says, I want to be a part of this.
30:08
This is an incredible opportunity.
30:10
So we bring them into our process and and we've been
30:14
highly effective at it. So two different types of growth
30:17
strategies, Anthony, that we look at franchise or franchise.
30:20
Yeah. And that makes a lot of sense.
30:22
You know, once you guys sort of get to a little bit of a
30:24
critical mass of locations, that word of mouth engine really
30:29
starts to become even more powerful.
30:31
Are there how how would somebody learn about more about the
30:36
opportunity and you know, if where they live, there's a a
30:40
market available for them if if it's something they're
30:43
interested in? Yeah.
30:43
The best place is our website, you know, touching hearts.com
30:47
and there resides all the information you need.
30:51
Whether you're you're a family member looking for a loved one
30:55
for care and a location that we have and the services we
30:58
provide, or if you're interested to be in becoming a franchise
31:01
owner, You can go on our website and find all the content about
31:07
what what makes up the process, what the investment looks like,
31:12
what the opportunity is and what territories are available.
31:16
All that's on the website. It's a click away.
31:19
People fill out a form, it comes to us, we get back to them the
31:21
same day and, and we, we are looking for a really good fit.
31:27
We don't, we like to say in franchising that we don't sell,
31:29
we award and we're looking for people in the right markets with
31:34
the right intentions that are, you know, financially and
31:38
operationally qualified and that really can share in in the
31:43
mission statement. Say a little bit more about the
31:45
fit that you're looking for. Obviously there has to be, you
31:48
know, a certain amount of financial capability there to be
31:51
able to invest and support the opportunity.
31:53
But personality wise or experience wise, what makes a
31:57
good fit for you guys? You said, you know, and I said
32:02
it, which is you kind of go through a kind of go through a
32:05
process, a selection process to look at, OK, the basics, right?
32:09
Are they operationally qualified?
32:10
Did they have some level of experience in business
32:13
management, managing people, being in departments, running
32:17
it? Are they financially qualified?
32:20
Because we don't want to lead someone into business that
32:23
doesn't have the financial wherewithal to succeed and put
32:25
them in peril. So we don't want to do that.
32:27
So we, those two things are critical.
32:29
We do not require experience in the home care business or the
32:32
healthcare business. We do not have specific
32:35
backgrounds that we require for you to be an owner of this,
32:39
unlike a lot of franchise opportunities, especially in
32:41
places like food where you need background in it.
32:44
We'll train you up on every aspect of how to run this
32:46
business. We are looking for people that
32:49
really ultimately can understand two things.
32:50
Number one, what is the job they're going to do and are they
32:55
really clear on the job itself? OK.
32:58
This is not a executive role position, franchise absentee
33:03
situation. We need to have them understand
33:06
what it is they're going to be doing on a day-to-day basis.
33:08
And are they willing to do that and #2 are they willing to
33:13
follow the business model, the franchise operating system?
33:18
Again, as I said earlier, if they can, if they do that, we
33:23
can help them be very successful.
33:25
So if they have those two things and of course they need to have
33:29
a, a level of passion behind it, it's very rare that we get a
33:32
candidate that comes in to become an owner that doesn't
33:35
have a story, a story about a parent, a grandparent, a loved
33:40
one where they had to deal with healthcare issues or home care
33:44
at some point in time. So we're looking for those
33:47
people that have that passion and, and generally it's
33:49
naturally that just happens. They have that, that's why they
33:51
come to us. But we also want to make sure
33:54
they're going to stay real focused on the operating model
33:56
and we won't yield on that. That's something that's very
33:57
important to us. Yeah.
34:00
Are there any fun projects that you're working on right now?
34:06
Maybe new technology, new services that you intend to roll
34:10
out to? Anything that would be fun to
34:12
kind of get voice to? Yeah, the technology side is
34:16
really pretty interesting. It seems like it's a weekly,
34:18
daily thing where we get hit with a new technology or, or
34:22
enhancement in services. Somehow, someway, we, we have a
34:25
lot of fun on the marketing side running contests and we're very
34:29
much in the social media platforms doing some great
34:33
things. I, I think, you know, just to
34:35
share one item that we're looking at right now is, is
34:38
basically a, a monitoring system that is not invasive at all.
34:43
The client wears A, wears a bracelet and it just allows us
34:47
to measure certain things that are going on with that client
34:51
and the family can too. How much time do they sleep
34:56
wandering? What is their gait so that we
34:59
can maybe predict if there's going to be falls are you know,
35:03
how long did they sleep? How long are they sitting up?
35:05
How long are they walking around?
35:06
I mean, all these things that take place.
35:09
Some biometrics involved in this as well help us to just monitor
35:15
and more importantly fill the gaps when somebody's not there.
35:19
Because certainly we provide 24/7 care and and what we call
35:24
live in. But technologies like this, and
35:27
you're going to see more of this in home care, really help to
35:29
fill the gaps when somebody's not there.
35:32
So it can alert somebody if I don't, they've maybe wandered
35:36
outside the home. You know.
35:39
If there's some memory care issues there, it can let you
35:42
know if the person something's wrong with the way that they're
35:45
walking, maybe they've fallen or there's indicators that they,
35:49
you know, may be struggling, but their their, their gait.
35:53
Is this accurate? Yeah, you're 100%.
35:55
Yeah, you got it. That's exactly what it does.
35:58
OK. So this technology is like this
35:59
that are, that are, that are fun and that are practical.
36:03
And you know our, our job is to not jump at every shiny object
36:06
that comes in here because there's a lot of them, Anthony.
36:09
But we do vet it properly and we always vet it through our
36:12
franchisees first. And is this.
36:15
Something that's oh, sorry, Ted, is this something that's in
36:17
place now or is it coming or? It's in place now and we'll have
36:20
a a bigger roll out as we go forward.
36:23
That's exciting because like you said, it, it helps to fill in
36:25
the gap. I mean, you're not going to
36:26
replace humans in the care model, and you absolutely don't
36:30
want to do that because that human interaction is so
36:32
important. But you know, how can you
36:34
enhance that, right? How can you kind of fill in the
36:37
gaps when somebody isn't there, can't be there?
36:40
Correct. Yeah.
36:42
How about a serious challenge that you've overcome, Todd,
36:45
whether it's something in your personal life or your
36:47
professional life, What was it, how'd you get through it, and
36:51
what did you learn? Yeah.
36:54
No, that's a good question. I'll share a little bit about
36:59
some of my experiences here, both personal and professional.
37:03
And I think the first thing that kind of comes to mind is on a
37:07
personal level, I don't know, maybe 20 years ago or so, I lost
37:13
my brother and best friend and he was an only, only brother
37:16
that I had. We were, you know, young to mid,
37:20
mid aged adults. And it had a profound effect on
37:24
me, impact on me. And you know, it was, it was
37:28
tragic. And so, but I'm grateful for the
37:32
opportunity to have spent time with him because I learned so
37:37
much about gratitude and relationship building from him
37:42
and I that sticks with me every single day.
37:46
And part of going through any personal life challenges or
37:53
tragic issues, traumatic issues, is really that how do you deal
37:56
with it? What is the after effect?
37:58
And for me, it was all about getting balance in my life,
38:03
making sure that every aspect of my life, you know, physical,
38:07
mental, emotional and spiritual were all working.
38:11
And I was focused on those things to make sure that I was,
38:15
you know, keeping myself healthy.
38:17
So that was really important to me and, and ultimately made me
38:22
who I am today, really, really shaped, really shaped my life.
38:27
And so grateful for the time that I had with him.
38:32
On a business level, I realized that, you know, losing a job is
38:38
not the end, you know, but rather it's kind of the
38:41
beginning of an opportunity. And for that matter, it can be
38:44
the beginning of an incredible opportunity for for growth.
38:48
You end up getting very diverse experiences and relationships
38:51
that help you grow you, you end up going from a company where
38:55
you're thinking, I'm no longer there.
38:57
Now what am I going to do? And everybody goes through this,
39:00
you know, nobody is, you know, immune to these kind of things.
39:05
So but what I learned through not being able to work in a
39:13
company that I wanted to be in is doors opened everywhere.
39:18
And if you never stop learning and you're always executing
39:24
against the knowledge that you have, you can get better and
39:28
better and you can continue to grow.
39:30
So, you know, persistence and grit are important here.
39:34
But I always, I always tell people that if you get downsized
39:39
or you lose a job, congratulations, you just got
39:42
promoted. You get ready for the next
39:45
opportunity because it's coming. OK.
39:48
And that's, that's the mindset that I always have.
39:50
And I have a bit of a prosperity mindset.
39:53
And so that's what's got me through.
39:56
Thanks for sharing both of those.
39:57
So sorry to hear about your brother.
39:59
I, I'm kind of curious to explore that a bit.
40:01
And I think it's, it's wonderful that you've gotten to a point
40:06
where you have so much gratitude for the time that the two of you
40:10
had together and the lessons that you learned about gratitude
40:15
from him. What did it take to kind of get
40:19
to that point is? When when we lose somebody,
40:23
there's a lot of emotion and there's a lot of healing that
40:26
needs to take place first. Can you talk a little bit about
40:30
how you kind of bridged from mourning that loss to now being
40:35
in a place of gratitude? It starts with being self aware.
40:41
You have to be very self aware of where you're at mentally,
40:46
emotionally, spiritually. And for me, the most important
40:52
thing that I did is I kind of attacked it.
40:56
Meaning you can come out of this one of two ways.
40:58
You can either come out of it continuing to struggle and get
41:02
worse, or you can actually grow out of it.
41:05
Take your pick, but this is the one I'm going to choose.
41:08
And So what I did immediately as I surrounded myself with as many
41:11
people as possible that could be positive influences in my life,
41:15
I surrounded myself with them. I reached out to them, I got
41:19
mentors, I did whatever I could to continue to get support and,
41:25
and, and people are out there to support you and they will do it.
41:28
And so this level of support that I had that I received was
41:33
so important and bridging kind of getting through some tough
41:36
times and then being able to sort of reset and say, OK, I,
41:42
I'm, I'm ready for these next challenges.
41:44
And that is gratitude in my life.
41:48
I mean, I think, you know, personal life, professional
41:52
life, gratitude is incredibly important, but I reflect on it
41:55
all the time. And so those things help and,
41:59
and what's so interesting about going through that is where I'm
42:02
at today. I'm in a sharing, caring,
42:07
helping business, dealing with people that need support and
42:13
service and care, compassionate care in their homes.
42:17
And I mean, they're incredibly grateful, but we're grateful for
42:20
just servicing them. So it's very interesting how
42:23
this circle has come around. Switching to the professional
42:29
challenge that you talked about how, you know, a powerful lesson
42:33
for a lot of people to hear, you know, losing a job is not the
42:36
end, especially, you know, in today's economy and and kind of
42:40
look at it as an opportunity. Doors open everywhere.
42:43
Congratulations, you've just been promoted.
42:47
I find that in my life when I'm faced with a challenge, anytime
42:51
I can approach it with curiosity, my whole mood, my
42:55
whole mindset changes. But getting to that point isn't
42:59
always easy, especially when you're faced with something so
43:04
dramatic as you know, the loss of a job.
43:07
Do you you have any words of wisdom, any coaching to give
43:11
people that have maybe gone through that recently to help
43:15
them sort of get from here to there?
43:19
Yeah, you know, it could be a big blow to your ego, right,
43:21
when you, when somebody is sitting down with you and, and
43:24
they say, you know, you sorry, but you've been downsized out of
43:27
the company. And I hear it all the time.
43:29
And I, I think that what you need to look at as an individual
43:33
is first of all, it's not the end, it's the beginning.
43:36
And you've put in a lot of great work or you've, you've built
43:39
value somewhere. So, you know, evaluate the value
43:43
that you have and then curiosity is, is a good thing.
43:49
I mean, I, I, I like that, but continue to look at
43:53
opportunities, be very open to opportunities.
43:55
I would tell somebody that that first thing that you should be
43:58
doing is networking and continue to network.
44:01
But if you are and this, this is what I did, my advice is, is
44:05
when I for the first time didn't have a job and I'm an adult and
44:10
I have a family to feed, I attacked it every single day
44:16
like a job. So what I did is in my search
44:19
for what I want to do next, I got up every morning at the same
44:22
time. I got dressed for work and I put
44:25
8 hours in and I did networking. I did I, you know, I was self
44:31
recruiting. I did everything that I could
44:34
possibly do. Go to classes, go to courses,
44:37
read joint associations, anything and everything I
44:43
approach it every day is that is my full time job.
44:46
And within 45 days I landed an even a better spot than I had
44:51
previously. And then two years after that a
44:54
better spot than I was at and then four years later another
44:58
promotion and then on and on and on.
45:01
And so I approached everything with a lot of discipline and
45:08
that's really what I did and what I would recommend.
45:12
That's such a powerful lesson there, right?
45:15
Because I, I think when folks, they find themselves out of
45:18
work, it's very natural. It's a human reaction to be sort
45:21
of depressed and to withdraw and you know, to to go into sort of
45:25
comfort seeking mode and you're not as productive when you're
45:30
kind of in that mindset, when you're in that place.
45:33
And when you can shift gears and say, Hey, now I've got a new
45:37
full time job and my new full time job is to look for a full
45:40
time job and do that by, you know, what you said like
45:43
networking. And I'm curious, what did that
45:45
networking look like for you? Is this just sending out like
45:49
lots of connection requests on LinkedIn?
45:51
What what What does this look like?
45:53
Yeah. It's, it's, it's that, it's
45:56
connection request. But actually, you know, even
45:57
then it wasn't so much that Anthony, as it was sending
46:02
emails out to the network, sending emails out to your
46:05
friends, people that you've worked with, people in industry,
46:10
whether it's suppliers you've worked with, customers you've
46:13
worked with, staying in touch with them, you know, you know,
46:18
joining groups locally, trying to get together with the people
46:22
that you can get together with. Still staying.
46:24
If you want to stay in the industry, get yourself to
46:27
conferences and workshops and do these things to stay in the
46:32
business. Again, you may not do the same
46:35
thing that you were doing. I didn't do exactly the same
46:38
thing that I was doing when I went to my next role.
46:41
I should do something very different.
46:42
I went into sales, franchise sales.
46:44
I'd been in operations my whole life.
46:47
I decided that I wanted to go into a different area of
46:49
franchising and found out that I was actually good at it.
46:53
And that actually rounded up my experience.
46:56
So then now I have this diverse background that I can bring that
47:01
I've worn all these hats. And you just become more
47:04
valuable to each organization as you build.
47:07
So it's not always about going back and trying to do the exact
47:09
same thing that you're doing. You know, take a take a risk,
47:12
you know, you know, get to the plate and swing a little bit and
47:15
you know, you might make some mistakes and learn something,
47:17
but I don't know how else you grow.
47:20
So that's what I would suggest. Make you more attractive and
47:23
more versatile in the next role that you're going to land when
47:26
you have the varied experiences, you could have stayed in the
47:29
operation silo forever. Like, no, I'm, I'm going to
47:32
round this out. I'm going to do sales.
47:34
And so now whether my next position is sales or operations
47:37
or something else, I come with more of a 360 kind of view of
47:41
what's going on in the business. Yeah, 100% right.
47:44
And you bring more value to those organizations.
47:46
And now, now when you get to a company, you really can, you
47:51
really can sort of apply yourself to the leadership of
47:54
the organization. Because if you've done these
47:56
things, and again, the key thing is you've actually done them.
48:00
You've actually been in the trenches, You've actually worked
48:03
in these roles. You've actually gone to, in my
48:05
case, open locations, consulted franchisees, built marketing
48:10
programs, sold franchises, understand the financial side of
48:16
the business through all of it. Now as ACEO coming in, you're
48:21
pretty valuable because you've done all these things versus
48:24
just maybe one or two of those things.
48:27
And Todd, you strike me, obviously, as a guy who's very
48:30
disciplined, what kinds of daily practices do you employ that
48:36
help to keep you centered and on track?
48:40
Well, you know, habits are a great thing, good and bad.
48:44
But I would tell you initially, every single day there's a bunch
48:48
of things that I do, But every single day I have a real belief
48:53
in the power of prayer. And every single day, I start my
48:56
morning on my commute to thank God for all the blessings in my
49:01
life and ask for His guidance and His wisdom and His strength
49:04
and the decisions I make each day as ACEO.
49:07
And I pray for clarity in these decisions and the ability to
49:11
lead with integrity because that's what I believe in.
49:15
And the opportunity to do what I said earlier, which is to make a
49:17
positive impact in the lives of those I serve, both in business,
49:22
in professional life. That's really important to me.
49:25
So that is a daily ritual for me.
49:29
I have many other things that I do from a business standpoint
49:31
when I come into the office and I put my planning together every
49:35
single day and do those things. But like a lot of CE OS or, or
49:40
managers have planners and different things, staff
49:44
meetings, they have rituals and plans.
49:47
Staying disciplined to what we do, but also staying very
49:50
creative too. There's a balance between
49:53
creative and and being disciplined.
49:55
So that's one example of one of my rituals.
49:59
You, I mean, you strike me as somebody with very much a growth
50:02
mindset. You're self aware, you're able
50:06
to reflect on things. And I, I'd be curious to hear
50:09
your take on this because, you know, there are times in my life
50:12
where I make a mistake. It seems like a big mistake at
50:15
the time. And then when I get a little bit
50:17
of distance from it, I can look back on that mistake.
50:20
And it was a launchpad or, you know, some kind of a, a turning
50:25
point in my understanding of things.
50:28
And now I can look back at it with a, a sense of gratitude.
50:31
Is there a particular moment like that that you can think of
50:35
that seemed like a big mistake at the time, but was actually
50:38
very helpful to you? Yeah, my last company we had a,
50:44
a portfolio of of franchise brands in the experiential
50:47
economy. So really fun stuff.
50:50
And I'd made the decision to convert a our software system to
50:55
a new platform, you know, better technology, better speed to
50:59
market, better analytics, more cost effective.
51:02
I mean a slam dunk, right? This, this makes all the sense
51:04
in the world. And although everything worked
51:06
out in the end, it was a very, very rough conversion.
51:12
Lots of criticism, lots of second guessing, lot of pushback
51:17
from franchisees. And what I learned is that
51:23
through that painful year that we went through, I learned that
51:28
you need to bring in when you're making big decisions like this
51:31
that affect a lot of people, you need to bring in all the
51:34
stakeholders, bring in the, bring in everybody that has a
51:38
part of this, this product or the outcomes and field and
51:43
stress test it thoroughly, get by in and then execute it.
51:47
We simply went too fast and, and I made the decision to go too
51:51
fast, but you have to have the discipline also and the
51:54
willingness to make some mistakes.
51:55
You got to own them and then you go and you fix them.
51:58
And so that's one example that's actually quite recent over the
52:02
last probably 12 to 18 months. What's something you wish more
52:06
people knew about your industry? That's a great question.
52:12
Home care will be the future of healthcare.
52:18
More seniors will age at home. Healthcare systems are going to
52:23
rely on us to keep people out of hospitals.
52:28
There has been numerous surveys, Anthony, that 90% of seniors
52:31
want to age in place at home. A lot of people don't know that
52:37
Touching Hearts at Home franchisees provide those
52:39
services, those amazing services at a very, very high level in
52:42
their communities. And that is why we are so driven
52:46
on expanding to the underserved markets because the statistics
52:52
are crazy in in the what I'll call the aging population right
52:56
now it is you can look up any statistic.
53:01
It's what we call the silver tsunami that is coming our way.
53:05
So that's what I want people to know about our industry is that
53:09
it is growing, it is vibrant and we are doing important work.
53:14
Yeah, I'll second that. My grandmother who passed away a
53:17
few years ago, but when she was getting towards the end of her
53:20
life, we really wanted her to go to some kind of a, a senior care
53:25
facility. The social aspect would have
53:28
been great for her. She, you know, would have really
53:30
thrived there. And the times where she did need
53:33
to go because she was doing rehab or something, she really
53:36
enjoyed herself. But just like you said, like she
53:39
very much wanted to be at home. That's where her memories were,
53:42
That's where she was comfortable.
53:43
That's where all her stuff is. She's, you know, she knows it,
53:46
the layout. And so, you know, we, it was my
53:50
first introduction to this several years ago that this
53:53
industry was the, the services of being able to have, you know,
53:57
a trusted person come into the home and spend some time with
54:00
her and help her with things. And so, yeah, I, I, I kind of
54:04
had a front row seat to exactly what you're talking about there.
54:07
Yeah. Last question for you, but
54:11
before I ask her, I want to do 2 things, Todd.
54:14
First of all, I'm going to invite everyone to hit the
54:16
follow button on their favorite podcast app so they can get more
54:18
great interviews like we've had today with Todd Tremmel, the CEO
54:21
of Touching Hearts at Home. Todd, I also want to let people
54:25
know the best way to either get in touch with you personally,
54:27
the brand, or just, you know, continue to follow your story.
54:30
We've got obviously the website whichistouchinghearts.com.
54:35
And like you mentioned before, there's a giant start a
54:37
franchise button in the top right corner if that's what
54:40
people are interested in. But any any other ways that you
54:43
know folks could connect with either you or the brand?
54:46
Yeah, you've you've nailed the one on the brand websites the
54:49
quickest and easiest way. We're on social platforms.
54:52
So we're on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube.
54:57
We're on everything. So you can always find us there.
55:00
We're very active in those areas.
55:01
But touching hearts.com, we'll get you where you want to go.
55:04
For me personally, and and I truly mean this, if you have any
55:10
questions or would like to chat with me, you can reach out to
55:12
me. You can find me on LinkedIn,
55:14
just look me up. I'm on LinkedIn.
55:15
You can message me anytime. I spend a lot of my time every
55:21
month just mentoring and talking to other CE OS or want to be
55:28
leaders in businesses. I enjoyed immensely.
55:31
It's something that I love to give.
55:33
I'm a big believer of the givers gain and so I invite you to
55:38
contact me and I also do the same thing by the way, I I, I'm
55:43
constantly networking and talking to others is what I have
55:47
a big practice on. So that's how you get a hold of.
55:49
Me and we'll include links to everything in the show notes.
55:52
But if you're listening on the go right now, Todd, tremble Todd
55:58
and the last name is TREML. And if you just look for that
56:01
plus touching hearts on LinkedIn, you'll find him.
56:04
So last question for you, Todd, as you look to the future, what
56:08
exciting changes do you see coming in your industry?
56:12
And I don't know how can listeners in your field prepare
56:15
to be part of that story? We talked a little bit about
56:18
this earlier and I think there's two things that I think are are
56:23
the future. Number one is technology is
56:25
going to enhance care. We talked about smart devices,
56:29
home devices, AI monitoring, helping keep families and
56:34
caregivers and clients connected is really, really important.
56:39
So more you're going to see on that front.
56:42
We're just at the beginning stages.
56:44
And I think the second thing is, and it's really the people side
56:46
of this business is that caregivers will ultimately Dr.
56:49
the success of the business. The best agencies will attract
56:53
them, train them, put lots of value on them.
56:56
And those are the ones that are going to win in the marketplace.
56:59
So really the future is about investing in people, not just
57:03
process, and that the culture matters when you're going to
57:07
attract and retain and recruit these caregivers.
57:10
But they are a big key to our future.
57:12
Success. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense to
57:14
me. Every great organization is only
57:17
as good as the people that are the foundation of it.
57:20
So that really resonates. Todd, I want to be the first one
57:24
to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us
57:26
today. I really appreciate it.
57:28
Anthony, I had a blast. Thank you for having me.
57:32
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
57:34
podcast. Thanks for learning with us
57:36
today.