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Why This Healthcare CEO Thinks Daycares Belong Inside Schools · Hart & Hustle Podcast

• Efrain: Welcome back to another episode here on the Horn also Podcast. We have another guest all the way from the West Coast. But you guys don't I'm in the East Coast. We got Miss Tina. Tina, where are we virtually talking to you from? I'm doing good. TINA ALICEA: You doing? from Las Vegas, sunny and warm Las Vegas, yes. Efrain: It is sunny and hot, Tina. Well maybe not now, but TINA ALICEA: Ha ha ha. Efrain: when I was there maybe what about April time, I did not realize how dry it actually was. And by my last couple of days, I r I'm not a person that uses a lot of lotion, but I definitely had a lotion up. My lips I felt like burning. I guess I was dehydrated. TINA ALICEA: You must yeah. You must drink water here. You must. Like we tell everybody, like here, drink more water. If you thought you had enough water, drink more water because you don't sweat like you do in humid areas here. It just Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: evaporates out of your body. So you Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: don't even know you're you're sweating. Efrain: And that's what it is, is I'm in Orlando where when you do walk out of the airport you get smacked in the face with humidity. So TINA ALICEA: yeah. Yeah. Efrain: when someone says, It's hot here, Ephraim, a different type of hot, I'm like, How hot could it really be? I'm in Orlando, but I definitely got to realize how hot it was. TINA ALICEA: Like putting your head in an oven and then running a fan. It Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: was like hot. Efrain: Y you know what else I noticed about Vegas, which was pretty funny, is I went there for WrestleMania, right? And I'm a walker. So the people my f videographers that I took, they hated me because I would be like, it's right there and right there is not really right there. You gotta go like miles down. Why it looks like it's right there. It is far, far away, Tina. Ha TINA ALICEA: Yeah, the hotels are minimum a mile from each other. And some of Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: are kind and they have like the little walkways that go from the s co from the street into them, but most of aren't. And it's a lot of walking. it is. Efrain: Y Yeah, I stayed at the Luxer Horte Hotel and they did TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Efrain: have the walking bridges a little bit to like different hotels and and TINA ALICEA: And they have a monorail in the back that takes you to all the mandalay properties. So from like Mandalay Bay to Let's go or yeah, and it takes you all the way Efrain: see. I missed that one. TINA ALICEA: down takes you down to the to the T Mobile arena so you can go to the games and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. Efrain: I definitely missed that one. But I what I did was able to to actually catch and thought was pretty cool was the Zook. Or the Zooks. The little drop TINA ALICEA: yeah. You're brave. You're brave. You're getting into machines that aren't even that don't have people operating Okay, I'll give you kudos for that. Efrain: Tina, it was free, okay? And we were they were tired of walking. It was pretty cool. I would say it was very scary. And we did it at nighttime, so even worse because you could barely see outside. But I thought it was pretty neat inside. And I and I'm like, wow, this is what it looks like now. And I can only imagine you guys got the weight, the Way Mos, I think it's called. Now the Zook and my God, it is crazy. TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Yeah. Have you, you feel like a Jetson? Like you're like Meet George Jetson, you know. Well that Efrain: Yeah. Yeah. I mean TINA ALICEA: just told you how old I was. Yeah. Efrain: It you know what though, when you really think about it Tina, it's like life was preparing us for these moments. Like we thought it would never happen and it was just a cartoon or it was a TV, but everything that we've seen in iRobot, okay, it's coming to life, Miss Tina. It is coming to life. Yeah. TINA ALICEA: Think about Star Trek. Except for except for being able to beam up and beam down. you know, it's like pretty much the doors sliding open, you know, when you walk in, motion Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: sensors, things like that. Yeah. It's it's coming to be Efrain: I love it. Tina, what would someone that may know you really well not know about you that you don't tell often? Like what do you like to do? Is there something special you like to do on your off time? Is there special food that you like people may not know about? A special place you like to go to that no one talks about? TINA ALICEA: this is really like off key, but most people that know me really well have no idea how religious I am. Like they think I'm kooky. Yeah. Efrain: Ha ha ha. TINA ALICEA: And they have like they have no idea that there's that side of me that's like yeah. Efrain: Always been or is this just kind of grown over time? TINA ALICEA: no all always had that spirit spirituality. I don't talk about it. And I actually kind of frown on other people that are like, you know, God bless you and this, yeah. Because it's like it's so personal. It's so Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: personal. You like how you interact spiritually that I don't I don't wear it on my sleeve at all. I don't talk about it. I don't think it's just it's just my thing. So every so Efrain: we you know. TINA ALICEA: often yeah, and every so often my husband will like you like where you going? I'm like, going to temple. I was I'm Jewish. So I'm like, I'll I'm going to temple. He's like, okay. Yeah, that's all he asks. It's like like okay. Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: Yeah, so that's what people probably don't get. Efrain: You know, we all have our own relationships. TINA ALICEA: Yeah, they they probably don't get that about me because I'm pretty I'm I'm also very introverted, naturally, but I like have to put on my game face. You know, so I'm and I find that's in my family. Like my daughter's an entertainer. My daughter in law is an entertainer on the strip and sh she is super introverted, but when she gets on stage you would never know it. You know, so I Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: think it's kind of a thing. Efrain: I like to tell people that I am too, and there's like, yeah, okay, if you say so. But it is TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Yeah. Efrain: I still cringe when I get in front of people. I have this and I'm an emotional person, so it doesn't it makes it even worse. So I have this event coming up, and I was telling my wife, I'm like, my god, I already know that I'm going to get emotional. And she's like, Yep, me and her friend Peyton. She's like, We're just gonna be there, like, here he goes again. But it's one of those things that it I TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Efrain: I'm actually in a play. And I love it. I do love it. But there's this, my God, before I get up there I'm so nervous, like I I'm sweating. And then you're up there and you don't even know what happens. And you ask me, Hey, what did you say up there? I'm saying I don't know. I blacked out. Yeah. I TINA ALICEA: You go blank, right? You just automatic. You just go into automatic mode. Yeah. Efrain: Yeah, but I I would say it's really a blessing, you know, that God has really given us to to be able to TINA ALICEA: Mm-hmm. Efrain: do that, to meet people where they're at. I think that's also something special. And I can imagine Tina and the space that you're in, meeting people at where they're at is so special. If you can actually talk about Tina, what organization are you representing and maybe the role that you hold and we can kind of get into that story? TINA ALICEA: Yeah. So I'm the CEO and founder of Safe Harbor Medical. we are a nonprofit community health center. We've been designated as federally qualified, which is like a really big deal. and we work with everybody in the community. So I don't believe that places that help poor people should look poor. Places that that help people in distress should be like downtrodden. I think we should we should look good and treat our people well. And so when you come into our facilities, you know, you don't see bars on the window or anything like that. You don't see doors keeping the waiting room from the back office. You you see a very welcoming, you know, lobby. You see, I call my front desk people concierge. And when you walk into our lobby, you could have somebody that just got off a bus or is looking for their home who where they're gonna stay tonight, all the way to somebody that drove up in a Bentley. Because I also am emphatic about providing the best care. Just because we're helping people that that don't have a lot doesn't mean my doctors shouldn't be certified, credentialed, taking their continuing education classes and knowing the latest trends that are out there. So because of that, people who have choices come to us. People who don't have choices come to us. to me that's my sense of pride. Because I think anybody can help the poor, but if you do it in a way that lifts them up th and gives them a sense of purpose and trust and they have faith in you and trust in you that you're doing the right thing for them, it's a whole it's a game changer. So we do things here at at Safe Harbor that some FQHCs definitely do not. besides offering, we're we're a multi-specialty. So we don't just take care of moms and babies. We have an elderly, we have a whole geriatric program. We have a functional medicine program. We don't like to do pain management. We'll do physical therapy, occupational therapy, chiropractic adjustments. We will help people with functional medicine before we turn them in turn them over to like pain or surgical, you know, or in medicine Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: like that, which is really out of the blue. FQHCs have three main pillars, behavioral health, medical, and dental. right now we are full-fledged doing medical and behavioral health. We have psychiatrists in office, we have an infusion suite, we have talk therapy. we have all these things that we offer them. And we offer at rates that they they can afford. And if they can't afford it, we have a sliding fee scale. We also have our own pharmacy so that if someone can't make their copay, because you know, this last couple years, the the medical industry changed their co-pays and how they do pharmacy. It used to be you they'd pay for it till you got to a donut hole, remember the donut hole, and then you had to pay for it. And so Efrain: Mm-hmm. TINA ALICEA: if you weren't a huge if you didn't have a lot of prescriptions, you may never get to the donut hole. But if you use a lot, you get to the donut hole sooner and then have to pay in. Well now they front loaded that. So everybody has to pay regardless of how much medic medication they use. And that that's really adverse to a lot of people. So we help them in in that area as well. Efrain: You talked about a little bit just ago the s the spiritual side. Is that TINA ALICEA: Mm-hmm. Efrain: what gets you into this space, knowing that you're doing God's work? Or how do you get into this space to help others? TINA ALICEA: No, I'm so not that pious. I'm so not that no, I'm not there. So what got me into the space is I started out I started out working with the government. I was a weapons analyst for the Pentagon. I did military preparedness models, I understood government speak. And I did that in the nineties and early two thousands. And I then started consulting and I got to a point where the state of Nevada after the economic downturn needed somebody To consult medical. I ended up being that person. I tell everybody I raised my hand last, which I did. you know, tourism was sexy to help out this. I got health care. I Efrain: Ha ha ha. TINA ALICEA: went in, I I I know business. Business is my baby. I can look at a business and I can see where they're leaving money on the table, where they need to trim the fat, and I can help them guide without taking away from their services. A lot of people think of If you're running lean and mean, you're not providing all the services. And that's that's not the case. so I actually found a doctor, her name was Lynn Keesen Bing. I'm gonna give her all kinds of props because she's the first one who introduced me to federally qualified healthcare centers. So I said, Well, you know what? I don't know as much about healthcare as you do, but I do know government. So let me look into Efrain: Mm-hmm. TINA ALICEA: this. And within six months, we had her designated as a federally qualified healthcare center. And during that time, I realized Nevada. had two up until that point. With her and another one, they then had four FQHCs. We were behind Guam and Puerto Rico for the number of FQHCs. Nevada was dead last. Dead last. Efrain: Wow. TINA ALICEA: We're still dead last in the country and in our territories for offering FQHC services, which blows my mind because that means federal dollars are leaving the state and not coming back into the state for care and healthcare and things like that. Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: So in the last 15 years, I've been really active in getting FQHCs up and running, being a big advocate for FQHs, helping other organizations get their found, you know, set up and findings. I also would go in and do like audits and help them as like, okay, here's where you have to change things and here's your processes and procedures, because I want to see everybody succeed. We have over 300,000 people. On Medicaid in the state of Nevada. Now those are the poorest people. They're 138% federal poverty level. To put that in real numbers, it's like they make less than 24,000 a year. Okay? So we have a lot of people like that. FQHCs normally handle all those people and take care of them because not only are they they they're poor, but they also don't have the resources to buy organic food. Or to, you know, to go to the gym or to do this. So they end up having more complex issues just by the nature of their environment. that's why FQHCs are important, because we can diminish their their cost to the federal government as well as helping them become healthier and change lifestyles in the family structure. so I'm like all pro that. Efrain: Yeah, yeah. Tina, you you mentioned the strength, you being a businesswoman. That's what you bring to the table. No matter what sector, you're a businesswoman. What is TINA ALICEA: Mm. yeah. No matter what sector, yes. Efrain: the weakness? TINA ALICEA: very black and white, I have no grey. So when someone s wants to massage something, you know, to where it might not be a hundred percent where it should be, I have no tolerance. Like none. Efrain: Got it. TINA ALICEA: Like I've walked away from many situations where I'm like, you know, you sold me a bill of goods on this and this is what it is and no. So th I really have no tolerance for people that are i i any any color of shadiness. Like Efrain: Yeah, TINA ALICEA: Doesn't work for me. So Efrain: yeah, yeah. I I love just talking to you and and when we talked to t prior, you really know your worth. You really know what you stand for, you really know your stuff. Where does that come from? TINA ALICEA: my mom. in all honesty, my mom was that person that said, You can do whatever you put your mind to it. And if I came back to her and said, You know, mom, I failed or I didn't I didn't succeed in this or that, she'd look at me and go, That's because you didn't want it bad enough. If you want it, you'll Efrain: Mm. TINA ALICEA: get it. And she had that in my head, I mean, from little, like kindergarten on. And so I've always had that mentality. If I want it, I'm gonna figure it out. And I'm I'm gonna go after and get it. Yeah. Efrain: Yeah. That's what life is about. Yeah. I tell my young daughter TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Efrain: that now she's five and every time she's like, Daddy, I can't do it, I say the same thing. I says, Listen, you can't give up. Like TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Efrain: it's are you trying hard enough? Let you you try something different, you know, pivot. Don't panic. You know, I've heard that r even recently. It's like in in those times where it doesn't make sense, don't panic, pivot. There is a way. You've got to figure it out. Yeah. TINA ALICEA: There is always a way. There's always a way. And and and the more you put into it determines your level of passion for whatever that project is or that that learning curve or whatever you know, whatever it is. There is always that. you know, right right now I'd I'm focused on daycares. You know, daycares are well, you have a five year old, crazy expensive, right? Efrain: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. TINA ALICEA: You spend more on daycares for zero to five than you spend on college for the average person. Efrain: Yeah. but I'm actually blessed, Tina, that my wife TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Yeah. Efrain: decided to be a stay at home mom. And what we thought TINA ALICEA: That is nice. Efrain: was going to be a year has now been six. And then what we thought it was just a stay-home mom, now she's homeschooling. So and and and I did realize it because I do have friends that told me they're paying like a thousand dollars a week. And when they told me that I almost fell out of my chair, like a thousand dollars a week, you're literally going to work to put your kid in daycare. Make that make sense. TINA ALICEA: Yeah. See your wife needs to open up a little home school for other kids. Efrain: W she she's the thing is she told me that. She says, you know, I'm already doing this. What is adding two or three? And then I have a a TINA ALICEA: Right. Efrain: great mentor that also runs daycares, as well. And I said, Hey, and I I she lives in Orlando, I'm like out more, probably forty five minutes out, but there's not good ones in the area. So when I told her that, I says, Hey, Miss Renee, like, you know, this is what I was thinking of like a big venue that you can rent on the weekends for like parties, but during the week, we can definitely do some schooling. And she says, You want to do it? Let's let's talk about it. I said, Hey, I got an event October second right now that is consuming my brain. I'll talk to you TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Efrain: after. But no, it is. It it is sometimes having to step I'm literally learning so much, even about the school system itself, Tina. Right? Like that. I was talking to somebody very one directional, right? and i I get crap for it, believe it or not. I get crap because TINA ALICEA: It it is. You can Efrain: I I they say I'm taking money from the government. I'm just like, I I I do this, I didn't even know there was money. TINA ALICEA: No. The government's taking money from you. Yeah. Efrain: Ha ha ha. TINA ALICEA: you wait, you don't get your wife doesn't get she doesn't get the charter? So you you get vouchers? Efrain: we just we just figured it out, right? So that's why people say that I'm taking money from them. And I'm like, if you only I'll put my kindergarten TINA ALICEA: Yeah. One money. Efrain: up against your kindergarten unless let's really see the difference here, you know, because there's a huge difference in that. TINA ALICEA: There there is a a big, big difference. Now think about the average kindergarten teacher. You wonder why they drink so much. They have kids. They have kids that walk Efrain: You're too petty. TINA ALICEA: in there that can read, that that can that know manners, their parents have worked with them, so homeschool, like if your child went in, right? Into into a public kindergarten. And then they have kids that are basically picking their nose and watching cartoons. You know, I mean Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: they have soup to nuts in this grade and they have kindergarten first and second grade to get all these kids on the same level playing field. Think you know, you think about that. Because really they don't Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: start grading till third grade, right? So what they're trying to do is get all the kids. Maybe English is a second language in the household and they don't understand English very well or they haven't read or this you know, there's all these things, right? That that we need to do to get kids on the same level playing field so our grading system makes sense. That's why third grade is where they start grading. and that's hard. Imagine having like sou like kids from all different backgrounds in there with not a level starting point. You know? And that's why they have all the tables. You have the red table, the yellow table, the green table, the blue table, right? Nobody wants to be at the blue table 'cause that's where all the kids eat, you know, the the glue. I Efrain: Did di did you you know who Alicia Keys is? TINA ALICEA: love Alicia Keys. Yeah. Efrain: Okay, me too, me too. But listen, so the story that I just read yesterday, which I thought was really fascinating, was she gave up a tour, like a ten million dollar tour, because they told her that her son was going to have to be held back because he was dyslectic and all these other things. So she gave up this tour. She says, I'm going to pour into my kid, and she started doing music theory. and she started to do on that. By the end of that school year, he is now two grades ahead because she spent that time in figuring out what was best for him. So a lot of the times as well, it's like we we hold people back but we're not really giving them the resources they need. You know what I mean? So when I heard that I'm like, So cool. So cool. TINA ALICEA: We have a yeah. We have a cookie cutter approach to education in our school system. And and I understand how we got there, you know, the the rote memories and the the math cards and you know all that's I get how we got there. But that is so not what's best for every child. you know, Montessori has a great approach to it and then the charter schools have a different approach to it, and kids have kids are going to learn. Do you know they they've done these studies where children are the most curious, the most inquisitive, and the most open to learning from three to six years old? That's like that's where they're a sponge, where they're just absorbing Efrain: Mm-hmm. TINA ALICEA: big time. And then it declines steadily until they're about 17. And when they're about when they're about 17, it goes up again because they realize they have to learn about the real world. Right? So now there's curiosity. So why the decline over those years, right? And I think a lot of it has to do with frustration, it has to do with boredom, it has to do with it's not individualistic. And I'm not a huge proponent on replacing teachers by any stretch of the imagination, but we have AI tools now. We have tools that allow each kid to work at their own pace in a classroom with a teacher encouraging and and working with them. So there's there's things we can do, technology leaps we can do in education that will help. Efrain: You say AI, I wasn't gonna bring it up, but are you a fan of it? It seems like, or because you talk about AI in the educational world. Okay. So I told you, I think I told you that I'm the president of the foundation to the old high school I go to. I love AI. And sometimes I go to the school and I realize they're doing all this extra work, and I'm like, hey, let me show you. And then I go log in and it's blocked at the schools. And when I ask the question, why is it blocked? Well, 'cause the teachers are afraid of it and they're not educated around it. So they are not teaching the students. But I'm like, you don't think these students are utilizing it? My two TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Efrain: year old is telling me, Hey Dad, is this AI? So just imagine he's already understanding the AI and not AI, and he's two years old. You're telling me that a middle school TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What's real and what's not real. Yeah. Efrain: what you know, so are are you for it? I'm guessing? TINA ALICEA: I I am for AI like I am for libraries and I am for books and I am for that. I am for AI and that as a tool to help educate us and to narrow down because honestly there's so much crap out there that's not real that if we can ha if AI can figure out what's real, because we're actually working with a a real an AI organization that does for healthcare, right? That does health care that does evidence based. They're not taking the information from pharmaceutical companies and from marketing companies. It has to be evidence based to be like a decisive. So we're actually working with them to help our providers be able to diagnose quicker and more effectively. Facts. Because there's so many opinions out there. Right? So I love it when I ask for AI and it and I'll ask AI something, and I'll well. the the opinion is this, this and this. But if you dig down, it's this, this and this, you know. That's that's where I look at AI and I'm very pro learning more. And I think AI can help cut through a lot of the crap out there in the world, a lot of the smoke screen that's going on. And and I think we Efrain: Yep, yep. Yeah. Yeah I'll TINA ALICEA: should absolutely use it for that. Efrain: I like what you say. It is not a replacement of a human body, but it is a tool that a human could utilize to just TINA ALICEA: yeah. Yeah. Efrain: elevate themselves, to make things a little bit easier, to educate themselves. Cause a lot of times TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Efrain: it is the unknown that we do not know. And how we can actually find information so much faster. Not having TINA ALICEA: Yes. Efrain: to look through an encyclopedia, go to a dictionary, do a lot of, you know, two days of research. It truly and with data, with good data. And I can imagine you talk about that business mindset. Data is key. Is that right? TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Yeah. Data is everything. And and numbers are numbers. You can manipulate numbers. I mean if I wanna if I wanna skew it this way or that way, I'll do that. And okay, I'll I'll give you a perfect example. You're you're in, you know, in the marketing, you know, there's a marketing aspect to podcasts and all that stuff. The when I I worked in radio back in the day. And we could make those numbers, we could make those those numbers say a lot of things just by manipulating Efrain: Mm-hmm. TINA ALICEA: the age group that's watching it, the timeline of how many people are watching it. And we could sell to anybody, you know, my God, you're gonna have this many vi views and we're gonna have this in this population and that. So you can you can work it pretty, pretty well, but true data, like what you get out of it, and it has to be more than a two to five percent standard deviation, you know, swing. It has to be significant. But I think true data is is where everybody should be going. That's that's the path we should be looking for. And it's okay to think outside the box on how we get there. And I think AI is an outside the box approach. Efrain: hundred percent. And I it just hope that people use it correctly because we also see people that are not using it. And it's like anything, I would say, like the World Wide Web when it started, there's good and there's bad in it and and we just have to distinguish what that actually looks like. But I think there's TINA ALICEA: plagiarism, copying, all that stuff. I mean, I'm getting my PhD right now. You don't think they they scan everything against AI, right? Everything I write. What? Efrain: Just cause, Tina? Did you just feel bored and you felt like you wanted to be challenged and you say, Hey, I want to go get my PhD now? Like, how did that come about? TINA ALICEA: It it's it's my Kilimanjaro. So when my husband turned sixty, he climbed Kilimanjaro and, you know, pounded his chest and that was his thing. And Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: I turned sixty this year and I said, Well I'm just gonna get my PhD because I've always wanted to finish my education and I feel that that's the finish line. Efrain: Wow, Tina, so I got another question now. You're talking about sixty, you do not look it, okay? What is the secret sauce? Living a happy, healthy life, like what what give us the secrets here? TINA ALICEA: Honestly, I think it's just genetic. Like I have no idea. I I'm I eat healthy. I don't do processed foods. I don't do fast foods. like Efrain: What TINA ALICEA: like once once a month or every six weeks I'll have a pizza, you know? That's my woo-hoo. Efrain: You know what I actually had for the first time when I went to Vegas was In N Out Burger. And I thought it was overrated actually if you ask me. But Yeah TINA ALICEA: I I won't eat it. I won't eat it. No, no. I mean I've had it, but it's not like it wouldn't be Efrain: Yeah, yeah, yeah. TINA ALICEA: my go to. I actually think Dairy Queen burgers are better than In N Out. Efrain: You don't see them often though. Like I can't tell you where it's one close. There's very few of them around. Culvers is coming around me and I'm like, it's okay. You guys got culvers out on the west coast? TINA ALICEA: We do well I know culverse because I went to school in the Midwest, so you know, got the Efrain: Okay. TINA ALICEA: got the culverse thing. culverse is good, it's just a little too greasy. my god, sorry culverts. Efrain: Yeah. I now I hear you, though the the older I get to realize like McDonald's like I used to eat a lot of McDonald's, a lot of chicken nuggets and a lot of, you know, McChickens and I'm with you. I just can't do that anymore. I I try to be better. I'm trying to live long. I mean, I'm trying to look like you when I'm sixty years old, Tina. So that that's it. TINA ALICEA: There you go, come on, bring it on. Efrain: I I'm I'm on par right now, that means, all right. Drink a lot of water, eat a little healthy, you know. TINA ALICEA: Th and that's it. Exercise, walk, get out there. You don't have to do crazy exercise. Just be active. You know, all the blue zones. I'm really big on like where the blue zones are in the world. And those are Efrain: Uh-huh. TINA ALICEA: people who on average live over a hundred to over a hundred years old. In these zones, and they're all over. They're in Japan, they're in Italy, they're in California. There's one little one in California. a lot of it has to do with community, a lot of it has to do with daily activities. The ones in South America, they all ride horses. you know, there's eating Efrain: huh. TINA ALICEA: rights, usually holistic and natural foods in your air region. So, you know, there's there's ways. It'd be great if the whole Efrain: I'm TINA ALICEA: world was blue. Efrain: Facts. Now that you said that, I'm gonna have to look up these blue places. w when I when you think about like I'm just talking to you now, high energy, loving what you're doing. We're in a space not everybody's feeling the way that you're feeling today, especially TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Efrain: being a leader in the healthcare industry. There's a lot of change going on, there's a lot of unknown going on. What do you tell those leaders that are in this space of, man, why am I doing this when we're not feeling supported? TINA ALICEA: So they all get snarky with me because I'm like, run your business like a business. If if your if your business model is not sustainable without grants, okay, if it's not sustainable, don't do it. Don't take the grant money because it's grant money. Only take money that you can put into programs that sustain themselves. And like I was talking to one CEO and he was like, I have over 125 active grants right now. And I'm like, and I can guarantee you maybe five of them are sustainable. And he's like, you may be right. And I'm like, you you we have to run it like the government's not gonna always be there. You know, we have to run it like like it is. I know a lot of so if I right now, if my company, if the insurance companies all went under tomorrow, right? I can pivot into a concierge or into a cash base and still maintain my my organization without without insurance. It will be brocky and it'll be difficult, but it can be done. I will still Efrain: Yeah. Yeah. TINA ALICEA: be open. I wouldn't close my doors. Like and I and you have to think two, three steps. Business is chess. Right? You you have to think Efrain: Yep, yep. TINA ALICEA: multiple moves and you have to think the what if scenarios and if this happens, how am I gonna pivot? And if this happens, how am I gonna pivot? And then how am I gonna make sure that the people that entrust me to take care of their health are gonna still have that that service available to them? So I'm always thinking two, three, four steps ahead. My my kids think I'm a little autistic, but you know, it is what it is. They're but you have to think like that. You can't be Set in your ways and change. If you're gonna count on anything, count on change. There's always Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: going to be change. And you just have to think like that. Efrain: I are are I I'm kind of fig trying to figure out is Tina an entrepreneur or is she a corporate woman? Because I feel like you you really are an entrepreneur. Yeah, yeah. The way you're thinking TINA ALICEA: No, I'm a hundred percent entrepreneur. Hundred percent entrepreneur. This is Efrain: is not the way everybody thinks. TINA ALICEA: No, and it's not, but you know what? When you're running a multi million dollar business, you need to think like that because it could go away tomorrow. I Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: mean, look at the retail industry. Do you know the average retail store was making like Anywhere from 10 to 15 million. Those store managers, okay, the store managers that they were paying 80 to 100,000 a year were managing five to ten million dollars in in in cash flow. Why wouldn't you pay them better? And why wouldn't you listen to them when they tell you this is what's going on in my store? Right? Efrain: Mm-hmm. TINA ALICEA: And then and now you have like everybody in the world online competing with these stores. Right? So nobody Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: was thinking steps ahead. Efrain: I I was in retail, so I get it. I have a friend now that has been spending the last ten years and he's seeing the decline when they were s when they were happy when they're making all this money at the outlets and now they're fighting to, you know, TINA ALICEA: yeah. Efrain: make some money it and and then easily try to blame it on the staff and the store. But it's like it no, TINA ALICEA: Exactly. Exactly. Efrain: you you were never pivoting with the times. You thought this was the only way. So I'm a hundred percent agreeing with you, Tina. It's like how do they I mean, you don't gotta tell y Don't give them too many ideas, but if you win retail actually, what TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Efrain: would you do different? Cause there's things that I feel that I would do different, but what would you do different, Tina? TINA ALICEA: well y you know it's funny is my sister's been in retail for like forty years. And she's actually a big deal. She's a big deal now. She's climbed the ranks and she's gone up and worked her butt off. But there was a big learning curve. There was a big learning curve for her, especially when she got over the the when she went from manager to like regional. And had to understand the numbers and the spreadsheets and things like that. And they they don't teach you any of that. One day we went, I went over to her house and she was like, I missed my bonus again this this quarter. And I'm like, really? Let's let's run the numbers. And then I'm running the numbers with her and I'm like, you missed your bonus because of theft. And because or theft or returns or something like that. And she goes, but I have no control over that. And they won't give me a security guard and this and that. I said, well, here's your point to fight. But they took money from you because of that. And she was just like, But I Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: th I think they they like they like little robots in the in the retail world. Honestly, retail should really become more hybrid. I think maybe carrying less inventory in the stores. I mean I get the outlets kind of are the dumping ground and that's where you're getting rid of everything. So they should have higher inventories. But in the boutique stores and stuff, lower inventories. Lower, we'll ship that to you. Try on this size, this is it, we'll we'll fit it, we'll get it to you. You know, and then just Efrain: I don't know. Even at the outlet level being there and seeing the just for no apparent reason, these boxes that are just stuffed back there. Nothing else could be there. And it's like, what are you truly doing? You know what I mean? Now we got to get out, now we're trying to, you know, donate or we're trying to do all these different things. Like I I even remember being in the restaurant business and I used to work for Subway and a lot of the things that they're doing today went 10, 15 years ago, like bottling the sauces that people used to want, how can I buy it? I will sell these bags to people before now you go to Walmart and they're actually in bottles, right? Like the little things that I would tell and you couldn't do it. They weren't going to listen to you, right? And I always TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Efrain: say they paid you for your role. And I hated that because and that's why I had to leave. I I remember one day saying I wanted to do more and she looked at me and she says, Ephraim, I waited twenty-five years for my opportunity. You have to wait for yours. And Tina, I was like, You're shitting me. I gotta go. Like, there TINA ALICEA: No, you don't. Efrain: is no way I gotta go. So a lot of the times TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Efrain: they have the people that could really help them, but they're so one minded that they just can't get out their own ways. and now I think a lot of people are feeling it. TINA ALICEA: A lot of times a lot of times you have I always say you have little people in charge, you know? And and and little people I don't mean like like they're they're less. I mean they don't think big, you know? They Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: don't think how they can grow. They don't think how they could better themselves. They they're really content to be just in that in that little box and and they think everybody else should be too. And those are the people that are gonna hold us back, you know. Efrain: Yeah. This is so fun talking to you, Tina. You talk about thinking big. In the organization that you're in today, what does thinking big look like? TINA ALICEA: well, we just so I took over the company a five years ago. we had about three hundred and fifty patients and a doctor who wanted to retire. Today we have fifteen providers and five thousand patients. We're in two loc two major locations, and my goal is to expand. I want to do a full medical complex. That offers all kinds of specialty services as well as dental and maybe rehabilitation, things like that. So I want to grow and I want to have a daycare. I want to show how daycares can be sustainable with FQH model. And so that's my my big that's my dissertation, that's my big push is to show how taking what we have right now, which is basically a school system that doesn't use all their classrooms, and turning those into daycares on elementary school property with FQHs running them so that the children can come in sick and parents can go to work because there's providers there to take care of their kids. And so that's that's my whole goal is to change how daycares are in the in being handled right now. And it'll cut down on fraud and corruption and all those things because we're highly regulated. We can't get away with anything. You know, FQHCs get audited annually. It's just we get audited financially and every two years the government comes and does site visits and sees how we operate and everything. So they could take that same bandwidth and add daycares to it and see how daycares can also flourish. Plus, the insurance companies are mandated to make sure that the kids get their annual wellness exam, all their immunizations on time, all that stuff. We can close those gaps by having it all available in one place for parents. I mean think about young parents not having to pay huge amounts of money for daycare. They can start at entry level jobs and work their way up. They can go to trade Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: schools. They can, they can get their education. They can actually become sustainable while their kids are being taken care of safely. And there is a study out there that says $1.8 billion, and you're part of that, is lost every year on economic stimulus when one ho when one member of the household stays home. 1.8 billion is lost on economic stimulus. So imagine if we could have the economy stimulated and the kids safe and the parents being able to start their young lives with opportunities. So that's my that's my thinking big goal. Efrain: And and and that's what I was you know, when we were talking about this earlier. Do you feel that everything that we're talking about, from the schooling, from the ability of a parent to do what we, you know, myself and my wife are doing, TINA ALICEA: Mm-hmm. Efrain: does it help you at your level and and stop all everybody needing the assistance or or you know, the homelessness TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Efrain: and all these different things? TINA ALICEA: So th so think about this way, your your child, you homelessness will decline when when we have families that are homeless because the parents will be able to work, right? And they can work at those $18, $20 an hour jobs because they know their kids are being taken care of. They're not worried about that, right? They're able to focus on themselves and their own growth. Okay. And and that helps when you know that you have a community surrounding you. There's like I have all these layers. Like we could go through a whole thing on just the daycare process, but I want the daycares at the elementary schools. I want the daycares at the elementary schools because most of the people walk to the elementary school. And Efrain: Mm. TINA ALICEA: we can hire in the community people who live close to the elementary schools who are not working to help in the daycares. And we can educate them. And those people can then be feeders to go into the teaching programs for the schools. You know, so there there's advancement. There's room for advancement for them. i it it there's just so many layers there. I mean, if my elementary school is in a Hispanic community, well then we're gonna have people that are bilingual speaking Spanish. These children are gonna stay in their natural. We're not taking them out of one area and putting them into another community. We're allowing them to stay in their community. Culturally, it's fabulous because we still have our culture, we still have you know, they'll still eat the at the foods they want, they'll still be able to celebrate the celebrations they want, but they're also gonna be getting all the education. They want. Alicia Key's child would not be in the situation they were in because we would have caught early on, two years old, three years old, we would have caught the dyslexia. We would have been able to work with the parents early, right? Saying, okay, this is what's going on. We're going to be approaching it a different way. We're going to be looking at, you know, numbers and letters and stuff because it's all jumbled up in their head. So we're going to take a dyslexic approach to teaching your child. You may not be able to understand what they're reading in this book, but because they have books out for them and stuff, but they'll be able to understand it. And as long as they're getting the knowledge, we're good while they're learning how to read conventionally. Yeah. We have all those skills we can put in place. We have we have behavioral health therapists, we have occupational health therapists. We can teach, you know, children all these things. That's what an FQHC does. We have all these services. We just don't have a daycare. And then Efrain: So you have the playbook at this point. TINA ALICEA: Yeah, and we can help the parents. We can actually help the parents build and and when they come in say, okay, you know, little Johnny or little Susie is doing well in this area. I noticed they had, you know, they had a temper tantrum, so we, you know, we this is how we adjusted it and we did hug play. Also I think children need to be taught resilience. I think I think, you know, when we have little things like races, you know, races across the the the Efrain: Mm. TINA ALICEA: field, you know, the the kid that's coming in last shouldn't be booed or heckled. The kid that's coming in last should be cheered on. You know, you can Do it, you can do it. And and that's children don't learn to be mean, right? Children naturally are lovers and huggers, and they want everybody to feel good because if they don't feel good, then the child doesn't feel good, right? So you want to build that and build that resilience to where okay, you you may have came in last this time, but next time, you know, you're only two seconds behind the last person. Let's t let's do that, you know, let's get it, let's go for further. And teach healthy habits. Teach you know, dental you know, dental hygiene and food and all those things. We have a whole agricultural program where we teach how to build like plant their own plants. Kids love to plant dirt. Teach how to plant. Yeah. Efrain: Yeah. A hundred percent. My kids stay in dirt. my god. And and and I love it. I actually let them sit there and play with the dirt. Some parents would be like, No, don't do that, little Johnny. To me it's like sit there and mess up all my dirt, you know. It is what it is because they love it. The sensory. TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Well g give little plants. When they get to be about three years old, give like little little bitty plants. Like let's let's see if we can make that plant grow. Let's see what's on that plant. Efrain: Yeah. Well, my wife's amazing. We got squash outside. She's been built growing TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Efrain: squash with the kids, tomatoes. So they're seeing that mom has really TINA ALICEA: That's yeah. Efrain: started with nothing and now has this beautiful garden and and pumpkins and squash and and you know, green onions, and they're like, my god. Yeah. Yeah. TINA ALICEA: To kids it's it's magic. It's magic to children. I put a seed in the ground and now I can eat it. You know, you know? Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: And and those are the type of things that you want to see kids learn and and be resilient about. And keep them positive. Keep them positive as long as possible. They don't need to know the negatives of the world. That's that's for later years. Efrain: I tell my daughter that I was actually even a little emotional today. I was thinking about my mom. TikTok made me cry this morning. I I seen TikTok, it was these photos and it was the photos of who they used to be, right? The drug addict, the you know, the homelessness, this person. So they're holding these photos to their face and and they they they were just telling the story. This person, you know, twenty years ago or whatever, this and that. And then they would drop the picture and talk about who they are today. And I think I've told you my mom is still homeless and on drugs today. So I am one that's emotional. I think I told you that. And my w my daughter's like, why are you crying? And I'm like, Life, enjoy just being a kid. Like TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Efrain: enjoy what that feels like. You always talk about you want to, you know, you can't wait to be a wife or you can't wait to be a mom. TINA ALICEA: Yeah. Efrain: Like you are at the best part of life where you get to just TINA ALICEA: Exactly. Efrain: wake up, be you and have no worries because mom and dad is taking care of all this for you. So no, a hundred percent it is allowing and and for me it was really stripped for me at a young age. So I I try to make sure that I could really provide that to to my kids, but yeah. TINA ALICEA: I think that's really important to to have that because I mean, what you what you grew up with shouldn't be the norm. It shouldn't be the norm. Efrain: Correct. Not at all. Not at all. We're breaking cycles here, Tina. We're breaking cycles. Yeah. Yeah. And and that's why people think we're crazy. That's why people think we're crazy though, Tina. I hear TINA ALICEA: Yeah. I love it. Being radical. What do you call it? Disruptors? Yeah. Efrain: the same thing. Like this guy is loco. No, no. I just I we got to be a little loco, okay? We got to be a little crazy. if we want to see change. Yeah. If you wanna see change, you better get crazy. TINA ALICEA: It's it's okay. My my kids are always both both my boys are always laughing at me. They're just shaking their head like, Mom, you did it again. I'm like it is what it is. Yeah. Efrain: Tina, it was a pleasure talking to you today. and I just appreciate you know the conversation that we've had today around so many different aspects. And I w how can someone connect with the organization? How can someone reach out TINA ALICEA: Okay. Efrain: to you, Tina, if people are just wanting some insight? TINA ALICEA: safe harbormed lv dot org. S-a f e h a r b o r e d l as in Las Vegas.org. Efrain: Yeah. TINA ALICEA: yeah, and they can always call the the that's our that's our website. It's got all of our information on it, our locations, our phone numbers. Picture me, my whole team. Efrain: Ha ha ha. TINA ALICEA: we we are always, and hopefully I'll have this podcast on it, so I'll be like, you know. Efrain: Yes. Yes. Gotta have heart and hustle. Gotta have heart and hustle. Well. TINA ALICEA: The Heart and Muscle Podcast. You gotta listen to us. But we're you have to. You have to. You can't just sit back and wait for someone to hand it to you. They won't. They just won't. You know, they'll Efrain: I love it. TINA ALICEA: they'll hand it to somebody else that takes it. Efrain: I love it. Well, guys, thank you guys for watching. My name's Ephraine. Make sure that you guys like, subscribe, and comment. Make sure you guys check out Tina and all the amazing work. And when you think about those, the new daycares that are coming out, because Tina is definitely about to evolve what that looks like. Just remember Tina. All right. I'm Efrain. This is Tina. We'll catch you guys in the next one. Latest. TINA ALICEA: You friend, take care. Bye-bye. Efrain: You too.