Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / The Business of Healing and Scaling Success in Healthcare with Sterling & Stephen Carter

Transcript

The Business of Healing and Scaling Success in Healthcare with Sterling & Stephen Carter · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:04
  Podcast.
• 0:05
  And I'm thrilled to say that we're joined
• 0:07
  by two leaders in the staffing business.
• 0:11
  We're joined today by Steven and Sterling
• 0:14
  Carter, and they're gonna tell us about a
• 0:15
  book they just wrote,
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  about their business, what they do, trends that
• 0:19
  they're watching, and a lot more.
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  Steven or Sterling, let me ask each of
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  you to introduce yourself first. Sterling, why don't
• 0:25
  we start with you and then go to
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  Steven?
• 0:28
  Sure. Thank you, Scott. And it's a pleasure
• 0:30
  to be here. I'm Sterling Carter,
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  and I am the co,
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  CEO
• 0:36
  of Carter Brothers Consulting. We have a consulting
• 0:39
  firm. So I'm I'm a health care guru.
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  I have a doctorate in physical therapy. I've
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  been practicing in health care
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  for about thirty years.
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  Thank you so much. And and, Steven, let
• 0:50
  me ask you to introduce yourself.
• 0:52
  Sure. Sure. Stephen Levi Carter and,
• 0:56
  as Sterling mentioned,
• 0:58
  co CEO of Carter Howe, Carter Brothers Consulting.
• 1:01
  And,
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  we're both operating in the health care space,
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  serial serial entrepreneurs in the health care space.
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  My background,
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  is accounting,
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  project management,
• 1:12
  ERP implementations.
• 1:14
  But I moved out of kinda oil and
• 1:16
  gas into health care
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  many years ago and and have been, in
• 1:20
  this space for quite some time and excited
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  to share our wisdom and
• 1:24
  ideas and thoughts, with with the Becker team.
• 1:28
  Well well, thank you so much. And and
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  and tell us, why don't you take you
• 1:32
  guys both co wrote a book recently. I
• 1:34
  was honored to write the Ford for it.
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  Tell us a little bit about the book
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  and and what what led you? What motivated
• 1:40
  you to write the book?
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  Steven or Sterling, why don't you take the
• 1:43
  lead there?
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  I guess it it started with
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  us going into business. We're twin brothers, and,
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  it was kind of a great combination. One,
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  we know each other, of course, really, really
• 1:54
  well. We can trust each other. So going
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  into business together is great.
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  Steven has has as you you could
• 2:02
  hear, he is a great,
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  business acumen, has done a lot of great
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  things in business management
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  and growth is his his expertise.
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  My expertise is is on the health care
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  clinical side.
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  We came together
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  back in 02/2007,
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  2008,
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  start up a physical therapy
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  outpatient clinic.
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  Well, actually, I guess I started started it,
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  but then I quickly brought Steven in as
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  my consultant,
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  advisor and that kind of thing. And then
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  and then in 2011,
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  we started to team up and open up
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  a health care staffing company called Sterling Staffing
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  Solutions.
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  So since then, we've we've grown the physical
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  therapy,
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  practice. We've grown the health care staffing
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  company.
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  Steven opened up a a company and and
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  hospice. So we have an at home hospice
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  agency.
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  We started doing consulting and and wrote our
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  first book
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  called the, w success,
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  the principles to build a multimillion dollar business.
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  And then we decided that it may be
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  great for us to go specifically into the
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  niche of health care
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  and really helping
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  health care executives and health care providers
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  to kinda figure out how to create their
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  own,
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  lane and become
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  entrepreneurs in the health care space.
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  Thank you. And, Steven, let me ask you
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  to follow-up on that. And and give us
• 3:27
  the title of the book too as well
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  just in case people don't hear it clearly.
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  Give us where they can buy it in
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  the title of the book.
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  Sure. The the new book is the business
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  of healing,
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  and, it will be available on Amazon,
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  and in all of the online,
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  large book distribution,
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  venues
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  and,
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  definitely will be available on our website,
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  at thebusinessofhealing.com.
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  And talk for a second, Steven. You guys
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  are both
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  brothers.
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  Do you guys get along well? How does
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  that work in practice of business? You've been
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  in business together for it seems like ten
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  years plus. Is there ever a a a
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  a huge
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  fight or cage match or anything between the
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  brothers? Do you guys get along every day
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  pretty well?
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  Well, when when we were young, we definitely
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  had a few run ins
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  around
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  the around the,
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  the the the classroom and,
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  cafeteria at the schoolhouse. But
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  here here recently,
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  we've learned to stay in our lanes, and
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  we respect,
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  the value that each of each of us
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  brings. And so,
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  we know when,
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  to allow the other to take the lead
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  on certain aspects. We would know when to
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  collaborate to get the, you know, kind of,
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  you know, both minds combined to brainstorm on
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  different ideas. And so it's really a a
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  very cohesive
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  and smooth process.
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  You know, we've been we've been in business
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  now, Sterling was since 2011. Right? So fifteen
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  years,
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  which is interesting because,
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  you know, doing being in business
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  with your, your family member is definitely not
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  the same as being family. Right? Not not
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  the same as the as the relationship we
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  would have as just being brothers.
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  Being in business is definitely a a a
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  little bit of more of a challenge. We
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  often,
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  speak of it as as as being married.
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  Right? Being business partners is is,
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  is basically the equivalent of being married to
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  another person, and so you have to learn
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  how to respect them and,
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  you know, again, stay in the stay in
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  your lane and and, make sure that,
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  you move as a team
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  and, don't step on these hills.
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  I I'm gonna ask you each the following
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  question
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  and and,
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  do your best to answer this
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  and and behave as well as you can.
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  Steven,
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  what does Sterling do really well? And then
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  Sterling, I'm gonna ask you the same question
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  about Steven. What does he do really well?
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  What are you most proud of when you
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  think about your brother's skill set? And, because
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  you just went Steven, I'll ask you or
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  or Steven, I'll ask you to kick that
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  off and to continue. And then Sterling, I'm
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  gonna ask you the same question. What what
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  does Steve do really well?
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  So Sterling is I mean, there's an a
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  a number of things that he does really
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  well, and and I don't say that just
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  to be nice, but he really is an
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  exceptional guy.
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  But he is really a big picture thinker,
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  a visionary.
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  And so what he excels at at really
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  well is being able to see,
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  the forest, you know, versus the trees, if
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  you will. And that's a really strong,
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  you know,
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  aspect or,
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  characteristic to have, especially in leadership. You know,
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  as we're growing and and, you know, moving
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  businesses to the next level,
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  I'm kind of more of a implementer, you
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  know? And, and so sometimes
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  head down really focused,
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  but don't see kind of the, where we're
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  going to as well. And Sterling is a,
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  is, does a great job of being a
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  visionary and being able to we're both military
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  guys. He's a he's an officer in the
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  military, retired officer in the military. I was
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  enlisted.
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  But that military
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  mindset of being able to,
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  focus on, you know, the priorities, first things
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  first, is what he does really well.
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  I I I love that. Sterling, that was
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  incredibly gracious by your brother, Steve. You know,
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  a lot of brothers will go after each
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  other and and sort of like, you know,
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  the, you know, it gives sort of half
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  ass compliment and and positive comp but he
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  gave a truly graceful and sincere one.
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  Do us a favor and do the same
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  for your brother. What what does Steven do
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  really well? Well, first, I did text him
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  while we were on the call or on
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  on the podcast and and told him I
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  would give him a cash amount of undisclosed
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  amount that that I think he gave, some
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  positive things about me. No. Stephen is is,
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  amazing.
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  He's, he's a great leader,
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  a
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  he's he talked about a a great implementer
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  because
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  which is true, he has great work ethic,
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  and he has the ability to get things
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  done.
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  And and it's it's
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  pretty amazing. Like, he's he's,
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  it's almost like there's five of them. He
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  said, I'm not his twin. He's got, you
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  know,
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  quadruplets or something, quintuplets running around here. But
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  really, really hard worker,
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  great with
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  operations,
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  really, really good with the business side of
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  things. So understanding the numbers,
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  understanding what it takes in order to make
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  a business profitable
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  and sustain profitability,
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  really able to see what's what are the
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  important things that we need to do and
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  what are the things what's where's the waste?
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  And so that's really, really important when you're
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  talking about, a successful business and running a
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  successful business because that aspect,
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  if it's missing,
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  it can be detrimental to businesses.
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  And so I can't even tell you. If
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  you would ask my two sisters to say
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  something good about me,
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  that they might have just fumbled the question.
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  They might not have answered, but this is
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  really impressive and really nice. Sterling, let me
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  start with you on this question. What are
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  you most focused on and excited about this
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  year? Where are you most focused and excited
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  as we get sort of the 2026?
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  You know, what what gets you going?
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  So I'm excited. I I think that we,
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  you know, we we mentioned earlier that we
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  have a lot of different businesses. I think
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  all of the the businesses are are running
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  well. The engines are running high, and and
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  we're we're in a a scale or growth
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  mode. So
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  excited about the acquisitions that we're that we
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  have in place.
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  We're opening new offices. We've opened up, I
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  believe, two two new offices for the hospice
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  agency and
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  one in Oklahoma City, one in San Antonio,
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  where we've opened up two,
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  new clinics for the, physical therapy or they
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  will open they're opening in the next month.
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  And then and we're also looking at an
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  acquisition
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  for the staffing company. So it's just really
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  kind of we're just trying to hold on
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  and and manage all of the you know,
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  keep all the balls up in the air
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  and all that kind of good stuff. But
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  we're looking forward to the to the scaling
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  and the growth mode
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  of the businesses.
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  Literally
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  fantastic.
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  And, Steve, give us your thoughts. What are
• 10:14
  you most focused on and excited about for
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  the rest of this year?
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  Yeah. I think I think Sterling's,
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  he he touched on a few a few
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  of those. We we really are you know,
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  you spend a lot of time,
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  in business building the foundation. Right? And so,
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  you're building the fifth foundation, making sure that
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  you have the right team, the right processes,
• 10:34
  in place. And and, you know, that takes
• 10:36
  some time. And then finally, you know, as
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  you're doing this process, finally,
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  the light bulb goes up, things just start
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  you know, those gears start moving, they're oiling
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  things are oiled and moving,
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  like a well oiled machine, and and they
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  just start to rock and roll. And we're
• 10:51
  at that point where a lot of the,
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  the the hard work and the foundational steps
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  that we put in place, some years ago
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  are starting to really implement and and take
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  take shape.
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  And so as as Sterling mentioned, we're in
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  growth mode,
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  and things look great. I mean, right now,
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  there there's been a lot of talk about
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  what's happening in terms of baby boomers that
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  are shifting away from businesses that they've built
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  and,
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  created for, you know, many, many years. They're
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  looking to retire.
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  Maybe their their kids are not interested in
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  the business. And so there are opportunities to
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  to take on,
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  acquisitions, acquire businesses that that are prime and
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  ready to get tickets to the next level,
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  but just needs another a new source of
• 11:34
  energy. So we're looking at those kind of
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  things and, you know, continuing to grow. So
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  it it feels good to be in a
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  place that we're in right now.
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  And talk about that for a second because
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  they talk about this literal almost tsunami
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  of people
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  that founded businesses
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  that are now baby boomers to later baby
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  boomers, starting to try and turn those over
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  and figuring that out. Are you seeing a
• 11:57
  lot of that?
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  Definitely. Definitely seeing a lot of that. And,
• 12:02
  it's it's an opportunity. I I don't wanna
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  say to get a business pennies on the
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  dollar. That probably is not as you know,
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  probably not that cheap, but it's definitely an
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  opportunity,
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  to take on a business from someone who's
• 12:14
  just ready to give up the reins.
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  And, if you're, if you're kind of a
• 12:19
  mechanical engineering kind of person that likes to
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  open up the head and deep dive in
• 12:24
  there and see what's, what needs to be
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  improved, can we change out the the carburetor
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  or what have you and and and add
• 12:31
  some more horsepower to this engine? It's really
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  exciting.
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  Sterling, what do you what do you think
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  about that that point? Yeah. No. I I
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  agree. It's it's really exciting. One of our
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  our biggest issues is not the opportunities with
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  making sure that we we can find the
• 12:45
  right people and put them in place. Luckily,
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  we, we've we have a staffing company that
• 12:50
  really helps with with being able to to
• 12:53
  place people. But there's a huge demand,
• 12:56
  for opening up new businesses, acquiring new businesses.
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  It's just really
• 13:02
  a matter of making sure you have the
• 13:03
  right people to run them.
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  So Oh, completely. And and talk for a
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  second, Sterling.
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  Any advice that you would give to emerging
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  op entrepreneurs,
• 13:12
  emerging leaders, couple thoughts that you'd give to
• 13:14
  them?
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  So I I would I would say that
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  there's two things that really help to catapult
• 13:20
  your business.
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  One is operations. So being able to have
• 13:23
  a say, if you're just starting off, really
• 13:25
  start writing down every single thing that you
• 13:27
  do.
• 13:28
  Because eventually, you're gonna have to train someone
• 13:31
  to do those things because you can't do
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  it all forever. There's no way you're gonna
• 13:35
  be able to script to to scale that
• 13:37
  way. So making sure you have a great
• 13:39
  SOP,
• 13:41
  manual, great operations.
• 13:43
  When we say look at your your company
• 13:45
  as if it's a franchise, just like you're
• 13:47
  a Chick fil A, etcetera? How can you
• 13:49
  set up a system in place where it's
• 13:51
  turnkey, where it doesn't matter where you go,
• 13:54
  you're gonna get the same amount of same
• 13:56
  quality, the same customer service, the same experience.
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  And then the second thing is is people.
• 14:02
  And so you have to be for forward
• 14:05
  thinking
• 14:05
  and looking
• 14:06
  for those right people even before you need
• 14:09
  them,
• 14:10
  because it's it really takes a hard it
• 14:12
  it takes a long time to find the
• 14:14
  right people.
• 14:15
  And so
• 14:16
  that's a really important part of your your,
• 14:19
  process. At least
• 14:20
  at this point, we'll maybe AI in a
• 14:22
  few years is gonna take that to the
• 14:25
  end away. But, you know, I still think
• 14:27
  we need need good people to,
• 14:29
  to to lead and and to delegate task
• 14:32
  appropriately.
• 14:33
  I I think that's so well stated. Steven,
• 14:36
  your thoughts. Any advice that you would give
• 14:38
  to emerging entrepreneurs, emerging founders?
• 14:40
  Yeah. So so certainly alluded to it. I
• 14:42
  I was gonna mention AI. That's the first
• 14:44
  thing that popped into my mind and and
• 14:47
  the ability to leverage AI. Not look at
• 14:49
  it as a negative or something that's so
• 14:52
  scary and that, you know, try to fight
• 14:54
  the wave, if you will. Embrace it, embrace
• 14:57
  it, learn as much as you can and
• 14:59
  try to figure out how to utilize,
• 15:02
  that that process to make you better. I
• 15:05
  mean, we we sir and I are constantly
• 15:07
  thinking about the things that we can delegate.
• 15:09
  Anything that we can delegate and get off
• 15:11
  of our plate so that we can, elevate
• 15:14
  and, take you know, make sure we're take
• 15:16
  spend spending our time and energy
• 15:18
  on things that truly impact revenue. And the
• 15:21
  the exercise that you used to think about
• 15:23
  when you think about delegation
• 15:25
  used to be about who can who can
• 15:26
  I give this to? Now it's really what
• 15:29
  AI tool can I give this to to
• 15:31
  take on these tasks,
• 15:33
  so that I don't have to do those?
• 15:35
  We're we're utilizing a lot of overseas personnel
• 15:38
  as well. I mean, obviously,
• 15:39
  depending upon your space, if you're in a,
• 15:43
  you know, service business or a product business,
• 15:45
  that may be a little bit more difficult,
• 15:47
  but definitely in a service business aspect,
• 15:49
  we're utilizing
• 15:51
  outsourcing, pushing out things,
• 15:53
  overseas to our, to our, our overseas brothers
• 15:56
  and sisters that are very appreciative of the
• 15:59
  opportunities that that we can give them and
• 16:02
  and do a great job. I mean,
• 16:04
  after COVID, things that we thought had to
• 16:06
  be a a face to face person sitting
• 16:08
  in office to do, we learned really quickly
• 16:10
  that that can be done over Zoom. It
• 16:12
  can be done online. It can be done,
• 16:15
  electronically, remotely. And so we we fast forwarded
• 16:18
  that whole concept,
• 16:19
  and, our goal is to try to make
• 16:22
  this as remote, as automated,
• 16:24
  and as, as virtual as possible.
• 16:28
  Thank you both for joining us today. Stephen
• 16:30
  Carter, Sterling Carter, remarkable leaders.
• 16:33
  Tell us again, Stephen or Sterling, the name
• 16:35
  of the book so people can buy the
• 16:37
  book, but just fantastic what you both accomplished.
• 16:40
  Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 16:41
  Steven or Sterling, the name of the book
• 16:43
  again.
• 16:44
  Sure. The name of the book is, The
• 16:46
  Business of Healing,
• 16:48
  and you can find that book on Amazon,
• 16:51
  on Barnes and Nobles.
• 16:53
  There's several different book book online bookstores that
• 16:56
  have it available or at least available presale,
• 17:00
  because it will officially launch in September,
• 17:03
  but also the bill at thebusinessofhealing.com.
• 17:06
  You can also preorder there as well.
• 17:09
  Thank you both so much for joining us
• 17:11
  today on the Becker's Healthcare podcast. What a
• 17:13
  pleasure. Steven Strohring, thank you so much.
• 17:16
  You're welcome. We appreciate it. You, Scott. Great
• 17:19
  time.