Full Video: https://youtu.be/_LsA2oEgTn0
Blog Post: https://www.asnmarketingplan.com/lauren-tarrant-rn-senior-advocate/
About Lauren Tarrant, RN
Social Links
Website: https://allwayscaringforseniors.com/
Email: Lauren@allwayscaringforseniors.com
Phone: 512-809-4057
Full Video: https://youtu.be/_LsA2oEgTn0
Blog Post: https://www.asnmarketingplan.com/lauren-tarrant-rn-senior-advocate/
About Lauren Tarrant, RN
Social Links
Website: https://allwayscaringforseniors.com/
Email: Lauren@allwayscaringforseniors.com
Phone: 512-809-4057
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
This is Valerie VanBooven with the Senior Care Industry Netcast, where leaders with three or more years of experience share their advice. So let's get to it. In a few sentences, tell us who you are and what you do.
Lauren Tarrant:
Hello, and thank you so much, Valerie, for letting me come on your show again. My name's Lauren Tarrant, and I'm a registered nurse. And I've been a nurse for a million years, really about 40-ish. And I focused my career on seniors, pretty much. I did a little bit of psych that, well, about 10 years of psych, but not just seniors, adolescents too. But I love caring for seniors and they need a lot of help. So what I've done, I've transitioned my company over the last couple years, and I'm excited to tell you about it.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Great. Well, yeah. Tell us all about it. Let's hear it. What's new?
Lauren Tarrant:
So I used to focus on finding caregivers with my last company, and along with the work of finding caregivers, seniors need a lot more help. So if you need a caregiver, you need help also figuring out how to navigate through the system. Sometimes you need an advocate or somebody to talk with you or to talk with the case manager or this morning, the rehab center. So the new practice then, and it's listed under my... The LLC is All Ways Caring for Seniors, A-L-L. And what we do is we make sure to help the family navigate through the health system. We can advocate for them, we may help them find resources for seniors in the home. So everything we do is focused on people that are in the home or want to get back to the home. So they might be in an ALF at the time, assisted living facility, but they want to go home.
Lauren Tarrant:
So people don't know that might need an attorney to help them preserve their assets. Maybe they're a veteran, but now they're looking at protecting their house. And now they're looking at a nursing home. So they're talking about merging together an estate plan that might include veteran issues or Medicaid issues, or whatever that is, we want to make sure to get... And with Always Caring for Seniors, there are so many resources, but people don't know about it.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Right.
Lauren Tarrant:
Yeah. So we want to help them. And we do it on a contractual basis, where you tell me what you need. You might sign the contract and say, "I want you to assist my family with mediating medical disputes." Or, "I want you to help my family figure out what to do with mama and papa, who are older, and they're sick, and they talk about going to a nursing home. We want them to stay home."
Lauren Tarrant:
So I might help them with healthcare resources, with advocacy, even bill pay, if they need it. Think about the community that gets a bill from Medicare and is so upset because they don't understand it, or another insurance. And those things are really important, I would make sure to get them to the right person if I can't do it myself.
Lauren Tarrant:
But the important thing I think is that we help them navigate through the system. We help them as a voice. I was saying someone this morning, I took a call and they wanted this person to not go to rehab, because if she went to rehab she couldn't go to her husband's funeral. And I said, "Oh, no, no, no. I will be talking with the social worker, because that is her husband. And that shouldn't have anything to do with her going to rehab and she needs it." So those, I get my nurse voice on and I try to help.
Always Caring for Seniors helps the families, but we also help organizations.
So organizations might be trying to send people home, and they don't know how to transition that care. So I work with organizations on a different basis. I don't think they're going to be on this call, so I won't go into all of the clinical outcomes, compliance, operations, RN delegation, and sales teams.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yes, that's awesome. But I do want to elaborate on that. So you are advocating and managing some of the transitional needs and helping families and seniors, which is so needed every single day. It's more... You're right about, I mean, having a caregiver in the home can be very important for so many families, but there are 10,000 other things that are happening because that person is not able to make their own breakfast now, or they have trouble with toileting or whatever it is. Those things are just the immediate needs. But in concert with that, there's a thousand other things that are going on that got them to this point. And there's financial issues, and emotional issues, and what ifs and how do I do this? So I love this, that you're able to serve so many different needs.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
And [crosstalk 00:05:23] on the organizational end, what a great resource to be able to contract with you to say, this person really wants to go home, but we just don't know what to set up at the home, we're not going to go out to the home, hiring a home care agency isn't the whole answer, there's [inaudible 00:05:43] pieces to this. And can you help us? So you're like a social worker that's kind of out in the field.
Lauren Tarrant:
Kind of.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah, and I realize you're a nurse, but you're kind of taking a look at the picture of what is at home? What do we need to do here to make this happen? Is this okay? Is this going to be a setup that's okay, or do we need to change things? And then how do we get them there? So yeah, that's great.
Lauren Tarrant:
Yes. And I was going to throw something else in that I think is so important for people to hear too. I'm going to say most, many families have issues when they're going through this. It might be the first time mom is sick or dad is sick, or mom is dying, whatever that is. We've got four sisters and nobody can make a decision. Nobody can agree on the decision. So that's when I talk about mediating. There's a lot of times there's a crisis going on, and they're talking about, one says, "Well, we're not giving mama morphine. I don't care if she's in hospice, because I don't want her to be a drug addict." And I'm going to be the one that is in there making sure that they understand, "Okay, your mother, this is the end. This is not going to make her a drug addict. This is what..." You know.
Lauren Tarrant:
And so a lot of that also is interpreting what physicians say, what care really means. And that's what it is. I think, you said about a social worker, and I love social workers. I think also though with nursing, you understand a little bit differently what is going on, because you've had to manage to make sure people get in the home and are transitioned and [inaudible 00:07:17]
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah, it's definitely... As nurses, we know that social workers have a very specific role, and we know as nurses that, and I appreciate them as well, but we also know that having that clinical background and having that experience, and your experience in psych is important here. Not because people need a psychiatric nurse, but because you understand family dynamics, you understand dysfunction, which [crosstalk 00:07:50]
Lauren Tarrant:
And stress.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah, stress. And all these things rear their ugly heads when we have a loved one who is in a serious situation. Things that we haven't talked about in 20 years come out of the woodwork.
Lauren Tarrant:
Yeah.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
[crosstalk 00:08:04] And money becomes an issue. And it's not for every family, but for a lot of families who have already had a very fractured relationship over the years or a stressed relationship, having a parent that sick, just everybody's [crosstalk 00:08:24]
Lauren Tarrant:
Compounds everything.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
And now it's a bigger deal.
Lauren Tarrant:
Yep.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
So yeah, having somebody with... I mean to me, having a psychiatric nurse background and having helped and counseled and had dealt with families that are in a crisis that may be involved more than just being a senior, I think that brings a lot to the table. So I'm glad you're doing this. It's so helpful to families. They really [crosstalk 00:08:53]
Lauren Tarrant:
Good. They can just call me, and I know we'll get to all that, and I'll tell them how they can reach me. But it's important because I hear people say all the time, I don't know what to do. I didn't know what to do. I wish I would've talked to you before. And that's okay. We just go every day, there's another stressful situation. And we can just give a little bit of education, a little bit of translation, a little bit of mediation. We're good.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Okay. Well let me ask a couple questions. We're going to change our [crosstalk 00:09:26] a little bit. I know that you love serving aging adults, and you talked about that a little bit, but let's talk about how you got here, and leaders and organizations in your area, or maybe even nationwide, that you feel like do a really good job. People out there that... I mean, some people talk about the Alzheimer's Association, but there's probably people and organizations either local to you or have been in your life that you felt like they were just a great mentor or just a great organization.
Lauren Tarrant:
I'm going to say something that is in the past 10 years, and I'm working with him and with Always Caring for Seniors, I use him as a resource. We work closely together. In fact, we've put together a joint venture, which is myself and this, I'm going to talk about Randall Mills and 24 Hour Physicians and ThoughtSwift. And the grouping together, we've called that three phase healthcare. But what it is that I have to just kudos and shout out to Randall Mills, who has been helping, he was the second in the country to do telemedicine. And so he's been doing this 15 years, and he understands what it is to have physicians all over the country making sure that when you don't have a primary care physician that you can be seen. And now we're adding to the group annual wellness visits and as well, primary or post-acute specialists.
Lauren Tarrant:
So for me, it's important because they have mentored me, they have helped me. They have made sure that I understand their limitations and their strategies, because that's just it warms my heart to think we can help seniors stay in the home. And that time between coming home from the hospital and now you're home, you can't find a specialist or you can't find your PCP, or you don't have a PCP. And I feel like this, I'm shouting out to Randall Mills, 24 Hour Physicians. He has mentored me a lot over the years. And just he's a constant wave in this community. [crosstalk 00:11:43]
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Well, I guess [crosstalk 00:11:43]
Lauren Tarrant:
We all need mentors.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
The last couple of years have really brought that telehealth to a much bigger audience than ever before. So I'm sure that that group has seen an amazing growth and request for their services. That's awesome.
Lauren Tarrant:
But also as an entrepreneur, because we are all.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah.
Lauren Tarrant:
You know what, it's nice to, when we talk about mentoring, he's been doing this, he was the second one. No one knew what telemedicine was before. And for you to survive that for 15 years. And you know as a entrepreneur, companies, they fail, companies rise, re-start. And you know what? It's okay to start over a couple times because we learn how to do it better.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
True.
Lauren Tarrant:
Yes. So yes.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yep. We learn from our mistakes, and they're not necessarily failures. They're just the next chapter in our book where we've learned from all the things we've done in the past. So, awesome. I'm glad [crosstalk 00:12:46] That's an awesome person to... It's always good to have a mentor, to have someone you see work through the challenging times and still succeed. That is so nice.
Lauren Tarrant:
Yep. Yes, ma'am.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Well, let's talk about this now. We have talked before. And so in the last two years or so your marketing strategy has changed because your business has changed.
Lauren Tarrant:
Yeah.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
So what are you doing for marketing and getting them word out there? What's going on with you guys, marketing-wise?
Lauren Tarrant:
So what we're doing right now, I'm nationwide now. It used to be when I did pretty much, we used to call it geriatric care management. And what I did at the time was locally. And then I learned over the past 10 years as I was working with my other company, Well Beyond Care, and placing caregivers across the country, you can help seniors and help them with facilities and transition and all of this across the country. So I had to figure out, as I restarted this company, how I was going to get the word out. So one thing in this, I joined with a couple people, and we all can bring skills and information to the table.
Lauren Tarrant:
So one thing is for marketing, is that when I came I had 32,000 caregivers on record. I took those, we uploaded it into the system. And then we sent out, 6,000 at a time, Constant Contact memos to say, Hey, this is what we're doing now. And this is what we, and this is a call to action is, check us out, check out our new website, check out give me a call, look at these documents, look what we can do. So one thing I've changed a lot is that in working with a group, it was a little bit easier that now I could get the message out to 32,000 caregivers. I could get the message out to 6,000 families getting care. And then for nurses, I have a couple thousand that we can get messages to. And I think the important thing is that if you cannot get your message out, no one knows you're there.
Lauren Tarrant:
So one thing I'm trying to do to get the message out is Constant Contact. As I'm building my website, I will be advertising that more. I don't want to underestimate, I probably have 15 groups on my LinkedIn that I'm always happy to share, but of those groups, some have 70,000 members. And you don't reach them all, but there are ways to get to the top through LinkedIn, and send a direct message saying, Hey, this is what I do, this is what you do, we're leaders let's talk.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yep.
Lauren Tarrant:
That's new and different for me. I'm saying what is different for me.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah. That's great.
Lauren Tarrant:
Yeah. So, so the marketing has changed a little bit. And another thing is, we all go through this in business, is that my business is on a contractual basis. You have to have some money. So I'm not helping with Medicaid right now, unless it's Medicaid estate planning, estate preservation planning. But you have to think about when you have a business, who are you trying to help? How are you going to get paid? How are you going to advertise that? And how can you use your buddies as resources? Because you need to share all of that, whether you need help or you can give help, at this point it takes a village.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
It really does. It really does take a village. These are all great strategies. Email marketing is definitely not dead at all. I think it's a very viable way to get the message out. We use it every day, all day long. And it's definitely a great way to reach out to people who already have a familiarity with you, already kind of know who you are, or heard your name or have seen your emails in the past. So I always tell our clients, accumulating the biggest list you can, not junk, but the biggest list of actual people in your local area or wherever you serve, and getting those names and email addresses is gold. You have to continuously take those business cards out of your purse or off your desk and put them [crosstalk 00:17:25] database, whether it's Constant Contact or Excel spreadsheet, wherever you're starting, put everybody somewhere, and make [crosstalk 00:17:33] communicating with them regularly.
Lauren Tarrant:
I want to add to that, if I might.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Sure.
Lauren Tarrant:
You know what else, you were talking about the email marketing and all, a couple other things that I want to share with your group too, for business cards, I haven't changed my new business cards, but I did start out with Hello, which is a business card app. And you create it very easily and you can send that out. So there's no reason that you have to wait right now. And then the other thing I didn't mention that I think others can do, and I can hook them up, is that I'm on a show, a blog talk radio show, at least quarterly. And she's always looking for some guests, and she'll interview to make sure that you have a good product and that it is appropriate for her, like her guests. And it's Dr. Mara Karpel and Your Golden Years. And it's for people who deal with seniors. Is it might be the kids, or nurses. So I just encourage everybody get your name out there. There's enough people, we don't need to be competing with each other. We need to help each other and give resources.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Right. Yeah. And we've talked about this on the show too before, is that there are so many people that need help. It doesn't matter if you just market locally, or if you're marketing nationally, or whatever you're doing, we can never reach. We can never all together reach the amount of people who would pay us to help them. They just don't know you're there yet. And so the more you are willing to do something like this, where we're talking and this episode will air later, and you'll be able to share it, the more we do all these things, the better off we are. The more we circulate our name, and it's all about brand and recognition and your name and your company name. So, yeah, you're right. Absolutely. There's so much you can do every day to reach out to people who might be interested in what we're doing.
Lauren Tarrant:
You just brought up one more thing, Valerie, I have to add. You just said there's so much you can do every day. And I think that's a lesson that I learned as an entrepreneur, even if you spend an hour every day, think about what that is at the end of the year. It's something you do every single day to make your business grow it. Maybe it's that one extra call, or it doesn't matter how busy you are. You have to do something every single day.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yes, yes. Yeah, even if it's reaching out on LinkedIn, if it's sending out an email, whatever it is, make sure you work on your business every day and get out there. All right. So that is great advice, by the way. Tell us something, when you are working solo or you're working with a team or a family, how do you like to celebrate? And by that I mean, whether it's internally, or Woohoo, let's go out to dinner, when you know a family has been helped, or that you and your colleagues have helped someone that didn't know that this help existed before, how do you like to celebrate?
Lauren Tarrant:
Sometimes I like to have that family in part of the celebration, because they made that happen. And I think sometimes we don't appreciate as much how it might be the family, it might be their caregivers, it might be the organization. But I think that they are part of that celebration.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yes.
Lauren Tarrant:
Yeah.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
They should be, because it's a long journey when you're trying to help a [inaudible 00:21:10] family.
Lauren Tarrant:
Yes. Yes. So that's that. I can't say that I have an extra ice cream cone or whatever. What I like to do is celebrate with the family too. And they are part of it. Everybody works really hard together.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Absolutely. Well, thank you. Thank you for introducing your new business. We'll make sure all of your contacts are out there for everyone, all your contact information, your website is there for everyone to contact [crosstalk 00:21:37] Nationwide, which is excellent. And we'll make sure everything is with your video so we can shout out the good work. So thank you for being here.
Lauren Tarrant:
Thank you so much, Valerie. I appreciate it. Thank you, everybody. I hope we can all work together and grow.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah. Absolutely.