Interview with Valerie VanBooven RN BSN and Emily Isbell
https://emilyisbellco.com/
Here are some key highlights from the interview:
Embark on a transformative tale with Emily Isbell, a once part-time caregiver who rose to home care industry prominence. Emily takes us through her captivating journey, from managing a million hours of care across multiple states to founding a consulting firm that's revolutionizing home care operations, marketing, and caregiver management. Her innovative 'co-leadership' approach promises to shake up traditional consulting methods, offering hands-on, authentic guidance that carries agencies to new heights.
In the heart of our episode, we dive into the game-changing world of Powerhouse Peers, where home care business owners aren't just meeting; they're evolving together. Emily discusses the perks of having a 'consultant on call' at the ready and the synergy found in structured virtual and in-person meetings. These sessions aren't your typical business gatherings—they're a blend of accountability, strategy, and, importantly, fun, providing franchisees and franchisors alike a chance to thrive in an atmosphere of collective growth.
Lastly, we share empathetic insights into the support systems crucial for independent agencies, dissecting the operational challenges they face. Emily offers hope and practical solutions, like joining a powerhouse peers performance group, to independents in need of a community and strategies that align with their growth. And for those seeking to refine their approach to client and caregiver services, Emily's 'white glove' tactics and operational blueprints promise to guide them along a path to excellence. Join us as we navigate the intricacies of the home care industry with an expert who's not only seen it all but is actively crafting its future.
Interview with Valerie VanBooven RN BSN and Emily Isbell
https://emilyisbellco.com/
Here are some key highlights from the interview:
Embark on a transformative tale with Emily Isbell, a once part-time caregiver who rose to home care industry prominence. Emily takes us through her captivating journey, from managing a million hours of care across multiple states to founding a consulting firm that's revolutionizing home care operations, marketing, and caregiver management. Her innovative 'co-leadership' approach promises to shake up traditional consulting methods, offering hands-on, authentic guidance that carries agencies to new heights.
In the heart of our episode, we dive into the game-changing world of Powerhouse Peers, where home care business owners aren't just meeting; they're evolving together. Emily discusses the perks of having a 'consultant on call' at the ready and the synergy found in structured virtual and in-person meetings. These sessions aren't your typical business gatherings—they're a blend of accountability, strategy, and, importantly, fun, providing franchisees and franchisors alike a chance to thrive in an atmosphere of collective growth.
Lastly, we share empathetic insights into the support systems crucial for independent agencies, dissecting the operational challenges they face. Emily offers hope and practical solutions, like joining a powerhouse peers performance group, to independents in need of a community and strategies that align with their growth. And for those seeking to refine their approach to client and caregiver services, Emily's 'white glove' tactics and operational blueprints promise to guide them along a path to excellence. Join us as we navigate the intricacies of the home care industry with an expert who's not only seen it all but is actively crafting its future.
Hi, this is Valerie Van Booven, and thanks for joining our podcast, for today we're doing something a little bit different. We have Emily Isbell with us and she is going to tell us all about what she does as a consultant and her expertise in the home care industry. So it's really nice to have you. This is so cool that we get to do something a little different today.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1:Well, tell us what is your story. How did you end up doing what you do today?
Speaker 2:Sure, so I'm going to try to keep that the shortest version. But it started actually when I was 19. I started off as a caregiver specifically at Homestead in my college town and it was my part time slash full time job. I did that for a year and a half but before I jumped too far ahead, a month into it I knew it was my future career. I knew caregiving in some capacity and the business around it was going to be my future career. So I actually went and met with the owner of the company, quickly turned around, changed my degree from doing clinical therapy to healthcare administration and, fast forward to five years later.
Speaker 2:I ended up overseeing an organization in Tennessee, right south of Nashville called Franklin in Franklin, tennessee. The owner and I partnered together to do that. I was the face of that company in Franklin and then four years later we had grown it so much that we took over actually the Nashville location and I was a pioneer in the concept of overseeing more than one franchise. So I oversaw the Franklin location and had a separate team there. I oversaw the Nashville location and had a separate team there and did both. Examples for turnarounds just for reference. Fast forward again to keep this as short as possible. 14 years later, we had seven locations underneath our ownership and we were serving over a million hours of care a year out of those seven locations across seven across three different states. So, yeah, and so that was a home instead.
Speaker 2:And then, in 2020, I ended up just recognizing I always knew that I wanted to have my own entrepreneurial journey instead of working with the owner of that home instead location those are home instead locations. So I always knew that. He knew that 2020 happened and it was like guaranteed tomorrow. So, with that being said, I'm ready to actually jump into that on a journey sooner than later. Didn't know what I wanted to do, took time off, took a true sabbatical after kind of following an exit plan to make sure I set everybody up for success and had enough people reaching out to me asking for guidance and support with their businesses that I knew they were telling me what I needed to do next. So, as of today, in 2021, I started my business. As of today, I have a team of seven people and we support home care businesses with their operations, help with their marketing, help with their optimization of their caregivers and just everything that helped make the one million hours a year of service possible under my previous leadership.
Speaker 1:That is totally amazing, and I mean running an organization or multiple organizations that are that big is a true testament to your ability to manage a thousand different things at once, and your experience you know home instead has always been a very respected home care franchisor, and to be a leader in that organization speaks volumes to your ability to lead and stay organized. So so that's awesome. That's a huge amount of work that you put in, and so tell us what you do today for home care agencies.
Speaker 2:Sure. So with my team we have a few different services and I took some notes before our call to make sure I didn't miss anything, because we just had our retreat last week and, if I'm being honest, my brain's a little bit mush from just planning overload for 2024. I didn't want to miss anything. So one of the first things that we provide anyone that's interested in more of a one on one service is a cumulus strategy session. That's where we work one on one and really look at how to try to make sure we turn over every stone to understand their business, and it's really with me primarily. My team supports that in different avenues of it, but really it's primarily with me and that's kind of an entry level service. Just to make sure that it makes sense for any further services with us that are one on one. We have other services that are more group focused and we'll talk about that too. But what the cumulus strategy leads to oftentimes is a co-leadership service with me, and co-leadership is purposely named that for two reasons.
Speaker 2:The first is you mentioned as a consultant and as much as that's true, it does make me kind of like cringe a little, and the reason why it makes me cringe is not.
Speaker 2:You don't blame me for saying it, it's true, but I want to.
Speaker 2:I want to just call it out. The reason it makes me cringe is there are so many consultants just in anywhere that either one say they have experience or can help you save the world and come in and tell you to fire everybody and then leave you with a mess to clean up. So there's a bad reputation out there for consultants. It's not every consultant, but there's enough of them that hurt the other Good faith ones that are doing well, and then two, there's enough well, at kind of same point, a lot of consultants say they had the years of experience or don't really highlight their years of experience, and you have to. You find out later that maybe they didn't actually have the impractice that you claim to have. So I cringe because I had 14 years of blood, sweat, tears and tears true data that backs up what I'm teaching and I just never want people to assume otherwise that and I don't pretend to know all the answers the home care industry is ever evolving. So, with that being said, co-leadership the name comes.
Speaker 1:I really like that co-leadership, and you're right about consultants in general. There's a lot of sizzle and no steak sometimes, so co-leadership is a really good term. I love it.
Speaker 2:Thank you. So, further diving into it, to me it's like a three-legged stool you have to have all three legs for it to stay at. So it's consulting for sure, but then you need the coaching in between all that to kind of keep it all together. And then you also, without a doubt, need leadership development. So all three of those things are being built upon during that time together and ultimately the goal is co-leadership is to work ourselves out of the job. We want I really I always say I want to teach the man to fish, not give him the fish. And so in having that three-legged stool, they can stand on their own once we're done and done is hopefully 12 months, at the worst 18. But then the way we build our business, or the way I build that business, is by getting recommended, referred. So we actually have a waiting list right now for co-leadership, but all of those come from referrals or people that have worked with home care owners, and so that's one piece of the co-leadership.
Speaker 2:The second piece is that and I think it's important to point out and I know it's a little bit exaggerated to go this deep into why it's called co-leadership, but I think it's important is that, unlike what I just described, this idea of just come in fire everybody, do it this way and then they leave. Co-leadership, as you're kind of noticing, is more of a together in this right. We're going to lead through these challenges in your business together. There are some non-negotiables I'm going to have. If you're breaking any laws, regulations, that's not okay. But if you say that you need this part of your business to be the way it is, I'll work around that, because you know your business better than I do. And so co-leadership definitely is this concept of not bulldozing and saying you have to do it this way or you need to fire these people.
Speaker 2:And a personal reason that matters to me is the business that took over. When we took over Nashville, we had the same three team members where they are a year later, and they were the ones that helped us grow from, in terms of revenue, $100,000 to $300,000 in monthly revenue. Same people. So it was really a matter of structure, leadership, understanding how to be more efficient. It was not them that was the problem, it was just understanding and having some of the experience I brought to the table to help them get there. So I do not ever want anybody to think I'm going to come in and tell them to scratch everything they've done and worked hard for all the years that they've worked in their home care business.
Speaker 1:That's refreshing too. I really, as our business evolves on this side, I see that it often is not. You know, you do have people problems sometimes, but it's often not the person, it's really the organization and the way the information is presented to the person and the way that and the expectations being clear, it's not necessarily the human that's making the error, it's just the process is broken, and once you fix that, it's super helpful. So I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:So, beyond that, I want to make sure and do my team justice, because that's mainly talking about me this whole time. We also have a resource we provide franchise or is called profitable performance, and it's essentially a third party support for business performance and learning and development. The beauty for franchise, or of why they would work with that, is because we are able to. There are challenges with franchises right now, especially in terms of joint employment, so we're able to kind of help support their needs without them putting them the entire franchise network at risk. So profitable performance is where we can get me well maybe, I guess, enter into the business and not be afraid to say certain things, whereas a franchise or kind of has to keep their arms reached to protect the entire network.
Speaker 2:So profitable performance and short is helping consulting with with franchise ease on behalf of the franchise or and doing learning and development for those franchise ease in terms of workshops and things of that nature. And then we have a revenue reboot program and this is where a franchise source might reach out to us for some of their underperforming franchisees and recognizing it's the franchisee's inability to get them where they need to go and that's extremely wise on a franchisee's worst part to understand. Franchisees need more than make and offer, because at a certain point and we'll talk about that later, but there's a certain point where a franchisee knows more operationally than the franchisee or ever can, and that's just a reality. That's not anybody's fault, and so that's where we can kind of come in and step in to help. And then, lastly, we have our Powerhouse Peers service, that is our performance group service, and I could talk a little bit more about that, but those are the main services that my team of seven helps support.
Speaker 1:That's a lot. That's a lot of service. That's a lot to do, and I know that the parts that you do by yourself are a lot, but it's great that you have a team of people that's there to help you. So let's talk about Powerhouse Peers a little bit. You primarily work with franchises, and so tell us about Powerhouse Peers and why that's your focus.
Speaker 2:So the beauty of Powerhouse Peers is that it is bigger reach than just my team. So we are able to bring a lot of expertise and as a part of that we have a consultant on call piece where they can reach out with a very specific need. So if they have a bookkeeping question, erica my team member that's the bookkeeping experts I'm gonna get with them on a call. If they have a recruitment or attention question for caregivers, then they would be connected with that expert, which is Sarah, and so we have a lot of reach in that way. But that exists in other avenues of our services. What's more powerful is getting these owners together, having structure, a team of peer owners and when I say peer it means they don't compete because they're usually within the same franchise unit, a franchise or team and they are able to talk about their KPIs and how they're doing and they actually hold each other accountable. And that power of the way adult learning works is you need more than just someone telling you what to do. You need that team camaraderie. There's just so much power and truth in how effective performance groups can be and the structure we bring is monthly I'm sorry, monthly virtual. I'm trying to decide if I wanna go into those needs or not. I think I'll keep it high level. So we have a monthly virtual meeting and then we have intensive three times a year and those intensives are where we bring our operational experience and background and kind of naturally force them to level up, if they weren't already, in terms of what data they need to measure in their business.
Speaker 2:A lot of performance groups in the market research before we started this program, a lot of performance groups fall into the trap of keeping it just very high level in terms of like doing a SWOT analysis, which is great, except it can lead towards just a very unhealthy, nonproductive environment of just people talking about negative things versus action steps that they can actually do to improve their business. So, to keep one more thought on that, the biggest thing that we also bring in that is the accountability piece. So while there's performance groups that exist and you can meet monthly or whatever it might be, we have a facilitator who's following them throughout all of that and making sure they understand their expectations that they commit to. But not only do they have their peers who's given them a hard time, they have a facilitator who's there constantly to further drive that the results that they promised they would have in their business, or the action items they would take to try to get those results. So-.
Speaker 1:Somebody's taking notes and that's right, that's good, that's right.
Speaker 2:It's not just a. We have a good time too. I don't want to forget that. I mean, we call it good eats and business speak, so we definitely make the best of that time together when we are in person, but there is still a lot of work to be done. I always joke on it. My love language is efficiency, and so, as much as that time is short together, it's a two day intensive. It's intensive for a reason, and so we can knock out a lot during that time. But again, we have a good time.
Speaker 1:That's great. Now you know what Accountability is. You know we all need you, know we can say a lot of things. Obviously, anybody who runs a business knows how busy we get and we say a lot of things and we intend on doing a lot of things. But being held accountable and being reminded hey, you remember last month when you said it's, and you know if, once you know that's coming, you're much more apt to spend some time working on that if you know somebody's going to ask about it later. So that's great, all right. So tell us, do franchisors hire your services or do franchisees hire your services?
Speaker 2:So that's a good question. It actually is the answers both. And so when it comes to the one on one, that's typically a franchisee. So, um, when it comes to the one-on-one that's typically franchisee, then the other services are typically a partnership. It really does depend on the franchise or and what they feel like they can budget, but it tends to be a partnership where the franchise or either completely compensates it or they subsidize it.
Speaker 2:For powerhouse pairs, specifically, that is subsidized and that's a role I have for a franchise or to work with us in that direction, because we want the franchise or as equally as much as I can say equally having skin in the game as the franchisee. So we do not. So, to clarify, we want both In the powerhouse peers equation, they both need to have skin in the game and pay for a portion of the service so that everybody's on the same page. We would not let a franchise or pay for powerhouse peers for a franchisee, because otherwise you have people who show up. We just want the good eats and not the business feeds, and I know that because I was in a network who had some a milder version of performance groups and there was definitely the groups that just wanted to have a good time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've been to a few of those meetings. Yeah, there's a few people there that they just there, especially if you have your meeting in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I have a good time.
Speaker 1:So no, that that's understandable. Everybody having skin in the game definitely makes it worthwhile. Yes, I get that across the board. People tend to perform better when it you know, they can feel a little bit in their pocketbook, so absolutely All right. Well, let's talk about. You've talked a lot about working with franchisees and franchisors, and I know that you're Forte and you're great at that. What about independent home care agencies? Tell us about your relationship with working with those kinds of businesses.
Speaker 2:So I want to tell a little bit of a personal story I didn't share at the beginning, and that's the story with my grandmother, my grandparents.
Speaker 2:So when I started not when I started when my grandmother started to need care, it was very early signs that there was going to be a need. She had long term care insurance and I reached out to probably a year in advance. I talked to the homestead owner of that particular territory she was not within my territory, unfortunately, and I had a great conversation. We knew each other before that, so I just felt very safe and confident that that would go well. And when it came time, I reached out to him, said my mom's going to reach out to you and talk to you about services. Do you want it to be you that she speaks to, or what's your process? And he said, yeah, absolutely Glad to talk to her. And so he has a conversation with her. And then by the end of the call he says if it's OK, can we set this up for two weeks from now, because my team member who does consultations with families is on vacation and I live two hours away, so it just be a long drive. My mom set up the meeting, called me and told me that and I just couldn't believe what I heard, given how much advanced notice we had talked about it, how much I had nurtured that, how much I was handing him a long-term care insurance client. So for business owners like that's a easy case typically, and so I just I told her to cancel it. She went ahead and set it up a big cancel it and go ahead and talk to the reach out to the independent home care agency that we knew had a good reputation in that community, and so she did, and that particular company did a great job on the front end. Now I will say, to talk to my story further, they had all a lot of weaknesses too and so unfortunately I'm gonna be the hardest customer right. I've run at the time and running home care businesses. I know what it takes and I know also the challenges. But also my grandmother were talking about.
Speaker 2:But what really hurt the most with that particular experience was that, my grandmother, there were multiple times where no shows occurred and we had processes in place in my organizations for backup, on backup, on backup, to make sure Clients were taken care of and they didn't. They had shown a history of that and my mother had a surgery plan had asked for, made it clear like that we need somebody there. There's been a history, a pattern of no shows. We just need, if anything this day, that not for that to not happen. And sure enough, my dad had to go back and forth from the hospital with my mom having surgery to my grandmother's that just Because they had a no-show and didn't have a plan in place, even though there was so much Proactively trying to solve that. So that that's personal to me, that's my story and so where I'm going with that.
Speaker 2:When you ask your question, what do I do with or how can I support?
Speaker 2:I don't target that.
Speaker 2:I like the, the complexities of a franchise, the franchise or relationship, but if somebody needs care that or needs support that would provide and wants to Improve their experience for both their client and their caregiver, and I can bring value or we can bring value, we're not going to say no.
Speaker 2:And so Because we're talking to you and I know that you have a network of a large network of independent we're wanting to make an opportunity to create a powerhouse peers performance group or an independent home care group that they would have to be non-commuting so they can't be all in the same market, but we would love to make that an opportunity and begin onboarding them into a group in March, and so we would need to make selections, but in January. So if people are interested there, there is an application on my website and we would love to to hear from them and see if there's an opportunity there for an independent home care group to Receive the resources we have in home care operations and help improve their their business well, I appreciate that because you know it as you know Franchi, and there's there's pros and cons to all of this.
Speaker 1:Obviously franchisees do you get that kind of Training and support that our independence kind of have to fumble through. Sometimes if they didn't come from a Background of home care, if they aren't somebody who's been in the business for a long time, you learn it's. It's trial by fire and those little things like having a backup upon backup, up on backup I know I hear Don Fiella on our team talk about that all the time. That is a must and it's challenging to For an independent to see that model or understand that model, or sometimes they haven't been in business very long to create that, that model, because it is a whole another set of staffing issues that you have to sort of attend to and there's more to the story than just staffing. But Appreciate that and what we'll do is we'll make sure that the link to your website is available and to where that form is Is available with this video.
Speaker 1:So if people are interested they can get in touch with you and I would love to see an accountability group in a group that is Wanting to do more with their independent home care agency and learn, and this is this is actually an opportunity that most will never get. I mean to learn from from the franchise or perspective, or the, or someone who's run many locations underneath a franchise or is Something that you don't get the opportunity to do as an independent. So this is a great opportunity for people to learn and to see. And I got to say you know, I mean you work with many franchisors and franchisees across the board, but if we come back to the home instead original the way they set things up such a successful model over time that it would be crazy not to wanna know what really made that franchise tick and how, and everything you've learned since then about different franchises. So to me, it's a win. That's absolutely a win.
Speaker 2:So I appreciate it. Thank you for saying that, and I should. I would be silly not to mention that two of my 17 members are franchisors or home and sub franchisor team members previously, so they're now with me, but so we have both sides of the equation. We have me on the ground level at the franchisee and we have the franchisor ground level in terms of, like, how they manage different states and different situations. So, yeah, I thank you for saying that. I'm excited and proud of the team that I have.
Speaker 2:We all just, ultimately, are driven by what we call having a white glove approach for clients and even for caregivers to make sure their experience in the home care industry is not poor, like a poor experience. We want it to be as high quality as possible. And you talk about backup. On backup, I wanna mention that there are different phases. When you so, some of the first organization that took over was around 40,000 in monthly revenue and then it grew to having in four years, so it's 200,000. The 40,000 level had a different backup process than when you get to size. So you're right that that is a challenge when you first start out at different sizes, but we have that blueprint and can guide you on what makes sense in your business.
Speaker 1:That's great, that's awesome. So we will put it's emilyisbellcocom forward slash application, but we're gonna put that on the screen and we'll put that with this video. So if folks are interested in knowing more about you, about how you can support them, we'll make sure it's all there for them. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us and for getting the word out there about what you do and the fact that you have a little bit of a waiting list here. And there is awesome news for you guys, because I know so many people could use that co-leadership. I'm gonna use that term all the time now People are gonna hear me say co-leadership. So, people, it's great to find a fresh voice, someone who's been there, done that and really provides that stake with all of the stuff that they come to the table with. So thank you for doing the interview and we will be in touch soon. Thank, you.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you so much for having me. Thank you.