(VIDEO!) The Senior Care Industry Netcast with Laurie Malone – GoldenHeartScottsdale.com
We were fortunate enough to have Laurie Malone, GoldenHeartScottsdale.com on our show and she offered some great insight and #advice for other #seniorcare and #healthcare providers.
Episode 30 of the Senior Care Industry Netcast is live!
Full Transcript:
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
This is Valerie VanBooven with the senior care industry Ned casts, where leaders with three or more years in the senior care industry share their advice. It’s six questions in nine minutes to let’s get to it.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
In a few sentences, tell us who you are and what you do.
Laurie Malone:
I’m Lori Malone and managing partner and CEO of Golden Heart Senior Care, headquartered in Scottsdale. My husband and business partner, Rodney is partner and COO. I handle referral partners and clients, and he handles operations.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Awesome. All right.
Well, tell us what is the best thing about serving aging adults?
Laurie Malone:
So we got into this because of my parents. They said they were going to stay in their home. They absolutely were not going to a facility, which is what my aunt wanted. And we thought about, “Well, that’s a thing. People want to stay in their home.” And now more than ever with COVID and what’s happened, aging safely at home is really the best solution for seniors.
Laurie Malone:
And my phone rang off the hook during quarantine. We’re very blessed. It still is because of that reason. So we’re happy to have that as our passion.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah. There is no better place right now. Home is absolutely where everybody should try to be if they can, if it’s feasible.
Laurie Malone:
Right.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah, absolutely. All right.
I hear from other senior service providers that marketing online can be challenging. It’s a little confusing and it’s definitely ever changing. What has been your experience or what are your thoughts on that?
Laurie Malone:
I actually gave a national speech last year on social media means business. I’m the biggest advocate of social media. And I believe you and your team know that Valerie. We’ve leveraged your help for the Google algorithms, all the stuff we don’t know about. LTC, and then now Approved Senior Network and you guys help us. But beyond that, I work it every day. I get tons of business, referral partners, clients, employees.
Laurie Malone:
We actually acquired two small companies last year through me posting on social media. It is the most effective way we’ve had of growing our business.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
I would agree you guys do a very … You’re very engaged and involved. And I think whether it has to do with COVID or you’ve done this forever, but way before COVID. You’ve always been very engaged in your online marketing. I know you have 10 gazillion LinkedIn contacts and you’re … [crosstalk 00:02:33]
Laurie Malone:
It’s personal work. It’s not something a marketer can do. It’s something I do.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
That’s right. And that’s the most important piece of this is that you can hire anybody you want to post stuff for you. But if you don’t engage yourself and you don’t contribute to your own social media, it doesn’t work as well. We really need to participate, engage it’s social actually. So, let’s be social.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Anyway, so you guys do a great job and we appreciate that.
Laurie Malone:
Thank you.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Okay. Back to your wisdom about senior care.
What piece of advice would you give to other senior care providers?
Laurie Malone:
So my biggest advice and I mentor a lot of other Golden Heart franchisees, is you have to be all in. You have to be … We decided I was the face of the business, probably because I’m Italian and not shy. And my husband would rather run operations and he’s very good at that. But you have to be visible, a community person that people rely on. And we work through the Approved Senior Network for that. It’s very important that people view us as a resource. If somebody wants information on placement, it’s not what we do, but we know who to refer to, who will do an excellent job. You have to just be all in.
Laurie Malone:
If we’re out to eat before quarantine, every person we interact with, “Hey, do you know anybody that wants a caregiving job? We’ll put them through a school, we’ll help train them and so on.” So it’s just an all consuming thing. My children are so used to it. They don’t know any different. Mommy and dad work all the time, but we love what we do. If you’re passionate about it, it’s so consuming and so fun.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yes. As long as you, if you have a passion for it, focus on that passion and sometimes we need a moment to bring us back to why we do what we do. And when you’re out there networking and talking to people about what you do, it really, even on the roughest day, you remember these people are why I do this. I think that’s awesome.
Laurie Malone:
Right.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
All right.
Well then you have a win in life or in business, how do you like to celebrate?
And that could be anything. It could be a graduation. It could be a birthday. It could be a client who’s so happy. How do you like to celebrate?
Laurie Malone:
So let me say this. Tomorrow, July 14th, 2014, marks six days in business, six years in business. We literally started six years ago tomorrow. So we’re going to surprise the office, even though we’re not in there very often. We’re in and out, everybody’s working in separate social distance stations. There’ll be all kinds of balloons and lunch catered and so on. And then my husband and I always celebrate by taking ourselves to a nice meal. And if we can’t do that, we’ll cook one at home and have some champagne. You have to celebrate the small stuff I believe. I just said to him this morning, “Do you realize tomorrow six years? This is a big deal.”
Laurie Malone:
He’s like, “Yeah, we started with two of us. Now we have over 75 employees.” And we’re very fortunate and blessed.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yes. That is an excellent reason to celebrate and you made it a past that one year mark that’s so crucial. You made it past the five year mark that’s so crucial. And you’re running and gunning and doing great. You guys have all kinds of reasons to celebrate. That’s awesome.
Laurie Malone:
Thank you.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
So thank you for that. Okay.
Is there anybody out there who has made a difference in your career, your life, an inspiration, an organization out there?
that you think, “Man, I really liked the way they do stuff.” I don’t know. We’ve had all kinds of answers on this one.
Laurie Malone:
My dad always told me, don’t do it halfway, whatever you’re doing, be all in. So that’s number one. May he rest in peace. But in this business specifically, we didn’t know what a care plan was six years ago tomorrow. We didn’t know anything about it. We relied on the corporate training and the people that helped us and most importantly, referral partners and those referral partners, two of them have been with us since the beginning. One’s Angela Oleo, the founder of Assisted Living Locators nationally, she’s brilliant. Two is Robin Bib of Blue Zone Marketing. And she’s a patient advocate. She refers home health. We refer to her and so on.
Laurie Malone:
And then there’s other people that have had a profound effect. And it’s really surfaced how the value of referral partners during this quarantine and COVID, we’re navigating murky waters. Caregivers are panicked. Clients are panicked.
So Lisa Paulson, who is with Homestead Hospice, we have referrals from Hospice of the Valley, Suzanne Sanchez and a good friend, Beverly Diaz, who’s with Visiting Physicians. I met all these people through online marketing, every single one of them.
Laurie Malone:
And in every case they brought value to us and we’ve hoped to have brought a lot of value to them.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah. Great. Thank you very much. Those people will be so thrilled that you gave a shout out to them. Having great marketing partners in your community. We got to work together. It’s more than just you, yourself and your business. There’s so many different needs our seniors have. So having lots and lots of resources who are willing to refer back to you, man, that is a great strategy all the way around.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Cool. Okay. Well, thank you so much for being on the show and for doing what you do. We appreciate you and all your brave caregivers out there.
Laurie Malone:
Thank you, Valerie. Take care. Bye bye.