The Let's Get Comfy Podcast
Hosted by Founder and CEO of Comfort Measures Consulting LLC, Norman Harris. The Official Healthcare Edutainment station. Empowering listeners with the knowledge and resources to age comfortably. The podcast platform will uniquely provide laughter, peace, joy, resources and most of all COMFORT. Fostering professional partnerships and engaging the audience by providing them access to a REAL family-like conversation. That gives them the REAL reasons. Connects them to REAL reliable resources. To get REAL results. For REAL Comfort! Through interviews with C-suite healthcare leaders, experts, caregivers, founders, authors, educators, and thought leaders who are doing incredible work for older adults, family caregivers, and the healthcare community.
The Let's Get Comfy Podcast
Redefining Long-Term Care: Quality, Leadership & Innovation | CMC Media Women’s Panel with Dr. Yvette Guzman
What if long-term care wasn’t defined by stigma or red tape, but by dignity, design, and measurable excellence? In this powerful episode of the CMC Media Women’s Panel, moderator Dr. Yvette Guzman, DNP, leads a transformative conversation with Deborah Franklin, MHA, NHA, and Dr. Kelly Smith, PhD, CLSSBB, CPHQ, CDP—three leaders proving that skilled nursing and post-acute care can be both compassionate and high-performing.
💡 Inside the Episode:
Dr. Guzman, CEO of Olive Health and Vela Wellness, brings a holistic and person-centered lens to the discussion—connecting medical innovation, accessibility, and empowerment to reshape the patient experience.
Deborah Franklin, Senior Director of Quality Affairs at the Florida Health Care Association, explains how Florida’s value-based Medicaid reimbursement model rewards quality rather than punishment, creating space for innovation, staff development, and patient-first leadership.
Dr. Kelly Smith, Co-Owner of Q3 Healthcare Consulting, breaks down the Baldrige Framework for Performance Excellence, showing how to align mission, strengthen systems, and turn complaints into catalysts for sustainable improvement. Her consulting work helps facilities across the country earn AHCA/NCAL Quality Awards through data-driven design and continuous learning.
Together, the panel explores how to humanize healthcare through better systems, stronger leadership, and purpose-driven collaboration.
🌟 Featuring:
👩🏽⚕️ Moderator: Dr. Yvette Guzman, DNP
CEO – Olive Health | Vela Wellness
Instagram: @VelaWellness
Facebook: facebook.com/OliveHealthFL
🏛️ Deborah Franklin, MHA, NHA
Florida Health Care Association
Website: fhca.org
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/deborahfranklin
Facebook: Deborah Bennett Franklin
🔬 Dr. Kelly M. Smith, PhD, CLSSBB, CPHQ, CDP
Co-Owner, Q3 Healthcare Consulting, LLC
Website: q3hc.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/q3-healthcare-consulting
Facebook: facebook.com/q3hc
📍 Learn more and explore upcoming panels: comfortmeasuresconsulting.com/media
🎬 Editing & Post-Production by: OTV.agency
Hi, I'm Deborah Franklin. I'm the Senior Director of Quality Affairs for Florida Healthcare Association. Our department is about improving quality in the skilled nursing facilities in the state of Florida because I'm passionate about helping improve quality for our facilities so that our residents will get the best care they can. You can find me on social media on LinkedIn, X, and Facebook. The website is fhca.org where you can find all the resources and education that Florida Healthcare produces so that we can together improve quality.
SPEAKER_05:Hi, I'm Dr. Kelly Smith from Q3 Healthcare Consulting. I have a PhD in aging sciences from the School of Aging Studies at the University of South Florida. I'm a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Practitioner and also a certified professional in healthcare quality. I started Q3 Healthcare Consulting four and a half years ago with my business partner Jennifer Zolkowski, where we strive to elevate long-term care by strengthening leadership, aligning organizational teams, and using data to drive performance excellence. Our website is q3hc.com, and you can follow Q3 Healthcare Consulting on LinkedIn and Facebook.
SPEAKER_03:Hello everyone. I'm the CEO of All of Health and I'm from the Greater Tampa Bay area. I grew up in Plant City, Florida, and I received my master's and doctorate degree from the University of Tampa. I created All of Health five years ago to improve gaps in our healthcare system. Let's jump in. Why did you all join a panel called If a Woman Was President?
SPEAKER_04:It's exciting. I think women make a wonderful impact in our world. And I love in my lifetime, I have seen that empowerment grow that and that appreciation grow. And so with a title like that, yes, I was privileged to be part of it.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I agree. I think that women have become much more empowered over the last few decades, and I think seeing them rise alongside of men, we now have a better understanding that the sky is the limit for us. And it's exciting.
SPEAKER_03:I definitely agree. I love the title, and I think that women are in a much more empowered position currently. So, where do you get your sense of purpose at work and what keeps you motivated?
SPEAKER_05:So I think my per my sense of purpose at work comes from my childhood. Um, I I focus on older adults and improving their quality of life because of the great memories that I have from my childhood from being with my grandparents. And I am a servant leader at heart. And so that is one population that I care deeply about. Um, that coupled with my faith that we are to care for others the way God intended, um, that keeps me motivated and driven to achieve excellence in long-term care.
SPEAKER_04:Right. I um I was raised by wonderful parents that instilled in me that God put us here to make an impact in other people's lives. And to that that impact was greater than the material possessions. And so, with that being instilled in me as a small child, um, I accidentally got into long-term care, but you know, I say accidentally, I know who directed me there, because it the lives that you can impact in this profession is is amazing. And that's the motivation I stay focused on is to make sure I'm impacting lives, whether it's our elderly, our frail and elderly, or the actual caregivers that are giving the care to be able to impact.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you both for sharing. It sounds like both of you have been impacted by your childhood, and that's what guided you to your current professions. Yes. So, do you think that our current long-term care system is actually designed to care for older adults or just contain them?
SPEAKER_04:Um, I this is my 40th year of doing this, and what I've seen change and improve in that 40 years has been amazing. My motto is the day I quit trying to improve is the day I need to quit. So can we continue to get better? Absolutely. Uh, just the innovation that we've seen with your business, you know, helping close that gap of uh when someone leaves a hospital is that's the type innovation. And now adding technology and AI, I think we'll continue to see that improvement and that change and that shift in what we're doing for the long-term care sector.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I agree. I think that there has been great improvement, but as Debbie indicated, you know, there is still room for improvement in what we're doing. Um, I don't like to think about any older adult being contained in a setting. Unfortunately, we, you know, the the providers, it runs the spectrum, right, of great quality. Um, but I think that it's our jobs to continue to advocate for performance excellence in the long-term care environment. Um, and then also, you know, to get the word out about all of the wonderful things that providers do. I think because of our litigious society and, you know, oftentimes nursing homes are painted in a bad light. I think we have a great opportunity to share the good things that happen in nursing homes. And as Debbie said, you know, highlight and support the caregivers that are doing that hard work every day. Because we're not, you know, it's not 1950 where women are staying home and they're caring for aging parents. Women are out working in the in, you know, in the industries as well. And so, you know, we need to provide that home-like environment in long-term care. And I think that a lot of times that gets missed because people tend to focus on the negative. But, you know, a nursing home is a wonderful place to work and be. Um, and it takes a special heart to work with older adults, especially when you get into um, you know, provider settings that have uh individuals with Alzheimer's and dementia, which is extremely challenging, right? And so I think we're in a great position to educate society on all of the wonderful things that happen there.
SPEAKER_03:So you both mentioned stigmas about long-term care. If there was a stigma law or process that you could get rid of, what would it be and how would you change that?
SPEAKER_05:I mean, laws. Plural, definitely plural. Definitely plural, yes. So, as most of our viewers may or may not be aware of, um, you know, nursing homes are the second highest uh regulated industry in the country, second only to um nuclear power. And I think by, you know, having different initiatives to reduce those regs, to be able to allow, you know, caregiving staff to relax and actually provide that person-centered care rather than focusing on checking boxes for compliance that really only require us to meet minimum standards rather than continuously improving and striving for performance excellence. I think we could go a long way by having initiatives, and Florida Healthcare is a great, you know, a great advocate for the providers in the state. And I know American Healthcare does that on a national uh level as well.
SPEAKER_04:So Absolutely. One of the things that Florida Healthcare led the way on is um the state legislators let us know several years ago that our Medicaid reimbursement was gonna have to change. And so right away we looked as an opportunity as to how we could tie that to quality and bring in that value-based care. And we actually have the data to show here's the goals we're gonna work on. And with those goals, you're gonna get rewarded for doing the effort to meet these goals. So if you're gonna improve quality in this area, you're gonna get extra add-on to your Medicaid rate. And we have seen that work. So rewarding works much better than punitive, and our current regulatory environment is very punitive. Um, with the fines, um, it's very disheartening. We're humans taking care of humans, and so if you have an oops happen and you get those high-lever tags, it costs that facility a million dollars to recover from that. And so, how is that helping the resident? Um, it's not. We're value-based purchasing, where you're getting rewarded for showing those quality outcomes, um, then you have more resources to pour into more quality improvements. And so, I would like to see in my lifetime that continue to change. We do have to have those guide rails where uh not everybody is a good provider. And sometimes they need the guide rail to learn where I need to be. And so you do need the guide rails, but because one person messes up and then you get 900 pages of new regulations, does that improve the quality of life for that resident?
SPEAKER_05:And wouldn't you say too, it, you know, with the depth of regulations that we have, it doesn't allow for an environment to create psychological trust among teams. So having people feel that comfort level of being able to speak up if you see something, you say something, and not feeling like it's gonna come back to harm them. But, you know, I'm a Baldridge examiner for the American Healthcare Association, and one of the things that we look at as we're reviewing applications is, you know, opportunities for improvement. And so I would, you know, encourage providers and any any providers that I work with to look at grievances or consumer complaints as something that it's an opportunity for improvement, right? And the more that you can demonstrate that you're addressing and that you're listening to your customers only are gonna make you better. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. Um both of you mentioned that there's kind of like these like excessive layers of rules and regulations and things like that. And we talked briefly about AI. Do you think there's an opportunity to leverage AI to kind of get rid of some of those extra red tape and allow people to actually take care of the patients instead of being worried about all the roles?
SPEAKER_04:We're seeing some current movement with AI. Our current speaker of the House, um our Senate president, Senator Albretten, is very big on that, and he wants to be able to help us do whatever we need to do to bring more technology into our skilled nursing facilities so that we can improve the care. Um, what we're seeing now is the AI is scrubbing the medical records and showing you that maybe this alert, this resident may be coming close to go back to the hospital, or you need to dig deeper into this resident's care, you know, the care plan. It's just giving you those alerts to look at. And then there's also some AI that is doing this, the um, you know, the doctor can be the doctor, the nurse can be the nurse, and it's capturing either language and you know, charting it for them, doing some things like that. But the big stuff we haven't seen yet, and I'm excited to see that take place and enter into this profession.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. I know the AI scribes is helping a lot of us healthcare providers save time because typing out all those notes is definitely very time consuming. Yes.
SPEAKER_05:So yeah, and I think you know, there's been a big concern about whether AI is actually going to make us not use our brain as much. And I, you know, I was pretty reluctant as a PhD researcher, right? I'm all about evidence-based practices, I want to see the citations for things. And and I think for me, I've kind of come full circle and understanding how to use it so that it helps me think better, right? Because it is directed by us. We're the ones prompting and telling it what we need. Um, and then, you know, even if I'm speaking at a conference, you know, helping me brainstorm about all the different areas that we need to make sure that we address. Um, so I do think, you know, there's going to be a little bit of a learning curve, right? For people to find a comfort level with it. But I agree wholeheartedly with you, Deb. I feel like, you know, it it's it's machine learning, it's making us better. And I think as the quicker that we adopt that, that we can provide even better care for our residents.
SPEAKER_01:Hello, I'm Norman Harris, owner and CEO of Comfort Management Consulting Community. We are a healthcare resource that specializes in business development or independently and privately owned healthcare organizations.
SPEAKER_03:Do you all feel like the pressure for women leaders to prove themselves is greater from other women or from men?
SPEAKER_04:That's a good question. Um having 40 years in this profession, um, I of course went on the journey of um I had a particular operator that I worked for that thought men should be at the top. And um I said had several not as well qualified men that were my boss, um, so much so that would come sit down with me and have me go over the financials with them and tell them what they needed to know uh for the entire company they were running. And you can't let that get you down. You have to stay focused on what what I'm about, which is um making an impact, until one day that owner said, you know, I should have made you the boss. And you prove you proved yourself. So you might have to work a little bit harder. Um, but now I think we're in the era that that sometimes you could be in an environment where the women have had to work as hard. And so I'm not gonna, I'm gonna give you grace because of that. But then if there's someone that's focused on moving up the career ladder, it might be that I'm gonna show them I'm better than you. So I I think it's both worlds.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I would agree with that. I don't necessarily see a big difference between men and women. I mean, I've worked in the corporate world um as well outside of long-term care. And I think in general, you know, we've kind of gotten over a little bit of a hump of women having to prove themselves that we can be moms and we can be wives and we can, you know, do all of these other things and still be committed to our profession. Um, and maybe it's just my middle age, you know, now that I'm middle age, I don't subscribe to that. You know, I'm not in competition with other people. I just try to be the very best that I can do every single day and then make my company Q3 be, you know, the best that I can be as a leader for for my group.
SPEAKER_03:So absolutely. And I've seen it for myself personally. I think in pockets, I've you know, found that some women or some men have, you know, felt like, you know, I'm too young or inexperienced, or you know, they expect me to be, you know, twice my age, um, owning a healthcare practice. And I think, like you guys said, it's definitely very much changed. It's not very often that it happens, but when it does, I'm more just empowered to say, you know, well, this is, you know, I'm making the change that there that I want to see. Yeah. That's good. Um, so what is one experience, habit, person, or mindset that you had to let go of to grow?
SPEAKER_05:For me, so because I have a PhD in aging sciences, which is an interdisciplinary degree, I when I started graduate school, um I wanted to focus on policy issues that negatively impacted older adults. And so for me, starting a healthcare consulting company where I was going to be working with providers on compliance, on education, on quality improvement, um, I had to quickly realize that my job is not to have all the answers, but to surround myself by people who did. And so people that would, you know, I'm a Baldridge examiner. So, you know, my mission, my vision, my values, they're all very important to me. And so, you know, creating an environment where I'm bringing in trusted individuals that share that mission with me that can help me do that work, um, that's my job as the leader. I don't need to know the regs by heart, right? I have people that I can rely on for that, and I'm I'm very blessed in that regard.
SPEAKER_03:So it sounds like being able to let go of some of the things.
SPEAKER_05:Yes, because I used to think, well, I need to go to nursing school and I need to be a nursing home administrator, and that's just not the case, right? I mean, you pick up things as you go along, and you know, I've been in it long enough. I know enough to be dangerous. I always say that, or to ask the right questions. I think that's more important than having the right answers. I know all the time. Yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely. For me, it was um, I had to let go that I could fix everything. There's a lot to be fixed, especially 40 years ago. And in when I was running the building or running um the whole company for Florida, you know, I I always made a list of things that I wanted to improve on, you know, for the facility, whether it was a facility, um, my systems and processes for the company. I always had these goals to improve, you know, because the day you quit trying to improve is the day you need to quit. And so I finally had to realize I need to do the best I can, prioritize that this is the goal that we can really work on and achieve and not focus on my to-do list is this long and I haven't made it down to here, and and celebrate those goals that we have met. And the same with Florida Healthcare. When I moved to Florida Healthcare and became, you know, I do advocacy work helping providers, and it might be a provider that has received that high-level tag and they're devastated. And, you know, maybe it was a not so nice surveyor. I can't fix that. I can do what I can do to help the provider overcome it, to be the best they can be, um, to make sure their team doesn't get deflated, that they realize they're humans taking care of humans. We look at our weak spots, we look at our systems and our processes, and then we become better than we were before. And that's what I realized my role was to help pick them up and help them get stronger and overcome that oops that happened and become better, whether they have a maybe they haven't had it, oops, and and they just need they recognize that we're missing some systems and processes. We want to be better than what we are. Well, I can help you do that. And I can introduce you to Kelly that can also help you do that. And um, because we're both very passionate about the Baldridge criteria, the Baldridge Awards will teach them the systems and processes to become the best they are. And so we tag team on that, um, helping people understand that.
SPEAKER_05:And I think, you know, one of the things you hear a lot about in this industry is that they're always fighting fires. And so part of the reason that we started Q3 was really to provide consulting services using the Baldridge framework for performance excellence to elevate long-term care. And by and simplistically, I say is making sure that every member of your team is rowing their boat in the same direction, right? You're creating a system, you're breaking down silos. And so, you know, one of my favorite taglines for our company is quality, quality by design. And so if you have a proactive quality management system, you're still meeting the regs. You're you're more than excelling past what the regs require, you know, generally. And and like Deb said, you know, you're you're meeting the mark and then you're exceeding it. And so I feel like that's that's one of the things that I am so passionate about because I feel like, you know, if if we could just get more people to think about that from a proactive approach, um, you and set up those systems, we wouldn't be putting out fires. And then we could truly be delivering that person-centered care, and everybody would understand what's expected of them, um, our workforce would be more engaged, things would be more efficient.
SPEAKER_03:So absolutely. So you guys both mentioned being more proactive and having processes that work for the system instead of kind of like responding to issues as they come up. And do you guys think that, you know, rolls into other areas of health care?
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely. You know, preventive the Maha. Um, you know, one of the big things is prevention. You know, they're trying to educate everyone and look into our programs at how can we prevent a decline, uh, whether it be in our system and processes or in our health.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. I think what you all both said leans itself to other areas of healthcare as well. You know, we need to have good processes and be more proactive instead of reacting.
SPEAKER_04:And the big thing that Florida um has been very successful on is the collaboration between the other agencies, the other providers. Um, you know, during our pan the pandemic, other states, Harvard University contacted Department of Health and said, what are you guys doing in Florida that you were able to stand this up so quickly? Well, one, we have hurricanes, so we kind of had some ground, uh some foundation already uh laid, but it is the collaboration between the agencies, between the providers. I'm at liaison to Florida Hospital Association, um, that we have regular meetings, you know, looking at what's happening with the long-term care sector, the post-acute sector with the hospital, the confusion. And we found out during the pandemic, I did two weeks of calls that we covered all the hospitals in the state of Florida, and the majority of it was education of the difference between an assisted living and a skilled nursing facility. And and so that collaboration helps break down those silos, as you have talked about, Kelly, that are are so it's so big to for quality to break down those silos.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. Because if one area is getting better and the other is not, then it's truly not getting better. Right, exactly.
SPEAKER_05:I think one of the most exciting things, and this might be a little bit off topic, but you know, as I mentioned, I'm an examiner and trainer for the American Healthcare Association's Quality Award, but I also sit on the governor's panel here in the state of Florida for long-term care excellence. And, you know, a lot of times we see this inequity across our society of the haves and the have-nots, right? And so one of the most wonderful experiences that I've ever had, you know, I I on the governor's panel, we have a lot of CCRCs or continuing care retirement communities or life plan communities, I should uh say now is what we're calling them. Um, and you think about um the people who have the resources and the money to live in those higher level places. Um, but one of the most rewarding things for me was visiting a facility that had a very high Medicaid census, and so reimbursement rates were low. Um they but their team, I remember their social services director had been there for 30 years and they celebrated all of their holidays in the facility with the residents, um, and they truly could get a gold quality award from the American Healthcare Association. So, what I like about the quality component is if you're doing it right, it doesn't matter how much money you have, right? You if you're using your staff efficiently, you're creating that engagement and making everybody feel, you know, that they are a part and they own what's happening in that facility, you can accomplish that regardless of your margins. And that's something that, you know, I really feel passionate about getting that message out. I mean, I'm all about incentivizing quality. You know, one of my biggest things now that I'm trying to work on is in Florida, I know Deb knows this, but our all of our audience may not. If you have a silver or gold quality award, you get five additional quality incentive points for your reimbursement. But I would argue that gold should get even more than that. And so that's something that I'm working on through my affiliation with the University of South Florida is to show that and to demonstrate that. Because a gold quality award, I mean, these are facilities that just shine and they make me want to cry when I go there. Um, you know, because it's like, wow, you're really doing this for your residents.
SPEAKER_03:So absolutely. And I think you highlighted something really important that you don't have to have endless resources. If you use what you have effectively and use the processes that have been put in place, you can be super effective. And I think, you know, working in healthcare in general, I think the first thing we always hear is, oh, we need more help, we need more staff, we need more whatever supplies. And it's not always that. It's thinking about how can we work with what we have and make it the absolute best.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, and I think, you know, sometimes, so I'm a geek about quality improvement. You know, when I was getting my doctorate, I hopped over to the College of Engineering and learned about all the wonderful things that they do in the high reliability industries like aviation. So a lot of what we have in healthcare is based upon manufacturing and engineering to make sure that we can reduce errors and to prevent issues from happening. And I think, you know, all of the standardization of processes, all of the protocols, all of that sets a great foundation for your team to know what's expected of them and make them have buy-in and ownership of what they're doing. And I think sometimes, you know, in long-term care, we think about filling bodies, you know, filling space with bodies and we have to meet our staffing results.
SPEAKER_04:That's the regulation of the staffing requirement that gets you that mindset.
SPEAKER_05:Exactly. And so I think, you know, like you said, using your resources to the best to their to the optimal level rather than just adding on, because that doesn't always help. It's sometimes muddy is the water.
SPEAKER_03:So in closing, I would like you both to share what is next for you both, and where would you like to see um women in leadership and healthcare?
SPEAKER_04:Next for me is to continue to make a difference. Um, my true ultimate goal is to raise up leaders. Um, I, you know, 40 years in this profession, and we need new leaders, and so I'm very passionate about helping healthcare administration graduates. I'm an adjunct professor, I teach healthcare administration to help, you know, teach the next generation of leaders. Um, I have worked real hard to get my name out into the into our profession of if there's a um student that's trying to find an internship, I'm gonna help them. I want to help them along the way to be a successful healthcare leader, and that's what I want to continue to do until the day, you know, it's my time to quit is making an impact in our profession, but also with those leaders and so that prepare them to continue that impact going forward.
SPEAKER_05:Deb, you're a legend in the industry already. I'll just say that. You already are. When I go to other states, I'm like, hmm, they could talk to Florida. And I everybody is is the the Debbie equivalent in other states. Um for me, I'm really excited to announce that in the spring I'm going to be teaching healthcare administration students about leadership for the University of South Florida School of Aging. And what I am really, you know, obviously I'm a big proponent of the Baldridge Framework for Performance Excellence. And so I'm excited to teach our healthcare administration students. So those are the folks that are going to be running hospitals and nursing homes and other types of healthcare agencies and really get the word out on what this, you know, performance excellence structure means and how it can help them because it's really all about it's a management document, basically. How are we operating? And I'm actually going through the process with my staff right now at Q3 of responding to the criteria and making sure that everybody's on board. Because if I'm out there preaching it, I need to be doing it as well, right? And so, um, yeah, so that's on par for me. And then uh the study about um, you know, trying to demonstrate the benefits of getting that gold quality award over silver. So I'm just gonna continue to to beat the streets and and focus on Baldridge and and hopefully make some type of an impact and get people to follow that in their management.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. And I think it's important to note that all of us are willing and open to taking people on that are wanting to learn more about the senior industry. I always take students, I never say no to a student. Yes. And I always, you know, you mentioned like a lot of nurses and nurse practitioners, they want to work in dermatology or pediatrics, and those are more like the glamorous type roles. And whenever I take a student, I always, you know, they always say, you know, this is way more fun than I expected it to be. And they're like, oh, the patients are all so sweet and thankful. And I think that's super important to highlight is like these people really are so grateful for the care that they get, and um, what the work that you guys do to improve their care is so amazing. Um, but I think it's also really rewarding, and I think people don't realize that because you know, like we talked about earlier, the stigmas are there, and people are like, Oh, I don't want to work with geriatrics or in nursing homes or any type of senior living, and I really think that it's one of the things that I definitely want to change, is like those stigmas and introducing younger folks to the work that we do because it is so important and it's so rewarding. Yes, absolutely.
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SPEAKER_03:So my next question is what would you tell your son or daughter about the world, working, healthcare? What do you want to leave them with?
SPEAKER_04:I'm gonna leave more than just My son and daughter, I have 11 grandchildren and my first great-grandchildren, so grandchild. So I'm very passionate about trying to instill in them their faith. You know, I want them to have their faith, but their family values to cherish that. But that we were placed here to make an impact, it's not about us. If our focus is on us, they're going to keep hitting a wall. And you receive way back more back for giving than you do for taking. And if they can learn that, um life will change for them. And that's what I try and distill in others. If you focus on helping others, raising up new leaders, or helping um people become better people, um, then that's gonna help you. And if I can instill that in all my children, my grandchildren, and my new great-grandbaby, then um I think they'll be successful in this world.
SPEAKER_05:I don't believe you're old enough to be a great-grandmother.
SPEAKER_04:Thank you.
SPEAKER_05:So I should have gone first because you said a lot of what I would say to to answer that question. I think, you know, for me with my daughter, you know, in a in the difficult middle school years, you know, she's gonna be 14. And and, you know, along with what Deb said about, you know, we have a purpose. We're here to, you know, serve others. It's not just about us. And I try to demonstrate that to her regularly of giving back and being involved in community service and um an elder at our church as well. And, you know, I feel like I learned that um it just came very natural to me to help others. And when I see her, um, like the other day, she they did community service for school and she went to an assisted living facility and she exchanges numbers with the older adults and they text each other, which I think is super cute. Um, and so, you know, but but even more so than that, like to have empathy and to treat people with compassion and give people grace, right? Because I feel like in our, you know, in our society, we're so quick to um think something negative, right? And and one of the things that I'm a big, I always tell my husband as I preach, if somebody cuts you off on the road, you have no idea what they're going through, right? You don't know what news they just got. You don't, and so rather than just think about it's all about me, you know, you have to think people are coming from many different walks of life and we don't know what they're experiencing. And and I think that's one of the things I try to tell my daughter as she navigates friendship and getting older, you know, just because somebody doesn't respond to you the way that you want, it may have absolutely nothing to do with you, and you can't take that personally, right? All you can do is be the best version of you and don't be anxious, right? When you when you're anxious, you get you need to give it to God because He's in control.
SPEAKER_03:So, what about you? So my son's only eight months old. Um, but I have lots of plans for him. But I'm trying to, you know, not put the world on his shoulders, of course. Um, but I think the biggest thing I would want, and also the things that you guys mentioned, I would add is that, you know, just know that there aren't really true limits in in the world. If some if there's a limit out there, it's just because someone else hasn't pushed past it. And I think that there's a lot of opportunity for growth and to change things and kind of shake up industries if you're willing to kind of question and try different things. And I would just want him to be kind of one of those innovators.
SPEAKER_05:Well, and teaching, I think, our kids to persevere, right? When you hit a roadblock, don't give up. You keep pushing forward, right? Because if you listen to like Tom Brady's speeches that he gives, it's it's all about nobody's perfect. There's always going to be somebody out there who's better than you at something, right? But it's your compassion, your passion that's gonna make you push through and and achieve what you want to achieve.
SPEAKER_03:So the last question, but what was the point that made you kind of pivot in your career, your life, and kind of changed everything for you?
SPEAKER_04:I know the exact moment. Um, my original background was finance, and I was working in corporate banking, and I had four children, um, one pretty small one. And if you work in downtown Tampa, you you had to ride the express bus down, you couldn't afford the parking and corporate banking. And um so I took a temporary job, so I thought, in a nursing home as a bookkeeper to be closer to my children. And I realized very soon that I could have just a job, just a job, or I could impact lives. And what profession could you be in that you could impact the workers, the families, and the residents? And I realized that was my calling, that I could do that, that there was a lot of people I can impact. Um, and that's when I pivoted and went back to school to get what I needed to get my nursing home administrators license, then went on to get my MHA and um and now teaching new leaders. But that was the pivot moment that do I want just a job or do I want everybody needs a paycheck, so you know you need, you know, unless you you come from generations of um of you know wealth, you know, you pretty much need a paycheck. So I could have just a job where I got a paycheck and went home at the end of the day, um, or I could really impact lives, and I chose to impact lives. And so I'm very blessed 40 years later because I can tell you so many lives that I did impact, and you know, you see the difference and realize it was a good choice.
SPEAKER_03:That's amazing.
SPEAKER_05:So kind of oddly, COVID was my pivotal point because after I got my PhD in aging, I was hired by Marilyn Wood of Opus Senior Services Group, um, who is a legend as well, Deb, as you know. Um, you know, my dream job, I thought, oh, this is wonderful. You know, I was working um with the providers and the different, we had skilled nursing, we had assisted living, we had a nurse practitioner group and home health, and I was focused on, you know, performance excellence. Marilyn believed in Mal in the Malcolm Baldridge framework. Um, but when COVID hit, I was kind of a cream of the crop employee. I wasn't a direct care worker, I wasn't a nurse, like I wasn't out in the you know, facilities delivering care. And so I was laid off and I was devastated because I, you know, that had been, I was so excited to to hold that role. And so after probably about six months of hee-hauling around feeling sorry for myself, um, I decided, well, you know, I could actually do something that's even bigger and better that I could lead. And that's when I um actually uh met with Jennifer Zolkowski, my business partner and Gene Stevens at the time, over at the wooden spoon in Plant City. Um and Jen had been telling me for a long time, you should become a consultant. And so that day I said, well, why don't you join me? And this is kind of what I believe in. And so feeling that I felt like COVID was a low because I was laid off, but I think I wouldn't be where I am today if that hadn't happened. And it just energized me to just continue to, you know, get my message out and what I believed in. Because at the end of the day, I'm better suited to be out there being a cheerleader for the Baldridge framework, you know. Um, but I but I had a great foundation at Opus, you know, very mission-driven, and she was a great role model and mentor. And Jennifer, um, who's my business partner, was the president of that company, and so it just made sense because we had, you know, very similar values. Now, what about you?
SPEAKER_03:So, my point where I pivoted is when I decided to become an entrepreneur. Um, I think kind of up until that point, I had pretty much been on this, like, very consistent. Like, I went to school for nursing, and then I got my master's and my doctorate, and I was kind of climbing that healthcare corporate ladder, and everything was very like I knew exactly what's gonna happen next. And I I like that. I mean, as we do as humans, we like to kind of know what's gonna happen next. And um, you know, it was actually during COVID as well. I just kept feeling like this like itch to like do something more, and there wasn't really a space for me to do it, like there wasn't a job that I could go apply for that would like fulfill what I saw that there was a need for. And um a friend of mine at the time was an entrepreneur, and I was like, I don't want to do that, it's too unpredictable, you know. You're scared, you don't know what to expect. I'm like, I'm just gonna stay right here in my little bubble where I know my next job I'll be, you know, moving up to this, or you know, whatever. And um, but it just kept coming back as like, but there's such a need in this space, and nobody's doing it. Um, so I started, you know, I didn't know what I was doing, but I started my own company and started doing healthcare house calls and going to senior living communities, and you know, it was just kind of like jumping out of a plane and figuring it out as I went, but I think that it made me so different than I was I had been on this kind of like very predictable trajectory, and when you become an entrepreneur, you have to kind of throw that all out the window, and you just get so much more courageous, like you're just willing to knock on more doors because now it's like your thing, you have to go for so much more, and like I was never the type of person that liked to go to like networking events or like talk to people, but now I had my own company, so I had to go out there, and I just I'm so grateful for that moment because it just made me become so much greater than I probably would have become.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, it pushes you out of your comfort zone, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and we all love to be comfortable, yeah. Yeah, and it's just great when you have to get uncomfortable because it makes you rise sometimes. All right. Well, again, I think that we have hit on a lot of really important points today, and I'm so grateful for both of you and your expertise and your insight on everything that is going on in the long-term care world. And um, I hope that everybody watching is feeling encouraged and in in noticing how that long-term care is something that we should all be um interested in.
SPEAKER_02:Hi friends, I'm Jennifer Eddings, the heart behind the Call Light Collective. Be sure to tune in on Comfort Measures Media on YouTube, as well as follow us along on all of your other platforms you love for podcasts together. We're gonna be walking each other home one conversation at a time.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you for tuning in to the If a Woman Was President panel. And please um go to YouTube and subscribe to Comfort Measures Media. Thank you.
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