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What’s up everybody? It’s Steve “The Hurricane” here. And on today’s episode of “A Drink With The Hurricane,” we are gonna talk about what your caregivers and your clients are thinking about COVID-19 right now in November of 2020, cheers.

All right, and so as we’re getting started with this episode, I wanna remind you again to make sure you are registered for December 3rd as I am doing a webinar on Confidence Amidst Chaos, Let’s Attack Aggressively meaning let’s attack 2021 aggressively handling the biggest problems that we face in the home care industry. It’s a free webinar. Make sure you’re on live with me. It’s gonna be incredible. We’re going to have over 1,000 people like we’ve had in the past. So I can’t wait to have you on that webinar with me.

And for today’s “Drink With The Hurricane,” I wanted to talk about COVID-19 with you because the recent survey that myCNAjobs put out, talked about, how do you feel about COVID-19 today versus back in July three, four months ago when we were just coming down from the first spike? Now we’re in the second wave, and the numbers are going back up, and things are shutting back down again. And it really is some controlled chaos. And a lot of people have mixed feelings about it, but it was very interesting to see this statistic and I had to share this with you. If you want the full report, it’s in the link below. You can click on it and fill out, and you can get the full downloaded report.

But I got to share this with you ’cause it’s just it really was eyeopening to me as I took a look at this, right? And so this is back in July, people had a certain feeling. And today caregivers, only a very small percentage of caregivers are more concerned than they were over the summer. 50%, half of the caregivers are less concerned about COVID-19 now than they were in July. And then about 35%, we’ll say 15%, 35% haven’t really changed. They were concerned then and they’re concerned now, or they weren’t concerned then and they’re not concerned now. But knowing that your caregivers are less concerned, half the caregivers are less concerned than they were months ago is a very good insight to be able to move forward.

People when they’re less concerned, that means they’re more confident in their ability to deal with what’s happening which means they’re more comfortable going into houses. They’re more comfortable taking on work. Now part of the reason why they may be less concerned, it’s probably two part. One part back over the summer, there was the stimulus. If you were unemployed and you had a $600-a-week stimulus on top of your unemployment, you’re probably not gonna wanna work. Well, August 1st that stimulus period ended. And so all the sudden caregivers had to go back to work beginning in August.

And then now it’s November timeframe and caregivers have been around for a while. They’re used to going in the homes. They have the equipment. As long as you have the equipment and you’re properly protecting your caregivers, and you’re following all of the state and the CDC guidelines, you’re giving confidence to caregivers that they can go to work, feel safe, and still put food on the table. That is a very good sign.

And I’m sure and confident that it’s gonna continue to rise as we get further and further into the rest of this year and move into 2021. Now let’s look at the client. You’ve got to think about who are our clients? Our clients are the most susceptible population for COVID-19 when it comes to loss of life. If you look at all the statistics on COVID-19, it is a less than a 1% mortality rate which means that 99 plus percent of the people who get it live from it, and they move on and they move forward God willing healthily, right? So that has also changed where 45% of the seniors who filled out the survey and participated in it are less concerned than they were during the summer.

40% have remained the same. And then you got that last 15% who are more concerned. And obviously if you get a concerned client, then you have to take every precaution possible. A lot of seniors who have needs right now, and this is where it’s a very delicate thing, right? Regardless as to how you personally feel. Like for me, for myself, I’m 39 years old, I’m a healthy man. I have a very low body fat, I workout regularly. Don’t have any preexisting conditions. I eat very, very well. I take my vitamins. I go outside, I get lots of sunlight. And my skin is tan because I’m always outside. All of these are factors that give me extra confidence. And I’m personally not concerned about COVID-19. My kids go to school. My wife and I are not concerned about COVID-19 for the five of us in our household. But we are concerned that we might become a carrier, and we do not want to infect my mother.

My mother had a massive stroke in 2015. She recently was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. She’s morbidly obese, so she’s permanently disabled, morbidly obese, has four or five chronic conditions including diabetes, and high blood pressure, and everything else, you name it, she has it.

If she gets COVID-19, she’s probably gonna die from it or be highly, severely impacted from it in a negative way. So we are extra cautious when it comes to visiting my mother. My kids unfortunately, and this is where the real problem of COVID-19 comes in, and you have to balance and weigh the pros and cons… is it isolate my mom and people like my mom so much to a point that the isolation becomes bigger issue than COVID-19? Or do you intermingle, and you spend time, and you do things with them. And God forbid, they do get it and pass away, at least they have the quality of life.

And to be honest, that’s a very subjective emotional answer to which there is no right or wrong because there’s logic on both sides of it. But the key here is when you think about our seniors, you think about our patients, right? Part of the reason why they’ve probably changed is because of that subjectiveness because they’ve probably been like “I’ve been in an assisted living for months in isolation. I’ve been in my apartment for months in isolation. I would rather have people come and help me and be around other people that I love and people who can give me the assistance that I need then be isolated because the isolation is killing me. We all have to die someday. I don’t wanna die from COVID-19, but I’d rather have- I’d rather be with people than be completely isolated and cut off from the world.”

And it’s again, it’s a very subjective thing that I’m saying here and I’m sharing this with you because I get very passionate about this. My mother falls right into this category. So here you have me talk about myself and how I feel for myself. But then I also talk about my mother, how I feel for her, and many of us can relate to what I’m saying here. This is why this is such an important topic and for us to understand that people are more comfortable with getting care now than they were when this first started. They’re more comfortable now than they were over the summer. That means we have to continue to build the confidence. We make sure that we have protocols, procedures, safety measures in place. And we express this to obviously our caregivers but also to our clients.

Many of you have been very fortunate enough to not have to deal with COVID-19 directly. But those of you that have know that there’s quarantine periods, there’s periods where you’re gonna pay caregivers to be out of work because they got sick on the job. There’s things that you got to do to protect your clients and you have to take every necessary precaution. But how do you move forward with confidence? How do you get through this?

It’s good to know that people are less concerned than they were over the summer, but never let up on your policies and procedures. Explain them when they call, explain them when you sign up a new customer, explain them when you start the case. By being diligent and going through all of these steps no matter where the client falls in. Say they’re just as concerned as they were over the summer or they’re more concerned now, right? It’s getting colder, I can’t go out as much as I used to. The numbers are spiking. I’m more concerned now than I was over the summer.

When you have a plan, and you execute the plan, and everybody’s a part of the plan, that instills confidence, that is how you do this. This tip is very, very important for both the caregivers and the clients. You put this plan in place, you communicate this plan, and you make sure that people are carrying it through. This will greatly reduce the likelihood of someone transmitting the disease.

Now I can tell you personally in my own office, I’ll share a story with you. One of my staff members came down with COVID-19. I had to close the office down. Had to have every single person go and get tested. I know a bunch of doctors in the area. I got tested immediately. My results came back 48 hours later negative, and I came back into the office. I disinfected the entire office. We already had protocols and procedures in place. I went and made sure everybody got even further. And when we have meetings in my office, everybody’s got to wear a mask of some type and we keep our distance internally in our office. We’re able to do this ’cause everybody has their own private office so everyone can work in their office. And then when we come together, we do it. We set up our room where everybody’s maxed out so everybody who wants to eat lunch together, we still can eat lunch together.

But they’re all at their own table each at least six feet apart. These were things that we had to put in place because one of our coworkers came down with COVID-19. By the grace of God after the testing, nobody else came down with it. We were able to work remotely and get things done that week while everyone was getting their test results. And then when the results came back, we came back into the office with these even stricter policies than what we had prior to. But everybody was confident. We got through it together. We did it as a team. And then we continue to serve you, our home care audience. I mean, this is what it takes. This is how you do this.

And the other thing I’ll leave you with on this is it brought us together. We are so much stronger now than we were when COVID-19 first became a thing, and we were a strong company then. But now we have a common enemy, right? We have a common threat that we’re all facing together, and we’re facing it united as a team. And we get through it as a team. That is powerful and your ability- It all comes down to leadership, right? I’m a leader, I’m the leader of my team. I’m a leader in the industry. So my ability to keep us moving forward even in the face of adversity.

I talked about courageousness a couple of weeks ago, right? My ability to lead my team in the face of adversity empowers them to move forward confidently. And it empowers the company ’cause even though the company isn’t alive, it is living and breathing in its own way. I mean, we have customers, we are generating revenue, we are paying salaries. All of these things are happening. We have a little mini economy inside this giant macro economy, right? We can confidently move forward because we are united in all of our decisions and in all of our stances on where we stand with this.

The same thing applies to you in your business. Have a plan, share your plan, internally, caregivers and clients. And when you do that, yeah, you’re gonna be able to grow. So there’s our tip for the week. I hope to see you on the webinar on December 3rd. If you haven’t registered please do because it’s gonna be incredible. It’s gonna be game-changing. And by the way, I’m gonna give out something I’ve never given away before. It’s an $1,163 gift to one lucky individual who’s live on that webinar. So it’s December 3rd, 3:00 p.m. Eastern. Register now and put it on your calendar so you can join me, and I promise to give you everything I need to blow away the competition. I love you all. God bless, stay safe.

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