“In this week’s episode of A Drink With The Hurricane, Steve interviews his colleague, Tim Hodges, Founder of Honor Aging. Tim is a consultant serving Hospitals and Skilled Nursing Facilities. In this interview, he shares tips on increasing longevity in the workplace, how to live healthier longer, working with SNFs, how to get your foot in the door, and so much more.
Video Transcript:
Steve “The Hurricane” (00:02):
What is up everybody? It is Steve “The Hurricane” here, and I’m just super excited for today’s episode of A Drink With the Hurricane because I have the chance to share with you someone who, who is, is a former mentor of mine, who’s now become like a colleague of mine in the influencer space. And he represents the skilled nursing facility. He represents the hospital side of it, the, the true medical side of the elder care industry. And so, you know, before I introduce our guest speaker here, I want everybody, as always, I’m gonna drink with the hurricane. I want you to raise your glass, and let’s take a toast and cheers to your success. So, cheers. There we go. Cling. All right. And so everybody you see with me, let me introduce you to my friend, uh, founder of honor, and just, just, I, I’m honored to introduce the fabulous Mr. Tim Hodges.
Tim Hodges (01:01):
Hey, Steve. How are you?
Steve “The Hurricane” (01:03):
I am doing well. I have been going since 5 am this morning
Tim Hodges (01:08):
I know you never stop. I know you’re incredible. <laugh>.
Steve “The Hurricane” (01:11):
Some days that energy just, it just kicks in and I’m like, you know what? Let me get the editing done. Let me do this, let me do that. So it’s, it’s a wild day.
Tim Hodges (01:19):
First of all, it’s an honor to be here. You know, I’m a humongous fan and I just think the world of you, I’m so proud of you and you’re an inspiration, as I told you be all the time, actually. But I have a question. Do you do most of your, what are you most productive? Morning, afternoon, or night?
Steve “The Hurricane” (01:35):
Evening! So, it was a rare thing that I got up this morning. I usually, and the person, kids go to bed, wife goes to bed, and I’ll work until two, three in the morning and sleep in. I set myself, I have clients all around the world, so, I usually come in later. Um, but this morning my wife and the dog were up at like three o’clock. So I woke up shortly after, I was like, I’m not gonna get a head start on today.
Tim Hodges (01:58):
I love that. It’s fun. Yeah. You gotta work in your own groove, right?
Steve “The Hurricane” (02:02):
Yep
Steve “The Hurricane” (02:03):
Cool. So, uh, real quick, you know, Tim, before we get into like all of our, our nuts and bolts and discussion points here, tell everybody who you are, what’s your background, you know, what is honor, what, what are you doing these days?
Tim Hodges (02:16):
Thanks. Well, again, thank you for having me. I’m really honored to be here, not to overuse that term, but, uh, it’s great. First of all, it’s great to see you and catch up. So, um, real quickly, I started in the elder care business, if you will, um, in the, geez, in the 1980s, probably a lot of your, your viewers and your customers weren’t even born then. But I started as an assistant administrator, actually started in the hospital, and then I started working in long-term care, actually in the early nineties as an an admin assistant administrator of a nursing home. And the company that I worked for, the, the, it was a large, large multi-nursing home facility company. And our, our quality and our financial performance, I’m proud to say, I don’t know how much I had to do with it, but was really good.
(03:05):
And they said, Hey, you know, we’ve, this is the best performing facility in the company, have ever thought about a career in business and marketing and not administration? I said, sure. So I took a different track. I took more of a business development marketing track, and then I went on to, um, help build and run, uh, one of the largest senior care companies in the Northeast that had, you know, nursing homes, assisted living. I wear a lot of hats there, mostly business development. But I actually ran operations for many years and was on the executive team. And then after 20 years, I thought, you know, I don’t think anybody should do anything for 20 years. You know, <laugh> the same thing, even though it was diverse and fun and always a challenge. So I thought, I’m gonna scale back and maybe semi-retire at 52. That was my goal to retire at 50.
(03:50):
I was a couple years late, and then covid hit and I got really sort of, I wanted to get back into the game and help. So I st started honor aging in honor of my parents because they always told me I should start my own company. And, uh, a uh, my business partner is a nursing home administrator, and uh, also was a former employee of mine. He said, Hey, if you’re doing this, I wanted, I was blessed that, you know, people wanted to come along for the ride. So we’re, we’ve been in business for, for about a year and a half now, and we really do, uh, we have six or seven companies. We do consulting to consulting on operations and marketing to assisted living in nursing homes. We have a number of clients. We do hardcore operations of nursing homes. We just, we’re blessed.
(04:34):
We just won the contract in New Jersey to manage, um, the Menlo Park and Vineland Veterans Nursing Home. I see. And do consulting there. Uh, so that, you know, that that’s speaks to our mission of wanting high to add value, especially to our veterans who I believe should get really the, the best care of anyone since they sacrificed so much for us. Um, we, we own, we have partial ownership interest in a hospice in New Jersey. It’s a small hospice, we like to call it New Jersey’s Hometown Hospice. And then we have a very vibrant recruitment business for leaders in senior living, administrators, directors of nursing, corporate folks. And we’ve placed over a hundred individuals over the past year into leadership roles. So we’re really proud of that. Uh, wow. And we’ve got other business interests on the horizon, all aimed really at elevating the level of quality of care that patients receive in the home and in senior living. So it’s multifaceted. Um, we didn’t know exactly what direction it was gonna take, but you know, our, with it as, you know, the, the market, the customers decide what they see value in you for. And that’s, that’s, that’s where we go.
Steve “The Hurricane” (05:48):
Right? And so, just for our audience, you know, as you’re watching this and you’re listening to Tim speak here, Tim is somebody who was, was almost like a mentor to me in many ways. And so when I was back in my day when I had my company care choice, I always have, always have a care choice reflecting here, right? You, you probably remember one of these clipboards, Tim, but, uh, he, he was, he was the, he was the chief marketing officer at that big, big, big, uh, multi location, huge entity that he was talking about before here. And when I wanted to start my company, this one here, hurricane Marketing Enterprise, is home care evolution. I had asked Tim what was his thoughts, and he told me that you should go for it. Somebody like you, six months from now, if it’s not working out, you can always find a job.
(06:33):
You have a skillset. You have a a a certain desired, uh, audience who are looking to hire somebody like you. You’ll always be able to find a job. But if you commit to something 20, 30 years passes by and you, you may look back and regret not having taken that leap of faith. So I started my company largely because of that advice. So I’m, I’m very proud and happy to see that now 11, 12 years later, you’ve done the same thing. Mm-hmm. And now you are a leader and all of the people that you mentored and guided along the way, you’re kind of working with them again now at a completely different capacity. Like last night I saw you were, you were speaking at a, at a c u event all the down in South Jersey, right?
Tim Hodges (07:16):
Yeah, it was a great one actually. We had 150 hospital case managers and the team, it was a, um, yeah, you’re right. They were former, the team were former employees of mine. They now worked for a company. And, you know, you’re such an amazing inspirational public speaker. It’s, it’s so, so much cooler when, when it’s a very engaged, you know, um, not to pat myself on the back, but they, a lot of people were there had come because they heard I was speaking. So I felt good about that. And I’m passionate about speaking about topics related to combating ageism, healthcare and educating people on the new realities of longevity. I’m not a doctor, I’m not a gerontologist, but I’ve paid my dues in the senior care space and have done enough research to feel comfortable communicating other people’s brilliance about that topic. And that’s what I, I do a lot of that.
Steve “The Hurricane” (08:12):
So let’s, let’s take that and let’s dive into some of that. Cause there’s a couple of topics that we’re gonna touch on here. And this is one of the ones that I am actually very passionate about, because I, I, a, as a, as I guest, I, I’m a millennial, right? But I call myself a xal cause I’ve got a little bit of X in me and a little bit of millennial. I’m 1980, right? So as a, as a xal I look forward to my retirement, right? I have a retirement plan. I, uh, have, my wife and I are gonna travel just, just all of the traveling that I currently do every week. I get discount flights if I wanna fly here, but you gotta go on these dates and discount hotels here. So my wife and I have already planned out where six months of every year when we’re retired, we’re gonna be traveling. But that’s us. There’s this movement though, where I feel like you have your baby boomers and other people who are maybe second career or elder professionals, so they’re not old. I don’t wanna use the word old, because old is a state of mind, but, but they’re, they’re close to retirement or even past retirement age, but they’re choosing not to retire. You know? Can, can you talk to that, that this is the longevity that we’re discussing here? Yeah. Talk to some of that. What does that mean? What does it look like?
Tim Hodges (09:23):
Yeah. Well, I just wanna take a pause for a second and go back to your introduction, just so your audience really appreciates who you are. Oh. So not only were we friendly, but you know, you walked the walk. I know that you do a lot of education and training to, to, um, professionals, obviously the home care space and others, but you know, you probably forgot, but you were also someone that helped me with my own family when you were at Care Choice. I never, you’re the only person, you’re the only person I called because I knew, which is so relevant to everything that you do, because as you know, people, we can start here. I’m a big believer that people don’t refer to companies. They, people refer to people in healthcare, in car sales and home sales. And not to belittle that, but it’s such an emotional and important decision, home care, nursing home, hospital, whatever, that people go to the people that they trust the most to get things done. And you were that for me. So I just wanted to say thank you, but also tell your audience that you did this, you lived it, and I know you still do. So I, I wanted to share that, and thank you again.
Steve “The Hurricane” (10:32):
I, I appreciate that. And I know real quick
Tim Hodges (10:34):
For that. Yeah, sweat
Steve “The Hurricane” (10:35):
The, uh, I, I, it’s real. Actually, think about that this morning, and you had told me this is something I teach all my clients. So everybody who’s listening to this, uh, is, it’s relative, right? You wanna be that agency that that’s the go-to agency. And so I remember this morning I was thinking about when you spoke to your social worker about the care that you were looking for, and she gave you a list, and then you go back, I don’t have time for a list. And you said to her, if it was your mother, who would you want exactly to take care of your mother, right? And then she goes, call Steve <laugh>, and then you Exactly. Yeah, there’s a lot of pressure on, there was a lot. We were nervous, but I knew we’d get it done. And yeah. So I’m glad we’re able to fulfill that for you.
Tim Hodges (11:13):
You know, I, you, you, I know you said this, and I tell people this all the time in marketing, training and sales, that there’s nothing better that you can tell a customer or a referral source, then don’t worry, I will take care of everything. And I, you said that all the time, and, and that’s the people you go to. It’s, it, you know, if you’re using a service, you want somebody who is gonna get it done and, and get it done the right way. So, um, I know you’ve built your career on that, but I just wanted to tell you again, I appreciate that moment of my life and all you did. All right, so let’s talk about the new reality of longevity. So there’s a lot of elements to it. You know, the, the number one thing that, you know, when I give these talks to healthcare professionals, I tell them upfront, I’m not here to talk about, you know, the origins and the physiology of Alzheimer’s or congestive heart failure or diabetes.
(12:08):
I like to present information to them to help them become better people so they can serve their clients better. Whether they’re discharge planners or case managers, whatever, whatever their profession is, my goal is to help them become more well-rounded. So the piece about, you know, longevity has a few components. There’s the mental and spiritual, there’s the physical health, and then there’s the financial. And all of those are, are very relevant, very relevant issues that most people don’t spend enough time thinking about as they age. And if you think about it, the average lifespan in the 18 hundreds was in the thirties, a little over a hundred years ago. Today it’s 75, all right? And there’s no reason, and most projections are that lifespan will incrementally grow, you know, to be close to 90 or 130 to 40 years. So our lives are being extended, but we wanna enjoy our lives in our older years.
(13:07):
So we want to be healthy. But the number one fear people have about aging is running outta money. And I think that’s pertinent to your group because there, there’s an opportunity to help educate caregivers and their parents on best practices and things they should be doing. Now, you know, Steve, in the United States, it costs about a million bucks to retire. That number is still valued. That’s always kind of like the, you know, the number that you’ve heard for years and years and years. Unfortunately, in the United States, the, the average median savings for somebody in their mid fifties is a little over a hundred thousand dollars. So if you think about it, they have 10 years to retire and they have, you know, 10 times less the amount of money they need to retire. And the thing that people don’t plan for, and there’s a great, I’ll throw out a couple of reports and links for people right now, but there’s a couple of great statistics.
(14:07):
There’s a company called Edward Jones, which is a very famous investment planning, retirement planning. They just did a fantastic survey with age wave, and people reported that their biggest fear in retirement is, is running, running out of money. But they give a lot of tips and tools and things that you can start doing to better prepare. And one of the things that they recommend is stop giving all your money to your kids, your adult kids. Um, and the res research in return for millennials is the millennials don’t want their parents to suffer financially. They want them to live active, healthy retirement lives. So to the extent that your audience, you know, can educate and thus market by education their companies, I think financial planning and, and strategies is really a good topic that cuz people turn to you. You know, I had a family member call me last week and the, my first advice to them was, you need to see an elder attorney.
(15:06):
You got a lot of moving parts with the states and durable power of attorney. I didn’t even want to talk to them about assisted living, which is why they called me because they don’t have the basis, you know, and there’s people I trust, like I turn to you, you turn to people. So, you know, as elder care providers, you know, as we talk about longevity, there’s many parts to it. There’s financial, there’s, there’s health, et cetera. Now what I went to a lecture the other night by, so if you wanna, if you wanna get that report, it’s Edward Jones and the, just gimme a second, I’ll, I’ll have it by the end of this. But the, um, oh here it is. It’s called Resilient Choices and it’s on their website Edward Jones. And I highly recommend it’s an easy read, it’s 30 pages, but it outlines what people’s new thought is, both mentally and financially and how you should best prepare for retirement.
(16:00):
And it’s fascinating. For example, this is a just one little, uh, if, if, if I can make, make a tangent for a second. I was surprised to read, I know this is gonna sound silly, but the number one thing people do in post 65 to combat loneliness is they get a pet. You know, so, so if you think about how we service our clients, how could that fit in? You know, you have a lot, I’m sure you have a majority of your clients are home care, correct? Yes. I’m sure there are pets in the home. There are things that maybe you could do to, you probably talk about this to service the pets cuz the pets are aging to, but it’s shown that pets can cure a lot of loneliness that, that, that that older people have. And women live on average three years longer than than men. So there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of older people out there and loneliness is really an epidemic as well.
Steve “The Hurricane” (16:56):
Yeah. You know, you, you, you, you said you’ve fit so much light on so many different things. So like, first to the pet point, and I, I’ll use this as a shameless plug, right? Everybody’s gotta make sure that they, they go to home care evolution com magazine and they subscribe to get the next issue of Home Care evolution quarterly, which is coming out in a couple of weeks. But the reason why I’m using that as a shameless plug is because my own mother, you know, wrote an article in the last issue and she’s got a caregiver and she wrote about her experience having a great caregiver and everything else. And my mother had a dog that had lived with her for 16 years and eight of those 16 years was after her stroke. And so having the caregiver being able to interact with the dog really helped her out.
(17:40):
So that’s one thing you touched on that I love the other thing to the financial planning aspect of it, which is so important and something I’m very passionate about. My boot for those who’ve been to certain events that I do, you know, I talk about, it’s all about quality of life and, and, and it, it’s, if, if you’re in your twenties, that’s the best time to really get started with it. You know, a lot of people don’t realize the laws of compounding interest. I actually was at my financial planner on Wednesday and just looking ahead, I’m 42 years old right now. I started many of my financial planning things for retirement when I was 22, 23 years old. I started, and if you can with hustle, with commitment and dedication, for me it’s 20 to age 50. That’s 30 years. If you can set aside, I know it sounds crazy, but just 1 million, and I say it like that because it’s 30 years, right?
(18:31):
But just a million dollars accumulated by the time you’re 50 from eight and put nothing else into it. So then like to your point, instead of giving it to your children in your fifties, or maybe you can give it to your children in your fifties, right? You stop putting in at age 50 to age 65, over that 15 years, that 1 million will be almost 3 million because of the laws of compounding interest at 6%, which is pretty much the industry standard during that 15 years with the million dollars in, it’s, it’s mind boggling how much people can do if they do it early. Now obviously many of our people listening right now are there that, that’s great, Steve, I, I’m 57, I’m 60. What, what is that gonna do for me? And that’s why we’re talking about longevity because there is this shift where a lot of folks are wanting to stay at work or they’re wanting to start a career, second career or, uh, they’re opening up a business or whatever it is as their retirement.
(19:27):
And so that’s a separate shift in and of itself. And yes, to your point with people living longer, I actually think back to my own clients. I used to take care of every single one of them who retired late in life, lived longer. Like I, I’ll never forget this man, he was 96 years old on his 96th birthday, he retired from working and he got sick like two weeks later and then he passed away like a day and a half after that. And the family was like devastated. And I said, do you know how lucky your father is? He had 96 years of good health. Yeah, he lived his life. Yeah, he worked, but he went on vacations, he did stuff and he only got sick for like a week and a half and died like that. That’s that, that’s fortunate. You know, so I just wanted to touch on that. So, you know, to this longevity, to this, uh, I, I either have to continue working or I want to continue working. What, what do you say to that audience?
Tim Hodges (20:20):
Well, the two things, one is, I, you’re so right on everything you said, but I also want you, and you know, whoever hears this, to also think about compounding interest in your health. Cuz it’s the same concept, the same way your money grows, your over year, over year and improves the same attention you pay to your health has benefits that grow exponentially over the years. So, um, I wanted with, with whatever time we had left, I wanted to introduce to you cuz I, um, I feel like I’m an ambassador for this group. There’s a, a, a Harvard professor named Dan Butner, B u E T T N E R, who came up with a very, um, emerging, well-accepted theory called the Blue Zones. And the Blue Zones Steve are five places on the planet that Dan and his researchers discovered had the most percentage of population who were centenarians or a hundred years old.
(21:22):
Um, there’s one in Southern California and the Baja coast, uh, Greece, Japan, uh, I apologize, I forget the other two. Italy actually. Italy, yeah. So I know that I’m familiar with that report. I’m gonna quickly go through with you why these, why those five places have the highest life expectancy. And there’s nine pillars I’ll go through very quickly. The first is purpose. The purpose to get up every morning and make an impact, whether it’s your work, your grandchildren, your pet, your gardening, your painting, your singing, you’re going to Broadway, your climbing, you know, whatever it travel, whatever it is, having a sense. Purpose number two is doing one thing every day to reduce stress. Whether that’s, you know, transcendental meditation, whether it’s yoga, whether it’s watching mindless reality tv, which is my go to w or taking a walk, whatever it might be. You have to do something every day for yourself to bring down your stress level.
(22:25):
Meditation has proven to actually add years to people’s lives if they practice it for at least 15 minutes a day. The next three are a very strong connection and bond with your family and however you define family. But if you don’t have, you know, your safe place, which is your, your your inner circle, your family, um, if you do, it can add up to six years of life, uh, to your lifespan. The next is your tribe. And that’s your friends, your social circle. People that are, you’re comfortable, that are like-minded, but not afraid to challenge you. You trust, um, you seek advice from et cetera. You have to have a tribe. It doesn’t have to be a thousand people. It could be three, it could be six. But you know, having that camaraderie, if you will, and kinship with people is critical. The next is faith.
(23:19):
Only six people of the 2,500 people studied, and I know you’re a spiritual guy, only six people reported that they did not have a strong link to spirituality. So think about that. Only six people outta 2,500 that are have an average life expectancy of a hundred did not have eight. That’s the percentage of a 10th of a percent, right? It’s, it’s ridiculous though. So whatever, whoever, however you define your spirituality, this is not, not on a soapbox, right? You know, you have to, if you wanna live longer, research has shown that you have to believe in a, you know, you should believe in a higher power or you should practice believing in whatever it is you believe in. And now the next four, by the way, all of these are in everybody’s control. The next four are more dietary and health related. So people that have a high life expectancy walk 10,000 steps a day.
(24:14):
It doesn’t have to be the benefits of, of mo walking more than 10,000 steps a day are flatlined. There’s really no incremental benefit from doing more than 10,000 steps, which is the good news. It’s not easy to do 10,000 steps. I have one of these monsters on my arm every day reminding me. But people that walk 10,000 steps a day live longer. And then the last three are nutritional, plant-based Mediterranean diet is the preferred diet of these individuals. So low fat, low saturated fats. And then they do something interesting. They found something interesting. If you eat and are 80% full stop eating p people that have life lowering lifespans don’t eat till they’re, they’re full. And the last one, which is my favorite, I’m not a drinker, but people who live long have a glass of wine every day. So you can have that glass of wine. I know <laugh>. And those are the nine pillars.
Steve “The Hurricane” (25:14):
I hundred bottles of wine at my house. I’m a wine collector, I’m a wine collector. I’m, I have about 400 bottles of wine at my house, and my wife and I drink a glass every day at least.
Tim Hodges (25:24):
So I’m gonna put you on the spot and ask you, of those nine, are there two or three that jumped out to you that you feel you can do set goals for and do more of?
Steve “The Hurricane” (25:34):
So I’m gonna be real with you, Tim, I’m doing all of those and
Tim Hodges (25:38):
I know you are
Steve “The Hurricane” (25:39):
For those of, for those who are listening who’ve been to my events, you know that I open up every single event with a session called the Five Wellness. And the five wellness is encompassed basically everything you said, having your social wellness, having your spiritual wellness, having your financial wellness, because obviously financial stress can carry over into other areas. Yeah. Making sure that we have that mental, uh, wellness and that we’re in a good mental and emotional state. I, I mean, with that one, I always talk about how with all the mental health, uh, issues that we have in our country and around the world, anxiety and depression are kind of running rampant. Uh, people are addicted to these things and this is not helping the cause at all. It’s actually making things worse. So we have to make sure we’re making time for that ma mindfulness, meditation, prayer, all of that.
(26:24):
And then obviously with the physical. So everything that you said, I I, I live by all of these things and I was laughing when you had mentioned about the men, the, the overall health and wellness leading to longevity in a exponential standpoint. Where I, I go to the doctor regular, I actually have a vitality doctor I go to Good. And with, with the physical fitness that I do with the eating, with the time for spirituality with my family, everything that you just said. I actually am the physical age of the average 21 year old man. And I’m twice that at 42. And so I’m, I’m pushing it. I’m actually have, I’ve reached new limits in, in, you know, my physical health. I mean, you, you, I work out regularly. So everything that you’re saying, I subscribe to it 100% and I’m glad that you brought it up because that is the key to longevity.
(27:15):
If you wanna continue to work later in your life, if, if you have to be able to keep up with the pace, if you want, if you, if you have to work later in life, you need to be able to keep up with the pace and, and, and being able to do an eight hour day, being able to do, you know, nights week. And, and for those of you who are starting a business, second career, you know, the average adult doesn’t start a business until they’re well in their, their forties. That’s average. That means there are a lot of folks starting later. You know, you look at people like Colonel Sanders, I, he’s one of my favorite people to look at historically. He was 65 when he started Kentucky Fried Chicken died in his eighties. So he had 15 plus years of Kentucky Fried Chicken to start this whole external beyond his life legacy that is Kentucky Fried Chicken.
(28:03):
He started at 65. You have to be able to physically keep up, mentally, keep up everything else to be able to do that. So I love what you said and for all of our listeners, everything that Tim is talking about will be in the link below. We’ll have all of the links to every one of the websites that he’s referencing here. So this is perfect. I think what we’re gonna do, Tim, I think we’re gonna actually make this into two different videos. So let’s change our, our subject. Now I wanna talk about, you know, as an expert in the, the healthcare sector, you know, most of my audience here that’s watching these videos, these are home care business owners. And so something that is that, that I’m very passionate is helping them get better at what they’re doing. And I love your background being marketing and then you alleged operations.
(28:52):
Cause mine is the same way, right? When you’re out there promising, and then when you’re pro, you have to sometimes step in to be able to deliver what you’re promising, which makes you an operations expert in delivering it so that you kind of switch it over. And that’s how I am too. I’m doing this from the point of I want to help my client and my listeners improve the quality of care for the end user. So if they’re trying to get business and they’re trying to work with skilled nursing homes, they’re trying to work with assisted living, they’re trying to work with hospitals from your side of the desk, right? Mm-hmm. You are the skilled nursing, you are the hospital, you are the assisted living. What is it that you expect and what is it that you’re looking for from these home-based providers when they’re transitioning your patient back home?
Tim Hodges (29:41):
Yeah. So, um, there, there it’s not that complicated as you know, I think that, um, you know, I, I own my own business now, so I have to grow my business. So I’m still my number one, I have young, a lot of younger people that work with me, that I, part of what I enjoy about my business now is that I’d like to leave a legacy of developing other leaders and helping them have a successful life, you know, long after I’m gone. Um, and I, I, I, I talked to them about, um, things that, you know, were helpful to me in growing, in growing my career. And one of them is very simple, and I know you know this too, and it’s really comes down to relationships. I think I, you know, I know that sounds horribly simple, but as I said, people don’t refer to company as they refer to people.
(30:31):
And I think, you know, I spend, I try to spend, I, to be honest with you, I don’t need to, I’m blessed. I don’t financially have to go out and speak three nights a week to audiences or have lunches with people. I do it because I like doing it. I like to interact. I find people interesting, but I also feel, you know, you have to invest time and getting to know people and having, having them get to know you and not just talking about your product or service, but, you know, people wanna know there’s character. They want to know that there’s reliability and relatability. And I think, you know, you have, you have to obviously s which I’m sure you spend a lot of time coaching on, you’ve spent a lot of time nurturing your, you know, relationships. I, I talked to one of the greatest moments I had last, last evening, for example, it’s top of mind is, and I’m not saying this to toot my own horn, I was surprised.
(31:28):
Three people came up to me and said, I do you remember me from 20 years ago? I always, you know, always enjoyed working with you, et cetera, et cetera. That to me is the greatest, you know, compliment when people kind of, you know, when you stand, when you stand for something for people. But, but, but to get there, you have to get out there and, and pe you have to be transparent and you have to make the effort. So, you know, the, the core things are obvious. You know, dependability, quick turnaround time, delivering on your promises. Sometimes what you say no to is more important than what you say yes to. I’m, I’m a marketing guy by nature, and I, you know, I know you too. You’re a people, please. You always wanna please everyone, the customer, your family, your friends. But, but, but I’ve learned over time that you can’t just say yes, just for the sake of making people happy.
(32:20):
You gotta do it the right way. So I’ve learned the value of saying, you know, I don’t know the answer to that, or I don’t have a solution to that. Or, we can’t accept your patient in any of the settings that I consult in. Or, or, or manage because we don’t have the staff or we don’t take that type of client, or they don’t have the finances, whatever. Or we need to help them get on, you know, get onto Medicaid or veterans assistance, whatever it is. I think people appreciate, there’s nothing worse than re nagging on a promise. So I think number one is don’t don’t make a promise. You can’t keep don’t over promise. Be people. Respect you more for telling you the truth. And also if there’s a, there’s, you know, it’s healthcare. I say this all the time. There’s, it’s never problem free on, on any referral, on any, it’s emotional.
(33:09):
It, there’s a lot of moving parts. So there’re going to be mistakes and the ball’s gonna be dropped somewhere. But the providers who shine that I know I work with, and the my teams work with are those that say, look, we, it’s our fault. We own it. Here’s what we’re doing about it. And you, you know, I’ll follow up with you tomorrow on the result done. End of story. So I think the major tenants of what people expect are reliability, transparency, and credibility experience goes a long way. Hustle. You know, I I I I like to to tell my teams that, um, there’s no shortcuts. You know, and I think in today’s age, with no offense, you’re, you’re instant
Steve “The Hurricane” (33:51):
Gratification,
Tim Hodges (33:51):
Your different ilk. But I think the people that are 20 years younger and less than I am, were brought up in a different era. It’s a digital age. You want high speed internet, you want immediate results, and there’s zero shortcuts to success. Do it the right way. Even if you might lose, quote unquote the sale or in the long run, you’ll always benefit. There’s no shortcuts. Do it the right way. Doesn’t mean you, you, you, it has to be prolonged. You can still hustle and move, but you gotta do it the right way.
Steve “The Hurricane” (34:22):
So, Tim, I I, everything that you said was, was, was spot on. And I love it. And so for all of my clients, for everybody out there who’s listening to this, right? There’s several different things. So first off, think about what Tim just said, right? If you’re, if you’re one of my clients, you’ve been in my classes, you know, I talk about how there is no such thing as, as a, as an overnight success. It takes time. As a matter of fact, while you were saying that, I actually have on my territory clipboard right notes from the one of the classes I ran a couple weeks ago where I talked about how the average person will go to a referral source to develop a relationship three to five times before they give up. But then I say that it actually takes about eight to 12 minutes before you start to make progress.
(35:02):
And the reason why I say that is because of what you said to Tim in that the, the referral, this is an emotional thing. That social worker, that director of nursing, that administrator who’s making a referral, this isn’t, uh, a broken down car. This isn’t, you know, a repair for something. You know, your toilet broken your house and you’re referring a contractor. This is a human being, you know, this is a patient mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, and in order for you to be able to feel comfortable giving that referral, you have to trust that this person’s gonna get it done. You know, you mentioned, uh, own, own up to your mistakes, right? Deliver on your promises. For those of you who are clients, I actually train, you have a whole session on that in advanced training lesson six, where I spend an hour going over exactly that.
(35:46):
I love what you said, Tim, using no and telling people what you can’t do as a benefit as well. And I think back to my marketing days at Care Choice, and, and I would go in and I would tell people, don’t send us companion level cases. Don’t send us somebody who needs a com, somebody to come out three times a week for a bath visit. We’re not built for that. We, we, we we’re not. We’re gonna fail at it. We’re gonna turn it away. Don’t send it to us. You send us your medically complicated patient, you send us the 24 7, you send us the live-in case you send us somebody that needs help eight hours a day, seven days a week, and, and, and you send us the patient that you’re thinking if this person, no one can take care of this patient. That’s who you send to us, right? We’re the medically and, and, and we’re gonna take care of it. We’re gonna thrive at it. And so it’s almost like instead of trying to be everything, just focus on what you can do, what you can do best. Because when you do that, you will get the referrals. That’s gonna build the trust a lot faster and, and you’re gonna grow your business. So I love that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So to your point of building a relationship, you know, I wanna stay on that eight to 12 visits, right?
Tim Hodges (36:55):
Yep.
Steve “The Hurricane” (36:56):
It’s hard, right? So, so, so to be diligent from your side of the desk as the administrator, as the director of admissions, as the director of case management or director of nursing, you have a full-time job and then some, you’re, you’re in a skilled nursing facility setting. There’s always meetings, there’s always something with the patient. There’s always a challenge, there’s always a crisis. And then you have this marketing representative or this business owner from this home care company trying to get five minutes with you. How can they build a relationship? How can they bring value to it where they all come in mm-hmm. And they all say we’re the best. So what are, what are some things that they can do for that conversation to kind of either expedite it, or what would you say to that person who’s just beating their head against the wall because it’s not, they’re not able to get that time?
Tim Hodges (37:44):
It’s a great question. I think that, um, the, I, I’m, I’m, I’m a, I’m picky when it comes to marketing and sales. I, my, I’ve built my career on quality versus quantity, number one. Number two, I think one of the things that, you know, because everything we do has to be quality focused, at the end of the day, it’s gotta translate as, you know, to high quality of care for your, your, your end client, your patient or, or client or resident. But one of the biggest mistakes and one of the best pieces of advice I, I try to share with people, and I’m, I don’t profess to be a guru. I’m not as talented as you at marketing and sales, but I have built a nice career, you know, around it. And one of, one of the core things I think that people forget to do is don’t, don’t oversell your product.
(38:38):
But, but, but what, what I think people want to hear more, even if you don’t think they want to, they do focus on telling your story. Because as I said, people you know, in healthcare want to do, wanna interact with, with people they trust. Everything’s about trust. So you have to almost reprogram your brain in everything we think we know is a successful salesperson or marketer develop your story. Why did you get into healthcare? What motivated you to wanna make an impact on other people’s lives? Why did you, why did you get out of a business in finance, in banking and, and, and, and open a a, a home care company or get into a franchise? There’s a story there. Nobody falls into healthcare. I don’t care what you say. No. Everybody that’s in healthcare is in it for a reason. They were inspired by a grandparent, you know, or some situation that made them, and I’m not talking just about nurses and doctors.
(39:40):
Everybody, the business office manager got into healthcare for a reason. They may not even realize it, but they did. So I think you really have to hone in on what your story is because until you eand, it might take three or four meetings. You’re right. Trust isn’t established overnight. And eventually people will say, you know what? I’m gonna give you a shot, but you also have to ask for the business. You also have to, you know, that’s a big mistake. I often say to, we’re used to say a lot to people that we’re new clients, give us a shot. I’ll personally oversee it. Here’s my number, I’m accessible, but try us. And, and sh we’ll, we’ll, we’ll, I guarantee it’ll outperform. So there’s a lot of moving parts, but, you know, you gotta sell yourself before you sell your product. I think that’s the best advice I could give to people.
Steve “The Hurricane” (40:24):
Tim, that was textbook man. I mean, I absolutely love it. Everything that you’re saying, I, I resonate with it. To, to, to the trainings. You know, for those of you who are clients who are listening,
Tim Hodges (40:34):
Well, you did it. I know you did it cuz you were, I was a customer. <laugh>. Right?
Steve “The Hurricane” (40:38):
Right. And it’s like, you know, to the training, for those of you who are clients watching this, you know, go to fast start lesson, uh, lesson four, lesson five, and lesson six. Those, those three lessons of fast Start where I go, I
Tim Hodges (40:50):
Swear to God I didn’t read your content. I just, this wasn’t pre-plan.
Steve “The Hurricane” (40:54):
Well that’s why, that’s, that’s why I like having these, I feel like I’m interviewing myself, right? Because you’re what you’re saying from the other side of it, it makes sense and this is what people want to hear. And you know, this is where I have people who are brand spanking new, who are clients of mine, and they just opened their doors and they’re like, how am I gonna get business? I was like, tell me why you are doing this. You know, to another point that you had mentioned earlier, uh, when we first started talking about spirituality, right? I actually say that no one just gets into healthcare. We’re all called into healthcare somehow it’s like a higher power and just called us and move this into it. Like you mentioned, a parent, a loved one, or for me personally, I actually went to school to be a minister. And I, I I, it was a perfect blend of my professional work experience and my spiritual pastoral to
Tim Hodges (41:42):
Help people. Oh, sure.
Steve “The Hurricane” (41:43):
It, it just makes sense. But people, people, and another thing I wanna mention that you had said too, and this is something I want everybody to write down it facts, F a c t S, facts Tell, but stories sell, sell facts, tell, stories sell. When, when, when you have a good story. That’s what people are gonna buy into when, when they know that you’re gonna do this, right? Because again, what are we selling here? We’re not, we’re not selling cars. We’re not selling, you know, dishwashers or appliances or something. We’re selling a service that is taking care of people who are literally living their worst fear. Like one of the, the greatest fears of older adults is losing their independence. So by the very nature of what you do, Tim, the nature of what I do, we are providing services for people who are experiencing their worst fear.
(42:29):
Right? Right. I, I can think of hundreds of times, maybe even thousands, where I had patients say to me, I wish whatever it was that happened that put them in this state, a stroke, hip replacement, whatever, I wish that killed me because this is terrible, right? So, so we’re literally taking care of people living their worst fear. That’s the reason why It’s about who’s gonna, who’s gonna, who’s gonna answer that call at two o’clock in that morning when, when the person fall out of bed, who’s gonna be there for that family when, when, when mom passes away? You know, it, it’s, it’s, it’s so much more than just sending a caregiver into the home. So I love everything that you said there, Tim, cuz that, that is fantastic. Me too. Is there any, uh, tidbit or or tip or advice that you would give to somebody to, to, to initiate this kind of a conversation? Or, or who should they seek out when trying to get into one of these communities or facilities?
Tim Hodges (43:26):
You know, that’s a great question. I mean, I think anybody that’s working with you, I’m sure you’re, you’ve, you’ve gone over the best practices and the hard, you know, the, the, um, skills needed as well as who the, you know, the, the best people are. But I think one area that I’ve always focused on in, whether it’s in operations or in marketing healthcare is, is, is talking a lot and, and developing a very, very broad physician network. And I think people have a fear of, you know, marketing and selling to physicians, but physicians make all the decisions in healthcare. I always say that people follow the advice of the two people closest to God, their pastor or their rabbi or their doctor that saved their life. So you have to be ingrained in the, the faith community and the communities that you operate in because, you know, I mean, when I’m in church on Sunday, they still read off the names of people that are in the hospital or in nursing home, say prayer. So PE people talk about that stuff and it’s, you know, part of the community. Um, but physicians are the people that, you know, if a physician tells a, a patient, look, I’ve worked with this home care group, they have gone above and beyond for me, and the patients are really happy, there’s no doubt about it, that is what that client’s gonna choose. A lot of people come back to me and say, ah, doctors, physicians, they really don’t care. They don’t make recommendations. It’s not true.
(45:01):
Right? With, with geriatric patients, you know, those consults and those one-on-one visits last for a half an hour to an hour and they talk about a lot. It’s not like a cold or flu of an 18 year old. And oftentimes the caregiver and the patients will say, okay, if I need to get surgery, where do I go? Or the, the mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, the, you know, the issue of care will come up. So I think to the extent that you can make connections with physicians, especially in the home care space, cause I find a lot of home care, um, companies don’t develop physician and physicians can help you with the care. That’s the other piece too. You want good quality transitions of care and continuity, and you have to have it with physicians and the nurse practitioners. It’s a game changer if you can do that because it will differentiate from a quality perspective, I think your home care agency, but also help you, you know, with your word of mouth building your, your census.
Steve “The Hurricane” (45:58):
You know, Tim, I love that you said that there, and for those of you who are watching who are clients, cause not everybody’s a client who watches, uh, these, but okay, for those who are a client, I actually go over that in fast start lesson one. And I mention that a physician by my definition is like a general in an army at a hospital, you know mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they’re general, a physician who makes rounds at a rehab center or is a medical director of a rehab center. They may not be making that direct referral, but if you get in with them through their private practice, they will gladly bring you in there and say, this is who I want you to work with. There were many a times when I would be in one of the buildings that you managed and I would be sitting in with the patient and, and, and one of the physicians that I knew, I, I won’t say any names, you know, but there were some physicians that I knew that would come in and they would be there to see the patient and I’d be like, oh, I’m so sorry.
(46:46):
Mm-hmm. Uh, why don’t you talk to the patient? No, no, Steve, I’ll come back. They literally walk over to the patient, put their hand on the patient’s shoulder or hand and they say, this is my friend Steve, he’s working with 25% of my patients exactly home, and I want you to go with him. So he’s the best company on. And I’m like, and then it’s like, whatever I say is, is, is is golden because their doctor recommended me. So that is fantastic advice. So Tim, um, you know, thank you so much for coming on here. We’re at the top of our hour here. My pleasure. I know you got stuff to do. I got stuff to get to, but how can people find you if they wanna, if they want to hear more from you, if they wanna reach out, if somebody’s listening who’s, who might need your services, how, how can we find out more about you?
Tim Hodges (47:31):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Okay. Well thank you for offering that. Honestly, the best way to reach me is if you’re on LinkedIn. I’m very active on social media, so feel free to connect with me and message me if, if I can help you with anything rather than, uh, memorizing my long email. So just, just uh, check me out on LinkedIn and my company is Honor Aging. You can check out our website and contact us through there. You know, even you don’t have to contact me even if you just want some general information. But it was really cool and exciting to catch up with you today and I’m really, uh, honored that you asked me to be on your show. Thank you.
Steve “The Hurricane” (48:07):
Thank you for coming, Tim. I appreciate you. So there you have it folk. You know, it’s another episode of a drink with the hurricane. Love this, love this content here. Everything is designed to help you to get more patients, but not just get ’em, help you to improve the quality of care. At the end of the day, it’s all about helping our seniors age in place with dignity and grace. So go out there, my friends, execute. See you at a bootcamp, and you know, we’re gonna give you everything you need to blow away the competition. Take care, my friend. All right, so Tim, thank you so much, buddy. That was perfect. Oh,