Reposted with permissions from The Senior Care Industry Netcast- Thank you Bob and Christy for being such great guests!
🌟 Exciting Netcast News 🌟
Episode 35 of the Senior Care Industry Netcast is live!
We were fortunate enough to have Bob & Christy Swadkins, https://GoldenHeartSummerlin.com on our show and they offered some great insight and #advice for other #seniorcare and #healthcare providers.
Full Transcript:
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
This is Valerie VanBooven with the Senior Care Industry Netcast where leaders with three or more years in the senior care industry share their advice. It’s six questions in nine minutes so let’s get to it. In a few sentences tell us who you are and what you do.
Christy Swadkins:
All right my name is Christy Swadkins, this is my husband Bob. And we own Golden Hearts Senior Care which is a PCA Service where we provide non-medical and home care for seniors across the Valley.
Bob Swadkins:
Yeah, Christy and I, we break up the business in kind of two pieces, the front of the house and the back of the house. Where she primarily deals with the clients and the caregivers and I deal with most of the compliance, the marketing, payroll and invoicing.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Awesome, and you two are a great team. I know that specifically because we work with you so I appreciate you guys being able to kind of handle different parts of it. It’s always great to have somebody to run things by and not be doing this just by yourself, so that’s awesome. All right, what is the best thing about serving aging adults?
Christy Swadkins:
For me, it’s very, very, rewarding. I know that I’m making a difference in the lives of the clients and also the family members. And I get to meet a lot of great people in the community that have the same goals and ambitions that I do.
Bob Swadkins:
Yeah, and from my perspective, there’s such a huge need out in the community right now for senior providers and people to help seniors stay in their homes and help seniors in lots of different ways. And unfortunately, it’s kind of an underserved market but we’re very fortunate to be in this industry and we’re happy to be able to serve the seniors of Las Vegas.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yes, and right now particularly folks are in need of care and they prefer to stay in their homes and we can all understand that. It’s much safer and it’s a great way to be a part of… Stay socialized, and have your groceries, and your meal preparation and all the things you need to do without having to risk going to the grocery or anything else. So home care is really where it’s at and I think the future of home care is really important for all of us in this country. It’s really going to be something that’s taking off, if it hasn’t all ready. I mean, it’s always a great need.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
All right so, let’s talk a little bit about online marketing, we’re going to switch gears for a second. I hear from other senior service providers that marketing online can be challenging, which I would agree. It can be confusing and it’s definitely ever changing. What are your experiences or thoughts on that?
Bob Swadkins:
Yeah, marketing certainly has become much more difficult in the age of COVID. For most of your watchers, I’m sure they’re readily aware that trying to get into an assisted living facility, a skilled nursing facility, a hospital, or any type of skilled care facility, it’s almost impossible, unless you have a client there or unless you have a very good relationship with someone there. So we basically had to kind of shift our strategy to kind of become more well rounded. We’ve explored and are currently exploring Google Ads, Facebook Ads, direct emails, all these different things that in the past, perhaps we didn’t really kind of dive into full force. We’re certainly looking at now and its forced us to change our strategy and look at marketing in an entirely different way.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
I would agree. I think that online marketing has become… If it wasn’t really a prevalent need before, right now its kind of the only way to market. Right? It has become much more prevalent. I do believe that in person networking and being able to see your colleagues is really important. It will happen again. Right now we’re just in a weird situation in this world where we can’t really do that.
Bob Swadkins:
Yeah we’ve tried to do in person marketing in every way we can but when its not possible there are Zoom meetings like we are doing now and there are telephone conversations and different ways of marketing. It’s just kind of reinventing yourself from a marketing perspective.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Absolutely and technology is helping us quite a bit there. Okay so let’s go back to your wisdom and knowledge on the senior care market. I know there probably other successful leaders or organizations in your area that have really meant a lot to you in your career. Maybe they have been a mentor or an inspiration to you. Is there anybody you’d like to give a shout out to? Or any organization that you think is doing a great job.
Bob Swadkins:
Yeah I think one of the organizations that we work with very closely [inaudible 00:05:19]. It’s a full service community here in Las Vegas. It runs anywhere from independent living to assisted living, skilled nursing, as well as memory care. We have a very tight relationship with them and we certainly appreciate their business. We’d love to give them a big shout out to as well.
Christy Swadkins:
Yes and they were one of the first places that I went when I first started out as green as ever. And they kind of took me under their wing and now we’re partners and it’s worked out beautifully.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
That is so nice. Good. Everybody needs to have some really good marketing partners in their local area that they trust and can refer to each other. That’s awesome. I’m sure they will appreciate your shout out. Make sure they see your interview.
Christy Swadkins:
Okay.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
They’ll like that too. All right, what piece of advice would you give to other senior care providers?
Christy Swadkins:
I would say it’s so important to follow your internal moral compass along the way. Each decision big or small just look at the big picture, know that we just want to make a difference in the community and help seniors. And as long as we’re following our heart and like I said that moral compass, I think you go forward and things tend to fall in place.
Bob Swadkins:
Yeah and from my perspective in today’s environment it’s really important to keep putting one foot in front of the other. It’s very easy to get discouraged to look at things perhaps in not the most positive light. Things will certainly get better as we move through this pandemic but my number one recommendation would be just keep putting one foot in front of the other and eventually you’ll be on the other end and in a better place.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah, perseverance is definitely key right now. Just doing and following your heart and your moral compass is… That reminds us why we got into this business in the first place. Even on the toughest days. Yeah we hear that a lot. That’s definitely something you got to remember all of the time. Okay my last question is supposed to be fun, some people are like, “What”, but I think it’s a fun question. When you have a win in life from business by that it could be anything, your clients are happy, there’s a new baby in the family, or graduation, a wedding. When you have a win in life or something we’re celebrating, how do you celebrate?
Christy Swadkins:
Well you know in the business it’s a little bit different than in our personal lives. In the business, when we have a success, try to pat ourselves on the back but not get too celebraty because sometimes when you go up there then there’s only one way to go. And when you don’t do well, you fall. So we kind of ride the wave when something good happens, we’re very grateful and we’re happy. And when we hit a bump in the road we try not to beat ourselves up too much.
Bob Swadkins:
Yeah I think it’s good to keep kind of an even keel when you’re dealing with business. It’s nice to, like Christy said, pat yourself on the back but not beat yourself up too much when you get down. Just keep an even keel and we’ll save the celebrating for when we retire.
Christy Swadkins:
Woohoo!
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah, exactly. Then you can do anything you like, right? Yes we’ve had all kinds of answers. Everything from working out and dancing to vodka martini. We’ve had it all. Everybody has their own way of celebrating but I think that celebrating has changed a little bit because we can’t… Well we can a little bit, get together but we can’t have big, giant family celebrations right now as much as we would like to. Especially if we have seniors in our lives that we’re trying to keep safe but anything you can do to celebrate even little things and just stay positive. I think that’s a great win and [crosstalk 00:09:31].
Christy Swadkins:
Happy dances are always good.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah. Yeah. Okay well I want to thank you both for doing this and for sharing your wisdom. You’ve been around in the Las Vegas area for a while now and I think folks can really learn a lot from your moral compass and from how you guys do business because it does come from your heart. And I think you do a wonderful job so thank you for doing our interview.
Christy Swadkins:
Thank you.
Bob Swadkins:
Thank you for having us.