How a Nurse Turned Family Tragedy Into a Franchise

0:00My mother was diagnosed with the glioblastroma. It's a primary brain cancer for the six months that she lived after her diagnosis. We had different caregivers coming in through a home care agency. And it was actually a horrible experience for my mom and for us. So I did end up starting the business. And it just provides care in the way that I know needs to happen. Even though I did help other companies on a more executive level, I also saw where they were doing things wrong. So I changed the model to what I knew it was like as a consumer going through something like that. Debbie Marcello is a seasoned health care leader, registered nurse and certified case manager. And the founder and CEO of Happier at Home, a national home care organization, known for its holistic patient-centered approach. She is also a geriatric expert

1:00and advocate for aging patients and their families. Part of what is very difficult is there's sometimes a shortage of caregivers. And so I've been thinking about ways that we could combat that. My vision is to create community areas where we can have one caregiver going into, say that one neighborhood and go house to house. And that will be that caregiver's position and territory to take care of. It spans the globe like a super high is cold. Internet Elvis. Ready? Fire. Today Apple is going to reinvent the bomb. It's not over until our weird. The Living Your Legacy Podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. It's extraordinary. It's awesome.

2:01Oh, that is sensational. Open. Chicago is the way you say it. In the box is not on the planet. You can live your dream. Hey, welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast. I'm your host again, Jay Slangen. And thanks for joining us here at the Miami Beach Studios in a podcast room. Well, we get the privilege, as you know, to speak to some of the best entrepreneurs and disruptors and experts from all kinds of industries. And here today we have a special guest for our mom, preneurs show. Why don't you introduce yourself? What's her name? Where are you from and what's her business? Sure, I'm Debbie Marcello. I'm the founder and CEO of Happier at Home. Happier at Home, right? And where are you from? I'm from Rochester, New York. Rochester, New York. Yeah, born and raised. Nice. Yeah. I'm originally from Connecticut, you know, so I know about the weather, right? The course for seasons. Ironically, it's very nice and rough just right now. Yeah. Yeah. Nice.

3:02Yes. So, better at home. What's better at home, all of a sudden? So, Happier at home. Happier at home. That's okay. Well, it is a senior home care business that I started about 20 years ago, helping seniors and the disabled to remain at home and independent. And about seven years ago, I started growing and sharing the business model through franchising. Wow, wow. Okay. Yeah. So, what made you get into that, love? So, I am a registered nurse and a case manager as well. And I worked in the past in trauma and the emergency department, but I always had that entrepreneurial spirit. Even from the time I was like eight years old, I started a paper route. And so, from the time I was eight till now, I've been running my own businesses.

4:03I had a paper route too when I was younger. Oh, did you? Back in those papers of, you know, yeah. Yeah. Were you in the era of inserts? You had to fill the papers with inserts too. Of course, of course. Yeah. Yeah. So, as I was working in nursing, my mother developed brain cancer at age 64. And backing up a little bit, I had always thought about starting home care business. I was formerly a director of nursing in a home care agency. I was a vice president of a very large continuum of care retirement community in Rochester. There's about 11 of them in New York State. And I was building businesses and doing a great job for other people. And I always headed in the back of my mind that I wanted to start another business. Yeah. And so, when my mother was diagnosed for herself, for myself, build it for myself,

5:05build that person. Keep her, right? Because you're doing it for others. And then you wanted to start one for yourself, right? So, you've got all this expertise and all this kind of know-how of, I guess, nursing at home, right? Yeah. And helping these elderly be at home. And that's kind of the retirement we want, right? You know, personally, my mom always talks about, oh yeah, don't put me in a old folks home. It's for some of us, it's so scary. For others, they can't wait, right? Because maybe they're the extra-vere kind and they want to be hanging out with other elderly people, right? But, you know, home is comforting, right? Being at home, it's your safety spot, right? It's just where you really want to be. And actually, that's how I came up with the name, Happier. People are just happier remaining in their home in the environment that they know, where their family knows, grandchildren come and visit. And so, when my mother was diagnosed with the Gleoblastroma, it's a primary brain cancer.

6:07For the six months that she lived after her diagnosis, we had different caregivers coming in through a home care agency to help us take care of her, just a couple hours each day. And it was actually a horrible experience for my mom and for us. And so, the types of things that were happening were the caregivers wouldn't show up. There was always a different caregiver every single day. When the caregiver showed up, oftentimes it was late. And it was very hard for my father. Because, although my sister and I and my brothers always supported him every day, he still needed his own time to take care of himself to go to appointments. So, he was depending on that 9am to 11am when the agency was supposed to have caregivers there to get out of the house and take care of him. So, it really was stressful.

7:09It was stressful for him. It was stressful for us. We felt like we had absolutely no control over, of course, my mother's cancer, but then also over decisions of caregivers, schedules, things like that. So, how do you solve that problem? So, we before my mother even passed, I decided I was going to start my own business. And I even told my mother before she passed that I was doing this. And she said, she was a big supporter of it. She said, I know it's going to be successful. And so, I did end up starting the business and it just provides care in the way that I know needs to happen. Even though I did help other companies on a more executive level, I also saw where they were doing things wrong. So, I changed the model to what I knew it was like as a consumer going through something like that.

8:17When you left that executive role, was there a non-compete? Did you have to wait? I did, but I was not going from there right into my business. So, but I did have a non-compete. And I actually started outside the county before the non-compete was up. So, I was keeping with that, but they knew I was going to be successful. They really did not want me to leave, but yes. Okay. Yeah. And let's go back. So, how did you solve that problem of the caregivers showing up late or some of the issues that you talked about? So, the way I run our Happier Home model and have established my own corporate location, but, you know, growing to franchising is that with the caregivers, we make sure that the caregivers are scheduled on a set schedule with the same client.

9:18So, they are not going to different clients constantly. That's better for both parties. You're right. Lastly, it's not better for the people at home, right? Yeah. But you kind of want to, you don't want to switch, though, it's how you want to get to know your patients, right? Yeah. And you want to get to, there are people also. It can't just be a job, right? You're right. And that's part of the method behind my madness was the caregivers then could have a set schedule, too. So, if there are other moms or caregivers that want to care for someone, but only have certain number of hours, then we can set the schedule with a patient that matches those things, too. So, it's consistency for the caregiver, consistent density for the client and the families, and everyone appreciates that. So, do you guys help kind of inspect homes for the various changes that they have to make? So, part of what we do and makes our business model different from others is care advocacy.

10:26So, that goes along with the care advocacy, because as an advocate or care manager, we're looking at what the patient's goals are, and usually it's to remain in their home. And we determine what- So, they have longer. To live longer, to enrich their life, you know. So, we take a look at what needs to happen, to achieve that goal, and to maintain it. So, definitely looking at what home alterations need to be made, or if we need to set up cameras or alarms on the doors, things like that. It just depends on what the patient has as medical problems and things like that. But we definitely do that. We do medication management solutions, and then the caregiving as well. Yeah, medication management solutions is so important. I mean, it's- Yeah, it's really-

11:26It's really- When you got a bunch of pills, you know. Yeah. It can cause major problems. It's one of the biggest reasons people go into the hospital, and especially when people are admitted to a nursing home, a lot of times it has to do with medication non-compliance. So, what has been the secret to success and growth, right? Before we get into the franchising, right, you had to kind of build your model so that it was, up to a certain point of success, right, and growth, right? So, what has been the keys to your success? So, I think that part of what makes me successful or the business successful was that I had an instinct of what should happen with a business like this. And definitely trying those things, but not being afraid to pivot and change what I needed to.

12:28I didn't have a franchise. I didn't have a model to go after. And so, being able to not be set on one thing, but rather let the patients and clients guide without them saying, hey, you need to change this, but I let them guide what they needed. And so, it really set us up for success. So, while I was building my corporate location, setting up the standard operating procedures, and my processes was very important to set the stage in foundation for successful franchising. Absolutely. And in getting, I mean, SOPs and processes, it's an ongoing thing, right? But also, when you're thinking about franchising, it becomes even more important because you're setting the blueprint, right? So, how long did it take you to kind of say, hey, I'm ready for franchising. We've taken our general SOPs, and we've organized them into a blueprint that someone can just copy,

13:36can follow. So, setting up the SOPs was kind of a continual thing as I was going along. But as you said, you're always changing and making sure that they're up to date. Of course. I mean, I'm speaking from experience here at Inside Success. Always got to stay on top of our SOPs, right? Yeah, yeah. So, that was a continual thing, but I'd say once I decided what my next step was, which is franchising and sharing that business model, there was a lot behind the scenes that need to happen. So, I would say it was a good year to get those things done. The franchise disclosure document, making sure all the legal documents are there, registering in New York State, which in that in itself can be a challenge, but worked out very well for us. Yeah. And how big has before any franchising, how big has the current company grown to?

14:37So, before franchising. So, I grew the organization, my corporate location, to about 1.4 million in my little territory, my little area. Of course, I didn't limit myself at that time with a specific territory, because I was not franchising yet. So, I would say just about that, and then I knew it was successful. So, yeah. And I guess, how many, I'm an outsider to this world, right? So, I mean, how many nurses do you have on your team, or how many houses can you, how many happier homes can you manage? Look at that. So, right now, I'm the only nurse, because this is actually a non-medical model. We don't provide skilled nursing, we don't provide actual skilled services.

15:38So, that was done intentionally, because it helps us to remain with less regulation. Yeah. And also, it reduces the overhead, because we don't need medical male practice insurance. Our franchisees don't need medical male practice insurance, reduces the liability, basically. Yeah. And so, have you started franchising, or you're getting ready to roll it out? Yes, we have started franchising, and thank you so much. Yeah. I love it. I really love the growth and the excitement of every year, things just getting bigger and happier at home, spreading across the country. Yeah. And you also get to see others succeed as well, right? Yes. And when they succeed, you're able to help other, you know, elderly families have that happier home than you're talking about, right? That care that they need. Yeah, we have helped thousands of people across the country.

16:43And for how long have you been franchising for, and I guess how many franchises do you have? So we've been franchising for about seven years. And right now we have about 36. Hey, there you go, boy. Yeah. Yeah. So, Anne, we're in many different states across the country, registered in all of the United States. Which it's a lot, you know? That's a lot, that's a lot. Keeping up with all the different states and the registration. And, you know, that's where having a great team around you really helps, you know, the best attorneys that help with the franchising and the FDD, the franchise schoolers, your documents. So just continuing to grow. And, you know, to your point, I built this and loved the independence that was providing me. I was going through a divorce with four children when I started this. And it has provided so much enjoyment.

17:43A lot of work, but my children have watched me build this. Now they're all adults. And my youngest actually just started working for me. He's a dual major in marketing and economics. And now he's working with me as well. But the franchising was the next step for me because I knew things were unique. But I also wanted people like myself that were willing to work hard, not afraid to get in front of people and talk about their business and their passion to be able to have this model to grow something for themselves also. Yeah. Yeah. And so I ask everyone on the show, you know, what are you most excited about right now? Maybe you got some projects on the back burner that you're cooking up or maybe what's at the forefront of your industry? But what's going on? Yeah, I, um, I could share a secret with you. Well, first of all, what's going on is just growth.

18:45This year, I put in additional key people to really help us to reach more people, make connections with business brokers and bring more franchises on board. Great. But so the rocket fuel? Yes. Yeah, it's, I knew that's the point where we needed to move to this year is just getting the right, great people on board. And how did you find those people? Did you just do through headhunters or through LinkedIn search or did you poach from other companies? I did not poach or do any headhunting or headhunters. I used recruitment service, if you can I say the name? So I used indeed for my director of operations who was incredible. Nice. So that worked really well for me. And I think that we used indeed. The search and scrolling click in and then finding

19:45and oh, this guy I got to give him a call. Yeah, not so much searching for it but putting an add up for specifics. And we got lots of applications, hundreds and hundreds of applications. Too many. So it's hard to tear it down. So you get hundreds of applications. How do you even start with that, that mound of of applications? Really, for me, it was looking at the background and what experience they brought because I like to surround myself with people around me that are smarter than I am in different areas. They're experts in their areas. So I love being able to listen to what they have to say. I encourage them to bring new ideas to me. But when I was searching, I would just take a look at what their background was, what experience they had. And I had, as part of the screening process, I had a requirement of about a three minute video

20:47talking about themselves and what they would bring to the team. And so there were probably about 20 people asked for each of these roles to do that. And so that kind of was able to help me filter some out and brought it down to two people for the operations position. From all those hundreds, you just emailed all of them and said, hey, if you can just send a three minute video. Well, emailed about 20 of them. Okay, I already boiled it down. It's probably like quickly looking, right? Right. Yeah. Did you look through, quickly look through all of them? And just, I mean, because that's a lot, right? Yeah, not through all of them. So you just can't. Yeah. Every now and then, we're randomly clicking and then going through the important stuff. Okay, no, next. Okay, yes, they're making two piles of. Yeah, you could filter sometimes. And even on the front end tried to add a little bit of a quiz. Kind of safe. Well, if it's all through indeed, then yes, you can filter.

21:47Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so that helps me a lot too. Yeah. So it's important for people to put these keywords so that you are getting in those filters for you. Yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's, whatever their skills are. And then it helps. And for, for me, I, it was not important for me to have someone working physically in Rochester, New York. I just wanted the best people. Yeah, it's not important for people to live in Rochester. Right. So for my business, I employ people who work remotely, except for my son who now works as a franchise development expert. He works in Rochester as well. Okay, okay. Well, that's nice. Yeah. I love it. But it's great. We could work remotely. I was working right before we came out, actually. Nice. Yeah. And so you got, you got these new rocket fuel. Great. All stars that join the team.

22:48Gonna expand on the franchising. And there was me, I believe there was a secret that you talked about. Yeah. So well, part of what is very difficult is, there's sometimes a shortage of caregivers. And so I've been thinking about ways that we could combat that. And if we are servicing people in an independent living facility. So a shortage of nurses are home caregivers earned? There's a shortage of caregivers across the industry. So if you're, if we are providing care in an independent living community, then we can have a shared caregiver and they can go from one room to the next and spend as much time. But even if we just need a half hour somewhere, we're able to do that. My vision is to create community areas where we can have one

23:53caregiver going into say that one neighborhood and go house to house and that will be that caregiver's position and territory to take care of. This way, it's something that we can utilize the caregiver to his or her fullest. And the neighborhood can have consistency. I did do something like this as there was a Ukrainian community and Rochester. And we were able to do that successfully with one of our caregivers and worked wonderfully. So I love to expand on that. Amazing, amazing. Well, it's been a pleasure to have you on the show. How can people find you? They could find me on our website. It's happier at homefranchise.com. OK. Happy at homefranchise.com, right? Yeah. Yes. You are giving people less stress from being at home, right? Everyone's happy at home, for sure.

24:54For sure. OK. And this was for mompreneurs, right? So you are working with your kid? Any grandkids there? I do have to grandchildren now. But yet, for adult children, then not to grandchildren. Yeah. I just had a friend recently that has had his second grandchild, right? He's having like this deeper connection with his grandkids than his normal kids because he just says, I just get to play. And there's this different connection than he has with him, right? I just love it. OK. Amazing, amazing. I love it. They get so excited when you walk in the door. It just feels my heart. Amazing, amazing. Well, thank you for being on the show. And yeah, thank you guys for joining us again. And please tune into our episode if you want to learn about franchising and growing a business and the wonders of being a mompreneur and doing it as a mom. But also, yeah, what to do to be able to put yourself

25:55your son through, I believe, those economics and marketing, right? Yes. Bring your kids to economic and marketing and holiday. And then you can have them work locally with you. Yes. But yeah, thank you guys for joining us. And we'll see you next time. Cheers, everyone.