Miriam Allred (00:01)
Welcome to the Home Care Strategy Lab. A couple of quick words from me, your host, before we get started. I just want to say first, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening and tuning into the show. Week after week, it means the world to me. And this really is a dream I absolutely never had and couldn't have imagined getting to this place that I'm at today. So I just want to say thank you to all of you. And if you enjoy what you're getting here in the lab, please hit

follow or subscribe wherever you're listening to this episode. So if you're on YouTube or if you're out on Apple or Spotify, wherever you're listening to this, hit that subscribe so that you can get new episodes in your inbox week after week. And I'm going to do everything in my power to keep making the show as good as it can be. I'm going to keep delivering these guests that you want me to speak to that I want to speak to, to bring you prescriptive formulas and frameworks and stories that you can learn from and apply in your business. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Today in the lab, I am joined by Becky Reel, the founder at Reel Home Care Consulting and also the former CEO of For Papa's Sake Home Care. Becky's claim to fame was building up her own family business Fore Papa's Sake and being recognized as North America's number one home care agency by Activated Insights and achieving 300 % year over year growth.

She later sold the business and now has shifted her focus to helping owners and operators grow their business with her core philosophy being that you build a business that supports your life, not the other way around. Becky, it's my pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you for being here.

Becky Reel (01:32)
I'm so honored to be here with you. Thank you.

Miriam Allred (01:35)
You have had a big year and fortunately you're super active on social media so I and others can keep tabs on your life and on your business, which I love. But tell everyone listening a little bit more about yourself and maybe give us kind of some highlights of this past year for you.

Becky Reel (01:50)
Yeah, well, thank you. You did a great job discussing my previous home care experience. But prior to that, I was actually in tech sales and marketing, so knew very little about home care. But I think that's OK. You don't need to know a lot about home care. You just need to have a really big heart and know how to take care of people. And that's what I've learned over the past few years of doing this that's really important with home care agencies. This past year, I brought on a team member, which has been a huge

huge just change for all of us. So Kristen joined our team earlier this year, and she actually was my very first office team member at For Papa's Sakes. So she helped me grow the business and now we're doing it again here. But together, we've really taken our consulting and coaching practice really to the next level and really defining who we are as a consulting firm and a coach.

We've been busy with our clients. primarily work, I would say, with startup home care agencies and agencies that are stuck and plateauing at a few million and kind of can't get out of their own way. But also we've really launched our dinner series, which has been my greatest accomplishment, I would say, of what I've been able to do and probably my most favorite part of my job. So our dinner series, we go across the country. They're very intimate.

gatherings of just home care agency decision makers and people running agencies. And it's really a chance for us to support each other. You know, as a home care agency owner, you're taking care of your clients, your caregivers, your own families, everybody. And you're often stuck thinking, who's taking care of me? And so that's our opportunity to really support each other, talk about the things that no one else will really understand in a very intimate setting, 20-ish people. And we laugh, we cry.

but we walk away reminded why we love doing what we're doing. So that's been my biggest accomplishment this year. We have a lot of fun stuff planned for next year, but really just loving getting to know our agencies and still being able to make a difference in this industry.

Miriam Allred (03:50)
I love it. And you are really becoming like the startup guru in home care, the one that goes really deep with owners in this startup phase who gets, you know, gets their hands dirty right alongside of these owners amidst the craziness. And you have the chops and the skillset and the desire to help agencies at that stage of business. I'm just curious, what is it about that stage that you love so much? Like what is it that drives you to work with that stage?

Becky Reel (04:13)
yeah,

so much. I think what I love is, you know, typically you don't just wake up one day and think, I'm gonna start a home care agency because that sounds like a lot of fun. Because let's be honest, it's not, it's not fun. That first year is hard. And I think what I love about startups is there's a reason. Like we all get into this for some reason, whether it was that we had a bad experience with home care or we had a great experience and we think we can do this better or we think,

I want to make a change. want to impact people's lives in a similar way that someone did for me. So I love those stories. I love hearing the stories. And usually, it's people that have worked in corporate for 20, 30 years, and they're done making other people a lot of money. And now they think, this is my time. And I love being a part of that. I love being a part of that very early phase of the idea and then holding their hand throughout the entire process post-launch and really

walking them through the every stage, and then finally getting to the place where I can say, you can do this now on your own. We purposely don't want this to be a solution that people are gonna need long term, right? Because I want you to be able to invest into other things that are gonna help grow your business, the community, your caregivers, all of the things that you need. So I don't want necessarily our clients to stay with us post-year. I want them to be able to be self-sufficient and be able to

run the agency on their own. So I love being able to say, are free. And we're still a part of their journey. We still keep in touch. But it's just so rewarding to be on the other side and to be able to watch them grow. But we do work with agencies that are a few years in and still struggling. But I find such gratification in both.

Miriam Allred (05:54)
What is it?

I've met a couple of your clients and one of the things that stood out to me, what you said a couple of minutes ago was you don't have to know home care or healthcare to get into this. And most often these people that you especially work with don't have a background in healthcare or home care. And a lot of them are also like, I think of it as like their second or third career. Like you have some clients where it's like home care is yeah, their second or even their third career. And I just love that concept of people wanting to make a difference in their community, want to give back, want to do something really fulfilling.

Becky Reel (06:18)
Yeah, exactly.

Mm.

Miriam Allred (06:30)
they land on home care and then here they are at a later stage in life starting this business and really making an impact on their community.

Becky Reel (06:37)
I think I love that too so much because that's my mom's story, right? My mom started the agency after a tragic end of life. My grandpa had it at the nursing home and I called my grandpa Papa. So that was how the name really resonated, right? And I, you my mom was in her, gosh, late 50s, early 60s when she started. And it's just though, it's her story. It's all the stories that I get to hear that makes you realize that you can do this. It's never too late, right?

So no, I agree, I love the second and third career and watching the reward on their faces too and the stories I hear of my clients of I'm doing exactly what I should be doing is just so meaningful for me.

Miriam Allred (07:18)
Yes. I think everyone can relate to that. feel, everyone kind of feels like they're right where they're supposed to be. Like, yes, it's hard. And we're going to talk about that today. Like there are a lot of challenges. No two days are the same. It's exhausting, but it's, it's really so fulfilling. And a lot of us feel like we're right where we're supposed to be. So today I've asked you to prepare five or six unique, but not uncommon scenarios that you have worked through personally, and have helped other owners, operators work through as well.

Becky Reel (07:23)
Go.

Exactly.

Miriam Allred (07:46)
And we're gonna be talking about them kind of in context of like startups, but you and I were talking before this episode, there's a lot of basics, there's a lot of principles, there's a lot of plateaus at every stage, no matter how long you've been doing this, how much you're doing in revenue, like these things that we're gonna talk about are kind of universal. And so I'm gonna have you kind of share the scenarios or the problems, what are the root causes of these problems, and then how you help operators work through these things.

So I've kind of pushed you to come with these scenarios and I'm really excited to talk through them. Let's dive into the first one and maybe no surprise, we're going to start with what we're calling the caregiver exodus. Every business has been through this where they have a group, a chunk, a bulk of caregivers leave at once and it really puts you in a pinch. And so I thought this was a natural one to start with. So can you explain kind of in the context that you thought there's through this scenario, like what have you seen happen to a business that we can work through?

Becky Reel (08:38)
Yeah, like you said, this is happening to everybody, right? It goes in waves. But the overall problem is that you're losing caregivers faster than you can replace them ultimately, right? And you feel like the ones that, you know, if you do have ones, you can't necessarily trust them. Or if you do, it's just a constant revolving door, right? But ultimately, that's a lot of reasons why agencies can't grow, is they just don't have the caregivers and the staff for the schedules.

And if you're a good agency, you're not just throwing bodies into a home for the sake of throwing bodies. You are going to be particular. You're going to know your caregivers. And if you're not able to replace the ones that are leaving, your business is likely going to decline or stay stagnant. And that's where a lot of agencies get stuck.

Miriam Allred (09:23)
And oftentimes when a lot leave, it puts pressure on those that stay, which is an issue in and of itself. Explain what you've seen there, how it puts weight burden. You're asking for additional hours for those that stay and that's another like root issue here.

Becky Reel (09:37)
Yeah.

mean, a lot of times, know, if there's a caregiver, the caregivers are being, there's more being expected of the caregivers that are staying, right? The picking up the shifts, the being on call, the frantic texts and calls at all hours asking them to fill in, right? That's not really fair to the caregivers that are sticking around, are doing their job. They don't want to be.

They don't want to be called at all hours, right? They need that balance too. And a big thing we talk about with our clients is that balance, right? And having that for the caregivers as well, because ultimately then you're going to push your other caregivers out the door too, if you don't respect their time and don't respect their time off. Just because they're not working doesn't mean they need to be at your beck and call, right? And unfortunately, this is their job. This is not their company. And so we always say that

no one's gonna care about the company the way the owners do, you shouldn't want your caregivers to care in that same way, right? Sometimes we need to be a stepping stone for those caregivers and we need to respect their time off. We need to respect their time with their family or if they have other jobs. So what you're doing is you're really pushing them away and ultimately gonna lose them too.

Miriam Allred (10:48)
So when we talk about like an exodus, we're referring to a group of people leaving at once. What are some of the root causes of that? what has been building or festering or is it a bad egg in the office? What are the root issues that typically lend itself to what we call like kind of an exodus?

Becky Reel (11:08)
Yep. So I think a lot of times it could be just timing, right? But typically there's something going on internally. A lot of times it's not fully treating the caregivers in the way that they need, know, little things too. It's all those little things that kind of bubble up together, right? So not valuing the caregiver's time off and their personal time.

Showing up at client's house is unannounced frequently. There's times we have to do that, but also just being respectful of their time with their clients. Implementing changes without really explaining the why, right? So getting really micromanaging on your caregivers. But not, you know, we always talk about like if we're gonna make a change, explain the why. We just don't make a change for the sake of making a change. So if you're gonna make a scheduling change and it's gonna impact your caregivers.

Help them understand why you did that. Usually it's a business decision or it's a scheduling decision or maybe the client asked for the change. But if you don't educate the client and the caregiver, but specifically the caregiver in this regard, if you don't explain it, it just looks like you're kind of messing around with the schedule and it looks like you're not valuing their time. And so always explaining your why is really critical. It'll help round out the...

the caregivers, really understand what you're doing, why you're doing it. But you you want to treat your caregivers like professionals. You don't want to demoralize them, you don't want to undervalue them, you want to treat them like human beings in a professional environment.

Miriam Allred (12:42)
If I had to boil everything you just said down to like one word in my mind, it's communication. Communication is such a bottleneck for agencies. It's why is communication so hard? Like to me, everything you just said literally comes down to like communicating. And why is that so hard? Why is that so hard? What stops owners from doing that?

Becky Reel (12:51)
Mm-hmm.

Right, proactively communicating.

So I don't if it's so hard. think what happens with owners is we just get so boggled down in the minutiae of running a business, right? Where we're not, as owners, we are not forward thinking. We are so reactive as opposed to proactive. We also tend to not value the caregiver's opinions, right? And I know you're big advocate of that too, but really listening to your caregivers as opposed to just telling them what to do. But I think letting them have a say.

have opinions, you'll understand more of what's happening internally. But we don't often do that. We just tell our caregivers what's going on. And oftentimes, it's very blunt. It's very to the point. we're not remembering that these are human beings that are caring for our clients, caring for other people. And we need to really bring them into what's happening. So I don't know if I think it's hard. I just think we forget how to humanize things. We forget that.

Miriam Allred (13:58)
Mm.

Becky Reel (14:03)
Our caregivers are always the last ones we communicate to. In reality, they should be the first.

Miriam Allred (14:09)
In your mind, is it a mindset issue or is it like a operational issue or is it both?

Becky Reel (14:17)
I think if it's a good agency, it's hopefully not a mindset issue. I do think it runs into the operations. runs into how is our technology talking to each other? How are we streamlining our operation? How are we using AI to streamline a lot of the minutiae that will allow us to work on the people side of the business, right? We always talk about AI and how we use it, the benefits of using it.

We have to remember it's not going replace the human element of what we need to be doing. And it should not be replacing the communication side of explaining the why, explaining what's actually happening for our caregivers. So I always think it's going to come down to more of the operational components of running the agency.

Miriam Allred (14:59)
Yeah, that's interesting to hear because I agree. You said it before, proactive versus reactive and proactive communication to me is partially a mindset, but really it's like operational. It's putting structures in place to be able to proactively communicate on an ongoing basis. And like you said, oftentimes owners or teams get bottlenecked at this because they're putting out so many fires. They're so reactive. There's just literally no time in the day to be proactive.

becomes an operational issue.

Becky Reel (15:29)
Exactly,

exactly. I always tell people too, like caregivers should be solving problems, not making them, right? So if you start to look for a lot of the red flags, you start to know and anticipate what's gonna happen, right? And get ahead of it before anything becomes a problem, right? Easier said than done. But ⁓ the more you're in the business, the more you'll be more in tune with those red flags and things that can stop the bottleneck.

Miriam Allred (15:54)
So let's talk about how you would solve this with one of your clients. let's set the stage of say an agency lost maybe five of 12 caregivers in a six week time frame. They come to you and they're like, Becky, what do we do? Help us. They don't know what to do. What would be the first things that you would think through, talk through, and then start to implement with them?

Becky Reel (15:59)
Mm-mm. Yep.

So I think a lot of this could also be culture. Caregivers are leaving for a variety of reasons. So create structure around whatever anxiety you're feeling, I would say, first. I would say, let's set up caregiver office hours for non-emergency communication. Make yourself available. Do town halls. Make sure you are available to really connect with your caregivers.

A lot of times, yes, they're leaving for various reasons. But ultimately, I think they're leaving because of culture, if there's communication and culture. I would say if we're going to boil it down. But helping caregivers really understand what you're about. If there's problems, come to us. We want to talk about it. We want to be open. We want to be vulnerable. Help them understand what an emergency is versus a non-emergency and what that really

constitutes. But have those business hours, have those town halls, have those opportunities for caregivers to come to you. Transparently, a lot of our good ideas at my agency came from my caregivers, right? It came from me listening, being open. I never, if a caregiver asked me to talk as the owner, I would always make time for them. Always, because they were the ones that were really making us look good. I will always make time for you as a caregiver. But remember, your job as an agency owner isn't to solve every single problem.

that's where delegation's gonna have to come in. You're gonna have to know what problems you will have to get involved in. But I would say, how do you solve this? You listen to your caregivers, you listen to your team, you look for those red flags, you build structure around what's going on within your organization, and we really work on building a culture that's gonna let people wanna stay with you. think agencies are always thinking that people leave because of the money.

And while there's truth to that, it's not the number one reason people are leaving your agency. It's not. People will stay with your agency because the way you treat them, because the way you make them feel, first and foremost.

Miriam Allred (18:20)
Yeah, I agree. One kind of technical question about the caregiver office hours, is that them coming into the office or is it also them calling in? know, is it kind of a window of time that they can call in versus come in? did, I'm curious, did you do this in your office and did people come in? Like, were you pleasantly surprised at how many people came in?

Becky Reel (18:25)
Mm-hmm.

We, yeah, I mean, it can be whatever. There's not a right or wrong way for these things, right? You do, I'm a big believer that you make your agency work for you and your lifestyle. So as an owner, you might not live close. That's okay. You make it work. So if you need to do Zoom, I mean, I always will say in person's better if you can make it work, but you pick a time that works for you and your schedule and yeah, you come in for a day or two days or it's twice a week at this time.

I did do it, so Fridays were really my kind of office day and our caregivers did come to the office. So we were in a downtown area. We really encouraged it, right? We always had snacks and gifts and coffee available. I oftentimes would meet my caregivers for coffee at a local coffee shop, right? Buy them some coffee and sit down, get them out of the office. I think people are gonna open up a lot more when you get them outside of the office.

Miriam Allred (19:30)
And this is you as the owner CEO giving face time with the caregivers. This could easily be something you delegate to someone else in the office. But I think part of the value is you at the top of the business, at the top of the organization, making time for face time with these caregivers. And what a long ways that goes.

Becky Reel (19:36)
I could.

yeah,

you know, it's the whole Zappos model, right? So if you're familiar, I know we've talked about this before, but Zappos model was that every single person at the office should be able to handle any call that comes in with Stellar customer service, everyone from the CEO to the janitor. And I really have that mindset that I'm never going to tell anybody, like I was taken out the trash. I was, you know, running things to the post office that I needed to.

I'm never gonna say I'm above that or I'm below that or whatever. I want to be a part of the business. And while I wasn't there as much as I once was, I still wanted a pulse of what was happening with our caregivers. And still to this day, I sold the agency a few years ago, I still keep in touch with some of those caregivers. They still were connected online. And one of our caregivers started her own agency, right? And I helped her and that was amazing to watch.

Their stories are what made us who we were and I wanted to know those stories. I wanted to know what was going on. So yeah, I could have delegated, I didn't want to.

Miriam Allred (20:52)
The office hours was a place for them to come to you. One other question around, ⁓ you conducting stay interviews? Were you trying to talk to your whole roster two or four times a year? Like I'm just curious, talking about being proactive, it's it's nice to let them come to you, but also there's people that are busy or that are a little more introverted that won't go out of their way. What about formalizing opportunities to speak with all of them?

how did you do that and how many times a year would you do that?

Becky Reel (21:23)
So it wasn't really, obviously we would do our once a year reviews, right? And that was always an opportunity to connect to them at a minimum once a year on a deep level. And we would always, in Illinois, we always have to check in quarterly, right? So that would be, and that I had to delegate. At some point I couldn't do all of them, right? But there's high touch point caregivers that, know, whether we were on the risk of losing them or something we talk a lot about are signs that somebody's kind of fading, right? They're not responding as much or,

their responses are cold or all those little red flags that we don't necessarily realize when they're happening, right? It takes some time. So I would really prioritize caregivers that have been with us consistently and the ones that are just showing up and doing their job and doing a great job. They weren't causing problems, right? They weren't the troublemakers. Those are the ones that we often don't pay enough attention to. And those are the ones that we risk losing because we focus so much on the ones that are causing problems.

Right? So I would prioritize those caregivers that are day in, day out, showing up, doing their job. And then I would prioritize the ones that unfortunately were kind of on their way out and see if there was any ways to salvage that. And then if I kind of know they're on their way out, didn't prioritize them. I'm not going to spend my time with people that I don't want to invest my, that I know it's not a good investment on my time.

Miriam Allred (22:48)
Yeah, this is really interesting. was talking to an owner last week that said they have four formal meetings with every caregiver every year. So a quarterly formal meeting again with their whole roster and they have about 200 caregivers. That's a lot. You know, some owner may think like we can't do that. Like how is that even possible? But their retention numbers are so high and their culture is so good because they're prioritizing those in-person meetings. And I love you even saying meeting them at a coffee shop. Like I'm to go meet the CEO at a coffee shop and have this really

Becky Reel (22:56)
Mm-hmm.

Yep. That's a lot.

Miriam Allred (23:18)
just like personal conversation and get to know each other. And that's how we prevent the caregiver exodus. Going back to like this scenario is you know them personally, deeply. You hear their feedback, their complaints, their personal challenges, and they feel connected to you and they're less likely to leave because they enjoy working for you and you know them personally and professionally.

Becky Reel (23:39)
Exactly. think, yeah, they're going to be more committed to you as human beings, right, more than anything else. And that's what we want to be focused on. I would rather have a smaller roster of people that I trust, and people that we know really well versus all these extra people that we don't know and we don't, you know, that we're going to people's homes. I was very particular with who we were bringing on and we, I really wanted to know them.

I did. also I always took the stance that I know our caregivers aren't always going to be with us long term, right? There's a, they're working their ways towards other things in their life, nursing school, CNA programs. It's okay to be a stepping stone, right? But to have that transparency right at the beginning and saying, well, how can we help you get to whatever your goals are? Their goal, even if they do leave, even if they do leave at some point, cause they will.

At least I knew I was helping them get to whatever their goals were. And they're going to be an advocate for you. They're going to be an ambassador for you once they leave. And that's perfectly fine too. Having the mindset that you want your caregivers to stay with you for years and years and years is not always the solution. Because then you're also, you're holding them back, right? And I never want to be the reason somebody isn't moving their life forward.

Miriam Allred (25:02)
I've heard you speak a lot about this publicly and I'm not gonna lie, I think this is one of my favorite things that you feel so strongly about and talk so openly about is not keeping your caregivers, it's getting your caregivers to leave, getting your caregivers to move on, helping them, working for you is a milestone. Yeah.

Becky Reel (25:16)
And your office team too though, right?

I mean, I'll tell that story really quickly. I had a team member in our office who was one of our, after Kristin, she was our next hire. She was amazing. She was fresh out of college. And I knew after some time she wasn't happy. I could see it, right? And she got her tuition. We had tuition reimbursement at our office. And the agreement was if you finish your program, you have to stay with us for two years, right? It's pretty standard.

She had gotten her master's in healthcare administration, and so she was going to have to stay with us for two years after that. But I also saw how miserable she was. So we came to an agreement. said, you know what? I need you to start interviewing for hospital jobs and jobs that are going to help move you forward. And I'm not going to hold you to that two-year agreement, because that is not going to help any of us, right? She's going to have terrible customer service if she's unhappy, right? And our clients are going to feel that. Our caregivers are going to feel that. So I said,

Just give me three weeks notice when you do find something. You let me know when you're interviewing. I will write you whatever letter of recommendation you need. will obviously be a letter, you know, I will be a reference for you, whatever you need. I will help you. I will help you with your interviewing. I will help you with your resume. Just keep me posted on when you have interviews. And it took her a few months to find the right position for her, but she did. She got a job at our local hospital and she's so happy. And I'm, I was not going to be the reason that that, that young girl.

was going to be stagnant in her life. That was not going to make me feel good. there's agreements and there's contracts and all those are good, but also we need to do what's best for our people. And she gave me a three weeks notice and she's still an advocate. She was an advocate and an ambassador for us and that's life. So you got to do what's right for people and in turn that's what's going to be best for your business.

Miriam Allred (26:50)
Okay.

And you're such a good example of that. That's why I love that so much because I agree home care is oftentimes a milestone for a lot of people and you if you have their best interest in mind, you know, it's a milestone for them and you want to help them achieve their long term goals. And of course, there's the lifetime caregivers and we love them so much and we all want more of them. But I think, you know, maybe more often than not, it's a stepping stone for a lot of people and you see that.

Becky Reel (27:19)
They're great too.

Yeah.

Yeah. I had a client that said they're not going to hire nursing students for that exact reason, because there's an expiration date. And if you go into it with that short-sighted mindset, good luck to you. Our nursing students were our favorite students. And yes, there's an expiration date. If you can get six months or two years, right, and you're giving them that experience, you're going to get some really good service from them over that six month or two year period, right? And also nursing students typically,

feel like love overnight shifts too, because they can study, it's a good break for them. So try not to look at it in such a narrow mindset, right? Because you might be losing out on some really great caregivers.

Miriam Allred (28:06)
Yes. Okay. I'm so glad we started with this

And we just spent a long time on that, but I'm so glad we did because there's a lot of nuggets in there. But I want to get into some of these other scenarios because you focus a lot on culture and on caregivers, but you also know a lot about, like plateaus. that's another area of your expertise. You've said to me, you you love working with companies that have been doing this for several years, but they're not getting past that.

500,000 mark or past that million mark or past that 2 million mark. We hear that so often in home care, there's these plateaus. so that's scenario number two that I want to talk about are these revenue ceilings. So talk about the problem. What are the root causes of agencies getting to those revenue ceilings?

Becky Reel (28:32)
Yep. Yep.

Yeah,

it's a lot of things. think a lot of it is not knowing how or when to delegate, not trusting people enough to be able to delegate. The owner thinking, was the problem for very long. I was this person. But no one can do it like me. I have my way and no one is going to do it the way I do. Therefore, I'm a bottleneck.

And I think we really need to get out of our own way as agencies. And you got to just at some point realize, listen, I might have people delegated to and it might not be done exactly how I wanted it, but we're going to get it really darn close. And I think that's where a lot of agencies kind of get stuck. They get stuck. And I think they're also focusing on the wrong things. They might be focused on a marketing brochure.

right, or a sponsorship, but in reality, at that point, maybe you need to be focusing on growing your caregivers or the culture of your caregivers because people always don't realize the importance, we go back to the culture, but that's how you're gonna keep your caregivers. And if you can't grow, if you're plateauing, it's probably because you don't have the clients or you don't have the caregivers to service, or both, right?

Or you're looking at the wrong areas. You're not being strategic enough. You're not building the right referral partners. Or you're focusing on the wrong referral partners, right? So I talk a lot about understanding your referral partners. Who is bringing you? It's not always the volume. It's the quality. Who's bringing you the clients that are the highest quality for you as an agency? So a lot of agents are just getting stuck on the wrong issues that are prohibiting their growth. That's the problem.

Miriam Allred (30:26)
And this is another,

this is another one of those principles that is applicable at any stage because owners and CEOs can become bottlenecks at various stages of the business. Like I've heard that's at 10 million at 20 million, like for some reason, it's just like a sticking point where you become that bottleneck and it's really hard to get through that. It sounds like you went through this personally and how do you get out of your own way? How do you hire someone that you can trust to do a good job? Like, how do you do that? Because this is what owners need to hear. How do

Becky Reel (30:45)
yeah.

Miriam Allred (30:56)
I hire someone, trust them fully to make decisions independent of me as the owner.

Becky Reel (31:02)
So first I'm going to say when it comes to hiring, we need to stop focusing on people that have home care experience. And I know that some people might turn their head at that. And I'm not saying don't hire people with home care experience. But open up the opportunities. All of my amazing hires at my agency that helped me get to where I am today, none of them had a home care experience.

But what they did have was, and this is gonna sound really cheesy, but they really wanted to help people. Their heart. Like Kristen, who's with me now, she just wants to make a difference. And that's what I love about her so much, right? And I'm like that too. But hire people that are in this for the right reason, that wanna make a difference, that wanna leave every day knowing that they are touching someone's life in some way, right? So that to me, the heart is always gonna be number one.

people that are scrappy, people that are going to be able to rip ideas apart and poke holes in theories and think differently, right? Those are the things that I'm looking for when I want to hire people and I need to trust them in order to grow, right? But I think, you know, first and foremost, when we get back to the root of the problem, we really want to ⁓ start tracking, right? Start looking at KPIs.

or KIM, so key impact measurements, Start actually, I think agencies too, a lot of times we start talking about KPIs, they start thinking, okay, but how? How do I track this? Where do I pull the data, right? So have a understanding of what KPIs you need to be tracking, right? It's so much more than billable hours and revenue. But we need to start ⁓ tracking like every week, every two weeks, and then hold your team accountable.

for bringing in those metrics, right? And it's not just, here's the metrics. Have a foundation of understanding what is happening, why it's happening, what could be impacting if you've lost a substantial amount of caregivers or clients and billable hours, why, right? Unfortunately, in this business, there's not a lot we can do if people pass away or they get hospitalized, although we should be focusing on reducing hospitalizations and readmissions, but

That's part of our business. So it's no one's fault if we lose a client, but we still need to understand the metrics. We pick one idea to delegate first, right? And make sure that we feel comfortable with that delegation. Make sure that we understand that our team is, how they're handling what's going on and what they're doing and give them feedback. So that way when we start delegating more, they understand what you're expecting of. ⁓

Kristin on my team has done really well and why she's such a great fit with me now is we always say she knows how crazy I am because she worked with me for so long. So she knows how to handle my crazy. And I think I'm crazy in all the best possible ways, right? But helping your team anticipate what you're looking for, So what Kristin does really well, she manages up to me really well. She anticipates what I'm looking for. And that takes time. She didn't just walk in day one.

and know how to handle this. It took some time. But once you are really transparent and upfront about your expectations and don't expect people to read your mind, and then they start managing up, it reduces the amount of anxiety. Because I no longer have to, not that I ever want to micromanage, but at some point you do at the beginning. But when they come to you, here's this, this, and this.

Okay, cool, I don't need to follow up on that. I know she's got it, And that's what we need to build. You need to build leaders, not just doers on your team. But that's kind of the approach I would start when agencies are kind of getting stuck in their own way.

Miriam Allred (34:53)
one of the things that you said that stood out to me was oftentimes these plateaus happen because owners are focused on the wrong things. The thing is they don't know they're focused on the wrong things. They don't know what they don't know. They're just like kind of in their zone, myopic viewpoint of what they're focused on. They don't know they're focused on the wrong things. And then you talked about like KPIs and the value of KPIs. I think like my two cents here too is

revisiting KPIs quarterly. Sometimes people put metrics in place for the team, for individuals, and they're in place for six to 12 months, and they're so rigid that they're not revisiting those metrics often enough. And that's where the plateaus start to happen. We're focused on the wrong thing for too long, and then we're wondering why we're hitting the plateau. It's because we've been focused on the wrong thing for too long. And so I think with everything that you're saying too is like revisiting things more frequently.

Becky Reel (35:22)
Mm-hmm.

Mm hmm. Yeah.

yeah.

Miriam Allred (35:48)
And don't get me wrong, KPIs have to be in place so you can track month over month for periods of time. But oftentimes, it's being more nimble on, I would say, a quarterly basis so that you're not running the same circles for an extended period of time.

Becky Reel (35:51)
Mm-hmm.

And I think too, we get so focused on the quantitative side of the KPIs. Quite frankly, I'm much more focused on qualitative, right? I want to know, treat people, listen, we, know, you and I always talk about this, like, this isn't rocket science, right? Like, treat people well, do the right thing, and the money will come.

I'm not saying don't look at the quantitative side, don't look at the billable hours, don't look at your revenue, don't look at your net and your marketing spend and all those fun things we always talk about. I want some of the qualitative stuff though too. I wanna know are people happy, why they're happy, what they like about us, what we can change. And that's why I love those coffees, right? And I love getting out of the office to do them. Sometimes I would just simply go for a walk with somebody.

people are gonna open up to you in ways that they'll never open up to you in a conference room. And so I though, and this might be an unpopular opinion, but I'm much more looking at the qualitative side of things, right?

Miriam Allred (36:58)
And I think owners are over indexing on the quantitative. You get to a certain size, maybe it's that 5 million, maybe it's that 10 million, and it's like you're spending too much time on the numbers and you're losing sight of the qualitative. But your advice is you have to focus on the qualitative more so than the quantitative at every single stage.

Becky Reel (37:17)
Yep,

exactly. And I think you also want to focus too on like the emotional weight that things are carrying on you, right? So another analysis we do a lot with our clients is your current client base, If you're spending 80 % of your time with one client with their issues, And they have a huge amount of your caregivers,

and you have other clients waiting for caregivers, but this client is becoming a problem client, understanding who to let go of, right? That emotional weight, the clients are kind of sucking you dry, Let them go. Yes, you'll lose some revenue, but you're gonna make it up without the headaches. We hear this a lot too, like not all money is good money. So that's another reason why agencies get stuck.

is they think they have to take and keep every single client, every single caregiver, every single referral source. And that's not the case,

Miriam Allred (38:18)
I think of like the 80-20. You're spending 80 % of your time on the 20 % that's causing the most headaches and the most trouble. Like you said earlier, like the trouble making caregivers, don't waste so much time on them if they're likely to churn. You're going to spend too much time and too much energy on the people that are going to churn, the clients, the caregivers, the families. Be mindful of your time and where it's being spent. Okay, I want to move on. That was great. I want to keep moving on because these are all really good. The next one is shifting gears.

Becky Reel (38:23)
I know, and it's not worth it.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Miriam Allred (38:47)
pretty drastically, but this is okay. So scenario three is what we're calling the corporate competition crisis. And this is one of your favorites. This is really interesting. You and I, again, we're talking offline about this and you work with independents and franchises. So you know kind of like the full gamut, but we were talking about like the influx of private equity and consolidation and people rolling up like...

Becky Reel (38:52)
Yeah, this is on my favorites.

Mm-hmm.

Miriam Allred (39:10)
The landscape of home care is looking a little bit different in these markets and you're on the front lines working with people all over the country and you kind of see, these micro pockets, what's happening. So explain from your perspective what this corporate crisis, competition crisis looks like.

Becky Reel (39:23)
Yeah, so national companies will come in and 20 % lower cost, lower price with all this professional marketing. so agencies think immediately like, oh, we need to match their price. And we need to kill our margins just to keep up. And actually, I think it's quite the opposite.

I've seen agencies just try to copy some of the marketing that these big corporations are doing to make them seem bigger, which is so ingenuine. It's hard for them to articulate their value propositions because, again, they're always comparing themselves to these big brands. And then their differentiator becomes the price. And in turn, that's just.

not the differentiator you should be having, especially if you're going against these big corporations. And I think the biggest thing I'll say is that the mom and pops are smaller. Franchise doesn't mean big, right? It's still a family-owned business. But I think we look at that as a weakness. They're like, we're small. We can't compete.

But there's many people that would rather have that small quality over quantity versus just a private equity backed company. And neither one's good or bad. It's about why you're doing this. But I think we oftentimes we think, ooh, small equals bad. Mom and pop, can't handle that. I always have this. when I had my agency.

One of a national franchise was down the street from us, and I was very good friends with the owner, and we would refer a lot of business back and forth. And I always assumed they were a huge company because it was a franchise. And I was like, ⁓ wah-wah, we're this small little mom and pop, even though we were pretty busy. And then once I got friendlier and friendlier, I realized we actually had three times the business they had.

And that's when I realized it doesn't mean anything, right? Franchise, independent, even private equity back, none of that means a thing. So I just stopped focusing on our competitors at all and stopped looking at them as our competitors and figured out, how do we collaborate, right? How do we become referral sources for each other instead of thinking they're huge, we're small. Because it didn't matter. I just needed to focus on who we were because was all that mattered to me.

Miriam Allred (41:53)
curious, you're working with clients in some big markets in California, Chicago, Florida, like highly saturated markets. Luckily, a lot of them are working with you very early on. So you can help them break down those walls from day one, whereas you yourself look, you had like assumptions about your competitor down the street, you personally have to like work through that, but you're able to help these agencies from the get go like break down those walls. I'm curious, though, is that a big obstacle with you and a lot of your clients is

Becky Reel (42:02)
Yep.

Miriam Allred (42:22)
They're in these highly saturated markets. They have a lot of competitors. Are they coming into the business thinking and seeing them as competitors or you're able to help them frame that mindset so early that it's not really an issue.

Becky Reel (42:36)
Yeah,

Most of my clients,

understand that it's collaboration over competition because we're going into it with that mindset, There are still a lot of people out there that won't collaborate. They don't want to because they look at them as their competitors. So I hope most of my clients understand that because we talk about that really early on, but unfortunately there are just a lot of people out there that can't seem to get that out of their head. You know, I think that's again a short-sighted way to look at things because unfortunately

The good news is there's too many people out there that need our help. There's enough business to go around. If you don't partner with your competition, and you need to trust them. If they're not willing to talk to you, well, good riddance. You don't want to collaborate with them anyway, but find the people in your community that do want to collaborate because there will be times that you're not going to be able to serve as somebody. There will be times that you don't do short shifts or you don't do live in or whatever your

core service offerings are, you're going to have to, or they're out of your service, know, franchises especially, you have a certain territory you have to stay within. There's going to be times where you can't service somebody for one reason or another. And you need to have people that are going to be able to, you need to be able to refer to. And they should be people that you trust and that you know. Because that's going to be a representation of you. So if I've had people that for our dinner series will say like,

Can I see a list? I don't want to come. My competitors are going to be there. They're not welcome at our dinners. You're not going to enjoy our dinners then, right? So I'll have to, I had to uninvite people to our dinners because it is a very curated experience. I want competitors there. I want you to be able to figure out how to work together because you need to.

Miriam Allred (44:24)
I love the line collaboration over competition. And you and I are of the same mind on this. And I think more often than not, people have that mentality in home care. I do come across the people that, you know, have their walls up and keep their trade secrets pretty close to the belt. But for the most part, we're all aligned in that there's enough demand to go around. We're all in it for the right reason to help as many people as possible. And we thrive with collaboration. And going back to being caregiver first and focusing on culture,

Becky Reel (44:33)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Miriam Allred (44:53)
Like you said, if you partner with other agencies locally, likely you're going to be sharing caregivers with them at some point in time and better to control who your caregivers are collaborating with and working with and have a good relationship with them so you can kind of protect them and like insulate them as a unit rather than them going and having a bad experience for someone that you don't know. And then that in turn affects how they work for you and how they treat you. It's like you almost want to protect those relationships.

Becky Reel (45:05)
Right.

Miriam Allred (45:23)
at end of the day to benefit the caregivers themselves.

Becky Reel (45:25)
And the clients, right?

Miriam Allred (45:28)
And the clients exactly. And did you, you probably had that experience like sharing caregivers maybe with that agency down the street. can you share any experiences of collaborating closely with them for clients and caregivers and what that looks like.

Becky Reel (45:41)
we were very selective with who we hired and we partnered with people that had that same mindset. you know, there'll be times they call and say like, hey, we have an emergency. Do you have anybody? It's tricky, right? Because you want to make sure that they're being taken care of. You want to make sure that the caregiver is going into a safe place. There's only so much you can control. But at the end of the day, you want your caregivers to have enough work.

You want them to keep working and you only can give them so many hours. So if you're able to share them, that's great. But I just would say, make sure you know the agency you're sharing them with. And there's times, I just, I think sharing with agencies is fine. But it's when you start to get ⁓ facilities and nursing homes that

want to start sharing the caregivers with you. I'd say just be mindful of the fact that your caregivers are coming to you probably because they might have worked at a nursing home or facility and they're tired of that ratio of having to take care of 20, 30 people at one time. Just be mindful of that experience. Be mindful of what you're asking your caregivers to do for you on an ongoing basis because that might not be what they signed up for. And then again, you're

you're risking losing your caregivers that way. Yes, you might have to say no to the money that you'd be getting at the facility, through that partnership, but it's about what's best for your caregivers too. So just always have that mindset of what's best for my caregivers.

Miriam Allred (47:08)
and so just kind of closing the loop on like this scenario, the corporate competition crisis, the landscape of home care is constantly changing. Like I said to you, know, lot of private equity came on the scene a few years ago. I thought it was going to slow down, but we maybe see an uptick and maybe it's going to continue for the next 10 years. Like we don't know for sure, but see, see this as opportunity, see these people as allies. And then like you said, you vet and kind of suss out every single partnership.

for what it is and don't assume things. Like you even said, you assumed kind of the wrong things at different points in time. And so don't assume anything, but just see it with kind of open eyes and approach everyone as a partnership for collaboration and find what works best for your business.

Becky Reel (47:51)
Totally, and I think too, ask questions. As people are maybe not choosing you because they're going to a large company, it's perfectly fine to say, you mind if I ask why you went with this company? Just so you can understand because there might be a misconception of why they went with somebody else. Obviously, we don't want to be confrontational, but I think asking questions. How can we do better? What could we be doing differently that can help really structure your agency?

But I guess as I, as we leave this topic, I would just make sure people understand like learning who you are as an agency, it's a long process and it's an evolving process. You have to reinvent yourself occasionally, right? You have to learn to get uncomfortable and do things that you're not used to doing. You got to get on social media and build a culture there, which agencies very much dislike when I say that because we don't want to.

It's how we build our culture of who we are and why we're different than those corporate companies coming in and building something that we're not. And play to your strengths. Know who you are, right? And it's okay to say no. I talk about that a lot too, right? If something doesn't feel right to you, Because of who you are as an agency, it's okay to say no.

Miriam Allred (49:04)
love that line you just said about reinventing yourself. You and I are both good friends with Bob Roth in Arizona, He was just saying the same thing. They're 30 years into business and he's been with the organization for 20 years and he just said to me, we...

Becky Reel (49:13)
Yeah.

Miriam Allred (49:18)
have to reinvent ourselves as a business. They're 30 years in and you would think, ⁓ it's a family owned company. They've got a great reputation and they have all those things, but he just said we're reinventing ourselves as a company. I think every business out there listening to this, you should be thinking through that lens. Home care is changing. Family dynamics are changing. Caregiver demographics are changing. Home care is really like...

adaptive and so you as a business also have to be reinventing yourself often, which is intimidating, but also a great opportunity to continue to refine who you are and what you offer and your differentiator in your market. It's never boring. No two days are the same. He also said that. ⁓ let's get into the next scenario, which is an interesting one as well. I want to talk about what you call the success trap or growing too fast.

Becky Reel (49:54)
It's not for boring. Did he? Okay.

Miriam Allred (50:08)
I hear a lot of agencies growing 20 to a hundred percent year over year. Most businesses I talk to are around like that 20 % year over year. But in startup world, you know, the world that you're in, it's not uncommon to hear businesses growing really quickly, but it can become a problem. You can grow too quickly and operations are chaos and people are unhappy. Like you've lived through that. So

Becky Reel (50:26)
Yep. yeah.

Miriam Allred (50:32)
Talk about kind of the problem with this success trap that people fall into.

Becky Reel (50:37)
I think the problem is agencies will double in size. I've seen triple, but it ends up being more stress more than anything else, Lower quality work, balls dropping left and right. I would much rather see an agency grow in a sustainable, healthy way that you're allowed, it gives you more time to adapt. So I had a client, I have a client, I adore her so, much. She, her first year,

she got to $400,000 in revenue. Her next year, $1.4 million. And the next year, she wanted to get to $3 million. And I was like, well, hold on. Let's talk about this. Especially because she might be building her agency to potentially sell at some point, right? When you go to sell, you want to have consistent growth data, right? You want to make it look sustainable.

If you got to three million, but then the next year, that's gonna be harder and harder to do every single jump. So, we talked about it and our goal really became more of like a two million, which she's easily gonna hit this year. But you wanna have sustainable, realistic goals for various reasons. You don't wanna grow too fast. just don't work at that pace. You're not gonna be able to keep up with it.

You're going to disappoint a lot of referral sources. You're going to disappoint clients because you're just going to say yes to everything, everybody, and you're probably not hiring carefully, Your profit margins are potentially shrinking at that rate too. There's just, everyone's feeling overwhelmed. Your caregivers are probably feeling overwhelmed. Everyone's going to start making mistakes because everything's just happening too fast. And that's not a healthy way to run an agency.

So I very much would like to see more slower but healthy growth rates, healthier margins, right? Nurturing of relationships as opposed to just the fast, unstoppable pace that we see.

Miriam Allred (52:26)
Yeah, I think it's a trap in all business is kind of growth at all costs. And there are a lot of, young, hungry, new home care owners that are like, my gosh, I can grow this to 3 million in three years. Like, why wouldn't I? But you bring up a lot of really good points of the root causes and the root problems with growing too quickly is yeah, you can actually displease a lot of people because the operations aren't in place. And the sustainability piece, you bring up a really good point. You know, you can grow really quickly in a certain period of time.

Becky Reel (52:51)
Yeah.

Miriam Allred (52:55)
but is that sustainable and how does that look down the road?

Becky Reel (52:59)
Yeah, and again, unpopular opinion possibly, but I, and this is, have two young kids, like my world is about balance, right? And I wanna teach people, you can have a very massively successful agency, right? But you can also have balance and have a life. And this took me far too long to learn. My husband came to one of our dinner series in Chicago a few weeks ago, I, I thought it'd be interesting to have his perspective.

Right? Because spouses, partners go through this too with you through the growing pains. And, he was telling stories about we'd be at dinner and I'd constantly have to get up to go deal with a call off or a caregiver issue or client or something. We couldn't do anything because there was always a problem. There was always something going on because we were growing too fast and I didn't have the right support. It took me too long to understand and my breaking point was

It was Christmas Eve and I was gonna tell our families that we were pregnant with our daughter and if you know anything about me, I'm pretty open about it, but we had a few miscarriages leading up to that and this was a big deal. I say this because this was a big deal. We had gone through a lot to finally get to this point that we were able to tell our families and it was a big moment for us and we were going to unwrap presents and that's how we were telling our family and we had a live-in caregiver who... ⁓

couldn't make it to her shift on a Saturday on Christmas Eve. that was my breaking moment. I was going to have to go fill in for a live in on Christmas Eve pregnant. It was the worst. And I was like, this ends now. This ends now. And that's when I got really serious about building an infrastructure and building a balanced model for my agency. And so that's what I want to bring to other agencies about how to build systems, how to build growth rates.

how to build growth to a sustainable growth method, as opposed to, yeah, just grind every day. That's just not sustainable. And you're going to burn yourself out so fast. And you're going to get really resentful.

Miriam Allred (55:06)
I want to, yeah,

I want to, I want to challenge you a little bit on the balance concept. I grew up striving for balance and my parents use that word all the time, balance, balance, balance. Like that's what you're trying to achieve in life. Recently, someone was telling me like balance doesn't exist, you know, like it's not about balance. And I just had personally this like great awakening of like, I thought

Becky Reel (55:24)
yeah.

Miriam Allred (55:31)
I was striving for balance in life, but this person shared just a different perspective that was eye-opening to me. And I'm not one or the other, but it was that we're not striving to achieve balance. We're striving to more so accept the imbalances in life, acknowledge them, accept them, and be okay with them. Work and life are never gonna be 50-50. It's understanding when work is 70-30 and understanding that and accepting that, working through that.

And again, that was just kind of like a paradigm shift for me personally of like, I thought I was trying to achieve balance in every aspect of my life, but it's actually kind of accepting and acknowledging the imbalances and being okay with that. What are your thoughts on that?

Becky Reel (56:07)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, that's profound. I think when I say balance, think it to me, it means I can take Thursday, Friday off this week because I want to. But that means I'm going to work. I'm going to get all my meetings in the first part of my week. Right. So, yeah, I'm not going to have a ton of balance.

this week, right? I'm not. going to be, my daughter, we were talking earlier, my daughter's home from sick, at least today. So we're done with the ABL. So like, I'm not going to be balancing things very well, but it's on my terms, I guess more than anything, right? I get to dictate. I can say no to things. So that's what I mean when I say balance. It means doing what feels good for me and not what other people deem are important.

Miriam Allred (56:54)
Yeah, and the reason why I lean into this a little bit is because home care is no two days are the same. It is also seasonal and cyclical. so home care to me is oftentimes imbalanced because it is so seasonal, cyclical, highs and lows, plateaus. home care isn't super stable in some of it's just like inherent nature. But that's why I like what this concept is of it's...

easy to grow too fast in home care. And that's not necessarily like growth at all costs is the goal, but trying your best to keep it stable, sustainable, balanced, knowing that that's not always the case.

Becky Reel (57:34)
Yeah, and when you say like keep it stable, like there's so much that's out of our hands when it comes to the business, right? But that's where, when it is slow, right? What do you do with that time? Do you just sit back or do you use that time to do something, whether it's for yourself or for the business and take that time to do reflection, take that time to check in, check on your team that you don't usually get a chance to go dig into your

processes, operational pieces. When you talk about how to balance, I very much agree with what you're saying. I just think it means different things to different people. ⁓ I'm about building agencies that work for the individuals. So I don't have a roadmap or a blueprint that everybody follows.

Miriam Allred (58:14)
Totally, totally.

Becky Reel (58:26)
because I want to meet you where you're at. I want to meet you with why you're doing what you're doing and who we're serving.

Miriam Allred (58:32)
Yeah, I love that. said that at the beginning, a business that supports your life, not the other way around. And I think that's why people love working with you because that resonates to them. I want to build a business that supports me and my life and I can give back, but you're not being taken advantage of and stressed out all of the time. I know we're at an hour here. I want to just cover one more really quickly, this last one, which ties into exactly what we were talking about, which is the work-life collision.

Becky Reel (58:35)
Yep.

Miriam Allred (58:57)
when your agency becomes your identity. And you are already just speaking to your personal experience with this of when you got to your breaking point, when this was all consuming. And that happens to a lot of owners. They're so in it, they're so passionate, they love what they do so much that it becomes a bottleneck or a collision or an issue. And so just speak to what you've seen in this regard and how you help agencies push through this.

Becky Reel (59:20)
gosh, yeah.

Again, this took me far too long to realize. This was not healthy. successful agency owners, I mean, I already see it. They're dealing with marriage issues, missing their kids' events, health declines. I went through all of that, right? Always on, always taking client calls, missing movies and concerts. I was at a wedding. I had to leave the wedding to go deal with a call off or an issue with a caregiver.

You know, feeling guilty, the guilt, right, especially as a parent or as a friend, as a child. You know, you feel so guilty for putting work first, but you're also, people are relying on you. People need you. So it's hard. My friends used to get mad at me all the time because we'd be somewhere and I'd have to go walk away. They didn't understand. They didn't understand the business. I remember one friend, and this was a breaking point for me too,

One friend just said, why don't you just go get a new job that's not so stressful? And that comment changed my relationship with my friend to this day, a childhood friend. Because this wasn't a job. This never was a job. This was a mission. This was something that was so much more than a job to me, But then the physical. You and I were talking earlier about just taking care of ourselves. And that physical stress can

really do a lot of damage to us, right? So yeah, I'm a big believer of figuring out a way to, as best as you can, separate, And not have the agency be your entire identity.

Miriam Allred (1:00:53)
In our notes here, there's some really good like tactical things to break this down, like your approach to solving this. Can you just kind of dial through what those arcs are really good?

Becky Reel (1:00:58)
Yep. yeah. Yeah.

So my favorite is I would say to people, your emergency does not deem an emergency on my side or your, your poor time management does not constitute an emergency on my side. So I started understanding what was a true emergency, which was truly urgent versus

something that can wait, right? So that's something I had to learn. I also believe in, again, with the delegation, but teaching your team to think for themselves. So when someone would come to me, Because I'm in everyone's world. I was always the person, the only person that can solve every problem, right? That had to change. So when someone would come to me like, OK, there's this situation going on. What do I do? Instead of telling them what to do, my response is, what do you think we should do?

Let them start thinking. And the answer might be completely off, right? And not acceptable. But at least you're teaching people to think for themselves. And then you can say, OK, that's good. But what about x, y, and z? And so you start teaching them and coaching them on how to think for themselves. I create, and I still have it to this day, sacred hours, right? My phone's going on, do not disturb. I will get to it when I'm done with whatever I'm doing, right?

Obviously, if it's a really big emergency, you can bypass that. those sacred hours for me, that's when I work out. And sometimes I won't even bring my watch in with me, because I need to not be, I need time by myself. My husband goes with me to workouts sometimes. We don't even talk. We're together, but we don't even talk. It's my time to just be in my own head. And quite frankly, that's where I get a lot of my good ideas.

And really building an infrastructure and building coverage systems that worked for us. that I would, at some point, I was not the person when shifts were being called off on or there were emergencies, it was no longer me, I knew what was going on because I had a system in place with our team, but I didn't know about it the second they were happening.

Miriam Allred (1:03:01)
And you hear that from owners. I haven't taken a vacation in a year or two years or three years. And it's because they don't have these coverage systems in place. You need to build a system with your team so that you can disconnect and the business will still run without you. And sacred hours, like I love that you just dialed through those because there's a lot of just like nuggets in there of how to approach this, how to solve for this problem. Because again,

Becky Reel (1:03:04)
Mm-hmm.

Miriam Allred (1:03:24)
It's not a bad thing that the agency becomes your identity. It becomes a bad thing when you're sacrificing your family, your health, your happiness in behalf of the business. And that's where this really becomes an issue. And you've gone through this and you've seen a lot of owners go through this. I have as well. And so I love just hearing you identify like how to solve this issue.

Becky Reel (1:03:41)
Yeah.

Well, and it became my identity to the point that when we sold the agency, I went through a massive depression that I'm very open about. I couldn't get out of bed for a while because I felt like I lost a piece of me. I did. And it took me a long time to get out of that and realize that was not who I was. It was what I did. And there's so much more. There's so much more to life. There's so much more to work and things I still need to do in my life.

But it took me a long time to get out of that, to realize that was not my identity.

Miriam Allred (1:04:16)
Becky, this has been so enjoyable. You and I are friends online and offline, but you're so easy to talk to. And when I hear the word authenticity, that's a buzzword, you know, with AI and authenticity, like you hear that word a lot. When I hear that word, I think of you. You're so genuine. You're so you, and you're just so open and raw and candid. And I think that's why I and so many people are drawn to you is because you're so easy to talk to and you're so yourself and you're so open about your life and about your mistakes and about your success.

and your heart's in it. Like how many owners and operators and businesses you're helping across the country, like it's just profound. And I'm so proud of you and so grateful to know you. I'm so grateful for everything that you shared.

Becky Reel (1:04:53)
You're going make me cry, That feeling

is very mutual. I'm so proud of you and everything you're doing. So this was fun.

Miriam Allred (1:05:00)
I want you to, yeah,

I want you to feel good because it's amazing how far you've come and what you've accomplished. And we've just known each other, you know, these last few years, but you've told everyone and told me, you know, what you've been through and it's been a lot, but I'm just so grateful and proud of where you're at today.

Becky Reel (1:05:15)
Thank It's always so fun talking to you too and I love what you're doing.

Miriam Allred (1:05:19)
Last little question, what is the best way for people to contact you? People have learned a lot from this conversation. What's the best way for people to get through to you?

Becky Reel (1:05:26)
So lots of ways, you can go to my website, it's reelhomecareconsulting.com, and it's my last name, so it's R-E-E-L, like a fishing reel. I'm on all the socials, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. You can also just shoot me a quick email at becky@reelhomecareconsulting.com.

Miriam Allred (1:05:45)
Love it. And all of that will be in the show notes. Becky, thank you so much for joining me in the lab. This has been a pleasure.

Becky Reel (1:05:50)
Thank you so much. I had so much fun.