Podcasts about brightstar care

E.M.D. Sales, Inc. v. Carrera concerns what standard the court should apply in cases of exceptions to the Fair Labor Standards Act. This act governs such limitations as hours worked, overtime pay, and working conditions across the United States. Several provisions within it exempt certain industries from some requirements, and this case deals with the burden of proof on a corporation to prove that an employee should be exempt from these rules.The plaintiffs in this case are two employees of a food distribution company, who sued for overtime benefits citing the Fair Labor Standards Act. The company argued that their positions were those of salesmen, who are normally exempted from overtime pay rules. The plaintiffs allege that making sales was a secondary part of their numerous responsibilities that were not overtime exempt. The district court agreed that E.M.D failed to prove a sales exemption, and the Fourth Circut Court of Appeals affirmed.Currently, the case is before the Supreme Court, with oral arguments on November 5th. Join Michael O'Neill, Vice President of Legal Affairs at Landmark Legal Foundation, and Cheryl Stanton, Chief Legal and Government Affairs Officer at BrightStar Care, as they review oral arguments and discuss this case and its implications.Featuring:Michael J. O'Neill, Vice President of Legal Affairs, Landmark Legal Foundation(Moderator) Cheryl M. Stanton, Chief Legal and Government Affairs Officer, BrightStar Care

Welcome to Just Jania, the podcast hosted by Jania Bailey and powered by FranNet. Pete First, Chief Development Officer with BrightStar Care joins Jania to discuss diversifying revenue streams, multi-unit expansion, and franchising in the healthcare focused field.  

BrightStar Care is a leader in the rapidly expanding home care industry, renowned for its ability to successfully stand up complex in-home care delivery models, exceptional B2B partner solutions and nurse-led care model. With a holistic approach that spans medical staffing, private duty home care, hospital at home, commercial insurance plans and more – BrightStar Care not only fills a critical gap in the healthcare sector but its flexible solution based approach has led the network to offer innovative, high-value solutions tailored to meet each partner's needs. As the industry evolves, BrightStar Care continues to be at the forefront, delivering a higher standard of care in the industry and positioning itself as the premier partner for future healthcare collaborations.

In this episode of the CanadianSME Small Business Podcast, we are delighted to welcome Lori Merrall, Vice President of Franchise Sales at Sola Salon Studios. With her diverse background that spans from advertising and sponsorship sales for the Arizona Coyotes to significant roles in TV and film, Lori brings a unique perspective on business growth and entrepreneurship. Her journey has seen her hold pivotal positions at BrightStar Care, Massage Envy Franchising, and Kahala Brands, leading to her current role at Sola Salon Studios. Here, she plays a crucial role in helping beauty professionals succeed as independent salon owners.Key Highlight Points:Lori discusses how the micro-franchising concept of Sola Salons fuels entrepreneurship in Canada and what sets it apart, including a success story that illustrates the impact of this model.Insights into the key factors driving the trend of micro-businesses in Canada, especially in the current economic climate, and its impact on local communities and economies.Predictions for the future of the salon industry and franchise entrepreneurship in Canada, and how these trends might shape the industry over the next five years.The importance of this milestone for the brand and its community of entrepreneurs, and how it aligns with Sola's future goals and vision.Lori delves into how Sola Salon facilitates the entrepreneurial journey of its customers, along with the unique challenges and rewards experienced in this process.Lori's strategies to sustain and grow Sola's presence in the competitive Canadian market and ensure these strategies resonate with local entrepreneurs and communities.We extend our sincerest gratitude to Lori Merrall for joining us and sharing her invaluable insights. Her expertise in the realm of micro-franchising and her passion for small businesses and entrepreneurship in Canada are truly impressive. Today's key takeaway is the transformative power of micro-franchising and its significant role in shaping the future of small businesses and entrepreneurship in Canada.We also thank our partners: RBC, our exclusive banking partner; UPS, our exclusive shipping partner; and Xero, our exclusive accounting software partner. Their support is integral to the growth and success of small businesses.Don't forget to subscribe to CanadianSME Small Business Magazine for more inspiring content. Visit www.canadiansme.ca  for the latest updates and resources tailored for small businesses.

Colliers International recently announced the following lease transactions in Henrico County: DPR Construction – leased 14,707 SF at 4305 Cox Road (Gray Bryant represented the landlord); Brightstar Care of Richmond – renewed its lease of 2,704 SF at 7202 Glen Forest Drive (Wood Thornton represented the tenant). *** Costco Wholesale Corporation recently purchased the 6.98-acre property located at 9700 West Broad Street in Henrico County from NNN REIT, LP for million. Rob Black and Robby Brownfield of Colliers International represented the seller. *** In honor of National Apprenticeship Week (Nov. 13-19), an Electrical Apprenticeship Career Fair will be held...Article LinkSupport the show

In this Modrn Business Podcast, Zack welcomes back Shelly Sun, CEO & Founder of Brightstar Care, to the show. We discuss her amazing founding story, how Brightstar differentiate from others in the home health space, how she gives back to the franchise space through her Franchise Certification program at Univ. of Tennessee and Shelly's tireless work in providing opportunities for students and nurses to join the industries she loves.

CEO of MissionCare Collective, Brandi Kurtyka, and SVP at BrightStar Care, Leslie Waddell, discussed the prevalent and timely topic of home care turnover. The two experts shared their insights on the causes of high turnover in the home care industry, as well as some strategies for reducing it.

In today's episode of Franchise U!, Kathy sits down with Scott Oaks with Scoop Soldiers. Oaks franchising career demonstrates his belief in the franchising model and its potential financial impact on a family. Listen and hear the thread that runs throughout Oaks's entire career. Scott Oaks is a senior level franchise development professional with over 20 years of experience working within all segments of franchising with a proven track record of success in franchise sales. Oaks has developed franchise development messaging, branding, and recruiting practices that directly impacted in positive franchise growth. Oaks is currently working as VP of Franchise Development for Scoop Soldiers, a veteran-themed pet waste removal franchise, after serving as Director of Franchise Development at FirstLight Home Care for 4 years. Oaks previously worked with several brands to help them with franchise development and lead generation strategies utilizing the 1851 platform. Oaks also served as Vice President of Franchise Development for BrightStar Care. I worked to strengthen their relationships with their broker partners, bring in new franchisees, and guide existing franchisees through the transfer process. At Wireless Zone, Oaks brought in over 80 individual franchise stores through good qualification, relationship management, and a recruiting "a good quality franchisee mindset". Oaks also led their conversion initiative of converting existing retailers into the franchise. A key asset in the growth of Wireless Zone from 250 stores to over 450 stores. Prior to Wireless Zone, Oaks was Director of Franchise Development for Handyman Connection, a home improvement franchise where he oversaw the revamping of their franchise development process, messaging, marketing, and advertising strategy. Oaks has spent the previous 5 years in sales management and marketing roles in the printing press manufacturing industry.

Shelly Sun, CEO and founder of BrightStar Franchising, on this week's episode of The Franchise Woman podcast: Where Passion & Purpose Collide. There is much to admire about Shelly, her ability to see the future and plan accordingly, her love of her franchisees and business partners, her generous heart and her steadfast, maternal nature when raising her boys (now college age). We discussed much as you might expect. Two things stood out: Her ‘in-YOUR-shoes' leadership style whether that be the elderly parent and his/her family, the franchisee as they grow their territory or the care provider whose difficult job is so vitally needed. Her desire to be a bridge for the next generation of business owners through her generous contribution in creating a franchise program at her alma mater the University of Tennessee.  Listen in to this episode and be inspired.

Jeffrey Mosher welcomes Chris Miller, Franchise Owner BrightStar Care HomeCare, East Lansing, MI. Their discussion revolves around BrightStar Care Franchisee of the Year. Chris Miller had to overcome Auto-No-Fault Law change, pandemic & Difficult economic conditions. I understand you first worked for your family business in manufacturing and decided to make a change by getting into the home care business? Why did you make this decision? You started your business in East Lansing in October 2015 and today you operate four offices in Michigan. Tell us about that? You were named BrightStar franchisee of the year? Why were you recognized with this national honor? Like most businesses, the past three years have been difficult economically and your industry faced a new state law change. Tell us about your challenges. How have you been able to deal with the tight labor market? How has your business been able to expand during such difficult times? » Visit MBN website: www.michiganbusinessnetwork.com/ » Subscribe to MBN's YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCqNX… » Like MBN: www.facebook.com/mibiznetwork » Follow MBN: twitter.com/MIBizNetwork/

We are meeting with Shelly Sun, CEO & Founder of  BrightStar Care. BrightStar Care boasts more than 365 locations nationwide that provide medical and non-medical services to clients in their homes and supplemental care staff to corporate clients. BrightStar Care franchise agencies across the country employ over 15,000 caregivers and 5,700 registered nurses who oversee the care and safety of each individual client. In addition, BrightStar Care is the only national home care franchise to receive The Joint Commission's Enterprise Champion for Quality award consecutively for the last decade.In Part Two, we play a clip from our popular Great Quotes in Franchising podcast.

One-third of seniors say they would go back in time to relive part of their lives, according to a survey of 2,000 older adults conducted by OnePoll for BrightStar Care. Asked if they could relive one decade of their lives, over half chose their thirties or twenties. Asked if given the chance to redo one […] The post 330. Seniors feel their 20s or 30s were their happiest years appeared first on Dr. David Geier - Feel and Perform Better Than Ever.

When it comes to investments, investors are usually forward-thinkers. But is thinking about your elderly stage part of your plan as well?In this podcast, Alison Lee, Director at BrightStar Care of Honolulu, talked about home care options, private duty home care, and how the elderly and their family can prepare.It's hard to rely on government plans.And as we know, policies can change from time to time, so whatever applies today for assisted living for the elderly may not be used in the future if you (or your loved ones) need it.To learn more about investing and other strategies from other passive investors, visit https://simplepassivecashflow.com/club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When it comes to investments, investors are usually forward-thinkers. But is thinking about your elderly stage part of your plan as well? In this podcast, Alison Lee, Director at BrightStar Care of Honolulu, talked about home care options, private duty home care, and how the elderly and their family can prepare. It's hard to rely on government plans. And as we know, policies can change from time to time, so whatever applies today for assisted living for the elderly may not be used in the future if you (or your loved ones) need it. To learn more about investing and other strategies from other passive investors, visit https://simplepassivecashflow.com/club.

MasterMind Minutes - One Guest - One Question - One Expert Answer in Minutes not Hours. Today's Guest is Shelly Sun. Shelly Sun is the CEO and Founder of BrightStar Care a national home care and medical staffing franchise with more than 365 locations that provide medical and non-medical services to clients within their homes, as well as supplemental care staff to corporate clients. Shelly is a dynamic and forward-thinking leader passionate about helping aspiring entrepreneurs become successful business owners. Shelly grew BrightStar Care from a local business to a $639M national enterprise. By franchising the concept, she was able to diversify & localize the brand's operations, positioning franchisees to become prominent business owners. In 20 years, BrightStar Care has grown to over 365 locations, becoming the provider of choice for thousands of clients nationwide. Shelly is also a well-known leader within the global franchising industry, serving as the 2017-2018 Chairwoman of the International Franchise Association (IFA), a top 25 association. Shelly was named IFA 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year and is a Certified Franchise Executive. Shelly published her first book in 2011, Grow Smart, Risk Less, where she discusses her journey as an emerging franchisor through growth, lessons, and game-changing ideas. Shelly and BrightStar Care were featured on an episode of CBS' Undercover Boss, as the first franchise brand ever chosen on the show. Harvard Business School has written a case study about BrightStar Care's expansion under Sun's leadership. Prior to founding BrightStar Care, Shelly was a Certified Public Accountant and held executive positions with United Airlines, CNA Insurance, and BlueCross BlueShield. An innovative, forward-thinking trailblazer, Shelly is focused on driving results, building a strong culture, and delivering the highest quality care by building a network of like-minded small business owners to activate her brand vision. Shelly's strategic mindset to innovate, create new opportunities, and increase her brand's market share drives brand growth and performance. Learn more about Shelly and Bright Star: https://www.brightstarcare.com/Contact Gary: info@frngorw.com Visit: www.frangrow.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gary5396/support

We all age, and when we do - now more than ever - we want to remain independent for as long as possible. What if you or your loved one could get assistance to remain independent right at home? It's possible! Shelly Sun, Founder and CEO of BrightStar Care joins us on Aging Today to talk about her 365 franchise agencies and how they have become the “gold standard” in healthcare over the last ten years. It's clear - home-based care is the future of healthcare! BrightStar Care has some incredible plans for aligning itself with a broader network of care. What can you expect in the near future? What lies on the horizon? Will Medicare Advantage plans to partner up? Shelly shares it all!

Shelly Sun is the CEO and Founder of BrightStar Care.  Shelly is also  the author of Grow Smart, Risk Less: A Low-Capital Path to Multiplying Your Business Through Franchising.Shelly takes listeners and viewers on a journey as she details her passion for families, home care, and aging in place. During this episode, she shares insights about costs, technology, preparation, and the process of partnering with a home health care agency to provide in-home care for yourself or a loved one.About BrightStar Care :BrightStar Care, is a national home care and medical staffing franchise with more than 365 locally owned and operated locations nationwide, was awarded The Joint Commission's 2022 Enterprise Champion for Quality Award for the tenth consecutive year, reinforcing the brand's devotion to the highest standards of quality and safety in home health care."(Retrieved from https://www.prweb.com/releases/2022/5/prweb18677853.htm. Retrieved on July 18, 2022.)The show's goal is to discuss the importance, past, present, and future landscape of home health care and educate listeners and viewers on how to prepare and how to select home health care partners at various ages and stages. Hosted by Dr. Cleamon Moorer Sponsored by: American Advantage Home Care, Inc.

Whether we agree with it or not, there is a perceived canyon between what we do in non-medical home care and what happens in the "healthcare world." We're generally not reimbursed like healthcare is. Even in the Medicaid world where there are government payments, they're called "waiver programs."  But while non-medical care is often shunned, we know that an individual receiving our care will have better outcomes than  someone who doesn't. Without going on too much of a tangent, there's a growing body of evidence to that effect that you can learn about by Googling "Social Determinants of Health."BrightStar Care, a $700M national home care franchise set out to prove that their interventions not only result in comfort and quality of life improvements for their clients, but also generate hard healthcare cost savings. They hired a top healthcare research firm, Avalere, to compare the healthcare costs of Medical Care recipients receiving care from BrightStar Care to others who don't.The results were resoundingly positive showing that on average, BrightStar Care recipients had over $8,000 in healthcare savings, and in some cases the savings were almost $30,000.In this episode of home care heroes, BrightStar Care Founder and CEO Shelly Sun explains why they did the study, what they learned, and how this has effected their work and approach at BrightStar Care.  You can learn more about the study entitled at this link.  You can learn more about BrightStar Care here.Home Care Heroes is produced and sponsored by Ankota - the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities are simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.

Brought To You By SeoSamba . . . Comprehensive, High Performing Marketing Solutions For Mature And Emerging Franchise Brands . . . To Supercharge Your Franchise Marketing, Go To seosamba.com. Pete First, Chief Development Officer at BrightStar Care As Chief Development Officer, Pete is responsible for recruiting new franchise owners for all three brands under the BrightStar […]

Brought To You By SeoSamba . . . Comprehensive, High Performing Marketing Solutions For Mature And Emerging Franchise Brands . . . To Supercharge Your Franchise Marketing, Go To seosamba.com. Pete First, Chief Development Officer at BrightStar Care As Chief Development Officer, Pete is responsible for recruiting new franchise owners for all three brands under the BrightStar […] The post Pete First With BrightStar Care appeared first on Business RadioX ®.

Launch Greensboro's Assistant Director Kaitlin Conover is joined by Tara Darnley, CEO and co-founder of Darlyng & Co., and Todd Starcevich, head of North America at Reima and owner of BrightStar Care of Greensboro, to discuss how entrepreneurs, small businesses and larger corporations can work together to make our city an even better place to do business. 

Pete First has been with BrightStar care for nearly 4 years, beginning his journey there, as Vice President of Franchise Development for BrightStar Care.  During his tenure, Pete has grown that brand's nationwide presence to 365 locations and has expanded the brand into new territories and markets. Today, as Chief Development Officer of BrightStar Holdings Group, Pete is responsible for recruiting new franchise owners to all three of their brands: BrightStar Care, BrightStar Senior Living®, and BrightStar® Care Homes™.

Robert Massie, Founder & CEO of BrightStar Care of Fairfax and Eclipse Health Solutions, was interviewed by Adam Torres on Mission Matters Business Podcast Robert Massie says the core mission of his businesses—BrightStar Care of Fairfax, an in-home healthcare service provider, and Eclipse Health Solutions, a remote patient monitoring service—is to provide high-quality, cost-effective healthcare services that people can receive in the comfort of their own home. Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule.Apply to be interviewed by Adam on our podcast:https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/Visit our website:https://missionmatters.com/

Robert Massie, Founder & CEO of BrightStar Care of Fairfax and Eclipse Health Solutions, was interviewed by Adam Torres on Mission Matters Innovation Podcast Robert Massie says the core mission of his businesses—BrightStar Care of Fairfax, an in-home healthcare service provider, and Eclipse Health Solutions, a remote patient monitoring service—is to provide high-quality, cost-effective healthcare services that people can receive in the comfort of their own home.Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule.Apply to be interviewed by Adam on our podcast:https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/Visit our website:https://missionmatters.com/

Thanksgiving with Pete First of BrightStar Care Broadcast Date: November 25th , 2021 Broadcast Time : 7:00p EST / 6:00p CST / 3:00p MST /4:00p PST Our fearless leader (Fred if that wasn't totally obvious)  goes it alone live on Thanksgiving with a slight alteration in time (4:00 PST) as Kristin interviews Pete First from BrightStar Care in a recorded interview. Pete is BrightStar Care's Sr. Vice President of Franchise Development and is responsible for expanding the brand to new, untapped markets across the country. In addition, he is responsible for the expansion of BrightStar Senior Living, their new construction senior living communities Tune in while the turkey settles as you drift in and out of your stuffing stupor! The team will be back next week at the usual time in the usual places. We hope you all have a wonderful and restorative Thanksgiving weekend! Listen live to new episodes on Thursdays at 4p central. Call in on Thursdays at 323-580-5755. Interested in buying a franchise? Join the Million Dollar Franchisee Mentor program Listen to past episodes. https://www.pillarsoffranchising.com.

The world of child-centric franchises is an increasingly populated one, with the line between parent and entrepreneur becoming virtually non-existent. This is certainly the case for Rich Elms, who founded his child soccer concept BabyBallers back in 2016.   Popularity prompted Rich to launch the BabyBallers franchise opportunity in 2017, and since then, the brand has expanded beyond its U.K. roots to markets as far as Australia.  But if Rich could go back in time and give himself some advice in 2015, when BabyBallers was just an idea, what would he say to start the brand off on the right foot? And now it's developing in international markets, what does Rich look for when recruiting new franchising partners? Tune in to find out!  To keep your finger on the beating pulse of franchising, sign up for our newsletter at https://www.globalfranchisemagazine.com/, subscribe to our definitive magazine, and join the conversation with our experts today on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Ⓛ https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-franchise/ ⓣ https://twitter.com/globalfranmag ⓕ https://www.facebook.com/globalfranchisemag/ This episode of the Global Franchise Podcast is brought to you by BrightStar Care, a private-duty home care and medical staffing franchise, with prime territories available nationwide, and five revenue streams for uncapped earning potential. For more information, visit www.brightstarfranchising.com. 

The food and beverage franchise industry is easily one of the most analyzed and celebrated of all sectors in this business model. I'm sure we could all name countless restaurant franchise brands that we've loved over the years, and experts have been deciphering what innovations and evolutions work best since we began flipping burgers or slicing pizzas many decades ago.   One organization that's no stranger to evolution is Focus Brands. The parent company owns six beloved franchise concepts and has an impressive portfolio of more than 1,650 sites across 60 countries around the world. But recent news stories like the opening of the first-ever Auntie Anne's drive-thru site, or a brand-new build-out for Schlotzsky's, have shown that this is one franchisor that's not afraid to try new things.   To learn more about what the future holds for Focus Brands International, we sat down with Beto Guajardo, the franchisor's president. Beto has many years of experience in senior leadership and is brimming with useful insight that restauranteurs far and wide can put into practice.  To keep your finger on the beating pulse of franchising, sign up for our newsletter at https://www.globalfranchisemagazine.com/, subscribe to our definitive magazine, and join the conversation with our experts today on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Ⓛ https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-franchise/ ⓣ https://twitter.com/globalfranmag ⓕ https://www.facebook.com/globalfranchisemag/ This episode of the Global Franchise Podcast is brought to you by BrightStar Care, a private-duty home care and medical staffing franchise, with prime territories available nationwide, and five revenue streams for uncapped earning potential. For more information, visit www.brightstarfranchising.com. 

The in-home care market has exploded in recent years, with an increasing number of senior citizens looking to receive care in their own homes as opposed to moving into a residential care facility. As such, brands like BrightStar Care have been in fierce demand; with the established care franchisor continuing to grow and expand since its creation back in 2002.  Now with over 345 locations open throughout North America, BrightStar Care has become an institution in the care franchising sphere; with the name being synonymous with empathetic and efficient at-home care and skilled medical services.   But how did BrightStar Care begin, and how is it continuing to differentiate itself in the care market? And, for investors looking to enter this benevolent space, what personality traits and experience are best for finding success? To find out, we caught up with Shelly Sun, founder and CEO of BrightStar Care.   To keep your finger on the beating pulse of franchising, sign up for our newsletter at https://www.globalfranchisemagazine.com/, subscribe to our definitive magazine, and join the conversation with our experts today on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Ⓛ https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-franchise/ ⓣ https://twitter.com/globalfranmag ⓕ https://www.facebook.com/globalfranchisemag/ This episode of the Global Franchise Podcast is brought to you by BrightStar Care, a private-duty home care and medical staffing franchise, with prime territories available nationwide, and five revenue streams for uncapped earning potential. For more information, visit www.brightstarfranchising.com. 

The sector we're taking a look at today is very unique, in that many of our audience have probably engaged with an outsourced communications provider without even knowing.  This is especially true for international supplier Moneypenny, which handles over 20 million calls and live chats for its client base of 21,000 businesses.  To learn more about the benefits of using this model, and how it can boost the productivity of your brand, we've sat down with Eric Schurke, CEO North America for Moneypenny.  Eric has been in the answering service game for upward of 17 years, making him the perfect expert to speak to about how this segment is changing the game for franchise brands across the board.  To keep your finger on the beating pulse of franchising, sign up for our newsletter at https://www.globalfranchisemagazine.com/, subscribe to our definitive magazine, and join the conversation with our experts today on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Ⓛ https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-franchise/ ⓣ https://twitter.com/globalfranmag ⓕ https://www.facebook.com/globalfranchisemag/ This episode of the Global Franchise Podcast is brought to you by BrightStar Care, a private-duty home care and medical staffing franchise, with prime territories available nationwide, and five revenue streams for uncapped earning potential. For more information, visit www.brightstarfranchising.com. 

Special episode! We're pleased to welcome Regional Director of Marketing and Community Outreach, Christina Wingate-Spence of BrightStar Care, to discuss The Virtual Dementia Tour. This unique training is a proven approach to building a better understanding of dementia through the use of sensory props and instruction. The VDT helps caregivers and professionals understand what it might feel like to experience Alzheimer's, dementia or related cognitive impairments so that they can be more empathetic in the care they provide and be empowered with tools to take a different approach.

Erik is joined by Shelly Sun, CEO & Founder of BrightStar Care. Shelly talks about her journey of becoming a franchisor, outlining expert advice for business owners looking to scale their businesses through franchising as well as franchisees evaluating which franchisors to partner with. If you're on the fence about becoming a franchisor, this episode is for you!  Shelly's book "Grow Smart, Risk Less" is available here: http://growsmartriskless.com   Shelly Sun is the CEO & Founder of BrightStar Care. As a result of her leadership, she has been named one of the top 25 highest rated CEOs in the United States (the only female honored) during the COVID-19 crisis, and was named one of the Top 100 Female Founders of 2020.   Shelly built the company from the ground up when she realized there wasn’t a high-quality, dependable care provider that she felt would take care of her aging grandmother better than she could. She was an angry consumer working at a large insurance firm, and just like the rest of us, demanded the best care for her family. Instead of standing by idly watching her grandmother receive sub-par care, BrightStar Care was born. From day one, the company has operated under the belief that every client is one-of-a-kind, so their care should be too. This philosophy helped BrightStar Care become the company it is today. In 2005, they started franchising the business, with nearly 340 locations today. In under 5 years of the birth of the business, Shelly took BrightStar Care from a $1 million dollar business to over $100 million, and was the first (and only) franchising company in the US to specialize in both medical and non-medical health care staffing. With this past year, the pandemic was extremely scary - especially being in the healthcare industry. The fact that BrightStar Care is thriving with new clients daily is a true testament to Shelly’s leadership. She acts fast, cares for her staff, and is truly making a difference. At the onset of the pandemic, she made PPE a top priority, investing more than $2 million into building a centralized fulfillment center to ensure franchisees had access to the supplies they need. But she didn’t stop there - they also made this fulfillment center available to the entire franchise community. Additionally, they have partnerships with many Fortune 500 companies to help with screening their employees so they can have peace of mind when coming to work. With vaccines now available, BrightStar Care is committed to being part of the solution, with many franchisees leading their communities by offering nurses to local organizations to administer vaccinations. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Join the FREE Franchise Secrets Facebook Group: FranchiseSecretsGroup.com   Join the Franchise Tribe Mastermind: FranchiseTribe.com   Erik Van Horn is a franchising specialist, and expert in multi-unit, semi-absentee franchise business ownership. From entrepreneur to regional developer, and investor to consultant, Erik has worn many hats over the last two decades, which has provided him unique insight into complex aspects of the industry. If you're a franchisee, a franchisor, or one aspiring to be, subscribe to the Franchise Secrets channel and visit www.FranchiseSecrets.com for even more tactical and practical tools to help you buy, grow, and sell franchises like an expert.        

Margaret Jenifer Kirson Weinberg, affectionately known as "Dearie", passed away on May 15, 2021 at the age of 86, in Henrico, VA. Dearie was preceded in death by her parents, Harry and Evelyn Kirson, of Baltimore. She is survived by Fred Weinberg, her devoted husband of 64 years, her children, Mary Kay, Paige, Michael, Todd and Kate and her grandchildren, Jenny, Patrick, Callum and Annie. Dearie is also survived by her forever friend, Sharon Athey. The family would like to thank the nurses and staff at Sunrise Living Tuckahoe and the staff and caregivers at Brightstar Care. Dearie enjoyed traveling...Article LinkSupport the show (http://henricocitizen.com/contribute)

We'd like you to meet Shelly Sun, the Founder and CEO of BrightStar Care. Check out this segment from her interview on mentorship.  Learn how Shelly found her first mentor. Starting out as a mother with a young family, Shelly knew traveling was an inconvenience for her. This led her to intentionally seek out a local mentor in the Chicagoland area.  After discovering two women who had franchised their businesses in the local area, Shelly went onto LinkedIn and specifically tried to find connections to those people.  Shelly's advice, when searching for a mentor, is to find somebody who fits you. More times than not there will be entrepreneurs who have already made their mark and had their successes, who want to help the younger generations of entrepreneurs. To explore this topic more, purchase Entrepreneurial Leap on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3bb8o9D​  To watch all the videos Gino mentions here, go to his YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg1fRlytBObtuIIAa46B_cg

What Makes BrightStar Care a Good Neighbor...Caring for a family member can be challenging. We know. We've been there. At BrightStar Care, we strive to deliver just the right care for your loved one to be safe and healthy and to be a partner you can turn to for support.At BrightStar Care of Ft. Myers / Naples, we believe that caring is more than just a job– it’s a way of life. That’s why our caregivers mean so much more to the people, families, and organizations they serve. BrightStar Care nurses, therapists, CNAs, and caregivers deliver professional and compassionate care in the comfort and familiarity of home. We are proud to provide a range of home care services to meet your loved one’s unique needs. From companionship, bathing, and hygiene assistance to in-home infusions and medication management, our professional care staff is available 24/7 to help when you need it most.To learn more about BrightStar Care, go to: https://www.brightstarcare.com/ft-myers-naplesBrightStar Care28901 Trails Edge Blvd.Suite 203Bonita Springs, FL 34134239-992-4779Support the show (https://goodneighborpodcast.com)

Shelly Sun co-founder and CEO of Brightstar Care and author of "Grow Smarter, Risk Less" talks about the importance of planning and forecasting for sustainable growth.  She shares the lessons she learned and the realities of being a franchisor and why she wrote her compelling book.

Mary Ann O’Connell of FranWise interviews Shelly Sun of BrightStar Care        

  Shelly Sun is the CEO and Founder of BrightStar Group Holdings, Inc., the parent company of BrightStar Care® and BrightStar Senior Living & Memory Care.  BrightStar Care® is a premium healthcare staffing company providing the full continuum of care, from homecare to supplemental staffing for corporate clients such as nursing homes and physicians.  Shelly served as the 2017-2018 Chairwoman of the International Franchise Association (IFA), a top 25 association. Shelly worked closely with IFA’s government relations and public policy, media relations and educational programs to protect, enhance and promote franchising and nearly 733,000 franchise establishments that support nearly 7.6 million direct jobs, $674.3 billion of economic output for the U.S. economy and 2.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).   Shelly was named IFA 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year and is a Certified Franchise Executive. Shelly Sun and BrightStar were featured on CBS’ Undercover Boss. Shelly also published her first book, Grow Smart, Risk Less, where she discusses her journey as an emerging franchisor through amazing growth, lessons learned and game-changing ideas and has a Harvard Business School case study written about BrightStar’s growth story under Sun’s leadership.  Prior to founding BrightStar, Shelly was a Certified Public Accountant and held executive positions with United Airlines, CNA Insurance and BlueCross BlueShield. Shelly was interviewed by Emma Dickison, CFE, CEO and President of Home Helpers Home Care.

Learn more about Nekter Juice BarSupport the show and even get on monthly mentorship calls with Fabian. Join here.Full Transcript:F Geyrhalter:Welcome to the show, Steve.S Schulze:Well, I appreciate it. Thanks for inviting me, and I'm happy to be here.F Geyrhalter:Oh, absolutely. Well, first things first, how has Nekter kept up during these unprecedented times?S Schulze:I think a lot of restaurant brands, everybody's had to pivot and everybody has had to adapt accordingly. I think that Nekter being in somewhat of a unique space, meaning the health, wellness, we're not fine dining, we're not sit down, but we've been able to adjust and modify accordingly. When the pandemic first hit, sales were off 75-80% for about the first 30 days. Since then, we've seen about double digit increases and today we're frankly comping even or positive, from a year ago. So, I think it's been interesting, obviously, I think it's been very difficult for a lot of people. It's been tough on the staff, but I think that we've been able to navigate through it and it's been important.F Geyrhalter:That's amazing. And we talked a little bit offline prior, you even had some franchises opened. Some people actually approached you and said, "Hey, we want to open our own spot now."S Schulze:Yeah. During this time, franchise interest has remained high. We've had discovery days, and most surprising to me is, starting in early May, we had locations starting to open about one a week. I think we've opened about three or four over the last month. And frankly, I didn't think it was the greatest idea in the world, but all four actually opened very strong. And I think health, wellness and things of that are top of mind. So I think that for Nekter, I think that provided some solace throughout this whole crisis that we've been through. And I think that people take comfort in going to someplace that they know they can get something fresh and healthy and that can sustain them now and going forward.F Geyrhalter:And it speaks volumes about the strength of your brands, that that can happen during doing this pandemic and the recession and all of that stuff. It's pretty amazing. And you're only 10 years old as a brand. I think your first store was down the street from us here in Long Beach, down in Costa Mesa, right?S Schulze:Yeah. It's was on Costa Mesa in October of 2010. So yeah, we'll be coming up on our 10 year anniversary here and just a... I was in the office, we had a meeting last week, basically surrounding what we're going to do during the anniversary month and signing off on our fall menu items. And it was good to have everybody all excited and engaged and looking at some terrific offerings and what we're going to do for the 10th anniversary. So it's an exciting time for us, really.F Geyrhalter:Oh, that's really good to hear. And 10 years ago, back in the day, so to speak, there was already a lot of competition in the fresh juice retail and franchise space in Southern California. All I remember was Jamba Juice and Juice It Up! and Robeks. But you came in and, in a way, you showed them the way. You created stylish shops with attention to design and music and a limited menu. It was very much a farm-to-table type of field, that today, obviously we're all very accustomed to, but how did it all start? How did you decide there is space for someone to come in?S Schulze:Well, I think like a lot of things, I think that what you do is, you look at not what's wrong in the space, but how it could be better. And I think that in society in general, starting in that time, you saw a seismic shift beginning, in the sense of, you saw the proliferation of Whole Foods and Trader Joe's and Mother's Market and [Fresh Fare 00:00:03:53] and things of that nature. And I think that the consumer is demanding more transparency, more freshness, more authenticity.And at the time, actually I was working out some and going to Jamba Juice afterwards, and one day it took a little bit longer than usual to get my drink and I happened to look at the nutritionals, and sure enough, I think 93 grams of sugar or something were in the smoothie that I had. In comparison, to a certain degree, after doing some due diligence, as it turned out, legacy brands, if you will, were at that particular time, to a great degree, a glorified version of a Dairy Queen type product.And I thought there was room for people to come in with fresh, authentic, natural ingredients. And we developed juices that were very simple, parsley, kale, spinach, apple, things of that nature. Smoothies that the only filler would be coconut water and a house made nut milk. And then we have acai bowls that were organic acai. And I think that that was a critical decision for us, is to make it very simple, make it not overwhelming, make it approachable, make it accessible and introduce it to the market in that particular fashion.F Geyrhalter:Well, and make it clean. And I think this is really important, because the way that I know the Nekter brand, it always feels clean. There's a lot of white, there's a lot of room and space around everything. And when you compare that just visually even, to a Jamba Juice or Robeks, there's a lot of color splashes and it does feel sugary. It does feel overly joyous rather than, no, this comes from earth and this is the minimal amount of ingredients that you need, in order to feel great and to put good stuff into your body. So it's interesting to actually see the official language.S Schulze:Yeah, it is. And you've talked about that a lot with branding and such. And I think that, at that time, when you walk into the stores, you see a very whimsical store, orange and pinks and all these frilly type colors, and ours was to bring it down to more of that modern, country farmhouse. Bring the authenticity to it and to a great degree, follow a Starbucks model in an attempt to become the Starbucks of juice.So rather than meeting for a coffee and sitting in a Starbucks, why wouldn't somebody want to sit in a Nekter and have a nice experience and enjoy the day, and be able to sit down in comfortable seats and nice lighting and nice environment. And so those were some of the principles from the branding perspective, when we set out with a design.F Geyrhalter:Now that you brought up Starbucks, I think four years ago, you guys launched an ordering and loyalty app. Which for me, is a key reason why I'm so loyal to Starbucks, besides liking a lot of local roasters coffee's much, much better, much better quality, I like the taste more. But you simply cannot beat that convenience with the app. And now you have, I heard, well over half a million people on your app. How important is that app to your brand now, looking back? How has it changed your brand?S Schulze:No, I think the app has been critical. And I think obviously during the last couple of months, it's been very, very important. We've got just about 700,000 people on the app. You've talked about convenience is important. We started out, obviously, with zero back in 2016, as far as the order ahead and the loyalty. And pre-pandemic, we were about 32% order in advance and app, and now we're at about 51 and a half percent.So it's a critical component, not only from an ordering and convenience standpoint, but also from a messaging standpoint. In the sense of, you can basically instantaneously push out your messages, depending on what it may be. Whether somebody's open or closed, or a sale, or items are running out, or there's something in the neighborhood. So from a communication standpoint, or if there's health information that we want to get to people, it makes it very accessible for us to touch our guests one-on-one and also get their feedback as well.F Geyrhalter:Right, right. Exactly. I was just about to say on the flip side, you have access to a huge amount of data that people willingly give you because they actually want to be catered to in a better way. So it's a win-win for sure.S Schulze:Oh yeah, no, it is. Yeah, exactly.F Geyrhalter:You also have a store inside a store concept with Whole Foods, which is absolutely amazing. And I'm actually lucky, because my local Whole Foods down here in Long Beach has you as part of it. How did you get into Whole Foods? What was that story like? I'm sure you're not the first one to knock on those doors.S Schulze:It's funny you say that because, and this is somewhat ironic in a sense of, it was an instance in which they knocked on our doors and we didn't really knock on theirs. I got a call frankly, about a year and a half ago, somewhat out of the blue and said, "We've been researching brands in Southern California, and we're looking to convert some of our Whole Food juice and coffee bars, from Whole Foods to a brand that represents what we represent. And in our due diligence, your name was brought to our attention a number of times. And as we look at these other brands, we want to see if you'd want to be considered to be one of the brands we look at." And obviously we said, "Sure." And one thing led to another.And so they, they chose us as their brand partner for Southern California and the Southwest and whatnot. And so we started a test, in which we began taking over locations, such as Long Beach, that we converted or retrofitted into Nekter locations. With some modifications, in the sense that we've added a coffee line to the product mix, that's almost exclusive for Whole Foods really, just because that they demand and need that coffee element. And we have limited the menu a little bit, but again, it's about a 100 to 200 square foot little kiosk. Our brands align very well together, and it's been a very good relationship for both of us.F Geyrhalter:And fantastic for brand recognition, it's basically a billboard to thousands of shoppers in just one location every day.S Schulze:Yeah. I think it's a billboard, I think there's certain validation in the sense of, we're about a 30% corporate brand, a 70% franchise, just because I believe we probably have 40 locations at least, that are corporate locations. I think that that is a key element in a sense of, we're in the trenches every day, so there's very little that we haven't been through. And I think that's important when you franchise and so I think that with the Whole Foods, I think that a potential franchisee is looking at the brand, to have the validation of Whole Foods to say, "Hey, Whole Foods chose them." I think that's a nice compliment.F Geyrhalter:Absolutely. And let's talk about branding a little bit more and consistency, because the two go hand in hand. And consistency is the most important ingredient of a franchise, I would say, especially a retail franchise. How did you go about that in the early days? You had to create a brand aura, so to speak, that felt so right to you, that it would easily and fruitfully, forgive the pun, scale into hundreds of locations. I noted you took your time and you mentioned just before, that you opened 40 or so corporate owned franchise locations before even opening it up to others. Was that a big way of just testing one at a time? But how did you know that what you felt for the brand was right? Did you do a lot of focus groups? How did that start?S Schulze:Now, we did not do focus groups, and to this day we still have not done focus groups. I think that in a general conversation, if you're talking about personal relationships, or you're talking about business, I think the key components that people have always said, and that becomes cliche after a while, is trying to listen. And I think that for us, I think the important part was listening to the guests, because I think oftentimes people misconstrue what a brand really is. And I think that if you, or I, or if anybody could just go ahead and start a brand and start Nike and whatever, that'd be one thing.But it's not myself, it's not my team that makes the brand, we have the concept, we'd have the idea. We then see how it resonates with the guest and then basically, as far as I'm concerned, we're stewards of the brand and we're listening to the guests. And that then shapes the perception and that shapes the brand, and then that eventually becomes the brand. So it's our responsibility really, to listen and to execute from that standpoint. Like I said, I think oftentimes people believe they can... If everybody could go out and do a swish and be a Nike, or do Lululemon, or be whomever-F Geyrhalter:Be a Nekter.S Schulze:It would be a different world we live in. Yeah, be a Nekter, whatever it is. So, I just don't think they understand branding the way that you do, or many others do. They've read too many books and listened to too many things that just don't make sense.F Geyrhalter:And I love the idea that you are totally adverse to the idea of having focus groups, because that's what customers are for. They come in every day, you just have to listen. Let's go really granular here for a second. Let's talk about the logo of Nekter, because it is very different. So the meaning behind the name makes a whole lot of sense, but you placed an accent on the first E, then you flipped the second E on its head. It seems to me that that's a lot to grasp and a lot to recall. It's super bold coming in. How did you come up with this? What was the story behind it? It definitely feels very different and bespoke, which is, I guess, one of the reasons.S Schulze:I would love to have a very elaborate and intricate and well thought out story behind it. But, obviously we know about the meaning of nectar and I think it's very appropriate for what it is. As far as the spelling was concerned, when I typed it in, ironically, I just went to Google typed in nectar and sure enough, that popped in the phonetic spelling of it. That's [crosstalk 00:14:36]. So, it wasn't any more complicated than that.F Geyrhalter:Well, that's pretty great, because most entrepreneurs, so let's say a lot of entrepreneurs that I know, they would most probably have freaked out saying, "Oh my God, we're going to spell it with an accent and then we're going to have an E upside down, how is that even going to work? How can we type that in all the time? And it's going to confuse people." But for you, it's like, "Nope, let's go for it. People should get used to it and see it as a mark rather than a name." Which, I think is really interesting.S Schulze:Yeah, I think that you're absolutely right. I think that the name is our mark, so to speak, we don't really have an icon that goes along with it and such. And I think that the design of it, the font, just resonated with us very well. So obviously I've always enjoyed the name and I think a lot of people have too. They like the way we spell it and stuff like that.F Geyrhalter:Yeah. And it comes back to the cleanliness. Because the name has a lot going on, you don't need much more. It's like black and white and it already tells that story. How do you police your brand, so to speak? With a franchise, it is just so important and it's key to the success, not only of the franchisee, but also the overall brand that you have that consistency. I know there are style guides, but usually style guides are not really looked at, they kind of live there.But for a franchise, you have a whole set of rules in the beginning for any franchisee to start using. Is there a certain trick? Or is there something that you learned, where you felt like that worked really well for people to actually start embodying the brand, visually, but also just the way that they act every day? There's a rule book, so to speak.S Schulze:Yeah, there is a rule book and quite often, in theory, the reason people buy a franchise is because it's a proven system and they resonate with the brand, and they want to go into business on their own, they're going to limit the risk by going with proven concept and such. And then when that happens, invariably, they don't want to paint the wall green, they want to paint the wall blue. They like this kind of floor and that kind of floor, they have different tastes and styles and such. And so, it's a very tricky thing. But I think it starts at the beginning. I think that people have to set up what their expectations are. What's going to be expected out of them, what the foundation is.And I think similar to anything in life, I think that there's structure and people understand the structure, they respect it and they follow it. I think that the few times we've had people go outside the realm, thinking they could out-think the mousetrap, so to speak, usually it has backfired to a certain degree, and we've had to come in and correct. And then on the other hand, quite often we get great feedback from franchisees as far as, cost efficiencies and what they're looking for and such.But, I think that you're right. You do have to get them really to buy into it. Meaning that when the relationship first starts, if they believe in the design, the layout, the concept, what we're doing, how the [LSM 00:18:04] program is going to work. And they're part of the concept, they're part of the idea, they're participating in it, then you have buy in from them. I think if you're just sitting there lecturing, "This is what you're going to do." Like a school teacher, I don't think you do. And I think too often when brands get too big, or they get too systematic, people get a little bit off put, so to speak, if they're treated in that fashion.And so I think there's a mutual respect that goes along the way and I think there's also proven results. We have franchisees that just absolutely crush it. And then every now and then, we have a franchisee that isn't necessarily following the rule book and they're doing so-so, we get them back on track and all sales go up and say, "Oh, I guess I should have listened to you at the beginning." And we're like, "Yeah, maybe you should have, but that's all right."F Geyrhalter:And it's a different type of entrepreneur. Because I think that a lot of franchisee owners, well owners, I guess that's not the right word, but people who buy into one of your franchises, they feel like they're entrepreneurial, because in a way they're starting up their own shop, even though it's part of a franchise. Yet, they know that they maybe can't do it by themselves, or they don't have the energy to do a new brand by themselves. So, I think that they actually like to be led, to a certain extent, to their success, that's why they even join.S Schulze:Yeah, you're right. This is a little of an aside, so to speak, but you see, whether it be Instagram, or all these other social platforms, you see a lot of these motivational sites of, get up and do this, and XYZ, and look in the mirror, and affirmations and such. But a lot of people don't have that impetus to take that first step. There's a hesitation and a concern, a worry, and whatever stops them from doing it.And so, I think that going into a franchise system, I think assists them to go through it, in the sense of, "Wait a minute, I'm not just starting my own business blind, not knowing anything." So I think what they're doing is, they're able to be entrepreneurs without taking the entire risk of starting a concept just blindly, and just saying, "Okay, I'm going to try it and see what happens." And I think too often, some of these motivation guys get people all excited, but they don't follow the execution aspect of it. And the practical aspect of it, which then, I think, doesn't help very much.F Geyrhalter:Yeah. They can walk the entrepreneurship plank with a huge safety net underneath them, which makes it a little bit easier.S Schulze:Exactly right, yeah. They go to Tony Robbins, be all excited Saturday, Sunday, "I'm going to do this." And then by Tuesday or Wednesday, they're back at the desk.F Geyrhalter:Right, totally. Well, I interviewed, besides yourself, quite a few amazing franchise leaders for this show. Like Brian Scudamore, of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, I had Jeff Platt of Sky Zone on it, Shelly Sun of BrightStar Care. And there's always one question that I really, really like to ask; did branding effect your company culture at all? Because culture is such a tough thing to get right. And with a franchise, it is not only harder, but one might argue, as we were just talking about, it's even more important. And setting some very strong, foundational brand pillars in place early on, like, "This is what we stand for." Even emotionally, what is the soul of the company? I feel like it can either make or break a culture.S Schulze:And it can. And you can tell the soul of the culture and soul of the company very early on, who they are. I think that you're absolutely right. When the company was founded, it was viewed as us against the world, so to speak. In the sense of, we've got the big legacy brands, or the Jamba Juices and this, and here we are a mom and pop and husband and wife, trying to change the way people eat and be authentic and the look and the design.And our goal really was to offer authentic offerings, that are healthy and good for you and affordable and accessible, and not be an elitist about it and not serve these fancy $10 or $20 smoothies you might see in LA. And we wanted to make it affordable from the guy that drives a Range Rover, to the person that drives a Hyundai, to the person that works at Staples, the person that works at Microsoft. And I think that mentality of both the design, the elements, what we are trying to achieve in changing things, the kids bought into it, my wife at the time bought into it. And I think that set the tone for all steps moving forward.F Geyrhalter:What does branding mean to you, now that you went through those 10 years? What does the word mean to you? Because it gets misconstrued so often, and it has a bad rep, it needs a rebranding in my eyes. But what does branding mean to you?S Schulze:It's interesting you say that, often I get questions that are along these lines, but not as direct. And I think that you're on point with branding, because misinterpretation, as I sort of touched upon earlier. I think that what happens is, I think that you have your founding principles and idea that is deeper than the look and the feel of who you are.And then I think that you have a general concept of what you visualize that brand to be. Meaning, we visualize on our storyboard, so to speak, of health and wellness, and what we wanted to achieve, and what we wanted to offer, and putting the guests first, which again, sounds like a cliche, but it is true.What branding really means, if I were to put it as succinctly as I can, I think that branding really is listening to the guests and being a steward of your brand, and the guests will then shape the brand for you and will determine what the brand is, and it's your responsibility to follow that guide post. Oftentimes, I think people try and do it the other way around and shift the guest's mind to, "This is how our brand is, not this." And I think that's an incorrect position to take.F Geyrhalter:Really, really well said. It comes back to this overly used word of empathy, of a brand needs to be empathetic, but most are forcing it and I think you said it really, really well. Looking back, what was that one big breakthrough moment where you felt like, "You know what, we are moving from a one shop, a two shop place into an actual potential franchise. Or into an actual brand."? And this may or may not be directly linked to sales figures at all, but when did you feel like you actually cracked the code with Nekter?S Schulze:This is a very interesting question. If you look at us today, 10 years later, we've got a little over 170 locations open, about 150 or so in the pipeline under construction or development [inaudible 00:25:41] capacity. But if you rewind back to around 2012-2013, somewhere in there, I think we had about 20 locations open, and this is going back to your question specifically.And so we thought at that time, "Hey, we're getting to be kind of big boys, and if we really want to make this brand significant, we've got to bring in people who knows what's going on." Instead of sticking with that culture and the brand that I've talked about throughout, we said, "We're going to bring in people that have experience at Starbucks and these bigger brands that have been there 10-15 years, that really know how to do it."And so, sure enough, over a period of months, the executive staff, the district managers and such, all were now coming in from these big, large legacy brands. And what we found is that they were basically, sort of placeholders, they didn't have the passion, they didn't get the hands dirty. They were following protocol and "Okay. Hey, where are the books? And I just want to follow, check this, this, this." And there just wasn't the passion, they just looked at people as a more as a number.And so it was a critical mistake that we made, and took us about a year to recover, in the sense of, we really found that we're going to take people that, yes, they have a fundamental skillset, but overall they've got to be passionate. They've got to be curious. They've got to be willing to get their hands dirty. They've got to be willing to help others. And a lot of times, I think that when we brought in some of these folks from the legacy brands, it looked as though they wanted the job, and they wanted the 401(k) and this and this and this. They wanted job security, but it was just more of a job to them, not a mission and a passion.And so, we had to go back to the people that have a mission, a passion, and here we are 10 years later and, we've gone through COVID. We had to go through quite a few layoffs, as a lot of people did, but my team has just been more passionate than ever. They've stepped up like I've never seen them. They're working seven days a week, they don't complain. They want to work harder. They feel as though they're fighting through the pandemic and feel as though they're part of the brand, that they all have a voice. And so, I think that's very, very important, and that was critical that we made that shift back to that, as opposed to trying, okay well, we're going to be professionals now, if you will.F Geyrhalter:Yeah, yeah, yeah, And sometimes that's what it takes. You bring in the pros to learn how much you actually knew all along.S Schulze:Exactly.F Geyrhalter:And you know it in a more authentic manner. And I think that's what's important, because that authenticity, once that has been killed, it's really, really difficult for any company to keep going.S Schulze:Well, it's funny the way you said that was, that's the ideal. Our Director of Finance kept hiring these high priced consultants to do reviews and consulting and all this stuff, and we pay all this money and she said, "So what we're doing is, we're paying all these people to tell us what we already know and we're already doing, but we're doing better." So, we just paid them $50,000, to tell us... So, it is quite a bit when you do that.F Geyrhalter:Well, it's interesting because in my field, in branding, that's what happens a whole lot. You pay an agency and they work for six months to tell you what your brand needs to be, and that is the same kind of process that, I think it doesn't feel authentic. And what I do instead is, I just go in and I spend one day with the founders, really redefining and figuring things out. And then, I basically let them go, because I know that they're the best ones do actually implement it.S Schulze:With that said, I think that's where people such as yourself and others come in, because as the founder, one of the things to recognize though, is [inaudible 00:29:45] get your face too close to it and you can't see it. And that's when you and I would talk to bring in, because all of a sudden, one little thing switches to another little... An example, we shifted the color and one thing led to another, and now the stores were very gray walls, and it was still very pretty, but it was a gray and then a dark floor. And it got to be very industrial, got to be cold, it kind of [inaudible 00:30:12] away from who we initially were.But, it was that slippery slope, where one thing led to another, one thing led to another, led to another. And so, you need somebody every now and then with those outside eyes to look at it from a global perspective, and look at what the foundation of the brand really was, and also what you need to shift. Because a brand is always evolving, it's always changing. And sometimes the people that are closest to it, are the most blinded by it.And so I think that you've got to be willing and open, which we are, to bring people in and re-look at things. I think you also have to update the brand to make it engaging and interesting. You have to reshape your collateral. How are people going to look at it? How are you people going to listen? Is it through traditional collateral? Whether in store, is it more digital? Where's it going to live? And so there's a lot of elements where I think that branding and branding firms are absolutely critical in having that.So, while I talk about the guests shaping the brand, I do believe you need experts to execute on that mission of, okay, this is what they're saying, but how are we going to get that messaging out and be consistent, as we grow in a multi-platform business? We're in 17 states right now, so what people listen to in Dallas, as opposed to Los Angeles, as opposed to, Cleveland, are different. And so, while we have to be the same, we also have to look at those various idiosyncrasies and blend them together. And sometimes, and quite often, it takes an expert in that trade to help us integrate that.F Geyrhalter:Absolutely. And thank you for making my sales pitch much better than I could have ever done it. Absolutely, it's so true. As we're slowly coming to an end here, I do want to ask you if you would be able to, well, this could be a pun, but if you would put Nekter into a funnel, you would choose Nekter as a brand, and there would only be one or two words that describe the entire brand, what you stand for, why you exist. Coca-Cola always used to say "Coke is happiness", that was their whole thing. And Everlane, for instance, coming in now, is about radical transparency. Zappos is about customer service, et cetera, et cetera. What is a word, and this is a difficult one, what is a word that could describe Nekter in its essence?S Schulze:That is a very difficult one. What would be the word? [crosstalk 00:32:50]F Geyrhalter:I have to tell you, usually when I've worked with clients, I worked towards this words for hours and hours. So this is very much on the spot, but just the essence of the brand, if you will. What does it feel to you? Is it health? Is it nutrition? Is it something bigger?S Schulze:Let me give you a very, very quick story on this. So, over the first nine years, our tagline has been, "Live the Nekter life." And while it was a decent tagline, to me, it didn't quite resonate, it didn't really tell the story in my mind, in the simplest fashion. So during this time, obviously people are working from home, people are telecommuting, and people can really identify... We have people really focused on the marketing aspect, the operations, the day to day, things of that nature. During that time, it got us and got me just thinking of who we really are and what we want to be in essence. And so therefore what we've done is, we've shifted, which will be released in a relatively short order, an updated tagline, if you will. Like I said, it's an updated tagline, which we've deemed, "Live life to the freshest."And so the goal really is, if we can encourage people to eat one fresh thing a day, whether it be through Nekter or somebody else, then I think that's what our goal is. I think that you eat one fresh thing, you might eat another fresh thing and slowly live a cleaner, healthier life. I think that, kind of like going to the gym, the key is getting to the gym that first time, and then all of a sudden you realize how good you feel and you go a second and third.And I think for us, the goal for Nekter when we first started was, if we could have someone just have green juice once and that motivated them to maybe walk the dog that night, or maybe eat a little bit healthier, have a chicken or a fish that night, instead of a burger or something of that nature. And so I think we wanted to simplify things and the mantra for us is, let's just start small and if it's an apple when you wake up in the morning, terrific, let's just start there. So that's really the essence of what we are and who we are and what we're trying to do.F Geyrhalter:Well, it's a nice blend, again no pun, between your product, which is the freshest and living life to the fullest. Which is more of the emotional aspect of-S Schulze:Well, and it's not even live life to the fullest. I probably mumbled when I said it, but it's "Live life to the freshest."F Geyrhalter:Right, exactly. That's exactly what it means. So fresh is the part that is your brand. And then if you think about live life to the fullest, that's what comes to mind when you see the sentence, and that's really the overarching brand of live life and be healthy.S Schulze:See, and that's where the brand experts come in, because you have "Live life to the freshest" which resonates to the fullest, which resonates to the best potential, to living your best self. And so, I think that's what it's really all about, I think. So, if we can provide that, and I think that's one thing that makes Nekter attractive, in the sense of, for me, we're doing something that is healthy, that people enjoy, that people feel better about.As opposed to, nothing against selling office furniture, but if I came home each day and said, "Hey, honey, I sold 10 chairs today." What power does that have, or what sense of purpose does that give me? Maybe some people it does, but maybe for me, not as much. But if I know that we're making communities healthier, and more engaged and more conscientious of what they're putting in their bodies. Then, that makes me feel better as a person in what we're doing. And I think a lot of people, both our team members and franchisees likely feel the same way.F Geyrhalter:Absolutely. I'm going to end it right there. So let's talk about where listeners can find Nekter juice. Obviously your US only right now, but which states are you in?S Schulze:Yes only in the US. We're in 17 states. People always go to the website to figure out which states, but our largest presences are in California, Arizona, Texas, and now we're expanding to the Carolinas and to Tennessee, Florida. We'll be opening in the Midwest and Indiana and Illinois, not too distant future. So, we're starting to expand the brand beyond the footprint of a traditional juice bar space, in the sense of, in cold climates, we've been able to buck the trends and actually do very well in cold weather climates and we penetrated quite a bit of Colorado. We'll continue those fashions.As far as international, we have no real plans on the books right now. I think that with what we've been through, I think the goal is to tighten up who we are and our 10 year anniversary, we thought this would be a time to refresh what we're doing. And so I think we'll spend about the next year doing that and then growing the brand. And we'll always look at various different opportunities, whether it be international or partnerships, like with Whole Foods and such. But the goal is to try and stay focused on what you do and what you do best, and let things come to you that way, in my opinion.F Geyrhalter:That's great. Absolutely great. So for listeners, they can go to nekterjuicebar.com and use the locator to find your stores. Listen Steve, thank you so much for having been on the show. It was a real great pleasure to speak with you and to see your viewpoint, as you built your own brand to the success that it is today.S Schulze:It was an honor to be on your show and I really appreciate being invited and I've really enjoyed it. So, thank you for having me and I wish you all the best, and look forward to seeing you when I get back to California and talk about some more stuff.F Geyrhalter:Absolutely. We have to get juice and not coffee.S Schulze:Exactly right. As I sit here and drink my coffee this morning, while I talk to you.F Geyrhalter:There you go.S Schulze:I'll have a juice in a couple hours.F Geyrhalter:All right. Thank you, Steve.S Schulze:I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

In this episode of Aging in Style with Lori Williams, Lori explores Home Care and Home Health with Kevin Jones, Owner of BrightStar Care Flower Mound. Kevin and his wife Terry bought the Flower Mound franchise five years ago as they were looking to transition careers and do meaningful work for the community. Kevin is a certified Senior Advisor with expertise on health care and other needs for seniors and in this week's episode, he shares the path to owning a senior care franchise, caring for the elderly during COVID-19 times and how his team is providing concierge quality service in a time of uncertainty.Kevin explains the differences and similarities of Home Care (non-medical) and Home Health (medical), and provides clear examples that explain how each one is paid for, including private pay, Medicare, Commercial Insurance and in some cases the VA Aid and Attendance Benefit. Kevin shares how BrightStar Care onboards team members and customers and reveals their thorough hiring processes.Takeaways from this episode:-Home health is medical care that is provided in the home, prescribed by a physician and oftentimes it includes services provided by a nurse such as physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. -Home health is medical care, therefore it's paid for by medical insurance.-Home Care includes helping someone with their personal care, preparing meals or doing some light housekeeping, helping keep them from falling when they're in the home.-Most of the time, Home Care isn't covered by health insurance.-BrightStar care locations are independently audited by Joint Commission, an accredited company that audits healthcare organizations and hospitals. Topics discussed in this episode:-Home Care -Working with your Spouse-Buying a Senior Care Franchise-Background Checks for Caregivers-Caregiver Stories-Differences between Home Care and Home Health-CDC Guidelines-BrightStar Care on Undercover BossTo contact Kevin Jones and learn more about BrightStar Care please follow the links below:214 800 5566 kevin.jones@brightstarcare.comwww.brightstarcare.com/flower-moundhttps://www.facebook.com/BSCFlowerMoundCorrection: In this Podcast it's mentioned that Undercover Boss is available on Netflix. That is no longer the case -Undercover Boss' BrightStar Care episode can be found on CBS' All Access package:https://www.cbs.com/shows/undercover_boss/video/1884813695/undercover-boss-brightstar-care/For topic suggestions, guest features or Podcast support please email Lori@Loriwilliams-seniorservices.com or reach out online:https://www.facebook.com/LoriWilliamsSeniorServices/https://www.instagram.com/theloriwilliams/https://www.linkedin.com/in/theloriwilliams/https://loriwilliams-seniorservices.com/aging-in-style-podcast/

Our guest this week is John Zimmerman of Brightstar Care, who has run his in-home healthcare and medical staffing franchise since the mid-2000s. Today he joins us to talk about things like staffing issues, policy changes in the medical field, the things he loves about up north living, how his company’s technology set-up has propelled his business forward, and more. After, Ruthy & Tim chat about SIP and VOIP phones that help businesses like John's expand in today's economy.

Shelly Sun is the CEO and founder of BrightStar Group Holdings, the umbrella company for multiple brands offering care services globally in various settings including in-home, assisted living and memory care communities as well as in commercial settings like hospitals through medical staffing services. Serving thousands of families in the USA, through its network of nearly 350 locations, BrightStar Care® delivers a full menu of in-home care, as well as premium healthcare staffing for corporate clients, such as nursing homes and physicians. In 2005, BrightStar Care launched its franchising efforts, becoming the first and only franchising company in the country to specialize in both medical and non-medical home care and health care staffing.  Shelly also served as Chair of the IFA Board of Directors (2017-2018), is a Certified Franchise Executive and was selected by the IFA as the 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year. BrightStar Care® has appeared for multiple years on Forbes magazine’s Top 10 franchise opportunities under $150,000 and also for 7 consecutive years on Inc. 5000.  Shelly and BrightStar Care® were featured on CBS-TV’s Undercover Boss, she is the author of Grow Smart, Risk Less and discusses her journey as an emerging franchisor through amazing growth, lessons learned and game-changing ideas. 

Shelly Sun, Founder & CEO of BrightStar Care, discusses the impact of the coronavirus on the home health care business. John Tobin, portfolio manager at Epoch Investment Partners, on why companies should still give dividends. Barry Ritholtz, Founder of Ritholtz Wealth Management, Bloomberg Opinion columnist, and Host of Masters of Business, on markets becoming used to the bad news. Sam Hendel, President of Levin Easterly and Founder of Dataminr, on why he's following the 2008 playbook and how AI is being used in the battle against the coronavirus.

Learn more about BrightStarSupport the show – and get on monthly advisory calls with Fabian (in groups for both creatives as well as entrepreneurs) Full Transcript:F Geyrhalter:                 Thank you so much for being on the show, Shelly.S Sun:                           Oh thanks for having me.F Geyrhalter:                 I know your time is very, very valuable and I appreciate you taking the time talking about something that I'm sure you usually don't get asked to talk too much about. So first off, congrats on your amazing success with the BrightStar brand, which you grew to over $300 million in system wide sales in under 10 years since launching the franchise in early 2006, which today of course must be a much higher number. And the brand has over 340 locations throughout the US. The obvious question, how does one get into running a home nursing empire?S Sun:                           Yeah, thank you for that. Yeah, so right now we're a little over $500 million in revenue.F Geyrhalter:                 Oh wow.S Sun:                           So across a great franchise network. So we've continued to grow and I think it was really firsthand experience. You know, I was looking for care for my grandmother back in late 2001 and she needed services that were both nonmedical in terms of making sure she was okay and eating well and getting bathing and help going to the bathroom, things like that. But she also had late stage cancer by the time that it was diagnosed. And so she needed pain management as well. And so therefore, nursing services. And so after talking to advisors and those within the industry recognized that we were not the only ones that had that type of need. And so we started the business in late 2002, about a year after looking for home care for ourselves. And it really resonated with a lot of families having one brand that they could trust that they knew were going to have great caregivers each and every day, and we've continued to grow from there.F Geyrhalter:                 And you know that's how great brands are being started, so I learned over and over with guests on this show, there has to be this huge emotional tie in and there has to be a problem that someone just sees themselves. Otherwise, just starting a franchise for anything, usually, is more difficult and you can tell if someone does it with heart. And building a brand is one thing, but building a brand strong enough to be franchisable but also still flexible enough to give the franchise owners a sense of belonging and creativity is always something I greatly admire. Can you share a bit about how you crafted the brand and then how you ensured you actually set it up for franchise success?S Sun:                           Yeah. I think it was a really about understanding what the customer needed and really understanding that customer journey and making sure what our customers needed, that we were providing that base of differentiation compared to what was in the marketplace. And then making sure we were developing the support systems for our franchisees to make sure that they were able to deliver to their customers and their marketplace that differentiated service. So we invested early in our journey to make sure first we could replicate the model. I didn't just have one company owned location when I chose to franchise, I had replicated it to a second and third to make sure everything was well documented before we rolled out and expanded. I invested a lot of money in technology so that all of our franchisees were on the same network, the same platform. So there was consistency in how we scheduled, how we paid our caregivers, how we billed our clients, how we looked at the metrics for the business from the very beginning of our franchise. We opened our first franchise in early 2006. I developed the technology in 2004, so every bit of data on every customer has been able to be benchmarked and every single locations performance has been able to be benchmarked. So I think it allows people like franchising is in business for yourself, but not by yourself. We have both the data and the support system to be able to help our franchisees know what good looks like and be able to help coach them to make sure they're delivering on that experience. Many of our franchisees, like myself, don't come from a healthcare background, but 85% of our franchisees had a family experience with home care before they became a franchisee. So they want to do it the right way. We need to give them a path to be able to follow that in a way that honors what our customer is looking for. So we went for Joint Commission accreditation and started that process in 2008 and started to roll it out across our brand in 2010, so that all of our franchisees were following a clinical and quality and safety protocol that's recognized by the health care industry in terms of hospitals and nursing homes. We were one of the first to bring it to a private duty home care, but we wanted to be able to operate and hold ourselves accountable to the highest standard of home care, which is really what the brand has been about from the very beginning.F Geyrhalter:                 Yeah, you talked a lot about systems and standards that need to be in place. I'm sure that once you were at that important point of the third location where you knew, "Okay, this is the time where we might go set this franchise free because we tested enough." How did this affect the brand from a branding perspective. And I'm talking in the nitty gritty, I'm talking about you know, logos and style guides and all of this has to be consistent once you go on a national level. But I also noted you said in another show that I listened to actually on my drive in today, and it was so funny because here I am about to interview you on your brand and you said on the show you're not a natural marketing mind. So you brought some people on the board that had that mindset. But how important early on was the idea of branding and the idea of brand thinking to the success of those first three locations?S Sun:                           Yeah, great question. And I am, I'm a finance and accounting person by background, so the opposite side of the brain from brand and creativity. And so we really focused on in 2002 to 2004 making sure that we had differentiated service for our customers. As I knew that I was onto something after successfully growing the business from one to three company owned locations and was thinking about franchising, my original brand, which was cheap to execute healthcare solutions, was very generic and would not stand apart and be a brand that I could build off of at a national scale. So I brought in a branding expert who is actually from Australia, who is the branding expert for Robert Kiyosaki. So James Burgin was the individual that I worked with. I said, "James, I loved what you have done with Robert Kiyosaki to make it so approachable for how do you make sure that you're capturing a way to grow and scale, thinking about being an entrepreneur versus being an employee. And it just really made it user-friendly." And I wanted to do the same thing with our brand where it was approachable, easily understood, but stood out from all of the brands that had comfort in it or home in it. And so if you went through 10 of the brands in home care, and when we started franchising, they all sounded the same. And I wanted us to sound different. And it came to working with James of, "Okay well let's go through the experience of care." And it's so much about really making sure people are well taken care of, in some ways roles reverse at the very end stages of life in terms of the children then arranging for care for their parents. And our parents that had done such a great job arranging for our care growing up and in some ways roles somewhat reverse at that very end stage. And so we started looking in nursery rhymes, "Star light, star bright." "Twinkle, twinkle little star." which is how BrightStar the brand came to be. And something that we thought would have legs, actually had nothing to do with my last name being Sun. I've gotten asked that question many times over the years and I have no ego. So I'm like, "It had nothing to do with my name." It was really kind of going back and thinking about that full circle of life and looking at nursery rhymes and something that really would stand apart in the marketplace as unique, because we believe what we offer to our customer is very, very unique and so how did we make sure we didn't sound like everyone else knowing we were executing the model and the trust that our customers could have and the services we delivered was very unique. And so that's how the BrightStar brand came about and we worked to make sure that, you know, how was that logo going to show up and all the trademarks were filed in 2004 for the brand, for the logo mark, designing it, style guides, making sure that it was consistently applied and was part of our operations manuals for our franchisees from the very beginning about how it needed to be used. That's obviously evolved with time as I've had more experts, either internally to the company and I've gotten an amazing head of marketing now, Theresa Selmer joined us about six months ago and is doing a great job for the brand. But I also, to your point, have had advisors on my board that brought me that expertise in their thinking. I've tried to fill out my board to be a nice compliment to my skillset so that I make sure that I'm continuing to grow as a CEO and not leaving any important function behind. And marketing and branding would be a critical one for us to be able to grow and evolve at a national scale, but it is not the way that I would normally think. I really focus on the service delivery, but how do we make sure there's a brand there that is recognized and differentiated both in its name and how it appears and where it shows up from an advertising perspective, while we focus very heavily on the operational execution as well.F Geyrhalter:                 There was so much that you just said that was so important. And I mean first off, I absolutely love the story behind the name, which I would have never guessed in a million years. But I love that narrative. I think it's so natural and it's so poetic in a way to actually think about it on such a deep and emotional level. Last night I watched a few of your brand's videos and I stumbled across one that celebrated a caregiver by the name of Heather Bailey and her client, Brian. And I was literally moved tears. And then I saw a Facebook comment, it was on Facebook so I saw a comment, below the video and let me read it to you and our listeners really quick. It said, "This is my sister. I cannot put into words how proud we, her family, are of her. We've always known about Heather's heart and her giving ways. Now the world knows. Thank you BrightStar for giving Heather the platform she needed to shine her brightest." And that is the family, that's a sister of the actual caregiver. It's not even about the client, right? So Shelly, franchises are all about people. And you as a brand celebrate them very obviously. So when you are in the business of people helping people, what are the different ways that BrightStar puts it's, oh my gosh, like 100,000 plus employees and clients and hundreds of owners on pedestal daily. Because I know culture and people is very, very dear to your heart.S Sun:                           Yeah. It's absolutely all about the people. And so creating a mechanism, our Caregiver of the Year program is very special. We have a Nurse of the Year program as well. We have franchisee awards and celebrations at their annual gala, which is where we first and foremost are celebrating our caregivers. Because without our amazing caregivers delivering such compassionate care each and every day, none of us have the honor to serve and be a part of this brand. It starts with our caregivers first. So the celebration at our awards gala always starts with celebrating our caregivers and celebrates them throughout the evening. We have hundreds if not thousands of nominations that come in. It's the most rewarding and yet the hardest part of the job is trying to find only four that we're going to recognize as the regional caregivers of the year because there are thousands of amazing stories. We hand out the nominations and boxes of Kleenex across our corporate office and across a group of our franchisees to narrow those down and choose the most remarkable stories. But they each are remarkable and we don't lose sight of, at the end of the day, our job, our mission is about helping take care of others, moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas and their children. And that's a complete honor and huge sense of responsibility to serve and hold up those that are providing our care. So we have a deep culture of recognition, gratitude and celebration that does to your point carry through I think first and foremost our caregivers because that's where it all starts. But making sure that we're recognizing our franchisees amazing office teams as well, have a branch leader of the year that gets recognized as part of our gala celebration. And then we're recognizing our top franchisees that are delivering great and the highest customer service and care to the families that they serve in growing their businesses. So it's easy to take the time and make sure we're focusing on operational things, but we have to take the time and celebrate that amazing execution and heart that really is at the heart of what BrightStar is all about.F Geyrhalter:                 Absolutely. And you're doing such a fantastic job as a brand to not only celebrate these individuals but to actually tell their stories. And storytelling is so important to branding obviously, but a lot of companies try to craft these stories and create these stories. And for you it seems like it is such a logical and very organic and very, I would say "easy" thing to do. But it takes a lot of strategy to actually craft the right stories and share the right stories. And I wondered with your brand usually when I interview amazing entrepreneurs like yourself, a couple of days before showtime I just start digging into their website and more into the social media handles and I mean you are a brand that that is in the business of elderly care franchise and I would have thought there would be no social media channel at all. But on Facebook there are over 15,000 people that actually that actually like an elderly care brand. And to me that was absolutely amazing to see it. And once I started digging into the stories and into the videos, I very much started to understand why people actually are so attached to your brands. And nine years ago you went undercover with BrightStar caregivers on the CBS Undercover Boss. Now I had some Shark Tank contestants on this show, but Undercover Boss is quite a different league. How did that go? And how did it affect your brand and perhaps even your company culture at the time? Tell us a little bit about that experience.S Sun:                           It was an amazing experience. We had the honor of getting selected after CBS went to International Franchise Association asking for a recommendation of franchisors that they should talk to after great experience in season one with another franchisor. And we had just won Entrepreneur of the Year from the International Franchise Association so we were on that list. We had a great day with the producer of the show and asking some questions and what different storylines we might be able to provide as part of the breadth of our brand. And then they realized that our brand was only $50 million at the time and kind of had an internal threshold of $100 million. So they were going out to speak to others that were larger than me in the industry. And that seemed unfair in terms of the exposure I wanted for our brand and for our franchisees. So I found all of the people who had anything to do with the show on CBS's a website and since an overnight letter, two pages, of all of the reasons why they should select BrightStar. We were founder led and entrepreneurial American dream in terms of starting with my own capital and risking it all, all the different settings that they could have with us doing pediatric care, staffing and elderly care. And they came back. And so we had the honor of being on the show and exposing people to our brand. We had 9.1 million people get to learn about the BrightStar Care story and how amazing our caregivers are. It was a very heartwarming experience to have a chance to interact with our caregivers on the front line, but also to see some opportunities in terms of things we can continue to learn from and be better. And continuous improvement as part of our core values and it was a great opportunity to have an opportunity to see that firsthand. And we got to work and made some of those improvements operationally right away. But having an opportunity to interact with some of our customers and our caregivers on the front line was a very rewarding experience and really became the impetus for us establishing the Caregiver of the Year program that you asked me about earlier is an opportunity to not wait for CBS and national TV to get an opportunity to have our own award show and gala to highlight and celebrate our amazing caregivers that are on the frontline every day. And so we fly them and a guest in for a few days at our annual conference, spa time, we make sure that their salary is still covered so they're not having their personal budget impacted by not being able to work those few days and really just take an opportunity to celebrate and highlight and recognize with gratitude the caregivers on the front line, which was so much about what the show was about.F Geyrhalter:                 Yeah, what an amazing outcome. Because we were invited I think like eight years ago to be... There was a show, I think on ABC, that was about inventors and then they work with a branding firm but it was more of a reality show and I was so scared. I'm like, "I'm not going to do that. There's too much... I know how reality shows work and they will most probably tried to find a way to create the entertainment and drama is part of that." So I was actually very afraid to, so we didn't do it. But I love how you really hustled to get on there and you knew it would be a great story. And even if you would discover something "undercover", that you could learn something from it and you could create something better out of what has been highlighted. And so you did, I love that. And I mean obviously you are one of the great entrepreneurs that just keeps learning and keeps pushing. And that is such a good example of that. And I really thought that this would be a story of a potential brand fail for you, but it's not. Did you ever have a ginormous brand fail where you went through something and this might not even be sales related, this is maybe something brand related or just a big key decision where you felt like, "Okay, this was absolutely going into the wrong direction."S Sun:                           I don't know if brand fail, but just challenges of an entrepreneur in those early stages.F Geyrhalter:                 Sure, yeah.S Sun:                           I mean some of the biggest successes became some of the biggest challenges. We grew really quickly. I had the honor two months after starting my business to have a quadriplegic take a chance on me and have us provide his home care, wound up taking care of Tim from 2002 until 2019. He just passed away on Labor Day of this past year. And the family act actually asked me to come deliver part of the eulogy, which is how much intertwined our lives had become during that care journey. I became part of a family and Tim and his lovely wife Ann became a part of my family. But getting that large of a client with 24/7 nursing care two months after starting a business, knowing that you need to pay the nurses weeks before the payer pays us, I wound up having to put payroll on credit cards and having to pray that the bills got paid while my credit lines extended on a credit card. At the time I was married, looking at my wedding ring a couple of times wondering whether I was going to have to hock it to continue to do the right thing by my nurses and my client to keep the business going. My greatest success in revenue wound up be my scariest part operationally because our caregivers and our nurses are oftentimes paid weeks before we wound up getting paid by the payer source or from the family. And that's the great news about growing quickly, but sometimes that can be the scariest part of the entrepreneurial journey as well.F Geyrhalter:                 Absolutely. Yeah. And I wouldn't even see that as a fail. I think that is just a growing pain that I think any entrepreneur, I mean even myself, we all have been at some point in that position, where suddenly stars don't align or you restart the company like I did once, and those are things that happen and then you just have to do the right thing and power through which is so important. And going from the negative back to the positive, which is where we usually want to be on this podcast, looking back, and I know I'm asking you to look back a good 18 or so years, but looking back, what was the one big breakthrough where you figured, "Okay, so this is actually going to turn into maybe an amazing business opportunity." Or even, "Now we know this is actually franchisable." Was there a moment? And it could be directly linked to sales figures or maybe it was a PR event or was there a moment where you just knew this is it?S Sun:                           Well, I mean Undercover Boss certainly was, but since we talked about that, I'd say the biggest one for me was being able to sell our franchisees on the vision and be able to execute around Joint Commission for our entire brand. We are the only brand in the home care space out of over 25,000 agencies that was able to have our brand qualify for Enterprise Champion for Quality designation. And that means that 95% of all of our eligible franchise locations are accredited. And we got that for the first time in 2013 so it was from the time of the thought of Joint Commission that was five years later. From the time we first got our first location accredited, which was 2010, it took us three years to get the entire brand accredited. But we have maintained that every single year. We've never had that lapse. So we've always maintained greater than 95% of our locations Joint Commission accredited. And being able to have that standard at that highest level in place in 2010 through 2013 was really for me when I knew we had a sustainable brand that would deliver the kind of care a thousand miles away from the headquarters that would make my grandma proud and would be the kind of care that she deserved, that all parents and grandparents and children deserve at the highest quality standard that our franchisees embraced. Setting themselves apart, operating at that highest level and making that investment initially and ongoing to be Joint Commission accredited. That's when, for me, it was really our high point of when I felt like we had a breakthrough moment. I'd always believed that we were the highest quality brand and we've always been nurse led as part of our brand. But to be able to do it at such a level that we could be recognized by such a great third party like the Joint Commission really said we had something that would endure for the next several decades and beyond.F Geyrhalter:                 And that is so easy to say now in hindsight, but for our listeners actually getting that accreditation level is extremely cost and time intensive I would think, right? Because it is a very, very huge undertaking.S Sun:                           It was a huge undertaking. We paid for all of the franchisees in two states to go through it initially so we could demonstrate the value to the rest of our network. You know, as a relatively small business that was just borderline profitable at that point in time to make a $400,000 investment because it was the right thing to do for our customers to make sure we were operating at the highest quality level and setting ourselves to be accountable to those standards was a big financial undertaking. And it was probably the equivalent of three or four full time people working on that initiative in 2010 through 2013 to get the brand ready for, and through, that process.F Geyrhalter:                 And putting this in context of brand positioning, I mean when we think about a business that takes care of people that need home care, not necessarily elderly, but the majority, it could be seen as a commodity, right? I mean in a way you could be in a commodity business where there's a lot of companies like yours in the beginning, not now, right, in the beginning that do a similar service. But by you taking this initiative to become accredited and to tell that story, it just pushes the entire brand into such a different league of people actually wanting to have that care, that level care and what an amazing way for a brand to stand out from a sea of sameness in the beginning and to actually be able to do that. So kudos. Pretty amazing, pretty amazing. And also gutsy move to do that and to keep doing it every year. I mean that is a huge commitment. There's a question that I like to ask everyone on the show and you're well aware of that. I always like when I go through brand workshops with my clients, I always at the end of it, after we talk about the brand for like seven hours and everyone is drained, but we all think about just that one brand. At the very end of the day I try to bring it down to one word. Like if you would take everything you do as a brand, everything, and you would be able to just summarize it in that one word that would be the guiding star, for you the BrightStar, what is one word that could describe your brand?S Sun:                           For me, it's trust. We really want to be the brand that families can trust with the loved ones that they want to receive the highest quality of care and earning and being worthy of that trust is something that drives what we do and how we do it each and every day.F Geyrhalter:                 And it's nice because trust works on every level. Totally 360 within your entire people network. Everyone that is involved on one hand is reaching for the other and one is feeding the other. It's a fantastic, fantastic word. What does branding mean to you, Shelly? Now that you've done this for what, 18 years?S Sun:                           Yeah. I think it's getting to know our client and what they need and then making sure we're delivering upon that. It's really standing out, to your point, from the sea of sameness, really differentiating ourself from our competition and what those points of differentiation are is making sure that we are doubling down on those things each and every day. That's the quality, the nurse led, the breadth of service that gives a full [inaudible 00:30:37] of care to our families and the willingness to stand behind that with accreditation. I think it's really knowing who you are as a brand and we won't be the cheapest, but we will be the best and we are the brand that families can trust their loved ones to.F Geyrhalter:                 And on that note, as we're slowly wrapping up here, any final advice or any brand advice, anything that you learned? Which you learned I'm sure a book worth of lessons in your time doing this, but anything for founders as a takeaway that you think would be important for you to share?S Sun:                           I think it's believing in the good of what you're doing. Because without that, I think success is difficult to achieve and certainly to sustain. And I think BrightStar Care is where it is today because I believed that we were providing the best service to the consumers we have the honor to serve and knowing that we are having to earn their trust each and every day and deliver upon that. I think as entrepreneurs and those that are entrusted with protecting that brand and that brand vision, you've got to really believe in what you're doing to be able to do it each and every day. You spoke to the story telling of our caregivers, I wish I could say that that was a strategy or that was intentional, those stories create themselves because that is the beauty of what hiring the best caregivers and giving them nurse oversight and mentoring does each and every day. Those stories are because the brand was there. We didn't have to make up stories. Those stories were there each and every day. They are there each and every day, even if we're not getting them submitted to us. It's a beautiful thing when you believe in what you're doing and you know you're making a difference. There's always going to be tough days as an entrepreneur, those days where you don't know if you're to make payroll or there's an employment situation going on. But knowing that we're in business to make a difference for families, I think as long as entrepreneurs are starting a business and growing a business based upon something that they're passionate about, that has really been what has invigorated me as a founder to continue to still be very active in my business each and every day, nearly 20 years after I started it.F Geyrhalter:                 You said that very beautifully and I hear similar versions of this from a lot of the very successful founders on this podcast because it is that drive and it is knowing that you make a difference when you get up in the morning that is so crucial. Listeners who want to learn more about the brand or actually have a need for a caretaker for their own family, which happens more often than not, where should they start exploring the BrightStar brand?S Sun:                           Thank you. I think our website is the best place to start, so BrightStarCare.com and we'd love to have the honor to see if we could be of service to families. I think it's never too late to start talking to our parents about what their wishes will be when they will need care to be able to still live independently, but live independently at home. So never too early to start asking those questions and allow our parents to be in control of the life that they want as they gracefully age and let us be a part of that.F Geyrhalter:                 So true. So true. It can never be too early. A lot of us had that experience and whoever hasn't had the experience will have that experience, so thank you for the reminder. Thank you for sharing the link. Anyone who is interested in brand storytelling and brand differentiation, I would urge everyone to check out the brand as well because it is not a brand that usually people would immediately flock to when they think about branding and those are the type of entrepreneurs that I like to have on the show where you actually dig deep and suddenly you realize that there's a lot of heart and soul that went into what is going on and why you are so successful today, Shelly. So thank you so much for your time today and for sharing your thoughts with us.S Sun:                           Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to tell our story.F Geyrhalter:                 Absolutely. You know, sometimes I pinch myself when I get off these interview calls because I feel so fortunate to be able to leisurely chat with these extremely busy entrepreneurs who would charge thousands of dollars for their mentorship and yet here we are able to poke their brains on a topic many have not been actively involved in for years. This is a true gift to me and hopefully to you as well. If that is the case for you and you listen to Hitting the Mark every two weeks, I would like to invite you to show your support by going to patreon.com/hittingthemark. The Hitting the Mark theme music was written and produced by Happiness Won. I will see you next time when we, once again, will be hitting the mark. 

Robert is a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) and a business leader in healthcare, technology sales and consulting. He has over 25 years of experience in a variety of senior roles and industries and, in his current position, he serves as President of Lone Jack Holdings, Inc., dba BrightStar Care of Fairfax- a healthcare services provider serving the Northern Virginia area. As a CSA, Robert is a leader in helping seniors plan and access the services they need to age in place and with choice. He often speaks publicly on the issues and challenges of aging and is an active leader in a number of local and national charities- including an advocate role with the American Heart Association and as an active member of the Alzheimer's Association speakers board. https://www.myoutdesk.com

Becky Sennes Torrez (Owner, BrightStar Care of W. Central Las Vegas) outlines the variety of home health care services her organization’s nurses, therapists, CNAs, and caregivers deliver to the Las Vegas community.

Becky Sennes Torrez (Owner, BrightStar Care of W. Central Las Vegas) outlines the variety of home health care services her organization’s nurses, therapists, CNAs, and caregivers deliver to the Las Vegas community.

Episode link: https://www.sabmgroup.com/mark-mooney Mark Mooney (USNA ’74) is the owner and operator of multiple wellness and home health care businesses under the Massage Envy and BrightStar Care franchise brands.  His vast experience in franchising includes building a market from scratch along with buying and selling existing franchise businesses. In this episode, Mark and I discuss: His strict criteria for investing in a franchise concept Important due diligence questions you should ask the franchisor before making an investment The franchise concepts he believes have the greatest potential Connect with Mark Mooney: Mark on LinkedIn If you found this episode valuable, please share it with a friend or colleague. If you are a Service Academy graduate and want to take your business to the next level, you can join our supportive community and get started today. Subscribe and help out the show: Subscribe on Apple Podcasts Also available on Google Play, Spotify & Stitcher Leave us a 5-star review! Special thanks to Mark for joining me this week.  Until next time! -Scott Mackes, USNA ’01

Steve Schildwachter, CMO of BrightStar Care, joins Jack Monson and Liane Caruso to discuss Customer Decision Journeys.  How do you start developing a customer journey for your brand? What will a customer journey look like in 2020 and beyond? And, why are do marketing funnels make no sense?!? We'll also share more details on the Franchise Marketing Leadership Conference in Atlanta this June!   To connect with Steve, find him on Twitter at @SteveS1  Thanks to Social Joey and Franchise Update Media for Supporting Social Geek Radio!         

The Iowa State Heritage Area Agency Task Force on Aging presents a forum on home healthcare, moderated by Larry Kudje and Chanel Prince. Panelists are Julie Knake-Tow from Comfort Care, Curtis Wiederin from BrightStar Care, Brittany Anderson from Oaknoll, and Julie Kriebs from Mercy Iowa City Home Health Care.Video provided by CoralVision.

In this episode, YPO member Shelly Sun, CEO and Co-Founder of BrightStar Care, shares how she took her USD1 million business to USD100 million in five years in system-wide sales and her practical advice franchising your business. The post Episode 95: Shelly Sun (BrightStar Franchising), Chicago, Illinois, USA appeared first on YPO.

In this episode, YPO member Shelly Sun, CEO and Co-Founder of BrightStar Care, shares how she took her USD1 million business to USD100 million in five years in system-wide sales and her practical advice franchising your business.

“Praise publicly, coach privately” - Shelly Sun Shelly Sun is the CEO and Founder of BrightStar Group Holdings, Inc., the parent company of BrightStar Care® and BrightStar Senior Living & Memory Care. BrightStar Care® is a premium healthcare staffing company providing the full continuum of care, from homecare to supplemental staffing for corporate clients such as nursing homes and physicians. BrightStar Care is Ranked as the #1 Franchise in Investment Level by Forbes Shelly went "undercover" with BrightStar caregivers on CBS' "Undercover Boss" (featured April 17, 2011) They are also in the top 10 on the American Express Top 50 Fastest-Growing Women-Led Companies each year 2011-2015, and Shelly was named the 2009 IFA Entrepreneur of the Year. Shelly grew the BrightStar brand to over $300 million in system-wide sales in under 10 years since launching franchise early 2006 with OVER 300 locations throughout the U.S. Shelly also published her first book, Grow Smart, Risk Less, (http://growsmartriskless.com/) where she discusses her journey as an emerging franchisor through amazing growth, lessons learned and game-changing ideas. Shownotes: 3:30 How Shelly became an entrepreneur 10:30 How did you make the vision of what you wanted so clear? 13:44 Biggest differentiators 15:51 The value of incorporating processes 17:20 Where did you learn these entrepreneurial skills? 26:30 Important social skills to develop 29:55 How do you avoid getting a big ego after so much success? 38:55 When is the right time to start a new venture? 43:13 The importance of conflict 45:00 Shelly's 5 core values 45:52 Using core values to hire and fire 46:57 MENTION the book Traction 47:36 Most challenging core value to hold people accountable for 50:33 Where do you see Shelly Sun and Brightstar ten years from now? 54:43 MENTION Shelly's book grow smart risk less 58:00 When to hand off the reigns of your business? 1:00:09 What Shelly does outside of business 1:07:28 Quinton's Quick Takes

Jayson Pearl joins Jack for a conversation about jumping from franchisor executive with BrightStar Care into starting his own firm, ServiceScore.      ServiceScore helps franchises and small business owners convert prospects into customers by measuring and analyzing phone calls. Jayson's team focuses on optimizing those opportunities and making sure marketing ivestments pay off. Jayson also calls Jack out on the true definition of a GEEK! Check it out now!      

BrightStar Care CEO Shelly Sun sat down with Home Health Care News to talk about her company's history, her personal journey and an appearance on Undercover Boss. This episode is sponsored by Homecare Homebase, whose powerful, cloud-based home health software streamlines virtually every aspect of your business. Visit www.hchb.com to learn more.

Shelly Sun is the CEO and Founder of BrightStar Group and BrightStar Care, which is a home care and medical staffing company. She built it into a 400 million dollar company in just ten years, while balancing work and family. She's been named Entrepreneur of the Year, and starred in an episode of Undercover Boss. Resources: * https://www.brightstarcare.com/ – Website * https://franchise.brightstarcare.com/ – Franchising Opportunities * @shellyasun – Twitter * Buy her book, Grow Smart, Risk Less: A Low-Capital Path to Multiplying Your Business Through Franchising Sponsored by: * LEADx.org – subscribe to become 1% better every single day Subscribe on iTunes to join our Ambassadors Club: Please click here to subscribe on iTunes, and leave a quick rating. Nothing matters more for bringing the podcast to the attention of others. After you subscribe and leave a review, send an email to info at leadx dot org to let us know, and we'll invite you into the private LEADx Ambassadors Group on Facebook. Group members are eligible for ridiculously good prizes each month, have special access to me and LEADx guests, discounts on live events, and of course it's a great forum for peer-learning and support. Share: And, by all means, if you know someone you think would benefit, please spread the word by using the share buttons below. — What is LEADx and The LEADx Show with Kevin Kruse? Imagine if you could have the world's best executive coaches and leadership mentors whispering into your ear every morning on your way to work. Every weekday, there will be a new episode of The LEADx Leadership Show with an interview from a different thought leadership or business expert. Many of these guests are thought leaders, famous authors or high-profile CEOs from innovative startup companies. Others are creatives, artists, entrepreneurs or corporate career leaders. They have all achieved extreme success and they are willing to share practical advice on how to advance your career and develop your leadership and management skills by offering daily career tips on time management, productivity, marketing, personal branding, communication, sales, leadership, team building, talent management and other personal development and career development topics. There will be a new episode waiting for you every day just in time for your morning commute, morning treadmill session or whatever else it is you do to start your day. LEADx isn't just the name of this new podcast, it's the name of a digital media and online learning company that is re-imagining professional development for millennials and career driven professionals looking to break into manager roles or excel in current leadership and management roles. If you're looking for management training or professional development that is delivered in a fun and engaging way, sign up for our daily newsletter at LEADx.org. It's packed with life hacks, daily career tips and leadership challenges that will turn you into a high potential leader in no time. What does LEADx stand for? We are exploring leadership. We are about NEXT GENERATION leadership. We believe that professional training and workplace education has not kept up with advances in digital media. Today's emerging leaders and management professionals just don't find 5 day workshops or eLearning modules to be very compelling.

Katherine Lyons, the president and owner of BrightStar Care, talks about the emotions that a senior loved one goes through during the process of accepting home care.

Katherine Lyons, the president and owner of BrightStar Care, talks about home care.

Katherine Lyons, the president and owner of BrightStar Care, talks about the warning signs that mean its time for your senior loved one to get home care.

In this episode of the Work-Life Equation, we revisit a webinar about being a caregiver for your elderly parents from a distance—another city, state, or even country. Elder care expert Sharon Roth Maguire from BrightStar Care speaks to the pragmatic side of long distance caregiving, with actionable tips for managing everyday needs and responsibilities.

How do you keep your career on tract during an extended caregiving situation? Linda Kunicki, community liaisonfor BrightStar Care® of Chicago and La Grange, shares on she kept her career moving forward as she cared for her mom from 1999 until 2015.  Linda also will share her perspectives during our Caregiving and the Workplace Summit on June 2 in Chicago. About Linda Linda is community liaisonfor BrightStar Care® of Chicago and La Grange. She has had numerous positions that have allowed her to service others from children to seniors. These positions have been with health care, senior residences, schools, and other business with progressively increased career responsibilities that have encompassed management, sales, marketing, human resources, training and development. She had done numerous public trainings on health like Fall Prevention, Safety, Dementia and Pet assisted activities and other general topics. On a personal level, Kunicki, was also a family caregiver through her mother's aging process from 1999 to 2015. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/caring-conversations/message

How do you keep your career on tract during an extended caregiving situation? Linda Kunicki, community liaisonfor BrightStar Care® of Chicago and La Grange, shares on she kept her career moving forward as she cared for her mom from 1999 until 2015.  Linda also will share her perspectives during our Caregiving and the Workplace Summit on June 2 in Chicago. About Linda Linda is community liaisonfor BrightStar Care® of Chicago and La Grange. She has had numerous positions that have allowed her to service others from children to seniors. These positions have been with health care, senior residences, schools, and other business with progressively increased career responsibilities that have encompassed management, sales, marketing, human resources, training and development. She had done numerous public trainings on health like Fall Prevention, Safety, Dementia and Pet assisted activities and other general topics. On a personal level, Kunicki, was also a family caregiver through her mother’s aging process from 1999 to 2015. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/caring-conversations/message

"Begin your discovery and become a student of franchising while you are following the path to launching and growing your franchis system." These powerful words by Shelly Sun from her book, Grow Smart Risk Less are much more than advice for others. They're words Sun continues to live by as she has truly become a student of franchising (and teacher and advocate) and the success of her brand, BrightStar Care is evidence of her commitment to sustainable and sensible franchising. This week on Franchise Today, co-hosts Stan Friedman and Paul Segreto discuss with Shelly Sun the trials and tribulations of becoming a world-class franchisor. In addition to improving unit-economics and growing BrightStar beyond US borders, Shelly also focuses on issues affecting franchising such as recent NLRB ruling on 3rd party employers and $15 per hour minimum wage, and the reasons behind her generosity of both time and resources to causes and industry events alike. As 2009 IFA Entrepreneur of the Year, Shelly also shares her thoughts on entrepreneurship, a timely subject as this week's show airs during Global Entrepreneurship Week. Franchise Today airs LIVE Wednesdays at 11AM CT / 12PM ET with on-demand access on iTunes.

 If you are a fan of Undercover Boss, you will enjoy today’s show.  We are meeting with Executive Vice President, International for BrightStar Care Anthony Padulo.  BrightStar Care is the home care/senior care franchise opportunity that is transforming the lives of our franchise owners, clients and their loved ones.  Brief bio: Anthony Padulo has successfully expanded brands such as Dunkin’ Brands, BP Oil and Aamco into global markets. As Executive Vice President, International for BrightStar Care, Padulo is focusing efforts on securing deals with Area Developers to own and operate multiple locations at a time, or Master Franchisees, who can sub-franchise after opening two to five of their own locations.

Sini Ross with Reed Hagen on the Super Saver

Sini Ross of BrightStar Care of the St. Croix Valley previews the next Care-Together Cafe - August 29th from 3 to 5 at Swirl Wine Bar in Afton. This month's presentation is called The Shift - Alzheimer's Care Like You've Never Seen It with Lori La Bey of Alzheimer's Speaks.

Sini Ross of BrightStar Care and Reed Hagen preview the Care Together Cafe "Own Your Future" July 23, 2012