How to Refresh Your Home Care Brand to Drive New Business (Adam Corcoran Pt. 2)

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Elevation Marketing

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[ 00:00:03 ] Welcome, everyone, to Home Care U, a podcast by Careswitch, a free education series for home care owners because nobody went to school to learn how to run a home care business. I'm Miriam Allred, your host. It's great to be back with you. I hope everyone's doing well. I want to just get after it today. I am back with Adam Corcoran, the CEO of Elevation Marketing down in Florida. He's the former director of business development at Golden Care in Naples, Florida. I hope everyone here listening to this listened to part one because last week was literally a masterclass in long-term care insurance. Adam is arguably the expert when it comes to long-term care insurance. He and I both were just talking. A lot of messages, a lot of questions came from that session.

[ 00:00:46 ] I'm really excited for part two today. We're going to do like a 180 total pivot. Adam is a Swiss Army knife, and he's got a lot of tricks up his sleeve. We're taking part two. We're taking a totally different topic today, but I love it, and I hope everyone's excited for this session as well. Today, we're going to talk about branding and marketing and reputation and perception of your business in your market. Home care is becoming increasingly more competitive in every market. I know a lot of you are in big metro areas. Some of you are more rural areas. There's just so much demand. Everybody knows the numbers. There's an increasing amount of competition, and your brand, your reputation, how you differentiate with sales and marketing collateral - it all matters.

[ 00:01:27 ]That is another area of expertise by Adam, and that's what we're going to go into today. Before I jump in and ask you a bunch of questions, Adam, obviously, thanks for being here. I want you to tell your story, this evolution. You were successful at this agency in Florida, thriving, growing. There's a lot of growth opportunities there, but you pivoted personally and are going the entrepreneurship route, helping agencies with branding. Just walk us through the progression of this big change for you. Absolutely. Well, again, thank you for having me. This has been really awesome. This two-part series has been so impactful, and I'm grateful for the opportunities for people to reach out. Thank you. Yeah. I've been in home care for over a decade, and my first couple of years was with a franchise model.

[ 00:02:16 ] Then the past seven years has been with a private-owned company, which was really fun, because we literally had to- We had to bootstrap from the ground up, creating our entire brand book. Everything from logo creation to all of our portfolio, our library of resources, we got to create. There's no better feeling, especially, to be quite frank, coming from a franchise model where you have certain guidelines that you're kind of, I wouldn't say, held to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of a box. There were so many times that I was like, 'Here in Southwest Florida, we have different opportunities and different referral sources.' I wanted to create materials that were going to speak specifically towards that. Being able to create that brand guideline, it really gave us that opportunity. You're right.

[ 00:03:19 ] We were building a multimillion-dollar company at Golden Care. And, you know, COVID hit us right in the face. And, you know, it was a time of a lot of uncertainty. And I knew at that time, we had to create collateral, you know, based off of why home care was so relevant during that time. And so, you know, no joke, I remember doing it like overnight, I was like, we have to get this out there. So I made a one-page flyer just explaining why home care was so relevant during that pandemic. And I'm involved with a lot of different Facebook groups for home care industry owners, marketers, what have you. And, you know, I reached out to the administrator of the group.

[ 00:04:04 ] And I said, 'Hey, like, can I post this in the group like to be able to help the community?' And he's like, 'Sure.' So I did post that flyer and opened up the door and said, 'Hey, like, if you guys want this flyer created specifically for you, like, let me know, just shoot me a message. And I'll do it for free. Like, you know, no catch.' Like, I mean, I wanted to really just help the community. And no joke, like a business was born in a matter of weeks, because so many people I had over 200 requests, people messaging me for for that specific flyer. And it was kind of it was crazy. And but even more so, like a light bulb went off.

[ 00:04:50 ] People started coming back to me and asking for more things like business cards and brochures and rack cards. You know, I realized that there is a gap, right? There's a gap in people's understanding of what collateral really can do for your business. And not just printed materials, but promotional products and having a true brand identity is so important. And you know, with home care, as you said earlier, like the barrier to entry is kind of low, right? So we're seeing a lot of people come into. The home care market, you know, go and start a home care agency as their entrepreneur dream, which is an amazing thing. You know that the fact that they have the ability to get licensed and start a company, but understanding brand identity and understanding like what you need within your organization to be successful.

[ 00:05:41 ] You know, I saw so many gaps, so having you know, I'm a self-taught graphic designer. I don't know if you knew that. So from like, literally middle middle school. I took our first ever visual arts class back in the early 2000s. To fast forward to today, understanding the home care market, understanding branding and, you know, sales, you know, putting these two things together to start Home Care Flyers, which is the name of the company prior, and now Elevation Marketing has been just such a blessing. And, you know, I really enjoy working with our clients and helping them understand like, what they need to do to start building their portfolio of their collateral, making sure that things are uniform. You know, when we talk about branding, it's really important that you have consistency across the board.

[ 00:06:37 ] And we'll probably dive into that in some of the questions. But I mean, that's kind of where it all started. And my two worlds just collided. And just last year, I was working with a company called I took the opportunity to go all in and and, you know, no looking back; I had to lean on a lot of faith, to be quite honest with you. And I surrounded myself with the right people who encouraged me and really allowed me to take this company to the next level. It's been so fun still working in our home care industry, because again, I have so much knowledge that comes to the table. I'm not just your average print shop; so amazing. Thank you for sharing all of that. I love it. I love that story.

[ 00:07:16 ] You like you said, a business was born out of a need during the pandemic. And I'm sure we could do like part three on, you know, like taking the leap of entrepreneurship, because that's so fresh for you. And you feel really strongly about that. The thing that stood out to me, you said is this gap in in collateral and marketing and branding. And, and I, I see that too. And it's a little bit surprising. You know, I think when people start a business, they need a logo and a website. But then it's kind of like a set it and forget it. And we see this, really? You know, I'm thinking of like size of businesses, I think. You know, average agencies about 1.7, you know, a little under 2 million, according to the Home Care Polls Benchmarking Report.

[ 00:07:55 ] You know, even businesses of that size, they get to that 2 million, 3 million, 4 million, I think they even struggle to focus on brand and material and collateral. And so you said, there's this gap, and I see it as well. So break that down a little bit. You know, what do you think is behind that? Why? Why isn't it more of a priority early days, and even kind of mid-days as well? Well, and it's true, because, like, if you look at your business as a whole, I mean, you're going through different phases of growing up, so to speak, right. And early on, you know, when you're running a business, I see this all too often, is, you know, it's only usually a couple people who are starting with a company, right?

[ 00:08:34 ] They don't; they're not leveraging tons of employees coming in the door. So a lot of those administrators or owners are wearing multiple hats, you know, so they might get their logo, you know, and, you know, get their first couple rounds of like business cards, or what have you. But you're like, you said; they kind of like set it and forget it. And some things just don't become a priority, because they're juggling scheduling and hiring and, you know, regulations and making sure that their, you know, policies or procedures are in place. So branding, most of the time gets put to the back burner, you know, and that's why people like me exist to be able to, hey, like, let's keep this going.

[ 00:09:11 ] You know, and when it comes so early on in my career, I talked about, you know, at school for three years, and I'm huge on visual aids. So anytime I would go into a referral source, and they ask a specific question, like a primary care physician, right, asking a question, like, well, when we would even use your services, and like, I have to create a flyer, helping educate our referral partners on when we would be the most appropriate time. So, like, every time I found an opportunity where someone asking a question, I knew I had to create, you know, I had to create a piece, you know, a rack card, postcard flyer, specifically for that. Whereas, you know, a lot of home care owners, they might not be forward-thinking like that, right?

[ 00:09:56 ] They might be just getting their basic, you know, logo and, you know, stuff very generic, but not thinking ahead of how can you let your, your collateral pieces work for you, right in your marketing. But that consistency is important, having the same font styles, like across the board, you know, people don't think about that being consistent. And one of my biggest pet peeves that I will share with you is: 'Go buy a domain, right? I mean, so many people don't have a legitimate email address. If you're still using a Google account, AOL account, Yahoo account, like there's some credibility that comes with actually having a domain, an actual legitimate email address. I see that all the time, you know, it only costs, like $60 a year to get that domain, but go ahead and

[ 00:10:50 ] There's way too many Gmails and Outlooks and Hotmails in this industry.' And, and the point that I want to just add to this is, there's a little bit of like fake it till you make it, like you need to look and act like a legitimate business for people to take you seriously. So not having a domain, not having an email, headshots are another one, you know, I see businesses waiting until, you know, three years in to get professional headshots, those, those things go a long way, carry a lot of weight at the beginning. And later on, as you're trying to grow and ramp up, you need a, you know, a credible reputation. I'm gonna tell you a quick story, because you just sparked a memory. And it was early on in home care flyers.

[ 00:11:26 ] And it was one of my like, my first like 10 clients, and she reached out to me and she got her logo done from a graphic designer on, you know, Fiverr, you know, Upwork. And that's fine. That's great. But she called me on a Wednesday night. And she said, Adam, I just booked my first in-service on Friday. And I don't have anything. Right. And, you know, she told the story and saying, like, I need I need this stuff. So we stopped what we're doing. We jumped on a Zoom call for like three hours, we got her, you know, her business cards, her first flyer, her first brochure done, and we got that printed for her. And within days, she had it. And she went and she just crushed that first in-service, right?

[ 00:12:12 ] She called me almost crying the next week. And she said, Adam, I don't have anything like you did an amazing job. And I said, Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. But she and she goes, No, you didn't just provide me business cards and a brochure. You gave me the confidence to go into that meeting, looking the part feeling professional. And I knew then that we were onto something, right? Because it's not just printing business cards, not just having a fancy folder. It's giving that person that confidence to be able to go into those sales calls, into those in-services and educational workshops, and have that that look and feel of like a legitimate company. That was an impactful moment in our in our company. Yeah.

[ 00:12:56 ] And I think, you know, people listening to this may think like, oh, this is only applicable to maybe early stage, mid-stage. But what we're going to talk about today, I want people to kind of like stick with us, we're going to get into like the deeper topics here that are applicable to everyone, because I think this, this isn't more of an issue across the industry than you would think even for maybe mid and larger businesses. I want to start by talking about the, you know, the, you know, more about collateral. I actually love the example you gave a couple minutes ago, which was, you know, they were asking, like, when do your services become relevant? And you thought, like, I need a visual to explain that.

[ 00:13:29 ] There's, there's, I think, maybe this misconception of, oh, you know, I can have a lot of papers, a lot of cards, a lot of, you know, binders, and I can just get fluffy. But it's, you know, in your mind, it's probably a few very pointed pieces of collateral that maybe do 80% of the work. And so I want you to talk about what are maybe those key pieces of collateral that you saw the most success with? Yeah, sure. So, I mean, what I've seen in so many situations is, you know, first of all, like, as I said earlier, your, your brand has to stay consistent, but you have to keep it fresh. And I mean that with all intention, you know, Home Care 10 years ago, you know, has evolved, right?

[ 00:14:10 ] So we have to freshen it up; you have to always look at the opportunity of getting new. So many people are using stock images, and you've probably seen some of this stuff, right? And if we're creating collateral 15-10 years ago, like to now, it's just totally different, right? So you want to keep it fresh. When I when I'm talking like about specific pieces that speak to specific needs, I think about this all the time. When you're going into an account, like a, let's call a skilled nursing facility or a hospital, for instance, right? And you know how it looks, you have to see of like, you know, bookshelf of all the different, you know, brochures, like what is going to be different about your brochure that's going to stand out, you know, and for me, it was always like knowing the audience, knowing where you're at.

[ 00:15:01 ] So like, if you're bringing collateral to a social worker at a hospital, you want to speak to those specific pain points that that person might be going through as you're discharging from the hospital, right? And that that that, that, that, collateral is going to be more impactful, if it's, it's highlighting that specific need. Whereas if you're going into a primary care physician, your collateral might look a little bit different, because it's not speaking to like a transition at home. So, you know, when I look at so many people's like current collateral, it's very generic, and it's trying to cover everything; the more specific I think you get to hitting those, those touch points, the more successful be. The other thing I see all too often is people are very copy-heavy.

[ 00:15:51 ] This day and age, we're on our phones 90% of the time, you know, percent of the time, our attention is brought in so many different directions. Like you have to think about someone's attention span. So are they going to, you know, pick up a brochure and read it, you know, cover to cover? Maybe, maybe not. But you need to have specific call-to-actions and clean bullet points to be able to, to spark those reactions and being able for them to take the next step. You know, I want to drill down. So you're referencing, you mentioned earlier, like a one-pager, you're referencing like a brochure, you know, like maybe like a three-page, you know, pamphlet. During the pandemic, you know, sales referrals looked a lot differently. There was a lot of emailing and phone calls, and less in-person.

[ 00:16:36 ] So, my head's even going to like a digital-like slide deck or something that you can email what there's different use cases for all of those. But like you're saying, people don't have a big attention span; they don't want a wordy brochure, like what? There's no silver bullet here. But like what, what are maybe like the quick wins? Or what should people focus on that's working? You know, I've seen very successful recently. And it's something that we piloted about like six months ago. So, and there's a big controversy on QR codes, like either you love them, or you hate them, right. And I think prior to COVID, you know, the truth is, like, like QR codes were everywhere. And then all of a sudden, they like, died out, right.

[ 00:17:17 ] And then all of a sudden, code came back. And now our menus at restaurants are QR codes. And, and we're using them a lot more. So we started trialing with a couple of our clients actually putting a QR code that would go directly to a two-minute video of like, like an introduction to that owner. It adds that that personal touch that I think is so very important, that when you're making a decision of hiring someone, you're not just going to be like, Oh, I don't know, I don't know, you're not just going to be like, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, it's not just buying paper towels at your grocery store, right? It's a big deal. So you want to like and trust the person that you're hiring to come and bring, you know, caregivers into your home.

[ 00:18:00 ] So like having that personal touch, even at that two minute, you know, interview, that that they can scan this code and get a quick snapshot of who you are, and why you do what you do, I actually really love doing this with clients and seeing how they get reactions. It's been successful so far, but I really think about that personal touch is key. Yeah. And like you mentioned, everybody's on their smartphones. So, thinking of like website and branding and material, like mobile optimization, I know that's maybe one step further than we're getting today, but making sure your website, making sure your links, your emails, everything is conducive to mobile and they're having a good experience on mobile because they're going to scan that QR code on their phone, be looking at this on their mobile.

[ 00:18:49 ] And so creating a really good experience for referral sources, even, we're not talking about this yet, but like on the recruitment side, on the caregiver side, same thing, they're on mobile. So making sure everything looks and interacts really well on a mobile device, yeah. And like I said earlier, you want your collateral to work for you. So creating that call-to-action is so important to be able to help them. And through the process and taking them to the next step of, you know, booking a call, scheduling, you know, a living room visit, whatever it is, you want them to take that next step. So, you know, my word of advice is giving them, giving them enough information and education and triggering those certain emotions to be able to then do something else.

[ 00:19:33 ] Because if you give them all the information and then they don't do anything, it's, it's, it wasn't purposeful, you know. I want to talk a little bit more about stock photos, because this is, this is another issue across the home care board. Like almost no one is exempt from this. I posted on LinkedIn a couple of weeks ago, like standout brands on social media that I don't see stock photos from, but literally, I posted three. There's not that many out there, but I think you probably are preaching this all the time. Invest the money, you know, a couple hundred bucks, get a photographer out to the office, take, you know, 50 to a hundred photos, and you can repurpose those in all of your marketing material and that difference. Makes the world of a difference.

[ 00:20:16 ] Are real photos of your people, your caregivers, your office staff, and not, you know, just generic stock photos, because like we talked about, it's a competitive market. You could be using the same stock photos as your competitor, and then your brand, you know, gets lost. So you probably know better than I, you know, it's not that expensive probably to get, you know, some photos in the office, and then you can just use those to the end of the year. Yeah, we, we actually early on at Golden Care, we hired a professional photographer, and they came and did headshots for everyone at the office. But then we took the opportunity to schedule a home visit with one of our clients and had some caregivers come, and they were staging certain things of, you know, of like, you know, you know, helping like cook a meal or taking the person for activity in and out of a car.

[ 00:21:04 ] It did make the world of a difference because there's no other feeling of like looking at two brochures side by side and seeing the same photo stock. And like, that's just adds to that brand confusion that you do not want, right? So, you know, and you have the opportunity of making sure that you're, you know, your caregivers are in uniform, and you look professional, it sets the stage of what, you know, you're creating a visual of what they're going to experience when they're hiring your agency. And that that's, you know, it's definitely worth the investment, I would agree. Yeah, you just touched on uniforms. To my understanding, you help with that as well. I think that's kind of a controversial or just like you see a lot of diversity when it comes to uniforms and home care.

[ 00:21:51 ] Some people require it, some people don't, some people are, you know, it's like kind of a mixed bag. What's your take on the importance of uniforms at every stage? Yeah, it's interesting. You know, I work with hundreds, if not over 1,000, you know, home care owners across the nation. And it is a controversial topic because of turnover, right? We understand turnover on home care is so ridiculously high. And people have a hard time understanding or grasping the investment in uniforms, because there is a chance that that employee or contractor is not going to work out. Right. So I will say this, we always had a had branded polos from day one. And we did that with good intention because a lot of our work was in skilled nursing facilities and assisted livings.

[ 00:22:40 ] So when I tell you, they're walking billboards. Billboards, like, I truly mean that, you know, rarely did I think that we were going to get referrals, just for the fact that we had uniforms, but I'm telling you, you know, we did a lot of work in one CCRC to be specific. And we probably got over a dozen referrals, just because we presented very well in the building. You know, obviously, Golden Care, we took a play on the look, and we had, you know, kind of these gold, gold polos. Some people do scrub tops. But we always took that opportunity, making sure that they had a nice name badge, and a branded collar polo. And I think it was worth the investment, because we firsthand saw referrals from people recognizing, you know, those caregivers in that community.

[ 00:23:30 ] Now, if you're doing a lot of home care, outside of like communities like that, maybe I, you know, I always liked the idea of a professional clean look and having a standard. Because it's also like, it's setting the stage for your agency, right, it's setting the standard of this is how we're going to look and dress and feel, you know, what we did with our agency is we provided the first two upon hire, and then we use, you know, getting your uniforms as like an incentive, right, if you if you're working five days consecutively, you know, for extended period of time, you'll get another, you know, shirt. So I've seen companies be successful in bonusing people with more uniforms. And, and caregivers actually really like that.

[ 00:24:16 ] You know, I think they like that feel, you know, to feel part of a team loyalty, you know? Yeah. And like you said, you know, maybe owner's concern is, okay, I give them this $30 polo, and then they're out the door. But the flip side of that, what if they stay? What if you get one referral from them wearing that polo one time? What if they, you know, are still having the polo on and they go to an event with friends, they're still wearing like, that goes such a long way. Okay, so I think that's, you know, kind of like a paradigm shift here for anyone that's, you know, on the fence or concerned about the investment about the time it's, you know, one, one shirt on one employee could result in multiple new clients, multiple more caregivers, etc.

[ 00:24:55 ] I know, maybe planting a seed in your head, like data on this would actually be really interesting. Like, have swag versus don't and the impact of the swag, because really, like you said, it goes such a long way for brand and unity and consistency. And then you just said it like it. It helps with that brand identity. You know, I think of the most successful companies outside, I mean, home care or not, right? The most successful companies have a really good grasp on understanding where they have to have multiple touch points, right? Seeing someone's shirt, you know, with a logo on it is just another touch point of brand recognition. It's only going to help your brand strength. I agree. This might be a little bit broad, but I want to talk about like strategies and tactics.

[ 00:25:41 ] I want to talk about like strategies and tactics behind some of the collateral and the material we were talking about. You referenced kind of one of, you know, making it personal. You know, you want it to represent your brand. You want maybe, you know, a video of the owner. Like, you want it to be personal. You also probably want it to be like outcome-driven. You know, you want it to be like substantial. It's not just fluffy. You know, obviously there's education. We need to like educate people on home care and what we do. But also like why and what we're doing and why it matters. Any other, I mean, you can go into that or any other like specific tactics. One. When it comes to the collateral, like what to focus and what to make kind of like the shining star and all this collateral.

[ 00:26:17 ] Yeah. If you think about home care in general, right? Most of the time, I would say people are in a reactive mindset, right? Usually mom falls. She went to the hospital. She's having a scheduled surgery. Home care is usually an afterthought of something that happened, right? So when you have collateral that you need to speak specifically to that issue. You know, and when, when I say like trigger emotions, like I always like asking questions within my collateral, you know, do you have a loved one at home that, you know, that needs support? Usually, that's because no one's really like, there's nothing like sexy about shopping for home care, right? So it's like, you really have to trigger emotions of getting people to that next step. And most of the time, people have to understand.

[ 00:27:07 ] Usually, it's the sons and the daughters who are picking up the brochure or picking up the fire. You know, you have to understand your audience and understand what's going through their state. And again, when so many people are being in a reactive mode, you have to develop this collateral. It's so clear that you're going to be a solution to their problem. So there is a lot of strategy, and it really comes down to good copywriting. That's why another thing that I see so many people, you know, going to big print shops or even local print shops. They just don't understand the industry and they might have good copywriters, but maybe not understand the home care industry. So that's why when I work with our clients, it's so specific on like, let's create something that's going to work for you.

[ 00:27:54 ] Now, talking about promotional products, kind of pivoting it a little bit. If you're okay with that, you know, promoting, or just talking about swag, you know, is kind of a really fun topic for me. And someone, so many people ask me like, oh gosh, we just spend so much. Money on these like promo products. Like we don't even know if it's doing anything. And there's three things that I always look at for promotional products that you really want to keep in mind. And that's quality, utility, and shelf life. Those are the three main things. And I'll touch on each one of them briefly. Quality is like getting a promotional product that is going to actually like be worth something. Right. And you have to know your audience. Are you getting.

[ 00:28:40 ] Are you getting this promotional product for a potential client, a potential daughter of a client? Are you getting it for, you know, a referral source? Or is it a high, is it a tool that you're using for hiring? Right. I mean, you can use it for so many different, you know, different opportunities. You just have to be specific and understanding it, knowing your audience. Utility is in this, like probably the most important, right? Because so many people spend thousands and thousands of dollars at this stuff. And it's like, but if you really have utility in mind, you know, if you're, if you're, if you're getting promotional products to give to your social workers or your referral sources, you have to kind of know what their day-to-day looks like. Right.

[ 00:29:25 ] So if there are social workers, they're probably sitting at a desk, like a mouse pad or something, you know, a clipboard or, you know, something that might be a crucial part of their desk. And then shelf life. Shelf life is also another important thing. You know, when you're talking about branding, you want to have that, that, that promo product that's going to really impact, you know, the brand over a long period of time. I remember years ago, it was probably early years of Golden Care. We purchased branded Yetis and we only did a short run of them for our, like our top referral sources. And no joke, this is probably in 2017 or '18. Years later. No. No joke. I was doing an in-service for that same doctor years ago.

[ 00:30:13 ] I'm saying probably three or four years later, he was still using the same cup. And I was like, mind blown that he was still using it. He's like, oh, I can't leave my house without it. It's my favorite cup. So like, that was like a, like an aha moment to me. Like that. Yes. That investment on a good product had good utility. He told me he never. He never left his house without it. And he used it for years. Right. So it's like, yeah, it probably costs us like 40, 50 bucks a cup. But at the end of the day, my logo was in his face, in his hand for years. Like you can't, you can't get that everywhere. Right.

[ 00:30:57 ] So making sure you have shelf life in mind as well is so important because again, you want it to last over a long period of time. You know, always people come to me and ask like about like, like consumables or like mints. And it's like, yeah, we can do that. But what do you really want that to do for you? Right. I mean, the, the reality is like, we, you know, we've done like those little eight ounce water bottles before for home carers. It's like the intention of an eight ounce water bottle is to drink it and then throw it away. So the brand impact is so minimal. Like, take that money and invest it in something that's going to actually work for you over a long period of time.

[ 00:31:36 ] My mind is literally going down. Like memory. Every lane of all the swag that I've received. And I think the way for people to think about this, we've all been the recipients of good swag and really bad swag. Right. And like you're saying, it's like, think through this. What is something that you would want to receive? You know, I think we'd all want like a really nice Yeti that we're going to use for years because it's a great product. You know, do I want another, you know, cheap dollar pen that has your logo? Like, you know, we all have a million of those, like probably in our kitchen junk drawer. It's like. Think through what you would really want.

[ 00:32:11 ] And and I think what you're getting at, too, is like invest more money in the products that matter and that last, because even if you give out less of it, they will go longer and have more, you know, exposure, whereas the pens don't get any exposure and they're worth way less. Well, it's funny. I probably get a request once a week for the cheapest pen. Right. And I really have to stop and say, what do you want that cheap pen to do for you? Or where do you think that's that cheap pen is going to end up? Probably in a drawer thrown out in the bottom of a purse. Maybe not even work after the first month. Right. But you want to be someone's favorite pen. And I'll tell a story.

[ 00:32:54 ] We had a director of nursing at a memory care community in Naples, Florida, and he was obsessed with a specific type of pen. And I knew that about him. So no joke. Weeks later, we got branded pens and I made sure that he got, you know, a dozen of them right when we got them in and he was just blown away because it was intentional thinking of saying like, hey, wait, he Adam knew I like that pen and I went out of my way to make sure that he had him. And then it was like just a running joke because like his nurses would steal his pens and like it would give me the opportunity to go back into the account and like give him more pens.

[ 00:33:34 ] And, you know, it kind of like turned into a game. But I say that. Because like, again, it's something that he's going to write with every single day. It has good utility, you know, and I knew that about him and also gave me the opportunity to kind of get back into that account over and over and over again. So my word of advice is like be someone's favorite pen, not just the cheap pen. I love that we're talking about pens because this feels so menial and like kind of comedic, but it's actually like a really important lesson and something that will go a long way in your home. So, you know, and I just want to put a plug in to like you mentioned, you know, mints or gum or different food.

[ 00:34:14 ] There are really creative ways to send like really thoughtful, you know, one time foods, meals, salsa. Like I've been the recipient, I think, of a few of those that I still remember. Like that was so thoughtful and so awesome from, you know, another state that someone sent me. So know that like get creative, like let your mind run. And maybe as the owner, like this isn't your forte to like think through something like this. But like, ask your office, you know, throw it out for discussion. Like what? How can you get creative and think of ideas? And like you were just mentioning, like when you're at a referral source or with a family, like ask the people around them, like, wow, what would really be a thoughtful gift for this person that would mean so much to them?

[ 00:34:53 ] And then, you know, they're kind of doing the hard work for you. Don't come up with the ideas, but ask and get creative and make sure it's something that's meaningful to the individual. And they will remember it for literally years. Seriously, we we always leverage the national calendar. I don't know if you know what I'm talking about, but there are websites out there that have like, you know, like National Cookie Day or Right Cupcake Day last week was like Donut Day, right? So we would make marketing tags. And this is a great strategy because sometimes I don't know about you or if any listeners are out there, they've sat in the car of a parking lot of one of their accounts. And I was there and saying, like, what am I going to talk about now?

[ 00:35:33 ] You know what I mean? Like like having a reason to go back into that account is so difficult, and I really struggled with that early on in my career. Utilizing the national calendar of like the holidays has such a fun way to lighten up your sales calls, right? Sometimes it's really serious and you're going in with good education and you're going to see clients, but you have to lighten it up a little bit. Right. So, like, you know, we would we would do National Popcorn Day and we would like bring popcorn and we would you know, we would do these marketing tags branded with our information on it. It. And we would staple them to popcorn bags and go into the accounts and say, 'Hey, it's national popcorn day.

[ 00:36:13 ] We're just popping by.' And as I had like a cute little saying, but again, it gave that reason to get back into the account and, you know, have that confidence to go back in without it having to be so dry, right? You have to lighten it up a little bit and, you know, some referral sources receive it differently. So just know your audience, you know, and most likely no one's going to complain if you show up with some good food. So I really liked the national calendar idea. That's really creative and a good idea. I want to shift gears a little bit and talk about like the evolution of branding, because like we talked about before, it's really common for, you know, kind of a startup business to throw together a logo, throw together a website, set it and forget it.

[ 00:36:55 ] And then, you know, maybe be years, months or years into the business and think like, wow, this brand isn't reflective of who and what we are today. So I want to hear your take on just like the evolution of branding. Evolution of branding and how often, you know, owners should be talking about and thinking about branding and maybe rebranding. Like, you know, what, what does that look like? And what have you seen? Yeah. As I said earlier, like keeping it fresh and relevant is always important now. And I would say, you know, people probably every, every other year probably have to do a deep dive into their library and look at the stuff that's actually working and talking about, you know, revising a little bit, speaking more specifically, but also like freshening it up.

[ 00:37:41 ] I mean, and it doesn't have to be earth-shattering. It could be as simple as like taking your basic flyer that you've been using for however many years and converting it to a postcard or converting it to a rack card. Like we've seen some great success with that because delivery has changed, right? You know, the days of like bringing, you know, a whole presentation folder worth of material to an account is kind of out the door. Like, you know, keeping things simple. So I think it, you know, it is important to always be looking at your brand. You know, if you talk about, you know, again, we were in business for, you know, eight years before I exited, seven years before I exited.

[ 00:38:21 ] It was really important to understand the stages, you know, now rebranding is such an interesting topic to me because I know so many people who come to me, you know, saying they've been in the business for a couple years. Like, brand identity takes some time to get established, right? So it's like people who are rebranding after year two or year three, I almost like, I advise them like your brand identity just came to fruition, right? Like you should lean in on that a little bit more, right? Maybe year seven, year eight, nine, 10, it makes sense. Or if you're celebrating a, you know, an anniversary year, like 10, like that would be a cool idea to like, run a campaign of like a new brand.

[ 00:39:08 ] Um, but I do believe that like brand consistency and identity, like for it to be strong, it does need to be consistent for over a couple of years. People are changing their brand. Always. It can be cause a lot of confusion. And as I said earlier, like you want to have that consistency. I can't stress enough. Like how many people like, really have to understand, like using the same color schemes, the same type of font is so important across all channels. And, you know, I see so many common mistakes that are, people are, are not really following a good guideline, right? They're doing. And I see this all the time. People get really frustrated with colors, right? Colors look one way, you know, when printed or on the screen, it looks totally different.

[ 00:39:58 ] And that's one of my biggest concerns is like, because you really, when you created that brand guideline, it wasn't really being thoughtful of like, how is it going to print or how is it going to look on a screen, which is two different, totally different things. Um, you know, and we've helped people with rebranding. And I would say the most successful people who rebrand are after a time of a transition of like, you know, celebrating a 10 year mark or 15 year mark. And those brand changes are kind of subtle. If you, if you look at any of like the big brands of doing like, like, uh, logo changes or type font changes, it's not drastic changes. You know, if you really like take the time to do some independent research on this, you'll see like those brand changes are really not huge.

[ 00:40:50 ] Um, and for people who do do huge brand identity shifts, it takes a long time to kind of grow back that brand identity strength. So, I mean, if I'm giving any like suggestions when you're talking about brand identity shifting, like on a rebrand, making sure that you're, you're staying true to like their core colors, um, and making subtle changes. I just helped the client not too long ago, um, make a, make a logo change, um, something that they've been using for 20 years. Right. So they think about a logo 20 years ago developed to fast forward to today. So, you know, it was, it was a subtle change because it's been so long. And you want to, you know, have some modern look and feel to it.

[ 00:41:38 ] So that was an important prospect for, uh, aspect for them. Um, but we use certain components of their logo, uh, their identity that really played really well into the transition. And she was very happy with it, but you know, and it's a common thing that you see all the time, like the heart and the hands and the home. I know that's a touchy subject, but I mean, you know, it's one of those things that you see all the time is it's usually because a lot of these home care owners are like going to Google and typing in a home care logo and they're getting inspiration. They, they just, you don't want to always look like the same, right? Like you want to stand out, you want to be different and really like going to your core values.

[ 00:42:20 ] Like, why are you starting this business? Like, do you have something that you, we can pull inspiration from to really create that logo? That's going to be with you for a long time. It's really important. Yeah. You use the word refresh several times. And I think that's a really good word for home care brands is it's not often, you know, that a home care agency needs a full-fledged rebrand, you know, what that encompasses. It's more of just refreshing. Like you said, that could be every couple of years. I could be at a big milestone, you know, but I think it's, it's yeah. Refreshing your brand, making sure it's doing you justice, making sure it's representing you well, making sure it's modern, making sure it's resonating with all of your audiences, because in home care, you do kind of have three, which is the caregivers, the clients and the referrals.

[ 00:43:05 ] And that's tough, you know, to have three audiences that you're trying to reach with a brand, but that's what you should be thinking about is does this resonate with people? Does it stand out? Does it look like, you know, 20 other logos in my neighborhood? And it might, and that's something to consider. How do I get this to stand out from my competition, but also get it to resonate with the populations that I'm trying to reach? Right. Because you, you want, you want people to understand it's home care, right? But you don't want to look like you're 20 other people. You want people to understand it's home care, competitors, with the market being so inundated, right? And so many people are going using like a Fiverr or, you know, free logo designer online, you know, with AI, it's actually getting really interesting out there with like, you can go into an AI logo generator, and type in your home care name, and it generates some logos for you.

[ 00:43:54 ] I don't think AI is there just yet from a graphic perspective. For logo creation, I think it does an okay job. But what you're going to see is a lot of flat two-dimensional logos that probably look like everybody else. Yeah, and I use the number 20. But for many of you, you're probably laughing like 200 or 900 in my market. And, and really do the research, look around, see what your how your logo stands out to others, and then put your mind in, you know, the mind of a consumer or referral partner, like, wow, I can't, you know, these two, you know, hands or hearts logos look so similar, I can't even remember who was who like that. That's the last thing you want to be happening.

[ 00:44:34 ] But that's happening all too often, because these brands are all looking and feeling pretty similarly. I want to talk a little bit about you mentioned you spent some time in the franchise system before you went to Golden Care on the independent side. There's a lot of franchisees that listen to this podcast. So I also want to speak to some of their thoughts and ideas and concerns. Like you mentioned, there's, there's kind of guidelines and parameters that they have to stick within. But even in a franchise system, maybe in a franchise system, even more, there's a lot of franchisees that are you have to try and stand out? Because you don't want to just get lumped into the masses. So what advice would you I mean, would it be the same advice for franchisees or anything that they should or should be doing differently or considering?

[ 00:45:16 ] Yeah, as I said, I work with a lot of franchises currently. So I mean, there's still opportunities. Now I what I love the most about franchises is you have those standards already in place, right? You have your brand book, you know, like, there's no question of like, what you should be using, it's already kind of provided for you. So that's kind of a blessing in itself, that you have that box to play in. However, the downfall to that is and I'll give you a for instance, so a franchise that has multiple locations across the United States, right? And they're trying to create a brochure or flyer or what have you, that's going to speak specifically to a situation.

[ 00:45:58 ] And they might be using, you know, a family, walking into their home, you know, and the house, you know, looks like it's in the Midwest or up north, right? And that that same exact photo might not resonate well with someone in Florida, or, you know, a southern state. So it's something to keep in mind. Like I hear this all the time is the style of some of the collateral that we have within our brand book, just doesn't speak specifically to my market. So although I've loved the opportunity of having that box to play in, I also encourage franchise owners to like, be feel confident to go your own way and say, Hey, we you know, we and most do right, they have a process where they can go in and request custom pieces and change out, you know, photos.

[ 00:46:50 ] But I would encourage that because as much as people don't think it matters, it really does. If it doesn't really look and feel like it should in your market, it's not going to stand out from everything else. Um, and the other opportunity is really designing collateral, that that is going to speak specifically to that situation. Like I said, when I was with the franchise, you know, we were given tons of different brochures, but a lot of it is general, right? Because they have to kind of blanket the entire nation of franchise owners. So when you have specialty programs or stuff that you want to create, specifically with, you know, your franchise, or I'm, again, like, I'm happy, I work with a lot of franchises.

[ 00:47:39 ] So there's a lot of times that I will be doing a lot of work based off of a brand book that I know I have to stay within these, you know, these guidelines. Um, but that also helps me too, because it's easier for me to be able to know what, you know, fonts they use and how to use the logo properly. Um, so I encourage people to really think about that stuff from, from an independent or a franchise model, like being specific to those specific things in, in their collateral really is going to help you in the long term, long run. Yeah. I'm really glad you've called some of this out because I think this will probably resonate with a lot of franchisees that think, like, 'Oh, there's a lot of great things about the brand.' There's a lot of great material in the brand guide, but those photos just aren't really cutting it.

[ 00:48:26 ] You know, they're not really fit for my audience. I think, I think this is great. Just getting them thinking of, you know, what's possible, who they should reach out to, how should they, how they should be able to reach out to them. And I think that's a really good idea. Thinking about things. Um, I, I know we've covered a lot and we're, you know, winding down here and I want to give you a second, maybe to think about this - just other common mistakes or misunderstandings when it comes to branding and marketing and marketing material. Like you said, you work up with upwards of probably a thousand businesses and you've probably seen a lot at this point. Are there any other just common, you know, mistakes that you're seeing that you just want to like vocalize here to the masses? Yeah.

[ 00:49:01 ] One comes to mind is, like, if you're going to use stock photos, I'm fine - I get it. I will say you want to have diversity in your stock photos that you're using. I can't tell you how important that is, um, for several aspects. I mean, firsthand, I saw, you know, a client of ours, you know, who received our, our admission folder and I had pictures, um, and, and, and like, it just, it was almost like, you know, everything looks so cheery and it has to, right. And, and there has to be like really clear expectations of what that looks like. But you also have to make sure you have diversity, you know, younger clients, older clients.

[ 00:49:51 ] If you're working with specific situations of like paraplegics, you're obviously going to want to be able to have, you know, stock photos that are going to resonate with that specifically. Um, diversity in age and gender and, and ethnicity is definitely important throughout your entire brand. Yeah. I think you, you were maybe referencing this is also on the recruitment side. You know, there's, there's a lot of talk of diversity, equity, inclusion, and that's great. And I think you're right. You want to make sure your brand accurately reflects who you're trying to talk to. And every market is different. You know, you might be in California and have a lot of Hispanic caregivers, a lot of Hispanic clients. You want to make sure your brand, and your, uh, visuals represent that, you know?

[ 00:50:37 ] And so don't, I would also just put the plug in for like, don't overdo it. Don't make it look like something that you're not, but make it, you know, really reflective of who you are and who you're trying to talk to. Well, and like you said, I mean, with the competitive nature of recruiting this day and age, like recruiting is, is, is equally as important as sales, if not more. Right. So like, I can't stress the importance of making sure, like when you're marketing, like, like for a recruiting aspect of things, like we have to win those caregivers owner over it, the days of them coming and into, and being interviewed, it's like the tables have turned, right. They're coming to the table and they want to know why you're such a good company to work for.

[ 00:51:25 ] So, like us as an industry, we have to step up our game, making sure that we're a good place to work, that we want people to be able to come to. To us, and really feel like a team player. And that really, I mean, when we talk about branding and marketing and collateral, it really is important of making that person actually show up to an interview. Right. I mean, we know the statistics of, of people not even showing up to interviews anymore. So it's like, how can we, as a company, really do our, put our best foot forward to be able to get someone to actually show up? You know, I want to, this is, it's tricky.

[ 00:52:03 ] Though, you know, I'm putting my mind, you know, just in the thoughts of like owners, like building a really strong brand that resonates with like a client population. And that also resonates with a caregiver population. That's tough. Like we have two very distinct populations that we're working with, unlike a lot of other brands, you know, that just have maybe like a singular population. This is really like kind of multifaceted branding here. But, but maybe there's room for like sub-branding, or, you know, you talk about people that build kind of like a recruitment brand, the messaging, the collateral, the swag, that's like tailored to recruitment. So maybe you could speak to that of just like, it is possible to build a brand that resonates with both, but also maybe building, you know, like a specific kind of subbrand.

[ 00:52:46 ] That's like your recruitment brand. Right. Yeah. And there's nothing wrong with that. Right. And, and it's just, I understanding the core, core values and the core pieces of your brand, and then being able to create subbrands around it. Now you're going to still stay within that box. Right. That framework, but you can have different messaging for different areas. I mean, we're, I'm working with a client right now, um, on, on copywriting on totally revising all their copywriting on all their collateral, because they're no longer using the word private duty. And it's an interesting topic because if you don't know what private duty, what does private duty mean? Right. We do. I mean, we, we use it because we, we know it, right. We're in this industry.

[ 00:53:32 ] But for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for someone who has no clue what private duty even means, I mean, it's actually very confusing, right? So that general, you know, that, that, that consumer that might, might be the most educated person in the world, but, but really, private duty does not mean anything. So they're like changing everything in their collateral to remove private duty. And we're going to be, you know, inputting, um, caregiver support and home care using more of that terminology. So, like that, another mistake, you know, step of like using acronyms to how many times, you know, do we use acronym acronyms in our world, ALF, SNF, sniff, right? And we use those terms loosely, but our consumers don't really know what those acronyms mean. So I always just advise people, don't assume people know what that stuff means.

[ 00:54:29 ] We really have to handhold and educate in a meaningful way. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like what Rose, you're probably reading this too, just said in the chat, which it's all about knowing your audience, you know, maybe your client population, you know, private duty resonates with them and they know what that means. Your caregivers, you know, maybe these young nursing students, they probably have no idea what that means. So it's all about knowing your audience. And I would say, keep, keep an open dialogue about your collateral, get feedback on it, send it to people in the industry, send it to people outside of the industry, you know, send it to people that have no idea what we do and let them kind of absorb and digest and give feedback.

[ 00:55:02 ] Um, and same on the caregiver side, you know, even talk with your current employees about, you know, does the brand resonate with you? Do you like the swag? You know, does the, are you confident wearing this logo out in public? Like those are the types of questions you should be asking to make sure that everything's resonating. Well, when we, when we started our uniform policy back early in Golden Care, we asked our first, you know, founding employees, would they rather wear scrub tops or polo tops? And we took that feedback and we went with the polos because that's what they, right. They've really wanted it. So it also gave them that opportunity of like, feel like they were invested in the decision. So it only helped with like actually having a stronger sense of loyalty with them.

[ 00:55:45 ] Um, so I definitely think including your caregivers in these marketing decisions is really impactful and a lot of people don't ever look at that as an opportunity. I can't tell you how much, how much, impact we had when we would really take like real-life experiences, even from like, we could talk about this a whole nother topic, like on social media, how much, you know, um, how much brand strength we gained with actually showing real-life examples than rather than just like posting an article. Right. So the, including your caregivers in this, uh, is, is a strategy in itself. And I encourage everyone to do that. And, and I'll also, I'll just add to that, that posting videos, content from your caregivers, you know, helps with your recruitment brand, but also with your sales and marketing efforts, people want to know what kind of caregivers are going to come into their home and take care of their mom.

[ 00:56:47 ] Like people want to see what that looks like. So, you know, showing photos of clients, you know, especially in the population, like you mentioned the paraplegic, like reflective of what your services you offer, but on the caregiver side, like, you know, it helps your brand across the board with referrals, clients and caregivers, to really put your caregivers on display in their element so that people can get a feel for what, what it is your business is offering. Another tip, if you might, let me just, just throw this one more thing in there is we had a brag book that we had at our agency. And that was like when we would have, um, caregivers getting compliments and, you know, when you get those certain compliments, like you, you want to share those experiences.

[ 00:57:31 ] So we would actually, like on, in our admission packet, we w we would, we created a one page flyer of just like all the like genuine, like authentic compliments that we got for our caregivers. And we included that in our, in our stuff because people want to hear that. They want to see that, you know, Google reviews is a whole nother topic and stuff, but people want to know and look and feel and that they're trusting that person who's coming into their home. And when you get like really like true, authentic compliments, you want to like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, leverage that, um, to make sure that people feel comfortable hiring your company. That was really impactful. Absolutely. Adam, this has been fun and awesome. And so many good insights.

[ 00:58:13 ] I want a lot of owners feel alone in this endeavor or don't know where to start or turning to, you know, the online resources to help them with some of this. So, so take a couple of minutes and share what exactly you can help businesses with. Cause it, it may be everything we talked about, maybe some things that we talked about, but share what, what services you offer specifically. That people could reach out to you about. Yeah. So elevation marketing, we've, we've focused primarily in three categories, right or four essentially. Graphic design, right. So creating these, these collateral pieces, business cards, brochures, um, printing those items, right. So printing, we do everything from business cards to large format banners, large stuff for events, um, signage for offices.

[ 00:58:57 ] We, uh, we do actually across the nation, um, apparel, so your uniform scrub tops, polos, anything branded. We did a lot this past holiday season with like branded, like quarter Zips for their caregivers and employee gifts, referral sources, gifts, uh, and then promotional products. So, you know, the reason why I'm going to stress this is so important is we see time and time again, we talked a lot about brand consistency and brand strength; today, it's I had a client come to me recently and say he was so frustrated because he had a specific brand that he wanted to sell. And I was like, well, I'm going to sell this blue that he had in his brand book, but he was printing his business cards here. He was doing his direct mail campaign with another company.

[ 00:59:40 ] He was getting some stuff online from a different print shop and all of it looked different. And I explained to them, he's using too many vendors by, by using one company who understands your umbrella. There's so much perks to understanding how brand consistency across all channels. So we're going to be able to get that to the next level. And that's what we offer as a solution at Elevation Marketing, because we know the importance of it. So, you know, being able to come and have a one-stop shop from everything from your business cards to your vehicle wraps and, you know, signage and whatever you need, you know, we can handle that. Um, I know it might sound like a plug, but I do, I do really stress the importance of having brand consistency.

[ 01:00:28 ] So having a one point of contact, we're streamlining the process. We're eliminating multiple vendors, you know, um, opportunities and having a one-stop shop is, it has been a blessing for a lot of home care companies. I tee'd you up. Yeah. I think you're specific, your home care specific, which is, I think probably like the cherry on top here is like your one-stop shop, but most importantly, you know, this business very intimately. And so, you know, the messaging, the tone, you know, what resonates with these audiences. And that's why I said earlier, I'm not just a print shop. I come with 10 years of experience. I'm not just a print shop. I'm not just a print shop. I'm not just an experience. And I genuinely mean that I thrive when people will contact me when they have a specific need, like utilizing me as a resource, not just a printer, right?

[ 01:01:15 ] I want you to be able to pick my brain. I have an upcoming in-service with a skilled nursing facility. Let's create a pamphlet or a brochure or flyer. That's going to help me. And then let me help you talk through the strategies. I've been there. I sat in the car of the hospital, not knowing what to say when I walked in, right? So I've been in those shoes before. So if I can give back to the community in a way that's more than just printing their, you know, shirts and their, their collateral, I want to do that. So I want people to utilize me as, as a, as a true resource for our community. Amazing. What is the best way for people to get in contact with you? I know you're busy.

[ 01:01:54 ] Is it LinkedIn? Is it email? Is it your website? Yeah. Our, our, our website just launched a couple of weeks ago. It is through our website. There is a booking, a call option on our website. It actually links right with my schedule. So it's been a blessing utilizing this feature where they can just book a discovery call. So I can get an understanding of where they're at in their branding process or what types of things that they need, or maybe they don't know what they need and they, you know, I can help, you know, pick apart some of the stuff on how we can really elevate them to the next level, pun intended. Awesome, Adam. Well, this has been so great. Thank you so much for giving us two hours.

[ 01:02:34 ] I know you're busy. But last session, LTC deep dive, incredible. This session on branding, I think it's what people needed to hear. So thank you for coming prepared to answer all these questions, really get into these topics. I think it really just speaks to your expertise, and, and you giving back to the industry. We've talked about that a couple of times. You have, you have, you know, kind of done the work and now you're, you know, starting this business endeavor, but really you're so willing to impart so much knowledge to these owners. So I hope, everyone listening, reach out to him, connect with him. It may take him a minute to get back to you, but know that he's one to keep on your radar on LinkedIn and to just have a relationship with. So Adam, thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity and I look forward to working with you guys. Awesome. Well, thanks everyone for being here live, everyone listening to this. I hope you enjoyed this session and we'll look forward to seeing you back again next week. Take care for now. We'll see you.