Ownership is Hard, Hiring is Harder, Work life Balance - UGH!

Robin Elario to the leap into owning her own business in 2017 and since then has learned the roller coaster of business ownership. From the hiring, firing, training, and retention she has learned what it takes to make it work, but most importantly to find a work-life balance for herself while still maintaining a great culture for her remote employees. It is clear that she is doing something right so I would tune into this great conversation

 

Leighann Lovely  00:20

HR professionals, business owners and operations at all levels are struggling to figure out what needs to change. Our system has been shocked practices have been questioned, and conversations are finally happening. We all know there has been a huge shift in what people want inclusion and diversity are common phrases. But often misunderstood generations are coming together more than ever on what's important. Mental health has been brought to the forefront of everyone's mind. Let's humanize these conversations. Let's talk about what's important for employees to be successful in life and at their job and how companies can create an environment to allow them to do both because successful people will make up a successful workforce. I'm Leighann. Lovely. Let's get this conversation started.

 

Leighann Lovely  01:09

I have a great conversation with a business owner today Robin Elario. Robin has a passion for helping people her decision to purchase an existing Assisting Hands, homecare business came out of her desire to make a difference and help people in a way she wished was available for loved ones in years past. And now as a business owner, I have the opportunity to talk with her about the struggles and triumphs she has experienced.

 

Robin Elario  01:40

So I have been in business five and a half years, I bought my business existing in 2017 and June did not have experience in this field, we have an in home care, non-medical agency where we help elderly folks disabled folks in their home with activities of daily living to help them stay independent. And the goal is to remain at home and happy where they should be. I had family members way back when that really would have benefited from these services. So when I saw this opportunity presented to me, I kind of jumped on it. I love helping people, it's kind of my passion. And then to think that I could have helped family members back in the day, and couldn't, and saw this as an opportunity to be able to kind of pass it on to other folks and help other people navigate through some hard times. And five and a half years later, here I am.

 

Leighann Lovely  02:42

That's awesome. And I I didn't even get a chance to say thank you so much, Robin for joining me today. And that's it's it's an amazing, you know, it's amazing when you can kind of in retrospect, look back to a passion of you know what you were missing when you needed it, and then to be able to turn around and now be able to provide the service that was lacking for you to somebody else and know that you're that you're providing that you're providing a form of comfort is not a form of it. I mean, it is a comfort, right?

 

Robin Elario  03:22

Yeah, yeah, it is necessary. Obviously, the last thing people want to do is put a loved one in a nursing home or assisted living facility. So as long as they can safely remain at home with our services, it's kind of a win win.

 

Leighann Lovely  03:38

So tell me a little bit, you know, a little bit more about the services that you provide? I mean, is it? Yeah, yeah. Tell me a little bit about it.

 

Robin Elario  03:49

So it's, it's all non medical. So things that fall under non medical services include anything from health, helping someone get out of bed in the morning, getting them dressed, we have folks that have very little care needed, maybe they just need help with laundry or some light housekeeping that kind of keep them being able to stay at home. We have other people who need full on care and we have a mechanical lift that gets them out of bed and puts them into a wheelchair and we have to Bed Bath them and things like that. So we have all levels of care that we provide. It just depends on the level of need of the client. And so but we do all kinds of incontinence care, showering any kind of personal care, we do that helping them you know, do their hair, get them dressed, make meals for them. We do medication reminders, we can both medication, we can administer meds, but we can remind them and kind of keep them on track with that. We can go grocery shopping for them. Like I said laundry and light and healthy bein companionship is kind of goes with everybody.

 

Leighann Lovely  04:55

Right. And I think that all of us, you know as I get older, I'm not that old, yet. But as I get older, I think to myself, you know, I want to stay in my own home, right? The goal is to just stay in my home with my husband. For as long as I can, and I remember experiencing this with my grandmother, she The hardest thing for the family was to eventually know that she couldn't stay in her home anymore. And that's, and that's part of what you are able to provide is that that individuals get to stay, have the freedom of being in their own home, but have somebody who comes in and provides them with the companionship with the ability to stay in their home while being able to do some of those those day to day activities? Right.

 

Robin Elario  05:49

Right. Yeah. That's the goal. Well, great.

 

Leighann Lovely  05:53

So ownership. That, you know, for, for us who aren't, haven't taken that leap, we think, oh, yeah, I could buy a business. Right? I could, I could do that. But often, you know, we think of ownership is we're gonna go and do this thing. But it's so much more. And a lot of the owners a lot of the a lot of the Yeah, a lot of the owners that I talked to the first thing that they'll say is, wow, I didn't know what I didn't know. Oh, yeah. So first

 

Robin Elario  06:37

Yeah, there's a lot of moving parts.

 

Leighann Lovely  06:40

So tell me a little bit about, you know, how's it going? I mean, you're five years in, which means that what is it five years? Yeah. Wow. So you're, you're of the of the percentile. That's, that's gonna make it at this point, according to statistics, right?

 

Robin Elario  06:59

Yeah. Yeah. Five years is kind of that Mark, I'll be six years in June. I feel pretty good about. I think I can make it out. Right, right.

 

Leighann Lovely  07:07

I mean, we it's what I can't even remember the statistics on that. But it's like 10% of businesses. Don't make it to the five, or I'm sorry, 10% of businesses make it. Which means that 90% of businesses don't make it to that five, that five year mark. Which is insane. I mean, you think about it. Yeah. But yeah, it's because you don't know what you don't know.

 

Robin Elario  07:35

I think if you knew if you knew more, you probably wouldn't do it is looking back if I had known what I know, now, maybe what I have not taken the leap, probably a high likelihood that I might have, you know, not, but sometimes that's what you need to get out. Just dive in. Right? Right.

 

Leighann Lovely  07:53

I think you're right, if you would have known all of the the triumphs and the trials that you would have gone through that you are going through, I'm sure still on a daily basis. But now you've had five years to iron out some of the bugs. So tell me a little bit, you know, this this season has been dedicated a lot to what does it take to hire, train, retain. So what is right now the biggest hurdle that you're struggling and I know that you and I talked a lot about, you know, that hiring piece for us right

 

Robin Elario  08:32

Now, honestly, it's not really the retention, it's more than hiring and getting them in the door. You know, it seems as though we have a lot of activity, but just getting them to actually show up for interviews, and you know, or we'll interview them and everything sounds great. We get them all on, you know, all set up for onboarding and they don't show up. Or we go through all that we get them on boarded, do all that and then they don't show up for their first shift or whatever the case may be. So that's our biggest struggle right now. I feel like we have a good handle on the retention part of it. Because we really do a lot for our caregivers. You know, it's a hard job. It is not a high paying job. There's a lot expected of them. You can get caregiver burnout really easily. So we try to do little things to make them feel appreciated, valued, those kinds of things. So I feel like we have a relatively good handle on once we get them in and they're viable, and they actually start working aside from, you know, hit issues or transportation issue. That seems to be a big part of it. But in general people seem to really like working with us when we do get them to that point. So right now it is actually the hiring the actual finding people, getting them in the door and getting them on boarded and ready to go. There seems to me, we lose a lot of hours. Right now, our business is measured in hours per week care hours, we've been losing quite a few care hours a week, because of that piece of it, we just need more, we just mean so many more people to be able to keep up with our demand.

 

Leighann Lovely  10:18

And that's not inconsistent with almost everybody that I taught. We need more people.

 

Robin Elario  10:22

Yeah, which makes me feel a little better. Right? thing? Um, that's not unique to me. But right. Now.

 

Leighann Lovely  10:31

So why do you think that the people in you, I mean, you mentioned a couple of things, you treat them? Great. You, you? So what are some of the things that you're that you do? And don't give away all your secrets? Right?

 

Robin Elario  10:48

No. So we have, you know, we were very communicative. So which we expect the same in return. We are flexible, you know, working with it, we understand things come up. And we understand people have stuff. So we try our best to work within their, within what they what they're able to do. But I think we do a good job recognizing we have, you know, caregiver of the month that we do. So we pick somebody every month. And if they're chosen, they get, you know, of course, the recognition, you know, gratulations, the solid stone, they get their name up on a little board, they get an avoider, branded scrub top, they get a gift card from Walmart. So it gives them something to strive for. We are going to be starting doing like quarterly, caregiver dropping days where we'll pick a day and each quarter we'll have goodies and coffee and use and you know, kind of, they can just sort of stop in during the day, and we'll have a little goodie bag for them. So, you know, I think we just we tried to build that culture were a team and that we do value them. So that seems to go a long way. And of course, everybody loves little treats and incentives like that. So,

 

Leighann Lovely  12:09

Absolutely. So going back to the you know, the hiring, getting people to show up. Are you offering any type of, you know, incentives to, Hey, show up and have cookies, I don't know who show up to the interview and? Or how are you going about reaching out to individuals? You know, how? And I guess because, yeah, because being in the recruiting industry, obviously everybody comes to me and says, how do we how do we combat that? How do we get them to show up to the interviewer? How do we? And I never have that solid answer of like, oh, this is what you need to do. Because everybody's experiencing that same problem. Yeah, so it's always that question of what are you doing to get this person to show up that day? Or why are they saying that they'll accept the job? And then they don't show up on that day? What is it that they've got five other job offers? And they just decided, or they just decided, You know what, I'm not gonna go to work today. And then they're stunned that they don't have a job.

 

Robin Elario  13:24

Yeah, and I think it's a little bit of all of that, because we're, you know, we're working with human beings. And so human nature and human psychology kind of goes to, you can't read everybody's mind as much as we rack our brains in our office on a daily basis, trying to like get inside everybody's head why they do this, why they do that. But maybe doing some more incentives to get them in the door is probably a good idea. We just haven't fine tune that, I guess, and haven't really come up with anything viable. Sometimes we wonder if people if we're getting them, we're grabbing them on Indeed, or rear plug and we have that interview. And then we set up, we do all the stuff and then we set them up for the onboarding. If they're using that as a means for their unemployment requirements. I don't know I sometimes I sometimes I think that's part of it. Because I know unemployment does not follow up with me. They're not saying hey, did someone so apply for job I've never once had unemployment call. So likely is they could be, you know, doing that. I don't know. So, you know, maybe something to entice them to actually come to the interviewer, which worries me a little because if I have to bribe them to come for a job interview, how are they going to be as an employee that does concern me, right. But, you know, sometimes you feel like you'll do anything, though, to get at least people in the door. So that might be I'm kind of old school. I feel like you're expected to do this. You just do it. And that's an Yeah, right.

 

Leighann Lovely  14:57

And there's a lot of us out there who will Hey, if I commit to something, I'm going to I'm going to follow through on that. But that's the way that I was. That's the way that I was raised. That's the way that I, you know, that's the way that my brain works. There's an entire population of people out there that and it's, it's a symptom of the economy that that we're living in. Yeah, it's a symptom of, of a lot of things. It's a symptom of the younger generation, and that the way that they were raised, it's the way that so you're right, you can't pinpoint it being one thing, I was raised by a very, you know, strict, I don't want to say, strict, but you know, a father who

 

Robin Elario  15:45

had values, correct.

 

Leighann Lovely  15:48

Those were their values. But the, the, hey, if you commit, you follow through, if you say you're going to be somewhere on time, you show up on time, if you agree to do something, you know, that's, that's your, it's like signing a contract, and you don't break contracts. And sometimes

 

Robin Elario  16:08

I feel like, boy, I'm really getting old, because I find myself well, back in the day I would never have dreamt of and like Robin, you know, now you're really sound like an old person. Because but I think I think that is part of it, though. It's just my, I never would have dreamed of calling him to work unless I was on my deathbed. It just wouldn't be something I would have to figure it out. Right? That mentality is not necessarily there anymore. And a lot of the people we have are younger, because that's the age of the people doing the job that we are, you know, requiring them to do, which is fine. But yeah, so yeah, so you know, that, I'm glad you kind of mentioned that entice them to kind of come to the interview, maybe some little you know, even if we just say, Hey, we're gonna we'll have snacks and drinks. And we do we do have, we have a refrigerator stocked with drinks and a basket of snacks and a basket of toys that they can grab one for their kid, you know, if they, some of them have to bring their kid with them to the on on onboarding. Okay, you know? Right. They said upfront, you know, so yeah, and,

 

Leighann Lovely  17:11

and it's, I've worked in the staffing industry, for him, having people show up for onboarding or with their child is not, you know, we, I think to myself, well, what are you doing, but if they're not making money, paying for child care, is not an easy thing to do. Or even finding somebody in the middle of the day for two hours is just not feasible for them.

 

Robin Elario  17:38

There are so I don't have an issue with that, therefore, the basket of toys, right, as I record all that, that's about you know, that's some people's reality. And that's fine, right.

 

Leighann Lovely  17:48

But I used to have a drawer with a bunch of markers in it. When I was in when I was working in the light industry, industrial. And I'd be like, Okay, get the thing of markers, and a piece of paper, and they can sit in and color. Because for an hour, I need your attention and not the attention of the child's you know. Yeah. And again, it's it's a symptom of one, you know, I never used to call in sick, I never used to call in sick. Think about how much that is, is changing. We're all of the sudden your employer, you get to work. And they're like, Wait, well, wait, you're coughing? You're sneezing? Exactly. And all of a sudden, like, you need to go home

 

Robin Elario  18:32

In my line. Yeah, my line of work, too. We got to be super careful. Like I don't want if somebody truly is sick, I don't want them at work. I don't want my office girls at work if they're sick. And I certainly don't want a caregiver because everybody, all of my clients, even if they're not elderly, they're compromised in some way. They're not healthy people. So however, there's that fine line of you know, so we require a doctor's notes, you know, you go you told me you went to the doctor, that that's fine. So now you'd have till the next morning to get us that note before you may return to work. Or it's considered unexcused, you know, absence or whatever. But we are trying to crack down a little bit on that because as much as we want to work with people, you got to draw that line, you got to set that expectation that, you know, we understand things happen, but here's the guideline that we need to go by. And that's, you know, that's not easy sometimes because you need people go to work, but

 

Leighann Lovely  19:31

Right. And you want to set the expectation that I don't want you to come to work sick, but unless you're setting the expectation of hey, I have a little sniffle. And it's just there's a fine line between Are you lying to me so that you don't have to work? Are you over?

 

Robin Elario  19:55

Are you because we've had that too, and we've had actually people to tell us that they're hungover and I got to work. So Mike Okay, well, we so honest.

 

Leighann Lovely  20:05

Yeah, I mean, I suppose I'd rather have honesty than somebody that flat out lying to me but there's a slap on the wrist, don't do it again, get your get your life together. And every time I've ever been hungover, I've showed up to work. And then I've just played the, I'm an idiot, right? I'm an idiot, I'm not gonna do that again. And now I'm, you know, in my 40s. And I have a child, I don't typically do that.

 

Robin Elario  20:33

No, I'm not hungover these days anymore. It takes me four days to recover. Yeah, not a good thing. Right?

 

Leighann Lovely  20:41

In my 20s. It took me about, you know, four hours to recover. And then I was ready to do it again, for God's sake, oh, my God. Okay. Tangent. Now, you manage, you know, obviously a group of people who are not coming to the office every day, they're going elsewhere, they're, they're, you know, taking care of other people. So, you know, I've asked this question of a ton of individuals of, you know, the world is going remote, but you've always basically been managing before COVID, before all of this a group of individuals who essentially are remote, because while you're a home healthcare.

 

Robin Elario  21:18

We don't have eyes on him.

 

Leighann Lovely  21:19

Right. So how do you and you talked a little bit about some of the things that you do for your staff in order to keep that morale up? But how do you I mean, there's got to be a huge amount of trust.

 

Robin Elario  21:31

Yeah, um, so we, most of our clients are state clients. So I get them to the state, and I get reimbursed the state and I pay the employees as w two employees. But with that comes a lot of compliance. So in the world of private duty agencies, there's not that compliance piece of it, we're not regulated at all by the state or what we do. Crazy enough. That's how it is. But when you're when you're when you're dealing with the states.

 

Leighann Lovely  22:04

So wait, before you go on. Sorry. You're not regulated,

 

Robin Elario  22:08

Licensed? We don't have to be licensed. For non medical,

 

Leighann Lovely  22:13

okay, okay. Okay. All right.

 

Robin Elario  22:15

Well, as an Illinois, they have very strict compliance and licensing guidelines, we don't have that.

 

Leighann Lovely  22:23

Even us, even non medical has to be yes. Oh, wow. Okay,

 

Robin Elario  22:27

Okay, assisting hands down in, like Illinois, they have a pretty stringent process, they have to go through to get credentialed and all that kind of stuff. Okay. So, but because I work with state clients, I am heavily regulated and have to follow certain compliance rules, which is kind of good, because that kind of forces you to do more in the way of checking on people. So I have a gal who works in my office, she's a field supervisor. And her job, her main job is to be out in the field, visiting, when caregivers are on shift with a client, and kind of goes and checks on to make sure they're in uniform, make sure the client is happy doing things that they're supposed to be doing, making sure the caregiver is in fact there, because we've had that situation before. Um, and just that kind of stuff, because that's how we kind of keep eyes on everybody. So every 30 days, they get a unannounced kind of visit. So that's how we sort of do that, you know, and then once you go with you brings them a little goodie bag and has like granola bars and hand sanitizer, and just, you know, thanks for doing such a great job. But really, it is to make sure that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. Yeah, and we also have a nurse that's like, a contracted I actually see as a W two employee too, but she's kind of per diem for certain clients need that extra level of kind of checking on. So I have a nurse as well, that goes into another set of clients. And that's mandated by the state. So interesting. Yeah. So that's kind of how we keep that in check. And it's worked out pretty good. But there have been times where like, oh, boy, we need to figure out this situation, because it's not a good situation. And then, you know, oftentimes, everything's gone great. And everyone's happy. So

 

Leighann Lovely  24:17

Excellent. So you have somebody who's not only checking to make sure that you know, they're talking to the client, making sure that the client is happy, but you're they're also checking the employee making sure that the employees they're where they need to be and doing what they need to be in. And yeah, do you have times where the employees all come together at a specific location to

 

Robin Elario  24:39

Not really, we had a we had a holiday party. So we had a two day like open house and so they could come one of two days to get we have lunch brought in we had all kinds of treats and had you know, goodie bags and stuff to give them for coming in. That was really that's really the only time there's really no their opportunity for them to all kind of get together. That's just not the nature of this kind of business. So,

 

Leighann Lovely  25:07

and how many caregivers do you have in total?

 

Robin Elario  25:10

Um, last check? 52? I think it was 82. Yeah. And they're not all full time most a part time. We do have some we have some that are family members taking care of their family through the state. So you know, that's a whole different animal. But so yeah, including those people's like, 52. And then I got three gals in the office full time.

 

Leighann Lovely  25:34

And you have just one person who goes and does the rounds of checking on all 52.

 

Robin Elario  25:40

Yeah, so I have 45 clients. And so she she does it through the course of a month. So she every client gets, and of course, the nurse does the other sets of clients that need that nurse visit as required by the state. So the other gals that that field supervisor does the other clients. So it's not exactly. You know, she's not doing 45 clients. So wow, I'm talking to people out in the field. Yeah.

 

Leighann Lovely  26:12

Wow, how do you, as the owner, keep all of the parts moving in the right direction. I mean, you said you have three office people.

 

Robin Elario  26:25

So I have an admitted an administrator who is kind of, I hired her to kind of take off a lot of my wool, so I could kind of step away a little bit. So she kind of runs the Daily Show. She's amazing. So between herself, and me, that's what kind of keeps the, the parts moving. And then the other gal who's out in the field, she also does the onboarding in the office and the training in the office because they have to have skills, assessments done per the state. And you know, they have their orientation and training and stuff like that. So she does handle that. And then I have another full time person that does kind of recruiting and then does the interviewing and does. He kind of backs up the field supervisors. She's out of the office, she answers phones and stuff like that. But yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot, it's, I was hoping to be able to step away a little bit hiring this, you know, full time administrator, but what it's done is it's, it's giving me more time to actually do other things that like, oh, well, I guess I'm not stepping away as much as I would. But it's fine. I love working so and I can be flexible with my time. So I can, you know, do stuff during the day if I need to, because I You're never off, really. So it just allows you to be more flexible with your time.

 

Leighann Lovely  27:49

So the advice to other people that's possibly looking at running their own business is you'll you'll never actually be off of work.

 

Robin Elario  27:58

It's hard. Yeah, I mean, but you have to make a you have to make an effort. The first couple of years, it was really challenging. It just, it was a show. It was Yeah. But you have to learn and you have to hire people, you have to be willing to spend the money to hire and that's where that's the point I'm, I've gotten too over in 2020, or 2022. Was that was my goal for 2022 is, you know, now I'm getting the revenue. And now I'm doing all these things and stuff. And now I need people because I can't grow if I don't have people to do all these things. Because myself and one other person was not going to cut it just not possible. So I'm gonna like,

 

Leighann Lovely  28:42

so in 20, before 2022 You it was just you and one other office person.

 

Robin Elario  28:48

Yeah, And, so during COVID It was interesting, though, because at that time, the majority of my clients or stay clients still but whose families took care of them. So that wasn't call offs, there wasn't people, you know, couldn't make it to work they just did, because they were taking care of her family. So it was a little bit of a different it was actually nice during COVID Because it was a little less stressful, I think with trying to and I didn't overly try to build too much because I didn't, it was really difficult with the protocols. And, you know, I was on four webinars a day trying to keep up with what's going on and the standards and you know, just all the stuff. So it was an interesting time. Luckily, we were in a place where it didn't cause too much in the way of stopping like operations. But after in 2021 it became very evident that, you know, I keep getting all these clients and I just can't if I want to keep taking clients and I want to grow I need to I need to get some help. So that was my goal for 2022

 

Leighann Lovely  29:59

Oh, Awesome, awesome. Yeah. And that was you kind of touched on the next question I had for you, which was, you know, how did the the pandemic affect you? And your business? It sounds like you were kind of in, in a waiting pattern, but you had business because a lot of the family members were continuing to take care of their own family members, and how does that work? They they work under you, and they get paid by the state shoot, okay.

 

Robin Elario  30:30

Yep. So I get reimbursed from the state. And then I hired them as a W two employee, so they have all the same qualifications that, you know, we're all the same training and all that kind of stuff, the same supervision that everybody else gets, they're still required, they're still they still need to act like an employee, okay. You know, because I'm paying them a paycheck, and but they'll they get the benefits of being an employee, too. Like, if everyone gets a bonus at Christmas, I give them all a bonus as well, because why not? There's working hard and, and most of them are like, Oh, my God never would have expected that. But yeah, why not? So but yeah, it was an interesting time. And I, I feel like if I was all private duty are all having to staff all those clients, it would have been extremely stressful and anxiety ridden. Because just the fear I had of that small group of clients that I had, that I still had to send outside people into their home was overwhelming for me. I just was worried all the time. Like, are they telling me they don't have the symptoms, and I wasn't testing and I never mandated a vaccine, because I just don't believe that's what I and I didn't need to do that. You know, and there was like, they would clock in on their phone. And there were questions that came up COVID related, do you have this, this, this and this? And, you know, if they answered yes to any of them, we'd have to question as to what what's going on, and you know, then you can't go to work. And it was, it was a rough time, I feel I feel for the people that had 50 employees that they had to worry about, because I didn't worry about the family members, their living there. So if they all have COVID, together, there's not a lot I can do about that. Right? You know, so that very small majority, we had some clients that didn't want any care, and we would go get their groceries and leave that at the staff or just like quickly put it inside their door. And that was all they wanted. And, you know, it was challenging, because people were fearful. But we did it. You know, we made it through but

 

Leighann Lovely  32:31

so some of the family members that are caregivers actually live in the same home.

 

Robin Elario  32:35

Oftentimes, oftentimes interesting. Wife, yeah, or a daughter, we have a lot who's you know, child, daughter, son will care for them. And they don't live in the home. But you know, they're there every day. And they have to okay, you know? Yeah.

 

Leighann Lovely  32:51

And then, and I'm wildly interested by this, because what happened if one of your clients got COVID, but needed care, needed help using the bathroom needed?

 

Robin Elario  33:03

I mean, yeah, yeah. So it happened a couple of times where we had a client that a COVID Luckily, they had a family member that was able to help them. It it's never ideal, because obviously the family member is trying to work and do that. That's why they have us in there because they don't have you know, her but there was one that we had that had ended up having COVID and the caregiver was fine. She's like, you know what, he has a math spot. I have a mask on, I got my gloves on, I'll wash my hands, I'll double mask, you know, whatever I have to do. She had the N 95 Whatever. She's like, I'm fine. You know, I'm okay, you know, but it was kind of a case by case we really had to take each every day we had no idea what's gonna happen. It was that crazy.

 

Leighann Lovely  33:56

Like, you know, it's we all we've all heard the stories of, you know, what people who are working in hospitals are still you go into a hospital. I think they're all still wearing masks. And I tell you that as soon as the mask mandates went away, I was ripping that thing off my face going never again because ever again. Yeah, I just I was one of the ones that every time I wore a mask for any, you know, any longer than 1015 minutes, I would get an instant headache. I even talked to my doctor about it. I'm like, I don't understand and, and I have I have chronic migraines that I take my medicine for everything else. And so I just, I mean, I couldn't stand wearing them out. So when that went away, and again, it was directly related to the fact that I got headaches. You know, this is my political view in any way. So as soon as the masks went away, I was like, Oh, thank God, but I would you know, my mother was in the service in the service industry. She had a perma mask on, just like the people who worked or work in hospitals work in the frontlines that wore them for 1012 hours a down, that were breaking out and had, you know, just these horrible things on their face? Yeah, the human, no, the humans are not meant to have something across their face 24 hours or 12 hours a day. It's just not. It's not meant to be like that. And so I feel horrible for, you know, those individuals, but it's eye opening, to realize, you know, talking to somebody like you who's, you know, obviously, in essential business, you're giving, you're providing a service that many individuals, they need, somebody who's not able to take a shower or to properly clean themselves or to get their own food, or whatever the case may be. It's an essential service and people like me, who's not an essential service, necessarily. I did, I was able to work the entire time. But I was working from home, the security of my home, I barely ever left it other to go to the grocery store, or to make a trip to Menards because I had a house project I was working on like the rest of the world. You forget very quickly, the horrors of having to wear those masks for that. Yeah. And then to have somebody you know, have the people who went, yep, I know. I'm going to be around individuals with COVID I work in a hospital. Yeah, I know. I'm gonna go into somebody's home who has COVID and have them be okay with that. During a time period when everybody was terrified. Yeah, you know?

 

Robin Elario  36:53

Not a good time. No,

 

Leighann Lovely  36:54

No, and now people now people are like, COVID What do you mean? COVID It's not that scary, depending on obviously, what you experienced. There are people who lost their loved ones and you know, obviously everybody experienced it differently, but I was one of the lucky ones. I didn't lose anybody close to me. Everybody who I never got COVID But everybody in my family did I just for some reason was one of the lucky ones that never experienced it. That's good. But it's it is it's bizarre to think back and and remember and I'm hoping that my daughter will not but remember the time when everywhere we went we wore a mask and the people on the frontline were wearing them is still wearing them all the time.

 

Robin Elario  37:40

Yeah, my girls still wear though that's still a requirement of mine is to you have to be masked up gloves and a mask. And they have to obviously know the proper hand washing protocol and all that. So but right yeah.

 

Leighann Lovely  37:53

Well, when you're in close contact with somebody, especially when they're immune, you know, when they have a you know, what immunocompromised situation and like you said, a lot of your individuals, maybe it's still a very important thing. Yeah, not to mention that the world right now the entire world right now is pretty much sick. Because we were all cooped up for two years. And now we're all sharing our germs with each other fun times, right? Yeah. Yeah. At least my daughter is sick every pretty much every other week. Yeah. And then she brings it home to mommy and daddy, which is so nice.

 

Robin Elario  38:34

Oh, nice. I don't miss those.

 

Leighann Lovely  38:36

No, no, no, I know. It's it's so much fun. Yeah. The I have a babysitter today. And she is a personal note side note. Sorry, tangent. She does. She's got a fear of runny noses, and putting it nicely. So she came down to my office here at my home and she goes, you're gonna have to help me with this one. I'm like, Oh, there she goes, you just need to wipe her nose. I'm like, Oh my gosh. Anyways. So we are, we're getting close to time. And I would like to ask you the question of the season, which I think is going to be fun because you are now you know, obviously five years in your business owner, you run a unique business. And that's why I was excited to talk to you today because it's different than you know, any other company that I've spoken with thus far. But if someone or I'm sorry, if if you could change anything about your job or the practice that people have in your role? What would that be?

 

Robin Elario  39:49

Um, the job itself or how I handle the job,

 

Leighann Lovely  39:53

like really anything I mean, if

 

Robin Elario  39:58

They gotta be better at letting go a little bit More of delegating or fearful that something's not going to get done the way like, I think it should get done. Nobody has anything to lose, except you as an owner. So is your employees, they're great. And I have to say, my, especially my main office gal, she takes her job very, very seriously. And I 100% appreciate that. But no one loves your business like you do. Nobody feels the pain of the business like you do. And I have to do better with realizing it's okay to hand things off or to trust. And I'm getting better with that, because the person I have in that role has demonstrated that she can handle things. So that's, that's been kind of a newer thing for me, but and then just be able to take that take that time to say, Okay, I am not because I have, admittedly, the app we happen to use for our business phone is RingCentral. And so we're all connected on RingCentral. And then when caregivers text or call comes through this app, so it's not going to your personal phone so we can kind of all see and stay connected with what's going on and read all the texts and all that I'm getting, I've got to get better with not looking all the time, like even maybe logging out of the app every so hard for me. But because I don't want something to be missed. That is critical. Although I don't say anything, I let them handle it. I am getting better with that. But I think that'd be the one thing I'd if I could change would be just trying to, you know, things will be okay. But it's just that fear always that as an owner that at the end of the day, all these people can leave and never come back again. And then you're still in the seat. Handling every Yeah,

 

Leighann Lovely  42:06

So trust and delegation.

 

Robin Elario  42:09

Mm hmm. Yeah. Trust but verify. Yeah, to? Yeah,

 

Leighann Lovely  42:15

Well, we all have to trust but verify it. I mean, that's something that we will that we should be doing our whole lives. But I can only imagine. And this again, I think that it is not unique to know how to you know, I've heard that from multiple people. And you're right, you it is your baby, it will always be your baby, it will always be you're always going to love it more than anybody else.

 

Robin Elario  42:51

It's your or hate it more than anybody else.

 

Leighann Lovely  42:55

Or hate it.

 

Robin Elario  42:56

So love and hate. Yes. Oh, it's like it's like so close together the parallel? Yes. Yeah. So absolutely. Many days, I wanted to turn off the light and just never come back again. Because like, Can I do that? Can I really do that? Let me think.

 

Leighann Lovely  43:12

And I, you know, when you as you were explaining that, to me, another owner that I had a recent conversation with, his goal was to be able to step away, and not have to think about his business and have the trust in all of the employees that are running it to be able to actually step away and know that everything is running. Then that was his goal for this year. And I believe that I've actually seen him now step up completely away, nine on multiple times, and be like, Yep, I'm not there. Don't call me call this person. He's now running the business and I was like, wow, you're you're doing the thing that you promised yourself you could do,

 

Robin Elario  43:54

Which has to meet that's that means you're successful. A business owner should not be working 80 hours a week. That's not what you that to me unless you absolutely want to and you don't have anything else you know, going on in your life. But that should not be the goal, the goal should be that and that's what I'm trying to work toward. And I've been able to transition to that somewhat. I just like working too much so that like Oh, am I going to the office? What am I going to do? I'm gonna clean my house I'm gonna go to the gym. You know, I mean, I feel kind of almost like this. Like owners guilt sometimes. And I have to have a conversation with myself Robin, you're the owner. You can go to the gym if you really want to, so that you're okay, right, but that's me. That's the goal too is to be able to not maybe not 100% Step away, but to get to that point where Yep, calm the gals, and they'll take care of you. So yeah, I am.

 

Leighann Lovely  44:48

I am a workaholic. And I've I've come to terms with that. Not so that I can boast about it, but so that I can recover.

 

Robin Elario  44:59

Get better from it. Yes, it is a is a sickness, it aims to balance things better. But yeah,

 

Leighann Lovely  45:06

There are times where I'm sitting, I'm supposed to be watching a movie with my family. And all I can think is, I really got to find a reason to get away from this situation to go and send an email. And then I go, I'm a horrible person, why am I trying to run away from my family to go and work like that? This is an issue like I need. I need therapy.

 

Robin Elario  45:32

I need help. So it's good. You can recognize it. That's the first step to recovery they say so being able to recognize your your illness.

 

Leighann Lovely  45:41

Yes, I. So I'm working on that. I am allotting time where I'm not allowed to check my email. I'm not allowed to open up LinkedIn, I'm not allowed to do not allowed to do any of that I have to just focus on Yeah, family time, which is wildly important, or me time or whatever, for whomever is listening to this, it is vitally important to unplug completely.

 

Robin Elario  46:09

So now, yeah, echo that 100%? Yep.

 

Leighann Lovely  46:14

Yep. Especially as a business owner, because if you burn yourself out in that first year of ownership for the first two years, or for the first three years, you're gonna fail.

 

Robin Elario  46:23

Yeah, and it almost happened. Like I said, there were many days that I just thought, you know, I can't do this, I just can't, and I just, I'm not gonna go in, I'm just not gonna go in ever again. And then you reason with yourself and do that, obviously, however, the first year and a half, it affected me physically, emotionally, my relationships, even my son's at mom, you got to do something like this is you're gonna, I'm wearing about you, right? So, you know, you just have to kind of, you gotta just do it. You just gotta make sense, you know, make your family important. Make yourself important. And, you know, then it becomes kind of easy, almost like, oh, that's kind of nice.

 

Leighann Lovely  47:08

Well, this has been an amazing conversation. It truly has. If somebody wanted to reach out to you, for a couple of reasons. If they're looking for a job, want to get into the, you know, into the industry want to learn about, you know, what it's like to work with you. Or if somebody is looking, because they need a caregiver, how would they go about doing that?

 

Robin Elario  47:32

So our, they could call our main number, because that's how it kind of gets triaged through the front desk. And then Kim, who is my administrator, she would kind of take the reins from there. Our office number is 262-721-1155, they could always shoot me an email to our relario@assistinghands.com. And I could, I'd be happy to talk to anybody, obviously, at anytime, and then you know, transition them to the right person, but So those would be the two main, the main ways they could get in touch with us.

 

Leighann Lovely  48:11

Excellent. And that will be included in the show notes. So if anybody is interested in reaching out to Robin, please check the show notes. Her contact information will be listed there. Again, Robin, it has been an awesome conversation. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me today.

 

Robin Elario  48:27

Yeah, don't worry. It was great. Thanks, Leighann. Take care.

 

Leighann Lovely  48:31

Thank you again for listening to Let's Talk HR. I appreciate your time and support. Without you the audience this would not be possible. So don't forget that if you enjoyed this episode, to follow us, like us or share us. Have a wonderful day.

 

Contact –

Linkedin – linkedin.com/in/relario

Website - assistinghands.com/menomonee

E-mail – relario@assistinghands.com

Office Phone Number - 262-721-1155

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, clients, business, employees, home, caregiver, hiring, mask, care, day, family members, office, checking, state, robin, job, experienced, individuals, hungover, wearing