The Road to the Dallas 100™ – DFW Healthcare (Anders Group, Cariloop, Focus Staff)

What's up, y'all? You buckled in because we're about to hit the road, and we're ready to go zero to one hundred. What's going on, y'all? Happy Tuesday. Right? I lose track the days of the week already. It's all a blur. But hello. I'm your host, Daniel Litwin, the voice of b two b, and welcome to another episode of the road to the Dallas one hundred, the biggest show in Dallas since Dallas, brought to you in collaboration with Market Scale and SMU's Cox School of Business. Well, welcome to the show, everyone. It's been a good summer getting in the hot seat here with, Dallas' best. And if you are a first time watcher here of the road to the Dallas one hundred, you're in good hands. Welcome. This is a precursor to the SMU Cox Dallas one hundred Awards where we showcase the stories behind the fastest growing privately held companies in the Dallas area, and we celebrate the company's founders and leaders and their achievements, their business journey, challenges, and strategies. We're gonna help you learn from Dallas' best so that you can take the keys, you can get behind the wheel, and maybe pave your own road to the Dallas one hundred. So let's hit the gas, y'all. Who are we showcasing today on the show? Well, we've got a special treat for you. Today's episode is a very special one. It's our first roundtable episode. Now we make it a mission on the road to the Dallas one hundred to capture the heartbeat of DFW's most vibrant industries. Pun intended. Health care is obviously one of them, acting as at least fifteen percent of the overall metroplexus economy, employing over three hundred thirty thousand people. And those were stats back in twenty nineteen, pre pandemic. Right? Since then, health care companies have experienced massive growth and then some post COVID contraction. Right? Only the strong survive in this industry, maneuvering a crowded industry and finding ways to stand out with excellent products, excellent excellent customer service, financial acumen, and, of course, visionary leadership. So today, we're sitting down with those DFW health care leaders. And instead of just one company founder, we're joined by three DFW leaders. It's our first roundtable episode of the road to the Dallas one hundred, so let's hit the road. I'm pleased to welcome our three panelists and DFW health care leaders. Welcome to the three of y'all. Let's go, down the line and welcome everyone. So we're joined first by, Paul Helm, CEO of FocusStaff. Paul, welcome. How are you? I'm very good. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. And, tell us a little bit about what FocusStaff does. Yeah. It's a travel nurse staffing company. We basically support hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living, things of that nature. Anything from nurses to allied professionals. Perfect. We're also joined today by Michael Walsh. He's cofounder of Careloop. Welcome. How are you doing? Thanks, Dan. Good to have me. Yeah. Good to be here. Yeah. Of course. Well, great to have you. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Of course. Tell us a little bit about what Careloop does. It's a caregiver support company. So when you find yourself in that moment when, you know, someone that you really care about is not doing well, like a parent or a grandparent, a spouse, a child, we built a platform that helps you navigate all the decisions that you're making as you're kinda going on that journey as a caregiver. So, it's been a really incredible last couple years for the business. Yeah. Excited to be here to talk to you about it. Absolutely. Excited to learn from it. Last but not least, we're joined by Nicole Cox, cofounder of the Anders Group. Nicole, welcome. How are you? Good. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Pleasure having you here. Tell us a little bit about Anders Group. So Anders Group, we're gonna be a little bit similar to those guys at Focus. Uh-oh. So we do travel nursing and allied health. So those contractors that typically go for three months, to kind of give that immediate support when there's a shortage. We did that before COVID. We really did that after COVID. Yeah. And then we're still in the space. Nice. Mhmm. Well, we've got nice representation across the whole sector here with the three of y'all. And, again, folks, with our episode today, we're gonna be kind of blending y'all's journeys and stories, finding some common ground, and learning from those similarities and differences in your journeys to, you know, refining your leadership skills and leading your businesses to success in the DFW area so that our audience can learn a little bit more about how y'all did it and maybe they can do it themselves. Obviously, without you know, don't show all your cards. You gotta stay this can't be the way that y'all lose your competitive strategies. Right? Oh, yeah. Of course. So okay. We'd like to start with a timeline kind of focus for this. Right? So we're gonna start early and kinda retrace our steps. So let's talk early influences, you know, early family and background, and how that kinda shaped the leaders you are today and really your entrance into the health care industry at all. Right? So I know, Michael, for example, you grew up in a highly entrepreneurial family. You saw the hustle and growth of your own father's business. Right? Nicole, you had a a self sufficiency journey early on. Right? If you didn't work, bills weren't gonna get paid. So you were getting in the weeds early, you know, refining your discipline. Paul, premed path. Right? Mom wants you to be an anesthesiologist. Okay. I'm gonna be an anesthesiologist. But then you transition to the health care side of the business. Right? So you all have very different journeys into the industry. But I'm curious if you had to reflect. You know, what kind of stands out as a major reason why you were drawn to health care? And, you know, how did some of those early influences and early days shape the leader you are today? Who wants to jump in first? I'll call you and jump. K. Yeah. Yeah. They're they're leaning on the lead. Yeah. They're just first. That's what he said. So I'm gonna be I got this. I got this. So for me, health care, I just accidentally fell into it. I was a marketing major in school. I was lucky to have a really good mentor ahead of me that believed in me and you can do anything. And so I get this first job as a health care recruiter for travel. And health care itself was new, but people I always love, connecting and treating people well, being that support system, I knew what I would want to receive on the health care professional side Mhmm. And grew quick. So I made great friends that happened to want to travel with me, and so I felt like that served well. And then jumping into company sales, you realize kind of there's a different path for you. And so that's when we started Andrews Group. Interesting. Yeah. So for me, it was and you mentioned this before, Daniel. Like, yeah, I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs, like, you know, spent my my summers working for my dad's company every single year. Started my career in the management consulting space, working for big health care corporations and hospital systems. And then for me, it was a personal experience. Like, my grandfather on my mom's side of the family had a a brain aneurysm that meant that, you know, for a couple of years there, my mom had to be in Michigan with my grandparents to help out with him. And so I saw firsthand just sort of what this journey was like for our family and paired with the work that I was doing with a lot of these health systems right around the time the Affordable Care Act was coming out. Like, it just it begged to be solved. Like, this problem was just so, like, right in our faces, both personally and for me professionally. So, yeah, got into the health care space really just through a really emotional, turbulent personal experience, taking care of my grandfather. So it's, yeah. Again, it's been really incredible to see the last twelve years our health care system. Ever since we started the company, like, try to adjust itself to how do we support parents and caregivers as they're going on these journeys. We've come a long way. I'm proud to say, but we still have a lot of work to do. Yeah. Alright. Well, you mentioned about my mother. We joked about being an anesthesiologist, but I did have a passion for medicine, but it wasn't anesthesiology. I really wanna be an ophthalmologist. I had terrible vision, still do today, although I had LASIK. And, just really knew that that's what I wanted to do for many, many years. And then as I got into the first year of college, I started looking at it, looking at the math. It's gonna be thirty two years old before I start making any money. And I basically switched gears and a local a far a friend of the family is a pharmacist. So he influenced me, so I switched path Nice. And did that and then fell in love with business and got introduced to business in the Walmart world. And now now I'm doing something totally different but still in health care. You know, I love that each of y'all have a different sort of personal touch point with, the health care industry. Right? And I think that's really important. Health care is such a personal part of our lives that, you know, having that dedication to the space and having the, you know, personal tie to feeling motivated to execute for the people you serve is key. Right? Nicole, I wanna start with you on this one. So, you know, finding your sort of career direction in health care. You said you kinda found your way into it. Right? You found yourself in a sales role, and then that opportunity kinda became a chance to prove yourself, you know, this is where I'm going to excel. I'm going to show my discipline, my capabilities. You know, that competitive nature kinda comes out. Tell us a little bit about how you found your passion in this industry and how that led you to the people side of the business, the recruiting side of the business. So, again, I'm out of school, sales job, marketing major, and I start to understand and be build these friendships with health care professionals. And you are talking about what they're giving and doing every day and the impact they're having. And so early on, I was young. I'm so happy to help you. And then life throws its curve balls. Right? So, you know, I become a mom and you understand things a little bit different about the health care space and what that service was. But then my son had a pretty rough accident, very, young at age and we lived in a hospital for a while. And I always say that was that pivot moment of like really understanding what we did. I always worked hard and I wanted to serve people well, like I would want to. But then you understood the appreciation. Right? And so, you know, then, pandemic happens afterward and I always think that's our superpower as a team. I always ask, how are you doing? Why do you do health care? Get to know them. It's a hard place to be. My bad day is usually not gonna be comparable to the health care space, and so just really appreciating that. And so now it's I can't be health care professional IT. I cry too much in a hospital setting. Yeah. I'm with you on that. But that's my way to maybe make an impact is to help staff a team that will make impact. And so how I can somewhat make a difference on the world around us. Totally. And, you know, for the two of y'all, I know Paul. Right? You shifted from pharmacy roles, to business roles, and then you really took on the leadership side of orchestrating the operations of health care at scale. Right? Cutting your chops in the Walmart ecosystem. There's maybe no better way to manage scale than by starting there. Right? Seriously. So tell us a little bit about, you know, how you, were drawn to that business side of health care. Right? What actually made you interested in in taking on and shouldering that weight of leadership responsibility early, and why? Sure. Well, towards the end of my college with pharmacy, I finished up and I did a residency. And during that time, I just I love clinical pharmacy, but I also had this itch for business for some reason. I'm not sure where it came from. So I started snooping around and asking questions. Where can I do pharmacy and business? And someone said this company called Walmart. I literally had never heard of them. They weren't there. Their closest one was in Rochester, New York. That's great. So I interviewed with them and just got hooked by the idea of being able to manage people, lead a team, manage a profit and loss statement. So after I finished my residency, I went to work for them. And then just out of curiosity, just started spending time with my bosses, learning different aspects of the business. And then, Michael, for you, right, taking this really personal, connection to the industry, understanding the weight now that comes with you're a professional, you're trying to, you know, keep your family afloat. At the same time, you're now having to act almost as a a caregiver as well for your family, right, and and be there in very practical and emotional ways. Connect the dots for us on how that turned into an an idea for a business and then launching that business. Right? Why stake your flag there, and how did that kinda come together? Well, like, during that period of time, if you you go back in history here, this is graduated from Purdue in two thousand seven. I'm starting my career in o seven, o eight. This is right around the time that the economy was really struggling in this country. A lot of folks were being laid off. Yeah. Right as this happened, this happened with my firm as well. And so, as I was, you know, navigating that part of my career and making sure that I was able to be fully present and productive, like, for my organization, for all of our clients. This caregiving situation has dropped in my family's lap, and it was really an early introduction for me as to what each and every one of us are dealing with when you go to work every day. And, Nicole, you touched on it. Like, when something happens with your son, you mentioned. Right? Like, just what you have to juggle. And so, like, we saw an opportunity to not only create something that could help these families, but what's unique about Care Loop is our business model such that we actually partner with big organizations to embed this in their benefits program. So that when you have these pain points at work and you're not able to stay as productive and attentive to your responsibilities, like, you can actually more effectively balance these things. So, like, that was, like, the the moment. Like, as a twenty two, twenty three year old, it's like, holy cow. I'm really struggling as a young person, and I'm not even directly bedside with my grandfather. I'm struggling as a young person to just navigate this and keep my career going in a tough economy and be the best son and grandson and family member I can. So it was just it was clear there was something there. Now it took us, as you and I have chatted about, it took years to figure out then a business model that really would work. So we went through several iterations of pivoting the the product and the go to market strategy to finally figure this out and really help employers understand, like, what a parent or a caregiver is going through and how valuable this can be to them. So, yeah, without that that period of time, like, with everything going on personally and professionally, we never would have seen this, me and my cofounder. Right. And so now let's talk about that kinda initial founding period for y'all's businesses and, Paul, for you, some of those early days of, you know, stepping into leadership at Walmart. Right? Basically, let's open up some discussion between the three of y'all on early leadership lessons. Right? You take on a new challenge. Right? You're launching a business from the ground up. You're navigating early entrepreneurship. Right, Paul, you're adapting to different roles and responsibilities in a a scaled environment, with some rules, you know, you gotta adapt to, but you're also there to try to innovate. Michael, you're, again, trying to find product market fit, evolving your business model. Tell us a little bit about what really stands out to you about those early days of learning your own style of leadership, how to lead in health care that you think were critical for making the leaders we see here today. And I'm curious if you have any crossover on those learning lessons. So Sure. Let's crack it open. I'll go first. My early days as a district manager at Walmart, had a gentleman that worked for it. His name is Jeff Brown, and he's one of the one of the influential people in my career. And we were traveling, visiting stores, and he'd be reading through his notes, you know, in the car going from store to store. And then we'd go into the store and he'd meet Sally, and he talked to Sally about her her husband, and how's things going at stake at Shake. And he just he knew everything about the the people that he we were interacting with. And I was blown away, and I bet got back in the car and I'm like, how do you do that? Yeah. And he's like, right here. And he pulls out his little three by five cards. And he's like, if you pay attention to people, take notes, if you invest in people and they know that you care, they do amazing things for you. So that that has always stuck with me. So it's about listening to people and and genuinely caring about the people that do do the hard work in the company. Never discount an index card. That's right. You, it's still the best way to study. Right? I think for us, it was, and it's it's something that I think we've become known for within our culture. It's I mean, going back to the early days of Cara Loop, making sure that I'm not sure if anybody is Simon Sinek fans here. Mhmm. But just really making sure it was clear to all of our stakeholders, our team, our customers, our investors, like, why we were doing this and, like, really truly what we stood for, what we believed in. I can tell you now, twelve years later, like, we still start every single team meeting, even board meetings with just remembering, like, why we're here. What's our purpose? What's our mission? What's our vision? What's our values? I have found that over the course of time, especially in the early days, like, giving Care Loop a soul, like, really united folks in such a way that they just got really excited and really invested in the path. And that that feeds into what you were saying. Like, then you pair that with really working hard to see them as the people they are and understanding the situations that they're going through with their own careers and families. It's been monumental in terms of, like, really supporting Care Loop during the last couple years of our growth. I felt like I was a good salesperson. I was a terrible leader to start. Right? Thankfully, it was just me and my partner at the beginning to figure things out. But, you know, as we brought on team members, you just expect them to work as hard as you, and they're as invested. And I was very I joke, I my dad was German. I I like a process, and let's just go, let's roll. And so it took me a while to figure out that everybody works differently and understanding why they come to work every day, why do they show up, getting to know the person behind. We got lucky. We hired some awesome incredible people that let me be a terrible leader, and thankfully understood who they were automatically just because they were great to be around. And so I also think, like, continuing to try to be a better leader, as we grow different challenges and trying to invest in that time of not getting so big, you don't ask what's going on. Right? I would come in. I remember there was a season, just hustle and go to work. And I thought I was just amazing because I just hustled hustled hustled and I didn't say hi in the morning. You know? Like, what a great example. I'm working so hard and you're like, missed the mark on that one. Yeah. You know, and so I think it took me a little maturity. Probably my kiddos. I think you start to really understand why you go to work every day versus I I live to work and now understanding people, go to work to live and how do I support that and get them to have joy at work every day? How do they hit their financial goals? How do our travelers feel appreciated and feel different with our companies? So I will say I can't say I rock it right off the gate, but just constantly trying to be a better version, to be the best leader I can be for the team. Yeah. Can I piggyback on that? Please. Yeah. Let's keep rolling. It it it really resonated with me. So I was the same way. I started out as a new leader and just so focused on what you're having to do, and you weren't paying attention to the the team. And I literally would put on my calendar, walk around the office. Yeah. Right? And it just was my way to say, hey, don't forget. Like, you gotta really invest time in your people, and don't be so focused on what you're doing because you just there's there's never enough time. But to not agree more with all all the sentiment shared. And, yeah, by no means at the onset of the Care Loop journey was I a a good, strong, perfect leader. I've learned a lot of tough lessons along the way. And, you know, one of the the topics that you're bringing up here, Paul, is interesting is, how do you then create that in a hybrid or remote work environment where you're not able to walk around the office? And so, similarly, to be able to just carve out time every single week or month to check-in with folks over Slack Mhmm. To write a handwritten letter to a member of the team and thank them for what they've done. Like, just these little things, yeah, over the course of the Care Loop journey, I've I've learned that they they mean a lot, and they really do go away. Totally. Well, and an intrinsic part of that too is the humility that it takes to kind of put yourself in front of your team and not seek to just kind of go through the motions of being there for them, but really trying to find that right balance of, you know, it's not to be their leader. I can't be, like, their BFF necessarily, but you do want to show that, like, you're not just an automaton of business. Like, you are a a person as well, and you understand their struggles and issues. Therefore, you know, you're gonna you're gonna listen. You're gonna be a leader who really empathizes. So I'm curious how y'all approach that. Right? Like, did you find any, you know, struggles maybe to start with opening yourself up in that way with, you know, trying to find that right balance of, you know, how am I their friend but their leader also? How do I listen to them but lead them? What were some of your initial challenges with that and how'd you overcome them? I felt like I tried to be so guarded at the beginning, which was just a miss. Yeah. Right? Like, oh, I've gotta kinda guard the outside of my world and I feel like now it's the opposite. My kids stopped by the office last week. I think we all need to remember the human side. Yeah. Right? We're all learning together. And how do I show them who I am and I can't be that guarded. And the more they get to know me, I think they'll understand my motives. Yeah. I talk very get made fun of a lot. My text and emails are very direct. Right? I forget to do the smiley faces. No. We love them. Good morning. Yeah. Yeah. But now, I think the more they see me and understand who I am, it's never, oh, how do I read between that email? It's more Right. She's on a roll. She's just, firing. You know? Like, she's just doing all the things quick and just trying to get them to receive that. So I felt like super Psycho analyzing Nicole's Yeah. But again, it was like your image of like they can't like I have to be this tough exterior and now it's totally the opposite. The more I feel like they get to know me, ironically, the the opposite of what I thought it was at the beginning has really helped to serve and and vice versa. And then knowing when they're human, stuff's gonna happen, life happens, and being empathetic to that. I do agree it's hard with the work from home. How do you have that? So we enjoy our hybrid environment. So you do get that time to just focus and maybe throw in some laundry while you're at work and not have a commute, but that you do get to really understand people's motives of why they're there. Definitely. I was gonna comment, like, just being consistently authentic and clear has really, I think, worked well. Like, just showing up as your true authentic self as consistently as possible, it helps people understand, like, you know, who you are and what to expect from you. And there's you can be really clear about what the team's and company's objectives are for quarter of the year, the next couple of years, and what the vision is. Like, you you do find that people, if they fully subscribe to the culture and the mission of your organization, like, they're gonna get right behind you and they're gonna push as hard as they can. So totally agree with Nicole's side. Yeah. Just that that consistency of it, is super important. Yeah. For me, it's like I always joke that I'm a closet introvert, so it's really hard to put yourself out there. And, but, you know, I found that just talking to people about non work stuff is so important. Right? Because then they get to know you, they get to trust you, believe in you, and then inadvertently, something around business always comes up, and it's usually a gem. Right? Something that someone I really wish we could do this, this, or that, and you learn a lot from those conversations. So just being deliberate in talking about non work stuff, and then let the work stuff organically flow. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, it's like you'd be surprised how many great ideas are already there in the organization just by tapping into them. But sometimes, the best way to tap into them is by not trying to tap into them. They come out organically. Right? Yeah. That's that's special. I wanted to get y'all's thoughts now on sort of more of the logistical challenges of stepping into leadership. Right? So, you know, you're learning to take on a people forward strategy for your companies, for your specific leadership styles, for your slice of the industry. Then, obviously, there's also, okay. Let's execute on our business goals, and let's tackle some of the initial challenges of being a leader, in health care. So what were some of those initial challenges for y'all? More of the operational, like, okay. I got, you know, major, margin issues. I mean, who knows? Right? Whatever it might be, Break that down for us and how you maneuvered some of those early challenges of of operating as a leader and executing as a leader in your space. Scaling is so hard. Yes. Yeah. Because it's like, you just you know, you know what you believe and how you wanna serve our professionals. And as you hire, you're not right next to everybody and they can't hear your story and you're not necessarily coaching. I'm like, hey. This would have been a great pause to ask what's going on. Right? And so for us, it was we did have a lot of fast growth with COVID. And so we saw quick flaws of scalability on how do we do this, in a repeatable way. Every mistake, why did it happen, how do we not have it happen in the future, developing that mindset. Right? I think that's a I'm grateful that's the quality my mind thinks is, oh, there's a mistake, how do we fix that so it never happens again? Whereas sometimes team members will be like, ah, that happened. And you're like, no, no, no. When it happens, you gotta raise your hand and we gotta figure out what happened. And so I feel like scaling was really hard for us because our industry is so people relationship Yeah. Versus like a technology that you can scale. And so just figuring out how to do that, I well, I hope we always continue to struggle with that because that means we're growing and scaling. Yeah. But I feel like that was that was a tough one for us, the scaling. Yeah. For me, it's about it was about, identifying that not everybody's the same. So like you mentioned earlier about your work ethic and you just kind of assume that everybody does certain things in a certain way or that someone knows something or should know something. And so really just trying to adjust and say, you know, don't one size does not fit all. You have to figure out what that person knows, what they believe, and then provide them the one on one coaching, if you will, right, or guidance, whatever however you wanna say it, to get them to learn what you need them to do, especially in a big environment. Again, at Walmart, you know, I was dealing with pharmacists. Most pharmacists are not not business minded, so I had to break that down and kinda work with people to show them what the business was all about and why it's important. I think, think about your question, Daniel. Like, one of the biggest challenges that I know you and I have chatted about was, I mentioned earlier, we built a product based on personal experience. Like, we felt like we had a really good recipe for kind of how to do this at the micro level, like, how to actually help a family through this. But trying to then create a business model that, to Nicole's point, will scale, like, it took a lot of time to figure that out. And, you know, to be able to start by doing this direct to consumer and, like, thinking about, like, some sort of, again, freemium model or marketplace type of strategy to then realizing that most of the folks that are going through this challenge that we solve for people like me, like, they're doing this while balancing their careers or doing this during the workday, Monday through Friday. And so how do you take, like, that idea and start to bring it to small business owners, like, you know, large jumbo enterprises, like, in these big, you know, benefits teams? And how do you start to, like, create a business model that will actually scale that will allow us to help people, like, you know, across, like, larger audiences, like, versus doing this one by one. So Right. It took a lot of time to crack that nut. And, there were so many opportunities where the universe was just beckoning us, tempting us to quit. Like, just throwing stuff in our way to to almost say, like, are you sure this is really what you wanna do? We just had to keep pushing through it. So, thankfully, we did. And, yeah, if not for some of that, just perseverance and some of that resilience that we displayed. Like, we wouldn't be even we wouldn't be sitting here on this show talking about the growth and all the impact we've had. So, yeah, to to Nicole, trying to, like, trying to scale, but also just trying to identify a business model that will work to scale Yeah. Was a really big challenge for us. You know, I I wanna hone in on that scaling challenge. I think this is something that a lot of business leaders face, something that all of y'all have faced. Right? Operating at scale or having to get yourselves to scale. Michael, obviously, you know, rapid growth during the pandemic, maintaining service quality, but then also, again, adapting your business model, right, through that growth. Nicole, same. Right? Rapid growth during the pandemic and then saying, okay. How do we continue to scale after this sort of short term boost? What does long term scale look like? And then Paul, I mean, you know, over the years operating within a scaled environment and then taking that leadership onto other businesses where you're now CEO and, kinda implanting those learning lessons. What would all of you say is sort of a core nugget strategy that worked for you to begin to sort of see the light at the end of that tunnel for scale? I know the tunnel's kind of endless technically. Right? That's kind of the whole point. But, you know, when did you feel like you were able to implement a scaling strategy that really started to change the trajectory of your business? And what what does that look like practically? Right? I think being super customer focused is really, the thing that can unlock scalability. And, again, for us, even during that time of pivoting and trying to figure it out, like, remaining so just really, you know, focused on, like, who we were serving and the value we were trying to create, like, it really helped us then get to a place where you can find some of those early adopters that are willing to, like, take a chance on you. Yeah. And then you can turn those experiences into referenceable clients and accounts that will help you with the next one and the next one and the next one. So just we've talked about the importance of culture and people, but also being just so focused on your customer. In health care, that tends to be, again, patients and families and people that really are desperately needing our help. Right. So that's been really, advantageous for us, just being really focused on that employer and on that caregiver. For me, for the last three businesses, for scaling, it's really around process excellence. Really being able to everybody has their own style, and what works for one person doesn't work for others. But if you're gonna scale and move quickly, you need everybody to be able to operate on on that same level. And the way you do that is to map out a process and leverage best practices and don't take things to chance. Right? So it's one thing to say, everybody, let's do x. Right? Well, if everybody does x, and some of them will do it, some will do it really well, but others will not. Right? Right. So what does x look like, and how do you define that, and what steps do you take? So it's painful to go through that. It takes a lot of time to map out process and set standards. And some people don't like it because it's not the way they did it. But to me, that's really key for scaling. Yeah. Especially stepping into a company with existing infrastructure right now, kind of bringing new leadership to it. I mean, even for our founders here, you know, there's kind of an iterative process to it too where you you build up a structure for yourself that you feel like this is the way the company is gonna operate. And then you're challenged with this is not gonna be the way that it operates for carrying us into that next phase. Let's expand on that a little bit too. Like, what are some areas where you had to sort of look at your scaffolding and say, I think we gotta start over a little bit or or rethink this? Tech really came into the staffing space. So that was kind of the shake up for us on we saw companies scale faster than us Mhmm. Because they leaned into technology. So it's relationship based, but they knew how to send four hundred emails to maybe a candidate looking for a job. So much as they were my best friend, I wasn't calling them four hundred times a day and sending them all the emails. And so for us, we had to figure out how to capture that growth. How do we lean into tech? That's not who I define myself as. I'm a people I'm the opposite. I'm the most extrovert person ever. I've never met a stranger in my entire life. I love them all. And so how do we scale with that? And so I feel like that was a big moment for us as leaning into technology and figuring out how to use that. I I say we probably won't be the industry leader, but right, how do we keep up and we have to force ourself to change. I wanna do things the way I've always done it, but I think that's the fastest way the company won't survive. And so just being head up, trying to get out of, I call it the weeds. Yeah. I'm bad about, like, again, I wanna be the hero and do everything. And I feel like I realized a couple years ago, I'm actually hurting the company. You know, I had some good friends in different industries. We like, if you're not that needed, you're not a good leader. You've got to empower the team. And so I felt like that was a really powerful lesson as well. Figuring out how to trust, what do I need to give them. It's that concept that if I can go away for two weeks and it doesn't fall apart, I'm doing something well. Right. Whereas before my mentality was like, oh, they really need me. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, good. I'm making impact. And Yeah. You know, that takes like a mind shift, I feel like, and the process of evolution of the company. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. I'll echo that sentiment about technology. You know, during the pandemic, everybody was just racing to keep up with the momentum of what was going on. A lot of things just didn't happen. You know, in today's world, we have a lot less people doing the same amount of work or some some argue maybe more work. So you have to have the technology to help them. We're in actually we're we're in the throes of implementing three software applications all within three months of each other. Well All designed to try and make the recruiters and the team members jobs more efficient because it's a lot. It's a lot to ask of them. So we want to try to give as many tools as possible. Yeah. I mean, I can take both of these points and combine them a bit. Like, to Nicole's point, like, thinking through, some of the the team and people changes that we needed to make over the last three, four, five years. Like, I said being, like, really customer focused as it related to, like, our external scale, but being mindful that the things that we were doing as a team of fifteen or twenty people weren't gonna work when we were a team of fifty and then a hundred and then a hundred and fifty. Right. And so just constantly evaluating that and to the point you made, constantly evaluating myself and my role and my job description in this. Like, I felt like there during the pandemic, every quarter, I was rewriting my job description. And you said it so perfectly. Like, I started to discover that, like, the the more I do, like, actually, the the less performance the company is gonna get. Like and it's a really tough, like, paradigm shift for a founder to realize that, like, you actually have to let it go. You have to you wanna jump in. You wanna like, but you you have to let it go. So definitely learn some of those lessons as well and totally agree on the technology piece. Like, I think about some of the internal process that we've employed over the last three, four, five years. And now with things like generative AI and some of the really cool tools coming out that can automate a lot of this for us, totally changing workflow. Yeah. But it it unlocks more value for how we can push that value to, again, those customers and those caregivers. Well, I think an important aspect of this evolution as a leader, I think, Nicole, you summed this up really nicely, is learning to take your hands off the wheel a little bit and changing what your value add is to the company. Is it, you know, your hands in the pie, or is it how you help teach someone how to make the pie in the first place? Right? So that you can help thirty people make pies instead of just you. I don't know what this pie analogy can. We're we're we're running a bit. Yeah. We're we're and right now I'm hungry. Now I'm hungry. I want some cobbler for lunch. So all of you benefited a lot from mentors in your lives. Right? And now are in a period of your careers where you have a lot of wisdom from having scaled successful companies, growing your companies. And now, you know, you you really establish yourselves as mentors as well in your space. Right? Michael, you benefited from a lot of early entrepreneurial mentorship. You saw business execution in action, the discipline it takes. Right? Nicole, you received mentorship early from a family friend, which significantly impacted your career, gave you a lot of guidance, a lot of motivation, a lot of zeal, gumption. Right? Paul, you learned over the several years key leadership skills from your mentors at Walmart, right, and other companies, and then, taking that leadership on as you took on new companies. But now I'm curious as y'all step into these roles of the seasoned mentors of your business, how do you try to be good mentors for your teams? Right? What lessons do you take from the mentors that impacted you that you now work to apply beyond just, you know, kind of being there for people, beyond helping execute on the business, but really helping level up the people that work with you and being there to to uplift their careers? I feel like being a mentor is a new concept to me. Interesting. In a sense that, like, once you have kids, you realize your parents didn't know everything and they were little kids too still. Like, I never feel like a grown up. And so I feel like in the last year or two really trying to be like, I do need to empower the next. You know, I've always we started the company young. I've always felt like a little kid in the industry kinda hustling. And so just trying to like take that pause and go, okay, it's time to pay it forward. Telling those people that you know, you've seen the inside of them, you know they are hard workers. I believe in you, we're gonna get there. Like, we're gonna develop this skill. This is what we're gonna, try to achieve. And I just don't feel like I under I didn't even try, like, embarrassingly. Right? I just led by example and never really saw myself as being a mentor. And so now just kinda taking that ownership, I mean, like, it's time to pay it forward. You know, I did have those people believe in me and now it's time to do that for others and say that often. I think that was the joy of my when I was young. I don't know why she thought at eighteen I would be good at business, you know. I was in Latin club. So I really didn't see it for myself at the time, but just having that person just champion you unconditionally. It was just because she knew who I was. Right? She hadn't seen my work ethic. And so to see that with others, it's like, how do I embrace that and pay it forward? And that's the fun part of it. That's when I do feel a little bit like, okay. You know, I never feel like we're making it, but we were making it. You know? And that's cool that I get to empower the next generation. So We gotta do more scouting at Latin clubs. I love that. So wait a Romani problem. Oh. You're not remembering. There it is. There's a lot of that. So I have a great personality. I had to get through high school. Yeah. For me, mentorship comes in different shapes and sizes. Some of it's formal, some of it a lot of it's informal, right, in terms of just in day to day conversations with individuals. And one of the things that several people have taught me in my career is just about listening. You know, it's all cliche. You listen twice as much as you speak. And I really believe in that because, you know, when you listen, you know, they they have they're trying to solve a problem. And if you a lot of times, they'll bring a problem to you, but if you help them through it and ask a million questions, sometimes it gets intimidated. They'll get frustrated with me. Like, sorry. That's just the way I like to process. Right? Getting to think about their own problem and solve it themselves, it goes a long way. And I try really hard. I'm not not great at it by any means. I always make mistakes, but I try really hard to say do. It's really about, like, what would you like to do? Right? So let's talk about the issue. What are some options? And then what would you do? Right? And asking that question, and then you are developing that person to think differently. Being a founder is really lonely and isolating at times. And so, totally agree with what's been shared, but also something to mention here that, I've been really fortunate to get to do is to work with a lot of other first time founders or new founders that are coming into the space, not just for health care, but for other, industries and verticals as well. Like, it's really lonely to be a founder at the very beginning of a of a journey, especially if it's just you. And so, like, for me, I went through the Health Wildcatters program here in Dallas. It's been about ten years since we graduated. And so every year, I try to to go back and get involved with a lot of these earlier stage health care companies that are just starting. They've maybe just raised their first capital. They have their first pilot project or or customer. And just to, like, to be there for them and to listen to their pitch and to ask a bunch of questions to PulsePoint and just help give them some reassurance that they're on the right path. It's incredible to see just the looks on their faces when, like, they they look at us having started exactly where they are. And I can tell them from ten years in the future, like, this is what I did. I don't know if it works for you, but this is just, like, some some advice to to think about and to be able to just help them every year, like, get started. It's incredible then hear the stories every year as they come back. Like, as they're building and scaling their companies. Like, it's super rewarding to just, like, have so, certainly try to make time for that internally as well, but I also find that I'm I'm spending more time externally with other earlier stage founders, like, just helping them find their path. Cool. Something that was mentioned earlier, right, one of my mentors, his name is Dwight. You know, the company I ran last company two companies ago that I ran. And, you know, most companies, they do strategic planning. It's a small group of people that get together, think tank, and they brainstorm all these ideas. And when I when I took over the company with him, I was blown away by the way they did strategic planning. They did it from bottoms up. So every single employee was responsible for coming up with ideas for the company. And they literally would print it out on a wall, hundreds and hundreds of ideas. And the, you know, the the byproduct of that is all of them become good became good at strategic thinking and strategic planning. Right. Wasn't formal. It was just informal because of the fact they were asking for their input. And that really is that's it spoke to me, and I try to implement that wherever possible. Yeah. It's, like, it becomes one of these things. They take ownership of it. Right? Like, they sort of feel like they've got a a really, like, close pulse in hand and, like, the future success of the organization. Yeah. So, yeah, brilliant. So now y'all are tasked with being mentors and being leaders in this post COVID health care landscape. Right? You all experienced a lot of growth, a lot of market changes, a lot of new standards set for the industry during that period. I'm curious what that reality looks like today. Right? If you had to kinda give an immediate pulse check on where the industry is at today, post COVID, how that's impacting some of y'all's focus and challenges as leaders, what are those realities for the industry that you think other, you know, health care industry hopefuls should keep in mind as they maybe step into, the zone and and try to execute as leaders themselves. Go ahead. I feel like, especially, like, the nurses and therapists and our allied health and doctors were the heroes during COVID. Yeah. And now we're coming off of that. And so it's been a hard challenge for us on, just an appreciation for health the health care space. Right? We don't wanna pay for travelers in our specific space. We wanna we're we hate being short staffed, but we don't necessarily wanna pay more. And so just figuring out how do you have this help in the hospital. Like you need a nurse to be able to check your vitals, and making sure we appreciate them. I think we really lead by quality, not quantity, and then the quantity will come. And so that's something we're trying to preach as we scale to is don't forget the people side of it in our world of AI and technology. These are people going and seeing somebody possibly die today. Right? My day was not a hard day compared to that. And so how do you support them? What are the mental questions you should be asking? How are you doing? And so just leaning into that they're real humans, even though we're in this really cool tech and AI world, remembering that piece of it. And I sure feel like if you go somewhere and they say I appreciate you, I sure feel a little bit better. And so just trying to pay it forward in the healthcare space and figuring out how to appreciate them while still trying to hit business objectives of growing. Yeah. Yeah. I'll piggyback on that and add another piece about the employee side. So, you know, I can't I was out of the industry for about five or six years and came back and it is hard. It is way different than it was six years ago, and I underestimated how difficult it is. So, you know, for me in this new world, it's about encouraging your team and letting them know it's tough. They got their teeth kicked in and sometimes it's really hard to stay motivated, so you have to constantly find ways to inspire and motivate, encourage, and recognize your people. And on the clinician side, I think that the time is back to a little bit old school where even though everybody's tech enabled and everybody likes to text instead of phone call, you know, we're really pushing to have really strong relationship with clinicians and just find a way to connect with them, because they feel disconnected as well and they're out there. So how do you bring back relationships and human emotion and and voice to voice conversations? So So ironically, my answer to this one, Daniel, is a little bit of the opposite where, like, over the last three, four, five years during the pandemic, like, we saw this explosion of growth of employers that were realizing the challenges that all their employees were gonna be going through and sort of the undulations of working from home, return to office, hybrid, just all the things that have been thrown out. And so we saw this this burst of of growth. And for us, like, the platform is built to be able to pair up employees with a human to, like, walk them through this and to go on that journey, like, you know, to reach of the steps and help them get to the other side. We've gathered tons of data as a result of that. Yeah. And so now, like, a lot of our customers and prospects who have made these investments are asking us, like, help us understand the story of, like, what this has meant to my employees, to my organization. And so, like, they love the hands on approach. And, of course, that's always been a cornerstone of of how we operate and who we will continue to be. But we're now coming into this period where, like, because our category is still so new and young, large companies, insurance organizations, payroll organizations, financial institutions, like, they're all looking at this trying to understand the next ten years what this looks like, and they're turning to us for the data, which is really exciting. It's like we've been doing this. We have all this, like, really cool stuff that we've learned. Yeah. How do we put it into something that we can share? So this is a big focus for us is, like, how do we translate now all of the impact that we've created to something that the industry can really use in charting the course for the future of this category. So that's, been a big focus for us. That's really cool. Year year and a half. Well, I like that, you know, the through line here with what all three of y'all said, I think, is a focus on the, you know, to continue the analogy, the the beating heart of the industry, the health care industry. Right? It is, like, honing in on what are the actual needs of the people that I serve, the, you know, physicians on the other end, or the nurses on the other end of, our services and our work, but also, like, the industry at large. Right? What does the industry need from our leadership today, and how is this going to help, you know, us as well? Right? Like, being there for the whole industry and sort of being a a good player for the industry, how does that mean success for us? Right? How does that guide us to that next chapter of scale? So really cool, you know, through line there. And I I really get the sense that y'all have your, you know, your visions mapped out clearly. You know where to take your companies, and it's all rooted in that initial personal nugget of motivation, you know, that, keeps you looking at what can I do to learn from the industry, from my people, from, you know, the the communities that I serve and use that to guide you forward? So, yeah, I'm really inspired today by what y'all are cooking up here today, and, I'm really grateful to be chatting with y'all. And last question I want to throw y'all this way before we wrap is, more Dallas oriented. We've got some d one hundred past winners here with us today. I'm curious y'all's thoughts on what, you know, the larger Dallas business community has done for y'all's business growth. Right? What y'all's relationship to it, and, you know, how has being part of the d one hundred community as well helped, move your companies forward? I'll go first. I mean, Dallas is an amazing city. It really is. And there's a a wealth of talent here, and I think that's the key. Right? Any business, no matter what it is, it all all rolls around the people. Yeah. So it's a really neat city. You know, a lot of growth, a lot of people coming into the city, and it gives us opportunity. So I think it's a place to be and, you know, allows you to scale because you've got access to people. I'm not originally from here. So, like, I moved here twelve years ago and, originally from Chicago, like, having come down, really not having a community, not having a a a group of people that, you know, really understood the the journey I was about to go on. Certainly, going through Health Wildcatters, as I mentioned, was helpful. But I think, I mean, for me, really investing in the community here and and just finding ways to give back and be a part of not just the business community, but just the the entire community at large. Yeah. Like, that's been huge for for me and for us over the last twelve years since I've been here. And, yeah, as I think about just what's been so special about this place, going back to when nobody knew who I was and people were people were just taking a chance Yeah. Everybody was always willing to take a meeting and just, like, offer a helping hand. And it was just this, like, this feeling of hustle here. Everybody was just really excited to work hard and help each other out. I'll never forget it, and that's a huge reason why I'm excited to be able to give back to it. Like, I feel like I I owe it to this community who's done so much for me and for us. So it's been a great place to build a company. Love that. I mean, they stole a good answer. Sorry. I agree. I was like, ditto. Our team is awesome. I feel like the inside talent pool for our team is incredible. If you have DFW, you get Fort Worth, you get Dallas. Right. Feel like we've got great people. I think my personal community is incredible. We do talk shop. We're not in the same industries, but having peer groups and networking groups, I mean, the mom's club. Right? Yeah. Being able to talk all the things and it's just been an awesome place. I am an OG from Dallas. I always joke I didn't make it very far in life, but I don't really wanna go anywhere. Yeah. You know, I always tease, just jump on a plane. We can travel if we want, but it's been a really powerful place to develop, I think, people. I think it creates really good humans here that are kind and want to learn and see something different and see ideas. So I feel very grateful that I didn't make it very far in the front of my house. I'm I'm with you on that one. McKinney groan over here. So I'm just stone's throw away. Wow. Thank you to the three of y'all for being here. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for having me. You know, I think the health care community in Dallas is in good hands with y'all at the steering wheel or, you know, taking your hands off the steering wheel. Right. Passenger seat driving. You know? Right? But no. I mean, y'all are, you know, a real testament to what it takes to craft a successful company to step into, you know, challenging new roles and meet them head on with discipline, with focus, and with heart. And so I'm really excited to see what the future holds for all three of your companies and the three of y'all as leaders. So thank you again for all of y'all joining us. Very much. Again, folks, we've been chatting with Michael Walsh, cofounder of Carealoup, Paul Helm, CEO of FocusStaff, and Nicole Cox, cofounder of the Andrews Group. Michael, Paul, and Nicole, thank you to the three of y'all. This has been so great. Thank you. Thanks, Daniel. Thanks, everyone. Bye. And thank you everyone for joining us on the road to the Dallas one hundred. Hope you enjoyed our first roundtable episode here with three DFW health care leaders. We'll be doing that a little bit more here as the summer continues. We're gonna be focusing in on different industries and, of course, different stories from some of the best and brightest that Dallas has to offer. So hit the road with us again for the rest of the summer as we showcase the stars of the Dallas one hundred and the larger DFW area. And make sure you watch out for the big winners of the d one hundred awards, the biggest celebration for successful entrepreneurs in big d. The applications are now closed. So keep an eye out for who those one hundred are. And if you make it to number one, we're gonna have some fun. So hope to see you there later in the year, but till then, folks, I'm your host, Daniel Litwin, the voice of b two b, and we'll catch you on the next episode of The Road to the Dallas one hundred.