Finding Quality Senior Care

Struggling to find the best care for your loved ones? Christie Stukenholtz is the co-founder and CEO of Senior Care Finder, the only complete nationwide directory of independent living, assisted living, memory care, long-term care, skilled nursing, home health care, hospice providers, and more. In this compelling episode, she opens up about her personal journey and the motivations behind starting this service, why quality senior care is important, and how a simple family dinner dialogue can make a difference by preparing you and your loved ones for the future.

🎙️Talking Points:

(1:15) Caring for parents aging into senior care

(4:13) How does Senior Care Finder work?

(8:38) Do senior care prices vary depending on my location?

(9:50) How to pay for senior care

(14:25) How do we ensure quality care for seniors?

(17:21) Things to consider when thinking about care for our parents

🔗Connect with Christie:

• Website: http://www.seniorcarefinder.com 
• Twitter: @SrCareFinder
• Instagram: @seniorcarefinder 
• SCF LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/67354498/admin/  
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FindTheBestSeniorCare 
• Christie’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cstukenholtz/  
• Christie’s email: christie@seniorcarefinder.com

🔗Connect with Tom: 

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tomfinnovation/ 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomfinnovation/ 
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TomFinnovation/ 
• X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/tomfinnovation 
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tomfinnovation 
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/TomFinnovation/ 
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tomfinnovation 

Tom Finn:

Hello, hello, and welcome to the Talent Empowerment Podcast. We're here to help you love your job. We unpack the tools and tactics of successful humans to help you guide you towards your own career empowerment. I am your purpose-driven host, Tom Finn, and on the show today, we have Christie Stuegenholz. Christie, welcome to the show.

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Thank you, Tom. Happy to be here.

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Tom Finn:

Well, let me take just a moment to introduce you to Christie, because after she went through her own experience trying to find care for her grandmother, she knew that there had to be a better and more effective way to search and compare to find the best senior care. Now, this became the impetus for the creation of a company called Senior Care Finder. It's an intuitive and innovative platform that directly connects individuals like me or you out there searching for their very best options. Now she's the co-founder and CEO of Senior Care Finder. And I wanna jump right in for all of us with aging parents. This is an incredibly important discussion and we're never really sure where to go. But what do you see as the biggest challenge facing the generation that now has parents aging into senior care?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Yes, Tom, great question. So if you haven't gone through it, it's very likely that you will. And it is a very scary paralyzing experience, right? If you can't be the one to take care of your mom or dad or someone that you love so, so much, how are you going to find someone that you trust will do a great job, as good of job or better that you would? And so... I think one of the biggest challenges really is, where do I even start? How do I even take the first step to this really complicated, scary, like I said, paralyzing process and really break it down so I can figure out where I can begin, how can I start to understand this complicated world and really get myself to a place where I feel some comfort and some satisfaction with the decision that I've made.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah, so I think that's where we all start, is we're sort of frozen. So I love how you started there. Now, senior care, when I think about it, is active living, independent sort of living. Then we go sort of assisted living. Then we go to this place of long-term care, skilled nursing, home care, home healthcare. Like, how do we organize all of these different options as a buyer for our parents?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Right, well, a lot of times if we're not, if we haven't been privy to the industry in the past, right, all of those terms that you just said, Tom, we don't even know what they mean, right? We don't even know that there's a level of care that we're working through. We don't even know that we're looking at different payer sources, right? And so part of the beauty of our technology is we help serve up to you what we think you're looking for, right? And so help you break down those options. And then really start to think about what type of care does my loved one need? Do they just need to no longer be living in their home or do they really wanna stay in their home? Right, like what are my options if they want to stay in their home and maybe I could bring someone to them? And so really we're here to help clarify and be a resource that when you're really overwhelmed and confused, you can find our site and say, oh my gosh, finally, like. Finally, there's someone here that can help guide me through the process in an unbiased transparent way that helps me do my research so I can narrow down and feel educated about my next step.

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Tom Finn:

All right, so you said unbiased way. So how does your business actually work? I'm here in California, you're in Nebraska. We have families and parents all over the country and all over the world. So how does this actually work? Do you contract with some of these partners in senior care as part of a network? Like how does it actually work?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Great question. So our, we're an online platform. We have over a hundred thousand senior living and care providers. So all of those care types that you mentioned, Tom, everywhere from active adult, independent living, all the way down to skilled nursing or a nursing home, as many people might call it, or home healthcare, we cover the gamut, right? So we wanna be the place that you can come to sort through all of your options. So- We're nationwide, like I said, if you did a search for any major city across the US, you would find really, really great results. We are a free platform for providers to be listed. It is free for them to add their information on great photos, add virtual tours, put pricing information, completely free. And it's also completely free and there's no gated way for you to be able to access this information. So Tom, you could literally go online if you have a family member in Houston, you could search their zip code and really start to filter down your options. And ultimately when you found your best three to five, you can contact them directly to get the information that you need.

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Tom Finn:

Okay, that sounds pretty good. If it's free, it's for me. That's a good old fashioned tagline that we like to use. So let's take Houston for a second. So I'm looking for a spot in Houston. I go on your website. I look up Houston, I find a couple of spots. I narrow it down to three. I pick up the phone, I send some emails, I get some information. Okay, how are you making money? That doesn't make any sense.

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Christie Stukenholtz:

So great question. And a lot of people ask us that same question, Tom, because it is a different way than has ever been done before. So we're not charging you to be listed, and we're not charging for the connection, right? We're not charging for the lead. We're also not taking all of your contact information and selling it to a whole bunch of providers so that then they're going to blow up your phone and email and try to get you to become their customer. So the way our platform works is it's a subscription service for the providers. So like I said, free to be lifted on our site, free to connect with consumers searching for services that they provide. But if they want premium placement, if they wanna be at the top of your Houston search, if they want access to unlock analytics and really start to understand who are the types of consumers that are searching for me and to really be able to learn more. that is the way we make money. So it's an annual subscription on the provider side should they choose to kind of upgrade their account with us.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah, wonderful. Okay. So as the consumer or the buyer of services for a parent, there is no cost to me.

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Christie Stukenholtz:

There's no cost to you and there's no cost when that connection is made. So historically, you would have maybe an agent or someone in the middle that would connect and then take you to different providers that they would then be compensated for if your mom or dad moved into one of those, or more of a lead generation model where you have to input a bunch of your information to access even the list of... options available and then your contact information has been shared with a number of providers and then the experience just feels yucky as you can imagine.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah. So I want to stay on this idea of cost before we move on. I do want to get to quality and care quality, but before we get there, I want to stay on cost for a second. So let's say I'm in a big city and mom and dad are in a big city. Let's just pick our favorites like New York, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, expensive ones. I'm going for the pricey cities. Okay. And mom and dad are there and we're thinking that we're going to need to go down this path at some point. Do families start to think about moving the parents from a pricier city? Is senior care more expensive in New York, Chicago, San Francisco than it is in Omaha, Nashville, I don't know, Jacksonville, Florida?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Yeah, great question. It does vary based on your geography. It also varies based on the level of care that you need. Right. And, you know, whatever, if you see a parent and you have this inkling that maybe they might need some care, it's likely that they need a little more care than you even think they do. Right. And so, yes, price varies. And there's very luxury, you know, high end options. And then there's other options that are going to provide more of the skilled needs that a lot of people need as they continue to age.

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Tom Finn:

So how do people pay for this stuff? Let's just assume for a second that we're not talking about the uber wealthy folks that the parents made a lot of money and have it all tucked away perfectly and did their financial planning and got a gold star. That's a different group and it's probably a much smaller group. But what about the rest of us who have parents that maybe didn't manage their money super effectively that are living on a small retirement from the government that... didn't have a huge 401k or a pension from a government job or a labor union or what have you. Like, what do we do with those folks?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Yeah, it's a really difficult thing, right? That everyone's navigating. And even the people that have planned and saved, right? They say oftentimes, you spend 90% of your life saving and planning, and then the last 10% of your life, you spend it all. And oftentimes you outlive those resources. And so it's a really hard thing and it's expensive. And so... Some of it can be private pay if you can afford that. Otherwise you're looking at Medicare and Medicaid to support what it might cost. But it is a real expense that a lot of times, even if you've planned for, it's difficult to come up with the dollars. But we all age and we all need the care. And so it's inevitable that we're, almost all of us are gonna be in this situation.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah, I haven't done the research on sort of the percentages, but I'm guessing it's pretty high. The percentage that of cost that falls to, you know, us like the kids, you know, you and me that have parents. Is that, is that factual or is that just a, the wrong perception that I have?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

I wouldn't be able to tell you if that's factual, but I would have that perception as well, right?

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Tom Finn:

Yeah, I think so. I think this is a kind of a scary space that most of us, when we're thinking, you know, I'm in my early forties, I've got four kids, I'm not really thinking about paying for my parents' senior care.

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Right?

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Tom Finn:

It's not really the first thing that I think about. What I think about is my kids, my mortgage, you know, the businesses, all that kind of stuff that I think others think about too. And it's a real, it can be a real line item here. So what is... Let's stay on cost for a minute, because I think that's the fear that many of us have. Can you give me some ballparks in cost? We had some ideas here before on sort of you're able, you're independent, that's cool, there's probably some cost there. Then you're in assisted living or skilled nursing, which some people call long-term care, and then there's home care and home health care. Can you help us with like that crazy number that we're thinking of? I don’t even know where to start.

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Yeah, I mean, it is- Yeah, it really is all over the map, right? Like the level of care that you need, the part of the country that you're in. It is all over the map. If you're talking about assisted living, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised to hear if it was anywhere between $3,000 and $5,000 a month for care. But again, it will vary. It could be much higher, it could be lower, depending on, you know, your situation, but.

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Tom Finn:

I just I can't imagine any of us sitting around going, hey, honey, you know, let's just put in 5k a month for, you know, for dad's care, right into our family planning and our budget. It just it just doesn't seem like that's feasible for most families across the country.

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Well, and Tom, the way you're thinking of it is if you're in, if you have the benefit of being in a position to be planful, right? Oftentimes these decisions and the research and the trying to figure out what happens next happens in a time of chaos or someone fell and they can't go back home and we have to figure it out. We have, we have to find a place now. We don't have the luxury of, you know, setting money aside and savings or really starting to do our research. We wish everybody did their research well in advance and could be feel really good about this decision, but it's not the thing we're talking about at dinner parties, right? It's the scary thing that you don't want to think about if you don't have to.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah. And so seniorcarefinder.com is the place that we can start that research. And when we go there, we're going to be able to connect, but I want to go into the care side because this is of equal importance. Let's say we get the money figured out. Most of the time you do, you figure it out, Medicare, Medicaid, you're going to figure out how to get something for your parents, you're going to do your best to support them. But what about the levels of care? How do we ensure quality of care so that number one, our parents are treated fairly, their safety is taken care of, and then whatever clinical condition they have is being cared for?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Great question. And this is really interesting. So the higher level of care, so as you get down to skilled nursing, long-term care, Medicare certified home health care, hospice care, all of those are regulated by the government and have a CMF quality rating. So they are required to be judged based on the quality of care that they provide. When you get to a lower level of care, even assisted living, independent living, certainly, there is no quality rating for that sort of care, which is really a gap that we're trying to close because we know when you're searching for different types of care, you wanna hear what someone else's experience was like. A star rating matters. A comment or someone sharing what they went through in the process is helpful when you're starting to narrow that down. So... We do collect reviews on our site and we're working to soon roll out a star rating across all different types of services so that people can have that nugget of information to add to their toolbox as they're starting to sort through their options.

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Tom Finn:

So you're using kind of Yelp-like reviews and ratings within your own system to create your own data set. Is that right?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Correct.

Tom Finn:

So how does that compare with good old-fashioned Google and Google reviews? And should I be looking at Google more than I'm looking at your website? How do you feel about that?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Yeah, so the star ratings that you see today are the CMS government ratings, and those are only on the high levels of care, so the skilled nursing, home healthcare hospice. So we are working to have a senior care finder specific rating so that there will be kind of an equal star rating and comments and all of that good stuff across the board for all types of care. So we'll likely be looking at a number of different types of reviews to make sure that it's all inclusive. The hard thing is you don't just want to publish one review because it's not statistically significant and it's usually someone very happy or very frustrated. And that's oftentimes not the most helpful information in the process.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah, I love it when I see one five star review, right?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Yeah, right.

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Tom Finn:

It just, okay, we get it. You had, we have one person that liked it or the opposite. One star review. Somebody was frustrated that day or didn't get exactly what they wanted. It didn't come with a chocolate chip cookie and a glass of milk. So it's a one star review. Okay, so we understand cost can vary. We understand quality is really controlled by CMS, which is a government body. Center for Medicaid Services for those of you that don't know. And we understand cost and quality. What else should we be thinking about when we're thinking about care for our parents?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Yeah, so I would oftentimes say, where is it located? That's a really big deal. If you do have the benefit of living in the same city or state, that your loved one is looking for care, you probably want to be close. You're going to want to pop in. So location is very important. And then there's a number of amenities that probably matter. When I was thinking about care for one of my loved ones, I was... I thought, well, they have to be pet friendly, right? There has to be able to be, you know, little things like that matter, the social atmosphere. And quite frankly, when you walk in, do you like the people? How do you feel? Does it feel like home? Could you see your loved one living there are all important things, you know, to think about.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah, that's kind of how I used to shop for apartments, right? As you, you have to, you look online and you search and then you have to show up and actually walk through it and go, do I want to move my stuff in here? And I know that's not quantitative. Um, there's no numerical value we can put behind that, but that gut feeling at some level, I think is critically  important. Okay. So cost quality location, anything else?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Those would be the top ones I would think about.

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Tom Finn:

Okay. So tell me the story about how you got into this. Like where did this come from for you?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Yeah, so ironically, my co-founder and husband worked in the senior living and care industry for about a decade. So as you can imagine, Tom, a lot of our lively dinner conversations revolved around opportunities to make this process better. And he was really seeing and experiencing it from the provider side. And I understood, but I didn't, to be honest, care that much. You know, it sounded frustrating. I get it. But then my grandmother, who I live in Nebraska, she lived in Seattle at the time. It was very apparent, could no longer live in her home. So my dad asked myself and my husband to help out and we thought, oh, we got this. I'm a good researcher. He understands the industry. We can, we totally can do this. And it was a disaster. to say the least. Even just getting on Google, trying to sort through options, we had the good fortune of being able to hop on a plane and rent a car and drive around and walk in these places and then learn, oh goodness, there's wait lists. You have to get on a wait list. All of the things that by the time we got back on the plane to fly home, I looked at my husband and said, this can't be, this cannot be what everyone else is experiencing. And he's like, I've been trying to tell you. And I said, okay, I get it. We gotta quit talking about this and do something about it because this is crazy. And that really is what launched us into the idea for Senior Care Finder and really jumping in to decide to make it happen.

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Tom Finn:

So you said that you co-founded it with your husband, you co-founded the business with your husband and you now, you play the role as co-founder and CEO.

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Correct, yeah.

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Tom Finn:

So what do you have him doing? Is he sweep the floors or like, is he just, is he taking out the trash in the evening? What's he up to?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Yeah, well, he did just make the jump to join us full time. So, so he's in here right alongside me, Tom, but you know, what was what was exciting to me about your podcast, it being a talent empowerment podcast really exemplifies how we work together quite well. So our talent sets are completely opposite, which is great. Right. And it's great for me because I come from a place of positive psychology and talent management and really understanding, you know, some more opportunities I have to get my quite frankly myself and my team in a role that is asking of them to do the things that they're really good at and they enjoy the better that we will be. And so he is a very he's a visionary. He is a, you know, salesperson, a business developer. He is great with operations and all our financials. So he helps with a lot of the things that aren't my strength, which is such a sigh of relief for me to have him on board and so we can really compliment each other as we jump into this.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah, that is the best way to think about business partnerships is to find somebody that does all the things that you don't do well, they do well and allow your star to shine really brightly and allow their star to shine brightly and not, uh, confuse the two, right? It's really nice when you work with somebody that has complimentary skillsets. It's a beautiful way to operate a business. Um, so kudos to you. and your husband for figuring this thing out. So as a business, where are you in terms of the life cycle? You've been in business for almost four years. You've been probably through some easy days, some dark days, some-

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Christie Stukenholtz:

I'm going to go to bed.

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Tom Finn:

Fun days, some difficult days. I mean, I'm an entrepreneur myself, so I understand it. Where do you think you are in your life cycle of your business?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Well, I couldn't be more excited. And I think, as I mentioned, I, Tom, I'm a people leader first and foremost. So everything I do is through the lens of how are we assembling a rock star team so that everybody is in their area of strength and firing on all cylinders and reaching their peak potential. And so... you know, one of my greatest successes is looking around and seeing all these incredible people. I, I had a baby mid, you know, mid startup and I was able to step away for a minute and trust that the business could continue without any worries because I had such an incredible team of people that understood what needed to happen. Right. And it's a little, it's interesting because in the startup world, you do have to wear all of the hats, right? You do have to do all of the things that maybe aren't your favorite thing or the thing that you do really, really great. But we are growing really fast. We're all here driven by healthcare and making a positive impact in people's lives. And we hear it every single day, which just drives us to keep growing and keep moving and, and moving really fast. So we're on the upward swing, I would say, Tom, and, um, excited to make an even bigger impact as we continue to grow.

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Tom Finn:

So let's talk about that word impact. I think that's an important one. I use the word purpose, you use the word impact. How do you recruit? What is the vision of the company, the purpose, the impact that you're making when you sit down with that person that you're thinking about bringing onto the team? What do you talk about as a CEO?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Yeah, so how I recruit is completely around what is a type of talent that we need around our table. And so it is not, here's the job description that I need, you know, the box I need to fit someone in, and here's all of the responsibilities that I need them, you know, to manage. It's more around what are, who are the talented rock star people I know in my network, and how can I... understand them as a whole human and are there opportunities to marry where they're really great with all of the different things that we need in our business? And so a lot of that too is thinking six months, 12 months, 18 months down the road, who are the people we're going to meet at our table and starting those conversations today. Now, like I said, when we started, if you haven't gone through the experience of searching for senior living or care, you will. And I can almost guarantee you, you know someone that has gone through it. And so that every partner we work with, every phone call I'm on, almost every single time it ends with someone saying, gosh, I appreciate what you're doing, because I just went through this myself. And it's really, really hard. And that human connection of just it being an experience that we're all going to go through, or maybe we've been through already, makes it easy to help people understand why we exist.

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Tom Finn:

I love that. I love the way you're thinking about the business and the people in the business. For those of you that don't know, Christie is not just your standard, uh, co-founder and CEO. She has a little over a decade in the talent space all over the world, um, including China and Spain and Latin America. Uh, so the words that you're hearing today are founded in, uh, a whole heck of a lot of time spent thinking and loving this space as you do. What do you take away from those earlier moments in your career when you were living and breathing talent? What were the things that were the most important to you in that space?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Yeah, I had some incredible leaders that saw my potential and gave me the runway to just go and got out of my way and said, look, you can do this. So here's your chance. And I learned so much and I built so much confidence and I was able to really fine tune my understanding of where I'm really great in that experience that now I get to do it myself, right? Like what a beautiful full circle moment to have my own business and to build it in that way centered around how are we bringing people up? How are we focusing on what's right about people that's going to help propel us to the next level? And so that's what I live and breathe every day. And so I'm excited to be at this point in our business where I have more people surrounding me that I can really focus on that piece.

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Tom Finn:

When you were sitting at the kitchen table with your co-founder and talking about leaving your day jobs and going down this path of entrepreneurship, what were the, what were the points of contention that you were saying, Oh gosh, we've got to hang on to our day jobs. Oh, it'll never work. What were the moments there that, that you recall from the conversation?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Yeah, well, I mean, obviously a steady paycheck is helpful. Insurance, especially when you have little babies is helpful. So there's all of the very practical things that would tell you not to do it. And we just kept thinking. No one's done it yet. So clearly it has to happen, right? And there's something to be said for just going all in. And we could have dipped our toe in, we could have done the side hustle thing and kind of just had this slow burn, but to play where we're playing, to want to make a global impact, quite frankly, to be connected with over 100,000 providers, you can't just dip your toe in. You have to go all in and... and just commit to the vision. And so for me, it was either, I'm going all in or not at all. And that made the decision pretty straightforward.

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Tom Finn:

Yeah. So for those of you thinking about making the move from corporate life to entrepreneurial life, it's not quite as easy as Christie makes it out to be. But there are a few components that you got to think about the practical stuff, money, right? Can I pay my bills? Uh, insurance. Do I need medical insurance coverage? The answer is yes, you do. If you're living in the United States, um, what are my other bills outside of my rent? my mortgage, my car payments, what are the lifestyle choices I need to make that I need to bring back usually, it's dial some things back. For most families, it's how many Amazon packages are on my front doorstep and what is in them and what are we paying in our Amazon bill? It's a line item, Amazon's a line item now. You gotta think about all these things before you make the leap, but I will tell you, there is so much peace. and comfort that I found going from a corporate role where I felt riddled with anxiety and riddled with a lack of purpose and a lack of meaning in my life to being an entrepreneur, having a whole different set of challenges, but feeling a ton of purpose, a ton of drive, a ton of humility and gratitude. And it just changed my life in a way that has created a different person. a much better person, quite frankly. Do you feel like entrepreneurship has changed you at all?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Yes. It's a whole different, you know, it's a whole different ballgame when it's all riding on your shoulders. And, you know, people's paychecks are riding on your shoulders at the end of the day, their ability to pay their mortgage and their, their insurance, you know, co-pays are riding on your shoulders at the end of the day. And I appreciate that responsibility, but it is a serious responsibility. And it does change the game. You're kind of, you have a little more, you have a little more, not control over your own destiny, but you've got more skin in the game, which really ups the ante in everything that you're doing.

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Tom Finn:

So you're 100% right. You have more skin in the game as a CEO, a co-founder with employees. You are responsible for making sure your business operates profitably so that you can help these families live out their dreams as well. Your mom, you've got a couple kids under the age of five. How do you manage being a working mom, a founder, CEO, and balance? having young kids at home and wanting to be at work as well.

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Yeah, well, if there was a secret, I'd love to know what it is. I do lots of meditation and I try to be as present as I can wherever I'm at. There's never a perfect balance. It's never, we're only at home or we're only at work. Our work is our family and our family's at work and we all are kind of this one big mix of everything. And so, I feel good about looking at myself in the mirror every day knowing that I am setting a great example for my kids and my family for how a true, you know, I read a book with my three-year-old about being a bold leader. And I think about that all the time of it's not easy and it's really scary sometimes, but you get up and you do it and you leave the charge into something that you really believe strongly in. And so... I try to keep that balance. I try to stay present as best I can and really stay committed to the vision, whether it's from our business side of things and the impact our kids are later going to see that we've made on the world or with our family at home.

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Tom Finn:

I think finding balance between roles in the office and roles in the home is equally important for both partners. So for our family, I am as involved with our children as my wife is. Do you tend to find that that's important in your family structure or do you as mom take on the lion's share?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Oh, it's definitely a partnership. It's a partnership. And you know what? We, we take our childcare and the people that help us care for our kids as seriously as we do the people we bring on our team here at senior care finder. There has to be, you know, values aligned and they are a part of our family as well. Um, but it is definitely a partnership in all areas of our life. No doubt.

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Tom Finn:

And I think that's a really good shout out for those out there that are thinking about an entrepreneurial life with a partner, because you have to both be aligned in your own values. You have to share the vision. Even if one person has a full-time sort of regular job and the other person is an entrepreneur, you both have to understand what that means and what that looks like and how that feels for your kids and how much time they're going to get with you and what type of care you're going to bring into the home to help with the kids, right? All of those things matter when we're building businesses. And I think, Christie, there are, there are folks that think it's just about the business, but if you have young people at home, you have to bring it all together. Would you agree?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Absolutely. Yeah, no question.

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Tom Finn:

So when you think about the future of your business and you think about the future of your family and this all coming together for you, where are we 10 years from now?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Oh yeah, oh, I'm so excited to think about that. So, I would hope seniorcarefinder.com is a household name. I would hope we're hearing every day about, we do every day now, but even more and more and more from the people that we've helped along this really scary journey and the great connections we've made from people looking for care to those folks that are providing the care. And I would also hope that we have an incredibly awesome business that super talented people want to be a part of and that share the shared vision you know of making a global impact for people on the journey of searching for care.

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Tom Finn:

So I want to make sure everybody knows that it's not just rainbows and butterflies and unicorns out there. Um, anything that you've stubbed your toe on in the last four years, running the business, something that you would go back and say, you know what? I wish I would have done that just a little bit differently.

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Great question.

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Tom Finn:

By the way, the long pause is Christie thinking. If you're not watching on video, if you're not on YouTube watching this, that is Christie thinking.

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Christie Stukenholtz:

You know, I don't know what I would have done different. I mean, I think of all of the things that maybe I could look back and call a misstep, but they were great learning opportunities. You know, that first year was really hard. It was COVID. I had a newborn baby and it was just me working on the business in my house with my baby and you know, all the things. But that was hard. That was really, really hard. I was making sales calls and doing all the things, but I don't think I would have changed it. We probably could have gone to market from a revenue perspective sooner. We really spent the time and were intentional about not turning on our paid offering until we had gotten a ton of feedback from our providers about what they wanted to see. and until we had ensured that we had the high level of quality traffic on our site that ultimately creates the value to the provider. So we really waited to do that because we're playing the long game and we want to create valuable partnerships with our customers. And so we didn't wanna flip that switch too soon, but we probably could have done it a little bit sooner than we did.

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Tom Finn:

Fair enough. Always try to find the revenue switch as soon as you can. It's great advice from you Christie this has been a fantastic conversation I am I'm so glad that you shared what you're doing, but I think more importantly in that I'm so glad that you took the risk to go down this path and go down this journey because Senior care is so important to so many people in the US and around the world Where we just don't have a lot of options to figure this out So the fact that you took this on your shoulders and you're trying to figure out how to make this easier for the rest of us, I have an immense amount of gratitude for you doing that. So thank you so much for the work that you're doing.

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Thank you.

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Tom Finn:

And if somebody wanted to find you and track you down and interview for another podcast or just figure out how to get a hold of you because they want to work on your team, how would they do that?

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Yep. Go to seniorcarefinder.com. You can find all our social channels there at the bottom of the page, or just email me at christie@seniorcarefinder.com.

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Tom Finn:

And we'll put all of that in the show notes in case you're driving, please keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road. And we will put that in the notes so you can find it later. Chrissy, this has been a fantastic discussion. Really appreciate you being on the show.

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Christie Stukenholtz:

Thank you, Tom. I appreciate the opportunity.

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Tom Finn:

And thank you for tuning into the Talent Empowerment Podcast. We hope you've unpacked a few tips and tricks to love your job and support your family. Get ready to dive back into all things, career and happiness on the next episode. We'll see you then.