Serving Seniors’ Needs: Patrick Campeau’s Mission at Nurse Next Door Seaway Valley | Nursing Home Series

Anthony Codispoti: Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they will overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Kodespode and today’s guest is Patrick Campow. He is the president and franchise partner at Nurse Next Door, Seaway Valley, Canada, a company dedicated to providing home care services for seniors. Nurse Next Door’s mission is to ensure seniors can stay in the comfort of their own homes while receiving both skilled and non-skilled care.

They match caregivers to each individual’s needs and offer 24-7 live support so families feel connected and empowered. Patrick has an extensive background in sales and leadership. He previously worked at Cardinal Health where he received multiple awards including Director of the Year in both 2015 and 2016, recognizing his remarkable team leadership and growth achievements. His experience in guiding teams towards success has prepared him to lead Nurse Next Door’s Seaway Valley location with passion and dedication. Before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Add Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in extra cash flow by implementing one of our innovative programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible.

To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at AddBackBenefitsAgency.com. Now back to our guest today, the president and CEO of Nurse Next Door, Seaway Valley, Canada location, Patrick Campow. I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Good afternoon, Anthony. So Patrick, Nurse Next Door, large, well-known franchise in the home health space. First of all, tell us about your territory and then tell us how the inspiration for starting a Nurse Next Door franchise came about.

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, so my territory basically covers, I’m going to say, Eastern Ontario, which ranges along the St. Lawrence River from the Quebec border all the way to a little bit west of Kingston, which would be basically midway between the Quebec border and Toronto. And then we work our way about one hour north towards Ottawa, but not including Ottawa. So it’s about a two-hour radius, which includes a couple of nice centers, which would be the cities of Cornwall, Brockville, and Kingston primarily.

Anthony Codispoti: Okay, and so how did this idea all first come about? You have a corporate, your background in corporate America, a big corporation, Cardinal Health. Why did you step away from a safe, secure job like that and start something on your own?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, I think it comes down to a need, honestly. It’s, I was with Cardinal Health for about 13 years and mostly dabbing into nursing homes, always playing with seniors, seniors health, seniors needs, but mostly facility driven and simply felt that the need for home care services was growing and that’s where things were going, basically. Seniors that did want to stay in the comfort of their home were under service and not only is it a very rewarding opportunity, but also I think financially and business-wise, there was something there that was up for grabs.

Anthony Codispoti: So more specifically, what were you doing at Cardinal that you were kind of exposed to the senior care world?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, so we manage all the medical sales, medical supplies, basically, and equipment. So anything that had to do with everything from gloves, needles, incontinence, dressings, anything that you would see in hospitals, nursing homes, walk-in clinics, there’s a very good chance that it came from Cardinal Health. And so we got to see volumes increase and decrease in key markets and one of them that appeared to be growing was definitely home care.

And that was true for across Canada, whether it was the Maritimes, Ontario, or even out west. I think they say, even the caravans, when they were created, a lot of the markets follow the baby boomers. Well, the baby boomers right now are sitting at home not wanting to leave the house that they’ve renovated and they’ve called home for so many years and they take a lot of pride in. So if you can accommodate them staying at home safely, that’s kind of where the baby boomers are right now.

Anthony Codispoti: So the benefit of home care is, as you said, that folks can stay in the comfort and the familiarity of their own home. Is it also more cost-effective for folks to receive the care that they need in that kind of an environment?

Patrick Campeau: In some cases, it would be, depending on, so our services range from everything from companionship to personal support, rate up to nursing care, and in some cases we do palliative care in the comfort of your home. So the journey can absolutely end at home and depending on what you need, the cost would vary, but absolutely, I mean, the conversation can get into equity of your house and all that, but it’s certainly not a disadvantage to financially to stay in the comfort of your home.

Anthony Codispoti: So is it unusual for home care services like yourself to offer the skilled care as well?

Patrick Campeau: No, they pretty well go hand in hand. I think that a lot of parents, we often get approached by the children that want peace of mind for mom and dad, and all of a sudden there’s often resistance that mom or dad may not feel like they’re ready or that they need it, but we often start more with a companionship approach where we might be helping with a little bit of laundry, meal preparation, and whatnot, and once the bond gets created and you kind of build that trust, all of a sudden it’s much easier to start helping with things that might be along the lines of showering and things that might prevent falls later down the road.

Anthony Codispoti: So I understand that one of your big differentiators is the 24-7 live support. Can you walk us through how this service has transformed the client experience in your franchise?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, so Nurse Next Door, and that was one of the things even when I did my research that was a game changer is anybody who calls at Nurse Next Door, we take great pride in making sure that you never get a voice message.

So you will speak to a live person no matter what time of the day, and that includes everything from our local team to our Vancouver heart quarters, which obviously serve as extra support if ever our entire team is busy serving somebody else, but you will always speak to somebody live, and that’s one of the things I think in healthcare that people, when you’re reaching out, you need to be talking to somebody immediately.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, what other things about, because there are other franchise opportunities in this space, what else was it specifically about Nurse Next Door that attracted you to it?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, the perfect match is one of our key differentiator that again, we don’t just fill visits, I guess is one of the big things. If somebody is looking, like we do a skill set analysis for every client, but we also do the exact same thing when we’re recruiting a new caregiver. So when it comes time to match mom and dad with a caregiver, if all of a sudden mom used to like crocheting or something like that, gardening, and you have a caregiver that has the exact same interest, isn’t it so much more easier to bond and to start a conversation when all of a sudden they have mutual interests and whatnot. So in many cases, it starts with skill sets, but it also falls into hobbies and just other things that they’re comfortable with so that it becomes more natural.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, so you’ve obviously got some sort of a database system where you can track this for, here’s the hobbies and interests for your caregivers, here’s the hobbies and interests for your patients, and you can match them together.

Patrick Campeau: Exactly, we call it the perfect match and people are surprised because we’ll often even delay the start potentially two, three days to make sure we have the perfect caregiver and once the services starts, then everybody understands it’s like, wow, what a difference compared to anything they’ve experienced before.

Anthony Codispoti: Now, you came from corporate America where, as we mentioned in the intro, you’ve won multiple awards including a multiple director of the year awards. Is there a key leadership practice that you learned during that time or developed that you have been able to bring to motivate your own team at Nurse Next Door?

Patrick Campeau: That’s an interesting question. I think I’m a firm believer that you’ve got to keep learning and people and personalities is something that’s always fascinated me as far as what makes people thrive and the different types of personalities. But if we go back to a sales team that I had at Cardinal Health, I think it’s important that you don’t try to change people. You can guide them, but you’ve got to work with the strength that they bring to your team.

So instead of limiting their techniques or their styles, just work with it and empower them to become a better you instead of breaking them and trying to make them into somebody they’re not.

Anthony Codispoti: So in your business model, I would assume and tell me if I’m right here that you’ve sort of got two challenges. One is to grow the business, you need more patients that need your services. So how do you find those patients?

And then on the other side of it, you need to find caregivers who can deliver the appropriate level of care. So thinking about the first side of that equation or this side of the equation with the employees, what are some strategies that you found have been successful to locate, recruit, and then retain good folks?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, so I think retention is key for sure. And I think having a good mix of employees that like we have a range of people that are full time, 40 hours a week, this is all they do. And then we have a range of people that are very casual. They’re as committed, they’re excellent, their skill set is up to par.

But for whatever reason, whether it’s family or whether it’s something else, they’re able to offer us 15, 20 hours a week. And that works. This is exactly what we need.

And we need to make sure that we’ve got a good mix in that funnel. Because when all of a sudden you have mom that comes out of the hospital and has a spike of 24 hour care that’s needed, you need to have these casual people that have the ability to jump in and offer you these extra hours. In the same instance, unfortunately, if mom or dad has a fall or whatnot and needs to go to the hospital, the hours get turned off and then all of a sudden, so it’s very much the challenge of the industry is that ongoing roller coaster of clients and caregivers that are supply and demand.

Anthony Codispoti: And so it keeps it fun, keeps you on your toes, Patrick. So on the other side of that equation then, trying to keep that sales funnel full with clients, what have been your most effective strategies to grow that side of the business?

Patrick Campeau: I think a business, just a business network, we’re getting more and more like we’re in our sixth year right now and we’re seeing a constant flow of business professionals that are referring us. And I think that’s a true testament of the work that our teams have been doing in the communities. But when you can start having the rehab clinics and the hospital discharge planners and whatnot that are referring your team, that will automatically just keep the funnel basically full. And there’s obviously engagement in the community and just other marketing strategies that we do. But I think professional referrals is definitely a key element of our industry.

Anthony Codispoti: What does the community engagement look like? Are you just kind of going to the different events in town and setting up a booth at the fair and the festivals?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, we take every opportunity we can. Just recently we had we worked very closely with the Alzheimer’s Society in town and we’re in the middle of winter right now and they had a soups on event. So they put on at the local community hall a competition of different local restaurants. We’re putting on soup tasters and whatnot and we sponsored kind of a water station and greeted people and as they picked up their tray with the soups, the nurse next door station was there handing out water bottles and just thanking the seniors for a coming. A few of the seniors weren’t able to come. They didn’t have a ride and so we made our nurse next door vehicles available to go and pick them up and just being engaged in the community and closing that gap where seniors may not be available to attend certain events goes a long way.

Anthony Codispoti: And then you talked about some of the I call them sort of related professional organizations that are sending folks your way. Folks that are dealing with seniors that are coming out of one type of care and needing home health care. What is it about you and your nurse next door franchise that makes them want to send these folks to you rather than somewhere else? What are you guys doing that’s different?

Patrick Campeau: We always say yes and that’s an internal when they call you they need it now whether it’s a hospital discharge planner or a family member. When they call they need you to be able to put a team in place yesterday and if you delay or if it takes you a week to have caregivers in place for mom you’ve missed the opportunity and you’ve created some anxiety and so we move mountains to always being able to say yes.

Anthony Codispoti: And that’s unusual I mean it would seem to me that most businesses you know would want to say yes to as many customer opportunities but maybe it’s easier to say no to the challenging ones is that what I’m hearing?

Patrick Campeau: Exactly that’s exactly it. So yeah it’s from a business perspective you would think that everybody would say yes but by the time they they line everything up and everything is ready you know the need is gone so unfortunately they’ve missed the opportunity.

Anthony Codispoti: What advice would you give to others who are looking to advance their career in this field?

Patrick Campeau: I think serve the need is the biggest thing that I like to say. There’s too many people that try to read the book and figure out the special formula. Every community is actually slightly different and so you just got to pay attention to what’s in front of you and serve the need.

In some cases it may be more post-op in other communities it might be more advanced dementia. Just pay attention to what’s in front of you and be human. Don’t be a robot because this is definitely a business that’s people to people and families need to feel like you genuinely care and so if you do and they can feel it then the rest will just snowball in front of you.

Anthony Codispoti: So you’ve been around for six years in your location. You’ve grown nicely. How often are you actually interacting with either the patients or with the patients families? Like are you a first point of contact or do you kind of have a team that handles that?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah so at this point I still try to make a point of it but we have a nursing manager. We have a you know we have a scheduler in place and so I’m going to say the team is is self-sufficient or really works well without me but I think it’s important to keep a pulse on what’s going on and just making sure that you’re getting the positive feedback that you’re we’ve been hearing for six years and that we don’t lose sight of that.

Anthony Codispoti: So coming from Cardinal you had at least some familiarity with this industry but you had not run or overseen an actual home care service operation. Was the support that you received from Nurse Next Door enough to sort of you know fill in all the gaps you know for someone new coming into the space or were there other mentors or other people who helped you during those early years kind of find your way?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah I think what’s nice about the the franchise system is exactly that you get to you get to have some really deep conversations with other franchise partners especially in the early stages where you might be in the middle of the grind and things are not working as easily as you expected and whatnot so you can you can call a neighbor a franchise neighbor you can call somebody that that might be a similar size or age than you are and kind of pick their brain as far as you know what I’m really having a tough week this week I’ve just lost two clients you know I don’t think it’s anything that we’ve done one’s passed away the other one moved back to with their children in different province and so but it’s just you know things that you need to bounce off somebody you need a sounding board to make sure that you’re you know am I losing my sanity here or is this just part of the industry and so I think the you know we call it the system just the the the network of franchise partners within Nurse Next Door is is absolutely priceless I think that’s where the true value is

Anthony Codispoti: I’m so happy to hear you say that you know in talking with a lot of business owners whether it’s in a franchise system or not think something I hear over and over again is the value of having a network of people that you can kind of go to as a sounding board for advice for introductions and I think for folks that are not in a franchise or not part of a very supportive franchise system that could be challenging to find that group of people to network with and sort of you know in a safe space and so when you’re part of a franchise group like Nurse Next Door where people are very supportive very communicative very connected it’s great because they know your business inside it out you know I’ve been in master minds before where there maybe nobody else has the same business model as me and that can be helpful because we get to sort of exchange different kinds of ideas but man the power of being able to talk to somebody who knows your business model inside and out it has just got to be amazing

Patrick Campeau: exactly the other thing that I find is challenging just almost as a as a side note but I find so many people are afraid to peel back the layers of the young and be genuine in their conversations like from business owner to business owner it’s okay to say I’m doing well in these areas but you know what heck I’m really struggling here and and I know we’re not in the same industry but what are your thoughts on how I could get out of this or how can I improve this this area of my business there’s still a lot of people that I find just want to portray the fact that you know their business is perfect everything’s going well and you know it’s okay to show a little bit of vulnerability and I find people usually connect to you a lot a lot better and they feel you’re a lot more genuine when you can be you’re human right

Anthony Codispoti: yeah I’m actually glad that you brought this up Patrick because I think this is important and I would love to hear more about your own experiences because you’re exactly right when people are from the outside looking in they say oh you know Patrick’s got this big territory he’s got the successful business he’s been around for six years he employs all these people he has all these clients wow that must be really nice but they don’t see is what’s going on you know behind the curtain what they don’t see is all the things that you had to go through to get here what what do you think are some examples of things that you could share with people that might shine a little bit of a light and and you know give them encouragement because I think you know a lot of times folks are going through their own thing and they’re like well I’ve just hit my third brick wall and uh must be the universe’s sign of telling me that this thing just isn’t going to work out what would you say to something like that

Patrick Campeau: yeah I think right from the beginning and I mean every book that you read they they always say takes five years to get a business truly up and running and and by the time you you adjust and just make the tweaks that are necessary but I got into this business as a as a sales and marketing person knowing farewell that you got to surround yourself with areas that you’re not so my first hire needed to be a nurse a nursing manager a nurse of some of some aspect to bring that to the to the table our territory is quite geographically challenging so at one point in the first year I had actually hired in the furthest in the western part of my territory so that I would cover the east and then she had the west and all that to say that there was a total disconnect there and it just uh it ended up being more challenging than anything else and so you kind of scrapped that plan and we ended up driving it was just a challenge of always being on the road for the wrong reasons it seemed so we ended up adjusting a few things and we ended up with a more of your traditional head office if you will in our hometown where the nurses is is local the scheduler is local and whatnot but while you build your team you need caregivers and and the challenge that you referred to earlier is the the right number of clients and the right number of caregivers is never at a sweet spot so if you get if you’re going to grow um you’ve got to accept clients that you may not have enough caregivers for so then Patrick jumps in and does the clients that perhaps don’t have like have the lowest amount of skill sets um anything that was companionship um Patrick took care of just so that the other caregivers could could facilitate so that there’s a lot of long hours that um just you become the buffer is basically what it comes down to

Anthony Codispoti: have you grown to the point now where maybe you’re not needed in that kind of a role as much

Patrick Campeau: a lot less a lot less which is yeah and I would say magically that that happened around the five-year mark so if somebody was to ask me again I would echo the five-year model um you know at year three and four you get discouraged and you say heck I’ve been doing this for a long time why am I still get you know needing to jump in and and then magically at year five it’s almost like everything fell into place there’s still the business operation that is ongoing and you know you’re going to get some challenges on a regular base but um yeah my my role as far as jumping in I would say is uh we’ve got things in place pretty good now

Anthony Codispoti: so what do you think in your specific case Patrick was so magical about that year five was it just that you finally had all your systems and processes ironed out was it that you finally got to a certain scale of clients to you know care provider ratio was it something else

Patrick Campeau: yeah I think it’s a combination of scale scale for sure I think scale would probably my first answer um where you were able to kind of dilute and it made it so much easier to schedule because you’re at a level where you have enough caregivers and enough clients that even if you you lost one or gained one you were able to just redistribute the the caseload to other people.

Anthony Codispoti: You mentioned how a lot of books that you’ve read have sort of talked about that five-year mark. Whether it is a book that specifically mentions that five-year mark or not, what is one book that you would recommend for listeners who are looking to advance themselves, their careers, their businesses?

Patrick Campeau: I love love love The One Minute Manager. The One Minute Manager applies to everybody. Whether you’re a student, whether you’re a business person, whether you’re a baker, I feel that you’re in life. You’re gonna run into whether it’s a customer across the counter or an employee. You can either let it let it bug you and and a week later it’s still you know you wish you would have told the person how you felt and One Minute Manager just basically you address it. You’re honest. If you have the person’s best interest at heart, you say it, you deal with it, and you move on. The other person may not have that approach and may be hurt, may be offended, but once your reputation is built that you have everybody’s genuine best interest at heart, then it’s very easy to have those conversations.

Anthony Codispoti: So the general gist of that book is deal with, discuss whatever it is that has come up now in the present moment so that it doesn’t linger, it doesn’t fester, and everybody can address it and move on. Is that the general?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, yeah. There’s situations where obviously if you’re in a room with people that shouldn’t be part of this conversation, it might require that you you know you excuse yourself or whatnot, but deal with it as soon as possible.

Anthony Codispoti: What is one tool piece of software or a framework that’s contributed greatly to your own success, Patrick?

Patrick Campeau: Software. It’s an interesting one.

Anthony Codispoti: Maybe it’s a CRM, maybe it’s a to-do list checker, maybe it’s a timer. Yeah.

Patrick Campeau: I use an iPhone and I’m a fan of the to-do list and that’s basically in my notes, that’s where we drop them. We operate with Google Chat so amongst the leadership team, so we create tasks amongst each other and so I can assign tasks that way and again, you know, life is about tasks and I think we’ve become, whether it’s a text message or whether it’s an email, I think we are overpinned even as we’re talking, right?

Your phone lights up and you just, so if you can create a task and just drop it, the next person might want to tackle it first thing in the morning because they’re more of a morning person or they may be an evening person, but just drop the task, trust that it’s going to get done and then that way you can kind of take it off your list and know that the person who’s responsible will execute in due time. So we actually used Google chats with a few of its functions and it seems to work really well. Currently there’s four of us in that leadership team and we assign it to ourselves, we assign it to other people and it seems to be flowing quite nicely.

Anthony Codispoti: And so Google chats when you assign it to somebody, are you like attaching a date to it and it pops up in their calendar or how is that working?

Patrick Campeau: It’s a flowing list and you can sort it by, obviously I go in in the morning and I can sort it by what are my tasks and you can flag it as a high priority if something’s urgent, but you basically tackle your tasks once it’s completed it gets strict off and it stays visible but it goes down to the bottom so you can always have visibility to what’s pending and what got completed. So as somebody else completes it too, if I’m very worried about putting water back in the aquarium, I can go back the next morning and see that Anthony put water in the aquarium and it’s been stricken off.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, I know for me my CRM is critical whether I am assigning a task for someone else on my team to do that day, the next day somewhere, or oftentimes it’s just assigning a task to myself to remember to follow up with somebody.

Being able to go in there and set the date to remind me and set the client and make notes about what was discussed and what needs to happen next is great because then I can drop it from my mind for the time being and move on to what’s next. Exactly. Without that it would be taking up a lot of extra space up here.

Absolutely. Let’s see Patrick, you know, in my experience, growth often comes from some of our biggest challenges. I’d like to hear about a serious challenge that you’ve overcome. Maybe it’s personal, maybe it’s professional, maybe it’s a combination of the two. What was that like going through it? What did you learn about?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, when I hear that question, I think it takes me back to, so I’ve got a wife and two kids, so my wife’s name is Linda. My daughter, Jen, is 25 years old. We have a four year gap in between.

My son is 21. My son is autistic and when he was first born, developmentally, we determined, we could see that there was something, wasn’t developing at the same speed and there was something wrong. And by the time we went through the processes and whatnot, before we got the diagnosis, honestly, we did everything we could to find out. And but when we found out, I think it was, at that point, I determined that I wanted to do something that would not only support him, but would be inclusive. And part of this, even at Nurse Next Door, is being able to take care of people that are maybe a little bit more frail or not able to take care of themselves and whatnot. And a lot of what I do, I think from that day forward, was dedicated or Justin is extremely high functioning, but was dedicated to Justin and just kind of building a life around making sure that Justin could be independent once, obviously, we’re not around anymore. But yeah, that was.

Anthony Codispoti: So I imagine as parents, first learning that something is developing a little bit differently with your child had to be challenging to come to terms with. Right? You want the best for your kids. You don’t want them to struggle unnecessarily. Like what were those, I don’t know, early weeks, months, years like, is you’re sort of coming to terms with this?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, well, I still remember and we still talk about it. We had taken a course or a class on Tuesday nights for six weeks where the way they described it, you had to mourn the death of the expectation of your child, of your normal child.

And when you start talking about mourning the death of your expectations, like it’s a bit of a slap and it’s a wake up call. And but it was very, very good. And it brought us to where we are today. I think it’s, yeah, it definitely shakes the foundation of what you, because we all have hopes and dreams and all those things. But it kind of realigned everything and put things in perspective.

Anthony Codispoti: Was it the fact that you were using a word as dramatic as death that’s sort of like, like that kind of on its own, sort of like, wait a minute, he’s not dead. He just needs some extra help. Is that kind of the thought process?

Patrick Campeau: I think so, yeah, it’s exactly that. It’s like, OK, he’s not gone. So why are we using dramatic words like that? But it’s, you know, a couple of weeks into it, it was more the expectations. And it’s not that you’ve got him classified as a lawyer, doctor, all these, you know, traditional careers, but it’s just you’ve got expectations that you had to kind of put that away and just live in the moment with what he was able to give you today. It was a very emotional kind of couple of years to just realign and set the bar at the proper level, I guess.

Anthony Codispoti: When you were going through those difficult couple of years, were there people or groups or other things that you were able to lean on that kind of helped you through that process?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, there was there’s a good there’s a good network of autism society in the area, in the community. And again, when you’re going through things, I think. Whether it’s business or anything else, again, I’m a firm believer that people need to acknowledge their their challenges and reach out for help because you can bet your last dollar that somebody is going through the exact same challenge. And when you can start talking about and realize that somebody else is living the same experience, then not only do you have somebody to shoulder you, but you there’s a good probability that you’ll be able to come up with mutual solutions. And all of a sudden you you lift yourselves to a better day together instead of just being by your kind of in your own corner struggling.

Anthony Codispoti: What was the name of the group that you guys were able to join or lean on for assistance?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, it was it was called the autism autism club in in Cornwall. So yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: And it it seems like this whole experience kind of opened up a more permanent place in your heart for helping folks that can’t help themselves. It seems like you know, you’re using sort of this this same warmth and desire to help people in in your nurse next door business now.

Patrick Campeau: I think it definitely sparked something. And I mean, it’s got to be in your nature. But yeah, it definitely sparked something almost as a as a life mission, I’m going to say. But at the same time, I think it’s like you said earlier, I think nothing comes easily. And you’ve got to stay focused and you’ve got to be committed. I think that’s the biggest thing you’ve got to be committed because if you give up after the second or third kind of challenge, you’re going to you’re never going to get to the finish line. And you know, it always looks easier when you’re outside looking in. But you’ve got to get through the grind period. You got to get through the, you know, and to keep your if you keep your focus, you’ll get there.

Anthony Codispoti: Were there any periods during those first couple of years that you opened the nurse next door business where you thought this isn’t worth it. This isn’t going anywhere. This isn’t going to work. What was I thinking? I should pack it in and find something else.

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, absolutely. I’d be lying if I didn’t say yes. Yeah, I think year two, year two, year three, I think it’s it’s we were talking about the five year plan earlier. I think year two is when you feel like I’ve been doing this long enough. I should be doing better by now. I should be things should be easier.

I’m working way too hard for what for the payoff or like. Yeah, so year two to year three, I feel were the darkest periods. You had, you know, you get little victories, but then you get the grind again. And then then you start as you start building your team. And then you start celebrating the victories. You start sharing the challenges with somebody else and it just starts getting easier from there.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, before you were able to kind of build the team and you had sort of like you’re built in support group, I’m going to call it, you know, where you guys kind of celebrate the successes as well as like, you know, this is a bummer kind of, you know, go through the struggle together in those real early days. Who were you able to lean on for help? Where did you go when, like, you know, you were really struggling with things?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, I tried really hard to not take it home too much as much as the family always becomes kind of the the automatic sounding board. But I think that’s where the a few of the other franchise partners really become the they’ve they’ve they’ve been through it. They’re living it themselves, depending on the stage that they’re at in the in their process, but they definitely have been through a similar journey.

And, you know, some of them you connect with more than others and you can really have some some nice deep conversations with them and they can help you through it.

Anthony Codispoti: That’s so great. I’ve said it before and I’m glad we brought it up again. It’s so great that you’ve got that built in support system right there in the franchise network. Patrick, are there any particular daily practices that have been particularly helpful for you? Habits, rituals, things that get you centered that, you know, kind of bring you back to home plate? What do you do?

Patrick Campeau: So I’m an early riser, so I believe in getting up at five in the morning. So I do 20 minutes of exercise every morning. And I had gotten away from that only because the nature of home care services, if something’s going to explode, it’s usually in the morning, you’re going to wake up at your usual five o’clock. And that’s when you have three sick calls and one visit that’s not happening. And so I found that for a few years, I let these events hijack my morning routine. And I lost a little bit of my personal health.

And like just, it just became, I could see myself spiraling. And so again, I think it’s important that I used to do an hour and now I do 20 minutes condensed and it just gets the blood flowing and whatnot. I revised my tasks from anybody else that’s dropped in my bucket. If you will, in the morning, I get organized and yeah. I get going from there.

Anthony Codispoti: What does that exercise look like? Is it like intense cardio? Is it just like some slow walking around the neighborhood?

Patrick Campeau: A combination of treadmill, treadmill and I actually do some Pilates as much as some of my, I used to play hockey and some of my buddies tease me that that’s more of a female exercise, but it really works the core and yeah, it does the trick. It’s condensed. It’s almost like a boot camp almost where

Anthony Codispoti: it’s been a long time, but I did Pilates for a little while there and you’re right. Like that’s some great core workout stuff there. Yeah.

Patrick Campeau: So I do 20 minutes of it now, get in, get out, gets the blood flowing. I go back upstairs, have my cup of coffee, jump in the shower and get the day going. When your head is refreshed, your blood is flowing and you’re ready to conquer the world.

Anthony Codispoti: No. Yeah. Patrick, sometimes our mistakes, what seem like mistakes in the moment, end up becoming our greatest teachers. Is there a moment in your career that at the moment seemed like a setback, but now as you look in the rear of your mirror actually helped to propel you forward?

Patrick Campeau: Well, I mean, you want to talk about a 360. When I went to school, graduated from high school, went to school. Here’s a little bit of just my journey, but went to school in architecture. That’s what I believed I wanted to do. So for anybody listening and when you talk about regrouping and changing directions, graduated and one of my first job was space planning for Canada Post for all their cubicles and office spaces.

So we would reorganize their different areas and whatnot. One of our large clients ended up being the health unit, the Eastern Ontario Health Unit. And at one point I built a great relationship with the purchaser and she had lost one of her salesperson who was in health care. And she says, Patrick, you know, I know you’ve got no health care experience and whatnot, but I think with your personality and your customer service skills, you should apply for that. And so from architecture space planning, that moment swayed me 180 degrees into health care as a very entry level medical sales, basically sales rep for a small area. And from there was my entry into health care. And then a couple of steps and curves and whatnot later, I became director of sales for Cardinal Health. And then here we are at Nurse Next Door. But the journey is never straight. And I mean, I think to your point, it’s I think you’ve got to embrace those. Why is this happening? And just there’s a reason for it. And just, yeah, take the curve and keep going.

Anthony Codispoti: As you know, you look in the rear of your mirror and you can sort of connect the dots on, you know, how you got to where you are. It’s like, oh, OK, the path makes sense in the moment where you’re faced with that fork in the road.

It’s very confusing and daunting. I don’t like I went to school for this. And this is what I like. What? Why? Why would I consider going off this way? What what drew you that way? Were you just not happy here? Did you just there was something in your gut that was tugging you?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, I think I had a lot of respect for this lady. We had built a great relationship, a great rapport, a great working relationship. And she felt I mean, she had sold me on the company and the the potential as a career and and whatnot. And I mean, health care was definitely something that I mean, has always been of interest to me. But yeah, I just I had done a little bit of research slowly and then off we went. And when I got the position, then I just felt it was meant to be and being a being a very committed person.

I think that’s that’s just genuinely who I am. Then it was like, if we’re going health care, then we’re going to go all in health care. And let’s see where this takes us.

Anthony Codispoti: Well, I think that’s the way to do it. If you’re going to do it, go all the way. No dipping the toes in the water, right? Yeah. Yeah. You know, in something else, you said, Patrick, and I think we’ve mentioned this a couple of times in all our conversations, things, you know, life doesn’t go in a straight line. And I think that, you know, innovation requires courage. Is there a time where you tried something different in your business and whether it worked or not? What did that experience teach you?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, well, we tried actually through the the COVID year and whatnot. We tried to go more virtual on a few of our services, just whether it was medication prompting and calling mom from, you know, from from our office and just to remind her that it’s seven o’clock. And so there’s a couple of our services that we had tried to go virtual just to see if we could capitalize and help more people in less time and eliminate the traveling and no face time where everybody was so nervous about masks and whatnot. And we quickly realized that this this whole business is about people and even the seniors, whether they they have dementia and they don’t recognize you, they enjoy speaking to you and they enjoy having somebody in their house. So yeah, it wasn’t about efficiencies. It wasn’t about, you know, trying to we’re in the business of people.

Anthony Codispoti: And it’s not just a box. You can check, right? You’ve got to be there. They need your companionship. They need you there in person. Yeah.

Patrick Campeau: So that was something that we had tried just because that’s where everybody was. I mean, everybody was kind of scratching their head as far as what things were going to look like. And so that was our trial. And to a certain degree, it made it confirmed what we were doing and brought us back to our foundation almost.

Anthony Codispoti: And I love that because, I mean, sometimes we try something new, different, innovative and it works. And it’s a great improvement to either efficiency or just the quality of service, whatever it is. And then sometimes we try something and it doesn’t work and it just reaffirms that, hey, what we were already doing, that was the right model. And that’s helpful too.

Patrick Campeau: Exactly. Exactly.

Anthony Codispoti: Patrick, what’s something that you wish more people knew about your industry?

Patrick Campeau: Just that it’s available. I think we’re still the best kept secret. It’s crazy how six years later, and I mean, I take a lot of pride in how involved we are in the community and I mean, we drive pink cars. You know, we’re everywhere. You can’t miss us.

And when families finally need us, all of a sudden it’s like we didn’t know you existed. So I think there’s, people are very much in their silos. And I think education is still something that needs to get out there and we’re trying our darnest to get it out there. But people need to know that they can certainly stay at home. You know, doctors can do house visits. There’s more and more services that’ll come to your house. So it’s something that I’m passionate about. You know, at this point and the more I find out, the more I believe I can influence some of these solutions. And but yeah, education on just making this awareness for what’s available to these people.

Anthony Codispoti: So when I was growing up, the pink cars had to do with Mary Kay. I don’t know if that was a thing up in Canada as well. I didn’t realize Nurse Next Door. I obviously I see the branding, you know, your website, nursingnextdoor.com. Lots of pink colors in the branding. But I didn’t realize that you and your team, you drive pink cars around town. Yeah.

Patrick Campeau: Yeah. And boy, I mean, it’s a it’s a it’s a mobile sign, right? I mean, half our calls come in either because they’ve seen the car or so it’s it’s very efficient. I mean, it started if you look at the story of how Nurse Next Door started, it wasn’t even two nurses, but John and Kent. They they they found a need and they they wanted to get away from the kind of the loom and gloom. See, aging is is sad and is, you know, limiting of what you’re able to do and you’re sore hip and you can’t walk and you’re half blind. And so they wanted to celebrate aging and they and that’s how it started. They wanted the kind of the party car and fun, bright, lively colors.

Anthony Codispoti: Exactly. I like that. And you’re saying like half the calls that you get or folks that that saw the car.

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, there’s a lot of them. I mean, the exact number may not be half, but I mean, between the the internet and whatever else. But I mean, people do notice the car and yeah, it’s it’s very, very effective.

Anthony Codispoti: I like that. It’s fun. It’s a fun color, right? And you got to drive a car around anyways. Why not make it, you know, a free billboard, so to speak? Absolutely. Patrick, I’ve just got one more question for you today.

But before I ask it, I want to do two things. For everyone listening today, I know that you love today’s content because Patrick has been an amazing guest. Please hit the follow button on your favorite podcast app so you continue to get more great content like this. I’m also going to let folks know Patrick, the best way to get in touch with you.

And we’ll include a link to your LinkedIn profile in the show notes. Folks can also reach out to you to be email and your email is Patrick.Camp out at nursenextdoor.com. So Patrick is P-A-T-R-I-C-K dot camp out C-A-M-P-E-A-U at nursenextdoor.com. So last question for you, Patrick, as you look to the future, what exciting changes do you see either coming for your industry at large or for your particular business that you’re most excited about?

Patrick Campeau: I think just branching out. I think the traditional home care model that people know is the bread and butter or is the foundation of what home care is all about. But I think there’s so much more that can be attached to it. So that’s what we’re exploring right now. You’ve already got people coming into the house. You’ve already got people helping.

So what else can we do while we’re there? Seniors are vulnerable. So if they already trust Tracy that’s coming in, what else could Tracy do while she’s there to help mom, to help dad? So it’s just kind of expanding a few branches to our trunk to see how else we can support seniors in their home. I think we’re just scratching the surface. So I think there’s a lot more that we can do.

Anthony Codispoti: Any thoughts on what direction you might take that? What are some of those extra services? Is that still kind of in the brainstorming mode?

Patrick Campeau: Yeah, I mean, there’s everything from… We’ve discussed, I mean, hearing aids. I mean, there’s eyewear. There’s so many services that seniors need. It’s not even just a desire. It’s they need it.

So yeah, there’s a lot of them. It just has to make sense. And the skill set’s got to be aligned with the people that we’re sending in. So it’s work in progress, I guess.

Anthony Codispoti: OK, fair enough. Well, Patrick, I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Patrick Campeau: No, this was great. And I invite people to reach out if life is about more than business. So if we can help other people reach out and be more than happy to help.

Anthony Codispoti: That’s terrific. Generous offer. Well, folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories Podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.