Balancing Patient Care and Financial Wellness: Robert Massie’s Dual Focus

Intro  

Welcome to another edition of inspired stories where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes, how they’ve overcome adversity, and explore current challenges they’re facing.

Anthony Codispoti (12:05.379)
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’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Cotispodi and today’s guest is Robert Massey, vice president of post acute care at Holzer health system, a network of assisted living, home health and hospice facilities in Gallipolis and Jackson, Ohio. They help seniors retain their sense of independent living.

in a safe, comfortable, and home -like environment that builds and improves on their physical and social well -being. When it comes time to make the important decision of how to care for yourself or a loved one, you can feel comfortable with Holzer’s communities that provide many amenities, including a comfortable home -like environment, along with security, independence, privacy, and companionship. Robert himself is working on a new startup called Phi for Health.

where the focus is on providing financial education to healthcare workers. And we’re gonna learn a lot more about that. Now, before we get into all that good stuff today, our episode is brought to you by my company, Adback 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 cashflow by implementing one of our proprietary 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 vice president of post -acute care at Holzer Health System, Robert Massey. I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Robert (13:50.274)
Sure, I appreciate the invite.

Anthony Codispoti (13:52.557)
All right, so Robert, let’s start towards the beginning. Tell us about the journey that led you getting into the healthcare industry in the first place.

Robert (14:02.85)
Well, I’ve taken a different path than most. I’m actually in high school. I went to a vocational school and studied welding there. Then I graduated high school and went into construction. And I did that for about five years, working my way up to concrete foreman for a Kikosin construction company. And then that was in 2008. And there was quite a big

Recession that happened at that time. So I got married in on September 6 and on September 8th I I was laid off so I had to shift and Kind of bounced around a little bit for a couple years before deciding to go back to college You know, even though I didn’t take that traditional path and a lot of times people don’t think they can go back to college if they went to vote votex school, but That isn’t true. I’m like I’m an example of that

So kind of wasn’t sure exactly, thought about teaching and then I got into some healthcare classes and I really love business and leadership. And I knew that was an opportunity, at least in my area in Southern Ohio, that I could be close to business. So I ended up getting two bachelor’s degrees and a gerontology certificate.

And then I set for my nursing home administration test. And, and then had to start back over again, really, you know, when I got into healthcare back at the bottom and work my way back up, you know, financially, I was working part -time for minimum wage for Holzer at the time, installing the lifeline units, the little units. If you fall and help, I can’t get up and make the phone call. And then I transitioned to a, a long -term care company.

and was able to become an administrator there, traveled across the state, filling in, while as an interim administrator for buildings that was without an administrator at the time. Then I came back to Holzer in 2018 as an administrator of the Skilled Nursing Facility, and then in March of 2020 became the Vice President of Post -Acute Care.

Anthony Codispoti (16:27.225)
So we’ve got a lot more of your story to get into, but we’ve already hit on some really interesting elements so far that I’d like to dig into a little bit more. As you were describing, you took sort of a non -traditional path for somebody who’s in your role now, right? You studying vocational tech, studied welding, got out of high school, you went into construction, that’s going well, and then the rug gets pulled out. Two days after you get married,

Robert (16:53.41)
Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (16:55.619)
because we’re in the midst of a recession, somebody says, sorry, buddy, you don’t have a job anymore. And you’ve got to figure out what am I going to do? And I think most people in this position probably would have continued to try to stay in the field that they already knew, right? You had some experience, you’d done welding, you were in construction for several years, but you make the decision to do something that’s completely unfamiliar to you. And I’m going to guess,

probably felt really uncomfortable at the time, is that right?

Robert (17:29.152)
Very much so, yes. You get the imposter syndrome a lot, walking back on a college campus, really in high school, it seemed like the only reason I went to high school was to eat my lunch. I wasn’t the greatest student. And I thought my path was going to be in construction. And then you just pivot. I think it’s.

I think it’s important to always be able to pivot no matter where you are or what stage in life that you’re in. Just because we see too many people who will get into a rut and then that’s what they do for the rest of their life because that’s what they always were. And I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. If you have a passion, you should go and try it.

Anthony Codispoti (18:21.071)
So walk me through that decision making process a little bit more. You had done construction for years. Now you’re without a job. You’re recently married. What led you to think, hey, I was a terrible student in high school, but now several years later, I’m going to get back into it. I’m going to go get my college degree. Like help me bridge that gap there.

Robert (18:40.566)
Yeah, sure.

Sure. I think a lot of it was I knew I was better than the effort I put forth in high school. So that was always kind of in the back of my mind. You see a lot of people and they’re going to college and starting a career. And college is kind of different. I think the perception of college is a little bit different even now than it was just

10 or 15 years ago where people were coming up at my age and I’m 38, it was a push to go to college. Everyone should go to college, whereas now that tie’s changing a little bit. So don’t know if it was a little bit of that. But I always wanted to be in some sort of leadership and I don’t think it ever really mattered to me what that industry was.

The passion for me is leadership and business.

Anthony Codispoti (19:44.244)
Okay. And so if you hadn’t been laid off from your construction job, it’s quite possible you would have stayed there and kind of moved up the ranks there. But that option was no longer available. And so you said, all right, dust myself off. I’m going to go back to college. And while you were taking these courses, you sort of discovered this interest in this passion in the healthcare field.

Robert (20:08.022)
Yes, I had a couple classes in healthcare and it was something that I never really thought of, I guess, prior to taking some of those classes of being able to satisfy that business want with healthcare. I always kind of, I assume, I guess, looked at business from

well, it’s gotta be in some sort of an industry, is that manufacturing, construction, whatever. But I just never realized there was the business side to healthcare like it is. That combined, I had some accounting classes and that really caught my attention too and being able to kind of put those two together, I thought was just a perfect fit.

I was a lot better student at starting back at 24, 25 years old, married with payments than I was in high school and it was all free. So I just really just put my arms around it and took off.

Anthony Codispoti (21:18.927)
It’s a great story that we’ve heard so far and we’re going to continue here. So I think you’ve been with Holzer for over 10 years, is that right?

Robert (21:29.698)
Since 2018 I did I wasn’t within 2014 and had a had a few years skip there and then back in 18 full -time

Anthony Codispoti (21:32.376)
Okay.

Anthony Codispoti (21:39.085)
Gotcha. And what is it that drew you to Holzer? What do you like about the organization?

Robert (21:47.52)
Well, Holzer’s a nonprofit health system that is hyper -focused on the community. You know, I’ve been in for -profit companies and this is my first not -for -profit company. Just the community focus from leadership down, the board of directors is community -based. So it’s just a huge focus around the community. It’s independent still.

which is almost like a dinosaur from today’s age. You know, there’s constantly hospital systems, health systems being gobbled up by larger entities. And, you know, we’re trying our best to stay independent, just to make sure we’re all localized. And that to me is a huge point. they always, you know, leadership always talks about, know, we serve two purposes.

Anthony Codispoti (22:17.817)
Yeah.

Robert (22:44.246)
care for patients, we provide jobs for the community.

Anthony Codispoti (22:48.655)
Robert, give us a 10 ,000 foot view of what Holzer does. Tell us sort of the different departments and then we’ll go a little bit deeper specifically into what you do at Post Acute Care.

Robert (23:01.282)
Sure, Holzer has two hospitals, one in Jackson, one in Gallup List, multiple clinics throughout our area. We provide care from birth all the way through primary care, surgery, outpatient services, including new therapies to post -acute care.

with skilled nursing facility, assisted living, home health and hospice. So it’s really a complete health system, which is also a little bit unique. A lot of times you see health systems that maybe are more focused on outpatient care or acute care or post -acute entities are usually solely in post -acute. Whereas we go from all the way from the

from cradle to the end of life.

Anthony Codispoti (24:01.335)
And so structurally, Holzer’s a nonprofit. There’s sort of these different arms of the services. Do they each operate independently of each other? Like is post -acute care kind of its own thing? It’s sort of self -contained?

Robert (24:19.702)
Well, those are things that we work diligently on, trying to break those silos down. There’s, as any organization that’s a little larger in nature, there’s different silos. think HOSUR over the past four or five years have really focused on breaking all those silos down to where we’re one united health system. while we may report up to different C -suite leaders, however,

you know, the C -suite works closely together, which then also filters down through the vice presidents, directors, administrators. It’s really a tight network of coworkers, you know, for a health system that’s larger.

Anthony Codispoti (25:06.575)
Okay, so let’s talk more specifically about the post -acute care division that you’re the VP of. Explain to us the different services that you guys provide under that umbrella.

Robert (25:18.306)
Sure, so we have two assisted livings, one in Jackson, one in Gallopolis, and they provide, really, what would kind of be considered non -skilled care, where it’s apartment -style living. We do have nurses and nursing aides, as well as dietary departments, housekeeping, but it’s for a little…

lower acuity type, say someone’s just needing a little bit of help or maybe they can’t live at home anymore. They just need some help with their ADLs, dressing, walking, showering, et cetera. So we have that care. And then also inside of the assisted living, home health and hospice can come in to help those patients. Then we move into the skilled nursing facility where

traditionally known as a nursing home where we are a 41 bed, all private rooms facility that really cares for that higher acuity level resident that can no longer be at home by themselves. Also in that nursing home, we do have short term care where we have physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. So kind of a

example would be if someone had an accident at home, like a broken hip or something, they receive care at the hospital, they would come to us for 20, 30, 40 days of rehab and we rehab them to get them back to their home. then that’s our three facilities. Then from there, we also have home health where we provide in -home services, including skilled nursing,

care as well as physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy in the homes. Those are for people that are considered homebound. So we come to them, provide great service in their home, trying to rehabilitate them back to becoming independent again. We provide those services in Southern Ohio counties as well as Mason County, West Virginia.

Robert (27:42.186)
And then we also have a hospice service, which is for end of life hospices, someone that has a terminal diagnosis of six months or less to live. And that’s where we provide, we provide care in the home or in a nursing home. And then also we, have a hospice room in our hospital and you know, providing that, that pallet of care and end of life care for the patient. And then also.

that support, emotional and spiritual support for the families, which we follow the families past a death of their loved ones. So that could go on for months or even years that we have support groups for them.

Anthony Codispoti (28:31.641)
have a follow up questions for you. The home health that you described, it sounds mostly like skilled care that’s being provided. I know that there’s some services where it’s kind of, it’s more unskilled help. They come in and they kind of help you with things around the house. They’re there for companionship. Do you also offer that level of care as well? Okay.

Robert (28:52.308)
We do not. And there is a difference between skilled and like you said, the unskilled of home kind of homemakers. Our focus is that we’re trying to be there when you have a deficit, we wanna try to get you back to being independent again. And that’s through skilled nursing, care and therapy.

Anthony Codispoti (29:17.729)
And the follow -up service that you provide to families after end of life of their loved one, is that common with hospice care? Is that something that’s a little bit special that you guys do?

Robert (29:32.63)
Well, all hospice agencies are supposed to have bereavement care. And I’m sure those, you know, change between agencies. It’s something that we’ve really been focusing on even more recently with, you know, an addition to a new staff member who is that’s their sole focus is that bereavement piece. Cause we feel that that’s such an important need. You know, hospice care is

It’s a great service, but a lot of times it’s a service that is underutilized. And we feel like there’s a huge opportunity for us to step in and help those families because hospice care is just not about the patient, it’s also about the family members as

Anthony Codispoti (30:19.559)
Mm -hmm, so true. How would you say that what you guys do at Holzer is maybe a bit different than what some other similar facilities and companies do?

Robert (30:32.354)
Sure. You know, again, going back to that, that community mindset, you know, we’re, we’re a not -for -profit, organization that, that wants to support the community. And that’s our, that’s our mission is to support the community that we serve. It’s, it’s not all about trying to grow and be the largest provider for us. want to be.

really, really good in our community and providing that one -on -one care and making those small impacts in each person’s life because we are in southern Ohio where it is a smaller community and you live and work with people. And not only our patients, they could also be our friend, our childhood friends. So it’s that connection I think that we have that

That makes us unique and different and we’re all local versus you get other larger or for -profit entities that their headquarters could be in another state. And we’re all right here in Jackson, Gaia, Athens, Megs area, Mason County, West Virginia. We’re all right here. I think that’s the separator. Yep. Yeah. Yep.

Anthony Codispoti (31:52.013)
And you grew up in this area as well. Born and raised.

Robert (31:58.024)
And everyone on the C -suite, like I said, also with our board, they’re all local. They’re local business owners or community members. So I think that’s the separator for us.

Anthony Codispoti (32:16.109)
Now, Robert, I see that you were the administrator there at Holzer for several years before moving up to vice president. Tell me a little bit about what your role was like as the administrator and how it’s changed now that you’re the vice president of the whole division.

Robert (32:35.55)
Sure. Administrator, they’re the day -to -day overseer of that facility. A lot of interactions with staff members, residents, daily interactions. You have a department head team that you’re overseeing, but you’re also on the front line with those nursing aides, dietary aides, cooks, nurses, et cetera.

So you’re really trying to funnel everything through you and making sure from a regulatory standpoint, your meeting requirements, but then the customer service standpoint. So it’s just that day -to -day operations of that facility, clinically, financially, and operationally. And then my role now is very similar. It’s just at a little bit higher level with

with more, you know, the three facilities and two agencies reporting up to me. But, you really it’s the same concept, you know, from an operational standpoint, you know, how are we doing, what can we do, what’s our barriers, how do we remove those barriers? And really trying to just support the administrators and directors of the division.

Anthony Codispoti (33:58.895)
What I think is interesting about your path, Robert, is as you started over again, you started a minimum wage job in the healthcare system and worked your way up through the ranks. mean, it’s sort of the classic, I started in the mail room kind of a thing and now I’m the VP and continuing to move up. I’m curious to hear which transition for you was maybe the most challenging.

Robert (34:31.738)
honestly, I think this, this, this position, I, I had to spend, you know, time in nursing homes and assisted livings operate pretty similar to nursing homes. However, I did not have a, I didn’t have hardly any experience in operations from a home health and hospice standpoint. So there was that. Also, I.

received the promotion March of 2020, which also correlated with something else and that was COVID. So my timing is either terrible or perfect. I’m not totally sure. So there was that piece, but it was just, was a, you go from an administrator where you are really in every, every aspect of every detail.

to where then you step up to another level and that you’re not in, I guess, the proverbial weeds, right? You’re looking at things at a little higher level. So that was a tough transition to not be able to be everywhere at every time and being able to step back, let the managers manage, they funnel information.

that needs to be to me and then I go with it from there. So that was challenging as well as I think it was hard from, I was used to being with the residents every day. So I would go down the hall and round and know every residence name where it’s a little different now just because I’m not in those facilities every day. So that was also a little challenging as well.

Anthony Codispoti (36:26.137)
Do you miss that interaction with the patients?

Robert (36:30.23)
Yes, I do. And I still get it. Some again, it’s on a smaller level when I’m in the facilities. But those everyday interactions and just the connection that you get really when someone comes to a nursing home or assisted living, they truly become part of your family. And that’s kind of a cliche thing. A lot of people say, but it’s true.

There’s many times where you’re talking to those residents more than you are your own mother or father. Just for the simple fact, you’re there every day, right? that part’s, yeah, that part’s hard.

Anthony Codispoti (37:09.647)
Yeah. Let’s talk a little bit about COVID. I mean, you get a promotion right as the world is unwinding and like you’re in the middle of it, right? I mean, some of the most at risk locations, populations were exactly where you were. What, tell me about this. What was, what was this like for you March, 2020?

Robert (37:38.786)
It was, it was crazy. It is the only way to put it. I remember, you know, we got in March, was middle of March and it was like three days in a row. Day one, we get a notification from the high department of health that, you know, you need to screen visitors, you know, and for temperatures, know, the COVID -19 pandemic, blah, blah, like kind of outlining what, what, what COVID is.

And then the next day, those requirements then changed again. And then the Friday, we completely shut down all visitations. So we went from kind of like warning people to, we’re gonna put in some safeguards to completely shutting it down in three days. And then after that, it was just constantly a change and whirlwind. I don’t even know how, it’s hard to even explain to see

For someone that wasn’t involved, just how much things change, how quickly, the uncertainty, the unknown. We were trying our very best with what information we had at that time. And it was just challenging.

Anthony Codispoti (38:55.469)
Yeah, you know, I had the opportunity to interview lots of daycare centers. And one of the challenges that they had is that the rules were always changing and they had multiple departments that sort of had jurisdiction. It was the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Ohio Department of Health, one or two other ones in there. And so they’re getting different information from different agencies on what they should be doing and having to try to create a grid to try to make sense of it all.

I’m curious on your side, obviously you’re dealing with the rules are constantly changing. What was supposed to be the way to do it last week is now different this week. Did you also have the issue of there being multiple departments or agencies that are providing you insight or rules that you need to follow?

Robert (39:47.05)
Yeah, somewhat. CMS was kind of the overarching entity and then ODAs and then also our local health department. However, was coming out so frequently or when information would come out, it had to be immediately implemented. Sometimes there were communication gaps.

It was hard to disseminate that to the families. That was, think, by far the most challenging piece, is to tell a family member, you can’t visit in person any longer, your loved one. And a lot of people didn’t understand that. And quite frankly, we didn’t understand it either. The repercussions from that were very bad.

for a lot of people. And you can imagine the, you know, as much as we tried to do internally to keep people’s spirits up, how hard it was when they could no longer see their son, their daughter, whoever, their grandkids. You know, they could only see them through a glass window. And, you know, constantly we would, you would walk by the room and you would see, you know, the resident put their hand up against the glass and on the other end.

was their family member and just tears coming down and, that was hard. and, and like I said, they didn’t understand it and, and we’re upset with us at times. And, and it was, that was, that was the hardest thing and the, what just didn’t feel right out of the whole, the whole pandemic. And we were another thing too, is when you have a COVID case,

Then you’re, you’re constantly moving residents, know, residents could have been in their room for two or three years and have all their things on the wall. And then you got to come in and say, Hey, you tested positive. have to move you over to, you know, X hallway or whatever. And then, then you’re moving people. mean, we were, we were moving people at nine, 10, 11 o ‘clock at night, maybe doing 10 or 15 room changes a day. And.

Robert (42:14.034)
Especially when we had a couple rounds of COVID in the facility and we would go and we would put plastic barriers up and then maybe an hour later someone else would test positive and we would be tearing those barriers down and putting new ones up. There was multiple days where we would tear a wall down and build a new one two or three or four times. And it was just really challenging.

really challenging time.

Anthony Codispoti (42:47.661)
I think if there was ever any doubt about the importance of human touch and human connection, boy, did we learn the hard way just how important that is.

Robert (43:01.548)
Yes. Yeah. mean, we, we had, and again, as, as much as we tried, you know, to, try to keep people’s spirits up, there were that we had, we had people that, know, they just lost their, their meaning to live. And, you know, what, when you’re, when you’re isolated virtually, in a building for who knows how long, and there was never any, there was never any end date. And and I know that was impossible to have, but.

but there was never an end date that people could look forward to. A lot of times we would hear, we’ll change the curve in six weeks or whatever. So then people would kind of focus on the six weeks and then six weeks would come and we’re still under all these restrictions. And so over time, it just really beat people down and including staff. Staff had to see that and staff had to work in full PPE and then 95s and face shields and.

going in and out of rooms constantly and it was hard on staff.

Anthony Codispoti (44:04.867)
I’m curious to get your perspective on this, Robert, because my thought process has changed about how we handled the COVID pandemic over time. At the beginning, I was very much in favor for being very careful, taking all of these precautions, masking, whatever we can do, because if we can save a life, mean, once somebody passes, there’s no undo. Like you can’t bring that person back. But as I…

have seen and talked to more people who were on the front lines and who experienced this firsthand and who saw the drop in

mental health, along with the impact to the economy and business. I now wonder if we did the right thing by being as careful as we were. I’m curious for somebody who got to see all parts of it, what are your thoughts on

Robert (45:01.922)
I think that’s a fair question. I think it’s a question that a lot of people have, you know, at the time it seemed like the right thing to do, to an extent, cause there was just unknown. I think when you’re trying to look, we’re looking at this now, you know, hindsight’s 2020. and at the time, I don’t, don’t think we knew.

We were trying to do, we were, we were acting on with the information that we had, which was very little to none. however, I do think it’s a great opportunity and I hope that leaders are taking notice of, of how the full impact of the pandemic and being able to come up with a better game plan and action going forward, because we’ll have other pandemics. you know, that that’s.

That’s not the last, only one or the last one. So hopefully we can look at this and come out with some better outcomes from an infection control safety, but then also to that mental health piece. Cause I, you know, we’re still even seeing it, you know, from even from kids that couldn’t go to school, you know, that interaction and just the, just a lower.

lower mental health or maybe it’s more of a prevalence of mental health issues now that people are dealing with.

Anthony Codispoti (46:36.995)
My wife’s a speech therapist in a local preschool here. And in the few years since COVID, she repeatedly says how they see a lot more kids who need help and more kids with more severe conditions. And they have nothing else to attribute it to other than these were kids who were isolated for years during COVID and didn’t get noticed and didn’t get the treatment and didn’t get the human interaction that they needed.

I think you’re definitely on to something there. Go ahead.

Robert (47:09.792)
Yeah. And, and my, my daughter has speech apraxia and, she was one that, you know, had to, had to go online to speech, therapy or, or it was in person with a mask on and, and you can’t do speech therapy with a mask over your face. So she’s an example too, that was, you know, kind of set back from, from just the timing of when she needed help. so, you know, that’s something that we’re.

The pandemic’s officially ended. However, those effects will last for several years.

Anthony Codispoti (47:47.477)
yeah, for sure. I’m curious, Robert, to maybe hear about a particular challenge that you, either personally or professionally, have gone through. Some lessons that you learned going through it how you kind of came through the other side of that.

Robert (48:03.01)
Sure. I think the hardest thing for me, I’ve been in leadership roles. My very first one was at the age of 21 in construction as a foreman from, and I was 21 and I had age ranges all the way up to 60 plus years old. And then again, as an administrator, after I went back to school and then I was VP. For me it’s…

You leadership’s hard and for a long time, I think leaders, you know, couldn’t be vulnerable and shouldn’t show any cracks in the armor, if you will. And, you know, I think it’s really hard to keep yourself in the right mental space from leadership. And I have those times and I’m very open and honest with all my people. Like, you know, I…

I ebb and flow from a mental state and it’s important to put those safeguards in place. it’s reading, business leadership, self -help books, to journaling, listening to podcasts, really filling your mind with good things.

because your mind is truly a sponge and just to help to keep yourself focused on what’s important. And I think that that is something to this day I still struggle with. I go through times where I’m laser focused and there’s nothing that can stop me to the times where then I just go down the cliff and find myself in a bad middle.

space and I know I’m not being a good leader at that point in time. So it’s really that trying to focus on how do we stay up and remove the dips and you’re never going to completely remove them always, but how do you shorten the time that you’re in the dip? And I think that’s the key. Yeah, because we’re all going to have those times. Life’s going to happen.

Anthony Codispoti (50:21.261)
I think that’s the key. Yeah.

Robert (50:28.128)
You know, it just is and things are gonna change that you don’t like. But it’s how do we shorten that timeframe? And to me, it’s again, it’s that structure, it’s discipline. It’s that reading, writing, focusing, listening to things. And you just gotta fill your mind with the right things because it’s so easy to join everyone else at the water cooler and complain about everything. And once you start doing that,

It is just a free fall to the bottom. So it does, it does. And it’s kind of like that stacking effect. If you get yourself in a negative head space, you are gonna continue to stack on top and on top. And for whatever reason, to keep yourself there. And I don’t know why that is, but it’s just that focus on shortening that.

Anthony Codispoti (50:58.625)
It just feeds on itself.

Anthony Codispoti (51:23.875)
You know, I, yeah, I thought a lot about this, same topic too, Robert. And, the theory that I had shared with me, and it makes a lot of sense is, you know, we’re biologically, wired to look for problems, right? If we woke up every day and thought everything was rainbows and sunshine, we wouldn’t be trying to make things better. You know, some of us might not get out of bed. And so in some ways, you know, that drive to look for what’s wrong is I think part of the fuel that, you know, keeps us.

going and keeps us advancing as the human race. But you’re right, there are times when that biological imperative sort of runs away with itself. And it’s like, you’re not just looking for a problem so that you can try to make things better. Like your brain is just looking for problems in everything and all you see are problems. And that’s right when you start sort of spiraling down the drain. And what I’m hearing you say is,

particularly when you notice that happening to you, how can you interrupt that pattern? And for you, what you found are, hey, I recognize that my mind is a sponge. Let me find the podcasts that are giving positive message and uplifting. Let me find the YouTube videos, the books, the other resources that can help to take my mind out of that negative state and give it some good positive.

fruit and veggies to feed on.

Robert (52:54.018)
Absolutely, And I think when you get yourself, you can see yourself starting to spiral down and it affects your mental, physical, and your financial state. You can get yourself completely off track and it’s just trying to recognize when that’s occurring. And I tell you another thing,

that I have found that I do is when I’m feeling really good and I’m hitting all my marks from everything that like all those safeguards that I put in place with discipline, when you start feeling really good, that’s when it’s easy to be like, well, I’ll skip out on reading, you know, my 20 pages tonight, or I’ll skip out on journaling X, Y, and Z. And then you start doing those things. And then that’s

before you know it, you’re gonna wake up and you’re down in that pit again. So you’ve gotta focus just as much when you’re up as when you’re down. And I think that’s the key to shortening those times of when you’re just down.

Anthony Codispoti (53:54.946)
Hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (54:09.699)
you gotta be more diligent about sort of the preventative mental health care and not just focusing on it when you’re struggling.

Robert (54:13.602)
Exactly.

Robert (54:18.156)
That’s a perfect way to put it.

Anthony Codispoti (54:21.071)
I’m curious, know, lot of folks that I talk to, different parts of the country, different industries, they talk about how there’s still a pretty tight labor market. Hard to find good people, hard to retain good people. You oversee, you know, staff of 200 folks. I’m curious what things have you tried and found success with to find and hold on to those good folks?

Robert (54:45.344)
Yeah, the labor market is very challenging and has been for years in healthcare. you know, it was challenging for, for post -acute care pre COVID and, and, and COVID, sped that up. And. Yeah. It goes back to, think to that, that culture. mean, you have to pay a livable wage, a good wage because ultimately people, you know, they do work for.

income. However, I think it’s equally important is to make sure you’ve got that culture right. You’ve got those other benefits available. Are we flexible with scheduling? If someone needs to leave early to go pick their child up, are we flexible there? Do they need 312s instead of 5 8s or 4 10s? What can we do? Even though the more flexible you get is a little harder operationally.

because, know, one change here causes, you know, two other reactionary changes that have to occur. But I think it’s just, you have to stay flexible. you know, while we can’t offer everything that everywhere else does, especially in big cities, you know, we can offer that culture. can offer, you know, that commitment to the employee and, and being flexible. I think that’s truly the key.

and will be the key going forward because people are, and I think the younger generation are, are extremely driven by the work -life balance piece as much as they are anything else. And I think you saw that during COVID and you saw, you saw personal finance change, you know, while there was some money coming in from stimulus, people were using that to pay down debts. they were using it to, you know, get their self in a better financial position. And a lot of people, you know,

changed jobs and took jobs that provided them more flexibility or more time at home. And maybe they’re foregoing some of those purchases that they weren’t before. So that’s really the key. And I think the key going forward is just going to be how good can you be from a work -life balance standpoint for staff.

Anthony Codispoti (57:03.327)
And, you know, Robert, I think one of the interesting things about you in particular is it’s very clear to me how committed you are to your employees and healthcare workers in general, because now I want to shift gears into your new startup, which is Five for Health, which folks can visit. It’s very new, but you can visit the website, f -i, the number four, health .com. And the whole purpose here.

is that you want to provide financial education specifically to healthcare workers. Tell us more about how this came about.

Robert (57:41.89)
Sure. It really came about right in the early days of the pandemic. We were trying to chase wages. Wages were going up, but still people, they still weren’t doing better, even though wages kept going up. You look through, in high school we didn’t have education classes or personal finance classes. I think there’s just a

a huge hole from a personal finance standpoint that we can feel through education. People don’t realize how important it is to start investing in your 401k or 403b early and how easy it is to become a millionaire through your average everyday job. A lot of times you hear that, well, I’ll invest later, but that

It’s so important to get in your early ages and let compounding interest work for you. And then from an expense side, just tracking and budgeting, and there’s just so much opportunity, I think, that we can help people from a financial standpoint, which also ties back to that mental health as well.

Cause if the number one stressor in life is always money. And so, you know, how can we stretch, you know, make your dollar go farther and, and, and truly find, you know, big thing for me is, the why, know, what is the why behind, what you do and, know, so if we start with answering the why, what it, what’s important to you, what’s your passion, then we can back into the finance piece and how does the finances.

your why. Because I think a lot of times again we kind of we get off track. Maybe we get in a bad mental space and you know start extending purchases or stretching ourselves too thin and then we can’t move on from a job that we don’t like or you know we’ve got to try to go and find a job that pays better even though we like where we’re at.

Robert (01:00:06.24)
when there’s that hole in the financial education literacy piece that I think is so important. And if I could just touch a little bit more on those mottos as well, if you visit the website, you’ll see that we talk about the why a lot, but there’s also a win each day motto that we use and we use it where I’m at currently with Holzer and it’s, how do we break down

big goals, big visions into doable tasks to where we can reach. I think that’s exactly what we need from a financial education piece as well.

Anthony Codispoti (01:00:53.091)
So kind of start with a vision board and then sort of break things down into smaller, like quarterly, monthly, weekly date. Is that kind how you think about it?

Robert (01:01:01.506)
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yes. You start with a vision board, you know, and you put, you know, what are your dreams, passions on, or if it’s business, what is it that you want to achieve in the next 12 months and put it on a vision board. Cause if you can see it, it’s so much more powerful than written words. so then from the vision board and then we break it down into what can we do monthly? What’s our monthly goals that’s on help us achieve that vision. And then.

We break down the monthly into weekly tasks. What is it weekly that’s gonna make us achieve that goal, which is gonna make us achieve our vision? And then further on down to win each day. What am I gonna do today? How am I gonna win this day? That way I’m on my path. And I think if you can break it down into days to where it’s tangible.

I today am going to do X, Y, and Z, and I can win that day. That’s gonna keep me on track to my goals, my vision, and my future.

Anthony Codispoti (01:02:11.097)
So ideally, how do you see this unfolding? Do you see it being more one -on -one coaching? Is it small group coaching? Is it having sort of contracts with bigger hospital systems where you kind of get to present these teachings to a larger organization?

Robert (01:02:32.29)
Sure. Yeah. So I see this and it’s in early stages. I see this as one -on -one coaching and then also too from an organizational benefit as well to where I go in and talk with people at a larger scale. But really the root is that one -on -one coaching. How can I impact? How can I help one person?

with their finances that way they can reach their goal and their vision of life.

Anthony Codispoti (01:03:05.505)
I’m looking at your website here and I see that there is a free guide that people can download which will give you the five things you need to get started on the path to financial freedom. It looks like it’s free. The only thing you’re asking for here is a first name and an email address. Is that right?

Robert (01:03:24.844)
That’s correct. Yes. Yeah. And go on and download that and, and then reach out to me. I’d be happy to follow up with anybody. And again, it’s a, it’s a personal passion to me. And I think that, you know, we can help a lot of people through personal finance and not only, not only just from a monetary standpoint, but overall in life and, and, and as well, you know, help employers to, to try to help take that stress off that person.

through education.

Anthony Codispoti (01:03:56.451)
The website again, folks, is phi4health .com. That’s F -I the number four, it’s not spelled out, F -I the number four health .com. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you’ll see where you can download that free guide. Robert, a couple more questions for you. I’m curious, what is something fun or interesting that most people wouldn’t know about you?

Robert (01:04:21.962)
Well, I’m kind of a, a boring guy, guess, you know, I, I, I’ve taken a new, passion into, show cows and I, you know, who knew that this was such a big thing, but, you know, my son started to show heifers and now we are starting to travel around. I’m learning a lot about how to put virtually makeup on cows and dress them up.

to where they can go parade around and hopefully do good.

Anthony Codispoti (01:04:54.349)
And so what does that look like in practice? Is it like combing or they’re like oils that you put on them or?

Robert (01:04:59.522)
Yeah, it’s almost like taking them to a beauty salon really, you you’ve got You got a clip them which is like give them a haircut You can dye their hair and put glue like hairspray and it’s a it’s a complete show and there’s people really good at it But it’s it’s interesting

Anthony Codispoti (01:05:23.737)
So you’ve set up a beauty parlor somewhere there on property for cows? Yeah.

Robert (01:05:26.018)
Yeah, at my in -laws, yeah, we have a washroom now, so we’re always washing them and getting them prettied up, I guess.

Anthony Codispoti (01:05:36.079)
That’s great. And have you guys won any prizes? Have you placed at all?

Robert (01:05:42.718)
Yeah, so we’ve went to a couple of shows and we’re just brand new getting into it. And he won a bread and own steer. So he had a steer that was raised on the farm. So he did win first with this. So he was excited about that.

Anthony Codispoti (01:06:02.305)
that’s fun. Nice way to get started. Now you’ve mentioned that, you know, lot of books, podcasts, et cetera, very helpful for you, both from a preventative health care, mental health standpoint, as well as, know, when you’re struggling a bit more curious if you can give some recommendations on things that have been helpful to you, whether it’s a book, a mentor, a podcast, anything kind of in that umbrella.

Robert (01:06:29.762)
Sure. I really like to read kind of biography style or memoir books because that’s really what gives, I think, lots about inspiration. If you’ve got something to aspire to, then you’ve always got that hope. You’re always going to keep driving. Again, when we start talking about that dip again, I think it’s because we lose hope or we lose our focus on what our hope is.

So I really liked the memoirs. know, Shoe Dog was a great book. Phil Knight, yeah, that was a great one. I listened to lot of Ed Milet. I liked Jocko and his Extreme Ownership, Jocko Willnick and his Extreme Ownership books. And Disney, the,

Anthony Codispoti (01:07:03.183)
About four nights.

Robert (01:07:26.324)
Ride of a Lifetime is Bob Iger’s Journey. That was another really awesome book for me. I just read a lot. I’ve recently gotten into the Savannah Bananas craze and Jesse Cole. So I’m finishing up. just read Find Your Yellow Tux, which is a great book. And I’m finishing up his other one right now.

I mean, that’s where I get inspiration from, especially someone like Jesse Cole, who if you watch anything, he just has so much passion and wants to change the game of baseball and is doing so through the bananas. So those are some good ones. really? That would be awesome. Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (01:08:11.789)
I’ve had the chance to meet Jesse a couple of times. He’s a, he’s a class individual. Yeah. Yeah. let me see one more question for you, but before I ask it, I want to do two things. If you’re listening and you like today’s content, please hit the subscribe, like, or share button on your favorite podcast app. Robert, also want to tell people the best way to get in touch with you. What would that be?

Robert (01:08:36.322)
You could my contact information is on Fi number for health .com and then also to you can find me on Facebook Robert Massey Probably the best ways

Anthony Codispoti (01:08:49.571)
Great. Okay, last question for you, Robert. I’m curious, how do you see your industry evolving in the next few years? What do you think the big changes are that are coming?

Robert (01:08:59.01)
Sure. There’s going to be a hyper focus on home and community based care. People want to age in their home, rightfully so. I think we all do. And I think you’re starting to see some money put behind that from the government. so I think you’re going to see a shift while there’s the so -called silver tsunami.

of the baby boomers that are aging and record numbers at 80 plus, as you know, over the next couple of years. Those people, I don’t think you’re gonna see as big of a increase in facility -based care as people think. Those people are gonna age in place, age in their home. So I think there’s gonna be a huge focus on home health and hospice services placed in the home.

There’s always going to be a place for nursing homes, always going to be a place for assisted livings, and they’re great places. But I think those facilities will start seeing a much older client than they are currently just because of that aging in place.

Anthony Codispoti (01:10:14.671)
Well, Robert, I want to be the first to thank you for taking both the time and energy to share your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Robert (01:10:22.796)
Thank you very much for having me.

Anthony Codispoti (01:10:25.187)
That’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast, folks. Thanks for learning with us today.