How Strong Culture Powers Growth in Healthcare Services, with Rich Johnson

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 (host): 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 Codispoti, and today’s guest is Rich Johnson, CEO of Viaquest, a health care company that believes strongly in choice for its employees and the people it serves. They have three core services, hospice, behavioral and mental health and developmental disabilities. The company was founded in 1999 and has grown from a single division in Ohio to serving individuals throughout Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania. The name represents the overall mission of the company, a group of people on a mission or quest to change the way via health care services are delivered as the largest veteran owned business in central Ohio. They are proud to employ a lot of veterans.

And we just learned that Rich is scheduled to be inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame in November of this year, 2024. Now, 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 and extra cash flow 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 founder and CEO of Viaquest, Rich Johnson. I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Rich (guest): Thanks so much, Anthony, for having me. And after that introduction, I think I’m good. I don’t know what else needs to be said.

Anthony (host):Just wrap it up here. Call it a day. So before we get into the origin story, tell us in your own words what Viaquest does today.

Rich (guest): Viaquest, we’re just, we’re blessed to have so many great employees that get to wake up every day and say they have the opportunity to change someone’s life. So we serve people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, all in home and community based settings throughout Ohio. We serve people with mental and behavioral health conditions. We serve a lot of people who have developmental disabilities with a co-occurring mental health. We’re also in quite a few skilled nursing facilities serving our aging population with mental health diagnosis. And then we serve hospice, which is one of, if not the greatest benefit that our nation has to offer people.

It’s such an amazing benefit. The word hospice can tend to scare people and feel that it’s the end. But the way we look at it, it’s how are people actually going to live in that final, in the final days while they’re here on earth and we’re blessed to be able to serve those people. So first and foremost, Viaquest, we’re here to serve. And that’s what our mission is.

Anthony (host): Interesting that you called out hospice as being such a tremendous service that you’re able to offer. Why did you single out that one in particular?

Rich (guest): Well, I think that as a nation, the word hospice just scares people. And there’s negative connotations to it. And we’re faced with that challenge every day. And people don’t fully realize, and I don’t think we do a good enough job of explaining hospice and one of the best things that has happened to hospice since I’ve been around, and we’ve been in hospice for close to 20 years now, is Jimmy Carter being on hospice.

I think that’s giving the American public a chance to understand it. He got on hospice, he hasn’t passed. He’s been able to spend that time living his life in a very meaningful way.

And so I’m excited because it’s an opportunity to shed a light on a great benefit that we have here in the United States and its service that really helps families and patients.

Anthony (host): Is our approach here in the States different as compared to other countries?

Rich (guest): I don’t believe so. I think it’s more prominent here. And it’s just a great benefit that as we, there’s been a lot of talk from people, should we change the name, because hospice does scare people. And so there’s a big debate going on around that. And I think it’s just a function of better educating people and making them aware of what the actual services are.

Anthony (host):Can you maybe explain to those for folks that have that negative connotation? Kind of like let’s shine a light on it.

Rich (guest): Yeah, no, absolutely. Great question. So the first thing that people feel is that if I put my mom or dad on hospice, they’re going to die right away. So we’re all going to die. But if you go on hospice, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to pass right away.

It’s really not a negative thing. It’s you’re going on hospice to be surrounded by care, so you can live your best life while you’re here. We have chaplains or bereavement specialists that go in and work with the family and help them cope with the fact that their loved one has a condition that’s going to end up being a life-ending condition. How do they deal with that? How can we free the family up to spend quality time with their loved one while they’re still here and take some of that day-to-day pressure off the family?

Anthony (host):So does hospice care typically, at least the way bioquests provide it, end up happening in the home?

Rich (guest): We do. Everything we do through hospice happens either in the home or a skilled nursing facility. Okay, all right.

Anthony (host):Okay, so let’s go back to a little bit more of the origin story. After high school, you were in the Air Force. How long were you in the service? And I’d be curious to hear about maybe some of the important lessons you learned there that you’ve been able to carry with you later through life.

Rich (guest): Yes, I joined the Air Force right out of high school. I didn’t have a whole lot of options. I didn’t take school very seriously. So, and I liked, you know, I was very active in high school, so I like to get into a lot of mischief trouble. So my path wasn’t looking real good. And so joined the Air Force, which what a tremendous experience it was for me and for many people, an opportunity to serve your country. The first question for most people is, you know, was I a pilot? In 1986, they didn’t have too many pilots that were 5’6″.

Anthony (host):Is there a height requirement for that? There were. There’s not now, but just with the advancements of technology and planes and those types of things. So the one thing that I really enjoyed while I was in high school was an accounting class that I took. So I went into the service and a lot of people say, I didn’t realize they had accounts in the Air Force. They’ll still have to get paid.

People still have to get paid. So great experience. I was stationed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, which is a big logistics command base in Dayton, Ohio.

Ironically, it was just 50 miles from my hometown. And because it’s such a big logistics command, had a lot of responsibility at a very young age. And I could not have asked for a better opportunity to learn on the job training while attending college, you know, at nights and on the weekends. A great, great workforce there with not only enlisted Air Force personnel officers, but a great civilian workforce that really taught me the ropes and gave me an opportunity to succeed.

And the one, you know, the Air Force, the service in general, teaches you so much about life and stills in you values. But the discipline, I was one that needed discipline. I needed that discipline and still needed to take life a little bit more seriously. And the service did that for me. And still discipline values made sure that, you know, when you give your word, you honor your word.

Rich (guest): And a work ethic taught me, you know, how to work, how to be responsible. And, you know, rain or shine, you come to work and you do your job and you do it well.

And so it could not have asked for a better opportunity. Nobody in my family had ever attended college. So I was the first one in my family to go to college and get a degree. So I did that on nights and on weekends, which was a great experience. Where did you go to college? I started at Wright State University, which is right there in Fairborn, where Wright Patterson Air Force base is. Outside of Dachie? Yep, and finished the cap on Columbus. Okay.

Anthony (host):So how long were you in the Air Force?

Rich (guest): Four years. I did one, yeah, one step. One step.

Anthony (host):Okay, so how did you find yourself going from the Air Force? What were kind of the in-between steps before getting with ViacWest, starting ViacWest?

Rich (guest): I really, you know, was blessed to have a great opportunity. Hadn’t finished my degree, had government accounting experience, went to work for a skilled nursing facility as a controller in the front office. And then there was a job that was coming up. A regional healthcare CPA firm was opening in Dublin, Ohio, which is right down the street from where I was from, Marysville, Ohio. And the managing partner, Jeff Havy, he moved from Toledo to open up this practice, hired me as the first person. So I go from being an Air Force first person with the CPA firm here in Dublin.

And just a great experience. I got to work with the whole healthcare industry, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, companies that provided services to people with developmental disabilities. Since there were only two of us, Jeff was very high level, did that high level CPA firm consulting. I got to be included in those meetings. So I was exposed to a great deal, again, at a young age. So a great, great opportunity for me to understand healthcare reimbursement, the finances to that. So I did that from 1991 to 1994. And then ended up leaving to work for Mike Levinson out of Cincinnati, Ohio, who had a healthcare company I was trying to get as a client. Okay.

Anthony (host):So you’ve got, you finish the Air Force, your first job out of college is with this new CPA firm that specializes working with healthcare entities. So you get to understand through the financial and business side of the healthcare world. And then you decide to make a transition. You meet Mike Levinson, you relocate to Cincinnati and talk to us about what that experience was like. Yeah.

Rich (guest): So Mike was a great entrepreneur. I actually didn’t have to move. So I, because so much of what we do is reimbursed by the government. I was able to stay in Columbus, the state house is here. And it gave me an opportunity to grow the company statewide. It’s right, you know, Columbus is right in the middle of the state.

So it worked out. Mike at that time served people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in two settings. There are two larger settings in Cincinnati. And he had a goal of growing his services statewide. He did an amazing job providing the services. I came on as his chief financial officer and vice president of development and put all the financial systems in place, helped him grow the company and take it statewide, grew his company from 12 million to 50 million in revenue. And took over as president. I joined Mike in 1994, took over as president in 1998.

And unfortunately, Mike suffered a brain injury in 1999 that left him permanently disabled. He was, he was young. He was 52, had a two month old and a two year old son.

His wife, Andy had never been involved in the business. And it was just a, it was a tragic and difficult experience. Mike was, you know, not only my mentor, but the owner of the company, but he was a friend and somebody that just had a tremendous impact on my life.

And so that’s really how Viacuest was born. You have the sole owner of a company, you know, basically incapacitated in a coma in a hospital. And the bank was a little bit nervous about how this would all transpire. And I worked with Mike’s wife, Andy, to make sure we could keep his company going. And so December of 1999, I stepped out for Viacuest and entered into a management agreement to run Mike’s company for him, his wife, Andy, and their two sons. And did that for 10 years. And she eventually sold to another provider here in Ohio.

Anthony (host):So as part of this transition, you both started Viacuest and were managing Mike’s original company where you were employed. It’s correct. And they’re offering roughly the same services.

Rich (guest): So Mike, you know, Mike’s company is called the Mike & Group. Great, great company offered services in facility-based settings. So when I stepped out to form Viacuest, my number one job was to continue to run his company, which we did.

And then I built Viacuest from there. Our strategy was a little bit different that, you know, having, you know, those facility-based operations, we would do community-based operations. So it wasn’t a direct competition. It was kind of an augment. And so everything we’ve done has been in home and community-based settings. And that was the big difference.

Anthony (host):And so help me understand this from an industry outsider. Facilities-based operations, does that mean that Mike’s company owned their own facilities or they were augmenting staff for facilities that somebody else owned?

Rich (guest): Yeah, Mike owned his own facilities, employed the employees, and it was a 24-hour residential care setting.

Anthony (host):And then your strategy was you eliminate the overhead of physical spaces. You don’t have to own real estate, you’re not renting a space. And instead, you are going to take care of the staffing component that, where people need help in their homes, or what do you mean by community-based service? Like where would that service be provided?

Rich (guest): Yeah, so great question. Our community-based services can mean, you know, just that going into somebody’s home, if you have an intellectual or developmental disability, we can go into the home to provide services. It’s more likely, and most of the services we provide are in typical group home settings, where you have three, two, three, four individuals with a developmental disability living on their own, and then we support them to live in that community. We support them to live residentially on their own, to get jobs, to be active. If they have a day program they like to attend, we also provide day programming services, so they can go there during the day, get those community skills, a job if they like, and really be active participants in the community.

Anthony (host):Oh, that’s interesting. And so in this scenario that you described, you’ve got two, three, four people with mental health issues, or not mental, developmental issues that they need some assistance, and they’re living independently on their own, but with the support of someone from your team, check in on them, make sure they’re okay, get them the training, help them get jobs, kind of help them find their way through the world. Is that sort of a high level?

Rich (guest): Yeah, absolutely. That’s a way, we put the supports around them so they can live in a community and be, you know, productive citizens and to do whatever they choose to do within the community, whether that choice is a job to participate in day programs, you know, make sure that they have a very robust life in the community.

Anthony (host):That’s interesting. I’m curious, I’ve got a few questions running through my head here to kind of wrap my head around all the services that you guys provide, because one of the things that I’m looking at your website here, by the way, for folks listening, it’s viaquestinc.com, viaquestinc.com, and I’m looking at your locations page, and you guys are scattered, like, I mean, you’re in Cleveland, you’re in Toledo, you’re in Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, like you guys are all over the place. How is it that you can sort of manage all of these services that you’re providing from a distance without having like physical locations in each of these geographies?

Rich (guest): Yeah, that’s a real challenge. You know, the one thing that we are 100% government reimbursed. So everything that all the revenue that we get is coming from typically state government, federal government. And when it’s at the state level, it is the Medicaid budget, which is typically the pair of last resort. So all of us providing this service, and when I say all of us, all the providers that provide this type of service who, and I can’t say enough about the companies and people dedicated to this field, because it is absolutely a calling and the labor of love that changes people’s lives. The reimbursement’s low.

So we all pretty much pay on the same scale, have the same types of benefits, do all of those things because we’re reimbursed the same. Our differentiator and what we like to focus on in the biggest part of my job is building a culture where people love to come to work, feel appreciated, feel that what they do is making a difference. So when you have that scattered management people out in individual homes, where they don’t come into a physical office can present a challenge. And fortunately, we just have great management team who really takes that culture from the top down and pushes it down to make sure that everybody feels connected and everybody understands what they do matters and it changes lives.

And so it is, I mean, it’s amazing you picked up on that right away. Not many people do, but that’s a big challenge being having that scattered site management and people out in the community. Our job, my job and goal is to make them feel part of something bigger that they are changing people’s lives.

Anthony (host):It’s really interesting to hear you talk about that being the differentiator for Viaquest is building this company culture. Because in my mind, I would think, man, that’s just going to be so hard to do. I don’t even know how to begin to wrap my arms around it since we don’t have a physical presence in these different places and everybody’s so scattered. Can you maybe give one or two examples of how you guys approach fostering that company culture?

Rich (guest): Yeah, absolutely. We’re very deliberate about it. So it’s very organized. We have a group of people that form a culture crusaders committee within Viaquest and their role is to be that leadership committee to make sure that the culture is being taken out to every branch, every person, every geographic region. And so we don’t want our values to be something that you just splash on a wall. We want them lived out every day and their role is to make sure each and every person working for Viaquest is living out our values. So first and foremost, that’s we have that leadership committee that goes out and does that. Kind of the pinnacle of our year, we bring people in. We can’t bring everybody in from the company, but roughly 500 leaders into Columbus and have a day and a half educational session. But the most important part of this is we bring people who’ve been affected by the services that the people in the audience provide.

So family members, individuals themselves, excuse me, and they get to look in the eyes of the people that provide that service and tell them how much they mean to their loved one, to them themselves, and how important their job is. And they do make a difference. And to see that, I think, really permeates that culture.

They get to hear directly from somebody’s life who’s been changed. And it just reminds them the work that our people do is so hard. It’s hard, it’s 24-7, everything we do is 24-7. And it can take a toll on people. So to have that time, to be reminded of what they do and how it impacts people, it has a true instant impact. And then we have a kind of an award ceremony at night.

It’s a raucous affair, I’m telling you. It’s not some boring, more award ceremony, but it’s competitive. People are cheering for each other. We give out awards. We appreciate it. It’s just a big appreciation for what we do. We always open it with the tribute to the United States. We present the colors. We have a little patriotic that gets us back.

We do live in the greatest country in the world, from my perspective. We certainly have our issues. And just like any family, we have our disagreements. And it’s never seen a time like we see now, but we’ll get through it together. And we just appreciate that, that we’re free to be able to provide this service. And that the people receiving these services are free to live in a community. And how powerful is that?

Anthony (host):There’s a couple of great things that I want to kind of unpack a little bit there. I love what you’re describing this annual event that you do. I mean, because I’ve never done this kind of work before, but I have to imagine as you’re describing it, it is tough and grueling and probably feels entirely thankless at times.

And so to be able to bring everybody together, lift them up, build them up, kind of have a good rah-rah and show them, have them have like actual families and actual clients, patients come in and share their stories about how meaningful this kind of work has been to them, his got to just hit the right place in the heart for the people who are on the front lines doing this work every day.

Rich (guest): Absolutely. And that’s it. It’s our time to be together to celebrate the many lives that we get to change. And it’s powerful. And Anthony, the big challenge from that is making sure that that feeling and that what their experience he lives on beyond that, the conference, the event that we have. And so they take it out of there and take it out into the operations throughout our three states to make sure everybody feels that.

Anthony (host):Yeah. And then the other thing I really like that you started to touch on there was your patriotism. You guys, you start the session with a tribute to America. You bring out the stars and stripes. And while acknowledging that while this is the greatest country in the world, I tend to agree. I’m a little biased as well, maybe, but yeah, we do have our problems. And I like how you put that, like any family does and we’ll work through them and we’ll get through them together. And I think that’s a really great message for everybody to hear anytime. But particularly this time of year, as we’re heading into a pretty contentious election that has a lot of people on edge.

And I’m going to guess that maybe a lot, and tell me if I’m right or wrong here, a lot of this sense of patriotism for you comes from having served in the Air Force for four years and having been a veteran. Am I right on that?

Rich (guest): Yeah, absolutely. It’s a way to honor the country we live in. And the fact that the services we provide is a form of freedom for so many people and so many people that could be forgotten in society. And they’re not forgotten here in the United States. And we can’t forget that we have to honor that.

And that’s one way that we do it. And you know, when I open, if you look around that room, and I’m just guessing politically, we don’t talk about it too much, but you get that’s the great melting pot. I mean, if you look into our audience, you have people from every walk of life, different races, religions, beliefs, everything.

But when we get within, you know, the four walls, and we call the four walls a vehicle, not physical walls, but within, when people walk through the doors, we have one thing on our mind. And it’s not our differences or political affiliation or anything like that. It’s serving that person. And so we don’t engage or talk about a lot of the other things because when we walk through those doors, we are united. Even how different we may be, we are united in that service. And I just commend our staff for that.

Anthony (host):I think that’s fantastic because I think a lot of times, especially when politics gets involved, we can focus too much on what separates us. And the approach that you’re describing sounds like you’re putting the focus on what the commonalities are, like what brings us together. And that can be a pretty powerful way to build a culture.

Rich (guest): And I do have to say, I tried to make some political jokes a few years ago, and it didn’t go over well. So I’ll never try that again.

Anthony (host):I thought it was going to be funny, but it wasn’t. You learned your lesson. You try something new and you move on. That’s great. So I want to stick with sort of this patriotism and this veteran theme for a moment because a couple of things. One, I understand that you guys are the largest central Ohio owned veteran business. And you take great pride in employing a lot of veterans. How does that process work? How do you identify them and help them find jobs in your organization?

Rich (guest): Yeah, we take a lot of pride in the fact that we do hire a great number of veterans, which it’s not as easy as it sounds. So we as a nation talk a lot about veterans. We want to hire veterans and it’s important. It’s easy to talk about that.

And I think that everybody has our genuine when they say that. But the skills that you have in the service, unless they’re very specific that transfer into the private workforce, is difficult. So the first thing that we do is make sure that we provide the training to allow people to make that transition from the service into the via class. But we also and we do have a great number of veterans in every division that we have.

And so for behavioral health division, we have some leaders, some psychiatric nurse practitioners who served and who also serve in the Paralympic Games and the veterans games and do a lot of those different types of things. But we do put a strong focus on it because we know and we always say and kind of, you know, it’s not shoot of Southwest Airlines, you know, hire for attitude, train for skill. That’s what we try to do. And so if you’re hiring, you know, for attitude or hiring for those values, you know, when with veterans, you’re getting that certain type that those values, you know what you can expect, they’re going to show up, they’re going to give it their all, they’re going to, they may not have, the job may not match exactly what they did in the service. But you know, they’re going to give everything they can to make it a success.

Anthony (host):So how do the veterans find you or how do you find them? How does sort of this matchmaking take place?

Rich (guest): There’s a lot of great veterans platforms that you can you can post on where veterans coming out of service years ago, we were the first private company that contracted with the government, we went to Fort Bragg. And so anybody separating through Fort Bragg, which at that point in time, this was dating back about 10 years ago, more people separated from the service through Fort Bragg than any other installation. We not only help them find jobs, we connected them with if they needed mental health counseling, if they needed medical treatment, we connected them into their communities that they were going back to it was a great it was a pilot project for the for the armed services and it was a great pilot project. So we took that experience and really applied it to our every day, making sure we know where veterans are going to look for jobs. We reach out to those veterans organizations, make sure that we’re prominent, that people know who we are, what we do and how we can reach them. Social media, I mean, through social media, we’re very big, you know, making sure veterans know what jobs are available through social media.

Anthony (host):That’s great. And then news that you just provided me the other day, which is pretty exciting, you’re going to be inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame later this year, November 2024. How did that come to be?

Rich (guest): Well, it was a big surprise to me to be so our government relations firm, Andy Herf, who works with Shoemaker advisors, whenever you go to, you know, downtown Columbus and you’re you’re educating our legislature on the services we provide. And we in and so here in Ohio, the direct support professional, which is the frontline person providing services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, they’ve been underpaid for so long because our reimbursement has been so low. And so the provider community in Ohio got together and said, this has to change.

They said, they’re the job that the direct support professionals and everybody in this field, what it needed to change, we need a better reimbursement. So we spent a lot of time at the legislature. When you go down that escalator, the Veterans Hall of Fame has a wall there.

And we would sit and I knew some people that were in it. It’s just a great honor. We look at it and unbeknownst to me, our Andy nominated me and General Ashton Hurst gave me a call. I thought I was in trouble. We provide some better service. When you get called by the general, you think you’re in trouble. I thought I was in trouble.

Anthony (host):You’ve been called to the principal’s office, Rich.

Rich (guest): You got it. Got it. And she let me know that I’m going to be one of the inductees coming up November 7th. And what a tremendous honor. And it touched me and I couldn’t speak for a few minutes because here I’m thinking I’m getting taken to the carpet.

I got a little emotional. So what a great honor. And I’m grateful to Andy and our Chief Operating Officer, Emily Stickley and my assistant, Diana Bear. They all behind the scenes. Boy, I’m a little bit concerned because now I know they all can keep the secrets. So I wonder what else they’re keeping from me.

Anthony (host):Well, fortunately, in this case, they use their powers for good. So and this ceremony, this induction will take place in Columbus, Ohio?

Rich (guest): It will. It’s going to be at Ohio State University Fawcett Center. And the governor’s going to be there. And it’s just a tremendous honor. And boy, the class, I’m very humbled with the people that I’m being inducted with. It’s not only humbling, but sometimes I have to ask myself, how did I get ahead? So it’s just a great honor.

Anthony (host):That’s terrific. And is this open to the public or is this like an invite only kind of thing? It is. It’s open to the public. Okay. Right. Well, congratulations on that honor. Thank you. Look forward to hearing about how the ceremony goes. Okay. So Rich, there’s, there are other companies that provide similar types of services.

And at least most of the ones that I’m familiar with have come across, they’re smaller, right? For somebody who’s set up, they hired a few people. What is it that has allowed you and by a quest to grow so successfully and so quickly to so many different geographies? What is it that you’re doing that’s different?

Rich (guest): Yeah, by far, by far, the reason we’ve been able to do this is the people that we have. And I know that can sound a little cliched, but it’s not.

I mean, it’s the truth that we have leaders. And that really, when we get together every year, we don’t say, never have, I’ve never said, okay, when we put our budgets together, what numbers do we want to hit? What’s the revenue numbers?

What’s the number? We don’t look at it that way. We look at how many lives do we want to change? And it’s simply that we have leaders that want to impact people’s lives and make sure they’re living their best life. And that’s how we’ve been able to grow.

We’ve taken opportunities to grow. And it’s all about making sure that no one is left in need. If there’s somebody out there with a need, want services, we want to do it.

And it’s really because of those leaders. And our psychiatric and behavioral solutions division has grown a great deal in the last several years. We not only provide behavioral health services to the people we serve within intellectual and developmental disabilities, but we go into skilled nursing facilities, which was a relatively new service. And to sort of provide that service, especially if you think of COVID, not being able to get into some of the skilled nursing facilities and being able to, we did a lot through telepsychiatry. But it’s a calling and a passion, whether it’s our therapist or our therapeutic behavioral supports or psychiatric nurse practitioners, they know that the services we provide change lives. So they are motivated to provide that services to more people to help change their lives. So that’s really how we’ve grown. We’ve just taken those opportunities and it comes from our employee base that has a charge and a passion to expand those services.

Anthony (host):I really like something that you said, you don’t look at what’s the revenue number that we want to hit, you look at how many lives do we want to change this year. And it’s a subtle but a very important difference, I think, because if you want to motivate your entire team of people, you know, saying, oh, we’ve got to hit this revenue number, that’s going to motivate a handful of people, right, the people who are going to be maybe more directly impacted by that. But to have your focus be on how can we affect more lives, how can we help more people this year. And that’s something that’s easy for everyone to get on board with, right?

Rich (guest): You got it, 100%. And it comes from them. I mean, they inspire. It comes directly from them. And again, when we talk about our behavioral health division, our director of development, Kayla Bell, it’s her passion to make sure that nobody goes unserved. Her team has grown a great deal because they wake up every day and say, where can we go that somebody doesn’t is not getting services? And how can we apply these services in these facilities? And it’s been amazing to watch.

Anthony (host):How do you think about and choose new locations, new geographies to move into? Yeah, we do it strategically.

Rich (guest): We look at what the opportunities are first and foremost. Where can we hire? There is a shortage of workers that we’re faced with in the United States, especially healthcare workers. So if we’re going to expand, we need to make sure we can hire people. So we look at that first and foremost. And then what are those opportunities?

What does that look like? We want to make sure that we’re not spreading ourselves too thin, that if we move to a geographic location, that we can provide those supports and that somebody’s not out there on their own, that we can wrap those services around it.

Anthony (host):The number of lives that you want to affect, is that something you feel comfortable sharing here? How many lives are we trying to affect in 2024 and beyond?

Rich (guest): Great question, Anthony. It’s division by division and I would be lying to you if I said I even knew what the… They come up with it and I don’t know that number off the top of my head.

Anthony (host):I appreciate your honesty and this actually leads perfectly into my next question because when you start at the business, I’m going to guess, Rich Johnson, you wore a lot of different hats. You had your fingers in pretty much everything. And being in startup mode and being in the mode that you are now where you employ so many people across so many different geographies, there has to have been a huge evolution in the way you have been involved with the company and the way that you need to sort of level up and leverage your own skills.

Wearing all the hats, having your fingers in everything at the beginning is not going to work when you’re at this size. Talk to me about how you’ve kind of made that transition through different stages of growth.

Rich (guest): Yeah, it was difficult. So being a little bit of a control freak and then as an accountant, you pay a lot of attention to the details. And so it’s very detailed, involved in a lot of different things.

But as we’ve grown, it’s interesting because you feel if I was a great detail person, I’ll always be a detailed person. And that doesn’t really hold true. I’m not good at it. They don’t let me look at the financials a whole lot now. I used to be really good at that as a CFO. And you kind of lose sight of that.

And as you grow, my vision is more on the global macro level. And the way that we’ve been able to do it is through our leaders. We have a lot of people who’ve been here for a long time. Our chief operating officer, Emily Stickley, she and I have worked together for 18 years. And she grew up in the industry. She’s just does an amazing job. She’s better than I ever was doing the things that she’s doing. And so, you know, I’ve grown, she’s grown into that and growing up in the company. She knows what, you know, what’s important from a value perspective and what we won’t compromise. And she does an amazing job of leading that. Our chief financial officer, Michael Bell. You know, being a CFO, and that’s where I came from.

I sat in that seat. When you’re in health care, it’s a real, it’s a real different dichotomy because you have to be good at the numbers. You have to make sure that we’re being fiscally responsible. But we have people’s lives in our hands.

So it’s not a you just you can’t stick to just the the numbers. And you really got to you got to balance the the fact that we are providing services. People’s lives are in our hands with being fiscally responsible.

And that’s not an easy task. So between our CFO, Michael and Emily, they work very closely together. They don’t always get along, which I wouldn’t expect them to because you have numbers and you have operations, but they do it well and make sure that the mission is never compromised. And so and then when you go from there and look at the leaders of each of our divisions and within those, they just do an amazing job to where my focus is more globally on the culture, making sure that people are living out our bodies. We’re help making them feel appreciated and driving that vision versus being involved in the day to day.

Anthony (host):You don’t often see a company founder. Still be successfully involved with a company that’s grown to the size of yours because it’s a different mentality, different personality, different skill set that’s required in those early days than it is to be able to step back and sort of look at things from a global perspective like you’re describing. I’m curious, were there any mentors or trainings or things that you found helpful in kind of coaching you through that transition?

Rich (guest): Yeah, I I’ve always been a I feel that we always have to continually be learning. So I’m a ferocious reader. So I read and the we were a good fortune of living here in the United States.

We have a lot of great examples. So, you know, the one thing I really had to let let go of is, you know, my ego and making sure that, you know, because I did it a certain way and was over certain things at one point in time, I needed to let that go. So I wouldn’t say there was one one person that did help mentor me, but a lot of people I’ve been so blessed with having a great advisors around it. Whether it’s our attorneys or our CPA firm and people that I could pick up the phone and call and just take their individual experiences. You know, I encourage everybody to have that good team around them and just pick their brains because they they whether it’s my my long time attorney who just did amazing work as we grew. He represented a lot of other clients. It could give me advice on what they he saw them do. Same with our CPA firm and different.

You know, different professionals that could provide that. And and and to this day, just continually learning we this podcast. I mean, what an amazing gift that you’re giving people to help them learn. I mean, that it so we have access to podcasts like this. We have access to to to books and and whether you read or listen to it. Information like we’ve never had and and and I I don’t take that for granted. I make sure that I’m always trying to learn.

Anthony (host):That’s excellent. That’s a piece of advice. I try to get my little kids every day. You know, they look at dad and they think that I’ve got the answers and I know everything and they can’t wait to be out of school so they can stop learning.

So no, so if you’re doing it right, you are learning something new every day. I and I put myself in those same shoes. So a great lesson for my eight and ten year old, a great lesson for me to hear again. Great lesson for our listeners to be reminded up to always be learning new things. You know, I I’m curious to hear your perspective on this, Rich.

There’s a lot of folks I talk to in this podcast. You know, they’re still experiencing a very tight labor market. It’s hard to find good folks. It’s hard to hold on to good folks.

I think, you know, the what you shared before about all the effort that you put into building a company culture, probably goes a long way to holding on to good folks and keeping them, you know, at the company. But I think, you know, you even said at the beginning of the interview, like you and your competitors, you get the same government reimbursements. So you’re making the same amount of money.

You have the same amount of to dole out to folks in terms of pay and benefits and in all of that. So what are some things that you’ve tried and are finding that is working for you to help recruit those folks into your organization to begin with?

Rich (guest): Yeah, and I think first and foremost, we we we try to focus on retention because, you know, trying, as you said, you know, we have a real workforce challenge and there’s a shortage of people coming into the workforce. So our first and foremost, we want to make sure that we’re retaining people. So we do spend a great deal of time reaching out to our employees and making sure whether it’s through very simple surveys.

And it starts with the day they’re hired. How are we doing from an orientation? What are we making them feel like when they walk through the doors? How are we training them, equipping them to be successful? When they’re on, you know, 30, 60, 90 days, we’re constantly seeking feedback from them because we found that within the first six months, if we can keep somebody and they get acclimated into our culture, we’re going to keep them.

But we you can lose a lot of people within those first six months to a year. So we’re constantly seeking feedback. What are we doing well? What could we do better?

Any suggestions you may have. And having a workforce that’s out in the community can be difficult. So making sure that we’re connecting with them, getting their feedback and input. And I think that they I think, you know, once we have that, if people are happy, it helps with the recruiting process because they’re going to refer their friends or their families. And we have, you know, referral bonuses for for our employees if they bring somebody else. And that we want that we believe we really do believe in nepotism. Because if you’re happy and you want to share that, you know, you’re going to bring a family member and our friend.

And and I know that there was a time where that was not looked upon favorably. But, you know, I have to say that because, you know, all three of my kids work for the company. And, you know, my son, so we we believe and it’s in our blood. And so I think it all I think it all evolves around if people are happy, then that helps with the recruiting process. And and so that’s that’s really what we focus on.

Anthony (host):Nothing more powerful than word of mouth. And I’m curious, what’s the approach. So we talked about recruiting retaining staff. How do you find new clients? What’s that process look like for you?

Rich (guest): It’s really different, depending on what division it is. So we do have referral sources that in all three divisions. So here in Ohio, you know, we’re blessed. We have we have county boards of developmental disabilities doing an amazing job. And so partnering with them, they’re responsible for that care coordination for people with disabilities.

So we really focus on building a great working relationship with our county boards, making sure that we are working with skilled nursing facility operators. Boy, they they’ve got a tough job. And, you know, being in health care every day, a new regulation comes on.

So you’re getting pounded. And certainly that’s so with the skilled nursing facility community right now. How can we be a better partner to you to come in and provide services to the people living in your communities? And then, you know, that that and then on the hospice side, working with hospitals, working with skilled nursing physicians, you know, making sure, you know, that’s a conversation that physicians weren’t always comfortable having that your loved one may need hospice at some point in time. How can we help you as the physician? If we can have that conversation, how can we make it easier? And I think physicians are doing such a great job. They’ve educated themselves on the hospice benefit and are able to have those conversations. So you have to be fully engaged in the communities because that’s where we’re going to get our first.

Anthony (host):Rich, what’s a serious challenge that you’ve had to overcome either in your business or your personal life? And what did you learn from that experience?

Rich (guest): Yeah, so I’ve had several different big challenges. The first, you know, was was Mike getting sick. I mean, that, you know, that that affected me personally just because here’s my mentor and my friend and how that’s affecting him. And the weight of that to make sure that his company could survive. And then right on top of that was the financial crisis of 0809. So we, you know, were a relatively new company at that point time had been been around for for 10 years, had our legs under us, didn’t have a whole lot of debt. But everything we do, we don’t have physical, any physical plans, we don’t have facilities, we don’t have homes, we don’t have anything, everything’s receivables. And when the banks got in trouble, the bank that we were a part of and were funded for was having an especially difficult time. So they looked at they looked at all of their customers that didn’t have physical assets, they proposed a risk, which we would be one.

And I’ll never forget that it was a Friday afternoon. And I had been asking for the better part of a year that our line of credit needed to be extended because we grew. And as you grow, your receivables grow, we needed to grow that line of credit.

And I’ve been on them quite a bit. And I got a call and said, Well, we’d like to come out and talk and I said, Oh, it’s about time. They’re coming out to extend my line of credit. And the more I thought about it, said it’s 430 on a Friday, they’re not coming to to extend our credit. So they walked in and said that they stripped all the cash out of our our account, paid down the line of credit, not fully, and then asked us to leave the bank. And that that, you know, everything that we do in basically they would not lend us another dime. So we had to operate on our cash, which they had just taken the cash and paid down the line of credit. So I had a payroll, I had to come up with $500,000 over the weekend, and into Monday to fund our payroll.

And I was just very grateful. We had somebody that we worked with that owed us money, but it wasn’t due for another six months. And I called him he was a business owner himself.

skilled nursing facility operator does does a great job here in Ohio, and explain the situation. So he he paid us early. So we can be paid for the next year, year and a half. That that was our life was making sure that we can meet number one, make sure we could pay people. And we paid a lot of people late, work the phones called vendors. I mean, this was this really shows you what what America the American people are about, because I would call people and say, I can’t pay you, I will make it right. But if you work with me, and nobody, nobody made a move on us, and allowed us to do that, there were worse, we were paying, you know, some of our benefits late. And caught so we work the phones, you know, constantly between our finance department myself asking people to stick with this. And it was hard, you know, we we never missed a payroll. There are a lot of people didn’t get paid. And it took us it took us about a year, year and a half to get another bank engaged, because at that time, if you remember the bank, you know, no bank is taking on new new customers.

So we spent a year and a half. And so if you think about that, our employees some of their benefits weren’t getting paid. So they’re hearing it from their spouses, they’re hearing it from their physicians.

And so it was a terrible time in the world in the United States. But now, our employees have the most difficult job you can imagine now they’re getting it on a personal side. But our, our turnover was less than it’s ever been in that 16 months, 18 months, and our employee satisfaction was highest it’s ever been. People literally said, I have another job that will pay me a lot more money. And I won’t have these headaches, but I can’t leave. Because if I leave, that’s going to show people that we provide services to that the company’s not stayed.

And it could affect their life. So we’re staying and people stayed. And they took the, you know, later on, they may have taken that job. It was the most that that just shows the fabric of this nation and the company. And those those are the types of employees we have.

Anthony (host):So there’s who’s listening that was a skeptical about Mike’s, or I’m sorry, Mike, about Rich’s discussion on building company culture. Replay the last 45 seconds of what Rich had to say there. During the most challenging part of the company’s history, when they struggled to make payroll, they couldn’t always pay benefits. Everybody that works there knows that the company is on shaky financial ground. They have the highest employee satisfaction rates and the lowest employee turnover rates ever. I can think of no other thing to attribute that to then loyalty by way of an incredibly strong company culture. Am I missing something, Rich? Is there something else at play?

Rich (guest): No, I think it really goes to the type of people that do the work. It’s a calling and they really sacrifice for the people we serve. I mean, they give it, they give everything they have. I’ve never been a part of anything like it.

It was truly amazing. Every day, there was a story or somebody that could have moved on to a better life, a better position, but wouldn’t because they they did not want to disrupt the lives of the people we serve. They felt that if they were the first one out, then other people would follow and then it would be a domino effect and we stayed and became stronger because of it. I’m only here today because of those people.

Anthony (host):How did you eventually get another bank to work with you during this time? Because it wasn’t like the economy came back like this. It was a slow process.

Rich (guest): Yeah, we eventually went with a specialty lender. So, yeah, banks, everybody knows the requirements of those, but there are some specialty lenders in healthcare that lend off of your receivables and they get paid a premium for that. So, it’s a little bit expensive. It was a road we’d never taken, so I didn’t have a whole lot of context. So, I do know a lot of people within the industry and try to participate in industry types of functions. So, with the help of our attorneys, with the help of other people, got connected to the right people. But even then, once we got the introduction, to get through their credit committee and get comfortable with the fact people had to be confident that we were going to survive. So, even though all the metrics may have been there for a specialty lender to take us on, month three, they didn’t do it because they could see that the company could tip one way or another. After a year of seeing that our employees stayed, seeing the fact that we kind of strung this together by collecting cash and paying bills and doing it, they saw the fortitude of the company and said, we’re going to take a chance on this company.

Anthony (host):Have you been able to transition back to a relationship with a more traditional bank with more favorable lending terms? Or are you still with that same organization from years ago?

Rich (guest): Yeah, no. We were fortunate to be able to transition. I can’t say enough about them. It was Gemini Finance that took a chance on us. And then we partnered with Key Bank here in central Ohio.

And the person that serviced our account, Roger Campbell and Melissa Ingersen, who was the president over the Columbus, they not only, we were not only a customer, but they would come to our annual event. And they would see the services we provide. And in it, they became part of that family could see that. And so they become one of our biggest advocates to bank with us and to help us be successful. And that’s something we’ve always tried to do, is if we can, our employees get first opportunity to come to our conference. But we do like to bring some of our very important partners in so they can see and look to people in the eye that it’s more than just numbers on a page. It’s more than just a financial. It’s a calling to serve people in the community and serve a group of people that could be forgotten in society.

Anthony (host):Rich, what’s a fun or interesting fact that most people wouldn’t know about you?

Rich (guest): Oh, a fun fact about me. So humor is one of our values. So our values just happened to choice. We didn’t go down that road. So it’s customer service, the humor second, ownership, integrity, creativity and excellence. And so humor is important. So I like to have fun. And so this should be an easy question for me. What would be a fun fact? But I’m blanking on something that I could say that’s appropriate. I like it.

Anthony (host):Maybe you have a good joke to share with us. I don’t.

Rich (guest): Is it humor guy? No. Okay.

Anthony (host):Fair enough. So one more question for you before we go, Rich. Before I get to that, I want to do two things. For those listening today, if you like today’s content, please hit the like, share, subscribe button on your favorite podcast app. Rich Johnson, I also want to tell people the best way to get in touch with you. What would that be?

Rich (guest): I think you did that, Anthony, on viquestinc.com to check us out on our website. It has all the information there. And it shows all the great work that our people do. So that’s the easiest way to get in contact.

Anthony (host):Viquestinc.com. And then last question for you, Rich. 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?

Rich (guest): I think it’s an important time for healthcare. I think innovation and how is AI going to play into that. So when you get reimbursed, a fixed amount from the government, you got to be as efficient as possible. If you can use technology, there’s never going to be enough people. So it’s not a function that technology is going to replace people. It can’t happen. The numbers just don’t fit in healthcare. So how can we use technology to become more efficient on the back end so people can spend more time face to face with the people we serve?

And that’s the most important thing. As healthcare is an industry, our nurses take, for instance, in hospice. They got into hospice. They want to spend time with the patient at the bedside.

But there’s so many requirements on documentation. They’re spending time looking at a computer when they should be looking into the face of somebody they’re serving. How can we use technology to get them to provide that service face to face better and faster? And I think it’s a very important time to leverage that technology. I think AI, a lot of people are nervous about it. I’m one excited about it because if it can free up time for people to spend more time on that direct contact, the better it’ll be.

Anthony (host):How do you see AI playing into this? Are there any tools or examples of it being used in your field yet?

Rich (guest): Yes, a tremendous in our IT department, our CIO, Samir Bagarva, has done an amazing job. So we have a lot of shifts to fill. I mean, we have 3,800 employees and we were 24-7. So a lot of those shifts were manual processes. If somebody called off, if somebody couldn’t cover a shift, you work the phones. Who has hours available?

Who’s not worked so many hours? And so it was a very manual process of people working the phones. Now that’s all electronic and you can use AI.RPA process to where the computer actually does it.

It scans who’s work, who’s eligible to work for that particular person, who has hours available, who geographically, who’s the closest, and it narrows it down and can fire out an email or a text to see who can pick up a shift. It’s had a tremendous impact. And that’s just one example. I mean, the amount of hours that saves people from working phones and trying to fill shifts is incredible.

Anthony (host):Well, it’s fascinating. It’s certainly an interesting topic to keep an eye on. Well, Rich Johnson of Viaquest, I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Rich (guest): Well, Anthony, I appreciate you. And you know, the funny part about when you asked a fun fact about, I was class clown on my class. I know how to have fun and I totally whiffed on that one.

Anthony (host):I put you on the spot. Well, does something come to mind yet or are you still sort of stuck?

Rich (guest): Well, I get stuck because it’s the appropriateness of I can come up with some really good stuff.

Anthony (host):Coming up with the PG version of it’s a little more difficult.

Rich (guest): You’ve been a great host and my gosh, you pick up on things. I mean, an amazing host. So thank you for what you do and you’re doing great work.

Anthony (host):I thank you. I appreciate those kind words, Rich. And also, thank you to the audience for learning with us today. That’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.