Serving the Aging Population: Uma Das Munshi on Building a Home Care Business | Nursing Home Series

Anthony Codispoti: Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Kodespode and today’s guest is Uma Das Manchi, owner and CEO of Synergy Home Care of Greater Boston. They are dedicated to providing personalized home care plans including non-medical services like companionship, memory care and disability support. Their mission is to deliver the best possible care, enhancing people’s daily experiences and building strong connections through compassion. Under Uma’s leadership Synergy Home Care has maintained a reputation for high quality service and has been recognized by Home Care Pulse as a best of home care endorsed national provider for several years. Uma brings more than 24 years of experience in post-acute care and is specialized in stabilizing and improving operations across various healthcare facilities.

She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Physical Therapy from Northeastern University, an MBA in Healthcare Administration from DeVry University and an Executive Leadership Certification from Cornell University. Her focus on strategic growth and operational efficiency has led to significant achievements within her organization and beyond. 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 in extra cash flow by implementing one of our innovative programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible.

To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefitsagency.com. All right, now back to our guest today, the owner and CEO of Synergy Home Care Services of Greater Boston, Uma. I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Uma Das Munshi: Thank you for inviting me. This is going to be fun.

Anthony Codispoti: Okay, so Uma, let’s go back a little bit before Synergy because you’ve got quite a bit of education, several degrees, and you have leadership experience at different healthcare companies along the way. Tell us a little bit about that path before we get into Synergy.

Uma Das Munshi: Well, it’s a story of me coming from India to study here at Northeastern University to get my physical therapy license. And you know, little did I know when I was graduating with my physical therapy license that within the first two years of me joining as a traveling physical therapist, I would land in the geriatric industry and fall in love with the geriatric industry. You know, I had the honor to work with some very known companies at that time.

And just working with geriatric population, I learned one thing. Through their eyes, I get to see the history of where we were. And through their eyes, I get an honest opinion of where we should go. Because at their point in life, they are not trying to be diplomatic. They’re honest. And you have to be really creative to work with them. Because no person who’s 92 years old or 86 years old is just a knee or just a hip. So you’re working with a whole person. It’s a very holistic approach.

I love that. You have to be at your creative best to work with geriatric people and it’s very fulfilling. So I went into that and that just grew into me stepping into different leadership roles. And soon I was running a rehab company. And then from there, I started a homecare company because I’m always a little restless.

I’m one of those kids who in schools did not study all the chapters that were coming in exam, wanted to read the next chapter. So I think I was doing geriatric rehab. And then I was like, wait a second, homecare is the next best thing to do. So I created the skilled homecare company, Medicare certified for that particular rehab company from there, them getting acquired, led me into the nursing home industry on the other side, not the rehab side, the actual operational side. And then I just kept going to different companies and I realized everybody I guess has a superpower. My superpower is only one small thing.

I’m a catalyst. I like to see when I go in what the issues are, where we can do better and bring those resources together. So I think I’ve been very, very blessed in getting really good team members by recognizing who does the best and what talent, pulling them together and turning a company around or getting to a point where they can actually spin it off to sell. And from there, here I’m at synergy because at some point you decide that now I want to do this for myself, where I can make all the executive decisions. So here I’m at synergy.

Anthony Codispoti: So let’s go back a little bit because I want to hear more about the journey that brought you from India to the States. Did you already have family or friends here? Were you coming on your own kind of blind without support? Like that’s a big move to make. What was that?

Uma Das Munshi: It is. It is a big move. And now that I’m a mother myself, I don’t know how my mom let me go. But my sister was here studying at Northeastern University. She’s a big scientist in the research world of muscular dystrophy now. So she was the reason that I was even allowed to come here. Because from India at that time, sending a girl who’s not married off to the world of America is a scary daunting task for any parent. So I came here, I lived with her, I studied at Northeastern with a good heart to go back. But again, just exactly what happens in colleges, you meet your significant other and then you get married and one year turns into three and now you have a child and you are here. So that’s how I got here because my sister was here. So I owe a lot to her.

Anthony Codispoti: Okay. And then you found yourself in the senior care industry and one of the companies that you were at, you helped take them to the point where they got acquired. I understand that.

Uma Das Munshi: Yes. Actually, Therapeutic Resources Management, we started the home care division and the home care division got acquired by Athena. And from Athena, I moved on to another company that hired me just to turn the company around Vero Healthcare and they got spun off and sold. That’s what he needed me to do. That’s what I did. Gotcha.

Anthony Codispoti: So those jobs that you’re taking, you’ve developed a bit of a track record, probably came with a relatively decent paycheck and it’s consistent and it’s safe. Unlike being a business owner, going out and starting your business takes capital, there’s risk, you’re responsible for a lot of folks in their paychecks. Were you at all nervous about making that jump from job security to the great unknown?

Uma Das Munshi: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I was very nervous and to be very honest, like a lot of people who get into their first business, I think I had more rainbows and dreams than I had the reality check because when you are running a company as a CEO, you have a whole financial team supporting you and you’ve got it all figured out. You don’t have to worry about every single dime and every single department and then you get a small entity. So coming into synergy, I think I was mentally prepared for a little bit of a challenge because now I don’t have a paycheck, but I didn’t realize the realm and the depth of the challenges till I started it. And you know what, honestly, I’m so grateful because it brought me back to ground level, base humility and the desire to learn again. So I think it went from me overseeing a team of sales and a team of finance and a team of ops and giving orders basically, hey, let’s figure it out, let’s do a strategic plan. I’ll be your facilitator.

You guys decide the plan, let’s put it into action. From all of that, I had to turn into what do I do next? Whose door do I knock?

I had knocked on anybody’s door in years. So it gives you a humility check, so you’re right, but I knew there was going to be a risk, but I was thinking of not having a paycheck. I think the risks were a lot more, but also the learning curve started all over again. And I think like I told you in the past, I love new things. Well, Uma here was a new thing, back to square A. So yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: I’ve heard a similar story from lots of business owners and I’ve been through this myself with different startups where I get X number of months or years into it and maybe now it’s finally starting to click, but I look back at what I went through and I’m like, if I had known how hard it was going to be, I might not have rolled up my sleeves and jumped into that because it was a bit overwhelming. And I think sometimes that naivete is actually helpful for folks, right?

Uma Das Munshi: Because yeah. Otherwise I would not step into the ocean of new business. I mean, I would just be comfortable, but they always say comfort zone cannot be fun. So I think you and me are both people who’ve learned. Very much. And you’re still here.

Anthony Codispoti: We’re still kicking. So you decide that you want to go off and you want to start your own business because you’re the girl who likes to read the next chapter. You want a new challenge. And how was it that you actually landed on the decision to buy a franchise from Synergy Home Care? I’m sure there were other options.

Uma Das Munshi: Well, you’re right. I was thinking of my own business for a while and then my mom had cancer. By God’s grace, she’s good now. She’s in remission. But when she had cancer, me as a working daughter and my sister, to provide care for her, we were looking for caregivers to be at home, to keep her at home, keep her safe. I did not want her in a nursing home just because I, you know, the way our Indian upbringing is, I want her at home with us.

But finding the consistency of caregivers and having a schedule that works for my mom, not for the caregivers so much was just so difficult that I was always saying to my mom, I wish I owned the company. Well, guess what? I get a call from a franchise owner who wants to sell the franchise. And he said, are you interested?

I’ve seen your name and talked to some people who said you’re in the big market for a new business. I was like, this has got to be universal saying something to me. And so the journey began.

Anthony Codispoti: So how did this person get your name?

Uma Das Munshi: You know, it’s from the community. I think what ends up happening is brokers here about people looking to buy businesses or doing something in the healthcare industry. And I think that’s how he got my name and he purchased just reached out. And it just happened to be the right day for me because I wasn’t thinking. I was thinking more emotionally.

So I’m like, here I am. And honestly, as I was going through the process, I started noticing other home care companies and I started talking to people and synergy kind of stuck with me. And I took the franchise because synergy came out as a company that really supported their franchisees. And I think I was looking for somebody who would support me. So I think that worked out really well.

Anthony Codispoti: Say more about the support that synergy provides you because I think that’s really important. There’s a lot of franchise opportunities out there. And maybe you’re not always getting what it is that you need to be successful. So what is it that they do for you?

Uma Das Munshi: A few things. The screening process is very tough. You have to actually go through all their senior management teams and make sure they understand you and you understand them because they’re not just going to give a franchise to anybody. The training process was very rigorous. I felt like I was back in school, which is great. But more than anything else, their support is incredible because I don’t have to be creative in marketing because you click home care and synergy comes up faster than anybody else. They have a lot of national partnerships that they put me in touch with. They have an operational team that’s right there next to you but not breathing down your neck.

You know, there’s a difference. They are they are right there but not micromanaging. They want you to be successful. So they will put you on different webinars, different trainings. They have different partnerships that you can learn from but they are not telling you how to run your business. They have very strong guidelines and training programs but they will never tell you this is how you need to run your business. So that’s what makes them, I think, incredible partners for franchising.

Anthony Codispoti: So you said something a moment ago where you had to start knocking on doors again for the first time in years. In my mind, I took that to mean like marketing sales, like going out, like looking for referral partners, kind of a thing. Am I correct in that? Because it also sounds like maybe synergy is directing a lot of business to you already.

Uma Das Munshi: No. So the way if you think about it is they have marketing done, right? They have taken care of all the brochures and creating that website and all of that. I don’t have to create that because when you start a new business that’s your recognition in today’s social media, right?

So they have that covered. The sales that I have to do is knocking on the doors of my local partners. The national partners can only give you about a 3% of the referrals that cannot, cannot convert because those national partners have partnerships with some other people too.

My local partners is where I need to knock doors on because they need to know Ooma, running synergy, giving local care. And as you know, Massachusetts is a very close knit community. If you’re from Mass, you will succeed. If you’re, if you know people in Mass, you’ll succeed and national cannot help that. So that’s what I mean. They’re two different levels. Gotcha.

Anthony Codispoti: So who is it that you forge relationships with their locally that was able to help direct the right kinds of clients to you?

Uma Das Munshi: There’s a few. There’s doctors obviously, doctors in the community because when they have elderly patients who need a little extra care, that’s who they call is me because they want trusted partners. They don’t want their case managers to call 15 people. They want somebody they can call and they know is going to take care of their patients. Then we have the assisted living facilities, which have a huge need nowadays because they have their staffing pattern. But if a patient does not want to leave the assisted living and go into a skill nursing facility, they need to be a little bit more independent.

And for that, the families need extra care for this person. That’s where I come in. So there’s assisted living, there’s doctors, and then there’s senior centers. Those are three of my biggest referral places.

Anthony Codispoti: So aside from setting up those relationships with the referral partners, you purchased this business a little over two years ago. What are some of the other big changes that you’ve implemented since coming in there?

Uma Das Munshi: You know, one of the biggest change I think I’ve implemented is being the face of the company. I am making sure that I am personally going in and assessing every new client that comes in that through the door. They’re not just a phone call. I’m not sending off my director of community relations to meet them. I want to go and assess them. I’m a physical therapist, so it makes it easier for me to assess their mobility so that I can make sure that caregivers have matched appropriately. That’s one of the things that people didn’t know that the owner of Synergy would do.

Anthony Codispoti: That they were surprising to me as well.

Uma Das Munshi: Yeah, and it’s nice also because as you can understand, sometimes private care, private duty is expensive. So sometimes a family cannot afford all the care, but me being the owner, I can actually sit down with them and say, okay, what is it that you need? What can you afford? And let’s figure it out.

I don’t need to go through hierarchy to get you different rates. Let’s figure out what can I do for you because at the end of the day, my job is, it’s actually my commitment to my mom when I started it, is I’m going to try my level best to try and provide the care without stressing out the family. And that’s a fine balance for me because I’m also running a business. So I like being able to be the face of Synergy

Anthony Codispoti: and I talk about being the face of the company. So that involves being the one to meet with the patients first and assessing what their needs are and putting a plan in place. It also involves doing things like this, like our interview today. Does your blog kind of play into all of this as well? And can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Uma Das Munshi: Actually, no. My blog is more of my passion, leadership.

Anthony Codispoti: That’s completely separate. Okay. Yeah, it’s separate. And leadership, people go, you know, you’re talking about corporate leadership and I’m not. I’m talking about a mom being the CEO of the family and how that skill set gets transferred to their kids. And when they are coming out of high school and college, they know what leadership skills are. So I talk about leadership in different arena because I love leadership, you know, whether it be taking a new team of managers and training them to deal with their departments or working in a meeting and presenting to somebody because speaking in public is a scary thing for a lot of people.

I talk about that. I’m not perfect at it, but I learn from other people and I pass on those. I interview people sometimes and I take their quotes. I talk about how important it is when young people are choosing a company to look at the culture versus just the salary because a culture of a company is going to eat your operations for breakfast every day. You know, so there’s different things that happens in our leadership realm and that’s what I try to get across to people. So the blog is leadership evolves.blog. Yes, it is. And you’re regularly updating the content here.

Uma Das Munshi: I mean, I think, you know, I need to be better Anthony. I need to be more like you, more diligent. I’m going to start doing it better, but there is a lot on that. And I’ve had a lot of good feedback from it too.

Anthony Codispoti: I mean, there’s almost enough here to write a book.

Uma Das Munshi: I told you that’s my next goal, to write a book. And you know what it is Anthony? I think what I enjoy writing is not about a lot of technicalities. It’s more about day to day situations, right? I mean, if you think about it when you were going to do a podcast with me, my nervousness obviously is there. I’m going to be on camera. I’m going to be talking.

Do I say the right thing or the wrong? You put me at ease. Now the skill sets I saw from you is what I’m going to write about in my next blog. Because when somebody goes to meet somebody new, those skill sets of putting somebody at ease, it’s huge, right? Because if you were nervous, then I would be nervous.

If you were uptight, then I would be like, oh my God, this is a school performance. So those things, your smile, how you came across, I was having technical difficulties right up front. You didn’t let that bother me.

It’s just how even keel you were. And I think that is huge. Now that’s something I’m going to write about because a lot of people don’t realize how they can put the other person at ease in a meeting.

Anthony Codispoti: Well, I appreciate you saying all those kind things. And I look forward to reading that blog post. When do you think we might see a book from you then?

Uma Das Munshi: I’m hoping before the end of the year.

Anthony Codispoti: Okay, great. Keep us posted.

Uma Das Munshi: That’s my dream. That’s my passion. That’s my dream. And I’m going to bring it to fruition.

Anthony Codispoti: All right. So a lot of our listeners are looking to make their mark. I’m kind of curious to hear what advice you might have for someone else that’s looking to advance their career in this same field.

Uma Das Munshi: You know what, one of the things that’s really helped me, Anthony, and I think a lot of people forget that is as you go through the journey of your career and life, you meet a lot of people and we see each person as what can they give me today. And I think building that network of relationships, learning from them on an ongoing basis, being vulnerable to ask the questions and learning from somebody who’s been more successful than you and somebody who’s not been as successful because then you know what not to fail in.

That humility, that vulnerability, and that ability to constantly forge relationships is what’s going to build a path for you because a lot of people sometimes think that career path is all about money and growing to the next ladder and the next ladder. We both know it’s not. Sometimes it’s that sling back effect, right? You get pulled back and because you need a paycheck and food on the table, you do take that, but if you take it with good grace, you end up learning a skill that you did not have and the next jump you’re going to make is going to be way better and way steadyer than it would have been if you just took a paycheck increase.

Anthony Codispoti: Interesting. So say more about the slingshot, this idea of sometimes you’ve got to take a step backwards in order to be launched even faster and further forward. Is that kind of the idea?

Uma Das Munshi: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I’m a physical therapist. I went and started doing different management roles in a therapy company. That’s all I knew, right? Therapy was my big to do. Then I created a home care company. I learned that, but then I got this opportunity to go into a nursing home and assisted living and oversee them.

And you know what? In all honesty, I loved it. I joined it with the fear of not knowing enough and I was honest with the owner. I do not know that industry.

Teach me. That’s vulnerability because I would love for him to think I’m the best, give me the highest paycheck. I did not want the highest paycheck. I wanted to learn.

I learned. I told my regional managers who were technically reporting into me is the only reason I was the CEO is because I had a strength of pulling all resources together, but the knowledge base was with them and I’m going to learn from them. The next position that I took was actually a step back. I got a pay cut, went into the industry of actually financing. And I did that for personal reasons. My daughter was about to graduate high school.

The one complaint she had was she never got to spend time with me while she was still here and she was going to go off to college. So I took a step back knowingly and I went back was not thinking that it’s going to help me in my career. But now that I look back, it did because I learned a whole different industry. I learned how the financing world works that makes the entire industries go around. And then from there, the next leap I made was way better than where I was going to be if I just stayed in that company, previous company or just kept going in that line.

Because now I was coming with the knowledge base of operations and the financing background and how do those mesh and what do I need to learn? So did I take a step back or absolutely? It was pay cut. It was a title change. It was, I wasn’t the important shark anymore. I was one of the small fish. But you know what? I learned so much more. And that was the first time I realized, oh my God, it’s okay because the next jump I made was way bigger than I would have ever made.

And today’s generation needs to learn that because I have my own kids, my son’s 27, my daughter’s 21 and I have this conversation with them all the time. Do not just look at the paycheck and the title. Look at where you can learn. This is your time to learn. If you can learn your skills from different places, moving forward is going to be easy piece of cake. But you’ve got to learn those skillsets. So you have to take a step back to move forward. I first need to believe when that opportunity comes and you have a gut feeling that says go for it, go for it.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, it’s interesting. It’s easy for once you get to that sort of spring forward part of the slingshot effect to be able to look back and say, oh, that was really helpful. That helped to propel me. But when you’re in the midst of that and you’ve taken that pay cut and that title demotion and you’re not the big shark anymore, it can be pretty unsettling. You feel like you’ve taken a step back in life.

The trajectory, if you were to draw a graph, was going up and to the right and then all of a sudden you feel like you’ve dropped off. Did you feel that way as you were kind of taking that, we’ll call it a demotion? Or did you already have clarity in what this was going to turn into?

Uma Das Munshi: Oh, clarity never comes till after the fact. You and me both know that, right? The rear view mirror is the best one. But I had fear because I was stuck between a commitment to my child, a paycheck that I needed for my child and my resume, right? What was it going to look like? So I was very scared, very nervous, but that network I talked about, people you meet in your life who can teach you, who can be your mentors, I was very lucky. I had a friend who’s a very big person in a different company and he has always been a mentor to me. And I had a long chat with him and I was like, what am I doing? He’s like, you’re going to take a step back, bless you, bless you. And you’re going to know what to do next.

You’re going to be scared and it’s okay to be scared. And you know, you’re absolutely right, Anthony, when the paycheck is not there and you need certain things to do. So I’m not telling people to just take a slingshot. I’m telling people from my experience, what I can share is, prepare in your life when the tide is high and you’re doing really well. But there’s that feeling that there’s another 10% you could do better. Start saving, start planning and look for the opportunity that’s going to give you that extra 10% because that last 10% is about fulfillment. And that’ll come by learning more. Otherwise, you’re just doing the same thing for me to go into a company that’s like post-acute and turn it around.

No problems. But now that I have some other added value to me, it’s just was so much more fulfilling. So I have learned the hard lessons. People are getting laid off all the time nowadays, right? And I always tell them lay off is hard and get it. But take a moment. That’s your moment to take a step back, think about it and say, what do I really want to do? Is this where I want to go back with my get my resume, get it on the door or let me do something small on the side while I find what I really want? want to do.

Anthony Codispoti: Sometimes those times in life where it feels like you’ve taken a step back or things have slowed down, they can be really hard because you’ve sort of been detached from what your identity was before. But I think part of the lesson of what you’re trying to share is if you can take those moments and do some reflection about what you want to do with yourself, where you want to go, and use that time as an opportunity to improve, to shore up, to learn new skills. Even if you’ve had to take a step back career-wise, like what can you learn and how can you do the best at what it is that you’re doing right here, right now, so that when in the future, when not if a new door opens up, you’ve got a whole new set of skills that you can bring to the table. And a lot of times that’s where things really can blossom and bloom.

Because your passion is there too. Yeah. So Uma, I’m kind of curious to hear, where do you see the future of the business? What are their growth plans? Are there new territories? Are there additional services that you can offer?

Uma Das Munshi: Unfortunately, unfortunately, synergy provides home care that’s non-medical, but it’s only home health aids and caregivers. We are not going to have a diversified line unless they create that, right? But for me, there’s definitely new territories that I’m already thinking about. And there is definitely a growth there, because as you know, the baby boomers that are coming off age now that need care, they have decided how they want to grow old. They’re no longer my grandmother who had no planning. The baby boomers have a plan.

So a lot of them want to stay home or in an assisted living. So the business is growing, and I have to make sure that my services are catered to it. I want to make sure that my caregivers are trained to do more than just go take care of a 95-year-old person, because I have a 75-year-old person who actually likes to do some other stuff than just get their meal prepped and getting ready for the day. So the market is growing, the need is growing every day. I have to stay ahead of it by creating programs within our team that is more suited towards a little bit younger generation than the 95-year-old grandmother that I still do take care of. So it’s very different now, and I think that’s the exciting part.

It’s going to keep growing. There’s more of the mental health issues. There’s more of the dementia that’s coming on early onset. There is more education that the community needs. That’s what I’m excited about too, is the sandwich community, you might be younger for that.

I am there. I have my kids that I take care of, my parents, right? So I’m stuck in the middle, and I, being from a medical industry, have some knowledge base. I come across people who have no idea.

No idea, now my dad has a little early signs of dementia, what do I do? And I want to be that resource. So I think trying to be that resource in the community, where people know alcohol, Uma, I may not use her service, but she will connect me to the right people. Because being a clinician, I think that’s very fulfilling for me.

Sometimes just making sure people can age in place and be at their best, and the family can not be so stressed all the time, because kids have their life, they want to be taking care of their kids and their parents without the guilt. And there’s a huge network in the geriatric industry that people are not even aware of. That’s what I’m excited about. More colleagues in the industry, more people who can solve the solutions here. So it’s going to be an interesting next five years, I think at least, to see the booming go up before it even steadies up.

Anthony Codispoti: You’ve sort of touched on this, the importance of mentors, peer groups, having others that you can kind of go to for support. Aside from your mentors, are most of the folks that you kind of go to, are they within your own industry? Or do you have kind of a network of other business owners that you know that you can sort of get together and discuss more broad topics?

Uma Das Munshi: Oh, absolutely. I actually have a lot. It’s funny because you think you’re only going to meet healthcare people, but then you end up going in the finance industry, then you meet people who are in a finance industry in the IT world, and you’re talking to them. Different industry, similar issues, but different solutions. And I think that’s what I have, is a nice network of people of different age groups, different experience levels, some retired too, that we can reach out to and talk about.

But the whole thing is initiative. If you need the knowledge, you need the network, reach out to people. Very rarely does somebody say, I don’t have time to help you, very rarely. So I think that’s another issue that people don’t understand is, reach out to somebody, the words they can say is no, but most people don’t say no.

Anthony Codispoti: Most people want to help.

Uma Das Munshi: They do, they do, because somebody helped them.

Anthony Codispoti: Right, exactly. None of us have gotten to where we are without some assistance along the way. A lot of folks are, I think it’s just, in general, to human nature, we’re kind of wired to want to get back. Now, I know that you don’t consider yourself a very technical person, but I’d be curious to hear if there is a, maybe a piece of software, a tool or a framework that’s really contributed to your success.

Uma Das Munshi: In the synergy business?

Anthony Codispoti: That was my intent with the question, but maybe if there was something earlier on that helped you as well, I’d be happy to talk about that as well.

Uma Das Munshi: Well, I’ll be honest with you. In the healthcare industry, we have a lot of EMRs and a lot of reporting tools. And in the SNF industry, I think in skill nursing facility, there was a tool that I used a lot. It was called SNF Metrics. It was really good.

Though I’m not technologically savvy, I like reports because I am, I think old school in that, I still need to see pre-pictures and numbers and graphs. And that gives me an idea of strategic movements. Where do I go? What did I do right?

What did I not? In synergy, we have an excellent access care software that we are using all the time for scheduling and money management and financials. So there’s multiple tools out there that have helped me all my life. I’ve just never been very good with the setting up of tools. I just need somebody to guide me.

Anthony Codispoti: You know what the end outcome is that you want. And then you can sort of, you’ve got the big vision and you can kind of direct somebody to find the tool to kind of plug in and cheap those objectives for you.

Uma Das Munshi: You say it so nicely, Anthony.

Anthony Codispoti: Thank you, Uma. So, you know, in a business like yours, I imagined that sort of two primary challenges, certainly multiple smaller ones, but the big buckets would be, okay, how do I find patients, right? How do we find the clients?

And we talked a little about that. You know, you find good referral partners in the community that are coming across the folks that need that care and you’re developing a relationship and trust with them that, you know, you’re there to help those folks. And then on the other side, you know, once you have those patients, you also need the folks to service them, right?

You need the team members behind you. And I’m curious to hear, because it’s not an easy job. It’s, you know, it takes quite a bit of effort, a very rewarding one for sure. But how do you go about finding those folks and once you’ve found them, what do you do to hold on to them?

Uma Das Munshi: Very good question, Anthony, because you’re right. Getting clients is a definite challenge on a day-to-day basis, right? But recruiting is even more challenging because everybody’s going to the same pool of caregivers, right? Everybody’s approaching the same pool of caregivers. When I first started the company, it was me. I was a recruiter every evening.

This is what I did. I was on Aploy, which is a recruiting tool right now, and we are looking for something that’s a little bit more diversified. But Aploy works just well enough that I was calling, recruiting. I would interview in the office, orient them, and then we would find the caregiver would work with us for a while, and then suddenly they were gone. So we had to now figure out retention because it’s so expensive to spend the time to recruit somebody, train them, orient them.

Now the client likes the caregiver, and now they’re gone. So now I have to find the retention tools. So that’s when we started creating programs about rewarding people because I think we are very quick to reprimand staff.

I think retention does not just come with that extra $1 all the time. Sometimes it comes just from essentially being appreciated. A caregiver needs to… Every caregiver wants to go and do a good job. They need to be guided as to what they’re expected to do so that there is no room for reprimanding. They need the support. If they cannot clock in, clock out, or they had a problem with something that day or some… the car broke down. Instead of us coming at them, though we are desperate now to fill that slot, we still need to spend that time with them to make sure they understand we are right here for them.

It could be just retaining them by making sure that the owner calls them once in a while just to say, hey, how are you doing? No, I don’t need anything. I’m not here to reprimand you. I’m just reaching out to say, hey, how are you doing? Sending out little recognition appreciation cards.

I’m a small company, so my gifts are smaller. But people like it. People like being told you’re doing a great job, especially when they get a card at home, right? That says, job well done. The family sees it.

They feel proud. So it’s a lot of retention tools we create. And the other tool we’ve created, actually, Synergy has, is about Care Academy. It’s like an online learning course. So our CNAs, our home health aids, and PCAs can actually get online and get educated. Activities to do with people with early onset dementia. Activities to do people with people when you take them out.

Or some kind of different training body mechanics. So they like that part. And we make sure that we help them through that. We do meetings once a quarter. We want to make sure that they see, because home care is in the homes. They hardly get to see us.

And it’s so important to pull them back so that they know who they’re working with. And I am very, very, very blessed. I have a very good team. My scheduler, who is doing all the scheduling, people love her because she takes that time to build a relationship.

When she knows somebody’s child is going back to college, she’ll come to me and say, hey, can we send them a small gift for the kid? Absolutely. So things like that is retention. And it’s so important to do retention in today’s industry.

Anthony Codispoti: Amen to that. Like you said, recruiting people, finding them in the first place can be expensive. You’re running job ads, you’re doing interviews. Only a certain percentage of those people are going to meet your requirements. And then once you’ve found that person, you don’t want to have to repeat that process over and over and over again. So yeah, if you can do just a little bit extra to show them how much you value them, how much you show them how much they’re worth, you know, it goes a long ways to reducing that turnover. So it’s a smart approach.

Yes. You know, Uma, one of the things that I’ve learned personally, and I’ve certainly heard this from lots of guests, is that growth oftentimes comes from our biggest challenges. I’d be curious to hear about a serious challenge that you’ve had to overcome, either in business or your personal life, and what you did to get through that and some things that you learned coming out the other side.

Uma Das Munshi: A little bit about my personal life. I was going through a divorce. And at the same time, it was a year that all rehab companies were under the scrutiny by the government. So we had a lot of work to do with attorneys and things. And same time, my kids obviously, one was getting into high school and the other was getting into their seventh grade. So there’s just a lot going on on my children’s side. The divorce was happening. I’m from an Indian family, so you can imagine the drama that was being caused with a divorce.

So I had my mother to take care of, and then there was my job, because I was the CEO president of that company and we had a lot of work to do with attorneys, just like every rehab company at that time. And what I learned was again, I’m going to come back to two things. Taking a moment to really look into yourself and say, do I need to be worried? Am I on the right path? The situations that are happening are not right maybe, and they might be turbulent, but am I on the right path?

If I’m on the right path, I got to keep moving, because at that point, you’re also trying to move everybody with you, whether it be your employees who are nervous, whether it’s your mom, whether it’s your attorneys who’s doing your divorce or your kids who are going through the mental stress of a divorce. All of that pulled together. You’ve got to hold yourself steady.

You’ve got to take a moment, and you’ve got to say, am I on the right path? And again, I would fall back on network of people. People who can, because you will have that moment in the middle of the night when you’re freaked out or you’re going to cry, and you pick up the phone, and that person who picks up the phone and says, hey, what’s up?

That’s all you need is, hey, what’s up? And they’ll hear you, they’ll listen to you, they’ll guide you, but it’s just so critical that network of people and taking a moment for yourself. And now that I look back, if I can come out of all of that and be where I am today, and have two strong children who stand by me no matter what, my mom who still loves me, and a career path that is not blemished, I say we need to invest in that network of relationships and the time to take about yourself. So it’s been a journey. It’s definitely not been an easy one.

Anthony Codispoti: So asking yourself that question, am I on the right path? How did you arrive at an answer on that one? How did you know that you were on the right path?

Uma Das Munshi: The only thing that answer I got was, do I have any regrets? The attorneys who were helping us with our company at that point, the one comment they all made to me was, you seem confident. And my theory is if I can look into myself, and I know I have no regrets because I haven’t done anything wrong, that’s what keeps me on the right path. Mistakes happen. Everybody makes mistakes. Companies make mistakes. I make mistakes bringing up my children.

I don’t have a halo around my head. I’m sure I participated in the divorce just as much as my ex-pals did. But we’ve made mistakes. The question is, am I on the right path? Because I have no regrets of every decision that I’m making every single day. And it’s one day at a time.

You’ve got to deal with one day at a time. People try to think about five years later, where will you be? And my question is, five minutes later, where are you going to be? Are you going to be still doing what you’re doing? Can you stay focused? So that was my question. Do I regret any of my decisions? Do I regret any of the things that I’ve done? And my answer was no. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: It’s interesting, because what you describe, any one of these events is like an enormous life stressor. And you had multiple things going on at the same time. At the same time. The divorce, dealing with your kids who have to experience their own emotions through the divorce. Like you said, your culture, your Indian family background, you know, lots of drama there. You had to take care of your mother through this. One of the things that I’ve certainly noticed about myself, and I’ve heard this from lots of other folks going through really challenging times, is that when you’re going through something really difficult and you feel like you’re kind of spiraling down the drain, there’s this natural human tendency to just sort of want to withdraw like into yourself at a moment when what you really need is that human support and human connection. It can be really hard to actually pick yourself up and do that and reach out for help.

I’m curious to hear as you were going through all these difficulties that we had the divorce that you were dealing with, that your kids obviously have lots of emotions that they’re dealing with. You’re taking care of your mother. You have the scrutiny that was going on at work. Lots of things piling up. Did you have sort of this reaction of kind of wanting to withdraw into yourself? And if so, how did you break through that and force yourself to reach out and ask for help?

Uma Das Munshi: That’s true. The first thing that comes to you is I can deal with this alone, because I’m independent. I can handle it. I don’t need anybody. I don’t want to talk to anybody, right?

Because you’re focused. You don’t want to discuss your problems. You don’t want to do anything. And you slowly start feeling the weight of it all.

And you’re right. You don’t want to reach out to anybody. And then you realize for the sake of sanity and the first sake of survival, you need that one friendly voice from someone you trust just to say hello. You don’t want to discuss your problems. You don’t want advice.

You don’t want anything. What you need is that lifeline, a normalcy lifeline, which you don’t have around you at that point. And I think that’s what I forced myself to break out and do it. It was hard. It was so hard to make that phone call because I didn’t want those questions. I didn’t want any issues or, hey, I haven’t heard from you in a long time.

I didn’t want any of that. So I had to, in my head, think about the one person I would make that one phone call if I got arrested. I knew who it was, the closest friend I have. And that’s who I reached out to.

And you know what? She knew better than to ask me what’s going on. She kind of knew what’s going on.

So she was just, hey, how’s life? What’s going on? You know, what’s happening here?

What’s happening there? You want to go for a movie? Something? Let’s go for a coffee. It just felt normal. And then that just gives you that strength for the next day and the next day and the next day.

Anthony Codispoti: And I think this is so important for people listening who are going through something really tough right now and you feel sort of stuck and you’re in sort of the cave of your own mind. I’ve seen this over and over again, myself as well as friends, you know, a guest that I’ve gotten to know personally on this show that the most therapeutic thing is safe human connection. And when you can reach out, because not everybody is going to know that you’re going through something, if you can reach out to a friend, a trusted source that you can open up to, that you can go out and go see a movie, go to dinner, do something normal, make you feel human. It’s amazing what medicine it is for the soul of the mind. So I appreciate you sharing your story there.

Uma Das Munshi: You’re so right though. The energy piece, it’s like a new battery charge, recharge happens, and then you can fight again because it is a battle during that phase every single day. You don’t know what’s going to come your way. So definitely. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: Uma, do you have any daily practices that are helpful for you and kind of maintaining your sanity and allowing you to kind of be the best performer that you can be? Absolutely.

Uma Das Munshi: I’ve had this for a while now. My morning is mine. I have three dogs at home. So when I get up, my first thing to do is actually time for myself, whether my husband’s at home, I am remarried to a wonderful person. He goes to work or whether he’s at home.

He knows my morning ritual is my time. When the weather is nice, I’d like to sit outside. I have wind chimes that helps me. I meditate, I journal, and I have to, have to constantly focus on today, not tomorrow, just today. And I want to make it a good day. So you can say, you know, I do a little bit of everything that you can read and listen about.

It’s about visualizing you’re going to have a good day or just meditating to feel like a calmness around you and be away from the noise. I do worship. I’m a Hindu.

I do worship at home before I leave. So I have the morning about an hour and a half. That’s my time. And some days when I’m rushed, I don’t have the hour and a half, but I need at least 20 minutes of that time.

Because if I start my day, get up from bed and do just, you know, people have different ways of relaxing. Some people go out to work out. That’s their time. Some people meditate.

That’s my time. Some people journal. Some people like to have their coffee and sit for the newspaper. That’s their time. But that’s important because that’s their grounding time.

That’s their getting the energy back time and then going. So that’s what I do. I journal, I meditate, and I pray. And hopefully I get to do all of it. But some days not all of it.

Anthony Codispoti: I’d like to, if you don’t mind, Uma, I’d like to hear a little bit more about how your faith plays a role in your mental health, in your motivation, in sort of your core, your center. I have a lot of guests on here that talk about their Christian faith and how that’s important to them. This would offer a really interesting perspective if you’re open to sharing.

Uma Das Munshi: Absolutely. My name, Uma, it’s the Goddess of Strength, Goddess of Power from India. And I guess my mom set my destiny right up front when she gave me that name. I’ve been in the strength field. And funny enough, my sister’s named out the Goddess of Literacy and Learning, and she’s a PhD doing research.

So I don’t know. I think she set it up for us. But I think the faith is, I don’t have to sit in front of my temple, but just the upbringing of knowing there is a power greater than me. Because when all else fails, you need, I’m a human being, I’m not strong enough to think that’s just, it’s me. I need that power that some people call it universe. I call it Lord Shiva, because I believe Lord Shiva. But it’s that strength, that power, something that’s beyond you, something that’s bigger than you, who is holding on to you.

So you can walk. You just have to have the faith. And I think that’s really pulled me through my hardest times, Anthony.

It’s like, if I didn’t have that, I don’t know what everybody calls it. But deep inside, we are a reflection of that person. He created us, or she created us, whoever we are.

In Hinduism, there’s multiple gods with different kind of, you know, there’s Goddess of power, Goddess of destruction, Goddess of creation. It doesn’t matter. Whatever you believe in, that’s what you need to hold on to. You have to believe that something is there. I, for me, it is the God has handed me a pen for me to write my life every day. I can choose to write it good. I can choose to write it bad. He’s right there. I just need to trust it and write it with all my honesty. And you know what? That’s taken me through so much.

Anthony Codispoti: I like that. So the knowing that there is a higher power there, and for you, in a higher purpose, and for you, there’s a sense of you’ve been given a pen to write each day. You can write a bad story for that day, or you can write a good story. It’s the powers within your own hands.

Uma Das Munshi: And it’s the best way for me to keep my thoughts focused on the positive, because why would I want to write a bad story for me? Right? I mean, people talk about manifestation today, but if you look at Hinduism, which is one of the oldest religions, there’s Bhagavad Gita that already says, do your work. Don’t think about the result. Just focus on your work, right? So I know what I want in life. That’s my goal. But I need to write, take the pen and write my story each day going towards that goal. So I have to do it.

I can create it. And that’s what keeps me saying, I’ve taught my kids that they actually do it the same way they try to do it. And I think it helps. It helps knowing that there is a bigger power than you. They have given you the power to decide your life. Try it. I like that.

Anthony Codispoti: Uma, I’ve just got one more question for you. But before I ask it, I want to do two things. First of all, everyone listening today, I know that you love today’s content because Uma has been a fantastic guest. Please hit the like, share, follow, subscribe button on your favorite podcast app so you can continue to get great content like this. Uma, I’m also going to let people know the best way to get in touch with you. And there is the synergy homecare.com website that has all the franchisee information. You are specifically the greater Boston area. There’s also your blog that we mentioned before, leadership evolves.blog. Is there anything else that you want to let folks know?

Uma Das Munshi: They can call our office at 7817621119. And they can call my cell phone. I don’t mind giving out my cell phone number because it’s out there posted everywhere. It’s 7748365643. I don’t call myself that often.

But they can reach us in any way they can. And sometimes just reach out if you want to know your career in healthcare itself because I would love to be able to do that, help you with that.

Anthony Codispoti: Oh, what a generous offer. Yeah. So not just if you’re looking to be a patient or looking to just somebody who’s got a question about working in the field, you can reach out to Uma. And you’ve got her office number and her direct cell phone number will include those in the show notes. So last question for you, Uma. As you look ahead, what emerging trends are you most excited about in the home care space? Growth.

Uma Das Munshi: Growth and helping adults stay at home and age well. I think that’s what I love. I think every patient has a place in an industry. There’s some patients who need a lot of medical care. They have to go to a hospital and then do a skilled nursing facility. Some will stay in the assisted living and independent living.

But wherever there is that we are creating an industry with home care that we can help them age in place wherever they are and keep them at the most functional independent level so that they don’t have to depend on a ton of people and yet get the support and keep their dignity and age well wherever they are. So that’s the trend. I’m so excited about.

Anthony Codispoti: Well and with the boomers retiring there is going to be a lot of growth in this area. So feel good that there are folks like you Uma that are there to help our older loved ones as they need it. Appreciate that. I want to be the first Uma to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Uma Das Munshi: No thank you for your time too. I enjoyed this a lot.

Anthony Codispoti: Folks that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for listening.