Today we present you a unique story that could transform the assisted living industry. Our story begins with Elderfire Lodges founder, Tom Hofmeister, witnessing his father's personal journey with Alzheimer's. With this first-hand experience, Tom quickly became aware of the shortcomings of the adult care industry. Statistics show that 85% of people who would benefit from residing in an assisted living community don’t want to. Tom’s thought was, “Maybe someone needs to step up and fix that!” So, he put together an experienced team, who ultimately posed two questions:
*What if we created an environment that people will be proud to call home; a place their families and the community are excited about visiting and eager to join residents for community events?
*What if we created an assisted living culture where residents are respected and celebrated as accomplishers who are worthy to pass along wisdom and share their knowledge and talents with this generation?
Tom's team stepped up! Tune in to listen to this lively and informative conversation.
Today we present you a unique story that could transform the assisted living industry. Our story begins with Elderfire Lodges founder, Tom Hofmeister, witnessing his father's personal journey with Alzheimer's. With this first-hand experience, Tom quickly became aware of the shortcomings of the adult care industry. Statistics show that 85% of people who would benefit from residing in an assisted living community don’t want to. Tom’s thought was, “Maybe someone needs to step up and fix that!” So, he put together an experienced team, who ultimately posed two questions:
*What if we created an environment that people will be proud to call home; a place their families and the community are excited about visiting and eager to join residents for community events?
*What if we created an assisted living culture where residents are respected and celebrated as accomplishers who are worthy to pass along wisdom and share their knowledge and talents with this generation?
Tom's team stepped up! Tune in to listen to this lively and informative conversation.
Welcome to the senior housing investor podcast. If you are an investor or want to be an investor in senior housing, then you're in the right place. Hi, I'm John Hauber of Haven Senior Investments. We are pleased to present our newest episode where we bring you the innovators and leaders across the full spectrum of assisted living in senior housing, all of whom provide for the betterment of our senior population. The host of our show, Pamela Pyms has background in the industry and she will be interviewing our honored guests. Hi, Pam.
Pam Pyms:Hi, john. Thanks very much. It's great to be here. Today, I have the pleasure of being with Tom Hofmeister, who is the CEO of Elder Fire Lodges, and we're gonna hear all about that. Hi, Tom. Hello, Pam, how are you? I am fantastic. Good. You sound fantastic. Yeah, and I'm glad to have you on the show today, would love to start off with as I usually do with our guests, having you tell us about your background?
Tom Hofmeister:Sure. About 40 years ago, I came out of a Technical School of Architecture, I had building experience because my father was in the building business. And a little bit of architecture took me a long way very quickly, I came out of the class very early on, because I was one of the few people in the class that knew what I was drawing. I knew what footers were, I knew what roofs were, I knew what shingles were because my daddy made me do all that since I was 10 years old. So eventually started a construction company. It was a custom company, we designed everything we built, which was a real advantage for our for our team, because everything that we drew was about making it so it didn't leak because we had done callbacks on those things before. So a lot of things were reverse design that eventually went into larger commercial projects. I did lots of doctor's offices and a lot of things and I, I kind of fell backwards accidentally, into sitting with an entire before I would design their office, I'd sit with the entire office and the entire staff. And I'd ask them, What gets in your way. How do you want to serve your client? How do you how do you have competitive advantage here. And it really greatly sometimes changed what the Floor Plan was, what the look of the building was, and how the entire operation went. I didn't realize at the time that I was really learning that you could backwards design buildings, products and culture to have competitive advantage in any type of business. Brilliant.
Pam Pyms:I'm sure it is served you well here at elder fire lodges. So tell me about your mantra or the mission statement, which I know is elders changing the world? What What does that mean?
Tom Hofmeister:Well, about 10 years ago, I was putting ideas in my idea folder, and my father had Alzheimer's and I found myself visiting care homes, I found myself in the family challenges of of caring for dad helping mom care for Dad, what kind of care home would we put them in everybody feels guilty because of course, we always promised we'd never put you in one of these places, I discovered that I am going to these places, and I didn't want to be there. They were usually clean. And I did like the employees but the elders didn't really want to be there. There was a lot of depression. The employees didn't necessarily want to be there in the video, the visitors seem to be visiting because they were guilty to come visit. They weren't coming because it was the coolest visit they could ever do. It wasn't an exciting, fun thing to do. And I started questioning the culture that I was seeing, and that it could be in reinvented, I questioned the floor plans and the style of the building that it could be reinvented mission statement, elder changing the world. They were playing a lot of games in these buildings. And I challenged that. We really don't want to play games. I get in front of groups of people today. And I asked them how many of you dream of going out and playing bingo every day in your elder years. Nobody raises. Nobody raises their hand. No. And I'm like so if none of us are dreaming about this in our elder years, why are we developing it in the care homes? Why are we doing all these things that nobody dreams about? Nobody wants to do. I was confused. You know, kinda by the whole thing. It's a very strong, powerful industry. That kind of just keeps repeating itself. Elders changing the world came from an idea that we're happiest when, really, when we're in our gifted area, everybody, all of us have a god given gift, no matter what age, it really starts to spark it about four years old, and it kind of shines all our life. And as I'm interviewing people in care homes, I'm discovering that my 89 year olds are absolutely brilliant. And they're gifted, and they have positive energy. And well, how could I live a different lifestyle? They're trying to discover these cycles. And I thought, what if we created an environment? What if we created a place and we didn't even call it a care home? If I have 100 brilliant people in a single building? Could this be the cultural center? Could it be the mentoring center of every community, that we choose to build elders changing the world,
Pam Pyms:your enthusiasm is infectious. And I love the way you're thinking out of the box. I'm thinking about reserving my corner unit now. I take lots of reservations. So So obviously, you're you're reinventing the culture, you're doing that through the activities director? How are you doing that?
Tom Hofmeister:You know, I had tons of consultants who were always telling me what to do, and what the elders were telling me how they wanted to live, how they wanted to feel, and how they wanted to participate was the opposite of what I was paying a lot of money for the industry to teach me, this was a, this was really confusing. And one of the fastest early changes that I discovered, was in the events, coordination, you know, if nobody wants to play bingo, why we play in bingo, I had to go in and look at all of our job descriptions. The job, the job description, in the industry is kind of like on a cruise ship. We're going to play these games, we're going to be active, we're going to have fun as groups. And that's all fine. But it wasn't going to accomplish elders changing the world, it wasn't recognizing their gift and turning it up. So one of our earliest examples came out of changing the job description for the events coordinator away from a person who does events to a person who's an entrepreneur mindset. You see, an entrepreneur looks at its team constantly and goes, here's what it's good at, here's what you're good at, here's where I'm gonna put you in the company, because that's what's gonna make us successful. So I need someone with a mindset that looks at all these elders and says, oh, wow, this is unbelievable, you're really going to accomplish now. So we went into the art room, for instance. And they said, Well, what does this look like? We're used to taking these little itty bitty birdhouses and we buy them at the store and we paint them and we give them to our daughter, we your daughter's 60, she doesn't want a little wooden birdhouse on her shelf. She doesn't need it. You know, this isn't daycare, this thing kept resembling daycare, and I'm like, oh, my goodness, these people are brilliant. Why? Why does the program represent a daycare cycle? Everything you do in the art room, I want it to change something in somebody's life outside these walls. And nobody could quite grasp it. But I kept making that statement, these elders are not going to change anything, unless we are their assistance in helping them do that. And a little lady comes one day, my events coordinator had discovered that the hospital just down the road, had asked for Can you make us some thank you notes? Well, that's cool. It was the head chaplain, who had asked, and one of our ladies starts making these thank you notes. And she made about 10 each, they were pressing these leaves into this thing. I mean, these were just really cool. They delivered them to the hospital, the head chaplain calls and says, so what's up, he calls me personally, I didn't even know this was going on. I like to take credit. But unfortunately, I'm not really in the storyline a lot of the time. He calls me up, and he says, So where'd you get these? thank you notes. I said, What do you mean, I'm trying to act like I know what he's talking about. And I said, What do you mean? He goes, where'd you get these thank you notes. They made them in your art room. They're just really cool. He said, he said, You know, I've never written a thank you note, and had the people call me back and say, you know, they weren't talking about what I wrote in the thank you notes they're talking about where'd you get these? thank you notes. These are really cool that it is, you know, yeah. And I went, I he said, Can you make me 100 ob Yeah, I'm just making this up. I'm on the phone. I said, Sure. We could make you 100 I'm like, I call back the logical oh my gosh, guys, I just committed you to 100 thank you notes. I don't even know who's creating them. And this little lady goes well, when do you want them? What can you give us 100 in a week, and she goes a while I'm gonna have to build a team, but I can make that happen. Oh, wow. waterfall he can. So she says here, Tom, do you want to deliver him to the hospital? I said, No, I delayed your delivery. I want your whole team. We're getting on the bus, you're gonna go meet this guy and his team, and I want you to deliver him and just say, Here you go, we're pleased that we could help. So they have seven, seven of these associates working under him at the hospital. The elders now are winning, because I looked at my team. I said, Now guys, you're focusing anytime I can call back to an elder and go, Oh, my gosh, you're good. Oh, you're so tough. I am. Oh, it is so unbelievable that you're living here at the lodge, and you're making such a big difference. Every time I can make that call your admission. Elders change and the way you get it. Well, you you get it. I I love. I've got chills listening to this. This is so
Pam Pyms:cool. Just really it is it is and I obviously you know, you're listening to what their talents and gifts are? How would you say maybe they've taught you? or what have they taught you that maybe changed even your advertising approach?
Tom Hofmeister:Oh, my goodness. So I was crazy. We were We were going in the lodge. Every couple weeks, my my marketing team, my sales, we'd sit in the corner of the dining room and we you know, here's the ads we're going to work on. Here's the marketing, here's what we're going to do. And I had this, you know, I think if these elders are so smart, and they're the ones we're supposed to be talking to, let's bring three of them into the meeting. So I invited three of them in and there's of course, Fred, he's a little ordinary Tom, I don't know nothing about no marketing wheel of fortune is coming on soon. I really. And he goes, he goes, I'll come if you get me some chocolate chip cookie, Fred, you got it, man, I'll call the chef. Get you some fresh chocolate chip cookies just show up. If you don't say anything, I don't care, Fred. I'm just working on a whim here. So we would get in this meeting. And they're the elders set and, and I pass an ad around the table. And it goes around the table, it comes back and I said, Oh, nobody said anything about the ad. We're gonna go ahead and put it in the newspaper and a couple weeks. And away we go, you know, and Fred looks up. And he goes, Hey, Tom, yeah, you want the truth about the ad? I said, What do you mean, Fred? He said, Do you want the truth about that ad? And I said, What What do you think? And he said, that ad stinks. I said, Well, what do you mean? He said, that's the most or he said, What are you? Are you a used car salesman that adds a come on? That is not going to get me out of my lazy. Are you kidding me? Well, I Exactly. He took my whole team right to their knees instantly. And I said, Well, well, Fred, you know, the ad, the ad was what I had been taught in the industry. The ad was Come on in for a free lunch and and do a tour. He said that. He said, I'm not getting out of my lazy boy for your free peanut butter sandwich and do a tour and get caught by your sales people. And that's stinky. I said, Fred, what? What kind of ad would we do? What do we need to be doing here? What do you see? And he says, I don't know. And he used a little bit of sailor language because he was a sailor, and that was just more fun. He was so rowdy. He says I don't know, I told you. I'm not a marketing guy. He grabbed four chocolate chip cookies, and he left the room. So what did you do? My team looked up and said, What do we do? I said, Oh, my I said, I'm not sure what Fred just saw. And he didn't tell us what to do. But he told us what not to do. We're 50% home. All we got to do guys is find out the other half. And and and as I dissected a little bit, here's what Fred was really seeing that I'm not even sure his intuition told him this. Our mission, elders changing the world. We did not click to that mission in this ad. It was not focused on the mission. It was an ad I've been taught by the industry and we were just floating along, we still lacked focus. So what's that ad going to be? And we concentrated we thought about it. So I had Boy Scouts in the building. I was doing Big Boy Scout events. I had a group that worked there. And they did all these things. I had a young man who, who wanted to do his Eagle badge. And he wants to do a fire pit to earn his badge behind the church. And I said, Well, have you ever designed a fire pit? Well, no. What do you know how to put the numbers to get will know? Or do the drawing will know Do you know how to raise money to do this? But well, no, I'm not gonna lie. I've got ladies in the lodge that have done events before they can come to the church and help you put on a dinner that you can raise funds. I have an accountant in the building. I have a cabinet guy who knows enough about construction that he can help me with the drawings and and you can put all these folks put their arms around this kid. Oh, Mike, they take him to the moon. What was that? That was elders changing the world. And it went, Oh my gosh, that's the ad. They took a picture. She took a picture of one of the men and they took a picture of the boy And they put them they put them next to each other and said, and all the ad said was, thanks, Joey, thanks so much for being part of the lodge and making a big difference in this community is live. We love you.
Pam Pyms:Oh, that's a that's a lovely story. It really is. I it sounds to me like maybe you were able to just take those elders? And do you have them help you with sales?
Tom Hofmeister:Oh, my. Yeah. So I had this and I could see that I had people in the building who are good in sales. There were realtors, they are. they've sold a lot of things. And many people are very gifted salespeople. So the industry and my consultants said, No, Tom, you cannot put your elders in sales because they're gonna say the wrong thing. And I was really surprised at the time. How I how I took that in. It made me hesitate at put them I mean, I was ready to put somebody in sales, and it made me hesitate right away. So I kind of put it off. And one afternoon, a gentleman approaches me his his, his name was john. Oh, no, it was George. I'm sorry. It was George. And George approached me. He was in an automatic wheelchair, he wheeled up Tom and he said, I'd like to help you with sales. And I'm you know, and I'll be honest with you, I'm thinking, Oh, here we go. I was told not to do this. And how am I going to get out of this? He wants to help me change the world. This thing's gonna bite me. And I said, so George. Um, what do you think? And he says, Tom, you're methodical. When you do a tour. I said, Excuse me. He said, You started to her, you know exactly what to say you know exactly when to shut up. You change the energy of the tour all through the building. He said, I can see that you backwards design this building just for a tour. I said, Excuse me, john. He says I can see it. He says you were thinking about how a person was going to feel on a tour while you are designing the building. And I'm just taking back, because that's exactly what I did. And I'm trying to teach my sales people this. And John's just sitting back and watching and I'm going and this guy's smart. Holy moly. I, once again, I'm guilty of leaving it on the table. What the heck. So I said, George, What's your idea? He says, well, Tom, this is going to be a little bit of a secret. But here's what I want to do. He said right in the middle of your tour, you stop at the elevator and say, okay, on the fourth floor, we're gonna head on up and I'm going to show you a room. We've got decorated rooms, and they're really cool. And he says it right, then the girl at the front desk calls you over. And she says, Tom, I just need you for 30 seconds, and she's gonna pull you away. And he said, we're all going to get in the elevator. Just tell him I'll meet you on the fourth floor. I'll be right up, I promise. We'll write into the elevator. And I'll have them sold by the time we hit the fourth floor. Amazing. Are you talking about? He said, Tom, he said, you own this place. You have everything to gain their antennas up that you're just talking. Maybe you're just a great sales guy. They're not gonna fall for you hook line and sinker. He says I'm gonna wheel in there. They got mom, she's 90. She's in a wheelchair. I'm looking at her eye to eye and I'm gonna tell her. Oh my gosh, the first time I wrote up in this elevator, I was scared to death. Oh, my God, my family is going to sign a contract. They're going to leave and I'm going to be stuck in this place. Are you kidding? And he says all I need to admit it. You said when you come up, I just need a minute to finish. He says because I'm gonna finish with her. I'm gonna say, just take a big breath. Because I learned when I moved in. This is the most fun, cool life I could have ever dreamed. It's so far beyond my expectations. So put the fear aside and just start soaking it in to discover if this is the place you need to live the rest of your life.
Pam Pyms:It sounds like you do have some amazing residence. Oh, my gosh. So that that's a great story. I guess I'm curious too, about the people who came to your events at the lodge. I understand. Some of them would talk about you on Facebook. Is that sort of like free advertising?
Tom Hofmeister:You know, I wish I was this smart to create these programs. For your listeners, P m. I don't care what your bu iness is. If you get a little off focus if you're if your dire tives and your culture and he direction of your mission isn't quite on. Here's how y u spend the time you just kee doing the right thing becaus when you constantly d the right thing for others s uff comes that you never could ver see common. So I've got the Boy Scouts in the in the in th place where they're doin bridging ceremonies.'ve got 80 Boy Scouts in th room, I got their parents I've got who else. The grandparents who have never even been in this space, Holy smokes my client or my resident, my potential re ident floating all over the for the room because I'm just thi king I'm doing the right thing or the Boy Scouts and I'm blow ng this culture out. So we h ve this cool event ice cream ma hine go in there got an India dance in the back, just a great bridging family event. Well, I had set up at the front door, have a big bear in the lodge, a d I rolled the bear out to the f ont entrance. I put this big pos er welcome Boy Scouts from his troop and this troop, I put the American flag I thought they ll just feel welcome. It as a pain. I don't have time to do all this. But I'm thinking they'll just still enjoy that a least when they come in. It ooks high quality and kind of ool. And so they do the whole ev nt. And people are starting to eave at seven 730 after the ev nt and I noticed this big lin of people in the living room. And I'm like, what do you what o you people doing? I made my wa out to the foyer. And these pe ple, every family stop and the're taking pictures of the boys hey're bringing in grandma and ake a picture here next to the are next to the flag. What I had accidentally done is crea ed the ultimate photo opport nity you should know. That's that's just kind of cool. That's neat, you know, so So I go to c urch The next day, and I pass s mebody in the hall. And they go t Tom great event at the lodge last night. I'm like Oh, tha ks. That's That's cool. second person passes me man. You guy sure rocked it at the lodge la t night way to go. Third person passes me all the way. I'm Wha? What? What? None of you guys ere at the lodge. Howdy. Am I n the front page of the paper? W at the heck. like Tom, the lod e is all over Facebook thi morning. There's hundreds of eople post in pictures. An it was cold. And it was great And it was stuff and I'm like Oh my gosh, I wish I was smart nough to have come up with that idea.
Pam Pyms:That's fantastic. But you're right, you're doing the right thing. And it and it's out there,
Tom Hofmeister:it turned into a home run. So So after that every event we did, I told the team, here's what we do, guys, I want you to create really good pitcher opportunities. And then I want you to put a little sign down in the corner that says take your Facebook picture here. So I was given them the idea and urging them of course, we're going to take the picture, they're going to go home on Facebook, and the free advertising just blew us away.
Pam Pyms:Oh, that's terrific. That is really terrific. And I know besides assisted living, you know, you also have memory care residents. And that's a tough one. Did you create a program to encourage families of memory care residents to visit more often?
Tom Hofmeister:Um, you know, I had been studying and attending lots of programs of families being mentored, you know, it is hard to take care of mom and dad with Alzheimer's or in memory care. But what was being left behind consistently was the families. I saw brokenhearted families, I saw sons who didn't want to come see dad because they don't even know his name anymore. I saw daughter's crying because I think mom knew my name yesterday. But she doesn't know my name today. So sad. It was crazy. And I'm like, they didn't want to come for these classes that we did well come do some classes. Well, I the men especially wouldn't come I'm not going to come in. And I have no psychological problems. That's what that sounds like, we're not going to do that. And frankly, they weren't fun classes. You know, they just they just weren't exciting. And nobody wanted to be there. And I thought, you know, guys, we got to figure out here, how we help these families in a manner in which they'll at least come in, participate and start being open to help. Why don't we all get around food? Let's feed them. What if every second Sunday of the month, from 11 to two, we feed anybody that wants to be fed, invite the grandchildren invite dad invite the neighbor, we don't care Come on, and we're gonna put the hot dogs and the stuff on the grill. Next month, we're gonna put up spaghetti on the grill. So the first the first month, we probably had 20 people come Well, that was cool. And that was kind of fun. The next month, we probably had 40 the next month we had 60 you know and I got people going well, this is getting out of hand all these visitors and I'm thinking oh yeah, baby, this is coming from every direction. There were people coming like it was Thanksgiving dinner sitting around a table laughing goofing dad sits at the end of the table doesn't know who anybody is. But I bet he's having a good time though. She is and and as they participated, the hardest thing for the family was their guilt. As their guilt started to melt away. You know, their mind started to open they started to participate. So I I got this gentleman one afternoon he comes in now Tom, you don't know me. I'm the son of so and so. Oh, yeah. Love dad. He says I'm in the nursery business. Can I come and plant some plants for butterflies? Because I think your garden would be cool with butterflies. I said Are you kidding me? Yeah. All right. And I and I don't staff and I said you're gonna hold him accountable to it. He's gonna get these plants. And I said here's what you're gonna do. As soon as you see the first Butterfly, I want photos, I want smiles, I want stuff. And I want at least three thank yous coming to him from three different directions. You're unbelievable. The fact that your dad lives here and you would come in and the family and make this difference for these people. Wow. Oh, yeah. And all of a sudden he wants to be there he wants to participate in, he's open to the conversations of the challenges that will start to complement and change his life walk.
Pam Pyms:Well, I just love how open you are and how receptive you are to your residents and the people that surround them. And I imagine you're an amazing mentor. So how did you teach your team to say, turn their most challenging problems into their greatest successes? That's a hard question. But go.
Tom Hofmeister:So my past companies in construction companies, he just made a lot of mistakes. And I'm like, you know, I need the boys to tell me about the mistakes and we need to talk about how are we going to change that? And how are we going to turn that into homerun and as crazy as it sounds? I became the celebrator of big mistakes we would get in weekly meetings, I'd ask the team Okay, what's the biggest mess up? We made? What's the biggest bunch of money wasted? And how did we fix it and turn it into the biggest home run ever? And they would gone Jimmy mad. He lost your favorite wheelbarrow off the back of a truck last week. And he went back and it was already gone. You crazy. Jimmy. You know, Jimmy, come out. Go. Yeah, sorry about that. Boss. Man, you were given that wheelbarrow. And I didn't want to tell you while I already knew the wheelbarrow was missing, I said, What do you do about it? He goes, Well, we went out bought some special rope and some bungees for every vehicle because we were losing lumber off the truck. He said, boss, man, we don't lose any lumber, we don't lose anything anymore. So what we were actually concentrating on is we're not going to get mad or challenged about a mistake, I would only challenge them when they made the same mistake twice. I'm going to get all over your case, if I see you pleading mistakes, because our system and our mission, our directive is that we're here to improve and we're here to get better. So I had a I had a a fantastic chef at the lodge, you know and in the kitchen, you know, it ran like them stupid TV shows where everybody cusses everybody get angry in the kitchen just has to be a giant mess. I mean, the TV TV was kid teaching my culture that you could be idiots in the kitchen. They weren't anywhere close to the culture in many aspects. But I had a fantastic chef and I asked him who makes you the craziest in this building? Who do you not like as a resident cuz she or he always complains about your food? He goes, Oh, that's easy. It's Sofia. You know that? I said the Italian lady. He goes, Yeah, he says Tom, I couldn't cook a thing. And he was getting compliment a lot because he was doing a great job. But Sophia had prepared food for her life, all her family and there wasn't anything you are going to do for so for for Sophia that satisfied her. And he says Tom, I can't satisfy. I can't put anything in forever she's happy with. And I said, I want you to try something for me. I want you to bring Sophia into your kitchen. And I want you to have her teach you her favorite dish. And I want that favorite dish to go out on a Friday night. And I want a card on the table that says this is this is so fierce, customary lasagna that she learned from her grandmother and she came into the kitchen and she taught us and we are really excited that it's on the menu tonight. And he they did they really reluctantly I don't want Sophia in my kitchen. This is the dumbest idea. I said just try it. Please just try it. And they did it. And I looked at the chef after they did it. And he goes, Sophie is a different person. And I said what do you mean? She's a really nice family smart. Oh, my goodness, you should see the cooking idea she's blowing at us. I said that's interesting. Have you heard her complain? He said No, I haven't heard a complaint at all. I said, Why isn't she complaining? Well, I don't know. I guess it was her dish. I said I can tell you why she's not complaining. Because you gave her ownership. She owns a piece your kitchen. She owns a piece of access into you do Do you know, when we have ownership of something, we can't complain about it. We don't complain about things. We have ownership. And it's like I was addicted to this. It was like a light bulb went off on his head. And he goes, I said, Look, elders change in the world. Did she make a big difference? Yeah, you complimented that. Yeah, Chef, you're the coolest ever way to go. You rock and he stopped in mid conversation. He goes, Tom, I got eight or 10 other people that make me crazy. Do you think I should call him into the kitchen and let them have ownership and I said you know, you know, Chef,
Pam Pyms:I think you're absolutely brilliant. And I'll back you every way that I can to go ahead and pull that trigger as a brilliant idea really was terrific. What type of innovation are you working on now and your newest building for memory care? Residents,
Tom Hofmeister:oh my goodness, memory care. I tried to get a lot of consulting and memory care, I hung out down there a lot. My learning curve really didn't start until I opened my first building. And I watched, I watched for the inefficiency in my floor plan for my employees, I watched for, you know, I would talk to the family constantly to try to discover their expectations of how their loved one would be, you know, would would would be cared for. I looked at, you know, what's the architecture? What's the natural light? What are all these things? and I, we did pretty good our first go around, but the real education came when 40 people lived in a building who did who acted and did 100 different things, 100 different ways every day. Wow. You just you couldn't dream up the things that these folks could get into and the crazy things that these people could do. So my fourth building is 100% redesign of what I've been learning. When I hung out with my team, you know, I was looking at sleeping disorders, I was looking at people waking up in the middle of the night I was eating this, why won't they eat? What, what what gets it? And so I started studying the circadian rhythm. What gets us in a rhythm? How do we act and participate during the day in our daily lives? That's very different. When we become instant, in an institution, or in a place or even a hospital when we're in a large group area. What's the difference of how we live, then how we live at home. And so I started concentrating on on our five senses. How is the site different How is if you get in the hospital and you get in the average care home, you'll discover right away that all the hallways, the lights are on 24 hours a day. And it's very bright white light, not quite as necessary today as it used to be because we used to have to do paperwork in the hall that was real small, we needed a good light for it. Today, it's all done on the computer, that light is actually a little less important. But I started working with friends, I got all these connections in the industry. And I'd call them up and go, Hey, I have this problem. I got no money to fix it. But I need to but we need to do it better. Anyway, we'd innovate in these new ideas. So you can buy light bulbs today that you can hook to your to your phone off an app and change the temperature change the color of the light 1000 different colors in a bulb. And I thought oh my, what if in the conservatory up in the ceiling, it doesn't really open to the sky. But it's got all this light in it that's designed to control light within the space. What if in the hallways, I put in these light bulbs, and I started to control the level of light. In the morning, we wake up to an amber light, our subconscious gets that at noon, you sort of know it's noon, because the light is very white. And in the evening, it goes back to amber and of course you get into a low moonlight. What if I took all these lights, I programmed them to follow the sun, we pretend the roof isn't even on the building. This is like we're outside. But I have the interior colors mimicking the sun. So I start to keep my patients, my residents with all timers or dementia of some sort into this groove that when we go outside, we take for granted. But now they're inside and they're going to actually live within that cycle. Sound. When I looked at sound, I created a music system that nurses made me down in Alzheimer's Tom, you got to separate the music system into three different places because different residents like different type of music, and we need some flexibility here is and that's cool. That's not hard. But what about other sounds that we're used to in our life that keep our timing right? What if you know, early in the morning, the rooster starts crawling in the distance, you know, and the birds start to chirp built into the system. What about every day at noon, that noon whistle is in the background or every day at 10 o'clock, or at two o'clock or the train goes by you hear the distant train and that goes the same time every day. You know what if that seven in the evening the ice cream truck is in the distance and it's coming by and it's it's getting us back into the timing that sort of says Oh, it's breakfast. You know, here come the crickets. All the crickets mean what Oh, the crickets kind of start getting me into sleep mode. They start getting me moving toward bed, you know, and what about touch? How am I going to handle touch? You know what's so adventurous about these people in Alzheimers? About 20% of them love to get into each other stuff makes the nurses crazy. Joe's dentures Joe's dentures are missing again. With his glasses, we don't know where they are. Somebody's got it in their pocket, you know, and I thought you know, how do I solve this. So I have this this real loop. The new design has no dead end hallways. And every time you walk a distance it loops you back around. So the whole thing is a very unique loop specifically concentrated on for my motion people. But I started putting work benches around. So as you're making motion PLAs pace, you might, you might stop at a place that has a little bit of wood, a little bit of PVC, and you might stop at a place that has some groceries and as these things, well, if I've got people who kind of want to get into things, what if I give them things to get into? What if I start hiding things in the back of the drawers? What if I create a crate that looks like you shouldn't be getting into, and Joey, who loves to get into things is going to kind of go well, I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to be here. But I'm going to get into it. If I create enough circumstances for them to get into. Maybe I now I'm taking that job off my nurses of Northern getting into each other's rooms. You know, can I minimize that huge challenge through better design? And better visibility?
Pam Pyms:Yes, amazing. That's fantastic. Oh, we're crazy. We are. Yeah, that's fantastic. You know, I usually ask this question at the end of the podcast, but which we're getting to, unfortunately. But I do have to ask you right now, just with everything you've said, because I, I've been in this business for years and years or used to be, and I have never heard as many innovative ideas, as I've heard from you in the last 35 minutes. So I am curious. Let's tell everybody where to find you. Let's do that right now.
Tom Hofmeister:Oh, I can be reached at elder fire lodges calm pretty easily. Or t hoffmeister. At elder fire lodges calm is my my personal email. Okay. And are you located only in Florida right now? Yeah, I was I was working in three different care homes, we exited those with particular partners under a particular cycle. And then I've taken on a fourth project myself, and looking for those new partners and those new relationships that really believe in all these things that we're working on and really want to be part of earning money and making a huge difference in reinvent in this industry.
Pam Pyms:I hope you get a ton of calls. I really do. And I know we are just about out of time. But I and I have so many other questions. I'd love to ask you. I think rather than me just picking one, I want to ask you if there's anything you haven't said that you would like to say.
Tom Hofmeister:Oh my Yeah, time, time is always the problem. Of course, I have 100 more stories. Yeah. Right. But you know, you know, probably Pam, one of my biggest surprises about this was that no matter what we did, we were fighting the industry, the industry, you know, we don't change how we do things until we're failing really bad at something. And the industry is still has lots of elders come into it, the industry continues to grow. So it is allowed to be average. And it is allowed to be a little bit lazy. I'm not you know, I'm not talking in particular about anybody. But people really don't want to go to the next level to innovate. They don't want to reinvent anything because they consider at risk. And quite frankly, it is very hard to do. But this industry is very stuck in the mud. There are some fantastic people. But I was easily discovered and 50% of people in these buildings don't even like elders. I'm like, I don't think I how you heck are you caring? Well, if you've got people here, who don't even like the people that they work for 50% turnover? How are you creating consistent, you know, return for your investors, if you have 50% turnover, they wouldn't train people because it's really expensive thing to do. And they would say, well, they're just going to be gone in a month Anyway, why would we do that? You know, we're alright with burning them out and flipping them. And I just, I just was so surprised. You know, when I when I left one of my buildings, a company took it over within two weeks. Pam, I was so taken back. I thought we're going to show you these ideas. This is the most unbelievable thing ever. These people love it. The employees love it. This thing's running on all cylinders. The culture was gone in two weeks. Oh, that's so sad. completely gone. So sad. So the fun of building a culture one of my really challenges is can I do this? And can it stick? You know, can I show that investors make more money because of unbelievable strong cultures? You know, can I show that you get the best employees and they stay around because you're treating them right? Because they have all the tools and because you're letting their gift, their gift show.
Pam Pyms:Well, you you have you do have tremendous ideas and I hope you're a featured speaker at you know all the different senior conferences. No Nick and any anywhere where you can go and spread this word. It's been a real pleasure to talk to you today. And I want to thank you very, very much. Well, I thank you so much, Pam. It's It's my pleasure. Okay. Well, good. We'll talk to you again soon. And I'm going to be following your career and hoping that you build many, many, many more as the years go by. Have a fantastic day. Thanks for jo ning us today.