Senior Housing Investors

Obedience to God's Calling to Serve the Assisted Living Market

August 19, 2021 Haven Senior Investments / DignityPointe Season 1 Episode 10
Senior Housing Investors
Obedience to God's Calling to Serve the Assisted Living Market
Show Notes Transcript

Jon Friesen went from being in corporate America for over 35 years with 25 of those years serving Executive Office positions such as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Executive Officer for some very large healthcare companies, whose offerings included health insurance, surgery centers, and the surgical hospital space. In 2021, Jon felt like God was calling him to move from where he was and to do something else. He had no idea what that calling might be at the time. But one thing he's learned is that when God calls he needs to answer. 

Listen to Jon's amazing path from Corporate leader to trusting and being obedient to God's calling to serve the assisted living marketplace. Enjoy.

John Hauber:

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 and 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.

Jon Friesen:

Hi, Pam. Hi, Jon. Thanks very much. It's great to be here. Today, I'm delighted to be with our guest, Jon Friesen. Jon is the Chief Executive Officer of DignityPointe, a regional assisted living, development and management company. Jon brings to his position more than 30 years of healthcare industry experience, having previously filled such progressive management positions as CFO, COO, and CEO of various healthcare organizations. Good morning, Jon, how are you? Hey, good morning, Pam. I'm doing great. How are you?

Pam Pyms:

I'm good. I'm happy. You're here. I've got a big question for you. Yes. I want to know why you left corporate America to get into the assisted living space.

Jon Friesen:

It's a great question. I guess if you had asked me six months ago, do you see yourself going into the existed living space? I would have answered with a quick No. I've been in corporate America, as you mentioned for over 35 years with 25 of those years serving Executive Office positions such as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Executive Officer, as you mentioned, for some very large healthcare companies, either in which is in either health insurance or surgery center and surgical hospital space. So about three months ago, I felt like God was calling me to move from where I was, and to do something else. I had no idea what that calling might be at the time. But one thing I've learned, and that is when he calls I need to answer. So I had turned in my notice ultimately at the company I was with and left without any direct path of where I might be headed, but instead trusting and being obedient to God's calling. And then two weeks after that, I actually found myself with my wife, visiting various assisted living facilities for her folks, which are in need of a new home, and could no longer live independently and needed more care and assistance. So after finding them a great new home, in an assisted living facility space, on our 11 hour drive back home to Austin, Texas, I looked over my wife and I said, "I know what I'm supposed to go do". I'm going to go acquire, develop and manage assisted living facilities. Oh, my. Yeah, I really felt like did she say? She was dumbfounded. As you can imagine. She's like, yeah, I never would have guessed that. But I really felt like there was a need in this space for more compassion, and greater touch and care to the residents of these communities. And I'm hopeful that I can make a difference.

Pam Pyms:

That is really cool. And it sounds like your wife was very supportive.

Jon Friesen:

She's always been supportive. And again, most of that is based on our faith. And she knows that. When God calls we need to answer Oh,

Pam Pyms:

My goodness. Well, I want to maybe ask you more about that later, because that's pretty fascinating. But before that, I will ask you if there's any similarities between your previous work experiences and what you intended to accomplish with DignityPointe?

Jon Friesen:

Yes, I believe there is. One area in particular is creating the highest levels of Resident satisfaction within these communities. You see in the healthcare service industry, which I came out of, patient satisfaction scores were a major driver to success. So in order to achieve those highest levels of satisfaction, first and foremost, you have to deliver high quality care. So creating that environment in which delivers high touch, compassionate care is going to be paramount. Another area that will likely crossover from my previous work experience will be focusing on operational efficiencies, focusing on key metrics to achieve acceptable margins in order to achieve sustainability. This will be Important in order to keep senior housing affordable and make it more accessible for more people,

Pam Pyms:

Mm hmm. Not an easy task. And I may want to get back to that to tell me about DignityPointe's, mission and vision and purpose.

Jon Friesen:

Yeah, great question. So our mission is to honor and respect every person, because they reflect the face of God. We want to promote appropriate levels of autonomy and independence. And our desire is to enable choice, and preserve dignity. Our vision is to honor and celebrate life, while promoting purpose, independence and safety. And then our overall purpose, which is our ultimate passion, and that is in a season of life where uncertainty and change are prevalent, the main point seeks to deliver high quality and compassionate care to bring peace of mind and joy to the residents and their families.

Pam Pyms:

I might have to ask you, when I can get on the waiting list here. It sounds like you've got some core values, you know, already implanted. But what would you say in terms of, like, the main core value?

Jon Friesen:

Yeah, so we actually one of things we set out to do at the, at the onset, or at the beginning was to establish some core values. And we came down to basically five. And we established five key without, you know, we had actually more than that, but I'd say there's five key core values. And the first, you know, just goes with our name. The first one is dignity, which is also reflected in our mission statement. And dignity is showing honor and respect to every person, as we've mentioned, because they reflect the face of God. Simply put, in other words, treating others the way we would want to be treated. Our next core value is service, and that is seeking to serve others before ourselves, we seek to put the needs and well being of the communities we serve first. Next, we have honor and respect. That's having a deep admiration for the valuable qualities every individual brings to the community. Next, obviously, is compassion. We will go out of our way to attend to the physical, mental, and emotional needs of the communities that we serve. And lastly, we have integrity. In order to build relationships and trust, we first must seek to show honesty and truthfulness in all of our interactions within our community.

Pam Pyms:

Wow, those are some incredibly lofty goals. And congratulations, I have the feeling you do bring it. Thank you. What what challenges are you encountering here in the space?

Jon Friesen:

Yeah, so I think there's currently two major challenges. And I didn't realize this, obviously, when my calling came, and I left corporate America and I got into this space. My initial thoughts were, you know, I'm going to go develop and build new construction, new purpose built facilities. But I quickly learned through my research and study that the industry currently is overbuilt. There's actually too many units or too many beds, given the eligible population. So that's one of the current challenges that I see out there, which will then force us I'll say, force us or turn us towards doing more acquisitions early on and consolidations early on before we get into new development. The second major challenge that I see is affordability. Most of the residents in these communities and the people that we will be serving in these assisted living facilities and communities have fixed incomes or limited incomes. Therefore, assisted living operators are going to need to challenge themselves to be more efficient and find ways to keep costs and costs down and therefore affordability under control.

Pam Pyms:

Yeah, that's interesting, especially when you say that you found it's already over built. Are you referring to just the area in which you intend to serve or?

Jon Friesen:

Great question. I'm finding pockets of that. So my search, or my research, I should say initially began nationally, so I was kind of looking at it on a national scale. And there are there are pockets where it's not over built, but in large part across the country, almost in every state you find an over abundance of units or beds given, again, the demographic needs.

Pam Pyms:

what what opportunities are you? Are you seeing?

Jon Friesen:

One we sort of just touched on I would say, and that's, I believe there will be ample opportunity for new growth, new development of beds and units. In the next five years, or about five years from now, the baby boomer generation will be coming of age and needing assisted living facilities. So the population demographics definitely show a need for more beds and units at that time. So the development of buildings, specifically purpose efficient purpose built facilities are going to be important. I say another opportunity is going to be the proper use of technology. In order to be we talked earlier about keeping, being efficient and keeping costs down. And that's where technology will come into play. This technology could come in the form of use of systems for dietary meals and planning for medication management, or even for resident medical records, a type of electronic health record, if you will, for residents. So there are likely ways and there's also likely ways I'll say to use technology for other back office functions as well. So again, all of this will be necessary to create those efficiencies and manage costs appropriately.

Pam Pyms:

Right, what you may know this, what exactly is telemedicine?

Jon Friesen:

Yeah, so we've seen obviously, the coming of age of telemedicine, telemedicine has been around for a long time. But with COVID, and the impacts of COVID, telemedicine has really taken the forefront. And in fact, even myself, I've had some physician office visits and things like that I needed to do during COVID and was able to conduct that like through Skype or through zoom meetings technology with physicians. And so telemedicine is probably another unique way to get access for these residents in these communities for their physician visits.

Pam Pyms:

Right. It's amazing how much has gone virtual in the last year, isn't it? Oh, great. Okay, so tell me then, what would you say differentiates DignityPointe from other assisted living communities?

Jon Friesen:

Well, first, I'll say I'm not sure we have any secret sauce. I'm not convinced we have any secret sauce. But I think some of the experiences that we talked about earlier, that I bring to the table and the passion to deliver high quality, compassionate care to achieve the highest levels of resident satisfaction, and therefore quality of life. I think that's just an area that me and my group will excel at. I don't know that will necessarily differentiate us, I do think it will differentiate us from some but not all. Obviously, our goal is to develop systems and programs that are going to create a culture within our community that creates honor and respect for every individual, again, that enhances their overall well being.

Pam Pyms:

Well, you've had so much experience, I want to say on the other side on that corporate side. And I can imagine, especially in an industry such as this, where costs count, and yet you're talking about people and you're talking about their lives. And you it's not like a retail store where you could just go in and cut employees. I mean, you really can't cut staff plus, I know staff is one of the hardest things to to keep, which is going to bring me to to maybe another very important question, which was how did you get the company up and running? And you know, how is it going?

Jon Friesen:

Yes, great question. Thanks for the question, actually. So I'm pleased to say, obviously, DignityPointe we're a new entrant into this, this arena. And in just 60 days, we've been able to get several key organizational logistics accomplished. Those included developing as we've already talked about the mission, vision and purpose. Then we established the core values and guiding principles that we've already discussed. We then developed actually, that that point, the name, DignityPointe, which embodied the core values that we had developed. And then we spent a considerable amount of time researching and looking for a recognizable symbol, symbol or logo that stood for compassion, which we we did accomplish that as well. Also during this same time. In the last 60 days, we've been able to get the company's formational documents like legal licenses including certificates to do business tax identification number, websites established. Our current order of business is looking for Acquisition targets in our territory, which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Colorado. I'm actually very encouraged to say in this short period of time, we actually today currently have six active acquisition targets that we're reviewing offering memorandums on. And we're in early stage due diligence. Wonderful. Yeah. And then the last piece of this, obviously, to kind of round this out in the last 60 days, we're actively seeking investor groups that would put money in to work as property investors in the senior living space. The senior housing property investment space has had strong returns, and the outlook for the next 10 years, is equally promising. So we feel like we have accomplished a very, a lot, I should say, in a very short period of time. And we're excited for this next phase of partnering with property investor groups, in order to get to full operations in our efforts to be transformative.

Pam Pyms:

Very good. Well, you definitely have the background and the understanding of the industry, which I know is key. And I, I know you probably have a great team, that that's helping you analyze, you know, what you're looking at, from my experience, I know that usually assisted living communities are bifurcated into sort of two groups, you know, you have those maybe 60 units and up, and you have what we call the boutique industry that can go anywhere from eight to maybe 32. Which side are you on?

Jon Friesen:

That's a great question, Pam. So when you think of the full continuum of assisted living space, you see everything out there from what's referred to as independent living, and then you move into assisted living, and then you might even have a Memory Care Unit. And then you would move into a skilled nursing facility. So that would be called the full continuum of assisted living care or senior living space. And then also, it ranges in different bed sizes. As you mentioned, DignityPointe focus, at least early on is sort of going to be in that middle space, the assisted living and memory care units space, we won't initially start off with the Independent Living or have the full skilled nursing as part of our location, although we'll have access to that care. But as far as bed size is concerned, our focus will be more on the, as you mentioned, the boutique size. So probably less than 60 beds, somewhere between anywhere as low, it could be as low as 15 beds to as high as probably 50-55 beds is really where we want to focus. And the reason we want to focus there is again going to be we feel strongly to give the high touch that's going to be necessary that might differentiate us. And to give that compassion care, we're going to want to focus more on a smaller scale.

Pam Pyms:

When you're looking now, are you looking at a particular age of the community? I mean, do you want to get something older, and then renovate? Are you looking for newer types?

Jon Friesen:

Either one, I think works fine with that, in the seven that I mentioned earlier, seven acquisition targets that we're reviewing today, or have been reviewing the last few weeks. Some of those are as new as four years old. So fairly new facilities and very unique. Yeah, and and others we've that we're currently looking at or you know, 20 years old, and so there may need to be some updating and some renovation that will need to take place early on in those facilities.

Pam Pyms:

Very good. And, and I, I'm assuming you know, all the brokers that are out there, I bet if they're listening, they're going to be calling you. So how does one reach you? Tell me about where where do we find you?

Jon Friesen:

Yes. Good. Thank you for that. So I'm sure John's helping you a great deal. So yeah, John Hauber at Haven has been an awesome sounding board, if you will, and servant leader that and so he's been great. Getting in touch you touched on getting connected, if you will, with brokers. So that's been an interesting networking opportunity to get connected with several brokers, I have been able to get connected with some pretty large brokers in the regions that we're in, and so they've been helpful in identifying projects and opportunities for us.

Pam Pyms:

Do you want to tell me on this podcast how someone might reach you?

Jon Friesen:

Oh, sure. So as I mentioned earlier, we did have launched our website and DignityPointe.com. So it's it www dot dignitypointe And point is spelled with an E on the end of it.com. And then my personal email address is the letter JH, Friesan, f ri e s, e n, at dignitypointe.com.

Pam Pyms:

Oh, that's good to know. Thank you. I just I just love your mission so much. And I hope everybody is listening and wants to help you or people who even own communities right now that they would like to sell, you know, might call you or call John. So now I kind of want to get to the nitty gritty of you. You know, something about, if you wouldn't mind discussing, I'd love to hear how you were raised where you were raised? What took you to the senior living, corporate side? And then from there, if you would you know, why I know you left it, but you said you heard a calling from God. So I would love to hear more about that.

Jon Friesen:

Yeah, so I could tell you some pretty long stories that we may have to cover at a later time, but I will touch on a few things.

Pam Pyms:

We've got time.

Jon Friesen:

So I was raised, obviously, my my parents were both educators. My they were school teachers college educated doctorates degree, and they taught in the collegiate level. And so I was raised in that type of environment. And then also in that environment, obviously, was raised in a faith based Christian based home. And so I had a very, very strong faith, upkeep or upbringing, I should say. And then I went to a small private college, Christian College, as it turns out, and you know, got an accounting and business degree and CPA and what not, and went on from their into corporate America. Along the way, actually, early on, I met my wife, who we've been married now for 35 plus years, and have two wonderful children. And they're both married, and we have our first grandchild. And so we're blessed to have a family like that.

Pam Pyms:

Congratulations.

Jon Friesen:

But it's, it's interesting. I had a similar calling. It's a different type of calling that I had, probably 15 years ago. So 15 years ago, I was at a particular company. And while I was there, I was awakened in the middle of the night. And there was no question how that what a woke me, and I heard this voice if you will say, you need to bike across the United States bicycle. Wow. And I'm like, I'm like, What is that all about? And, I mean, I've, I've been an athlete, but I hadn't exercised in quite some time. And I'm like, Okay, how am I gonna? How am I going to do this? So I, I started, I hadn't been biking. So I bought a, you know, 10 speed bike, and I started biking around my community. And then I would do longer rides and longer rides. And to the point where I said, Okay, I feel strongly I've been called a bike across the United States. So I better go do this. So I researched a little bit about the trans America bike route, which is over 4000 miles, 12 different sections, across the middle part of the United States, and through all the mountains, I never realized, by the way, how mountainous The United States is. And, and so I, because I was working at, you know, to bike across the United States like this, it takes about two months. And I didn't have two months that I could just take off work. And so I said, Well, I guess what I'll do is use one of my vacation weeks each year. And I'll go bike one of the 400 plus miles sections, which I did, so I'd go and I'd ride 80 to 100 miles per day for four days for not weird way to spend a vacation, by the way. And then, so I completed that feat, if you will, and that calling about three years ago. And so it took me 10 years each year, it took me 10 years to do each of these sections.

Pam Pyms:

So you'd be gone for one week at a time. Okay, your wife let you do that.

Jon Friesen:

Well, again, she's been so supportive. She was actually my sag support team which is the vehicle that rides you know, kind of along with you that carries all your gear and all hydration and so she was my sag support. So she Drive the car up about 20-30 miles and wait for me to show up and I'd rehydrate. And we'd go another 30-40 miles until we completed a 100 each day.

Pam Pyms:

Oh, by and at the end of this journey, would you say stopped maybe about three years ago? Do you? Do you have an idea of what that calling was about?

Jon Friesen:

I will tell you that to this day, I do not know. I just know again, when, when I'm called to do these things. And I know when that that in the heart calling happens that you just have to act on it. And God will bless you and if you towards your obedience. And so to this day, I don't know the purpose behind that. But I know, I think it had a lot to do, I established a theme called p s v. Which stands for passion equals suffering equals victory. And all through that stage of going through the hills and valleys. There's moments of passion, there's certainly moments of suffering. And at the very end of the journey, there's victory.

Pam Pyms:

Oh, that's, that's lovely. Are you going to be writing a book soon? I think you should. Alright, so then now so now you've had this other very strong calling? And did that come out of the blue? For for DignityPointe?

Jon Friesen:

I feel like it did. You know, I had felt I don't know if probably for the last six months, I'll say at at my previous employer that I just felt. I'll just call it this sense of unease or uneasiness. And, and obviously I had continually prayed about that sense of uneasiness throughout that whole time period about what what am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to? You know, do you want me here? Do you want me somewhere else? Am I supposed to be doing something else. And so I was living in Austin, Texas, at the time, our corporate headquarters were in Kansas City. So I was traveling back and forth between Oklahoma. And this was all pre COVID, by the way, and then even during COVID, you know, getting on airlines and flying pretty much every other week. And so one, and spending quite a bit of time, obviously in a hotel room. And so one morning, I woke up and as I was doing my devotions, it just, it hit me like a ton of bricks that He was asking me to leave. And again, at that time, I had no, no idea what that path would look like, just like I didn't have an idea of what that journey at the end of the bike trek would look like, and the why behind it. I just know I needed to act and so on a step of faith, I stepped out and I turned in my resignation. And I've been with my company for over 10 years. And and that's hard to do is I have a lot of great friends and, and colleagues at this company. And it was very hard to, to leave. But it was equally exciting to look forward to what the next journey would be. And it again, I had no idea what it was until about two weeks later, when we were visiting the assisted living facilities. And it just it just hit me then to like, this is it. This is what I'm supposed to do.

Pam Pyms:

That is so cool, I have to say is I listened to you, you you really strike me as as an amazing example of what faith looks like. You know, you you trust in it, you go for it. It's scary. But you believe you believe, you know, is that unknown? And yet, you know, you've been chosen, you know, you've been called you feel in your heart. And there you are. So I think it's it's really exciting. And I do think you should think about that book or something because you'd probably be a wonderful mentor to so many out there who would would love to take the plunge and you know, it's scary.

John Friesen:

I would love to do that.

Pam Pyms:

Yeah. So I wish you the very, very best in all your endeavors. You'll have to do another podcast with us when you're up and running. Where are you based right now.

Jon Friesen:

So I moved back to Oklahoma City. I wanted to be more centrally located to our our multi state region that we're in. Plus my son, my oldest son lives here in the Oklahoma City area. And I've asked him to join me at DignityPointe, which he has graciously done, and he's helping and so it works out great.

Pam Pyms:

Well, there's the first major blessing right there.

Jon Friesen:

Amen.

Pam Pyms:

Yeah, to have you know, it's not it's not every family member who can work with their dad. So that's great.

Jon Friesen:

It'll be it'll be, it'll be interesting, but I think he'll enjoy it. I know I'm going to enjoy it immensely. And if nothing else out, you mentioned being a mentor to somebody just would love that opportunity to mentor him and leave a legacy.

Pam Pyms:

Oh, that's, that's really lovely. I think our time is about up. But let me ask you, if there's anything I have neglected to ask you, or anything else you'd like to say, before we sign off?

Jon Friesen:

Well, we've covered quite a bit I, the only thing I would probably end with or like to say, and we've In this segment we just covered about obedience and God's calling is to just touch on the fact that there are two key truths when trusting God. And those two key truths are obedience. And the second one is waiting, waiting on him. So when we wait on Him, and then we follow up with obedience to His calling, he always provides a blessing. And so one thing that I know for sure, is that his plan, and his timing are always perfect. And so we just need to practice patience, and obedience. And one thing I've also learned is it takes courage in order to be obedient to God.

Pam Pyms:

Amen. That's very well said very, very well said. I have one more question I just thought of, because because you are so strongly faith based? Do your residents need to be

Jon Friesen:

You know, that's a that's a great question. The Christian? clear answer to that is no. I think we can touch lives. And I think it'll be that more exciting to be able to touch lives, maybe of those who may not have a faith of strong Christian or faith based and they but they all reflect as we mentioned before the face of God, and they all require compassion, compassionate care, and in honor and respect. And I think through our journey, and through our systems and programs that we will set up. I think there's just a unique opportunity to touch a lot of people.

Pam Pyms:

Well, we're all God's children, correct?

Jon Friesen:

That's correct.

Pam Pyms:

All right. Well, good luck to you. Thank you so much for today. And we will be back in touch to hear about the latest soon.

Jon Friesen:

Thank you, Pam. Thanks for having me.

Pam Pyms:

Thanks. Bye, bye. Bye. Thanks for joining us today. This podcast is brought to you by Haven Senior Investments. Haven Senior Investments is the leading faith-based senior housing advisory firm focused on providing their clients with the knowledge and expertise necessary to support their goals of buying, selling, developing, investing, or operating in the senior housing market. They can be found at HavenSeniorInvestments.com