Some of the great features on A Home Care Community are as follows:

• Caregiver of the Month award
• Free Membership (giving you the ability to collaborate with other community members)
• Discussion forums with special features, including the following:
  • The "Monday Moore Mantra" featuring inspiration, motivation and action
  • The "Tech Talk" with Andrea Fahrenbacher
  • State-specific forums
• Then there's a rich page of resources ranging from how to manage millennial caregivers to how to comply with the EVV mandate in the 21st Century Cures Act.

Learn more at the  "A Home Care Community" website.

Home Care Heroes is produced and sponsored by Ankota - the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.

Ken Accardi (00:00):

Today on home care heroes, it’s about community. It's true that we do compete with the other agencies in our area, but if we all work together, we can make our industry better.

Announcer (00:11):

Welcome to the home care heroes podcast, community edition, uniting the home care community. Here's your host, Sara Moore.

Sara Moore (00:22):

Hi, and welcome to a home care community, the podcast. In this podcast series, we will be focusing on the people in the home care community, their passions, and how our community members can learn and grow from these folks.

Ken Accardi (00:35):

That's Sara Moore. She founded a home care community.com which is focused on bringing the home care community together. She works really closely with Jed Hammel who isa Hollywood veteran, filmmaker and event manager, and Sara's first interview is with Jed.

Sara Moore (00:48):

Hi Jed. Welcome to the first episode of a home care community, the podcast.

Jeremy Jed Hammel (00:53):

Thanks, Sara. This is exciting. It's like I'm part of something that's going to become pretty cool in the future. So I'm excited for it.

Sara Moore (00:58):

First and foremost, let's let our audience get to know you a little bit better.

Jeremy Jed Hammel (01:02):

I got my start working in film and TV, basically doing organizational type stuff. When I moved from LA to Boston, I had a friend of mine asked me to help put on a series of events. Those two worlds are very similar in that to put on an event and to build community. You have to be able to organize people. You have to be able to bring people together. You have to be able to manage folks who are under not the best circumstances sometimes while you're working hard on something. And then you need to understand the needs of different organizations.

Sara Moore (01:26):

In fact, I too have a background in art, and I think it's fun that we're coming from such diverse backgrounds into home care, which really is a need of service. So what specifically led you to home care and to this community?

Jeremy Jed Hammel (01:40):

We want to be part of something bigger than ourselves. We feel that we're here to help others, and we want to find a way to help others. The thing that drives most people that I know of being in home care is they want to help. And so what I like about what I do in home care is that myself and the people I work with spend a lot of time trying to make it easier for folks to provide care rather than to worry about kind of nuts and bolts of the, of the business.

Sara Moore (02:03):

As mentioned earlier, you've been very instrumental in the launch of a home care community, and it's been fun working together. My question to you is why was community such an easy "Yes?" I know the value of community can often be overlooked by some organizations, but for you, it wasn't. Can you explain why

Jeremy Jed Hammel (02:22):

It's a basic level of how I want to live my life and how I think I can help the universe? And the answer to the question is simply in shortly, it's that whether it's working on a product or building an organization or trying to help a cause, or even just working in a place where you have to share coffee, if people who are part of that community because they happen to be in the same space don't feel connected to that community, or if they don't feel that they're learning and growing and that their voice is not being heard, that's a really good recipe to have things fall apart.

Sara Moore (02:51):

One of the things that you had mentioned there is core values. Recently read a blog that you wrote Jed, and I'd like to see if you could a little bit more about how core values can help businesses.

Jeremy Jed Hammel (03:03):

For sure, a paycheck will inspire people only so far. We are humans, we're not robots. We have feelings and we want to grow. And our instincts are to try new things and to push the envelope. Even if it's just a little bit, our instincts as humans are to, to want to have some meaning in our life, other than sort of going through the motions. The blog that I wrote was just basically one, two, three, here are three examples of tangible things that folks can look at as to why core values and by extension community is important. If you want to have a team that gets better at what they do and gains experience and learns from experience and adds their ideas and grows, and your business will do better. If you have a team that is motivated to do more, because they're going to get rewarded and they're going to have control of their own destiny and so on and so forth

Sara Moore (03:44):

And having a community to talk about and bring each other together of why do we do this and say, Oh yeah, that's why we do this. And I feel good about what I'm doing. It's just a really inspiring thing. So that article can be found on our website by going to a home care community.com, click on the conversations and then go to the home care community, the podcast section. And you'll find this blog that that we're mentioning. I also understand that you have another blog that you're gonna be offering to our listeners.

Jeremy Jed Hammel (04:14):

Yeah, exactly. It's along the same lines. And I, my understanding is that you can find it home care community site that should be out shortly and again, it's the thing that we're trying to achieve here is to bridge the gap between folks who kind of understand the intrinsic value of community as it pertains to human beings, to translate that into these are some tangible ways that process of building community actually can bring value to your bottom line.

Sara Moore (04:36):

I think that wraps up our time together. And this has been a great conversation, Jen. I really appreciate it that you're here. Thanks again

Jeremy Jed Hammel (04:42):

For having me on. I really appreciate it.

Sara Moore (04:45):

Absolutely appreciate it as well.

Ken Accardi (04:50):

Sara sought out the help of a community coach named Brian Oblinger. You're going to hear from him next.

Sara Moore (04:57):

We're excited for our guest today, who is a community expert, please welcome Brian Olinger. Brian is a chief community officer's strategic consultant advisor, mentor podcast, host and keynote speaker. Hi, Brian. And welcome.

Brian Oblinger (05:13):

Hey Sara. Thanks for having me glad

Sara Moore (05:14):

You're here. I've been listening to your podcasts and I'm excited to have you on ours. Yeah. Great. For our listeners. Can you give a 30 seconds or so introduction of who you are?

Brian Oblinger (05:26):

Sure. Yeah. 30 seconds is always an interesting one. So I've spent my whole life really being in and around communities and I participate in many different communities. Always have really, since the Dawn of the internet dating myself a little bit there, but I was fortunate to also kind of turn that passion into my career. So I do community as a career as well. And so I had this really interesting perspective, I would say on what makes communities good? Why do people join them? how do you operate them from that side of the house and happy to share whatever I can here to, to help out your listeners.

Speaker 6 (06:03):

So you and I first met through a community mentorship through the community club, which has been great, and I've really enjoyed our conversations and you have helped us evolve our focus for a home care community on what our primary goals are throughout the year. But let us back up for a minute before we really talk about the importance of community. And you said that in the beginning, your career has started with community. And so how did you know you've wanted community and what was your first step into that?

Brian Oblinger (06:30):

Yeah, so when like I said, when we first got the internet back in like the late nineties at the time I was into video games. And so the first thing I did was, and I don't think Google was around. So I think it was like Netscape or maybe Yahoo or something. And I did a search looking for video game related sites and things like that. And one of the first things I found was even all the way back then Sony PlayStation had a, a community of gamers, right. And just people talking about games and what's what they're playing and how to play them and giving each other tips. And I just thought, well, this is fantastic, right? This is, these are my people. And thinking about that more broadly, I definitely connected locally with my friends and family members who played video games, but it was never this type of scale where I could for the first time connect with people all over the world that were doing the same thing as me and interested in the same things as me. And so that immediately struck a chord with me and really became something in my life that was just so impactful, right. That ability to connect with other people around certain topics or interests or help if I needed on certain things and what an incredible tool that is, and, and has become in our lives for all sorts of things.

Speaker 6 (07:40):

My eight year old is very interested in this PlayStation and it's definitely rewards and in the community there that they build through the site too. I mean, that's something that is still super relevant to get you started there at the beginning of the internet, with the Netscapes and all of those good memories there. And now you're highly involved in a professional in community. As I mentioned before, you and Eric Cole hosts a podcast called what the lock, which is great. And I recommend our listeners to go check it out. We'll have the link associated with this podcast here that you can access. So whenever I do, I try to catch your episodes, but I haven't gotten through all of them. So for our listeners that are on this call, are there any favorite episodes or more critical episodes that you would recommend regarding the value of community and kind of getting started of why are we jumping in with community, especially in this atmosphere of home care? And I know that home care is not your specialty, but it is very relatable to you in general.

Brian Oblinger (08:41):

Yeah. Well, the podcast is definitely geared towards people who build communities. And so that's what you're going to hear, right? If you go listen to it, you're going to hear a lot of the inside baseball, I would say about how communities get built and the considerations go into it and how that translates in companies to how companies think about doing this and why do they build communities? I think I would point people if they're interested in this too, there's a couple of different episodes. One is called people are number one. And that's really about like leadership, which I think, regardless of what industry you're in or what you care about, thinking about how you lead teams of people to success is a big one. And then I think just throughout, you'll find a lot of episodes, there's, there's always considerations in there about the actual members, right?

Brian Oblinger (09:23):

And so what we try to focus on is we certainly talk about the ins and outs and the nuts and bolts of how you build a community, but it's all wrapped around this idea of what we really want to do is understand the motivations of the people that are coming to this community or that we want to come to the community and make sure that we're catering to them and building value for them. Right. And so in, in the context of what you're attempting to do here and, and your community of healthcare professionals, that's really what we've talked about a lot, right. Is like, how do we understand our audience and who these people are and what they need to succeed in their roles or their careers or their lives, and how do we build resources and an interesting environment for them to come and connect with other people to do it.

Brian Oblinger (10:07):

And so I think that's really the value of this for people that are joining communities, is that they're benefiting from the power of the crowd and that crowd source knowledge and what other people have learned to do. And in that way, it's like strapping on a jet pack, right? You can learn so much so quickly from talking to other people online in these venues about what they do and what they've had success doing, and maybe what not to do in some cases than you ever really could trying to study it at a different type of level or a different type of way. Right. And so I think that's really the value for members of a community.

Speaker 6 (10:40):

Yeah, absolutely. So again, that was, people are number one, which is really honestly, exactly what we're doing on this podcast here with home care community is that we really want to get into the roles of the people in home care and what they particularly do and engage other listeners that are doing similar roles. So I think that that's exactly what the benefits of community are. And I'm looking forward to hearing those specific roles, just like your role as we leadership. So I think that's a perfect episode for our community, any additional resources that you would recommend for our listeners, maybe that would get more into the value of community.

Brian Oblinger (11:19):

Interesting, isn't it? Because there's so many different resources nowadays, there used to be nothing. We were sort of feeling around here. And I think the best advice that I can give anybody from from more of like the membership side rather than the building side, which is what I tend to focus on is just go take in as many communities as you can go see what's out there. If people think a lot of times that they're unique or that they have specialized interests or something, that's really off the beaten path. Right. I certainly have some of those types of hobbies. And it's always interesting to find that, Oh, no, there's actually whole communities of people out there are talking about this thing that I once thought was some weirdo thing that only I engage in or care about. And so my advice to everybody is just search out these different communities and get involved and see what they're like.

Brian Oblinger (12:06):

And some of them may be valuable. Some of them may not be, but I found over the years that I derive a lot of value and overall just essence, really around engaging with people around topics that I'm, I'm passionate about and they do too. And so that's really my advice, right. Go find, go find great communities, join them, participate in them. And you never quite know. I mean, there's people that have gotten married from meeting people on communities. There's people that are lifelong friends. I certainly have some lifelong friends that I have never met in person only online for 20 years. Right. So just really, really interesting. And I think just take the time to go seek those out and, and see what's out.

Speaker 6 (12:45):

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a, actually a little section we should have is what's the weird things that you're interested in. I think that's going to get a lot of people connected to each other. This has been super great. And I appreciate any feedback about community listeners wanted to get in touch with you with any of the services that you provide. How can they get hold of you? Yeah.

Brian Oblinger (13:07):

You can find me@brianoblinger.com. I'm of course I'm on Twitter, LinkedIn, every, every one of those sites that you could ever find, just search for me there. I think what might be useful. And if anybody's out there thinking about community or building their own or how they might get involved in this one, I would go to the website for our podcast and look under the resources tab. And there's a bunch of free resources there that may help you in your own community journey, as you're thinking about what that might look like and different tools and free templates that we've put up there. So I would point people there. And like I said, otherwise, I would just encourage people to go out and check out great communities. And I think the more of that you do, the more you learn about what the value of these is and, and that kind of thing.

Speaker 6 (13:48):

Yeah. Fantastic. So again, your site is IB for T l.fm by that

Brian Oblinger (13:53):

The initials of in, before the lock, which is, which is for, for our listeners out there is really just a, it's an old school call back to forum culture in the 1990s. If anybody's wondering what the heck in before the lock is, it's that moment when in more like enthusia style communities, right. When things are going off the rails and they know that a moderator is going to step in and close it, someone will often kind of ironically make a post saying in before the lock meaning they're just like collecting their free posts, increment their account before. So that's, that's sort of the nerdy history behind the the title there.

Speaker 6 (14:29):

I love it. That's fantastic. All right. Perfect. So again, it's IB 40 l.fm. We'll have that on the link below and just access to the resource page at the top. Well, again, Brian has been fantastic to chat with you. I know it's been brief, but we appreciate all of your advice and the conversation. So thanks again.

Brian Oblinger (14:49):

Thanks for having me and keep on keeping on building, building a really cool community here for a healthcare professionals, which we're all indebted to you. So for anybody listening, thank you for everything you've done and you're going to do as we go forward here. I know it's been rough with COVID. So just wanted to say, thanks

Ken Accardi (15:12):

So far, we've heard from Sara about how the home care community started. And she talked to Jeremy about the relationship to core values, and then she talked to Brian, who's a community coach and gave her a whole bunch of great ideas on how to make the community work for the members. But what I want to do next is I'm going to bring Sara more on the line, live and talk about what you could actually do here@ahomecarecommunity.com. So hello, Sara Moore.

Sara Moore (15:37):

Hi, Ken. Thanks for having me back. It's great to have you

Ken Accardi (15:40):

You're here. So I have something in front of me, which is the actual home care community site that the people who are listening to the podcast don't have. So why don't we start with, how do you get to a home care community and what is top of mind, your, your favorite and most thing you're most excited about on a home care community.

Sara Moore (16:00):

So to get to a home care community, it's very simple. You go to a home care community that com it'll take you directly to our site. One of the things I'm most excited about that we launched this year is the caregiver of the month. So you'll be able to access that piece from the homepage as well as our contact page. The caregiver of the month is just simply our community members, nominating caregivers, who they think should really deserve the recognition. And that's what our role is to do is to recognize the caregivers that are really, going above and beyond to do more than just their job.

Ken Accardi (16:40):

Sara, it's the beginning of February when you and I are recording this. So how did things I work out for January?

Sara Moore (16:46):

I'm very excited that we'll be announcing our January caregiver the month later in February. So stay tuned and definitely join a home care community. So you can find out who that is.

Ken Accardi (16:57):

I love that. Okay. So let's move on. So the next feature, and there's a lot on this page is the page that's called conversation. So tell us about the conversation.

Sara Moore (17:06):

So the conversation is also another favorite of mine. It's kind of the main house that we are here for community it's to have conversations with one another. So on the conversations page, there are multiple forums by different categories, such as industry, best practices, state specific discussions. And then also we have a Monday more mantra that's done from an email that I also send out. And then we have tech talk by Andrea Fahrmbacher, who just tells you about her favorite tech items that make the day a little bit more joyful.

Ken Accardi (17:39):

Wow. Okay. So let's go back to a couple of these. So we have the Monday more mantra, so we know maybe some people might've forgotten this by now, but your last name is more your name, Sara Moore. So the Monday more mantra, tell us about this.

Sara Moore (17:53):

Yeah. So the Monday morning mantra started out as things to think about some quotes that make us think about bigger pictures in life. Something that's not necessarily directly related to home care, but more so, something just to think about as we go through our busy schedules, each Monday more mantra that sends out it's a different idea, basically a different mantra. Each, each email,

Ken Accardi (18:15):

I'm looking at some of these inspirational quotes and we have various people and John Lewis, my Angelou. So this really, yeah, it looks like it's a way that we could start our week with some really nice inspiration. And then you said that tech talk, that's a new piece. And you mentioned that's by Andrea Fahrmbacher and yeah. So there's a whole bunch of things in here about technology and it looks like it is, done in a very entertaining way as well. So that's terrific. Okay. So that's the conversations piece. Let's jump over. Wow. There's a lot here on a home care community.com, but I see that there's a whole resources page and look at this. So we have some COVID-19 resources. We have industry resources, some really good consultants are listed here, home care technology report, which is, comes out from Tim Rohan every week, caregiver resources.

Ken Accardi (19:06):

And so here it's, you know how to manage millennials and gen Z in a home care setting. I bet that a lot of the agencies could really benefit from an article like that when they're hiring young people who are maybe doing their first job learning to be a caregiver and managing millennials could be a little bit tricky. And then we have electronic visit verification resources. So that is something that all home care agencies do, but the terminology there is more apropos to the Medicaid types of agencies. Yeah. This looks like a really fantastic list of resources that you've compiled. It sounds like I didn't really leave you a lot of rooms. Tell us what's on the page since I kind of told everybody. So, so let's let's jump onto the next one. And I see that the next one here is members. So tell us about being a member of a home care communities or a fee for that or anything.

Sara Moore (19:52):

It's not, it's all free. And becoming a member allows you the capability to stay in touch with other members. You can private message. We do encourage that all conversations stay positive, which I have no doubt they will, but becoming a member just helps you to connect with other home care agencies and a collaborative way. And if you don't want to become a member yet, but you still want to receive notifications of what's going on in home care community, then you can join our mailing list, which actually pops up on the homepage, or you can join on the contact page.

Ken Accardi (20:26):

Oh, that's great. Yeah. So you can get a newsletter for the home care community. When we go to the conversations, if I wanted to participate in a conversation about my state or about recruiting best practices for caregivers, that I would probably need to be a member and log in and sign up for that to be there. Right,

Sara Moore (20:44):

Exactly. Yep. To simple login process, and then to join the conversations you do have to log in to do. So

Ken Accardi (20:52):

It's really is a great resource. So let me put in a little plug here. I don't see the home care heroes podcast on your resources. Is that something that we could, we could maybe submit to you and you could get it put onto a home care community?

Sara Moore (21:03):

Absolutely. So that would probably be available in the resources and then probably also on the homepage as well.

Ken Accardi (21:09):

Oh, fantastic. All right. I like that so much. Well, listen, Sara, we've really enjoyed listening to you and your earlier guests Jeremy, and to Brian, who talked about growing communities and doing them well. And I know that you have another episode coming out where you're actually going to be interviewing a home care agency owner. Who's running a COVID vaccine clinic out of her home care agency. So that's something that listeners could look forward to. And I think that one will come out, I think two weeks after this one that we are on here. So yeah, one more time. How do people find a home care community? And we'll just wrap up with that.

Sara Moore (21:45):

Sure. And again, it's a home care community.com. And one more note, just to end on, if you have ideas that you'd like to share for a home care community, this is really your community as well. So go to our contact page and there's a section it's called Sharon idea. And we'd love to hear your thoughts as well. So thank you again, Ken, for having me on this episode

Ken Accardi (22:07):

And thanks for being here and congratulations to the caregiver of the month. We'll look forward to seeing that award come out right away and thanks for telling us the story of a home care community.

Announcer (22:18):

Thanks for joining us today on the home care heroes podcast, home care heroes is produced by Ankota, the software for the heroes of home care. You can listen to back episodes by visiting 4 home care heroes dot com. That's the number four, then the words, home care heroes dot com.