Timothy Zercher 0:00

Noah, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate you taking time. Of course. I'm happy to be here, Tim. Thanks. Absolutely. So you've built a House of Hearts around a very high-touch kind of personalized model. What originally pulled you into the ABA space and then kind of shaped that vision of how you built this company?

Noah Goldstein 0:19

Yeah, for sure. I guess we'll see how far you want me to take you back. But so well, we started the company almost two years ago. So we still are definitely fairly new. And before I started the company, I was actually in a bunch of different other businesses. I was in the real estate field actually for a number of years before I came across the ABA world and really knew what it was about. So I'm still we're still learning every single day over here. But I'll tell you so, the reason why I actually started the business and got into this field to begin with was I was working hands-on in the special needs population for around seven, eight years of my life beforehand. So I was never an RBT. I never went to school to get my BCBA. So I don't claim to be a clinician of any kind. But at the same time, I've always rubbed shoulders with the RBTs and BCBAs across a lot of different volunteer experiences. And I myself have worked with children who are two, three years old to adults in their 70s and 80s over the course of that time. And it changed my life. I really loved it. I think to give you the context really quickly, I think I found out on a person-to-person level what it means to be the highest kind, what's the highest level of giving that a person can do? And I realized that the highest form in a way is when you can give freely and happily without expecting anything in return. And that is something that I was experiencing from a very young age when I was 13, 14 years old, when I was exposed to this kind of demographic. And I guess fast forward, I saw in my own community how what was going on. I think at the time the numbers were saying it was one out of every 36 children in America being diagnosed with autism. And that in itself, once I heard that for the first time, I was like, okay, I definitely want to hear more. Why is this happening? What is going on? And then I even saw in my own community, like people were talking to me and they were saying, hey, my kid is getting kicked out of school because they don't have an RBT to accompany them. And I've seen doctors in the community like just throwing out diagnoses just so that way they can keep the kids in school. It was really wild to see. And I was having these conversations one time, two times, three times, 10 times over the course of I would say 12 months or so before before starting House of Hearts. And I'm like, okay, this is wild. At that point, I'm like, I'm just gonna jump in because there is clearly a one, there's a massive demand, but two, there's children out there really need the help. And I didn't fully understand what that meant until we started the company and we were actually on the receiving line of that phone call of parents saying, Hey, we've been waiting for literally years for services sometimes in the state of Florida specifically, but obviously it depends on the market. We're in a few different markets, but Florida, it's almost an everyday occurrence. We have people in North Florida specifically, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, where they're telling me that they've been waiting for four years on a wait list. So by the time they come to us, we can get into that. But that's kind of the mission and the reason and the intention behind starting House of Hearts. And we kind of just jumped in and was like, okay, we're doing this. And that was where we directed all of our resources and attention up until this point.

Timothy Zercher 3:18

I know. That's awesome. That's awesome. I love that. I love that. I think that is the I think that's how a lot of people have gotten into this space, is that they they see a massive need and they just jump, which I think is is really cool. It's brave. It's also the epitome of what a good free market is all about as well. This is a need, I can help, let me do it. So you emphasize a white glove kind of child-centered approach, which I love. How does that actually look in practice? And how is that different than what you think most providers are doing?

Noah Goldstein 3:46

Yeah, I love that question so much. And it's something that we advertise and it's out there. So people see that. And I rarely get asked about it, but it's important that people feel that. And the way that is manifest on a day-to-day basis is really important for the well-being of our services. And this goes not just for the clients, but also for our staff members. I can give a few examples, but the way that the intention is, we wanted to map out every single part of the process in order to receive services. And even if everything is moving very efficiently on both sides, with the parent side and the provider side, because it can sometimes be a lengthy process to even just get that child into care because of the nature of insurance mandated services and we're going through authorizations, which is a whole back and forth. Writing the treatment plan can take seven days if done efficiently, maybe a little less. But regardless, there's a process to this. So when parents come in, they're calling us. I hear this all the time from our intake coordinators, like, hey, like we just joke about it, but it's always a question when parents call in, hey, when can I have my first appointment? You know, as if they're walking into a doctor's office, or maybe a lack of education is a lot of the families we work with, they just maybe had their child diagnosed. This whole world is now like a whirlwind, and everyone's telling them, hey, get ABA, get a BA, and they don't really know what ABA is. So maybe the child already had OT, PT, or SLP and they're used to kind of like a 30-minute to an hour session once or twice a week. ABA, as we all know, is a lot more intensive just from the hours perspective. There's a lot more frequency. So making sure that every single family has that education to begin with is extremely important. So that's the first step of everything. When we built out our systems, it was putting ourselves in the family shoes and saying, when a family is going to onboard with House of Hearts, what does their experience actually look like? Who is communicating with them? When are they communicating with them? And how is this all going about? So we created these systems in place where we have very dedicated client care managers. That's usually where it comes into play. And we do this via text, via email, via call, however the family prefers it. But they are extremely involved in every single step of the process from when they reach out to us till when they're in services and even ongoing, once they're in services, always continuously checking up on them. So even when the client is in service, yes, they have their RBT, yes, they have their BCBA, yes, they have their clinical director. And these people are always at the disposal of the family. But we also have that client's care manager who's constantly checking in from the admin perspective and just making sure they're happy and that the services are going well and that the child is making progress. If there is any refinements that we need to make, then the client care manager can also catch wind of that and make those changes, talk to the clinical team. A lot of our client care managers are also or once were clinicians as well. So they have that perspective too. So that's a very big deal. Another piece to this, which I stress this, and I don't want to misuse this word because sometimes people can get scared off by this word, but I also say because I love to define ourselves in this kind of way, but we act with urgency. And it's a really important thing that I love to display and talk about with all of our staff members. This is something that we screen for in all of our candidates, whether administrative or clinical. And it all stems from the beginning. Again, when a client calls us and they've been waiting for services, even if it was for a week that they were waiting, it doesn't matter if they're waiting for five years or a week. When they come to us, we treat them as if they are the only client in this company and we act with urgency. So I kid you not, when a referral gets sent our way, we're answering within seconds. When an RBT applies to the position, we're answering in seconds. Again, this doesn't mean that the client is the best fit for the program or the RBT is the best fit for our company, but we're always acting extremely fast. And I think that's a big part of people feel that. When when we get calls, when we get text, messages, and emails from families at any point, we have people who literally their eyes are just on that. And the second something comes in to the inbox, they're replying within 10 seconds. Literally, there's no exaggeration on that. So parents feel that right away. And we hear it all the time. Wow, you guys are extremely responsive. You guys are really on top of things. And we love that. We love to hear that, and only motivates us more to keep within that system.

Timothy Zercher 7:48

I love that. I love that. I think people discount how important speed is in service and in not even just in serving your clients, but just in demonstrating your ability. It's incredible how much just a couple of minutes faster improves everything from the client relationship. Yeah. Um well, and it goes to, I mean, the parents that are coming to you are in a often in a moment of like high emotional uh engagement, and they need a response now. They need a response in the next five business days, right? Yeah, I I love that. I love that. So you're building a pretty fast growing company, it's very mission-driven. What has been the biggest lesson in creating a culture that actually lives those values that you're talking about on a day-to-day basis? The urgency, the white love, all of that.

Noah Goldstein 8:35

Yeah, yeah, for sure. So it's a great question. Culture is everything and the team is everything, especially in an industry like this, service businesses in general, but especially within our industry, it's so important. And there's a few ways to put this. The first way is I'll talk from the business perspective. All of us, we can see the demand for services. If there's at this point, they're saying one out of every 31 children are being diagnosed in America, whatever it is. A lot of times when people start a business, they're looking for clients. In the AVA field, you don't have to look for clients, clients are everywhere. And obviously, no one's going to be able to help everyone, but our goal is, of course, to do our part. But the clients are, from a business perspective, not the issue. There, there's an abundance of people, and we just want to open our doors to help as many people as possible. What AVA companies are really fighting after are the staff members. We need to look for the high-quality staff members to provide these services to the families. The supply is not nearly meeting the demand, and everyone knows that at this point. So, with that being said, a lot of companies, from what I've seen, we've spoken to like hundreds and hundreds of clinicians over the last two years. A lot of times people are putting in people who aren't necessarily qualified, or even if they have the RBT certification or a BCBA certification, it doesn't necessarily mean that they themselves are going to be contributing to a positive environment and a positive culture. Obviously, every single person is different regardless of your credit credentials. So, simply put, we don't just look for the credentials and staff a warm body on a case and say good luck. We're really picky and choosy about who we bring onto this team. And if it means waiting a little bit longer, waiting a few extra days or a week or two weeks, instead of staffing that case to wait for the right candidate, we rather do that than putting someone who's unqualified into a session, even if they have a year of experience, two years, three years, four years. But if they're not the right fit and the right person for the company, we're not gonna take them. And sometimes that could be really hard because in certain markets, people are looking at BCBAs as the hottest commodity out there. People are paying recruiters 10, 20 grand just to place a BCBA at their company so they can service more clients. But what happens if that BCBA really is gonna be a detriment to the company? What happens at that point? So it's a very hard decision to make in those times to say, I'm going to pass up on this candidate because I don't believe they're the right fit for the company, and I'm going to be patient and look for the right person. And in that moment, when you don't know there's another person who's gonna enter your doors and put in that application, it could be really hard. You have to have a lot of faith to kind of make that decision. But at the end of the day, it really you're sacrificing the short term for the long term. That's what you're doing. So I always like to have that perspective. And when we screen our people, it starts from the top. So, like I told you before, we are answering the applications within seconds, but that process to actually hire someone isn't as fast necessarily because we're really making sure that it's a good fit. Once you know, someone is hired, how we're actually manifesting the culture. It's so much about support and communication and training clinicians, RBTs, they need proper training. They need support, they need to feel very confident that they can go into that session and be successful. There needs to be a really clear print a plan for the programming. What is the structure when I go into session on the first day? Is my BCBA gonna be there in person with me on the first day? All of these things matter. And then when someone reaches out and needs something from us, RBT, BCBA, administration, whoever it is, they need people to go to at every level. So making sure that the lines of communication are completely open. So just like we're like that with families, it needs to be the same way with staff. There have been so many countless examples of RBTs reaching out saying, especially in the early days, saying, Hey, I oversaw the handbook and I felt that this policy wasn't fair for X, Y, and Z reason. A lot of companies may or may not take that to heart. They might, it might go in one ear and out the other. It might go to someone that said, Hey, I'll forward it to the next person, then it gets forwarded to the next person. We want to train all of our staff members that when someone says something, especially if it's someone on the ground, the RB, our RBTs and our VCBs who are on the ground and they're seeing things and they're like, hey, my drive time, the amount I'm getting paid from client to client is not do you know the way it should be, or this needs to be changed, or that needs to be changed. We listen to that, and there have been so many times where we have made so many amazing refinements to our handbook and to our policies and procedures because of the feedback of our employees. So all of our employees feel that. And I also, this is something that I don't really share often, but I'll go ahead and say it. I even have my second phone. I bought a second phone when I started the company, and I'm like, this is going to be my phone for all of my employees. And whenever it rings, I'm answering. So a lot of the times, because people have my actual number, it turns out that they need me a lot less because at least they know I'm accessible. So it's a very interesting thing. But when people do reach out, they know that they can reach me and I'm accessible to them and I give them my full attention. And it's a really beautiful thing to see all the care that our employees feel because of that.

Timothy Zercher 13:30

So nice complete sense. I think that's the core of any good culture, really, right? Is it comes down to really actually caring about your employees and demonstration? Yeah. So because we're a marketing agency that specializes in this space, we always ask some marketing questions. So, first one is what's working best for you right now outside of word of mouth when it comes to gaining team members and clients?

Noah Goldstein 13:54

Yeah, that's a great question. Outside of word of mouth is the key of what you said right there. Exactly.

Timothy Zercher 13:59

Because word of mouth is always being number one. It always should be.

Noah Goldstein 14:02

Yeah, yeah, for sure. So I'll be completely honest with you, obviously. So we haven't spent a dollar on marketing since we started the company. Like in informal marketing, like we've never spent any money on Google Ads, SEO, any of that. So when we first started, I was actually the one personally on the phone calling pediatricians, OTs, PTs, SLPs, daycares to get our first referrals in. That's kind of just how it started. And then from there, it really we turned it into a really solid engine. I mean, less than a two-year period. We have received hundreds and hundreds of referrals. And at a certain point, it was hard to even keep up. But that that's just what the reality was when we started the company. We're very fortunate to have the partnerships that we have. We have a lot of partnerships with universities, with schools, daycares, pediatricians. We have partnerships with some of the biggest healthcare organizations in our current markets. Some of them, you know, even themselves have sent us a few hundred clients literally just within the last 12 months. So just by that, there's not even a need to really spend on marketing. And then even more so beyond that, this happened even this morning, actually. We've had two or three RBTs this morning who sent us clients themselves. We've have there is a clock, there's clients who work with us and they refer the parents say, Hey, my other child needs services, and they refer other people in the community. And that also happens a lot of times. And yeah, I mean, thankfully, we're very grateful for all of that. I think as we look to the future, we enter into more markets, every single market is going to be completely different. And starting from scratch is never the easiest feat. So whether we copy the same model or we do start spending an advertisement in one way, shape, or form, it's something that we're definitely open to. But there's there's a lot of people out there who need help. So absolutely.

Timothy Zercher 15:50

Well, and if it's not a need, then you shouldn't waste money on it, right? Um for sure. Yeah, yeah. You should spend where the money is needed. That's awesome. And then last kind of question is what is one marketing tactic that you're considering or just watching really carefully in the marketplace, especially when it comes to recruitment?

Noah Goldstein 16:06

Yeah, yeah. I'm happy that you mentioned that because that is where the focus is probably going to be. I look at a lot of our competitors, obviously, and that's the key. How are you recruiting? Where are you spending your money in terms of showing that employees, showing the RBTs and BCBAs out there that this is an amazing place to work? So that these are things that we're looking at, and we're usually going back and forth on a lot of different strategies on how the best way to go about it is, but it has to go deeper than what's just on the job description or what's just on your website. We do have, let's say, a few brand ambassadors who are RBTs and BCBAs or administrators in the company, and they're the ones who are filming themselves and talking about our culture from the inside. So I think that has helped us a lot. We've posted a lot of that on social media or on our website. We have an entire catalog of just our few brand ambassadors who are saying, Hey, this is what it looks like to work at House of Hearts ABA. So people see that, and the amount of people who have reached out to us saying, Hey, I saw this brand ambassador talk about the company and she had amazing things to say, and I'm flying because of her. So we've seen that many times, and I haven't seen that so much from other competitors. So it's a little bit of a way to stand out. But at the end of the day, once someone signs the offer letter and they're working for the company, that's when we really have to show them what House of Hearts is really about.

Timothy Zercher 17:23

Absolutely. It all comes down to actually proof is in the pudding, right? When they actually have a conversation, how does it actually feel? Yeah. Exactly. That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, thank you, Noah. We really appreciate you taking time and and sharing some of your insights. You're building a really cool organization, and uh I hope it keeps going well for you. I really appreciate it. Thanks so much for having me on. It was great to speak with you. Absolutely.