Miriam Allred (00:00)
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Home Care Strategy Lab. I'm your host, Miriam Allred. It's great to be back with you. Today in the lab, I am joined by Krystal Wilkinson, the president and owner of Adult Care Assistance Home Care in Arizona. Krystal it's great to see you. How are you doing?
Krystal Wilkinson (00:16)
Great Miriam, thank you so much for having me on your podcast.
Miriam Allred (00:21)
shows and I thought I'm circling circling back and so I've gotta have Krystal on the show. So apologies, it's taking me this long, but thanks for being up for it now.
Krystal Wilkinson (00:30)
Honored, I'm honored. I love your shows. I'm a big fan.
Miriam Allred (00:33)
Thank you. I also usually ask guests about what they want to talk about, but I actually came to you with this idea. And luckily it's something that you're passionate about and think a lot about. And so it's kind of a natural fit for both of us. So excited to dig into your scorecard, actually. Again, might seem like something boring or mundane to talk about, but you and I and a lot of owners like talking about data and KPIs. And so I've asked you to give me kind of like your weekly condensed scorecard and we're gonna walk through that.
And it's gonna be a lot of fun. But before we do, tell everyone a little bit about yourself personally and the business and getting into home care. Give everyone a little walk down memory lane of yourself.
Krystal Wilkinson (01:10)
wow. Okay, sure. Do they really want to know all the history?
Miriam Allred (01:14)
Give us give us a few juicy nuggets. People do like to know.
Krystal Wilkinson (01:16)
Right. So yeah, I stepped into the home care industry on January first of twenty twelve after my husband's cancer diagnosis. I think I've shared that in previous podcasts. it was kind of one of his bucket lists, but you know, cancer changes everybody and for me, being able to walk that journey and be the consumer on the consumer side of, you know, of needing that care and needing that help, I think really changed my whole
trajectory of my future. And so, you know, here we are fifteen years later and I'm loving every moment of what I'm doing. So I wouldn't wish cancer on my worst enemy, but I'm very grateful for the journey that we've had. but ironically our agency is thirty years old. So I've been doing this for fifteen years. Our previous owner, she had
You know, started the business in nineteen ninety six and she passed away on May first of twenty twelve. So we met through the cancer journey. She also had cancer, unfortunately. But I try to take her legacy and I've been trying to drive it forward. So when we started and I I bought the company, we had one location up in Northwest Phoenix out in Scottsdale, excuse me, in Sun City, Arizona, which is the northwest side of of Phoenix. I live in Tucson, so I tried to find an agency literally as far away from me as I could get and still be.
in the the you know Arizona in a sense. So I was making that commute and then eventually opened up a couple other offices and so I now have one in Tucson and and then we have
a office in Scottsdale and a virtual office in the Phoenix area and we're opening another virtual office at this time over in the Mesa area. So we're covering this the greater Phoenix area and all of Tucson and Green Valley and Sorita and t in the southern Arizona. So it's been a fun journey. and we also do care management. We started doing care management back in November of last year and that's going very, very well.
Miriam Allred (03:05)
Amazing. And did you say what your background is and your husband's kind of before getting into home care?
Krystal Wilkinson (03:10)
Sure, yeah. I was actually a I was in global outreach. I worked at a Southern Baptist church here in in the Tucson area. my original background is I was a theater arts major, which is much different than home care, I guess. I don't know, maybe it's all an act. and but I I was kind of like a case manager for 17 families from Arizona who are living abroad.
And so when they came home on furlough, I would help them with doctor's appointments, transportation, making sure they had housing, setting up, you know, all kinds of any kind of resources for them. When they were in out in the fields, then I was the one who was their connection back home, providing resources from you know across the country. It was an amazing job, lots of interesting stories and things. And my husband, he worked for a pharmaceutical company. He's a neurology specialist with the MS department with Nervar.
And he's currently in the process of retiring and he will be joining our team kind of on the peripheral here in August 1st. So very excited to have him joining us for the first time. He's always come to the conferences with me and things, but we can talk a little bit more about his influence on what we're we're doing and how he's gonna be joining us as we talk about the KPIs. So yeah.
Miriam Allred (04:23)
Yeah, I always see him and he seems involved and he's right up to speed and naturally I'm sure the dinner conversations are all about home care and about business and things, but I always see him and he seems right involved. But that's exciting officially. He'll be kind of joining in more of a an official capacity. So that's exciting.
Krystal Wilkinson (04:35)
He's officially joining. Yeah. I keep joking that, you know, so I get to be the boss at home and the boss at work. This will be good.
Miriam Allred (04:44)
That's awesome. And you said at the start, you know, like you're still excited and fired up and passionate. And I've have interviewed you and talked to you over the years. And what you've shared recently is like continued growth, you know, like every business, you kind of hit these plateaus and you go through these kind of peaks and valleys. But it seems like you guys have been on the up and up, maybe post pandemic, or do you guys just have like a renewed fire in your belly right now? What's what's kind of behind like the growth and the excitement right now?
Krystal Wilkinson (05:10)
I think, you know, I don't know if I've ever lost it. I just feel I I feel like I get to do my hobby, you know, or whatever. I mean, like this this position. maybe I started my career, my true career really late in life or something, but you take what you love, what you're passionate about, and you make it your your job and that's a blessing. And so I'm I'm lucky to get to do what I really enjoy.
So I don't know if I've I mean I of course I have moments where I'm like, geez, do I still want to do this? Or you know, is it time for me to retire or try to get my my staff to fire me and they they keep telling me they that no, you're not allowed to fire you. But I screwed up because can you fire me now? But you know, I have moments, but for the most part, I have enjoyed every step of this journey and I think maybe some renewed passion for me is that I'm able to move as as we've finally really gotten
We have the right people in the right seats. We are moving the right direction. I mean, like we're we're really starting to figure it out. And I know I get asked all the time, you've been in this business for 15 years, when are you gonna retire? And I'm like, first of all, I'm too young. Okay, let's be clear about that. My husband can retire, that's up to him. I'm too young, my opinion. And and second of all, when I stop having fun, that'll be the day that you know I'll start talking about the retirement, but I'm getting to move into a different version of running the business. I'm not into the day to day having to step into the field last minute or what have you. I'm now actually getting to try new things like starting our care management. it's a new challenge for me and you know we're a year in and it has taken off and it's just been really, really fun and how it's complementing our home care side of our business has been amazing. so that keeps it entertaining and interesting to me because I'm constantly learning how to do something new and I'm challenged by it. And so I like that.
