The HME180 Podcast – Episode 9 – Gary Ross, Mobility Plus Franchise Owner and Navy Reservist

Welcome, you’re listening to the HME180 Podcast. Every month, your host, Sue Chen will interview the best of the best HME retailers who are fearless, innovative, and committed to their work. On this month’s episode, our special guest is Gary Ross, Mobility Plus franchise owner and Navy Reservist.

Sue Chen: Hi, and welcome to The HME 180 Podcast. I’m Sue Chen, your host. For decades, retail has been our industry’s greatest opportunity, and this is ever more today. I’ll share some of the “why”. We’ve been talking about the baby boomers since the first ones turned 65 in 2011. Well, we are hitting the population enormity of this group now, and for the next 6 years. Today we have 50 million baby boomers between the ages of 60 and 78. For the next 6 years this number will grow and peak in 2030 to 78 million baby boomers between the ages of 66, and 84, 18% of our population.

And, unlike their parents of the greatest generation, but also conservative spenders, the baby boomers defined and continued to define consumerism in America. They will push every limit of what it means to get older for themselves and their parents, with many of them still taking care of their aging parents. And finally, the baby boomers have a lot of money. They are the wealthiest generation with a total net worth of $78 trillion. Do you think they are going to settle with Medicare, not paying for any fall prevention products in the bathroom? Or giving them the cheapest walker available? I don’t think so.

Another important data point for HME retail is a massive growth of outpatient surgeries in the US. Today, over 75% of surgeries are outpatient, and there are over 9,000 outpatient surgery centers. What do you think these outpatients will need to recover at home? A lot of HME products, all retail cash sales. This is exciting indeed, and the franchise world is ready.

Some interesting data about the franchise industry, total output of franchise businesses in the United States is $894 billion, with approximately 810,000 businesses employing 8.7 million people. For those looking to own a business being a franchise owner can be a great option. There are thousands of franchise opportunities from Crumbl Cookie to Taco Bell from Kona Ice to Dream Vacations. And franchise failure is just 10% versus 60% for all other startups. In the last several years 2 veterans in our industry have created franchise brands. Rich Peter started Mobility Plus and Vinnie Barada started Mobility City.

What is unique about the people who choose the Mobility Plus or Mobility City franchise is the passion and the purpose. They all have the passion to live and do business with purpose, and for them the highest calling of purpose is to improve people’s lives and empower human ability.

Gary Ross is one of the franchise owners, and so well represents this new army of HME retailers, elevating our mission and bringing so much passion, experience, and energy. Starting at a very young age, Gary knew he wanted to serve a greater mission, and with comrades. So he joined the Navy at 17, not yet a legal adult, so he needed his mom’s consent. He served for 16 years, and still serves our country as a Navy Reservist. Today Gary is the owner of 3 Mobility Plus franchises serving Tucson, Oro Valley and Marana. There is something about Gary that is so inspiring, energizing, and joyful. I just had to have him on this podcast. Gary! Welcome to The HME180 Podcast and thank you for your service and sacrifice to our country and our freedom.

Gary Ross: Well, thank you for your support, Sue. Means a lot to all veterans when we have your support and thanks for having me on this podcast. NOVA is an amazing partner, and I’m so happy to be on this journey with you.

SC: I have to tell you that when I started this podcast, I always had you in mind as a guest. So when I saw you at the conference. I was like “Gary!” and so thank you for saying yes.

GR: Absolutely.

SC: So you had a long and successful career in the Navy, and then with big roles, including at the Federal Reserve, and now, as one of the most successful. And let me just say, the way I define success is in addition to revenue and profits, but also embodying joy, impact, and fulfillment. So, as one of the most successful HME retailers in our industry, how did you get here?

GR: Okay. Gosh, I mean, everyone’s got a story right? So where to begin mine? You mentioned that that I was in the Navy, and I’m still in the reserves, and I think it’s important to kind of start there. Because, growing up, I actually watched Star Trek and I fell in love with the idea that there could be a crew of people on a ship somewhere that were just sailing around in outer space or on the ocean, trying to do good, and they were looking for opportunities to help people. And the closest I thought I would ever get to being on a spaceship, was being on a navy ship.

And so, like you said I enlisted when I was 17 in the Navy. Really thoroughly enjoyed my time in the Navy. Service really became embedded in me. After getting out of the Navy I did have the opportunity to work for quasi-government at the Federal Reserve Bank. Also worked for corporate America a little bit, helping make drugs for different kinds of cancers and whatnot to help people in that area.

But about 5 years ago my mother disclosed to me that she had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. And that was tough for me, you know? She’s still with us, and but you know, knowing that she was dealing with something that I couldn’t just make go away, right? And so it gave me an opportunity to reflect, and I made the decision that I wanted to be as close to her as possible. And so I moved from the Bay Area, where the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is to Tucson, Arizona, so I could spend as much time with her as possible. And when I got here I realized that there was an unmet medical need. There wasn’t a singular showroom that you could go to that could understand your unique condition, your unique situation, and be with you every step of the way, whether we’re starting with just a cane or a toilet seat riser, and then we’re graduating to a wheelchair, and then we’re graduating to a transport chair. And, you know, I don’t know if it’s my spirit, my desire to help my mom, or my desire to always serve, but I thought I can do something about this. And I reached out to Rich Peter, the founder and CEO of Mobility Plus and I started a conversation about what it would look like if I purchased several Mobility Plus franchises here in the Tucson area, so that I could provide that to my community and to my mom.

SC: Wow! And that really kind of brings everything together in one container of love and service and passion. And so it’s been 3 and a half years since you had this epiphany. And what makes your stores—I mean, you had an idea of what you wanted a place to be as a destination. But I feel that your stores are really the destination in your community. What makes them that way?

GR: Oh, okay, thanks for asking. You know. first of all, you can—I like to back out of our industry and look at just retail as a whole. Why do I choose to go to the McDonald’s I go to? Why do I choose to go to the Subway that I go to? How to get my food? I can get the same hamburger, any McDonald’s or the same sub sandwich at any Subway. It’s about the service. It all starts with the service, and if—You are so vulnerable when you’re diagnosed with something, when you realize you’re losing your independence, when you realize you need to ask for help. Different people are affected differently by that realization.

And so you have to have a place where you know they truly care about you. They treat you like they’re your son, or they’re your daughter, you know. We treat our clients like they’re our parents as example. So for us, it all starts with the customer service. But that’s just a part of it. We also believe we have the largest selection here in the Southwest United States. Because a lot of the times you can’t get discharged from a hospital until you have the equipment at home that you need to be in your home safely, and so when you call me up and you say, “I need a toilet seat riser, I need grab bars. I need a hospital bed.” “No problem we can get that delivered to you today if you need it.” Right? It’s how accessible can we be?

And then that 3rd piece is the financial piece we sell it MAP. Our consumers, many of them, are on fixed budgets, and a lot of their money is going to medication. A lot of their money is going to medical care. We believe that you can actually have the best customer service, the best selection, and the best prices. That it’s possible to have all three. Usually they say, “Hey, pick two of the three.” We think all three is possible. And that’s how we aim to be the destination showroom in the greater Tucson area.

SC: I love that. It’s the hat trick of retail, and I like that you are looking at across all retail, because that formula is all retail, you know. That’s why people go into your stores. And you said a word that I think really resonates. Vulnerable. People are so vulnerable, and they’re so scared, and they need to see the product. They need to know that you’re there in their whole journey.

But I wanted to dive into the first part that you said, which is “customer service.” And I want to dive into this a little bit because I’ve done a session called the “5 Star Customer Experience”, because we live in a time where customers are able, and they do so to give their feedback. So it’s a very transparent world, and the relationship that you have with the customer goes on past that interaction in the store.

So I have to share with our listeners that with your 3 locations you have a 4.9, a 4.9, and a 5.0 star rating, and that’s with hundreds of reviews. Your Marana location only has 5-star reviews, I mean, your ratings are so good that it could be viewed as like, “Can this be true? Too good to be true?” But I can assure everyone that this is a hundred percent true and authentic. How did you build this?

GR: Great question. First, it all starts with our philosophy. Right? What do we aim to be for the community? And we aim to be—our vision is to be the premier medical supplier in the greater Tucson area. From there, it starts with the interview process. Each person that we’re thinking about bringing on to our team. Do they align with that vision? And it’s okay if they don’t, there’s lots of jobs out there. But do you align with what we’re trying to do at Mobility Plus? And many of the folks that are our mobility consultants have come back to Tucson for very similar and personal reasons to mine: to take care of their mother, to take care of their father. One of our managers actually provided long-term care for her grandfather. So it’s what motivates you? What makes you want to work for Mobility Plus? Are you going to enjoy the day to day? So first, it’s looking for that that two-way fit. From there, it’s really all about training. And for this I can go back to the United States Navy, because this is exactly how I learned to do every job on a ship.

But once we bring someone on board, there’s a training packet, and it’s a big training packet. I think it currently is about 30 pages long, double spaced. Which is signature, line after signature, line after signature line. And we start with the basics. Observe a mobility consultant, greet a client at the door twice. That’s like one of the first things, and so if you’re a new employee, new mobility consultant, you’ve got your training packet with you at all times, and then you’re reading ahead and you’re saying, “Okay, I have to observe someone greet a client.” As soon as you do, then, once the client’s been helped, you go over that person, you say, “Hey? I observed you. Would you please sign me off?”

After you’ve observed twice, then we believe demonstrating it is the next best way to embed that behavior. So then it’s gonna say, “Demonstrate to two different employees greeting a client at the door.” And so it’s a very structured training program. And what this helps us do is for the new folks that are coming on, they learn exactly how we do everything. But for the more senior folks, because you’re demonstrating it to the new folks, and because the new folks are demonstrating it to you, it helps us remember how we’re supposed to do things and it help—it’s almost like cross-training, and it helps us uphold that standard. And we actually cross-train at different showrooms so that way, no matter which one of my showrooms you go in, it’s the exact same Mobility Plus experience. Of course we have SOPs that tell you exactly what we expect, which is, we don’t have an automatic door opener at Mobility Plus because we open the door for our clients. We don’t need one. If we see a client park in the parking lot, we go out, we open the door, we’re greeting with a smile, and we’re offering a bottle of water. “Hi! Welcome to Mobility Plus. My name’s Gary. I’m here to help. Can I get you a bottle of water?” Easy. And that’s how we start the conversation. And from there it’s really just consulting, understanding, asking questions, guiding, getting feedback, and being with our client. The whole journey.

SC: Wow! It looks like you invest so much in the beginning, starting with that interview process, and then investing in your most valuable asset, which is your human capital, which is the training and consistently giving that training to have that 5-star service that everyone is going to get. I love that the awareness to open the door for your customer as soon as you see them coming from the parking lot. What an incredible first impression! I just love that.

So I want to go back to something that you shared with me in a previous conversation about incentives. So you have a staff, you know, that is very engaged, highly trained, which makes them feel even better about themselves. But you also measure things, and you measure your 5 stars, obviously. So, how do you engage your staff with your goals of that 5-star experience?

GR: Absolutely. So everyone’s motivated a little bit differently. Right? Some people they just want to be recognized. “Hey, well done, awesome job. You got that 5-star.” Other people might want, you know, an extra $10 on their paycheck, or something other people might want a bigger bonus at the end of the year. So we do all 3.

What we do is as soon as we get a 5. Well, first, the standard is 5 star review. Anything less than 5, we did not meet our standard. So we have a whole process for how we look at, “Why didn’t we get a 5 Star Review? And what can we do better next time?” Vast majority are 5 star. So when the 5 star comes in, it’s a shout out. So we have an internal employee communication system, and you’ll see 5 gold stars. And they’ll say, You know, this shout out goes to the team for collecting another 5 Star review.

And let me pause there. It’s to the team. We don’t work on commission. No one at Mobility Plus is trying to one up anybody else. Because when you call, it rings in all of our showrooms simultaneously. It doesn’t matter who answers the phone because we all follow the same procedure. We all know the stock. It’s all the lowest possible pricing. It can be MAP pricing, Internet pricing. And so anyone can answer the phone. Anyone can answer the questions. Anyone can encourage a client, “Well, come on in. Test Drive it in our showroom. We’re a NOVA Test Drive Center. Let’s go on a Test Drive together.” And once they come in, then whoever’s helping them with that experience might not be the person who’s gonna actually deliver to their house if they’re not taking it with them when they leave. So we recognize it’s a team effort. So first is that immediate shout out, “Congratulations, team! Well done! We just got a 5 star review.”

Then when that payday rolls around, I put in a $10 bonus for every single 5 Star review we got. So if we got 10 5-star reviews, that’s a hundred bucks that goes into the pot. And then we take everyone’s hours that they worked for that pay period and say, a hundred hours were worked, just to make the math easy. That means—total. That means for every hour worked. There’s $1 allocated. So if you worked 20 hours that pay period, you’d get 20 bucks that paycheck extra, in addition.

That’s one piece of it. But then I also believe that there should be a bigger bonus at the end of the year, too. And so what we do at the end of the year is, we look at a lot of metrics. But one of the metrics is only 5-star reviews. If it’s a justifiable review after I look into it, and it’s not 5-star, it’ll affect the bonus–but if we get only the 5-star reviews, it’s a 20% multiplier, meaning that at the end of the year everyone gets 20% more of a bonus then they would have otherwise. And so there’s really multiple incentives built in to really try to bring the idea home: we all are part of this company, and when the company does well we all do well together. And how does the company do well? We do well when we take care of our clients. That’s why we exist.

SC: Wow. And you’re also building a culture and an expectation and also teamwork. And that’s what really resonated there. Because I think that’s kind of been tricky with some of our other dealers when it comes to incentivizing and commissions. Because when you’re selling a big-ticket dollar item, you know, a $3,000 – $4,000 lift chair. Somebody can look at it one day, come back and purchase the other day. “And how do you commission for that?” has always been a little bit tricky. But I love that. You make it a team effort. So everybody is rewarded.

And I wanted to touch more on just your investment in people, because what I keep hearing from so many dealers that there’s so many stresses and pressures happening right now, and one of them is retaining people and keeping them inspired. And you already are sounding like you invest so much into your people, share with me some more of why your employees stay, and why they give it their all.

GR: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay. Thank you for the question. I remember—So there’s a lot of pieces to this answer, right?

SC: Yeah.

GR: I’m gonna say the first one is relating to the mission of the organization or the vision, because mission, you know, vision is more long-term, mission is kind of the tactical. I remember once, 15 years ago, interviewing at an Amazon fulfillment center. And Amazon gets it, too. When I walked into the fulfillment center, they had in huge letters up on the wall: Thank you letters that were written to Amazon about how Amazon fulfilled, you know, an order the night before Christmas and someone was able to give a present to their kids. So that way everyone walking through the door can see, that’s why we’re here today. Because people rely on us. People need us. So when we look at how overall are we retaining employees? Do you have a mission statement and are people on board? Does it resonate with your folks? We’re gonna be the premier medical provider in the greater Tucson area, and that resonates with us, and everything we do measures it.

Beyond that, there’s the base pay. Everyone has bills, and quite frankly, if you’re not getting paid, you can’t survive. So yep, we’re gonna everyone gets a paycheck. But what’s beyond that? Okay, now I know why I’m coming to work because I believe in what I’m doing. And yes, my job’s taking care of me. Am I appreciated at work? That’s a big piece of it, you know, and those shout outs, the bonuses, the thank yous. But then, holistically. And I think this is sort of the magic sauce, if you will.

SC: Yes.

GR: When you look holistically at what people really need? Do we have a good work-life balance? Are we supported when we have an issue at home? Can we come and talk to our colleagues about it? Do we have proper insurance? Do we have other benefits? So as an example, we do 401K matching at Mobility, Plus and spoiler alert for companies that don’t. There’s some laws passing, so you will be doing it soon probably.

SC: Hmm.

GR: But get ahead of it, do it before the law requires you to do it. We have free legal for all of our employees starting November 1st. That’s a new benefit we just added. An employee assistance program starting November 1st is a new benefit we just added, where any issue you need to talk to a social worker, you can call up and have a nice conversation. Term life insurance, short term, disability for maternity leave 12 weeks of pay covered under short term disability, long-term disability. If something happens, and doesn’t even have to be on the workplace, and you can’t work for 2 years, 60% pay for 2 years. And this is all covered by insurance. It doesn’t cost a lot of money. I think I’m paying about $50 a month per employee for all the benefits I just listed, not the 401K matching, but the term life, short term disability, long term, disability, legal employee assistance program.

But to the person who needs it, that can be worth so much more than $50. And so it’s really that that whole package. How are we making sure that someone isn’t leaving our organization because they need something that we’re not providing?

SC: Wow! And I love that. You said that it’s a holistic approach, too, because you’re really valuing your greatest asset with not just words, not just with, you know, a monetary reward system, but also in your benefits. It shows that, “I got your back. We’re taking care of you” You know? That’s just tremendous, Gary.

You talked about Mission when you’re talking about Star Trek, and I love that you are a Trekkie. I think there’s a lot of us out there. And you talked about, you know, going on this mission together. And it made me think about something that I think you do incredibly well, and it’s partnering with other shared mission partners in your galaxy. So being part of this bigger mission and having these strategic partners is being part of this community. So I want to chat about those relationships which would be business to business relationships or your comrades on your mission, and so share with us about these relationships, and how you are able to be so much more than an HME Retailer in your community.

GR: Absolutely. I love how you connected that to Star Trek. Thank you. For those of you that are only listening to the audio. We both have great big smiles on our face right now. Yeah. So you know, things sometimes happen by chance. And I would say that I got very lucky to get into a partnership with an organization called Senior Helpers. But now that we’re going to talk about the benefits of that, hopefully that’ll motivate some listeners to go and actually not wait for this to happen by chance, but you could be the driver behind it.

So Senior Helpers and Electronic Caregiver at the time, both came to me when I maybe was open for just a few months, and they were interested in a partnership. And right away it made sense. And the reason it made sense is we share the same client base, and we want to help our clients live independently in a safer way. Not to fall down. Falling is not a natural part of aging. Nott to get hurt, right? And even if we are in an assisted living facility. We are still going to need some of the help that we’re providing at Mobility Plus.

And so it made sense for all 3 of us to come together and think, “Okay, if I have a client coming into Mobility Plus and they fall, what happens? Do they have a pendant around their neck that they could push that would alert someone? Because our phone might not be on us. Phone might not be charged up. Our phone might not have a good cell phone reception wherever we fall? With Senior Helpers: are we able to bathe regularly? Are we able to transfer with ease? Do we need help with light household chores? Do we need help with shopping? That’s not something Mobility Plus provides. But that’s something Senior Helpers provides. And so it just made sense right off the bat. Why wouldn’t I partner with other businesses in my community where we share the same clients and all can offer more holistic service? So advance forward to today: we actually hosted a senior session at my Mobility Plus Tucson. Today we had about 20 folks show up.

SC: Oh!

GR: Right? Right? So this was just this morning, and so Senior Helpers goes and gets experts in the community to talk about a topic. Today’s topic was affording senior home care. And so one of our speakers is a CEO and founder of a long term care insurance company and talked all about the different kinds of insurance that are out there. Which, unfortunately, most people don’t think about insurance…

SC: Yeah.

GR: … until they’re not insurable. So it only covers a very like 18%, very small percentage of care. But explained all that to everybody. And then the second speaker used to work for the State, and was in charge of all of the state care that was given to folks that couldn’t afford their own in-home care. And now that person actually works for a law firm whose job is to help people get care.

So by partnering with Senior Helpers, we’re able to actually host these amazing, informative sessions for our clients and for their clients to help everyone understand what their options are as they age. We’ve got what we call a center of excellence in our showroom, but it’s a little vignette. I kind of think of it like if you’re at Ikea, and you kind of walk in, and it’s like “Tada!” There’s a whole new room in front of you. And in this little vignette we have a hospital bed. We have a bedside commode. We have a lift chair and any of our clients that are getting any of those items—and there’s more, there’s a Hoyer lift, too—we can ask Senior Helpers to come and provide training to their family on how to safely get their mom, their dad in and out of the hospital bed, using the Hoyer lift on or off of the bedside commode.

SC: Wow!

GR: And when someone calls us up and says, “Hey, could we have a home safety evaluation?” “Absolutely, you can.” We get their information. We call Senior Helpers, and we say, “Hey, we have a request for home safety evaluation.” Senior Helpers goes out and does the evaluation gives us the list of everything that client needs. We get it all together in a shopping cart, a digital shopping cart, call the client and say, “Hey, Senior Helpers was just there. They did the home safety assessment. It looks like you need a toilet seat riser, grab bars, a non-skid bath mat. You know the list goes on and on. Your total came to $132. Would you like to pay for that? We’ll go ahead and have it, you know, delivered this afternoon and installed this afternoon.” Right? So it just makes sense, because we’re able to refer so much business back and forth to each other. And that’s great for the business. But from the client standpoint you’ve made one call, and we take ownership of whatever we hear, and we work with our partners to make your life easier and safer and better.

SC: That is just tremendous. And I’ve said this on other episodes that the referral community needs you. The PTs, the Senior Helpers, the caregivers, the outpatient surgery centers—they all need you. Mobility Plus is in their community, because, you know, taking care of someone is a journey, and it’s multifaceted, and it changes all the time, and I love that you’ve partnered together to create this incredible dynamic, because the winner here is the family and the people and the person that’s going through this journey. That’s just incredible. I love that you have these partnerships.

So I wanted to go back to what I started this podcast about is: franchises. Because many years ago, when we were first talking about retail, we never imagined that there could be franchises in this industry. And I’m just so thrilled that there are. So for someone thinking about being a franchise owner—and as I shared, there’s thousands of them to choose from—what would you share about our industry that would give greater insight for someone making a decision?

GR: Yeah, no great question. Great question. So I’ll share my experience coming on with Mobility Plus. I did not know anything about this industry. My background was driving surface ships, running engineering plants for companies that make pharmaceutical drugs and being HR for the Federal Reserve, right? I didn’t even know what a rollator was when I made the first call. I know! To Rich Peter saying, “Hey, I want to buy several of your Mobility Plus.” Right?

So one cool thing about buying into a franchise concept, you already mentioned that your success rate is a lot higher: 90% success rate, if you’re part of a franchise versus 40% if you’re not. So you have a proven system. You have pre-established relationships with suppliers. You have standard operating procedures that are given to right off the bat and training that’s given to you right off the bat. Now, can you figure it out on your own? Sure, sure. Will you get it perfect? Well, probably not. So why not buy into a system where a lot of that guesswork’s taken away? And okay, there’s some royalties you pay, but maybe your buying power saves you that same percentage because of the number of Mobility Pluses that are buying from a manufacturer to drive down dealer cost. So I do believe that most of the royalties are offset by that. Then the continued support that you get, the continued opportunity to share best practices, to learn what people are doing or to say, “Hey, I just had an issue with this product. Has anyone else experienced it?” To have that that built-in network and to have the lower risk is well worth whatever percentage you still might be paying once you look at, you know the difference between royalties and bulk buying power. So for me it was—it definitely made sense.

The flip side, too, and there’s more to it. So when I think about buying into a franchise. Yup, you’ve got the systems you’ve got the buying power. You’ve got the support. But there’s something that’s starting to happen nationwide right now with Mobility Plus, in my opinion. And that is, we’re starting to get brand name recognition. And that’s powerful because I can be in my Tucson showroom, and someone will come in the showroom and say, “Oh, yeah, I was just at your store in Colorado. Had a great experience. I’ve now moved to Tucson. So I wanted to check out my local Mobility Plus store.” So built in loyal client base.

And of course, corporate—that’s how I refer to Mobility Plus Systems LLC—they’re always innovating. Just about a week and a half ago, they launched an e-commerce website. And so we now sell scooters and power wheelchairs online. So if you’re a consumer, you no longer have to make the choice, “well, do I buy online and not know who’s going to service my equipment? Or do I drive to the showroom and that’s tough because I gotta get my caregiver. I gotta schedule it. I don’t know how I’m gonna be feeling that day. I gotta balance it around my doctor’s appointments.” You can now have the best of both worlds you can buy from Mobility Plus online. We’ll deliver it locally, and we’ll take care of it locally. And that’s just last week’s innovation or 2 weeks ago’s innovation. So who knows what’s next? So I think being part of a franchise makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons.

SC: That’s really exciting to hear. So you’ve shared so much about Mobility Plus. And you would think that that would just be so consuming because you’re so all in. I mean, you just did this class this morning, but I will have to tell our listeners that you’re a bit superhuman. So, in addition to these 3 Mobility Plus franchises, you also serve as a Navy Reservist, and you’ve taken on a new business. So what is this new addition to your mission, and how do you do it all? Gary?

GR: Oh, wow! Okay.

SC: Do you have a double?

GR: Was it was the movie named Duplicity, or something, where the person kept cloning themselves and cloning themselves, and the Clones clone themselves? Yeah. So oh, gosh! I just started with New York Life Insurance Company. I would say about 3 months ago, I passed my state insurance exam and then I went through the New York Life Fundamental Career school. So I’m an agent with New York Life. The reason I decided to do that—maybe I’m crazy, but I noticed that a lot of my clients coming in were concerned about similar things. Am I going to outlive my money? Will I have long-term care? What’s going to happen to my estate when I pass? And a few clients hadn’t retired yet. So what am I doing to do with retirement? And so I thought, well, this might be a natural expansion of our services here at Mobility Plus Tucson. So now when a client checks out at our register, maybe they’re buying—it doesn’t matter what they’re buying—the flyer’s right there. But you know, maybe they’re buying a lift chair, or you know, bedside commode. We’re going to ask them, we’re going to say, “Hey, you know our owner is an agent for New York Life. He’s passionate about helping people. This is kind of what he does as a hobby. He’d be more than happy to sit down with you for a no obligation financial checkup.” And New York Life has some amazing systems in place where I can really ask many questions, and we toggle on different buttons, and figure out what people’s goals are. Where are they now? Where do they want to be? How are they on track to get there and then that includes the finances. Where is the money invested? What’s pre-tax? What’s post-tax? What’s below the line in stable investments? What’s above the line in paper assets that can fluctuate? Do we have the right mix based on our age? Because that matters quite a bit.

So long story short. I believe that this will be a natural extension of what we’re already providing our clients, because in order to stay in the home you love, you need the security of knowing that you’ve got the durable medical equipment there, the home medical equipment to help you, and you need to have the finances to do it, and this was the other piece of it. This was making sure people had the finances or the financial resources to conserve their estate, preserve their state, or stay in the home they love.

SC: And these are both areas of fear and vulnerability that now, with the trust that you’ve built, that you are helping people with that. That’s just amazing. So last question, Gary. And I say this, every time I see you, I’m like, “How are you?” And because you are new in our industry and new being three and a half years, which I know is a long time. But people in our industry tend to stay in for a very long time. So we love that there’s new people coming in. Do you feel you’re living your best life? Like this is like your fourth career. How are you feeling about it?

GR: Yeah, yeah, I you know today the answer is, yes, and I’ll tell you why. Because I got to start my day at 9 am seeing a showroom full of people getting educated on how they can get care at home. That started off my day. And I’ve just kind of been on a high ever since. Anytime—and interestingly right when our presentation ended, another client came in. We’re able to get her situated with a with a scooter. So now she’s gonna be able to get from her from her apartment to where she eats. I definitely feel like we are providing a service to our community that is so important. And every time I see that in person, I know I’m living my best life. The challenge is getting out of this office, which you see behind me, because sometimes us as owners, we’re stuck doing the bookkeeping, we’re stuck doing the HR, we’re stuck answering all the emails and placing orders and whatnot. So the challenge is reconnecting to my clients so that I myself can remember: What’s our mission? What’s our vision? And so I can see the look on their face when they realize they can leave their house again and go for a walk through the park.

SC: Wow! So well said, well, that is truly the fuel to your fire is service, and every time you get to do that which is hundreds of times a day, it continues to fuel your fire. Well, I can see this fire burning for a very long time. Well, Gary, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. And really just being such a pillar in our industry. We’re so grateful that you’re in it. And I know that this podcast is going to get a lot of wonderful feedback.

And you listeners out there, you guys share the same fire, too. This is why we are in this industry, is this passion of helping others that is just so intoxicating, and it makes us unstoppable. So thanks for listening, and we’ll all connect again for the next episode. Thanks, Gary!

GR: Thank you, Sue.

SC: Take care!

GR: Bye-bye.