0:02

Welcome to TCN Talks . The

0:04

goal of our podcast is to provide

0:07

concise and relevant information

0:09

for busy hospice and palliative

0:11

care leaders and staff . We

0:14

understand your busy schedules and believe

0:16

that brevity signals respect

0:19

. And now here's

0:21

our host , Chris Comeaux

0:23

.

0:24

Hello and welcome to TCN Talks

0:26

. This is a fun show . It's kind of become an annual

0:28

tradition at the end of the year . Before

0:31

I jump in , I just want to wish you and your families

0:33

just all of our listeners out there hope you've had

0:35

a blast holiday season , hope

0:37

you've had a merry Christmas and looking forward to a great

0:39

2024 being with you

0:41

. This is always a fun show because what we do is

0:43

we actually do kind of a year in view . Look back

0:45

on some of the top podcasts that we've had

0:48

this past year . Just in case you missed any of them , just

0:50

give you a quick thumbnail so you can go back and find

0:52

those podcasts and whatever platform that you listen

0:54

to us . And then also , we're always

0:56

in with a really good piece of wisdom . We've

0:59

got great feedback on it , which is the one word we're

1:01

going to talk about that in just a couple of moments . We

1:04

do want to thank you , our listeners . We've had a very

1:06

successful podcast this year . We

1:08

had a goal we want to reach 5,000 people

1:10

this year , get to 5,000 listeners , and we've done

1:12

that . Just want to keep encouraging you

1:14

and thank you first off for listening . We do

1:17

this to be an aid to you to get a short

1:19

bolus of information . We try to keep them anywhere

1:22

from about 25 , no more than about

1:24

45 minutes . We shoot for that 30 minute

1:26

range so that way you can listen to it on your drive time

1:28

. But short , pithy

1:31

, to the point and important information that will

1:33

help you the leader , staff

1:35

member and hospice and powder care organizations . But

1:37

also we found this year one of the highest growing areas

1:39

is that a lot of hospice leaders

1:41

have paid it forward to their board members . We've

1:43

gotten a lot of feedback that has been a great aid to

1:45

them . So thank you to our listeners . Keep

1:48

paying this forward Every person in

1:50

your organization . Hopefully you're paying it forward

1:52

to . If you've got any feedback for new shows

1:54

you want us to do next year , we're always willing and able

1:56

to listen to any feedback that you have for us

1:58

. All right , so let's actually jump in and

2:00

kind of do our year in review . And so , beginning

2:03

of the year , we started off

2:05

with a great show . It was actually with Sheila Burke

2:07

. She's a senior public policy advisor

2:09

at Baker Donaldson Bearman , called

2:11

Wilhelm Berkowitz , and a research faculty member

2:13

at Junk Lecturer at Harvard University

2:16

. Title of it was Is it a Staffing

2:18

Challenger or a Staffing Crisis ? Well

2:20

no , the staffing challenge is a big deal . There

2:23

are so many great pearls in that podcast . Next

2:25

one that I want to kind of point out a look back in order

2:28

to look forward , really forward . This

2:30

is with Peter Benjamin . Peter is one of the most provocative

2:33

and I say provocative in a good way , because

2:35

he pushes you to think where things

2:37

are going in the future Talked about

2:39

, and Peter has such a great history

2:41

in hospice and powder of care , and so

2:43

he had a lot of great points . We talked about Medicare

2:45

Advantage . Peter is consulting

2:48

for a lot of what I'll

2:50

call very visionary organizations

2:52

, and Peter cited the S-curve

2:54

theory . If you know about that in business school

2:56

, it's like the bell shaped curve . It's what we see in hospice

2:58

and powder of care for people's lives and

3:00

how organizations need to realize where you're at

3:02

on that curve , because that brings a lot of

3:04

necessity for change . So

3:06

that was a great listen . One after that I want to point out was

3:08

with Katie Lanz , reading

3:10

the tea leaves and practical advice

3:13

for the future . Katie is one of the most

3:15

sought after consultants in the country

3:17

. Our organization is called Top Sight

3:19

Partners . The great thing about

3:21

Katie is she grew up in hospice and powder of

3:23

care as a hospice nurse and a powder of care provider

3:25

and ended up actually working with a spire

3:27

. So she's had great experience and

3:30

now she's doing some fascinating consulting projects . The

3:32

fact one that we talked about was with Dollar

3:34

General , and the reason why Is

3:37

that all Americans live within about five miles

3:40

. Well , the vast majority of Americans , I should say

3:42

, live within about five miles of a dollar general

3:44

and they had a lot of interesting

3:46

reasons why they wanted to look at healthcare

3:48

. So check out that podcast . If you never listened

3:51

to it , then one is

3:53

always amazing . For me is I had time with

3:55

Quint Studer . That's actually the title of the actual

3:57

podcast . Quint's one of my favorite mentors in my

3:59

life , still pouring into leaders

4:01

. He just started a new company called Healthcare

4:04

Plus Solutions Group and we just

4:06

talked about some , lots of things

4:08

. I probably have quoted this podcast

4:10

probably more than any other , because one of the

4:13

things that Quint said in that podcast he said mental

4:15

and emotional health

4:17

and tools . So for yourself

4:19

, but also as a leader , it

4:22

has no longer soft skills . That is , now essential

4:24

skills going forward , and I love

4:26

that framing . Again , I've probably quoted that gosh

4:29

, I don't know how many times 25 times this year and

4:31

then there was kind of a monologue podcast with

4:34

me called Grow so Flow , no and

4:36

R&D , and in that podcast

4:38

I tried to encapsulate what I'm learning from all

4:40

these amazing gas , lots of different

4:42

work that we do with Intelios , in other words , what

4:44

is coming and then give a little bit

4:46

of a prescription at the end . That's kind of encapsulated

4:49

pretty pithily Grow so Flow

4:52

, no and R&D . And you should go back

4:54

and listen to that podcast if you don't know what that means

4:56

. Then after that we actually had a

4:58

podcast with Carla Davis and the title

5:00

was the Value of Hospice Today and

5:03

Into the Future , and Carla is a senior vice

5:05

president , lhc group . Probably

5:07

the most touching part I mean . First off , carla

5:09

oversees what is now the largest hospice

5:12

in the entire country , as

5:14

now Optum LHC group is

5:16

under Optum and then the Metasys is about ready

5:18

to be as well . So you think about her

5:21

scope of leadership . But

5:23

probably the most poignant part was actually a personal

5:25

experience with her . Dad Actually

5:27

moved me to tears , moved her to tears , and so that was

5:29

an awesome show . We got a lot of feedback on that

5:31

one . Then , after that one

5:34

actually was by request from a listener said you

5:36

guys should do a podcast on ICF

5:39

. Well , there's only one great resource

5:41

out there , which is Dr Harry Feliciano , prior

5:43

chief medical officer of Palmetto . And we brought

5:45

Rondo's because they partnered on ICF

5:48

and it's a framework because

5:50

we've all had challenges of how

5:52

do we know this patient truly is appropriate

5:54

and still appropriate for hospice , and

5:56

Dr Feliciano is one of the foremost experts on

5:58

the concept of ICF , the international

6:01

class of function . That was a great , that

6:03

was a deep one . Do a lot of reading and research

6:05

before that one . Then after that we

6:07

had Miriam Grant and so Miriam's

6:09

title of that podcast was Rethinking

6:11

and Redesigning the Future of Hospice and Powder Care

6:13

. If you don't know Miriam , she actually

6:15

worked for CoverGirl Marketing . I love her

6:17

because she brings great business

6:20

world top notch marketing

6:22

experience and she actually became

6:24

a nurse and then later a powder care practitioner

6:26

and now she's kind of porting all of that experience

6:28

together . So that was a great podcast

6:31

, a lot of great pearls . And then we had

6:33

a good In fact, I got an email not too long ago and said here are the top 50 speakers in the country: Tony Robbins, and there was my good friend Meridith Elliott-Powell . , Meridith Elliott-Powell

6:35

. In fact we got probably as

6:37

much feedback on this show than any other called

6:39

how to Thrive no Matter what the Future Brings

6:42

. Meridith is incredible .

6:51

That was a great podcast and it's just so much

6:53

wisdom . Meridith and I were just

6:56

bouncing off of each other and I actually

6:58

listened to it a couple of times myself and got some pearls

7:00

from it just re-listening to it . So that was

7:02

a great podcast . And then Another

7:05

good friend , Julie Kennedy Oehlert

7:07

. What's Love Got to Do With it ? And

7:10

Julie's amazing . She has a book

7:12

coming out , her first book , I think an

7:14

early part of 2024 . And

7:16

we just talked about what's Love Got to Do With it

7:18

. And there's this great culture

7:20

, a pearls of wisdom , kind

7:23

of an inspiration for the work that we do . Again

7:25

, Julie's just filled with wisdom . So I

7:28

really enjoyed doing that show , got

7:30

a lot of great feedback on that one as well . Then

7:32

a very thought-provoking show , dr Joan Tino

7:34

, who's one of the foremost researchers

7:37

in the hospice and powder care space

7:39

, who's a little bit towards the tail end

7:41

. Hopefully she'll still be working many , many more

7:43

years , but not quite as much as she's had in the past

7:45

. She's a leading adjunct professor

7:47

at Brown University and we talked a lot about

7:49

measuring what matters . How

7:52

do you define quality in this space and how do we need

7:54

to keep redefining quality ? And what about as

7:56

we go into the Medicare Advantage realm ? And

7:59

the next show after that was one I've been wanting to do

8:01

and we'll probably have a couple more . In fact , listeners

8:03

, if you've got some great ideas , this is the future

8:05

of Alzheimer's and dementia care , and

8:07

we had a couple of great young Dr

8:10

. Stelley Gutman and Elizabeth Lackey , who

8:12

are actually part of a very innovative model near Asheville

8:14

, north Carolina , called Memory Care , and

8:17

so we were talking about the future of Alzheimer's and dementia

8:19

care and that actually provoked a lot of interesting responses

8:21

that I got from other people saying hey , Chris , did you know

8:24

that we're doing this innovative thing ? So

8:26

that's another subject I want to hit in 2024

8:29

. We know that Alzheimer's dementia population

8:31

is just a different population . One

8:33

of the phrases that Dr Tino said that

8:35

just was like a brain tattoo . She

8:37

says the decline for Alzheimer's

8:39

and dementia patients is a decline by

8:41

inches and that's what makes it so difficult

8:44

to fit it into just our more traditional

8:46

hospice model of care . So I love that

8:48

show . Again , that's probably one , and again , if you guys

8:51

have like , hey , you should think about this person

8:53

for a show in 2024 , reach out

8:55

to us . And then we had a show

8:57

with my good friend Carole Fisher and

8:59

Bill Keane , and so they just finished a

9:01

project . A research project with

9:04

Bill Keen works with emergence , and so the title

9:06

of the show was People Over Profits , and

9:09

there is some amazing nuggets . They came out

9:11

of this joint venture project that

9:13

emergence did with MPHI , the National

9:15

Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation . I

9:18

know the title is a little provocative People Over Profits

9:21

, especially those who have grown up in the nonprofit

9:23

realm , is like well duh , no kidding . But

9:25

they did a lot of research . Like , if we think

9:27

about it , I have about 28

9:29

years now in hospice and

9:31

powder care . The greatest generation has

9:33

been who have been caring for and , as we're

9:36

speaking , that is shifting to a different

9:38

demographic , which is the baby boomers . So

9:40

to have timely research of what do

9:42

they really value , what do they expect of us ? There

9:45

was just some great pearls in that podcast

9:47

and then we've got a show

9:49

that will right before this

9:51

one that we've got Bob Tavari's is

9:53

going to be talking about . CMS

9:56

says that 100% of all healthcare will

9:58

be in ACOs by 2030 . What does that mean

10:01

and where Bob is with health pivots and

10:03

what he sees within the data . That's one

10:05

of our last shows of the year , now

10:07

one of the ones I've skipped over that we've done

10:09

each month . But I just want to call out Mark

10:11

Cohen has been a great thought partner this year . This

10:13

was an idea I actually got over at Christmas Break last

10:16

year . That wouldn't it be a great service

10:18

if we had a show each month to

10:20

say these were the top news stories of this

10:22

past month ? Like a short

10:24

pithy Now usually those are about 35

10:27

minutes or so , but these are the top news

10:29

stories and Mark produces hospice news

10:31

today . So he's been producing . This is

10:33

what I see from a quantitative standpoint , and then

10:35

my role in that show is

10:37

as a C-suite leader or a leader

10:39

in hospice and powder care . These are the ones

10:42

I hope that you did not miss and

10:44

we're going to continue those into 2024

10:46

. You probably have heard by now that Mark is going to

10:48

be retiring from producing hospice news today

10:50

. He's got a great succession plan

10:52

with Quirk Kassner . We're going to talk about that more

10:54

into 2024 . So that service

10:56

is going to continue to go forward , and so , and

10:59

then Mark and I were going to continue to do that show because

11:01

we've gotten a lot of good feedback One is

11:03

a great service and we've also got some great

11:05

feedback on how to make that show even

11:07

more entertaining , which will keep tweaking that

11:09

going into 2024 . And Mark

11:11

and I did that , of course , every month of this past

11:13

year , so that's a year in

11:15

review . Believe it or not , we did 30 podcasts

11:18

. I know that sounds like a lot and you're thinking , well

11:20

, crap , I missed a bunch and I don't have time to catch up . Remember

11:23

, they're about 30 minutes or so and

11:25

we do that on purpose , for drive time or workout

11:27

, all right . So the next thing that I

11:30

wanted to talk to you about is really become a tradition

11:32

, which is this concept of the one word

11:34

. Now , at Teleios , we

11:36

teach that having a role description

11:39

, maybe even having your personal mission statement

11:41

, are good things and of course

11:43

, we've done , I think , the One Word podcast in

11:45

2022 , 2021

11:48

. And I think in 2020 we did it as a blog

11:50

. He may go okay , ben there got the T-shirt

11:52

, but I wanted to talk about it a little bit differently this year

11:54

and I want to back up and actually share some wisdom

11:56

Well before , because

11:58

there actually is a book . There's a great YouTube

12:01

about the concept of one word . One

12:03

of the very first leadership books that made a great

12:05

impact on my life was Stephen Covey's Seven

12:07

Habits of Highly Effective People . Now there may have been

12:09

someone before him , but his first person

12:11

ever heard talk about writing a personal

12:13

mission statement . I don't know if you've ever done

12:16

that . I've actually found this very

12:18

powerful thing in my life , and here's

12:20

the interesting thing is I kind of basically

12:23

look through the rear view mirror of my life and

12:26

then start to kind of shift to look out of the windshield

12:28

. What I've done each year round

12:30

Christmas time try to have about a day

12:32

where I'm exactly doing that , looking through the rear view

12:34

mirror and then start to position in the

12:37

upcoming year and I relook

12:39

at my mission statement . Now I can look

12:41

back through the rear view mirror now and I

12:43

can see that I used to have about a paragraph

12:45

or so , but in the last couple of years

12:47

it's gotten very short and concise . For me

12:49

, my mission statement comes down to how

12:51

can I help and I think I've

12:53

gotten that great clarity by that reflective

12:56

practice , once a year , just pulling

12:59

it back up , thinking about what I've done this past

13:01

year and then think about what it'd like to do in the coming

13:03

year . So fine , that's a great

13:05

time to one have a mission statement

13:07

and then , on an annual basis , review

13:10

your mission statement .

13:11

Thank you to our TCN Talks sponsored

13:14

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13:16

is also the title sponsor for our May

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and November 2023 leadership

13:21

immersion courses . Deltacarerx

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, pbm and prescription

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mail order company . Deltacarerx

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provides not only pharmaceutical care

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13:45

end of life and serious illness care

13:47

.

13:48

Because the one word is gonna come

13:50

out of that . Next thing is that one thing

13:52

that we teach at Teleast is the concept of

13:54

a role description . Now , years

13:57

ago , stephen Covey , if you remember

13:59

, in the seven habits , one of the things he would say

14:01

is you are the computer programmer of your

14:03

life , so write the script

14:05

and then live it . It was kind of a metaphor

14:07

for the first three habits . Well

14:09

, the concept of a role description is

14:12

very similar and so , for instance , I

14:14

have several roles in life . I'm a husband , I'm

14:16

a dad , a father , and I'm

14:18

the CEO of Teleast , and I have several community

14:20

and other board roles and things like that . So

14:23

I have different roles that I have to

14:25

play . Now my mission

14:27

is kind of embedded in who I am , but at this moment

14:30

there's a certain way I need to tap into that

14:32

mission and then tap into other skills and talents

14:34

and emerging skills and talents and play

14:36

a role at this moment . So that's

14:39

the concept of a role description . It's a very

14:41

powerful thing . We teach it a lot at Teleast , we

14:43

teach it in our leadership immersion course . So

14:46

you go , okay , well , what's a one

14:48

word ? And what I found

14:50

is having those other tools in

14:52

my life . The one word becomes

14:54

a thematic prophecy

14:58

, a guiding principle

15:00

, a guiding light to

15:03

the upcoming year and , the really cool

15:05

thing , I've done one word now for I think

15:07

, probably seven , probably

15:09

seven , eight years . Okay , I should go back and

15:11

see my one word each year and

15:13

what I thought that word meant , going

15:15

into the year and then using it

15:17

as a theme throughout the year . At

15:20

the end of the year it means something deeper

15:22

to me and through that deepness and

15:24

that understanding , my personal

15:26

mission statement and my personal role description

15:28

have a lot more weight to them . I have

15:31

better clarity in those things by

15:33

utilizing the one word . So , just to be very

15:35

succinct , the one word just feels

15:37

like a theme for the upcoming year and so

15:39

many people prayerfully consider it . At

15:42

Teleios we recently we

15:44

did something called a menti , which is like a real

15:46

time poll , and it was so great

15:48

to see our organization and our

15:50

team that this was my one word the past year

15:52

. Many of our team members weekly

15:55

we say these are our priorities for the week . We call

15:57

that our big rocks . At the bottom of their

15:59

signature they actually have their one word for

16:01

the year . There's a hospital in Western

16:03

North Carolina that on the name tags

16:05

of their staff . They encourage all their staff to do the one

16:07

word . They actually have their one word in their

16:09

name tag and recently I went and got some healthcare

16:12

from that entity and asked the lady about

16:14

her one word . And it was such a rich and robust

16:16

conversation , so prayerfully

16:18

meditating , just getting quiet and just

16:21

asking what is your one word , I

16:23

find usually in about the last month of the year I

16:26

started to get a sense of what that one word is . Sometimes

16:29

I'll prayerfully even try to ask for confirmation

16:31

. The coolest thing is several years ago my

16:33

one word that I was getting a sense of was

16:36

solitude , and anybody who knows me is

16:38

probably laughing at the fact that I had that

16:40

as a one word . And I was actually

16:42

. We were driving to Louisiana for my parents

16:44

for the holiday and I was like I'm really going to need

16:46

some confirmation . This is my one word and I kid

16:48

you not , I actually have a picture of this . I

16:50

looked up and on the back of a camper

16:52

as big as you please was the word solitude

16:55

and I ended up pulling my phone out . My

16:57

wife was fussing at me . She's like don't be pulling your cell

16:59

phone out while you're driving . I'm like I got to get a picture

17:01

of that RV right in front of us , because

17:03

that's the confirmation that that was supposed to be

17:05

my one word for the year . And again , the funny

17:07

thing is that year , what I thought

17:09

that word meant , and almost maybe some

17:12

hesitation , like I'm not sure I want this to be my

17:14

one word had a much deeper meaning

17:16

by the end of the year . So strongly encourage

17:18

you if you would like to actually share with us . Hey

17:21

, this is what my one word is going to be for 2024

17:23

. We'd love for you to share that with us . So

17:26

, as we conclude this show , again , happy holidays

17:28

, looking forward to a great 2024 together

17:30

. We have a great thing to announce we're actually

17:32

going to be launching a new podcast . I hope that you've

17:34

heard that I have my first book that's come

17:36

out , called the Anatomy of Leadership . It's available

17:39

on Amazon . So we have a new podcast

17:41

in 2024 called the Anatomy

17:43

of Leadership , and so we're still going to have TCN

17:45

talks , which is usually about twice a month

17:47

, thank you , and then slotting in the other two months

17:49

is gonna be the anatomy of leadership . We're gonna have some

17:51

great guests . The reason why I

17:53

wrote that book was basically to be a meta framework

17:56

to help you find your cause and purpose and live your

17:58

cause and purpose . So we're gonna bring guests , we're

18:00

gonna do a few monologues just to keep pouring

18:02

into you so you could better

18:04

find your cause and purpose and better live your cause

18:06

and purpose as a leader . So continue

18:09

to subscribe to TCN . Hopefully you'll be subscribing

18:11

to the anatomy of leadership . We're gonna have it both on

18:14

YouTube . Make sure you hit that bell

18:16

and that way I'll notify you every

18:18

time we have a new podcast , when it drops , so you don't

18:20

miss an episode , because we really have

18:22

an incredible lineup of guests already for TCN

18:24

Talks and an incredible lineup of guests

18:26

for our new podcast , the Anatomy of Leadership . So

18:29

happy holidays to you and your family . And

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, as I always do , I wanna close with a quote , this

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one from Dolly Parton . My family and I were just

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recently in Pigeon Forge in Gatlinburg Always

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a great time to think about Dolly . I love

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this quote . One of our team members brought it to me Find

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out who you are and do it on

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purpose . Thanks for listening to TCN

18:48

Talks .