Kansas Christian Home CEO Justin Harland on AI, Abandoned Seniors & Building a 63-Year Legacy

Welcome back to another episode here on the Heart Hustle Podcast with today's guest, Mr. Justin. How you doing today, man? Hey, I'm doing great. How about yourself? I'm excited. Listen, I got a first online. We talked about it offline, but I love the preparation that you had here. here. You got the headset on. You got the microphone. It's like you're ready to have a conversation or something. I do come prepared. That's for sure. I love it. I actually want to talk about these degrees. What is the degrees you have behind you, man? What is that? What is that? Um, well, that's uh my bachelor's, masters, and doctorate. So, uh, exercise fizz, bachelor's and masters, and then doctorate in physical therapy. Wow. So, this you already knew this from the jump. This is what you wanted the space you want to be in since leaving high school. No, no. Uh not at all actually. Uh uh plans plans never worked out uh what I've figured out and you know I just uh uh go where I'm taken or where I'm directed and and uh actually my interests are are what really got led me to where where I am today, you know. And and for those that are listening, where are you today? Where what's the organization you're representing? Where are you part of? So I'm a part of Kansas Christian Home and we're in Newton, Kansas, just north of Witchah, Kansas. So come check us out. check our website out and see what we do. So, don't make fun of me when I tell you this, but the other day I was on a live stream and I called I I uh you pronounced it correct, but I was saying Witchita and they was like never heard of it. And then, you know, so I spelled it for them. They was like and they just started making fun of me and I'm like, how do I supposed to know I'm not from there? I've never heard a name in my life. Um, so Justin, tell us more, man. This organization, how long has it been around? What are you guys doing? Yeah. So, organization's been around for about 63 years now. Uh, we're talking about in a quiet neighborhood and it's a a senior living campus where we offer independent living services, independent living plus services, home health, uh, skilled nursing, long-term care. Um, really really a key part of the community and and serving the seniors that that are in the community. We've actually seen a lot of people come from outside the state even, especially recently. Um, we're trying to expand that reach. Um, and I I do believe that uh social media has really got us to where we uh are reaching a a wider area. Social media, are you saying just by telling stories? Is that what it is on social media? Yeah. Yes. Uh letting people know who we are, what we do, showing them the fun that we have, and uh trying to change the perception of, you know, senior care, senior living. the the power of social media, man, and really what what um it's able to do is is amazing and I'm happy that you guys been able to leverage that and see it at the level that is it's at. I mean, clearly innovative. You guys are talking about social media. Looks like you guys are kind of ahead of the curve. Are you guys also thinking about AI? Are you guys in the space of AI? Yes. Uh so we're uh definitely pilot piloting a lot of programs and um looking to see what kind of efficiencies we can uh you know, streamline things in. Um, you know, there's a lot of data that we deal with on the skilled nursing side and, uh, there's there's plenty of opportunities for us to streamline things to make things a little bit easier, faster, and more efficient. As a nonprofit, you know, we're constantly looking for all those things to to give us a little bit of that edge, get us uh uh save us a little bit more time so we can serve the people that we're uh working with. That's amazing, man. And h how long have um you've been in this this field, in this space? Um, so senior living and uh skilled nursing I've been in for a little over five years now. Um, you know, it's uh not not something that I thought that I would ever, you know, be in, but um I first started out as a a physical therapist uh for seniors and you know, seeing that impact, learning a lot from their wisdom, um, and you know, just having extra grand grandparents that I can talk to every day has always been great. you know, uh improving the quality of life and and having fun with them has really been uh very rewarding. I love that, man. I love how you just mentioned extrag grandparents, right? That's just what it feels like. And I love also now I really get to see how it all came back. You talk about physical therapy, obviously that's what you uh went to go to degree in, but fell in love when you were working with the elderly and and we're in a space now, man, where technology is really changing the game. There's a lot of at home care going on as well. there's a silver tsunami going on um you know within the next couple of years. What does that look like for you ideally when we talk about um how we can better prepare ourselves? I think AI obviously plays a little bit of factor in that but are we prepared? Yeah. Um that's that is the biggest challenge you know uh we have weight lists in all levels of care that we have and that's not going to get uh any better for anybody um in the near future. They're they're showing that statistically speaking, any long-term care place can actually start putting uh building more roots and and building and expanding right now. And that's still not going to meet the capacity. So, we've got to figure out a way to to to bring them bring them into our our care without, you know, um expanding our footprint too much. Um and that's the difficult part because not everybody has a bunch of land where they can start building or expanding. And so we got to figure out how to get into the community, you know, serve the people in the community, but not necessarily all on our campus. So we're we're looking at every different little aspect that we can provide that value and uh take care of our elderly. You know, that's a it's a huge population that we've got to be able to serve. Yeah. And when we talk about elderly, it's one of those things that um when they do get into care, right, families that just may not show up. Um, when you talk about extra grandparents, that's why you see them like that. These are your extra grandparents. You love to have these conversations. How important is it to just have people that have this passion and purpose as well? Not so much caring about the paycheck, but just loving what they do. How important is that factor? Oh, that's it's it's vital. You know, there's a lot of people that come into the industry and don't really uh don't really care, and you can definitely tell. So, you know, that paycheck is just a paycheck for them and and that's not not helpful to the industry. But you can definitely tell the people that care and and you know, I had I had a couple residents that, you know, a couple times I've I've heard this where uh you know, their family doesn't ever come out. Um and I would say probably only about 15% of people still get regular visitation from their family and that's the sad thing. Um, but they see that we're their family and and they appreciate that and and you've got to have staff that care. Um, they've got to find that value so we can provide value and and love for the ones that you know we care for. We have u obviously nonprofit so we have an organization foundation basically that's uh started it out which was based on uh legacy of John and that's what it's called legacy of John almost 2,000 years old. It's a legacy from uh John, the disciple of Christ. Uh Christ gave uh his mother Mary to John to take care of as he was at the on the cross. Um so we're living that legacy out. We're taking care of people's mothers. We're taking care of people's fathers and we got to pe we got to have people that continue and and believe in that. True, man. I it's so hard to even know that people would leave their family in those situations. you know, we think about but I think that's why having a conversation around what it looks like um for us, you know, at this level is what what we what do we want to see? How does care look like for us? Are are you guys also big on helping families just kind of navigate that when they're in the space of trying to leave their parents in care with you guys? Cuz they're all those that care and they just also may not know. And I think what's happening is people don't know what they don't know. that they get into these situations and it just kind of becomes almost chaotic, overwhelming. Can we talk about what that process actually looks like? Yeah, that process is it's it's a scary process and not many people know about that process unless you work within that process. So um you know typically if somebody gets uh somebody that's elderly gets debilitated have to go to the hospital you know they came from home their family's always always seeing them at home and all of a sudden they need a little bit more care um after after a hospitalization and and you know that's what we provide in a skilled nursing setting but there's a very high percentage that hey they they've got to have more care than anybody can provide even in the home. you know, home health services is not going to cut it or they've got to have a family member there 247. Um, or else they're not safe. Um, so just going through the nobody wants to sign up to come into the nursing home. Sorry. Um, and and and you've got to have good people in a nursing home to be able to work through the issues and and help the family members. You know, a lot of the times it's the family members that have a lot of more of uh difficulty with that next step. Um no, nobody plans for it. Got it. Justin, I I really appreciate the conversation that we're having here and I think about a lot of the times the work that we do. I mentioned it a earlier about we don't do this line of work for paychecks. We do this out of truly the love of what we do and and helping and inspiring others, however that may look like, um on our day-to-day. And I think that sometimes we always have to remember the why. When was the last time you you ask yourself why? Why do I do this? If you can kind of give us that if you haven't, man, we would love to know why. When you think of that, every single day you could be doing something else to really put probably more money in your pocket, but this is what you do. Yeah. Why, Justin? Uh, well, I've got a lot of wise. Um, uh, but so I lost my grandparents, but all all four of my grandparents, uh, you know, were younger. Um, so I really didn't have that presence in in my life, you know, through my teens or or or any anytime thereafter. And I just know that I need to I I I find value. I feel like I have worth when I'm able to provide something and serve. And and I I believe that I've truly been led in this direction because this is where I have shined. Um, and and so my I my drive is is to serve people. Um, I I've got a lot of I've got a lot of sins I've got to make up for and I've got to treat people well and uh and you know this is I'm I I believe uh my calling and and where I'm supposed to be. So yeah, I love it. And we're not perfect, right? We all have these sins that we have to make up for. I appreciate you share that, Justin. Justin, when you think of and I can imagine there's plenty that come to mind, but um a lot of the times, you know, I just heard this recently. I forgot what it was. Someone told me a story and I was like, you know, it filled your cup though, right? And she said it did. You know, and a lot of the times it's not about we would mention the money, but it's how we do touch lives and sometimes when we see things or hear things, it allows our cups to be filled. Allows us to wake up the next morning and do it again. Do you remember any story that comes to mind that really fills your cup and always kind of reme reminds you of the why? Because I can remind every day you probably reminded of the why and I appreciate you sharing your why, but any stories that come to mind. Yeah. Um, and I shared this not too long ago when when we had our uh a big yearly or an annual event for Legacy of John. It uh, you know, I brought examples of, you know, one of our residents coming coming in really uh, kind of resentful with her family for dropping her off and and and just the difficulties that she had. Um, but you know, just a couple weeks ago, she came and and wanted to talk to me. And you know, she she described the exact things that that that she loves about being with us is, you know, our housekeepers that fold her fold her laundry exactly the same way that she used to because that's, you know, how how they've learned to love her. Um, around her birthday, the chef comes in and gives her her favorite uh dessert. and and and you know what really hit my heart was uh you know I I really didn't think anybody loved me anymore or cared about me anymore but I found another family. So being able to support that lead a good group of people um in that mission is fills my cup every day. Mhm. Emotional man. Just said like uh when you talk about you know thinking no one loves me anymore. Life really repeats itself because and I say that because when I was a young kid and I was going through the adoption and sexual abuse and all these different things in my life. I used to ask myself that. I used to think that like am I not loved? Like why me? and and now these elders are in a home and they can't do anything else but think these things because there's no one to see them but the faculty members that show up and and show them love. Um how could families be better prepared? Like say myself, someone that at one point may need that, right? May need to be put in a home. What should I prepare myself? How should I prepare myself? Well, just yeah, that's that's a difficult one. Uh, you know, a lot of families I I see a lot of resentment um around them not being able to provide for their family member or feeling like they just dropped somebody their their loved one off at a out of place. Um, so getting through that and and being a partner with us to care for that that resident and and and we're we're just kind of the next level of the family. you know, we we want you to join in, help us uh care for that that that family member. So, getting through that resentment of uh of having to ask for more help. Um seeing that that you can't provide everything and that's really what we're there for is to care for everybody there. I mean, there's things that are for like you mentioned Collins. I don't know, man. I might I might leave home every single day just emotionally thinking about some of these, you know, family members because humanity is everything. You know when we talk about technology we can never get away from humanity as much as AI you can put up uh it would never take away from that human interaction but I think that AI does allow us to do more of the things that we love and even just today coming back from a healthcare convention on how AI is being implemented in some hospitals on how this is the coolest one that I've actually seen you know when they go and clean up these rooms in hospitals that it's being monitored so as soon as it starts there's a timer as soon as it's done there's a timer and it just kind of you know triggers the next system to let someone else know this room is available all on the back end. I think to myself like wow it really allows people to really get into the things that they love more than anything. Um are are you are you seeing that or what is your thoughts on that? Like uh are you guys able to use something like that? Yeah, so it it's definitely advancing quickly. Um we're seeing a lot of different uh items and and and projects and processes and stuff that that are being implemented. Um it's very innovative time, that's for sure. Uh they have they have things that uh you put in somebody's room and it'll it'll scan the room. It'll tell you the position of the patient. It'll alert you when the patient may may be able to be um may be getting out of bed um and their high fall risk. It'll alert it'll alert you. It will actually scan them and kind of tell you what the vital signs are. I mean so so quality of care is going to increase significantly. It's going to reduce falls. It's going to reduce hospitalizations. It's going to reduce so many different things. currently looking into new software program or EMR um that that will help facilitate some of that and and cut down on that documentation. You know, documentation for the nursing staff is is is a a burden. Um so, they can't necessarily be out there with patients because they got to sit there and be documenting things. So, so there's so many efficiencies uh that are going to help the staff and also uh it's going to improve quality care for sure. even even the office people. Some of the things that I've built myself using um some Grock projects are um uh what we have is MDS where we have a nurse that's sit there looks through all the documentation and says okay well I'm going to code this and I'm going to send it off to CMS and then they're going to pay us for it. Well um that's based on a book um you know a couple thousand pages. So if you have any kind of questions you got to scan a book or a PDF look for a specific word. Well, uh, you can put you can build a project with AI and then you can just ask it say ask it a question. What do what do I do in this situation? How do I code this? And it it saves hours and hours and hours of time and and I see before too long all those systems are going to talk to each other and there's not even going to be a need for that position. Um, so there's going to be another nurse out there on the floor working with people. Yeah. No, and that's that's it. You know, I think people are in the space that is taking away jobs, but I feel like it's taking away the jobs that people don't really love doing anyway, that repetitive task. You know, who wants to pick up the phone all day and answer the same questions? And I feel like if you can, you could create something, you know, however that may look like that it just helps out. It makes you feel happier. You talked about fill, we talked about filling cups. If I can't go and work my with the patient, the thing that I love, how am I cuping filled, right? Instead, I'm trying to chase money down. and I'm trying to trying to write notes and documentation, all these different things. I was actually talking to a doctor today at the uh at the event and he was just saying I get to really see more people. I really have a work life balance, you know, like the the the as you mentioned the notes are being there and I can edit them and I can take go back and look at them and just so advance and I I love that you're ahead of the game, but so many people are and leaders itself in this space are kind of scared. What do you say to those people that are kind of scared of AI? If it was here, it's not going anywhere. Yeah, it's a tool. It's a tool. You ask any mechanic how the how how do the jobs get a little bit better? How does their life get a little bit better? Well, the appropriate tools, using the tools, learning the new tools. Um, you know, if you're not using those tools, you you're going to be behind. You're going to be stuck in the past, everybody else is going to be moving forward. Things are going to get better for them and not you. Um, so that's uh, you know, that's key. It's a tool. Let's learn how to use it. Um, use it wisely and it's going to make everything better. If the Heart and Hustle podcast has ever sparked any idea or made you think differently, do us a favor. Make sure to guys share this, post it on LinkedIn, or even text that nonprofit friend that you just have. Whatever works. This is what keeps the conversation going and allows us to just grow this community together. Seriously, we appreciate you. Just cuz you said this and this is has nothing to do with what we're talking about, but it talks about it kind of and it doesn't. So, I remember when I moved into my home and I turned the shower on and one shower has hot water, but the other shower doesn't have hot water. So, I'm like, "Okay, this is weird, you know, buy a home, they say, right? And here you have all these problems uh that you have to fix now because you can't call nobody." So, I'm like, "Oh." So, of course, I go and look it up and I It may have been TATP around that time. Probably actually was because I was probably using it uh I don't know, maybe it was just my good Google use. Yeah. Anyway, I find out what it was and I didn't have the right tools, right? You had to be very mindful of of what you're doing because the pipes are behind the wall. So if anything bursts, now you really have a bigger situation. Yes. So I'm sitting here, you know, playing with all these five four different tools, man, to try to get this little piece. And I said, you know what? I don't want to break this. Let me go actually buy the correct tool. And I bought the correct tool. And I spent 45 minutes with four or five different tools. But then when I got the right tool, it took me five minutes. And it's really back to what we say about AI. I mean, look at the time that is being saved that allows me to go do something else. Um, and something that's more meaningful, you know, and I don't know, right now we're talking about a little plumbing, but that is life. So, I love that you said that, Justin, is that we have the tools, but do you have the correct tools in place to make things a little bit more uh easier, you know, but more the experience is also better, I think, as well when we talk about how we can automate the back end. Our patients appreciate that. Clients appreciate that. The parents I can imagine also uh you know not the parents but the the children too. Um some of these elderlies also appreciate when we can be a bit more efficient. Um so I like that. I like I just had to throw that in there because you just kind of brought that up. Yeah. Um what what is what is the thinking about five years from now, man? What does that plan look like for you guys? Well, uh, that plan looks like, uh, we're going to have a a large population of seniors that we're going to need to support. You know, that middle market is kind of the one that's going to need us the most. Um, so, uh, plan in five years is to expand uh into the community a little bit more, provide services out into the community a little bit more, expand uh maybe our footprint on our own campus. Um, uh, you know, we have a 63 year old building, so uh, uh, a new building does look pretty nice. We just, so as a nonprofit, we just need the support from the community and, you know, that we're really getting that now. You know, we building that brand a little bit more um, over the last couple years. So, um, getting that support from the community and and expanding that reach is going to be real important for us. This campus, I think you me mentioned earlier, how many um can it house? Yeah, so we have 76 homes, 20 apartments, and then we have a 54 bed skilled nursing long-term care facility. Wow, that's pretty big, man. So, yeah, you guys just want to not only get a new home, you know, new campus, but let's let's add some more homes to it as well. That's pretty cool. Are you guys thinking about also doing more of Kansas? Are you guys looking to expand out of Kansas? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh, at at some point we want to expand that reach, but, uh, we need to be able to make sure that we can support ourselves and take care of everybody that we already, uh, have the privilege of working with. I got a question and and you might be able to answer this or not, but how long have you been with the organization? Um, almost two years now. So, not not too long. you know, I moved this move moved into this position um after kind of a corporate governed place that I was not agreeing with uh some of their their metrics and and things. So I moved I moved here because I saw an opportunity where I can also share my faith uh and and also uh you know act upon it uh ethically. So you said you said faith. My faith. Yeah. Yeah. So a man of God. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I love it, man. I love it. Oh, this is that's why you're in this space, man. And you just have a big old smile. Since I started with you, you just had a big old smile because God has blessed you to be up today. Um, I love that, man. Only reason I was asking that question is because I think 63 years old, you talk about expansion and and I sometimes even a 63 year old organization still, especially on the nonprofit level, sometimes it's hard to scale, right? And sometimes because the the we have to have a business mindset, right? It's about giving. It's about storytelling I think in the nonprofit world, but I think when I some organizations tend to just move a little slower, you know, so that's why I was asking you, do you feel like, you know, now things are are the wheels turning or or are you guys still trying to grease the wheel to turn like where we at? No, you know, uh I'm blessed and challenged in the in the same uh arena in the fact that you know, we don't have a corporate structure. We have a board of of uh you know over 50% are pastors of the area. So um really the restrictions that we have are are are are nothing. Um you know I am the whole seuite team and the administrator of the skilled nursing facility. So that's a that's a lot on me. But we also have the freedom uh to move fast. We have the freedom to adapt. We have the freedom to overcome uh as as problems arise. and and you know, building that brand, we're we're using that momentum that we've got within the community to ju to just keep pushing and and with social media's reach, we're we're able to uh broaden our our uh our nets and and bring in more people, bring in more support and and with that, you know, I see potential uh potentially building. Was social media your thing? No. So, no. Uh not not initially. you know, I I actually canceled out of all social media for about seven years and didn't even have anything at all. And then uh I I started looking into a few things and Mr. Gary V. Vaynerchuk uh started watching him and and listened to some of the things that he said and saw the importance of it. I mean, like he says, it's all free. Um basically, it's free advertising. Building commercials, making commercials, that's that's irrelevant nowadays. So, um, just seeing the free and the and the impact that we can make and and and really get the whole nation behind us as long as they see how much fun we're having and what we're doing. I was about to ask, man, are you having fun doing this? You talking about playing multiple hats, listening to the Gary Vee, you're you're building the brand bigger and better. Like, are you having fun doing it, man? Like an entrepreneur. Yeah. No, it's it's it's really been great. Um, I I never saw myself in this position, but uh uh I I I love the journey for sure. Um I I keep going where the wind's blowing me, where God's pushing me, and and my aim is up and to the right. Um and ever since that, that's been my trajectory. Everything's been been great. I love that for you, bro. I I I love this and I can't wait to see what happens in the next couple of years. I mean, you guys are going in the right direction. You talked about social media. There's so much value into that. I'm actually outside of this, people don't know, but I am a wrestling uh wrestling nerd, I like to say. And I started two years ago just on Tik Tok. Knew nothing about Tik Tok, right? Even though I'm probably in that age where Tik Tok is a thing. Um, and I said, you know what? Let me just test this out. I had no idea. I just knew I have I had a passion for wrestling, something that I truly loved. And I was like, let me just test this out. So, I started going live every Monday and Friday. Hey, now two years later, I'm at 70,000 followers, you know, getting paid by Tik Tok, going to Tik Tok events. And it it is one of those things, man. You just got to do what you love and it's just exciting. And as you mentioned, kind of go with the wind, you know, and that's really what has happened to me. Um, but it it's fun. It's fun building. And I understood the power of social media and community building because people do business with people. So, you show up online, you get to show people what you're doing. of course people are going to buy into what you're selling which is the stories is the impact in your communities is how we can better our future because at some point we're going to become the older person that needs to be taken care of how we we need to start investing now um so Justin I I really appreciate it man and and we're talking to another young leader in the space that may want to make the the jump right make that leap of faith but they're scared what do you tell them comfort is the worst addiction. You've got to you got Yeah, that's it. You got to get out of your comfort zone. You got to keep trying. You got to you got to answer the call to adventure. Otherwise, you're just like everybody else. Love it, man. Love it. And we we appreciate the time. Is there any we we like to do a blind question here on the Heart Hustle podcast. So we ask you to ask the next leader and this leader could be somewhere in the nonprofit space, healthcare space, it could be hospice, it could be autism, just a leader in general. What is your question to them? How are you advocating for those that you serve? And are you everything that you could be? Why you got to be so deep, Justin? That was deep right there, man. I appreciate it. That was so good. Where can people continue to know more about the organization? We got to make sure that we get people sent that way. And also, if you on LinkedIn, you know, I don't know, I know you said you get come off social a little bit. I do. If you're on LinkedIn, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have uh LinkedIn now. Um actually, go to our website, kschristianhome.org. Come check us out. Um you'll actually find me on all the social uh media platforms now. Um look up uh justinharland dpt. Um or Kansas Christian Home. We're we're everywhere now. Oh, so you're back on social now. Oh, yeah. Okay. All right. All right. I love it, man. I love it. Well, Justin, we thank you so much for your time, man. We appreciate it. It was has been a pleasure just being able to know more about your space, about what you're doing, and continue to do. Um, we thank you. We thank you. And I know that with you at the uh forefront of it all, wearing all those hats. There's definitely going to be some changes happen. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate you and all your support and keep doing what you're doing. Absolutely, Justin. We'll take it easy. My name is Era. This is Justin. and we'll catch you later.

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