Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Isabelle Guarino-Smith. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Isabelle, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love for you to start by sharing your thoughts about the pros and cons of family businesses.
They always say, ‘don’t work with friends and family’, but who does that leave enemies and strangers?! I love working in a family business and I constantly seek to hire friends and family. The trust is already built in and you know the way they operate so it makes the ‘getting to know you’ phase so much faster and easier, you are only learning nuisances instead of starting from ground zero. My father started our company and one of his first hires was…me! This set the tone and started our family business and foundation in the right way. We both viewed each other in a professional manor and learned to work seamlessly with one another. Always remembering to not cross boundaries and to keep a level of professionalism alive. Overall the best part of working in a family business is built in time and relationships with your family members. We have overcome so many challenges together, I’ve seen my brother deal with angry customers and my sister work through financial strains. I’ve seen my uncle come up with incredible value and services for our customers and my cousin grow in his sales career. I’ve been able to work alongside them and see them in a new light and grow so much respect for their perspectives and their backgrounds in work, business and life. We are closer than ever and I am honored and delighted every day to run and operate a family business!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
My name is Isabelle Guarino-Smith, I am the Chief Operating Officer for the Impact Housing Group of companies, which includes but is not limited to Residential Assisted Living Academy, Recovery Housing Academy, Residential Assisted Living National Association, Shared Housing Academy, 4 Homes 2 Freedom, Pitch Masters Academy, Family Legacy Homes and Residential Assisted Living National Convention. My late father, Gene Guarino, and I built these companies over the last 7 years working together. Our primary focus is to positively impact 1 million people through Residential Assisted Living. It all started with my grandmother, she fell, broke her hip and needed help! We had to find a place for her to live comfortably because she could no longer stay at home. We were upset and uncomfortable with the homes and facilities available to her, we knew we had to do something. We built a Residential Assisted Living home for the intent to provide her with top quality care in a luxury residential home. By the time it was ready for her to move in, she had passed on.
We kept the home alive to serve seniors and their families in her honor and we have been blessed in and by this industry ever since. There are currently about 20,000 RAL homes across the country of which 10% of them are built and wondered by our students who have come to our training and learned our RALA methods to create quality care homes for seniors in their golden years.
We offer trainings to teach people to do good and do well with Residential Assisted Living! One of these homes can easily cash flow +$10k a month and that is a big draw for many investors who aren’t seeing returns like that on their other investments. Last year, my father, our Founder passed away and left not only the Impact Housing group of companies to me, but also his RAL care homes. I am beyond lucky to have been left with a blessing instead of a burden, he left me cash flowing businesses and for that I will be forever thankful to him.
I am now stepping into his shoes and going on the road sharing the message of what Residential Assisted Living Academy has to offer investors and entrepreneurs.. I am the lead trainer at our 3-Day trainings hosted virtually and in Phoenix, AZ and I am honored to share his knowledge and insight with the world from a new perspective.
I am most proud of our students accomplishments carrying on my fathers legacy of doing good and doing well and positively impacting the world through Residential Assisted Living. It’s a big industry and we are hoping to disrupt it, just like Uber did to taxis, we are here to take over the Assisted Living world by storm, proving smaller is better!
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Our reputation is built heavily upon truly being THE best national trainers in the country on Residential Assisted Living. Our students success truly has helped launch us to the next level. When someone comes to our 3-Day Fast Track training and soaks in all the information we have to offer at the RALAcademy and they go back to their perspective state and open a quality care home for seniors that serves their community, provides jobs and gives adult-children and guilt free option for their parents… it’s life changing in many ways! It changes the life of our student, the owner, because they are running a hands-off business and cash flowing like they never have before. They’re able to leave a legacy and an asset to their family and not give any burden to their own children when it’s their time to need assistance. It changes the life of the senior because they are receiving top quality care and getting to live out their golden years in a luxury residential home in a gorgeous neighborhood. It changes the lives of the caregivers because they are no longer being overworked and underpaid, but instead working in a calm, serene, respecting environment where they are appreciated and shown love for the hard work that they do. It changes the lives of the adult-children who put mom or dad into the home, because they can release any guilt they may feel as they can rest assured this is by far the best option for their parent. When you change lives, it’s easy to build a rock solid reputation. We are a company that runs on honesty, loyalty, family values and compassion. We understand that many investors want more than just to make money….many want to make an impact. That’s what helps set us apart in the investing or real estate world, and why our testimonials don’t stop coming in!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Being flexible is not something that comes easily to everyone, but as the saying goes ‘we plan, God laughs’. It’s so important to stay pliable in business! Every day new challenges arrive and it’s up to you to set the tone for how you react to new strains for your time, money, energy or resources. Your team will observe you and learn to repeat your reactions, so the more malleable you stay, the better your team will be able to handle those difficulties. When our Founder, my later father, Gene Guarino passed away in October, we were at a loss. He was the backbone of our company… let alone the face! He was our main stage presenter and he was known across the country for owning this industry. We felt so many emotions with this major loss, but of course we were hit with a situation that gave us have no choice but to pivot.
In the interim, our CGO stepped in and took the stage for the 3 months following his death, he performed all of his speeches, did webinars and events, travelled around to fulfill everything that had been booked. We made it work! He was a star and everyone was so kind and understand and actually happy that we weren’t just shutting our doors, but we were still out there sharing the message of Residential Assisted Living (RAL). Now that we’ve had time to sit back, think through the details and work out all the kinks we decided as a team I was the best fit to take the stage in Gene’s absence. I’ve been working to re-fill all of my day-to-day roles so that I have the time and resources to be out on the road, making big relationships and sharing with investors and entrepreneurs how to do good and do well. I am so excited for this new facet to my role and to grow my skills speaking in front of crowds of sophisticated investors.
Pivoting is vital in any and all businesses, but more than that I think giving yourself time to think and really evaluate what is best. Successful people make decisions fast, please note, I didn’t say rash.. I said fast. It’s okay to think through the options. That is the blessing our CGO gave us, 3 months of time to sort out the details and think, and for him and that time I will be forever grateful. Having a plan A is crucial, having a plan B is key, but having a plan C is optimal for success.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://residentialassistedlivingacademy.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ralacademy/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ResidentialAssistedLivingAcademy
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabelle-guarino/