welcome back to round two of the Amin

coffee chat where we bring you into our

home and behind the scenes of the

discussions that we have pretty much

every day about our business everyone

reserve yes today’s episode we kind of

ranged a lot of topics talked about some

major milestones that we’ve accomplished

and we got into some of the details

about our operations of the home from

our care tribe to my dream of having

pets in the home so I hope you guys

enjoy it

let’s do it

coffee chat number two welcome back

coffee chat oh I didn’t think of a dad

joke for this one do you know a dad joke

i They have to come to you in the moment

okay they have to be punny it has to be

situationally appropriate all right

we’ll have to see if we can come up with

one yeah during the course of this

episode yeah I think we can do it okay

well our first topic of discussion we

were going to discuss a major milestone

that we accomplished this month and talk

about how we achieved it yeah it’s

interesting because we have like five

different things happening at once on

any given moment any given week yep but

obviously the big the big one the big

milestone this past week has been

passing a million dollars in capital

raise yes yes and we did an early round

of funding friends and family and um

grateful to be able to bring this

opportunity to people who might not

otherwise have access to private equity

deals

big supporters of ours you know um

literally friends literally family and

we’ve got a really solid base of people

i think it was 13 total people and each

one of them had some type of personal

connection to us so it was not only of

course a milestone financially but just

being able to bring people in and um you

see how they’re passionate about this

vision too like that’s the most

meaningful to me is that there’s people

that we love and care about along on the

ride with us right yes yeah it’s been

really humbling like to see all of the

different support and to know that

people are trusting us and know that we

will be the quality operators that we’re

you know kind of touting ourselves to be

um that has been amazing to see so yeah

let’s keep the momentum going yeah i’m

trying to think there’s other milestones

too there’s some construction stuff uh

maybe you can talk about yes well okay

so one of the big things that happened

recently is that we’ve been negotiating

these gas pipeline easements that are on

the land and there is an old gas well

that’s actually been shut in but we are

negotiating with the company uh

basically to abandon a lot of those

pipelines abandon those easements so

that we can develop and it has been

months and months of back and forth

literally starting these conversations

in January before we even put in the LOI

and now this week we handed it off to

the attorneys and I no longer have to be

kind of the middleman and the one

communicating and for me that actually

is probably like the biggest uh

accomplishment uh recently because that

actually takes a lot of weight off of me

and just uh you know hopefully now we

can really get some traction and get

that finalized yeah I think it’s really

difficult picture us 12 months ago to

think about all the different things

that go into the land and like how many

things could potentially kill a deal on

a piece of land and in Texas this is

super unique or at least you know more

prominent here where there’s these gas

pipelines it’s an oil and gas city

houston is probably the if it’s not the

capital it’s close of the country so and

Tom Ball in particular also has its

roots in oil and gas tomball the city um

yeah and that’s where we’re located so

you know this is just an interesting

dynamic in addition to like working with

the seller you also had to like learn

what easements there are you know we

have a title report that goes back to

1800s so we have a land attorney that

has been awesome who’s helped us even

pull together a file and like what’s the

history of this land it’s raw land right

now it’s uncleared it’s wooded it It has

never been used for the purpose that

we’re using it and so there’s a lot that

goes into just getting it ready yeah and

then um so yeah not only finding things

that could kill the deal but formalizing

all the paperwork and getting the title

cleaned up so that not only is it clean

when we take ownership but if ever we

choose to move on from it we can do that

without hundreds of years of gunk built

up on that title report right yeah just

um Yeah

clarifying and yeah getting the full

story and cleaning that up yep i think

it’s been fun and you’ve been driving

this uh but it’s been fun to see the

construction team really like hit a

stride yes we have our owners reps so we

have you know Brett and Chris like we

have our mentorship team then we have

Bailey and Blake they’re our day-to-day

construction administration managers

owners reps yes I want to shout out

Blake and Bailey right now from Dun

Construction Management because they

have been amazing and they’ve really

been able to kind of take the lead and

drive in spaces that I don’t feel you

know maybe I’m not knowledgeable enough

to even like know what to ask or know

what the different alternatives are for

a certain situation so having them on

board has been invaluable yeah there’s

this cool kind of hierarchy right like

everyone has their own knowledge and

domain yes within our team and you get

to truly be the visionary which I know

is something else we’re going to talk

about but like you get to focus on the

design elements and like what’s going to

bring this experience to life for the

residents instead of the like minutia of

the like the contract detail obviously

that stuff is important and being paid

attention to but you get to like go into

the role that resonates most with your

vision and what you are bringing to this

project yeah exactly and it’s been

giving me the bandwidth to then go out

and network in the community which is

like one of the biggest parts of this

project and that has given me the space

to do that and I’ve had some really

great fruitful meetings recently with

industry professionals here so yeah I’ve

really needed that time and space to do

that and develop those relationships

they don’t happen overnight and so we

need to plant those seeds now so that as

we start ramping up and we’re getting

ready to open next year those

relationships are already in place and

it’s no problem you know having folks

trust us with their loved ones care

they’ll get on our wait list and they’ll

know that they want their loved one

there because the professionals will be

spreading the word yeah i think it’s

interesting too like so we have a vision

right and we’re working with Brett and

Laura’s memory care mansion model they

have a great service first resident care

quality of care yes first uh mentality

and philosophy which is great like that

should be the northstar guiding light

but within that there’s a ton of

different details there’s existing

operators here in Houston like you’re

getting a lay of the land and you’re

also meeting with people who like senior

adviserss or placement agents people

that they’ve already formed opinions

about like oh I really like the way this

place does this i really don’t like the

way this you know place does this yes

and so you’re in addition to our

existing vision you’re filling in the

gaps and the details by getting all

these perspectives yeah and even whether

you agree with them or not it’s still

good to hear how they think about it

because they’re influencers in this

market and obviously we want to be in

their good graces too so hearing from

them what they like or what draws them

to support a home like that’s invaluable

oh yeah mhm definitely and in addition

to meeting with professionals I’ve been

able to do more secret shopping and so

that has been really valuable as well to

go it’s not a secret if you tell

everyone okay well don’t tell anyone um

but I was doing a secret shop the other

day uh a facility that’s really close to

our location and it was the typical

facility smelly facility i walked in and

you could smell urine immediately and

the food is coming on hospital trays and

residents are sitting around and

nobody’s helping them nobody’s sitting

with them as they’re eating it Yeah it

just it really hit home i haven’t gone

into a larger facility in a few months i

was doing all my secret shopping like

months ago as we were choosing a

location and and then I’ve been going

into the smaller care homes recently and

so to go back into a large facility

again I was like “Oh yeah.” Mhm yep this

is your typical just large facility

where there’s not enough caregivers to

give the attention needed it really does

honestly smell there’s just not the the

stimulation the activities going on it

just really emphasized why we’re doing

what we’re doing why we’re putting so

much um heart and effort into it because

every detail does matter

yeah so maybe taking that right so talk

about some of the design things that you

are particularly passionate about

because you’ve also experienced not only

from this secret shopping expedition but

in your own life with your own family

like things that you really don’t like

and that you don’t want to see and you

don’t want to include in our home so

like what are some of those things like

the details right that people don’t

necessarily think about yeah well so I

mean obviously first and foremost like

making sure that you have enough care

and the caregivers that you have are

top-notch high quality great at what

they do and also concerned with

developing actual relationships with the

grandmas and grandpas in your home um

and then above and beyond that like

little details that I I don’t think

folks pay enough attention to like the

food and it how it’s presented even

presenting food on a tray is not an

experience that you would get at your

home right so even dorm cafeteria right

or hospital that reminds me of a

hospital a nursing home and I just and

even like the plates that they come on

like the plastic trays with the lid and

it just so it immediately gives you that

feeling that you’re not home and like

that uncomfortability

and then in terms of just the design of

the home really trying to make sure that

anything that makes it seem like a

facility is as masked and integrated

into the design of the home as possible

and things like on the outside not

having red curbs that you would find in

like a commercial development really

making it look like a neighborhood

trying to not have curbs at all to like

maintain the aesthetic really little

details like that that it once you walk

into a home it’s that immersive

experience that you really do feel oh I

feel like I’m home right now because

this is what that would feel like yeah

even within the design there’s like the

library areas and a couple like visiting

spaces because the it is 10,000 square

feet which is big but it’s not huge

there’s not a ton of different like the

the rooms themselves are pretty big but

there’s the main common area and then

there’s the two little um social areas

in the wing where people can do nice

visits and you feel like you’re at home

like you know in Brett and Laura’s they

have like a library style thing and they

built one I don’t think they actually

smoke cigars there but they built it to

like mimic that aesthetic of like a

cigar lounge yes yes and so you can go

sit with your loved one and have what

feels like a experience that you might

have in in your own home or something

comfortable instead of a cafeteria table

in a really like you know full

fluorescent lit you know over brightened

room with no artwork on it right well

it’s actually funny you say that because

the facility that I was just in this

week it was so dark it was actually so

dark and I was like it’s too dark in

here because as folks get older and they

age obviously eyesight goes and

particularly if you’re dealing with

memory care um it can really impact

someone’s eyesight and then also how

they’re processing things visually so

having a lot of light is important not

the harsh fluorescent lights but a lot

of natural light which we’re

incorporating in our homes with huge

windows and making sure that every

bedroom has a large window with a lot of

natural light and that was one of the

things that I actually noticed about the

facility was I was like it’s too dark in

here so anyway no it’s interesting and

of course like we um the only way we can

prove that we can do it better is to

really think through all these things

and build it into the design this is one

of the reasons that we wanted to do

groundup development is because we can

design with all these things in mind

from the beginning instead of trying to

transpose this vision onto an existing

property anybody who’s ever done any

renovations at home you know it’s it’s

not only a very disruptive and expensive

process but you’re trying to fit

something into you know a building that

wasn’t designed for that purpose it can

totally be done and we know a lot of

people that have done successful

conversions and remodels but when we

really sat down to decide how can we

make this vision and address every one

of these little details that you’re

talking about groundup development was

the answer for us at least yeah

definitely i think that a lot of folks

um minimize the effort that it takes to

not only do a renovation on a

residential home but you have to do it

in such a way that you’re aligning with

the regulations for assisted living

facilities a lot of those regulations

are like you’re putting in a full-on

sprinkler system throughout the home um

there’s actually some commercial aspects

to like the way that home is going to

function so doing that in a residential

home that was built as a residential

home it actually creates more

complications you might end up having to

redo the entire electrical system in the

home so when you think about things like

that you think maybe it’s it’s better to

just do groundup construction you know

that you control all the variables from

the very beginning so yeah no and that’s

what ultimately drew us to to Brett

because he also has like we’ve seen

their buildings yes right they’re

amazing yeah we want to do that style of

home too like that particular aesthetic

with the huge ceilings lots of windows

the design the way Laura has done the

interiors too i just absolutely love

it’s high quality it’s calming it’s

tranquil

and you know that families walk in there

and they feel like they like being there

they enjoy being in that in those rooms

so I have a question for you we’re not

there yet but like we’re going to be

employing a team right like 10 plus

people probably more yeah and uh which

is an incredible from an economic

standpoint from a adding value to

society standpoint that’s wonderful it

also comes with challenges we know

staffing is going to be one of the

bigger challenges yeah but um yeah of

course I’m excited personally because I

think it’s a great way to pour into

people like you’re providing opportunity

and in our case we want to create a type

of culture that we can you know develop

people we can provide them career

pathing through our homes if we want and

you know just like be able to invest

that time and energy into people but

you’ve created a kind of branding for

our um you know so Brett and Laura have

the platinum angels that’s their people

and we have Care Tribe i wonder if we

could talk about the The vision behind

Care Tribe oh sure i mean the vision

behind Care Tribe the idea is that when

you are living in our home you feel that

this is your family okay so that’s the

basis of everything that you feel like

you’re family you belong there everyone

is supportive of each other and so that

of course with the staff and our

caregivers that you know it’s not just a

staff team i want it to feel like a

little tribe that you have your tribe of

people behind you supporting you you

know throughout your time in our home so

that’s where it’s kind of the

inspiration to call it our care tribe

comes from and the idea that it’s it’ll

be very collaborative

not only collaborative between our staff

members but also with families with the

families really learning about the

families and who these grandmas and

grandpas are that we are serving and

hosting in our home so that we can give

the best care possible not just your the

regular oh help them get dressed help

them take a bath help them to eat but to

make sure that they’re able to engage in

activities that they love throughout the

day making sure that we are bringing in

elements of just their favorite things

into the home so that they feel

comfortable that they always feel

welcomed so that’s really important to

us and I want to instill that bring in

an element of high quality hospitality

into the homes really blending empathy

with execution at like the highest level

i think that’s what the assisted living

industry needs right now it’s

interesting so hospitality like there

are some crossovers between like a hotel

not that we want to feel like a hotel

but the the level of service and the

level of thoughtfulness like you know

the personalization when you walk into a

hotel you walk in it’s like hello Aaron

good to see you or what you know like um

so the version of that in a homelike

environment would be more over like

understanding like what is this person’s

u background like what are the things

they like maybe asking the family before

you bring them in like what type of type

of music does this person like how can

you facilitate playing that for them

whether it’s in the room or in the

common areas how can we celebrate

different cultures that are all coming

together uh how can you spiritually

engage that’s another big one too at the

end of life people you know obviously

reconnect in different ways whether it’s

providing a space for the family too

right like obviously people in high

acuity dealing with memory care it’s um

not always easy for them to engage super

directly but like just providing the

space and and giving them the outlet

with them and their family to to connect

like all those things are important to

us yes yes and it’s it’s interesting

that we both have like somewhat of a

background in hospitality um and coming

into this space with that perspective I

think is I think gives us an edge i

think it’s a it’s a positive thing

personalization i mean it’s just like

you know when you meet somebody or I’ll

give an example when we did some calling

around to other places um secretly of

course uh you know you have conversation

sometimes and they and there were

several times where the person didn’t

even ask about our family members oh my

gosh yeah mhm they just like yeah we

have a room available yeah didn’t ask

anything about them or what we needed

for them i that was crazy like tell me

about your family member what’s their

name what do they like to do like no

they just listed out what they offer

this is when we went somewhere for a

tour and they showed us the rooms the

home talked about what they did and

didn’t ask us a single question about

who we were there for yeah so I mean

that’s I feel like the bar is relatively

low to clear to just provide like a

little bit of extra personalization yeah

yeah and at the end of the day like the

ethos behind it is that if we wouldn’t

be willing to or proud to drop off our

own family member at this house then we

failed like honestly that’s standard

yeah i don’t want to do this if that is

Yeah so that’s the standard that we’re

holding for ourselves and you know um we

intend to keep to that yes i was

thinking about your background in

concerts um as a promoter I started

thinking about how we’re going to

implement music in the home and kind of

like the daily rhythms of the home and

oh this is what I also wanted to bring

up that I don’t think many people know

this came up when you were talking about

like how to provide spiritual sort of um

a sense of spirituality for residents

and that can become more important later

on in life we will be next door to a

church our neighbor our only neighbor is

a church and so uh I definitely want to

develop a relationship with them and

develop a partnership and make sure that

for grandmas and grandpas that want to

be a part of services they can do that

or have the minister come over to our

home and do services i think that that

would be wonderful and we do plan to to

do that yeah we want to give people the

make it easy as possible to spiritually

engage yes yes and from all faiths right

yeah i think that um you know yes this

all it’s it sounds great on paper it

will be challenging to put it into

practice with potentially 32 residents

that’s 32 individual people with

individual backgrounds and preferences

spiritual backgrounds whatever it may be

but I again think that is the the

standard that we want to hold and and we

believe truly that if we place that as

the north star is providing that quality

then the profit the revenue all that

stuff you know the business isn’t going

to run itself but at the same time if we

if we can knock it out of the park on

that the rest will fall in line yes yeah

i fully believe that we should cheers to

that

[Music]

shalom it’s Friday

to all the Jewish listeners out there

although by the time they listen to it

it probably won’t be Friday but for us

it’s Friday right now that’s true yeah

so what role is Arnold going to play in

the business mascot for those who might

be listening to this and not actually

watching Arnold is our very special

little guy here he’s been with our

family longer than our kids

so he was I guess the first first child

uh but he’s very tolerant of our

children and then yes he will be he will

be our mascot i suppose he’ll be our

mascot from afar he will not be going

into the homes he does not have the

correct temperament for an assisted

living home and we recognize that so

he’ll be our mascot from afar can we

talk about though that I do want pets in

the home we can talk about that sure

what would you like to talk about that

oh how many pets would you like in this

home and what kind of pets i’m going to

let you run with that and I I’ll be u on

the background thinking about the

various liability concerns related to

that okay so for those of you uh

watching if you are familiar with the

book being mortal it is about it’s

written by a surgeon I believe and it’s

about aging he has a lot of discussion

around the current kind of assisted

living um industry and kind of how we as

a society treat aging and dying

basically um I guess that was for those

who are not familiar with the book and

one of the awesome parts that I really

enjoyed reading was about uh somebody

that took over management of a memory

care unit and brought in like a a

parakeet for every single grandma or

grandpa there and then two cats per

floor and a dog for each floor and I

thought that was wonderful

i love that what if you only had one

floor so we could do and I’m not

necessarily a cat person we could do I

think we could do a dog and I think we

could do birds in the common areas

I think we could start there i think

that could be great let’s put it this

way i’m open i’m open to it especially

if it adds value to the residents that’s

exactly because the resident experiences

first and if it adds to that and it

doesn’t have other Yes liability things

that are prohibitive then Yeah let’s do

it yes yeah mhm always a balance just a

peek into the dynamic i I actually truly

like appreciate this about working on

this with you though is that like you

have I would never in a million years

have thought of that right so like I

think I think the the vision and like

the creativity you can come up with the

framework right like this is what we

were just talking about before you can

build a beautiful house you can

advertise for memory care you can staff

you can train but that personalization

and that thoughtfulness and like that

that vision element that comes from the

top yes right so you are the you are the

CEO of this business you’re the

visionary and paying attention to those

details and then you know permeating it

down through the culture of our like all

our staff all our partners communicating

that out out like that stuff makes a big

difference i Yeah I wholeheartedly

believe that and so that’s another point

that we wanted to talk about um in this

discussion is that we wanted to make it

clear to everyone that we are going to

be operating the home so it will be

familyowned and operated and that is how

it’s going to be we’re not going to sell

to some corporation um to start managing

under our name we would not do that

everwood reserve will be a family

operated business

yeah i mean I think we’re doing this

it’s a ton of effort it’s a ton of

opportunity costs right like we’re doing

this in lie of you going to a different

type of job like we we’ve really

rearranged the next decade of our life

to be able to facilitate and lean into

this vision we believe it will add value

to the community it will provide

something that we know is much needed

and um we want to be a part of that we

don’t want to just capitalize on the

financial opportunity we want to

actually be part of the vision of

bringing that to life and the impact

that it can have in the community yes

and the only way to do that is to be

involved yep um you know whether or not

this goes beyond these two homes which

we currently believe it will um the

impact even of those two homes alone is

going to be significant and we know like

for anyone who hasn’t spent the last 10

months deep in the data like we have

like the the issue is not going away

anytime soon like there’s already a

shortage that is much greater than even

we individually could ever you know

meaningfully chip away at but it’s one

one house at a time you know one set of

beds at a time and um you know we want

to be available to meet the this major

need for senior care that’s going to

happen over the next couple decades yes

and we want to do it differently we want

to elevate the industry and if other

operators you know follow soon we’ll

have a country full of assisted living

homes that are high quality and that

people want to live in and like that

would be amazing because that helps

solve this issue of currently we do not

know where grandmas and grandpas are

going to go so if we could be part of

that solution that’s for me what

motivates me and like hits at my heart

for this project amen i think that’s a

pretty good spot to wrap it okay yeah

this was this was a great conversation

yes I enjoy these thank you catch you

next time yep thanks everyone see you

next time

hey everyone we’re Andrea and Aaron Amin

of Everwood Reserve Assisted Living

Community tonight we’re going to be

hosting a special webinar for potential

investors interested in getting involved

in Everwood Reserve it’ll be at 600 p.m

central and if you’re watching this

after the fact you can still catch the

replay if you want to RSVP or get more

information go to everwoodreserve.com

we’ll see you there