about a market. I was just thinking, how can we help our patients better? How can we give seniors a better quality of life

at the end of their life? What’s interesting about the model you guys are doing is idea of like luxury assisted living.

Oh yeah. When I first came across this, I diving head first into it, loving it. It’s just new and unique. We shopped

around at least 15 places. Would I want to put them in our local homes? The answer is no. So, you know,

hey, why don’t we do it ourselves? Welcome back to the Hybrid Real Estate Professional Podcast. The show where we

dive into how professionals are building wealth, solving problems, and creating impact through real estate and entrepreneurship without burning up

their lives in the process. I’m your host, Aaron Amin, and today’s guests are my dear friends, Dr. Khloe Kilman and

Nick Blanchard, co-founders of Bloom Holmes Assisted Living. Dr. Kilman is a

double board certified family physician and geriatrician who teaches at the University of Mississippi Medical Center

and the Mind Center. She’s a true subject matter expert when it comes to dementia care and has a bold vision for

how to bring her knowledge into the vision she and Nick have for Bloom Holmes. Nick is a US Air Force veteran

and operations quality control professional who will now bring his leadership experience and system skills to the senior care industry. Together

they’re building a 16 bed memory care mansion just outside Jackson, Mississippi. If that sounds slightly

familiar, then I have a fun fact for you. Khloe and Nick were the ones who actually introduced my wife Andrea and I to the memory care mansion model last

year. We’ve met with them in a small pod with other assisted living developers every week for the last year. It’s been

incredible to support each other in our journeys to tackle the senior care housing shortage, one bed at a time.

Chloe, Nick, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you so much for having us. Yes, thank you.

I’ve been looking forward to this. Um, it’s funny, Chloe. I actually first heard your voice and saw your name on

another podcast you did uh with our friend Dr. Alex Schllo, the Physicians and Property podcast. And then about two

weeks later, we joined the Row Room when they were launching their mastermind and we got assigned to a pod with you. I

was like, “Hey, I know that person, the power of podcasts, right?” Yeah, for sure. For sure.

Yeah. Thank you so much for having us. We’re excited. you know, we’ve been working just as hard as you guys on this project

for so long now and it’s it’s really fun to share it. Yeah. So, I gave a little um you know,

bit of your guys bio in the intro there, but u maybe back up a little bit because you you have had a journey into RAL.

Would love to hear just you know, from your professional background like kind of what gave you the idea to to pursue

this. Yeah, absolutely. Do you want me to start? Yeah, go ahead. Okay. So, um gosh, I I remember the

first time I heard about Ralph was about December of 2022. I heard another physician on a different podcast, um but

a doctor’s and it’s not Dr. Schllo’s podcast, but it’s a different podcast with doctors doing real estate ventures.

Um and I remember thinking, huh, that sounds really really interesting. Um you know, I’m a deriatrician, so I see

patients 65 and up, and I see a lot of patients with dementia. Um, and typically there’s a, you know, a

shortage of beds and the beds that we do have in our town in neighboring towns is, um, a lot of them are fantastic. Um,

but then sometimes I’ll see a patient come into my clinic who maybe lives at one of these places and maybe they fell

um, and were not found for several hours unfortunately or maybe they come into my

clinic and the family says, you know, they’re just not taking great care of mom at the ex place. And so kind of that

combined with us kind of wanting to do something different and kind of make more of a difference in our community

plus hearing about this option, it was like, huh, all the pieces just kind of came together for us and we thought we

should pursue this. So it’s three years in the making. Um, but we’ve come a long way since then. Certainly made some

progress. Sure have. Absolutely. So you you obviously have a very unique purview from your

profession, right? you’ve seen a lot of what works, what doesn’t work, and you have a really advanced knowledge of

dementia care and best practices, a subject that you’re already passionate

about. So, it seems like you you guys kind of saw that, hey, there’s there’s a hole or a gap in the market.

Yes. And there’s a shortage and and maybe we can do something about it, right? Yes, absolutely. And frankly, I wasn’t

even thinking about a market. I was just thinking, how can we help our patients better? How can we give seniors a better

quality of life at the end of their life? And then of course, you know, somebody like me, I see this every day in my clinic. So, thinking ahead about

Nick’s parents and, you know, our grandparents and things like that and would I want to put them in our local homes? And for the most part, that

answer is no. So, you know, hey, why don’t we do it ourselves? What’s interesting about the model you

guys are doing, right, which we’re obviously now very familiar with ourselves, is um, you know, it’s the idea of like a luxury assisted living.

You talk about supply demand shortage. there’s, you know, a need for X number of beds to meet the demand for senior

care. But this luxury kind of top end of the market is a is a different product than kind of what a traditional nursing

home or when somebody who isn’t immersed in this like we are thinks about a nursing home, they think about a more of

a facility, but this model has a really uh homelike environment and all that. And I’m curious, you know, what about that

jumped out to you guys as like, hey, we want to go to this type of luxury model,

right? I guess um because it does have the nice home feeling of being an assisted living. You’re not going into a

lodge facility that looks like a institution or maybe even a school. Some of these are just like cinder block

walls with with a door and that’s that’s their room, you know, that’s that’s kind of impersonal, not not a homey type.

Yeah. So we want to provide something that is a familiar look when you know throughout their life is a home

environment and that’s what we’re going to be providing. And because it’s smaller, it’s not the

sort of typical big box facility that all these people have, you know, heard about and and don’t necessarily want to

be in. It’s a lot more personalized care. There’s much better caregiver to um patient ratios or resident ratios. I

need to to change patient to resident in my mind. Um but the caregiver ratio is much better. So there’s a lot more

oversight, a lot more assistance, um a lot more personalization. You know, our caregivers really would get to know

these patients and know their likes and their dislikes, um and who maybe they get along with in the home and who, uh

maybe they might want to spend less time with or what foods they may like or what their previous career was and how can we

tailor their activities to things that they enjoy. So I think that um just the

much smaller field just gives a lot better opportunity for for more personalized care.

Absolutely. So, one of the things that we’ve enjoyed so much about this project is Andrea and I have a chance to work

together, husband and wife, and have like a new dimension to our partnership. Can you share kind of like how you guys,

you know, it must be a new and interesting journey, you know, trying to build a business together, but what are

the kind of roles that each of you has in the business? And then, you know, what is has it been like also kind of

working together at that level? Yeah, excellent questions. Some people when I tell them we’re doing this,

they’re like, “Oh my gosh, I could never, you know, work with my spouse on something like this.” But, um, number

one, I think we were we’ve always been really good friends and that, you know, obviously is a foundation of a good relationship of any type. Um, but

particularly a romantic or a business partnership, and so it kind of just works well. We also share a lot of

values. We share a lot of dreams that we have for our future. And doing this type of business is going to allow us to have

some of that freedom to spend time together. I’m not saying you don’t drive me crazy sometimes, but

for the most part, I think we really enjoy each other’s company and we we’re good um teammates because he has

strengths and things that I don’t and vice versa. So, I’ll be kind of more of the medical oversight person and and

maybe a little more involved in operations. I don’t know. I think we’ll both do operations. Um, but when it’s

come to um, you know, sort of like coming up with how to build, how to be more mechanically minded, um, Nick has

really taken to this and he’s shown me sides of himself that I didn’t know were there. Um, just kind of watching him

grow and take this on as a passion project has been really interesting. So, like he’s taught himself how to make websites. He’s taught himself how to use

Canva and do all of our digital marketing. Um he’s really both of us are introverts believe it or not and so

we’ve had to like go to these networking events you know to kind of get to know not had to go but we’ve wanted to go to

learn you know learn about different people in different environments different businesses how can we all help

each other how can we make those personal connections it’s been interesting I think he’s a little bit more introverted than I am um I’ve had

to learn to be a little more extroverted at work um but it’s really nice to see you kind of come out of your shell and

be you know much more of like a people person and um interactive with with folks,

right? Yes. And and also doing this project together, it’s it’s a really great bonding time for me and Chloe.

Like it’s it’s brought us together. I feel we’re even stronger now than we were before because um we’re doing

something mutually together and for a goal that we we want to do.

Yeah. I feel like it’s the goal in in a marriage, right? You want to empower each other to kind of be the best

version of of yourself possible. I’m sure some things that you’re both strong at, but there’s areas where you can balance each other out. And by allowing

each other to take the role that you know feels most natural to you and place your strengths, you guys are able to

empower each other. And that’s a really, I think, powerful dynamic for a business that has as much complexity. There’s a

lot going on, right? It’s it’s um it’s definitely more than one person’s worth of work. And so if you guys found the

role and the dynamic where you can support each other that way, I think it it can really strengthen the the project

over the long haul. Uh which it is a long haul, right? Like this isn’t just something that you set up and then it runs by itself. Like

this is a long journey from developing to going through all the construction and then actually at the end of all that

sprint, you’re rewarded with a a business that runs 247 365. Have you guys kind of, you know, um, gamed out,

looked ahead, like what are what are the kind of lifestyle considerations or costs of, um, you know, once this

business is up and running? Yeah, so we both currently work full-time. I work days, he works nights. Um, he doesn’t work weekends. I do work

some weekends. I worked this weekend. Um, and typically one weekend a month, I would say. Um, and that’s so that

Saturday and Sunday, all these days in a row. So, we’re kind of primed to be hard workers. Um, we’re definitely, you know,

doing it now. Um it is tough to balance with kids and life and hobbies and projects and other things that we’re

interested in. Um I think the the plan is really for us to both be in the home

a you know a lot when it’s getting up and running. Of course I’ll still be working full-time. Nick will be as well.

Um but we’ll kind of take turns um we also want to hire a manager to help us from the outset um to really kind of be

there and do like the dayto-day. Okay. So hopefully after the first 6 months or so, we can kind of back out of the home just a little bit and do a little bit

more supervision. They say work on your business, not in your business. Um and then eventually we’d love to build two

more if everything goes well in a few years. Um so that’s kind of our plan. We’ll have a manager, we’ll have

caregivers around the clock, we’ll have a chef, um and then of course a few other key people that will will hire

things like bookkeepers, marketers, and such. But still relatively small operation, right? Yeah. and we’ve been taking a

course to um certify our home as a Tepa Snow certified home in her style of

dementia care. And that’s what we’re going to want to bring to our home is that type of style of of care.

And it’s a really um different approach than these bigger facilities have.

So that’s something that’s would be more attractive for these homes. You have a very unique perspective.

You’re a subject matter expert in dementia care. You speak and teach about it. um you know, you’ve come into the

communities that we’re in and shared even just the overview level is more than most people know and you have a

much deeper understanding of kind of how to work with people that are dealing with that. And um and that, you know, in

and of itself should be a differentiator in your home because not everyone knows how to serve people that are dealing

with that. And part of what I think attracted all of us to the memory care mansion model was that even everything

down to the finishes and the colors and everything is designed for memory care. Can you maybe explain a little more

about like what are what are some of these kind of purpose-built considerations that you guys will have in the home

for memory care? Absolutely. So, your wife, actually, Andrea, um, who we’re also good friends

with, posted recently on LinkedIn about how you really have to engage the senses, um, when you’re dealing with

memory care patients because dementia is so interesting. For some reason, you can’t remember things that maybe just

happened, but all those old memories from your childhood are still there. So things like music that you remember from

back in the day, scents, um you know, the feel of the sun coming through the windows, all of those things we still

remember and we can still take a lot of pleasure in. Um and actually it’s interesting people will hear music and

suddenly they know all the words. You know, you don’t know what you ate yesterday. I don’t know what I ate yesterday either. But u the the point is

that for whatever reason those longer term and those sensory memories still remain and so we plan to tailor our home

towards them as well. Um we also have like very particular heights of the

tables, the chairs, um dimensions as far as you know how to get to the toilet

paper, the shower. Um we have um similar to y’all’s build, we have two wings

which are kind of shorter wings so that the residents on either side will have easy access to the center of the home

where everybody will congregate. Um and so it’s less walking. It’s hopefully less confusion and things like that.

We’ve tailored the paint colors, um the lighting, the floors are specifically

meant to reduce falls and things like that. So we’ve we’ve really thought of every little tiny detail. We’ve got some

good tech. you know about the tech. Yes. Um to monitor, you know, different

different things like vital signs, um if somebody needs to be changed, for example, and things like that. So, yeah,

we’ve we’ve really thought about every single detail functionally um and then how it’s going to work in everybody’s

day-to-day routine. Yeah, there’s kind of a balancing act, right? So, you have to consider all these different factors. And then, of

course, like as we’re sitting here, you’re scoping and and budgeting for this multi-million dollar project. you

know, there’s a cost to everything and so it can be to get all the features and the um finishes and everything that you

might want to really make the thing kind of pop off the page. Uh it costs a lot of money. So I know Nick especially

that’s something where you’ve been really deep in the design and working with architects and and um you know

trying going back and forth a lot. Can you explain a little bit of that process and how you’re kind of taking some of this vision and all these different

features and actually bringing it to life like within the budget and um and the timeline that that you guys have?

Sure. Yeah. Um we set up a spreadsheet with um going through like pretty much each room how many cans of paint that it

would take and and find out cost cost per gallon and breaking it down to that

that small of a detail. um all the way to the light fixtures and what type of light fixtures we’re down to, breaking

out how many we need throughout the house um and all the all the amenities there that that are required.

So, breaking it out into that, we can bring it to our builder and the builder

can um can see that and it gives him um time to focus on other stuff because he

already knows, oh, okay, this is already taken care of. Thank you for bringing this to me. we can add that into um how

much um he needs to uh price out for for the bids.

Mhm. And work on trying to get the best deals, you know, for the best materials, right? Yeah. He’s also going to be value

engineering. He he already brought up a few few things that he can help and um say save on cost because he’s in the

business and he knows the business and that’s always great. you know, you you find somebody that that that knows what

you’re talking about because he’s he’s just recently built a 16 bed memory care

um facility about an hour and a half north of us. It’s not a high-end one, but it it it’s still a nice one, so he

knows what he’s talking about when when we bring these uh questions to them. it it can be difficult to actually bring

all those details and get an architect and a builder to bring this stuff to life and actually fit it with to a

dollar amount and then even when you do that prices change all the time you have to lock down different subcontractors

and coordinate a lot of different moving pieces and so I think that’s just an interesting dimension of this project

that a lot of people might not understand just how hard it is especially compared to even a

residential like a small residential development project like these are 10,000 square foot like big houses with

so many components. Um, and so maybe also talk about some of the support network, right? Like this. I think we’re

all of the mind not to reinvent the wheel ourselves. You guys are working directly, you know, with partners and

people who have have done this before. Can you talk a little bit about that? Sure. Yeah. So, we’re working with Brett

and Laura Shot Cavis who have sort of coined the term Memory Care Mansion. They’re out in Georgetown, Texas. Um,

and so, and of course, we all kind of work with them, but we all work with each other, too. And we’re also a part of the rail room mastermind which is an

amazing group. Um I feel like we’ve got the best of all the worlds by being involved in all these different um

things and and it’s not overlapping. It’s just um each each group I would say has its own strength. Um and so Brett

and Laura have been of course instrumental because they created this model. Um and then they’ve also created

um exactly how to build this mansion. They’ve given us templates. They’ve given us um different worksheets on

exactly what you need to build it. Um how to run it, how to get it um how to

start working on getting it funded, how to do all the different things, how to get it licensed, um who who to look for

for your contractors, who to look for for your caregivers, etc. And so for us, even though we’ve known about this model

for two and a half years, it’s been really beneficial to get them on board. I guess about a year and a half ago is

when we started working with them, just to kind of speed up our process. It kind of seems like, oh gosh, we’ve been

working on it three years and we’re still not there. But this is a huge undertaking. Um it, you know, we’re

trying to project manage. You just, you know, um alluded to the fact that we’re kind of wearing all these different hats

every single day. You know, one day we’re calling the city. Um maybe later that day we’re calling a bookkeeper, maybe we have a call with, um a tax prep

person, you know, um somebody who makes these specialized floors, you know. I mean, it’s just like so many different

hats, so many different contacts, the fire marshal. Um it’s really it really does take a village as they say you know

when it comes to like raising kids but when it comes to raising a big project like this for the community it really

takes a village of of everybody and we’ve really tried to leverage that expertise I’d say um best we can.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. The way, you know, I’ve always thought about mentorship is you mentioned speed, right? That working

with them could help speed the process up, but there’s also an element of when you see somebody that’s doing something

that you want to do and they’re doing it well, you want to replicate it to the the best ability you can because you know it

works. And so there’s also an avoiding mistakes, right? So this development

process, going to find land, there’s all sorts of stuff you have to consider that to the untrained eye or someone who hasn’t done it before, we

don’t know what to look for. So even just having, you know, Brett and his team, right? Like they have construction consultants. They have people that can

come in and look at the same plot of land. You might see it and see no problems and they might see something

right away and say, “Oh, that’s actually, you know, going to be a big problem or that’s going to either cost a ton of money to remediate

or it’s not going to be possible. And they can see things that you can’t. And by avoiding mistakes, you not only

save money, but you also save time, right? because you can you can really get your wheels spinning if you end up focusing on the wrong thing or or

staying locked up on a piece of land too long. So, I I do think that working with proven models and also just being able

to see the vision, right? Like by being able to see Brett and Laura’s mansions, you can show the physical product when

you’re talking to other people. You can show them this is what we’re doing. We’re building this exact building. It’s going to look like this. It’s going to

feel like this. uh you know there there there really is you know a lot of advantage to having people like that on

your team and and one theme of what you guys have said so far you guys aren’t alone at all right you have the strength of your partnership and your skill sets

but you’re also surrounded by other people that are either doing this or like are in the process of learning to

do it and so just that osmosis you’ve been at it for you said a little over two years I can only imagine how much

you’ve you’ve been able to learn and and just by being in those environments can you talk about a couple you know

anything else from that kind of experience that you feel stuck out to you in in preparing for this journey.

I feel kind of like it’s like learning a new language. Um you know we we don’t

have any real estate background. You know I know you guys do. We don’t have any business background. You guys do. So

we might bring medical and leadership skills. Um but otherwise you know all of this is like learning a brand new

language and it’s fascinating. Yes. Um, and it’s act, you know, interestingly, um, it’s good for our

brains because it can help prevent dementia by learning new skills. So, that’s kind of part of why we were like, “Oh, well, this will be a fun project.”

You know, we get to learn all these new different things and it’s good for us cognitively. Um, but yeah, I guess I

guess the biggest thing that stood out is just like everything that’s involved and all the different things that we’ve been able to learn. Um, all the amazing

people that we’ve come across that have helped us. Um, how to overcome hurdles. That’s certainly been a big, you know,

it’s kind of a little bit of a roller coaster. You know, you have a really good day. Oh, I met with the Department of Health and they’re really excited

about it. Um, and then the next day maybe you find out how much something else costs and then the next day you

figure, oh, I’m going to get a little bit of help with this. It really is like just a lot of ups and downs and kind of learning how to how to pivot and

navigate around and make other choices if if needed, right? and working in these these two groups here with the um railroom

mastermind and with the mansion builders, we um see people at different stages throughout the builds so we can

learn from their mistakes and reach out to them and and see what they’ve done to correct that and

it really helps and it helps um helps us streamline on on how we want to do things.

Absolutely. And just get different ideas from each other, you know, like I’m learning from Andrea all the time. Um, and you know, I think we’re all learning

from each other, but the being in different stages part helps too. Yeah. Yeah. There’s kind of layers of support,

right? You have your mentors who you’re working with who they have the model. They have a lot of the even like the

documents and systems that you guys can adapt to your business. Then you have the mastermind group where there’s other

operators and all sorts of different perspectives. You’re getting different professionals. And then you even have like you know the the pod and the

support that we’re in where we meet every single week and we’re all weighing in and sharing different we’re at

relatively similar points in the process and we’re able to share with each other and I I would argue help each other

avoid a lot of you know unfortunate situations or learn from each other’s experience and between all those layers

you know when going gets tough at least you know that you have all these different areas of support and I know I

can only speak for ourselves right It’s made an enormous difference and there there are plenty of moments in a journey

this long where you might feel like you want to give up and um it’s having that those support networks and the trusted

folks who are going through a similar journey that really like help you weather the path. At least that’s how I felt.

Absolutely. And that I would say has probably been my favorite part of this journey, you know, is like meeting you guys and meeting everybody else in the

pod and and the different groups to help each other. That’s been amazing. Yes. Having having somebody there that’s

not your significant other to say you can do this. You you you’ve got it is really helpful.

Mhm. You’re saying that if somebody other than your significant other tells you something, you’re more likely to hear it.

Breaking news. That is what he just said. Yep. That was funny.

Well, so I know so it’s been about a two-year journey. We talked about some of the stuff leading into it, the

different uh layers of support you have. What about what lies ahead? What’s kind of the next, you know, phase of this

project? Where are you guys at? And and um and yeah, what what’s coming up? So, for us, um we’ve bought our land,

which is amazing. It’s a beautiful, beautiful piece. We hope to build three mansions, one first and then in a few

years, another couple. Um it’s 4 and a half acres. We have gotten our architectural plans adapted from Brett

and Laura’s model. Um, we are actually this week on Thursday going to the

county to do our architectural review meeting and then two weeks after that we have a hearing with the city. The public

can come and say, you know, they like the idea or they don’t. Um, but we are zoned commercial, so we feel like

hopefully that meeting will will go pretty well. Excuse me. Um, and then

after that, we’re kind of simultaneously working on our funding. So, we’ve put quite a bit of of money into the

project. We’re looking for some investors to come on um that we can offer really good returns to um better

than the stock market, better than a lot of real estate deals out there. Um we’re hoping some folks will come and want to

partner with us. Um and we’re also talking with some lenders right now to go ahead and work on securing our loan

once we have that investment money. Um it’s a lot of steps, but I I feel like we’re right on the precipice of breaking

ground, which is an amazing feeling like ah okay, we’re doing it. It’s real now. It’s really happening. So, that’s an

exciting place to be. Nerve-wracking exciting though, having spent, you know, pretty much the

last year with you guys, um, so consistently meeting and watching all the progress, it’s amazing, right? Like

you you you build up to kind of this crescendo where you’ve got the plans, you’ve got the vision, you’ve got the

land, you you got all the the ingredients for the recipe, and now it’s really at the final stage of like

turning it into the full the full platter, if you will. And um it’s incredible because you know you

reach this point of almost critical mass or a boiling point where yeah all the money’s got to come in and then once

that you know once the actual construction loan funds then it’s no then it becomes real right now it’s not

an idea on a paper. It’s this is a real physical tangible asset you know that will not only add value to

your community but then ultimately serve all the seniors once it’s open and um and you guys like you said you are right

on that precipice. So, what is the um can you explain a little bit for someone who would be considering investing like

what what would they be investing in the business, the real estate? How does that kind of work?

I’ll let you take that one. Right. Yeah. We want to bring in um somebody um preferably if it be one big

investor would be um excellent. you know, bring them in as and they’d get a share of the operations and the real

estate once we um refi out after um fi five or so years, you know, when

everything’s all stabilized and then that way we can go ahead because we need to refinance to to fund our other two

homes to be built. Awesome. So, the idea is that you get somebody to come in and help with that

kind of initial funding. Um they’re going to get a return. They’re going to get a piece of equity in the real estate

in the business and then when you go to eventually refinance it, they would get um a payday at that time.

That’s right. Correct. Yes. A nice payday. A nice one. I like it. Yes. A really nice one.

What’s interesting in a lot of um projects of this magnitude is that oftentimes the real estate and the value

of the real estate is the largest driver of returns. But in this case, it’s a it’s an operating business too. And it’s

one even with 16 beds, you know, the bed rates are pretty substantial and it’s it’s not a very high margin business,

but it is a very profitable business from a dollar standpoint. And so you can generate these great returns because you

have the value, you have you’re creating a really nice house on you’re developing raw land and you’re putting a business

that has pretty high income potential uh together and you’re putting those two together. So, somebody that’s investing

in that kind of combination of the real estate and the business, it’s it’s unique when compared to multif family or

storage or even other types of real estate deals. And so, I like to point that out because I think um people think

of it as real estate, but it’s really a business with real estate behind it. That’s right. Yeah. It’s a nice hybrid

um of those two things. Yeah. What do you guys feel are the biggest concerns or areas of risk um in

this process? Whether it’s the construction, the operations, like what are the areas uh that you’re most concerned about and then kind of how are

you tackling those areas? Great question. Yeah. What can you think of?

Like all this is new to us. So there there’s lots of questions of you know we come to the row room asking questions

about this uh these these various things from um how do we go about um raising

funds who do we reach out to how do we um talk to uh banks about SBA lending

and and there’s different steps and levels um so being being new there’s there’s a lot of lot of questions out

there that we’re asking and want wanting to find out about um But yeah, what

would you say? But we’ve had so much help and support each step of the way, you know, like if we do come across that question.

For me, I think my biggest concern is making sure we get those um top-notch caregivers in place

um because that is really going to be the the um the most important aspect of

care, right? you know, we we do have this beautiful home. We have this beautiful building, but really, if you have a beautiful building and no good

people to work in it, um, and help other people, you know, with their daily functions, it’s not super useful. And

I’ll say that’s what we’ve seen in our community. Um, we’ve seen some much smaller mom and pop type situations that

maybe they’re not the nicest home, but they have people who really care and give their full heart. Um, and then on

the flip side, we have these big box communities, which are gorgeous, but then you walk in and you don’t see a caregiver for 20 minutes. So, we’re

really trying to to meld the two and have the best of both. Um, but if I had to choose one, caregiving, of course,

would be would be my my number one. Um, not really concern because I it is a

concern of course because you want to find people with the heart and they are kind of rare, you know, people who actually want to go above and beyond and

and have the heart for seniors. It’s it’s not easy work. It’s really tough. Um, but we are prepared to reward them

uh very well, pay them very well, treat them like family. Um, and and in return, we feel like, you know, you have people

who enjoy their work. And so, to me, that’s the most important aspect. And being in healthcare, I know a lot of people. So, I’ve already got my eyes on

a few people um that I’d love to bring into the home to help us with this project. Yeah. I was going to say, you’re very

uniquely positioned to attract the right type of person who does have that big

heart and also has probably at least some knowledge of this subject, right? It’s a very

specific thing on how to serve people dealing with uh Alzheimer’s and dementia

and you teach about that, right? And so there’s probably a lot of people in your orbit that would be even interested in an opportunity like that.

Yes. And even though you still have a ways to go with the construction before you open, like you said, you’re already kind

of thinking ahead to who who might I hire or and if that person’s not available, at least I know kind of the type of person I might want to hire.

That’s right. Agree. That is kind of the biggest ongoing concern, you know, for a

business like this is, yeah, the construction, you need that to go off well. You need it to stay to budget, but you guys have, like you

said, a team in place that’s going to help you get there. You got the right experts at the table and you guys are, you know, putting all your heart and

soul into making sure that part lands. Once that lands, you have a 247 365 business. And to your point, the the

staff and the caretakers, they’re your brand ambassadors. they’re the ones you you can’t be there 24/7 365.

So, making those right hires and then building the culture and retaining them, that’s that’s the special sauce. And I do think

you guys have a a really cool advantage there just by virtue of what you do and and how active you already are in your

community. So, fingers crossed. Yeah. Nick, I have a question for you.

So, I know you have operations and systems kind of in, you know, your background. Sounds like both in the

military and outside. How are you finding um the parallels between the past experience and then some of the

systems you’re building in this business and are you enjoying that role in this business?

Oh yeah. When I first came across this I diving head first into it loving it you know it’s just so new new and unique

just learning everything I could watching videos on on how to do this how to find how to use these different tools

and uh you know a GIS map. What was that? Oh, and then researching that now, you know, I can find a GIS map and and

locate land real easily. So, that that’s a that’s something that I’ll always have and and know about now.

Really helpful. Um then, um you know, just bring bringing everything together that that I know how to do and

presenting it, you know, and and helping our business here uh grow and get off. uh it’s just been really fun and helpful

and I reached out to and something I normally don’t do and made made

connections with a a bunch of people, you know, a bunch of um people in this in this realm in this business that um

through what I’ve what I’ve uh learned. Yeah. No, it’s great. And I I know again

behind the scenes working with Nick a lot like you’re not afraid to roll up your your sleeves and get your hands dirty and get like you know really into

a financial model or the bank loans type and like there’s so many details.

So many it’s almost an excruciating amount of details and all the decisions are pretty high stakes, right? We’re

we’re talking about big numbers like quite quite a lot of money. um like you said, you’ve already invested a lot of

your own money. Like there’s a lot at stake in this project and so having the endurance and the ability to pay

attention to those details and actually enjoy it. I think that’s one thing in talking to you guys is that you both enjoy the parts of this

business that you’re engaging in. Chloe, you have the this big vision for how you can serve seniors and how you can take

all this stuff from your profession and bring it into this business. Nick, same thing. Like you’ve got the you’ve got the passion for making the business hum

and operate and everything connected the way it needs to. And then of course in the in the framing of you guys have this

strong partnership u both personal and professional that you’re now able to bring into the business. I think that’s

that’s one of the things that will you know really make it stand the test of time is that you’re playing to each

other’s zone of genius and then you’re supporting each other uh and then anything you don’t know you’ve

identified the right places to go whether it’s your mentors or your network to help fill in those gaps and

um and support you for the long haul. Do you guys have a plan to bring in anybody else onto the team or how how do you see

this kind of moving forward? You mentioned managers like what are the other kind of um key players involved in in the process?

Manager for sure, the caregivers of course, um the chef. The chef. Um eventually, you know,

somewhere along the ways, we’d want to get an assistant manager, help out the manager. then that would be by um

probably promoting the the a caregiver that’s that shows above and beyond um what what they need to do. You know,

that’s a leadership role that they could take place. So, create a culture where you can uh

allow people to develop from within and try and like you said, pay competitively, treat them well, create a

good culture where they want to stick around and um and then provide them potentially a path to to grow if they want to.

Yes, absolutely. and then grow with us as we may be able to build these other two in a few years. Um, you know, I know

with Brett and Laura, they have two managers in for two of their homes, but now they’re building um four more or no,

they had one and then they’re building four more and they took those two managers from the first home and they’re kind of having them be managers of the

other managers of the home. So, it’s kind of a an interesting growth structure, but they’re keeping those

integral people with them and promoting them within from within. And I think I think it’s easier to do that than it is

to hire somebody who has a ton of experience. You know, you can’t um you can’t teach heart, but if you find

somebody maybe who doesn’t have experience, but has the heart and the desire to grow and learn and the ability to grow and learn, that’s that’s an

easier person to work with and and develop over time. Yeah, absolutely. And can you tell us a

little bit about your local market there? So that’s, you know, obviously I think it’s relatively easy for people to

picture this idea of a nice luxury assisted living home, but it matters

where it is, right? And obviously you guys know your local market better than anybody else listening to this. What can

you tell us about the area and kind of why you chose um the specific place you did?

I’ll just say f I’ll let you take that, but first um why I like it is it’s just down the road from where we live. So

it’s about a mile from where we live. Yeah, that helps. And we also happen to live, it’s it’s also kind of off of a

main road. Um, which is a super busy trafficy road and my clinic is on the o

other side of that road. Um, we just we’re in this community. You know, our kid goes to Boy Scouts down the road.

Um, I bought my wedding dress across the street. Um, it’s just such a nice cozy little area, but it’s developing.

You could probably speak more to that. Yes, it is developing. It It’s um branching out. Um, it is a suburb of

Jackson, the the capital of Mississippi, just a suburb of it. And it’s also

located right on the largest uh body of water here is the Ross Bonet Reservoir.

Um, it’s just across the street from it really. Um, so we’re by a nice uh piece of land.

There’s a lot of um a lot of nice um houses through here. A lot a lot of well um developed

um land and it’s expanding. It’s just this area is it’s expanding, growing outward. So, we

see it as an opportunity to to bring this home in here for the future um growth

for our community. Yes. And you said you did a lot of like looking at the competitors and they’re

mostly full or they’re lacking some of the features or the quality of care and all that. Like, so you’ve kind of

validated that, hey, there’s plenty of demand for the the what we’re bringing in, right? Absolutely. Yep.

Yes. Yes. We shopped around at least 15 places, went in and um toward these places and and seen what

they offered, how full they were, and wait list and how long of a a time line that they

had. So, we’ve got a got a feel of all the local ones, staffing and things. Yeah, that was that

was a real story. We did walk into one of the memory care facilities where two of my patients live actually um and we

did not see a caregiver for 20 minutes. Yeah. I mean, it’s just heartbreaking, you know. So, we know there’s a need.

Um, and and just having the current ones be full, you know, helped reinforce that. So,

yeah, absolutely. You guys have a really interesting story of how you actually bought the land. I would love to, you

know, maybe whatever portion of that you’re willing to share. I thought it was really creative and and and unique

how you guys went about finding that if you’re willing to share. Yeah, we, you know, learn learning that GIS map. Yeah, that that was great

research and um just locating different um areas of land, but we really like

this piece of land that was over by us and that was probably our very first choice. Mhm. But we put on the back burner and we’re

looking Yeah. We thought no way we can get that. Yeah. Yeah. So, we we shopped around. It’s too perfect.

Look looking around, but eventually we circled back around decide, hey, let let let’s call on this on this land and just

see what they’re offering. Mhm. So, we we reached out and uh talked to the land owner and he was really

interested in what we uh were wanting to build on there. So, we set up a meeting with him and uh went over I guess met

with him multiple times going going over what we wanted to build and our future and our dream of of

what’s going to be there. And he really jumped on board and really really liked it, you know, and and supported us. So,

um, we were able to, uh, set up a a deal that we both liked and, um, were able to

purchase the land. He was trying to sell it for a really long time, wasn’t he? Yes. Yes.

Yes. And, and we met with him over the course of several months, several times, because originally

um, he did not want to just sell the land to anybody, right? So, it’s um in this little partnership, it’s him and

two other men. And I think they all kind of grew up together. And one of the men in the group is in his 80s and kind of

wanting to retire, but the man that we were speaking with was very interested in maybe um becoming an investor in our

project originally. Um and I think he still is, but eventually at kind of toward the end of our talks, I think his

partner, the older one in particular, got a little restless and was like, “Let’s go ahead and sell this. Let’s just do it. I don’t want to get involved

in any other business deals.” And so he kind of had to say, “Okay, well, we’re not in it as investors, but we’d still

love to sell it to you.” So, we feel um we still feel really grateful. But at that point, we didn’t know we were going

to have to kind of hit the ground running. So, we went to our local bank and luckily we were able to get our loan for that pretty quickly. Um but I think

we just got kind of got lucky on that. Yeah. But there’s something in there, right? Like that a what you’re doing is

extremely non-controversial, right? No, nobody’s going to be really pushing back, especially if there’s already a

shortage for a good like a senior care solution. Uh people,

almost anybody has had a family member or somebody that’s dealt with something that hits close to this topic.

So, it’s interesting because of how long they were trying to sell that land. Correct me if I’m wrong, wasn’t it literally like 10 plus years?

Yeah, I think they owned it since the the 80s, I want to say. I don’t know that they were actively trying to sell it for 10 years, though.

Right. Okay. Right. I think they were sitting on it for a little while. They sat on it for quite a while. But I guess one of them was getting older. It was time time to sell it.

Yeah. And um they did want to sell it to somebody that was going to do good on the land and not put a gas station there or a car

wash or something. And it is zoned and in the zoning it specifically says

assisted living. So that’s something that we’re like, “Wow, this is amazing. This is probably meant for us to to

purchase this piece of land.” And um it’s amazing how it worked out. And

again to your point, you built a relationship over months. You actually sat down, they could see you and see the way you think.

Yes. Whether it’s the seller of a land, whether it’s a bank, whether it’s an investor. One of the things that I’ve,

you know, come to realize about this process is that people are really investing in you. And it might sound

obvious or, you know, from the outside, but people want to know how you think. They want to know when faced in tough

with tough decisions like are you able to put your heads together and solve it? Like can you push through the tough

moments uh of growth and and discomfort? And ultimately like every single

milestone along this path especially for you guys over the last couple years has each been like expanding and pushing and

pushing and you keep you know proving to yourselves over and over again like what you’re capable of and there’s still a

lot ahead. But like I’m sure that you know as you keep going through this kind of battle test hopefully you guys are I

imagine feeling stronger as you go. At least that’s kind of the experience I had. Do you guys feel at least a little

bit of that? I’d say for the most part there you know we have a couple of bad days where

something doesn’t go our way and I feel kind of defeated but um he’ll cheer me up and say we’ve still got it. You know

we’ve got this this and this in our favor or vice versa. you know, I think I think we just helped kind of support

each other and then of course you guys and um we all support each other. But yeah, there’s been some tough days. I

can’t lie about that. But it does seem like we’re getting closer and closer to our goal and that has momentum um which

really makes a difference. the impact behind what you’re trying to do I think is you know when there are

those tough days when there is you know this friction or or really frankly when

when you just get tired right like sometimes it’s like hey we’ve been working so hard you have your full-time jobs you have this project that has a

lot of you know weight and responsibility behind it sometimes you just aren’t feeling it right but I think the the

fact that you guys have such a strong purpose and connection to the impact that you plan to make in your

and you see the support and the attention that you know when you talk to again those sellers or the people that

are watching and cheering on from the sideline, you know, that that hopefully is an empowering thing and and you guys

are uh you know, right on the edge, like you said, of of of starting the next exciting phase of the project and then

it’ll really come to life and the community is going to really buy in and it’s just it’s so fun to watch.

Definitely, we have some big plans for for that stage soon as we can get there.

Well, I appreciate you guys sitting down for this conversation. Like I said, I’ve I’ve been it’s been such a pleasure to

be part of your guys’ journey and watch you bring this whole thing to life. And there are some exciting times ahead. If

people want to get in touch with you, you know, to learn about the opportunity or just to support or get in touch, uh

where where can they find you? What’s the best place? Bloomomes Assisted Living.

Yes. Yeah, we have we have a website there, bloomhomesass assistedliving.com. We’re on Facebook, you know,

bloomhomesass assistedliving, Instagram, LinkedIn. Um, and we’ve even we’re happy to share

our personal emails, um, if that’s of interest to anybody. So, mine’s Khloe Kilman@gmail.com

and Nick is in blanchard 700gmail.com. So, um, yeah, we would welcome any kind

of inquiries about anything. You know, even if you just have some questions about what we’re doing and, um, you

know, want to kind of figure out a way for you to do it yourself, that’d be great. We’re, we love making friends

with everybody in this community who’s doing it. I feel like we’ve been really lucky to make so many friends all across

the country. Um, and I say this, I think every time I speak about this, it’s hard making adult friends. And so, to me,

this has just been major. Um it’s just been a really fun um social part as well.

Yeah. Somebody that’s passionate in this. Yeah. And like developing your own community, your own tribe, I guess, is what some people would say. So, we’re

also really grateful for meeting you guys and we’re grateful for the opportunity to be here and to speak and for you to have us on to tell our story

and share with other folks. So, thank you for taking the time to do that. Yes. The feeling is mutual and uh it’s an

honor to have you guys on. I’m excited to to see where you take it from here. So, thank you. We’ll make sure all those

your contact info and everything is in the show notes. Um, if anybody’s watching this or listening, uh, just

follow along and, uh, reach out to Chloe and Nick. They’ve they’ve got something exciting brewing and I’m sure they’d love to hear from you. So,

yay. With that, thank you guys and we’ll do it again soon. Awesome. Thanks so much.

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