 Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game, and it's about leadership, character, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is the highly respected president and CEO of the Arcadia family of companies. She is Susie Schauberg, and today we are going beyond senior living. Hey Susie, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Hi, Coach Rusty, thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here and look forward to talking to you and sharing. Susie, you are such a great leader and you've been doing so many great things to impact our community, especially our seniors and their families. But first, can you share a bit about your background, including some of the schools you attended? Sure, well first though, Coach Rusty, I just want to say that I appreciate you taking time out of your really busy schedule a couple months ago to come and speak to our leadership teams within the Arcadia family of companies, the impact that you had, the motivation and inspiration that you gave to our employees, specifically our managers and our supervisors was just outstanding and kind of get a little choked up when I think about it because I think you really did have huge impact at a time where we're coming out of a really hard time that we've been through over the last two and a half years. So much mahalo to you for that. To tell you a little bit about me, so I'm born and raised in Honolulu. I'm a local girl and I am one of three children. My parents actually came to Hawaii in 1970 and they were from the East Coast, Virginia and New Jersey. They made the trek 6,000 miles over to Hawaii because my father had gone to college with a guy from Hawaii. And so they made this their home and they've been here ever since. And so three kids and I had the honor and privilege. I did attend Eolani school and enjoyed my time at Eolani went there since seventh grade and played various sports was a soccer player as well as a basketball player. I was also in the band too. That's a team sport as well. And after Eolani, I went to a school that quite a few Kauai kids go to. I went to Santa Clara, also a good soccer school at one time and went to Santa Clara. But then when I was done with school, I decided I didn't want to stay on the mainland and I actually ended up coming home. And I'm a, you know, love Hawaii a home girl. And so came back and while I was, right after I came back, I started working for a local bank. And that was, that was fun. I worked in the human resources division. I had a lot of great mentors as that was my first job out of college, but I wanted to continue my education. And so I actually went to Hawaii Pacific University and got my MBA. And at that time, I was still working at the bank and, you know, it came a time where I was like, you know what, I'm done with the bank. I want to just focus on school, get done. And then I'm going to go to the mainland and this was in 2000. And I was, you know, stopped, had started to focus on school, but I was a little bored. And so I started working at Arcadia. So Susie, when did you start working at Arcadia and what positions did you have before becoming president and CEO? So I started working at Arcadia in January of 2001. Like I said, I was a little bored in graduate school. I needed something to do. So I started working here part-time in human resources, just helping out. And what's funny is that I had grown up with Arcadia. I went to elementary school at Hanaha Oli, which is right in Makiki and Central Union Church we were members of. And so we would come here and sing to the seniors quite a bit. And, you know, I'd always known Arcadia, you know, in a way kind of as like the old folks home, right? But I had known someone who worked here and they said, hey, do you want to come and work part-time? And I said, sure, I'll give it a try. And so tragically, 9-Eleven happened later that year in 2001. And I had finished up at HPU and my dreams were to go to the mainland, make it big, you know, make a lot of money and make it great on the mainland. However, when 9-Eleven happened, I decided, you know what, I'm gonna stay in Hawaii and the CEO at the time said, hey, would you like to join the administrator and training program? And I said, well, maybe I didn't think I'd be a nursing home administrator for my career, but I gotta tell you, I absolutely fell in love with working at Arcadia. The residents are one thing, but the staff is the other. And I get to every single day, I get the opportunity to work with people that I absolutely love and also serve people that I'm absolutely just in love with. And so started off as an administrator in training in 2001. And honestly, over the last 22 years, I've been here that long. I've held many positions within the organization and been given the opportunity, which included the director of marketing and outreach. I was also key in opening up 15 Crankside, which is our community in New Iuanu that opened up in 2011. And then once that was stabilized, after six years, I came back to Arcadia and became the chief operating officer here. And then when our longtime CEO, Emmett White, retired at the end of 2018, I was selected to be the succeeding CEO. So I've had a lot of opportunity. I'm grateful to the Arcadia family of companies and it has made me who I am today. Suzy, I love hearing that. And can you share what's, I mean, what is Arcadia family of companies and why is it so popular? So before I share that with you, I want to kind of set the stage here. When we talk about senior living, let's take a look at that demographic growth. Now we know that there are a lot of seniors in the United States, but specifically in Hawaii. When we take a look at the trajectory over the next 10 to 20 years, that's where the rubber is going to meet the road. Now we know that we've had this silver tsunami that's been coming for the last many years, but in eight years from now, every boomer is going to be 65 and over. And beyond 2040, that's where we sort of start to plateau. But over the next 10 years, get this statistic, is that an additional 11.5 million individuals who are 75 and over are going to be entering the market. Now that compares 11.5 million to the previous 10 years, it was only 6 million. So when we taught, it's almost doubling the amount of seniors that are entering the market. So our country, our state is getting a lot older and where we are not so much benefiting on the Hawaii side is the brain drain is happening. And a lot of our younger folks are going to the mainland. So this really is a crisis of who's gonna be here to care for our kupuna at that time and what are we doing to prepare for that? So let me share with you a little bit about the Arcadia family of companies we've grown. So in 1967, Arcadia was founded, it actually was a program of Central Union Church. So to Central Union's credit, they had a lot of vision and foresight to build a senior retirement community in 1967. And Arcadia was the first in Hawaii. And when we look back, fast forward 20 years to 1987, that's when Arcadia became its own nonprofit organization. And that's when about 10 years later is when the growth really started to happen. So Arcadia, Kunahou Street, been here for 55 years, we're a life plan community. And that means we have all levels of care here, anywhere from independent living all the way up to long-term care. We also have 15 Craigside, which is our sister community, not as old, founded back in 2011 is when we were built. And same thing, life plan, independent all the way to long-term care. We also have a lot of home and community-based programs that we've built up over the years. And so we have everything from home care and home health that go out into the homes of kupuna who live in the community in their homes. We also have Arcadia Adult Daycare and Day Health Center. And this is a wonderful cost-effective option for seniors who live at home. It's like going to school during the day. And then when they come home, they are bathed, fed and ready for interaction with their family. But the family doesn't have the stress of the caregiving part to get them ready and perform what we call activities of daily living. We also have our newest acquisition, which is Haleo Likino. We just acquired Haleo Likino, which is a skilled nursing facility. It's located on the second floor of One-Kalakawa Senior Living, which is an assisted living condo. And so One-Kalakawa selected us to manage it. The current manager was a mainland company and they left the state after 25 years of service because the pandemic had had an effect on economies of scale here. So we were just honored to be able to welcome the Haleo Likino crew to our Ohana, to our family. And we welcomed about 32 new residents and about 40 new staff as of November 1st of this year. So altogether, we serve about 900 kupuna rusty on a daily basis and we employ a workforce of about 600 employees. And our primary mission is to improve the lives of kupuna and provide the best quality care and service that we can to them. And when you ask, why is it so popular? I think one of the reasons that we are so popular is reputation. Arcadia has been around a long time and it has always had a standard for excellence. And to borrow one of your phrases rusty, we always shoot for that superior culture of excellence. And that's something that drives us day in and day out. So I think that's one reason that we're so popular and it's a fun place to live. Oh, I love hearing the history about that. And wow, you're right about Central Union Church having the vision to really start and create Arcadia. And man, Susie, you have built a great superior of culture of excellence among your employees, your team members. What does that culture look like with your team members? I'm so happy you asked that because I'm excited to share it with you, Rusty, and hope that I get your stamp of approval on this. When we look at our culture, our culture is based on three main things. We look at our core values. And for us, our core values include being humble, being understanding, being gentle, being just, being merciful, being honest, being peaceful and being faithful. And that goes throughout our entire organization. We're also guided by four guideposts that we developed about five years ago. And these guideposts guide us in all that we do as an organization. So if there's ever any questions, should we be doing something, we bring it back to these guideposts. And those are, everything should embrace our mission, vision, and values. We should manage our margin for our mission. We should drive employee engagement. And we should always deliver resident member and client-centered quality care and service. And while these are kind of high level type concepts to understand, sometimes they're not so easy to put into everyday action. So what we did is to compliment those guideposts. We created five mindsets. And these mindsets are mindsets that are very easy to understand and they're very easy to put into everyday action. So the first is, I focus on what's right for the resident, client, or member, not what's easiest for me. And I translate this always when we meet with our new hires with onboarding, it ain't about you, it's about the resident and making sure that they are at the center of all that you do. Our second mindset is, I serve residents, clients, and members as people, not tasks. And this is making sure that we remember that the person in front of us is a human being. It is not something that we need to check off on a checklist to make sure that we get our job done before the day is over. These are people. If you have any question about that, we tell our folks, put your mom's face there, put your grandpa's face there, put a loved one's face there. These are people and human beings. The third is, ask what I can do for others, not what others can do for me. And this is one simple word, it's teamwork. This is Coach Rusty, this is teamwork. This is about the team. And not to bring up the pandemic, but it's a great example of teamwork. And when we were figuring out how we were gonna make things work, there was never any question that everyone would always come to the aid of somebody else. And we had departments that were out for periods of time because of COVID. And no worries, we had folks from other parts of the organization coming in help. So it's not about what you can do for others. It's not what they can do for you, but what about you can do for others? Fourth one is, if I see something, I say something. We are in senior care, we're mandated reporters. The idea of abuse and neglect is very real within our ecosystem. And so if we see that, we're always mandated to report. But the thing to remember is that you don't always have to report that. You gotta report the bad things, but let's share the good things too. Appreciation, recognition, when your team member does something great, pat them on the back, recognize them and thank them for what they do. And then finally, if can, can, no can say I can. And this is just about having that can do attitude that if we can make something happen as an organization for those that we serve, darn it, let's do it. Think outside the box. I think someone told me recently, blow up that box and think on how we can do something different so that we can make it happen and truly live up for a mission of providing that quality and care, best quality and care to our residents, clients and members. And so we can't do some things there against regulation and they're not safe. But if we face every single situation with, you know what, let's make it happen for these residents because they're our family and we do it. So having those core values, those guideposts, those mindsets really truly sets the culture of what our organization is about. And, you know, some people think, oh, Arcadia family of companies, this is the family run business. And no, it's not. We are nine nonprofit organizations that are a family of companies. And we have that disseminate and bleed throughout our entire organization of that real Ohana feel. And just one other thing that I wanna share Coach Rusty on this idea of that culture of excellence is one thing that we cannot forget to have is compassion. And having that compassion, engaging our employees and listening and really fostering that corporate culture of compassion is values based. And it requires all of us to have a shared language. It requires all of us to have shared norms. And most importantly, which is something big for me is making sure that employees know that they count and know that we value them. And I think that that's something that we really strive for within this organization that when you feel valued, when you feel heard, when you feel listened to, you do your best work. And so hope that gives you a little insight into what our corporate culture is about. Well, Susie, I definitely approve of all of the values and mindset that you're striving for within that culture. It's absolutely incredible. And I like how you said, if can, can. And Susie, I wanna know what type of, if you can share some types of specific activities that you guys have your seniors do, maybe on a daily basis. Oh, sure. So we have a ton of activities that go on within our communities and within our programs. It all ranges based on where the seniors at. So for the buildings for Arcadia and 15 Craigside, we have a majority of our residents are independent living. So we have programs, presentations, activities. They might do everything from painting to going hola hola in the van and going out to the North Shore and enjoying a lunch out there. They also have, we are bringing it back, kata oke, we had to get rid of it for a little while, but kata oke is coming back. We also have things like Aloha Hour, various programs. So one really touching program that happened recently in Honor Veterans Day and we have it every year at Arcadia was just recognizing and appreciating our veterans. And I have to tell you, Coach Rusty, being up there had to give a few comments and just being up there and being able to look out into the audience at our residents who are in their 90s, some of them even over a hundred. And the Punahou School Junior ROTC comes and they do the color guard and posting of the colors and they will also bring out the flags for each service, each branch of the service. And the band, the 25th Infantry Band will play and they play the song of each branch. And we ask that the veterans stand and just, oh God, I'm gonna get emotional. Seeing these men, some of them can't stand and they're just trying to stand and you just see it, but you think about all that they gave so many years ago and that type of recognition and appreciation of our residents, that happens all the time. There's so many treasures within our organization because we are working with and serving these individuals who have lived long, beautiful lives. And we have a lot that we can learn from them and that's part of the beauty and the magic of working within the Arcadia family of companies. But getting back to your question about activities, we also have outings that we do. I talked about going holo-holo. We also have a very active residence association within both buildings. So this is an association, much like a condo association, if you will, but they have various committees that do a lot of different activities on their own for fellow residents. So there's a lot of opportunity. I think one thing moving forward is really preparing for that onslaught of this many seniors who are gonna be coming into the market and the boomer that wants everything that they wanted at a reasonable cost and they want it the way they want it. So how do we prepare for that onslaught? And what does that look like for the activities that we're gonna be providing and the opportunities for Kappuna in the future? Wow, these are fantastic insights that you're sharing, Susie. And Susie, you have both of my books and you bought the first book for all of your team members. And I wanna know what are some things that stood out to you in the books? Oh, oh my gosh. Do you have another hour? There were so many things, co-trustee, that stuck out. I think two big keys for me, I really enjoyed your key number four, which was about courage and conviction. And there were a couple of things on courage and conviction that just hit me on a personal level. And one of the things that you talked about was you make everyone matter. That is huge to me. Making sure that people know that they matter. Also honesty, one of our core values within our organization, but honesty not only with others, but honesty with yourself. And one that is I'm still learning how to do because I've only been in my CEO position now for going on the fourth year, but this idea of risk promotes growth and understanding that in order for our previous CEO to grow from one company to seven and then now under myself and our CFO Vivian from seven to nine, you have to take risk in order to grow. But it has to be very calculated risk, right? We have to do our due diligence and make sure that we're not screwing the pooch here. So those were three things within key number four that really spoke to me. I think in key number five, you create the environment. This one was most special because this really resonated with me and I think it resonated with many of our management team. And some of those points were listen first and speak last. Huge. I remember I was told, I wanna say maybe 10 years ago some feedback was shared with me because I can tend to be really animated and excited and let's go, let's get it done. And someone said, wow, Susie just needs to shut up and listen. And I was like, okay, I've took that to heart. And so now with all of my meetings, it's always that voice in my head saying, stop, listen. It's all about your employees. Let's listen to what they have to say and let's do our best to come to consensus on how we can move forward. Second area that really spoke to me in key number five was it's about the people. Always make sure it's about the people and then finally protect your people. So 2020 leading age conference, which is a huge conference for senior living. It was virtual that year for obvious reasons. And one of the keynote speakers was Brene Brown. And this was at a time it was during the winter of 2020 when everything was hitting the fan. And two takeaways that I took from that in your idea of protect your people, Coach Rusty was one, always do a two word check-in. Two words, I don't need to know everything, but tell me two words. What's your temperature today? How are you feeling? And that gives you an opportunity to see how folks are and then ask follow-up questions. Second thing was Brene Brown said, your employees need you, choose them. And I get a little emotional because we were going through so much at that time. And that's what I needed to hear, choose them. Our residents are gonna be fine, but if we don't have our employees, we don't pull together as a team. And if we don't make this happen, nothing's gonna be good. So choose them, protect your people is something that really is near and dear to my heart. So those were two keys there. There were so many others I think just to pick out a couple lead by example, right? Walk in their shoes. Like when you talked about you walk in your player's shoes, that's something that I share with our employees. Walk in your resident shoes, walk in your family member's shoes, walk in your employee's shoes. Let's start to talk about this and understand where they're coming from. Everything is not black and white and everything doesn't fit into a box. Each person that we have in front of us is a unique human being. And we are going to provide them that unique solution that we can help and encourage and support them. One other thing that hit home for me was, I got two quick things. One is, you said that you appreciated the fact that, or I appreciate the fact that you talked about and paid as much attention to your number one player as you did to your number 12 player. And like I said, I played soccer in high school. I played basketball, division two basketball where all the soccer girls went to play and we all felled out of the games. But for soccer, I was never a great soccer player. And my coach though never once said that I was a crummy soccer player. It was always taking that approach like you do that it doesn't matter where you sit on the bench, where you sit on the field or where you play on the field, you're all part of this team and you have to come together. So I really appreciated that and it made me feel good, especially as I'm raising my kids who are playing soccer and playing basketball that everyone, everyone on that team counts. And then the final thing is just hope. And this was something that you had told us, Coach Rusty, when you talked with us and gave your presentation and you said that hope is the most important word in our lives. And I totally believe that and I appreciate you saying that because without hope, we don't have a future and it's not, it's not attainable. So hope is everything. So those were just a few of my takeaways. Quite a few, don't you think? Well, Susie, I'm gonna make you my promoter. You had hired me to do a keynote speaking at Arcadia and 15 Craigside. And it just goes to show how much you care as a leader. And that just becomes so contagious with your leadership team, your employees, the residents, I mean, their families. I mean, the insights that you provided on the show here, I mean, it's just, I'm so happy that we're able to really publicize it. And for people to really know why Arcadia family of companies is so successful and so sought after where people want to be there for their senior living. And Susie, I wanna really take the time to say thank you for all that you do and for taking time out of your schedule to join me on the show today. Coach Rusty, oh my gosh, stop. The thanks is from me to you. You know, I think back to you and I kind of alluded to it in the beginning. I think back to those two sessions that you did. And I stand by it, you uplifted us and gave us a swift kick in the tail that we needed to snap out of it. And we didn't know how it would be received but I can tell you that you changed people. You got them motivated and most of all you inspired them and you just gave them an outlet to know that there's hope. And here are some tips and comes down to it's about the people. And you know, all of those qualities coach that you list in your book, integrity, empathy, compassion, resiliency, all of these things that's what's gonna get us through and that's what's gonna help us to be and achieve that superior culture of excellence which is what we always strive for. So thank you. Well, thank you Suzy and thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit rustycomory.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that Suzy and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.