In this episode of Raising Tech, our host Patrick Leonard sits down with Corey DeGeorge, VP of Product & Services, and Marc Tumminello, Director of Sales, at Heart Legacy.
Heart Legacy helps senior care organizations leverage video to generate leads, convert leads into new residents, and turn those residents into powerful referrals.
Learn how they leverage being the #1 rated video app in senior care, to allow senior living communities to quickly send beautifully-branded and personalized videos via email, text, and more.
Raising Tech is powered by Parasol Alliance, The Strategic Planning & Full-Service IT Partner exclusively serving Senior Living Communities.
In this episode of Raising Tech, our host Patrick Leonard sits down with Corey DeGeorge, VP of Product & Services, and Marc Tumminello, Director of Sales, at Heart Legacy.
Heart Legacy helps senior care organizations leverage video to generate leads, convert leads into new residents, and turn those residents into powerful referrals.
Learn how they leverage being the #1 rated video app in senior care, to allow senior living communities to quickly send beautifully-branded and personalized videos via email, text, and more.
Raising Tech is powered by Parasol Alliance, The Strategic Planning & Full-Service IT Partner exclusively serving Senior Living Communities.
Welcome to Raising Tech, a podcast about all things, technology in senior living. I'm your host Patrick Leonard. Today. We have Marc Tumminello and Corey DeGeorge from Heart Legacy. Welcome to the show.
Corey:Thank you.
Marc:Hello. Thank you,
Patrick:Mark and Corey, before we get started, can you kind of introduce yourselves, your roles? And if one of you don't mind, I'd love to hear a little bit about how and why Heart Legacy was founded.
Corey:Sure. So my name is Corey George. I'm the VP of product and services at Heart Legacy. I have an extensive background in healthcare IT and business intelligence and patents related to healthcare communications and video communications, which is essentially what Heart Legacy is doing and what we're helping our clients do. Video communications is it's just such an effective and emotional and powerful method to communicate in senior living, especially. So I'm really glad to be here to talk about it today.
Marc:And I'm Marc Tumminello, director of sales over at Heart Legacy. And my background actually was restaurants. In the beginning I was,, owner of restaurants in Pasadena and I am from Pasadena, California, but I live in mobile, Alabama. So there's a big change for me my entire life in Pasadena in 2007, I moved to mobile for work and really it's sort of an offshoot of heart legacy actually. So I love it and love being here. So if you don't mind, Patrick, just a little background on heart legacy, sort of how we got here and who we are. So in 2015, Walt Armentrout, who was our CEO, he and Fran Smith are the two that are co-founded heart legacy. And really, it was, the strangest thing for Walt. He had a really good friend and his friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer. And ironically his daughter was just got pregnant and boom, you know, he was never going to see his grandchild and it really resonated with Walt, you know, geez, what can we do here? Let's do something. So really that's sort of where the legacy messages from heart legacy, that's where they came from, that's where it was born. So, you know, they took pictures, videos, you know, sat down and talked to him about his life, you know, from beginning to having the kids to everything. And they just absolutely loved it. And Walt sort of did his own little editing of it and put really this cool little montage of this man's life. And that's how it started. You know, Walt was a, and Fran, they were a two man band at the time and they just literally got out in the car, got on the streets and started going to senior living communities to see if this would resonate with those groups. And it actually did it in fact resonated a lot. And then after some time, the interesting thing about heart legacy, they, we had to pivot a little because some of the CEOs, when those invoices were coming in, it just didn't, there was no ROI. So it really didn't resonate too well with them. So, you know, and, and they started asking now what, you know, you're doing these legacy messages for our residents. You know, we're having a big Cinco de Mayo party. We're having a huge Christmas celebration. Can you capture some content? And can you create some great videos there? And that's how our marketing arm came apart, which is really sort of the red side of part legacy. That's really where the ROI started coming from, posted it to social media put it on their live website, send it to families, put it in the screens inside the community. So when people are taking tours, they could see the great things that were happening out there or inside those walls. So so that's how heart legacy got started.
Patrick:Awesome. Thanks for that background. I love, love hearing a good founding story and kind of the passion and the experiences that lead people to, to take the jump, to start their own company. And particularly in this space, as someone who grew up in senior living, I always love hearing how it's, how it's impacted each individual life and how they're trying to go and impact more lives. So thanks for providing that background, marc. Cory, thanks for the introduction. I know Marc and I have met and, and hung out at different conferences and events before. And so I knew a little bit about him, but it's amazing. And we kind of joked about it before we started the recording, but you know, your introduction to me was a heart legacy video that I got over email and just that small clip that I watched and listened to before we got on the call today, I had already felt like we had some bit of an introduction and connection to a certain extent and something to start a starting point to build off. So thanks for more introduction on your end and, and, and I'm happy to learn more about you here as well, but that's a little bit a background about the founding story. And you touched on a little bit about the different solutions and use cases and particularly about how you adapted. It sounds like the company adapted at an early stage by listening to the customers. Can you talk a little bit more from a high level and maybe a little bit more specifically about your different solutions at heart legacy for maybe some of our listeners who aren't as familiar? What are the solutions and the, the typical use cases you see at the senior living communities?
Corey:Sure. So heart legacy provides two video solutions for our clients, and they're both designed to be as simple and fast and easy to use as possible because we want our clients, employees to be able to do their core jobs and not spend a whole bunch of time on the video side. So we handle all of that stuff for marketing. We have a professionally edited marketing video solution where employees in the communities take photos, video footage of the communities of staff members, family members, residents, whatever they want. And that content comes to our video editing team and our video editors take the very best pieces of that content and put it together into a really beautiful marketing video that tells a story and elicits some motion. And it's of course, branded for the community and everything. And clients share these videos, they'll put them on their website or on their social media sites. And then the other app, which has been wildly popular is sales mail. And that's what I sent a message to you with before we actually met. So now you understand kind of how it works. And actually when I first started at heart legacy, one of the employees sent me a sales mail to welcome me to the team. And that's the moment I knew the impact that the video can have is just a simple video message, but it really makes people feel good. Anyway, sales, mail, sales directors, activity directors, EDS, HR, corporate regional leaders. They use sales mail to send personalized branded video messages. And these are sent through their own email account or through text message, or they can post them on social. And it is used to build trust and deepen relationships with the people that they're reaching out to. Basically we have a mobile app or a desktop app. They use to record a quick video message. And we take that video and create an animated preview that can easily be shared. And that video is presented in a branded template. So the community logos up on top, it uses the community colors. The user's contact information is on the bottom. There are lots of ways to engage with the video. So there can be custom call to action buttons, emoji reactions, comments, transcripts, for people who are hard of hearing. So lots of different ways to interact with these videos. The cool thing is when somebody watches a video, our users actually get a push notification on their phone. So they know that somebody just watched it and they kind of know where when they have a really hot lead.
Patrick:Awesome. Thanks for providing that overview. I think that's really helpful. So it sounds like a lot of different people in the community. It's not really just necessarily the sales, our marketing folks at the community level who are using it. It's a variety of different people and use cases at the community level that can all benefit from this. For example, you know, you mentioned your own experience in the recruiting or in the hiring process. If you will, you received a video of your own, are people using it? Not only to address the occupancy side of things, but it sounds like maybe even the staffing side of things as well. Can you expand on that a little bit?
Corey:Sure. So absolutely sales mail is being used for staffing and recruiting. There's obviously a huge problem with staff turnover in senior living. It, it is obviously a lot of markets are having trouble with it, but in, in senior living part, part of my role is over operations. So we have a client success team and they are constantly onboarding new employees for our clients, getting them trained and using video. And it's constant constant. So not only is sales mail used to help with recruiting, but also with staff retention, which is really the smarter and most financially sound way to, to thing to focus on. There is actually one CEO at a large senior living organization. And this guy is on sales mail almost every single day, including weekends. And what he's doing is he is recording birthday messages, work anniversary messages, and new employee messages for everybody in that organization. And I don't expect every CEO to do that, but I will tell you, it has a powerful impact on that staff. And he, you can see it in, you know, they've done a, um, one of our professionally edited videos about their culture and they have all of their staff members talking about working there and you can see the impact it has from this culture he's created by making people feel valued. So that's really important. And any leader in the organization can use sales mail to send, shout out messages and recognize people and keep them engaged. And then as far as recruiting goes, it's such a competition to get people hired these days. It is hard to get people to show up for an interview. And so the community or the organization has to really stand out and they can't stand out too much if they're just posting jobs on a job board. But when you start using video, you can really start attracting attention. So if you do those staff testimonial videos, people can hear what it's like to work at a place and get interested and be interested in interviewing. And then of course, when the HR leaders can use sales mail throughout the hiring process and help them continue to stand out. And for example, one thing people are having a hard time is getting people to show up for interviews so they can send a pre-interview reminder video so they can kind of see who they're gonna talk to feel comfortable. They can tell them where to park or just tell them whatever they need to, to be comfortable with showing up. And that makes that candidate more likely to actually show up for the interview or if they can't make it at least let them know. And then also HR leaders can use sales mail after the hiring process to reinforce that person's decision to work with that organization or that community and make them feel good about that. Lots of use cases related to staffing and recruiting.
Patrick:I love that. Thanks for, thanks for diving deep on that and sharing that story, particularly from that CEO. I think those, those type of stories just put a smile on my face and I think they're so, so powerful and useful to really understand, and for people to get ideas of, of how to implement this and to get creative with it in different ways and capacities within their community. So thanks for sharing that. That's awesome. I imagine it's pretty similar experience for prospective resident when they're still in the sales and marketing side, but then again, I could see also how there could be a little bit more hesitation around sending that video or being the prospective resident family member on the receiving end of it without having, having met you, or maybe placing a 10 minute phone call to get some more information or to set up a tour. Tell me a little bit about, you know, what I thought of as the primary use case in the sales and marketing process, although it makes the most sense. It also seems like there, there could be some hesitation from the staff to either do it, or maybe from some hesitation from someone who's a little more closed off the prospective resident or family member earlier on in the process. Can you talk to me a little bit about both those kind of use cases and how you see your clients and their perspective residents overcoming that, or if they're overcoming that.
Corey:So with employees, some people will be more nervous about recording a video for the first time. I know when I first joined heart legacy, I didn't have a lot of experience in video and it was, it was weird.<laugh> felt really weird. I didn't really wanna record myself<laugh> but the cool thing is once people start doing it, it gets really easy, really fast. You just kind of have to do it. And I've had so many people come back that were hesitant of having their corporate office come and say, Hey, you're gonna use this video solution. And, and they're like, you know, they maybe weren't really gung ho about it when they first heard about it, but then they started using it and they started seeing the reactions they got from prospects and family members. And then they come back and they use the term game changer. It changes the way that they sell and the way that they do their job. So I know prospects the way they react and the responses people get are really, really I'm smiling, you know, because it feels good to them to receive a personalized video that somebody spent time to record for them.
Marc:Yeah. You let me tag onto that just a little bit. I mean, there is such a thing as being camera shy, right? Just not being comfortable in front of the camera and we Corey's team has to deal with that on a regular basis. Right. Cause we check the usage. So, you know, we roll our solution out, but we are constantly looking at the data to ensure that the utilization is high, you know, well over 70% because we don't want them to pay for something that they're not gonna use. So the team sends sample messages to show them what super users are doing. And then they can go ahead and copy those instead of just sitting there going, I'm not quite sure what to do, you know, how, what kind of a video am I going to record? So it gives them some samples to work on. And instead of just having to come up with something on their own and a lot of the Shire folks out there, let's say they will record like a library, Patrick. So it's, we call it favorites, but it's a library. So they can go back and reuse that. And we're seeing a lot of that lately. Some of our meetings and or Corey send the data to us and a lot of people are forwarding those back out, reusing them. So that's great as well, right? As long as it gets to the recipient, the more visibility, the better for those people, right. They're gonna get more responses in a black and white email for sure.
Corey:And then Patrick, there's something we do in the implementation process to help people. So when we do a training session, our goal is as soon as that session's over, everybody's ready to use a video, um, and send a video and they do. So we have this certification program where they take this really quick quiz to reinforce that they learned everything they need, and then they send us a sample video. So that kind of pushes them to record that first video. And it, we get to look at it and make sure that everything looks perfect, that they sound great and that everything is good to go. And it just helps them kind of just do that first video once somebody does that first video, they they're good to go. They just do it a few more times. And then it becomes just a normal thing that they do in their sales cadence.
Patrick:That's great. Yeah, that was gonna be thanks for all that insight, because that was gonna be another one of my questions that as I'm thinking about this and it comes up, you know, any new technology requires some level of training, there's an implementation timeline and process for yours. It sounds super simple and easy, but also very, very thorough and a lot of training that goes along with it as well. So can you kind of just put a bow on that? I guess you were, you were already kind of diving in on the implementation training process, but what does that timeline look like and how quickly can people get up and, and running with this,
Corey:A lot of our implementations are with really large organizations with many communities. And with those, we'll do a partnership launch meeting and make sure that they have met the person that's gonna be their dedicated client success specialists. And that we've talked through all the success factors and figured out when we're gonna do the training. And, um, typically the training, I mean we get the training going as quickly as we can, after that order comes in. It doesn't take a lot of time for us to set up their product and customize our templates and all of that stuff. So large enterprises, we can get implemented and running within one or two weeks of their order. And then if it's just a smaller one community, for example, sometimes training happens the same day. So we're, we can move really quickly on the implementation process. And then I talked about training in the certification program to make sure that they know what they need to know and they record that first video. And from there, it's just, we are constantly monitoring the accounts, onboarding new employees because that turnover and making sure everybody is utilizing video in their job to meet their goals.
Patrick:Okay. So when you think of new technology implementation as well, another question that inevitably comes up is people want the data they want to, they wanna prove out the ROI of each technology spend. And so what are you seeing most people measuring? What data are they really after when they utilize your system? Is there a common kind of ROI proposition that you're help educating them or there self realizing at the community level or leadership level that, Hey, this is moving the needle in X, Y Z way.
Marc:Yeah. There is an ROI that's easy to, well, the data is super important, right? Everyone, you know this so well, everyone wants their data in one place, right? Hey, do you have an integration with this CRM? Do you have an integration there? That's asked every single time they wanna work out of one spot, not going to two or three, even though we have a dashboard, uh, they would prefer to have all that data living in their, uh, CRM system. Uh, and it's important to them because they are constantly looking at their census and all the KPIs and metrics that are behind it. So, you know, how many outbound calls are these directors of sales or CDRs making? How many sales mail videos are they sending out? How many views are they getting? What is the, are we moving the needle on tour to deposit or tour to close? Are we moving that needle? Are we helping move that needle? That's extremely important to them. And those are all that the ROIs that they look at to see if our tool is successful for them, you know, the other, uh, on the edited side, it's really the postings. And how many followers did we gain? We just posted, you know, seven videos in the month of August. And are we getting more followers? Are we getting more views off of those, uh, edited videos? Are we getting more calls into the communities asking about that specific community? So that's really what they're looking at. And really utilization is everything, you know, and it's, what's really great is they can actually do a champion champion challenger inside of a community. So they might pick three communities that are using sales mail and three communities that are not using in their, and that for 60 days they'll run that. And I will tell you, it tells a story very quickly. I'll give you the last results on one that we just saw the data on the three that did not use video, they did emails and calls only their growth was 0.05%, not even 1%. The other side that used video, they raised their percentage growth by 5%, 5% is huge. They were getting responses back left and white, so left and right, so that really helps all of the users say, Hey, wait a minute. It's proof in the pudding. Look, if this person, these CDRs or sales directors are getting great results, they're getting deposits. They're getting move-ins, they're getting families to call back on a regular basis. They're going back into the database of people that said, well, we're really not interested now. And they're sending them a sales mail, and those people are starting to call in. So that's really the strength of video in general, not just our solution, but video in general. And like you mentioned, it's really about being authentic, humanizing, putting a face to a name and setting yourself apart. And video can do that instead of a black and white email or even a phone call, to be honest, you know, they get that passion, that emotion and how professional that particular person sounds, and they get tethered to them. And that's, you know, that's when they're gonna do business with them.
Corey:So as far as sales KPIs go, I'll share some use cases and you'll kind of see how these impact ultimately occupancy lead to tour conversion. People are using sales mail and their auto responses. So if somebody submits a web form for information from a community, and there's an automated email that goes out to them rather than just sending some plain text boring email, they're embedding a sales mail video, maybe with the executive director, the sales director, or maybe even a group of people that are recording a quick little video, thanking people for inquiring, letting them know that somebody's gonna get in touch with them. And then adding some small, special thing about that community. That's gonna stick in their head and make them remember. Another use case is sending an introduction video that puts a face to the name. So when an inquiry comes in, what's the sales director gonna do, they're gonna get on the phone and call'em right. And whether or not they actually reach the person on the phone, they should send that introduction message that follow up video that lets them, see the person, hear their voice, experience their personality, and start building that trust. And Patrick, you, you talked about it a bit at the beginning. Once you start seeing somebody on video, you become familiar with them. And sometimes especially if you see a video from them repeatedly, you start feeling like you know them. And that can go a long way in building a relationship with somebody who is looking for a, a home for their loved one, for example. So that introduction put a face to the name. Video is really, really important. And then once you get somebody to agree to come in for a tour, sending a pre-tour reminder video, that again, shows them who they're going to meet with, makes them feel comfortable. They know who they're going to talk to in the community. You can tell them where to park, how to get in the building mask protocol, whatever, and just continue to build that familiarity. And that comfort with that person. That's looking for a home for their loved one tour conversion can be impacted, impacted, um, through those sales mail use cases. And then once you, there's a tour tour to sale conversion can be impacted through what I think is one of the most important use cases for sales mail, for a sales director or an ed actually. And that's that postwar follow up video. And that's not, you know, some people might be inclined to send a thank you video and say, Hey, thank you so much for coming in. Let me know if you have questions and that that's not what I think people should be doing. I think in that post tour follow up video, that is the sales director's chance to show that they listened to the needs of that person. When they came in for the tour, let's say they found out that the, their mom was a swimmer and that water is important to her. They can do that post tour, follow up video outside by the pool when there are other residents doing a water exercise class or something, even have those residents wave into the camera while you're doing that post tour follow up video. And you can imagine what kind of emotional impact that has on the prospect in their family when they get a video like that versus another community, you know, maybe sending an email, thank you. It's just completely different and helps them stand apart from everybody else.
Marc:And one last thing I just wanted to throw out there on this subject, I mean, just in general, CRDs and sales directors, tell me another industry, where is, is there is no industry out there that's harder than senior living. You are not selling a car. You're not selling an insurance policy. You are asking these people to come move in and if the daughter or the son, they don't get along with you, they're not moving them in, right. It is a very, very, very tough sale. It's so emotional. And I think the reason that the successful sales people in senior living, they work in senior living because they love it. And there was probably some event in their life that got them into senior living. No one just wakes up and says, I'm gonna go work in senior living, right. It's seems to be an event for most people. And so that's a, a that emotion and that connection is everything. So, uh, kudos to them, by the way, I, I think they work their tails off and it's awesome. So, they deserve all the, the recognition they can get and, and our video really helps them in this tool and we see it day in and day out.
Patrick:I love just hearing Corey and then Marc you adding onto it kind of starting the use cases and the impact from start to finish really throughout the entire prospect journey and the ups and downs that their experience and the emotional roller coaster they're going through and the impact you can just, even if you've never used or heard of heart legacy until this episode, you can just see the power of, of video in what those follow ups would look like in the reaction you would have. And it really answers my earlier question earlier, much more clearly now of what does a resident feel like? Someone who's a little more guarded, a little more closed off when that video comes in and it's, it's powerful. It makes me never wanna send an email follow up or place another phone call follow up again. So thank you for all that insight side shared all those use cases. Obviously there are appropriate times for that, a nd I'm being a little facetious, but really it really helps illustrate the power of it at different points in t he sales process an d i n t o w hat you were mentioning ea rly a s well in t he recruitment and hiring and employee engagement process as well. So thank you for sharing all those stories. It makes it a lot more fun and easier to understand. Um, w hen you do that, I guess before we, we close things out, I, I, I just wa nna u nderstand, we've heard so many great things today, and clearly you all have accomplished so much for this industry, but is there, where are things heading next? Is there anything new and exciting on the horizon and any kind of final thoughts or, or w ords of wisdom for our listeners before we wrap up today,
Corey:I can't spill the beans on any future products or anything, but I would say that we're gonna continue to listen to the needs of our partners and senior living and deliver on those. That's what has worked for us thus far. And as far as final thoughts, I would say I'm, I'm plagiarizing here, but just do it. Use video, pick up the phone, get on a desktop version, whatever you've got record a video, use it in your job and make someone's day. It, it really can make a powerful impact. And once you start using it and seeing the reactions that you get, um, you will understand why you need to keep doing it.
Marc:Yeah. And I, what I'll say is this is my fifth year in senior living. So I'm not, you know, a, a tenured, tenured senior living guy. I was in the healthcare space for over 20 years and I've learned to absolutely love it. You know, I've been in communities a lot and Patrick, just us even meeting and all, you know, and the whole convention tours that we do, uh, great relationships there. And everyone in this industry cares. I mean, they, you can feel it that it's so passionate and, you know, you just in the conversations that we all have, and, and even in the way we, you know, go about introducing our product, uh, you know, it's not a lot of real hardcore sales people out there. They're just telling the story and how it works and how it's gonna help these residents themselves. And that's the common theme. And I love that because they care about these residents a lot. And I think it's awesome. So, and just like you, you and Amber doing this podcast, hopefully we can go widen deep and spread out the tentacles on this and get more people to listen. Because, you know, I, I'm sure that when people are listening to this, a lot of listen to the podcast in their car when they're driving, you know, and it resonates with them and they're gonna get great tips, right? The more nuggets they can get, the better off they're gonna be. Right. So kudos to both of you. So thank you.
Patrick:Thank you both so much. Couldn't agree more with your, your final thoughts there and sign off. And just the words in particular about this industry, both on the provider and the you know, the vendor partner side it, and it's something I think that's kept me around and in this industry and will continue for a long time. So mark and Corey can't, thank you guys enough for being on the show and for your insights. I learned something new. I already thought I knew a decent amount about you all, but I learned even more today. So thank you for that. And I know our listeners will too, whether that no matter what their level of familiarity is with you all and with heart legacy, I hope to see you both, either on video or out in the event circuit one way or the other listeners. Thank you for tuning into this episode of raising tech. We will see you next time with more fresh technology insights. If you wanna be on the show or have any ideas for topics or soon you live in trends that you want to hear about, please visit our website, parasolalliance.com and reach out.