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Transcript

Erin 1:05

Welcome to another episode of Aspire For More with Erin. Where I am really gonna dig into one of the things that I feel as if I didn't understand when I was inside of a community, and that is business entrepreneurship. Really to some degree, leaders inside the senior living industry, executive directors are. Entrepreneurs without the owning of the community and not understanding that component of things really put me at a disadvantage. the disadvantage was I believed it was mission driven. I believed it was healthcare. I didn't understand that it was a real estate side to this business and that there's a business side to the business. Now, maybe you don't have that problem. And that's great. But we're gonna dive into what does owning and working and building and creating a business look like? especially if you're a woman. And so I have an amazing guest. Her name is Milan David. She is the founder and CEO of Elia Core and Manatee Senior Care. She's also a serial entrepreneur and uh, a mother of four. And so we are here today to learn how she. Built a healthcare business and how we can view our community as the same thing. So welcome Milan. Thank you for being here today.

Miland 2:35

Thank you for having me, Erin. It's an honor.

Erin 2:38

You have an amazing story and so we wanna highlight some of that. I will say, before we start there, will you tell us all the businesses that you've owned?

Miland 2:50

okay. So I guess, I'll start from years ago. I've have had a couple of businesses in e-commerce. I've owned a couple of different shops, on my direct websites and on Amazon. and then, I also had a. Mobile beauty business where we did hair and makeup in Miami for celebrities, TV shows, films, music videos, um, and I've also had a brick and mortar, beauty bar, and now I own two healthcare companies.

Erin 3:29

Doesn't that sound like the journey of a healthcare entrepreneur? So what made you, I know, what made you get into healthcare?

Miland 3:37

someone very close to me, a physician specifically, in geriatrics

Erin 3:43

mm-hmm. Came

Miland 3:44

around me and. Constantly complained about the flow, and the cycle for his patients. He had an office and he would find out six months down the line that his patients were at the hospital and no one ever reached out to him. And by the time they made it back to his office, there was always a break. Down in the care plan medications that shouldn't have been administered and and conditions that the physicians who cared for the patient through that journey were not aware of. So they altered care plans that did not support the patients overall health goals, right? Mm-hmm. Oftentimes leading to more decline. And so I suggested, why don't you? Start something to close this gap, and the physician said he was not interested in the headaches of a business. He just wanted to see patients and. You don't explain or talk about a problem around a serial entrepreneur and not go pursue the solutions for it. And so I said, I'll start the company, I'll start the company as long as uh, you come on board and work for me. And that's how I got into healthcare.

Erin 5:05

that, Brings up a really good point that I recently, this idea that recently I've embodied, I understand is that businesses solve a problem. And that is something that I never thought about. I never thought about healthcare as solving a problem per se. I just thought about it as healthcare. It is, being an entrepreneur is exactly what you said. Taking a problem and creating a product to solve it. That's what senior living is taking a problem and creating a product to solve it. In its most simplistic form that is business.

Miland 5:52

Yes.

Erin 5:53

And like I just never thought about it that way until recently.

Miland 5:57

Yes. often, people miss that part. Yes. Um, we like to call it a niche, right? Yes. We like to find niches. And niches are niches because it's areas that are problematic, but no one's solving them, right? Mm-hmm. Um, and that was a niche, and we don't talk about niches around a problem solver.

Erin 6:21

Yeah. Yeah. That's great. That's great. So do you feel like you had the identity or what made you think at the very beginning to be a serial entrepreneur? I never in my life had that thought. Never in my life did I have a thought about being an entrepreneur. And then there's someone like you who's been just doing it. Probably never had a thought about ever not being an entrepreneur.

Miland 6:56

You hit it on the nail. You hit it on the nail for as long as I could remember. I remember sitting in class in middle school, and you know. Going through the thoughts of what I wanted to be when I grow up. I've, I've gone through different seasons growing up where I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to be a pediatrician. um, my undergrad was a pre-law major. I wanted to be a hotshot attorney. And every single season when I wanted to be a pediatrician, I remembered sitting in class and saying, Hmm, but I wanna own the hospital. Yeah. And then in elementary, when I wanted to be a teacher, I said, but I wanna start the school. I don't just wanna work as a teacher. When I, in college, when I thought I wanted to become attorney and attorney, I made friends. I worked for a law firm just so that I could understand the basic principles of owning a law firm. It's always been embedded in me. In middle school, they called me the potato chip girl because I sold potato chips and Snickers and m and ms out of my backpack. in high school I was a freshman. I was so embarrassed because I was sitting in class and I was sitting in the back row. And you know the seniors by this, it's public school. Seniors are much, they're bolder. They open my class door. And they stick their head in and they're like, where's the potato chip girl? Is she in here? Is she in here? And he sees me in the back and rushes to the back. I'm so embarrassed. He's interrupting the class quickly, does his exchange. He knows what he wants, and makes the purchase for as long as I could remember. I've always known that I've wanted to. It's more than just entrepreneurship, it's lead. I wanted to lead and steward. It's always been part of my DNA.

Erin 8:54

Yeah. Leading and Steward has been part of my DNA owning it just never would've occurred to me. And so that is so fascinating to me though, the desire, how that sits in people for a long time and I'm sure. Like you had to do that, And then knowing your story, you've got four children, which a lot of women would allow. that kind of commitment, that level of commitment to say Not yet. Not yet. And I understand that on a very personal level, because that level of commitment is very, very important.

Miland 9:33

Yeah.

Erin 9:34

And you didn't let those circumstances and life circumstances stop you because it's not just kids, it's everything that comes with it that will can prevent people to move forward.

Miland 9:47

And you know what, and to each their own. I, I, to be honest, I give a lot of people grace because being a mother, a single mother in a house by yourself and navigating everybody's schedule along with your own very busy schedule. Yeah. It takes a warrior woman to conquer that season. And because. I know this, I give a lot of grace for it. nurture nature versus nurture, right? I am a believer that it is something that comes natural and innate in you to be able to take on so much because I also support mental peace and my threshold is not everyone else's threshold. My threshold is a, is crazy. It's not normal. It is not normal. it is not. It is not. it's insane. Right? and so sometimes those circumstances can. create challenges. My best advice is start where you can. Do not compare yourself. Do not compare yourself to someone else who's a mother of four and they're doing all of these things, and you're a mother of two, or you're a mother of one. No, you're a mental piece is. 10 times more important because at the end of the day, your children is going to need a mother that is there for them. So start where you can. Don't just sit back and say no, because then you will. You will unfortunately. Not make the strides that need to make so that you can get closer to your goals. It doesn't matter if you don't get those goals for two years, three years, 10 years. Just make those small strides so that you can get there and celebrate your wins. Celebrate this month because you are finally able to sit down and come up with a business name. That's a win.

Erin 11:57

Mm-hmm.

Miland 11:58

That's a win. So I applaud. Women who have a desire to go a moms and women who have a desire to go after their entrepreneurial or even just educational goals.

Erin 12:13

Mm-hmm.

Miland 12:13

Um, I applaud them. it's a lot of work and I, I just support that. You take it one day at a time and just do a little bit.

Erin 12:23

How do you think, do you think that you're, you call it a threshold, I'll call it capacity. It's the same thing. Were you born with a high threshold or did you just learn over time that you thrive or really enjoy a little bit of controlled chaos? You know what I mean?

Miland 12:44

I love that. That is the perfect word I wanna say. I think I was born with it because I can remember so many times. I would walk the house. I had a big family, six siblings, and the house was as quiet. You can, you could even, you could hear pin drop and I would go finding everyone and everyone was in their room taking a nap. They would take a siesta and they would always question, why aren't you taking a siesta? And I'm like, that's for, isn't that what the night is for? It's the daytime. My eyes can't do it. And. Especially when you have multiple kids and you see the different personalities and you see the ones who, who they came out and they slept in the crib immediately, overnight, and the ones that kept you up all night. I would have to say that, I support that. It is, it's something that has to be, that's in you. Mm-hmm.

Erin 13:45

Yeah. Well, I think, uh. Being raised with six siblings or five other siblings. Five, yeah. You're gonna have a higher, you're gonna have a higher capacity for controlled chaos than somebody who had no siblings or one sibling.

Miland 14:02

That's true. And you learn to have patience with. People with things because that's what also what entrepreneurship is about, because things will not always work out the way that you envisioned it. Um, and that's what happens when you, when you're the baby girl out of, uh, six kids, right? Yeah. So,

Erin 14:20

yeah. Yeah. that's great. Going to the identity piece.'cause I feel like you know who you are there was this quote I saw going around Instagram once, and it was, entrepreneurship will show you all of your flaws, will show you all of your weak spots, will force you to look them square in the eyes. And I would say that you could put senior living leadership in that category because I believe what gets in the way becomes the way and the more that we avoid. The more that we're gonna keep being stuck and in that same cycle, but as a serial entrepreneur, which is probably the big best life coach there is working in your strengths and understanding that failure is not a definition of worth. Like I, I would look at you with all those experiences, some being successful. I'm sure some of them weren't. what caused you to keep going and was it knowing who you are and is leadership a good life coach in that lesson, in that way,

Miland 15:40

that's very good. So IG Wow. That's very good.

Erin 15:45

But your strengths, you know, like you've got two companies right now. you started, you were in beauty, obviously beauty is a strength of yours.

Miland 15:57

Right.

Erin 15:57

so you've been able to pivot, you've been able to overcome, you've been able to use failure as a fuel, like how, why were you able to do that when some people say. Failure is the end of the road.

Miland 16:12

I would make a mistake even in class. You make a mistake, you take the test, the teacher shares with you the results, and you see all of the answers that you got wrong. Just through that test result alone, you identify the areas that you should work on so that the next time you take that test, you improve. And so it's not difficult for me to embrace failure because. My eyes is set on the improvement, the lesson learned. I know that's not easy for a lot of folks because I'm surrounded by a lot of folks who struggle with that, but failing forward is the most easiest way to. To step away from the disappointment. I don't like to simmer. It's such a dark place, right? I wanna yank myself out of that. Okay, I made the mistake. I've learned from it. I need to move on so that my spirit does not get stuck in a place that will prevent me from. Propelling forward and a place that will prevent me from Evolutionized. Right. That is the key to being able to start businesses, make mistakes, learn from them, or start a new business because you're grateful for everything you learn through the journey. My goal is always to focus more on. The journey so I don't lose sight of everything that I'm learning and I don't lose the experience of it all.

Erin 18:08

Yeah. and I am totally with you now and I wasn't always that way before I could move forward and learn from the lesson, but I also. Sied while I was moving forward and I never, not sied. You know what I mean? Yeah. And there's an energy that comes with that. There was, there is a energy that comes with simmering. And there's a different energy when you're done simmering and you're moving forward.

Miland 18:42

Yeah. Yeah. it's, it's. It's a seed and then it starts to create branches. It starts creating branches, and before you know it, it's, it has impacted your entire,

Erin 18:56

entire life. Yes.

Miland 18:58

Entire life. Simmer. You're, you're lashing out at the kids. Yeah. When you simmer, you make decisions that you wouldn't have normally made when it's, it's, it just, it's a branch and it festers. And as soon as that seed is planted, I yank it. I yank it out, I yank it out, I yank it out, and people close to me, always marvel.

Erin 19:21

Yeah.

Miland 19:21

Um, I got too much going on, Erin. I got four kids. I have two very successful businesses I cannot afford to simmer. I wanna be such a good mom. A healthy mom. That's the better word. I wanna be a healthy mom for them because yes, so many things happen throughout the day with. My, my business and I don't wanna turn around and they don't have a mom that's functioning in the right place mentally and can navigate their interactions. You know, when there's a poop disaster or when there's a. Picked up from school right in the middle of a very big deal, breaking clientele meeting. when you're filming for a podcast and your kid appears in the screen, if I don't pull out all of the things that, that would, cause me to simmer, um, if I don't immediately yank them, I won't be good for anyone. I won't be good for anyone, and I won't be good for myself. I just, I need. My energy to be balanced.

Erin 20:26

Yeah. And I think that a is very beautiful what you just said, and I think what I understand now is that energy, our energy is the game.

Miland 20:38

Yeah.

Erin 20:39

Our energy is the game and we give that, we give that power away to people without even realizing it.

Miland 20:47

Hmm.

Erin 20:49

I know I did and I still do. Sometimes I have to reclaim that I have no, no, no. My, my energy is mine. You know what I mean? and in healthcare, because I'm sure you see it as you support healthcare leaders. It's the energy.

Miland 21:06

Yeah.

Erin 21:07

it's the energy game that we're losing.

Miland 21:11

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, because one of, it's funny that you say this because I mirror that model and I embed it in the DNA of my business. Mm-hmm. We have this culture that we call chi and chi in the Asian culture represents the having a good balance of positive energy. Right. You're gonna have negative energy, but it needs to be balanced so that it doesn't cause you to simmer. And so that's the culture that I've created with both companies. And we even have buttons where when they go into the communities that say, ask me about my chief culture, right? Because. Dealing with senior leaders. I'm not the, I can't be the face of the company. It's too many communities. There's, there's a lot of people out there that are representing me and at all times when they're working with senior leaders who may not understand the value of the gap, the niche that we're trying to close, or who may sometimes have a difference of opinion. The Q culture essentially. Says for my folks at all time to mirror positive energy because as long as they're mirroring positive energy, that energy alone could deescalate that interaction with the senior leadership team. I asked him to never. Match energy. Mm-hmm. At all times they are supposed to exude positivity, going above and beyond. even if the interaction is negative, they need to have control over their emotions and at least, Try to come across as problem solvers and as folks that are putting patient first as well as client service.

Erin 23:20

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think energy is the biggest influencer as well.

Miland 23:25

agreed. It's such a, an Im impactful thing for us that we have a zero tolerance policy. When we interview folks, we say our QI culture is so important. We will walk folks out for having toxic energy. We will walk, which

Erin 23:40

is a brave, that's a bold move.

Miland 23:43

we say it, we believe it. energy transfers. One person comes in with a toxic energy, you now passed it on to that other person working with you that was having a productive day who no longer is having a productive day, because now they don't even realize why they're grumpy while they're bitter. Because they just had to run in with the grumpy, bitter person that said something to them that offended them. Now they're grumpy and bitter, and now they're gonna be grumpy and bitter to the next employee. And before you know it, you have a, a, a, a, a full team full of. Unproductive people, all because of one thing energy. Mm-hmm. So I, that is such a deep seated thing for me. And you hit it on the nail with energy. Yeah.

Erin 24:28

I think it starts with the leader knowing This goes back to the identity question, right? Yeah. you know it, you understand it, you believe it, you are the leader. And you are living it.

Miland 24:42

Yeah.

Erin 24:42

You are communicating the expectation. You are enforcing boundaries. Yeah. You know, that is what a leader should do. You don't have to be an entrepreneur to do that. That's what a leader does.

Miland 24:54

Agreed. Agreed. There's a difference between a leader and a manager. Yes. Is a complete difference. A manager dictates a leader influences and they. Influence. Especially by example.

Erin 25:10

So you mentioned your business, we mentioned that businesses solve a problem, and so what does Elia O and Manatee Senior Care, what are the problems that they solve? Like how do you serve senior living, you know, in aging services altogether? what problem are you solving? Alon?

Miland 25:34

again, I can't take credit for it. I found out about the problem through a physician and there was a gap in seniors receiving coordinated care that wasn't expensive because coordinated care, we call that, concierge medicine.

Erin 25:52

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Miland 25:53

That's where you have. One physician that follows up with all of your care with, they'll even meet you depending on certain appointments. a concierge is only available to a certain, affluent group because of the price.

Erin 26:11

Yeah.

Miland 26:11

And I wanted to be able to provide that same service once the physician. Explained how there were gaps in his patient's care. I, a lot of times the senior community, they do not live with families. They live in areas that, that are retirement areas in different states, and their children are across the state, out of the country. And so as they get older, not having that coordinated care, um. Causes them not to have anyone to advocate on their behalf, and they get lost in the system. And so I launched Manatee Senior Care, Manatee Senior Care. We provide that coordinated care at no additional cost for our patients. So our physician sees them at the hospital. And if we're not at that hospital, our clinicians call that hospital up every single day for updates and to make sure we have the right paperwork sitting on our hands the day the patient discharges. Again, normally that doesn't happen when a. Some, a patient doesn't have someone advocating on their behalf and now they get over to a new physician who don't have all of the information from the previous physician'cause they left the hospital and now they're at a nursing home. Because now they have to be rehabilitated. And so not having that information often causes for there to be a gap in continuity. And so Madison Senior Care, we see the patient at the hospital, we follow them in the nursing home, and we also do house calls, and we are the ones that keep track of all of the coordinated care that's happening between everyone, every specialty involved in that. Patient's, um, medical Care Corp was actually inspired by Manatee Senior Care, so mm-hmm. I wanna make sure I say this on camera. I was providing these services before I found out that Medicare had similar programs that was going to actually compensate us for that work. I just wanted to close the gap. That's actually called in Medicare chronic care management. So Medicare will reimburse medical groups for doing that same coordinated care that there's a clinician behind the scene that is proactively refilling medications, following up with the author. Orthopedics, getting paperwork done, making sure that that patient's improving because why Medicare has discovered that if someone is in that, again advocating, right, this was the gap. If someone is in that patient's corner advocating and doing all of this stuff behind the scenes, that could potentially prevent a rehospitalization, right? And so I found out three years. After we started Medicare, that Medicare was paying for, chronic care management. And so that's what inspired Aya Core. We then launched AYA Core and we separated the companies. So now Manatee Senior Care is. Is 100% medical care. And Corp provides all of these re-hospitalization at our programs that are paid for by Medicare aimed at keeping patients out of the hospital. So we provide chronic care management, we provide behavior health. That's our number one program with the communities because it's visible, they can't see chronic management, chronic care management'cause the clinicians are working behind the scenes. But it's impactful. But behavior health, our clinicians come into communities with these rolling kits and inside the rolling kits, it's all of these games, you name it, UNO, sensory boards, balloons, noodles. And their goal is to stimulate, to get that patient moving, to get that patient thinking, to get that patient overall, um, stimulated emotionally. Mentally, physically, because Medicare finds that if we're proactively providing behavioral health, that can prevent decline mentally. And now they're stuck with this big bill that they now have to pay for these patients. So that's our most popular program, because the seniors in the community, the senior leaders in the community sees it. They'll even go to appointments. If the patient is having high levels of anxiety of and getting on the transportation, my behavior health specialists have gone to appointments. Mm-hmm. If the patient does not wanna do all the fancy fun things, they'll sit there and they'll just talk. They'll just walk, they'll read a book together. It all depends on where that patient's baseline is and whatever, where their baseline is. Our behavioral specialists will do whatever it takes to get them stimulated, and then we have remote patient monitoring. That's where Medicare found it valuable, that if someone was, if our patients were proactively getting their vitals collected and we were monitoring it, that we could proactively identify a potential risk before it. Gets worse. And so we work with the community again. Our RPM specialists have a rolling kit and in that rolling kit they have a weight scale, blood pressure cuffs, um, with different sizes, a peak flow. they have. Thermo a thermometer, they're able to te check their lung capacity, especially for patients who've just had surgery on their chest or, or they've had a, a, some respiratory issues over, um, a certain period. We also, Manage, the diabetes check. We also do glucose monitoring. Um, for our communities where we have them a large census, our RPM specialists will stay on site and they will take it as many times as needed during the day. that's a big one for our communities with folks who are diabetic, that soon as they hear that we do diabetic checks, all of a sudden their, their eyes brighten up. And we're like, okay, that's the winner. We got it. We'll use that word a lot more often. but those are all of the readmission prevention programs that Aya Corp provides. these are all programs funded by Medicare

Erin 33:01

and great partners inside senior living.

Miland 33:05

yes, absolutely.

Erin 33:07

Yeah. All over the country.

Miland 33:09

All over the country? Yes, we are nationwide. we were able to launch nationwide in 2025 and um, folks hear about us through word of mouth and then they tell the sister community that is out of the state. it goes all the way up to the CEO and I get phone calls that ask us how quick. Can we get to Georgia? How quick can we provide these wonderful services that they're hearing about at this community over at the next community? Our biggest challenge I'll tell you is people not believing that we do all of this work and there's no cost. I can't tell you the amount of times I get from. Leadership team, they wanna see the Medicare, documentation for this. Mm-hmm. They be, I, I don't like to use this word, but we've, we've received it a couple times. They believe that it's a scam.

Erin 34:09

Sure.

Miland 34:10

Because they're in such disbelief. That we show up, we're providing additional staff, we're taking work off of their plate, we're doing diabetes. Check. Their, their, their community is happy. There's people talking to the, our chronic care specialists. They become friends with the families. The families call them when they're having a concern and we advocate on the community's behalf, oh yeah, your dad didn't like the food. Okay, we will give, Sienna point a call and we'll work. With, the kitchen. We'll tell them we advocate for the community. So now the community's receiving less calls, happier families, happier residents, and they also get reports. We're launching an, a dashboard that's gonna be online that our communities will now be able to log into, come April 1st, where they can see the health of their community. They can see how many. When we take the vitals, if anyone came out of range, like we take their blood pressure and it came back with risky results, they'll be able to see how many that, how many times that spike happened, what was done. They'll be able to see. When the behavior health specialists go into the communities, how many patients they saw, what impact they made, pictures from the games, from the book readings, and we know that they're gonna be excited about that. But all of this they receive often causes. I'm excited to tell them about this, but I also have to pull back because it often causes people to question whether these services are really real.

Erin 35:49

Yeah. I questioned it, that's great. I think my whole strategy with having you as a guest is for people to understand possibility thinking is powerful. Because you're a woman with four kids who ran non-healthcare businesses and may have things stacked against her. And look at her now. You know what I mean? Yeah. Look at her now. She did not allow identity to stop her. In fact, she formed an identity She did not allow. Four little rugrats stop her. She's bringing'em along with her and I think one of the most powerful things was good mom to healthy mom. And that real, that resonated with me in the moment. that is top priority. It's not about being good, it's about being healthy.

Miland 37:00

Yeah.

Erin 37:00

And that's important, Failure is not a finish line, and that is the whole point of bringing on somebody like you who can, who can tell that story in the way that you do. Yes, you help senior living communities. Yes, it's a good, it's a good business. People should look into that. But more than that, you should see that success requires a lot of chutzpah, and that comes from within. Not anybody else.

Miland 37:34

It does. Yeah.

Erin 37:35

And you did that. You're doing it.

Miland 37:38

Yeah. Trying. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate it. you said it so eloquently and, it's not eloquent behind the scenes, not by any means. it's not eloquent and I think, What I'll continue to say is you have to take small strides. You have to. You have to. You can't keep just thinking about it and telling yourself you don't have the time and it's impossible. It's a challenge. It will always be a challenge. Life will always life. Life will always life. And the secret to everything that you just said. About me is that I always took a step forward. I took a step forward and I don't look back.

Erin 38:27

Mm-hmm. And you identify when you're simmering and you yank it out.

Miland 38:31

Yes. Yes.

Erin 38:34

yeah. Yeah. It's so true. thank you for sharing your story. I, I find it to be, Very valuable to me. as somebody who is understanding what entrepreneurship is, as someone who thought that if you build it, they will come and. That's wrong, folks. That's wrong. So you just keep going. One small win at a time.

Miland 39:01

Yes.

Erin 39:01

Um, so how can they get in touch with you to find out more about your services and supporting senior living communities and the residents inside of them? What is the best way to do that?

Miland 39:11

you can visit our website, um, ww dot elia core E-L-I-A-C-O-R e.com. That is the business that is nationwide. And you can also send my team and email at info@eliacore.com. And we also have our one 800 number on the website. our team would love to hear from you.

Erin 39:38

Yeah, it's exciting. Okay, folks, I hope this helps you understand, and maybe you're not like me, that healthcare is a business. It solves a problem. It takes a lot of work, a lot of positive energy and that it also can be mission-driven. You just have to look at it from a business lens, relationships first, and then real estate and regulatory next. That's how we grow business. That is how we grow business. So if this episode resonated with you, share it with some friends. find Milan on LinkedIn and her businesses online. It's, fascinating to see what they're doing. And if you ever need coaching or one-on-one, uh, leadership development, look me up as well. Thank you for your time today and as always, aspire for you. Aspire for more for you. Knowing that you're already enough.