How a Nurse Turned Family Tragedy Into a Franchise

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Living Your Legacy 26 min 3 speakers 5 chapters transcribed
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How did Debbie’s mother’s brain cancer diagnosis inspire the creation of Happier At Home?

Debbie Marcello 0:00
My mother was diagnosed with the glioblastoma. It's a primary brain cancer. For the six months that she lived after her diagnosis, we had different caregivers coming in through a home care agency, and it was actually a horrible experience for my mom and for us. So I did end up starting the business and uh it just provides care. care in the way that I know needs to happen. Even though I did help other companies on a more executive level, I also saw where they were doing things wrong. So um I changed the model to what I knew it was like as a consumer going through something like that.
Lucy Staffieri 0:45
Debbie Marcello is a seasoned healthcare leader, registered nurse, and certified case manager, and the founder and CEO of Happier at Home, a national home care organization known for its holistic, patient-centered approach. She is also a geriatric expert and advocate for aging patients and their families.
Debbie Marcello 1:03
Part of what is very difficult is There's sometimes a shortage of caregivers. And so I've been thinking about ways that we could combat that. My vision is to create community. areas where we can have one caregiver going into say that one neighborhood and go house to house and that will be that caregiver's position and uh territory to take care of.
Rui Gutierrez 1:39
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Unknown 1:44
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Rui Gutierrez 1:45
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Unknown 2:01
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What problems did Debbie encounter with traditional home‑care agencies and how did she decide to change the model?

Rudy Mawer 2:13
Hey, welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast. I'm your host again, Jay Slangan, and thanks for joining us here at the Miami Beach Studios in our podcast room. Well, we get the privilege, as you know, to speak to some of the best entrepreneurs and disruptors and experts from all kinds of industries. And here today we have a special guest for our Mompreneur show. Why don't you introduce yourself? What's your name? Uh where are you from, and what's your business?
Debbie Marcello 2:38
Sure, I'm Debbie Marsolo. I'm the founder and CEO of Happier at Home.
Rudy Mawer 2:43
Happier at home. All right. And and where are you from?
Debbie Marcello 2:46
I'm from Rochester, New York.
Rudy Mawer 2:47
Rochester, New York.
Debbie Marcello 2:49
Born and raised.
Rudy Mawer 2:50
Nice, nice. Yeah. I'm originally from uh new uh Connecticut, you know, so I know I know about the weather, right? The four four seasons.
Debbie Marcello 2:57
Ironically, it's very nice in Rochester right now. I know, yeah. Yes.
Rudy Mawer 3:03
Um, so better at home. What's what's better at home all about?
Debbie Marcello 3:07
So happier at home. Happier at home. Uh that's okay. Uh well it is a senior home care business that I started about twenty years ago, uh, helping seniors r and the disabled to remain at home and independent. And uh about seven years ago I started uh growing and sharing the business model through franchising.
Rudy Mawer 3:31
Wow, wow. Okay. Yeah. So what made you get into that world?
Debbie Marcello 3:36
So I am a registered nurse and a case manager as well. And I worked in the past in trauma and the emergency department, but I always uh had that entrepreneurial spirit. Even from the time I was like eight years old, I started a paper root. And so from the time I was eight till now, I've been running. Yeah.
Rudy Mawer 4:03
I had a paper roo too when I was younger.
Debbie Marcello 4:05
Oh, did you?
Rudy Mawer 4:06
Bagging those papers up, you know.
Debbie Marcello 4:07
Yeah. Were you in the era of inserts? You had to fill the papers with inserts too.
Rudy Mawer 4:13
Of course, of course.
Debbie Marcello 4:14
Yeah. Yeah. So um uh as I uh was working in nursing, um, my mother developed brain cancer at age 64. And uh Backing up a little bit, I had always thought about starting a home care business. I was formerly a director of nursing in a home care agency. I was a vice president of a very large continuum of care retirement community in Rochester. Uh there's about 11th of them in New York State. And uh I was building businesses and doing a great job for other people and always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to start another business.
Rudy Mawer 4:58
Yeah.
Debbie Marcello 4:58
And so when my mother was diagnosed for
Rudy Mawer 5:01
yourself.
Debbie Marcello 5:02
For myself. Build it for myself. Uh build that's
Rudy Mawer 5:06
the key part, right?

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