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Summary
On this episode, we’re joined by Kyle Benesch, Director of Business Development at QRM. From mortician to long-term care advocate, Kyle shares a raw, emotional, and often hilarious journey through grief, growth, and deep purpose. He reflects on the lessons learned from managing people, surviving burnout, and finding belonging in the world of senior care. For Kyle, advocacy isn't a marketing line — it’s a calling shaped by personal loss, bold vulnerability, and a commitment to serving caregivers with respect and sincerity.
Key Takeaways:
(00:00) Introduction.
(06:45) The senior living industry became an unexpected passion.
(08:15) Watching CNAs grieve showed the depth of their care.
(10:15) Kyle considers his ADHD a creative superpower.
(15:00) Traveling for work opened Kyle’s worldview and empathy.
(17:21) Great salespeople stay curious beyond their own product.
(19:00) Building friendships, not transactions, changes industry trust.
(26:00) Losing a colleague reshaped Kyle’s approach to leadership.
(30:33) "Hero Welcomes" during COVID became his proudest moment.
(32:57) Authenticity on LinkedIn builds real-world relationships.
Resources Mentioned:
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Transcript
Kyle Benesch: This, what we're doing on a Zoom screen is not what our services, our companies do. Actually in buildings, it's actually having an impact. And so for me, I love those experiences. I love being able to get in, meet people and be like, "What am I selling, and how is it actually making an impact with the end people and the residents?"
Peter Murphy Lewis: The world does not run on headlines, it runs on people who care. I'm Peter Murphy Lewis and this is People Worth Caring About. Alongside my co-host, Jalene Carpenter, we sit down with the unsung heroes, caregivers, healers, helpers, the ones doing the real work even when no one is watching. These conversations are not polished, they're personal, because behind every act of care is a story worth hearing. New episodes drop regularly, get updates at PeopleWorthCaringAbout.com.
Hello, everyone, this is People Worth Caring About. I'm your host, Peter Murphy Lewis, and I'm here with my co-host, Jalene Carpenter. Say hola, Jalene.
Jalene Carpenter: We're not saying Hola. You're going to sound wrong.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Today's guest is going to be fun. He's not only rocking a cool shirt that probably shouldn't be worn in the Midwest, but he is a friend of Jalene, therefore a friend of the show, Director of Strategy at QRM Health. Welcome to the program, Kyle.
Kyle Benesch: Thank you. Super excited to be here.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Tell me how you pronounce your last name.
Kyle Benesch: So it's Benesch. It throws a lot of people for loops, but Benesch. Yeah.
Peter Murphy Lewis: I know not everyone is watching this show, but where does Kyle Benesch get a cool tropical shirt like that?
Kyle Benesch: So the tropical shirt side, Jalene knows this story. We worked together at a company in Lincoln and they had to have button-up collared shirts. And so on Fridays, we'd stick it to the man and wear Hawaiian shirts. And so for, I don't know, six years, it's been Hawaiian shirt Friday. It's a custom that doesn't die.
Peter Murphy Lewis: So before I let Jalene start off by asking you some questions, I want to ask you one odd question, Kyle, because this show is not straightforward. Is it true that you are or were a professional auctioneer and you once sold a 60-foot setup?
Kyle Benesch: So the auctioneer thing, that was like a COVID, it was a break, and I literally posted on LinkedIn saying, "I'm leaving senior living, but I'll be back." And I was like, "Who doesn't get impacted by COVID?" And I was like, "Farmers." And so I went and did an online ag auction for about a year and then when I came back to senior living, Jack York had the infamous tailgating trailer that you needed to sell. We were in Sarasota, Florida a year after I hung my auctioneer hat up selling the Jack York's tailgate trailer. So it was a lot of fun.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Did you know that, Jalene?
Jalene Carpenter: Yes. And honestly, Peter, that's one of the least coolest things that I know Kyle has done. He's done so many cooler things.
Peter Murphy Lewis: This is going to be good. Let's hear it.
Kyle Benesch: Buckle up.
Jalene Carpenter: Are you ready? Kyle, are you sure?
Kyle Benesch: I mean I lean with almost every time I meet someone I lead with. I am a former mortician and so that's actually how Jalene and I met. Yeah. So when Jalene was an administrator, I was the mortician serving a community of about 4,000 people. That's how I got to know Jalene.
Jalene Carpenter: Let's back up a little bit. By Mortician, it was like I am 19 years old and I went to assistant mortician school, right?
Kyle Benesch: Yeah. I mean, I was fully licensed and I was 20, would've been 22. Yeah, 22.
Jalene Carpenter: Oh, yeah, because so much farther than the 20-year-old that you look like.
Peter Murphy Lewis: That much older. So many follow up questions. Keep going, Jalene.
Kyle Benesch: I ain't gone until 8:00 tonight tonight. We could be on this thing forever. I have 72 hours.
Jalene Carpenter: So Kyle, do you share, what is your memory of me as the administrator when you were helping to serve-
Kyle Benesch: I know where you're going with this, Jalene. I know where you're going with this. Well, I have two. On the funny note, I am happily married now, but at the time, I was a young single lad in Wahoo. And Jalene did have some relatively attractive nurses and I would have to flirt with the nurses as I did the lunch ladies and everyone just naturally flirtatious and Jalene had to tell me to stop flirting with the nurses.
Jalene Carpenter: I had to tell him to stop flirting with the nurses.
Kyle Benesch: It wasn't creepy. It was just, I don't know, it probably is creepy, let's be honest.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Jalene, it's Nebraska and you're not HR.
Kyle Benesch: But luckily, I did meet my wife and I was able to stop the flirtation with CNAs.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Did you meet your wife in senior living?
Kyle Benesch: I did not. I did not. Actually, I tell everyone I met my wife on Tinder, which is true story. We didn't tell anyone that until we got married. But once you're married it's safe to admit. But the other story, Jalene and I, had, like I say I was a part of it, but norovirus struck Jalene's community on Christmas like 2022. And Jalene, we think we had five or six residents pass away. I mean it was just crazy, and so we felt like we went to war together and a hard time and one of those experiences where the phone just kept ringing. It just always on a hard situation, and so we got to know each other pretty well.
Jalene Carpenter: 2022 is inaccurate dude. That is like 2016. You weren't a mortician in 2022.
Kyle Benesch: By the time 2:00 rolls around, my pills starting to wear off and details start getting a little fuzzy. So, yeah, it's the witching hour.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Did you flirt with people when you were mortician too?
Kyle Benesch: Oh, the lunch ladies especially. Oh, yeah, yeah. Wahoo. I have a little whiskey glass that says Mayor Benesch. They called me the mayor of Wahoo forever, and I don't know, I did it with crappy jokes and I guess horrendous flirtation.
Jalene Carpenter: And really bad suits.
Kyle Benesch: Horrible. It's like a standard to be a mortician and have to wear a size two. Two size is too big. I mean you're physically lifting a lot and so, yeah, those haven't seen the light of day in a long time.
Jalene Carpenter: So we'll fast-forward. So I guess we should probably introduce you, Kyle. We just jumped right in. Peter, you do this better than I do, so you're more professional. How do we get Kyle to give a proper introduction?
Peter Murphy Lewis: No, no, no. I came into this because Jalene asked me about a month ago, "Is it okay if we have a sales guy on? But he has really interesting ..." So I didn't prepare for this on purpose, Jalene, you're leading this. I should have told you that though.
Jalene Carpenter: Okay, Kyle, so your LinkedIn number one first says, "Proud husband." And then it says, "Long-term care nursing home advocate and you're in sales." So tell me why do you call yourself an advocate and maybe give us your history too of what you've done in senior living.
Kyle Benesch: Seeing that I'm in sales in this industry, I don't know, being a mortician, while I'm super grateful for that experience, it taught me maybe more than anything ever will in life. I hated and I was truly depressed, I was miserable. It was a hard job and being around that environment was difficult. Making the decision to go back to school at 24, it was horrifying. I had a mortgage, went full bore. I was full-time at University of Nebraska, I was full-time at a community college trying to get a four-year degree crunched down too.
And upon graduating, found NRC. They were like, "What are your interests?" And I told them, "Well, I used to be a mortician and I've been in some nursing homes since that's where they placed me." And it took a few months, but I remember going to my first AHCA and seeing the videos, seeing the stories, it was real. And I don't know how to describe it, it's a drug. And when you are around those type of people, when you meet caregivers, when you meet operators who are filled with passion and love, it's addicting.
And the fact that someone pays me to do this and I get paid to travel the country, to be able to engage with rock stars. Jalene and the caregivers around the world, it's awesome. And it just goes back to being a mortician, getting to experience those people.
The totally different view when you're meeting these CNAs who are like ... They were crying. We have residents pass, and it was like their family. And you experience that and you're around those people, it's hard not to get jacked up. It's hard not to get mad when you see the crap that happens into our industry. And so I consider myself an advocate, because it's the only thing that I'm super passionate about, besides Husker football. Husker football and senior living, two big things in my life.
Peter Murphy Lewis: I want to know why being a mortician made you depressed and working in senior living. I think that 99 out of 100 people in the United States would be depressed in both.
Kyle Benesch: Totally. I wasn't just depressed because being a mortician, it would've been way different. Had I met Kayla, had I been a family man maybe during that time, to be ... At 18, being a mortician, I just don't think I was equipped. The human brain is not ready to bring on that type of grief and seeing what families go through.
And I remember the veterans home in Grand Island vividly. And anytime we did veteran services and they would do the 21 gun salute, I bet I saw it 100 times, and I think I cried every time. You don't have a soul if you don't go through that process and not feel that. And so I think it was just constantly always being around everyone's worst day was a lot.
I think what makes me love senior living is it feels like I'm a part of something. Whereas when you were the mortician, you don't really wants to be friends with the guy serving their family during that time and it was almost kind of isolating. Senior living, I'd go places and people know who I am. You're a part of something bigger and then you just meet these people. You guys know and you, Peter, you spent your time making the documentary. When you meet these people, it's impossible not to feel moved. And now, there's really crappy things that are happening, but it's far outweighed by the awesome stories you hear, the experiences, the people where you meet. I'll go back to saying it's a drug. It's like the most addicting thing I have is engaging with these people and getting to do this every day.
Jalene Carpenter: I'm going to let you decide which way you want to go next, Kyle. You talked about your medication wearing off and you've been actually very public about your ADHD online, which is funny, because I think ... So you want to address that? You talked about crying every time you would hear the gun salute. You and I think are both are very confident criers. We're all in, right? We watch the quality award ceremony every year and Kyle and I would be crying in the front row together. I want to hear your memory and just sort of the experience of coming to the docuseries premiere.
Kyle Benesch: I could tackle ADD pretty fast. I mean it's no shock that I've my whole life and I think it's this absolute superpower and so I've never hit it. I put something on LinkedIn about going back on medication, which it was a scary thing, because sometimes the meds can be weird, and I put a video out. I bet I had 60 people slide into my DMs like, "You're so brave. This is so incredible." I'm like, "No, it's not brave. This is my day-to-day life. I don't know anything different."
And so once I found out that people are like, I don't know, sound like a loser and like inspired like, "Why not talk about this like it's natural?" One out of every five people have it, so why not admit it and why not have it? So I'm a proud ADD rep. That'll probably be the next LinkedIn tagline is the ADD sales guy, but the premiere was, it was just a culmination of what we truly experience.
And Jalene, I think you told me, you warned me. I think warning is a good word. You warned me that this wasn't going to be typical senior living marketing where we see the same guy smiling on every website. You said this was going to be very real. It felt real. It was finally a testimony of what actually occurs in buildings, what people go through. It wasn't canned, it wasn't fake, it was really authentic.
I was crying long before some of the more harder hit portions of it. I cried because I'm happy more than I cried because I'm sad. Some of those videos of just the way residents light up around those caregivers, that will make me cry. It's cool. I guess it's impossible not to be moved by seeing how incredible someone's day can be made because it's a good time to be awesome. Another sign of the pill wearing off, I have zero concise ability today.
Peter Murphy Lewis: You did say right before we hit record that you were really nervous. So unfortunately, we didn't get that. But you said that you're a crier or Jalene called you a confident crier. I find that vulnerable men, therefore self-aware men in the Midwest are far few and between. I'm interested in how you've changed mostly from your different jobs. How are you different today than you were two years ago and four years ago, as a husband, as a community man?
Kyle Benesch: I mean you're spot on. When I was a mortician, I remember watching Marley & Me and not even cracking a frown. I was like, "Something's broken in me." I would tear up during the 21 gun salute. I was having experiences in my life that my emotional box was numb too. And I think it was just because you have to be so callous to be in that industry. And then I don't know what happened, I lost all of that. Now, I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum and I tear up watching sports. I tear up when I see old people holding hands. I don't know, it's just looking the opposite. Now, I'm just open up.
Yeah, I think Peter, you kind of nailed it like crying is natural. Was it Jimmy V who was quoted with you, laugh every day and cry every day? That's a great way of living life. I don't know the full quote, but it's true and pure form of emotion and I wear my emotions on my sleeve I guess.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Do you learn beyond being present, beyond experiential? Do you learn through books, through travel, through being alone, through sports, through running? I know that I sense, I feel like you and I are pretty similar. I feel like most of things I learn is by getting my hands in it. I think that's what I did and people worth caring about. So I'm wondering what other ways you learned.
Kyle Benesch: So you hit two awesome ones. I haven't read a book since high school, I don't think. I don't have the attention span for books. I feel bad. I'd be lying if I said I was a motivational book reader. But two things, travel was huge, because NRC took me and they put me in New York and New Jersey and I am a redneck from Nebraska. The farthest that I'd ever traveled was like Kansas City. And so to take first job, kid, and put them in New York and New Jersey and talk about the culture shock of meeting many of these Orthodox Jewish providers and vendors, it was alarming.
And at first, I was super uncomfortable. I just felt super isolated. I was like bad that NRC did that to me. I was like, "Why can't I serve the Midwest?" And then within six months, it like flips, and I got super, super ingrained in the culture and community in New York and New Jersey and the East coast, and it's really changed me. It has changed my views on politics, it's changed my views on the world. Traveling makes people I guess less ignorant and opens your view that you're not just in your own little Nebraska bubble.
But then getting the hand run too, there's nothing that beats getting to go into communities. And I think more vendors, more salespeople, they should be in community like this, what we're doing on a Zoom screen is not what our services, our companies do actually in buildings. It's actually having an impact. And so for me, I love those experiences. I love being able to get in, meet people and be like, "What am I selling and how is it actually making an impact with the end people and the residence?"
Jalene Carpenter: Kyle, you and I have had this conversation and I attended my first conference with Peter, it's been a couple of months ago now. But Kyle, one thing I love most about you is your ability to just kill a conference and get every value piece out of it. And I think if there's any salespeople listening, can you please give them the Kyle Benesch approach to attending a conference?
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Oh, this is so good, Jalene. I'm glad you asked this. So Kyle, what are small things that you think good salespeople don't do that great salespeople do-do?
Kyle Benesch: I think, like I said, I don't want to get on some soapbox, but your product is minuscule in the grand scheme of what happens in senior living, what happens in the lives of residents and I think people, they get so caught up in what they're selling and they don't really want to absorb anything else. And so to me, I sit in on a lot of sessions and I want to learn more about the industry.
I don't want to learn just about my product, I want to be understanding of everything. I think you meet people who are extremely talented at business development and making relationships, but they fall short on wanting to grow and wanting to understand more because then you're not so myopic. You can actually understand bigger value, you can understand ways that you can additionally help people when you're actually participating in the conference and not just going to the trade show, trying to swing sales.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Because you're friends with Jalene, I feel like I can throw a jab at you.
Kyle Benesch: Please.
Peter Murphy Lewis: You could have just said be curious.
Kyle Benesch: Oh, a thousand percent Ted Lasso it.
Peter Murphy Lewis: That was good. That was true, because I noticed that not only do good salespeople not go to the sessions, they don't ask any other questions. Once they realize that you're not a fit for their product, they're uninterested in you. I guarantee that's not you, right? You're trying to figure out what are you going to do tomorrow when you drive home? Are you going camping with your kid? Oh, cool, where do you guys camp? Why do you go there?
Kyle Benesch: And sincerely, some of my best friends in the industry have never ... They never bought for me. We've never partnered. I have a lot of good close operator friends who we are friends because we are friends. And I think it's a backwards way of thinking about sales. Like you just said, Peter, when someone is not interested in you, you write them off.
If people would have the intention of not making money, if you don't think about it that way, think about how can I make this relationship, how can I make their life better and over-deliver on basically the problem that they're having? How can my solution over-deliver on that? If you have that mentality, the finance side comes super, super easy, and you meet sales reps who think they look at something like they see the commission check on their forehead. And so you're right, it dehumanizes the interaction and you don't get have those authentic relationships getting formed, because you're thinking about business, and that's just not the way I want to operate.
Jalene Carpenter: So you have to finish answering since Peter hijacked my question. Finish answering the question of give us the Kyle Benesch how to a conference. When you go to a conference, what are your priorities? What are you looking at? What are you doing?
Kyle Benesch: It's hard to answer that, because so many conferences are just so different. We think all of them are created equal. I mean, there's so many different cultures with this industry. You have New York, New Jersey, the Orthodox Jewish community, nonprofits, for-profits. There's so many different blends and mixes of people. And I think the one thing that I can just guarantee and say is you have to be adaptive. I refer to myself as a cultural chameleon. You have to roll with whatever the environment of that particular one is. And so many sales reps I meet, they have no ability of getting outside of their culture bubble. And so when they go to a conference that's foreign to them, they struggle because they're not comfortable with those interactions. It's kind of interesting to watch.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Jalene, did you notice since you've been picking on me all day, it was hard for him to answer your question, so I should have hijacked that one?
Kyle Benesch: I'm terrible at answering questions. Sorry guys.
Jalene Carpenter: No, he is giving me a hard time, because I asked a bad question. Like he's some expert.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Kyle, I've never been truly a salesperson. I've had to do sales but never been hired. How do you prepare for a conference in terms of attendees? What does your list look like? What are you looking for? What are you trying to understand about them?
Kyle Benesch: It used to be different. A lot more people, the more you do this, the more people you know. And so I'm being honest, the first thing I do is I fly through and I look to say, "Which of my friends are going to be there?" And I text them like, "Hey, we're going to be together."
Obviously, I'd be terrible at my job if I wasn't reaching out and soliciting our services. But to me, the opportunity of being physically present, just showing up is the biggest thing. Yes, we can reach out, but Peter, there's 700 emails and calls go out of these people who are corporate. My gold outreach isn't going to do a whole heck of a lot, but if I can know which one of my friends are going to be there, vendor friends are going to be there and start those relationships before we get there, I ask what's key. I'm sure inboxes get pretty slammed pre-conference stuff. When Jalene sends out the list with all the emails and all the sales reps get to work, I'm sure it's pretty overwhelming for the operators. Yeah.
Peter Murphy Lewis: I got two rapid fire questions for you around sales. Are you ready? Best icebreaker inside of a trade show.
Kyle Benesch: I always ask, is there anything that you came to conference to learn.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Oh, good one. Next one is, as a salesperson, is it better to be a great golfer or a bad golfer?
Kyle Benesch: I hate golf. I literally at leading age in New York, I golfed with a foursome and I say, "I feel like I'm ruining your guys' round." They go, "You are." This is my only golf experience.
Peter Murphy Lewis: So bad golfer is the only option you have.
Kyle Benesch: I do not do the golf day. I don't even know. People ask me. I do know good golfers. Evan Kuo is a phenomenal golfer and he golfs at the conference stuff, but I don't know if it's super prevalent everywhere. I think you can be a pretty crappy golfer and be all right in this industry. I don't know. It's not like finances or insurance I guess, so we're safe from them.
Jalene Carpenter: Well, I feel like we've honed in on Kyle, the sales guy, but Kyle, to me you are so much more than that. And there's a few stories that hopefully I don't make you cry, but in your short brief stint away from senior living, you not only did the auction thing, but you had to manage people. And that, from what I remember, had a huge impact on you. Do you want to talk about what it meant to manage people?
Kyle Benesch: Do you mind if I grab a quick picture here?
Jalene Carpenter: You can grab it. Yep. We're going the same direction here, Peter.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Look at the water works.
Kyle Benesch: That one.
Peter Murphy Lewis: As long as it's not a direct report, don't grab a direct report and pull them in.
Kyle Benesch: So Jalene, she nailed it. I had manage people for the first time and having at the time 28-year-old kid who doesn't know a combine from a watermelon, come in and try to manage people who are sling and tractor equipment was the scariest thing I've ever done. And I found by the band of rock star sales rep and they said, "You're going to meet Mark. Mark is your best guy, just get out of his way. You'll be fine. You don't need to really mess with him. He's a phenomenal sales rep." And I called him and he wasn't like off-putting towards me, he was very supportive and he was very excited to work with me.
But at first, he didn't trust me. He wouldn't tell me about any deals he had until they were done, finished, and I felt like I have to win this guy over. And every morning at 8:00 I would call Mark and ask him questions about agriculture, questions about everything. And we talked at 8:00 and at 5:00 every day asking each other what happened, what's going on? And we formed a super close friendship to the point where we were calling each other on weekends.
And it was incredible to watch the man go from not trusting to having mad tight of a bond. Not because I was some driver of people, but we got to know each other as humans and friends, and we formed that connection. Like I would run through a brick wall for him, he would've ran through a brick wall for me.
And I called Mark on the day that I was closing on my house in Lincoln to move to Wisconsin and his wife answered the phone and she had said that Mark had passed away, and it was the hardest day of my life. I mean, I've never experienced anything like that. I don't ever want to experience anything like that again. But I mean, Mark was legitimately 80% of our business, but that's the business side of things. He taught me so much about perseverance. And truly, part of my French is truly giving a shit. Just having care for things on a different level than business and treating people the way you'd want to be treated. And so this was Mark and Mark who was such an awesome guy.
And losing Mark, you talk about reframing life and rehabbing things. You want to live every single day knowing that I could get smoked by a bus tomorrow. I wish I never had to have that education lesson because of Mark, but it's changed the way I live. You don't have a guarantee that we have tomorrow. And so the way I try to communicate with people, I try to gas people up. I never want to be the guy to rip people down because I mean it's really like people struggle and it's really easy to criticize them. But if you lift someone up and gas someone up, it takes such little effort to make that happen.
Once again, sorry for a really long-winded answer, but that's what that taught me. It was nice to not have to be in senior living during COVID. I didn't want to be harassing people, and so the second thing was just fitting to be away during that horrible crisis.
Jalene Carpenter: Yeah, sorry.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Dude. You knew where you were going with that one.
Kyle Benesch: Yeah, the cool thing about Mark, Mark had a ... We bought him an ax for hitting a million dollars in sales. What do you give a guy who hits a million dollars? And so I bought him an ax and had it engraved. And when Mark passed, they had it next to his urn. And so to me, that's how you know you make someone's difference. When the family recognizes that, that was something that was cool. I mean, I don't know, it needs to be able to share those experiences with people.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Kyle, you've done a lot of diverse jobs. I'm sure you're aware of jobs that you wouldn't be good at and I bet you're aware of other jobs that you would like to do. What's a job that you'd like to do that you think you're going to be bad at?
Kyle Benesch: Jalene knows this. I told him the same thing, I want to be the head of vendor relations for AHCA. That's the pipe dream. And so would I be bad at it? Maybe. I'm not the most organized guy in the world. I'm sure you have to be pretty polished to be able to do that. But I think, what I would make up for horrible disorganization, could hopefully be made up with raw enthusiasm and vendor connections out the wazoo, but that's the ultimate dream. Yeah.
Peter Murphy Lewis: We'll just put a secretary underneath you and it'll be good.
Kyle Benesch: It would be. Enough Ritalin and a secretary and I can probably conquer that world.
Jalene Carpenter: You have such emotion in everything you do. I just love that you get so excited about working in this space. I have two questions. One, looking back in your time, what is your proudest moment, whether it was in a facility, in whatever job it was, what are you most proud of?
Kyle Benesch: So this one, you were a part of. We're all in the NRC offices when the pandemic breaks out and I had just traveled and they sent out an email on a Tuesday morning that said, "If you recently traveled, you leave the office like now and go home." And that was my last day in the office ever, which is nuts to think about.
We thought this would be two weeks and we'd be back, because they said, "You need to go home for a two-week period and you can come back." And so I went home and Jalene not shocking knows this, I'm a social creature. And so going from having the closest tight-knit full pen office to going home with two dogs and a wife who worked all day, I went freaking nuts.
And so I was home for probably six hours and I was like, "I can't do this. I have to go do something." So I went and made two signs. One said, "Not all heroes were capes, most wear scrubs." And I can't remember what the other one said. And I literally drove to the closest assisted living and I stood outside the windows and I just held these signs up for two hours, and someone took a picture of it and put it on the news and all these people are texting me like, "Oh, this is super cool. That's awesome."
So we got to thinking, what if we do this on a bigger scale? And so the entire rest of the year for COVID, we called them the hero welcomes and we would call buildings. I think they thought I was nuts at first, because I would call HR and I'd say, "Hey." First, I'd say, "Can I hand out beer in your parking lot, because, I don't know, you're having a hard day? A free beer when you get off the shift." Like, "No, we can't do that." I was like, "Well, what if we at least held up signs showing our support?" "We would love that."
I don't think there was a single building who rejected the idea, but we would have shifts of NRC people who would show up with homemade signs like, "We support you, we believe in you, thank you." And we would stand outside the employee entrance from all shift changes. So people were leaving their houses at midnight to go make sure that we got the third shift shift change and telling nurses and caregivers during the pandemic like, "We are here for you."
Because what else could we do? We're not cold calling to sell surveys during the pandemic. And it was just something that I think that was my proudest moment of this industry. And I don't know, to me it's like the Bible says praying your house quietly type of deal. And when it comes to backing up these caregivers, screw that, we should be loud. More people should be showing up with signs saying you're awesome. And so the pride thing is I feel like Jalene, after we made that video and started promoting it, so many other companies started doing it. There's a movement. The companies were like, "All right, maybe we should stop selling and be more supportive during this time." And so long answer, showing support was monster league prime and still proud of it today.
Jalene Carpenter: I love it. Do you have a follow-up, Peter? I know you do.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Nope, drop the mic. Yeah.
Jalene Carpenter: One of my favorite things about you, Kyle, is your LinkedIn. We haven't talked about your LinkedIn account yet.
Kyle Benesch: My friends all follow it and make fun of me for it too. People will send ... My growing up childhood friends will take screenshots and they're like, "Use SAP." And I'm like, "I don't know." To me, Matt Reiner says it best. He doesn't use LinkedIn to sell. I use LinkedIn so when I show up, people think that they already know me and it's so true. I'll go places. "But we've met, I know we've met." And we haven't, they just see me.
And so the thing that I'm just a believer in is I'm just super transparent. I'm not going to fake it and be anyone I'm not on LinkedIn. I talk about my family, I talk about history of having depression, old career, and then I put some things about my company, but for the most part, old people that know who I am. So when you meet me and you realize I'm like, who, you're not thinking like, "Oh, this guy Looney Tunes." It's actually who I am. I would hate for anyone to think that I'm putting on an app for them at a conference or a first interaction.
Jalene Carpenter: Kyle, you started out not as a friend, but I've been so lucky to call you my friend for so long. Now, it's to the point where one of my favorite Kyle things is when he's back home, he doesn't live in Nebraska anymore, but when he is home, his parents don't live far from my house. And Kyle, you want to say what you do every time you're back home?
Kyle Benesch: If I don't have time to stop, I'll just fly by and I just lay on my horn like 60 seconds of passing Jalene's farmhouse, just so she knows. Probably my favorite thing with you though is we haven't done it in a while, but I used to be calling Jalene once a week for senior living 101 and the agreement was for every question, I'd get her a beer. So I'd have to bring back case of 24 Spotted Cows because the question got stacked up pretty deep. But Jalene right back at you. You've been one of the best resources and educators for me in this space and maybe if we didn't meet, I wouldn't be such a senior living cheerleader. So you might have to blame yourself on that one.
Jalene Carpenter: I'll take it.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Kyle, it was a pleasure. I know the only thing for the listeners to do after hearing your story is go look you up on LinkedIn. Kyle Benesch, thank you so much for joining our podcast.
Kyle Benesch: Peter, if I can give you one plug too, man. Probably the first thing before LinkedIn and people need to really go watch you're docuseries. I mean, if you are a vendor in this space and you haven't taken the time to go through those episodes and watch it, see what the impact on everything that we are doing, make some these residents lives. I mean it is the cruelest description and explanation of why we are all here doing what we're doing. So absolute tip of my cap to your work there, Peter. It is everything that Jalene hyped it up to be and more, and so I would love to see that become the next awesome thing on Netflix and shout it from the rooftop, so great work.
Jalene Carpenter: You haven't heard the news, Kyle. We are officially streaming. People worth caring about is on Roku, Apple TV, Fire Stick, smart TVs. Kyle, we're streaming in every television across the country. It's so exciting.
Kyle Benesch: I love it. You guys did a phenomenal job on that and I hope that there are more imitators. We need more of these stories out there. So hopefully all start a trend and more states can jump on the Jalene and Peter bandwagon. Let's get these stories out. Thank you guys.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Thank you.
That's a wrap on People Worth Caring About, born from the documentary built to keep the stories going. Shout out to Nebraska Healthcare Association and Jalene Carpenter for helping launch it into Ohio and New Mexico for making future seasons real. Watch the docuseries online or at PeopleWorthCaringAbout.com. And if this episode meant something to you, leave a review. It matters. Take care of yourself and the people worth caring about.
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