September 17, 2025 • 28 mins
What if the key to business success is simply letting go? In this episode of Founders' Forum, Justin Currie, Owner of Thema Home Care, founder of Masters of Home Care, and Inc. 5000-recognized entrepreneur, shares how embracing the “Let Them Theory” transformed not only his mindset but also his business.
Justin’s entrepreneurial journey took him from the oil fields of Saskatchewan to launching a thriving senior care business in Pennsylvania. Along the way, he faced challenges—like being turned away at the border twice—but refused to let setbacks define him. Instead, he built Thema Home Care (named after his grandmothers Thelma and Jermaine) into a company known for premium, personalized care and a sustainable model that pays caregivers better than the competition.
Now, with systems in place and an executive director running day-to-day operations, Justin has achieved the freedom to spend more time with his growing family while continuing to expand into memory care services. His story is a powerful example of how to design a business that serves both your clients and your lifestyle.
Key Takeaways:
- Why “letting go” of control can open the door to growth and freedom
- How to build a premium service model that benefits both clients and caregivers
- Lessons from overcoming immigration and startup challenges
- Structuring a business to thrive without needing you 24/7
- Smart ways to integrate AI into operations while keeping a human touch
- Justin’s reminder: “Don’t confuse motion with progress.”
About Justin Currie:
Justin Currie is the sole owner of Thema Home Care, recognized on the Inc. 5000 list for its rapid growth, and founder of Masters of Home Care, a consulting firm dedicated to helping home care agency owners scale to $5 million in revenue. Originally from Saskatchewan, Canada, Justin now resides in Downingtown, PA, with his fiancée and three dogs.
Connect:
Website www.themahomecare.com, www.mastersofhomecare.com
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/justin-currie-958565278/
YouTube youtube.com/channel/UCTp9wknIFODgUPEIY8T8WKg
Newsletter https://homecaremba.com/
This episode is brought to you by Masters of Home Care; helping home care agency owners attract more clients, retain caregivers, and scale with freedom. Visit mastersofhomecare.com to learn more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Announcer (00:00):
The following programming is sponsored by Marc
J Bernstein.
The views expressed do notnecessarily reflect the views of
this station, its management orBeasley Media Group.
Entrepreneur, founder, authorand financial advisor, Marc
Bernstein helps high-performingbusiness owners turn their
visions into reality.
Through his innovative work andthe Forward Focus Forums, Marc
(00:20):
connects entrepreneurs toresources that fuel their
success.
Founders Forum is a radio showand podcast where entrepreneurs
share their journeys, revealingthe lessons they've learned and
the stories behind their success.
Join Marc and his guests for amix of inspiration, valuable
insights and a little fun.
Now let's dive in.
Marc Bernstein (00:39):
Good morning America.
How are you?
Good morning Canada.
Good morning India.
Good morning everyone.
We happen to have a couple ofimmigrants in the studio today,
so that's why I say good morningCanada and India and our topic
of the day.
So we have Justin in the studio, we have Shikha Miglani, who
you probably heard probably onour previous show, depending on
(01:01):
how we play the shows and she'sgoing to sit in with us on the
show and our topic for today isthe let them theory.
So Mel Robbins is a podcasterwho I listened to on occasion.
I have to tell you, just beinghonest, she's not really my
favorite podcaster, it's not myfavorite show, but she she
presents some great ideas, shehas good guests and, um, she has
(01:24):
a book that was based on anidea she had and it's called the
let them theory, which I'mlistening to on audible and it
turns out that Justin's read thebook.
So, rather than me telling youwhat it's about, Justin, if you
would like to give yourimpression on that, I did read
the let them theory, you know,probably about two months ago
now.
Justin Currie (01:44):
Um, I don't listen to Mel's podcast, but I
did really kind of resonate withher theory, the let them theory
, and essentially that is youknow to me what that really was.
Is it related a lot in businessand also, for me, a lot of like
agitation, right, the world'srunning so busy now, you know,
and there's a lot of people thatget agitated.
(02:04):
You know whether that's roadrage, whether that's, you know,
in business there's a lot ofdifferent ways that you know,
people can just become upsetwith others.
And with the let them theoryit's to me it just really
resonated in the sense that youknow people are going to do what
they're going to do, no matterwhat.
You're not going to control thenarrative, you're not going to
control anything that they'redoing.
(02:25):
So why not just let them beright, you don't need to control
them, you can just let them be.
And it also just kind ofrelieves that sense of you know,
control and stress in your lifewhen you're just, you know,
helping people understand thatyou know you don't need to be
involved in everything andpeople can do what they want to
do.
Marc Bernstein (02:46):
Yeah Well, Shikha, your thoughts on it, and
then I'll give you my thoughtreal quick, yeah.
Shikha Miglani (02:50):
So it's a very powerful concept, especially for
me, because it used to be verydifficult for me to let go.
I was always this over-caring,over-protective person, whether
it was my family, my sister ormy brothers, my husband or my
kid.
My business right, so it.
I think lately, in the last twoyears, I've started practicing
(03:12):
this very consciously when youlet go of things, you you know
you let things be the way theyare, they are supposed to be
right.
You can't change people's life,like you said, Justin, but you
know, sometimes, sometimes byover parenting, we can ruin the
kids.
You know, sometimes, by overyou know, protecting people, we
can actually not let them findtheir true self.
As much as let go is important,I think it's also important to
(03:34):
set boundaries so if they fall,you're there to help them, but
let them know you're not goingto be the same person they
expected.
You can't be available bothways.
So I think that would be myduality part to it you know
where you let go, but you alsolet go other things.
That comes along with it.
Marc Bernstein (03:50):
Yeah, one thing that I thought was interesting
she actually says say it outloud, let them.
She gave an example of early inthe book that she saw on social
media a bunch of her friends onvacation.
It was one friend.
And then she started looking atthe pictures you know close-ups
and realized all her friendswent on vacation without her.
(04:10):
But she saw them all togetherand it occurred to her that, you
know, first she got angry, thenshe got you know, feeling
dejected, and then she got youknow, well, I'm going to do
something about this, I'm goingto call them.
And then she got you know, I'mgoing to do something about this
(04:31):
, I'm going to call them.
And then she remembered and shesaid let them.
You know, just let them do it.
Justin Currie (04:33):
She said it out loud, several times and she said
, each time she said it itstarted, it went away.
Yeah, and I can jump in therefor a second as well.
Marc is just as far as you know, with with the let them theory
and just kind of to to build offof what you were saying there I
think it's it's reallyimportant to note that over time
, you actually train.
You train yourself to think acertain way.
So when you're, when you'resaying let them out loud and
you're continuing to say thatover and over again, you're
(04:56):
going to eventually trainyourself to subconsciously not
worry about that over time.
So I think that's important tonote, that it's not just in that
situation.
You're actually training yourmind, for you know the future of
that Right.
Marc Bernstein (05:06):
It becomes a habit after a while.
I think you're right.
Shikha Miglani (05:09):
Breaking the patterns Yep.
Marc Bernstein (05:11):
So I got my voice a little bit back.
So let me introduce JustinCurrie, who's the sole owner of
Thema Home Care, which isrecognized in the Inc 5000 list
for its rapid growth, and he'salso founder of Masters of Home
Care, a consulting firmdedicated to helping home care
(05:32):
agency owners helping otherowners scale to $5 million in
revenue.
He's originally fromSaskatchewan, Canada.
Now resides in Downingtown, PA,with his fiance and three dogs
and a child on the way Right.
Justin Currie (05:42):
Not on the way.
Actually, she's here now.
Marc Bernstein (05:43):
She's here, that's right, I'm sorry, I'm
behind.
Justin Currie (05:46):
And how old is she?
Now she's only about five and ahalf weeks, so brand new, brand
new.
Marc Bernstein (05:50):
So congratulations, thank you and
welcome.
So, Justin, tell us your story.
So, like Shikha, who came fromanother country, so did you.
So you started in Canada andmade your way here.
Tell us really.
What we're trying to find outis your entrepreneurial story,
how you came into business, butI know part of that includes
your journey to America fromCanada, so let's hear about that
(06:13):
.
Justin Currie (06:13):
Absolutely yeah.
And so I grew up in a town,turtleford, saskatchewan.
There's only about 500 peoplethere.
It was up in Northern Canadaand entrepreneurship was not,
you know, super visible there.
Right, there wasn't a lot ofpeople that owned companies.
You worked in the oil field oryou farmed with your family.
My family was all farmers, so Ialways had this entrepreneurial
(06:35):
spirit, even when I was working.
I used to pull pipe wrenches innorthern Saskatchewan.
That's how I kind of startedworking In the oil business, in
the oil business, yeah.
And so I did that for about 10years no-transcript, a million
(07:12):
people in Calgary.
So there was a lot moreopportunity there and I started
working just as a contractor.
I was doing inspections in theoil and gas and that was my
first foray, you know, intoactual you know entrepreneurship
even though I was justconsulting on my own to actual
entrepreneurship, even though Iwas just consulting on my own.
And from there I actually had apartner approach me and he
(07:34):
owned a very large inspectionagency, but what I did was very
specialized.
So he wanted to do an offshootof that.
So we started a companytogether and we partnered on
that and that was calledPetromec Inspection Services and
so with that.
He was a really, really greatmentor of mine.
He's a, you know, he's a.
He's a bit older than me.
He had a lot more businessexperience, so he's who I
learned a lot from.
And also, I mean, in in Canadadoing inspections, it wasn't
(07:55):
uncommon to drive to a site thatwas 14 hours away in a day, so
I got a lot of time to listen topodcasts and listen to books
and, you know, just kind of justjust learn on the go, and so I
learned a lot about that.
Around that same time I met myfiance, who's from from this
area here in Pennsylvania, andthat was ultimately when we made
the decision that I was goingto move down here and start my
(08:17):
own company, and home care waswhere we wanted to be.
That was how many years ago,was that?
That was just shy of eightyears ago now.
And why home?
Marc Bernstein (08:26):
care.
Justin Currie (08:27):
So we're a very close-knit family in our
community.
I have a very large family, andso when my grandma became ill,
we all worked together to tryand find solutions for her, and
that's where the family reallystepped in.
But what I really noticed isthat not everybody has that big
extended family right Like wewere very lucky to have that,
(08:48):
and so just knowing that there'sseniors out there that just
don't have access to that andthey also don't have, you know,
the funds and things like thatto pay for that long-term care
is it was just really anopportunity to be able to help
those seniors out, all whilecombining my love of business.
So it was almost a personalpassion of yours, given your
family's situation and, combinedwith you saw a business
(09:09):
opportunity, a way to make money, absolutely, absolutely, and I
think it's important to knowThema as well is a mixture of my
grandma's first name, so Thelmaand Jermaine.
What is it?
Thelma, thelma and Jermaine?
Marc Bernstein (09:22):
and it's Thema Home Care.
Oh, that's great Interesting.
So you started the company.
What kind of challenges did youhave?
I know it kind of started withyour immigration to the US.
Justin Currie (09:32):
Yeah, so immigration was actually.
I always like to say it wasactually more of a challenge
than starting the actual company, because I had some big
challenges with with just thelegalities of it.
I actually, you know, gotturned around at the border
twice and got flagged because ofjust bad legal advice, so I had
to end up parting ways withthat legal firm and that didn't
(09:54):
go very well, but I ended upeventually getting here getting
my visa.
I was still flagged for a fewyears afterwards so they would
pull me into secondary and so itwas a long process.
But I had to do that whilestarting the company and already
investing money into thecompany.
So, needless to say, I mean,there was a lot of moving parts.
It was not just get out thereand market the company, it was,
(10:15):
hey, let's try and get this visathing figured out too Well.
Marc Bernstein (10:18):
Thankfully, you did it eight years ago and not
today, right?
I think it might be a littletougher today.
Justin Currie (10:22):
It might be a little tougher.
Marc Bernstein (10:23):
It might've been a bit of a challenge today,
yeah, interesting.
So what kind of challengesbusiness-wise did you have in
starting the business?
Justin Currie (10:29):
You name it.
I mean that was the firstbusiness that I started, you
know, on my own.
I always had a partner beforewho kind of paved the way and
you know you don't get.
You get a lot of experiencejust kind of through, just just
watching him do his thing, butyou're not actively doing it
yourself Right.
So I had to learn a lot ofthings the hard way early on.
I mean, when you start dealingwith the financials of it
(10:51):
cashflow, I learned prettyquickly that, you know, some of
the programs just were notviable to work with some of the
insurance payers and I justreally spent the first couple of
years learning.
You know we were really good atsales, we could sell and bring
people in, but as far as theoverall health of the business,
you know, from a financialstandpoint, from a strategic
standpoint, we really needed tokind of narrow that down and
(11:13):
optimize that over time.
Marc Bernstein (11:16):
And tell me about the growth of the business
and what's happened over thelast eight years.
Justin Currie (11:22):
Yeah, so we've grown every year since we
started, except for it wasn'tactually COVID.
We grew during COVID, it wasactually the year after.
Unfortunately, I don't want toget too deep into it, but they
really paid everybodyunemployment insurance to stay
at home, and that was our exactcaregiver demographic, oh boy.
So they were essentially payingthem more to stay at home than
(11:44):
they were to come out and serveour seniors.
So that was the only year thatwe actually had a loss in
revenue.
So you had trouble gettingpeople.
It was, yeah, pretty muchimpossible to get people.
We had our good core group thatwe still had on staff, but
everyone else they actually, youknow a lot of them actually
left just to collectunemployment so they could be at
home with their family.
And you know, I don't blamethem for that.
(12:06):
It was unfortunately just not a.
It wasn't good for our industryas a whole.
Marc Bernstein (12:10):
Has that resolved itself?
You're back to having peopleagain now.
Justin Currie (12:13):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Yeah, we, we don't have anystaffing issues.
We kind of have a model wherewe we we charge a little bit
higher rates, but we're alsooffering a lot more value.
But it allows us to pay ourstaff.
You know a lot better than ourcompetitors as well, so that's
been a really good strategy.
Marc Bernstein (12:29):
And obviously the company's profitable because
you're now consulting withother home care agencies to show
them how to be profitable.
So tell me how that occurred.
Justin Currie (12:38):
How that happened .
Yeah, that was kind of funny.
That was more of just kind of apassion project.
Obviously, I'm here, right, Ilove talking about business and
growth and scaling and, you know, I wanted to help other owners
kind of avoid the pitfalls thatI did off the start.
And there's, there's a lot ofagencies out there that are in.
You know that even just zero to500,000 range, right, they just
can't get things moving becausethey don't have that background
(13:00):
and that experience.
So I essentially just started,uh, posting some short videos on
TikTok and Instagram and thingslike that, and I started to
develop quite a following.
And with that, you know, peoplestarted reaching out to me,
right, they wanted to know if Iwas doing any consulting, if I
had any programs, and so what Idid with that was I just built a
, basically a course andmentorship program and now we
(13:22):
have, yeah, a bunch of studentsinside of that and I go in and
do a group coaching, weeklygroup coaching.
We have a bunch of differentkind of packages in there and
we're just helping other owners,you know, become successful.
You do this remotely, I imagine, or we do.
Yeah, that was.
That was a big thing for me.
I mean, that's why I got intobusiness, was for freedom and
mobility, and you know I don'twant to be tied down to anything
.
Marc Bernstein (13:41):
Do you see that?
Do you see the future of yourbusiness being more on the
consulting side or or continuingto grow your agency or both?
Justin Currie (13:48):
You know what it's going to actually be
continuing to grow my agency.
I've found, you know, afterstarting the consulting side, as
much as I like talking toeverybody, not everybody has the
same work ethic, not everybodyhas the same mindset and we work
to help people, you know,improve upon that.
But really I mean there's a lotof busy work with that.
So with um, with with Thema,home care, with the agency, we
(14:10):
have a really uh, you know, areally strong exit plan that we
want to do in a few years.
So I mean that's going to kindof take a lot of my focus, so
we're going to be working onthat.
Marc Bernstein (14:19):
Um Shikha has a question I believe Sure.
Shikha Miglani (14:21):
Uh hey, Justin, you mentioned that you
immigrated from Canada and I'man immigrant too.
I came from India, far, faraway from East.
So I was just curious to knowyour story, what has been your
experiences and if you can shareit with the audience.
Justin Currie (14:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I guess just from the whatto expect side, like when you
come to the US, it was a lotmore business friendly.
I mean, when I came down to theUS, I obviously ran a business
up in Canada and then startedone in the U?
S and I can tell you firsthandthat it's just there's a lot
(14:56):
more opportunity here and thegovernment seems to work more
with you instead of against you.
Um, you know it's almost anegative thing to grow your,
grow your business in Canada.
So it was, it was reallychallenging to grow there.
So with that I mean, yeah, itbrought a lot of opportunity and
I mean that's part of thereason for our success as well,
I think is because we're used toall this red tape and
roadblocks and then moving here,there's still those things, but
(15:18):
not on the same level.
Marc Bernstein (15:20):
With that, we're going to take a quick
commercial break and we'll beright back on Founders Forum.
Announcer (15:46):
Are you a home care agency?
Ready to scale your business tocommercial break and we'll be
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Whether you're an independentagency or private equity firm
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We focus on helping you attractVIP private pay clients so you
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(16:09):
Scale smarter with Masters ofHome Care.
Marc Bernstein (16:23):
We're back on Founders Forum with our guest
today, Justin Carey, and we haveShikha Maglani in the studio
with us, and we're just talkingabout immigration, which is an
interesting topic for both ofyou.
You've had differentexperiences with that.
I do want to ask you and makesure we have enough time for
(16:43):
this.
We always like to talk aboutfuture vision, so if we're three
years from now, we're lookingback, Justin, so it's we're down
in May of 2025.
So May of 2028, and you and Iare talking and we're catching
up.
What would have had to have had, what would have had to have
happened, for you to say thiswas a successful year for my
(17:03):
businesses and my family life,my personal life?
What would that look like?
Justin Currie (17:08):
Yeah.
So in three years time, I wouldsay, you know, for Thema Home
Care, the real goal is wherewe're starting to pave the
runway right now for an exit.
That's usually, you know, kindof a three to four year plan.
So in three years, you know, wewant to start to be in a
position where we can start, youknow, realistically looking,
looking for buyers, um, who cancome in, and as far as family,
(17:31):
um, you know, I'm kind of thereright now.
I mean, I have a five week oldand I've spent uh two days in
the office, I think, since I'vehad her and we've actually grown
.
So I think that's uh.
So I think things are goingwell.
We have some really goodsystems and everything built and
we're really for that nextthree year path.
I think we're really uh,without me working, you know, 18
hours a day.
We are going to continue togrow and hopefully be be ready
(17:54):
to sell at that point.
Marc Bernstein (17:55):
I love it.
Less is more, which often isAbsolutely.
Announcer (17:59):
It's great.
Marc Bernstein (18:00):
Now what do you do post sale If you sell the
company?
What, what, what does your lifelook like?
Justin Currie (18:04):
after that.
Good question.
I've considered a lot ofdifferent things at that point
and one of the things that I'mreally passionate about is
actually shelter animals.
So we foster a lot of dogs wehave three dogs and those places
they don't have a lot offunding right, so they don't run
super efficiently.
So one of my passions wouldprobably be to go and work there
(18:27):
and help them become more, moreefficient operationally and
just do it, you know, forvolunteer work or whatever, and
just hopefully use my businessexperience to help them.
Marc Bernstein (18:36):
So obviously you're looking for a successful
exit because you'll bevolunteering at that point and
quasi retired.
I guess at that point.
That's the plan, that's thegoal.
Yeah, very nice, very nice.
What are the challenges?
What do you have to do over thenext three years in order for
three or three to five years,let's call it for that to happen
?
Justin Currie (18:53):
So right now we actually just started a new
location in Wayne, pa, so that'sour second location.
So there's two kind of twophases.
So right now we're developing anew client acquisition channel
that's going to help us scale alot faster.
We've also dove into, we'vemade a pivot into, specifically
memory care.
So traditionally I mean, memorycare has always been in a
(19:16):
community or in a facility right, and what we've done is we've
built a program.
We have experts in on the teamnow that are going to allow us
to offer that memory care athome.
So that's part of the plan.
And then also over the nextcouple of years we won't be
doing it this year, but likelynext year we're going to be
looking at doing a coupleacquisitions as well.
Marc Bernstein (19:35):
Interesting, so multifaceted.
Is this all under yourjurisdiction or do you have
still a partner?
You don't have a partner in thebusiness, so do you have
leaders in the business thatwill help you with, let's say,
acquisitions or new clientacquisition, or is that all on
you?
Justin Currie (19:52):
So that's going to be my part.
So I brought in an executivedirector about six months ago
now and she is phenomenal.
She runs the show in my agency.
We were really lucky to haveher on board, and so that's
really allowed me to free up mytime to work on strategy and
growth, and so I'm going to beworking a lot with those
acquisitions.
Marc Bernstein (20:12):
And I'm guessing that what you're doing.
There's a concept called uniqueability.
You find people to do thethings that you're good at, but
maybe other people could do justas well or better, and you
focus on the things that you'rereally great at and that sounds
like strategy, and growth andvision for the future is your
thing.
Justin Currie (20:29):
Absolutely, and that's my passion too and that's
yeah, I mean that's what Istudy a lot of, and I think it's
kind of funny to say I mean Idon't have a secondary schooling
or anything like that but whatI've always done is I just learn
ahead of the curve.
So right now we're in aposition to scale right.
So over the last year I've beenlearning a ton about scaling
and talking to consultants aboutscaling and just kind of trying
(20:51):
to learn ahead of time.
Marc Bernstein (20:53):
Have you worked with any?
There's a company calledScaling Up.
There's EOS, which is theentrepreneurial operating system
that is about scaling.
There's a program that Iparticipated in, the Strategic
Coach.
It's out of Canada, actuallyout of Toronto.
Have you looked at any of thosetypes of programs or outside
help for that?
Justin Currie (21:12):
Yeah, we have.
Yeah, I've read all the scalingup with Vern Harnish and
traction by Gina Wickman andeverything for EOS and we
actually utilize some of the EOStools.
We haven't had an implementercome in because on my staff we
don't have a huge executive team, it's more just like myself,
the executive director and therest are employee staff members.
(21:34):
So it's not super beneficial tous, but still the structure of
it it really helps out.
Marc Bernstein (21:38):
That's my company as well.
We're not set up really for EOSas such, but we're using some
of the principles which soundslike very similar.
We're talking about vision.
So, Shikha, I imagine you musthave a question or thought about
that.
Shikha Miglani (21:51):
Yeah, thought here, Mark, that's what I love
about my job I bump into peoplethat I should be bumping into
because I just my company,Mighty, which is an AI
collaboration company, juststarted a joint venture with
another healthier company and inthe home care.
So we are integrating AI intothe operational aspects so we
can bring down the cost of theservice or more efficiency or
(22:11):
something, just a littleadvertisement.
It sounds like you guys need totalk after this, but I'm curious
what's your thought on AI, howit can be integrated to provide
better care, maybe cheaper care,because there are a lot of
people, people who cannot affordit and I think we need to think
about them and maybe trainingthem better right To leave a
better customer experience.
So just a thought on that.
Have you thought about it?
Justin Currie (22:31):
Yeah, it's going to be kind of probably a
controversial thought on.
It Is.
As far as AI in our industry,it's high trust, it's
relationship based.
You can do AI for a lot ofthings, like we use AI with a
lot of backend operations andstuff.
As far as client facing,referral source facing, I don't
(22:52):
use AI tools in that aspect justbecause I know a lot of other
companies are going down thatroad and we want to remain that
high level of personalization.
We have a kind of a highervalue, higher price service and
so we really want to keep thatlevel of personalization high
and the tools are starting tobecome more and more advanced so
you can actually they'restarting to get to the point
(23:13):
where you can almost get thatpersonalization.
But that's a little bit of adifferentiator for us is just
remaining like hey, we're thepeople you're talking to on the
phone, but not to say that wedon't have a ton of AI
integrated in other areas of thebusiness.
Shikha Miglani (23:27):
I agree.
I mean, ai augmentation is thethought right now and if we can
do that successfully, we can doa lot of things.
But I think it's a technologywhere we don't fear it, we
embrace it and we think aboutgrowing the company still right,
even with AI coming in.
So I don't know, just puttingthose two thoughts together.
That way people are not wearyof AI coming in and taking over
jobs, absolutely.
Justin Currie (23:47):
And yeah, there's absolutely a place for it and
it's taking over everything.
It's just we work in a uniqueindustry where it can't do
everything for us, but it canabsolutely supplement what we're
doing Supplement what you'redoing.
Marc Bernstein (23:58):
I'm glad you brought that up.
We should probably be talkingabout AI on almost every show
now because it's affecting usall daily on such an incredible
basis.
We were just talking earlierabout you, talked about your
Shikha, talked about her doingher psychoanalysis on chat GBT,
which you can do.
I mean, it's pretty crazythings you can do with it right
(24:20):
now that you couldn't even dreamof a year ago probably.
Justin Currie (24:23):
Yeah, I mean, I just had it summarize all of my,
all of my financial statementsfor me, just to cut through the
noise a little bit.
Marc Bernstein (24:30):
Yeah, that's great.
So you fed them in and justsaid give me an analysis, how
did?
How did it?
Justin Currie (24:34):
do.
Yeah, you ask them exactly whatyou're looking for.
You know, like we, we had alittle bit of a drain in a that
information.
Hey, we're having this problem.
Upload the documentation andthen just let them know what you
let it know what you want toanalyze.
Shikha Miglani (24:50):
It can imitate humans in so many ways.
It can imitate like really welland it cannot imitate that well
.
I mean it's right, it goes inall of all the directions.
Justin Currie (24:59):
Yeah, it depends on the application, I think.
Shikha Miglani (25:01):
Yeah, what you're trying to do with it.
Marc Bernstein (25:03):
Which one do you use for AI, or do you use
multiple?
Justin Currie (25:06):
So we use mostly for like our SOPs.
We'll use whaleio is what it'scalled.
So it actually builds a lot ofour SOPs out.
You just same thing.
You put in all your bulletpoints, all your information.
It'll build a nice SOP for youand you can just go in and
customize that.
It'll build you checklists.
So I would say our biggestapplication would be the SOPs.
Marc Bernstein (25:26):
That sounds great.
I've got a couple lastquestions for you.
I think we're almost runningout of time, but we talked
before about Mel Robbins and Iknow that's not your favorite
book, but I know you gotsomething out of it.
What are your favorite books?
What do you like to read?
Justin Currie (25:43):
Yeah, I love to read, but I would say some of
the most influential books wouldhave been influenced by Robert
Cialdini Um, there's a lot ofpsychology that goes in that you
can apply to, uh, selling andbuilding even just building a
package and pricing and thingslike that.
Um, that was a reallyinfluential book for me.
A hundred million dollar offersby Alex Hermosi Um, really
(26:05):
really powerful book, justhighly, highly tactical.
And a lot of that stuff is notbeing used in my space, so we've
really applied a lot of it tothe space and we've seen a lot
of success with it.
And then, on the personal side,I would say Man's Search for
Meaning by Viktor Frankl oh yeah, Very powerful book on mindset,
and I mean he was in aconcentration camp and he kept a
(26:28):
positive attitude, so if he cando that, then we all can.
Marc Bernstein (26:32):
Very inspirational book, one of my
favorites too.
Lastly, what advice would yougive yourself to your younger
self if you could?
Justin Currie (26:41):
Yeah, I would say not to confuse motion with
progress, in the sense that,especially when we start out as
entrepreneurs, you know you'rethere is a time where you have a
child come.
I want to work four hours a day, and so just don't confuse
(27:09):
because you're working 18 hoursa day doesn't mean you're moving
forward.
Be very intentional aboutprioritizing, and that's what I
would tell myself.
Marc Bernstein (27:17):
That's wonderful advice for your younger self
and for all our listeners, Ithink, Justin.
Believe it or not, time flieson this show and we're out of
time, but thanks so much forbeing here, Shikha, thanks for
joining us again, and thank youall for listening, and we'll
talk to you again next week onFounders Forum.
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Now let's dive in.
Marc Bernstein (00:39):
Good morning America.
How are you?
Good morning Canada.
Good morning India.
Good morning everyone.
We happen to have a couple ofimmigrants in the studio today,
so that's why I say good morningCanada and India and our topic
of the day.
So we have Justin in the studio, we have Shikha Miglani, who
you probably heard probably onour previous show, depending on
(01:01):
how we play the shows and she'sgoing to sit in with us on the
show and our topic for today isthe let them theory.
So Mel Robbins is a podcasterwho I listened to on occasion.
I have to tell you, just beinghonest, she's not really my
favorite podcaster, it's not myfavorite show, but she she
presents some great ideas, shehas good guests and, um, she has
(01:24):
a book that was based on anidea she had and it's called the
let them theory, which I'mlistening to on audible and it
turns out that Justin's read thebook.
So, rather than me telling youwhat it's about, Justin, if you
would like to give yourimpression on that, I did read
the let them theory, you know,probably about two months ago
now.
Justin Currie (01:44):
Um, I don't listen to Mel's podcast, but I
did really kind of resonate withher theory, the let them theory
, and essentially that is youknow to me what that really was.
Is it related a lot in businessand also, for me, a lot of like
agitation, right, the world'srunning so busy now, you know,
and there's a lot of people thatget agitated.
(02:04):
You know whether that's roadrage, whether that's, you know,
in business there's a lot ofdifferent ways that you know,
people can just become upsetwith others.
And with the let them theoryit's to me it just really
resonated in the sense that youknow people are going to do what
they're going to do, no matterwhat.
You're not going to control thenarrative, you're not going to
control anything that they'redoing.
(02:25):
So why not just let them beright, you don't need to control
them, you can just let them be.
And it also just kind ofrelieves that sense of you know,
control and stress in your lifewhen you're just, you know,
helping people understand thatyou know you don't need to be
involved in everything andpeople can do what they want to
do.
Marc Bernstein (02:46):
Yeah Well, Shikha, your thoughts on it, and
then I'll give you my thoughtreal quick, yeah.
Shikha Miglani (02:50):
So it's a very powerful concept, especially for
me, because it used to be verydifficult for me to let go.
I was always this over-caring,over-protective person, whether
it was my family, my sister ormy brothers, my husband or my
kid.
My business right, so it.
I think lately, in the last twoyears, I've started practicing
(03:12):
this very consciously when youlet go of things, you you know
you let things be the way theyare, they are supposed to be
right.
You can't change people's life,like you said, Justin, but you
know, sometimes, sometimes byover parenting, we can ruin the
kids.
You know, sometimes, by overyou know, protecting people, we
can actually not let them findtheir true self.
As much as let go is important,I think it's also important to
(03:34):
set boundaries so if they fall,you're there to help them, but
let them know you're not goingto be the same person they
expected.
You can't be available bothways.
So I think that would be myduality part to it you know
where you let go, but you alsolet go other things.
That comes along with it.
Marc Bernstein (03:50):
Yeah, one thing that I thought was interesting
she actually says say it outloud, let them.
She gave an example of early inthe book that she saw on social
media a bunch of her friends onvacation.
It was one friend.
And then she started looking atthe pictures you know close-ups
and realized all her friendswent on vacation without her.
(04:10):
But she saw them all togetherand it occurred to her that, you
know, first she got angry, thenshe got you know, feeling
dejected, and then she got youknow, well, I'm going to do
something about this, I'm goingto call them.
And then she got you know, I'mgoing to do something about this
(04:31):
, I'm going to call them.
And then she remembered and shesaid let them.
You know, just let them do it.
Justin Currie (04:33):
She said it out loud, several times and she said
, each time she said it itstarted, it went away.
Yeah, and I can jump in therefor a second as well.
Marc is just as far as you know, with with the let them theory
and just kind of to to build offof what you were saying there I
think it's it's reallyimportant to note that over time
, you actually train.
You train yourself to think acertain way.
So when you're, when you'resaying let them out loud and
you're continuing to say thatover and over again, you're
(04:56):
going to eventually trainyourself to subconsciously not
worry about that over time.
So I think that's important tonote, that it's not just in that
situation.
You're actually training yourmind, for you know the future of
that Right.
Marc Bernstein (05:06):
It becomes a habit after a while.
I think you're right.
Shikha Miglani (05:09):
Breaking the patterns Yep.
Marc Bernstein (05:11):
So I got my voice a little bit back.
So let me introduce JustinCurrie, who's the sole owner of
Thema Home Care, which isrecognized in the Inc 5000 list
for its rapid growth, and he'salso founder of Masters of Home
Care, a consulting firmdedicated to helping home care
(05:32):
agency owners helping otherowners scale to $5 million in
revenue.
He's originally fromSaskatchewan, Canada.
Now resides in Downingtown, PA,with his fiance and three dogs
and a child on the way Right.
Justin Currie (05:42):
Not on the way.
Actually, she's here now.
Marc Bernstein (05:43):
She's here, that's right, I'm sorry, I'm
behind.
Justin Currie (05:46):
And how old is she?
Now she's only about five and ahalf weeks, so brand new, brand
new.
Marc Bernstein (05:50):
So congratulations, thank you and
welcome.
So, Justin, tell us your story.
So, like Shikha, who came fromanother country, so did you.
So you started in Canada andmade your way here.
Tell us really.
What we're trying to find outis your entrepreneurial story,
how you came into business, butI know part of that includes
your journey to America fromCanada, so let's hear about that
(06:13):
.
Justin Currie (06:13):
Absolutely yeah.
And so I grew up in a town,turtleford, saskatchewan.
There's only about 500 peoplethere.
It was up in Northern Canadaand entrepreneurship was not,
you know, super visible there.
Right, there wasn't a lot ofpeople that owned companies.
You worked in the oil field oryou farmed with your family.
My family was all farmers, so Ialways had this entrepreneurial
(06:35):
spirit, even when I was working.
I used to pull pipe wrenches innorthern Saskatchewan.
That's how I kind of startedworking In the oil business, in
the oil business, yeah.
And so I did that for about 10years no-transcript, a million
(07:12):
people in Calgary.
So there was a lot moreopportunity there and I started
working just as a contractor.
I was doing inspections in theoil and gas and that was my
first foray, you know, intoactual you know entrepreneurship
even though I was justconsulting on my own to actual
entrepreneurship, even though Iwas just consulting on my own.
And from there I actually had apartner approach me and he
(07:34):
owned a very large inspectionagency, but what I did was very
specialized.
So he wanted to do an offshootof that.
So we started a companytogether and we partnered on
that and that was calledPetromec Inspection Services and
so with that.
He was a really, really greatmentor of mine.
He's a, you know, he's a.
He's a bit older than me.
He had a lot more businessexperience, so he's who I
learned a lot from.
And also, I mean, in in Canadadoing inspections, it wasn't
(07:55):
uncommon to drive to a site thatwas 14 hours away in a day, so
I got a lot of time to listen topodcasts and listen to books
and, you know, just kind of justjust learn on the go, and so I
learned a lot about that.
Around that same time I met myfiance, who's from from this
area here in Pennsylvania, andthat was ultimately when we made
the decision that I was goingto move down here and start my
(08:17):
own company, and home care waswhere we wanted to be.
That was how many years ago,was that?
That was just shy of eightyears ago now.
And why home?
Marc Bernstein (08:26):
care.
Justin Currie (08:27):
So we're a very close-knit family in our
community.
I have a very large family, andso when my grandma became ill,
we all worked together to tryand find solutions for her, and
that's where the family reallystepped in.
But what I really noticed isthat not everybody has that big
extended family right Like wewere very lucky to have that,
(08:48):
and so just knowing that there'sseniors out there that just
don't have access to that andthey also don't have, you know,
the funds and things like thatto pay for that long-term care
is it was just really anopportunity to be able to help
those seniors out, all whilecombining my love of business.
So it was almost a personalpassion of yours, given your
family's situation and, combinedwith you saw a business
(09:09):
opportunity, a way to make money, absolutely, absolutely, and I
think it's important to knowThema as well is a mixture of my
grandma's first name, so Thelmaand Jermaine.
What is it?
Thelma, thelma and Jermaine?
Marc Bernstein (09:22):
and it's Thema Home Care.
Oh, that's great Interesting.
So you started the company.
What kind of challenges did youhave?
I know it kind of started withyour immigration to the US.
Justin Currie (09:32):
Yeah, so immigration was actually.
I always like to say it wasactually more of a challenge
than starting the actual company, because I had some big
challenges with with just thelegalities of it.
I actually, you know, gotturned around at the border
twice and got flagged because ofjust bad legal advice, so I had
to end up parting ways withthat legal firm and that didn't
(09:54):
go very well, but I ended upeventually getting here getting
my visa.
I was still flagged for a fewyears afterwards so they would
pull me into secondary and so itwas a long process.
But I had to do that whilestarting the company and already
investing money into thecompany.
So, needless to say, I mean,there was a lot of moving parts.
It was not just get out thereand market the company, it was,
(10:15):
hey, let's try and get this visathing figured out too Well.
Marc Bernstein (10:18):
Thankfully, you did it eight years ago and not
today, right?
I think it might be a littletougher today.
Justin Currie (10:22):
It might be a little tougher.
Marc Bernstein (10:23):
It might've been a bit of a challenge today,
yeah, interesting.
So what kind of challengesbusiness-wise did you have in
starting the business?
Justin Currie (10:29):
You name it.
I mean that was the firstbusiness that I started, you
know, on my own.
I always had a partner beforewho kind of paved the way and
you know you don't get.
You get a lot of experiencejust kind of through, just just
watching him do his thing, butyou're not actively doing it
yourself Right.
So I had to learn a lot ofthings the hard way early on.
I mean, when you start dealingwith the financials of it
(10:51):
cashflow, I learned prettyquickly that, you know, some of
the programs just were notviable to work with some of the
insurance payers and I justreally spent the first couple of
years learning.
You know we were really good atsales, we could sell and bring
people in, but as far as theoverall health of the business,
you know, from a financialstandpoint, from a strategic
standpoint, we really needed tokind of narrow that down and
(11:13):
optimize that over time.
Marc Bernstein (11:16):
And tell me about the growth of the business
and what's happened over thelast eight years.
Justin Currie (11:22):
Yeah, so we've grown every year since we
started, except for it wasn'tactually COVID.
We grew during COVID, it wasactually the year after.
Unfortunately, I don't want toget too deep into it, but they
really paid everybodyunemployment insurance to stay
at home, and that was our exactcaregiver demographic, oh boy.
So they were essentially payingthem more to stay at home than
(11:44):
they were to come out and serveour seniors.
So that was the only year thatwe actually had a loss in
revenue.
So you had trouble gettingpeople.
It was, yeah, pretty muchimpossible to get people.
We had our good core group thatwe still had on staff, but
everyone else they actually, youknow a lot of them actually
left just to collectunemployment so they could be at
home with their family.
And you know, I don't blamethem for that.
(12:06):
It was unfortunately just not a.
It wasn't good for our industryas a whole.
Marc Bernstein (12:10):
Has that resolved itself?
You're back to having peopleagain now.
Justin Currie (12:13):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Yeah, we, we don't have anystaffing issues.
We kind of have a model wherewe we we charge a little bit
higher rates, but we're alsooffering a lot more value.
But it allows us to pay ourstaff.
You know a lot better than ourcompetitors as well, so that's
been a really good strategy.
Marc Bernstein (12:29):
And obviously the company's profitable because
you're now consulting withother home care agencies to show
them how to be profitable.
So tell me how that occurred.
Justin Currie (12:38):
How that happened .
Yeah, that was kind of funny.
That was more of just kind of apassion project.
Obviously, I'm here, right, Ilove talking about business and
growth and scaling and, you know, I wanted to help other owners
kind of avoid the pitfalls thatI did off the start.
And there's, there's a lot ofagencies out there that are in.
You know that even just zero to500,000 range, right, they just
can't get things moving becausethey don't have that background
(13:00):
and that experience.
So I essentially just started,uh, posting some short videos on
TikTok and Instagram and thingslike that, and I started to
develop quite a following.
And with that, you know, peoplestarted reaching out to me,
right, they wanted to know if Iwas doing any consulting, if I
had any programs, and so what Idid with that was I just built a
, basically a course andmentorship program and now we
(13:22):
have, yeah, a bunch of studentsinside of that and I go in and
do a group coaching, weeklygroup coaching.
We have a bunch of differentkind of packages in there and
we're just helping other owners,you know, become successful.
You do this remotely, I imagine, or we do.
Yeah, that was.
That was a big thing for me.
I mean, that's why I got intobusiness, was for freedom and
mobility, and you know I don'twant to be tied down to anything
.
Marc Bernstein (13:41):
Do you see that?
Do you see the future of yourbusiness being more on the
consulting side or or continuingto grow your agency or both?
Justin Currie (13:48):
You know what it's going to actually be
continuing to grow my agency.
I've found, you know, afterstarting the consulting side, as
much as I like talking toeverybody, not everybody has the
same work ethic, not everybodyhas the same mindset and we work
to help people, you know,improve upon that.
But really I mean there's a lotof busy work with that.
So with um, with with Thema,home care, with the agency, we
(14:10):
have a really uh, you know, areally strong exit plan that we
want to do in a few years.
So I mean that's going to kindof take a lot of my focus, so
we're going to be working onthat.
Marc Bernstein (14:19):
Um Shikha has a question I believe Sure.
Shikha Miglani (14:21):
Uh hey, Justin, you mentioned that you
immigrated from Canada and I'man immigrant too.
I came from India, far, faraway from East.
So I was just curious to knowyour story, what has been your
experiences and if you can shareit with the audience.
Justin Currie (14:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I guess just from the whatto expect side, like when you
come to the US, it was a lotmore business friendly.
I mean, when I came down to theUS, I obviously ran a business
up in Canada and then startedone in the U?
S and I can tell you firsthandthat it's just there's a lot
(14:56):
more opportunity here and thegovernment seems to work more
with you instead of against you.
Um, you know it's almost anegative thing to grow your,
grow your business in Canada.
So it was, it was reallychallenging to grow there.
So with that I mean, yeah, itbrought a lot of opportunity and
I mean that's part of thereason for our success as well,
I think is because we're used toall this red tape and
roadblocks and then moving here,there's still those things, but
(15:18):
not on the same level.
Marc Bernstein (15:20):
With that, we're going to take a quick
commercial break and we'll beright back on Founders Forum.
Announcer (15:46):
Are you a home care agency?
Ready to scale your business tocommercial break and we'll be
right back on Founders Forumrevenue.
Whether you're an independentagency or private equity firm
expanding your locations, we'vegot you covered.
We focus on helping you attractVIP private pay clients so you
can avoid the complexity andgovernment of insurance services
while building arecession-proof business Serving
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We know how to help you thrivein the private pay market.
Visit MasterOfHomeCarescom orsign up for a newsletter
homecarebacom for exclusiveinsights and strategies.
(16:09):
Scale smarter with Masters ofHome Care.
Marc Bernstein (16:23):
We're back on Founders Forum with our guest
today, Justin Carey, and we haveShikha Maglani in the studio
with us, and we're just talkingabout immigration, which is an
interesting topic for both ofyou.
You've had differentexperiences with that.
I do want to ask you and makesure we have enough time for
(16:43):
this.
We always like to talk aboutfuture vision, so if we're three
years from now, we're lookingback, Justin, so it's we're down
in May of 2025.
So May of 2028, and you and Iare talking and we're catching
up.
What would have had to have had, what would have had to have
happened, for you to say thiswas a successful year for my
(17:03):
businesses and my family life,my personal life?
What would that look like?
Justin Currie (17:08):
Yeah.
So in three years time, I wouldsay, you know, for Thema Home
Care, the real goal is wherewe're starting to pave the
runway right now for an exit.
That's usually, you know, kindof a three to four year plan.
So in three years, you know, wewant to start to be in a
position where we can start, youknow, realistically looking,
looking for buyers, um, who cancome in, and as far as family,
(17:31):
um, you know, I'm kind of thereright now.
I mean, I have a five week oldand I've spent uh two days in
the office, I think, since I'vehad her and we've actually grown
.
So I think that's uh.
So I think things are goingwell.
We have some really goodsystems and everything built and
we're really for that nextthree year path.
I think we're really uh,without me working, you know, 18
hours a day.
We are going to continue togrow and hopefully be be ready
(17:54):
to sell at that point.
Marc Bernstein (17:55):
I love it.
Less is more, which often isAbsolutely.
Announcer (17:59):
It's great.
Marc Bernstein (18:00):
Now what do you do post sale If you sell the
company?
What, what, what does your lifelook like?
Justin Currie (18:04):
after that.
Good question.
I've considered a lot ofdifferent things at that point
and one of the things that I'mreally passionate about is
actually shelter animals.
So we foster a lot of dogs wehave three dogs and those places
they don't have a lot offunding right, so they don't run
super efficiently.
So one of my passions wouldprobably be to go and work there
(18:27):
and help them become more, moreefficient operationally and
just do it, you know, forvolunteer work or whatever, and
just hopefully use my businessexperience to help them.
Marc Bernstein (18:36):
So obviously you're looking for a successful
exit because you'll bevolunteering at that point and
quasi retired.
I guess at that point.
That's the plan, that's thegoal.
Yeah, very nice, very nice.
What are the challenges?
What do you have to do over thenext three years in order for
three or three to five years,let's call it for that to happen
?
Justin Currie (18:53):
So right now we actually just started a new
location in Wayne, pa, so that'sour second location.
So there's two kind of twophases.
So right now we're developing anew client acquisition channel
that's going to help us scale alot faster.
We've also dove into, we'vemade a pivot into, specifically
memory care.
So traditionally I mean, memorycare has always been in a
(19:16):
community or in a facility right, and what we've done is we've
built a program.
We have experts in on the teamnow that are going to allow us
to offer that memory care athome.
So that's part of the plan.
And then also over the nextcouple of years we won't be
doing it this year, but likelynext year we're going to be
looking at doing a coupleacquisitions as well.
Marc Bernstein (19:35):
Interesting, so multifaceted.
Is this all under yourjurisdiction or do you have
still a partner?
You don't have a partner in thebusiness, so do you have
leaders in the business thatwill help you with, let's say,
acquisitions or new clientacquisition, or is that all on
you?
Justin Currie (19:52):
So that's going to be my part.
So I brought in an executivedirector about six months ago
now and she is phenomenal.
She runs the show in my agency.
We were really lucky to haveher on board, and so that's
really allowed me to free up mytime to work on strategy and
growth, and so I'm going to beworking a lot with those
acquisitions.
Marc Bernstein (20:12):
And I'm guessing that what you're doing.
There's a concept called uniqueability.
You find people to do thethings that you're good at, but
maybe other people could do justas well or better, and you
focus on the things that you'rereally great at and that sounds
like strategy, and growth andvision for the future is your
thing.
Justin Currie (20:29):
Absolutely, and that's my passion too and that's
yeah, I mean that's what Istudy a lot of, and I think it's
kind of funny to say I mean Idon't have a secondary schooling
or anything like that but whatI've always done is I just learn
ahead of the curve.
So right now we're in aposition to scale right.
So over the last year I've beenlearning a ton about scaling
and talking to consultants aboutscaling and just kind of trying
(20:51):
to learn ahead of time.
Marc Bernstein (20:53):
Have you worked with any?
There's a company calledScaling Up.
There's EOS, which is theentrepreneurial operating system
that is about scaling.
There's a program that Iparticipated in, the Strategic
Coach.
It's out of Canada, actuallyout of Toronto.
Have you looked at any of thosetypes of programs or outside
help for that?
Justin Currie (21:12):
Yeah, we have.
Yeah, I've read all the scalingup with Vern Harnish and
traction by Gina Wickman andeverything for EOS and we
actually utilize some of the EOStools.
We haven't had an implementercome in because on my staff we
don't have a huge executive team, it's more just like myself,
the executive director and therest are employee staff members.
(21:34):
So it's not super beneficial tous, but still the structure of
it it really helps out.
Marc Bernstein (21:38):
That's my company as well.
We're not set up really for EOSas such, but we're using some
of the principles which soundslike very similar.
We're talking about vision.
So, Shikha, I imagine you musthave a question or thought about
that.
Shikha Miglani (21:51):
Yeah, thought here, Mark, that's what I love
about my job I bump into peoplethat I should be bumping into
because I just my company,Mighty, which is an AI
collaboration company, juststarted a joint venture with
another healthier company and inthe home care.
So we are integrating AI intothe operational aspects so we
can bring down the cost of theservice or more efficiency or
(22:11):
something, just a littleadvertisement.
It sounds like you guys need totalk after this, but I'm curious
what's your thought on AI, howit can be integrated to provide
better care, maybe cheaper care,because there are a lot of
people, people who cannot affordit and I think we need to think
about them and maybe trainingthem better right To leave a
better customer experience.
So just a thought on that.
Have you thought about it?
Justin Currie (22:31):
Yeah, it's going to be kind of probably a
controversial thought on.
It Is.
As far as AI in our industry,it's high trust, it's
relationship based.
You can do AI for a lot ofthings, like we use AI with a
lot of backend operations andstuff.
As far as client facing,referral source facing, I don't
(22:52):
use AI tools in that aspect justbecause I know a lot of other
companies are going down thatroad and we want to remain that
high level of personalization.
We have a kind of a highervalue, higher price service and
so we really want to keep thatlevel of personalization high
and the tools are starting tobecome more and more advanced so
you can actually they'restarting to get to the point
(23:13):
where you can almost get thatpersonalization.
But that's a little bit of adifferentiator for us is just
remaining like hey, we're thepeople you're talking to on the
phone, but not to say that wedon't have a ton of AI
integrated in other areas of thebusiness.
Shikha Miglani (23:27):
I agree.
I mean, ai augmentation is thethought right now and if we can
do that successfully, we can doa lot of things.
But I think it's a technologywhere we don't fear it, we
embrace it and we think aboutgrowing the company still right,
even with AI coming in.
So I don't know, just puttingthose two thoughts together.
That way people are not wearyof AI coming in and taking over
jobs, absolutely.
Justin Currie (23:47):
And yeah, there's absolutely a place for it and
it's taking over everything.
It's just we work in a uniqueindustry where it can't do
everything for us, but it canabsolutely supplement what we're
doing Supplement what you'redoing.
Marc Bernstein (23:58):
I'm glad you brought that up.
We should probably be talkingabout AI on almost every show
now because it's affecting usall daily on such an incredible
basis.
We were just talking earlierabout you, talked about your
Shikha, talked about her doingher psychoanalysis on chat GBT,
which you can do.
I mean, it's pretty crazythings you can do with it right
(24:20):
now that you couldn't even dreamof a year ago probably.
Justin Currie (24:23):
Yeah, I mean, I just had it summarize all of my,
all of my financial statementsfor me, just to cut through the
noise a little bit.
Marc Bernstein (24:30):
Yeah, that's great.
So you fed them in and justsaid give me an analysis, how
did?
How did it?
Justin Currie (24:34):
do.
Yeah, you ask them exactly whatyou're looking for.
You know, like we, we had alittle bit of a drain in a that
information.
Hey, we're having this problem.
Upload the documentation andthen just let them know what you
let it know what you want toanalyze.
Shikha Miglani (24:50):
It can imitate humans in so many ways.
It can imitate like really welland it cannot imitate that well
.
I mean it's right, it goes inall of all the directions.
Justin Currie (24:59):
Yeah, it depends on the application, I think.
Shikha Miglani (25:01):
Yeah, what you're trying to do with it.
Marc Bernstein (25:03):
Which one do you use for AI, or do you use
multiple?
Justin Currie (25:06):
So we use mostly for like our SOPs.
We'll use whaleio is what it'scalled.
So it actually builds a lot ofour SOPs out.
You just same thing.
You put in all your bulletpoints, all your information.
It'll build a nice SOP for youand you can just go in and
customize that.
It'll build you checklists.
So I would say our biggestapplication would be the SOPs.
Marc Bernstein (25:26):
That sounds great.
I've got a couple lastquestions for you.
I think we're almost runningout of time, but we talked
before about Mel Robbins and Iknow that's not your favorite
book, but I know you gotsomething out of it.
What are your favorite books?
What do you like to read?
Justin Currie (25:43):
Yeah, I love to read, but I would say some of
the most influential books wouldhave been influenced by Robert
Cialdini Um, there's a lot ofpsychology that goes in that you
can apply to, uh, selling andbuilding even just building a
package and pricing and thingslike that.
Um, that was a reallyinfluential book for me.
A hundred million dollar offersby Alex Hermosi Um, really
(26:05):
really powerful book, justhighly, highly tactical.
And a lot of that stuff is notbeing used in my space, so we've
really applied a lot of it tothe space and we've seen a lot
of success with it.
And then, on the personal side,I would say Man's Search for
Meaning by Viktor Frankl oh yeah, Very powerful book on mindset,
and I mean he was in aconcentration camp and he kept a
(26:28):
positive attitude, so if he cando that, then we all can.
Marc Bernstein (26:32):
Very inspirational book, one of my
favorites too.
Lastly, what advice would yougive yourself to your younger
self if you could?
Justin Currie (26:41):
Yeah, I would say not to confuse motion with
progress, in the sense that,especially when we start out as
entrepreneurs, you know you'rethere is a time where you have a
child come.
I want to work four hours a day, and so just don't confuse
(27:09):
because you're working 18 hoursa day doesn't mean you're moving
forward.
Be very intentional aboutprioritizing, and that's what I
would tell myself.
Marc Bernstein (27:17):
That's wonderful advice for your younger self
and for all our listeners, Ithink, Justin.
Believe it or not, time flieson this show and we're out of
time, but thanks so much forbeing here, Shikha, thanks for
joining us again, and thank youall for listening, and we'll
talk to you again next week onFounders Forum.
Announcer (27:50):
We hope you enjoyed your time with Founders Forum
and that you found value to takewith you throughout your day.
Join us again next week foranother episode of Founders
Forum on WXKB 1039 HD2.
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