Meet ISABELLE GUARINO-SMITH | COO

We had the good fortune of connecting with ISABELLE GUARINO-SMITH and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi ISABELLE, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
The beginning of our business started with a story very close to home, my grandmother fell and broke her hip and needed 24-7 care. The doctor called us and said that exact line and the
immediate thought was “oh no, who is going to quit their job and take care of her 24-7?” and
second, “I am not built to be a caregiver”… then you start thinking of the options that come to
mind… well we could give her in-home care! A caregiver who comes to live in her own home
and we can give her 24-7 care and love and attention… or maybe we will put her into a…home…
and as soon as you say it, you feel kind of sick to your stomach, just like we did. My beloved
grandmother deserved the BEST! She was a professor of nursing, she was a mother to 7
incredible children, she was a devoted wife and she herself took care of her own mother when
she fell ill and then her own husband, my grandfather for the last 5 years of his life. She truly
was an angel and there was no way we would put her into a big stinky building that feels and
looks like a hospital and makes us question what we are doing every time we paid for her stay
and subpar care, NO WAY!

At the time, my grandmother was living in upstate New York and we were living in Arizona. We
hunted for any facility that would be suitable and we found NOTHING! Nowhere at all that I
would want to leave my goldfish let alone my grandmother! It was crazy!! So we set my
grandmother up with in-home care in the short-term, it’s INCREDIBLY expensive and not a true
long-term solution. We went back to Arizona and started the search again, there had to be
something, somewhere that was nice enough to feel comfortable about. We stumbled upon…
Residential Assisted Living… and we were blown away! A single family home that housed 10
residents in private bedrooms and private bathrooms, there was a shared kitchen, office, living
room, library area, sitting room. The residents played games together and hung out, there was
24-7 care from licensed caregivers and an administrator who oversaw the operations of the
business. Even a private chef who cooked all the meals! We were impressed, as soon as you
walked in the smell of cookies, love and care filled your nose, the sights were so heartfelt and
warming, the seniors with caregivers who knew their names, who paid attention to them, who
truly you could sense it wanted to serve them and love on them in their golden years.
We found something perfect! But we also found something that would change the trajectory of
our lives.

We inquired about my grandmother being able to live there and also asked about the business
in general. My father had been a real estate investor sine he was 18 and he was rounding 50 at
this time, he wanted to know what the investment side of this business entailed. The owner
quickly brought him to the back and actually explained her situation and told him she was
about to file bankruptcy and was looking for a buyer, right then and there after seeing the
numbers just one time, he knew this was an incredible opportunity on his hands, and said, “I
will buy it”. The relief in her eyes was overwhelming, they shook on it and so our journey
began. After 3 months of paperwork and exchanges, my father, my family and I were owners
and operators of a Residential Assisted Living care home in Phoenix, AZ. Our intent was to move
my grandmother out to Arizona to live in the home, but she passed before we could get her out
west. But now, we had a mission, to serve as many other seniors and as many other families as
we could during this challenging time of life. We had all just personally experienced it and it

was so important for us to be able to be there for others just like us when they were going
through this tricky time.

Over the course of the next 2 years my father flipped that business making it very profitable
and improving the reputation even more so, we added two more businesses to the portfolio,
rounding out our 3-pack of RAL homes. And then something very cool happened, we realized
that having these homes was making a huge impact and even bigger cashflow. My dad’s
investor friends kept asking him for details. My father was a natural born educator, he was a
phenomenal public speaker and he had professionally spoken on stages for most of his adult
career, so only naturally did the inquires eventually turn into a training he created on how to
get started in the RAL business. He hosted his first training event on the topic in 2013 launching
the Residential Assisted Living Academy right then and there. He was a 1 man team and it was a
beautiful thing, teaching investors and entrepreneurs and medical professionals how to “Do
Good; Do Well”!

I took interest into what he was doing and when I would visit him at his office I noticed he could
really use some help, some organization, so I asked if he was hiring and he eventually took me
up on it! I was his first hire and from there we built 8 other companies and hired on 50 other
contractors and I became the COO, his right hand lady. It was the most incredible 7 years,
working side by side with my father and growing all of our companies, I truly have had the best
experience starting all of our businesses. Last year in 2021, my father passed away and I was
blessed to be left with all of the companies AND Residential Assisted Living care homes. I am
continuing the legacy moving forward and I am thrilled to have the knowledge, skills and
experience to do so.

It all started with my grandmother needing care and then my family answering that need, my
father taking it to the next level and now leaving an incredible legacy for me to carry forward!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
In my career with Residential Assisted Living Academy I have learned to roll with the punches time and time again, you see the only thing in this world that is constant, is change. And the sooner you can grasp that concept the easier life becomes. Nothing will ever stay the same, it’s guaranteed. I am most proud of my ability to adapt. When I first started working for my father, there was no set job description, it was just ‘see what I’m doing and then try to help take things
off my plate’, or ‘if I ask for something try to figure it out’. I honestly thrived in that environment, it’s not tactical like ‘do this, this specific way, or else’, NO! It was the complete opposite, try anything and everything and if he wasn’t happy he would help correct me for next time, but 90% of the time he was happy! That was a very fulfilling way to start my career, having total freedom and control and doing things that genuinely help someone else improve their day and make their life easier.

Over the course of the years I went from being my dad’s assistant to being the COO of all of our companies. I learned how to hire, train, retain, and fire staff. I learned how to do phone sales, in person sales, marketing and the payroll and books! I grew to love running all the companies meetings and booking my father on podcasts, TV shows and stages. And also running events, our main company Residential Assisted Living Academy is an event based company that hosts 8
events per year and when I first started I noticed there was many things I could improve. And so I did! Our events went from 30-50 people to 100+ people who absolutely loved it! It’s all about the small things. I appreciated that my father was the star and I could do all the behind the scenes work, I didn’t need any credit or recognition, I was so fulfilled making things happen and watching my ideas come to fruition that I didn’t need a spotlight.

When my father passed, we needed a new main stage speaker, we were missing our leader, our star. This was going to be a huge challenge, did we hire someone from the outside? Did we shut down the company? How were we going to move forward? It wasn’t until Gary; Susan Harper, our business coaches from Sharper Business Solutions turned to me and said, “why not you?” that I was flooded with all the memories of my father pushing me to take the stage, be on
camera and shine. I hesitantly said “yes”. From that day forward my life has changed dramatically, I have been on 100’s of podcasts, speaking on 100’s of stages to 1000’s of people, I wrote a book and I have been leading our companies in a whole new way with a entirely fresh perspective. I am loving my new role, from the behind the scenes secret weapon to front and center stage, it’s a new world! I’ve learned so many lessons along the way and I am still
learning, I hope to never stop. The biggest lesson that comes to mind today is to be open to opportunities, if I stayed behind the scenes, what might have happened to my father’s legacy? What might have happened to the companies? We needed someone to step up and I was open. It’s so key to be open, you never know if your destiny is around the next corner.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Hiking! Gypsy cup in Gilbert! Ocean 44 in Scottsdale!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would love to take the time to shout-out Gary; Susan Harper from Sharper Business Solutions. When we were first starting our business someone else recommended Gary; Susan to us and over the course of the next few years they helped us grow and launch new companies at exponential speed! They understand the minds of entrepreneurs and they are there to help you grow and succeed. Quarterly our teams meet with them and discuss issues, to-do’s and
goals for upcoming quarters and years. They help keep us organized with weekly team meeting formats and on track by continuously bringing us back to our vision. We couldn’t be more grateful for the impact they’ve had on us!

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