Meet Laurie Malone | Managing Partner & CEO

We had the good fortune of connecting with Laurie Malone and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Laurie, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Golden Heart Senior Care, providing in home care for seniors, serves 94 zip codes in the Greater Phoenix/Scottsdale area. We started this Company from just the two of us- my husband and business partner, Rodney Malone, Partner and COO, on 7/14/14. Recently recognized as a Top 100 Woman Owned Business in Greater Phoenix (by the Phoenix Business Journal), for the third year in a row makes us very proud.

The most important factor for success for our brand is our passion for helping seniors, coupled with our laser focus on growth. Everywhere we go, everything we do is based around our brand. I will give every butcher we meet; server who helps us; restaurant owner we meet, and everyone else my Golden Heart business card. I simply state- “If you know any CNA’s (Certified Nursing Assistants) or Certified Caregivers looking for work, have them call us.” People then ask what we do and voila, we are spreading the word naturally and casually. We work on the business and in the business which is also an important success factor.

I have grown my personal and business following to very large numbers, creating business and employment opportunities for our community daily. I believe fundamentally that “Social Media Means Business’” and this is a key part of my daily activity. Rodney manages all staff and operations. I am out meeting potential referral partners, not in a sales or networking manner, but in a relationship approach- asking them each, “How can we serve you?” We work with hospice and medical home health as well as staffing for assisted living facilities. With respect to my personal success, well I never consider myself at the pinnacle of success. Each week I ask myself, “what have I done to serve more seniors this week; what have we done to provide more jobs for people and their families; what have we done to serve our community?”

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Golden Heart Senior Care, a non-medical home care company is different from our competitors in many ways. As owners, we are very hands on, always available to clients and employees. Rodney, my husband and business partner, is excellent at running operations, payroll and billing. He has the highest standard for quality I have ever seen in a business. From day one, we decided to make this personal. We have never hired an answering service for after hours. For the first two years, we each answered every call. Even today, with hundreds of clients, we have one of our staff answering day and night 24/7 to assure clients that they know this is a team member and someone that can help them immediately. Was this easy to go from 2 of us in July, 2014 to over 75 employees now? Not at all.. I can’t tell you how many times we would max out a credit card in the beginning to make payroll. We grew this from zero clients and caregivers. We have had blood, sweat and tears and learned many things the hard way. We had owned businesses before for 18 years, but never operated one day to day together. That took some learning and we quickly decided to stay in our own lane; focus on leveraging our individual strengths and making sure we reminded ourselves that we are, at the end of the day, a happily married couple! Now, our business is so much part of the fabric of our lives, we really enjoy working together and sharing accountability, vision and growth objectives together.

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?
Well, if things were fully open……Desert Botanical Gardens; Heard Museum; Old Town Scottsdale; all sporting events- Cardinals or Phoenix Suns; ASU/ U of A; Cave Creek/Carefree area; Sedona; Jerome, Flagstaff, etc. For eating and drinking, we primarily support local restaurants and know the owners well: Tomaso’s; Veneto Trattoria; Tarbell’s;  Barrio Cafe; Elements; Pie and Vine; The Henry; Tavern Grille Scottsdale; Slanted Rice; Grimaldi’s; True Foods, etc. Hiking Camelback or Pinnacle Peak ; walking through Arcadia, etc. There is so much in our beautiful city.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to highlight my father, Dr. William Loufman, who passed last year at the ripe young age of 96. My Dad taught me about work ethic. He was a large/small animal veterinarian and I grew up racing around the countryside (he was a fast driver) to deliver calfs; treat horses; pigs, etc. I also grew up running “office hours for him” every evening after school and on Saturdays. In high school, I would come home from a date by 11:00pm curfew and he would say, “let’s go, we have to do a – section on a dog tonight.” I assisted in surgery. Dad always told me, “don’t do anything halfway. Do it right the first time or don’t do it at all. AND ALWAYS KEEP YOUR WORD.” Every Christmas morning, my Dad would wake my brother and I at 6:00 am to put on our overalls and go to the office to clean the dog and cat cages. He insisted on giving his employees the day off with their families- and it was our responsibility to do the work ourselves. My Dad started me at 7 years old doing this. I am allergic to cats, so my brother got that small room of 20 cages and I had 20 big dogs and 10 small ones to clean up the poop! We then went home 4 or 5 hours later to shower and have our holiday. My Dad’s philosophy was, “you always do your work first.” That lesson has stuck with me my whole life. I am definitely a Daddy’s girl. I don’t think we ever had a single argument of any ilk. He taught me valuable life lessons and had a huge impact on how I conduct my personal and business life today. And I would be remiss if I failed to say that my parents adopted me at 4 months old ! I am truly blessed!

Website: www.GoldenHeartScottsdale.com
Instagram: @lauriemalone4
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/laurie-malone-mba-l-i-o-n-2a98334b
Twitter: @GoldenHeartSDL
Facebook: @GoldenHeartSeniorCare.Scottsdale