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Episode 24: Drew LaBoon of Pathways
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Drew LaBoon serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Pathways Recovery Centers, where he combines leadership, operational excellence, and a passion for innovation to advance substance abuse treatment. In addition to his role at Pathways, Drew is the Co-Founder and President of the Board of Pathways to Innovation, a nonprofit organization focused on transforming the mental health and substance abuse treatment industry.
Drew is a retired Special Operator who served in multiple high-stress combat deployments. His military career instilled in him resilience, leadership, and a solutions-oriented mindset, all of which he applies to his work in healthcare. A passionate advocate for recovery, Drew draws from his own journey of overcoming substance abuse to inspire others. Through his work, Drew is driving meaningful change in the lives of those impacted by substance abuse, setting a new standard for care in the industry.
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Transcript
Introduction to Destination Change
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome to to Destination Change, a podcast where we talk recovery, treatment, and more. I'm your host, Angie Fiedler-Sutton, with the National Behavioral Health Association providers, and I use she-her pronouns. Today's guest is Drew Laboon. Drew serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Pathways Recovery Centers, where he combines leadership, operational excellence, and a passion for innovation to advance substance abuse treatment.
00:00:32
Speaker
In addition to his role at Pathways, Drew is the co-founder and president of the Board of Pathways to Innovation, a nonprofit organization focused on transforming the mental health and substance abuse treatment industry.
Drew Laboon's Journey to Recovery
00:00:42
Speaker
Drew is a retired special operator who served in multiple high-stress combat deployments. His military career installed in him resilience, leadership, and a solution-oriented mindset, all of which he applies to his work in healthcare. care Passionate advocate for recovery, Drew draws from his own journey of overcoming substance abuse to inspire others.
00:00:58
Speaker
Through his work, Drew is driving meaningful change in the lives of those impacted by substance abuse, setting a new standard for care in the industry. Thank you for joining us today, Drew. Thanks for having me, Angie. It's good to be here. Now, my first question is always, I love origin stories. So it's kind of hinted in your bio, but how did you get involved in the recovery industry? What made you decide to do that versus all the other job possibilities that are out there? Sure. it was It's interesting. I was actually asked this one time sitting on a panel, and my response was was pretty frank. And the folks listening that are really deep in this industry will get it. But it it turns out I really am good at at drinking and using drugs.
00:01:37
Speaker
in my own personal life, right? It's you know a little dark humor there, but I made a career out of going to treatment long before I made a career out of working in treatment. As a person in long-term recovery, I've seen the best and the worst sides of this industry as a patient first.
Leadership and Military Influence
00:01:53
Speaker
And then I try to carry that over. And so when I got sober in 2019, I had never planned on working in this industry. It always just never struck me as something that I would be good at. And just the thought had never crossed my mind, but I was sober about 10 months.
00:02:07
Speaker
And i got a phone call to come in and apply as an admission coordinator actually at the facility that that i want to i'm a product of my program well as you know the chief operating officer but i want i went out to my oklahoma facility to work as an admission coordinator and i was just provided more and more opportunity throughout ah my time with the organization i became the admission director and then.
00:02:30
Speaker
You know doing that for six months or so there was a an opening and for the outreach director position the business development side and so i became the director of admissions and outreach and i rewrote our admissions process and policy as well as really revamped our entire outreach department.
00:02:47
Speaker
and then had opportunities to start traveling some with our founder to go look at at acquisitions and things like that and and give kind of my input on, yes, this this place would be great or no, this facility wouldn't. And then when the pathways level director of operations position opened up.
00:03:05
Speaker
At first, our founder asked me if if I was throwing my hat on the ring for that position. and and I told him then, I said, no, you know my weaknesses outweigh my strengths in that department. and so Meanwhile, over the next couple of months, he he continued to hand me and send me more and more pathways level things to do, had me sit in on on some interviews and and help with some other things. and and A few months later, we had another conversation. and and ah I told him, I said, I'm on to you. I see what what you're doing there over the last few months helping me see that i can do this and so i became the director of operations about a year and a half ago and then earlier this year was made the chief operating officer for all pathways and it's been an incredible opportunity you know to bring my experience i think my.
00:03:49
Speaker
ah greatest strength in the role is that, i you know, I started down at the ground level. And so I really understand the decisions that are made for the strategic growth of the organization. I understand the ripple effect and the impact that's going to have on the folks in the ground. So it's been really cool. It's been really, really special to go from, you know, five and a half years ago, a client out at my Oklahoma facility to now being blessed with the opportunity to lead the entire organization really is.
00:04:15
Speaker
is a victory. I don't get the claim and and something that I could not have created in my own life, if not for the program of recovery and the folks I'm surrounded with. So anyway, that was a really long answer to your question, but that's you in a very small nutshell, my background in that.
00:04:30
Speaker
One of my personal leadership rules that I follow, and you'll appreciate this since you have the military background, Good General remembers what it was like to be a private. that And it sounds like that's kind of your approach to to leadership is that you you know try and remember what it was like on the ground level and whatnot.
00:04:47
Speaker
Well, there's an old, there's an old book that gets passed around the the special operations community. It's, it's called muddy boots leadership. And that's really what it talks about is know and um no matter where your leadership journey takes you, you know, take a day. If you've forgotten what it's like down in the trenches, take a day and go.
Personal Struggles and Recovery Path
00:05:04
Speaker
and and i do that today and in my organization you know if i if i forget what it's like being down on the ground in the mission teams are as a tech i go work as a tech for a day i go ah shadow of my teams i go sit with them and and so that i can truly understand and not just here you know their struggles and what they're going through and,
00:05:22
Speaker
You know, my journey, I was a hard drinker throughout my military career. And when my alcoholism really took off was around the retirement. I retired in 2016. And that's when my drinking really, really got bad. it's And it's a common theme with a lot of veterans struggling with PTSD and mental health and and drinking became my solution. And then within a year and a half, two years, drinking wasn't enough anymore. And I needed some drugs in there to enhance my drinking, if you will. and so you know with with within a very short time i was a twenty four hour a day drinker and and using a lot of illegal drugs to supplement that so and you know in and out of treatment centers for about a year and a half two years before i finally landed in oklahoma to do the same for the last time and finally get out of my own way which so to
Community Engagement and Advocacy
00:06:09
Speaker
speak.
00:06:09
Speaker
One of the things that your bio talks about is that you have community engagement since we have people who are kind of in that area to kind of some of your tips for engaging the community, particularly in this industry. I think it's important to think bigger than where am I going to get referrals? I think it's important and valuable to think where can I have impact, right?
00:06:28
Speaker
And so some of the things we started doing is we was actually a friend of mine that was starting to do these and we kind of tagged along with that and then really ran with it is doing all overdose awareness events we started that a couple of years ago we would go into communities whether it was churches or.
00:06:45
Speaker
government municipalities, we actually ended up even getting into schools, high schools to do assemblies where we show, Dominic Torino has a phenomenal documentary. It's about 20 minutes long. It's called Dead on Arrival, where he he really addresses beautifully the fentanyl epidemic through the stories and eyes of surviving family members of fentanyl poisoning. So that's one thing we started to do is started to take both that. He's given permission to both reference it and use that so long as we're not charging anybody for it. And they were always free and taking Narcan with us when we would would do those to get involved in the community. We started looking for other nonprofit organizations that were really working hard to partner alongside of them and say, hey, what are your goals? What are you doing? And how can we as a for-profit organization support that?
00:07:36
Speaker
donating to a few and and really piggybacking. We get really involved anytime there is a non-profit hosting an event and holding an event, we go and and get involved in the community. you know we We don't serve adolescents at any of our facilities, they're all adult, but there's some really good adolescent non-profits and organizations.
00:07:55
Speaker
out there that we've really tried to lash onto as far as you know lifting up and and supporting them so you know i would say for community engagement let's get outside of the box of i'm gonna keep my milk route of going to the emergency rooms going to the detox centers going to the.
00:08:12
Speaker
The ah sober living those are all still important right we don't still need to support those i don't um mean to understate that but let's think bigger on identifying the problem in the community for us as the fenton all overdose example is fenton always ravaging through our states to the heartland so that's the problem right what's the solution what can we do to make an impact there.
00:08:34
Speaker
And then my experiences is that on the business side of things, as far as is running an organization that has four treatment centers, the business side tends to take care of itself if we're doing the right things the right way for the right reasons and really getting involved in the community versus.
00:08:50
Speaker
Let me run around and try to build up my business the business ends up way bigger than it would have been because you're you're contributing to the states the cities the places you operate rather than just trying to take from i think it's really really good we've also got very very involved in the lobby.
00:09:06
Speaker
That can be a very frustrating. If you've ever worked in a lobbying thing, that some of the specific areas that we lobby for are parity law violations, equal access to treatment for all persons, and the use of opiate abatement funds and opiate settlement money, big pharma settlement money.
00:09:24
Speaker
for treatment, rather than all these other things that they have the mirror marked for. And I can go into some stories of that if you've got more examples. But you know in in the state of Oklahoma, we had our first, and I was appalled and fired up about it, we had our first trans person in 2021,
00:09:42
Speaker
And this is just one example, right? This person had called all around the state and was heartbroken and and couldn't find anywhere to go for help because everyone told them no. And so those are some of the things that we lobby for, too, is is equal persons. You know, we we serve in the heartland. We also serve a large community of First Nations folks, and they're still deeply stigmatized towards
Challenges in the Midwest
00:10:05
Speaker
seeking help. And so removing those stigmas for all persons to seek help that needed mental health and substance abuse is something we've been very very involved in. A lot of stuff for follow-up. Let's start with ah your advocacy. ah This is where I inform slash remind our listeners that we have an advocacy section. We also have our own advocate in Washington DC and we send out advocacy alerts usually once a week. What would you say is, you talked about parity law, but what is your, Matt Rushmore, I guess, ah you know, your Mount Everest, I mean, your goal. What's the one thing you hope to change?
00:10:37
Speaker
ah There are two that I've got to tackle right now, I guess. The first one would be working with our legislators, whether it's it's state, in and I've got facilities in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, working with legislators in our states to, one, improve the availability and accessibility of benefits. One of the ways we want to do that is open up some of the settlement funding, big pharma settlement funding, for private and for-profit treatment centers.
00:11:06
Speaker
And I haven't gone and just said, hey, you know, because you can't go to to an elected official when they give you 15 minutes of their time that's carved out with and just say, this is what I want, right? So you go with a plan. And the plan that we've gone with that I really stressed and pushed is, you know, let's turn our state insurances, Sooner Care, Sunflower Med, all those, let's turn those into an HMO fine with out of network benefits.
00:11:32
Speaker
and let's treat out-of-network programs, let's treat private programs as that out-of-network, right? Because what we have in our states is we have a wait list for state-funded facilities that can be four and five weeks long. Well, if you if you've spent more than a day in the industry or even out of the industry and understand the fentanyl crisis, people aren't don't live long enough to wait through that list.
00:11:54
Speaker
And so what my plan has been is is similar to the VA has a great way of doing this, right? If you can't get care at the VA program within a certain amount of time, they refer you out into the community. So I've encouraged the states and talked with our legislators on let's sponsor a bill, let's help advise that so that we can allow programs that are state credentialed already to act as that out-of
Operational Efficiency and Innovation
00:12:20
Speaker
-network care provider and then use settlement funding to pay for treatment, right? Just do a contract that way. So that's that's a big way that we've pushed on with the plan. And the other thing really ah I would say is a bigger hurdle because you know substance abuse and mental health benefits to large-scale payers, right, insurances,
00:12:39
Speaker
What are dropping the bucket major medical is is there their business models are built around major medical but really i've been trying hard to end this adversarial relationship between payers and providers it's existed since the dawn of time and you know encouraging them.
00:12:58
Speaker
by one opening our doors saying hey come in here to see the program that we run see the care that we provide so that you understand what your members are getting and then the other is you know we've all seen the documentaries in the movies on body brokering and we know the dark side of this industry right.
00:13:16
Speaker
I've gone with a pretty comprehensive approach to holding providers accountable that would minimize the significant amount of of that nefarious action, right? What's going on there? And it's it's three simple ways. The first is accountability for lead generation. Where are providers? Where are folks in this industry? Where are they getting admissions? And then the second is what are their admissions policies and procedures?
00:13:42
Speaker
How are they admitting them? Are they are they collecting deductibles and out of pockets? Are they putting on on payment plans? And do they are they meeting the standards in that way? right And then the third thing is outcomes measurements, providing payers with access to outcomes measurements tools rather than saying, hey, here's here's a spreadsheet, right or just solely focusing on, because where the payers want to focus is, where do their dimensions of ASAM What's their depression scores or decrease in depression? Great. They're ready to to discharge, right? When anybody that's been around the industry a day knows that and me just getting sober, I'm going to feel a little bit better. That doesn't mean I'm ready to face life on life's terms, right? So I've really petitioned them to say, let's shift how we think about our outcomes measurements, right? Let's consider completion rate. Let's consider engagement in
00:14:37
Speaker
alumni programs? what are What are providers doing for alumni programs? And then to to end that, based on the engagement alumni programs, how many folks are reaching a year sobriety, right? We've got to shift the way we do things, right? and i And I constantly say that's the reason that's, you know, why we need to innovate. That's why innovation is so important. And it's not just talking about technology and systems and things. It's talking about our thoughts and the way we carry out what we do. And And so shifting our thinking and starting to to work with payers closer and say, hey, the drug and alcohol game is forever changing. Both the drugs on the street, how drugs are ingested, how they're purchased, all these different things are forever changing. We have to be forever changing and improving both the care we provide and the way we account for that care. And if we're not doing that, we really are. We're failing that still suffering person. And so the legislators and the payers
00:15:32
Speaker
And to again, plug behalf or in behalf of reminder slash information that we have the certified admissions and marketing specialist cams, which is with the CATM, the certificate in addiction treatment marketing that tells you how to market your program ethically. So feel free to check that out on our website. It's not talked about enough. So I love that you do that.
00:15:52
Speaker
You've talked a couple of times now about working in the midwest. I spent the first 40 years of my life in the midwest, mostly in a small town hour southwest of St. Louis and then Kansas City. I've only recently moved to LA, which is where NBHAP is based. Talk a little bit more about some of the challenges ah that you face. I know that the midwest has their own ah special challenges just by being the midwest.
00:16:14
Speaker
Well, listen, the Midwest tends to be anywhere between five and 10 years, depending on the issue behind the rest of the country. Having always been on the East Coast myself, you know, moving to the, way I've washed up on the shores of Oklahoma because When i'm still drinking the last folks on earth that would answer my phone call or some family that live in norman for me and so that's how i end up in oklahoma to begin with and so. You know seeing some of the challenges as i got sober and was still here or were interesting to me for one.
00:16:46
Speaker
It's difficult in and and the reason so much body brokering ripped through the Midwest is because the reimbursement rates are still, at best, half of what they are in the rest of the country. And some of that, you know, media median income and things like that are lower, typically in the Midwest, but the accessibility to care, the political structure, right? The insurances, ah many of them, particularly for marketplace plans, will only ever reimburse based off the bare minimum that the insurance commissioners and the state legislator requires, right? So in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas, that is roughly it's around 118% of Medicare, right? Well, if you're running a private facility or a private organization with a robust program that provides lots of different modalities,
00:17:33
Speaker
it is very, very difficult to provide that care at a low rate. And so, you know, the challenges faced here are, you know, through Oklahoma, by virtue of where I-35 and I-40 meet the center major highways in the country, massive drug drug trafficking that comes through there.
00:17:52
Speaker
fentanyl coming north and then goes east and west right through Oklahoma City. And so the drug problem, and then you mix that with the culture, tends to be a huge drug problem. And we like to sit with our heads in the sand and say, no, we don't have this problem. Sit with blinders on. You tend to see a lot more progressive states. You see the accessibility and and the stigma is a lot lower. The accessibility is a lot higher.
00:18:17
Speaker
And so that really is our big fight here is one is to smash the stigma increase that accessibility right teaching folks, the leaders elected officials that this is for one, what this disease looks like. And for two, this common sense solutions that are common sense to us but might not be to them because they don't know any better. And I am heartened that You know most of of the leaders here that i sat in and discuss these issues with you know they don't know and a lot of times they don't know what they don't know but they are teachable and they do listen so that's that's good but change is slow right especially when it's something that we don't know about and it's scary and i think all of us share right the two things we hate is the way things are in change and that's you know that's kind of across the board so.
00:19:06
Speaker
But the accessibility to care is horrifying you know and in in our states in the heartland it's still unless you are experiencing and voicing suicidal or homicidal ideation you still cannot receive residential mental health help there's there's there's almost no place to get help.
00:19:25
Speaker
So that just tells you how far behind we are right pairs won't pay for residential so there aren't facilities that provide residential mental health primary and so there are some changes enacted in in our our our local first governments and then nationally will never see.
Leadership Insights and Advice
00:19:43
Speaker
Now our audience is a wide range of people from from people who are clinicians all the way up to CEOs like yourself. So let's talk a little bit about your work as a CEO. Your bio talked about you want to drive improvements in operational efficiency. Tell me a little bit more about what that means. I appreciate the promotion there and then the COO keep operating. us to go sorry yeah um I don't know if I want the problems to go along with CEO. So yeah, when I first took over my role and and kind of took the reins here for Pathways Recovery Centers,
00:20:12
Speaker
everything were in silos. And what I mean is each facility was was kind of operating independently. And then down in each facility, it's like clinical was over here doing clinical things and admissions in the front end staff were over here doing front end things and the operations were separate and everyone were sort of working in the same place, but not together very well. Right. And so one of the first things I did is I started to look at our systems and our programs. I had four facilities using two different CRMs, using three different billing companies, using four different CRMs, the client relationship manager. It was so fragmented. I had i had ah four different phone systems, all of our systems in place as far as the things that we hope to run in the background were different and separate. And so one of the first things I did is I started to look at, okay, let me prioritize in which ones first are we gonna bring
00:21:10
Speaker
all under one roof and i started to bring so the first one i did is is r-e-m-r right i brought all of us under the same electronic medical record so it operate more efficiently there first and then i did the c-r-m our client relationship manager right like how are we capturing.
00:21:26
Speaker
Data but that took a lot of work right cuz then first i gotta find which is the best one to meet our needs there's a lot of really good ones out there but whatever's best for your specific in a shop around a bit and then i gotta come up with my change management plan that gets fairly stressful so i start bringing all of the systems kinda in line under one roof.
00:21:44
Speaker
And then as as that's underway you know i brought all the senior leaders in in oklahoma city and we had a little retreat that's okay here's the deal we've been operating and orbiting in the same space is separate individual entities for a long long time and that ends today so here's the plan here so we're gonna start working together and and sending referrals back and forth and then.
00:22:05
Speaker
I worked with the executive directors to bring that down to their facilities to start having weekly meetings so there's there's the system side and then there's the operation side right to operate more efficiently you know there are a lot of things that we can automate i start one facility that was doing admissions using pen and paper like it's twenty twenty two what what are we doing here right so.
00:22:27
Speaker
Automating as much as we can to get our healers actually providing care has been a huge priority in taking taking work off there off their hands. you know The last year, we've seen the boom in AI tools. In all aspects of treatment, whether it's in admissions and how we're capturing phone call analytics all the way through the clinical programming, there's some really cool AI-based clinical documentation platforms.
00:22:54
Speaker
I know they get scary for clinicians so we say automated intelligence because sometimes that gets a little bit scary but then through the discharge process right like how are we leveraging technology to get our people actually providing care rather than spending time bogged down with processes but we also brought billing and house billing and utilization review and house that was a really heavy lift for us but it's really ah cleaned up and improved what we do and so you know I always encourage anybody that you know any owner operator any operations folks out there that are are thinking about any big changes you know if you need a friend that's walked this path and learn some lessons through scar tissue method please don't hesitate to reach out right cuz we're all in this together and i'm always willing to spend time with with other good ones in the industry to help
00:23:44
Speaker
Now, if you could go back in time and talk to yourself when you were just starting out in the industry, what would be the one biggest piece of career advice you'd give yourself? Don't move faster than your legs can go. Right. And what I mean is I got really excited about kind of the things I was just talking about a second ago, the changes, the innovations, the enhancements. I got really excited about some of those and I brought a whole lot of change in a year.
00:24:10
Speaker
And it's a hundred percent a credit to my team that we didn't really struggle and and fall apart. But I started to notice that everybody was a little more tired than usual and it just was wearing on them. And I realized, you know, change is good, but too much change can can destroy your staff.
00:24:30
Speaker
and you know we don't want change change should be a full-time job strategic growth should be a full-time job at the c-suite level not at the ground level right there full-time job is providing care for our clients but i got that flipped and and i tried to push us a little faster and i think thankfully i have a phenomenal team So we didn't fall apart, but it it could have been, you know it was so it was a lot. We changed our electronic medical record, our client relationship manager. We added an AI clinical based documentation platform. We brought in a wearable biometrics and we completely rewrote policies and procedures for three facilities in a year. right And anybody that's that really is in the operation side or the clinical side in this industry will hear that and just
00:25:20
Speaker
You know, kind of be all hair and eyeballs. It's, that's a lot, uh, that I brought to the team. And so I promised them, listen, we'll start looking at it. Maybe some, some more new things, maybe Q2 of 25. We'll let Elvis kind of simmer and settle and then one or two things a year. But, uh, yeah, stay, don't move faster. You got to know your team, right? Don't move faster than
Pathways to Innovation Nonprofit
00:25:42
Speaker
we can handle.
00:25:42
Speaker
Now in a similar vein, but the answer may be slightly different. If someone came to you and was wanting to get into the industry, what would be the first thing you'd want to tell them? The first two rules, well, there are three. Be sure that as you're starting this process, you don't want to outgrow your talent or your finances.
00:26:02
Speaker
you know Everybody I've seen that's that's come into the industry and either failed or blown up too quick and and lost everything, they violate one of those two as they outgrow their money or their talent. but felt Financially healthy organization provides outstanding care and quality talent. And then the other is do the right things the right way for the right reasons. We get caught up in, if you're coming into this for a fast buck, you're you're in the wrong industry and you're everything that's wrong with this industry.
00:26:31
Speaker
First if you're coming in here placing people first it's funny the business side tends to take care of itself right you'll make more money in the long run and you'll have an organization in the long run so those are very very important and i just look around at everybody that's really running some serious issues and it's one of those things they they lose sight of what they're doing.
00:26:52
Speaker
and Now, ah before we move on to resources and whatnot, let's talk a little bit about ah Pathways to Innovation. You're doing a great job of helping me promote and behalf because we have an industry calendar on our website where we list all the conferences and and trainings that I can find. Talk a little about Pathways of Innovation, kind of how it got started, and that kind of stuff.
00:27:11
Speaker
So Pathways to Innovation really started as a dream. you know We really hit the national stage three years ago, starting to go to national conferences and started to meet some phenomenal folks that are really doing this thing the right way. and And as I started attending more conferences, I thought, you know all these plane tickets I buy either end up taking me to Florida, California, or New England. right They're no they're on national level.
00:27:34
Speaker
Top-notch conferences in the middle of the country and there are no conferences that are purely focused on and so many so many whether it's breakout sessions or whatever talk about what we've been doing for ten or twenty years not what we need to be doing for the road ahead how we need to be improving the quality of what we do and so,
00:27:54
Speaker
All of these ideas have been rolling around in my head and I was sitting actually at um the Global Exchange two years ago and my friend Melissa Anderson is the CEO of Buzzfactory. She turned and looked at me and and her eyes were real big and I thought,
00:28:09
Speaker
she gonna throw a chair of me or something what's going on is returning she said drew we need to do one of these in the midwest and i almost fell out of my chair because for a couple of months i had been not tossing and turning in a bad way but you know it's constantly on my mind and so i said this is crazy you say that so we had a couple of calls me and her and start talking to melissa i love this idea and i've got the ideas and the passion but i don't know how to put on a large scale national conference like this and.
00:28:36
Speaker
So she and I kind of started developing this idea, and as it came together, I quickly started to feel like, you know, this is bigger than me. This is bigger than my organization. And the spirit of this conference needs to be that. And so we got a board together, folks from all across the country that want to, that wanted to participate in this thing. and And I went made it a nonprofit because I want it separate from any of our organizations.
00:29:02
Speaker
I did not come up with a name. I i said, nobody's going to believe that it's pathways innovation wasn't my idea because we are pathways recovery centers, but it is a
Upcoming Industry Conference
00:29:10
Speaker
separate organization. And so as it started to take shape, really what we want is a place or conference that addresses everything from first phone call through alumni services, all the clinical programming.
00:29:23
Speaker
All the back-end stuff for C-suite operations down to CEUs for clinicians. And we want something that covers, that has something for everyone, right? And is not focused on what we've been doing, but focused on the road ahead, where we're going, what we can do, and best practices for really thought leaders and innovators across all aspects of the industry.
00:29:48
Speaker
So we did that and and we started putting some feelers out there and start saying hey who who wants to be a part of this thing and it's been really incredible the different folks the different organizations that have joined us you know on this path we're working with tp and tp and joined on as a founding sponsor and is helping with is gonna do all the cus.
00:30:07
Speaker
Right working with them so and we've got you know some major emr's that are coming in and some of the speaker lineup really is turning into an incredible thing with with my motto of no competition only collaboration. Right we're coming in here and this is very much going to be you you know an open kimono style of hey here's what we're doing that's working well there's no secret sauce here.
00:30:27
Speaker
you know Unfortunately, one of the tragic sides of this industry is that we are never going to run out of alcoholics and drug addicts, persons struggling with mental health and substance abuse. And so for us to all come together and say, hey, here's what we're doing. This is what I'm doing. That's working well. I don't have any secret sauce anymore. If you can take this and use this and it works well for you and helps build your organization and we help more people than perfect.
Resources and Teamwork for Success
00:30:51
Speaker
But that really is the spirit of Pathways to Innovation. It's going to be next May 2025 in Oklahoma City at the Omni Conference Center Hotel. It's a beautiful place and it's really starting to come together to be phenomenal. And then another thing that we did is, you know, so many of these big national level conferences are very, very expensive. You know, a thousand bucks, $1,500 is for an attendee. And what we decided when we were talking about this is said, you know, we we'll find other ways through sponsorships to really you know pay all the bills, we want this thing to be accessible for everyone. And so the attendee cost for the entire conference is $300. So we want anyone in the industry, whether they're working at a state program or whatever. and and they're gonna get all their CEUs, right? So clinicians and folks like that are gonna get their CEUs too, but we really want this to be accessible for all and inclusive to anyone who wants to attend for them to not, you know, for them to be able to to make this thing next May.
00:31:50
Speaker
Now, before we get into that, we're getting close to the end, but I always like to ask, since I know that we have a lot of people that want to are in the industry that want to get better at their jobs, what kind of resources do you use on a regular basis that you would recommend? That's a tough question. I use a lot. There are a lot of them. There's a great book, and I should have looked it up. I can't remember who wrote it, but it's on the C-suite side, right? It's called Writing Shotgun, working as a COO, and it really ah It's a leadership right it's not an industry specific but it's a leadership book and it really talks about and and very clearly defines the dynamic that should operate at the c-suite level for strategic growth of your organization because so many organizations as i go into them and i work with others i realize you know organizationally they're a mess.
00:32:36
Speaker
write it doesn't make sense and if it doesn't make sense for your staff and your employees and your teams they're not gonna provide this is gonna be that trickles down to the care we provide so writing shotguns a great book i reference it all the time and the graduate program i mean that was required reading in in the very beginning is incredible.
00:32:54
Speaker
The other one that's really good on the operational side is Kara Saleto does some incredible work on workplace culture. She's a phenomenal person, got a great team. She wrote a book called Staying Power, workplace culture, right? And there's this divide that we notice that happened. And where I notice it most is in the nursing departments where we've got everything at one of my facilities, we've got from a baby boomer down to a Gen Z and every generation in between.
00:33:19
Speaker
Very, very, very different cultures. And so working on that to, you know, to provide culture, to improve the culture in the workplace has been an incredible reference for me, mine's all underlined and written in and highlighted. And I just think the world of care and her team, they're great. And then the other thing, and this is important, I think for any C-suites listening is I stay in my lane, right?
00:33:40
Speaker
And what I mean by that is, yes, i'm I'm the senior leader in the organization, right? But I stay in my lane as far as I have an incredible, incredible team, right? My director of clinical services for all the pathways, Kimberly Cox, has so much experience and is so innovative and does such an incredible job at what she does.
00:34:00
Speaker
that i tell her all the time kimberly you leave build these clinical programs work on organization i'm gonna figure out how to pay for what you want to do right and so she finds a lot of these resources right she stays ahead of the game when when a sam when the new a sam edition was coming out she had all of that for the staff and.
00:34:20
Speaker
I had them training and it's constantly finding innovative, the ASAM Criterium tool and all these different things in clinical um that she finds. My role is to as a servant leader is to lift her up in what she does. and Same thing with my director of special projects. MJ King Crawford does an incredible job in what she does. She goes out and finds all these innovations. She found a new compliance software. and I don't say the name because I haven't signed with him yet, but these new compliance softwares that are going to streamline and make our life simple.
00:34:49
Speaker
and my ah yeah Wyatt Pitt, my director of Admissions Alumni Services. He finds these programs and processes for alumni and admissions that are just incredible. So really, on the operations side, that's what I'm going to speak to, is remembering my place, using the books I referenced and all the other experience I have in life to really serve and support my team and not walk around like the big
Conclusion and Collaboration Encouragement
00:35:14
Speaker
boss, right? you Walk around as that servant leader to support my folks.
00:35:18
Speaker
and help them build their respective teams and it's been an incredible shift and change in the culture of our organization which a hundred percent trickles down into the care that we provide all the way down to the ground level right now i could probably talk to you for another couple hours unfortunately we're ready we're out of time so was there anything that you wanted to talk about but we hadn't or that you thought i was going to ask but you i didn't.
00:35:42
Speaker
No, this has been a ah great opportunity. I really thank you for having me. I will just say again too, I'm on LinkedIn. I'm all these, you know, on all of the professional social media sites, anybody that has questions or is going through something. This isn't a plug for me to build my personal brand. This is really is reach out. I want to connect with more like-minded quality operators and really improve this industry. And that starts with the good ones sticking together and working together. So please reach out.
00:36:10
Speaker
Now you mentioned LinkedIn, is there any other places that people can go to to get in contact with you if they have more questions? We've got our websites, PathwaysRecoveryCenters.com for the organization. And then for the nonprofit, the conference, if anybody's interested in attending, it's PathwaysToInnovation.com. And then me, you can reach out through either of those, but also you know through LinkedIn is probably the best place. I think all of us, we tend to be on LinkedIn quite a bit, networking and and things like that.
00:36:39
Speaker
Well, great. You've been listening to Destination Change. Our guest today was Drew Laboon. Thank you for being here. Our theme song was Sun Nation by Kitsa and used via Creative Commons license by the Free Music Archive. Please consider rating and reviewing the podcast on Apple Podcasts so that we can get more listeners. In the meantime, you can always see more about the podcast, including show notes and where else to listen on our website, www.NBHAP.org. If you have any questions for the podcast, please emails at info at NBHAP.org. Thanks for listening.