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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
The Business of Healing and Scaling Success in Healthcare with Sterling & Stephen Carter
00:17:22
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- [00:00]
A
This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm thrilled to be joined by two leaders in the staffing business. We're joined today by Stephen and Sterling Carter and they're going to tell us about a book they just wrote about their business, what they do, trends that they're watching and a lot more. Stephen or Sterling, let me ask each of you to introduce yourself first Sterling, why don't we start with you and then go to Stephen.
- [00:28]
B
Sure. Thank you Scott and it's a pleasure to be here. I'm Sterling Carter and I am the co CEO of Carter Brothers Consulting. We have a consulting firm. I'm a healthcare guru. I have a doctorate in physical therapy. I've been practicing in health care for about 30 years.
- [00:49]
A
Thank you so much. And Stephen, let me ask you to introduce yourself.
- [00:53]
C
Sure, sure. Stephen Levi Carter and as Sterling mentioned, co CEO of Carteria Health, Carter Brothers Consulting and we're both operating in the healthcare space. Serial entrepreneurs in the healthcare space. My background is accounting, project management, ERP implementations. But I moved out of kind of oil and gas into healthcare many years ago and have been in this space for quite some time and excited to share our wisdom, ideas and thoughts with the Becker team.
- [01:29]
A
Well thank you so much and tell us why don't you take you guys both co wrote a book recently. I was honored to write the Ford for it. Tell us a little bit about the book and what led you, what motivated you to write the book? Stephen or Sterling, why don't you take the lead there?
- [01:44]
B
I guess it started with us going into business. We're twin brothers and it was kind of a great combination one we know each other of course really really well. We can trust each other so going of business together is great. Stephen has, has as you you could hear he has a great business acumen, has done a lot of great things in business management and growth is his, his expertise. My expertise is is on the healthcare clinical side. We came together back in two 20072008 start up a physical therapy outpatient clinic. Well actually I guess I started started it but then I quickly brought Stephen in as my consultant advisor and that kind of thing. And then, and then in 2011 we decided to team up and open up a healthcare staffing company called Sterling Staffing Solutions. So since then we've, we've grown the physical therapy practice, we've grown the healthcare staffing company. Stephen opened up a company and hospice so we have an in home hosp agency. We started doing consulting and wrote our first book called the W success the principles to build a Multimillion Dollar business. And then we decided that it may be great for us to go specifically into the niche of healthcare and really helping healthcare executives and healthcare providers to kind of figure out how to create their own lane and become entrepreneurs in the healthcare space.
- [03:23]
A
Thank you. And Stephen, let me ask you to follow up on that and give us the title of the book too as well, just in case people don't hear it clearly. Give us where they can buy it in the title of the book.
- [03:34]
C
Sure. The new book is the Business of Healing and it will be available on Amazon and in all of the online large book distribution venues and definitely will be available on our website@thebusinessofhealing.com and talk for a second.
- [03:54]
A
Stephen, you guys are both brothers. Do you guys get along well? How does that work in practice of business? You've been in business together for it seems like 10 years plus. Is there ever a huge fight or cage match or anything between the brothers? Do you guys get along every day pretty well?
- [04:12]
C
Well, when we were young we definitely had a few run ins around the, the classroom and cafeteria at the schoolhouse. But here recently we've learned to stay in our lanes and we respect the value that each of us brings. And so we know when to allow the other to take the lead on certain aspects. We know when to collaborate, to get the kind of both minds combined to brainstorm on different ideas. And so it's really a very cohesive and smooth process. You know, we've been, we've been in business now, sterling was since 2011. Right. So 15 years, which is interesting because you know, doing being in business with your, your family member is definitely not the same as being family. Right? Not the same as the, as the relationship we would have as just being brothers. Being in business is definitely a little bit more of a challenge. We often speaking of it as being married. Right. Being business partners is basically the equivalent of being married to another person. And so you have to learn how to respect them and again, stay in your lane and make sure that you move as a team and don't step on any toes.
- [05:39]
A
I'm going to ask you each the following question and do your best to answer this and behave as well as you can. Stephen, what does Sterling do really well? And in Sterling, I'm going to ask you the same question about Stephen. What does he do really well? What are you most proud of when you think about your brother's skill set? And because you just went, Stephen, I'll ask you or Stephen I'll ask you to kick that off, to continue. And then Sterling, I'm asking you the same question. What does Steve do really well?
- [06:10]
C
So Sterling is, I mean there's a number of things that he does really well. And I don't say that just to be nice, but he really is an exceptional guy. But he is really a big picture thinker, a visionary. And so what he excels at really well is being able to see the forest, you know, versus the trees, if you will. And that's a really strong, you know, aspect or characteristic to have, especially in leadership, you know, as we're growing and you know, moving businesses to the next level. I'm kind of more of an implementer, you know, and so sometimes head down, really focused, but don't see kind of the where we're going to as well. And Sterling as a, does a great job of being a visionary and being able to. We're both military guys. He's a, he's an officer in the military. Retired officer in the military. I was enlisted. But that military mindset of being able to focus on, you know, the priorities, first things first is what he does really well.
- [07:16]
A
I love that. Sterling, that was incredibly gracious by your brother Steve. You know, a lot of brothers will go after each other and sort of like, you know, the, you know, and give sort of half ass compliment and positive comp. But he gave a truly graceful and sincere one. Do us a favor and do the same for your brother. What does Stephen do really well?
- [07:35]
B
Well, first I did text him while we were on the call or on, on the podcast and told him I would give him a cash amount of undisclosed amount that if he gave some pos about me. No, Stephen is amazing. He's a great leader. He talked about a great implementer because. Which is true. He has great work ethic and he has the ability to get things done. And it's pretty amazing. It's almost like there's five of them. That is twin. He's got, you know, quadruplets or something, quintuplets running around here. But really, really hard worker, great with operations, really, really good with the business side of things. So understanding the numbers, understanding what it takes in order to make a business profitable and sustain profitability. Really able to see what's, what are the important things that we need to do and what are the things, where's the waste. And so that's really, really important when you're talking about business and running a successful business because that aspect, if it's missing it can be detrimental to businesses.
- [08:54]
A
And so I can't even tell you if you would ask my two sisters to say something good about me that they might have just fumbled the question that might not have answered. But this is really impressive and really nice. Let me start with you on this question. What are you most focused on and excited about this year? Where are you most focused and excited as we get sort of the second half of 2026? You know, what, what gets you going?
- [09:16]
B
So I'm excited. I think that we, you know, we, we mentioned earlier that we have a lot of different businesses. I think all of the, the businesses are, are running well, the engines are running high and, and we're, we're in a scale, our growth mode. So excited about the acquisitions that we're, that we have in place. We're opening new offices. We've opened up, I believe, two, two new offices for the hospice agency and one in Oklahoma City, one in San Antonio where we've opened up two new clinics for the physical therapy or they will open. They're opening in the next month. And then we're also looking at an acquisition for the staffing company. So it's just really kind of, we're just trying to hold on and manage all the, you know, keep all the balls up in the air and all that kind of good stuff. But we're looking forward to the sort of scaling and the growth mode of the businesses.
- [10:10]
A
Literally. Fantastic. And Steve, give us your thoughts. What are you most focused on and excited about for the rest of this year?
- [10:18]
C
Yeah, I think Sterling, he touched on a few of those. We really are. You know, you spend a lot of time in business building the foundation, right? And so you're building the foundation, making sure that you have the right team, the right processes in place. And you know, that takes some time. And then finally, you know, as you're doing this process, finally the light bulb goes off, things just start, you know, those gears start moving. Things are oiled and moving like a well oiled machine and they just start to rock and roll. And we're at that point where a lot of the hard work and the foundational steps that we put in place some years ago are starting to really implement and take shape. And so as Sterling mentioned, we're in mode and things look great. I mean, right now there's been a lot of talk about what's happening in terms of baby boomers that are shifting away from businesses that they've built and created for, you know, many, many years. They're looking to retire. Maybe their, their kids are not interested in the business. And so there are opportunities to take on acquisitions, acquire businesses that, that are primed and ready to take it to the next level, but just needs another, a new source of energy. And so we're looking at those kind of things and you know, continuing to grow. So it feels good to be in the place that we're in right now
- [11:43]
A
and talk about that for a second because they talk about this literal almost tsunami of people that founded businesses that are now baby boomers to later baby boomers starting to try and turn those over and figuring that out. Are you seeing a lot of that?
- [11:59]
C
Definitely. Definitely seeing a lot of that. And it's, it's an opportunity, I don't want to say to get a business benefit pennies on the dollar that probably is not as you know, probably not that cheap. But it's definitely an opportunity to take on a business from someone who's just ready to give up the reins. And if you're, if you're kind of a mechanical engineering kind of person that likes to open up the hood and deep dive in there and see what's, what needs to be improved, can we change out the, the carburetor or what have you and, and add some more horsepower to this engine? It's really exciting. Sterling, what do you, what do you think about that?
- [12:38]
B
Yeah, no, I agree. It's really exciting. One of our biggest issues is not the opportunities, but making sure that we can find the right people and put them in place. Luckily, we have a staffing company that really helps with being able to place people. But there's a huge demand for opening up new businesses, acquiring new businesses. It's just really a matter of making sure you have right people to run them.
- [13:05]
A
So. Oh, completely. And talk for a second. Sterling, any advice that you would give to emerging entrepreneurs, emerging leaders, Couple thoughts that you'd give to them.
- [13:16]
B
So I would, I would say that there's two things that really help to catapult your business. One is operations. So being able to, I would say if you're just starting off, really start writing down every single thing that you do because eventually you're going to have to train someone to do those things because you can't do it all forever. There's no way you're going to be able to script to scale that way. So making sure you have a great SOP manual, great operations. We say look at your company as if it's a franchise. Just like you're a chick fil A, etc. How can you set up a system in place, where it's turnkey, where it doesn't matter where you go, you're going to get the same amount of same quality, the same customer service, the same experience. And then the second thing is people. And so you have to be forward thinking and looking for those right people even before you need them because it really takes a hard, it takes a long time to find the right people. And so that's a really important part of your process, at least at this point. Maybe AI in a few years is going to take that away, but I still think we need good people to lead and to, to delegate tasks appropriately.
- [14:34]
A
I think that's so well stated. Steven, your thoughts? Any advice that you would give to emerging entrepreneurs, emerging founders?
- [14:41]
C
Yeah, so Sterling alluded to it, I was going to mention AI, that's the first thing that popped into my mind. And the ability to leverage AI, not look at it as a negative or something that's so scary and that try to fight the wave if you will. Embrace it, embrace it. Learn as much as you can and try to figure out how to utilize that, that process to make you better. I mean we, Sterling and I are constantly thinking about the things that we can delegate, anything that we can delegate and get off of our plate so that we can elevate and take, you know, make sure we're taking spend spending our time and energy on things that truly impact revenue. And the exercise that you used to think about when you think about delegation used to be about who can I give this to now it's really what AI tool can I give this to to take on these tasks so that I don't have to do those. We're utilizing a lot of overseas personnel as well. I mean obviously depending upon your space, if you're in a, you know, service business or a product business, that may be a little bit more difficult. But definitely in a service business aspect we're utilizing outsourcing, pushing out things overseas to our, to our, our overseas brothers and s that are very appreciative of the opportunities that we can give them and do a great job. I mean after Covid things that we thought had to be a face to face person sitting in office to do, we learned really quickly that that can be done over zoom, it can be done online, it can be done electronically remotely. And so we fast forwarded that whole concept and our goal is to try to make this as remote, as automated and as virtual as possible.
- [16:28]
A
Thank you both for joining us today. Stephen Carter. Sterling Carter. Remarkable leaders. Tell us again, Stephen is Sterling the name of the book so people can buy the book. But just fantastic what you've both accomplished. Thank you so much for joining us today. Stephen or Sterling, the name of the book again?
- [16:44]
B
Sure. The name of the book is the Business of Healing. And you can find that book on Amazon on Barnes and Nobles. There's several different books book online bookstores that have it available, or at least available pre sale because it will officially launch in September. But also the business of healing.com you can also pre order there as well.
- [17:10]
A
Thank you both so much for joining us today on the Becker's Healthcare podcast. What a pleasure. Stephen Sterling, thank you so much.
- [17:17]
B
You're welcome.
- [17:18]
C
Thank you. Scott Greater.