HIT THE ROAD WITH A CONVERSATION LIKE NO OTHER

0:04 Well, hi and welcome to the Lunch with Ro mobile Vodcast. That’s my trusty Steed and together we’re hitting the road to discover the very best in
0:12 behavioral health. Today I’m meeting with Dan Schz in the studio. Before we officially hit the road, Dan is the founder and CEO of Row Partners, and
0:20 he’s the visionary mind behind the Lunch with Row mobile Vodcast. It’s the Lunch with Row Mobile Vodcast, behavioral health’s new best friend. We got to go.
0:29 Look. Look at this. Okay.
0:37 Well, this is great. We’re here uh with Dan Schz, who’s the founder of Row Partners for our very first inaugural.
0:43 It’s kind of an honor for you to be honest. Even though to be here with you is an honor.
0:47 You’re the one who hired me to say that it’s an honor for you.
0:50 It is an honor. Um, and we’re excited about this because you are in fact kind of the driving force behind everything that’s going to get us out on the road having these convers.
1:00 Let’s back up for just a second. Tell everybody first what Rorow Partners is briefly. Yeah, we are the world’s only
1:08 endto-end PEO. Uh, a PEO is a professional employer organization. And uh not to get overly nerdy, but any PEO
1:18 exists because of an IRS statute called co-employment, which basically says that two businesses can employ the same
1:25 individual at the same time. And how a PEO puts that into practice is if you imagine five 20man companies, a PEO will
1:33 come in and give the employees of each one of those companies a W4 and an I9 or a direct deposit form and it will hire those employees simultaneously with its client company.
1:43 um thereby creating one 100man company which is an aggregate of those five company’s employees. Right. But now as a
1:49 100man company we can negotiate health insurance rates much more effectively than any one of those client companies could on their own benefit each of them.
1:58 Exactly. So a PEO creates financial and time efficiencies for small businesses that they can’t get to on their own.
2:05 Gotcha. So, how did it kind of morph into behavioral health for you as kind isn’t that primarily the clientele that you work with now?
2:12 Yeah. I mean, look, we can work with any type of client and and we do, but as we started growing the PEO, we stumbled
2:20 across these behavioral health facilities. We’d go into an RTC and, you know, and then they’d say, um, look, you handle my payroll, HR, benefits administration, compliance. Love it.
2:30 Need it. Where do I sign? Yeah. by the way, do you also do medical billing and coding? And uh I thought, “No, that’s so
2:38 random. Why why would we do that?” And and they said, “Oh, well, it’s just an idea, but if you also did medical billing and coding, you would be a
2:45 one-stop shop for everything that we view as administrative and we could just treat the patients.” And I thought, I
2:52 could build a medical billing and coding company. And and and that’s what we did several years back. We we built this division of the company. and the culmination of these two services combined, I realized that there was
3:01 nobody else offering this this total administrative solution to the behavior.
3:06 It was just handed to you by someone who just I mean I mean sometimes sometimes we’re led to where we need to be, you know, and um you know, as an endto-end PEO,
3:15 you know, it’s one thing that to go in and say, “Hey, we handle these functions, these administrative tasks, but we wanted to be able to go into a business owner and say, hey, we want to
3:23 help you grow.” So handling that that revenue cycle for them and and then adding on services like you know marketing and and having things like
3:31 this where we can help those facility owners share their stories and and uh and become a marketing engine for those
3:38 facilities as well too. We we we realized that we were on to something even bigger and so we are the world’s only endto-end PEO because of all the
3:47 services that we encompass. Well, and I’m sure you’re the world’s only end to end PEO that’s sending a goofball like me out with this wrapped trailer.
3:55 That’s why we have you under contract.
3:56 So, all of that avoid competition with you.
3:58 So, explain a little bit just briefly why that why are we doing this?
4:02 Yeah. You know, lunch with Ro is is kind of in our DNA.
4:06 We We’re always looking for opportunities to take to lunch. It’s it’s it’s just one of those times where you don’t necessarily have to talk about
4:14 business and eventually you’ll get to business, but you’ll talk about other things first and and and it’s where you can develop that relationship and that relationship of trust with our clients.
4:24 Um and and that’s what it’s about really is, you know, business is about relationships. Yeah.
4:29 And so, uh now we won’t necessarily be out building, you know, we’re not we’re not out with a commercial each time we’re
4:37 doing these episodes. In fact, each one of these episodes is anything but a commercial.
4:41 We want we just want to hear the stories of the business owners. We want to hear the the best practices that are happening in the industry. We want to hear about the trends that are out there. We want to keep our finger on the
4:49 pulse of what’s happening yet still maintaining the DNA of that of the feeling of that lunch. So, that’s why we have these lunch boxes. Um that’s why
4:57 we’re doing the the mobile vodcast and lunch with Ro. We have to be careful with these because we’re going to get to these in a little bit, but we’ll be having lunch together.
5:04 Something smells good in there.
5:06 Yeah. Yeah. So, we’re going to get to these in I’m going to set mine aside. If you want to do the same,
5:16 tell me a little bit about why though, why you got into this and why this is all happening. Yeah, we originally
5:23 started out with some staffing companies. The first companies that that we started were were staffing companies.
5:29 We had a technology staffing company um which grew and then we started a medical staffing company because we didn’t want all all of our eggs in one industry
5:36 basket. So we started we secured our own medical malpractice insurance and started a a medical staffing company.
5:42 But the nature of that business was sending people out of state. And so all of a sudden we had these medical professionals working in like 32 states.
5:49 And I was literally mailing paychecks that I had written by hand out of this three check general ledger checkbook.
5:56 And and I was sending that off and I I’d be thinking I I’m probably supposed to be withholding like payroll taxes or something. You were just writing out just sending out the checks and I called
6:04 my CPA and and he’s like, “You are withholding payroll taxes, aren’t you?” And I’m like, “I don’t know how to do that.” And he’s like, “Dan, you you have to stop doing this immediately, right?”
6:11 And and uh so we we started the PEO, which handles these administrative functions for a business largely to
6:18 solve our own problems and address our own pain. But because we were a staffing company, I had relationships with all
6:25 these other business owners who I knew had similar issues to mine. And so I said, “Well, could we help you with these things?” And then the service grew and realizing it was an entire industry.
6:37 Uh we decided we’d we’d kind of ride this pony for a while and it became quite the thing. But but as it as it
6:44 grew, we stumbled into these treatment facilities who said, “Look, you know, if you could also do our medical billing and coding, I I appreciate the fact that
6:52 you’re going to handle our payroll and HR and benefits administration compliance, but if you could also help with the medical billing and coding.” And so I started a medical billing and
7:01 coding side of the company so we could encompass more services for our clients because they said, “If you did all this and you were a one-stop shop for all these administrative services, we could
7:09 just treat our patients, just focus on our mission.” And I’m like, that’s great because that’s what you know how to do, but I know how to do these things now because I’ve had to
7:17 solve this problem for me. So, why don’t we work on this together?
7:20 And uh so you guys help people help other people essentially. I mean, yeah, it’s it’s a very backdoor approach
7:27 to supporting the industry, right? Um we’re we’re not an app that helps the end user. We’re not we’re not kind of on the forefront. We’re kind of this silent
7:35 partner behind the scenes, but the the health of a facility um will result in the health of the patient.
7:44 If a facility has to be concerned, am I going to lose my therapist next week?
7:48 Because the benefits that I offer are not as competitive as the fast food restaurant down the road, you know, the loss, the administrative
7:55 loss of that faculty member will result in the overall uh result of the patient, right? And so it’s this kind of backdoor
8:04 approach to supporting the end user uh by supporting the industry and supporting each facility individually.
8:10 Well, every every cog, every part, every piece is part of the overall mission, which is to help people. I mean, you
8:17 know what I mean? So, so there’s no there’s no shame. There’s no need to, you know, to to cushion the blow of
8:24 well, we’re the technology experts or the the fact is is you are people people. You know, behavioral health is a people industry. No question about it.
8:33 It’s stock and trade is people. Yeah. And their wellness.
8:37 And I mean, we all are looking for things, methods, ideologies that will help people. And so, I mean, it’s
8:44 beautiful to go out and and I’m excited to go talk to people and find out what’s working for them, what isn’t working, what their tender sensitive issues are
8:52 or pain points. Yeah. And as you go out on the road, um, we really hope to to weave that tapestry, you know, one one
8:59 string at a time because it’s it’s a it’s a beautiful product, but every aspect of that story needs to be told.
9:06 Yeah.
9:12 Have you ever doubted, I mean, about the business and and making the decision to go in the direction you did over the past 20 years or whatever it’s been?
9:20 Yeah. I mean, it has hasn’t always been easy. I remember there was one time um it was November several years back and
9:29 we went to the two employees that we had at the time and said, um, I don’t think we’re going to make it as a company. Why
9:36 don’t you go home this weekend and think about if you want to be here? And uh and and we said, if you don’t want to be
9:45 here, we’ll write you letters of recommendation.
9:47 um but if you want to be here, just buckle up. It’s going to be a bumpy ride. There were four of us at the time in the company and uh come Monday
9:55 morning, they showed up for work and um I remember thinking, “They believe in this.” And uh myself
10:05 and my business partner, we took some of the last cash we had and uh we we bought them turkeys because that Monday was the Monday heading into Thanksgiving.
10:14 Wow. and um and that that was years ago, but that scar tissue still exists.
10:20 You’re always thinking, you know, maybe this is going to fall apart at some point in time. You know, luckily, we we operate in in uh 46 states now. We we we
10:29 manage thousands of employees. We have a great crew internally, but it keeps us it keeps us driving forward
10:37 thinking that, you know, no success is guaranteed.
10:40 Yeah. You got to keep going. You got to keep pressing forward. You got to keep giving your people turkey. And you know, it’s funny. The minute you mentioned
10:48 turkey and Thanksgiving, I almost didn’t hear the rest of what you said after that because stomach started growling.
10:53 I mean, we this is lunch with Ro and we haven’t actually eaten anything yet. So, should we dive in?
11:05 This is going to Well, I I just I just realized I was going to say this is going to be good. And no offense, but I realized that you prepared the food.
11:14 This is your your idea.
11:16 I didn’t prepare the food, but I did put it in the lunch box.
11:19 And you have no idea what I’m going to like. So, let me just summon up like the face you make when you open up your Father’s Day present and you hate it.
11:28 Make this a good reaction.
11:30 Oh, look. I hope you like it. Thanks, Dan.
11:35 Thanks, Dan. No, that actually What is that? Some kind of rice bowl thing going on there? I got you a chicken teriyak bowl.
11:42 Oh, okay. Good.
11:44 But for me, I went ahead and went with uh our marketing material here and went with the uh Oh, the sushi.
11:53 Went with the sushi.
11:53 Oh, yeah. No, I mean, it’s much more exotic. It’s very nice. I I’m not a huge fan. So, you actually made a good choice. And you know what? I’ve never
12:01 been able to use chopsticks for some reason. Like I have a couple of kids who’ve lived in China and other places and they’re really good at it and they can get in there and I always just set
12:10 them aside. Is it okay if I don’t? Uh I put the fork in there for you as well.
12:13 Thank you. I know the purists are like, “Oh, how dare you?” But you’re all right, buddy.
12:16 But it is uh Oh, this is going to be great. I love it. I hope you like it.
12:20 Are you uh I mean, are you like a a food guy? Is that a passion of yours at all or?
12:25 Yeah, I mean, look, I have food every day.
12:27 Oh, okay. Then I guess by that standard, so am I. Yeah, I love it. Okay, fair enough. Well, say no more.
12:33 Literally, I do hope you like it. No, I’m gonna This is going to be great. As they say in Italy, bonapito. Gracia. Graciago.
12:41 I mean, it’s been sitting in this metal box underneath these the bright lights of the sun here and wherever they’ve put on our back screen. Um, but I’m sure it’s totally fresh.
12:52 Yeah.
12:52 I won’t find out if it’s not um until maybe tomorrow. So, we’ll keep our fingers.
13:00 Yeah, yours better be fresh. I think mine has the proper ingredients to keep it um fresh for a week or more. But no, it’s very good.
13:10 You’re missing out not having the sushi.
13:14 I’m a I eat a lot of um Americanized international cuisine. Italian pizza.
13:23 Yeah. Uh Chinese uh panda. Sure. Orange chicken. You know, Mexican Taco Bell. Yeah, for sure.
13:29 Actually, I am lying. I am merely saying that my wife would kill me if she thought that I was actually eating that food. But then again, she won’t be watching this.
13:38 Yeah, I I am an equal opportunity eater.
13:41 I will eat anywhere. So, no, I’m just happy to have a meal.
13:45 This is good. This is lunch with Ro, baby. I mean, we got to eat our lunch.
13:49 But I want to, in the interest of time, get back to kind of your origins and things. And I I
13:57 had asked you if at some point you ever doubted Mhm.
14:02 or worried about being successful in your business endeavors.
14:08 At what point, if any um did you realize no, this is going to work?
14:15 Yeah. Um I I knew it was going to work from the beginning. Um since before before the
14:22 company was even started, I I knew it was going to work.
14:27 How? Why? I mean, great research, market studies. I mean, yeah, I wish I were that smart, you know. Um, I had actually I had actually
14:35 gotten fired from a job and uh and I I I realized that I would probably not make a good employee. Um, just because, you
14:45 know, usually I’m thinking, well, we could improve this process and we could do this and I’m usually stepping on managers.
14:49 You’re thinking like an owner is what it sounds like.
14:52 Yeah. So anyway, I was I was working for a company and I I had ended up um being fired from it. And I remember coming home from work that day, you know, um I
15:01 I got home early. I actually drove around for 2 hours and then I thought, I’m unemployed. I’m literally wasting gas. Like I probably should go home, right?
15:08 Was Was you know, the wife at home? Yeah, she was at home. Did she know by this time?
15:13 No. Um, she I It’s interesting because I opened the I open the door. Yeah. I I watched her expressions go from you’re home early to wait, why are you home
15:21 early to why are you home early holding all of your stuff in a box of oh no you did to oh no you were. Um like I watched her break. Um and I remember her you
15:30 know crying just realizing that I had just you know cuz I’m the bread winner of the home and we’ve got you know two kids under the age of three at that
15:36 time. And um but that night in bed, the middle of the night, I don’t even know what time it was, but it was just pitch
15:44 black. And uh I remember I was awake and um just in my own thoughts and I hear out of the darkness, I hear this.
15:56 I’m thinking, uhoh, she’s she’s awake.
16:00 And um and I hear it again, Dan.
16:06 And um you know I remember trying to pretend like I’m just waking up like oh you know right and and she’s like she’s like Dan what is on your mind?
16:17 You know she’s like I I literally can feel the weight of your thoughts and um and and I I was you know kind of stressed but I was stressed mostly about
16:25 what I was thinking about because I I told her I said hun I said I I think I’m really good at what I do because I was a I was working as a a staffing person. I
16:34 was a head hunter at the time. I said, “Uh, and I think I’m really good at what I do. I think I could start my own company.”
16:41 And, uh, all I really wanted her to do was, you know, to question me or say, “Let’s talk about this in in the morning or like, you know, where’s your business
16:50 plan? Show me the numbers.” Right? That that would have all been great. Instead, what she did was she turns over in the bed and and she’s uh she’s now facing me
16:58 and she snuggles up and you know her her leg comes up on on my legs and her head is like literally like right here, you know, and this is pitch black. I can’t
17:06 even see her, but she’s she whispers in my ear and she says, “You’ll do great.”
17:13 And um that was it.
17:15 I I remember thinking that is the worst thing you could possibly tell me right now. you know, having blind faith in me, it actually
17:22 put the pressure on me all the more. You know, I wanted her to question me, but no, she was like, she’s like that. And it was basically saying like that’s what
17:29 we’re doing. So, tomorrow, you know, figure this out. Wow.
17:34 And uh so that the next day I had to figure out, you know, how to start the company. And um but you had her full but but yeah, I knew I knew I was going
17:42 to be successful because I knew I could take risks. I knew I could um you know do what I had to do as a business owner because I knew she was going to support
17:51 it. And there there’s never been a day, not one day where she hasn’t been supportive. So um I I you know I’ve
17:58 always known it would work because she’s always been behind me. It’s beautiful. Yeah.
18:11 What drives you? Why do you do all of this what you do? I mean or or is there another I guess I should say what other
18:18 part of your life kind of gives you joy and hobbies, interests, activities, things like that. You know, you go to work so that you can afford
18:27 what you know what I mean?
18:29 Yeah. There are lots of things at work that are rewarding. You know, the first time we talk about what we do with a
18:35 business owner and the light goes on in their head and and you can see it.
18:40 There’s there’s there’s like a physical reaction where they go, “Wait, you will take all of these things off my plate so I can do this.” And the relationship is
18:49 is this type of a relationship, a co-employment relationship.
18:53 When when you see that light go off, like it’s exciting, right?
18:57 So there there are like these little nuggets of things that keep you going at work. Yes.
19:01 But really, the reason why I do it all is is nothing to do with it. It’s not work. Um, you know, I I I think the greatest joy in my life is my family.
19:12 Um, you know, everything I’m doing is for my family. And whether it would be this or something else, it would be for the result of my family.
19:21 Um, you know, we’re recently empty nesters and just as my kids are, you know, flying away from the nest, I’m trying desperately to, you know, pull them back in.
19:29 Oh, you’re in the Yeah. the phase of don’t go but go, go, but don’t go.
19:33 But it’s more don’t go, right? Like I I love spending time with the family. You know, in the summers we love being out on the water and being out on the boat and you doing water sports and stuff
19:41 like that, but you have an extra seat.
19:44 You’re more than welcome. You know, we we love going out, you know, to eat together and I just love spending time with the family. You know, at at work at
19:51 the office, you know, people will say, you know, don’t say you work for Row Partners or don’t say you work for Dan
19:59 because they know that that’s not correct. You work at Row Partners. uh you work with Dan, but what you’re
20:06 working for is your life and your household and your family. Yeah. Right.
20:11 Um that’s the real driving force between everything. It’s all about prepositions. That’s really down to little grammar.
20:20 Mhm.
20:21 After school grammar rock, whatever. at for with it matters though because you know the the words we choose are not only
20:30 appropriate for the explanation of what’s in our head and what we’re trying to communicate but the words we choose
20:37 actually will plant seeds in our mind so when you say I work for row partners um that plants a seed that unfortunately
20:46 might grow into something it’s a weed right you begin to say well I need to have a work life balance which means that I’m going to put work on the same
20:54 pedestal as life and they have to be 50% of each other to have this balance.
21:00 You don’t want that to grow in your brain. You’re working for your household and your family. Any any job is a means to that end. So there should never be a
21:08 work life balance. The whole purpose of everything 100% should be life and your family and and u and any job should just be should be a means to that end.
21:19 Amen.
21:27 Wow, I thought of everything, huh?
21:29 You really did. And it fit in there so nicely. It’s a great little meal. Fun idea. Cool boxes, great takeaways. I love it.
21:40 It’s been fun.
21:40 Yeah, it’s really nice. Um, just one final question. just sort of a you know kind of your end statement here
21:47 if you will about what really makes you and everything that you’re doing different than others.
21:55 Yeah, that’s a great question. I appreciate that, you know, you’re asking specifically using the word different
22:02 because that’s something I’ve I’ve really thought a lot about.
22:06 Um you know, we have tried to make ourselves very different. There there is nobody doing what we’re doing. uh we we
22:14 don’t have a a true comparison in the marketplace to our business model, but um but we strive to make sure that
22:21 we’re not just going in with a messaging that we’re better. Um I think often times when you go into a facility and
22:28 you say, “Hey, excuse me. We’re we’re we’re better than what you’re doing currently or we’re better than this other thing that you’re looking at
22:36 potentially doing.” All you’re really asking them to do is make a comparison, right? You’re you’re saying, “Look, compared to what you’re doing, we’re
22:44 better.” Um, but there’s a saying that says that the devil that you know is better than the devil that you don’t
22:51 know, right? Um, even if we are better, we might not work with that facility because they’ll say, “Yeah, we’re we’re
22:58 not happy with our our current billing company. We’re not happy with our current payroll provider. We’re not happy with with this service. Um, but
23:07 man, we’ve worked out the kinks.” Yeah. And I think we understand the whole relationship.
23:12 It’s taken a lot of time to get there, but you know, we we’ve worked it out and so we we so we we know the devil that we have. We we don’t know what we’d be getting with you.
23:20 You’re a stranger to us.
23:21 Yeah. So So where being better forces a comparison, being different forces a decision. It’s it’s saying you could
23:30 stay on the road that you’re on, but what we’re offering is a completely different road.
23:35 Different road. And it can encompass being better, but it does force a decision to say that this is a different path there. Like I said, there there’s
23:43 nobody doing what we’re doing. Uh we we have no comparison in the marketplace.
23:48 And we love the fact that uh we are the uh we’re taking this very backdoor approach to supporting that end person trying to get better.
23:56 Yes. by supporting the industry as a whole, by supporting each facility individually and and helping them get to these like I mentioned before these
24:05 financial and time efficiencies that they can’t get to with all the training and all the support that we offer and covering everything that that they would
24:12 be uh that would draw their attention away from their primary focus of helping that one. Right. U we’re very happy that we can offer this service.
24:24 Yeah, that’s that’s awesome. Well said. Well said. Yeah.
24:28 Well, Dan, thank you so much not only for being our inaugural first guest, but for coming up with the
24:35 idea and and having me go out and do this and just all that we’ll learn. And yeah, we’re very excited. We’re so excited to be able to tell people that,
24:43 you know, that there’s a partner out there who’s going to help them grow, right? that’s going to help them uh you know be able to focus on the things that
24:51 that that they should focus on to be able to hear from the industry experts that you’re going to be speaking with.
24:57 Um to be able to hear the new stories of the facility owners that should be growing as well.
25:02 Um you we’re super excited to to have you hit the road.
25:05 Oh, thank you so much. Well, speaking of which, I do need to hit the road. It’s time to get out there and and uh talk to some truly fascinating people. Oh,
25:13 that’s so See, I’m glad you laughed because most people would fire me straight away for saying we’ll talk later.
25:20 All right, let’s get to it. Let’s hit the road. Yeah, it’s going to be a trip. Just one that doesn’t require treatment.
25:26 Oh, wow. I can’t believe he made me say that. It’s been great. Thanks for having me. See you next time.
25:34 Thanks for joining me on the Lunch with Ro mobile podcast. I hope you’ll hit subscribe and tell your friends. I’ll see you right back here every two weeks
25:43 with an all new episode. It’s the Lunch with Row Mobile Vodcast, behavioral health’s new best friend. We got to go.
25:50 Look, look at this.