E160: Leighton Boyce - Follow where Happiness Takes You

Learn more about Leighton:  About Us | SYNERGY HomeCare of
Longmont  


An Arkansas native, Leighton started her caregiver career at the
young age of 12, taking care of her grandmother who suffered from
dementia. She loved the time she spent with her grandmother,
learning that the best way to keep calm was to not disagree or
try to correct her when she didn’t know where she was or what day
it was. She met her grandmother where she was, and it made all
the difference in her grandmother’s quality of life.


She went to college where she studied political science and
economics – a far cry from caregiving.


She was working at Whole Foods in a customer service capacity and
moving up the management ladder thanks to her drive to be
successful and do what needed to be done. She and her husband had
transferred to a new Whole Foods in Colorado in 2015, where her
husband had family.


But one day she had an epiphany. She no longer wanted to be a
part of people’s obligatory errands. She wanted to be involved in
something more meaningful. Like caregiving. She craved it. So she
gave her notice, not knowing what she was going to do, but
knowing she needed to do something different.


In 2017 she started working at SYNERGY HomeCare of Longmont as a
caregiver and scheduler. She felt fulfilled and kept asking to
learn more aspects of the business. After about two years, the
owner approached her and said she wanted to sell her business and
wanted Leighton to buy it.


“I should have been scared, terrified, even, but for some reason
I wasn’t,” she said. So at the end of 2019, just before the
pandemic, she became the new owner. She attacked the business
from all ends and doubled the company’s revenue in the first
year.


She takes a strong interest in memory care clients because it is
so personal to her.


She feels that each of her clients have a wealth of experience
and memories that are important to preserve and pass along to
families who may not have the time to solicit themselves.


She says when we lose a life, we lose a wealth of knowledge.


Her husband works in the business with her as a caregiver.


Even as an owner, she takes shifts caregiving and can fill in
when a shift is uncovered. She finds it keeps her close to the
business and evens the playing field with her employees.


She believes that she and her caregivers create a symbiotic
relationship with their clients. The caregivers benefit by
learning from them, understanding their lives and history, while
the clients benefit from highly personalized and engaged care.
She also believes this connection strengthens communities by
creating a shared understanding. In that regard, she says her
business philosophy is to focus on community rather than the
competition.


She calls her caregivers heroes and angels, but the reality is
that she has provided many of them with the opportunity to excel
in a career that is not often regarded highly or even seen as a
career. She once helped a caregiver get a car because that was
what she needed to be excellent in her job. Someone she hired was
living in hotels at the time – today she is applying to be a
homeowner. She hires people of all types, but the common
denominator is kindness. She often finds that the people she
interviews lack confidence and she encourages them to brag about
themselves.


She offers a flexible and supportive work environment that
recognizes that caregivers have a life and a family and hobbies
outside of work. Leighton happily covers shifts if her employees
have a pressing issue and can’t come to work. She has an employee
value proposition:


Caregivers are whole people, with families, hobbies, and lives
outside of work. We work to keep non-traditional hours and use
unlimited flexibility to create a work-life fit for us and the
people we love. Giving caregivers the freedom and flexibility to
create their own work-life balance builds trust in our company,
but it’s also just the right thing to do. That’s why flexibility
is at the core of our benefits and culture.


She is also very tactful when she thinks caregiving is not the
right calling for an employee. She prints out multiple job
postings and suggests they look into them because she thinks they
might make the employee happier. Her feeling is that if you
aren’t happy in your job, it will affect your caregiving.


Leighton and her two sisters were raised by a single dad. He
always told her you don’t have to go to college – be an artist,
be a dancer. He saw the joy about her and never wanted her to
lose that.


Family has always been important to Leighton, from caring for her
grandmother to today caring for her family of caregivers. She
says she has created a family in her business, in which she and
her caregivers become part of the client’s family. 


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